sign in sign up
<<
Home , Afrasiyab (Samarkand), Airborne (horse), Alexander Symonenko, Auxiliary armour (Japan), Barding, Battle of Lechfeld (910)

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School

2020

SYNCHRONY: AN ASPECT OF THE ABILITIES OF ARCHERS IN EURASIAN WARFARE (525 BCE – 1350 CE)

Chris Hanson University of Montana, Missoula

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd

Part of the Asian History Commons, Medieval History Commons, and the History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y

Recommended Citation Hanson, Chris, "SYNCHRONY: AN ASPECT OF THE ABILITIES OF STEPPE HORSE ARCHERS IN EURASIAN WARFARE (525 BCE – 1350 CE)" (2020). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11563. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11563

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected].

SYNCHRONY: AN ASPECT OF THE ABILITIES OF STEPPE HORSE ARCHERS IN

EURASIAN WARFARE (525 BCE – 1350 CE)

By

Christopher D. Hanson

B.A. Anthropology with and emphasis in Archaeology, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 2012 B.A. Central and Southwest Studies, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 2012

Thesis

presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in General Anthropology, Central and Southwest Asian Studies

The University of Montana Missoula, MT

Official Graduation Date May 2020

Approved by:

Scott Whittenburg, Dean of The Graduate School Graduate School

Dr. Riley C. Augé, Chair Anthropology / Archaeology

Dr. Kelly Dixon Anthropology / Archaeology

Dr. Bret Tobalske Division of Biological Sciences

ã COPYRIGHT

by

Chris Hanson

2020

All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents Abstract ...... iv Maps and the ...... v Steppe, Plateaus, Plains ...... vi Eurasian Steppe ...... vii Eurasian Sedentary Powers ...... viii Chronology of Steppe Nomads ...... ix

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter One: : Central Asia, Eurasian Steppe, and Road ...... 0

Chapter Two: Steppe Nomads and ...... 0

Chapter Three: Nomadic Warfare: Horse Archers of the Steppe ...... 0 Figure 1 Scythian bow ...... 0 Figure 2 Turkish style bow ...... 0 Figure 3 Mongolian style bow ...... 0 Diagrams 1-9 ...... 0

Chapter Four: Synchrony ferus caballus ...... 0 Figure 4 Horses ...... 0

Chapter Five: Emulation and Ethnocentrism ...... 0

Appendix A ...... 0 Appendix B ...... 0

Bibliography ...... 0

Hanson, Christopher, M.A., May 2020 General Anthropology

Synchrony: an aspect of the abilities of Steppe Horse Archers in Eurasian Warfare (525 BCE – 1350 CE)

Chairperson: Prof. Riley C. Augé

Animals moving in unison as a group are quite intriguing to observe. Horses can run across terrain and change directions without jostling each other. They appear to move as if they know how to avoid crashing into others and run fluidly through their environment. This ability to maneuver without hindering herd is called synchrony and also extends to other including fish in schools and birds in flocks. Humans, on the other , need to create orderly formations in battle to move without interfering with adjacent warriors. For example, the Romans, , , Chinese, and Byzantines trained their and formations in order to march them over great distances and to maneuver on the battlefield in an orderly fashion. Arabic sources depict elaborate formations that the mamlūk slave soldiers utilized in their training. These armies were urbanized or centralized. They did not fight or maneuver like the nomadic horsemen of the Eurasian Steppe. The nomads did not have drilled formations. Instead, they utilized an aspect of the horse, synchrony, to maneuver on the battlefield. Scholars have attempted to explain how the horse archers were able to act in unison, yet none have examined the cultural aspect of the horse as a herd . The significance of synchrony has been largely ignored due to anthropocentrism: the view that the domesticated horse, Equus ferus caballus, lacks agency and that only humans possess intrinsic knowledge of how to maneuver within a mass while mounted, especially on the battlefield. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the human-animal mutualism enacted by Eurasian Steppe horse archers. It is important to understand how the riders trained, controlled and interacted with the horses, but it is equally important to understand how the horses influenced the action of the riders through synchrony. Understanding the interactions of the nomads and Equus ferus caballus will help to move beyond the anthropocentric view and further our understanding of the Eurasian Steppe horse archers and the horse which will contribute to a greater knowledge of the past.

Map 1 - Central Asia and the Eurasian Steppe. Map created by author.

Map 2 - Steppe, Plains, and Plateaus. Map created by author.

Map 3 - Eurasian Steppe Nomads. Map created by author.

Map 4 - Sedentary Powers. Map created by author. Chronology of the major nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe

c. 4000 BCE ± 500 3rd – 5th centuries CE First indication of horse domestication in the Pontic raid and move into . Steppe west of the Mountains 4th – 5th centuries CE c. 3500 BCE - appear in then and move into Europe. First indications of warfare. -Metal slowly spreads from . c. 1500-1200 BCE 5th – 6th centuries CE Development of . Rise of the Göktürks and the establishment of the Turkish Khaganate in the Eastern Steppe. c. 1000 BCE th th Development of cavalry (horse archers) and the 6 – 7 centuries CE demise of the chariot in warfare. Avars move westward along the Eurasian Steppe introducing the high pommel and metal 7th century BCE to Europe. - (also called ) first appear in the Greek th th texts. 8 – 11 centuries -Donghu first appear in the Chinese texts. Uighur Khaganate in eastern Steppe.

6th century BCE 9th – 11th centuries Sarmatian begin to move into the Pontic Steppe Various Turkish tribes (Kirgiz, Kazakh, Oghuz, from the east, slowly displacing the Scythians over Ghuzz, Qipchaq, and Seljuq) move westward into the several centuries. Central Steppe and Central Asia pushing other nomadic peoples toward the western Steppe. 3rd century BCE th - appear in the historical records of the 9 century CE Chinese. Magyars invade . -Parthians defeat the Seleucids, a successor state of and rule Central Asia. 10th century CE raid Byzantine . 2nd century BCE -Xiongnu defeat and disperse the Donghu, many 11th century CE migrate westwards. -Seljuq Turks establish their in Central Asia, -Xiongnu also defeat the , some migrate west south of the River from in of the and others south towards the east to in the west. forming the (30-375 CE). -The Qipchaq (also known as Cuman - western Qipchaqs, and Qangli - eastern Qipchaqs) Turks 1st century BCE – beginning of 3rd establish loose in the Central Steppe. century CE Rome – Parthian Wars. In 53 BCE the Parthians 13th century CE defeat the Romans at the – the The unify and erupt out of the Eastern battle from which the term “” was Steppe. They conquer or defeat all of the nomads in coined. all three Steppe zones and establish the Ikh Monggol Uls (The Great Mongol State). Late 2nd century – 1st century BCE Han – Xiongnu wars. 14th century CE Demise of the four Mongol Ulus states (, Il- of Iran, ,

Introduction

The study of the Eurasian Steppe nomads has been the domain of historians; however, in the past two decades some anthropologists have begun to take interest.1 A great deal of anthropology focusses on modern cultural groups to study their learned behavior and belief systems; this same principle is also valid when studying the Eurasian Steppe nomads of the past.

By examining the cultural practices of the nomads, scholars can learn how the nomads were able to exert power over their sedentary neighbors via their interactions with their own horses, which identified them as a distinct group that had significant advantages over other cultural groups.2

Conflict between the Eurasian Steppe nomads, organized as mounted horse archers, and their sedentary neighbors took place over several centuries from around 500 BCE to 1350 CE.

Conflict was a cultural strategy of the nomads to extort their sedentary neighbors in order to obtain resources such as silk, tea and metals, control trade routes, and in some cases conquer territory. Conflict was also important for their cultural preservation, for themselves and for their herds of animals, especially the horse. This thesis will examine the Eurasian Steppe nomads most important commodity, the horse, and what the nomads learned from the animal to wage conflict against their sedentary neighbors.

How was it that the Eurasian Steppe nomads were able to successfully defeat their southern sedentary neighbors on the field of battle on a consistent basis? This fundamental question in this thesis is used to examine some of the most important elements of Eurasian

1 Jack Weatherford and Thomas Barfield are two examples. Weatherford, Jack. Genghis and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Broadway Books, 2005.; Barfield, Thomas. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic and China, 221 BC to AD 1757. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1992. 2 “The reason why our enemies to the north and west are able to withstand China is precisely because they have many horses and their men are adept at riding; this is their strength. China has few horses, and its men are not accustomed to riding; this is China’s weakness”. Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.667.

Steppe warfare, especially synchrony (doing what others are doing),3 an aspect not explored by other scholars studying nomadic horse archers. The purpose of the thesis is to move beyond an anthropocentric view that privileges human agency by examining the horse as an agent, recognizing the human-horse interaction within the Steppe ecology,4 and how the were able to utilize the aspect of synchrony.

Synchrony offers the ability to move in a group as a single entity without jostling others within the group. The nomadic horse archers of the Eurasian Steppe figured out how horses can move in mass without having to learn drilled choreographed formations like those used by their sedentary agrarian neighbors to the south. Beginning with the Scythians around the 6th century

BCE to the culmination of the Mongols in the 14th century CE, the Steppe nomads of Central

Asia were masters at horsemanship and on the battlefield. The domesticated horse,

Equus ferus caballus, played a major role in their life, it was a status symbol of wealth, a commodity for trade, and it allowed them to conduct raids or wage warfare on a vast scale.

Understanding how the horses interacted as a collective will help explain how the horse archers were so effective on the battlefield. This knowledge elucidates the mechanisms of a dynamic form of warfare of the nomadic of the Steppe horse archers. To develop an understanding of synchrony, this thesis will examine the collective behavior of animals, which has been studied in biology and ethology, the empirical and objective study of animal behavior in the natural environment. In addition, literature from primary sources that describe how the nomads fought as horse archers was used. Secondary sources were used to integrate current scholarship with synchrony. Furthermore, archaeological literature was explored to examine the material

3 Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017, p.57. 4 Kirksey, S. E., and Stefan Helmreich. "The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography." 25, no. 4 (2010), p.546.; Boyd, Brian. "Archaeology and Human–Animal Relations: Thinking Through Anthropocentrism." Annual Review of Anthropology 46, no. 1 (2017), p.299-316.

used by the nomadic horse archers of the Eurasian Steppe.

A great deal of effort has been put into studying how horse archers maneuvered on the battlefield. Various training methods such as the great hunt and equestrian games conducted by the nomads have been examined trying to explain why they were so successful against the seemingly better trained and well equipped armies to the south. Scholars have combed through the records of the Chinese, Byzantines, Romans, Europeans, Persians, and the looking for descriptions of horse archers in action. Denis Sinor, professor of Central Asian Studies at

Indiana University, stated “Much has been written, albeit rather superficially, on the cavalry tactics used by the great armies”.5 Several scholarly studies have attempted to explain how the horse archers were able to act in unison, yet the ethological aspect of the horse as a herd animal has been largely un-investigated.6 As a result, the significance of synchrony has been ignored or most likely, unknown. Because Equus ferus caballus was a ubiquitous element in

Eurasian Steppe warfare, it is important to understand how the rider trained, controlled and interacted with the horse, but it is equally important, for those studying the Eurasian Steppe nomads, to understand how the horses influenced the action of the riders through synchrony.

The conflict between the Crusaders, the Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt, and the Mongols has captivated my interest, especially the military conflict. Studying the warfare between the three belligerents poses a significant challenge. Reuven Amitai has pointed out there is very little study on the of the Mongols in Iran.7 Several scholars including Timothy

5 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.171. 6 “The subject of nomadic Steppe warfare is narrow enough that no general work of any depth seems to have been written exclusively on this topic apart from Hildinger 1997”. Hildinger, Erik. "Steppe Nomadic Warfare." Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2013. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0119. 7 Professor Amitai made this point during a presentation pertaining to his PhD work on the Mongol- conflict in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

May,8 David Nicolle,9 and Witold Świętosławski10 have written about the training, weaponry and tactics of the horse archers as well as the individual capability of the horse archer. Many historical studies focus on the warfare11, while archaeological studies focus on the equipment,12 and anthropological studies emphasize the relationships between the nomads and their southern neighbors.13 However, when it comes to historical, archaeological, or anthropological studies very few consider the horse as an interacting agent.14 A key point to bear in mind is, understanding the behavior of the individual in isolation does not necessarily provide information about the properties of that fundamental unit [horse and rider] within a collective situation, where interactions may determine much of the group dynamics.15 There is a growing interest in including fresh ways to understand how the nomadic peoples of the Steppe integrated the horse and how it had an indirect influence on the warriors.16 The most significant factor the horse played in nomadic warfare was synchrony. The study of synchrony and the Mongols, as well as other Steppe nomads such as the Seljuq Turks (11th – 13th centuries CE), is a start to a greater understanding of the military history of the -Mamlūk-Mongol conflict.

8 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007. New York: Random House, 2012.; May, Timothy. "The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre- Modern Period." The Journal of Military History 70, no. 3 (2006), 617-635. 9 Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume II: , Mongols and the Struggle against the . Academic, 2007.; Nicolle, David. Medieval Warfare Source Book: Christian Europe and Its Neighbor. Arms & , 1996. 10 Świętosławski, Witold. Arms and Armour of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Times of the Mongol Expansion (12th-14th Centuries). Akanthina, 1999. 11 Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. New York: Knopf, 1993.; Hildinger, Erik. Warriors of the Steppe: A Military , 500 B.C. to 1700 A.D. Spellmount, Publishers, 1997. 12 Świętosławski, Witold. "A Confrontation Between Two Worlds. The Arms and Armour of Central European and Mongol Forces in the first half of the Thirteenth Century." Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae, FASC. XIX (2006), 59-66. 13 Barfield, Thomas. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757. Hoboken: Wiley- Blackwell, 1992. 14 Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Anthropologist Pita Kelekna’s book focusses on the politico-military and economic importance of the horse 15 Couzin, Iain D., and Jens Krause. "Self-Organization and Collective Behavior in Vertebrates." Advances in the Study of Behavior, 2003, p.6. 16 Barfield, Thomas, et al. "Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient : Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives." Lecture, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, March 7, 2008.

The concept of synchrony is something that I learned about when learning archery and observing those practicing .17 Horse trainers have been using the term synchronization to emphasize to their students that they need to become one with the horse; to do what the horse is doing. Lucy Rees, the leading ethologist on the study of horses in the natural environment, uses the term synchrony to explain how the animals are able to move within a mass without jostling each other.18 After reading through her sources, I contacted Lucy for additional information. She explained that she would like to see someone write about the Steppe Nomads and how they utilized synchrony as mounted archers in warfare. Since there is no source that incorporates synchrony into nomadic warfare of the Eurasian Steppe nomads, I decided to use it as the bases of this thesis.

The methodology used for this thesis is an amalgamation of multiple disciplines. My goal was to examine the various sources and combine them into a cohesive narrative to gain a greater understanding of how it was that the nomadic horse archers of the Eurasian Steppe were able to overcome their neighbors to the south. My analysis is based on close reading of historical accounts given by contemporaries who wrote about the Steppe nomads and later observations from ethologists. With that knowledge, I used critical analysis to understand and convey how it was the Steppe Nomads were able to use the horse on the battlefield without learning drilled choreographed formations so commonly used by the Romans, Greeks, Macedonians,19

17 Living in Montana has given me the opportunity to spend time with members who compete in O-mok-see tournaments, those who practice and compete in horse archery, and observe Blackfeet competing in local horse races. Many of these people explained how to control the horse when riding without using reins and the purpose of various pieces of . The experience of handling the bow and learning basic riding skills has helped to understand what it takes to become a competent archer and to understand the sources used for this thesis. 18 Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017. 19 Warry, John G. Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome. 1995. Warry’s book has excellent examples of explaining how the Classical World (Rome and Greece) used drilled formations in battle.

Byzantines,20 Mamlūks and Chinese.21 Quotes from various sources were used to emphasize concepts and imageries; they were not cherry picked to create a forced narrative of synchrony.

To maintain a methodological balance, historical material and other sources such as archaeology, anthropology, ethology, and biology were used to assemble the framework to put everything into the anthropological and historical context.

Historical primary sources were used to examine how the horse archers of the Steppe fought. Although there is a paucity of primary historical sources and anthropological studies of

Eurasian Steppe warfare for any given time period of the Steppe, there is enough information to support this thesis. The same holds true with archaeologists, such as Gala Argent who examine the relationship between horses and humans.22 The lack of material pertains to the specific information that modern scholars desire in order to understand details. Contemporary writers of the past did not take into account what future scholars would like to read. Just like authors today, they had their own agendas and wrote about what they thought was significant and important. The information is fragmented and written in many different languages including

Greek, Chinese, Persian, , and Arabic.

Secondary sources from other scholars who have conducted research on specific topics were also used. Their information provided historical, religious, and geographical data for chapters one and two. Scholarly work on the military history of the Steppe nomads was used to supplement the primary sources. The sources provide the reader with the necessary information to understand how the nomads utilized the horse. Many secondary sources were written by those

20 Dennis, George T. Three Byzantine Military Treatises. Dumbarton Oaks, 2008. The Byzantines saw themselves as Romans and continued the writing of military manuals. 21 See Graff, David. Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900. London: Routledge, 2003., and Lorge, Peter. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795. London: Routledge, 2006., for additional details on Chinese warfare. 22 Argent, Gala. "Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal Communication, Corporeal Synchrony, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses." In Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-human Encounters, edited by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell, 111-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

who specialize in certain topics such as religion, military history, and weaponry. Their material has made it possible to carry out further research for this thesis; they provided the sources and analysis needed to create a foundation for further .

Archaeological excavations of burial mounds in Central Asia and the Eurasian Steppe provided the information for the cultural material artifacts that are ubiquitous to the Steppe horse archers. Equipment such as the bow and , , stirrups and bits as well as burial practices of the nomads were examined to help explain what the nomads used to enable them to utilize the horse on the battlefield. A great deal of anthropological literature prefers the theoretical framework for writing, however, this is not the case for those researching the past of the Eurasian Steppe nomads. Some of the writing from anthropology is a historical narrative account coupled with the author’s analysis, especially when it comes to Steppe warfare and emphasizes theory when it comes to explaining Steppe nomadic state building.23

Anthropological research has avoided the pitfall of viewing the nomads as nothing but a destructive invading force bent on raiding and destroying; however, there is a lack of interest towards military tactics and incorporating the horse as an agent, which is a significant weakness as a source for this thesis.

The scientific data came from various sources. Genetics examining the horse bones excavated by archaeologists provided information on dating for horse domestication. Biologists studying the movements of birds, fish and ungulates provided explanations as to how large numbers of animals can synchronize their movement without interfering with those next to them.

23 Jack Weatherford’s first book on the Mongols is a good example for the lack of theory. Weatherford, Jack. and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Broadway Books, 2005.; A good example for the use of theory is Honeychurch’s paper on Mongolian state building. Honeychurch, William. "The Nomad as State Builder: Historical Theory and Material Evidence from ." Journal of World Prehistory 26, no. 4 (2013), p.283-321.; see also Turchin, Peter. "A theory for formation of large empires." Journal of Global History 4, no. 2 (2009), p.191-217.

Computer programmers have written programs to model the movement of animals en mass.

Their applications helped to provide a model to create synchrony in action. Ethologists, researchers of animal behavior, studying the movement of horses within a herd provide information concerning how horses learn to move in synchrony. All these sources have been used in various chapters of this thesis.

The first chapter pertains to geography and trade routes. The Eurasian is the largest land mass on the planet. The names of rivers, , mountains, oases, lakes, and natural terrain have changed over the centuries making it confusing for anyone researching the . In addition human-made structures such as cities, fortresses, villages, religious monuments, and regional areas have also been called by different names. For example, the city of Samarqand used to be called Marakanda by the Greeks and by Sogdians. In some cases cities and villages were destroyed and abandoned due to warfare, natural disaster such as earthquakes and floods, or epidemics. Some were repopulated and renamed while others remained deserted only to be rediscovered by modern scholars such as (1862-1943) and (1865-1952).24 The names of places or topographical features in this thesis will be those that are more commonly used in secondary sources in order to help maintain consistency and avoid confusion.

The trade routes in the region are known by the title “.” One of the most important factors in the development of the trade routes was the domestication of the horse, which allowed people to travel greater distances. The trade routes not only spanned an east-west direction, they also spanned a north-south direction. Many of these passages have been referred to as the Steppe Routes. Collectively the routes can be referred to as the battle roads due to

24 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B., 2012, p.9, 207.

centuries of conflict between the nomadic horsemen from the north and the agrarian peoples to the south. Without the horse, which was used for traction, transportation, and a mount for fighting, the trade routes would never have been as extensive as they were.

The second chapter pertains to the peoples of the Steppe and Central Asia. The history of these people has been explored in a variety of texts. Numerous nomadic , empires, dynasties and kingdoms have risen and fallen in the past 2,500 years. Not all will be mentioned because there are simply too many. To incorporate all the peoples of the Steppe into a narrative history would result in hundreds of pages as in Empires of the Steppe by a French historian, René Grousset (d. 1952).25 That book covers several centuries spanning from approximately 1000 BCE to the late 19th century. It is extensive in terms of timeline, but the overall aspect is limited in detail due to the long time period the author covered. Grousset’s attempt to give a chronological history of the Steppe was a monumental in his time.

Stuart Legg wrote a shorter book titled The of Asia: the Peoples of the from

1600 B.C.26 Legg’s work is very noteworthy, however, the title places the reader into the mode of being the outsider and viewing the people in the book as barbarians. Peter Golden has written extensively about the nomads of the Steppe, and he created a high standard for studying the people of the region. His article, “War and Warfare in the Pre-Činggisid Western Steppes of

Eurasia,”27 provides a wealth of information concerning the lesser known peoples of the Steppe.

Christopher Beckwith’s book, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central from the

Bronze Age to the Present,28 is a great addition to studying the region. The Russian scholar

25 Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Chicago: Rutgers University Press, 1970. 26 Legg, Stuart. The Barbarians of Asia: the Peoples of the Steppes from 1600 B.C. Marboro Books, 1990. 27 Cosmo, Nicola D. Warfare in Inner Asian History (500-1800). Leiden: BRILL, 2001, p.1-29. 28 Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Vasily Barthold wrote two important books, Down to the Mongol Invasion and Four

Studies on the History of Central Asia,29 that are valuable secondary sources. Barthold had the ability to combine and synthesize historical research with the archaeological data of Russian archaeologists of his era. Nicola Cosmo, author of Ancient China and Its Enemies and

Warfare in Inner Asia, provides thought provoking information regarding the effects of climate on nomadic warfare. Other scholars, such as Morris Rossabi30 and David Morgan,31 provide historical information from multiple primary sources. Anthropologist Jack Weatherford’s

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World32 focusses primarily on the rise of the

Mongols, and Thomas Barfield’s The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 175733 focusses on the relationships between the nomads and the sedentary peoples.

Archaeologists such as Valerii P. Nikonorov have shorter accounts focusing on the cultural material, art, and carvings to examine how the nomads conducted warfare.34 Other

Russian archaeologists, such as Kemal Akishev, and Natalia Polosmak, excavated nomadic burial mounds called Kurghans. Akishev discovered the Golden Man (also called Altyn Adam), a young nomadic buried with his suit of made of gold now on display at the Kazakh National Museum.35 Rudenko unearthed horses and their tack as well as a body in good condition that still exhibited tattooing. Natalia’s most spectacular find

29 Bartold, Vasilii V. Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1977.; and Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Brill Archive, 1962. 30 Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Oakland: University of California Press, 1988. 31 Morgan, David. The Mongols. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1991. 32 Weatherford, J. M. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Broadway Books, 2004. 33 Barfield, Thomas. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757. Hoboken: Wiley- Blackwell, 1992. 34 Nikonorov, Valerii P. The Armies of 700 BC - 450 AD (volume-2). Stockport: Montvert Publications, 1997. Professor Nikonorov presented several talks about Huns at the University of Montana. He focused on the equipment, and especially the early use of the leather stirrup. 35 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.206.

was the ice maiden who was well preserved due to the frozen permafrost and six horses that had been buried with her. Rudenko and Polosmak’s discoveries were part of the Pazyryk tombs located in the Altai Mountains of bordering , China and Mongolia.

Archaeological papers have been written describing the artifacts found in burial graves, however, very little theoretical writing has taken place by archaeologists. Placing the excavations into the greater historical context, anthropologist David Anthony has implemented theory into his writings, which focus on the domestication of the horse and the early nomads of the Eurasian

Steppe.36

Translated primary sources came from several contemporary writers spanning from

Greece to China. The Greek historian, (c. 484 – 425 BCE) wrote about the Scythians

(7th century to the 3rd century BCE) who lived along the coast north of the

Mountains in modern day and .37 The Chinese historian (c. 145 –

86 BC) wrote about the Xiongnu (3rd century BCE to the late 1st century CE) who lived in Inner

Mongolia, now part of modern-day China, and what is now the country of Mongolia.38 In the

11th century CE (b. 1083, d.1153) wrote about the nomads, such as the

Pechenegs (9th through 11th centuries CE) and Seljuq Turks (11th century CE) who were at conflict with the during her lifetime.39 Several Crusader accounts, such as the

Gesta Francorum (Deeds of the , c. 1100 CE)40 described how the Turks fought. In the

13th century, Friar Plano di Carpini traveled to the Mongol capital of Qaraqorum as an envoy of

36 Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. 37 Herodotus. The Histories. edited by Paul Cartledge. Translated by Tom Holland. Viking, 2014. 38 Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: . Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 39 Komnene, Anna. The Alexiad. edited by Peter Frankopan. Translated by E. R. Sewter. London: Penguin UK, 2009. 40 Anonymous. Gesta Francorum Et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. Translated by Rosalind Hill. New York: , 1962.

the papacy in Rome.41 During his travels he described their customs and belief systems as well as how the Mongols were equipped and their way of fighting. The famous European traveler,

Marco who traveled to China between 1271 and 1295, documented what he observed about the Mongols.42 Various Arabic sources such Ibn Fadlan (d. 960 CE),43 Ibn al-Athir (d.

1232/1233 CE),44 and Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406)45 provide information about the Turks and

Mongols. Two famous Persian writers, Ata Malik Juvaini (1226–1283 CE)46 and Rashīd al-Dīn

Tabīb (1247–1318),47 provide valuable information about the history of the Mongols. The history of the people cannot be fully considered without full exploration of the role of horses and warfare, which is the subject of the next chapter.

Chapter three focuses on the warfare of the horse archers of the Eurasian Steppe. The study of how the Steppe nomads waged war has received some attention. Unfortunately, it hasn’t received the same detailed attention as the warfare of the Roman and Greeks. John

Keegan’s famous book, A History of Warfare,48 gives only a brief overview of various aspects concerning nomadic warfare. The literature in the book that pertains to the nomads lacks in detailed information compared to accounts of European warfare. It is only in the past few decades that nomadic warfare has been given similar consideration. Steppe nomadic warfare

41 Giovanni, Carpini. Historia Mongalorum Quos Nos Tartaros Appellamus. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Branden Books, 1996. 42 Polo, Marco, Sir H. , and Henri Cordier. The Travels of : The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition: Including the Unabridged Third Edition (1903) of Henry Yule's Annotated Translation, as Revised by Henri Cordier, Together with Cordier's Later Volume of Notes and Addenda (1920). North Chelmsford: Courier Corporation, 1993. 43 Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. London: Penguin UK, 2012. 44 Al-Athīr, ʻIzz A. The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from Al-Kāmil Fīʼl-taʼrīkh. Pt. 1. The years 491-541/1097-1146: the coming of the Franks and the Muslim Response. Translated by D. S. Richards. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006. 45 , N. J. Dawood, and Bruce Lawrence. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History - Abridged Edition / Edition 1. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton University Press, 2004. 46 Juvaini, Ata-Malik, and David Morgan. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Translated by John A. Boyle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. 47 Barthold, V. V. Four Studies on the History of Central Asia, Volume I, II, III. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1956. 48 Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. New York: Knopf, 1993.

was not considered an art nor did it share the image of a drilled army equipped with elaborate weapons and armour. For years Charles ’s in the was considered the standard authoritative literature on the topic of Medieval warfare.49 Scholars such as J. F. Verbruggen have challenged many of the misled notions seeking to have a greater and more accurate understanding of medieval warfare in Europe.50 In more recent years, the

Crusades (1096 to 1291 CE) and the Byzantium wars against the Seljuq Turks (11th to 13th centuries CE) have become much more popular and have been examined in detail within the academic . Scholars, including R.C. Smail, Christopher Marshall, and John have extended our knowledge of how the Crusaders fought against the Turks, Ayyubids (1071 to

1250 CE), and the Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt (1250 to 1517 CE).51 Their research comes from the study of European manuscripts, artwork such as carvings, paintings, military manuals, and archaeological finds.

Warfare outside of Europe, especially the and Central Asia has drawn comparatively little attention, with the exception of the Mongol invasions of the 12th and 13th centuries CE. As mentioned above, there is very little military history research in this area with the exception of David Ayalon who focused on the non-Europeans such as the Ayyubids and the

Mamlūk Sultanate.52 Early research suffered from misconceptions, romance, the perceptions of otherness, and disdain for “oriental warfare.” In short, Patrick Porter has labelled these issues as

Military Orientalism, building on Edward Sa’id’s theme of the way the west has a distorted

49 Oman, Charles. The Art of War in the Middle Ages, A.D. 378-1515. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953. 50 Verbruggen, J. F. The Art of Warfare in During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 1997. 51 Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare 1097-1193. Barnes & Books, 1995.; Marshall, Christopher. Warfare in the Latin East, 1192-1291. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.; France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1999. 52 Ayalon, David. "Aspects of the Mamlūk Phenomenon Pt. 1." Der 53, no. 2 (1976), 196-225.; "Aspects of the Mamlūk Phenomenon Pt. 2." Der Islam 54, no. 1 (January 1977), 1-32. Prof. Amitai has made this point during a conference.

American-European centric view of the rest of humanity.53

Military historian David Nicole has written about Medieval European, Byzantine,

Crusader, Mamlūk, and Steppe warfare.54 His material about tactics, logistics, armour, and weapons has been invaluable. Nicolle bases much of his prolific writings on his research at museums in Europe and the Middle East, archaeological excavations, and military manuals such as Vegetius’ De re Militari (a Roman writer in the late 4th CE), the Tactica of Nikephoros (a

Byzantine general, circa 1000 CE), and Umar ibn Ibrahim’s A Muslim Manual of War (an Arabic writing in Egypt, 1399-1411 CE).55 He has conducted experimental research on how various arms and armour were used and their effectiveness. The nomads did not leave any record concerning archery. However, several treatises have been written by their agrarian neighbors to the south that are vital for anyone studying archery in the era of the Steppe Nomads. Saracen

Archery: an English Version and Exposition of a Mamluke Work on Archery (ca A.D. 1368) by

J.D. Latham and W.F. Paterson,56 and Arab Archery, An Arabic Manuscript Of About A.D. 1500:

A Book On The Excellence Of The And The Description Thereof by Nabih Amin

Faris and Robert Potter Elmer57 are two Arabic Furūsiyya mamlūk sources. The Way of Archery:

A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual by Jie and Ma is used by modern archers

53 Porter, Patrick. Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes. Oxford: Oxford University Press (UK), 2013. 54 Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume II: Muslims, Mongols and the Struggle against the Crusades. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007. 55 Renatus, Flavius V. Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science. Translated by N. P. Milner. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996.; Dennis, George T. Three Byzantine Military Treatises. Dumbarton Oaks Pub Service, 2009.; Al-Anṣārī, ʻUmar ibn Abrahim. A Muslim Manual of War: Being Tafrij Al-karūb Fī Tadbīr Al-hurub. Translated by George Scanlon. 1961. 56 Latham, John D. Saracen Archery: An English Version and Exposition of a Work on Archery (ca. A.D. 1368). 1970. 57 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and Arrow and the Description Thereof. Translated by Robert P. Elmer and Nabi A. Faris. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010.

studying ancient .58 Mike Loades, a popular military historian, has also written about Steppe warfare and has provided valuable information concerning the equipment used by the nomads.59 Much of his research is based on experimental archaeology and the reconstruction of weaponry and armament used in the past.

Several authors have written articles that have been particularly valuable in my research.

Timothy May’s “Training of an Inner Asian Warrior”, “The Mongol Art of War and the Tsunami

Strategy”, and The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System focus on

Mongolian warfare.60 May is one of the leading experts on nomadic warfare during the medieval periods. Com Rea’s Mongol Warfare: Strategy, Tactics, Logistics, and More and Carl Frederik

Sverdrup’s The Mongol Conquests: The military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube’tei are worth reading, but do not provide a great deal of information beyond May’s book.61 Witold

Swietoslawski’s Arms and Armour of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Times of the Mongol

Expansion provides information and depictions of the armour and weapons used by various nomads in the 12th through 14th centuries.62 For a general overview of nomadic warfare Erik

Hildinger published Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History Of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to

1700 A.D.63 Although all the sources acknowledge the importance of the horse, none mention an

58 Tian, Jie, and Justin Ma. The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual. Schiffer Military History, 2015. 59 Loades, Mike. War Bows: , , composite bow and Japanese . London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019. 60 May, Timothy. "The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre-Modern Period." The Journal of Military History 70, no. 3 (2006), 617-635.; "The Mongol Art of War and the Tsunami Strategy." Golden Horde Civlization 8 (2015), 31-37.; The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007. New York: Random House, 2012. 61 Rea, Cam. Mongol Warfare: Strategy, Tactics, Logistics, and More!. Scotts Valley: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. ; Sverdrup, Carl F. The Mongol Conquests: The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei. 2016. 62 Świętosławski, Witold. Arms and Armour of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Times of the Mongol Expansion (12th-14th Centuries). Akanthina, 1999. 63 Hildinger, Erik. Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to 1700 A.D. Spellmount, Publishers, 1997.

important aspect of what the nomads learned – synchrony – the focus of the next chapter.

