Karwansaray BV

“Arrows, arrows, everywhere!”

Author(s): Murat Özveri and Nils Visser
Source: Medieval Warfare , 2013, Vol. 3, No. 3, IN THIS ISSUE: The Turkish conquest of
Byzantine Anatolia (2013), pp. 17-21
Published by: Karwansaray BV

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48578235

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 THEME: THE ADVANCE OF THE
THEME
SELJUq TURKS

Technological advantages of the Seljuq armies

“Arrows, arrows,
everywhere!”
The roots of Seljuq archery go back to the first millennium BC and Horse archers from the Steppes
the practices of the Scythians, Huns, and other early Asiatic tradi- Let’s have a look at these horse archers.
Steppe traditions and nomadic lifestyle
tions. The horse archers of the Central Asian steppe have used very dictated early training in both horse riding
similar archery equipment and battle tactics throughout the ages. and archery. This started early in child-
hood, so that horseback riding and accu-
This can sometimes lead to confusion, when contemporary chroni- rate shooting, as well as a combination
clers had to record the identity of one or other of the tribes. of the two, became second nature. Bows
and arrows were interwoven in the cul-
ture in which a nomad grew up. There
By Murat Özveri & Nils Visser grazing grounds and war loot, and did are delightful demonstrations of this in
not think twice about dispossessing other The Book of Dede Qorqut (also spelled
peoples in the empire, having little empa- ‘Korkut’), sometimes called the Turkish
This confusion is increased by the fact thy for the Seljuq desire for political stabil- Iliad, which was probably written in the
that the nomadic lifestyle and the fluidity ity. As long as the Seljuqs were dependent fourteenth-fifteenth century, but has
of alliances, with tribal fusions and break- on the Turkoman tribes for military pur- roots reaching much further back. An
ups, mean that it is very difficult to clearly poses, they could do little; but, as they example of shamanist-ceremonial use
categorize different tribes and nations. started to build a standing army made of the bow and arrow can be found in
The Seljuqs are a case in point. When they up of enslaved Arabs, Kurds, Armenians the description of a groom releasing an
originally appeared on the scene in the and Georgians, they began to expel the arrow and building his first night’s yurt (a
Middle East, they could be defined as wild Turkomans to the fringes of the empire. tent with a wooden skeleton) where the
Turkoman tribes, whose initial role was They hoped that the tribes would head arrow landed. Recreational use of archery
that of mercenaries serving the powers south towards Egypt, but the grasslands
that be. The name Seljuq originated from of Anatolia seemed far more attractive
one of the chiefs, namely Seljuq Beg, of than the desert lands in the south, while
a group of Oghuz Turks who hailed from the inherent political infighting that did
Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea. The much to weaken the Byzantine hold on
Seljuqs started evolving as their numbers the region encouraged an influx of raids
increased and they adopted Islam as their and incursions by nomadic tribesmen.
religion, which resulted in the gradual Eventually, these tribes would claim
development of a political power base. Anatolia as their own, and, though the
© Murat Özveri

That, in turn, led to their rise as a major
player and, eventually, the founding of an
empire. However, by this time, the Seljuqs
were no longer wild nomads. Besides the
adoption of Islam, they also took on many
Persian and Arabic habits and customs.
As such, when the Seljuqs and Byzantines
were headed towards collision in Anatolia,
the nomadic horseback archers were not
the same as the Seljuqs, though they
shared a common heritage.
At this time, the Seljuqs consid-
ered Egypt to be their primary foe, not
Byzantium. However, they had difficulty
in controlling the nomadic tribesmen, who
were in almost continual need of new
Great Seljuq Turks of Iran would try to
impose some semblance of centralized
control, the Seljuqs of Rum (Eastern
Rome) were to become semi-autono-
mous. Of course, before this could hap-
pen, the Byzantines had to be defeated.
The Seljuqs and allied tribes who faced
this mighty empire may already have had
various troop types, like the heavily armed
and armoured Ghulam cavalry, but these
were in a minority and were very expen-
sive to maintain, so they were used only
sparingly. The brunt of the fighting was
carried out by light cavalry, the Turkoman
horse archers.
The Seljuq graveyard in Ahlat, a city that sup-
posedly once had a population of 300,000 peo-
ple. These tombstones belong to members of
the Ahlatshah dynasty, the eleventh-twelfth
century rulers of a Turkish beylik (principality)
of the first period founded after the Battle of
Manzikert. They reveal a high level of stone-
working skill and some interesting religious
iconography, such as the dragon, a figure con-
sidered holy in the Far East but later marked
as evil in Christianity (e.g. the beast killed by
St. George).

