The latter evidence deserves a closer look. The fact is that many contemporaries call the bow the main weapon of the Mongols. Thus, Peng Da-ya and Xu Ting testify: "Their customs is archery ..."; and further: “If we go to the most important of their types of weapons, then bow and arrow will come first(highlighted by us. -Yu.K.), and the saber - on the next one after them. The captive Englishman mentioned above also speaks about this: “... they tirelessly and bravely fight with spears, clubs, axes and swords, but bows are preferred(Emphasis added. - Yu.K.) and accurately, with great skill they shoot from them ... ". The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick II Hohenstaufen writes about this in a letter addressed to the English king Henry III: “... bows are their most familiar weapon(highlighted by us. - Yu.K.), along with arrows and other throwing weapons ... ". The Dominican monk Vincent of Beauvais notes the same: “... most of all they rely on bows and arrows... "(our emphasis. - Yu.K.), and monk-premonstrant Hetum Patmich:" Tatars are excellent riders and are good at weapons, especially bow and arrow"(It is highlighted by us - Yu.K.). And here is the testimony of the Venetian Marco Polo, who, as you know, lived among the Mongols for a long time, serving Kublai Khan: “... more than that, they use bows(highlighted by us. - Yu.K.), because dexterous arrows. "

Light horse archer- classic appearance Mongol warrior. Equipment will be considered here. The robe is wrapped around right side, thick trousers, leather boots with thick soles. Fur-trimmed hat. A saber and a saadak hang from the belt. The quiver is suspended on a belt over the shoulder and thrown behind the back on the right side. The warrior is armed with a short Mongolian bow.
1. Mongolian bow in a loose state. When pulling the bowstring, the bow had to be bent against its natural curvature. 2. Mongolian arrowheads. 3. Mongolian robe. Shown is a way to plow it on the right side. 4 and 5. Two styles of Mongolian hairstyles. 6. Mongolian boots made of thick leather. 7. Quiver.

It is worth dwelling on this point in more detail. The fact is that if we turn to the testimony of a number of contemporaries, we can see that the Mongols paid a lot of attention to rifle training. “As for their black Tatars shooting from a horse, they are tied to the back of a horse even in infancy. ... At 3 years old, they are tied with a rope to the bow of the saddle, so that they have something to hold on to with their hands, and they are allowed to rush in a crowd at full speed. At 4-5 years old, they are allowed to hold a small bow and short arrows, with which they grow. ... All of them are rapidly rushing on horses, while they stand on their toes in stirrups, and do not sit, so their main strength is in the calves, but there is none at all in the thighs. They are as fast as a walking tornado and as powerful as a crushing mountain. Since in the saddle they turn to the left and flip to the right with such ease as if the wings of a windmill, they can turn left and shoot to the right, and not only there - they also aim backwards, ”Peng Da-ya and Xu Ting report. Practically the same is said by Giovanni from Pian del Carpine: “Men do nothing at all, except arrows, ... they hunt and practice shooting, for they are all good arrows, and their children, when they are two or three years old, immediately begin to ride and drive and ride horses, and they are given a bow according to their age, and they learn to shoot arrows ... ". And here is what Benedict Pole says (in the retelling of Franciscan C. de Bridia): “Men make only arrows and practice archery. They also force three- or four-year-olds to do it the same way. ” Vincent of Beauvais says the same in his encyclopedia: "They amuse themselves with wrestling and archery, which are considered their best entertainment, as well as military exercises." Zhao Hong indirectly confirms this: “Tatars are born and grow up in the saddle. They learn to fight by themselves. "

Young Mongol Warrior
The Mongol warrior was inseparable from his horse. The harness is decorated, the tail is braided. The method of archery from the saddle is shown. Two warriors practice archery, trying to hit a wooden block.
Box 1. Mongolian saddle... It was solidly constructed, made of wood, and soaked in sheep's fat to keep out the rain. The saddle had a high front and back bows, providing the archer with a secure fit and the ability to turn the body in all directions.
Box 2. Paisa (label). The Khan in Karakorum had an efficient courier service. Thanks to couriers, the khan quickly learned about all the news and immediately transmitted orders to all ends of his vast empire. The men, who served the khan with eyes and ears, wore a label made of iron or silver, which showed the status of the person to whom the report was delivered. One such label has survived to this day.

Most likely, this practice was one of the first reforms of Genghis Khan. We find an indirect confirmation of this in Marco Polo: “It happened that in 1187 the Tatars chose a king for themselves, and he was called in their language Genghis Khan ... Genghis Khan saw that he had a lot of people, armed him with bows and other weapons and went to fight foreign countries ". This assumption is confirmed by Rashid ad-Din in his story about Genghis Khan: “He also said ... the emirs of the troops should properly teach their sons throwing arrows, horseback riding and martial arts and train them in these matters”. An indirect confirmation of this can be seen in the words of Genghis Khan himself, which Li Chih Chan quotes when describing his conversation with Chang-chun: “... we are Moguls, with early years we are accustomed to shooting on horseback and cannot suddenly give up this habit. "

In any case, during the period of the Great Conquest, the Mongols in the eyes of their contemporaries were firmly associated precisely as archers. So the great Galician boyar Yuri Domogaroch, a participant in the battle on the Kapka River, whose words are recorded in the "Chronicler of Daniel Galitsky", directly says: "srѣltsi is the essence." Moreover, among Armenian authors, the definition of “arrows” is often cited as a synonym for the term “Mongol”. So Vardan Areveltsi (1198-1271) in his work "Collection of History", speaking about the Mongols, calls them "the people of shooters", and in another work, "Geography", he calls the city of Samarkand, captured by the Mongols, the "capital of the people of shooters" ... Bishop of Syuni Stefanos Orbelian (d. 1304) in his work “History of the Sisakan Region” also calls the Mongols “the nation of shooters” and Mongolia “the land of shooters”. The prominent statesman of Cilician Armenia Smbat Sparapet (1208-1267), who personally twice visited the Mongolian capital, Karokorum, also calls the Mongols a "nation of shooters" in his work "Chronicle". And speaking of the military formations of the Mongols, he calls them "troops of the shooters." And one of the most famous Armenian historians, contemporary of the capture of Transcaucasia by the Mongols, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1200-1271), in the “History of Armenia” calls the Mongols “a tribe of shooters”. In turn, another prominent Armenian historian Grigor Aknertsi, better known as the monk Magakia, directly titled his work “The History of the Shooters People”. The Armenian tradition of calling the Mongols "the people of shooters" or simply "shooters" is also cited by the Flemish Willem from Rebrek.

