Composite style ???

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:53 pm

Apart from the historical aspect who would be able to describe the characteristics of these different styles of bows ?

Turkish
Crimean Tartar
Persian
Indo Persian
Mughal
Sind
etc...
I know, i know it's a long story !
Any reliable book ?
Thank you

Andrew Hall · Post by **Andrew Hall** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 6:07 pm

Redbow

And Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Korean ...

As well as the ancient types:
Akadian
Angular
Scythian
Hunnic
Magyar
Avar
...

I do not know of any composite bow identification guides (though the Traditional Bowyer's Bible volume 2 shows some of the common types). With the later types I just looked through some museum collections and on-line databases and tried to determine how they were grouped.

Perhaps we should have a composite bow identification guide on ATARN.

Regards

Andrew

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:43 am

A writer by the name of Stephen Selby wrote a book on The Archery Traditions of Asia. Visiting Grozer' site would be a kind of primer on the subject also.

David Gray started out to write such a book but ended with what looks more like a catalog of the bows he sells.

A book which included the bow types of the historic era as well as archeological / prehistoric types would be interesting, but maybe not financially rewarding. -j-

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:36 pm

Thanks for the advice Jack,
Czaba Grozer makes nice Extra III (real composite) bows, with the right design, it seems.
I found some answers in TBB vol 2 Composite Bows by Dr C. Grayson and the website of his collection.

Still, i am not sure about what a Persian bow should look like ?
There was certainly not one design but a few, like the Turkish ones...

And what an Indo-Persian bow is supposed to look like ?
Or sometimes if "Indo-persian" would be used for "Moghol "?
I certainly would find some good articles and answers in the JSAA back issues if they could be available to anyone, are they ?

Regards

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:20 pm

There are at least two Persian bows in the Grayson Collection. The characteristics generally accepted for Qajar bows are that

They are completely covered back and belly with leather or bark and generally painted.
The bellies are lined with multiple parallel strips of horn.
The angle between the bending section of the limb and the triangular part of the siyah is roughly similar to the angle between the tip portion and the other end of the triangular section unlike the smooth transition of the Turkish style bow.
There is more reflex near the grip and the bow can show a slightly set back handle area.
The bending sections of the limbs are broader than comparable Turkish bows.
They are built for a longer draw than Turkish bows.

The term Indo-Persian is used to cover anything in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh that has clear Persian characteristics, but combines them with local traditions. It is an art-historical term. In bows, it refers to Indian made composite bows of the type known by the Persian word kaman. The shapes range from the Sind bow with setback grip and multi-angled siyahs, the crab bows with their strong angles at the base of the siyahs and Moghul and Kashmiri bows which sometimes are indistinguishable from Persian bows except for their decorations. Their construnction follows the Persian rather than the Turkish tradition and uses local woods.

Redbow · Post by **Redbow** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:25 am

Bede,
Thank you for your reply.