I am near finished re-reading The Crusades: A History (Bloomsbury, ) by Jonathan Riley-Smith as prologue to Richard Spencer’s The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS (Bombardier, 2018).
The Saracens / Moslems have been in continuous jihad since before 632 CE with no interregnum or peaceful intervals. It would seen that a general officer in a culture at war for as long as it has existed would know guns.