Chapter four focusses on what many military historians and experimental archaeologists have not elaborated on – synchrony. Even anthropologist Pita Kelekna’s monumental book, The

Horse in Human History, makes no reference to it. Nevertheless, her publication is valuable for anyone studying the Steppe nomads on the Eurasian continent. Understanding the horse as a herd animal was something the nomads learned over a long period of time. Synchrony is not a single aspect of the herd; cohesion and collective movement are two components that will also be discussed. In addition, the Steppe nomads understanding of the horse was an evolutionary process from the time of domestication, learning how to ride the horse, using it for raiding, and then using it in cavalry formations of horse archers. It began when the peoples of the Bronze

(3000 to 1200 BCE) and Age (1200 to 500 BCE) began to hunt and tame the horse for resources. Therefore, the chapter will begin with the domestication of the horse. Archaeologists have been examining early nomadic camps to determine who domesticated Equus ferus caballus.

Domestication and learning to ride were the first steps towards the understanding how to utilize the horse as a herd animal in warfare. The nomads learned many things about the horse such as selective breeding, husbandry, the idiosyncrasies of when horses should be allowed to graze and when not, and how the animal interacted within the herd. One of the most valuable aspects the nomads learned about the horse was synchrony and how to utilize it to their advantage when fighting their sedentary neighbors.

Biologists have used synchrony to explain how birds and fish are able to move within a mass without disrupting the movement of those around them. Herds of animals such as sheep, cattle, and goats on the Eurasian continent utilize synchrony when they move from pasture to pasture. In , herds of buffalo, gazelles, and travel in very large herds during the

annual migrations. The ability to move within the herd and not jostle or disrupt the group is not an innate behavior; the animals must learn. The examination of synchrony and horses comes from ethologists Lucy Rees and archaeologist Gala Argent. Rees has traveled the world examining , within a herd, in Mongolia, and Venezuela. Two of her books – The Horse’s Mind and Horses in Company – are extremely valuable when it comes to understanding synchrony; as she points out, synchrony is the highest aim of any kind of horsemanship.64 Gala Argent acknowledges the importance of synchrony.65 She examines the relationship between humans and horses, specifically through anthropocentrism of the Pazyryk burial found in the Altai Mountains dating to the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Both were instrumental in helping me understand synchrony.

Chapter five, the final chapter, draws conclusion from my analysis as to what the nomads learned about synchrony. For centuries the nomadic horse archers of the Steppe proved excellent warriors. Their way of life required every person to learn how to ride a horse and use the bow and arrow at a very young age. This has given credence that every adult male was prepared for raiding and military campaigns. Rarely were Steppe nomads able to conquer any of the agrarian

/ sedentary neighbors to their south due to lack of numbers (the nomadic populations were smaller than their neighbors), unification, and military technology with the exception of the

Seljuq Turks and the Mongols. On the battlefield the nomadic horse archers were adept and extremely difficult to defeat. Several realms tried to develop their own horse archers; yet, they were never able to emulate the abilities of the horse lords on the Eurasian Steppe.

64 Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017.; The Horse's Mind. Arco, 1985. Personal communication. Rees, Lucy. email. May 18, 2013. She has posted this comment in a video on her Facebook page. 65 Argent, Gala. "Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal Communication, Corporeal Synchrony, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses." In Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters, edited by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell, 111-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

In the 13th through 16th centuries the Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt and created an army of horse archers. The creation led to an equestrian culture, called Furūsiyya, similar to

Medieval Europe’s code of .66 The corps of soldiers was former nomads from the

Steppe and was considered cavalry par excellence.67 They were extremely effective troops who excelled in archery, horsemanship, close-in-combat with swords and , and drilled cavalry formations. Nevertheless, they could not emulate the synchrony of the nomad horse archers. The reason for this will be explained in this chapter. In addition, the chapter will also examine the issue of anthropocentricism that refers to humans being the only with the innate knowledge to teach another, especially Equus ferus callabus.68

Before moving forward the issue of dating needs to be addressed. First, BCE (Before the

Common Era) and CE (the Era) will be used instead of BC (Before Christ) and AD

(Anno Domino). The later tends to refer to a Christian orientated theme which does not wholly apply to the Eurasian nomadic narrative. Second, the two terms of ancient and medieval will be used to correspond roughly to 3000 BCE to 500 CE for the former and 500 CE to 1500 CE for the latter. While some may not like the term medieval, implying it references the middle ages of

Europe, it has become more wide spread in various literature, written for a western audience, about the historical events that took place on the Eurasian Continent. The two terms are not perfect, yet they are useful when exact time frames are not needed.

66 Smith, Gerald R. Medieval Muslim Horsemanship: A Fourteenth-Century Arabic Cavalry Manual. London: The British Library, 1979. 67 Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), 307-345. 68 Boyd, Brian. "Archaeology and Human–Animal Relations: Thinking Through Anthropocentrism." Annual Review of Anthropology 46, no. 1 (2017), 299.; McNab, Keelin. "Anthropocentrism: Are Humans the Centre of Existence?" Peace Research 34, no. 1 (May 2002), 113.; To be clear, anthropocentrism in this thesis does not refer to environmental ethics, ecocentrism, speciism, or human chauvinism. For additional information regarding these issues see: Hayward, Tim. "Anthropocentrism: A Misunderstood Problem." Environmental Values 6, no. 1 (1997), 49-63.; Kopnina, Helen, Haydn Washington, Bron Taylor, and John J Piccolo. "Anthropocentrism: More than Just a Misunderstood Problem." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31, no. 1 (2018), 109-127.

Another topic that needs to be addressed is . To be clear, horse breed is irrelevant when it comes to synchrony. All horses can learn synchrony with other horse if they are allowed to roam in the open within a herd. While some readers may want to know what breed the nomadic Steppe horsemen or the sedentary neighbors to the south used, the study of the topics is beyond the scope of this thesis; furthermore, there is a lack of specific evidence to determine the breeds. Research is being conducted; however, it is extremely difficult to determine the horse breeds of the past due to the extensive amount of selective and crossbreeding within the last three hundred years which has created over 350 different breeds in the modern era. In a recent study researches examined the Y chromosome of fifty-seven modern breeds, a fairly small sample size, and found two major lineages; the Arabian and the Akhel-Teki (also known as the Turkoman).69 In addition, there is the factor of in which horses have been kept in relative isolation and not mixed with other breeds. The is considered a landrace with its unimproved characteristics, yet research, examining the mtDNA, indicates it was influential, via crossbreeding, in the spread across Eurasia and the development of modern breeds.70 The Kazakh horse is a breed that would seem to appear as a landrace, however, it has been crossbred with the Mongolian and other breeds.71

Another issue is horses were generally referred to where they came from. For example, the Nisaean horse, prized by the Greeks and Iranians speaking peoples, was names from the region from where it came from, the Nisaean Plain in modern day Iran. To complicate the

69 Wallner, Barbara, Nicola Palmieri, Claus Vogl, Doris Rigler, Elif Bozlak, Thomas Druml, Vidhya Jagannathan, et al. "Y Chromosome Uncovers the Recent Oriental Origin of Modern ." Current Biology 27, no. 13 (2017), p.2029-2035. 70 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. : University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.126-128.; Petersen, Jessica L., James R. Mickelson, E. Gus. Cothran, Lisa S. Andersson, et al. "Genetic Diversity in the Modern Horse Illustrated from Genome-Wide SNP Data." PLOS ONE 8, no. 1 (January 2013), e54997. 71 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.126.

matter, the Chinese and Soghdians cherished the blood sweeting horse from the Ferghana Valley region of Central Asia. The Nisaean and Ferghana horse are believed to be the same; the

Chinese called it Tian Ma, heavenly horse, and the Greeks called it Nisean.72 The horse is believed to gone extinct, or at least the last recorded confirmation of live horses, in 1204 in

Constantinople, during the Fourth Crusade.73 The modern day Akhal (also called

Turkoman) is believed to be the descendent of the Nisaean / Ferghana horse. Another example of a horse referred to by location is the Arabian which traces its roots to the Arabian region of modern day and eastern Iran. Adding to the dilemma of pedigree, written records were not used, although, oral traditions were used by some peoples, especially with the Arabs who can trace the to the beginning of the Arab invasions of the 8th century CE. In

Medieval Europe, the horses were referred to via their role; warhorses were called

(dextrarius – used by the nobility) and rouncy (runcinus – used by non-knightly man-at-arms), the courser (cursarius or fugator) for hunting, and general riding horses were called palfreys

(palfridus).74 In Anatolia Cirit, also called , was carefully bred for the game (covered in chapter three) of jereed.75 The horses of the Eurasian Steppe can be divided into two types, the

Kazakh, from the Central Steppe of modern day Kazakhstan west of the Altai Mountains, and the

Mongolian of modern day Mongolia east of the Altai Mountains. The modern day Mongolian horse is believed to be the same horse the Mongols used eight hundred years ago due to its

72 Herodotus. The Histories. edited by Donald Lateiner. Translated by G. C. Macaulay. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004, III.106, p.179 and VII.40, p.362, Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: Han dynasty. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, p.240. 73 Beverley Davis, “Timeline of the Development of the Horse,” Sino-Platonic Papers No. 177 (August 2007), p.65. Davis’ paper does not state the Nisean horse went extinct. It simply acknowledges the former of the horse.; see also - https://www.allhorsebreeds.info/46862/nisean-horse/ 74 Hyland, Ann. The Warhorse, 1250-1600. Sutton Pub, 1998.; Davis, R. H. The Medieval Warhorse. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1989, p.67. 75 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.130.

diverse mtDNA indicating there was less selective breeding and landrace. The Kazakh, however, is not considered a landrace due to the lack of mtDNA and therefore it is questionable if it was the exact breed used by the Skythians and Turks in the Central Eurasian Steppe; however, it is most likely related.76 Despite their small size, they are considered a horse, not which are generally smaller.77 Hendricks, a specialist on horse breeds, states a has

“draft-type qualities – a shorter leg, squarish or boxy type of head, massive muscling – as opposed to a light horse type with a longer and more refined head and lighter body muscling.”78 She points out that some Arabians horses are of similar height as the Mongolian horse, yet, no one in their right mind would consider the Arab horse a pony.79 Nevertheless, what must be remembered is the breed of the horse does not play a role when it comes to synchrony; the most important aspect that matters is where and how the young horses were raised – the environment and learned behavior are the dictating factors. With that being stated, some breeds

– keeping in mind the above information – will be covered in chapter two.

76 Ibid., p.252. 77 Ibid. p. 3, 126-128, 233, 445, The difference between a horse and pony is size and build; the horse-pony divide is generally 14 to 14.5 hands (56-58 inches). Although the Kazakh and Mongolian are between 12 and 14 hands tall, they are considered horses. John Mason Smith, Jr. refers to the Mongolian horse as pony based on size, but sometimes refers to it as a horse. Smith, John M. "Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), p. 336, 345. 78 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.xvii. 79 Ibid., p.xvii.

Chapter 1- Geography: Central Asia, Eurasian Steppe and the Silk Road

“To follow the Silk Road is to follow a ghost. It flows through the heart of Asia, but it has officially vanished leaving behind the pattern of its restlessness: counterfeit boarders, unmapped peoples.”80

The terms Central Asia and Steppe conjure many different images. For some, it is an ambiguous region where the geography, people, florae, climate, and faunae are unknown, and it is a location on a map they could not locate.81 For others, who have at least heard of it, it is like the dark side of the moon; they know approximately where it is, but have very little knowledge of the region. For the traveler or adventurer, it is an endless region with vast diversity that is inviting and tempting, yet daunting.82 It is a region of hospitality, extreme climate, seas of grass and deserts, majestic mountains, flowing rivers, and vibrant colors. Central Asia and the

Eurasian Steppe are rich with natural resources such as gold, iron, silver, and more significantly oil and gas reserves. It is dotted with cities and large swaths of land with no inhabitants. Until modern times, it took people weeks to travel from one end to the other, or years for a round trip.83 Above all, it is an area that has no access to any of the oceans of the world.

80 Thubron, Colin. Shadow of the Silk Road. Vintage, 2008. 81 This shouldn’t be all that surprising. Television hosts such as Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel walk the streets near their studios in California asking people geographical questions. Many people, for example, are unable to name the country north of the United States or locate North on a map. 82 Belliveau, Denis, and Francis O'Donnell. In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A Companion to the Public Television Film. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.; The video documentary can be found on PBS website: https://www.pbs.org/video/wliw21-arts-culture-footsteps-marco-polo-update/ (accessed 08 December 2019). 83 For example, it took William Rubrick, a Flemish Franciscan missionary, approximately three months, during the winter months, to travel from the Don River to Qaraqorum (the Mongolian capital of the 13th century), and a month, during the summer for his return trip, to travel from Qaraqorum to the city of Tripoli (modern day Lebanon) on the

The land locked region of Asia is called by several terms such as Central Asia, Inner

Asia, the Heart of Asia, Middle Asia, and in more recent times Eurasia, but the terms don’t always denote clearly defined boundaries.84 The concept of the terms derives from a 19th century

German geographer and traveler Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt.85 He was commissioned by the Tsarist government of Russia to explore the region to look for mining prospects and to gather climate data. In the 1830s he published his work calling the region Asie

Centrale, Central Asia.86 Although Humboldt introduced the term it wasn’t clearly defined.

Central Asia is a vast area made up of numerous “oases” with different names, three of which are often used: Soghdiana or , Khorasan, and Khwarizmia.87 To the east of the and bordering the is the territory known as Soghdiana, the Pearl of the East, referring to the Soghdian people who inhabited the area beginning around the 6th century BCE. The name Sogdiana remained in common use through the late medieval era. To the south of the Amy Darya (also known as Oxus – further detail on rivers below) lies the region of Bactria, ‘land of a thousand cities.’88 To the west of Soghdiana, south of the Aral Sea, east of the and bordering the Karakum to the south is the region called

east coast of the ; his round trip journey took .; Rubruck, William. The Mission of Friar His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Mongke 1253-1255. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009. 84 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.4.; McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. 2015, p.1. 85 Mehmet Akif Okur, "Classical Texts Of the Geopolitics and the “Heart Of Eurasia", Journal of Turkish World Studies, XIV/2, (2014), p.74–75.; Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.4. 86 Von Humboldt, Alexander. "Mémoire Sur Les Chaines Des Montagnes et Les Volcans De L'asie Intérieure." Fragmens de géologie et de climatologie Asiatiques (n.d.). 87 Frye, Richard N. The Heritage of Central Asia from Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion. Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996, p.18.; Starr refers to Transoxiana as the land beyond the Amy Darya. Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.127. 88 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.285.; Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.28.

Khwarizmia.89 A common term for Central Asia, including most of modern day Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, is Khorasan, which means “the land where the sun rises”.90 The term originates from the (224 – 651 CE) and remained in use for several centuries in

Arabic and Persian literature. After the Mongol invasions of the 13th century CE, the region was referred to as Mogholestān, referring to the Mongol conquerors who ruled the territory. The weakness of the terms is they pertain to a smaller geographical area that covers a general area with vague boundaries.

The twentieth century also brought about different labels and boundaries. After the Great

War (1914 – 1918 ) in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin drew lines on a map to create border lines for republics and named them to meet his vision of what he referred to as Middle

Asia or Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR). In 1922 the

Turkestan ASSR was divided into two smaller called Kirgizstan Autonomous Soviet

Socialist Republic (Kirgizstan ASSR) and Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

(Kyrgyz ASSR). Yet again, Stalin divided the region into five polities – Soviet Socialist

Republics (SSR). Uzbek SSR (now ) was established in in 1924, Turkmen SSR (now

Turkmenistan) in 1925, Tajik SSR (now ) in 1929, Kazakhstan SSR (now Kazakhstan) in 1936, and Kirghiz SSR (now ) also in 1936.91 The borders were not defined by ethnicity, geography, nationality (a concept that hadn’t fully taken root in this region during this

89 The name is well known for the famous mathematician, al-Khwarizmi – the Khwarizmian – (d, 850 CE), who developed the concepts for algebra. The term algorithm was derived from the Latinization of his name. The word algebra comes from the Latinized title of his book Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala (Compendious Book on Calculations). See Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015, p.167-169. 90 In Persian, khor means sun and san means the place or dwelling hence land of the sun. Sykes, Percy M. "Khorasan: The Eastern Province of Persia." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 62, no. 3196 (February 1914), p.279. 91 Rahmonova-Schwarz, Delia. "Migrations during the Soviet Period and in the Early Years of USSR’s Dissolution: A Focus on Central Asia." Revue européenne des migrations internationales 26, no. 3 (2010), p.11-12.

era), religion, language, or any form of historical bases. Middle Asia was created to meet

Stalin’s political agenda to ensure none of the peoples in this area would unite against the Soviet

Union.

In much more recent times, UNESCO has defined Central Asia to include Stalin’s creations as well as other countries such as Afghanistan, the southern central part of Russia,

Mongolia, northeastern Iran, northern , and China, more properly , a province in the northwestern region of modern day China.92 The expanse of the region is situated in the coordinates of 15° to 115° east and 25° to 50° north.93 In geographical terms the Transcaspian plains and low tablelands between the Aral Sea and the (Heavenly Mountains) mountains make up the western region. The eastern portion encompasses the high plateaus and surrounding mountains of the as well as the Altai Mountains and southern Siberian

Plains.

All the terms that pertain to the region are blanket terms that are arbitrary and change over time to meet scholarly needs or political agendas. They are somewhat useless as explanatory terms for historical, anthropological, or archaeological studies. They lack clear physical geographical boundaries let alone any reference to time and space. The term Central

Asia will be used in this paper and is defined as a region. The region will contain the modern countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, , Tajikistan, northeast Iran, northern Pakistan, northern Afghanistan, all of Mongolia, and the northwestern portion of China, specifically Xinjiang. In geographical terms it will contain the mountain ranges of the Pamirs, the Tien Shan, the Kunlun, the , the Altai, and . It will also contain the

92 Simpson, St J. "A.H. Dani & V.M. Masson (ed.). History of of Central Asia I: The dawn of : earliest times to 700 BC." Antiquity 68, no. 260 (1994), p.672-674.; Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.4. 93 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.10.

Taklimakan, Gobi, Kyzyl Kum, and Karakum deserts.

The Eurasian Steppe, a Russian word for , is a vast territory spanning the two of and Asia.94 The most noticeable feature is the rolling grass fields mixed with temperate savannahs, shrubs and the lack of woodlands. From east to west it expands from to reaching almost one-fifth of the way around the world.

From the north to the south it is narrower bordering the forests of and the deserts in the south from China to Iran and . The Steppe lies in the countries of China, Mongolia,

Kazakhstan, Russia, , Uzbekistan, Hungary and Romania. At its simplest, it can be broken into three parts: The Western Steppe, which sits in-between the Dnieper River and the

Ural River; the Central Steppe, which corresponds to the territory between the Ural River and the

Altai Mountains; and, the Eastern Steppe, which sits in between the Altai Mountains in the west all the way to the Manchurian plains in the east.

The elevation of the Steppe ranges from 300 feet above sea level to 4,500 feet and averages 3,500 feet.95 In the far west are the Carpathian Mountains that reach just over 8,700 feet in elevation. To the east of the Carpathians and north of the Caspian Sea are the Ural

Mountains which run along a north-south axis. In the southwest, in-between the Black and

Caspian Seas, are the reaching 18,000 feet. Next, moving eastward along the southern border are the Pamir, Alay, and Tian Shan (Heavenly Peaks) Mountains. These mountains reach an impressive height of 24,000 feet. The next set of mountain ranges, which are considered the common divide between the Eastern and Western Steppe as well as the divide between western Mongolia and Xinjiang, China are the Altai Mountains that reach up to 14,000 feet in elevation. On the eastern edge of the Steppe are the Yablonoviy and Stanovoy ranges,

94 Ibid., p.4,12. 95 McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. 2015, p.1-3.

both considered to be part of the trending southeast to northwest. The highest peak of the Khangais is 13,225 feet.96 The surrounding mountains are a significant benefit for the Steppe by providing moisture, substance for animals, and natural barriers against hostile parties.

Along the lower elevations and the lower edges of the mountains, acres of forests grow.

Much like Montana there are two types of forests: deciduous and coniferous. Deciduous trees are affected by seasons in which they lose their leaves during the cold season. Coniferous trees, often called pine trees, maintain their needle-leaves around. Along rivers and valleys groves of fruit trees are grown supplying people with a source of nourishment. In the flood plains, riparian forests of elms, Russian olives, and tamarisk trees thrive. Over the centuries the woods and forests have been an invaluable resource for the peoples living in the Steppe.

In the region of Khorasan, craftsmen were famous for making arms and armour which were sold in markets from , Samarqand, Herat to as far away as Cairo, Tbilisi and

Baghdad.97 In the cities and small villages markets thrived selling goods from metals and wood products made by craftsmen. From the abundant wood sources armourers made lances, saddles, as well as and composite bows which were highly sought after by warring rulers and factions throughout the centuries.

It the past, forests were once abundant in Central Asia. Today many of the regions are void of trees.98 Much like the Aral Sea disaster, it is claimed many of the forests have been lost to human actions. Damming of rivers by the Tsarists for irrigation began in the 18th century.

96 Ibid,. p.1-3. One can find the elevations of any of the peaks within the mountain ranges via Google Earth or even Wikipedia. 97 Elgood, Robert. Islamic arms and armour. Scolar Pr, 1979, p.43-46. 98 Blua, Antoine. "Environmentalists Battle Against Deforestation." RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Last modified August 29, 2006. https://www.rferl.org/a/1070904.html.; Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015, p.36.

Climate change has also been cited for the diminishment of the timberlands. How much human interaction and climate change have depleted the region of woods is up for debate. Nonetheless, the lack of woodlands in the modern era makes it difficult to believe the historical sources describing large numbers of trees.

During the winter months, the mountain ranges accumulate large amounts of snow.

During the spring, the runoff (melting snow) is the lifeline for the rivers that run throughout the

Steppe. The plains are cracked with rivers flowing from the various mountain ranges. Two of the most famous rivers are the Amu Darya and the ; or in the pre-Islamic (before 610

CE) times called the Oxus and Jaxartes by the Greeks. The Syr Darya was also referred to as

Seyhūn in Arabic sources in the post-Islamic era (after the emergence of Islam in 610 CE). The river springs forth from the Tian Shan Mountains and flows westward into the Aral Sea. Seyhūn refers to one of the four rivers in the Garden of Eden. Syr refers to the color of the river99 and is a more recent (17th century CE) name for the river. The Amu Darya, referred to as Jayhūn in

Arabic sources in the post-Islamic era, forms with the junction of two rivers, Vaksh and Panj, which originate in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains. Amu refers to a city, Āmul, that the river runs through and Darya is Persian for river, giving the river its name. Jayhūn also refers to one of the Biblical rivers in the Garden of Eden.100

Other rivers flow from the south to the north ending in the Sea. Ibn Fadlan, a 10th century Arab traveler, wrote his famous Risāla, about his travel adventures, findings and discoveries while traveling north along the Ural River.101 The river was a navigation route for

99 The color of the river is a result of the glaciers in the Tian Shan Mountains scraping and grinding the rocks into very fine powder that creates the blue-turquoise color. Glacier National Park in Montana is very famous for its numerous lakes that have similar color due to the movement of glaciers. 100 The Amu Darya used to flow into the Caspian Sea “down the medieval period”. See Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.265. 101 Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. London: Penguin UK, 2012.

trade. In the 10th century the city of Saray-Jük was built along the river, now in modern day

Kazakhstan. In the 13th century the city became the capital of the Golden Horde becoming a major hub for the northern portion of the trade routes. The River also flowed northward dumping into the Gulf of , over 2,600 miles away. The Irtysh became a natural divide for the various peoples of the region.

In modern day Xinjiang, China, the Tarim Basin, an endorheic basin - surrounded by two mountain ranges, provides the headwaters for the Tarim River. Endorheic refers to an area of land that has limited outward drainage for flowing waters such as streams, rivers, and lakes. The basin is filled with swampy type bodies of water and shallow lakes that blend into the environment from dirt, sand, and silt blown over and accumulated on top of it. The basin was for centuries an avenue for trade along the trade routes connecting China to via the

Gansu or located in modern day China.

In the Steppe are large lakes that provide an oasis for plants and animal life. Lakes such as Baikal, -Kul, Lake Alakol, Lake Sasykkol, Balkhash, and the Aral Sea are among the largest lakes. Lake Baikal in eastern Russia north of Mongolia holds the greatest volume of fresh water of any lake in the world; approximately one-fifth of the worlds unfrozen freshwater.102 In comparison all five of the Great Lakes hold approximately the same amount of water as Lake Baikal. The surrounding areas provide fodder for fauna and a continuous supply of water for people and animals. Throughout the Eurasian Steppe and Central Asia the rivers are the life blood for lakes, inland seas, and the . In modern times the mismanagement of

102 Hampton, Stephanie E., Lyubov R. Izmesteva, Marianne V. Moore, Stephen L. Katz, Brian Dennis, and Eugen A. Silow. "Sixty years of environmental change in the world's largest freshwater lake - Lake Baikal, Siberia." Global Change Biology 14, no. 8 (2008), p.1947.; Williams, D. F. "Lake Baikal Record of Continental Climate Response to Orbital Insolation During the Past 5 Million Years." Science 278, no. 5340 (1997), p.1114.; see also “Lake Baikal.” UNESCO. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/754/ (Date Accessed 30 September 2019)

damming and irrigation has turned some areas of Central Asia into an ecological disaster. The

Aral Sea is a perfect example of this; it is now only 10% of its original size and volume.103 It used to be the fourth largest lake in the world.

The weather along the Steppe lands is most noted for short, often hot summers, and very long winters. During the summer, temperatures range from day time highs in the 90s to almost freezing at night. Annual rainfall ranges from ten to twenty inches. In the winter, day time temperatures are quite often below zero degrees Fahrenheit. , Mongolia is considered the coldest capital in the world with average temperatures of 20 degree below zero.104

In comparison the average temperature in , Russia is around 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

During harsh winters the weather is very cold, which kills off many of the livestock. The

Mongolians call the extremely harsh winters dzud or zud.105 The dzud comes in four different forms, cold, iron, white, and black. Cold simply refers to the exceedingly cold temperatures well below -50 degrees farenheight. An iron dzud is a thaw followed by a freeze that lasts for that freezing the pastures, the food source for the livestock. White pertains to heavy snows which blanket the region the livestock off from the vegetation. Black is when there is lack of for long periods of time. In modern times the dzud has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of livestock.

Travelers of the past have documented extreme weather. In the 13th century, Friar Plano de Carpini, a Franciscan envoy traveled across Central Asia to the court of the Mongolian capital, Qaraqarum. He reported in his journal severe thunderstorms during the summer and

103 Micklin, Philip. "The Aral Sea Disaster." Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 35 (2007), p.47. 104 Rosenberg, Matt. "Coldest Capital Cities." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/coldest-capital-cities- 1435314 (accessed December 12, 2019). 105 McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. London: Hachette UK, 2015. p. 9.; May, Timothy. Culture and Customs of Mongolia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008, p.2,30,41.; Fitzhugh, William W., Morris Rossabi, and William Honeychurch. Genghis Khan and the . Odyssey Publications, 2013, p.44.

heavy snowstorms in late June of 1246 CE.106 In 1942, a meteorological study recorded the weather in June and its extremes. The report stated a:

…calm and sunny evening was interrupted by a 60 m.p.h. gale, bringing dust, fog, and ninety percent cloud cover. The storm lasted an hour, blew itself out and was succeeded by clear sky, with the night stars especially brilliant. Then between 1 and 2 a.m. there were heavy showers of rain, and by dawn the sky was again clouded over. By 9 o’clock the next morning there was fog, snow and a temperature of a 33 degrees Fahrenheit.107

Such descriptions of the weather almost appear to be exaggerations of an imaginative writer.

Yet, it appears the idiom of wait five minutes the weather will change clearly befits the region.

Spring is a season filled with vibrant colors. Melting snows and plentiful rain brightens the grasslands with seas of green blades. The green pastures are the life blood for providing nourishment for their herds of animals. Colorful flowers of red poppies, gentians, geraniums, eyelets, delphiniums, asters, rhododendrons, edelweiss, white convolvulus, and forget-me-nots bristle the plains and mountain sides. Even the deserts will blossom with colorful plant life for a short period of time. Within Central Asia and the Steppe there are over 8000 species of flora,

1600 of which are flowers that grow only in the desert.108 Trees along the rivers and in the mountains spring forth with life bearing nuts and fruits. The trees provide apples, grapes, cherries, apricots, walnuts and pine nuts, all of which play an important role in human cuisine and trade.

The Steppe is not continuous grassland. It is broken by mountains and deserts, and is comprised of smaller grasslands in the south and west. These pocket Steppes are in the countries of Hungary (called the Great Hungarian or Pannonian Plain), Anatolia or modern-day Turkey,

106 McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. London: Hachette UK, 2015. p. 5. 107 Ibid.. p.5. 108 Ibid., p7.

Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran (Iranian Plateau)109, and China (the or Plateau of

Xizang “”110 and ). The most common feature of the smaller

Steppe areas is they occupy a large plateau. These pockets of grasslands are not always considered part of the Steppe, but they do offer the same resources as the larger Steppe in the north and therefore will be considered part of the Steppe for this paper.

Both Central Asia and the Steppe are home to one of the most famous features of the region: the Silk Road. The Silk Road is a glamorous term for the trade routes that run east-west and north-south directions linking the region with trade, political and cross-cultural exchange, which lasted for centuries. It is also a misleading term. Rather than a single road it was a network of various trade routes connecting cities, villages, caravansaries, and the nomadic tribes to the north and the exotic territories south of the Indus River. Even the word road is somewhat misleading. Quite often there were no roads. At best people would follow a path or hire guides to lead them to their destination. They also hired soldiers to protect the caravans and travelers from ruffians as Ata Malik Juvaini, a 13th century CE Persian scholar, called brigands and raiders, in his historical account of the Mongols.111 Rivers provided an easy form of navigation and in some cases a thoroughfare for those knowledgeable in ship, more accurately water craft, building. The Russ, , and Chinese were very adept with this mode of travel.

When the trade routes began is up for debate. David Christian claims they began in the third, if not the fourth millennia BCE.112

Historically, the credit to the establishment of the Silk Road is given to the Rulers of the

.the land of Iran) is both a linguistic and geographical reference / ناﺮﯾا ﻣز ﻦﯿ ) Iranian, more accurately Iran zamīn 109 110 Wang, Jin-Ting. "The Steppes and Deserts of the Xizang Plateau ()." Vegetatio 75, no. 3 (1988), p.135. 111 Juvaini, Ata-Malik, and John A. Boyle. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, p.75. 112 Christian, David. "Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History." Realms of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, 2000, p. 67.

Han Dynasty (207 BCE to 220 CE) especially Emperor Han Wudi (141-87 BCE) who commissioned exploration and expansion to the west. Sima Qian, a 1st century BCE Han historian, wrote about the travels of the envoy, Zheng Qian, who was sent by the emperor to open negotiations with the nomads to the west to form an alliance against a common nomadic enemy to the north.113 Zheng Qian’s endeavors helped to establish connections to the west encouraging trade and political exchange. However, some historians give credit to the Qin Shi

Huang Di, the first as the person who instigated the trade westwards. While this may be a dubious, it is the Qin’s struggle with the nomads of the north that stimulated an exchange to the north and west of mainland China. Perhaps the most forgotten people who truly expanded the east-west trade routes were the Achaemenid Persians (500-330 BCE). It is they who established the Persian Royal Road that initially ran from Susa, in modern day Iran, in the north to Asia Minor, now known as Turkey. In time it developed into a thoroughfare used for trade and postal stations, from the central Steppes of modern-day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to northern India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Royal Road featured relay stations that provided fresh horses, riders, and food for envoys and couriers who used the road for communication. Along the routes were established trading posts, later known as caravansaries that provided resting places and sometimes protection for trading caravans, dignitaries, and travelers. Herodotus, Greek historian in the 5th century BCE, praised the posts stating:

There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers [chapars]. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night prevents these couriers from completing their designated stages with utmost speed. (Histories VIII.98).114

Alexander the Great’s conquest of the region was short lived due to his death in 323

113 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Silk Roads. London: I.B. Tauris, 201, p.15. 114 Herodotus, Donald Lateiner, and G. C. Macaulay. The Histories. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004, p.414.

BCE. His empire was divided into several successor states by his Macedonian and Greek generals with the largest referred to as the (312 – 63 BCE). The other major state was Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt (305 – 30 BCE). The successor states were known as the Hellenistic Empires because of their Greek cultural influence and language.

