that view weak.’

Al-Ṭabarī said: “Archery involves three components: one pertains to the archer, another to the bow, and the third to the arrow.

The component that concerns the archer comprises fifteen matters:
– four belong to the qaflah (string-hand lock),
– three to the grip,
– five to the release,
– one to the mouth at the moment of release, and
– two to the chest.

The four that relate to the qaflah are as follows:
(1) Its firmness during the draw must be as strong as possible with all the fingers except the index, which should exert slightly less force; the remaining three features deal with the correctness of the lock. Its correctness is that the archer:
• shapes the fingers into “sixty-three,”
• hides, as far as he can (2), the nails of the three fingers—the little, ring, and middle—so that none of them are visible,
• places the string against the thumb, on the side nearest its base (3), so that it lies straight without any slant or twist,
• sets the tip of the thumb on the middle joint of the middle finger (4) and keeps it there until the instant of loosing, and
• rests the index finger on the flesh of the thumb after rolling the inner pad of the index over the back of the thumb, at the first segment of the index, along the side of the thumb that faces the string.