Medieval Warfare III-3 17

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 THEME: THE ADVANCE OF THE SELJUq TURKS
© Courtesy of Muharrem Kesik
A relief, now in Armenia, depicting a Seljuq
mounted archer executing the ‘Parthian shot’.
Shooting backwards from horseback was the
zenith of the nomadic warrior’s martial art.
is also demonstrated in a wedding scene in
which the groom and his friends used the
groom’s ring as a target in a little friendly
archery competition.
Another interesting point is the role of
women as warriors in pre-islamic nomadic
life, one of the aspects recorded by Marco
Polo, but also present in The Book of Dede
Qorqut. A character called Bamsi Beyrek
tells his father that his requirements for
a future bride include an array of martial
skills, as well as her ability to draw two
bows at once. When he finally meets the
girl he wants to marry, he decides to do
so after the two have had a horse race, an
archery contest, and a wrestling match.
Another character, Kan Turali, also tells
his father about his list of requirements:
“Before I rise to my feet, she must rise;
before I mount my well-trained horse,
she must be on horseback; before I
reach the bloody infidels’ land, she must
already have got there and brought back
a few heads.” (Anna Oldfield Senarslan,
Women Aşiqs of Azerbaijan: Tradition and
Transformation, p.23). Kan Turali ends
up marrying Saljan Xatun, who is such
an expert archer that she can shoot two
arrows simultaneously in opposite direc-
tions – at least, according to the story.
During a short conflict between the lovers,
she even shot an arrow at Kan Turali.
Islamic cultural emphasis on archery
would have probably appealed to the
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Medieval Warfare III-3.indd 18
Seljuqs and aided in the conversion to
Islam. The pre-Islamic Seljuqs would have
no doubt noticed, during their interac-
tion with Islamic peoples, that Islam plac-
es considerable importance on archery.
Apart from a verse in the Koran, there
are also 50 Hadiths (a saying, an act or
tacit approval or disapproval ascribed to
the prophet Muhammad) in which peo-
ple are encouraged to practise archery,
which is put on a par with worship. For
example, “The one who makes the arrow,
the one who presents the arrow, and the
one who shoots the arrow are destined
for paradise”, or “Teach your children to
read the Koran and arrow shooting”, and
“Arrow shooting is better than the act of
worship to no purpose” (Women Aşiqs of
Azerbaijan, p.23).
Shooting skills and composite bows
Training would have continued as the
young nomad grew older, as hunting
for food was not only a necessity, but
was also seen as a way to train for war.
A young adolescent nomad could only
make his name by demonstrating riding
and archery skills, in either battle or a
hunt. Note that the hunt was seen as an
acceptable equivalent to war. The Turks
preferred the drive, in which prey was
driven forwards by mounted archers. In
the later Ottoman era, the drivers tended
to be on foot, but in earlier times practi-
cally everybody was mounted, though the
drivers must have dismounted in heavily
forested areas.
This method required great skill in rid-
ing and archery. An eighth-century Arabic
text describes these skills in some detail.
The Turkoman archers were able to shoot
in any direction from the back of a horse
with pinpoint accuracy, even at full gallop.
Amongst the pre-Islamic Turks, only those
who mastered the ‘Parthian shot’ – the
prized ability to turn 180 degrees in the
saddle and shoot backwards in a so-called
‘parting’ shot – were allowed to put white
falcon wings or feathers on their helmets,
as a mark of rank. The Arab writer al-Jahiz
(776-869) wrote, “The Turk can shoot at
beasts, birds, hoops, men, sitting quarry,
dummies, and birds on the wing, and do
so at full gallop to fore or to rear, to
left or to right, upwards or downwards,
loosing ten arrows before the Khilrijite
[or Kharijites; Arabian religious extrem-
ists who were hostile to the Abbasids] can
nock one.” (Saracen Archery, transl. and
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ed. by J.D. Latham and W.F. Paterson,
p.23).
Before we look further into the tactical
possibilities linked to these archers, how-
ever, let’s have a brief look at equipment
and the usage of it.
Larger Turkoman armies probably
included other ethnic groups, a result of
the nomadic lifestyle and culture. The
weaponry, therefore, was probably not
homogeneous. However, some reliefs
and pictures indicate that Seljuqs used
‘Eastern Turkestan type’ bows. These
composite bows followed a recurve design
with rigid all-wooden tips, called ‘ears’
(Siyahs), and were similar in shape to
Mongolian bows. As well as being shorter
for easier use on horseback, this Asian
invention also has several mechanical
advantages. Firstly, the early draw weight
was higher than that of straight-limbed
bows. This allowed for more stored energy
in the same poundage and same draw
length. The increased early draw weight is
due to the strong reflex that sets apart the
Turkish bow from its all-wooden cousins.
This is caused by shrinkage of the sinew
on the back of the bow, together with the
initial curvature of the core and horn. It is
intentionally increased by the bowyer by
binding the tips to the grip. The reflexed
limbs increase the early draw weight dra-
matically.
Secondly, the leverage effect of these
siyahs avoided usual stacking problems
caused by shorter limbs, and enabled a
longer draw length. Like all the other Asian
bows, these composite bows were made
from wood, sinew and horn. It’s quite
possible that Seljuqs used other Asian-
style bows too. There is an old picture of
a Seljuq atabeg (high official), Bedreddin
Lulu, in the Kitâbü’l-Agânî (1218), holding
a shorter bow with siyahs. But, unfortu-
nately, there is no archaeological evidence
to support this.
There has been much debate about
the armour-piercing capabilities of arrows
shot from these bows. Eurocentric his-
toriography has always had a tendency
to highlight the military success of the
English longbow in the Hundred Years
War, pretty much dismissing the effect
of longbows predating this period, as well
as composite bows. Some accounts of
the crusades describe European knights
galloping through an arrow storm and
coming through unscathed, albeit resem-
bling a pin-cushion. These accounts are
07-05-13 14:03

