Tradition Inv. nr. 19/2001, c. 1500). The Arabic literary tradition involving
equestrianism dates back thousands of years and occupied large sections of
pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. That of veterinary medicine (
hippiatry) in Furusiyya literature, much like in the case of
human medicine, was adopted from Byzantine Greek sources in the 9th to 10th centuries. In the case of furūsiyya, the immediate source is the Byzantine compilation on veterinary medicine known as the
Hippiatrica (5th or 6th century); the very word for "horse doctor" in Arabic,
bayṭar, is a .
Arabic treatises The first known such treatise in Arabic is due to Ibn Akhī Ḥizām (), an
Abbasid-era commander and stable master to caliph
Al-Muʿtadid (r. 892–902), author of ''Kitāb al-Furūsiyya wa 'l-Bayṭara'' ("Book of Horsemanship and Hippiatry"). The discipline peaked in
Mamluk Sultanate during the 14th century. In a narrow sense, furūsiyya literature comprises works by professional military writers with a Mamluk background or close ties to the Mamluk establishment. These treatises often quote pre-Mamluk works on military strategy. Some of the works were versified for didactic purposes. The best known versified treatise is the one by Taybugha al-Ashrafi al-Baklamishi al-Yunan ("the Greek"), who in c. 1368 wrote the poem ''al-tullab fi ma'rifat ramy al-nushshab
. The discipline of furusiyya'' became increasingly detached from its origins in Byzantine veterinary medicine and more focussed on military arts.
Categories The three basic categories of furūsiyya are horsemanship, including
hippology and veterinary aspects of proper care for the horse, and the appropriate riding techniques,
mounted archery, and
jousting.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya adds
swordsmanship as a fourth discipline in his treatise
Al-Furūsiyya (1350). There are supposedly also treatises translated into Persian from Hindustani or Sanskrit. These include the by
Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn Ḥosaynī Hašemī (written 1520), and the by
Ṣadr-al-Dīn Moḥammad Khan b. Zebardast Khan (written 1722/3). == List of Furusiyyah treatises ==