“The Earliest Turkish Archery Manual”

A 14th-Century Archery Treatise in Mamluk-Kipchak: Kitab fi ‘Ilm an-Nushshab

Published 2002
Istanbul

This book is a bilingual (English and Turkish) edition of Kitab fi ‘Ilm an-Nushshab "A Book on the Knowledge of Arrows," or Khulasa "The Essence," a late 14th century archery manual written in Mamluk-Kipchak Turkic and composed during the Mamluk reign in Egypt. This work is the earliest archery manual written in Turkish. This edition is based on the only complete existing manuscript of the work that is preserved in Istanbul Beyazit Library (Veliyuddin Ef. No. 3176).

Although many early Arabic sources described the incredible feats of Turkish archers, our knowledge of their skills from Turkic sources written prior to the 14th century is limited to scanty and sporadic material collected from various glossaries and literary works. Thus, this work represents an invaluable major addition to the existing knowledge on Turkish archery.