Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 183 h Archaeological Evidence for Mamlūk Archery 51. The nock on some of the complete arrows found in the Citadel of Aleppo are relatively undamaged, although all evidence of the flights has disappeared. These nocks are of the same standard width and of the most common depth seen in other arrows from this period and area. Such standardisation would, of course, have been necessary in structured armies like those of the medieval Islamic Middle East. It is also interesting to note that European observers of the time commented that the nocks and bowstrings of European archers were narrower than those of the Muslims, so that while Christians could shoot the Muslim's arrows back at their original owners, Muslim archers could not reuse Christian arrows. (Aleppo Citadel Museum; author’s photograph). 52. Arrow fragments from Asi’l-Hadath, like the solitary complete arrow from these caves, again had nocks which are standardised in their internal dimensions. They date from the Mamlūk assault of 1283 AD. (Photograph courtesy of Fadi Baroudy, Abdo Badwi, Paul Khawaja & Joseph Moukarzel).