Hunting

In Mediterranean

The everyday human activity of hunting has always been tied to seeking nourishment.  But it was also among many princely recreations, the favourite activities of sovereigns.

In Islam hunting was an integral part of the furusiyya, a field of theoretical and practical knowledge belonging to a number of different domains: riding, veterinary science, games and the art of war. The concept was born during the Abbasid era in the context of princely life. Its many facets formed the basis of the education of pretenders to the caliphate throne. While there is an abundant source of literature treating the modalities of hunting in the Islamic world, there are much fewer accounts pertaining to Byzantium. Generally these treaties were on fox hunting and falconry, the oldest and most extensive being the Kitâb al-Masayid al-Matarid (“tracking and trapping”), written in the tenth century by Kushadjim (m. 961 or 971). It was based on an earlier script, possibly Umayyad, which has since disappeared. The second major reference in this domain was written in 1371 in Mamluk Egypt by the great huntsman and writer on the art of the chase, Ibn Manglî, a treatise entitled Kitâb uns al-malâ’bi-wahshi al-falâ, (“The trade of the world’s great men with wild animals in the silent deserts”) . Iconographic references to the hunt are also abundant in the Islamic world, this favourite princely recreation being a frequent theme in Islamic art.

The Koran and the Hadith writings posit strict guidelines as to which products of the hunt can be consumed. Not all species, for instance, can be eaten (this is the case of the canines). There are also rituals to be respected when it comes to cutting the throats of hunted animals.

Meat was not the only product of the hunt, however. Ostrich eggs provided a source of nourishment but in the West, as early as the late Middle Ages, their shells were sought after as prized objects. The tendons of animals also made for sturdy cords for bows. Panther skins soon became a lucrative product exported towards Europe and Central Asia, with whole cities such as Karouan (Turkey) specialising in tanning. The furs of minks also became a highly-prized luxury product as images from the 10th-11th centuries testify showing furs being worn by courtiers in al-Andalus and Córdoba. Wild cats were also captured in the early days of Islam to stock the zoos and hunting parks of the caliphs, a tradition carried over from the Sassanids of Iran. 

A tradition inherited from antiquity attributed certain medicinal and magical qualities to the different parts of animals and, hence, we read of such surprising testimonies as to the healing properties of ostrich fat in the treatment of tumours or the claim that a blade of a sword implanted in an ostrich gizzard over a period of time keeps the metal from rust.

Among the many techniques of hunting (trapping, luring with bait, hunting with hounds, falconry or hawking and direct attacking), those techniques that involved the participation of an animal were described extensively and in great detail. The dog was widely used as a companion in the hunt, as it was in the West.

The art of falconry and hunting with hounds or other animals was reserved primarily for the court. Both practices originated in China and Iran and spread to other regions in the Islamic world; from al-Andalus it was transmitted to Europe.

Hunting with a companion animal was a princely pursuit and very often the animal was a cheetah. This predator that Aristotle said was a cross between a panther and a lion was not used by the Arabs until the advent of Islam. Tamed as early as the Sassanid period, it began to be used in China during the Tang dynasty to which many earthenware statuettes with motifs of riders on cheetahs testify. In Islamic civilisation, its use spread during the Umayyad period and continued through other periods. Outwardly symbolic of power and wealth, it was a standard feature of official parades in Fatimid and Mamluk Egypt.

The long and difficult capture and taming of the cheetah is described in detail in a number of treaties, some of which date as early as the tenth century, the most in depth study being that of the Mamluk, Ibn Manglî (1371).

The animal was captured and shackled to a picket for a number of days before being put in a camisole. Then, through a process of “civilising”, it was gradually exposed to people during the day and guarded by a night watchman. When all the wildness had been taken out of it, the cheetah was ready for its hunting training. In the first phase it would master the pounce, squatting on its hindquarters, the position in which it is often represented in Islamic art. Its “trial period” could then begin, concluding the final phase of its training. Three types of hunting could be carried out with a cheetah: It is believed that aristocrats even kept some of these animals as pets. In the iconography of the Sassanid arts, cheetahs were most often represented in groups of two around the tree of life.  What may well be a cheetah on a Fatimid rock crystal ewer indicates to what degree this hunting animal was cherished in high society.

Falconry in Islamic civilisations, as in the West, became a true art form, so complex and refined were the techniques developed in their taming and training. Many different species of this bird of prey were used. Having been present among the Sassanids and likely among Arab civilisations before Islam, the use of birds of prey, like the cheetah, became more widespread from the early Umayyad epoch and falconry, in particular, became an institution in its own right, placed under the directorship of the Amir al-Sayd. Its importance in al-Andalus is reflected in the numerous decorations depicting these birds on art objects commanded by the court of the Caliph. The Córdoba Calendar (961) attests to the detailed knowledge of the different stages of reproduction of falcons.   

