Customer Reviews

Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600 BC-AD 1300 (Elite)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I truly was looking forward to this book, so when I got it I naturally wanted to see the proof of its great claim - 1800 years of mounted archers of the Great Steppe. Curiously delineated - why end at 1300, after all it all has fallen apart in the 16th century, with Crimea subjugations to the Ottomans, Golden Horde defeat by Ivan IV and Russian conquest of Siberia, Chinese subjugation of the later Mongols etc, but that is another matter. So going back to the claim of 1800 years of mounted archers - the book delivered nothing of that sort, but rather some more of that already published, by different Osprey authors, information on the Scythians, with some information on Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, and Mongols. When compared with, let's say, Gorelik's Warriors of Eurasia it is nothing but a college level intro to the Scythian with some bland references to other major tribes and peoples. Yet there is no even one mention of the Saka, Kushans, Parthians (but for the Parthian shot), Alans, the curious Bosphoran kingdom, the Turks (or using Mr. Lev Gumilev's name the Turkuts) and their empire, Uygurs, Bulgars, Khazars, Kyrgyz or the later Atabeq states from the Central Asia. The map, always an area of great weakness for Osprey publications, describing the Great Steppe does not even show the steppe between Caspian Sea and the Black Sea on the northern foothills of Caucasus, yet adds some Asia Minor territory to the family, one may ask whether these are some selective omissions or simply ignorant blunders.
Horses - well, here it starts well, the author mention of the Przewalski horse but then he never moves away from that wild ancestor horse which is hilarious considering nomad appetite for those equids during the same time period this book purports to cover. The Caspian horses are completely omitted although in any good history of the equids these horses are listed as ancestors to many ancient and modern breeds (and proven by scientific genetic research). The undisputed fact is simpler: instead of riding wild and edible Przewalski they developed many different breeds, long time before the period covered by this book, of which some still survive -Turanian, Turkoman, Akhal-Teke, Yomud, etc. It could have been a great thing to include a description of the murderous yet very effective Turkoman training of their warhorses, perhaps similar to what all the other nomads did with their mounts. Additionally, the Akhal-Teke begs mentioning here since this golden horse of the steppe was sought after by Chinese, Persians, and Arabs etc, while archeologists discovered its remains in many the Scythian kurgans, e.g. Pazyryk.
The bibliography is inadequate, especially that since the early 90's the research and knowledge of the steppe cultures have increased many times (one more recent listing is the ATARN site that has been idle since 1999). Moreover, considering the awfully painful weakness of Anglo-American research and knowledge in the field of Great Steppe ethnohistory, author demonstrates that he is even more unfamiliar with many Russian, German, French authors that have published their research within last 20-30 years and these books are available in English -and some even on Amazon.com, naturally then this work suffers because of that lack of refined and updated research.
Finally, the illustrations - the black and white are good but have no reference in text as much as they should require, and I never found any visualization of the Hunnish bow although there are many references to it and the Scythian, Turk and Mongols are shown strung and unstrung. The color plates are ok, I am a great fan of Mr. McBride, but they are not as good as previous Osprey ones on the similar subjects - Attila and the Nomad Hordes, the Mongols, the Scythians, the Sarmatians etc. In that respect I tend to put the blame on the author and not Mr. McBride since the artist did what he was told, I presume. The pictures simply do not conjure the mounted archers as they may appeared since the author disregarded the archeological findings and other evidence to recreate their possible appearance. In conclusion, the book cannot deliver its promise - the 1800 years long story of the mounted archers of Eurasia, for many reasons listed above

This book has attracted a lot of petty nit-picking on here, as Osprey books often do. As an experienced student of military history in all periods, however, I still learned a lot about Central Asian mounted archery in this book.

The color plates in this book are top-notch, some of Angus McBride's best, and that's saying a lot. My favorite is plate 'B', showing a heavily-armored Scythian chieftain meeting with a beautiful Scythian woman. The fine details of the weapons, costumes, etc. are all taken from contemporary artwork and archaeological finds, and like the text do a great job of illustrating this hardy warriors with their ancient way of life, their powerful bows, and their reliable ponies.

This is a great source of histroy on the background of the Horse bow. I found it very interesting reading for me as an archery fan. Anyone who enjoys this sport will enjoy this book.

Hier haben wir wieder ein Osprey-Heft, wo es wenig auszusetzen gibt. Der Text ist in Ordnung und die Bilder sind es (fast) selbstverständlich auch.

This is a colorful book with an interesting text, well written and carefully researched by Antony Karasulas. Much of the research seems to come from Russian and Eastern Museums, always welcome. Anything from Angus McBride is always welcome as well...a fine book.

I liked this book because it has Angus McBride illustrations in it. The Subject itself is a bit off the beaten track of popular history but the text tries hard to do the right thing.

When I bought it I was expecting to find little or no information about the various tribes, and when I did its was wow! Also the Pictures and the information is good too. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the field of Horse Archers.