Skip to the content
Ummah Atlasby How To Muslim

Sport and the Sunnah

Archery in the Sunnah, and how to start

By the How To Muslim teamUpdated 5 min read

The Prophet ﷺ watched an archery contest, took one side, then told both teams, “Shoot, I am with all of you.” He also warned against learning archery and then dropping it. Today it is a moderate-intensity sport with few acute injuries, open to children and adults. Start with a coached session at a club your national federation lists.

The contest where he took both sides

Salamah ibn al-Akwa’ narrates:

مَرَّ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَلَى نَفَرٍ مِنْ أَسْلَمَ يَنْتَضِلُونَ فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم ارْمُوا بَنِي إِسْمَاعِيلَ، فَإِنَّ أَبَاكُمْ كَانَ رَامِيًا ارْمُوا وَأَنَا مَعَ بَنِي فُلاَنٍ. قَالَ فَأَمْسَكَ أَحَدُ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ. فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم مَا لَكُمْ لاَ تَرْمُونَ. قَالُوا كَيْفَ نَرْمِي وَأَنْتَ مَعَهُمْ. قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم ارْمُوا فَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ كُلِّكُمْ

The Prophet ﷺ passed some men of Aslam competing at archery. He said: “Shoot, children of Isma’il, for your father was an archer. Shoot, and I am with Banu so-and-so.” One of the two sides held back. He asked, “Why are you not shooting?” They said, “How can we shoot when you are with them?” He said: “Shoot, I am with all of you.”

Bukhari 2899, sahih (al-Bukhari)Our translation

He had picked a side, then stood with both. Al-Bukhari places it under the heading “encouraging archery”. Another chain has the teams competing in the market (Bukhari 3507, sahih (al-Bukhari)).

Keep the skill once you have it

The Companion ’Uqbah ibn ’Amir later governed Egypt; he died in 678 and lies in Cairo’s Muqattam cemetery, according to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (TDV stands for Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, the Turkish Diyanet Foundation). In old age he still walked between two targets. Fuqaym al-Lakhmi told him it was too hard at his age, and ’Uqbah said he would not strain himself but for a saying of the Prophet ﷺ:

مَنْ عَلِمَ الرَّمْىَ ثُمَّ تَرَكَهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنَّا أَوْ قَدْ عَصَى

Whoever learns archery and then leaves it is not one of us, or he has disobeyed.

Muslim 1919, sahih (Muslim)Our translation

The “or” is a narrator unsure of the wording. The Damascus scholar al-Nawawi (d. 1277) called it a stern warning, and classed leaving archery without an excuse as makruh, strongly disliked. For your own case, ask a scholar you trust.

Okmeydanı: Istanbul’s archers’ field

After Mehmed II took Istanbul in 1453, he gave the archers a hillside above the Golden Horn. This section draws on two sources: the TDV encyclopedia, and Şinasi Acar’s essay in A History of Istanbul. Where their figures differ, we give both.

TDV records nineteen inscribed stones marking the field’s edges, three of them still there in 2007, and says the field was open to all archers and the public. Acar notes that, like older grounds at Bursa and Edirne, it was an endowment (waqf) in its own right. In that age the bow was a weapon as well as a sport.

Masters, apprentices and stones

Acar describes how a beginner learned under a master. To “take the grip”, he shot one kind of flight arrow at least 900 gez (547 m) and another 800 gez (486 m) before witnesses. He was then registered at the archers’ lodge, the Okçular Tekkesi.

Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) had the lodge built. TDV describes it as a body of archers with its own sheikh, rather than a Sufi order. In 1625 Gürcü Mehmed Pasha added an open-air prayer place with a minbar.

A record shot earned a stone where the arrow fell. One, dated 911 AH (1505-06), names Şeyh Hamdullah, father of Ottoman calligraphy and sheikh of the lodge, as “chief of calligraphers, sheikh of archers”, TDV records.

TDV records the field’s longest shot as 845.66 m, by Tozkoparan Ahmed, and counts 55 surviving monuments out of 132. Acar counts 40 surviving stones out of about 300.

Decline, and the field today

From the mid-1700s, pistol and rifle shots set records there too. Even so, Mahmud II rebuilt the lodge in 1832-33, TDV records.

From the 1950s informal housing covered the field, and many stones were broken or built over. TDV’s 2007 entry records only the lodge’s broken minaret still standing.

Okçular Vakfı, the Archers Foundation, set up in 2012, is based in Okmeydanı. UNESCO accredits it; it records master archers and gives them workshops for apprentices.

In 2019 UNESCO listed traditional Turkish archery as intangible heritage, noting gear of mountain wood, horn, tendon, silk and leather, and more women archers. A Turkish composite bow of 1719-20 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum is just 64.8 cm long and weighs 365 g.

What archery does for your body

The 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities rates archery at 4.3 METs, the same as walking a golf course carrying clubs. WHO counts 3 to under 6 METs as moderate intensity.

It is lighter than casual soccer (7.0) or social badminton (5.5), so it does not replace cardio. WHO asks adults for 150-300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, plus muscle-strengthening on two or more days.

Muscles, focus and injuries

In a 2021 study of ten Korean traditional archers, the rear shoulder, trapezius and rhomboids worked hard at full draw. Abdominal, thigh and hip muscles showed no significant change, so the arms and upper back do the work.

