Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 188 h David Nicolle 63. It is extremely rare for even the smallest fragments of feathered flights to sur- vive on medieval Middle Eastern arrows. They were the most fragile parts of an arrow, so the barely visible remnants of feathered flights on this arrow from Asi’l-Hadath, dating from the Mamlūk siege of 1283 AD, are a precious exception. Note that a tiny part of the vulnerable fronts of each flight goes beneath a broad strip of varnished binding. (Photograph courtesy of Fadi Baroudy, Abdo Badwi, Paul Khawaja & Joseph Moukarzel). 64. A cheaper and surely inferior alternative to flights made of feathers were those cut from redundant paper documents. Such paper flights were commonplace on cross- bow bolts which were themselves almost always of inferior workmanship when com- pared with hand bow arrows of the same time and place. The same could also be said of the often crudely made and roughly inserted iron heads of crossbow bolts (see below). So, the discovery of paper flights on an otherwise relatively well-made arrow for a hand bow found in the Asi’l-Hadath cave refuge came as a surprise. Perhaps it reflected the desperate situation in which the defenders found themselves in 1283 AD, or perhaps it was a more widely spread practice amongst poor and ill-equipped local militias on both sides than is realized. (Photograph courtesy of Fadi Baroudy, Abdo Badwi, Paul Khawaja & Joseph Moukarzel).