Mongols in the Middle East, 1220.
G1: Mongolian heavily armed horse archer.
The particularity of this warrior's equipment is a powerful leather scaly shell and a pointed helmet with a silk lining. A surcoat is thrown over the shell, which prevents the metal from heating up in the sun. Mongolian bow with the largest shoulder angle. The horse's reins are connected with a thin rope to the wrist. This rope does not allow you to permanently lose power during archery.
G2: Mongol lightly armed warrior.
Mongolian scout and skirmisher. Unlike the heavily armed warrior who prepared for the campaign, this one ended up in the war right from the field. The Mongolian undersized horse is a relative of the Przewalski horse.
G3: Persian foot archer.
The deceased Persian foot archer had a helmet characteristic of his time, a heavy linen outer shirt and a silk undershirt. The onion is clearly Persian ooze.

Many of the contemporaries characterize the Mongols not just as shooters, but precisely as excellent shooters. Giovanni from Pian del Carpine: "... all of them, young and old, are good arrows ...". Juvaini: "... if they wish, they can shoot down the stars with blows of arrows ...". Matthew Paris: "... are amazing archers ...". Stefanos Orbelian: "... skillful (here we mean the people. - Yu.K.) in throwing arrows ...". André from Longjumeau: "They don't use ballistae, but they are excellent archers." Frederick II Hohenstaufen: "These tartars, incomparable archers ...". Hetum Patmich: “The war with them is very dangerous, because for one such, even a small war, more people die than for any clash with any other people. And this is mostly due to the fact that they shoot hard and accurately ”; and further: "It is very dangerous to pursue them, because, turning around, they begin to shoot arrows and thus injure and kill people and horses." Marco Polo: "They know how to shoot cleverly ...". The same is noted by Smbat Sparapet in a letter to the Cypriot king Henry II de Lusignan: "They are wonderful arrows ...".

Moreover, a number of contemporaries directly distinguish the Mongols as archers, against the background of other peoples. Thus, a Georgian anonym, a contemporary of Tsar George IV Lasha (1213-1222), reports: “At the same time, they gained courage and were the chosen archers(emphasis added. - Yu.K.), flawlessly shooting from their tight bows with heavy arrows, the blow of which no armor could withstand. They were especially dexterous on horses, for they grew up on horses, did not know armor, except for a bow and arrows. " And here is how the impressions of the Russian warriors from the first clashes with the Mongols are recorded in the "Chronicler of Daniel Galitsky": "... srѣltsi is the essence ... of the Polovtsian ...". The Hungarian Dominican monk Julian, who twice, in 1235 and 1237, visited the South Russian steppes, in his letter to the papal legate Salvio de Salvi, especially noted: “They say that they shoot farther than other peoples can. At the first collision in a war, their arrows, as they say, do not fly, but as if pouring down like a downpour. With swords and spears, according to rumors, they fight less skillfully. "

Mongolian light horseman, Russia.
An episode of a long chase, which the Mongols could undertake after the battle, the Mongolian horseman spotted a hiding Russian warrior in the coastal thickets. The Mongol wears a robe captured during the Khorezm campaign; a warm sheepskin coat is worn under the robe. Hat with fur-trimmed earmuffs. The appearance of the Mongolian was recreated according to the "Saraysk Album" (Istanbul). A coil of rope, an ax, a wineskin with sour milk are strapped to the saddle. The armor of the Russian soldier is depicted in accordance with the samples presented in the Kremlin Armory. The weather shown in the illustration corresponds to the authors' ideas about the "harsh Russian winter"!

In turn, Bishop Stephen Vatsky, in a letter to the Parisian Bishop Guillaume III of Auvergne, also notes: "They are more skilled archers than the Hungarian and Comanian, and their bows are more powerful." Frederick II Hohenstaufen writes about the same to the English king Henry III: "... bows ... which they constantly use, which is why their hands are stronger than those of other people, they utterly defeated the Cumans." This is how one of the statesmen of Cilician Armenia, Getum Patmich, described the Mongols: "And they have already got so used to the art of shooting that they surpassed the rest of the world's population in it."

As you can see, if we turn to the tactics of the Mongols, it becomes obvious that rifle combat prevails over everything else. Direct indications of this can be seen in Marco Polo: “In battles with the enemy, they gain the upper hand in this way: while fleeing from the enemy, they are not ashamed, while fleeing, they turn and shoot. They taught their horses, like dogs, to move in all directions. When they are driven away, they fight gloriously on the run, and as hard as they would stand face to face with the enemy; runs and turns back, shoots accurately, beats both enemy horses and people; and the enemy thinks that they are scattered and defeated, and he himself loses, because his horses have been shot, and the people have been pretty much killed. " Giovanni from Pian del Carpine says the same: "... every time they see enemies, they go at them, and each one throws three or four arrows at his opponents ..."; and further: "... they do not willingly engage in battle, but wound and kill people and horses with arrows ...". Benedict Pole echoes him: “When they have to face the enemies, many of them arm themselves with a large number of quivers and arrows, and before the enemy's arrows reach them, they release their own, even if it is premature and they cannot shoot arrows aimed. And when they can reach the enemy with arrows without hindrance, they say that it looks more like rain than flying arrows. And this is due to the extreme density of flying arrows. "

