ORTAÇAĞ'IN ÖLÜMCÜL SİLAHI ÇARH VE ONUN "GİZEMLİ" UÇLARI.

Islamic civilizations paid a great importance to mechanical engineering applications in the field of military technology. Pre-Anatolian and especially Ottoman pamphlets contain a rich collection of archery terminology. This issue sank into oblivion, however, during the Medieval Anatolian era, despite the array of publications in the anterior and posterior periods. On this account, the narrative and drawings of medieval engineers such as İbn Erenboğa and Tarsusî have survived. Through these enginerring treatises, we became accustomed to the terminoloy of throwing machine such as arrade, carh, zemberek. In İbn Bîbî's Selcukname, arrade, carh and zemberek are often mentioned. The Carh known as crossbow in western literature and kavs-al rijl in Arab literature, is a weapon belonging to the category of the sort of swaddle bow. It was used as a synonym to zemberek. In the arrow treatises of the Mamluk period used by the cavalry, it was called kavs-ar-rikab. However, it seems that this roller (capstan) type of the carh is not suitable for cavalry. In actual fact, the carh, as a type of crossbow, is a different weapon from the mounted 'tension spring' one. Arrade is a type of catapult weapon that usually throws stone balls. Arrade that could throw stones over a long distance was of different types as attested by the expression Mancınık-ı endâz, Arrâde-i endâz or Neft-i endâz found in the Mübareksah's military treatise. The information we have about the barbs of these machines is very limited. Especially for the Islamic period, this issue remains completely unknown. It is understood that some of the barbs (temren) uncovered by excavations dating from the period of Anatolian Seljuks belong to these weapons. This paper will discuss the specificities of these weapon and of their discovered in the medieval ruins as Samsat and Kubad-abad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]