Turkish archery

The sport of archery declined gradually until the reign of Mahmud II who made great efforts to revive it.

He also ordered his archery student, Mustafa Kani, to write a book about the history, construction, and use of these bows, from which comes most of what is now known of Turkish bowyery.

He said on a plain near Constantinople pillars were located that commemorate distances of 800 yards achieved with Turkish bows and arrows in ancient times.

The living art of Turkish bowyery was lost in the 1930s with the death of the last bowyer and famous calligrapher, Neçmeddin Okyay; it has since been revived.

In 1910 an archery contest was held on the beach at Le Touquet, France, where Ingo Simon was able to shoot an arrow 434 m using an old Turkish composite bow requiring a force of 440N or 99 lb.

There is an old saying in Turkey that there are "120 ways to string a bow," though the most common methods involve sitting on ground with one's feet pressed against the grip.

Heavier bows usually require the use of a long, looped strap to pull the limbs back and hold them while the string is seated.

In time they became a symbol of prestige in Ottoman society, and some later examples have so much ornamentation on the surface from which the bowstring slides that they could not be used to shoot with.

The draw itself is relatively short, usually under the chin or by the cheek, compared to archery styles in China or Japan where the nock is pulled past the head.