Albanian Light Cavalry Bow?

[rodge]

Is there any evidence for the use of the bow by Albanian Light Cavalry in the army of Scanderbeg and his sucessors c.1443 to 1479AD?
Modern authors (Mallet, Heath) say some were armed with bow, some of the primary sources e.g. Bembo, do not mention bow and de Commines is not clear; however the former deals with 1487 onwards, the latter 1495 and neither are describing Albanian LC (Stradiots) actually in Albania AFAIK....

[Duncan Head]

Modern Albanian tradition thinks so: http://didierruef.photoshelter.com/image/I0000ZQ_kqWcpcf4

And:

"The Albanians, these tigers of mountain wars ... have as their religion rebellion. Even their worst warrior is one of the strongest and bravest on the battle-field, just as if he was a knight on the legendary horse. But he has no horse, nor proper weapons for battle. Instead of the horse, he has a lance which strikes as lightning, he has spears who's points are full of posion as the sting of hornets, he has also a wooden bow with some arrows. Furthermore, he is stronger than iron ... "
- Ibn Kemal, Historian of the Turkish court during Skanderbeg's war against the Turks.

from http://z14.invisionfree.com/AlbanianLibrary/ar/t107.htm - though this looks like a description of infantry archers.

But for a real source you probably want Barleti.

[rodge]

Thanks, very useful and, with Mallet and Heath, possibly good enough for their inclusion...

Not sure my nephew will be up for translating Barleti over the Christmas holidays...but you never know...

Barleti translation here http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A05184.0001.001

[Duncan Head]

Thanks for that link! Looks like it might take some ploughing through, though!

[rodge]

Glad to help.
Been ploughing...not much on the cavalry, as yet, reference to Albanian Heavy Infantry and Sword and Targetmen (amongst other things).

Bought this this morning which is an 1850 translation:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1333920709/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item
It too is online as a photo reproduction but many pages are blurred....
https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-90100-562489351/george-castriot-surnamed-scanderbeg-king-of-albania

[rodge]

Ploughing through the 1850 translation....nothing yet says LC were bow armed, but then nothing suggesting the 'assegai'/light lance was  thrown either, in fact there is nothing yet to suggest that Albanian LC had missile weapons (however only 1/2 way through the book).

In fact it reads like the Albanian cavalry could assume a formed/heavy or loose/light role.
Against the less well armoured Timarot Ottoman Cavalry they would have probably been a fair match in the heavy role I expect?

[rodge]

I have found this which is the dissertation for a PHD submitted by Fan Noli. It was originally written in 1921.
https://archive.org/details/georgecastriotis00noli

it can be downloaded as a pdf here
https://ia801003.us.archive.org/33/items/georgecastriotis00noli/georgecastriotis00noli.pdf

I am assuming this is the same Bishop Fan Noli that Abulafia and Hodgkinson mention in Hodgkinson's 'Scanderbeg'. Hodgkinson says of it that 'Fan Noli brought together for the first time most of the basic documents and references'.

[Duncan Head]

P.571 of the Fan Noli pdf:

Sur le champ il ordonna a Machoumout de choisir trois battalions de hoplites, d'archers, et de hypaspistes, et les plus braves d'entre sa propre garde...

Ottoman hypaspists, who'd'a thought it!

(This is from a French translation of Critoboulos of Imbros' Life of Mehmet II, so the original was in Greek, so yes, he probably did actually say hypaspist...)

[rodge]

Blimey you downloaded that quickly
My net connection is still labouring away...

[Tim]

Duncan

Time to update those lists - Ottoman Hypasapists and Hoplites... That makes the list ever scarier for those us us with Hungarians and Venetians...

[Duncan Head]

Bit of thread resurrecting here:

I know the original query was about Scanderbeg's army, but I thought later bow-armed stradiots might be interesting as well, and I found a piece of contemporary evidence. In Florian Messner's recent book "Venetian War of 1487 ...or the War of Rovereto" (mentioned in other threads) is an illustration of a handbill dated to 1529, with text in German, showing a stradiot – "eyn Stradioth" – in typical hat with turned-up brim and long coat with turned-back lapels, wielding a composite bow as his only visible weapon.

[Swampster]

The picture Duncan refers to is also available here https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stradiot_archer.jpg

[Duncan Head]

Ha! Thanks, Peter.

[Jim Webster]

The picture Duncan refers to is also available here https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stradiot_archer.jpg

Interesting how little equipment he has.
I can imagine a sword hidden from us because it's on the left hand side

[Swampster]

Much of that look could fit many of the Christians, and a few others beside, from the Adriatic to the steppe.