Turkish archery
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Medieval Turkish archery is detailed in Kitab ghunyat at-tullab fi marifat ramy an-mushshab ("A Book of Essential Archery for Beginners") and Kitab fi bayau fadl al-qaws w-al-sahm wa-awsufihima ("A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and Arrow")
The books say that the fundamentals of archery constitute six elements:
- grasping the bow,
- nocking the arrow,
- locking the fingers on the bowstring,
- drawing the bow,
- sighting the mark,
- loosing the arrow.
There are three classes of shooting from horseback:
- kighaj or qiqaj, "slant", or shooting downwards,
- shooting up (kabak or qabaq, "gourd")
- horizontal shooting, which is in between the two main ones.
Within these classes there are from 10 to 17 basic ways recognized by various archery masters.
