The protectors of the Sultan
The Janissaries archers were elite infantry units created by sultan Murad I, the first sultan of the Ottoman empire, in 1383.

They began as an elite corps of slaves recruited from young Christian boys from the Balkans and Anatolian through the devşirme system, abolished in 1638. Turkish children nor Jews were never subject to devşirme. Later on, the Janissaries could enrol their own children in the corps after the devşirme system was abolished by sultan Murad III.

They wore unique uniforms, were paid, marched to music, lived in barracks and were the first corps to make extensive use of fire arms. During the initial period of formation, Janissaries were expert archers, but they began adopting firearms as soon as they became available during the 1440s. They also served as policemen, palace guards and fire fighters in peace time.

Recruitment
After a non-muslim boy was recruited, he was sent to selected Turkish families to learn how to speak Turkish, the rules of Islam and the customs and cultures of Ottoman society. After this, boys were trained in Enderun school at the capital city. They were selected for their talents in different areas to train as engineers, artisans, riflemen, clerics, archers, artillery, etc. They trained under strict discipline and in practically monastic conditions. Unlike other muslims, they were expressly forbidden to wear beards, only a moustache.
For all practical purposes, Janissaries belonged to the sultan and they were regarded as the protectors of the throne and the sultan. They were taught to consider the corps their family and the sultan their father.

The corps
The corps was organised in ortas (equivalent to a battalion). While the sultan was the supreme commander of the Ottoman army and of the Jannissaries in particular, the corps was organised and led by a commander. The corps was divided into 3 sub-corps:
– The cemaat, frontier troops with 101 ortas.
– The beyliks or beulukus, the sultan’s own bodyguard with 61 ortas.
– The sekban or seirnen, with 34 ortas.

The ottoman empire used the Janissaries in most of its campaigns, including the capture of Constantinople, the defeat of the Egyptian Mamluks and war against Hungary and Austria. They were always led to battle by the sultan and had a share of the loot. In battle, their mission was to protect the sultan.

The corps was abolished in 1826 by sultan Mahmud II. The main reason for their decline seemed to be a decrease in discipline as they’d grown accustomed to a civilian life.

Common wood used to make bows:
– Red Oak
– Yew
– Ash
– Bamboo
– Osage
– Ipe
– Black Locust

To make a longbow, our best options is yew. Although it is quite expensive is ideal for longbows.

The #1 rule when making any bow, is not to use power tools. This slows down the process a bit, but makes it more difficult to make fatal mistakes.

Common tools used to make bows:
– Draw knife
– Spoke shave
– Cabinet scrapers
– Fine wood file
– Sandpapers

The first thing we need to do is the initial shaping of the bow. We have bought a piece of wood which doesn’t look like a bow at all. Most of the wood will need to be removed and it will be done in this initial shaping stage.
Once you’ve removed around 2lb of wood, you’ll need to draw a central line and the rough outline of the bow as a guide.
The main characteristic of this stage is that, at the end of it, you will be able to see the shape of the bow but the wood would be still too thick to bend.
Now it’s time to shape the longbow. Work from the centre towards the tips. Define the D shaped cross section. Define the cuts for the bowstring to fit in and define the handling area.
The only thing remaining is to check the draw length which should be 28″ as standard.
To know your draw length, you have to put your arms away in the shape of a “T”. One person has to measure from middle finger on the right hand to the middle finger on the left hand. Divide the resulting number by 2.5 to know your draw length.

Here are a couple of extended guides on how to make your own longbow:
– http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-layered-oak-bow-or-How-NOT-to-make-/?ALLSTEPS
– http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-red-oak-bow-start-to-finish/

– http://poorfolkbows.com/oak.htm

– http://www.greenmanlongbows.co.uk/

Well, there are lots of things to take into consideration – you should shoot the highest poundage that you can comfortably control. There is some evidence that you could go as low as around the 30lb mark depending on the following points (see next paragraphs). In my experience most people will be shooting around 36lb+.

In addition to increasing your limb weight (which might involve a few trips to the gym but will definitely involve a lot of practicing with your set up) there are a lot of additional things that you can do to help yourself gain the maximum possible shooting distance for the lowest poundage of limbs. It is easier to shoot more efficient limbs so you may be able to control more weight with less exertion if you spend a bit more money (OK maybe quite a lot more money). For example Border limbs explain it thus, “At Border we offer a synthetic composite core and is denoted by an H in the HEX6.5 (discontinued) and HEX6.6 model series. This offers approximately 4fps to 8fps more arrow speed than their multi-laminated bamboo/wood equivalent. This difference is roughly equivalent to 1lb to 1.5lbs of bow weight performance… the choice of core will not affect the draw-force curve at all, the draw-feel will remain the same irrespective to the core material chosen.”

http://www.borderbows.com/ilf-limbs-by-core-c88.html

Arrows also make a huge difference – the faster and lighter the arrow the further it will easily and accurately go. You want the best spin wings, curly vanes, G nocks and something made out of carbon (you won’t be shooting Jazz arrows at 70m).

Spend a lot of time tuning your bow (we still like the Simon Needham book ‘Steps to Success’ for this). You want the most efficient string (e.g. fast flight) and you’ll want some Beiter nock points.