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Lot Essay
During the medieval period, Islamic civilisation made significant contributions to the advancement of global knowledge through the production of thousands of original works across many disciplines. Among these were fields that had previously received little scholarly attention, such as hippology (the study of horses) and hippiatry (veterinary medicine), known in Arabic as al-furusiyya and al-bayṭarah. In the early Abbasid period, Ibn Akhi Hizam composed a major treatise in this field for the Caliph al-Mutawakkil (d. AH 247 / 861 AD). His work, commonly known as Kitab al-Furusiyyah wa-al-Bayṭarah (The Book of the Arts of Horsemanship and Veterinary Medicine), became a foundational text and an important source for many later authorities.
The term furusiyya broadly refers to the body of knowledge and skills expected of a warrior, particularly one who fought on horseback – these skills included horsemanship, spear fighting and other close-combat techniques, archery on foot and horseback, as well as hunting and polo. It also included knowledge of horse breeding, veterinary medicine, weaponry, and military tactics and strategy. Although the ability to care for horses was fundamental to Islamic civilisation since its early history, the furusiyya tradition reached its peak under the Mamluks (1250-1517) – a culture of horsemanship was intimately associated with the spirit and identity of the dynasty. A military caste of manumitted slaves, the Mamluks’ skills as cavalrymen were second to none. It is from this period that the largest number of works on the subject survive.
The Author
Abu Yusuf Muhammad ibn Yaʿqub ibn Ghalib ibn ʿAli al-Khuttali (d. 3rd quarter 9th Century), commonly known as Ibn Akhi Hizam, was part of a prominent family who served the Abbasid dynasty for several decades. His uncle, Hizam ibn Ghalib was a well-known commander and the stable master to the caliph al-Mu’tasim (r. AH 218–227 / 833–842 AD) – sharing the responsibility with his brother Ya’qub, the father of Ibn Akhi Hizam. Ya’qub was also the unrivalled authority on horses and became the chief veterinary surgeon to the caliph al-Mutawakkil (Shihab al-Sarraf, ‘Mamluk Furusiyah Literature and Its Antecedents’, Mamluk Studies Review, vol. 8, No.1, 2004, p.149). As commented by al-Sarraf, it ‘is hard to imagine a more propitious milieu for developing skills in furusiyah arts and for gaining an intimate knowledge of horses’ (al-Sarraf, op.cit., p.149). Following family tradition, Ibn Akhi Hizam served in the Khorassani military units, later becoming a commander under the Abbasid caliph al-Mustaʿin (r. AH 248–252 / 862–866 AD) and subsequently head of the caliphal stables under Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid (r. AH 279–289 / 892–902 AD).
The Text and our Copy
The treatise brings together a vast body of knowledge on the horse and its role in warfare in a manner that is part practical manual, part encyclopaedia. Drawing on the author’s own experience within the caliphal stables, as well as earlier Arabic authorities such as Abu Ubayda Mu'ammar ibn al-Muthanna and Greek texts such as that by the Byzantine author Theomnestus, Ibn Akhi Hizam compiled a systematic account of cavalry training, horse breeding, and veterinary medicine. The work also incorporates material from the Qurʾan, hadith, and classical Arabic poetry, alongside references to Byzantine and Indian traditions of horse medicine. The text examines every aspect of the horse - its morphology, colours and markings, breeding, feeding, training, and equipment, as well as cavalry tactics and battlefield practice. Three folios within our manuscript focus entirely on the illustration of horse brands. Extensive medical sections describe diseases and treatments, including herbal remedies, cauterisation, and bloodletting, making the work one of the earliest surviving manuals of veterinary science in the Islamic world.
During the Mamluk period, Ibn Akhi Hizam’s work became the manual par excellence for furusiyya. Ibn Mangli warned his fellow troopers and mamluks “not to consult any other work but that of Ibn Akhi Hizam. He insisted that those who heeded [his] teachings …shall…effectively serve the sultan in time of war” (Ibn Mangali, ‘Al-Tadbirat al-Sultaniyah’, quoted in al-Sarraf, op.cit., p.150). The text was divided into two treatise – the first, a comprehensive work on horses including equitation, hippology and farriery (our text) and the second mainly dealing with the principles of riding including the use of arms whilst mounted. As the two treatise together were too voluminous to be used as a handy manual, and since they represented very different aspects within the furusiyya tradition, they were often copied and used separately. There are only five known surviving copies of the entire text (in the Bayezit Public Library, 3174; two in the Ayasofya Library, 2898 and 2899; the Dar al-Kutub, Cairo, MS 5m; and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, MS 5555).