This also follows from the course of the battles, a number of which have come down to us in more or less detailed descriptions. For example, Muhammad an-Nasawi, talking about the battle of Isfahan on August 25, 1228, in which the Mongols defeated the last Khorezmshah Jalal ad-Din Mankburn, describes the heroic resistance of the latter's troops: “But the khans and emirs, the commanders of the left wing, stood firmly, until death, remaining true to their oath. Only three of them survived: Kuch Tegin Pakhlavan, Hajib al-Hass Khanberdi and Emir Ahur Odek. Akhash-Malik fought until fell, studded with arrows, like a hedgehog with needles(emphasis added. - Yu.K.), and died for the faith. " In turn, Juvaini, describing the battle of the Mongols with the Jin, which took place at the r. The Yellow River in 1231 testifies: "... the Mongols knocked them down with a hail of arrows, and they sprawled out on the damp ground ...". A similar situation can be traced during the capture of the passes through the Carpathians by the Mongols, which was described by Master Rogerius, who was in Hungary in 1241 as an envoy of Cardinal John of Lucia: “... on the twelfth day after the onset of March, there was a battle with the Tatars on the pass, and when nearly all his men were brutally wounded by arrows and swords, he left with a few of them ... ". We see the same when he describes the battle of the Kaloch Archbishop Ugrin Kzak with the Mongols approaching the city of Pest: “... he wanted to fight the Tatars. Notte, turning around their backs, began to retreat a little. The Archbishop, seeing this, began to pursue them at full speed. Having reached the marshy area, they quickly passed it. The archbishop, without turning, for he was very close to them, hurriedly entered the swamp, and since he and his people were pressing on the ground with the weight of weapons, he was unable to cross the swamp or return. Tatars returning quickly, surrounded the swamp and, sending arrows in the rain, all of them were killed there(it is highlighted by us. - Yu.K.) ". The same picture is observed in the battle of Lignitz, which took place on April 9, 1241 between the Mongols and the united Polish army. Her detailed description has come down to us in the work of Jan Dlugosh: “The crusaders and foreign knights smashed the first ranks of the Tatars with their spears and moved forward. But when it came to hand-to-hand combat - with swords, the Tatar archers surrounded the detachments of crusaders and foreign knights on all sides so that other - Polish - troops could not come to their aid without putting themselves in a dangerous position. The squad staggered and finally lay down under a hail of arrows like tender ears of wheat under the hail, for there were many among them people without shields and shells. And when the son of Dipold, the Moravian Margrave, Boleslav and others fell there knights from the front row, the rest, which were also thinned out by the Tatar arrows(emphasis added. - Yu.K.), retreated to the Polish detachments. " The situation is repeated in the battle of the river. Shajo, which took place on April 11, 1241 between the Mongols and the united Hungarian-Croatian army, and a detailed description of which was left to us by Thomas of Split: “They sent forward a cavalry detachment ... ... But the detachments of the Tatars, without waiting hand-to-hand combat and, as they usually do, throwing arrows at enemies, hastily rushed to run "; and further: “... the Tatar horde, as if in a round dance, surrounded the entire camp of the Hungarians. Some, drawing their bows, began to shoot arrows from all sides, others hastened to set fire to the camp in a circle. ... Enemies, scattered everywhere, never stopped throwing spears and arrows... ... They did not defend themselves with weapons from a shower of arrows and spears, but, substituting their backs, completely fell under these blows(highlighted by us. - Yu. K), as usual acorns fall from the shaken oak. And these are descriptions of the same battle by Magister Rogerius: “ Tatars... surrounding him, began to shoot arrows at the Hungarians. ... The arrows fell so often that they obscured the sky for the fighting and flew through the air like a flock of beetles and locusts.... ... And if the Hungarians interspersed from different places went into battle, then Tatars... speaking to them, arrows made them flee from battle formations(Emphasis added. - Yu.K.) ... ". In turn, Rashid ad-Din, describing the battle of the Mongols with the Mamluks, which took place in 1260 in the area of ​​Ain-i Jalut, testifies that the vanguard of the Mamluks fled without even entering into a firefight with the Mongols: “The Mongol army attacked, firing from bows, and Kuduz dodged and fled. " Armenian author of the XIV century. Nerses Palienz, describing the battle that took place between the troops of Ilkhan Gazan and the Mamluks in the Jebel al-Salihiyye area, near Damascus, on February 12, 1300, reports: “On the day when the Sultan's army was preparing for battle, his soldiers prepared felt stuffed animals, they hung sparkling things on them to make them shine in the sun, and they put the stuffed animals on 10 thousand camels, and all of them were lined up, the soldiers themselves hid behind the camels ... since the Mongols, that is, the Tatars, besides arrows, had nothing else(emphasis added - Yu.K.), the Muslims were waiting for them to shoot their arrows at the felt stuffed animals, which were planted on the camels ”; and further: “It happened at three o'clock in the afternoon, and until nine o'clock in the evening arrows flew in the air, and the sun darkened from them, and the people were in the shadow of the density of arrows. With these arrows the Sultan's army was defeated and put to flight. " And here is Hetum Patmich's description of the battle that took place between the same opponents near the city of Homs, Syria, in 1301: from the rear, the vanguard, stumbled. Therefore, of the multitude of Saracens, only a few left alive. Many Saracens were mortally wounded by arrows, from which they died."(It is highlighted by us. - Yu.K.). It is worth making a digression here. The fact is that the last two battles, although they took place at the beginning of the XIV century, but, in our opinion, they still reflect the Mongol tactics, since the military reforms of Ilkhan Gazan, which, apparently, were carried out at the very end of his reign, should have significantly changed the military affairs of the Hulagids.

A noteworthy fact is that during their campaigns the Mongols took care not only of replenishing arrows - the most consumable material, but also of replenishing bows, bowstrings to them and quivers. For example, in the biography of Khitan Xiao Baichzhu in Yuan-shi, an episode from his grandfather's track record is given: “During the Tai-tzu campaign to the west, Chounu sent thin and thick bamboo, bows, crossbows and bowstrings, 10,000 pieces each species ". Benedict Pole says the same in the retelling of Franciscan C. de Bridia: "They also carry with them a large number of weapons, bows, quivers and arrows." This indicates that the shelling was very intense, and even the guns themselves could not withstand it.

