Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 161 h Archaeological Evidence for Mamlūk Archery other powerful, centralized Islamic states such as the rising Ottoman Empire; perhaps also in Morocco and Granada. In practice the effective range of a crossbow incorporating a simple wooden bowstave was less than that of the fully developed Turkish composite hand-held bow and was also more difficult to aim over long distances. On the other hand, it shot a shorter, aerodynamically more efficient and potentially heavier bolt. Weight was, of course, the main facture in giving a missile its penetrating power. Quite when the bowstaves of such crossbows started being made of a composite con- struction remains unclear, but recent archaeological evidence from Syria suggests that was probably in the late 12th or 13th centuries. Significantly, perhaps, this was shortly before such a method of crossbow construction was recorded in Europe. It is also important to note that, although some of the same materials were used as in the construction of a composite hand-held bow, the internal structure and external shape of the crossbow stave was entirely different. Meanwhile, late medieval com- posite crossbow staves from the Islamic and European lands were similar though by no means identical to each other. Thereafter crossbows incorporating composite bowstaves continued to play a role within the Islamic world, most significantly in the Mamlūk Sultanate, the further Maghrib and in al-Andalus. The earliest reference to a belt-and-hook to span the more powerful forms of hand-held crossbow is found in a late 12th century Egyptian mili- tary manual, and might be associated with the development of stiffer com- posite crossbow staves. Similarly, a clip to keep a crossbow bolt in place when shooting on horseback or aiming downwards from an elevated posi- tion first appears in a mid-14th century Mamlūk Egyptian military manual, all of which surely overturns the traditional view that the crossbow was an essentially Western European weapon, used only to a limited extent within the Islamic world. The Archaeological Finds Over the past few decades, a substantial corpus of archaeological evidence has come to light, most of it from Syria. Some has been fully published but a great deal remains unpublished and indeed largely unstudied. The follow- ing photographic survey focusses upon three major hoards. One came from the Euphrates Valley in eastern Syria, and two were found in Damascus. Other less dramatic finds came from Lebanon and the Sinai Peninsula, plus a few "chance finds" from the Golan Plateau, Jordan's Yarmouk Valley and Palestine/Israel. Some material from the further reaches of the medieval Is- lamic World, and indeed beyond the Islamic World, are also included for comparison.