assumed to indicate that the arrows of
the Seljuqs (or Saracens, as the Europeans
called them) lacked the ability to pierce
armour. However, similar bows used by
the Huns in the fifth century caused severe
problems for the Roman and Sassanid
(Persian) well-armoured heavy cavalry,
and the Roman infantryman’s two-layered
chain-mail and heavy oak shields proved
to be insufficient protection, as well.
Therefore, the armour-piercing capability
was available to those who preceded the
Seljuqs. Further evidence of the harm that
eastern archers and their arrows could
inflict is found in an account of events in
1191, when Richard the Lionheart ordered
his men to wear heavy felt mantles for
protection. The Arab historian Beha ad-
Din ibn Shedad noted how the Saracen
arrows seemed to have no effect on these
mantles, which is suggestive of a normal
situation where arrows are far more effec-
tive.
It is possible that the crusaders
who came through the arrow storms
unscathed were targeted by long distance
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THEME: THE ADVANCE OF THE SELJUq TURKS
flight archery, as these arrows would have
lost much of their force by the time they
reached their target. The crusaders made
note of the long-lasting showers of well-
aimed arrows, shot from surprisingly long
distances. Moreover, later Ottoman prac-
tices (the Ottomans could be said to be
the inheritors of Seljuq archery) make a
clear distinction between flight shooting
and target shooting. The latter was subdi-
vided into puta shooting (puta being a par-
ticular type of target), horseback shoot-
ing, and darb (piercing) shooting. The lat-
ter was based on piercing hard objects
and equipped practitioners with the skill
to pierce armour. It is not inconceivable
that the Turks, like other Steppe horse
archers such as the Mongols, had different
bows and arrows for different purposes.
The Book of Dede Qorqut seems to indi-
cate this, for example, when mention is
made of Dirse Khan taking up his strong
bow, strung with wolf-sinew. However,
this mention of a ‘heavy bow’ might also
refer to the heroic characteristics of Dirse,
and does not necessarily indicate the use
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of heavier bows.
Another important aspect of Seljuq
archery is the so-called thumb-release,
a general term that is preferred by con-
temporary authors. It defines a pull-and-
release technique where the major work is
done by the thumb, and the other fingers
of the hand are involved in reinforcing the
hold. This is different from the pinch or
‘primary’ draw, and its variations, called
‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ draw by Edward
Two Seljuq warriors. The archer on the right
most closely represents the Steppe horse
archer, the precursor of the Seljuqs. By the
time of the Battle of Manzikert, most Steppe
horse archers would have hailed from other
Turkic tribes. The Seljuqs themselves had
assimilated into the Persian and Arab cultures
of the empire that they now ruled, adopt-
ing the troop types they found there to form
a new more heavily-armoured backbone for
their armies. The artist based the apparel and
equipment on the illustrations visible in the
Varqa and Gulshah romance manuscript.
© Graham Sumner
Medieval Warfare III-3 19
07-05-13 14:03
 THEME: THE ADVANCE OF THE SELJUq TURKS

