Bow Quiver Project: With Documentation

A Bow Quiver in Leather

 

Rashid al-Qasim

Tir Righ A&S Championship Competition

October 22, 2011

Single Item Entry 

Introduction

During the 12^th century, Crusaders fought with very professional, highly mobile soldiers of Turkish and Arab descent. Members of the military caste during the Ayyubid Sultanate period of Egypt (1171–1341 CE) were expected to maintain and acquire their own basic gear such as swords, armour, bows, and spears. However, as they rose in station they were given elaborate and decorated equipment such as scabbards, belts and robes only as their rank required. The bow quiver was likely among these items that could be gifted to worthy subordinates by their superiors.

This project is my attempt to present a reasonable period example of a period bow quiver, inlaid with brass, carved leather, and some semi-precious stones. It is designed to fit my personal Tatar style recurve bow based on illuminated manuscript images from my persona's period (12^th century) and later.

This item is one of my first pieces of leather work and something that I wanted to undertake to expand on my period archery equipment.

History of the Bow Quiver

Much like the sword's scabbard, the bow quiver (or bow case), was a vital piece of equipment for a military elite of cavalry. It kept the bow dry and clean, it kept it at hand when needed and out of the way when other weapons were drawn. It was part of the kit of the average Turkic soldier or Mamluk of the 12th-13^th Century amongst the military Sultanates of the Ayyubids and Mamluks, along with decorative belts, robes, and scabbards. As a soldier rose in rank, his pay increased and thus could afford more elaborate and decorative equipment, but could be publicly rebuked for wearing decoration above his social station¹.

While surviving artifacts are few, there are many examples of bow quivers being worn by the subjects of several illuminations from as early as the 13^th century (eg. Figure 1).

Figure 1: “Guslshah arrives to remove her veil”(Nicholle and Nicholson page 22). The soldier on the blue horse is wearing a red bow quiver along with his sword.

Representations of the bow quiver appear much more frequently in later Persian and Mamluk art such as Riza-i Musawwir's: Rustam Battles With The Monster (1642-1651) which displays the hero Rustam fighting an enormous beast with his bow drawn and an elaborate case for it at his hip². Examples of bows being carried at the hip appear elsewhere in the medieval world, from the lands of Volga Bulgars to as far away as Mongolia and Tibet³. Even today, modern traditional archers in Korea and Turkey wear bow quivers along with traditional clothing, hats, and shoes.

All examples of the bow quiver are designed to fit the curved composite horse bows of various cultures, from the short high-powered Turkish flight bows to the long Chinese and Mongolian war bows meant to cast heavier arrows⁴. The characteristic reflex design of the bow allows it to 'store' more energy than a similar straight bow of the same size Since the string is under much higher tension, it casts the arrow farther.⁵ Thus the bow quiver must be built to accommodate that shape

The bow quiver could be plain or ornamented leather, and an illustration of Persian hunting (Figure 2) hint at elaborate brass work on the blue quiver of one of the hunters. It almost universally appears to be worn on the left side of the archer, with a quiver of arrows on the right. Since most archers are right handed, they hold their bow in their left hand and draw the arrow with their right, it would stand to reason that they would want to easily draw both bow and arrows from their quivers with the hand that would hold them.

Figure 2: A Safavid manuscript from the middle of the 16^th Century, Alexander the Great hunting on his way to China, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.610, fol. 295b 

 

Stage 1: Leather Work

The first thing that had to be done was trace my strung bow over a piece of whole hide, so that I could achieve a satisfactory case and seal for the strung bow. I then cut it out with a sharp knife, moistened the leather and folded it in half so it would keep its shape. This process was of my own devising, given what I knew about leather at the time.

Since my bow was wide and flat in the limb, it required a gusset of leather to be sewn into the void along the top. I bought a long strip of leather and used it to run along the top of the bow quiver, leaving the string against the curve in the leather (Figure 3). This is ideal, as if I had stitched the bottom of the quiver and left the fold at the top, the string would constantly rub against the lacing (which could cause fraying of the string over time), and the fold would not have allowed for as secure a grip for the bow.

