THE BOW IN AL-ANDALUS: Functions, typologies and ideological context. القوس بالاندلس (original) (raw)
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Mounted Archery and Firearms Late Medieval Muslim Military Technology Reconsidered
David Ayalon's classic and highly influential 1956 study of Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom left some surprising questions unexamined. He attributed Ottoman victory primarily to Ottoman firearms, while Mamluks stubbornly clung to the arms of the mounted archer. But despite the technological underpinnings of his thesis, Ayalon discussed the technology of neither the traditional warfare of mounted archery nor the newfangled warfare of gunpowder weapons. Was Mamluk mounted archery actually inferior to Ottoman firearms? This essay addresses the technical basis both for the mounted archery central to Mamluk military prowess and the characteristics of late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth century firearms adopted by the Ottomans, both in the context of the social technology of Muslim military slavery. By opening the black box of Mamluk and Ottoman military technology, this essay seeks to show more precisely in what ways military technology did and did not shape the outcome of the struggle. Keywords Mamluk-Ottoman conflict – mounted archery – gunpowder weapons – military slavery David Ayalon's classic and highly influential 1956 study of Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom left some surprising questions unexamined. He attributed Ottoman victory primarily to Mamluk rejection and Ottoman acceptance of gunpowder weapons. But despite the technological underpinnings of his thesis, Ayalon discussed the technology of neither the traditional warfare of
2016
This thesis has taken an archaeological approach to understanding how the design of bows and crossbows developed over the course of the Later Middle Ages. The primary evidence used in this work was surviving medieval weapons. The dimensions of these artefacts were compared with those from similar weapons across and within centuries. This showed both the variety of weapons that existed within a given century, and how these weapons changed over time. For the bow, this thesis was focused on showing how the longbow developed from a relatively weak prehistoric weapon to the powerful bows of the Mary Rose, and emphasised that length was a flawed metric for determining weapon power. In comparison, the crossbow was shown to be a weapon of significant variety – so much so that it does the weapon a disservice to be referred to simplistically with a single name – and one in need of further investigation. To supplement the archaeological analysis, this thesis included: a discussion of the mechanics of archery and their relationship to weapon design, details of the problems with using medieval art as a substitute for archaeological evidence, an overview of crossbow spanning devices, and a comparison of the roles filled by the bow and crossbow in medieval warfare.
Around the turn of the twelfth century, a new iconography arose in northern Spanish and southern French lands. The sculpted image of a naked crossbowman, crouching to arm his weapon, flourished briefly and then vanished within a few decades. The crossbow was just coming into common usage at this time; with little training, it could be wielded by peasants or women to defeat mounted knights and thus had the potential to destabilize social structures. I analyze the display of the Romanesque crouching crossbowman to understand this heretofore unexamined iconography, investigating the reasons behind its initial conception, layered content, and rapid disappearance. Even more than the textual references to crossbows that have come down to us, I contend that visual analysis, together with an understanding of the specific historical context that encompassed the short life of this iconography, enables us to decipher the multiple meanings behind the image.