shaft that bends less is a decrease of lost

Composite bows energy and, consequently, a higher initial
Turkish composite bows are little power-packs and require high skill of crafting arrow speed. In combat or hunting situa-
and the highest quality of materials. The wood core was mostly made of various tions, in which every bit of energy counts,
maple species (Aceracae). For sinew backing, the leg tendons of oxen were pre- this difference may be of great impor-
ferred and the horn on the belly came from water buffalos. tance. The same can obviously also be said
for increased accuracy. Ibn al-Faqih noted
The bow-making process can be summarized as follows: that the Turks shot so accurately that they
- Shaping the 3 (sometimes 5) pieces of maple that will become the wood core could hit the pupil of an eye.
of the bow. Bow shooting techniques evolved with
- Bending the tips to form the recurves: ancient bowyers boiled the wood for this the needs and demands of the people
purpose. who used them. Short composite bows
- Gluing the pieces to make the wood core: mostly, the two limbs are glued to and the thumb-release created their own
the grip. All materials were glued together using collagen-based glue derived technical extensions, variations, and
from animal tissues. accessories. One variation worth men-
- Gluing the horn laminates to the belly of the bow (wood core): both surfaces tioning is the fard/qirat or jarmakee (as it
are carefully vertically grooved with a special tool called taş’in (pronounced is called in eastern sources) technique,
‘tush-een’) so that the glue surface is increased. especially because it shows what flexibil-
- Sinew backing of the bow. It takes time to wait for the drying of each sinew ity the thumb-release could provide. This
layer. The shrinkage of the sinew bends the bow gradually to a full circle and technique enables the archer to shoot
bending is aided by tightening ropes connecting the tips to the grip. The bow at targets in a narrow, deep place, such
was being seasoned up to 1 year at this stage. as a well or cistern. The string is drawn
- Tillering of the bow is done by heating the limbs and binding them to special over the head, brought back to the neck,
wooden forms called tepelik. and the bow is pushed downwards, the
- Finishing the bow: the back is covered with birch bark, leather or only with arrow pointing straight down. In regular
varnish in some rare examples. The bows were sometimes decorated with gold practice, the target should be just next
paint and a lyric text. Verses from qur’an or archery related sayings written by to the left heel of a right-handed archer.
calligraphers were not rare. Nearly all of the bowyers signed their work. It is mentioned that this technique is also
used to shoot at lions, which would attack
a mounted hunter during a drive and cling
on to the horse’s back.
Morse. Morse’s preference in naming the the upper and second fingers), the bow
thumb-release technique the ‘Mongolian is ‘loaded’ from the right side. This way, A rain of arrows
release’ was based on his mistaken belief the arrow follows a more direct, shorter, All in all, the cultural integration of
that it belonged to the Mongols. While and flawless path to the string. Therefore, archery, the second nature of horse rid-
such race-based classification was consid- nocking the arrows is faster. The string ing and shooting, hunting skills, type of
ered normal among the European schol- hand is closed in a special manner to form composite bow, and shooting techniques
ars of the late nineteenth century, today, a lock (mun-dull, in Turkish), so that the meant that the Seljuqs were able to field
thumb-release is considered a more accu- arrow is held in place with a slight pressure remarkable archers. A purely Turkoman
rate and contemporary term. Its accuracy of the index finger. This grip assures great force, albeit possibly consisting of a com-
is primarily due to this technique’s wider stability during the entire shot sequence. bination of different tribes, would consist
distribution around the globe, including The archer pulls and releases comfortably, solely of cavalry. Mention is made of each
Africa and America, where traces of differ- on foot or horseback or in a kneeling posi- warrior having a spare horse and spare
ent forms of thumb-release can be found. tion, with the bow canted in any direction bow to hand, as well as carrying up to 100
While there is insufficient evidence for and at any angle. arrows, not only in the quiver but also in
very early use of thumb-release in Turkic Additionally, unlike the Mediterranean the bow case and boots. This goes some
culture, for instance by Xiung-nu, Huns release, the string hand can hold extra way to explaining why one of the earlier
and Blue Turks, it is certain that Seljuq arrows, which can be nocked and shot confrontations between the Seljuqs and
archers shot with this technique, as can faster, one after another. During the shot, crusaders apparently involved a continu-
be seen in many visual depictions, sup- the archer’s paradox occurs not only in ous arrow storm lasting three hours (dur-
ported by some written sources. There are the opposite direction, but also in a less ing the Battle of Dorylaeum in 1097).
some advantages provided by this tech- acute manner, so that the arrow shaft Al-Jahiz wrote that, if “a thousand
nique. Since the ‘archer’s paradox’ (i.e. bends less. Normally, the strength of an of their horse joined battle and let off
the inability of an arrow to point straight arrow (the ‘spine value’) matches a bow’s a single bout of arrows, they can mow
at a target due to the bow limb being in strength; but, with decreased bending, down a thousand horse. No army can
the way) occurs in the opposite direction a wider spectrum of spine values can be withstand this kind of assault.” (Saracen
to the Mediterranean release (pulling the used, allowing the archer to re-use other Archery, p.23). To this, he added that the
string with three fingers, with the arrow arrows he may find on the battlefield with Turks were just as dangerous in flight, for
held in place against the string between better accuracy. Another advantage of a they lost none of their cool control and