The exploits of Alexander the Great and fragmentation of his empire interrupted the trade routes.115 However, they were reestablished under the Seleucids and commerce flourished. According to , the Greeks (in this case the Seleucids) extended their empire all the way to Seres, a Greek term that means ‘the land where silk came from’ –

China.116

Trading caravans did not traverse the entire length of the routes.117 They would travel from their originating point to a city and return or they would follow a particular route through a prosperous region. The routes were never static. Environmental or political matters, conflict, disease outbreaks, or brigandage forced routes to change. The rise and fall of empires redirected routes from one city to another depending on which ones had been destroyed or preserved. In the 12th and 13th centuries CE cities such as Afrasiyab, Gurganj and Bukhara flourished. In the early 13th century the cities were decimated by invasion. A century later the city of Samarqand, located at the edge of the ruins of Afrasiyab,118 was built and became a thriving city for trade and

115 Juping, Yang. "Alexander the Great and the Emergence of the Silk Road." The Silk Road 6, no. 2 (Winter 2009), p.15-20.; Barisitz, Stephan. "From the Beginnings to the Emergence of the Silk Road (SR)." Central Asia and the Silk Road, 2017, p.26. 116 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.288. 117 Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Valerie’s premise is caravans were generally small and traveled over fairly short distances rather than large caravans crisscrossing Central Asia. Her primary focus is the Tarim Basin in modern day Xinjiang, China. However, Starr implies some caravans consisted of at least a thousand . Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.41. 118 Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.29.

architecture.

In the 19th century, a German traveler and geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen joined an expedition to various countries in the eastern part of Asia in the 1860s.119 It was China that captivated his interests. He made several exploratory trips to the region paying close attention to geological, economical, and ethnological studies. After his return to he published his work and coined the phrase Seidenstraße, translated into English as Silk Route, or more commonly Silk Road, to describe the trade routes running from China to the west. As the title implies, silk was one of the major commodities sold along the Silk Road.

According to legend, raw silk was discovered by the 14-year-old empress Leizu, circa

3,000 BCE, when a silkworm cocoon fell into her drink. While removing the cocoon from her cup she discovered the cocoon unraveled into a soft thread. With the support of her husband, the

Yellow Emperor, Leizu instructed her entourage to cultivate silk worms; now she is referred to as the Silkworm mother.120 Archaeologists have uncovered silk fabric wrapped around an infant dating the fourth millennia BCE in modern day China.121 Sometime in the third millennia BCE

(a questionable date considering dates given by archaeologists) the Chinese learned how to cultivate mulberry trees, the preferred food source for the silk worm. The harvesting of the silk in large quantities led to the development of a massive economic source, now called sericulture.

The process of harvesting the silk was kept a secret for hundreds of years. By holding a monopoly on silk, the Chinese were able to use it as a form of currency for trade. The further west a silk roll traveled the more expensive it became. Eventually the secret was exposed along

119 Daniel, Waugh C. "Richthofen's "Silk Roads": Toward the Archaeology of a Concept." The Silk Road 5, no. 1 (Summer 2007), p.1-10. 120 Lizhu, Fan. "The Cult of the Silkworm Mother as a Core of Local Community Religion in a Village: Field Study in Zhiwuying, Boading, Hebei." The China Quarterly 174 (2003), p.360. 121 Talbot, Lee. "Chinese Silk: A . Shelagh Vainker." Studies in the Decorative Arts 12, no. 2 (2005), p.143. Talbot’s article is a review of Vainker’s book which elaborates in more detail.

the silk routes allowing other peoples to cultivate the mulberry trees and silkworms.

Nevertheless, Chinese silk was considered the preferred product.

Silk wasn’t the only item exported from China. Other products such as sugar, various spices, salt, cutlery, plates, gems, and vases, as well as tea, which became one of the most coveted trade good by the nomads of the Steppe, were traded along the trade routes. During the

13th century CE, porcelain was exported to the Iranian speaking realms. The blue and white dishes became more sought after than tea. From the nomad hordes to the north, China was able to import furs, various animals, precious metals, and horses.122 From Central Asia and the

Iranian speaking regions, textiles of various cloths such as wool and cotton, fruits like melons and peaches, hard wood, as well as stones were traded for silk and tea. Arms and armour were transported and traded from one group of people to the other.123 From the urbanized areas iron-based weapons such as swords were favored by the peoples of the Steppe. Another metal- based item widely traded was lamellar armour, which provided good protection against arrows, a favored weapon all across the Steppe and the Silk Routes.

To facilitate the movement of trading goods along the Silk Road, three animals played a key role: the , the , and the horse. The camel, considered the ship of the desert, carried a significantly heavier load than any other animal in the Steppe as well as Central and

Southwest Asia. The could carry up to 1,000 pounds while the Dromedary camel can carry about half that load.124 In comparison, the horse can only carry a load up to 20% of its

122 Cosmo, Nicola Di. "Ancient Inner Asian Nomads: Their Economic Basis and Its Significance in Chinese History." The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 4 (1994), p.1100. See Barfield, Thomas. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757 and Allsen, Thomas T. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 for additional details. 123 See Mode, Markus, and Jürgen Tubach. Arms and Armour as Indicators of Cultural Transfer: The Steppes and the Ancient World from Hellenistic Times to the . Reichert Verlag, 2006. 124 Science Encyclopedia. “ Camels.” https://science.jrank.org/pages/1151/Camels-Old-world- camels.html (accessed August 4, 2019).

mass; in most cases it would have been less than 200 pounds.125 Camels can travel an entire day without a break for water. The ability to go long distances and time periods without water proved invaluable when crossing regions with little water. Both camels were also ridden.

Riding a camel feels considerably different than a horse. The stride of a camel is long with a gentle rhythmic to and fro motion sometimes making one drowsy.126 Both camels were used by the nomadic peoples of the Arabian and Iranian deserts as well as the deserts of the Steppe and later used as beasts of burden by armies of all peoples of Central Asia. Both camels are tolerant of extreme weather; the Dromedary fares better in the hotter deserts of the south while the

Bactrian is more tolerant to the colder deserts of the north. The two camels have developed a symbiotic relationship with humans, depending on humankind to defend them against predators and leading or providing them with food and water. Much like other animals, the camel was essential for daily life. Its fur was used to make ropes, cloth, and felt. The camel also provided nourishment for people; it could be eaten, and the milk was drunk or used to make cheese products. The ability to carry heavier loads and travel greater distances without water made the camel much more desirable for travel in some environments. For some, the camel was more valuable than the horse in regard to wealth and prestige. Even in the 20th century the camel played a significant role during the Soviet-Mongolian campaign against the Imperial Japanese and it was used to move troops and supplies from Central Asia to the so-called Eastern Front during the Great Patriotic War, 1941 – 1945, (World War II) against the Nazis. Bones of camels have been found in burial sites in Central and Southwest Asia. Camel figurines have been found in numerous archaeological excavations ranging from China to the Eastern Mediterranean. As a

125 Powell, Debra M., Karen Bennett-Wimbush, Amy Peeples, and Maria Duthie. "Evaluation of Indicators of Weight-Carrying Ability of Light Riding Horses." Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 28, no. 1 (2008), p.28. 126 This I experienced while riding a camel in Morocco.

pack animal the camel was an extremely important and cost-effective animal to move goods across the rough terrains in Central Asia and the Steppe.127

In the higher elevations the camel and horse were not the choice animal as a beast of burden. The donkey (and the in even higher, less populated regions) served as the primary pack animal. In the urbanized areas it was well suited because of its smaller size. It could not carry as heavy a load as the other two animals; however, it could navigate the rougher terrain with a great amount of ease. The donkey does not share the prestige in the sources as the camel and horse did. During military campaigns it was vital for armies, which used it extensively to haul materials such as weapons, armour, water, food, and goods for military markets all across

Central Asia. It was relatively inexpensive in comparison to the camel and horse. It could be used as a mount when needed, but generally, it was used as a pack animal.

In the sources and in archaeological excavations the horse received the most attention. It could be easily ridden and trained to ignore its instincts, especially useful during battles. For example, Usama Munqidh (1095 – 1198), an Arab chronicler and diplomat, who hailed from the

Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria, noted his horse continued to obey his commands during a battle even though its intestines were falling out from a sword wound suffered while fighting against the Franj, the Arabic term for the Crusaders, regardless of where in Europe they came from or if they were sons of those who settled in the after the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099.128 It was easy to care for; in contrast to other animals it was able to survive the harsh winters of the Steppe, and it was the fastest animal to ride. For the peoples of the Steppe the horse was a sign of status, wealth, prestige, as well as an everyday tool and

127 Irwin, Robert. Camel. London: Reaktion Books, 2010, p.150. 128 Munqidh, Usāmah I., and Philip K. Hitti. An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh (Kitāb Al-Iʻtibār); Translated from the Original Manuscript by Philip K. Hitti; with a New Foreword by Richard W. Bulliet. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, p.127.

food source. In Central Asia the horse was the wings for human beings.

Perhaps Silk Road is not a befitting description or term for the trade routes. The one consistent product traded all across the Eurasian continent was the horse. The Horse Route or

Horse Road are not befitting names, but they don’t have the attractive epitome or appeal as the word silk. For centuries by-and-far the most prized possession for China was the horse. Due to poor soil and lack of areas, the Chinese were unable to raise or maintain large numbers of herds. Northern China did have large areas for grazing; however, the area was quite often lost to the nomads who broke through the Sixteen Prefectures where the Great Wall(s) of China was built. To procure horses emperors and warlords traded or mounted military expeditions to obtain large numbers. To the west, beyond the Tarim Basin and Corridor, silk was used to buy the famed Hàn xuè mǎ, literally translated as sweats blood horse, of the Ferghana Valley.129 To the north and west tea was traded for the nomadic horse of the Steppe.130 When horses could not be procured from the north, China traded with the nomads of the Tibetan Plateau. The horses of the Steppe, such as the Mongolian horse, and the Tibetan Plateau, the Tibetan Pony, were small yet hardy horses with a great deal of stamina. The horse is so small it is quite often referred to as a pony. When one sees a rider mounted on the pony the proportion in size between the two makes the scene appear almost ridiculous and comical. The weakness of the Steppe and Plateau horse is that it cannot carry a heavy load. Therefore, the Chinese preferred the larger Heavenly horses from the Ferghana Valley region.131

In ancient Persia and later in the Arab world, horse herders moved thousands of horses all

129 Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p.146-147 130 Fuchs, Jeff. "The Tea Horse Road." The Silk Road 6, no. 1 (2008), p.64. 131 Woods, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, p.55-59.; Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p.146-149.; See Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), 647-672, for additional details.

across the region via the Royal Road.132 Similar to the Tibetan Plateau in modern China, there were plateaus in the Iranian speaking region that provided pasture for grazing. During the reign of the Achaemenid dynasty (550 – 330 BCE), horses were traded along the Royal Road for textiles, spices, and metals.133 The preferred horses were the larger breeds such as the Nisaean and Tian ma horse known for their size and strength, and the Arabian horse, which is well suited for its speed and agility. The slave soldiers, called mamlūks, centered their training around the horse developing a code called Furūsiyya, similar to the European medieval term of chivalry, and created an army of par excellence that defeated the Crusaders in 1244 CE at the Battle of

Haribya (also called Battle of La Forbie) and Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut.134

For the peoples of the Steppe, the horse was by far the most coveted commodity. They were able to procure horses by the thousands making it the greatest article of trade that was desired by their southerly neighbors, especially the Chinese.135 The horse lords of the Steppe used it extensively for every facet of life. It wasn’t viewed as a pet, rather it was livestock to be used as a tool, a work animal, a source of food, a form of wealth, and most significantly a source of transportation. The horse was to be properly cared for and not mistreated; to do so was a crime that required severe punishment. For the nomads, a man without a horse was like a bird

132 A. Sh. Shahbazi, “ASB i. In Pre-Islamic Iran,” Encyclopædia Iranica, 2/7, pp. 724-730, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asb-pre-islamic-iran (accessed on 01 November 2019). 133 Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.652. Creel points out the Nisaean horse was ranked “first on the list of due [from the ] the Achaemeneans”. 134 Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. Mongols and : The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p.73.; Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), 307-345.; see al-Sarraf, Shihab "Mamluk Furūsīyah Literature and Its Antecedents” regarding Furūsīyah. 135 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and pasture in Inner Asian history." Oriens Extremus 19, no. 1/2 (December 1972), p.174.; “In 1918, Mongolia had a grazing area of some 300 million acres supporting 1,150,000 horses, …and in 1935 the number had risen to 1,800,000.” McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. London: Hachette UK, 2015. p.10.; For additional details on how much a grazing horse needs see John Mason Smith, Jr. “Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?”, p.338-340.

without wings,136 it was an essential part of life for survival in the Steppes. The horse provided the mode for moving from one place to a far more distant territory with far greater speed than on foot, and it allowed them to maintain control over larger herds of animals.137 It also allowed the nomads of the Steppe to conduct raids and warfare over great distances. The care, raising, use, and significance of the horse in the Steppe created a of around which life was based. The nomads learned the nuances of the animal and used it to their advantage. Without any doubt, the horse played a very significant role for the nomads. Understanding the horse as a herd animal and its role in history helps to have a greater understanding of the past.

Chapter two: Steppe Nomads and Horses

“Man, threatened by elements that conspire to destroy him and by beasts stronger and faster than he, would have been a slave if the horse had not made him a king.”138

The previous chapter examined the geography of Central Asia, the Silk Road, and the

Eurasian Steppe. This chapter will examine the horse and nomadic peoples of the Eurasian

Steppe; specifically the nomads who fought as mounted horse archers. From approximately 500

BCE to the 14th century CE the nomads of the Steppe fought among themselves, raided their sedentary neighbors seeking to control trade routes, and in some cases conquered their neighbors. Their ability to wage conflict was possible because of the horse, which allowed them to travel quicker than their sedentary neighbors.139 The vast Eurasian Steppe was a grassland that allowed the nomads to wear large herds of animals such as the sheep, goats, cattle, camels,

136 McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. London: Hachette UK, 2015. p.13. 137 Details regarding herds are explained in chapter four. 138 Anthony, David W., Dimitri Y. Telegin, and Dorcas R. Brown. "The origins of horseback riding." Scientific America 265, no. 6 (December 1991), p.94. 139 Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), p.146-152.

and more importantly horses.140 Much like the animals, the nomadic horsemen lived in the same environment without the constraints of an urban or sedentary lifestyle. Because of this the nomads lived with and learned from their animals. The process of learning was not something that took place over a short period of time; instead it took several centuries to develop after the animals were domesticated.

The understanding of the horse in human history begins with the origins of horse domestication and the development of learning to ride. Because domestication predates the written era, the research of Equus ferus caballus, a species in the family , is an interdisciplinary study composed of archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, linguists, and geneticists work together to study the origin by excavating various archaeological sites, especially burial grounds, looking for bones, artifacts and any materials relating to the horse and Steppe nomads.141 Languages have been traced and genetics used to examine the mitochondria in order to follow where the horse herders originated, traveled and to elucidate rates of in horses.142 The results of the various disciplines have been used to develop theories of when, where and why the horse was domesticated.

Prior to 4300 BCE wild horses ranged the Steppes from Mongolia to modern day

Ukraine.143 Because the Eurasian Steppe provided plenty of grazing it is believed the herds

140 Novembre, John. "Ancient DNA steps into the language debate." Nature 522, no. 7555 (2015), p.164-165.; Anthony, D. W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World (Princeton Univ. Press, 2007).; Kohl, Philip L. "Taming the Steppe – The Development of Mobile Economies: From Cattle Herders with Wagons to Horseback Riders Tending Mixed Herds; the Continued Eastward Expansion of Large-Scale Metallurgical Production and Exchange." In The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia, 126-181. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 141 Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), p.131-160. 142Ibid., p.136; Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.83. 143 Anthony, David W., Dimitri Y. Telegin, and Dorcas R. Brown. "The origins of horseback riding." Scientific America 265, no. 6 (December 1991), p.94.

could have been rather large, providing a plentiful source of food and hides.144 Sometime around

3500 BCE hunter gatherers of Central Asia, specifically modern-day Kazakhstan, east of the

Ural Mountains, domesticated the horse for husbandry making it easier to catch for butchering and milking the for milk, a staple drink of the nomadic peoples of the Steppe.145 As their population grew, (horses, cattle, goats, sheep, in some cases camels – referred to as tabun qosiyun mal, the five categories of domesticated animals146 – and people), they spread west and east into the Steppe seeking grazing grounds for their horses. There is also a developing theory that horses were also domesticated in the western Steppe region north of the Black and Caspian

Seas around 4000 BCE by a different group of hunter-gathers. Whether or not this group of people was using the horse for subsidence, husbandry, and/or herding is unclear.147 What is currently believed is this group migrated westward in the Pontic Steppe and eastward into

Central Asia pushing other nomadic peoples and their horses eastward, possibly beyond the Altai

Mountains into the eastern Steppe of modern day Mongolia.148 The significance of the latter group brings us to the origins of horseback riding.

After domesticating the horse, the people of the Steppe learned a great deal about the

144 Ibid., p. 94.; Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), p.137. 145 Outram, A. K., N. A. Stear, R. Bendrey, S. Olsen, A. Kasparov, V. Zaibert, N. Thorpe, and R. P. Evershed. "The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking." Science 323, no. 5919 (2009), 1332-1335.; Downs, James F. "The Origin and Spread of Riding in the near East and Central Asia." American Anthropologist 63, no. 6 (1961), 1193-1203. Down’s, writing in the 1960s gives a date of 2500 BCE. 146 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.179.; the terms tört tülük or besh tülük are also used by the and Kyrgyz. 147 Alan Outram, University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Humanities. "New research shows how Indo-European languages spread across Asia." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180509185446.htm (accessed September 11, 2019).; Levine, Marsha A. "Botai and the Origins of Horse Domestication." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18, no. 1 (1999), p.29. 148 Anthony, David W., Dimitri Y. Telegin, and Dorcas R. Brown. "The origins of horseback riding." Scientific America 265, no. 6 (December 1991), p. 96.; There is also the question ‘did the spread of horse domestication involve the actual movement of horse herds (demic spread), or was it simply the knowledge [possibly a sign of early trade routes]? See Warmuth, V., A. Eriksson, M. A. Bower, G. Barker, E. Barrett, B. K. Hanks, S. Li, et al. "Reconstructing the origin and spread of horse domestication in the Eurasian Steppe." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 21 (2012), p.8202-8206.

horse. For example, domestication led to selective breeding. Wild animals lack color variation.

The coats tended to correlate with their environment offering for protection against predators. Human husbandry introduced variation in coat colors, which spread throughout domesticated horse populations.149 Early horses were small, limiting the amount of weight they could carry on their back. Through selective breeding, the size of the horse’s body increased developing a larger stronger horse capable of carrying a rider.150

It is unlikely we will ever know why the first person decided to ride a horse. Numerous suggestions have been put forward. It may have been a hunter who decided to throw himself on a horse’s back for pleasure or to quickly escape danger such as a predator. Historian Robert

Drews suggests there may have been the desire for speed feeling the rush of air flowing through the hair.151 There is vague evidence that suggests people learned to ride the horse for herding purposes. The evidence is based on bit wear, dental attrition, found on the front of horse skulls found in burial pits.152 Riding began as a means to control large herds of animals. A mounted herder could control around 500 sheep while a person on foot could handle around 200 sheep;153 it also allowed the rider the ability to protect his flock against predatory animals such as , bears, and wild cats.154 Riding increased mobility making movement from pasture to pasture

149 Librado, Pablo, and et al. "The Evolutionary Origin and Genetic Makeup of Domestic Horses." Genetics 204, no. 2 (October 2016), p.423-434. p.424. 150 Ibid., p.428. 151 Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London: Routledge, 2004, p.36, 40, 42, 44. 152 Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), 146-152.; Anthony, David W., Dimitri Y. Telegin, and Dorcas R. Brown. "The origins of horseback riding." Scientific America 265, no. 6 (December 1991), p.96-98. 153 Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London: Routledge, 2004, p.47; Taylor, William T., Burentogtokh Jargalan, K. B. Lowry, Julia Clark, Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal, and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan. "A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe." Journal of Archaeological Science 81 (2017), p.50. 154 The bow (a self-bow, meaning one piece of wood) and arrow were invented prior to the development of riding horses. Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012., p.35, 38; The shorter composite , however, was not developed until around 1200 BCE. Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted

much easier. Nevertheless, by at least 3,500 BCE, possibly earlier, people were riding horses and using bits.155 Without further evidence the answer to the question will be fraught with uncertainty and answered with crafty conjecturing. What must be noted is it still took several millenniums before the horse was used for mounted warfare.156

There is no doubt that Equus ferus callabus made the Eurasian nomads the horse lords of the Steppe. The image of mounted nomadic horse archers has come to symbolize the epitome of some of the greatest and longest lasting horsemen in history.157 The quality of the Steppe horses was well known for its hardiness, stamina, and ability to survive the harsh winters of the

Eurasian grasslands. For example, the 5th century BCE Greek writer, Herodotus (d. 425 BCE), noted the Scythian, a nomadic group who resided in the Pontic Steppe from around 900 BCE to

200 BCE, horse in a campaign “always puts to flight the horse of the enemy”.158 A Chinese historian by the name of Sima Qian (c. 145 – 86 BCE) wrote:

“…the territory of the Hsiungnu [Xiongnu a nomadic group who lived in the eastern Steppe north of China form the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE] and the skill it demands are different from China. In climbing up and down mountains and crossing ravines and mountain torrents, the horse of China cannot compare with those of the Hsiungnu”.159

In the 12th century CE, a medieval Italian archbishop and diplomat for the papacy remarked, on his trip across the Eurasian Steppe to the Mongol capital of Qaraqorum (in modern day

Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), p.156. Additional information regarding the composite recurve bow will be elaborated upon in chapter four. 155 Anthony, David W., Dimitri Y. Telegin, and Dorcas R. Brown. "The origins of horseback riding." Scientific America 265, no. 6 (December 1991), p.94.; Levine, Marsha A. "Botai and the Origins of Horse Domestication." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18, no. 1 (1999), p.29. 156 Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 16; Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London: Routledge, 2004, p.22-23, 48.; Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), p.131, 154-156. 157 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.171. 158 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.171. 159 Ibid., p. 171; Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.657.

Mongolia), that he was required to relinquish his horses, brought from Europe, and use the

Steppe horses to travel eastwards because they were adapt to surviving in the snow covered grasslands.160 The nomadic horses were not dependent upon fodder because they had the innate

[rather a behavior they learned from others within the heard] ability to dig into the snow to find grass.

The grasslands of the Eurasian Steppe provided a huge territory for the nomads to breed and raise large herds of animals. The Mongolian homeland is capable of supporting 1,150,000 horses, 1,078,400 cattle, 228,700 camels, and 7,188,000 sheep.161 The Hungarian Plain, which is much smaller, can support no more than 205,920 animal units; an animal unit is equivalent to one head of horse, cattle, camel, or five sheep / goats.162 The Pontic Steppe was capable of supporting 2,046,858 animal units, and the 1,656,616 animal units.163 These are simple figures based on information provided Denis Sinor who also notes that Plano Carpini was struck by the number of horses the Mongols possessed. “The Tartars are rich in animals: camels, cattle, sheep, goats, and they have so many horses and mares that we did not believe there were that many in all the world…”164 The calculations do not take into account the full area of the

Eurasian Steppe, environmental factors, peripheral grasslands suitable for grazing (for example,

160 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.177-178.; Carpini, Giovanni di Plano. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.96.; Supposedly Carpini claimed “they ride fast bound onto their horses, which are not very great in stature, but exceedingly strong, and maintained with little provender.” Hakluyt, Richard. The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis: As Printed for the First Time by Hakluyt in 1598, Together with Some Shorter Pieces. London: Kukluyt Society, 1903, p.42. 161 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.181.; Whiting, Kenneth R. Background Information on the . Documentary Research Division, Aerospace Studies Institute, Air University, 1970, p.3. 162 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.182-183 163 The numbers used for the Kazakh Steppe were 804,500 km2, and the Pontic Steppe were 994,001 km2. If one uses soil type for the Steppe, such as Chernozyom (2,395,739 km2), and soil Steppe (1,748,241 km2), the number of animal units that can be supported are much higher. (Background Information on the Soviet Union). 164 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.173.; Carpini, Giovanni di Plano. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.41.

Inner Mongolia or the Plains east of the Aral Sea) weather, or natural phenomenon such as dzuds or exceptionally warm and wet seasons, or that the Central and Western Steppes were warmer with higher precipitation numbers, referred to as Steppe Gradient,165 meaning the grazing lands were more productive. In 1923 there, were an estimated 2.5 million head of horses in Kirgizia (modern day Kyrgyzstan).166 The numbers provide the image that the nomads had the ability to raise herds of animals, especially horses, by the tens of thousands. The nomads had to migrate along the Steppe to feed their animals. To remain independent the nomads had to remain dispersed; too much grazing in one area depleted the food supply for their herds, which brought about famine and death. Migration brought the nomads into contact with other nomads and their sedentary neighbors to the south. Contact brought about trade and conflict.

The Chinese, as stated above, acknowledged the quality of the Steppe horses to the north.

In the 9th century BCE the Chinese invaded the northern nomads, referred to as the Hu, and captured thousands of horses.167 In the 6th century BCE, a northern state Chinese ruler stated he feared enemy because he had many horses.168 The importance of controlling northern China was important, although very much a struggle, for various Chinese dynasties. If the Chinese were unable to control the north, they could not defeat their nomadic neighbors. During the Han

Dynasty (221 BCE – 220 CE) Ma Yüan, a famous general who specialized in , stated “Horses are the foundation of military might, the greatest resource of the State”.169

Several centuries later, a (907 – 1269 CE) official, Sung Ch’I (998-1061) echoed

165 Cunliffe, Barry. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2015, p.16. 166 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.255. 167 Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.656. 168 Ibid., p.656. 169 Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 151.; Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.659.

Ma Yüan’s sentiments:

The reason why our enemies to the north [the Jurchen (1115 – 1234 CE) from the Manchurian region who conquered north-north eastern portion of China creating the ] and west [the Tanguts (1038 – 1227), a who conquered north-central China founding the Xi dynasty] are able to withstand China is precisely because they have many horses and their men are adept at riding; this is their strength. China has few horses, and its men are not accustomed to riding; this is China’s weakness….The court constantly tries, with our weakness, to oppose our enemies’ strength, so that we lose every battle….Those who propose remedies for this situation merely wish to increase our armed forces in order to overwhelm the enemy. They do not realize that, without horses, we can never create an effective military force.170

While the nomad horse may have been superior to the horses of northern China, it was also the fact the nomads had a much greater understanding of the horse and were able to utilize it against their sedentary neighbors. The pastoral nomads lived on their horses and were “ready to rush off at a moment’s notice, leaving the herds behind in the capable hands of the women and children: they are lightly equipped for swiftness and surprise.”171 Sima Qian noted:

The little start out by learning to ride sheep and shoot birds and rates with a bow and arrow, and when they get a little older they shoot foxes and hares which are used for food. Thus. all the young men are able to use the bow and act as armed cavalry in time of war. It is their custom to herd their locks in times of peace and make their living by hunting, but in periods of crisis they take up arms and go off on plundering and marauding expeditions. This seems to be their inborn nature.172

Rashid al-din, writing in the late 13th, early 14th centuries, noted the Mongols (1206 – 1268 CE)

170 Ibid., p. 150.; Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.667. 171 Lindner, Rudi P. "Nomadism, Horses and Huns." Past and Present 92, no. 1 (1981), p.6. Lindner was quoting from a Roman historian and soldier, Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote about the Huns during the 4th century CE. 172 Sima, Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: Han dynasty II. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, p. 129.; Also quoted in - Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016, p. 154; This comment has been noted by other people regarding the nomads, such as Carpini in Carpini, Giovanni di Plano. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.54.

also learned to ride a young age.173 Nevertheless, the Chinese preferred the horses over their own and they went to great lengths to acquire the mounts.

To obtain additional horses China set up trade networks with the nomads using silk to buy horses. The most coveted and most valuable commodity of the Steppe nomads was the horse. During the Han Dynasty, the Chinese obtained horses via markets by arranging marriage alliances with various tribes of the Xiongnu and used silk as a form of currency for payment.174

During the (618 – 907 CE), the Chinese traded over a million bolts of a silk a year for 100,000 horses from the Uighurs, a Turkish Khaganate during the 8th and 9th centuries CE. In the mid-eighth century, the Tang payments of silk increased to over 7,400,000 bolts of silk annually for horses at a cost of 40 (some sources state 50) bolts (roughly 22 inches wide by 41 feet long for a single bolt) per horse.175 During the Song (907 – 1269 CE) and Ming (1368 –

1644 CE) Dynasties another product of high was traded: tea. Since tea became in great demand by the nomads, Song officials established a “Tea and Horse offices”.176 Most tea was traded with the nomads to the north, initially with the Khitan Liao (916 – 1125 CE), a nomadic people in northeast Asia, then the Jurchen who supplanted the Khitan Liao in the 12th century.

Under the , tea for horse trade expanded into the Tibetan Plateau importing thousands of horses.177 When the relations broke down and the Chinese closed the markets the

173 May, Timothy. The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [Volume 1]: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016, p. 148 – , a Mongol Il-Khanate ruler (1295-1304 CE) learned to ride at age 3 and participated in his first hunt at age 8. 174 Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p.144-145. 175 Liu, Xinru. Silk and Religion: An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People, AD 600-1200. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1997, p.183.; For additional information see, Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.665-666.; and Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p.135-164. 176 Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.667-668. 177 Ibid., p.668.; see also Rossabi, Morris. "The Tea and Horse Trade with Inner Asia during the Ming." Journal of Asian History 4, no. 2 (1970), p.136-168.

nomads responded by raiding and waging war deep into Chinese territory creating havoc and much destruction. The threat of invasion brought about a dynamic relationship between the nomads of the Eastern Steppe and the various dynasties of China.178 Because of the limitations of raising horses especially in northern China, or simply having a surplus of horses in the case of the Steppe nomads, the horses were traded all along the border of the Eurasian Steppe. The

Chinese noted, with anxiety, the nomads used the horse for trade, raiding and warfare:

“The northern barbarians [Uighurs in this case] are covetous and grasping. All they care about is profit. This is the second year that their nomad yearly consignment of horses has not arrived. Can it they have become satiated with the profit of silken fabrics? I suspect that what is happening is that they want [to wait till the autumn when] the wind will be strong and their horses fat, so that they can make a sudden invasion of China.”179 The horse of the Eurasian Steppe is smaller than their sedentary neighbors to the south, especially when compared to the Ferghana horse, Arabian, and drestier in Medieval Europe.

Why did the Steppe nomads continue to use the nomadic pony and not incorporate other breeds into their herds and environment? The shortest answer is climate and adaptation. Horses reared in the Steppe and not kept in stables, corrals, enclosed structures, or arenas tend to be smaller; they are allowed to roam freely on the grasslands, grazing throughout the day.180 During the spring and summer months the Mongols and other Turkish peoples, such as the Seljuqs (11th through 13th century CE who migrated from Central Asia into modern day Uzbekistan,

Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, , and Turkey) and Qipchaq Turks (11th through 13th

178 See Thomas Barfield’s chapter on Shadow Empires - Barfield, Thomas. "Shadow Empires: Imperial State Formation along the Chinese-Nomad Frontier." In Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, edited by Susan E. Alcock and John H. D'Arms, p 10-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.; Drompp, Michael R. "Imperial State Formation in Inner Asia: The Early Turkic Empires (6th to 9th Centuries)." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 58, no. 1 (2005), p.101-111. 179 Sinor, Denis. "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asia History." Oriens Extremus, 1978, p.179. Mackerras, Colin. The Uighur Empire According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories: A Study in Sino-Uighur Relations 744-840. Colin Mackerras, Editor and Translator. Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, 1972, p.111. 180 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.55.

centuries who created a loose federation in the Central Eurasian Steppe), kept their horses out to graze for days on end. They rode one horse per day to prevent overworking the animal over long periods of time while tending the herds.181 Throughout the summer months the horses grazed and accumulated body fat. A horse was not allowed to graze when ridden and afterwards it was tied up, all of the tack removed, cooled off, and then allowed to join the herd. The reason a horse is not allowed to eat or drink in abundance before cooling down is to prevent it from developing colic.182 The fattening of the horses helped them to survive the harsh winters of the Steppe. The horses of the Steppe learned at a young age to use their front hooves to dig through the snow to find grass. Cattle and sheep, two important animals of the nomadic peoples, lack the instinctive nature of surviving digging for grass. However, they learned to follow the horses in order to find grass. To assist the sheep and cattle in survival, the nomads moved their herds to areas that were better suited to providing nutrition during the winter months. All of the nomad horses were well suited for the Steppe environment. For example, their hooves are hard and able to with stand the long distances without being shod, a common issue with sedentary horse which is the reason they are shoed.183 Another notable feature of the Steppe horses was the winter coat, which is dense with a “complicated structure, containing a thick undercoat and longer outer coats which sheds water.”184

The nomadic horse was rugged, quite strong, had great stamina, and above all was capable of surviving harsh winters. The Steppe horse weighs about 500-600 pounds, yet it was capable of carrying a heavy load. The horse of modern Mongolia is known to carry a

181 Ibid,, p.64-57. 182 This is common knowledge for anyone who works, raises, and rides horses; I learned about it growing up around horses. 183 A classic example of this is during the Third Crusade (1189-1192), Richard the Lion Heart is reported to have brought thousands of horseshoes with him to the Levant. See Tyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. London: Penguin UK, 2007, p.435. 184 Ibid., p.253.

load twice its weight.185 Due to its strength the nomads such as the Mongols, Turks, and

Sarmations (a pastoral nomadic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe from the 5th century BCE to the 4th century CE and were known to wear armour), and Scythians, were able to wear armour, but not in great numbers. Armoured horsemen from the Steppe were not necessarily the norm for the nomadic horse archers.186 The vast majority of the warriors wore little armour, if any, and was equipped with bow(s) and arrows to maintain mobility and rapid movement. The point made in this case is the nomads did not need large horses to carry them into battle.

