OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 17th/18TH CENTURY

Although archery had long been superseded by firearms on the battlefield, the Ottoman sultans remained keen promoters and participants of the martial art as late as the 19th century. Several richly-decorated bows from the 17th and 18th centuries survive in Central European Türkenbeute (‘Turkish Booty’) collections as spoils from wars against the Ottoman empire (for instance Kunstsammlungen Dresden inv.no. Y 220 and Badisches Landesmuseum no.170). Even the modernising Sultan Mahmud II (r.1808-39) is recorded as having been initiated into the Archers’ Lodge (tekke-i tîrendâzân) in the wake of his victory in the Wahhabi war, a decision considered to have been a means of reinforcing his status as a holy warrior (gazi) and upholder of justice, the Sharia and the Sunna (Rik J. Janssen and S. Berk Metin, “19th Century Ottoman Archery Records among Leiden Miscellanea”, Keshif 3⁄1, Winter 2025, p.42).

Signed and dated recurve bows show that the construction and form of bows remained consistent throughout the early modern period. Several 18th century Ottoman bowyers are known by name through their surviving work, including Ibrahim (Kjeld von Folsach et al., Fighting, Hunting, Impressing: Arms and Armour from the Islamic World 1500-1850, Copenhagen: The David Collection, p.190), Salih (Sotheby’s London, 8 October 2008, lot 242), and Ahmad ‘Umar (Sotheby’s London, 29 April 2025, lot 85).