Theme: The Seljuq

THEME
Turks advance

Technological advantages of the Seljuq armies

Arrows, arrows,
everywhere!
The roots of Seljuq archery go back to the first millennium BC and
the practices of the Scythians, Huns, and other early Asiatic traditions. The horse archers of the Central Asian steppe have used very
similar archery equipment and battle tactics throughout the ages.
This can sometimes lead to confusion, when contemporary chroniclers had to record the identity of one or other of the tribes.

By Murat zveri & Nils Visser

This confusion is increased by the fact

that the nomadic lifestyle and the fluidity
of alliances, with tribal fusions and breakups, mean that it is very difficult to clearly
categorize different tribes and nations.
The Seljuqs are a case in point. When they
originally appeared on the scene in the
Middle East, they could be defined as wild
Turkoman tribes, whose initial role was
that of mercenaries serving the powers
that be. The name Seljuq originated from
one of the chiefs, namely Seljuq Beg, of
a group of Oghuz Turks who hailed from
Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea. The
Seljuqs started evolving as their numbers
increased and they adopted Islam as their
religion, which resulted in the gradual
development of a political power base.
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 considered 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
grazing grounds and war loot, and did
not think twice about dispossessing other
peoples in the empire, having little empathy for the Seljuq desire for political stability. As long as the Seljuqs were dependent
on the Turkoman tribes for military purposes, they could do little; but, as they
started to build a standing army made
up of enslaved Arabs, Kurds, Armenians
and Georgians, they began to expel the
Turkomans to the fringes of the empire.
They hoped that the tribes would head
south towards Egypt, but the grasslands
of Anatolia seemed far more attractive
than the desert lands in the south, while
the inherent political infighting that did
much to weaken the Byzantine hold on
the region encouraged an influx of raids
and incursions by nomadic tribesmen.
Eventually, these tribes would claim
Anatolia as their own, and, though the
Great Seljuq Turks of Iran would try to
impose some semblance of centralized
control, the Seljuqs of Rum (Eastern
Rome) were to become semi-autonomous. Of course, before this could happen, 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 expensive to maintain, so they were used only

sparingly. The brunt of the fighting was

carried out by light cavalry, the Turkoman
horse archers.

Horse archers from the Steppes

Lets have a look at these horse archers.
Steppe traditions and nomadic lifestyle
dictated early training in both horse riding
and archery. This started early in childhood, so that horseback riding and accurate shooting, as well as a combination of
the two, became second nature. Bows and
arrows were interwoven in the culture in
which a nomad grew up. There are delightful demonstrations of this in The Book of
Dede Qorqut (also spelled Korkut), sometimes called the Turkish Iliad, which was
probably written in the twelfth century,
but has roots reaching much further back.
An example of shamanist-ceremonial use
of the bow and arrow can be found in the
description of a groom releasing an arrow
and building his first nights yurt (hut)
where the arrow landed. Recreational use
of archery is also demonstrated in a wedding scene in which the groom and his
friends used the grooms 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
Medieval Warfare I-1

 Courtesy of Muharrem Kesik

Theme: The Seljuq Turks advance

A relief, now in Armenia, depicting a Seljuk

mounted archer executing the Parthian shot.
Shooting backwards from horseback was the
zenith of the nomadic warriors martial art.

already have got there and brought back

a few heads. (Anna Oldfield Senarslan,
Women Aiqs of Azerbaijan: Tradition and
Transformation, p23). Kan Turali ends
up marrying Saljan Xatun, who is such
an expert archer that she can shoot two
arrows simultaneously in opposite directions at least, according to the story.
Islamic cultural emphasis on archery
would have probably appealed to the
Seljuqs and aided in the conversion to
Islam. The pre-Islamic Seljuqs would have
no doubt noticed, during their interaction with Islamic peoples, that Islam places 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 people 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 Aiqs of
Azerbaijan, p23).

