(Arabic: فروسية; also transliterated as , knighthood) is an Arabic knightly discipline and ethical code developed in the Middle Ages. It was practised in the medieval Muslim world from Afghanistan to Muslim Spain, and particularly during the Crusades and the Mamluk period. The combat form uses martial arts and equestrianism as its foundation.
The term furūsiyya is a derivation of () "horse", and in Modern Standard Arabic means "equestrianism" in general. The term for "horseman" or "cavalier" ("knight") is (فارس),Daniel Coetzee, Lee W. Eysturlid, Philosophers of War: The Evolution of History's Greatest Military Thinkers (2013), p. 59, 60, 63. "Ibn Akhī Hizām" ("the son of the brother of Hizam", viz. a nephew of Hizam Ibn Ghalib, Abbasid commander in Khurasan, fl. 840). which is also the origin of the Spanish rank of alférez.Simon Barton, The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile, Cambridge (1997), 142–44. The Perso-Arabic term for "Furūsiyya literature" is or . is also described as a small encyclopedia about horses.
The three basic categories of furūsiyya are horsemanship, including veterinary aspects of proper care for the horse (hippology) and the proper riding techniques (equestrianism), mounted archery, and jousting. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya adds swordsmanship as a fourth discipline in his treatise Al-Furūsiyya (1350). Ibn Akhi Hizam also cited that there are three fundamentals to the furūsiyya: horse mastery, proficiency in handling all types of weapons, and bravery.
History Tradition
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 .Anne McCabe, A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine: The Sources, Compilation, and Transmission of the Hippiatrica (2007), p. 184, citing: A. I. Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement", History of Science 25 (1987), 223–243; M. Plessner in: Encyclopedia of Islam s.v. "bayṭar" (1960).
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"). Ibn al-Nadim in the late 10th century records the availability in Baghdad of several treatises on horses and veterinary medicine attributed to Greek authors.B. Dodge (tr.), The Fihrist of Al-Nadim (1970), 738f. (cited after McCabe (2007:184).
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.ed. and trans. Latham and Paterson, London 1970 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). Ibn Akhi Hizam also cited that there are three fundamentals to furūsiyya: horse mastery, proficiency in handling all types of weapons, and bravery.
Persian treatises Persian which can be dated with confidence are extant only from about the mid-14th century, but the tradition survives longer in Persia, throughout the Safavid era. One treatise by ʿAbd-Allāh Ṣafī, known as the a (written in 1407/8) is said to preserve a chapter from an otherwise lost 12th-century (Ghaznavid-era) text. There is a candidate for another treatise of this age, extant in a single manuscript: the treatise attributed to one Moḥammad b. Moḥammad b. Zangī, also known as Qayyem Nehāvandī, has been tentatively dated as originating in the 12th century. Some of the Persian treatises are translations from the Arabic. One short work, attributed to Aristotle, is a Persian translation from the Arabic.ed. Ḥasan Tājbaḵš, Tārīḵ-e dāmpezeškī wa pezeškī-e Īrān I, Tehran (1993), 414–428. 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). Texts thought to have been originally written in Persian include the by Moḥammad b. Moḥammad Wāseʿī (written 1365/6; Tehran, MS no. 5754). A partial listing of known Persian literature was published by Gordfarāmarzī (1987).ʿĀ. Solṭānī Gordfarāmarzī, ed., Do faras-nāma-ye manṯūr wa manẓūm, Tehran (1987).
List of Furusiyyah treatises The following is a list of known Furusiyyah treatises (after al-Sarraf 2004, al-Nashīrī 2007).
Some of the early treatises (9th to 10th centuries) are not extant and are only known from references by later authors: Al-Asma'i, (خيل "horse"), Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 894 / AH 281) , Al-Ṭabarānī (d. 971 / AH 360) , Al-Qarrāb (d. 1038 / AH 429), . AuthorDateTitleManuscripts / EditionsIbn Akhī Hizām (Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Ghālib ibn ʿAlī al-Khuttalī)fl. c. 900"Kitāb al-Furūsiyya wa-al-Bayṭarah" (or "Kitāb al-Furūsiyya wa-Shiyāt al-Khayl")Istanbul, Bayezit State Library, Veliyüddin Efendi MS 3174; British Library MS Add. 23416 (14th century); Istanbul, Fatih Mosque Library MS 3513 (added title "Al-Kamāl fī al-Furūsiyya...");Martin Heide (trans.), Das Buch der Hippiatrie, Kitāb al-Bayṭara, Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission 51.1-2, Harrassowitz (2008). Leiden, Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Khuttuli: Kitab al-furusiyya wa’l-baitara (Horsemanship and Veterinary Book). Leiden University Library manuscript Or. 299 (1), 1343.Al-Tarsusi (Marḍī ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭarsūsī)died 1193 / AH 589"Tabṣirat arbāb al-albāb fī kayfīyat al-najāt fī al-ḥurūb min al-anwā' wa-nashr aʿlām al-aʿlām fī al-ʿudad wa-al-ālāt al-muʿīnah ʿalá liqā' al-aʿdā'"Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Huntington 264Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Aḥnaf12th century"Kitāb al-bayṭara"Egyptian National Library and Archives, Khalil Agha F8 (dated 1209)Istanbul, Topkapı Library, TSMK, A. 2115 (dated 1210)Abū Aḥmad (Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn ‘Atīq al-Azdī)1223 / AH 620"Kitāb al-furūsiyya wa-l-bayṭarah" (an abbreviated version of Ibn Akhī Ḥizām's treatise)British Library Or 1523Al-Zahirī (Badr al-Dīn Baktūt al-Rammāḥ al-Khāzindārī al-Zahirī)13th century"Kitāb fī ʿIlm al-Furūsiyya wa-Laʿb al-Rumḥ wa-al-Birjās wa-ʿIlāj al-Khayl" (or "ʿIlm al-Furūsiyya wa-Siyāsat al-Khayl", "Al-Furūsiyya bi-rasm al-Jihād wa-mā aʿadda Allāh li 'l-Mujāhidīn min al-ʿIbād")Bibliothèque Nationale MS 2830 (fols. 2v.–72r.); ed. al-Mihrajān al-Waṭanī lil-Turāth wa-al-Thaqāfah, Riyadh (1986);