Al-Baklamishi’s treatise on archery

Abstract

The main source of the publication is a manuscript from the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco in Rabat “The desired purpose and limits of aspiration to the essence of science of archery”. This is a treatise by Taybuga al-Ashrafi al-Baklamishi al-Yunani (d. in 1394), a famous author of mamluk war literature. The manuscript is dated by 1449. It consists of 32 paper folios measuring 27Ч18 cm. For the most part there are thirty lines to the page written in small close naskhi. The text is not vocalized. “The desired purpose and limits of aspiration to the essence of science of archery” contains an introduction, a didactic poem on archery and the author’s commentary on it. The structure of the treatise, the same names of some chapters, the partial coincidence of texts allow to assume that “The desired purpose and limits of aspiration to the essence of science of archery” and “Essential Archery for Beginners”, translated by Latham J. D. and Paterson W. F. from an Arabic manuscript preserved in the British Museum with the shelfmark Add. 23489 (Latham J. D., Paterson W. F. Saracen archery: an English version and exposition of a Mameluke work on archery (ca. A. D. 1368). London: The Holland Press, [1970]. xl, 219 pp.) are two author’s versions of the same work.  The research includes a description of the manuscript, Arabic text and translation of some fragments.

Keywords:

Arabic manuscripts, al-Baklamishi, mamluks, archery