Section

Drawing to the earlobe is the method of Bustām. It is highly sound—none of the early schools is more commendable or yields a better result—though the arrow for it must be shorter than the one used when drawing to the shoulder joint, the shoulder, or the eyebrow (1). Even so, it proves more accurate than the first two methods.

The style in which the string is drawn to the end of the jawbones so that the arrow runs over the lips belongs to the “people of alignment.” Many archers from Khurāsān favor it, and it is also the method of Isḥāq, Ṭāhir, and other masters of the craft (2).

Alignment means that the nock of the arrow and its head remain perfectly level, with neither dropping below nor rising above the other (3). Of all the methods, none is finer: it is a style with few faults and many hits, adopted by expert archers in the Maghrib and elsewhere (4).

Drawing only to the chin or to the chest, by contrast, is a grave mistake—nothing good comes of it. Accuracy falls and defects multiply.