Our copy is a particularly grand one. It is large in scale and has a handsome opening illuminated folio which is consistent with those found on other Mamluk manuscripts of the period. The impressive illumination of is similar in style to a Mamluk Qur'an copied in the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, and dates to circa 1330-40 (now in the Khalili Collection, London, QUR807). Such high quality illumination is likely to have been executed by professional artists in workshops in Damascus, where the quality of manuscript painting and illumination did not deteriorate as it did in Cairo after the reign of Sultan Sha'ban (1363-72) (David James, The Master Scribes: Qur'ans of the 10th to 14th centuries AD, Oxford, 1992, pp.172-5, cat.43) In one of the marginal annotations at the end of the manuscript there is a date of Jumada AH 810 (November-December 1407 AD), giving us a terminus ante quem for our copy. Ibn Akhi Hizam’s work was widely cited by later authors and inspired numerous abridgements. Although the Mamluks were not, unlike other Islamic rulers, known as great patrons of manuscript painting, they did commission illustrated manuscripts on furusiyya, even in the 15th century when few other books were being illustrated. Copies of these exist in museum collections. One, copied in Baghdad in AH 606 / 1209 AD is in the Topkapi Saray Müzesi (Ahmet III 2115). Other copies of similar date to the Topkapi example are in the Dar al-Kutub, Cairo (Khalil Agha, f.8) and in the Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul (Fatih 3609). Another treatise - the Nihayat al-Su’l wa’l umniyya fi ‘ilm al-furusiyya, dated AH 772⁄1371 AD is in the British Library (Ms Add.1886). All of these texts were based on Ibn Akhi Hizam’s seminal work.
The Patron
Our copy of the Kitab al-Furusiyyah wa al-Bayṭarah was produced for a High Ranking Mamluk Officer. His name is given on the dedicatory page as Sayfi (or Sayf al-Din) Sudun and he is described as being from the household of the Amir Khuja al-Dawadar and from amongst the brothers of the deceased authority Yashbak al-Atabeg [commander-in-chief].
There were numerous Mamluk amirs who had the name Sayfi (or Sayf al-Din) Sudun (or al-Suduni) in the Burji Mamluk period. In his biographical work al-Manhal al-Safi, the historian and army commander, Ibn Taghribirdi (1411-70) lists over thirty. Of note, there a number of Suduns who are associated with furusiyya – including Sudun Taz, a stable-master under Sultan Barquq (Jane Hahtaway, A Tale of Two Factions: Myth, Memory and Identity in Ottoman Egypt and Yemen, 2003, p.131). Another possible candidate might be a Yashbak al-Suduni al-Atabaki (d. AH 849 / 1445 AD), who was Na’ib of Aleppo and is identified as a mamluk of al-Mu’ayyad, who reigned in 1412.
The Other Texts and Provenance
The principle manuscript here is bound along with two other texts. The first, despite the misleading title ‘Turkish Mss History’ is a Turkish copy of the first ‘Ahdnama (Capitulation) made by the Dutch to the Ottomans. The capitulation, which was granted by Ahmed I, appoints Cornelis Haga as Ambassador to the Porte, guarantees the security of Dutch merchants and their goods, their exemption from other imposts, their freedom from interference from Ottoman officials, and the safety of Dutch ships and their crews. The original document is dated the beginning of Jumada I AH 1021/June 1612 AD. The hand appears however not to be an Ottoman one, and it is possible that this was in fact copied by a European.
The second text is a copy of the Kitab-i Jam-i Giti-Numa (Book of the World-Revealing Cup) of al-Maybudi. It is possible that this too was copied by a European given the small textual errors. For Maybudi’s work, and copies belonging to the Orientalist Scotsman George Strachan with interlinear translations, see Reza Pourjavady, ‘The World-Revealing Cup by Mir Husayn al-Maybudi and its Latin Translations’, Oriens, 45 (2017), Issue 3-4, pp.306-29.