From the foregoing, it becomes obvious that in the battle the Mongols relied precisely on remote shooting combat. And it was the remote shooting combat of the Mongols that aroused fears among their opponents. This is directly indicated in the "Secret Legend" in the words of the Naimans: "They say that in the northern side there are some insignificant Mongolians, and that they allegedly frightened the great old Wan Khan with their sideaks ..."; and further: “Whatever these Mongols are, we will go and bring their sideaks here. ... Let's take away from these Mongols, how are they there, their sideaks! " ... Direct evidence of this can be seen in the testimonies of contemporaries. Thus, the Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi writes: "... the sound of their quivers terrified everyone." He was echoed by the Croatian priest Thomas Splitsky: “... deadly Tatar arrows fired directly at the target struck for sure. And there was no such shell, shield or helmet, which would not have been pierced by a blow of the Tatar hand. " This is also said in an anonymous essay about the invasion of the Tatars in Poland, Moravia and Hungary, compiled shortly after the events described, which was partially preserved in the Paris Code: “Fear and awe, Moravia, have seized you, a violent enemy surrounds you and oppresses you from everywhere ... With bow and sword, he ruined your strong, he does not regret either gender or age ... ". And here is what Giovanni from Pian del Carpine recommended: “Everyone who wants to fight them should have the following weapons: good and strong bows, ballistas, which they are very afraid of, a sufficient number of arrows, a club made of good iron or an ax with a long handle ..., also swords and spears with a hook to be able to pull them off the saddle, since they fall off the saddle very easily, knives and double armor, since their arrows do not easily pierce them, a helmet and other weapons to protect the body and horse from weapons and arrows ". And these are the recommendations of Benedict Pole in the retelling of Franciscan C. de Bridia: “... you should set up ambushes on the flank on selected horses. And the ballistarians, located in front of the army and spaced at least three [rows], must shoot arrows before they can reach the tartare battle formation, [that is] in the best way and in a timely manner, so that their own battle ranks either run or be confused. If the enemies turn to flight, ballistarians with archers, as well as those who are in ambush, pursue them, while the army gradually moves after them. If there are no other ballistarians [for the pursuit], then the riders on the horses chained in armor move forward. Shielding themselves with very powerful shields closed in front of the horses, they suddenly confuse the Tartar archers. " And here are the recommendations included in the "Military instructions" ("Praecepta bellica"), which were drawn up in May - June 1241, in Esslingen, in the curia of the German king Conrad IV, to oppose the Tatars: "1. Let the sovereigns themselves do not look for Tatars in the field, ... 2. Let the ballistarians be with them. .. 5 .Also, let everyone with an income of three marks take with him a shield, which is called "setsishilt" (here we mean large, as a rule, easel boards "pavez". - Yu.K.) ".

Thus, from the above, it can be seen that no heavily armed Mongol cavalry, if they had one, made any impression on their opponents and allies. In the eyes of their contemporaries, the Mongols were only archers, but incomparable archers. This feature was the key to the success of the Great Conquest.

Summing up, the following conclusions should be emphasized:

1. The rather harsh environment, the lack of sources for obtaining metals and the trade blockade from the neighbors did not contribute to the development of the Mongols in cultural and economic terms, as a result of which they looked backward compared to other peoples of the region.

2. The lack of iron and the neighbors' ban on the sale of weapons to the Mongols forced the latter to cover the shortage of weapons by all available means, as a result of their use of leather armor, bone arrowheads, etc. Iron armor among the Mongols appears only during the seizure of large states - the Jin and Khorezm empires. But due to the primary destruction of the production bases of the captured states, the wear of the metal armor was not covered. According to contemporaries, only commanders and the highest aristocracy were armed with iron armor, which is confirmed archaeologically.

3. According to the testimony of contemporaries, the main weapon of the Mongols was a bow and a saber, which could be supplemented with an ax, a club, a palm tree and combined spears. At the same time, spears are not mentioned first in the list of weapons.

4. The sources clearly indicate that the Mongols used the spear exclusively for the application of simple stabbing blow... At the same time, the sources do not provide accurate evidence of their use of a ramming spear strike. The refusal of the Mongols to use shields during field battles, as well as medium-sized breeds of Mongolian horses, indirectly indicate that the Mongols did not use massively ramming spear strikes.

5. In the course of the seizure of the Far Eastern states, it is possible that large horses and horse armor fell to the Mongols for the first time, there is no clear evidence of this. Only after the capture of Khorezm did the contemporaries notice the appearance of a large horse population among the Mongols. The beginning of the campaign to Khorezm coincides with the appearance on the pages of the chronicles of references to well-armed or even heavily armed Mongol detachments. But these units were temporary and were formed only in certain cases. The temporary concentration of warriors with armor by the Mongols to solve special tasks is also confirmed by the practice of their battles.

6. Contemporaries of the Mongols claimed that the bow was their main weapon. This is confirmed by the constant training of the Mongols in shooting, noted on the pages of the chronicles. The overwhelming mass of contemporaries pointed out that the Mongols stood out from the background of other peoples precisely by their skillful small arms. This is confirmed by the course of those battles about which detailed descriptions have come down to us, as well as by the supply of consumables during the campaigns.

Thus, our analysis of written sources demonstrates that the Mongols lacked heavily armed cavalry, as well as the prerequisites for its appearance, which refutes the conclusions drawn by M.V. Gorelik. In the future, continuing the study of this issue, we plan to highlight the features of the Mongolian archery and their shooting tactics.

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The Mongolian bow has a reverse kibiti bend. This means that the kibit itself and the ends of the bow are bent outward in a special way. Traditional technologies for the manufacture of these weapons included the use of wood, birch bark, reinforcement with horn pads.

Unlike other bows, they had an additional side bend in the form of an overlay made of leather, wood and horns. It was arranged to protect the nomad from a return blow of the bowstring to the wrist of the left hand, which largely determined the methods of firing shots. Including the traditional shooting of nomads from behind, which amazed contemporaries. That is why the Mongols did not need the traditional bracers used by other peoples.

Making this bow is a long and patient process. It was created from several layers of wood, glued with birch bark on the outside. The rather small (up to 170 cm long) bow of the Mongols possessed incredible destructive power, piercing not only the armor of European knights, but also the warrior himself through and through.

The Mongolian bow consisted of three main elements: wood, bone, horn, and glue. The bow was made by a special artisan. All other parts of the Mongolian archer's equipment, such as a quiver, a bow case or a case for a bow, arrows, were also made by specialist artisans. The quiver and bows were made of specially dressed leather. The skin was soaked for seven to ten days in a wooden barrel with salt water, then brushed, stretched and kneaded to the desired state. The quiver consisted of two wooden planks connected by a wooden frame and covered with leather. The quiver strap was thrown over the right shoulder and the quiver hung at the right thigh. The number of arrows in the quiver could be different - from four to fifteen, depending on the type of hunting and the type of arrows. The cover was cut from one large piece of skin of a sub-triangular shape, and the seam was located on one side and only up to the middle of the cover. In the upper, narrow part of the bow there was a loop through which the shooter's belt was threaded. The cover was worn on the left side in an inclined position, as the most comfortable for riding a horse. The bow in the case was taut, with the bowstring down, the tree up, and was only half covered by the case.

Contrary to popular belief, the Mongols almost never used poison arrows. Their weapons were deadly enough. Arrowheads came in a wide variety of weights, sizes and configurations. Many of them were not just part of the weapon, but also a kind of traditional talismans of the nomads.

The bowstring was made from animal vertebral tendons. They were divided into threads, twisted together, getting a tight and elastic bowstring. To avoid injury during shooting, the nomads used a special ring to protect the fingers of their right hand.