Evidence for focus is thin. One 2023 Shanghai study found 36 children scored better on executive-function tasks after a single 45-minute session than 36 controls.

Acute injuries are rare. Ten years of US hospital data showed 4.4 injuries per 10,000 participants, most of them cuts, often from mishandled hunting arrows (Palsbo, 2012).

Overuse is another matter. In a 2024 survey of 200 elite youth archers from 34 countries, at a European championship in Patras, Greece, nearly half reported shoulder pain and 31.8% had stopped practice through injury.

So warm up, and get coached. Preston Ward, a physical therapist for Team USA archery, suggests 5-10 minutes of slow band exercises for the shoulder, static stretches to cool down, and regular cardio. Palsbo asks every archery course to teach stance and joint strengthening.

How to start

World Archery lists one federation per country, 166 on 9 October 2026. Find yours on World Archery’s list, or start here:

Your first session

You need no experience and no kit. Archery Australia’s “Come and Try” sessions, run by accredited coaches, cover safety, technique, equipment and etiquette. Archery GB says a beginners’ course usually runs six weeks, one two-hour session a week, with equipment provided.

Many clubs take children from about age 8 (USA Archery, Archery GB). Wear closed-toe shoes, skip hoodies with loose drawstrings, and borrow club kit before you buy a bow (Archery Canada).

Read next: the first page in the library, What is the ummah?

Sources

  1. Filiz Gündüz, “Okmeydanı”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (published by Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, the Turkish Diyanet Foundation) 33 (Istanbul, 2007), 339-340: the 1453 grant, boundary stones, public access, lodge dates, prayer place, record stones, decline and the minaret (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/okmeydani
  2. Şinasi Acar, “Istanbul’s Nişantaşı”, A History of Istanbul, vol. 4: the waqf, Bursa and Edirne, apprentices and the grip, stone counts. https://istanbultarihi.ist/506-istanbuls-nisantasi
  3. Muhittin Serin, “Hamdullah Efendi, Şeyh”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 15 (Istanbul, 1997), 449-452: his appointment as sheikh of the lodge, his stone and its inscription (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hamdullah-efendi-seyh
  4. Erdinç Ahatlı, “Ukbe b. Âmir”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 42 (Istanbul, 2012), 62-63: his governorship, death, grave and archery in old age (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ukbe-b-amir
  5. Al-Nawawi, al-Minhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim, on the hadith of learning archery and leaving it (Arabic). https://hadithprophet.com/hadith-50797.html
  6. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, “The Archers Foundation (Okçular Vakfı)”, accredited NGO 01325. https://ich.unesco.org/en/accredited-ngos/the-archers-foundation-01325
  7. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, “Traditional Turkish archery”, element 01367, inscribed 2019 (decision 14.COM 10.b.38). https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-turkish-archery-01367
  8. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Composite Bow with Forty Arrows”, Turkish, AH 1132 / 1719-20, object 35.113.1a-oo. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/32139
  9. Herrmann SD et al., “2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities”, J Sport Health Sci 2024;13:6-12: sports table, codes 15010, 15030, 15265, 15610. https://pacompendium.com/sports/
  10. Bull FC et al., “World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour”, Br J Sports Med 2020;54:1451-62. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7719906/
  11. Kim C et al., “Analysis of Muscle Activity During Shooting Motion of Korean Traditional Archers”, Korean Journal of Sport Science 2021;32(1):1-12. https://kjss.sports.re.kr/assets/pdf/214/journal-32-1-1.pdf
  12. Liu J et al., “The Effect of a Single Bout of Chinese Archery on Core Executive Functions in Preadolescent Children in Shanghai”, Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023;20(2):1415. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9859288/
  13. Palsbo SE, “Epidemiology of recreational archery injuries: implications for archery ranges and injury prevention”, J Sports Med Phys Fitness 2012;52(3):293-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22648468/
  14. Vasilis N et al., “Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study”, Sports (Basel) 2024;12(4):101: 43.5% shoulder pain in the abstract, 49.1% in the results. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11054429/
  15. Taylor Walston, “Doctor’s Orders! A Physician-Approved Archery Warmup Routine”, Archery 360 (Archery Trade Association), 4 November 2021. https://archery360.com/2021/11/04/doctors-orders-a-physician-approved-archery-warmup-routine/
  16. World Archery, national associations data, checked 9 October 2026 (166 listed). https://api.worldarchery.sport/v3/MemberAssociations/?RBP=300
  17. Archery GB, “Archery for Beginners”: course length, equipment, children’s ages (snapshot of 27 November 2025). https://archerygb.org/get-involved/archery-for-beginners; https://web.archive.org/web/20251127061422/https://archerygb.org/get-involved/archery-for-beginners
  18. USA Archery, “Try Archery”. https://www.usarchery.org/participate/try-archery
  19. Archery Canada, “Basic Guide to Archery”. https://archerycanada.ca/new-to-archery/basic-guide-to-archery/
  20. Archery Australia, “Come and Try Sessions” and “Beginner FAQs”. https://archery.org.au/come-and-try-sessions/; https://archery.org.au/beginner-faqs/

Hadith on this page

Ummah Atlasby How To Muslim

An initiative of How To Muslim. How we source and our ground rules.