He who opts for the slanted grip will find his shot more wounding, his arrow’s flight longer and straighter, his release finer, and his cast stronger. It benefits both the mounted and the foot archer, suits the assault on fortresses and ramparts, and every kind of high-trajectory shooting—yet it is the least accurate.

The archer who takes a middle course between the two does not fill his whole palm around the handle, nor does he cant his hand into an extreme angle.

He said: The best procedure in all of this is to seize the bow with your palm (1), place its handle against the bases of your fingers, sink the entire fleshy pad of the palm into the grip, and clamp the little finger, ring finger, and middle finger down with great force—in that order: little finger hardest, then ring, then middle—while leaving the thumb and index finger supple, as though you were forming the number two hundred with them. Insert the upper forearm bone, level the lower one, and keep between that lower bone and the grip a space the width of a single finger; every defect will vanish if you do so.

In sum: the level grip is the way of the Arabs, and the slanted grip that of the Persians.

All the authoritative schools agree that no part of the handle should be left unsupported by the hand.

They likewise concur that the arrow’s speed comes from the firmness of the grip, save for a handful of ignorant people who say that a relaxed grip makes the arrow fly faster.

Master Muḥammad (2) ibn Yūsuf said: The better course is not to tighten the grip