The manufacturing technology of Mongolian-type bows was extremely complex and required high technical development. Archer masters possessed excellent knowledge of the properties of all the composite materials from which the bow was made: various types of wood, horns, bones, birch bark tendons, glue, varnishes, etc. best breeds the tree itself High Quality, for onlays - horn and bone plates without the slightest flaw. Tendons and birch bark, varnishes and raw materials for the preparation of glue were carefully selected.

In Western and Central Asia, the technique of producing composite bows has reached such perfection that when making the bow, the climatic features of the regions where it will be used, the purpose of the bow for specific purposes and the individual constitution of the archer were taken into account. Depending on these factors, the ratio and quality of its constituent parts, length, width, bend size and shape of the bow were determined. From design features and the shape of the bow very much depended on its power, the amount of force applied to pull it and keep it taut. 31 It has been experimentally proven that with an optimal ratio of a bow and an arrow, its range, arrow flight speed, its penetrating ability and stopping effect depend on the correct distribution and combination of composite materials, the size and shape of the bow.

WITHtrills

The manufacture of arrows, hollow inside, provided a whistle during flight. This brought mortal terror to the enemies of the nomads. This, undoubtedly, is the similarity with the whistle of a certain type of Mongol arrows, called "singing death". Both those and others believed that whistling arrows scare away evil spirits. Mongolian arrows made a sound like a whistle located at the tip. The most powerful Mongolian bow, as many historians believe, had an arrow range of over 300 meters.

The end of making the bow was accompanied by a special ceremony of opening the bow, which consisted of pronouncing the wish-blessing of yerool, where praise for the bow's merits was combined with wishes of good luck to its owner. Following the pronouncement of the wish-blessing, a libation on the “head” of the lukaairag took place, for which the shooter chose one of the ends of the bow, to which the khadak accompanying the wishes was tied. The libation was carried out with the help of a ritual wooden spoon, on the deep part of which there were nine or twelve small pits. The ceremony ended with a treat to those present. The first use of the arrow was also accompanied by wishes and an atoning anointing.

In relation to the bow, the Mongols had a number of prescriptions and prohibitions, which subsequently passed on to the gun. These include, first of all, the prohibition to step over the bow (gun), as well as rubbing the bow (or gun) in case of misses with the blood of predatory animals, so that the weapon becomes more deadly.
Archery to this day remains one of the favorite traditional entertainment of the Mongols and, along with national wrestling and horse racing, plays an essential role in the annual folk festival of nadam, whose roots are associated with military sports and go back to the distant past of the Mongol people.

The bow was an excellent weapon for its time - rapid-fire, accurate, long-range. But not everyone could become a good shooter, and it was necessary to exercise from childhood.

When and where a person first pulled the bowstring on a tree branch is unknown. A number of researchers believe that people used onions several tens of thousands of years ago. However, the oldest archaeological evidence of its existence is arrows found in Germany. They date back to the 9th millennium BC. e. The cavemen fought with clubs, spears and knives, and from throwing weapons used slings and darts. In their martial arts, almost everything was decided by muscle strength. The bow also made it possible to destroy the enemy from a long distance. Even primitive bows hit more accurately and farther than a dart.

The classic mistake

The first bows were an ordinary stick with a string of plant fibers or animal sinew. Such a bow is short-lived; after firing, you have to remove the bowstring from it so that it does not lose its elasticity. But you can make it in an hour or two from any flexible bitch - even boys make them. Such bows are still used by hunting tribes in the Amazon and Indonesia.

Strikes a primitive bow for 30 meters, destructive force its small. However, in the jungle it does not matter: dense vegetation does not allow shooting at long distances. In the Amazonian selva, everything is decided by camouflage, the ability to silently sneak up on the victim and a potent poison that is used to lubricate arrows. The legendary curare, which paralyzes the respiratory muscles, is a find of the Indians of South America.

The ancient people supplied the arrow with a bone or stone tip, so that it flew smoother and easier to pierce the victim. Later, copper and iron tips appeared. Depending on the purpose of the application, they could be long, short, sharp, blunt, or have more intricate shapes. Blunt tips could be used for sports purposes: for example, in the Middle Ages, the fun of the Japanese nobility was inuumono - horse hunting for wild dogs placed in a spacious enclosure. The blunt arrow hit but did not kill the victim. For general hunting, V-shaped tips were used. (1) With an accurate hit, an arrow with such a tip would cut off the head of a flying bird. Sharp wide tips (2) did not penetrate armor, therefore, they were used only to defeat soldiers and horses that were not protected by armor. They inflicted wide cut wounds on the enemy, causing profuse bleeding. Whistling arrows (3) intimidated the enemy or gave an alarm signal. Their tip was a hollow sphere of wood or horn with holes.

Improving the fighting properties of the bow, different peoples followed different paths. Some increased its power, increasing its length. So the British created the famous long bow, a long bow with a shoulder span of up to 2.2 m. Others, especially the steppe nomads, reinforced the bow with horn pads and sinews. It remained short, which is convenient for riding, but no less powerful than the long bow. This technology was perfected by the Mongols and Turks. The Turkish bow holds the firing range record: at the end of the 18th century, the British envoy to the Ottoman Empire, Robert Ainsley, testified that Sultan Selim III fired an arrow at 889 meters at a competition in Istanbul. The combat bow is a high-tech device, very difficult to manufacture. If you go into the forest, cut off the first branch you come across and make an onion out of it, then it will do only for playing Indians. In the era of Alexander Pushkin, who was good at shooting a pistol, bows had already become an anachronism. Therefore, we will forgive the classic liberties: in his "Tale of Tsar Saltan" the prince makes a bow from an oak branch and a cord from a cross and knocks a kite out of it in flight. "He broke a thin cane, sharpened it with a light arrow ..." - this is the same fairy tale. In fact, making a good arrow is far from easy. They were made by skilled craftsmen from special types of wood, which were pre-dried for several months. Using good arrows, you can confidently hit the target even with an inferior bow. But if you have in your hands the most modern compound bow with a tension of several tens of kilograms and an arrow speed of 300 m / s, it is almost impossible to hit the target with bad arrows.

