Section (1): A discussion of the different kinds of weaponry, the benefits each offers, and the grounds for preferring one type over another

Sub-section: The classes of bows

At the most basic level bows are of two sorts: the hand-bow and the foot-bow.

The hand-bow is found in three varieties: Arabian, Persian, and Turkish.

The Arabian bow itself falls into two types.

1. The Hijazi bow. It is made from the wood of the nabʿ (2) or the shūḥaṭ (3) tree, being fashioned from one—or at most two—staves. They refer to this pattern as the sharīḥiyya; the bow carved from a single piece (4) is, in their estimation, the finest. A poet of their people said about it (5):

   Let fly upon it, for it is a flawless, tapering bough—
   three full cubits and a finger in length!

This is the bow used by the Bedouin among them.

As for the town-dwellers, they reinforce its back and sheath its belly with horn.