There are three known breeds that are believed to be the ones used by the Steppe nomads:

Mongolian, Kirgiz, and Kazakh. The Mongolian horse is considered to be the oldest true breed of all horses and it average 14 – 14.3 hands.187 It was used by the Mongols and possibly the

Xiongnu. It is considered the oldest true breed in comparison to all other horses. The Kirgiz,

“very rare in its original, pure form in the modern era”, was once very common in the Altai regions due to its ability to survive in the higher elevations. Remains of the horse have been found in numerous dating to over 2000 years ago. One of the most well noted excavated

185 Yazdzik, Elisabeth, "The Mongolian Horse and Horseman" (2011). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection, p.21.; Powell, Debra M., Karen Bennett-Wimbush, Amy Peeples, and Maria Duthie. "Evaluation of Indicators of Weight-Carrying Ability of Light Riding Horses." Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 28, no. 1 (2008), 28-33. Powell’s article noted horses can easily carry 15-20% of its weight showing relatively little stress. At 25% the horse showed physical stress and at 30% the stress load became accentuated. This study does pertain to the more common pack horse in the modern era weighing between 885 and 1375 pounds. If the Mongolian horse is as strong as Yazdizk’s paper states, then the horse was capable of carrying a rider fully equipped in laminar armour and a full suit of laminar barding. 186 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007. May states about 20% of the Mongol cavalry was armoured. Throughout my research for this thesis I question that amount. At times it may have been that high, but in most cases I suggest it be dropped to 10-15%. See Reuven Amitai’s research on the Il-Khanate Mongols: Amitai, Reuven. "Did the Mongols in the Middle East Remain Pastoral Nomads?" Paper presented at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, June 2004. This presentation was not published, however, it can be found on his Academia.edu page: https://www.academia.edu/21768134/Did_the_Mongols_in_the_Middle_East_Remain_Pastoral_Nomads 187 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.286.; It is interesting to note that the only primary Mongolian source, the Secret History, does not reference anything about breed. However, it makes numerous references to the colors of the horse. Rachewiltz, Igor D. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Shorter version Edited by John C. Street. Madison: Books and Monographs, 2004.

burial sites are the Saka, Persian term for the Scythians living the Central Steppe, Pazyryk tombs

(dated to 5th – 3rd centuries BCE) in the Altai Mountains. The average height of the Kirgiz horse is 12.3 to 14 hands, similar to the skeletal remains found in the Pazyryk tombs, and was used by the Kirgiz and Tajik peoples in the Altai regions. In the Central Steppe the Kazakh breed known since the 5th century BCE and was used by various nomads such as the Skythians and Qipchaq

Turks. Although the horse has been known to exist since the first century BCE, it has been crossbred with other breeds such as the Mongolian, Persian Arab, and Turkoman horse. A noticeable adaptation of the horse is it stops growing during hard times (winter) and growth resumes during times when grazing is plentiful (summer).188 The three breeds cannot be considered the only ones used by the nomads. Because of crossbreeding, migrations, war, famine, and horse trade along the Silk Routes, it is almost impossible to determine all of the different breeds used on the Eurasian Steppe. The same is true for the horses used by the sedentary peoples south of the Eurasian Steppe.

There were several breeds used by the sedentary people, but only a few will be mentioned: Akhal Teke, Turkoman, Persian Arab, and the Arabian. During the Han and Tang

Dynasties the most desired equus was the Heavenly horses of the Ferghana Valley (Tian Ma)189.

Both dynasties went to great lengths to conquer the Gansu corridor and Tarim Basin trade routes along the Altai Mountains to acquire the horse from Ferghana. Persian and Greek sources noted

188 Ibid., p.253. 189 Emperor Han Wudi, (141 – 87 BCE), sent a dignitary westward, through the Gansu corridor and the Tarim Basin, into the Ferghana to negotiate with the Yuezhi for support against the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian discovered the “blood sweating horses” calling them the Heavenly Horses – tian ma (天馬) – of the Ferghana Valley. Since their , various Chinese dynasties, especially the Han and Tang, desperately sought after these horses. The Chinese preferred the Ferghana Valley horses because they were larger in size since the Han and Tang adopted heavily armoured cavalry. For further reading see Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016 and Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.; see Carpini for descriptions about Mongol horse armour. Carpini, Giovanni di Plano. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.72.

one of the most prized horses was the Nisaean, also called the Turkoman or Turkmenian.190

Whether the two horses were of the same breed or not is unknown; it is considered to be extinct, however, there is one horse that is considered a descendent, the Akhal Teke. The most noticeable similarity between the horses is blood sweating, a phenomena that occurs when a parasite breaks through the skin of the horse, usually during the spring, causing a small amount of bleeding.191 The horse is well known for its shiny coat, speed, elegance and size, which averages over fifteen hands. The blood sweating horses are well noted in modern literature pertaining to the Silk Road; however, it is the Arabian that is the most famous.

When writing about the Arab horse, Bonnie Hendricks noted “…there is no ground so hazardous as that one treads when speaking of origins of the Arab horse. Many…would almost rather the breed had no earthly lineage whatsoever–hesitating to admit to parentage any less mysterious than the very wind itself.”192 For example, the misconception the horse originated in the ; it actually originated in northern Syrian, southwest Anatolia, northern

Iraq and possibly northwest Iran.193 Physically, the horse is averages 14.5 hands, and is known for its elegance, speed, and most notably for holding its high up when running. The Arab horse was favored by many from the Eastern Mediterranean to Afghanistan such as the

Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250 – 1515 CE) and the Arabic speaking desert nomads, referred to as of Arabia and Syria, and the Seljuq Turks.194 The controversy of the breed includes the Persian Arab, which is considered by Hendricks to be older than the Arabian. As

190 For example, the Achaemenids received from the Armenians of 20,000 Nisaean horses, considered to be superior to their own, on Mithra’s holiday. Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.652. 191 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.7. 192 Ibid., p.37. 193 Ibid., p.41. 194 Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

the name of the breed implies, it originated in the Iranian regions (modern day Iran) and is known for similar qualities of the Arabian horse. Both of the Arab horses and the Akhal Teke are well suited for the dryer arid regions in Central Asia and the Middle East. In some regions the horses were allowed to graze in pastures such as the Anatolian Plateau, the southern Turan

Plains, and the Iranian Plateau during the summer months. In the winter they were stall fed (alf alfa, beans, barley, wheat, oats, grains) and kept in stables. Because of this, as well as selective and mixed breeding, the horses grew larger than those who roamed Steppe. What must be noted about these horses is they could not survive the harsh winters of the Eurasian Steppe.195

Throughout the centuries the Steppe nomads were viewed as similar peoples, yet with different names. They were diverse and viewed themselves as different groups of people even though they had similar customs, lifestyles, clan and structure, religious beliefs, methods of

for the Turkish ( ﺲﻨﺟ و ﺪﺣا ) warfare, and horse culture. The Arabs used the term jins wāhid peoples of the Steppe including the Mongols.196 Jins wāhid has no direct translation. In Arabic jins literally means sex and wahid is the number one. The best interpretation is one that denotes a group of people who have a similar culture and nomadic lifestyle, lived in felt tents, spoke a common or related language, sense of common origin, and relied on the horse for daily life.

Jinsiyya is a sense of ethnic solidarity. It is people from the Steppe who come from the pastoral nomadic background; they are different from everyone else.197

A good example of daily life is that all of Steppe nomads used the horse for milk. The

195 Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007, p.xvii. 196 Golden, Peter B. Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, and Qipchaqs. Variorum, 2003. p.133.; Amitai, Reuven. Holy War and Rapprochement: Studies in the Relations Between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Mongol (1260-1335). Brepols Pub, 2013, p.110. 197 Ibn Khaldun uses the term aṣabiyya to describe the nature and characteristics of primitive cultures. When it came to the Mongols he stated there was no equal in aṣabiyya which can also refer to social solidarity. Gierer, Alfred. "Ibn Khaldun on Solidarity(“Asabiyah”) - Modern Science on Cooperativeness and Empathy: a Comparison." Philosophia Naturalis 38 (2001), p.93-96.

mares were milked which was the preferred drink by the nomads. Plano de Carpini noted “They drink ’s milk in very great quantities if they have it. …” and William Rubrick wrote “they do not bother about anything except [qumis]”.198 Mares milk has been one of the staple diets of all pastoral people living on the Steppe. Archaeologists have found pottery with remnants of milk dating the era of horse domestication.199 Fermented mares milk provided the nomads with a form of alcoholic drink; the milk was also used to make cheese.

Cultures built around a particular animal, the horse in the case of the Steppe nomads, show reverence for that significant animal through a variety of actual practices on multiple levels: the incorporation of artistic traditions such as imagery on rock art, pottery, gold jewelry in the form of zoomorphic shapes, and burials. The horse from the eastern Steppe to the western

Steppe had significant meaning for the nomads. became an essential part of the nomad belief systems. The earliest description we have of horse burials comes from Herodotus whose description seems almost mythological based on an ethnocentric view that the Scythians were nothing but uncouth barbarians.200 He stated that when a man dies he is buried along with his horse tender, servants, and several horses and his tack. After the burial, horses and men were killed and placed on top of the mound. A pole was inserted along the spine of the men who in turn were mounted on top of the sacrificed horses which were also propped up by stakes. And then, the mound () was abandoned.201 Scythian kurgans have been found from the

Ukraine to the eastern portion of Kazakhstan. Kurgans, linked to the Scythians/ Saka have been

198 Smith, John, Jr. M. "Dietary Decadence and Dynastic Decline in the Mongol Empire." Journal of Asian History 34, no. 1 (2000), p.3. 199 Outram, A. K., N. A. Stear, R. Bendrey, S. Olsen, A. Kasparov, V. Zaibert, N. Thorpe, and R. P. Evershed. "The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking." Science 323, no. 5919 (2009), p.1334-1335. 200 Siep Stuurman. "Herodotus and Sima Qian: History and the Anthropological Turn in and Han China." Journal of World History 19, no. 1 (2008), p.17. 201 Herodotus. The Histories. Edited by Donald Lateiner. Translated by G. C. Macanlay. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2004, p.218-219, IV 71-72.

found throughout the western and central Steppe. Inside the mounds jewelry made from gold depicting horses and wild predator animals attacking stags and horses. Throughout the burial sites sacrificed horses have been found. Most barrows with just one person contained one horse; those of prominence were found to have several people, especially prisoners of war, and several horses ranging from four and sixteen.202 Inside the Pazyryk kurgans, which are associated with the Saka / Scythian people, several horses along with well-preserved tack have been excavated.203 The majority of the horses found in the burials were Steppe horses and they were bays and chestnuts in color because they had stronger bones and hooves. In addition, all of the horses were geldings which were preferred for riding due to the milder tempers.204 Other artifacts consisted of metal objects carved into animals such as horses, wild cats attacking stags,

(see next paragraph linking the to the Xiongnu), and elaborate horse decorations.

In Mongolia, thousands of Xiongnu barrows and deer stones (standing megaliths covered with carvings) have been found. The artifacts found inside the earlier Xiongnu tombs include pottery, bronzes, ironware, gold wares, silverwares, jade and other precious stone ornaments, bone artifacts, lacquered wooden articles and silk fabrics. Animal victims are quite popular, mostly represented by horses’, with horse fittings (bits) and weapons205. Many of the deer stones have carvings resembling a ritualized deer or stag that are very similar to those found in the

Pazyryk burials.206 The link reflects the Xiongnu migrations that eventually replaced the

202 Cunliffe, Barry. The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2019, p.136, 155, 271. 203 Ibid., p.235-238 and 273-274. 204 Ibid., p.231. The Mongols also preferred to use geldings for riding. Mares develop attitudes or drama, as my cousins and sisters refer to them, and stallions can be willful and difficult to handle. 205 Yueying Shan, “A study of Xiongnu tombs.” Chinese Archaeology 12 (2012): 149-157. The study of nomad burial grounds in Mongolia is still in its infancy stage. Studies are growing; however, they tend to focus on the descriptions of the archaeological artifacts, lacking theoretical analysis. 206 For additional information concerning deer stone carvings see Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther. "Cultural Riddles: Stylized Deer and Deer Stones of the Mongolian Altai." Bulletin of the Asia Institute 15 (2001), 31-56.; and Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther. Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai: An Atlas. Esri Press, 2009.

Scythians, who disappear from the historical record around 200 BCE.207

A Tang dynasty chronicle gives the following description of a Göktürk burial ceremony which took place in the sixth century:

“They place the body in a tent, and the man’s sons, grandsons, and other kinsmen whether man or woman sacrifice horses and sheep and spread them before the tent. They ride around the tent seven times on horseback. They cut their faces with knives and weep at the tent door. Mixed blood and tears run down their faces. They repeat this ceremony seven times. Then on a certain day they bury the body with his horse and all personal objects which he used, or burn him on a pyre. If the body is burned they bury the ashes in his tomb on a particular day of the year. They bury those who have died in summer in autumn, when the grass and leaves turn brown, and those who die in winter they bury in spring when the flowers bloom and the snows have melted. On the burial day the kinsmen of the dead person ride around on horseback, cut their faces and cry, just as they did on the day of death. They paint pictures of the dead man and the battles in which he fought on the walls of the structure erected over the grave. If the dead person has killed a man during his life they place a stone over his grave. Sometimes these stones amount to one hundred or even one thousand. After sacrificing horses and sheep they place the heads on stakes.”208

William Rubrick gave a brief description of a Cuman burial site (also referred to as Qipchaq

Turks) kurgan: “I saw a man recently dead for whom they had hung up between high sixteen horse’ hides, four towards each quarter of the earth, and they had laid down comos

[] for him to drink and meat for him to eat…”209

The Mongols, however, did differ from other nomads in their burial practices.

Throughout nomadic history there tended to be limited disparity between those with wealth and those without. During the reign of the Mongols the inequality became more prominent, even in burial practices. Prior to the expansionist years, when a wealthy man died he was buried secretly

207 Parzinger, Hermann. "Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains." UNESCO (n.d.), 1-79. https://whc.unesco.org/document/100814, p.17 208 Diyarbekirli, Nejat. "Tomb Structure and Burial Customs Among the Turkish Peoples on the Silk Road | SILK ROADS." UNESCO | Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women. Accessed January 6, 2020. https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/knowledge-bank/architecture/tomb-structure-and-burial-customs-among-turkish- peoples-silk-road. To read the full article, click on the .pdf link. 209 Ruysbroeck, Willem V. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253-1255. edited by David Morgan. Translated by Peter Jackson. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2009, p.95-96.

in an open pit in a remote part of the Steppe with a basket filled with meat and a jar of airig. The man was joined by a mare, a , a colt along with horse tack and a bow with arrows as well as some personal items of value. His closest companions skinned a horse, ate the flesh, stuffed the hide with grass and set it up on a wooden frame or impaled it on poles over the grave.210 Along with the deceased man and horses his favorite slave was placed underneath his body. After three days the companions returned to the pit. If the slave survived he became part of the family as a freed guest. The pit was then covered in dirt and horses trampled the area to make the burial site indistinguishable from its surroundings.

Horseback riding offered a significant change in the way people went to war. Mounted warfare shifted the power of balance to those who had large numbers of horses and well-trained cavalry. The nomads raided each other and the sedentary peoples bordering the Steppe. In time they waged war on a large scale attempting to reach a level of appeasement or in the case of the

Mongols to conquer. Their reputation has been labelled as barbaric and tainted in a negative way. Early horseback riders – prior to 1000 BCE – lived in a world that was significantly different from that of the Scythians or Xiongnu and those who followed. So, if we are going to examine how the Steppe people learned to use horses in war then we need to differentiate between tribal raiding and organized cavalry which appeared in the around 900 BCE.

The question of whether or not raiding took place on a large scale is due to the lack of archaeological evidence; archaeologists have not recovered any bones showing strike wounds from weapons or even arrows.211 However, if one takes into consideration the growth of

210 Carpini, Giovanni D. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.47-49. 211 David Anthony proposes that raiding began shortly after domestication around 4000 BCE. Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.223.

religious writing, specifically Avestan literature and the Rig Veda (some of the oldest written verses in history 1700 – 1100 BCE), raiding was common. A passage in the Rig Veda that seems to indicate raiding reads:

Yes, this is my thought. I will win a cow and a horse. Have I not drunk Soma? Like currents of wind, the drinks have lifted me up. Have I not drunk Soma? The drinks have lifted me up, like swift horses bolting with a chariot. Have I not drunk Soma?212

The word win is most likely a euphemism for stealing and it also refers to that prosperity.213 A career in raiding brought a new purpose of gaining wealth, glory, and prosperity.214 Sheep, cattle, and the horse were a measure of prosperity. They provided meat, milk, wool, and a source for economic growth after the domestication of the horse and development of the composite bow. Raiders were able to sweep in unexpectedly and then depart swiftly. A tribe or clan that did not have horses could not pursue the raiders to regain their stolen items. The Rig Veda text suggests life as a raider with a horse and chariot was a much more appealing which brought glory and adventure. Continuing with the religious tradition, Zarathustra took up the issue of raiding by removing any ambiguity regarding right or wrong. For example, he refers to the raiders as the followers of the lie.215 They are on the side of evil because of the theft and death they inflected others. Both sources clearly indicate raiding was taking place.

The term cavalry is defined by two innovations; first is the use of mass mounted archers,

212 Doniger, Wendy. The Rig Veda. London: Penguin UK, 2005, p.44. 213 Muesse, Mark W. "The World of Zoroaster, lecture two." Presentation, Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World's Religions, The Great Courses, https://www.thegreatcourses.com/digital- library/course/view/id/1899/format/0/, n.d. Professor's Muesse comment regarding the euphemism is at 08:30 in the timeline. 214 Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.237 and 460. 215 Muesse, Mark W. "The World of Zoroaster, lecture two." Presentation, Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World's Religions, The Great Courses, https://www.thegreatcourses.com/digital- library/course/view/id/1899/format/0/, n.d. Professor's Muesse comment regarding the lie is at 23:40 in the timeline.

beginning around 1200 – 900 BCE, with improved horse tack and composite bow giving the rider a more stable platform from which to ride and shoot from.216 Another defining factor of cavalry was that it was organized as a single cohesive unit.217 The term organized is somewhat equivocal. It can refer to tribes who fought together, not necessarily in choreographed formations, using the recurve bow and feigned retreats. It can also refer to trained units that were drilled in formation who learned how to maneuver in specific way, both on the march and on the battlefield. The latter of the two is the most acknowledged among those studying ancient and medieval warfare. An important factor for the term cavalry is that it fought and attacked as an autonomous body under the leadership of one person. In the case of the Xiongnu it was the and later khan for the Turkish and Mongolian peoples.218 This model doesn’t quite fit the nomadic way of fighting, but it did for the sedentary people from China to Europe. Initially nomads fought more for personal glory than as a unified body like an empire or . It is most likely the nomads who had contact with the southern realms learned of formed organized formations from them. After the nomads encountered the Assyrians (2500 – 609 BCE) and

Shang Dynasty (1700 to 1027 BCE) they ended the use of the chariot in warfare and shifted to mounted warfare.219 In the later part of the first millennia the nomads moved away from the chariot in favor of massed cavalry groups.

The innovation of cavalry, specifically mounted horse archers, is credited to the pastoral

216 Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.223. 217 Ibid., p.223. 218 Cosmo, Nicola Di. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.183.; Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Chicago: Rutgers University Press, 1970, p.585, n.92. The first people to use the title khan (also spelled qan) were the in 3rd century BCE. See Shiratori, Kurakichi. "On the Titles Khan and Kaghan." Proceedings of the Imperial Academy 2, no. 6 (1926), p.241-244. 219 Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.460.

tribes of Central Asia.220 The region was a fertile area that was able to support large herds of horses. The earliest indication of the mass use of cavalry comes from the Greek sources and kurgan burials pertaining to the Skythians. The earliest depiction of mounted archers is an

Assyrian relief carving, displayed at the , dating to 865 – 860 BCE, showing two riders, one with a bow and the other holding the reins of his horse and that of the archer.221 Both horses have , but no saddle or even a blanket. However, there appears to be a breast strap on the horse which would indicate some sort of pad was used. The relief clearly indicates the challenge of using a bow on a galloping horse in the early periods.222 In relative terms, it did not take long for various peoples to master mounted archery. It was, however, the pastoral nomads of the Steppe that fully understood a very significant factor about the horse and mass formations.

The nomads lived a life of hunting, horseback riding, shooting the bow, all of which prepped him for war. Synchrony became the most significant thing the nomads learned.

This chapter focused on the characteristics and attributes of the horse and the Steppe nomads; the fourth chapter will go into greater detail regarding synchrony. The significance of the nomads and the horse is they both lived in the same environment. The horses were not separated from the people; sedentary people kept the horses in stables and in enclosed areas that were located away from their dwellings. Sedentary people tended to have specialists who cared and trained the animals, whereas everyone in the nomadic tribe knew how to ride and care for the horses. When it came to warfare sedentary societies had specially trained soldiers who rode the

220 Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.223.; Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016, p.153-154.; Cosmo, Nicola Di. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.27. 221 Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p. 650. 222 Wise, Terrence. Ancient Armies of the Middle East. Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd, 1981. p.39; Clutton-Brock, Juliet. Horse Power: A History of the Horse and the Donkey in Human Societies. 1992, p.74.

horse into battle. On the Eurasian Steppe every man was an able fighter due to the fact he was an accomplished rider and archer. Nomadic warfare is the subject of the next chapter.

Chapter 3 - Nomadic Warfare: Horse Archers of the Steppe

“Their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs seem like flint…” Isaiah 5:28

Conflict along the Steppe took place in the form of raids and large scale campaigns; however, warfare waged by the Steppe peoples is not always a popular topic with scholarly writing.223 When discussed it is briefly covered as if it had little significance in the overall study of the nomads. The paucity of material, historical and archaeological, is a major impediment to

223 Nolan, Cathal. The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, p.1.

such studies. The study of nomadic warfare also faces the issue of orientalism, specifically military orientalism.224 Contemporary and modern writers’ view of nomadic form of warfare was primordial, backwards, un-chivalric, and cowardly. Often researchers made simple assumptions such as that the Mongols lacked mores.225 In contrast the study of warfare pertaining to other peoples, including the Romans, medieval , Byzantines, the , and recently the Chinese226 describes the methods of these groups as culturally rich and complex.

This brings up the question: Is there a society that is culturally simple, lacking in richness? The answer, of course, is no. Implying another society’s methods are unorthodox, nonconformist, or untraditional is an ethnocentric view. Such backwardness impedes the scholarly research on any given topic. Instead of viewing Steppe nomadic warfare as alien and inferior it is best to try to understand it from the Steppe nomadic point of view and how the nomads utilized their form of fighting against the sedentary civilizations and each other.

All nomadic peoples, who had large numbers of horses, from the Eurasian Steppe (500

BCE to 1400 CE) fought in a similar manner. Organization varied from one group to the other, but specific techniques, as in tactics and strategy, were essentially the same. The weapons were functionally the same yet differed in details such as style and design. All groups had the similar cultural traits; including the preference for mares milk, living in round felt tents, moving from one pasture to another; the reliance on cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and horse. The nomads of the

224 Porter, Patrick. Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes. C Hurst, 2009, p.2. See introduction and chapter four for further details. 225 This comment isn’t explicitly stated in the sources; however, the overall view of the nomads by contemporary writers is viewed with stereotypical or ethnocentric tropes. 226 It must be noted that there was a great deal of “military orientalism” pertaining to the Chinese. For example, early 20th century scholars writing about ancient and medieval era warriors claimed the Chinese lacked stratagem and innovations. Another example comes from the U.S. War Department. An informational film [Why We Fight A Series of Seven Information Films: The Battle of China information film #6. early 1940s. War Department, Film. Produced by the War Department Signal Corps Army Service Forces for the Morale Service Forces] was made, during WWII, which stated the Chinese invented gunpowder, but never used it for warfare. It also stated the Chinese were a peace loving population that did not wage warfare.

Steppe suffered similar fates in terms of dealing with harsh weather, famine, or pestilence. Their preferred form of warfare was the raid which led to favorable trade terms with the sedentary peoples to the south. All of the nomads faced the doors of their or gers to the south.227

Whether this was a cultural trait based off of pragmatism, religious perceptions, or the fear of other peoples, especially the southern sedentary peoples is still up for debate.228 Essentially their form of warfare remained the same for thousands of years with only minor differences and changes emerging over time. The Mongols did change the methods and concepts or, more accurately they built on old customs and traditions then improved the techniques and organization.

Without the horse the Steppe nomads could not have raided or conquered other peoples.

The most notable feature of Steppe warfare is the horse and a rider armed with a bow. The term

“horse archer” is given to a person wearing little to no armour shooting a bow from the back of a horse whether at a halt or a full gallop.229 Rarely, and preferably not, did they fight on foot.230

The horse and bow were their greatest assets. Horses provided them with mobility, agility, rapid movement, and the ability to flee death and fight another day. The horse could also be eaten or bled from a vein for nourishment in times of need. The nomads traveled with several horses and changed mounts regularly, especially the Mongols, to prevent a horse from becoming fatigued.231

227 Kemery, Becky. Yurts: Living in the Round. Layton: Gibbs Smith, 2006, p.37. The door frame of a Mongol ger is sacred. It is taboo to step on or the frame when entering the tent. 228 Ibid., p. 37. During the early first millennia BCE, the Chinese raided the Eastern Steppe peoples to gather horses. 229 It must be noted here that this applies primarily to the Steppe nomads. Other peoples, such as the Byzantines, Mamluks, Chinese, Persians (Sassanids for example), Parthians (their ) used armoured cavalry wearing lots of armour and were equipped with bow and arrows. They can be referred to as horse archers; however, they are considered shock troops, those who engage in hand-to-hand fighting. 230 Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016, p.160. Greek historian Herodian, 3rd century BCE, wrote: “They use the bow and the horse in wars, the Romans do, but the barbarians are reared with theses from childhood, and live by hunting; they never lay aside their or dismount from their horses, but employ them constantly for war and the chase.” 231 Amitai, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.216.; May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.54.56. ; Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44,

The horse could also be used to carry supplies, although the camel was preferred as the pack animal. Without a horse, the nomad was nothing.232 This can be challenging to convey and understand. Other peoples of the Eurasian world such as European medieval knights, Mamlūks of Egypt and Syria, the Samurai of Japan, or a of Persia also revered the horse.233 What is different for the nomads is the horse was everything and essential.

The all-encompassing importance of the horse is reflected in the saddles used by the nomads. The saddle used by the Xiongnu, Skythians, Huns, and Parthians was similar in basic structure, but different in stylistic details. The equipment changed with time in terms of style, craftsmanship, and design. In the medieval era, also horse tack evolved in design and cosmetics.

The basic saddle was made of two padded leather cushions held together by straps and supported by wood or horn. In between the cushions was a gap to avoid rubbing on the horse’s backbone.

The saddles were simple, yet ornately decorated.234 To secure the saddle to the horse, girth straps were attached. To prevent the saddle from sliding back and forth, breast straps and croppers, a strap that went around the horse’s to keep the saddle from sliding forward, were added.235 Over the centuries a wooden frame evolved into use with leather cushions stuffed with animal hair. Also added to the saddle was a high pommel and cantle giving the rider additional stability. In antiquity, saddles lacked metal stirrups. However, archaeologist Valery Nikonorov and other scholars have demonstrated leather straps were used as stirrups.236 Sometime in the 4th

no. 2 (1984), p.320-326. 232 This concept is viewed by some Mongols who still live the nomadic life. See Kendall, Elizabeth K. A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a Trip Across West China and Mongolia. 1913, p.255. 233 The story of Rostam and his horse Rakhsh is a prime example. Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. London: Penguin, 2016. Seven Trials of Rostam. 234 Stepanova, Elena V. "Reconstruction of a Scythian Saddle from Pazyryk Barrow No. 3." The Silk Road 14 (2016), p.1-5. 235 Goodrich, Chauncey S., “Riding Astride and The Saddle in Ancient China”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1984), p.289. 236 Nikonorov, Valery. Personal interview. The University of Montana, 2012. Professor Nikonorov traveled to Montana and gave a presentation at the university.

century CE full-length metal stirrups on both sides of the saddle were created in China.237 In the

Steppe stirrups were shortened and enlarged to allow the rider to stand while shooting his bow.

In the mid-twentieth century, scholars debated over the development and impact of the stirrup.

Initially it was considered a revolutionary piece of tack.238 However, most scholars have reconsidered its significance pointing to various peoples throughout time and geography who used a bow while astride a horse without the use of stirrups.239 The stirrup is no longer considered revolutionary, rather a significant development that enhanced the abilities of the horse archer and other types of cavalry. For example, the nomad stirrup was larger which allowed the rider place his weight on his feet for greater stability when shooting the bow.240

Several saddles have been recovered from archaeological excavations and many are depicted in artwork throughout the Eurasian continent. The best preserved saddles of antiquity were recovered from the Pazyryk tombs in the High Altai Mountains.241 They were lavishly decorated with ornaments from all across Eurasia demonstrating the existence of cross cultural exchange along trade routes. Some saddles from the medieval era have been recovered, but they lack extensive studies and subsequent literature. Horse tack was both practical and decorative.

In many depictions of Steppe warriors, especially those of Rashid al-Din Tabib and Mamlūk

237 Hobson, J. M. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004. p.103; Dien, Albert E. "The Stirrup and Its Effect on Chinese Military History." Ars Orientalis 16 (1986): p.36-37. 238 Worthen, Shana. "The Influence of Lynn White, jr.'s Medieval Technology and Social Change." History Compass 7, no. 4 (2009), 1201-1217, p.1201.; Dibon-Smith, Richard. “The Stirrup as a Revolutionary Device.” Medievalists.net. http://www.medievalists.net/2012/03/the-stirrup-as-a-revolutionary-device/ (accessed 05 August 2019).; Dien, Albert. “The Stirrup and its Effect on Chinese Military History.” Silk Road Foundation. Accessed January 8, 2020. http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/artl/stirrup.shtml. 239 Three excellent examples are: the Parthians, Scythians, and Xiongnu. 240 Stirrups are not foot rests. A good rider will use the stirrup to support his/hers weight to prevent bouncing on the horses back when traveling at speeds faster than a walk or gait. A larger stirrup pad makes it easier to support the rider’s weight, especially when shooting a bow. 241 Han, Junhi. "Background to UNESCO Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains Project and Perspectives for Transboundary Protection through the World Heritage Convention." World Heritage Centre, Culture, UNESCO (n.d.), p.49.; See also Stepanova, Elena V. "Reconstruction of a Scythian Saddle from Pazyryk Barrow No. 3." The Silk Road 14 (2016), p.1-18.

treatises, tassels are shown on the and harness.242 The tassels were made of animal hair and sometimes died in various colors, and were used as amulets by some cultures.243

Cosmetically, it is appealing and shows wealth and prestige. The tassels also served a pragmatic purpose, keeping insects, especially flies, off the horse. A horse will flick its tail along its rump to scare off the flies. The tassels were used with the same affect when the animal was in motion.

Ubiquitous with the saddle was the bow and arrow. The interest of the bows from the

Eurasian Steppe has waned and waxed in the scholarly field. In the past few years, with the help of the Internet, the interest in the Asian bow has risen immensely. Some bows have been found during excavations, most being in some state of deterioration. So far, there hasn’t been a Mary

Rose,244 a 15th century ship that sank in the Solent and recovered from the seabed in 1982 that contained dozens of well-preserved English , find for any of the bows from peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. In Mongolia, a bow was found in Cagaan Khad, a cavern, which was still strung (meaning the bow string has been placed onto the bow creating tension). The cavern’s extreme dry and cool conditions kept the bow in very good condition. One of the limbs was bent due to continuous tension. This bow and others have provided good examples of the bows’ construction and design. Bows can be described by their shape, geographical origin, and composition. The most famous bow, from a European and American centric point of view, is the

English longbow made from a single piece of wood, preferably yew. The least known bow is the short or simple bow made from a single piece of wood.245 Due to the West’s fascination with

242 Blair, Shiela S. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid Al-Din's Illustrated History of The World. Khalili Collections, 2005.; Smith, Gerald R. Medieval Muslim Horsemanship: A Fourteenth-Century Arabic Cavalry Manual. 1979. 243 Paine, Sheila. Amulets: Sacred Charms of Power and Protection. Inner Traditions, 2004. 244 Rule, Margaret. “The Raising of the Mary Rose”, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 129, No. 5298 (1981), p.332-343. 245 Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012, p.35.

Japanese history of the Samurai the yumi bow has received a great deal of attention. All other bows made within the Eurasian continent tend to be labelled as Asian, recurve, laminated, or composite.