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Scenes from the only known illustrated manuscript of the poem Romance of Varqa and Gulshah.
This manuscript offers a unique insight into thirteenth-century Seljuk Anatolia. Here, Gulshah
(right), disguised as a man, watches as her lover Varqa (centre) and his rival Rabi fight on horseback.
accuracy in that modus. Genuine flight
would have been difficult to verify any-
way. The Seljuqs fought in the manner of
the Steppe peoples, something the Poles
would later call ‘The Tartar’s Dance’. The
essence of this ‘dance’ was to envelop
the enemy, if possible, and then rush him
in small groups, releasing arrows all the
while, before dashing back again with a
Parthian shot, and being replaced by a
new group of riders. The main effect was
twofold. Firstly, an annoyed and harassed
foe, being subjected to accurate missile
barrages without being able to strike back,
might break rank and pursue. In that case,
a feigned retreat would attempt to lure
the pursuers further away from their own
ranks before being encircled and annihi-
lated. In the meantime, fresh waves of
horse archer bands would probe the main
enemy body to see how it fared with the
loss of one of its units. Any new weaker
links or gaps would be exploited to the full.
In the absence of such favourable devel-
opments, the Seljuqs would avoid direct
confrontation and revert to sniping at the
foe.
The second effect of the continued
harassment would lead to fatigue, demor-
alization and losses in the enemy ranks.
When these were deemed sufficient, the
charges would finally strike home, and
strike home hard. For, despite our focus
on archery, the Seljuqs were armed with
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THEME: THE ADVANCE OF THE SELJUq TURKS
swords and lances as well, weapons that
would replace the bow and arrow as the
charges finally impacted upon the dis-
heartened enemy.
A drawback of these fine troops was,
as mentioned at the beginning of this
article, the need to support vast num-
bers of horses, which, in turn, required
a nomadic lifestyle and keeping on the
move. When a tribe like the Seljuqs gained
the ascendancy and had to run an empire,
they assimilated into the existing cultures
and lost the nomadic lifestyle. Having kin-
ship with the many other Turkoman tribes
that started moving south and east was
a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it
meant that, in times of war, a consider-
able number of horse archers could be
raised – a formidable foe, as we have
seen. On the other hand, the tribes were
unruly and not necessarily loyal to the
Seljuqs, as they did not want to accept
central control. This led to political insta-
bility, which the Seljuqs tried to solve by
‘exporting’ the problem to the fringes of
the empire, including Anatolia. There, the
tribes conquered a new homeland, that
of the Seljuqs of Rum. The Seljuqs in Iran
and Anatolia were eventually defeated
by a new power from the east when the
Mongols invaded. This invasion seemed
unstoppable until the Battle of Ayn Jalut in
1260, where the Mameluks used hit-and-
run tactics, as well as canny exploitation
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© Courtesy of the Topkapi Palace Library
of the terrain and wise troop dispositions
to defeat the Mongols. When the Seljuq
Empire eventually disintegrated, it was
here, in modern day Turkey, that a new
power would rise from the ashes: the
Ottomans, descendents of the Seljuqs and
founders of the Ottoman Empire. •
Dr. Murat Özveri is one of the leading
experts in the field of Turkish archery,
specializing in Ottoman archery
and also taking a leading role in the
revival of Turkish archery traditions.
Nils Visser is a member of the Dutch
Warbow Society and the Society of
Archer-Antiquaries, as well as a part-
time historical writer. He is a regular
contributor to Medieval Warfare.
Further reading
- John Freely, Seljuqs: Storm on
Horseback (London 2008).
- Andrew Peacock and Sara Nur
Yildiz, The Seljuqs of Anatolia: Court
and Society in the Medieval Middle
Eastm (London 2012).
- Osman Aziz Basan, The Great
Seljuqs: A History (New York 2010).
- Antony Karasulas, Mounted Archers
of the Steppe 600 BC-AD 1300
(Oxford 2004).
- The Book of Dede Qorqut.
- Saracen Archery, an English version
and exposition of a Mameluke work
on archery (AD 1368), trans. and ed.
by J.D. Latham and W.F. Paterson
(London 1970).
Medieval Warfare III-3 21
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