The archer had at his disposal many types of arrows, differing in length, mass and tips. The Mongol warrior carried with him two quivers of 30 arrows each. He had armor-piercing arrows with faceted tips that pierced the metal shell from a distance of 30-50 m. Needle arrows, from which even chain mail could not save. Arrows with wide leaf-shaped tips were intended to defeat weakly protected infantry and horses. Crescent-tipped arrows interrupted the ropes of the throwing machines. There were incendiary arrows, wrapped in tow and with a special hook so that the arrow would not roll off the roof. There were whistling arrows, under the tips of which horn whistles were installed. With them the Mongols, and before them the Huns and Turks, gave each other signals and instilled fear in the enemy. Horses, frightened by the rumble of thousands of such arrows (in Russia they were called "singing witches"), reared up and trampled on their own foot soldiers.

Asians have always been considered excellent archers. Before the Mongols and Huns, the Parthians and Scythians mastered this art better than others. The Persians taught their sons three main things: horseback riding, archery, and telling the truth. There were also detachments of archers in the Egyptian army. Its infantry was armed with simple long bows with reed arrows. In the era of the New Kingdom (that is, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC), battle chariots with a charioteer and a shooter became a formidable force of the Egyptians. One soldier drove the horses, while the other was aimed at shooting from compound bow triangular shape, typical for Southwest Asia. Images of such "war machines" are found on many Egyptian monuments. On a bas-relief in Abu Simbel, Pharaoh Ramses II himself shoots from a chariot in the battle with the Hittites at Kadesh (13th century BC). The bow was so prized in Ancient Egypt that it accompanied the pharaohs in the afterlife, as evidenced by numerous finds in burials.

In ancient Greece, the attitude towards bows was ambivalent. Hercules willingly used a bow and arrow, and he bequeathed power over Scythia to one of his sons who could draw his bow (skillful archers, the Scythians often annoyed the Greeks with their raids). Homeric Odysseus, after returning from Troy, uses a bow to deal with the suitors who annoyed Penelope. But the Greeks rarely used troops of archers in battles. Citizens of the cities valued personal prowess above all else, and the bow erased the line between the daredevil and the coward: an archer who shoots arrows from afar exposes himself to almost no danger. Perhaps the fact that the Greeks preferred to do without archers played a role and the successful experience of numerous battles with the Persians, who widely used horse warriors armed with bows. Enemy arrows did not pierce the Greek phalanx, covered from all sides with shields. However, the Greeks gradually changed their attitude towards onions. So, according to Herodotus, in the battle with the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC. e. The Spartan commander Pausanias sent a horseman to the Athenian detachment fighting on the other flank with a request: "Do us a favor by sending archers."

With an increase in the number of heavily armed warriors clad in armor, wide, including sheet-like, arrowheads (1) lost their effectiveness, since they could not penetrate lamellar shells or helmets: the cutting area of ​​the arrowhead was relatively large, and often they simply bounced off the metal, not causing harm. Even if the tip pierced the armor, the wide part of the tip would get stuck in the plate and hardly touch the body. Narrow awl-shaped tips began to be used against such armor (2). They had a square, rhombic or rectangular cross-section. An arrow with such a tip, piercing even a narrow hole in the armor, entered the enemy's body through it. Tapered points (3) were used to punch through chain mail woven from rings. Crashing into it, the tip could break one ring and push the adjacent ones apart, expanding the hole for the arrow to penetrate. The feathering of the arrow aligns it in flight and does not allow it to deviate from the target. An arrow without feathers (1) can also reach the target, but it must have a fairly massive tip. Most often, bird feathers were glued to the arrow, but sometimes paper was used along with the feather. The feathers of the eagle, vulture, falcon and seabirds were considered the best. The main thing is that they are even, elastic, but not too rigid. On the same arrow, feathers from different wings were not glued (since they have different bends), they were taken either from the right or left wing of the bird. In the Arabic instruction of the 15th century, it is said that an arrow, feathered from the left wing, should be aimed slightly to the right of the target, and vice versa. This increased the accuracy of shooting, since the arrow with the curved blades of the tail rotated, deviating in the direction of the bending of the feathers. The length and width of the blades apparently depended on the length and weight of the boom. Light arrows (2) had a narrow and short plumage, heavy (3) - wide and long

Genghis Khan's Archer

Temuchin and Khasar rode along the Mongolian steppe, which was beginning to turn yellow. The short, furry horses trotted at a steady trot, and quivers full of arrows beat the rhythm over the brothers' leather breeches. “Khasar, you are the best archer among us,” Temuchin said with a smile. - Will you be able to shoot down that kite that circles over the steppe? - Where to go, my older brother? - also smiling, asked Hasar. - Well, if so, hit him in the head so that the arrow stuck above the eye! - Temuchin laughed. Khasar drew a tight bow covered with birch bark from the Saadak, snatched a black-feathered arrow from a quiver and, almost without aiming, shot into the sky. The vulture, hovering in the skies and looking like a small black cross from the ground, rolled over and fell down. When the brothers approached the prey, Temuchin saw that the arrow pierced the bird's head and went out above the eye ... Years passed, and Temuchin, having united the Mongol tribes, at the kurultai of 1206 received the title of Genghis Khan. Relying on archers like Hasar, Genghis Khan and his sons conquered a fifth of the inhabited land. From Nuuts tovchoo (Secret Legend), created in the 1240s by one of the participants in Genghis Khan's campaigns. Retelling by K. Kuksin.

Hell carousel

Perhaps the most famous archer in the world is Robin Hood. If you believe the legends, this "nice guy" amazed from long bow target at a distance of 200 yards (more than 180 m). In 1363, during the Hundred Years War, King Edward III of England ordered "both nobles and commoners" to practice archery on Sundays and holidays, so many of his subjects were good shooters. English kings easily recruited troops of archers in several thousand people. The first evidence of the use of the long bow in battle dates back to the 13th century, and the most famous battle in which the English arrows became famous was the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415, when 6,000 English archers destroyed the flower of French knighthood - hundreds of heavily armed horsemen.

A compound bow is a bow made from multiple materials. It consists of a wooden base (1), on which tendons are glued from the side of the back (2) (that is, the side of tension), and from the side of the abdomen (3) (side of compression) - horn plates. This combination of flexible but resilient materials allowed the bow, even with short arms (4), to impart energy to the arrow even more than a traditional bow. If you remove the bowstring from a compound bow, it twists in the opposite direction. When pulling the bowstring (5), such a bow bends, but the ends of its shoulders (6) still point forward (such a bow is called a recursive bow). This design increased initial speed arrow flight and, accordingly, the firing range.

