Mongol Bow

Origin

The Mongol bow is the culmination of the composite-bow tradition of the Central Asian nomads, running from the Huns to the Scythians and the Turks, and its power reached its height under Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire in the 13th century. The Mongol warrior, who learned the horse and the bow together from childhood, grew up on the steppe handling this small, strong bow as if it were his own limbs. The horse-archer army, each man riding several horses in turn to move swiftly over great distances, conquered with this bow at the fore the largest territory in human history, from China and Korea to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Features

• A composite build, horn and sinew layered over a wooden core
• About 100 to 120 cm, a size suited to mounted use
• A maximum range of over 300 m, an effective range of about 150 to 200 m
• A mounted-archery weapon capable of the Parthian shot, shooting behind
• The Mongol draw, using a ring on the thumb
• A recurve build that curves the other way when unstrung

Stories

The true worth of the Mongol bow showed in a horse archery in which man and horse became one. The Mongol horseman poured arrows as he closed on the enemy, and when the enemy tried to strike back he kept up the blows with the Parthian shot, turning his body to shoot behind even as he withdrew. The Mongol draw, with a ring on the thumb, let him nock and loose quickly even on a violently shaking horse. He chose between light long-range arrows and heavy armor-piercing arrows, and signaled his units across the battlefield with whistling arrows that flew with a sound. The tactic of feigning flight to draw the enemy out and then encircle and annihilate him was possible thanks to this bow's mobility.

Weakness

The weakness of the Mongol bow lies in the frailty peculiar to the composite bow. When the animal glue binding horn, wood, and sinew absorbs moisture, the bonded layers lift and the power falls off, so it is troublesome to handle in a rainy or damp climate. It also takes many months, and at the longest more than a year, to finish a single bow, so it demands much labor. In the end the Mongol bow is a weapon that performs best on the dry steppe, and in a damp environment or in an army that does not know how to handle a bow, its power could not be fully brought out.

Cultural Significance

The Mongol bow is the weapon that made the largest contiguous land empire in human history, bound up with the very identity of the Mongol people. The military power of the empire built by Genghis Khan and his heirs came precisely from this bow and horse and from the discipline of the horse archer who handled them. Archery carries on to this day in Mongolia's traditional festival, the Naadam, as one of the Three Manly Games alongside wrestling and horse racing, and remains at the heart of Mongol culture. This small, strong bow is a symbol of an age in which the nomads of the steppe overwhelmed the settled civilizations.

In Popular Culture

The Mongol bow is a weapon never missing from works dealing with the Mongol Empire and horse peoples. It appears as the main weapon of the Mongol horse archer in strategy and action games such as Age of Empires and Mount and Blade, and its power is often depicted in films and documentaries about Genghis Khan and the Mongol conquests. The Parthian shot, shooting behind while fleeing, in particular is drawn again and again as the emblematic scene of horse archery. In fiction, though, the weight of the system that upheld it, the horse training, the management of mounts, and the organization, rather than the bow itself, is often not fully shown.

Trivia

• The Mongol horse archer used the Mongol draw, drawing the string with a ring on the thumb rather than the European finger draw, to loose quickly in succession on horseback, and with the Parthian shot, turning his body to shoot over the horse's rump while feigning flight, he drew out and annihilated a pursuing enemy.
• The Mongol bow was the engine that made the largest contiguous land empire in human history: under Genghis Khan and his heirs a horse-archer army, each man riding several horses in turn, conquered from China and Korea to Eastern Europe and the Middle East in the 13th century.
• Archery carries on to this day in Mongolia's traditional festival, the Naadam, as one of the Three Manly Games alongside wrestling and horse racing, and the Mongol army signaled its units on the battlefield with whistling arrows that flew with a sound.