The general labelling of the bows is sometimes overlapped depending upon methods of classification. The term Asian bow is a generic term for bows that are sometimes referred to as

Hun, Hunnic, or Xiongnu meaning those that had a similar shape or were made in the Eastern

Steppe and have an elongated to a distinct C shape. In the Western and Central Steppe during the Ancient or Classical period the umbrella term of Scythian was used, and it had an hour-glass shaper. (See figures 1 and 2).246

Figure 1 Xiongnu style bow Figure 2 Scythian style bow

For the Medieval period, the terms, Turkish or Mongolian bow have taken root for all bows made

246 Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600 BC–AD 1300. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004, p.20.

by the nomads of the Steppe.247 See figures 2 and 3.248

Figure 3 Turkish style bow Figure 4 Mongolian style bow

A is one that is constructed of different pieces of the same material bonded together. A composite bow, by far the most commonly made by the nomads, is made up of different materials.249 All of the bows have been referred to as a recurve; when it is not strung it has a shallow to distinct C-shape. When the bow is strung the limbs are pulled away from its natural shape which gives it stored energy. For a detailed explanation of how the bow was

247 The Mongolian bow used today during the Nadaam Games is different from the one used during the 12-14th centuries. The modern one has a strong Manchu appearance. After the Manchus took over the Ming Dynasty they suppressed bow making in Mongolia, fearing any type of uprising from their Mongol neighbors. In the 20th century the Soviets attempted to forbid anything related to the Medieval Mongols including bow making. To a large degree Mongolia lost some of it bow making heritage. Since then there has been a revitalization of the craft, however, it has a strong Manchurian influence. There are two bowmakers, Tumurkhuu Batmunkh and Master Boldbaatar, who are trying to bring back the traditional bows, called Huunu, of the Mongols. The two significant differences between the bows is the Manchu has distinctive string bridges and large siyehs. The Manchu influenced bows are also much longer since they are not used from horseback. The Huunu bow is shorter with no string bridges and is meant to be used from a horse. The design is based off of the Cagaan Khad bow found in a cave near Övörhangay Aimag, Mongolia which has been dated to the 14th century, and 13th-14th century depictions of Mongols with bows in Chinese and . The two most notable features of the depictions and Cagaan Khad bow is the minimal contact string and shorter length. 248 Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600 BC–AD 1300. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004, p.23 and 8. 249 Latham, John D. Saracen Archery: An English Version and Exposition of a Mameluke Work on Archery (ca. A.D. 1368). 1970, p.6; Faris, Nabih A., and Robert P. Elmer. Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and A. Princeton: Kessinger Legacy Reprints, 1945, p.10-15.; Baidaralin, Daniyar. Sadaqshiliq: the Art of Making and Shooting the Kazakh Horsebow. Independently published, 2016, p.34-45.; Klopsteg, Paul E. Turkish Archery and the Composite Bow: A Review of an Old Chapter in the Chronicles of Archery and a Modern Interpretation. Martino Fine Books, 2016, p.36-53.; Hurley, Vic. Arrows Against Steel: The History of the Bow and how it Forever Changed Warfare. Cerberus Books, 2011, p.18-20.

constructed see appendix A.

Culturally, the various nomads of the Eastern, Central, and Western Steppe were very similar. Therefore, their tactics were essentially the same. Peter Golden and Denis Sinor note

Chinese sources state that “warfare was the business of the nomads. It was their natural occupation.”250 Groups of horsemen formed into unorganized groups and raided their neighbors, whether sedentary or nomadic. Sometimes, several tribes united under a strong-willed ruler and formed a makeshift army to control a region. The forces were normally organized around the family and tribe. This left no formal organization or structured leadership. If the ruler died or family disputes occurred, the tribal factions broke up and dispersed, leaving a weak contingent251 or virtually no army to conduct raids or fight battles.

The Xiongnu and Mongols were well known for their organization. Both peoples used the decimal system of 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 to organize their troops into units and family households.252 For example, it is speculated that a group of Mongol descendants from the 13th century are believed to have remained in the area of Bamyan after the city had been captured in

1221. The people of the area have been referred to as Hezara (plural Hezarajaf), which is

hezār) meaning one thousand.253 In the case of the - ﺰھ ا ر ) believed to be a Persian word

Mongols in the 12th and 13th centuries, a group of 10 riders was called an arban, (plural arbat),

100 riders a jaghun, (plural jaghut), 1,000 a minqan, (plural minqat), and 10,000 a tümen, (plural

250 Golden, Peter. Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, Khazars and Qipchaqs. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003, p.VII 84.; Sinor, Denis. "The Inner Asian Warriors." Journal of the American Oriental Society 101, no. 2 (1981), p.124-135. 251 Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), p.307-345. 252 Amitai, Reuven, and Michal Biran. Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change: The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2015, p.4.; Rubruck, William. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Mongke 1253-1255. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009, p.136n. 253 Bacon, Elizabeth E. "The Inquiry into the History of the Hazara Mongols of Afghanistan." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 7, no. 3 (1951), p.244.

tümet).254 This, of course, was in ideal conditions, which rarely existed. Not all tümet were fully manned as was the case at the Battle of Ain Jalut.255 Each arban, jaghun, minqan, and tümen had a specified leader. It is thought that each unit had a banner, not stated in the sources, but there appears to be some suggestions that they did. The Turks, especially the Seljuqs were not as uniformly organized.

During the Third Crusade a chronicler wrote “They [the Turks] were well drawn-up with so many emblems fixed to their lances, so many standards, so many banners with a variety of details, so many lines appropriately divided into troops arranged in companies that there seemed at a guess to be more than 20,000 armed Turks approaching in order.”256 The Turks, however, did not use a consistent convenient number to form their units. Horse archers were organized

plural – ātlāb (ﺗُﻠﺐ) into various tulbs that ranged in size from seventy to two hundred men. Tulb

is a Turkish word incorporated into the Arabic language. While there are terms to ( بﻼﺗا ) describe the units on the battlefield, they are somewhat ambiguous and vague.

There is a great deal of debate as to what kind of formations the horse archers used. John

Warry, author of Warfare in the Classical World described the tactics of horse archers used by the Scythians and Parthians:

“ [horse archers] form up in loose order, generally with about six feet frontage. The Scythians are said to have invented the wedge formation. When the horse archer attacks he places one arrow on his and holds more in his bow hand. He then advances at a canter. At about one hundred yards he breaks into a gallop and fires two to four arrows. At about fifty yards he wheels, generally to the right (since it is easier to shoot towards his left) and gallops along the front still firing. Alternately, he reins in and skid-turns and fires

254 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.31.; Carpini, Giovanni D. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.90. 255 Amitai, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.27; Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), p.310.; Amitai, Reuven. "`Ayn Jālūt Revisited." Tārīḫ 2 (1992), p.123-124. 256 Richard de Templo, The Chronicle of the Third Crusade; The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, trans. Helen J. Nicholson, Aldershot; Ashgate Publishing, 1997, p.248.

behind him [Parthian shot] as he retreats.”257

Ammianus Marcellinus, a 4th century CE Roman historian described how the Huns fought in battle:

As they are lightly equipped for swift motion, and unexpected in action, they purposely divide suddenly into scattered bands and attack, rushing about in disorder here and there, dealing terrific slaughter; and because of their extraordinary rapidity of movement they are never seen to attack a rampart or pillage an enemy’s camp.258

The above descriptions are consistent with others. Michael Psellos, a Byzantine monk, “saw only disorder, remarking of the Petchnegs, that ‘they are not divided up by battalions and when they go to war they have no strategic plan to guide.’ They attack, he writes, ‘in one mass, close- packed and pell-mell’ and ‘when they break away there is no order in their retreat.”259 Other descriptions describe the formations as globus indicating the horse archers resembled more of a dysfunctional mass than an organized unit. In short, the horse archers would use no formation as formation.260

The horse archers were normally wearing little to no armour and gathered in small groups. Their primary weapon of choice was the composite bow. As lightly armed troops they were able to move swiftly and fluidly to avoid direct combat and harass the enemy. Their loose globulus formations gave them the ability to sweep around the flanks of the enemy showering the opposing force with arrows creating confusion and chaos in the attempt to break or discombobulate the enemy. Descriptions of battle describe a scene of bedlam. Sima Qian

257 Warry, John. Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in the Ancient Civilizations of Greece and Rome. Norman; University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, p.155. 258 Marcellinus, Ammianus. Delphi Complete Works of Ammianus Marcellinus (Illustrated). Delphi Classics, 2016, book XXXI, p.3. 259 Cosmo, Nicola D. Warfare in Inner Asian History (500-1800). Leiden: Brill, 2001, p.135. 260 Little, John. Bruce Lee: Artist of Life. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1999, p.201. This concept is quite similar to arts jeet kune do which favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms, and since it has no style, therefore jeet kune do fits in with all styles.

wrote:

“They are skillful at using decoy troops to lure their opponents to destruction. When they catch sight of the enemy, they swoop down like a flock of birds, for booty, but when they find themselves hard press and beaten, they scatter and vanish like the mist.”261

The tactical methods used by the Steppe nomads were very similar all across the Eurasian

Steppe and timeline from the ancient to the medieval eras. Since the vast majority of the men were lightly armoured archers mounted on horses, they were able to move faster and farther than their enemies. The horse also gave them great mobility allowing them to conduct elaborate maneuvers during the march and on the battlefield.

On the battlefield the horsemen gathered into organized units and concentrated their arrows attempting to make the opposing force falter. The horseman rushed at the enemy in small groups, such as an arban or zuun in the case of the Mongols. As they approached they shot their arrows at a great distance. During the First Crusade the Europeans were astonished at the distance the Seljuq Turks could fire their arrows.262 As they closed, the small unorganized group tightened its formation continuing to shower the enemy. When they came within a short distance, approximately 40-50 yards, of the opposing force, the horse archers veered to the right, following the lead rider or banner bearer, still peppering the enemy with arrows. Following the group was another group adding to the continuous shower of arrows maintaining pressure on the opposing force. The continuous appearance of horsemen gave the appearance they were limitless in numbers. This technique is often referred to as the shi’uchi263 which is similar to the

261 Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: . Translated by Burton Watson. New York City: Columbia University Press, 1961, p.137. 262 Anonymous. Gesta Francorum Et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. Translated by Rosalind Hill. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962, p.19; France, John. Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p.148. 263 May, Timothy. The Mongol Conquests in World History. London: Reaktion Books, 2012, p.131. May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.72-74.

caracole technique used in Europe by Austrian and German cavalry armed with pistols during the

16th century. To concentrate the aiming of the bows one of the leading riders fired a whistling arrow in the desired direction. The rest of the archers shot their arrows in the same direction. If the enemy held its ground, the horsemen rode along the front of the troops shooting arrows to their left, which is the easiest position to shoot from. If the enemy gave any indication of engaging the horse archers, they simply ran away, still shooting their arrows to the rear. The riders rode to a designated point to regroup, changed horses to limit over exerting the mounts, and resupplied themselves, especially with arrows.

The continuous shower of arrows was meant to create havoc in the attempt to break down the morale of the enemy, forcing them to waiver and flee the battlefield. John France states

“Archers alone could only decide a battle if the enemy’s nerve broke, but they could demoralize and unpick enemy formations, opening gaps into which the light and could pour”.264 The arrow storm, swarming, or rolling barrage resulted in few casualties. If the enemy waivered and fled the battlefield the horsemen rushed in picking off fleeing soldiers at will. This is when the greatest number of casualties took place. In the 329 BCE, Spitamenes, a Sogdian warlord, rebelled against Alexander the Great, shortly after Alexander conquered Bactria;

Spitamenes besieged Marcanda, called Afrasiyab in the medieval era, now known as Samarqand.

Alexander sent a relief force to break the siege. Spitamenes used his nomadic horse archers to attack the Macedonians most formidable infantry formation, the phalanx. The horse archers swarmed the formation and showered it with arrows. The phalanx broke formation and most of the men were killed in the ensuing rout.265 If the enemy held their ground, then other tactics

264 France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1999, p.213. 265 Holt, Frank L. Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia. New York: Brill Archive, 1988, p.64-65.

were used.

One of the most noted tactics used by the nomads was the . Either during a battle or a siege the nomads would suddenly depart leaving behind their camp along with anything else such as livestock, supplies, and tents. Their flight appeared to be a disorganized fashion as if they had been defeated. The opposing force, falsely sensing victory, chased after the fleeing horsemen or stop to loot the camp. If they chose to ransack the camp, then supposedly horsemen would turn around and attack picking off the unorganized looters. If the opposing force chose to pursue, the fleeing horsemen rode to a designated staging point then turned to face the pursuing force, see figures 1-5, which was normally disorganized, stretched out and without support of the main force. A prearranged trap proved deadly and quite often inescapable, see diagrams 6-9.266

Diagram 1

266 Figured created by the author of this thesis.

Diagram 2

Diagram 3

Diagram 4

Diagram 5

Diagram 6

Diagram 7

Diagram 8

Diagram 9

Sun Tzu, circa 544 – 496 BCE, wrote “do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight”.267

The Xiongnu were notorious at feigning retreat when fighting the Han. Peter Lorge points out the Steppe nomads had a cultural understanding of the mobile warfare which the Chinese disdained.268 The Achaemenid Persian Ruler, Darias, complained the Skythians would not stand to fight, instead they fled into the Steppe drawing the ruler farther and farther from his resources.

The retreat weakened the Persians who eventually turned back without ever engaging the nomads. In 910 CE, the Magyars (a nomadic group that invaded and settled in the Hungarian plains during the 10th century BCE) defeated a German force when they drew out the armoured horsemen, the prelude to the European knights, at the Battle of .269 During the

Crusades, the Byzantines warned the Franks not to fall prey to this ruse employed by the Seljuq

Turks, yet they still fell for it. In May of 1104 at the Battle of Harran, the Seljuq Turks engaged the rulers of the newly established of Antioch and Edessa.270 The Turks quickly rode towards the crusaders showering them with arrows. The Franks held their ground; however, the Turkish horsemen appeared to waiver, which enticed the Frankish knights to break ranks and engage the Turks. The Seljuqs fled in disarray while the knights pursued. After two days of fleeing the Turkish horse archers turned to engage their pursuers. Many of the Frankish horsemen fell to the arrows of Turks and were defeated. Even nomads sometimes fell prey to their own ruse. In the early 13th century, the Mongols defeated a combined force of Rus’ and

Kipchaq Turks at the Battle of Kalka River by feigning defeat. After several days of fleeing from the combined forces the Mongols lured the Rus’ and Qipchaqs to a prearranged location

267 Sun Tzu. Art of War. Translated by Ralph D. Sawyer. New York: Basic Books, 1994, p.117. 268 Lorge, Peter A. " in an Age of Wen Martial Culture in Song China." Unpublished (n.d.), p.10. 269 For Europe’s struggle against the Magyar horse archers see Bowlus, Charles R. The and its Aftermath, August 955: The End of the Age of Migrations in the Latin West. London: Routledge, 2016. 270 Ralph of Caen, and David S. Bachrach. The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade. Translated by Bernard S. Bachrach. : Ashgate Publishing, 2010, p.164.

that favored the Mongols.271 The combined forces were caught by surprise and defeated. Even

Marco Polo noted the effectiveness of the feigned retreat:

Thus they fight to as good purpose in running away as if they stood and faced the enemy, because of the vast volleys of arrows that they shot in this way, turning around upon their pursuers, who are fancying that they have won the battle. But, when the [the term for the Mongols often used by the Latin and Arabic sources] see that they have killed and wounded a good many horses and men, they wheel round bodily and return to the charge in perfect order and with loud cries, and in a very short time the enemy is routed.272

The nomads were masters of rapid fluidity of movement in which they avoided engaging with their opponent yet remained in close proximity to entice the enemy to follow them. This tactic is called the Fabian retreat, referring to a Roman commander, Quintus Fabius Maximus, 221 – 217

BCE, who defeated the Carthaginian ruler, Barca, 221 – 202 BCE, during the second

Punic Wars of the 3rd Century BCE, by avoiding direct contact. Herodotus wrote:

“The Skythians were more clever than any other [after describing them as ignorant] people in making the most important discovery we know of concerning human affairs, though I do not admire them in other respects. They have discovered how to prevent any attacker from escaping them and how to make it impossible for anyone to overtake them against their will. For instead of establishing towns or walls, they are all mounted archers who carry their homes along with them and derive their sustenance not from cultivated fields but from their homes. Since they make their homes on carts, how could they not be invincible even to engage in battle?”273

In short, this technique is one of movement, deception and enticement. When the nomads were aware they could not defeat their enemy, they lured the opposing force into an area that was more suitable to their form of fighting. Quite often the nomads divided their forces to avoid being surrounded, and it also gave the appearance their army was falling apart, which encouraged pursuit. After a period of retreat and pursuit the nomads turned against the enemy to

271 Sverdrup, Carl F. The Mongol Conquests: The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei. 2016, p.206. 272 May, Timothy. "Genghis Khans Secrets of Success." Military History 24, no. 5 (August 2007), p.45. 273 Herodutus. The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories. Translated by Robert B. Strassler. New York: Anchor, 2009, p.301 (4.46).

ambush or envelop them.274

The retreat could last for months as in the case of the Achaemenid ruler, I, and his pursuit of the Scythians. As noted in a previous chapter the Skythians simply fled into the

Steppe and harassed the Achaemenids until they chose to stop the pursuit and return to their homeland. It could also last just days, as in the case of the Battle of Köse Dag, June 1243 CE.275

When the Mongols invaded the Seljuq territories in Anatolia they were outnumbered. The actual numbers between the two forces is unknown. What is made clear is the Seljuqs and their allies, the Cilician Armenians, and the Trebizond Greeks, a remnant of the Byzantine Empire that fell to the Crusaders in 1204 CE, were numerically superior to the Mongols. The Mongols began the invasion by seizing the city of Erzurum. When the Seljuqs resisted, the Mongols fled avoiding direct contact with the Turks. After several days of and mouse the Mongols turned back, enveloped the Seljuqs and defeated them. The Fabian tactic, like all the others, required a great deal of training and practice to properly execute.

Examining the training of a nomad army is a challenging task. Most of them were illiterate leaving no record explaining how they trained. What is known comes from outside sources. Even then the descriptions are limited or vague. A valuable asset to examine is the

Mamlūk military manuals from the 13th through the 15th centuries. The treatises are full of information concerning horse archery and training techniques used to train the slave soldiers.276

The weakness of the sources is the nomads did not fight exactly like the sedentary armies, including the Mamlūks, who were mostly Qipchaq Turks. The slave soldiers drilled in tight

274 Carpini, Giovanni Di. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.75. 275 Martin, H. D. "The Mongol Army." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 75, no. 1-2 (1943), p.46-85.; Peacock, A.C.S. "Georgia and the Anatolian Turks in the 12th and 13th centuries." Anatolian Studies 56 (2006), p.128. 276 Al-Sarraf, Shihab. "Mamluk Furūsīyah Literature and Its Antecedents." Mamluk Studies Review 8, no. 1 (2004), p.141-200.

formations and focused a great deal on melee as well as archery. The nomad usually avoided close combat until the opposing force broke down from continued arrow showers.

Before being recruited into any army the nomads were excellent riders and archers. From an early age they learned to ride horses. Friar Plano Carpini attest to this stating the nomads learned how to ride a horse before learning to walk.277 When they became strong enough, they learned to shoot a bow to protect their herds from predators and hunt for food. Both skills were necessary for the survival in the Steppe. The daily riding and constant use of the bow made the nomads very proficient horsemen and archers. To move in a mass required additional coordination.

To learn how to coordinate maneuvers the nomads of the Steppe participated in a large hunt called the battue.278 They formed up in groups, fanned out over several miles, rounding up every animal they came across and enveloping them. While the hunt was very common among the nomads of the Steppe as a source of entertainment and food, it was the Mongols who converted it into a military exercise. It was on a grand scale, well organized, thoroughly planned and stringently - if not draconian - regulated. The troops were guided by their commanders. The battue took several days, weeks, or months to complete. The coordination required extensive communication and discipline in order to maintain the encirclement. In addition, the riders were not allowed to let an animal slip through the enveloping circle. Once the circle was complete it

277 Dawson, Christopher. Mission to Asia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980, p.18.; Symonenko, Oleksandr. "Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2017, 1-28. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.237, p.17.; Khazanov, Anatoly M. "The Eurasian Steppe Nomads in World Military History." In Nomad Aristocrats in a World of Empires, edited by Jürgen Paul, 187-207. Weisbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2013, p.191. 278 The term nerge is often commonly used. Ata Malik Juvaini uses the term nerge to describe columns of troops. Battue (also batut) is a term that refers to a hunt in which game is driven into an area and therefore will be used in this paper. Another term for the hunt is gorugen.; For further information regarding hunting on the Eurasian Continent see Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

moved inward trapping all the animals inside a wall of horses and riders. After the animals were corralled the khan, or whoever was the leader, made the first kill. Next the bravest of the soldiers entered the ring with one arrow. If he failed to kill an animal, he faced chastised by his peers. Not all the animals were killed. Eventually an elder would intervene and those remaining alive were allowed to escape. The nomads were well aware it was unwise to depopulate an area of wildlife.

At the most basic level, the hunt provided the source for meat, animal tendons for making bows, and fur for textiles and the felt tents. The battue also provided the training needed to instill discipline among the troops and coordination between the commanders. Utilizing the battue on a large scale provided the training for navigating around difficult terrain and obstacles.

Nomadic horse archer armies preferred large open areas to maneuver.279 The hunt was used to train and coordinate the troops during maneuvers.280 It was also a source of entertainment for tribal gatherings, special guests, or simply the time to acquire needed quarry. The hunt was conducted by all the nomadic peoples of the Steppe from the Xiongnu and Skythians of antiquity to the Timurids and Moghuls of the late medieval era. Even sedentary peoples conducted the hunt on small and large scales. Emperors from the Holy , Byzantium, the Tang,

Ming, and Qing China thoroughly enjoyed participating in the hunt. A Khitan Liao emperor once stated hunting was more than just pleasure; it was also a means of practicing warfare.281 In

Southwest and Central Asia sultans, , and khans went to great lengths to participate in hunts

279 France, John. Perilous Glory: The Rise of Western Military Power, New Haven and London; Yale University Press, 2011, p.142.; Hyland, Ann. The Medieval Warhorse: From Byzantium to the Crusades, London; Grange Books, 1996, p.34. 280 Morgan, David. The Mongols, Oxford; Basil Blackwell, 1986, p.91.; May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War, Yardley: Westholme Publishing, LLC., 2007, p.46-47. 281 May, The Mongol Art of War, p. 46; Wittfogel, Karl A., and Chia-shêng Fêng. History of Chinese Society: Liao, 907-1125. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society / Macmillan, 1949, p.119, 126-129.; Rea, Cam. Mongol Warfare: Strategy, Tactics, Logistics, and More!. Scotts Valley: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.

as many times as possible. The hunt was a vast party that everyone wanted to attend and soldiers, musicians, camp followers, servants, retainers, nobles, slaves, merchants and rulers gathered round for the large hunts. It was festive, spectacular to watch, an honor to participate in, and sometimes . A hunter ran the risk of being unhorsed, attacked by his quarry, or murdered by his host who wished to see an adversary eliminated; a stray arrow wasn’t necessarily a misdirected shot.

The battue was used to hone the skills of the riders in horsemanship and maneuver. The hunters rode their mounts the entire day, quite often over difficult terrain. During the encirclement they faced hardship from weather, long hours of riding, discipline to remain in formation and deprivation from rest and eating. In short, the soldiers were training to become accustomed to the hardships and rigors of stress from campaigning. The horsemen were required to maintain strict discipline and remain in position throughout the entire march. A rider who fell out of line was severely punished. They also learned to face their fears by working together as a single cohesive unit.282 During the encirclement, animals of all kinds were enclosed. Bears, wolves, wild cats such as tigers and leopards, hyenas, and boars when cornered lashed out in fear and attacked the hunters. Ungulates are also very dangerous when threatened. A single moose, wapiti (elk), or a caribou in a state of desperation can drive through a small group of riders. As herd animals, there was always the risk of a group panicking resulting in a stampede attempting to break through the line of horsemen. If a group of riders allowed animals to escape through a gap, they were beaten or executed. Anyone who fled in fear was killed by their leaders. The men learned to work together and support each other in all manners of hardship and trepidation.

The battue provided an excellent training opportunity for command and control. While it

282 'Umar Ibn Ibrahim al-Ansi al-An'ari. Tafrij al-Kuruib ft Tadbir al-'urfib [A Muslim Manual of War], edited and translated by George T. Scanlon, Cairo: American University at Cairo Press, 1961, p.103. Also see p. 77.

is known that the hunt was popular with all of the nomadic peoples, it was the Mongols who received the most attention from contemporary writers. The Mongol troops were divided into three groups, the left wing (je’un ghar), the center (tob or gol), and the right wing (baraghun ghar).283 All three remained connected and never separated from the center. The three wings formed a line that stretched for many miles. The line slowly moved forward driving the animals before it. The two outer wings stretched out moving slightly faster, yet without disengaging from the center, then inward to gradually envelop the animals. After a solid ring was established, the troops slowly tightened the circle until it was approximately three to five miles in diameter creating a human barrier mounted on horses. A felt fence was placed along the encirclement with entrances into the circle. Coordination and communication was essential to prevent the three wings from becoming disjointed as well as keeping the cohesion of the envelopment. Those in command used swift riders, flags, and drums to coordinate the movement of the entire force. The hunt was also a way to test the skills of commanders and members of the Keshig, the elite Mongol tümen.284 The same techniques were used when the

Mongols set out on campaign. It was also used on a smaller scale during a mock battle.

Building on a nomadic pastime of chase games, the Mongols participated in a sham-fight with large numbers of troops. Troops formed up on a battlefield into gurans (small regiments or units) and attacked via maneuver attempting to circumnavigate the other and avoid being outflanked via retreats and rapid maneuvering.285 There was no actual fighting with weapons, that could injure someone, but fights did break out requiring intervention of the commanders.286

283 The division of the military forces into three divisions or wings was common among the Steppe peoples including the Ayyubids and Mamluks of Egypt. 284 May, The Mongol Art of War, p.45-46. 285 Prawdin, Michael. The Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, 1967, p.47. 286 Ibid., p.44.

Its purpose was to conduct mock battles of maneuver. Supposedly the Mamlūks adopted the training. Sultan Baybars conducted a sham fight, grand review, prior to setting out against the

Mongols in Rūm.287 Sham fights were part of the Mongol custom. James Gilmour, in his account Among the Mongols, wrote about some strangers who approached a ger bearing gifts of whiskey. The men were stopped by a rather large man demanding what brought the strangers to his tent. They demanded entry. The large man’s reply was they would have to fight him. A scuffle, which lasted only a few minutes, broke out pulling each other about, while taking care not to spill the whiskey. The large man eventually relented and allowed the men to enter.

However, another dispute erupted when they could not decide who would enter the ger first.

Each of the men kept bowing to the other, yet none entered. The large man eventually pushed the men into his ger ending the fracas. Such was their nature of a sham fight.288

On campaign, large numbers of troops marched over great distances.289 The lessons learned from the hunt were very valuable, especially for campaigns where troops marched over difficult terrain. Quite often the army divided into separate groups each one aiming for the same objective from different directions, giving the impression of innumerable riders. Or, each group went after a different objective, which gave the appearance the Mongols were everywhere with an endless supply of men. The maneuvers learned from the battue were used in almost every campaign by the Mongols. In 1219 to 1221 the Mongols sent detachments into Khwarizmia in different directions and some crossed territory thought to be impassable. Cities were besieged and battles took place over a vast area, which gave the impression the Mongols were

287 Howorth, Henry Hoyle, History of the Mongols: From the 9th to the 19th Century, Cosimo Classics, 2013, p.252. 288 Gilmour, James. Among the Mongols. New York: American Tract Society, 1880, p.258. 289 See Sverdrup for details regarding Mongol campaigns - Sverdrup, Carl F. The Mongol Conquests: The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei. Helion and Company, 2016.; See also Morgan, David. The Mongols. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1986.

everywhere. In 1251 through 1260 the Mongols invaded Song China from different directions.290 Similar patterns were used against the Rus’ and Eastern Europe in 1235 to 1242.291

The campaigns conducted by the Mongols were the battue on a grand scale. Instead of hunting animals, people as in kingdoms, cities, and territory were the prey.

The tactics of the battue were also applied on a smaller scale. Anytime an opposing force was spotted, the Mongols would try to envelop or outflank it, just like they did during a hunt.

One or two wing(s) would swing around the enemy attempting to outmaneuver the army as the

Mongols did at the Battle of Mohi in 1241 against the .292 It was on the battlefield that the horsemen utilized the lessons from the battue and the horse’s ability to operate in a group. Maneuvering and controlling the horse during the hunt or in combat required excellent equestrian skills. One way to hone their riding skills was to participate in equestrian games. The games were used to synchronize the rider and the horse.

The equestrian games of Central Asia and the Steppe are barely, if ever, represented by western media.293 Nevertheless, the games served the purpose of personal training, entertainment, political display, and cultural ritual. The games fostered cooperation between riders as well as individual prowess. They were extremely popular and competition was fierce regardless of what type of equestrian game was being played.

All the above tactics and games help to explain how the nomads trained and conducted warfare. The narrations are sound and have been detailed in several sources.294 None of them

290 For details concerning Mongol campaigns into Song China see Morris Rossabi - Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Univ of California Pr., 1988. 291 Sinor, Denis. "The Mongols in the West." Journal of Asian History 33, no. 1 (1999), p.1-44.; Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. London: Routledge, 2005. 292 Sverdrup, Carl. "Numbers in Mongol Warfare." Journal of Medieval Military History 8 (n.d.), 1p.09-117. 293 was represented in the Rambo movies during the 1980s. 294 Edwards, Sean J. "Historical Cases." In Swarming on the Battlefield: Past, Present, and Future, p.13-45. Santa Monica: RAND, 2000. Edwards gives descriptions from Alexander the Great’s struggle with the Scythians, the

however, are able to clarify exactly how the nomads were able to maneuver their groups on the battlefield. While scholars claim the nomads practiced in groups, and later the Mongols are stated to have drilled, the explanations lack detail. Some claim the warriors kept some control over the horse by keeping the reins of the horse around their fingers of the bow hand. There is a great deal of risk with this. If the horse spooks, stumbles, or gets out of control the rider could lose his fingers. Modern riders are taught early on, the reins are never to be wrapped around fingers, the hand, or the wrist. Furthermore, wrapping the reins anywhere around the hand will impede the rider’s ability to shoot with effectiveness. Since the horse archers needed their hands to use the bow and arrow they needed to have excellent equestrian skills regardless of how fast the horse was moving. The archery skill of the horse archers was noted by an Arab named al-

Jahiz:

“If a thousand of their horse [the Turks] join battle and let off a single shower of arrows, they can mow down a thousand [Arab] horses. No army can withstand this kind of . The Kharijites and the have no skill worth mentioning in shooting from horseback, but the Turk can shoot at beasts, birds, hoops, men, sitting quarry, dummies and birds on the wing, and do so at a full [gallop] to fore or to rear, to left or to right, upwards or downwards, losing ten arrows before the Kharijite can nock one.”295

Ibn Fadlan, an Arab from who traveled north into the Steppe witnessed a Turkish rider shoot a goose out of the sky while galloping on his horse.296 Usama Munqidh, a 12th century

Arab living in Syria noted that he saw a man shoot three arrows at a in a tree, all of which missed. After the man moved away a Turk came and shot the squirrel on his first try.

Romans against the Parthians at Carrhae, Byzantines and Turks at Manzikert, the Crusaders against the Turks at Dorylaeum and, of course, the Mongols. 295 Latham, J. D. "The Archers of the Middle East: The Turco-Iranian Background." Iran 8 (1970), p.97-103.; Kennedy, Hugh N. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001. 296 Fadlan, Ibn. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. London: Penguin UK, 2012, p.20.

Munqidh state the shot would have killed a man had it been directed at one.297 Anna Comnana,

(b. 1083 – d. 1153) the daughter of Byzantine Emperor , also noted the

Turks prowess with the bow and horse:

“As for the weapons they use in war, unlike the Kelts (Europeans) the do not fight with lances but completely surround the enemy and shoot at him with arrows; they also defend themselves with arrows at a distance. In hot pursuit the Turk makes prisoners by using his bow; in flight he overwhelms his pursuer with the same weapon and when he shoots, the arrow in its course strikes either the rider or horse, fired with such tremendous force that it passes clean through the body. So skilled are the Turkish archers.”298

Ata Malik Juvaini adds “Turkish archers (who can, if they wish, with the discharge of an arrow, sew up the heaven) charging to and fro [while on a horse] with such effect that with every arrow that they let fly with the speed of a shooting star they hit the target.”299 Such was the skill of a nomadic warrior as an archer and rider.

Riders can control a horse by using just their knees and feet. Good equestrian riders will push one knee into the side of the horse to direct which way the horse is to move. Simply using a foot to gently push the side of the animal can be used to change the lead. When a horse gallops or canters one of the front legs will reach out further, in the forward motion, than the other. This is normal for all quadrupeds. The significance of the lead is balance. When a horse changes direction it needs to be in the proper lead to maintain good balance for both itself and the rider.

Changing leads is a sign of good horsemanship. Those fighting in tight formations such as the

Mamlūks, needed to know how to change the lead without using the reins. By using his feet and knees the rider was able to use both his hands to control the bow. Therefore, there was no need

297 Munqidh, Usāmah I. An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh (Kitāb Al-Iʻtibār) ; Translated from the Original Manuscript by Philip K. Hitti; with a New Foreword by Richard W. Bulliet. Translated by Philip K. Hitti. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, p.224. 298 Comnena, Anna. The Alexiad. Translated by E.R.A. Sewter. New York: Penguin Books, 2003, p.479-480. 299 Juvaini, Ata-Malik, and John A. Boyle. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, p.192.

to hold the reins in their hands. The skills were taught over many generations and at an early age. In short, it was part of the nomadic daily life whether playing games, conducting raids, fighting battles, participating in the hunt, or simply attending their flocks.

Horses were central to nomadic Steppe tactics and games as well as other societies of the

Eurasian Continent. Petroglyphs depicting horses are found all along the Eurasian Steppe.

