The Arabian Bow: A New Frontier

This video seeks to explore the bows of the arabs or the "Arabian Composite bow", how and why it developed, what it looked like, and what its importance was in shaping the Arabic Empires.
Resources:
- Index - Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers (warfare.tk)
- History of Al Tabari
- Al Tarsusi absirat arbab al-albab fi kayfiyat al-najah fi al-hurub min al-anwa’ - wa-nashr a’lam al-a’lam fi al-‘udad wa-al-alat al-mu’inah ‘ala liqa’ al-a’da
- Turks In early Muslim Service by Daniel Pipes
- THE MILITARY TECHNOLOGY OF CLASSICAL ISLAM by David Nicolle
- Gesta Francorum
- Liber ad honorem Augusti by Pietro da Eboli, c.1197
- The Cappella Palatina Ceiling and the Muslim Military Inheritance of Norman Sicily
- (PDF) Composite bows at ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, U.A.E.) - DOKUMEN.TIPS
- Yrzi Bow | PDF (scribd.com)
- David Nicolle - Arms & Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350 (1) - Western Europe and the Crusade States [OCR] - PDFCOFFEE.COM
- Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society - Asiatic Society of Bombay - Google 圖書
- Anna Comnena : a study : Buckler, Georgina : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
- Ibn Maymoon Al Marakeshi’s “al ifada wa al tabsir likul ramin mubtadi aw maheer”
- Abu Hanifa Al Dinawari’s “Kitab Al Nabat”
- Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyahs’ “Furrusiyah”
Music:
- "Full Moon Night" By World Music OFCL
- Music provided by ALD - No Copyright Music
Video Link: • ARABIC MUSIC - free mu...
- "Music of Calradia" From Mount & Blade II: TaleWorlds Entertainment

[@incog_nito]

Great video, well researched and of great interest to an Englishman who has shot modern bows. One point ocurrs to me, arising from my knowledge and lack thereof concerning English bows. Historical records tend to chronicle the bows of war and the wealthy. In England we know very little about the bows used by commoners (and poachers on the lands of the nobility) because nobody bothered to write about such things. You correctly say that the appropriate bow is the one that does the job you need it for and that this can vary (as in your explanation of different accounts of the Turkish bow) but don't forget that it is unlikely that Arabian archers only used bows for war. It's likely that the Arabic war bow was a different 'beast' to the Arabian hunter's bow: no hunter needs to shoot a heavy arrow 200 m or more, he needs a quick to deploy and accurate bow that will kill his prey at 20 to 30 metres and that he can shoot quicly without the 'set up' that heavy draw weight bows require. One final thought: not every archer could afford a custom bow. There must have been bowyers producing 'off the shelf' bows at a price a commoner could afford. This may suggest that archeological evidence on the physical stature of people at certain times might give a clue as to what range of draw lengths and hence bow lengths would have been common at those times - after all everybody needs to make a living and not every bowyer woul have been fortunate enough to have a wealthy clientele who could afford fancy custom bows: it's true today and probably always has been. Hope this is of interest, your video certainly was, thank you for your effort.

[@GaMeR11sHoT]

I would like to thank you for the hard work that you do, it's been incredibly helpful, informative, and enjoyable. I plan to hopefully reenact these early periods of history from Arabia and your channel has been extermely helpful. I still need to do my homework, but I trust your knowledge too!

[@AwsafSafayatKarimChowdhury]

Don't forget about me!

[@MomoHat123]

Mashallah brother, this is very beautiful work and I cannot wait to see what comes in future💪🏽💪🏽

[@zoranpavlovic9540]

I missed that video. Great research 🏹👍 Keep on being productive!

[@troydodson9641]

You are a learned man, a good man. Marvelous work

[@nathanwolber4503]

Great video, very well researched and informative. Thanks for your contribution to the study of ancient Arab archery!

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

@@nathanwolber4503 my pleasure!

[@simonlauber9014]

Great job, the information in this video is great and so dense, that I expect I'll have to rewatch it a couple of times to grasp all the implications. Well done my friend.

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Thank you my friend :)

[@redshankyman9015]

Salam brother, May I ask where you got your bow from (the one at 1:57). I have been looking to buy an Arabian composite bow for months now to no avail, and I would greatly appreciate if you can link me to your bowyer.