It is possible that this trio of bound texts also once belonged to the George Strachan. He visited Constantinople on his way to Iran in 1613, which would have been shortly after the capitulation to the Dutch was made. During this trip, he learnt Turkish, Persian and Arabic and built an impressive collection of books and manuscripts. It is tempting to suggest that he gathered these manuscripts together, perhaps binding them in this way. His descendant, Sir John Strachan (1737-1777) married Lady Elizabeth Lovelace (1749-1833). It is thus likely that this is the way that the manuscript entered the Lovelace family, from whose collection it was sold in 2015.
The term furusiyya broadly refers to the body of knowledge and skills expected of a warrior, particularly one who fought on horseback – these skills included horsemanship, spear fighting and other close-combat techniques, archery on foot and horseback, as well as hunting and polo. It also included knowledge of horse breeding, veterinary medicine, weaponry, and military tactics and strategy. Although the ability to care for horses was fundamental to Islamic civilisation since its early history, the furusiyya tradition reached its peak under the Mamluks (1250-1517) – a culture of horsemanship was intimately associated with the spirit and identity of the dynasty. A military caste of manumitted slaves, the Mamluks’ skills as cavalrymen were second to none. It is from this period that the largest number of works on the subject survive.
The Author
Abu Yusuf Muhammad ibn Yaʿqub ibn Ghalib ibn ʿAli al-Khuttali (d. 3rd quarter 9th Century), commonly known as Ibn Akhi Hizam, was part of a prominent family who served the Abbasid dynasty for several decades. His uncle, Hizam ibn Ghalib was a well-known commander and the stable master to the caliph al-Mu’tasim (r. AH 218–227 / 833–842 AD) – sharing the responsibility with his brother Ya’qub, the father of Ibn Akhi Hizam. Ya’qub was also the unrivalled authority on horses and became the chief veterinary surgeon to the caliph al-Mutawakkil (Shihab al-Sarraf, ‘Mamluk Furusiyah Literature and Its Antecedents’, Mamluk Studies Review, vol. 8, No.1, 2004, p.149). As commented by al-Sarraf, it ‘is hard to imagine a more propitious milieu for developing skills in furusiyah arts and for gaining an intimate knowledge of horses’ (al-Sarraf, op.cit., p.149). Following family tradition, Ibn Akhi Hizam served in the Khorassani military units, later becoming a commander under the Abbasid caliph al-Mustaʿin (r. AH 248–252 / 862–866 AD) and subsequently head of the caliphal stables under Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid (r. AH 279–289 / 892–902 AD).
The Text and our Copy
The treatise brings together a vast body of knowledge on the horse and its role in warfare in a manner that is part practical manual, part encyclopaedia. Drawing on the author’s own experience within the caliphal stables, as well as earlier Arabic authorities such as Abu Ubayda Mu'ammar ibn al-Muthanna and Greek texts such as that by the Byzantine author Theomnestus, Ibn Akhi Hizam compiled a systematic account of cavalry training, horse breeding, and veterinary medicine. The work also incorporates material from the Qurʾan, hadith, and classical Arabic poetry, alongside references to Byzantine and Indian traditions of horse medicine. The text examines every aspect of the horse - its morphology, colours and markings, breeding, feeding, training, and equipment, as well as cavalry tactics and battlefield practice. Three folios within our manuscript focus entirely on the illustration of horse brands. Extensive medical sections describe diseases and treatments, including herbal remedies, cauterisation, and bloodletting, making the work one of the earliest surviving manuals of veterinary science in the Islamic world.
During the Mamluk period, Ibn Akhi Hizam’s work became the manual par excellence for furusiyya. Ibn Mangli warned his fellow troopers and mamluks “not to consult any other work but that of Ibn Akhi Hizam. He insisted that those who heeded [his] teachings …shall…effectively serve the sultan in time of war” (Ibn Mangali, ‘Al-Tadbirat al-Sultaniyah’, quoted in al-Sarraf, op.cit., p.150). The text was divided into two treatise – the first, a comprehensive work on horses including equitation, hippology and farriery (our text) and the second mainly dealing with the principles of riding including the use of arms whilst mounted. As the two treatise together were too voluminous to be used as a handy manual, and since they represented very different aspects within the furusiyya tradition, they were often copied and used separately. There are only five known surviving copies of the entire text (in the Bayezit Public Library, 3174; two in the Ayasofya Library, 2898 and 2899; the Dar al-Kutub, Cairo, MS 5m; and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, MS 5555).
