Sadaqshiliq: the Art of Making and Shooting the Kazakh Horsebow

An overview of the Kazakh traditional archery, which is little known among the modern historical weaponology specialists. Kazakh art of making and shooting the horsebow, Sadaqshiliq, is a part of the Asiatic horseback archery family. Kazakh horsebows of all known types mostly belong to the recurve biocomposite (horn-and-sinew) horsebows. They are similar to Ottoman Turkish and Mongol-Manchu horsebows. The Kazakhs are the direct descendants of the Turkic, Kipchak, and Mongol nomads, particularly the Eastern Golden Horde and Chagatai Ulus. Kazakh Khanate was the last large nomadic state with traditional nomadic economy and old Khan/nobility institutions. Even in the 19th century the Kazakhs still actively deployed the light horseback archers in their militia and armies. Although firearms were introduced to the Kazakhs as early as 17th century, for about 300 years the guns didn’t replace the traditional bow and arrows, but complemented it as part of the distance weapon complex. The Kazakhs lived in the Great Central Asian Steppes (Eurasian Steppes) from Altai Mountains to the Caspian Sea, and had scarce access to urban technologies and manufacturing capacities, and had poor armor. The Kazakhs’ enemies were mostly well-equipped armies of neighboring settled nations. Therefore the Kazakhs had to develop their own type of the medieval cavalry: light, mostly unarmored horseback archers, also armed with lances, spears, blunt weapons and sabers, and capable of skirmishes and melee fighting. This type of cavalry usually engaged in guerilla-like wars, and proven to be successful over a few centuries. It was later adopted by Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Turkmens, and even the Russian Cossacks. Read more