Islamic Crossbow?

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Hi B.I. and all involved.
At this point we may assume the principle of the egg and the hen ... who knows which came first.
In an ultimate perrogative, we may consider that, even if we demonstrate that a determined islamic army appeared in such battle, siege, or campaign with crossbow equipment, it doesn't mean that they have produced them themselves. Or if they had, it doesn't mean they produced them with their own pattern. Or if they had, it doesn't mean their pattern was not inspired by previous christian models.
Besides the fact that not all islamized peoples were of the same origin, or leaved in same the region in the same period, nor they had the same weaponry options.
Also an old empirical saying pretends that you can never be sure that something is invented, but either reinvented, only not "publicised" or brought to practice before. Da Vincy invented the pointed bullit and the helycopter a few centuries before it was (re) invented and brought to practice. Luckily in this case we have its drawings.
In the available hipothesis, the crossbow was brought to practice by the chinese ( we ignore if the crossbow principle was discovered before ).
Then after that, whom copied whom, its something rather complex, indeed. There are muslims of many races, and christians all the same. There were bans on the crossbows made by Mohamad to muslims, but also by the Pope, made to christians. In both cases, a part of them ( not necessarily all ) ignored the ban.
It is a fact that muslims in all had a significantly lower atraction for the use ( not manufacturing ) of this weapon.
But let it be no doubt they either produced it, used it in action, and also developed their own models.Actually their intelectuals have written treatises on the subject, already in XII century.
The Arab Murdâ ben Ali (1137-1193) treatise, has largely described sofisticated crossbow variations.
Murthi ibn Ali Al Tarsusi wrote a treatise for Saladin, called "Tabsiratu Arbab Al-Albab", including descriptions and sketches of crossbow developments.
Naturally theses works were published in modern languages, surely in english. But i can trace a description of the Tarsusi drawings in a known Forum ... however the pictures are deleted, the thread is from last year:
'A crossbow used for launching naptha jars/pots'
'A circular ballista which can hold up to 4 bolts. When one is shot, the dial on the top of the wooden base turns to fire the other'
'A cavalry lance with a crossbow attached to it'
'another lance with a crossbow'
'Diagram of a buckler with a crossbow attached on the inner side of it. The bolt can be discharged with a simple lever, that will launch the bolt through a small hole in the steel sheild'
It is therefore acceptable that christians learned the crossbow use at fighting

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the cruzades against muslems, and so brought it down south, like to the iberian peninsula, in the reconquest campaings. But they had to face the same weapon from the moors side. Potentially, in this context, the christians were the weapon replicators, and not the moors.

The "fantasia" performed by inland mahgrebian mounted moors for the tourists, using close to phony miquelet muskets, are a consequence of their ancient feasts, as they still reproduce, with the musket, the same gestuals originally performed by cavalry crossbowmen, in the XIV century.

http://equestre.leguide.ma/disciplines.cfm?id=18

There is several literature describing the corsair moors, from the mahgreb, crossbow professionals from Larache and Tetuan, that vastly atacked iberian ships on the north african coast. Famous enough to incorporate the Janisary armies:

http://www.bleublancturc.com/Turqueries/janissaires.htm

and still eficient to be required by the Egyptian Sultan, to join his army comanded by a Turk mameluck, in the great battle of Chaul, against the portuguese, in 1508.

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In an islamic sciences exhibition propsed by UNESCO, they promote the interactive assembly of a crossbow, with the following quotation:

The crossbow
This important instrument of war was greatly developed and described in Arabic military treatises. Replicas of this war device can be made and the enclosed sheets describe the construction of a replica by one hobbyist. : http://www.unesco.org/pao/exhib/islam1.htm

In the XIV siege of Tremecén ( algeria ) the Marini Sultan received reinforcements of archers and crossbowmen from Granada, "used to siege works".
http://www.islamyal-andalus.org/cont...cia.php?id=633

Other tracks could be quoted,but i bother you no longer
kind regards
btw, with this crossbowmania, i ended up buying two beautyfull portuguese quarrels ( square sectioned bolts ), one from the XIV century and one from the XV, this one with a thicker neck, already for the steel arch model.

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i just couldn't manage ( again ) to upload the aquarels of magrebi crossbowmen and the picture of a beautyfull cavalry crossbow, from the guard of portuguese King Dom Sebastião, beg. XVI century.

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Here are Al Tarsusi drawings