Figure 3: Leather cut to shape for the bow it will hold.

This would be a major setback in the construction of the bow quiver, as it required careful punching and lacing of a gusset which was quite time consuming. But ultimately, the bow fit the leather casing comfortably, without too much forcing or rubbing of the string. It should be noted that the lacing and installing of the gusset strip did not happen until near the end of the construction, to allow access to the inside of the quiver for attaching the hardware.

Stage 2: Islamic Script

The leather inscription was a bit of a lucky accident. It was an old piece of leather of an odd shape I had laying around. I had previously looked at some Islamic script and was thinking of putting it into a leather working project such as a bracer. But late one night I got it in my head to try it out. I searched online for some suitable calligraphy and came across the works of Hamid Ayac, a Turkish calligrapher from the 20^th Century. Although his work is modern, it is both striking and influenced by late period Ottoman. This particular piece is a fragment of his illumination of Abu Hurairah's 13^th Hadith. The full Hadith reads as follows:

"When God decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over My wrath."

I printed off a re-sized picture of the illumination, then placed it over the oddly sized piece of scrap leather I had laying around. I damped the leather slightly with water, then took an empty ballpoint pen and traced the lines of the calligraphy over the paper so it indented into the leather (Figure 4)

Figure 4: The calligraphy traced into the leather

The next step was to take my Exacto knife and carve along the lines to leather a groove. This was time consuming and perhaps not the best tool for the job, but I did not own a swivel knife at this point. I then took a bevel stamp and mallet and began the process of stamping down the leather around the cuts to create a raised look to the script.

Stage 3: Brass Work

First it must be stated that the brass work was not done by me. It was accomplished by a person in my Barony named of Pan Krystoff Sirtastki, or Sirt. Although he has expressed to me the ease with which I could duplicate the brass work, I have chosen to leave it in place in it's original form out of respect for his craftsmanship. The story of how it appears on this project is as follows:

“So I asked Sirt if he could add a little 'bling' to my bow quiver, as I wanted to have it fancied up for Daffodil (an annual tournament in our branch). I asked him for a few pieces of simple brass fittings, since he does good work with brass on rapier equipment. He pondered a little then asked if I had given any thought to what I'd like carved into the brass work? Perhaps a crescent moon? I agreed hesitantly, after he assured me it wouldn't be much trouble. He then asked if I wanted a scalloped pattern as well, as this would be appropriate, simple, and hide any irregularities in the angles of the brass. I nodded, thinking this was also a good point. Finally, he asked me how I felt about semi-precious stones such as tiger's eye, to which I blanched, rubbed my head and resigned to letting the Lithuanian run a little mad with my simple request.

The pieces were laid out by Sirt under my direction. I wanted them to look as akin to the primary source as possible, while allowing for his artistic embellishment (of which he has a great deal). He had a look through some books on Islamic art, but in particular the work of Cherrie Ann Button, who has worked with museums making replica articles of clothing⁶. He also took inspiration from Persian brass work portraying flowers, and of course the ubiquitous crescent moon of Islam. While this symbol (called the Hilal) was not as common in general Islam as the Crucifix was for Christianity in period, we felt it tied the quiver nicely to the image of something an Arab soldier would wear.

The pieces were first cut out in cardboard and laid out on the unfinished bow quiver (Figure 5). Once we were happy with how they looked and were placed, Sirt cut the pieces out of brass while I worked on cleaning up the edges of the leather and attaching the straps to which it would hang from my belt. He polished and filed and scraped the brass into designs using his own tools. The tiger's eye stones were flattened on one side and set in the brass sockets in the top piece and centre circle piece. The scalloped brass end piece did a good job of closing the end of the bow quiver when it was riveted in.

