«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 124 n John Masson Smith, Jr. Mongol bows are described in both the written and the pictorial sources. “They all have to possess ... two or three bows, or at least one good one ..” 1 . he Mongols made their own, to their own measure, and since all men served in the army, the “Mongol bow” would have been a product varying in quality, draw-weight and range in accordance with the varying skills and strengths of its owners. Mongol disinformation convinced Meng Hung, a thirteenth century Song Chinese envoy, and after him some modern Western scholars, that, for instance, “The [Mongol] bow ... was very large and required a pull of at least 120 catties (166 lbs.) ... and its destructive range was from 200–300 yards” 2 . Rubruck reveals the source of such claims: “[Möngke Qan] had a very strong bow made that could scarcely be drawn by two men ... [and said,] ‘go to the king of the French ... present him with [this bow] ... and tell him that with bows like these we shoot far and hit hard’” 3 . Lighter bows could be quite effective, especially as the Mongols used them. A modern replica of a Mamluk bow, with a drawing weight of only 50 lbs, shot a 30-inch arrow 285 yards; “a satisfactory performance by any standards” 4 . Taybugh reports that a 45-lb bow shooting an 8 dirham (0,88 oz.) arrow had a range of 82 yards, and an 89-lb bow with a 12 dirham (1,32 oz.) arrow, 155 yards; these were “effective target ranges ... not ...maximum ranges” and the 38-inch diameter practice targets, within which archers should be able to group their arrows, were set up at 75 yards 5 . Mongol tactics, as we shall see, emphasized shooting at even closer ranges, and Mongol archery was certainly effective: Plano Carpini’s description of the protec- tion European soldiers would need against Mongol archery attests to its power: Whoever [of a European army] wishes to fight against the [Mongols] ought to have the following arms: ... cuirasses of a double thickness; a helmet, and armour and other things to protect the body and the horses from their weapons and arrows . (emphasis added.) 6 1 Rubruck/D, 103; John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols , in Christopher Dawson ed., The Mongol Mission (London: Sheed and Ward, 1955; rpt as Mission to Asia , 1966), 33. [Emphasis added.] 2 Martin H. D. The Rise of Chingis Khan and His Conquest of North China. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1950. P. 19–20; cf. May T., The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System, Yardley PA: Westholme, 2007, P. 50: “[The Mongol bow] pos- sessed a maximum range of 300 m, with an extreme range of 500 m”. 3 Rubruck/ J, p. 185–86. 4 Latham J. D, Paterson W. F. Saracen Archery. London: Holland, 1970. XXV and Ap- pendix 5, 170. Saracen Archery is a fourteenth century manual from Mamluk Egypt by one Taybugh, who treats all aspects of contemporary Mamluk archery, most of them derived from Inner Asia and shared by the Mongols. 5 Saracen Archery , 30, 138, 141. 6 Plano Carpini, 46.