Almost everyone in Mongolia was trained in archery. The Mongolian bow is complex, recursive, that is, its ends are bent in the opposite direction, which increases the load on the shoulders of the bow when pulling. WITH outside it is reinforced with tendons, and with the inner horn. The bowstring tension was more than 40 kg, and the fired arrow flew up to half a kilometer. From 100 steps the rider hit a target the size of a squirrel's head.

The Mongols of the time of Genghis Khan, in fact, were a people-army: not only men, but also women rode on horseback and wielded weapons. Every year the nomads organized the Naadam holiday - three games for husbands: wrestling, horse racing and archery competitions. Khan, observing the participants, selected the best and appointed them to high military posts. In his army, Genghis Khan took only those who could fire at least 12 arrows per minute at a gallop. They fired at the moment when all four horse's hooves were galloping off the ground.

The skill of the Mongol archers made Genghis Khan's army truly invincible. In the battle on Kalka on May 31, 1223, a squad of Russian princes, reinforced by Polovtsian cavalry, came out against a 20-thousand army of Noyons Jebe and Subedei - a total of about 80,000 soldiers. By the end of the day, the Mongol army, exhausted by battles and marches, won a complete victory. And not only due to the disunity of the princes and the flight of the Polovtsians. The Mongolian battle tactics played a decisive role. Their cavalry swooped down on enemy lines, showered them with arrows, and then rolled back, imitating a retreat. The enemy rushed in pursuit and ended up in a "sack". And then he was given a "hellish carousel". The riders moved in a circle, continuously firing at the surrounded soldiers, some of whom inevitably turned out to be facing the shooters with their unprotected backs.

For almost two and a half centuries of the Mongol yoke, the Russians borrowed a lot from their enslavers, in particular, they began to use light cavalry armed with bows (before the main weapon of the Russian horsemen were spears). Archers fought as part of the Russian army until the beginning of the 19th century, and the peoples of the Russian Far North, in particular the Chukchi, used combat bows right up to the 20th century.

Defense of Chukotka

Cossacks from Major Pavlutsky's detachment prepared for battle. The commander was calm - hundreds of rifles and cannons were supposed to destroy the "non-peaceful Chukchi" who had taken refuge behind a snow-covered hill. The wind died down and the air seemed to be filled with ringing silence. The Chukchi appeared unexpectedly - shaking their long spears, several dozen warriors, dressed in leather shells covered with bone plates, rushed to the Cossacks with a battle cry. A volley of the first row, then the second, burst out, the cannons boomed heavily. The snow was stained with blood, the dead lay everywhere, the wounded screamed and tossed about. Victory seemed to be near. But then new soldiers rose from behind the hill. Several rows of Chukchi pulled tight bows reinforced with whalebone, arrows sang, sowing death among the Cossacks. Major Pavlutsky's detachment did not manage to reload their guns. Arrows rained down one after another, and the Cossacks wavered. The retreating Russian detachment of the Chukchi was finished off with spears and clubs. From the stories of the Chukchi about the battle at the Orlova River near Anadyr on March 14, 1747. Recorded and processed by K. Kuksin.

The bullet is a fool, and yet

Some believe that the bow was supplanted by the more advanced crossbow, but this is not the case. The crossbow appeared before the new era in China, but did not become widespread for the reason that its rate of fire is two to three times lower than that of a bow - only four arrows per minute, and for a heavy one (which is served by two people) - and two at all.

Bows began to be ousted from the arsenal only with the advent of guns. At first glance, this is strange. At first, rifles were far from perfect: they took a long time to load and hit less accurately than a bow. The aiming range of arquebus, squeak or musket was only 50-70 m. And while the musketeer was reloading his weapon, the archer managed to release 10-12 arrows and hit the enemy.

But first, the musket was more powerful than a bow- a bullet, unlike an arrow, easily pierced forged cuirasses and helmets. Secondly, making arrows required skill, and a simple soldier casted a lead bullet right before the battle. Thirdly, a bullet that flies at a speed of at least 200 m / s cannot be traced, unlike an arrow. The speed of an arrow, even shot from a good bow, is 50-70 m / s, and if the enemy is at a sufficient distance, he has time to duck, cover himself with a shield and even gallop away. Fourth, archery at a moving target is a difficult skill that takes years to master. In a split second, you need to aim, taking into account the speed and direction of the wind, as well as the speed with which the target is moving. And any new recruit could be trained to shoot a gun in a few days.

Bows were last used in a major battle in 1813. In the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, the Bashkir and Kalmyk cavalry showered Napoleon's soldiers with arrows. The French even called these last archers in the history of war "Northern Cupids".

However, the story of the bow itself did not end there. Shooting from it turned into a sport. Ancient Naadam, which takes place at the stadium in Ulan Bator, has become the main holiday of modern Mongolia (the author had to visit it). He collects the best shooters in the country. After competitions in wrestling and races, it is the turn to fight for the honorary title of mergen - "well-aimed".

... Archers slowly approach the line in bright Delhi robes, girded with silk belts - old men, mature men, very young girls. Bows are different for everyone: short, long, wrapped in birch bark and fishing line, with a bowstring made of hair, nylon, tendons. There are no restrictions on age and sex, as Genghis Khan ordered.

The assistant judges count 100 steps and place leather-woven cylinders, each the size of a beer mug, on the grass. It is difficult to see the target at this distance, but the archers are calm.

An old man from Arkhangai became the winner that year. He fired almost without aiming - it seemed he could do it with his eyes closed. After the competition, I went up to him and asked permission to hold his bow. The old man handed it to me with a smile. I have been shooting a sports bow for many years, but I could not pull the string to the end.

Illustrations: Eldara Zakirova

The nomad empire came about as a result of many circumstances. However, the main one could be the invention of the bow, the effectiveness of which is comparable to that of a firearm.

After the unification of the nomadic tribes in 1206, Temujin was proclaimed Genghis Khan. By 1215, the Mongols conquered most of the Chinese Jin Empire. In 1221 Urgench was taken, Khorezm ceases to exist. In 1234, the rest of the Jin Empire goes down in history. From 1237 to 1241, most of the Russian principalities were defeated. In 1241, nomads invaded Eastern Europe, in 1243 they conquered Anatolia. Baghdad fell in 1258, and the famous stronghold of the Assassins, the fortress of Alamut, was surrendered in 1256.

All Mongolian generals could not be as talented as Genghis Khan, and their armies were not the most numerous. However, the rapid expansion of the possessions of the nomads did not stop for several decades after the death of Genghis Khan, regardless of who led their armies. How, then, did the Mongols manage to change the course of history?