Figure 5: The brass work templates laid out on the bow quiver, along with the Islamic script and belt straps

Stage 4: Finishing Touches

After the brass work was riveted on, I punched holes in the leather script and tied it to the quiver with leather lace knots. I felt that adding brass rivets to this part would clash too harshly with the overall leather appearance of this part of the quiver. The two leather straps were riveted to the back of the quiver then brass buckles bought from the local leather shop were added. I made another strip of leather, looped it and punched holes in it like a belt. (Figure 6) This would allow me to adjust how the bow quiver hung off my belt, and hopefully keep the bow from knocking against my legs as I walked.

Figure 6: Belt loop and buckle

One of the last things to be done was lace up the quiver and the gusset. Taking a stitch marking tool, I made a series of light indentations along both edges of the quiver body and the top gusset (Figure 7). I then went along with a leather punch and put a hole in the leather at every 2^nd marking. Then, placing the gusset along the quiver body (and cutting it to shape towards the end), I began lacing it with leather lace in a straight lacing pattern, first down one side to the bottom then up the other.

Figure 7: Pattern for the hole punch

A late addition to the design of the bow quiver was some fake wolf fur. This was procured from Sirt, who just had it laying around from an older project. I have no evidence of this being used in period, but myself and Sirt felt it would go very nicely as a 'bow cozy' along the inside top of the bow quiver, giving it a little more cushion (Figure 8). Since the brass was already riveted along the top, I felt it was better to use modern glue to hold the fur in place. I applied a little carpenter's glue to the back of the fur, then pressed it to the inside of the quiver. I took a few old hardcover books, wrapped them in plastic, and stuffed them into the top of the quiver to add some pressure to the glue as it dried.

Figure 8: The wolf skin laid out before the quiver was laced up

Lastly, I applied two coats of commercially available brown leather dye to the overall surface of the leather. In period, I believe the leather would have been dyed with a mixture of walnut dyes and iron dyes, but not as readily available. The reason I dyed it so late was because I originally intended to leave the leather natural. But looking at the brass placed on top of the very average skin tone, it didn't really grab the attention I wanted it to. By giving it a darker hue, the brass stands out and it matches the darker semi-precious tiger's eye as well.

Conclusions

This was a project that I've wanted to do since I first got into archery and developed a persona around archery. Making a bow quiver was a chance to experiment with new leather working techniques and the end product gives me something which allows me to display my bow in the fashion other lords would proudly carry a favourite sword. I was very grateful that Sirt was able to assist with the brass working, as I feel that really makes it an eye-catching piece.

There are three things I would do differently next time. One, I find that the bow quiver, even when hiked up to the highest notch on the loop, hangs a bit low and sometimes bangs on my legs as I walk, but that is a simple matter of making new straps. Two, I'd like to get some better tools for applying leather dye, as I felt the smaller brushes and swabs I had left a bit of a swirly pattern that shows up in the light. I do like the organic look, but it feels a little messy in a harsh fluorescent light. And lastly, I'd like to replace the Islamic inscription one day with a replica of something period, or learn Arabic calligraphy enough to free-style something myself.

  

Sources

• Loukonine V. and Ivanov, A. 2003, Persian Lost Treasures, Sirocco Publishing, Dover, DE
• Nicolle, D. & Nicholson H. 2005, God's Warriors: Knights Templar, Saracens and the Battle for Jerusalem, Osprey Publishing, New York, N.Y
• Nicolle, D, 1999, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Period 1050-1350: Islam, Eastern Europe and Asia, Green Hill Books, London

• Hamm, J (editor) 2000, Traditional Bowyer's Bible Volume 2, The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT
• Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts, Viewed 19 October, 2011 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/>
• Asian Traditional Archery Network, Viewed January, 2011 <http://www.atarn.org/>

1 - Nicolle, D. & Nicholson H. 2005, God's Warriors: Knights Templar, Saracens and the Battle for Jerusalem, Page 130

2 - Loukonine V. and Ivanov, A. 1996, Persian Lost Treasures, Page 191

3 - Nicolle 1999, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Period, Pages 317 and 242

4 - Hamm, J. 2000, Traditional Bowyer's Bible Volume 2, Page 120

5 - ibid., page 167.

6 - Asian Traditional Archery Research Network (ATARN), Letter of November, 2003