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

@@redshankyman9015 Sorry for the late reply, the one i have is the grozer hunnish bow

[@maxwunderlich6383]

Thank you for making such a good presentation

[@Mek7699]

Ma sha Allah tbarakAllah i just started to get into archery: the practice and the history Great work

[@vesci8049]

Beautifully presented man

[@CarlDWardJr]

Thank you I am familiar with American European and Other Asian style bows. It seems there are a lot of parallel in bow designs. How ever Arabic bow are new to me and it is a great video.

[@rokigan7515]

WOWOWOW AMAZING CONTENT, MY FAVORITE ARAB ARCHERY SOURCE 🤩

[@mtathos_]

Wawaweewa, great history, great presentation!

[@abdullahelwan405]

Proud of you keep it up!

[@hanDRailer]

Excellent content My brother connected by a common interest Thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@hanDRailer]

Al Mubarizun Thank You for sharing your knowledge once again I would like very much to talk to you in real time As I feel we could share knowledge The fact is that culturally different make no difference between the understanding of this subject I have made lots of self wood bows I transitioned between left and right handed shooting I have made longbows with recurved limbs Stay strong and let your arrows hit the mark my friend

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

@@hanDRailerFeel free to PM me on instagram, im open for discussion most of the time .

[@samy7013]

Ma shaa2 Allah, Brother! Excellent video. Jazaak Allah kull khayr. I especially appreciated your call at the end of the video for Muslim bowyers who have the knowledge and experience, to exert the effort to authentically recreate the bows of our Righteous Salaf, in order to maintain and preserve the honorable tradition of Arabic archery alongside the other traditions of archery that exist throughout the world. I wholeheartedly agree with and echo this call that you have made, barak Allah feek. By the way, I have a very tiny microscopic correction to suggest for the video description. You list the eminent scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahu Allah) as one of your sources, and wrote his name (actually, his kunya) as “Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah”. This is a slight error. His kunya takes either of these two forms: “Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah” or “Ibn al-Qayyim”. His father (rahimahu Allah) was the qayyim (principal or headmaster) of the Jawziyyah school, so the son is either Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, or Ibn al-Qayyim for short, but never “Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah”. Like I said, it’s a very tiny correction, and one that I often see non-native speakers of Arabic make when referring to Ibn al-Qayyim, so it may be that you accidentally transcribed it like that from an English source. Once again, jazaak Allah khayr, and please continue with your research, and in making these wonderfully informative and very high quality videos. Rasool Allah Muhammad ﷺ was an avid and skilled archer, and archery is one of his authentic sunnahs. Perhaps your videos will help Muslims of all ages from all around the world, and from many cultures, to revive this sunnah. And perhaps once they connect with this Sunnah of their Nabi ﷺ, they might be inspired to revive and connect with much more of his honorable Sunnah in other aspects of life. Let us hope for this!

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Aha jazak allahu khairan my brother, this completely slipped my mind, appreciate your input and i will correct it. I did say that i dont mind being corrected weather it was minor or major 😁. I agree, hopefully this might inspire some of our brothers and sisters to continue the sunnah.

[@samy7013]

@@almubarizunarchery4607: You’re doing a wonderful job, akhi, as both a sportsman and a historian (and of course, as a videographer as well!). I look forward to watching more of your videos. Good luck in all of your endeavors, wafaqak Allah! 🤲🏻

[@alomaralsulaiman6501]

I love your channel

[@naderalmarzooqi2127]

ماشاءالله ابداع وتميز.

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

يعطيك العافية نادر ❤️

[@redshankyman4181]

اسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته، لو سمحت من فضلك تقدر ان تقول لي من اين اشتريت القوس تبعك؟ انا رامي و اريد قوس مثله بالزبط. شكرا.

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

و عليكم السلام ورحمة وبركاته اي قوس؟

[@redshankyman4181]

​@@almubarizunarchery4607 القوس الاموية الذي نراه عند 1:55

[@redshankyman4181]

​@@almubarizunarchery4607هل هو مصنوع خاصا لك؟

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

@@redshankyman4181 من شركة grozer و اسمه hunnish

[@Albukhshi]

@ 19:59 If you do, I ask one thing of you: Make sure the armor was made as close as possible to the original medieval samples. That would mean impurities and all. As I understand it, the replicas Cutler used were basically on the high end of what was there, due to lack of such impurities. The average is more illuminating.

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

In AvA 2 actually, the armor the used was more average tier plate. They did the research and made sure they were able to replicate more mid tier French knight breastplate

[@SamiBayasi]

Amazing viedeo

[@robvillar191]

Is it possible that the “reinforced bow” category would also include self bows that were simply later backed and/or wrapped with sinew?