Unsurprisingly horses are featured in two-thirds of the Bayeux tapestry, the Norman invasion of

England in the 11th century.300 Horses appear in vast numbers in the art work of Rashid al-Din’s

Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh, Compendium of Chronicles, dating to the late 13th early 14th century.301

Horses, camels, and donkeys are depicted throughout the famous Qingming shanghe tu,

Qingming Scroll, dating from the 12th century in Song China.302 In buzkashi the horse was held in as much honor as the rider. Horse archery and riding skills were essential to the nomadic peoples of the Steppe. They needed to be able to hunt for survival and to control their herds.

The ability to ride a horse and shoot arrows while mounted made any man from the age of sixteen and older an able body soldier. Games allowed riders to synchronize with their horse.

The battue provided the training for coordination between groups of riders. Military effectiveness and social status alike made the possession of horses crucial in nomadic life.

Maintaining large herds and playing games over the centuries allowed the nomads to learn a great deal about horses. The greatest knowledge the nomads had over the sedentary populations was synchrony, the understanding of how horses moved as a group.

300 Musset, Lucien. The Bayeux Tapestry. Boydell Press, 2005. 301 Blair, Shiela S. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid Al-Din's Illustrated History of The World. Khalili Collections, 2005. 302 The scroll can be viewed online at: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/songdynasty-module/intro-two-versions.html

Chapter 4 – Synchrony Equus Ferus Caballus

“Goodness is tied to the of horses until the day of judgement” Book 28, Hadith 1303

The previous chapter discussed the methods of how the nomadic horse archers of the

Eurasian Steppe conducted warfare. Contemporary descriptions of horsemen in unorganized masses maneuvered in unison, yet appeared to be discombobulated and completely disordered; however, they were able to function as a fighting unit capable of harassing their opponent with numerous arrow showers. To the sedentary peoples, this scene of bedlam was an indication of a broken enemy that needed to be destroyed. For the nomads, it was their normal way of fighting.

They understood how the horse maneuvered within a group and utilized to their advantage. The ability to move en masse without any sort of organization is referred to a synchrony, the subject of this chapter. Because the study of synchrony is relatively new, scholars have a difficult time incorporating it into research, which is why it has been noticed by a few scholars studying the nomads.304 The first part of this section will examine the biological aspect that enables an animal to synchronize within a group without jostling the ones next to it. Next is cultural, the

303 In between horse and until Jihad has been inserted. Hadith - The Book of Horses, Races and Shooting - Sunan ,Accessed January 11 .( ﻠﺻ ﻰ ﷲ ﻋ ﻠ ﯿ ﮫ و ﺳ ﻠ ﻢ ) an-Nasa'i - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad 2020. https://sunnah.com/nasai/28/1. 304 Archaeologist, Gala Argent is the only person I am aware that is studying synchrony and equus. See Smith, Julie A., and Robert W. Mitchell. "Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal: Communication, Corporeal Synchrony, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses." In Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters, 111-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

learned behavior the horse needs to learn in order to maintain its distance within a herd traveling at speed. Following culture will be discussions pertaining to cohesion and computer modelling of synchrony.

Synchrony is defined as the state of operating or developing according to the same time scale as something else. Synchronization “occurs when large numbers of individuals co-ordinate to act in unison.”305 Research on animal synchrony has focused primarily on primates, fish and birds.306 Animal communication and motor behavior developed at a young age. The use of synchrony in animal groups is associated with collective movement, which is defined as “a group of animals that decide to depart/move quite synchronously, move together in the same direction and maintain cohesion.307 It implies non-independent individual decisions to move and relies on information transfer between group members mediated by behavioral cues or signals, and social responses”.308 The understanding and the use of the term synchrony is fairly recent in eques studies. Lucy Rees, an ethnologist, takes the definition farther into maneuvering by describing it as “doing what others are doing, moving together and turning together”.309

There are numerous animals in the animal kingdom that routinely utilize synchrony.

Flocks of birds can change direction at a moment’s notice without collision. Schools of fish will suddenly change depth and direction with ease. Film crews travel every year to Africa to shoot video of ungulates, hooved animals including horses, running across the savannah during

305 Sumpter, David J. Collective Animal Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.130.; Argent, Gala. ", with the Good Horses: Relationality, Roles, Identity and Ideology in Iron Age Inner Asia." PhD diss., University of Leicester, 2010, p.201 (Chapter 7). 306 Ravignani, Andrea. "Rhythm and synchrony in animal movement and communication." Current Zoology 65, no. 1 (2018), p.77-81. 307 Hartmann, Elke, Janne W. Christensen, and Paul D. McGreevy. "Dominance and Leadership: Useful Concepts in Human–Horse Interactions?" Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 52 (2017), p.2. 308 Petit, Odile, and Richard Bon. "Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements." Behavioural Processes 84, no. 3 (2010), 635-647, p.635. 309 Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017, p.57

migration. When chased, an entire herd can change direction in a manner that looks effortless.

Sheep can run without knocking each other down even when running on a slope. Fish and birds have to deal with a three-dimensional world of altitude, plane, and depth.310 Terrestrial creatures deal with a primarily two-dimensional world, albeit one that is jutted with obstacles. Among ungulates, synchrony is important in regards to escape; it is what keeps the herd together when fleeing. While there are more elements to , it is important to understand the advantageous positioning of the horse’s eyes.

The essential biological component for synchrony of the horse is the due to its wide field of view. The field of view is one of the ways a horse attains information regarding its surroundings and communication with others around it. Its vision is not as high in spatial resolution and does not perceive color as well as a . Yet the horse’s eye can see movement in a 340° arc as opposed to the human eye, which spans an approximate 120° of arc.311 When looking straight ahead, the horse has a of about sixty degrees.

The advantage of binocular vision is depth perception allowing the horse to travel at speed over uneven terrain. Its broader field of view allows it to quickly assess the ground, a distinct advantage to escaping predators. The horse does not have excellent depth perception. To gauge distance the animal will lift and lower its head: lowering its head to judge closure distances, and raising its head to judge objects farther away.312 Another reason for the horse to move its head up and down is to help bring an object into focus. The disadvantage is reduced binocular vision

310 Zheng, Ying, Steve Gu, and Carlo Tomasi. "Detecting motion synchrony by video tubes." Proceedings of the 19th ACM international conference on Multimedia - MM '11, 2011. 311 Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London: Routledge, 2004, p.8. 312 Jones, Janet, Ph.D. "How Horses See the World." EQUUS, no. 462 (February 2016). https://equusmagazine.com/riding/eye-eye-31022.; Evans, Patricia. "Equine Vision and Its Effect on Behavior." All Curr Publ Paper, 2010, p.138.

compared with humans. For a prey animal (e.g. , wild cat, bear, and bird of prey), the lack of peripheral vision would result in a low chance of survival against a predator. Because the equine’s eyes are laterally placed, they primarily see in a monocular view. The horse’s eye has a panoramic image with each eye having a view of 190° to 230° on each side of the equid’s flank.

The advantage of the panoramic view is the ability to see movement, possibly a predator.

Another unique aspect of the horse’s eye is it functions in a similar manner as bifocal glasses.

As a grazing animal, it needs to be able to see in an upward view to detect threats. As the equine eats, it is continually scanning through the upper portion of its eyes surveying the horizon. If the horse is distracted by something, it will raise its head to examine the object through its lower , which is better for focusing. A person using bifocal glasses can relate to this. The lower lens focuses on closer, smaller objects such as words on paper, while the upper portion of the lens allows the person to view objects with clarity at a distance. In order to bring an object into focus, the horse will raise its head up and down until it can see it clearly. Furthermore, the horse’s eyeball is the largest orb of any ungulate. As a result objects appear larger.

Due to the positioning of the eyes, a horse can see almost all the way around its body with a small blind spot directly to the rear. Inside a group, the horse can only perceive its immediate surroundings. Those at the front of the group and to the side have an unrestricted view of their surroundings. This is why they will follow the horse in front. Panoramic vision also allows them to split apart to avoid an obstacle and then regroup. A way of visualizing this is to create an imaginary circle around each horse in a group.

(See figure 1). The outer edges of the circle may collide, but the horse inside the circle is not affected as it moves in unison with the group. The desire of cohesion lends to synchrony.

Figure 1 From "Equine Vision and Its Effect on Behavior" Horses synchronize with each other in many aspects of their daily lives such as easting, resting, and moving (as a group) to another location. After observing a group of horses at pasture, Lucy Rees points out the horses usually east, sleep, and move at the same time.313 They don’t act in a random manner with each one doing its own thing. When the herd moves off to another grazing area or watering hole they move together. Synchrony is not following blindly; it is doing what the rest of the group is doing. When traveling, regardless of the speed, horses will match each other’s speed. As a group they will all flee together in the same direction at almost the same speed and then all of them will stop together to turn and face what spooked them. If a rider falls from his horse (e.g. during a race or in a group) the horse will not stop, instead it will remain

313 Ibid., p.66.

within the group. Of course, not all horses run at the same speed. Horses that cannot keep up because of injury or age will still continue to follow the herd at whatever speed they can. , however, will stop since they have no group to synchronize with; whereas, a matured horse will continue to run following the herd.

Synchrony is not innate, the horse has to learn; it is acquired knowledge referred to as culture, a slippery term than needs explaining. If you ask a group of anthropologists for the definition of culture they are likely to break out into clan warfare trying to come up with a universal explanation. This exaggerated statement points out an important issue; culture is a challenging abstract term to define. It is widely used and defined by each discipline of the social sciences as well as biology and psychology. Anthropologists have long claimed that culture has been the basis of their discipline. Sociology claims it too studies culture, yet others claim its focus is on the term society. Social historians acknowledge culture plays an important role with humanity. What then is the difference between a social historian and a sociologist? Sometimes the answer is a joke; history is sociology without the brains, while sociology is history without the hard work. Even military historians have picked up on culture and combined it with warfare trying to explain why “others” fight differently from the so called West.314 Psychology acknowledges the influence of culture upon the human psyche. From a philosophical point of view, does it need to be defined? After all, we can all use it in a sentence. For the purposes of this thesis, the meaning of culture will refer to the most significant factor, in my view, in all the various definitions given – learned behavior.

To avoid colliding with each other, mares teach the younger horses in everyday life vis-à- vis slight aggression. When a younger horse moves too close to another horse, it is forced to

314 Richardson, William C. "Culture Warfare: A War Against Culture." U.S. Army War College, 2011, p.1-24. doi:10.21236/ada547314.

leave space or face bellicosity from a mare. The young abandon a crowding behavior with low rewards315 and learn to stay within their own space. In short, younger horses learn to avoid invading another’s space. The ‘don’t collide clause’ is learned by young horses because older ones continually tell them to keep their distance – except their mothers, of course; that is why it’s taught by non-mother mares. In a stampede, if they collide someone dies; it is a vital lesson the young must learn. If the lead horses see an obstacle ahead, they will veer to the side ‘pushing’ or shifting without colliding with the other horses and then reform after passing it. Synchrony is all about maintaining space. Foals practice synchrony between themselves. Ethologists have noted very small groups of young eques will run together maintaining the same step. By imitating each other, they learn to become part of a “group mind” or herd behavior. They become part of the collective decision making.316 In some regards, synchrony is such a prevalent behavior among equine that no one, especially military historians and zooarchaeologists, take notice of it, except ethologists like Lucy Rees.317

Horses also tend to synchronize on a smaller dyadic scale. When a foal walks or runs alongside its mother, it will synchronize its footwork to match, or as Gala Argent puts it, exact foot-for-foot synchrony.318 In her studies she found numerous examples of two horses running next to each other maintaining the same stride. Horses have also been noted to synchronize their movements with humans. Because the horse has the ability to see a person’s leg it will coordinate its movement in the same way it does with another horse. After they have learned it

315 Hoppitt, William, and Kevin N. Laland. Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p.214. 316 Ibid., p.27. 317 Rees, Horses in Company, chapters four and five. Both chapters focus on synchrony and cohesion. See also Gale Argent and Susanna Forrest for synchrony. 318 Smith, Julie A., and Robert W. Mitchell. Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012, p.116-119. Gala Argent has also shared a great deal of insight into synchrony and cohesion with horses.

from a young age, it becomes a natural behavior when moving alongside another horse or person. Argent states the manner in which horses synchronize their movement is a form of nonverbal communication between horses and humans.319

Other less-dramatic examples provide further evidence of synchrony. In Doñana, southern , each year wild horses are rounded up for the famous El Rocío celebrations.

Around 2,000 horses are moved together without difficulty, but riders on horses are needed at the front to keep them heading in the correct direction. In the United States, the Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) uses a tamed horse, called a “Judas Horse” to round up wild horses. The horse is trained to run a particular route that leads to penned corals. After the horse learns the route, it is released into the wild to join the wild herd. When the BLM conducts its round up, the

Judas Horse begins to run and the others follow it. In Montana, a group of Blackfeet boys were competing in a horse race around a pond while riding bareback. One of the riders fell off, but the horse continued the race following the rest of the horses.320 In the case of domesticated horses, they would have grown accustomed to following a lead rider. The riders behind the banner bearer would have to do very little to guide their horses. The advantage of this is it left the archer’s hands free to use his bow and arrows.

There is no doubt the Steppe peoples understood how to guide and herd horses; their livelihood revolved around the horse. Nevertheless, this leads to the question how does one guide a group of mounted horse archers? They did not have control of the reins since they were

319 Argent, Gala. "Killing (Constructed) Horses Interspecies Elders Empathy and Emotion and the Pazyryk Horse Sacrifices." People with Animals, 2016, p.22.; Hartmann, Elke, Janne W. Christensen, and Paul D. McGreevy. "Dominance and Leadership: Useful Concepts in Human–Horse Interactions?" Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 52 (2017), p.4. 320 It has been noted horses will return to or follow the herd rather than remain with the rider who has fallen off. Hartmann, Elke, Janne W. Christensen, and Paul D. McGreevy. "Dominance and Leadership: Useful Concepts in Human–Horse Interactions?" Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 52 (2017), p.7.

focused using the bow and arrow. They could use their knees to direct the horse,321 but they needed to maintain balance with the horse. To direct a group all they had to do was follow a lead rider. The banner bearer rode in front of the unit leading the direction of travel. The fact horses will follow a lead horse is supported by several examples. The first example is an incident that took place in the Netherlands.

“On one occasion…a heard of some 120 horses got trapped on a patch of dry pasture in the middle of a flooded area. With twenty horses already drowned, people were attempting to save the others. One of the more radical proposals was for the army to erect a pontoon bridge, but the local riding club came up with a far simpler solution. Four brave women on horseback mixed in with the stranded herd, then splashed through a shallow area and, like pied pipers, drew the rest with them in single file. The horses had to swim a few stretches, but all made it safely to terra firma.”322

The author emphasized that it was synchrony and cohesion that attributed to the willingness of

120 horses to follow the riders across the water. The women riding the horses were the initiators.

Synchronization is a requirement for social cohesion that benefits a group. Cohesion is the urge to remain together. Ungulates have been noted to have bouts of synchronized feeding.

Grazing and resting at the same time reduces the likely hood of the group splintering off and having individuals become easy prey. The added benefits of synchrony help establish cohesion, group stability,323 protection,324 information transfer (location of food, water and alertness),325

321 Clutton Brock, Horse Power, p.74. The use of knees to direct the horse is a sign of good equestrian skills. In modern horse archery competitions the competitors place the reins on the front panel (often referred to as the pommel) of the saddle. 322 Waal, Frans de. The Age of Empathy: A Nature’s Lessons for Kinder Society. New York: Harmon Books, 2009, p.50. 323 Anne-Camille Souris, Petra Kaczensky, Romain Julliard, and Christian Walzer, “Time Budget-, behavioral synchrony- and body score development of a newly released Przewalski’s horse group Equus ferus Przewalskii, in the Great Gobi, Allied Animal Behavior Science 107 (2007), p.309. Rifá, Héctor. "Social facilitation in the horse (Equus caballus)." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 25, no. 1-2 (1990), p.167, 174, 175. 324 Sumpter, David J. Collective Animal Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.130. 325 Ibid. p.126.

and the ability to move as a mass without jostling each other. When a herd is spooked, it will flee in the same direction and individuals will also stop together. To maintain cohesion and direction, ungulates will take peripheral positions.326 The movement and stopping are not choreographed as in a rehearsed about-face seen in marching formations; more along the lines of a horse taking chorus-line style cues from its nearest neighbors.

The coordinated behavior between the horses as a group is referred to as collective animal behavior. The foal learns from the other horses that it needs to dig through the snow in order to reach the grass below. Horses are naturally a herd animal in which they gather together in groups. Facets of collective behavior include the transfer of information among the group, the group decision process, as well as group movement and synchronization. Synchrony encompasses several aspects ranging from feeding, standing/resting, mutual grooming, and collective movement. Collective movement occurs when a

“group of animals decide to depart/move quite synchronously, move together in the same direction, which implies the animals have a choice between different alternatives, and maintain cohesion until the group stops moving or starts a new activity, all resulting in a change of location. It implies non-independent individual decisions to move and relies on information transfer between group members mediated by behavioral cues or signals, and social responses whose dynamics may be modulated by the ongoing collective movement itself.”327

Various animals are stimulated to move via different signals such as a dominant member of the group.

In the case of horses, at times there is not a dominant leader who determines where and how the group moves. In behavior literature “leader” often refers to a single actor. In some cases, individuals will take up peripheral positions to signal their motivation to move in a

326 Petit, O. and R. Bon, “Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements,” Behavioural Processes 84 (2010), p.637. 327 Petit, O. and R. Bon, “Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements,” Behavioural Processes 84 (2010), p.635.

particular direction. It would be more relevant to use the term “initiator” instead of “leader.”328

In some cases all members of the group can contribute to the decision to move; this is called equally shared decision.329 Horses are social ungulates. Social integration of all members of the herd “generates a high degree of behavioral synchronization and generally translated into group cohesion and group stability.”330 The synchrony of group cohesion was utilized by the Steppe nomads. When the horse was domesticated, it did not lose its desire for cohesion. Over time eques became reliant on people for survival. In turn people became reliant on the horses’ strength for survival and conquest. Over hundreds of years the peoples of the Steppe learned about the horse, its behavior, reaction to fear, what stimulated it to rely on humans, and how it interacted within a herd.

Lucy Rees has studied the horse and human relationship. As a post-graduate student of zoology and neuro-physiology, she observed 150 wild horses in Venezuela that were spooked by people hiding in a bush.

“They saw us under a bush, got scared, ran away but some of them - the young males - were inquisitive so they came back to look, dragging everyone else with them. As they turn you can see the spacing wonderfully. As they get closer, some get nervous and start running again, dragging all along with them, then the boys turn again: they just follow an individual who makes off in a convinced and definite way...it [went] on and on for ten minutes. I have seen this lots of times in stampedes. As you can see, sometimes one is in the lead, sometimes another.”331

328 Ibid., p.638. 329 Conradt, L. and T. J. Roper, “Democracy in animals: the evolution of shared group decisions,” Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences (2007), p.2317. 330 Anne-Camille Souris, Petra Kaczensky, Romain Julliard, Christian Walzer, “Time Budget-, behavioral synchrony- and body score development of a newly released Przewalski’s horse group Equus ferus przewalskii, in the Great Gobi B strictly protected area in SW Mongolia,” Applied Animal Behavior Science 107 (2007), p.309. 331 Forrest, Susanna. The Age of the Horse: An Equine Journey through Human History. London: Books, 2016, p. 336. Lucy Rees sent me a copy of this report before it was published via personal communication. She was very instrumental in helping me understand how horses were able to move in mass without jostling each other via synchrony and cohesion.

How a multitude of individuals makes a decision and determines a leader is still hypothetical.332

There is a popular notion there is a lead mare within a group of horses. Rees points out this has not been empirically proven, yet many horse handlers claim this to be valid.333 Petit and Ron noted that female horses are reported to initiate movements proportionately more than males when spooked, otherwise there was no dominant leader.334 The need to follow and stay together bonds the eques in interconnection.

Cohesion rose sharply after horses were domesticated. Domestic horses instinctively want to be in a group and readily form herds when maintained at pasture. Horse herds in the

Steppe can be rather large; Zhao Hong, a Song Dynasty envoy to the Mongolian Steppe, remarked that there was an abundance of grass and water in Mongolia that it could support hundreds of thousands of animals.335 Due to high numbers, they were forced to move over great distances between pastures. When the nomads traveled along the Steppe, it was often at a casual pace due to other animals (e.g. oxen, sheep, and goats) and movable property. When mobilizing for war, large numbers of horses were moved quickly from one location to another. Without the ability of synchrony and group cohesion, they would not have been able to move with great speed. Even today, one can watch videos of herders in Mongolia and Central Asia herding horses at a run over the grassy plains. They are running as a cohesive, single mass without

332 Petit, O. and R. Bon, “Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements,” Behavioural Processes 84 (2010), p.636. 333 I grew up around horses and many in my family are avid horsewomen. Some compete in equestrian tournaments and several of my cousins compete in a called O-mok-see (a native American term for horse games). All of them claim there is a dominant mare that will lead the heard. They also note that mares tend to create drama, which is why they prefer to ride geldings, much like the nomads. 334 Petit, O. and R. Bon, “Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements,” Behavioural Processes 84 (2010), p.639. The two studies were conducted by: Welsh, Daniel A. "Population, behavioral and grazing ecology of the horses of Sable Island." PhD diss., Dalhousie University, 1975.; Berger, Joel. "Organizational systems and dominance in feral horses in the Grand ." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 2, no. 2 (1977), p.145. Berger points out mares are more nervous than stallions and are more easily startled. 335 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.54. May points out, on page 166, the number may be exaggerated for the typical nomad, but those of status did have large herds. The point is, the Steppe could support very large herds of horses.

jostling each other. The individuals in herds learned group cohesion overcoming the natural instinct of smaller groups, which feral horses tend to break into. Other activities, such as play in juveniles or a perceived threat, also encourage animal cohesion. As a social animal the horse’s natural behavior, such as herd formation, is linked to them being a prey species. Equus ferus caballus is known for its social facilitation meaning the young learn from older horses.336 Move

– find location.

Cohesion starts at birth, a foal will follow its mother.337 This behavior is innate which leads to the desire of cohesion, also referred to as gregariousness. Horses innately need to be with others for their own wellbeing. In a herd they exist cooperatively; they will stand close to each other to fend off threat or pests, and they remain close for safety when sleeping. A horse that is alone, especially if it used to being in a herd with other horses, will exhibit depression and agitation. They will, however, accept humans or other animals for companionship. Otherwise, long distance couriers would never have been able to travel alone over great distances from one relay station to the next.

Animals are intrinsically complicated and it can be difficult to provide a good description of the behavior of individuals interacting within a group during movement. To help explain movement, biologists and ethologists have turned to mathematics.338 Mathematical models are becoming increasingly used as an important research tool when understanding movement within a collective group. Models have been developed to help demonstrate how schools of fish or flocks of birds move in a three dimensional world. When it comes to ungulates, they are affected by topography and in turn they affect the landscape. For example, when they traverse the land

336 Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017, p.59.; Forrest. The Age of the Horse, p.339. 337 Ibid.,, p.67-68. 338 Sumpter, David J. Collective Animal Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.3.

the animals compress the soil, grass, or even snow and others following exhibit a tendency to maximize their comfort, which minimizes energy, and follow the trodden path. Another factor to consider, when understanding group dynamics with ungulates, is the influence of stochastic

(random) events, such as the response to an opposing force (weather) or an unexpected issue with terrain, like a ditch. The collective group must make the decision to follow a leader or follow their own choice. These factors can complicate the variables.

A commonly perceived problem with mathematical models is the notion that collective movement is simplified and yet animals and people are complex organisms. For example, human behavior within crowds is conducted almost automatically without a great deal of thinking. People from New York, accustomed to moving and navigating through a large crowd, puts very little thought into their movement; they learned how to move with the group. Although the organism is complex, the interactions need not necessarily be.339 Mathematical models, called algorithms, for collective movements have also been used in the film industry to create fleeing animals such as in the movie The Lion King or the clashing Rohirrim (horse lords of

Rohan) in the Lord of the Rings. Algorithms have been used to help detect motion synchrony, i.e., the coordinated motion of a group of individuals, in fish, marching soldiers, and crowds attending a sporting event.340 The point is, synchrony can be observed; what can be observed can be modeled; what can be modeled can be explained.

David Sumpter, a mathematician of synchrony modelling, states synchrony is a state of three zones - repulsion, attraction and alignment. In the case of horses they repulse each other to maintain space for ease of movement. While in a group, they are attracted to each other in the

339 Couzin, Iain D., and Jens Krause. "Self-Organization and Collective Behavior in Vertebrates." Advances in the Study of Behavior, 2003, p.2-5. 340 Zheng. “Detecting Motion Synchrony by Video Tubes”, p.1.

sense they tend to herd. Maintaining individual space and attraction radii constant allows the animals to form group cohesion that can move in a common direction, split to avoid obstacles and then reform, and even change directions without colliding.341 In the case of ungulates, their eyes allow them to see those immediate to them in order to align themselves in the same orientation as the others. Mathematical models are being used with computer animation programs.

Craig Reynolds, a computer animator, developed a program to emulate the movement of birds and other animals that move en masse. In the 1980s he wrote a program called Boid with three basic rules to recreate the movement of birds flocking. The three rules were separation, alignment, and cohesion. Separation is the individual space that a horse learns when running in a mass. Alignment (as in Sumpter’s case), or synchrony, is the horse’s ability to view others around it and move accordingly. Cohesion is the animal’s desire to remain within the group. All the boids are programed as an independent actor, much like agency. The rules create synchrony when numerous boids are brought together. In other words, the boids did what the others were doing without colliding. Over time, Reynolds was able to add more complex rules such as obstacle avoidance and reforming the mass. Each entity has a visible, yet invisible space surrounding it preventing collision. All three rules operate together, making each one inseparable from the other. The mathematical models are not about giving each “character” a mind of its own. It is about creating space and maintaining it.342

The work of Reynolds has been expanded. Weta Workshop, under the supervision of

Stephen Regelous, developed a program to model crowd related visual effects. It was used for

341 Sumpter, David J. Collective Animal Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.118. 342 Reynolds, Craig W. "Flocks, herds and schools: A distributed behavioral model." Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '87, 1987, p.25-34.; Forrest. The Age of the Horse, p.337.

the making of the Lord of the Rings. What is different about this program is each of the agents was programmed to act individually and to its surroundings. It incorporates the concept of synchrony in which an agent is doing what the others are doing with the goal of not colliding with each other or obstacles. The program incorporates movement created from filming an actual object, such as a person or horse, which is then incorporated into an artificially intelligent agent to generate motion and animation. Massive (Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual

Environment – a program that generates crowd-related visual effects)343 has proven to be very successful in the modeling of mass groups and is now being used widely in a variety of application from film to architecture visualization, and anthropological applications such as the study of synchrony of the Eurasian Steppe nomads. For example, if the three elements in

Reynold’s and Sumpter’s are essential in synchrony, then regardless of the study or subject manner, these elements should be observable and replicable.

The domestication of the horse along the Steppe was a time of learning about and mastering the horse. The sedentary peoples of the south studied the horse (its anatomy, behavior, ailments)344 and wrote treatises on what they learned. The nomads did not write down their acquired knowledge of the horse; what they learned was demonstrated on the battlefield and described by other peoples. The most significant thing they learned was how the horse functioned within a herd, how it moved in synchrony. They didn’t view it as a computer program or through the lens of any sort of empirical study. Instead, they learned how to utilize the behavior and adapted it to their form of warfare as horse archers. The movement of the horses may appear to be irregular, but in all actuality it was normal for them. This understanding

343 “Weta Digital.” Visual Effects. Accessed January 11, 2020. https://www.wetafx.co.nz/. 344 Smith, Gerald R. Medieval Muslim Horsemanship: A Fourteenth-Century Arabic Cavalry Manual. London: The British Library, 1979.

led to the development of the distinctive free form maneuvering tactics of the nomadic horsemen that did not require the training in choreographed formations so well known in military matters.

Avoiding collision is the goal of any mass whether it appears choreographed, drilled, or simply a seemingly disorganized mass. Throughout time people have drilled in formations spending weeks at a time rehearsing movement and coordination. Soldiers are drilled to ensure each one knows his or her place within the unit. In addition, entire groups are drilled so that field commanders can move, whether on the march or the battlefield, the units around in a fashion to avoid collision. This kind of training has been recorded all across the Eurasian continent from the Greeks, Romans, Macedonians, Persians, the Han, the Tang, and Ming

Dynasties, the Byzantines, Mamlūks, Ottomans, to all of the European continental armies during the . Horses can also be drilled to move in choreographed formation. Military treatises from sedentary realms such as the Byzantines, Mamlūks, and the Tang elaborate on drill training for mounted armoured troops.345 There is one significant factor regarding drilled formations: In order for an army to become proficient, it must practice on a continuous basis; the rider usually rode the same horse until it died, retired of old age, or was injured. Both men and horses were trained to learn the required maneuvers. The nomadic horsemen were not professional soldiers.346 They didn’t drill in choreographed formations. The Steppe nomads did practice moving groups around, especially during the battue. Since they had a much larger number of horses, they did not ride the same horse day after day, even on the battlefield. They didn’t have to rehearse how to move within a group because the horse already knew how.

345 Maurice. Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. p.23-51.; Al-Anṣārī, ʻUmar I. A Muslim Manual of War: Being Tafrij Al-karūb Fī Tadbīr Al-hurub. Translated by George T. Scanlon. Cairo: AUC Press, 1961.; Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016. 346 Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), p.325.

Mounted warfare shifted the balance of power to the Steppe nomads in the north. On the battlefield the utilization of synchrony in the feigned retreat gave the nomads a distinct advantage almost to the point they could not be defeated. Those with large numbers of horses such as the Xiongnu, Skythians, Huns, the various Turkish peoples, and the Mongols successfully defeated or conquered the sedentary powers to their south. This must not be blown out of proportion. Generally speaking, none of the nomads had the ability to conquer and rule another empire for long periods of time, except for the Mongols. They lacked man power and the essential aptitude to control those whom they conquered. There is a common statement given about the Mongols – empires can be conquered from horseback, but cannot be ruled from horseback.347 The Skythians and Xiongnu raided along their borders, sometimes deep into enemy territory. They preferred to be appeased by receiving tribute rather than having a desire to rule. There is the exception of the Parthians. They were, however, only a semi-nomadic people, not true nomads from the Steppe. It took over a thousand years before any nomadic peoples acquired the ability to rule over taken territory. The Turks, especially the Qipchaqs,

Seljuks, were successful in Central Asia and Anatolia. The Mongols, on the other hand, were able to rule, more accurately proxy rule, through the use of administrators and tax collectors.

What must be noted is they, themselves, did not rule. Rather they used the bourgeoisie to govern their newly acquired territories. The Moguls were the last of the nomads to conquer and rule a territory. The Manchus and Ottomans sometimes are given credit, but they were only descendants of the nomads from the Steppe; although they did hire nomadic horse archers for their armies.

347 Kedar, Benjamin Z., and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, p.379.; Kradin, Nikolay N., and Thomas J. Barfield. Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution. MeaBooks, 2015, p.41.

The horse archers’ advantage was the ability to move as a unit without having to drill to maintain a structured formation. Understanding how the horses interact as a collective will help to further our understanding how the horse archers were so effective on the battle field.

Synchrony is not a systemic process nor is it an end all explanation. It simply expands our understanding of a dynamic form of warfare. The front horses only need to follow the banner rider. Even Lucy Rees points out synchrony and cohesion are so prevalent that many don’t realize they are seeing it.348 Another way of stating it is, to the nomads, synchrony became hyperobtrusive349 from centuries of interaction with the horse since domestication.

The impact of domesticating and learning to ride a horse cannot be understated. The ability to ride a horse was a revolutionary change in human history. A mounted herder could manage twice as many animals than on foot; wheeled carts pulled by a horses more than tripled the carrying load of a human being; a mounted individual or a group of people could travel a much farther distance in a single day; and the ability to ride a horse allowed people to hunt with much greater efficiency. Furthermore, the horse became the primary means of mounted warfare on the Steppe that reigned supreme until the age of massed gunpowder weapons.

Chapter 5 – Emulation and Anthropocentrism

Two horses speaking with each other: “When one asks ‘have you ever asked yourself why, when the manure on the Steppe smells so good, that of our stables stinks so?’ The other replies, ‘Yes, it’s because we live closer to humans’”.350

348 Forrest. The Age of the Horse, p.338. 349 Hyperobtrusive – a term used by Edgar Allen Poe, referring to (in this case, synchrony) it being ubiquitous and it was always there; the nomads observed and utilized it without any sort of empirical analysis to explain it. Giordano, Robert. “The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe.” PoeStories.com. Accessed January 11, 2020. https://poestories.com/read/purloined. 350 Boddice, Rob. Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments. Leiden: BRILL, 2011, p.262.

Domestication of the horse, whether in one or several places, made it the most valuable animal all across the Eurasian landscape, including . Initially a source of food then a mount to move swiftly over greater distances, its adoption as an instrument of warfare, first for traction, then as a steed, changed the way humans fought against each other. The nomads of the

Steppe fought using similar tactics. This has been noted from Chinese, Persian, Latin, and Greek sources. Even the Arab sources noted this, not just in warfare, but in many other cultural traits referring to the Mongols and Qipchaqs as jinsiyya. As mentioned in chapter two, this term is challenging to explain in a simple sentence. What it does refer to is the common traits, beliefs, living styles, group solidarity, horsemanship, archery and their ways of conducting warfare.351

In sum, this means that horses were fully integrated with all aspects of life of the nomads.

