What we know about early English archery comes almost entirely from a single book: Toxophilus, written in the fifteen-forties. But it turns out, a nearly identical hidden gem was written thousands of miles away at almost the exact same time.

It's an ancient manuscript called Arab Archery, and it's the only text on medieval Eastern archery ever translated into English. Written by an expert bowman, it shines a light on the long-range weapons that built empires-and it's so thorough, it could still be used as a textbook today.