Turkish bow

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The Turkish bow is a recurved composite bow. It has been used throughout Turkish history by the Turkish cavalry archers since the arrival of Turks from Central Asia. Huns and Avars, earlier confederations under Turkic domination, also used composite bows, as did their predecessors in Central Asia.

The construction was that of the classic Asiatic composite bow, with a wooden core (maple was most desirable), animal horn on the side facing the archer, and sinew on the back. Animal glue held it together. From the decline of military archery, only flight archery was practiced, and the standard Turkish bow became a particularly light and efficient weapon.

The last of the Turkish bows were made around 200 years ago^[1], and their efficiency and excellency could be seen from historical records, where before the year 1910 the record distance for an arrow shot was 340m. This distance was achieved with a long-bow of osage-orange wood, and a force of over 700N was needed to draw the bow. In 1910 an archery contest was held in Le Touquet, France, where Ingo Simon was able to shoot an arrow that reached a distance of 434 m using an old Turkish composite bow requiring a force of 440N^[2].

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Asian/Turkish Bow Construction FAQ" The Composite Turkish Bow, "http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/archery/faq/asianbow.html#turkish"
2. ^ "Invention and Evolution" by M.J. French (1988, Cambridge Univ. Press) (chapter 3.4.2)

[edit] See also

• Composite bow
• Hungarian bow
• Mongol bow
• Korean bow