Shooting skills and composite bows

Training would have continued as the
young nomad grew older, as hunting
4

Medieval Warfare I-1

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. This
method required great skill in riding 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 extremists who were hostile to the Abbasids] can
nock one. (Saracen Archery, J.D. Latham
and W.F. Paterson (trans. and ed.), p. 23.)
Before we look further into the tactical
possibilities linked to these archers, however, lets 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
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 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
draw weight is due to the strong reflex
that sets apart the Turkish bow from its
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 dramatically.
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. Its quite
possible that Seljuqs used other Asian-

Theme: The Seljuq Turks advance

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 resembling a pin-cushion. These accounts are
assumed to indicate that the Seljuq (or

Saracen, as the Europeans called them)

arrows 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) wellarmoured heavy cavalry, and the Roman
infantrymans two-layered chain-mail and
heavy oak shields proved to be insufficient
protection, as well. Therefore, the armourpiercing capability was available to those

Two Seljuk 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, adopting 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 theVarqa and Gulshah
romance, rather than modern Eurocentric
representations of the Seljuqs.
Graham Sumner

style bows too. There is an old picture of

a Seljuq atabeg (high official), Bedreddin
Lulu, in the Kitbl-Agn (1218), holding
a shorter bow with siyahs. But, unfortunately, 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 historiography has always had a tendency

Medieval Warfare I-1

Theme: The Seljuq Turks advance

Composite bows
Turkish composite bows are little power-packs and require high skill of crafting
and the highest quality of materials. The wood core was mostly made of various
maple species (Aceracae). For sinew backing, the leg tendons of oxen were preferred and the horn on the belly came from water buffalos.
The bow-making process can be summarized as follows:
- Shaping the 3 (sometimes 5) pieces of maple that will become the wood core
of the bow.
- Bending the tips to form the recurves: ancient bowyers boiled the wood for this
purpose.
- Gluing the pieces to make the wood core: mostly, the two limbs are glued to
the grip. All materials were glued together using collagen-based glue derived
from animal tissues.
- Gluing the horn laminates to the belly of the bow (wood core): both surfaces
are carefully vertically grooved with a special tool called tain (pronounced
tush-een) so that the glue surface is increased.
- Sinew backing of the bow. It takes time to wait for the drying of each sinew
layer. The shrinkage of the sinew bends the bow gradually to a full circle and
bending is aided by tightening ropes connecting the tips to the grip. The bow
was being seasoned up to 1 year at this stage.
- Tillering of the bow is done by heating the limbs and binding them to special
wooden forms called tepelik.
- Finishing the bow: the back is covered with birch bark, leather or only with
varnish in some rare examples. The bows were sometimes decorated with gold
paint and a lyric text. Verses from Quran or archery related sayings written by
calligraphers were not rare. Nearly all of the bowyers signed their work.

who preceded the Seljuqs.

It is possible that the crusaders
who came through the arrow storms
unscathed were targeted by long distance
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 wellaimed arrows, shot from surprisingly long
distances. Moreover, later Ottoman practices (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 subdivided into puta shooting (puta being
a particular type of target), horseback
shooting, and darb (piercing) shooting.
The latter 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 indicate this, for example, when mention is made of Dirse Khan taking up his
strong bow, strung with wolf-sinew.
Another important aspect of Seljuq

archery is the so-called thumb-release,

a general term that is preferred by contemporary authors. It defines a pull-andrelease 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
Morse. Morses preference in naming the
thumb-release technique the Mongolian
release was based on his mistaken belief
that it belonged to the Mongols. While
such race-based classification was considered normal among the European scholars of the late nineteenth century, today,
thumb-release is considered a more accurate and contemporary term. Its accuracy
is primarily due to this techniques wider
distribution around the globe, including
Africa and America, where traces of different forms of thumb-release can be found.
While there is insufficient evidence for
very early use of thumb-release in Turkic
culture, for instance by Xiung-nu, Huns
and Blue Turks, it is certain that Seljuq
archers shot with this technique, as can
be seen in many visual depictions, sup-