Horses and archery played in a role in warfare, hunting, games, and entertainment for thousands of years. The Steppe nomads had the greatest advantage above all others due to their understanding of the horse as a herd animal. Other peoples tried to emulate the nomad by creating their own horse archers; however, none were able to fully match the ability of their nomadic neighbors. The Mamlūks of Egypt and Syria came the closest to succeeding in their attempt. Due to the lack of large pastures, they were unable to work with horses in large numbers and learn how the horses interacted within the fold/herd. Instead, the Mamlūk horses were stable fed and trained in a choreographed manner in order to function as a group on the

351 Amitai, Reuven. Holy War and Rapprochement: Studies in the Relations Between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Mongol Ilkhanate (1260-1335). Brepols Pub, 2013, p.110; Anna Comnena notes in The Alexiad, without actually stating it, how the nomads (Skythians, Turks, as she calls them) were similar in terms of life style, methods of fighting, and the use of the horse - Comnena, Anna. The Alexiad. Translated by E.R.A. Sewter. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.; Golden, Peter B. Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, Khazars and Qipchaqs. Variorum, 2003. p.133.; Sylvia Edourie describes jins as “race” and jinsiyya as “nationality” in her thesis about Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1849-1902), Edourie, Sylvia K. "Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1849-1902), In Relation to the Trend on Muslim-Arab Political Thought." PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1953, p.110, 114, ,people of the felt, Golden, Nomads ,( ﻞھأ ﺮﺑﻮﻟا ) The Arabic term for the Steppe nomads was ahl al-wabr .164 ,170 p.XII 20.

battlefield as well as the march.

The Byzantines, Crusaders, Fatimid’s of Egypt (909 – 1171 CE), and Chinese quite often lacked cavalry forces to match those of the nomadic horse archers.352 The Byzantines and

Chinese did have some pasture lands that were able to support herds of horses, but not in the large quantities that the Steppe nomads did. The Han dynasty trained men to ride and shoot as light horse archers, but they could not match the Xiongnu in skill or numbers.353 However, their traditional, or one could state cultural, form of fighting was hand-to-hand fighting rather than shoot and evade. The Byzantines, Chinese and Persians used heavily armoured men and horses to counter the nomads. The advantage of horse armour was to protect the mount against the arrows of the nomads. Due to the lack of horses, they could not afford to lose their mounts in great numbers. They attempted to train and equip horse archers to supplement their heavier cavalry force. However, they did not succeed.

Northern China does have grazing grounds and was able to support large numbers of horses. The south, however, was much more humid and the land was filled with wet soggy rice fields making it undesirable for supporting herds of horses. The problem with the north was quite often the nomads swept southward taking control of the grasslands and depriving the

Chinese of horses. During these times, the Chinese tried to procure the animals via trading with silk and tea. During the Song Dynasty the tea for horse program was implemented, with only moderate success.354 The nomads were not fools; they were well aware the Chinese needed the

352 Kierman, Frank A., and John K. Fairbank. Chinese Ways in Warfare. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974, p.82; Tibble, Steve. Crusader Armies: 1099-1187. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018, p.40.; Kyriakidis, Savvas. Warfare in Late Byzantium, 1204-1453. Leiden: Brill, 2011, p.211.; Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume II: Muslims, Mongols and the Struggle against the Crusades. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007, p.13.; See also Lindner, Rudi P. "Nomadism, Horses and Huns." Past and Present 92, no. 1 (1981), p.3-19. for issues regarding large numbers of horses. 353 Kierman, Jr. F., and John K. Fairbank. Chinese Ways in Warfare. 2013. p.100. 354 Rossabi, Morris. "The Tea and Horse Trade with Inner Asia during the Ming." Journal of Asian History 4, no. 2 (1970), 136-168.; Fuchs, Jeff. "The Tea Horse Road." The Silk Road 6, no. 1 (Winter 2008), p.63-71.; Fuquan,

horses for warfare. A lightly armed nomadic horse archer was no match for a heavily mounted

Chinese warrior in close combat. When the Chinese had a large number of heavy cavalry, they invaded northward attempting to catch the nomads unawares.355 If they could surprise the nomads, the Chinese were able to defeat them. Therefore, the numbers of horses going south was quite often limited.

China has a strong tradition of archery. Their bows were made of similar composites much like their nomadic neighbors. Mounted archery began with men shooting from a chariot.

In the (247 – 221 BCE), men with bows moved from the chariot to riding the horse. Artwork from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties depict soldiers on horses with bows. The Chinese did attempt to emulate the way the nomads fought. In the late 4th century BCE, King Wuling of Zhao, (325 – 299 BCE) broke against the ethnocentric view of

“resisting riding because, among other things, it required the wearing of a short jacket rather than the long gown which, in Chinese eyes, was obligatory for a man of status” and the taboo of copying the Hu nomads (7th century BCE – 2nd century BCE).356 In the north, hunting from horseback with a bow was very popular. There are numerous depictions of Chinese using the horse and bow to surround and kill their prey with arrows.357

Learning to use a bow is not an overly difficult task; a group of people learning archery

Yang. "The “Ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Road,” the “Silk Road” of Southwest China." The Silk Road 2, no. 1 (June 2004), p.29-32. 355 The Tang Dynasty, sometimes referred to as the dynasty of the horse, was able to conquer the Ferghana valley region and areas north of China, modern day Mongolia. 356 Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), p.651.; Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016, p.154. Hu (often translated as ) refers to any non- living along the Steppe. In the case of Wuling the nomadic peoples he emulated were the Donghu, a nomadic horse people who were conquered by the Xiongnu in the 2nd century BCE. See Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, p.354- 356, regarding the translation of barbarian. 357 Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. The cover is a picture of Chinese participating in the hunt.

can consistently hit a target in a small field within a day. Building the archer’s strength and technique to use a bow with enough draw weight to release an arrow that can penetrate armour, on the other hand, takes a long period of time with continuous training. Learning to use a bow from horseback while moving at a full gallop is another challenging aspect to mounted archery.

It took a great deal of time to master both archery and horsemanship. King Wuling, mentioned above, was able to form a small group of horse archers who fought in a similar manner as the nomads; but the practice did not last after his death and the collapse of the Zhao in 256 BCE. In

615 CE, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (581 – 618 CE), ordered one of his commanders to train a group of men to fight in the same manner as the nomadic horse archers. The commander chose 2,000 cavalrymen, who were skilled archers and excellent riders, from the ranks of the army and trained them.

“Their food, drink, and lodgings were the same as those of the Türks. They followed the grass and water, and placed outposts at a distance. Whenever they encountered Türks scouts, they behave as if no one was watching and galloped around shooting and hunting, so as to flaunt their awesome martiality….When they encountered the Türks suddenly, the bravest and keenest were organized as a separate unit and ordered to maintain their cohesion in order to watch for their opportunity. Whenever the Türks saw [the commanders troops] troops, they always said that because of their behavior they suspected that they belonged to their own tribe.358

The horsemen did reach a degree a success; however, they were unable to maintain significant numbers to compete against the nomads for long periods of time. It was cheaper to hire nomads, bribe them with textiles and other valuable goods, or play one tribe against another.

The Chinese were not the only ones who attempted to create horse archer units. In

Byzantium, a light horse archer contingent was created and called Tourkopouloi, meaning sons of Turks. Tourkopouloi refers to an ethnic background and a military role. The term appears in

358 Ibid., p.156-157.

the Greek sources in the eleventh century after the invasions of Anatolia.359 When the

Seljuq Turks settled in Rum, (modern day Turkey), some married Christian women and their sons learned to fight in a similar manner as their Turkish fathers, learning how to ride and shoot a bow at an early age. They were hired as mercenaries who supplied their own mounts and weapons, primarily the bow and arrow. The plateau had been a large recruiting area for the

Byzantine army. Asia Minor had been divided into themes and given to military commanders who used the revenue to generate cavalry units.360 The themes supplied the core of the mounted troops for the emperor of . The loss of an extensive amount of territory meant the

Byzantines no longer had the ability to supply a significant number of mounted soldiers for the army. Therefore, men of different ethnic origins were hired as light cavalry acting in the manner as horse archers.

During the Crusades the western Europeans learned about the Tourkopouloi and adopted their own version of horse archers called turkopoles.361 After the conquest of Jerusalem in July of 1099 CE the vast majority of troops returned to Europe, depleting the newly founded

Kingdom of Jerusalem and Principality of Antioch of fighting men.362 What few mounted soldiers remained behind were milites, nobles most often referred to as knights, and serjeants who were equipped and fought similarly to the knights but who were not nobles.363 Their

359 Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume I: Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007, p.14.; Harari, Yuval. "The military role of the Frankish Turcopoles: A reassessment." Mediterranean Historical Review 12, no. 1 (1997), p.3.; Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.53,96,111-112. 360 Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume I: Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007, p. 153, 181.; Maurice. Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. Translated by George T. Dennis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001, p.35-51. 361 Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare 1097-1193. Barnes & Noble Books, 1995, p.111-112.; see also Hamblin, William. "Turcopoles II." Slingshot 112 (March 1984), 3.; Bennet, Matthew. "Some More Thoughts on Turcopoles." Slingshot 117 (January 1985), p.27-29.; Wise, Terence. The Wars of the Crusades 1096-1291. London: Osprey Publishing, 1978, p.83. 362 Approximately only 300 out of 1,200 knights (milite) remained in the Holy Land after the siege of Jerusalem. 363 Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare 1097-1193. Barnes & Noble Books, 1995, p.107.; Kostick, C. "Chapter Five. Milites: Knights Or Simply Mounted Warriors?" The of the First Crusade, 2008, p.159-186.

numbers were very limited and all of them wore armour which limited rapid mobility.

Furthermore, they had no light cavalry forces, leaving the newly founded realms in a precarious situation. To augment their numbers, turkopoles were hired. Until recently scholarly sources have referred to the turkopoles as sons of Turks; however, this interpretation has been brought into question.364

The Crusader States (1099 – 1291 CE) did not have access to ethnic Turks. The region the Europeans conquered ranged from southern Turkey in the north to the of Aqaba in the south. The western border was the Mediterranean Sea and the east extended no farther than the

Jordan River. Due to the lack of pastures and water, the lands in that area were not suitable for large numbers of Turkish hordes. The term turkopole in the crusader states lost its ethnic specificity. To be clear, this did not mean none of them were Turks or at least of mixed ethnic background. This still leaves the question of their ethnicity unanswered. The role of archaeology and genetic testing is helping to answer the question of ethnicity. Archaeologists recovered the bones of 25 individuals, dating to the 13th century, in the town of Sidon, modern day Lebanon, once a former Crusader stronghold. Ancient DNA testing has revealed several of the individuals had mixed genomes.365 The findings indicate a genetically diverse population.

Europeans who settled in the Levant during the Crusades intermixed with the local population and some of their heirs may have been employed as turkopoles. Although turkopoles were equipped with bows, they were not the caliber of the Turkomen horse archers in Asia Minor.

Prior to the arrival of the Crusaders, the people of the region were not allowed to own

364 Harari, Yuval. "The military role of the Frankish Turcopoles: A reassessment." Mediterranean Historical Review 12, no. 1 (1997), p.75-78.; Tibble, Steve. Crusader Armies: 1099-1187. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018, p.117-124. 365 Haber, Marc, Claude Doumet-Serhal, Christiana L. Scheib, Yali Xue, Richard Mikulski, Rui Martiniano, Fischer-Genz, Holger Schutkowski, Toomas Kivisild, and Chris Tyler-Smith. "A Transient Pulse of Genetic Admixture from the Crusaders in the Near East Identified from Ancient Genome Sequences." The American Journal of Human Genetics 104, no. 5 (2019), p.977-984.

weapons and any significant number of horses, if any at all.366 However, some Christian groups did own horses and their own equipment, fighting as lightly armed cavalry, often with a bow.

During major battles their primary role was to follow the sergeants and the nobles in the charge

– essentially forming the rear ranks. During the march, the turkopoles performed the roles of scouting and light skirmishing. In small engagements the turkopoles were used to move quickly ahead to delay a caravan, harass supply lines, or skirmish with small forces. The basic equipment of the turkopole was a sword and composite bow; and some carried a and perhaps a shield. Yet, for all their effort, the Tourkopouloi and turkopoles did not compare to the

Turks on the battlefield. Their numbers were too small and they did not have herds of horses to learn how the animals functioned within a group.367

Since the sedentary realms could not emulate the abilities of the nomadic horse archer, they instead chose to hire them as mercenaries.368 Peoples such as the Pechenegs and Avars served loyally with the Byzantine Empire. In Syria, the Levant, Iraq, Khorasan, Khwarizmia, and Rum the Turkomen were given land, which had large enough pastures to support several clans or tribes, by a , sultan or an emir. In return they were to protect the land from banditry and outside raiding parties and provide military service when called upon. Caravans traveling through their given territory were escorted with an armed escort. The Han Chinese tried to convince the Yuezhi to become an ally to fight against a common enemy, the Xiongnu. The

366 Since the region was controlled by Muslims (the Abbassid of Baghdad, then the of Cairo who lost the territory to the Seljuqs) the inhabitants were not allowed to own weapons or horses. 367 The two good sources on the Turkopoles are Harari, Yuval. "The military role of the Frankish Turcopoles: A reassessment." Mediterranean Historical Review 12, no. 1 (1997), p.74-116.; and Tibble, Steve. Crusader Armies: 1099-1187. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. 368 Golden, Peter B. Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, Khazars and Qipchaqs. Variorum, 2003, p.137. Golden also notes that the nomads north of China tended to form states where as those in the central and western Steppes did not; statelessness was the norm. p.136. He also notes the nomads did not organize their states along ethnic lines: rather, the binding factors were life style [jinsiyya] (i.e. Nomadic economy and social institutions and political-military leadership {charismatic clan}), p.I61.

Tang hired the Tujue, a , in their struggle against the Goguryeo (Korea), and campaigns into Central Asia. In Hungary, the Black Magyars, late 9th and early 10th centuries, were converted to and forced to fight for the Hungarian Nobles. During the 12th century the Cumans fought, with disastrous results, with the Hungarians against the invading

Mongols.

The Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt (1250 – 1517 CE) also attempted to emulate the nomadic form of warfare. The corps of the army consisted of former slave soldiers, called mamlūks

,(”mamālīk (plural), meaning "owned" or “controlled - ﻤﻣ ﺎ ﻟ ﻚﯿ ,(mamlūk (singular - ﻤﻣ ﻠ كﻮ ) primarily of Qipchaq origin.369 They were taken to slave markets in Central Asia and sold to

Muslim rulers as far away as Cairo, Egypt. In 1250, the mamlūks killed the Ayyubid (1171 –

1260 CE) Sultan of Egypt, founded by the famous Muslim leader Salah al-din (Saladin, d. 1193

CE), and took power, establishing the Mamlūk Sultanate of Egypt. As former nomads, their skills in archery and horsemanship were incorporated into the mamlūk sultanate army.370 The

Mamlūks played many games of nomadic origin with great pomp and ceremony in cities from

Cairo, Damascus, and .371 The mamlūk soldiers specialized in horsemanship, archery and swordsmanship, and they learned to maneuver as a unit.372 What the mamlūks were not able to do, was emulate synchrony. Due to the lack of horse pastures, their horses were kept in corrals

369 Halperin, Charles J. "The connection: the Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63, no. 2 (2000), 229-245.; I preferred the later interpretation of mamluk (controlled) because they were freed slaved, yet controlled via ipsimission, Greek reference to contract. see Pipes, Daniel. Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a Military System. New Haven: Yale Univ Press, 1981, p.18-23. 370 Humphreys, Stephens. "Ayyubids, Mamluks, and the Latin East in the Thirteenth Century." Mamluk Studies Review II 2 (1998), 1-17.; Humphreys, R. S. "The Emergence of the Mamluk Army." Studia Islamica, no. 45 (1977), p.67-99.; Humphreys, R. S. "The Emergence of the Mamluk Army (Conclusion)." Studia Islamica, no. 46 (1977), p.147-182. 371 See appendix A for equestrian games. 372 Ayalon, David. "Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army—I." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 15, no. 2 (1953), p.203-228.; Ayalon, David. "Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army—II." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 15, no. 3 (1953), 448-476.; Ayalon, David. "Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk Army—III." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16, no. 1 (1954), p.57- 90.

and stall fed; therefore, the horses were not able to learn synchrony like the horses the Eurasian

Steppe. The mamlūks trained exclusively in drilled choreographed formations rather than learning to form globs of seemingly unorganized horse archers like the nomads of the Eurasian

Steppe.373 The Mamlūk Sultanate relied on the nomadic Turkoman, who lived in the grasslands of Anatolia and Azerbaijan, as allies who could fight against the Mongols as loose formations of horse archers.

The of synchrony, culminated by the great Mongol Ulus, gave the Steppe horse archers the ability to defeat their enemies and create nomadic empires or control over the trade routes, which expanded cross cultural contact. A person’s life on the Steppe depended on the horse and the bow, and in other lands the horse was the key for the development of chivalry among the knightly nobility in Europe, the Samurai in Japan, and Furūsiyya in the Mamlūks of

Syria and Egypt. For the nomads it was the primary symbol of prosperity, prestige and life. The nomads had to be able to conduct mounted warfare as horse archers. Without the abilities of the horse and mastery of the bow they could not effectively control the trade routes along the Silk

Road. The nomads used violence to get what they wanted, which was to be appeased or in the case of the Seljuq Turks and Mongols control, and given part of the wealth of the sedentary peoples. Their ability to understand the horse as a herd animal and utilize its abilities allowed the Steppe peoples to wage warfare on a large scale over great distances. Quite often they ravaged the lands and at other times they created security along the trade routes or simply created trade routes within the Steppe, especially in the case of the Mongols. Their skill, speed, love for games, comprehension of their herds, disdain for close in combat, seeming compulsion for the

373 Parry, Vernon J., and Malcolm Yapp. "The Training of the Mamluk Faris." In War, technology and society in the Middle East, p.153-163. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1975.; Nicolle, David. "The reality of Mamluk warfare: Weapons, armour and tactics." Al-Masāq 7, no. 1 (1994), p.77-110.

feigned retreat, and lack of interest in the stylized choreographed formations in warfare brought the hordes victory after victory and sometimes control over the Silk Roads, which can be referred to as the battle routes. It wasn’t until the development of gunpowder weapons that the horse archers of the Steppe no longer reigned supreme.

Horsemanship and the use of the bow were so important to the Abbassid Caliphate, who observed Turkish horse archers, he initiated a plethora of writings about equestrian skills, hippiatry, and archery called Furūsīya, (farasnāmah in Persian).374 One of the first furūsīya

A Book of ,( ﺘﻛ بﺎ ا ﻟ ﻔ ﺔﯿﺳرﺎ و ةرﺎﻄﯿﺒﻟا ) treatises written was Kitāb al-Furūsīya wa 'l-Bayṭara

Horsemanship and Hippiatry, in the latter part of the 9th century in Baghdad.375 The writings continued with the Ayyubid rulers fighting against the Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries.

In the 13th through the 15th centuries the Mamlūks of Egypt and Syria expanded on the treatises in great detail during their conflicts with the Crusader states of the Levant and the invading

Mongols from the east. One third of the manuals written over the 13th through the 15th centuries pertain to archery alone.376 Shihab al-Sarraf, the author of the cited article, stated “the essence of military furūsīyah and the whole mamlūk institution was based on horse archery”.377 Two

Mamlūk Furūsiyya treatises pertaining to archery have been translated into English: Arab

Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and Arrow and the Description Thereof and Saracen Archery: An English Version and Exposition of a Mameluke Work on Archery (ca.

374 Electricpulp.com. “Encyclopædia Iranica.” RSS. www.iranicaonline.com, December 15, 1999. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/faras-nama. 375 Al-Sarraf, Shihab. "Mamluk Furūsīyah Literature and Its Antecedents." Mamluk Studies Review VIII, no. 1 (2004), p.141-200.; Shehada, Housni A. Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 2012. 376 Ibid., p.161. 377 Ibid., p.162.

A.D. 1368).378 The manuals are used by historians, competitors, even the Prince George’s

Muslim Association (PGMA) Girl Scouts,379 and enthusiasts of archery trying to master and understand the techniques of the past.

Observing synchrony is rather fascinating. With greater access to video, via online streaming, a viewer can watch horses acting in synchrony.380 The groups filmed always remained in cohesion regardless of the direction change. Military historians and experimental archaeologists have not yet fully realized the importance of synchrony. Synchrony and cohesion are still being researched by ethologists and biologists. The paradigm shift from only one discipline studying a topic is changing to an interdisciplinary process of sharing information.

Military historians and experimental archaeologists are slowly shifting with anthropologists, sociologists and climatologists to incorporate the studies of others. The work of ethologists researching synchrony and the horse contributes a great deal to understanding the past.

The study of the horse archers of the Steppe is a daunting task. The time line of all of the nomad horse archers expands over 2,500 years of historical writings. Many civilizations have written about them; however, it is virtually impossible to read in all of the languages.

Archaeology is expanding the knowledge of the Eurasian Steppe. The horse was one of the three important elements of the nomadic warrior, the archer and the bow being the other two.

Research about the nomads of the Eurasian Steppe still needs to continue. The knowledge gained will help to break through the barrier of stereotypical beliefs (uncouth barbarians who

378 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and Arrow and the Description Thereof. Translated by Robert P. Elmer and Nabi A Faris. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010.; Latham, John D. Saracen Archery: An English Version and Exposition of a Mameluke Work on Archery (ca. A.D. 1368). 1970. 379 A .pdf copy of Saracen Archery can be downloaded from the PGMA website at https://pgmagirlscouts.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/saracen_archery.pdf 380 The Silk Road series has some clips of horses running in a herd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7C8N8YDyc4&list=PLILRQ_uVCaoOtZ6Q6egVvUyEMhbN7OG9y&index= 2. A short clip of horses running in a group can be found at 20:12.

lacked mores) and give scholarship a better understanding of the amazing integration between horses and humans achieved by the nomadic horse lords of the Steppe.

The joke quoted at the beginning of this chapter notes the horses on the Steppe were in their natural environment, whereas the horses of the sedentary peoples were out of their element and, therefore, unable to obtain synchrony and had to be trained in choreographed formations.

The sedentary peoples believed they alone had the knowledge to train horses to fight in a cohesive group.

Anthropocentrism is a term that refers to humans putting themselves at the center of all living creatures and assuming that only mankind has the innate knowledge to teach animals how to function in man’s world.381 The assumption is animals cannot teach people anything. For example, this thesis has pointed out that many of the sedentary people taught and trained their horses to ride in formations that have been choreographed and drilled often to learn how to maneuver. The animal, in this case Equus ferus callabus, has been taken out of its natural element and incorporated into that of humans. The horses were stall fed with grain, alf alfa, or barley. The horses, as well as many other animals such as dogs, sheep, cattle, goats, donkeys, and some birds, were selectively bred for their perspective qualities such as strength, size, color, and any other desired attributes. Over the centuries of selective breeding horses became larger, faster, and stronger, which allowed them to carry heavier loads or compete in equestrian games such as . For the sedentary people, horses were an important element in their

381 Boyd, Brian. "Archaeology and Human–Animal Relations: Thinking Through Anthropocentrism." Annual Review of Anthropology 46, no. 1 (2017), p.299.; McNab, Keelin. "Anthropocentrism: Are Humans the Centre of Existence?" Peace Research 34, no. 1 (May 2002), p.113.; To be clear, anthropocentrism in this thesis does not refer to environmental ethics, ecocentrism, speciism, human chauvinism, nor does it ascribe a human-like quality to horses. For additional information regarding these issues see: Hayward, Tim. "Anthropocentrism: A Misunderstood Problem." Environmental Values 6, no. 1 (1997), p.49-63.; Kopnina, Helen, Haydn Washington, Bron Taylor, and John J Piccolo. "Anthropocentrism: More than Just a Misunderstood Problem." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31, no. 1 (2018), p.109-127.

lifestyle. The horse was adapted to the will of humankind. While horses “may not be able to give informed consent or understand all the rules of engagement in different activities”, it is involved in a complex human-horse relationship.382

The horse has long played a role within human societies, a role often characterized by close interrelationships with humans. The horse was once an animal that was hunted for meat.

After domestication, it was used for milking, traction, and then riding. Beginning around 1,000

BCE it was used in human conflict, and continued to be up through 20th century such as World

War II. It has been involved in sports, used as beasts of burden carrying items too heavy for humans and mounts for couriers who needed speed to deliver messages, and has provided recreational activities such as riding and therapy.383 The horse does have to be broken before it can be ridden. Riding is considered a risky activity that can lead to injury or even death.384 After the horse was broken it was easier and, usually, safer to work with and it created an interspecies collaboration of mutual willingness. For example, “horses ‘pay attention’ to known handlers more closely than to unknown ones.”385 Marco Polo noted the Mongol’s horses were so well trained they moved ‘hither and dither, just like a .’386 A Song Dynasty emissary

Zhao Hong remarked “When the horses are only one or two years old they ride them harshly in the Steppe and train them. They then maintain them [meaning the horses were released into the herd] for three years and after that mount and ride them again.”387 This suggests horses can and

382 Dashper, Katherine. "Moving beyond anthropocentrism in leisure research: multispecies perspectives." Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 2 (2018), p.136. 383 Ibid., p.135. 384 According to the Secret History of the Mongols, Chinggis Khan died from an injury suffered after falling of a horse. May, Timothy. The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016, p.13. 385 Dashper, Katherine. "Moving beyond anthropocentrism in leisure research: multispecies perspectives." Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 2 (2018), p.136. 386 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.56. 387 Ibid., p.56

do exercise agency and chose to cooperate with humans.388

The horses chose to carry the Steppe nomads on their back. “Nonhumans can make choices, they can exercise agency in their actions and interactions, although this agency may differ to that which we readily ascribe to and recognize in humans.”389 Horses, and the camel, perform work, even though they do not cognitively think of it as humans do, and participates in human endeavors, such as conflict. A horse can chose not to participate as a mount and become unruly not allowing itself to be controlled by the rider. This is not to say the horse understood, in the same manner a human would, that allowing a person to ride its back could mean the death of the horse during battle. “Equally, [decision making] is a human-defined concept, human conflict participants frequently explain their interspecies encounters with nonhumans, as in the case of horses, in terms of freedom, and transcendence; experiences which the human believes are shared, at least to some extent, by their nonhuman companion.”390 In other words, the nomads and horses co-existed in the same environment, relied upon each other for survival, and coproduced the aspect of synchrony, in which the nomads learned from the horse that in turn carried humans into battle.

The nomads of the Steppe had a less of an anthropocentric view than their sedentary neighbors. They did not mark their horses or give them names; instead they identified them by color.391 The horse was not viewed as a pet. Unlike their sedentary neighbors, they did not keep

388 Growing up around horses I’ve noticed that when entering a pasture to a horse for riding some will run around in a form of rebellious playful behavior and not allow the handler to approach it. After the short tantrum the animal will stop and allow the handler to put the halter on and lead it away. 389 Dashper, Katherine. "Moving beyond anthropocentrism in leisure research: multispecies perspectives." Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 2 (2018), p.134. 390 Ibid., p.134. 391 Rachewiltz, Igor D. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Edited by John C. Street. The Australian National University, 2015, p.5. The Secret History of the Mongols does not state horses were not named; however, it refers to horses by their color.

their animals in stalls or corrals.392 They were allowed to roam the pastures and breed freely; in other words the horse was allowed to live in its natural habitat. For the nomads, the horse meant much more than and animal used for traction, transportation, or entertainment. Instead of assuming they had all the knowledge, the nomads incorporated the horse’s way of life into their own way of life. The nomads did control the horses in ways that were needed for their way of life and survival. For example, every horse was broken-in for riding at an early age, mare’s milk was used for drinking, and most significantly for this thesis it was used for warfare. As noted before, children learned to ride at very young age. Throughout their lives, they rode their horses on a daily basis and sometimes slept on them. The horses were essential to enabling the nomads to manipulate, influence, or conquer sedentary powers and to control the trade routes or to create their own trade routes. By avoiding the view only humans had the innate knowledge to teach animals how to move in mass, the nomads incorporated from the horses’ synchrony, and utilized the horse’s ability for greater maneuverability on the battlefield. The nomads did not view themselves as separate from or superior to their livestock.

Horses are not here for human domination nor are humans the superior lifeform; rather each plays its role, acting together. The domesticated horse depends on and needs human interaction creating a symbiotic relationship (the same can be said with the camel). For the nomads, domesticating the horse, allowing it to behave in its natural manner, and recognizing the horses natural abilities was a way of surviving the harsh environment of the Eurasian Steppe.

Synchrony alone did not make the nomads powerful, it was, however, one aspect they learned about the horses that allowed them to fight successfully against the better equipped and trained

392 Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), p.321, 332.; Smith, John M. "Nomads on Ponies vs. Slaves on Horses." Journal of the American Oriental Society 118, no. 1 (1998), p.58.

armies of their sedentary neighbors.

Over the past several years horse archery has been growing in popularity. It is now a in Hungary. The founder of Hungarian horse archery competition, Khassai Lajos developed his school of horse archery and has gained an extensive following around the world.

Many countries such as Finland, Germany, Iran, Korea, , and the United States hold

Khassai competitions and training seminars. One of the first to introduce the Khassai School of horse archery into the United States was Todd Delle, now retired, from Big Fork, Montana.393 In

Japan, – traditional Japanese horse archery, has been revived and performed around the country. Yabusame is more of a ritual than a form of competition. One of the finest horse archers in the world is Anna Minkkinen from Finland. Her abilities have earned her multiple awards in competition and the attention of National Geographic.394 She is also a YouTube sensation galloping on her horse at great speeds while shooting arrows from her bow.

In China, the practice of archery is referred to as shè dào (射道), the way of the archer.

Several archery manuals were written over the various dynasties. The Way of Archery: A 1637

Chinese Military Training Manual penned by Gao Ying, the person who coined the term shè dào, is one of the most utilized manuals among modern archers.395 Horse archery waned and waxed over the centuries depending on its control over the north. When it controlled the north mounted forces were prominent with the vast majority of them carrying a bow. China may never have mastered the skills of the swift horse archers of the Steppe, but it did revere their skills and always acknowledged the significance of the horse and lightly armoured bowman. In the

393 “Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo.” Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo. Accessed January 13, 2020. http://horsebackarcheryusa.com/. 394 Lang, , “Ancient Sport of Horseback Archery Sparks Unexpected Bond,” National Geographic, July 21, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07/iranian-horseback-archery-photography/ 395 Tian, Jie, and Justin Ma. The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual. Schiffer Military History, 2015.

modern era the practice of traditional archery in China, Mongolia, and Korea recognizes, preserves, and respects the of archery, a skill that pervaded the region for centuries.

Archery has long played a role on the Eurasian Continent. In England, people are enamored with the famous archer Robin Hood. In Iran, the story of Rashdam and his horse,

Rakhsh, from the Shahnameh written around 1010 CE, is quite famous.396 Hou Yi is the Chinese mythical ‘Lord Archer’ who descended to Earth to assist the Jade Emperor.397 In China, the practice of traditional archery is referred to as shè dào (射道), the way of the archer. Several archery manuals have been written over; for example, The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese

Military Training Manual penned by Gao Ying, the person who coined the term shè dào, is one of the most utilized manuals among modern archers.398 People desire to connect to the heroes of the past, relearning the lost skills of their ancient predecessors in order to preserve and nurture the skills for a continuous connection with the past.

Over the past several years, horse archery has been growing in popularity throughout the world. The countries of China, Mongolia, Japan, and Korea now recognize, preserve, and respect the cultural heritage of practicing traditional archery. Khassai Lajos from Hungary developed his form of archery and competition, now a national sport, and has gained an extensive following around the world. Khassai competitions and training seminars are held in many countries such as Finland, Germany, Iran, Korea, Ukraine, and the United States. One of the first to introduce the Khassai School of horse archery into the United States was Todd Delle,

396 Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. London: Penguin, 2016. 397 Masako, Mori. "Restoring the "Epic of Hou Yi"." Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995), p.239-257. 398 Tian, Jie, and Justin Ma. The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual. Schiffer Military History, 2015.

now retired, from Big Fork, Montana.399 In Japan, yabusame – traditional Japanese horse archery, has been revived and performed around the country. Yabusame is as much a competition as it is a form of ritual. One of the finest horse archers in the world is Anna

Minkkinen from Finland. Her abilities have earned her multiple awards in competition and the attention of National Geographic.400

Horse archery is not the only equestrian game linking people to their cultural heritage. In

Turkey, jereed reflects the connection to the (1299 – 1918 CE) and the Seljuq

Turks who conquered much of the Anatolian Plateau in the 11th century. In Afghanistan buzkashi is considered the national sport. Understanding jereed and buzkashi is to understand the people.401 Whitney Azoy, in his insightful study of buzkashi in Afghanistan reveals the complex relationship between the people, their politics, horses, ancestors, and equestrian games.

Understanding the games will contribute a greater knowledge of the Eurasian Steppe nomads and their horses during the ancient and medieval eras. Literature pertaining to equestrian games is scattered and challenging to find: perhaps this could provide the opportunity for a Ph.D. project using Thomas Allsen’s The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History 402 as an example to studying the games.