New battle tactics

Contemporaries often left memories of high-profile victories Mongol warriors. Historical sources note the unusual manner of fighting of nomads: horsemen quickly moved across the battlefield, changing the direction of movement, often retreat was their tactic. At the same time, the warriors, who were perfectly riding on horses, did not stop firing at the enemy from a bow for a minute, even during the retreat. The pursuing enemy was losing strength and concentration. The Mongols, seeing that the advantage was already on their side, immediately changed the direction of movement and launched a counterattack.

Other scenarios prepared by the Mongols were: crushing enemy forces into parts and organizing an ambush. The enemy, exhausted and carried away in pursuit of the main forces of the nomads, received a lateral blow from a detachment that had taken refuge in an ambush.

The effectiveness of the fighting of the Mongol horsemen during the retreat was higher than that of most warriors of that time, when they fought face to face. Chroniclers paid special attention to the ability of the Mongols to shoot from a bow. Cases of aimed shooting at hundreds of meters were described. The victims of the deadly arrows were not only people, but also horses. The power of this type of weapon made it possible to immediately kill animals, which influenced the battle with enemy cavalry: it is much easier to get into a horse because of its size, and once a horse is killed, the rider is also disabled. Horde hundreds brilliantly used their trump cards: mobility, ability to keep distance and possession of small arms.

An invention that changed the course of history

Many historians (here it is worth highlighting the famous Russian specialist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Nefedov) point out that the invention of a new bow design played a decisive role in the victories of the nomads. The warriors of the Eurasian steppe have long used a bow with a composite (multi-piece) design. A wooden arch on the sides in the center of the bow was pulled together by the craftsmen with bone plates. The revolutionary invention of the Mongols consisted in the fact that they got rid of one plate, and the second was placed frontally: before, the linings strengthened the structure, but now the bow has become much more elastic. A similar advantage was not used by sedentary peoples, since the tensile strength of the wood, which they most often took to make onions, is several times lower than that of parts made from animal bones.

In addition to increasing the power, the innovation made it possible to greatly reduce the size of the weapon and use it with maximum benefit when riding. Having a sufficient number of arrows, the riders could conduct intensive shooting on the move, which in effect was comparable to the use of automatic firearms... At the same time, the force of an arrow fired from a weapon of a new type was so great that it was not inferior to the power of the first guns.

Coincidence

The peculiarities of the Mongolian bow were also the complexity of production and operation, which also prevented its use by other peoples. The making of Mongolian composite bows can be compared to the forging of samurai swords. Layers of wood and bone plates, like the layers of metal on Japanese swords, were interconnected using a special technology. The production of weapons required a significant amount of effort. Moreover, this was not always feasible. In a humid climate, for example, it was impossible to achieve the required structural strength: it was impossible to dry the glued parts.

The advantage in the development of a new type of weaponry was also given by the special way of life of the nomads. In order to pull the bowstring as strongly and often as possible (riders could do this hundreds of times during the battle hours), it is necessary to have special training... Nomads have learned to shoot and ride a horse since childhood. As a result of many years of hard training, the reflexive skill of shooting on horseback was developed. Neither the Europeans nor the Arabs could use the new weapon at the same level.

Another factor that influenced the success of the use of the Mongol bow by a certain community of tribes, historians consider the inaccessibility of heavy weapons for most nomads. Metal armor and swords are found only in a few burials of the Horde: most likely, they were available only to wealthy warriors. As a result, the specific battle tactics were predetermined. The army, for the most part, consisting of lightly armed archers, could constantly evade a head-on collision with the enemy, exhaust and shoot him, and often on the battlefield it did not even come to the use of swords and spears.

The new tactics of combat, which appeared along with the Mongol bow, made it possible for the nomads to make a qualitative leap in the art of war and create an empire on a scale unprecedented before that time.

Do you want to know what a real Mongolian bow is, what it looks like, what its arrows look like, what was it made of? In this case, read our article on this topic, which shows how to make such a bow with your own hands, in detail in the video. We will also tell you what the arrowheads for Mongolian arrows were. After reading our article, you will not regret the time spent, it will not be wasted!

About the construction of the Mongolian bow

The design of the Mongol bow appeared in the 12th century, in the precursor to the conquests of Europe and Asia by the Mongols. It differed from other models in many parameters, especially because the Mongolian bow is a complex structure, and special skill is required for its manufacture.

Bone pads, wooden layers, bowstring tendons were pressed under strong pressure, then the onions were dried for a long time, sometimes for a couple of years. The bow was relatively small, about 110-120 cm, possessing tremendous power, and it could be further increased by adding bone pads on the shoulders of the bow.

The Mongolian bow had good flexibility, so the string was pulled tighter, and as a result, it transmitted a large impulse to the arrow. Very often it was used by horse archers, because it was possible to conduct aimed and rapid-fire shooting (up to 12 shots per minute).

Special attention should be paid to the firing range, which reached 300 meters, and 150-200 meters when conducting aimed fire. The Mongolian bow in power was equal to the arquebus, but surpassed them in rate of fire. On the battlefield, the Mongols, thanks to these important qualities of their weapons, reduced the distance by pouring a shower of arrows on their opponents.

About arrows for the Mongolian bow

The arrows for the Mongolian bow differed fundamentally from their counterparts. The tips were flat, trefoil or scapular. With this shape, the arrows flew at a higher speed than arrows with a tip of 3 blades, also, thanks to the flat tip, more arrows were placed in the quiver of the Mongols.

They weighed about 15 grams, with a feather width of 25 cm. But at the same time, it is known that there were also huge tips up to 15 centimeters, with a feather width of 5 cm and a total weight of 40 grams. Such dimensions were explained very simply - they were used to destroy enemy horses.

The Mongolian cavalry used bows for several hundred years, then developed in many countries. Today, the traditional Mongolian bow is a recursive, compound bow, having the main distinguishing feature - the short bow can be pulled much tighter.

Mongolian bow now

The appearance of the Mongolian bow was taken from the time of Khan Batu, and is now recreated. Most often it is made from natural materials of beech, birch or walnut, it is used for decoration Genuine Leather, more often from nylon.

It is about 120 cm long, has an initial flight speed of an arrow of 80 m / s with a flight range of 260 meters, and an aimed fire range of about 40 meters. To learn how to make Mongolian, see the video below.