Panjagan

Panjagan was a technique or weapon of Sasanian Persian heavy cavalry for the rapid discharge of five arrows at once, its name derived from a Middle Persian word meaning five-fold. No physical examples survive, but Islamic-era historians including al-Tabari, al-Jahiz and al-Maqdisi recorded it under Arabized names, describing its use in Wahriz's Sasanian campaign against the Aksumites in Yemen and again in 684 CE, when Persian asawira cavalry under Mah-Afridun attacked Basra, reportedly loosing 2,000 arrows in a single burst from 400 riders. Scholars disagree on whether panjagan describes a rapid-fire archery technique or a mechanical device resembling a crossbow, though historian Kaveh Farrokh has argued it was used to create concentrated kill zones against mounted steppe cavalry such as the Gokturks and Hephthalites. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/