ported by some written sources. There are

some advantages provided by this technique. Since the archers paradox (i.e.
the inability of an arrow to point straight
at a target due to the bow limb being in
the way) occurs in the opposite direction
to the Mediterranean release (pulling the
string with three fingers, with the arrow
held in place between the upper and second fingers), the bow is loaded from the
right side. This way, the arrow follows a
more direct, shorter, and flawless path to
the string. Therefore, nocking the arrows
is faster. The string hand is closed in a
special manner to form a lock (mun-dull,
in Turkish), so that the arrow is held in
place with a slight pressure of the index
finger. This grip assures great stability during the entire shot sequence. The archer
pulls and releases comfortably, on foot or
horseback or in a kneeling position, with
the bow canted in any direction and at any
angle.
Additionally, unlike the Mediterranean
release, the string hand can hold extra
arrows, which can be nocked and shot
faster, one after another. During the shot,
the archers paradox occurs not only in
the opposite direction, but also in a less
acute manner, so that the arrow shaft
bends less. Normally, the strength of an
arrow (the spine value) matches a bows
strength; but, with decreased bending,
a wider spectrum of spine values can be
used, allowing the archer to re-use other
arrows he may find on the battlefield with
better accuracy. Another advantage of a
shaft that bends less is a decrease of lost
energy and, consequently, a higher initial
arrow speed. In combat or hunting situations, in which every bit of energy counts,
this difference may be of great importance. The same can obviously also be said
for increased accuracy. Ibn al-Faqih noted
that the Turks shot so accurately that they
could hit the pupil of an eye.
Bow shooting techniques evolved with
the needs and demands of the people
who used them. Short composite bows
and the thumb-release created their own
technical extensions, variations, and
accessories. One variation worth mentioning is the fard/qirat or jarmakee (as it
is called in eastern sources) technique,
especially because it shows what flexibility the thumb-release could provide. This
technique enables the archer to shoot
at targets in a narrow, deep place, such
as a well or cistern. The string is drawn

Theme: The Seljuq Turks advance

Courtesy of the Topkapi Palace Library

over the head, brought back to the neck,

and the bow is pushed downwards, the
arrow pointing straight down. In regular
practice, the target should be just next
to the left heel of a right-handed archer.
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 horses back.

A rain of arrows
All in all, the cultural integration of
archery, the second nature of horse riding and shooting, hunting skills, type of
composite bow, and shooting techniques
meant that the Seljuqs were able to field
remarkable archers. A purely Turkoman
force, albeit possibly consisting of a combination of different tribes, would consist
solely of cavalry. Mention is made of each
warrior having a spare horse and spare
bow to hand, as well as carrying up to 100
arrows, not only in the quiver but also in
the bow case and boots. This goes some
way to explaining why one of the earlier
confrontations between the Seljuqs and
crusaders apparently involved a continuous arrow storm lasting three hours (during the Battle of Dorylaeum in 1097).
Al-Jahiz wrote that, if a thousand
of their horse joined battle and let off
a single bout of arrows, they can mow
down a thousand horse. No army can
withstand this kind of assault. (Saracen
Archery, p. 23). To this, he added that the
Turks were just as dangerous in flight, for
they lost none of their cool control and
accuracy in that modus. Genuine flight
would have been difficult to verify anyway. The Seljuqs fought in the manner of
the Steppe peoples, something the Poles
would later call The Tartars 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 annihilated. 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

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.

links or gaps would be exploited to the full.

In the absence of such favourable developments, the Seljuqs would avoid direct
confrontation and revert to sniping at the
foe.
The second effect of the continued
harassment would lead to fatigue, demoralization 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
swords and lances as well, weapons that
would replace the bow and arrow as the
charges finally impacted upon the disheartened enemy.
A drawback of these fine troops was,
as mentioned at the beginning of this
article, the need to support vast numbers 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 kinship 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 considerable 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 instability, 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.

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 zveri 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 parttime 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).

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