Slitherine

I wonder what the first guys were. I only know them from one sentence each in the FoG army list and the DBMM army list.
Web research didn't return any results.
Can someone point me to where the evidence comes from?
Were they just one differently armed regiment of the 'abid al-shira?
Were they something like a guard regiment?

And how should I imagine both of them?
Were they slaves with poor clothing or were they richly decorated and equipped by their owners like ghilmen were?

At the moment, I really have no clue how to paint them.

Come on, nobody?
There are at least 14 players out there who may have done some research. And the list was written by someone, too.

Try a search for Hamblin's article "The Fatimid Army During the Crusades" - it's online somewhere IIRC.

I searched for it before but never found it. Is it in there?
I asked some people over at the TMP if they could mail it to me.

Is the sariraya the same as the qaysarriya, the palace guard?

Hi,

Abid al Shira means owned men (slaves) they were mostly soudanese but not only. So they might be dressed by their owners to a moderate and cheap clothes. I have no historical source for this latest assumption but never saw richly dressed slaves.
Hope it helps.

I got Hamblin's paper and the sariraya is mentioned there in only one sentence, too.
I wonder why it made it in the list and for example the more often mentioned slingers and naffatun did not.