Turkish bow

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The Turkish bow is a recurved composite bow. It has been used thoroughout Turkish history by the Turkish cavalry archers since the arrival of Turks from Central Asia.

It was quite similar to the famous Mongol bow and even considered its superior^[1]. It was constructed of wood(Turks used maple mostly), animal skin and animal sinew. The wood was obtained by growing the tree in the desired shape by using supports. After the wood with the desired shape was obtained it was constructed as desired using animal products such as skin, sinew and horn.

The glue used for the construction of the Turkish bow was obtained from the mouth of the Danube sturgeon^[2].

The Turkish bow had three layers;

Centre layer: Wood
Back layer(the part of the bow away from the archer): Sinew
The front layer (the part of the bow facing the archer): Horn

According to sources the last of the Turkish bows were made around 200 years ago^[3], and their efficiency and excellency could be seen from historical records, where before the year 1910 the record distance for an arrow fired 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 fire an arrow that reached a distance of 434 m using an old Turkish composite bow requiring a force of 440N^[4].

It is also recorded that the Turkish bow, had the longest range for ranged weapons until the invention of the modern day firearms^[5] [1].

Image:Crimtatar5crim tatar bow e.jpg

Crimean Tatar composite bow.