Our copy is a particularly grand one. It is large in scale and has a handsome opening illuminated folio which is consistent with those found on other Mamluk manuscripts of the period. The impressive illumination of is similar in style to a Mamluk Qur'an copied in the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, and dates to circa 1330-40 (now in the Khalili Collection, London, QUR807). Such high quality illumination is likely to have been executed by professional artists in workshops in Damascus, where the quality of manuscript painting and illumination did not deteriorate as it did in Cairo after the reign of Sultan Sha'ban (1363-72) (David James, The Master Scribes: Qur'ans of the 10th to 14th centuries AD, Oxford, 1992, pp.172-5, cat.43) In one of the marginal annotations at the end of the manuscript there is a date of Jumada AH 810 (November-December 1407 AD), giving us a terminus ante quem for our copy. Ibn Akhi Hizam’s work was widely cited by later authors and inspired numerous abridgements. Although the Mamluks were not, unlike other Islamic rulers, known as great patrons of manuscript painting, they did commission illustrated manuscripts on furusiyya, even in the 15th century when few other books were being illustrated. Copies of these exist in museum collections. One, copied in Baghdad in AH 606 / 1209 AD is in the Topkapi Saray Müzesi (Ahmet III 2115). Other copies of similar date to the Topkapi example are in the Dar al-Kutub, Cairo (Khalil Agha, f.8) and in the Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul (Fatih 3609). Another treatise - the Nihayat al-Su’l wa’l umniyya fi ‘ilm al-furusiyya, dated AH 772⁄1371 AD is in the British Library (Ms Add.1886). All of these texts were based on Ibn Akhi Hizam’s seminal work.
The Patron
Our copy of the Kitab al-Furusiyyah wa al-Bayṭarah was produced for a High Ranking Mamluk Officer. His name is given on the dedicatory page as Sayfi (or Sayf al-Din) Sudun and he is described as being from the household of the Amir Khuja al-Dawadar and from amongst the brothers of the deceased authority Yashbak al-Atabeg [commander-in-chief].
There were numerous Mamluk amirs who had the name Sayfi (or Sayf al-Din) Sudun (or al-Suduni) in the Burji Mamluk period. In his biographical work al-Manhal al-Safi, the historian and army commander, Ibn Taghribirdi (1411-70) lists over thirty. Of note, there a number of Suduns who are associated with furusiyya – including Sudun Taz, a stable-master under Sultan Barquq (Jane Hahtaway, A Tale of Two Factions: Myth, Memory and Identity in Ottoman Egypt and Yemen, 2003, p.131). Another possible candidate might be a Yashbak al-Suduni al-Atabaki (d. AH 849 / 1445 AD), who was Na’ib of Aleppo and is identified as a mamluk of al-Mu’ayyad, who reigned in 1412.
The Other Texts and Provenance
The principle manuscript here is bound along with two other texts. The first, despite the misleading title ‘Turkish Mss History’ is a Turkish copy of the first ‘Ahdnama (Capitulation) made by the Dutch to the Ottomans. The capitulation, which was granted by Ahmed I, appoints Cornelis Haga as Ambassador to the Porte, guarantees the security of Dutch merchants and their goods, their exemption from other imposts, their freedom from interference from Ottoman officials, and the safety of Dutch ships and their crews. The original document is dated the beginning of Jumada I AH 1021/June 1612 AD. The hand appears however not to be an Ottoman one, and it is possible that this was in fact copied by a European.
The second text is a copy of the Kitab-i Jam-i Giti-Numa (Book of the World-Revealing Cup) of al-Maybudi. It is possible that this too was copied by a European given the small textual errors. For Maybudi’s work, and copies belonging to the Orientalist Scotsman George Strachan with interlinear translations, see Reza Pourjavady, ‘The World-Revealing Cup by Mir Husayn al-Maybudi and its Latin Translations’, Oriens, 45 (2017), Issue 3-4, pp.306-29.
It is possible that this trio of bound texts also once belonged to the George Strachan. He visited Constantinople on his way to Iran in 1613, which would have been shortly after the capitulation to the Dutch was made. During this trip, he learnt Turkish, Persian and Arabic and built an impressive collection of books and manuscripts. It is tempting to suggest that he gathered these manuscripts together, perhaps binding them in this way. His descendant, Sir John Strachan (1737-1777) married Lady Elizabeth Lovelace (1749-1833). It is thus likely that this is the way that the manuscript entered the Lovelace family, from whose collection it was sold in 2015.