Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:20:50.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ottoman bows – an assessment of draw weight, performance and tactical use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Adam Karpowicz
Adam Karpowicz*
Affiliation:
475 Queens Road, Sackville, New Brunswick, E4L 2C6, Canada (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Ottoman fighting bow emerged in Europe from a long eastern tradition of using high velocity projectiles to hunt and fight on horseback. The author compares its performance (favourably) with the longbow and explains how the tactics employed with this singular artefact accounted for Ottoman success in battle.

Keywords

Ottomanarrowbowequestriansfightinghunting
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 313 , 1 September 2007 , pp. 675 - 685
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aydin, H. 1999. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi silah bölümü. Tarih - Türk Dünyas? Tarih ve Kültür Dergisi August 1999: 62–3.Google Scholar
Betteridge, D. S. 1997. Bow static analysis and optimum draw length. Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries. 40: 53–8.Google Scholar
Bickerstaffe, P. 2002. The old English war bow, part III. Primitive Archer 10 (1): 51–4.Google Scholar
Çelebi, E. 1991 (originally written in 1682, transl. by Dankoff, R.). The intimate life of an Ottoman statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
De Busbecq, O. G. 2001 (originally published in 1555). Turkish letters. London: Sickle Moon.Google Scholar
De la Broquière, B. 1988 (originally written in 1433, transl. by Kline, G. R.). The voyage d'Outremer. American University Studies, Series II, Romance languages and literature, 83. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Faris, N. A. & Elmer, R. P.. 1945. Arab Archery. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hansard, G. A. 1841. The Book of Archery. London: H. G. Bohn.Google Scholar
Hardy, R. 1992. Longbow - a social and military history. Goldthwaite (TX): Bois d'Arc.Google Scholar
Imber, C. 2002. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Karpowicz, A. 2005. Performance of Ottoman bows. Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries 48: 44–8.Google Scholar
Klopsteg, P. E. 2005. Turkish archery and the composite bow. 4th edition, first published 1937. Manchester: Simon Archery Foundation. This book is a translation of an article by Bogenhandwerk & Bogensport: Bei den Osmanen, Der Islam, 1925: 353, which in turn is a translation of Mustafa Kani, Telhis Resail er-Rümat, Istanbul, 1847.Google Scholar
Kooi, B. W. & Bergman, C. A.. 1997. An approach to the study of ancient archery using mathematical modelling. Antiquity 71: 124–35.Google Scholar
Latham, J. D. & Paterson, W. F.. 1970. Saracen Archery. London: Holland Press.Google Scholar
Liston, T. L. 1995. Physical laws of archery. 6th edition. San José (CA): Liston & Associates.Google Scholar
McEwen, E. 1974. Persian archery texts. Islamic Quarterly XVIII, 3/4: 77–99.Google Scholar
Payne-Gallwey, R.W. 1907. A summary of the history, construction and effects in warfare of the projectile-throwing engines of the ancients. With a treatise on the structure, power and management of Turkish and other bows of mediaeval and later times. London: Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Rycaut, P. 1995 (originally published in 1668). The present state of the Ottoman Empire, in The Islamic world in foreign travel accounts 27. Frankfurt: Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Science.Google Scholar
Soar, H.D.H. 2006. Secrets of the English war bow. Yardley (PA): Westholme.Google Scholar
Strickland, M. & Hardy, R.. 2005. The great warbow. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Tekeli, S. (ed.) 1999. Military museum collections. Harbiye/Istanbul: Military Museum & Cultural Centre.Google Scholar
Yücel, Ü. 1997 (transl. by McEwen, E.). Archery in the period of Sultan Mahmud II. Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries 40: 68–80.Google Scholar
Yücel, Ü. 1998. Türk okculuĝu. Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi Baskanli?gi.Google Scholar