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

m 130 n John Masson Smith, Jr. they ought to do as the [Mongols] and go behind the [well armed] and shoot at the [attacking] enemy…. (emphasis added) 1 . Thus we have an attack by mounted archers who shoot several times at the enemy, turn in an orderly fashion, and retire to their “line”. The equestrian game of qabaq (“gourd”): shooting at the gallop at a target atop a pole, provided training for these attacks. The game (and the attacks) involved three stages: getting the mount moving straight; dropping the reins and extracting, nocking, drawing, aiming and releasing the arrow; and taking up the reins and turn- ing away. While this went on, the mount covered 130 to 280 yards (one-third of the distance during each stage), depending on the archer’s skill and the mount’s pace 2 . The qabaq game was played by Egyptian Mamluks (and also by the Ottomans); its procedures applied also to the Mongols combat archery. The Mongols attacked at the gallop, and shot at the enemy to their front, once only, as in qabaq , probably from about 50 yards’ range. Only one shot could be delivered with some expectation of accuracy, armor-piercing, (relative) safety from counter-attack, and economy of arrows. If two shots were attempted, the first would have to be loosed, to give time to prepare the second shot, from too great a distance for accuracy 3 . Consistent accuracy in dismounted archery — all arrows hitting within a 3-ft. diameter target — was considered feasible to 75 yards 4 ; for galloping bowmen, it was certainly rather less. After the shot, the soldiers maneu- vered to charge and shoot again 5 . Piercing armor probably required shots from no 1 Plano Carpini 1966, 46. 2 Archery, Chapter 15, esp. p. 76–77. May, 44, describes a modern Mongolian mounted archery game ( bombog kharvaa ) that requires three basic shots (such as warriors would use in combat): to the front, side and rear, at the gallop, at leather balls mounted on poles. 3 In qabaq , 44 to 93 yards, depending on the skill of the rider, were covered while prepar- ing and shooting the arrow: Saracen Archery , 76–77. 4 Saracen Archery , 138, 141; the data report achievements by Mamluk archers, arguably the best in the world at that time. “Accurate” combat archery should mean the ability to hit a man- sized target with every shot. The Mamluks trained to do this at 75 yards; cf. Olympic archery, in which the longest target range in is 100 yards/90 meters. Archers could shoot much farther, but usefully only when a mass of archers shot simultaneous at a massed enemy, as at Agincourt: see Anne Curry, Agincourt: a New History (The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloustershire, UK: Tempus, 2005), 201–202. May, 50–51, mentions very long ranges, 300–500 meters, which, if achievable, would have been wasteful and largely ineffectual, but concedes that “Actual combat, in which the archer intended to wound or kill his opponents rather than disrupting their forma- tions, took place at a closer range, certainly under 150 m”. 5 If they were well-trained, like the Uru’ud and Mangghud. Note that the same attack was used by the Central Asian (Jochid) Özbeks in the sixteenth century: A.S Beveridge, Babur- Nama (New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp, 1970), 140; Wheeler M. Thackston, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor , (Oxford UP, 1996), 124–26.