Back Arquer a cavall Catalan Jízdní lučištník Czech Berittenes Bogenschießen German Arquero a caballo Spanish سوار کماندار Persian Archerie montée French קשת רכוב HE Lovasíjászat Hungarian Pemanah berkuda ID Arciere a cavallo Italian
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Mounted archery is a form of archery that involves shooting arrows while on horseback.[1] A horse archer is a person who does mounted archery.[2] Archery has occasionally been used from the backs of other riding animals. In large open areas, mounted archery was a highly successful technique for hunting, for protecting herds, and for war.[3] It was a defining characteristic of the Eurasian nomads during antiquity and the medieval period, as well as the Iranian peoples such as the Alans, Sarmatians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Massagetae, Parthians, and Persians in Antiquity, and by the Hungarians, Mongols, Chinese, and Turkic peoples during the Middle Ages.[3][4][5] The expansion of these cultures have had a great influence on other geographical regions including Eastern Europe, West Asia, and East Asia.[6][7][8] In East Asia, horse archery came to be particularly honored in the samurai tradition of Japan, where horse archery is called Yabusame.[9]
The term mounted archer occurs in medieval English sources to describe a soldier who rode to battle but who dismounted to shoot, similar to the later firearm-equipped dragoons.[10][11][12] Horse archer is the term used more specifically to describe a warrior who shoots from the saddle at the gallop.[13] Another term, "horseback archery", has crept into modern use.[3]
Horse archery developed separately among the people of the South American pampas and the North American prairies following the introduction of domesticated horses to the continent; the Comanches were especially skilled.[14]
- ^ Govaerts, S. (2024). Horse Archery in Medieval Northwestern Europe, 400-1500: A Study of a Forgotten Military Tradition. Journal of Medieval Military History, 22, 1-43.
- ^ Hansard, G. A. (1841). The Book of Archery: Being the Complete History and Practice of the Art, Ancient and Modern... London: HG Bohn.
- ^ a b c "Archery history: Horseback archers of the East, Orient and ancient world | World Archery". www.worldarchery.sport. 2020-08-27. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Wood, M. T. (2015). Mounted Archery in Japan: Yabusame and the Modern Setting (Master's thesis).
- ^ Hacker, B. C. (2015). Mounted Archery and Firearms: Late Medieval Muslim Military Technology Reconsidered. Vulcan, 3(1), 42-65.
- ^ Berthon, W., Tihanyi, B., Kis, L., Révész, L., Coqueugniot, H., Dutour, O., & Pálfi, G. (2019). Horse riding and the shape of the acetabulum: Insights from the bioarchaeological analysis of early Hungarian mounted archers (10th century). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 29(1), 117-126.
- ^ "Yabusame (Japan) - Traditional Sports". www.traditionalsports.org. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ Bell, A. R., Curry, A., & King, A. (2013). The soldier in later medieval England. OUP Oxford.
- ^ McAllister, D. W. (1993). Formidable genus armorum: the horse archers of the Roman Imperial Army (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).
- ^ Gibbs, S. (2016). The service patterns and social-economic status of English archers, 1367-1417: The evidence of the muster rolls and poll tax returns (Doctoral dissertation, University of Reading).
- ^ Azzaroli, A. (1985). An early history of horsemanship. Brill.
- ^ T. R. Fehrenbach. Comanches, the history of a people. Vintage Books. London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-09-952055-9. First published in the US by Alfred Knopf, 1974. Page 124.