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Turkish Bow

The Turkish bow was a recurved composite bow used in the Ottoman Empire. It had a wooden core, animal horn on the belly, and sinew on the front. Turkish archers used thumb rings to draw the bow, which were made of materials like wood, metal, or ivory. Devices called siper and majra were also used to draw arrows past the front limb of the bow to achieve greater distance. Turkish archery employed a thumb draw grip and relatively short draw, pulling the arrow under the chin. Archers developed techniques like holding multiple arrows and "jarmakee" to fire from walls at steep angles.

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Fabio Bottari
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284 views

Turkish Bow

The Turkish bow was a recurved composite bow used in the Ottoman Empire. It had a wooden core, animal horn on the belly, and sinew on the front. Turkish archers used thumb rings to draw the bow, which were made of materials like wood, metal, or ivory. Devices called siper and majra were also used to draw arrows past the front limb of the bow to achieve greater distance. Turkish archery employed a thumb draw grip and relatively short draw, pulling the arrow under the chin. Archers developed techniques like holding multiple arrows and "jarmakee" to fire from walls at steep angles.

Uploaded by

Fabio Bottari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Equipment[edit]

Turkish Bow[edit]
The Turkish bow is a recurved composite bow used in the Ottoman Empire. The construction is
similar to that of other classic Asiatic composite bows, with a wooden core (maple was most
desirable), animal horn on the belly (the side facing the archer), and sinew on the front, with the
layers secured together with Animal glue. However, several features of the Turkish bow are distinct.
The curvature tends to be more extreme when the bow is unstrung, with the limbs curling forward
into the shape of the letter "C". With some bows, the rigid tips of the limbs ("kasan") even touch. The
grip area is not recessed like other Asianic bows and is fairly flat on the belly, while the front of the
grip bulges outwards.
The dramatic curvature of the bows makes stringing them very different from straighter bows found
in Europe. There is an old saying in Turkey that there are "120 ways to string a bow," though the
most common methods involve sitting on ground with one's feet pressed against the grip. Heavier
bows usually require the use of a long, looped strap called a "kemend" to pull the limbs back and
hold them while the string is seated.[3]
For many years the excellence of Turkish bows could be seen from historical records. In 1910 an
archery contest was held on the beach at Le Touquet, France, where Ingo Simon was able to shoot
an arrow 434 m using an old Turkish composite bow requiring a force of 440N or 99 lb.[4]

Zihgir[edit]
Main article: Thumb ring
Zihgir is the Turkish word for the thumb ring used to draw the bow in the Ottoman Empire. Turkish
thumb rings were made of wood, metal, ivory, bone, horn or leather. These rings signified that the
person wearing them was a warrior. In time they became a symbol of prestige in Ottoman society,
and some later examples have so much ornamentation on the surface from which the bowstring
slides that they could not be used to shoot with. Surviving examples are often made of precious
metals and richly decorated. Some are carved from precious stones.

Siper and Majra[edit]


The siper and majra are devices used to draw arrows past the bow's front limb where the arrow
would normally rest. The siper is a type of shelf strapped to the archer's bow hand, which allows the
archer to pull the bow back to extreme lengths in order to get the maximum amount of force behind

the arrow. They are most commonly used for Flight Archery, to achieve the greatest distance. The
Majra is a thin piece of wood with a channel cut in it and small loop for the archer's draw hand. The
device allows the archer to pull back arrows that are much shorter than were intended for the bow.
There is some debate among historians if this device was designed to shoot arrows that were too
short for the enemy to pick up and shoot back, or if it was a way to reuse bolts fired by Chinese
crossbowmen. In modern times they are primarily used in Flight Archery to shoot shorter arrows to
cut down on weight.

Technique[edit]
Like many other Eastern archery styles, Turkish archery uses a "thumb draw," employing a type of
grip called "mandal." This grip prevents the arrow from moving if the archer is on a horse and/or
firing at an unusual angle. The draw itself is relatively short, usually under the chin or by the cheek,
compared to archery styles in China or Japan where the nock is pulled past the head. When the
arrow is released, the draw arm is kept relatively steady rather than allowing the arm to swing
backwards.
Turkish archers developed several unique techniques to aid in combat. One was the practice of
holding several arrows in between the fingers of the draw hand, allowing fast repeat shots. Another
was "Jarmakee" which involves drawing the bow with the draw arm going behind the head so as the
fire at a steep downward angle. This was used to fire from atop walls down at enemy troops.

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