A number of sovereigns in the Muslim West were keen huntsman in falconry. In the 9th century, Mohammad II, the Aghlabid emir of Kairouan, was known for having reached into the state coffers to cover the exorbitant costs of his “falconry pursuits”. The Hafsid sultan, al-Mustansir (Tunisia, r. 1249-1277) hunted in his own hunting grounds near Bizerte.

Beginning in the early Umayyad period, Islamic art, through earthenware, ivories and engraved and inlay metal work, gave particular iconographic importance to the theme of the hunt. The theme abounded in its decorative productions, evoking the great luxury of courtly life. In the complexes of Qusayr Amra (Jordan, 700-715) at the heart of a décor that shows a blend of multiple artistic influences is a scene painted on the western wall of the reception hall of the hunt of the onager, a favourite activity of the Sassanid king Bahrâm Gûr.

Metal works of luxury objects emanating from princely commissions realised in the Near East also show scenes featuring hunters, on foot or mounted, sometimes accompanied by beasts of prey. This iconography is very often linked to that of the princely pleasures, the hunt being an integral part of the life of the court from Islam’s early days. The motif of the huntsman-rider was also widespread in the Iranian world.  

The species that were captured in the Medieval world of Islam are numerous and varied. The antelope (mahât), a favourite subject in pre-Islamic and Islamic poetry, was often hunted with a carnivorous hunting animal, whether from the ground or with birds. The gazelle (ghazâl), its flesh or meat proscribed by religious precepts, was nevertheless a choice prey, both for food and as game. It would have been hunted with a greyhound or a cheetah and sometimes with hunting fowl. This animal was a great source of inspiration for poetry in the Arabic language. In the hunting genre, the gazelle is the prey forever being chased, a literary device often used by writers to describe the adventures of the mounted-huntsman. In erotic poetry, it is invested with metaphors of a feminine allure, with its traits of grace and tenderness and its velvety eyes.  Famous episodes in literature make reference to this animal, an example being the Shahnahme by Firdawsi, a famous Iranian national epic, written around the year 1000, with the episode of Bahram Gur and Azade in which the Sassanid king is challenged by the insolent young woman to change a male gazelle into a female and vice versa with his arrows, then to capture with a single arrow the ear and leg of a third gazelle. Illustrations of this episode often appear in the arts of Islam, for example on a ceramic tile of a Seljuqid palace in Kubadabad (Anatolia, 1236).

The panther (namir), an extremely dangerous animal that was greatly feared by whole villages, was mainly hunted for its fur. Three methods of capture are described in treaties on the hunt: a camouflaged ditch with live bait, direct attack using weapons with blades and spears, encirclement and attack with a hunting bow. Testimonials report that panthers were also captured and put into menageries belonging to zoo and hunting parks, such as the Hayr al-wuhûsh near the palace of the Pleiades (Dâr al-Thurayya) under the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muktadir (908-932).

Hunting also required a full set of equipment of varied arms (sword, bow and arrow, lance…), some of which were specific to hunting like the blowpipe for birds. To these were added certain specific accessories adapted to different types of hunting. This varied equipment appears in many illustrations in the Islamic art of the miniature as many examples in preservation attest: gloves and shields for falconry, etc.

In the Byzantine world, hunting was also a practice of first necessity for food, but to a lesser extent than in the Islamic world as fishing constituted the primary source of food, making the consumption of meat secondary. On the other hand, the practice of hunting was equally prized among its princes as a favourite leisure pursuit and it developed as much variety in technique and style. Considered as a peaceful substitution for training in the art of war, it was widely practiced by the emperors and particularly by the members of the Comnenus Family dynasty (1081-1185), some of whom even lost their lives in the pursuit.

There were various hunting animals: dogs, leopards, birds of prey. The animals hunted varied from hares, bears, deer and wild boars. Their hunting techniques varied and falconry was, likewise, a prestigious activity reserved for the elite. In Byzantium, because of the close ties between hunting and the ruling powers, it too gave rise to a rich iconography wrought with imperial symbolism. The casket of the Troyes Cathedral, in purple tinted ivory, is a good example. It is decorated on its side with a hunt for big cats and on the back with a wild boar hunt; on the sides we see the motif of the phoenix and on the cover a scene of imperial triumph. We can therefore conclude that throughout the Mediterranean, the iconography of the hunt is closely tied to princely iconography.

C. S.