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.