The Islamic horse-archers relied on their short composite bows to inflict heavy damage on the opposing army. This damage was often seen in the form of injury to horses since the heavy armour used by the knights made it nearly impossible to kill them. However it is important to realize that injury to horses would effectively take away the main weapon of the European forces, that of the mounted knight, and also cause disarray and confusion in the ranks of the enemy.
The bow used by the Muslim horse-archers was a composite bow. Much shorter than the crusaders wooden bow, it had a re-curve that allowed for extra power and a longer draw length in a shorter amount of space. This facilitated shooting from horse-back. The composite bows "were made of either wood, reinforced with horn or sinew, or entirely of materials other than wood"(Hardy 12). It was put together with horn on the inside, facing the archer, then wood, and sinew along the outside facing away from the archer. The properties of Horn compressing and sinew stretching gave the composite bow added power for each inch of length. The composite bow could be pulled at a weight of 100 pouds, making it far stronger than the European's bows (Bradford 101).