Playing as a Muslim Faction

[caravel]

They have decent melee stats for the occasional flanking and longer range than other archers IIRC that comes very handy in inflicting casualties to the enemy in crucial units (Knights and the like) from afar.

I'm sure that JA are armed with the standard bow and not the longbow. The game only has three bows: The bow, mounted bow and longbow. The only unit with the longbow is the Longbowmen unit. The various Horse Archer types use mounted bow and all other units use the standard bow. The mounted bow is simply a less accurate version of the standard bow.