[@Couponuser16]

So glad you are jumping into this specific timeframe. Arab archery from the Abbasid-era onwards is more understood, but it is also clearly heavily inspired by Persian and Turkic styles. Arabs in the classical to early medieval period, particularly after the Nabateans but up to the Rashidun + Umayyads is so criminally understudied.

[@Thesandchief]

Do you think therefore any surviving examples of the bows you described in collections that have been misidentified?

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

I think some have been accurately identified in the case of the yrzi bow for example, and some such as the supposed bow of saad ibn waqaas have been misidentified.

[@pyro3446]

At 5'2 -5'6 if we use the other cubit at 25".8125 in length for my anatomy then final number would be 80".4375 then the bow would still not hit ground, it might be poetic language being used,

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Its not poetic language, its an entire chapter in a medieval book that explains how to avoid the bow tip hitting the ground while shooting in a squatted position

[@Polymath9000]

Assalamualikum Akhi.How do you define recurve bows?Were the above mentioned bows recurve?

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

I tend to avoid the terminology "Recurve" for traditional historical bows. The bows above id call composite bows, reflex bows, horse bows, or asiatic bows. "Recurve" is better suited more for modern olympic style bows or barebows.

[@hhggy-pr4io]

Mishkat al-Masabih 3891 ‘Ali told that God’s Messenger had in his hand an Arab bow, and on seeing a man with a Persian bow in his hand he said, “What is this? Throw it away. Keep* to this and such like, and to spears with shafts, for God will help you to support the religion with them and establish you in the land.” * This verb is in the plural, indicating that, after the man is told to throw away the bow he is carrying, a general command is given to the people. Ibn Majah transmitted it.

[@abdullahelwan405]

where did you get the Arabic version of Arab Archery If you dont mind sharing

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Its readily available online as a free PDF download by the name الإفادة والتبصير لكل رام مبتدئ أو مهير

[@abdullahelwan405]

​@@almubarizunarchery4607thank you

[@17yearoldwarbowarcher]

im definitley not 51#@29

[@Polymath9000]

Akhi do you make arrows?Do you spine them or adjust them by the feel?

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Completely by feel

[@Enabva]

bannerlord music😍

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

@@Enabva Glad you appreciate it!

[@shamsstargames6780]

ماشاءالله

[@mustamuri]

✨🏹✨ 👶👏❤️

[@beepboop204]

[@samy7013]

First! ☝️😎👍

[@almubarizunarchery4607]

Yes you are!

[@hhggy-pr4io]

Mishkat al-Masabih 3891 ‘Ali told that God’s Messenger had in his hand an Arab bow, and on seeing a man with a Persian bow in his hand he said, “What is this? Throw it away. Keep* to this and such like, and to spears with shafts, for God will help you to support the religion with them and establish you in the land.” * This verb is in the plural, indicating that, after the man is told to throw away the bow he is carrying, a general command is given to the people. Ibn Majah transmitted it.

[@hhggy-pr4io]

Mishkat al-Masabih 3891 ‘Ali told that God’s Messenger had in his hand an Arab bow, and on seeing a man with a Persian bow in his hand he said, “What is this? Throw it away. Keep* to this and such like, and to spears with shafts, for God will help you to support the religion with them and establish you in the land.” * This verb is in the plural, indicating that, after the man is told to throw away the bow he is carrying, a general command is given to the people. Ibn Majah transmitted it.

[@hhggy-pr4io]

Mishkat al-Masabih 3891 ‘Ali told that God’s Messenger had in his hand an Arab bow, and on seeing a man with a Persian bow in his hand he said, “What is this? Throw it away. Keep* to this and such like, and to spears with shafts, for God will help you to support the religion with them and establish you in the land.” * This verb is in the plural, indicating that, after the man is told to throw away the bow he is carrying, a general command is given to the people. Ibn Majah transmitted it.

[@hhggy-pr4io]

Mishkat al-Masabih 3891 ‘Ali told that God’s Messenger had in his hand an Arab bow, and on seeing a man with a Persian bow in his hand he said, “What is this? Throw it away. Keep* to this and such like, and to spears with shafts, for God will help you to support the religion with them and establish you in the land.” * This verb is in the plural, indicating that, after the man is told to throw away the bow he is carrying, a general command is given to the people. Ibn Majah transmitted it.