Anthropology attempts to tease out notions of distinctiveness and universals under the particulars; first learning the particulates and how it represents the universal humanness. Horse archery competition brings together the universal commonality of people such as the horses, bows, and style of shooting; yet, the desire for a unique cultural heritage that is different from

399 “Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo.” Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo. Accessed January 13, 2020. http://horsebackarcheryusa.com/. 400 Lang, Hannah, “Ancient Sport of Horseback Archery Sparks Unexpected Bond,” National Geographic, July 21, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07/iranian-horseback-archery-photography/ 401 Azoy, G. W. Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan. Long Grove: Waveland Press, 2003. 402 Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

others is displayed by the different types of clothing, bows, arrows, horse tack, style of shooting, and interactions with horses. This examination of difference can be used to help understand

Steppe nomads who lived in various parts of the Eurasian grassland as well as different time periods. Understanding the connections helps to understand the past.

The art of bow making was almost lost to the Mongolian and Kazakh people.403 Daniyar

Baidaralin, who practices archery in Kazakhstan, stated the majority of people in the country are unfamiliar with the bows of the past.404 The establishment of the Nadaam Games in Mongolia and the revitalization of bow making, in the traditional manner using the same materials their ancestors used hundreds of years ago, is allowing the Mongols to connect to their cultural heritage. The annual Nadaam game in Mongolia links the competitive archers to both the

Mongols and to the Hunnu people.405 For example, at the Nadaam games people use two different bows, Mongolian and the Hunnu, linking them to the era of the Ilk Mongol Uls and the

Xiongnu. (See appendix B regarding the Mongol bows.)

Archaeology is well suited for discovering and examining the ancient and medieval bows used by the Steppe nomads. Experimental archaeologists have the ability to recreate the composite bows and develop objective tests. The for example, has been examined by numerous scholars, scientists, and lay people testing the bow to determined how it

403 The Mongols of the 13th century left a lasting impact on the peoples of Manchuria and China. In 1644, the Manchus, a semi-nomadic people from Manchuria, conquered China, ending the Ming Dynasty, and renamed the newly established realm as the . Because the Manchus feared the Mongols they swept across the country killing as many as the as they could. During the early 20th century the Soviet Union tried to eliminate all forms of nomadism in Mongolia by gathering their horses into collective farms and forcing the people to move into the city, Ulaanbaatar. 404 Baidaralin, Daniyar. Sadaqshiliq: the Art of Making and Shooting the Kazakh Horsebow. Independently published, 2016, p.6. 405 There are three forms of archery styles in modern Mongolia archery competitions: Kalkh, Buriad, and Uriankai. See Brownstein, Eric X. "The Path of the Arrow: the Evolution of Mongolian National Archery." World Learning / SIT Study Abroad Mongolia, Spring 2008, 1-35. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Path-of-the- Arrow%3A-The-Evolution-of-Mongolian-Brownstein/c053ae2fc82ee7ae6e3acb986d31439ff7fedbc7.

faired against armour or how far one can shoot it, but equivalent studies on the various types of composite bows used by the nomads have not gone through similar scrutiny. There are claims the Mongolian composite bow can shoot farther and has more power for penetrating armour than the English Longbow.406 There are people making bows and conducting their own tests; however, there is no consistency in testing and they tend to lack empirical guidelines.407

Experiments need to combine the knowledge of those who make the bows, archers who use them, and various scholars who study them to help create empirically based tests. Comparative tests can provide insightful information regarding the differences and capabilities. Aspects that can be re-examined are the materials used to construct the bow. For example, the glue used to bind the materials together for the composite bow can be gelled and saved for future use. Did the nomads store the gel and/or was it traded along the Silk Road? Testing pottery samples, similar to those used for discovering mare’s milk, may indicate it was stored. The contributions of all the disciplines will help to further our knowledge of the Eurasian Steppe nomads and horses that roamed the grasslands for over 2,500 years.

Synchrony contributes to anthropology, archaeology, and history in different ways.

Anthropology examines the nuances of culture trying to understand what represents the universal humanness of people. As stated earlier in this thesis, Arabic texts use the term jins wahid when describing the commonality of Steppe nomads even though they lived hundreds of miles apart.

The nomads recognized synchrony in their horse herds without any form of specialized training and utilized the horse’s abilities to their advantage. Today, people in Mongolia and Kazakhstan

406 One can scour the web and find forums where people are making this claim. 407 One can scour the Internet, especially www.youtube.com, or watch documentary channels such as History or Discovery Channel to view the various tests that reflect the lack of empirical testing. Tod’s Workshop, “ARROWS vs. ARMOUR – Medieval Myth Busting” on Youtube is one of the better objective videos concerning the longbow capability.

are connecting to their past by living in the gers or yurts and raising large herds of animals for substance. Anthropologists can use synchrony as a tool to examine how the nomads utilize it to control their herds. Military historians with the knowledge of synchrony will bear this in mind when combing through the primary text, looking for information that offers additional insights describing how Steppe nomads maneuvered.

Finally, the study of the Steppe nomads and how they utilized synchrony is a subject that can be expanded upon through additional DNA testing on horse bones from archaeological contexts.408 The testing can potentially lead to deciphering the different types of breeds used by the Steppe nomads. Armed with this knowledge, scholars can examine other horse cultures, such as the warriors fighting against the Texas Rangers in the 19th century, expanding the study of the human-horse relationship and synchrony. Looking for synchrony can open up a new way of imagining how the Steppe nomads functioned as a group on the battlefield expands the understanding of the past.409

408 DNA testing has been ongoing. For additional details see Cell Press. "A genomic tour-de-force reveals the last 5,000 years of horse history." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190502111040.htm (accessed January 19, 2020). 409 "Killing (constructed) horses – Interspecies elders, empathy and emotion, and the Pazyryk horse sacrifices." In People with Animals: Perspectives and Studies in Ethnozooarchaeology, edited by Lee Broderick. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016, p.20-32. Author of the chapter is Gala Argent.

Appendix A The Bow and Arrow

The common materials used to construct a composite bow were animal horn, sinew, and wood. Several pieces of wood were used for the frame. The middle of the bow called the grip or handle was the first piece. Moving outward from the handle were the limbs, which were attached to the handle via a V-split that was glued and reinforced with strips of sinew. At the end of the limbs were the siyahs, which were used to hold the string. They, too, were glued and reinforced with sinew to the limbs. On the inside of the limbs, referred to as the belly, horn was glued onto the wood. Horn came from water buffalo, oxen, yak, or wild sheep. It resists compression and it adds strength to the wooden frame. On the outside, referred to as the back, strips of sinew, were glued onto the wooden limb and the handle. Sinew is animal tendon shredded into elongated fibers. Similar to a rubber band, but stiffer, sinew is excellent at storing and releasing mechanical energy. To increase the draw weight of the bow, additional sinew was added. After the glue dried, sinew was wrapped around the bow in the opposite direction to reinforce the horn and sinew strips. On the back of the bow birch bark was glued onto the sinew to protect it against moisture. The siyahs were sometimes reinforced with horn and/or sinew for added strength. The handle of the bow was often wrapped in leather to reduce friction, improve grip, and comfort against hand/wrist shock – vibration created when the arrow is shot from a

poorly made bow.410

Not all bows were made with all three materials. Early bows consisted of a wooden frame with strips of sinew on the front then wrapped with sinew all around the bow, sometimes in a diagonal direction. Bows found in Skythian and Xiongnu burial sites were made in this fashion.411 These bows are still referred to as composite bows, which can be confusing. For example, the composite bow have been referred to as a horn bow, which seems to imply it was made of horn and possibly wood; however, this is an incorrect interpretation of the term. A horn bow can mean horn has been added to the bow along with wood and sinew.

Ancient techniques for constructing composite bows relied on naturally occurring materials. Glue made from animal sources was commonly used to fasten objects together. The glues were made by extracting from animal tendons and fish bladders. Collagen is the primary protein in sinew. Collage-based glues are very strong and flexible. To create the glue, the dissected tissues are heated for several hours in an acid or mineral solution that causes hydrolysis. The heating and chemical solutions break down the amino acids that make up the proteins. When the collagen cools, the denatured proteins form a gel that creates greater stability of the proteins.412 The gel is then cut into small chunks and reheated and used to glue the components of the bow together. Animal tendon gels fairly quickly while fish bladder-based glue has a much longer set time. Gel from animal tendons works best for joining the wooden

410 Reisinger, Michaela R. "New Evidence About Composite Bows and Their Arrows in Inner Asia." The Silk Road, no. 8 (2010), p.42-44.; Miller, R., E. McEwen, and C. Bergman. "Experimental approaches to ancient near eastern archery." World Archaeology 18, no. 2 (1986), p.179-180, 183-184.; Nieminen, Timo A., “The Asian war bow”, https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1101/1101.1677.pdf , (accessed August 5, 2019); A good quality bow will have very little to no hand/wrist shock when a proper arrow weight is used. 411 The oldest composite bow recovered by archaeology has been dated to around 1000 BCE. Karpowicz, Adam, and Stephen Selby. "Scythian Bow From Xinjiang." Journal of the Soc. of Archer-Antiquaries 53 (2010), p.94-95.; Rumschlag, Samual. "One Bow (or Stirrup) is not Equal to Another: A Comparative Look at Hun and Mongol Military Technologies." The Silk Road 16 (2018), p.81. 412 Eastoe, J. E. "The amino acid composition of fish collagen and gelatin." Biochemical Journal 65, no. 2 (1957), p.363-368.

components together while fish gel was used to glue the horn and sinew onto the wooden frame.

This specialized glue extracted from sturgeon, a fish found throughout Central Asia, is known as .413 The flexibility of the adhesive allows for repeated use of bending a bow. One weakness of the glue, however, is its susceptibility to moisture, which weakens collagen bonds and leads to delamination. Nevertheless, the same techniques are still used in Mongolia and

Turkey with bowers. Due to the slow drying time of the glue, the entire process of making a bow takes around thirteen to fourteen months. When the sinew and glue dried, it pulled the bow into a slight to accentuated C-shape. When strung the bow was pulled away from its natural shape giving it the term recurve composite bow.

The bow string was made from silk, as in the case of the bow found in Cagaan Khag, or animal tendons and hide.414 Since tendons and hide were susceptible to wetness silk was the desired material to make bow strings. Wax or thin layers of oil were sometimes used to protect the bow. Silk, traded along the Silk Road, was the preferred material due to its superior qualities.

Not all bows were created equally; they varied in quality and strength. In his account of the Mongols, Friar Plano di Carpini states each warrior was required to own at least two bows, or at least one very good one.415 Rashid al-din describes how a bower was paid rather handsomely

413 Thanks to Bret Tobalske, Ph. D., and Amanda Andreas, Ph. D. candidate, with the University of Montana Biology Department for explaining the details of hydrolysis and collagen-based glues. 414 Ahrens, Birta, H. Piezonka, and G. Nomguunsuren. "Buried with his bow and arrows: The exceptional cave burial of a 14th century warrior at Tsagaan Khad mountain, Mongolia. In: Ancient cultures of the northern area of China, Mongolia and baikalian Siberia; Part Three: Historical Period." https://www.academia.edu/17150484/Buried_with_his_bow_and_arrows_The_exceptional_cave_burial_of_a_14th_ century_warrior_at_Tsagaan_Khad_mountain_Mongolia._In_Ancient_cultures_of_the_northern_area_of_China_ Mongolia_and_baikalian_Siberia_Part_Three_Historical_Period_Bejing_2015_683-692, 2015, 683-692.; Nabih A., and Robert P. Elmer. Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and A. Princeton: Kessinger Legacy Reprints, 1945, p.95. 415 Carpini, Giovanni D. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Wellesly: Branden Books, 1996, p.72.

by Ogedai Khan for bows that were of poor quality.416 William Rubrick was given a very strong bow that two men could hardly string, and two arrows with silver heads full of holes, which whistled like a flute when they were shot.417

The draw weight of the average composite bow is not known. Whether the average nomad used high draw weights (over 100 pounds) is uncertain. Some researchers claim the average draw weights were around 150 pounds, while others speculate it was around 120.418 The longbows found in the Mary Rose have been estimated to have an average draw weight of 90-

110 pounds and 150-160 on the high end.419 To classify a bow as a “war bow” the draw weight should be 80 pounds or more. The higher weight is required to shoot a heavier arrow in order to penetrate armour. In addition, arrows had to be thicker to penetrate armour, otherwise they broke on impact. However, a draw weight of forty to fifty pounds is all that is needed to bring down most wildlife including a person or horse from a short distance away. Arabic Mamlūk sources state new slaves used a bow with a light pull and increased in draw weight as their strength increased.420 It is very plausible they did use bows with a one hundred pound pull or more considering that the nomads used bow and arrows on a regular basis for survival; they were

416 Faḍlallāh, Rashīd-al-Dīn, and John A. Boyle. The Successors of Genghis Khan; Transl. from the Persian of Rashīd Al-Dīn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971, p.86. 417 Rockhill, William W. The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55: As Narrated by Himself. With Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian de Carpine. Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis, 2017, p. 108.; Rubruck, William. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Mongke 1253-1255. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009, p.185. Rockwell, William W., Willem Van Ruysbroeck, and William W. Giovanni. The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55: As Narrated by Himself, with Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian de Carpine. Ulan Press, 1941 (August 31, 2012) p.108. 418 Loades, Mike. War Bows: Longbow, crossbow, composite bow and Japanese yumi. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, p.226-227. 419 Phillips, Gervase. "Longbow and Hackbutt: Weapons Technology and Technology Transfer in Early Modern England." Technology and Culture 40, no. 3 (1999), p.577. 420 Oztopcu, Kurtulus. "A 14th Century Mamluk-Kipchak Military Treatise: Manyatu'l Guzat." PhD diss., University of California, 1986, p.87 (194).; Ibrahim Keles, “Training of Mamluk Faris,” Academia.edu, accessed 20 September 2019, https://www.academia.edu/14829224/the_training_of_mamluk_faris. The article can be downloaded as a .pdf, p.158-159.

required to learn how to ride a horse as well as shoot a bow and arrow with accuracy at a very young age.421

Many learned to shoot a pellet bow which was used to shoot a small pebble at birds, much like a sling shot. A famous Chinese painting of Khubilai Khan in his wildlife park shows a depiction of a rider shooting at birds. Sultan Baybars of Egypt was nicknamed Bundaqdari for his skill in shooting birds with the pellet bow, bunduqdari. They also learned to use different types of arrow.

Arrows are made up of several components: shaft, (also called point or tip), , and nock. The shaft is made of wood or and is the backbone of the arrow.

The fletching is feathers that are glued onto the bow. The nock is the end of the arrow that locks onto the bow string. A nock could be carved into the arrow, meaning there is a slot cut into the end of the shaft; sometimes, a piece of horn was inserted into the end of the shaft to reinforce the nock creating a + shape when looking at the very end of the arrow. Some nocks were carved from horn and glued onto the arrow and reinforced with sinew. were made of bronze, horn, and later horn. Some arrowheads, such as the case with the Scythians, were socketed and then glued onto the top of the shaft.422 Other arrows, made by the Mongols, had a tang that inserted into the end of the arrow and were reinforced with sinew wrapped around the arrow.423

421 Carpini, Giovanni D. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996, p.54.

422 Cunliffe, Barry. The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2019, p.240. 423 Ahrens, Birta, H. Piezonka, and G. Nomguunsuren. "Buried with his bow and arrows: The exceptional cave burial of a 14th century warrior at Tsagaan Khad mountain, Mongolia. In: Ancient cultures of the northern area of China, Mongolia and baikalian Siberia; Part Three: Historical Period." https://www.academia.edu/17150484/Buried_with_his_bow_and_arrows_The_exceptional_cave_burial_of_a_14th _century_warrior_at_Tsagaan_Khad_mountain_Mongolia._In_Ancient_cultures_of_the_northern_area_of_China _Mongolia_and_baikalian_Siberia_Part_Three_Historical_Period_Bejing_2015_683-692, 2015, 683-692.

Various arrowheads have been discovered in burial mounds found on the Eurasian

Steppe. They vary in size, weight, dimension and purpose. Some arrows had two large barbs extending away from the point. The barbed arrowheads were good for hunting game, which caused the animal to bleed out. Other arrows were slender and thin with no barbs; shaped similar to a leaf for penetrating armour.424 These were best suited against armoured riders. The tri- lobed arrowhead, at close range, was able to penetrate armour. Some arrows were triangular shaped, which tended to create a lot of damage when they penetrated their intended target. Some arrow heads were small and very light and were mounted on lighter arrows which were used for long range shooting or to send messages that were attached to the arrow. The lighter arrows rarely did any damage even when shot en masse. Their purpose in this context was to dishearten an opponent. There are accounts describing mass arrow volleys blackening the sky as if there was a cloud covering the sun or rain.425

There is another arrow that has brought a great deal of interest to scholars and popular media writers – the whistling arrow. The whistling arrow was a hollowed out tip, made from horn or wood attached to the end of an arrow, that whistled while in flight.426 Whistling arrows have been recorded by several sources in the historical record and some have been found in burial grounds.427 There is a misconception about these arrowheads. Popular media, such as

National Geographic state they were used to frighten the opposing force.428 What exactly was

424 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.49-52. 425 Herodotus. The Histories vii, 226. edited by Donald Lateiner. Translated by G. C. Macaulay. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004, p.414.; Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: Qin dynasty. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p.123. 426 One can use ping pong balls to make a whistling arrow. Three or four holes are cut into the front of ball which is mounted on the head of the arrow. It actually works better than a whistling arrow from Mongolia made with traditional materials. 427 Shan, Yueying. "A study of Xiongnu tombs." Chinese Archaeology 12, no. 1 (2012), 154, 156.; Bessac, Frank. "Review of Mongolian Archæology." Asian Perspectives 8, no. 1 (1964), p.143. 428 Edwards, Mike. "Genghis Khan." National Geographic 190, no. 6 (December 1996), p.15.

the purpose of the whistling arrow? There are various hypotheses. One idea claims the arrows were used to flush out game. Nomads routinely hunted wild game for food. The whistling arrow was an excellent tool to flush out birds or animals. Another explanation for the purpose of the whistling arrow was to use the weapon as a psychological tool. Firing numerous whistling arrows at a group of people could possibly frighten them causing them to waiver and flee the battlefield. The problem with this idea is twofold: there is a lack of historical evidence to support that whistling arrows were actually used to dishearten a group of people; the archaeological record does not show large numbers of whistling arrows. While some have been found, they do not constitute a significant number. Thus, it appears the primary purpose of the whistling arrow was for scaring out game during the hunt and directing the shot.

However, these arrows could also be used for communication and direction. The earliest mention of the whistling arrow is by Sima Qian who states the Xiongnu used them.429 He relates a story in which an aspiring son of a Xiongnu leader trained his men to shoot their arrows in the direction he shot his whistling arrow.430 Eventually he aimed one of his arrows at his father who was killed after the other arrows followed.431 On the battlefield or during a large hunt a designated rider using a whistling arrow shot in a particular direction while the rest of the riders in his group fired their arrows in the same direction. As during a hunt, the ability to direct the arrows into a specific area allowed the horse archers to concentrate their arrow showers in their attempts to break the opposing force.

Another arrow that draws popular misconception is the poisoned arrow. Some literature

429 Katariya, Adesh. "Yuezhi-Gurjar Migration from Tarim Besin." https://www.academia.edu/31033333/Yuezhi- Gurjar_Migration_from_Tarim_Besin.pdf (n.d.), p.4. 430 Loades, Mike. War Bows: Longbow, crossbow, composite bow and Japanese yumi. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, p.212. 431 Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, p.5.

mentions that arrows used by the Steppe peoples were poisoned. Ancient sources mention this and modern media has definitely picked up on this claim.432 How many of the arrows were actually poisoned is unclear. How the poison was placed on the arrowhead is not explained.

Snake venom has been mentioned. In the summer this is viable, but during the colder months, which last much longer than the warmer months, venom is not available. Plant sources may have been used for poison. However, no specific plant has been mentioned in the literature.

Providing enough poison to cover numerous arrowheads would have been a demanding task.

Perhaps it is best to acknowledge that some, on a small scale, were coated with some form of poison. Poison wasn’t always necessary. A wound from an unclean arrow tip could lead to infection. For example, Richard I of England died from gangrene after being wounded by a .433 Arrow strength and type of tip were far more effective than poisoned arrow tips.

Arrows ranged in thickness and length from region to region and throughout time.

Skythian arrows, based on reconstruction from the pictorial record, ranged from 40-70cm in length.434 Only fragments of arrow shafts have been found in Xiongnu burial sites. Numerous arrows heads and remnants of quivers have been found in barrows. In some cases imprints of the shafts remained allowing archaeologists an opportunity to measure them. The arrows were slightly longer than the Skythian arrows.435 Arrows used by the Qipchaq and Seljuk Turks along with the Mamlūks were shorter because their bows were smaller, but not less effective. Arrows

432 James Yates, “Sagitta,” University of Chicago, updated 29 September 2018 / Accessed 21 September 2019, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Sagitta.html.; Timothy May points out it is unlikely the Mongols poisoned their arrows. Arrowheads were sufficient enough to kill animals or people. The Mongol Art of War, p.52. 433 Gillingham, John. Richard I. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002, p.328-329. 434 Symonenko, Oleksandr. "Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2017. p.7-8. 435 Shan, Yueying. "A study of Xiongnu tombs." Chinese Archaeology 12, no. 1 (2012), p.156.

found in Mongolian cave burials dating from the medieval period ranged from 80-100cm.

Arrow sizes are dictated by the strength and length of the bow and the requirement to penetrate the target as well as travel the distance. To penetrate armour the arrow needed to be thick otherwise it would snap upon impact. A bow with a high draw weight requires a heavier arrow to fly accurately. Arrows were made in a manner called barreling. The two ends, except for the nock, were thinner than the middle. This added to the strength of the arrow and it helped to reduce oscillation, called archer’s , as the arrow was loosed.436 Small arrows specifically designed for long distances, often called flight arrows, can reach a distance of several hundred yards. A stela found in the basin of the river Kharkiraa near Lake Baikal was inscribed with the statement Esunge (a relative of Chingis Khan) shot an arrow the distance of

335 alds, 536 meters.437 Clearly long distances could be achieved. However, the most effective ranges were less than three hundred meters. At those distances the ability of the arrow actually kill was low. The main purpose of the arrow showers was to create disorder, confusion, and fear.

The most deadly and concentrated arrow showers were less than 100 meters in distance.438

What the penetration ability of composite bow was is somewhat vague. It was believed to be very effective at penetrating armour and deadly. There are plenty of television documentaries and YouTube videos that compare the composite recurve bow to the English longbow. The comparisons claim it was equal to or more powerful than the longbow.439

436 When an arrow is loosed from the bow it will flex (bend) back and forth for a short distance in flight, and then it will straighten out. This oscillation is commonly referred to as the archer’s paradox. 437 Chan, Hok-lam. ""The Distance of a Bowshot": Some Remarks on Measurement in the Altaic World." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, no. 25 (1995), 29-46.; Lhagvasuren, Gongor, Dr. “What is the Script on the Chinggis Khan's Stele About?” atarn.org. http://www.atarn.org/mongolian/mongol_1.htm. 438 May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2007, p.51. 439 Zartarian, Vahe. “Asian Traditional Archery Manual.” www.co-creation.net, July 2017. https://www.co- creation.net/labo/archerie_doc/asian_archery_manual.pdf., p.19-20.; for one of the better Youtube videos regarding English longbow testing see: ARROWS vs ARMOUR - Medieval Myth Busting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxdTkddHaE&t=238s

Contemporary accounts describe the Turkish and Mongolian arrow storms were deadly, implying the bow had the ability to penetrate armour. Regardless of the claims, it can be stated it was effective, otherwise, it would not have been used. However, additional objective tests need to be conducted.

Without the bow and the horse, the nomads could never have threatened or imposed their will upon their neighbors. By and far the most common form of warfare conducted by the

Steppe peoples was the raid. It had many advantages and offered minimal risks. It was effective because its objective was to disrupt the enemy’s infrastructure, destroy crops and villages, steal livestock, capture people for slavery, and decimate the country side creating havoc. Raiding was a form of appeasement warfare that strengthened one’s position. It was meant to force the sedentary people to pay a tribute to the nomads to stop the forays. To minimize risk the nomads avoided battles and simply fled when challenged. It is clear that although these groups provided formidable warriors, they lacked an apparatus for empire. Furthermore, they lacked the means to conduct siege warfare; thus, most of their military activities were raids on rival tribes and sedentary dwellers in Central Asia, China, and the Rus’ principalities.

Appendix B Equestrian Games of Central Asia

A popular game in Central Asia was buzkashi, giyangen, ulak tartish or kokpar.

Buzkushi, a Persian term, translates to “ pulling.” The history of the sport is steeped in oral tradition and difficult to follow.440 It is believed to have been played for several centuries, perhaps even longer. Today it is still played in Afghanistan as the national sport. A buzkashi rider was called a chapandaz. The players have to grab a headless goat from the ground while riding a horse at full gallop and in a crowd of other riders, get it clear of the other players and pitch it across a goal line.

The game was played in a large open area and the number of players was not limited.

The numbers ranged from a few players to several dozen per team. When it was a free for all with no teams there could be up to a hundred riders. The rules were simple, grab the carcass,

440 Levine, Emma. A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat: In Search of the Ancient Sports of Asia. Andre Deutsch, 2003, p.204-205.; see also Azoy, G. W. Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan. Long Grove: Waveland Press, 2003.; The Hezarajaf, mentioned on pages 14-15, are known to be excellent Buzkashi players supporting the origin of the game came from the Altai Region.

break free of the maelstrom, run to a designated place and drop it without falling off the horse.

There were no rules to restrict the actions of the riders whose goal was to take the carcass for himself. The game could last for hours and was quite rough with men using their whips or fists on each other all the while trying to gain possession of the goat. Injuries did occur. In more recent times the number of players has been limited to ten per side and the field is much smaller

– approximately 100 meters long. The headless carcass is placed in a circle on one end of the field. The riders reach down to pick up the carcass, ride to the other end of the field where a flag is placed on a pole, circle the pole, then try to return to the circle where the calf is dropped for two points. If the calf is dropped by the holder the tussle begins all over again. When a rider grabs the carcass, his teammates try to lead his horse out of the fray toward the end of the field all the while his opponents try to take it from him. The horses used for buzkashi were especially trained and highly prized. Buzkashi wasn’t the only team equestrian sport.

An ancient game of debated origin was invented in Central Asia during the Axial Age and spread along the Silk Road east and west. Now referred to as polo, was called chogân in

Persian, pulu (meaning ball) in Tibetan, tzykanion in Byzantium, jiju in China, and in Arabic tabtab, a variation of the game. No one knows exactly who invented the game. The consensus seems to point to the Persians, yet some disagree and claim it was in Tibet the game originated.

Polo may have had more than one point of origin. The nomads enjoyed playing chase games441 such as kyz kuumai, where the groom chases his new bride to mark his worthiness for her and more significantly to steal a kiss. If he didn’t catch her, he turned away and fled while she pursued using a whip to beat him. As a chase game, in the case of polo, chasing a ball, the game

441 Juvaini, Ata-Malik. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Translated by John A. Boyle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997, p.27. Juvaini states when the Mongols “are not engaged in warfare they are eager for the chase”.

may have been introduced to other peoples along the Silk Routes by the nomads of the Eurasian

Steppe. Regardless of where it started, the game remains famous all across the world.

The sport is played by two teams whose objective was to hit a ball, each rider using a wooden mallet on a long handle, or a broad piece of board (the tabtab), across the opposing teams goal line. The number of players per team was normally less than a dozen. The numbers were increased if played on a larger open field. The game was normally played on a field with boundaries. In Byzantium special hippodromes called tzykanisterion were built specifically for the game. It was so popular emperors spent a great deal of time playing the game. Emperor

Alexander, r. 912 – 913 CE, died of exhaustion while playing the game. In the Arab regions arenas called maydān were constructed just outside a city to play equestrian games. In China, men and women played the game during the Tang Dynasty. In the Persian regions women also played, sometimes defeating men. Of all of the equestrian games played across the Silk Road, polo was played with the utmost passion and enthusiasm from Byzantium to China. No other sport received as much attention in the historical written record and artistic traditions. While polo was popular as a sport, it was important for military equestrian exercises. Its demand combined speed, skill, stamina, and boldness; all of which were needed on the field of battle.

Not all equestrian games were team oriented. Some focused on individual feats.

One such popular game, called qabāq, involved the use of the bow and arrows. A qabāq, the Persian and Arabic term for gourd, kàbak in Turkish, was placed onto a vertical pole at the height of approximately five to seven meters, or in some cases a stuffed bag hung from a tree. A rider rode swiftly towards the pole shooting arrows at it as he approached and as he rode away from it practicing the Parthian shot. The most detailed sources for this game come from the

Arabic Mamlūk treatises written in the 13th and 14th centuries.442 In Egypt and Syria, the game of qabāq was extremely popular with the Mamlūks, who were primarily Qipchaqs. According to the literature the game was played in the maydān used for polo. The game had its dangers; in one case a mamluk was shooting at the qabāq whilst riding at a full gallop. The horse collided with the pole killing itself and the rider.

A similar game to qabāq was mogu, believed to have originated in the .443 A lead rider, called a mogu puller, pulled an animal carcass or a stuffed hide, which was attached to a long rope, at a full gallop while several horse archers ran alongside attempting to shoot it without hitting their fellow riders or the one pulling the bag. To avoid unintended injuries, arrows were tipped with nonlethal heads. Since the riders rode on either side of the moving target they had to be skilled in shooting from the left and right side as well as forward of the horse and to the rear (Parthian shot).

Not all games required the use of the bow. The Turkish peoples enjoyed a game that used a small spear called naizeh. The naizeh was just over a meter long with blunted tips to avoid injury. The sport was called jareed (meaning confrontation), played between two teams ranging in numbers from six to twenty. The objective of the game was to throw the blunted at a rider on the opposite team. The game was played when a rider rode against the opposing team and challenged one of their riders by throwing the naizeh at him. Then the fled back to his team. If the challenged rider was not hit by the blunted javelin, he pursued the challenger attempting to hit him with a naizeh. To score, the thrower must hit the

442 Guo, Li. Sports as Performance: The Qabaq-game and Celebratory Rites in Mamluk Cairo. : EBVerlang, 2013, p.5-8. 443 Dennis, George T. Three Byzantine Military Treatises. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2008, p.131. Shooting at a ball being pulled has been noted in Byzantine treatises. “Artificial targets could be, for example, balls or some other objects pulled by cords some distance away.” It is unclear if this was for purely military training or a game for mounted archers in the Byzantine army.

rider. Hitting the horse was a sign of poor skills and lack of experience. The rule of not hitting the horse reflects the connection between the Turks and the Persian poetic writer, Ferdowsi who wrote the Shahnameh, the Epic of Kings. In the Shahnameh there is a tale between two legendary heroes fighting against each other. They are Rostam of Skythian ancestry and

Isfandiyar an Iranian (Persian) who was blessed by Zoroaster. Because of his blessing Isfandiyar could not be pierced by an arrow. The battle between the two is one of the longest tales in the

Shahnameh. An angel appears to Rostam and gives him an arrow stating he cannot under any circumstance hit the horse with the arrow. He must shoot Isfandiyar in the eye in order to defeat him, reflecting the ability of how accurate one could be when shooting while mounted on horse and more significantly the significance of the horse.444

The game of jareed gave the riders opportunities to display their horsemanship.445 To avoid being hit, a rider will hang to the side, clinging to the horse’s or the saddle with one foot in the stirrup to support his weight, to hide himself behind his horse’s flank. If he escaped he got back into the saddle and chased after his opponent attempting to hit the rival with the naizeh. If a rider didn’t have one in his possession, he retrieved one thrown at him, without dismounting, and pursued his adversary. Chasing and fleeing from one’s opponent required exceptional equestrian skills and taught the riders how to maneuver with their horses. The game reflects traditional Turkish tactics of hit-and-run. Horse archers were infamous for their tactic of rushing towards the opposing force, whilst shooting their bows, and then turning away, fleeing away from their opponent as if they had given up battle enticing their enemy to pursue them.

-Arabic for hit-and ,( َﻛﺮ و ﻓَﺮ) Jareed was an excellent game to allow riders to practice kar wa far

444 Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. London: Penguin Group, 2016, p.371-422. 445 Kia, Mehrdad. Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 251-252.; Levine, Emma. A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat: In Search of the Ancient Sports of Asia. Andre Deutsch, 2003, p.137-140.

run. It also had its risks of injury or death. In modern day Turkey, several jareed players are killed each year when playing the game. Like all of the other games played on horseback, it functioned in training and entertainment.

The utilization of equestrian games lasted for many centuries. They were played throughout the Eurasian continent. In Europe the torneamentum, the medieval tournament, is by far the most known equestrian game of the Eurasian continent in the West. For several hundred years, starting in the 9th century CE, the torneamentum was a mêlée between groups of knights.

The joust, a one on one duel between two knights, was another game in medieval Europe and the

Crusader states in the Levant. Although the tournament was played in the Levant by the Franks

(Crusaders), it never gained popularity beyond their borders.446

References Cited

Abu 'la Hamzah Ibn Al-Qalanisi, and H. A. Gibb. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi. North Chelmsford: Courier Corporation, 1932.

Ahrens, Birta, H. Piezonka, and G. Nomguunsuren. "Buried with his bow and arrows: The exceptional cave burial of a 14th century warrior at Tsagaan Khad mountain, Mongolia. In: Ancient cultures of the northern area of China, Mongolia and baikalian Siberia; Part Three: Historical Period." https://www.academia.edu/17150484/Buried_with_his_bow_and_arrows_The_exceptional_cave _burial_of_a_14th_century_warrior_at_Tsagaan_Khad_mountain_Mongolia._In_Ancient_cultu res_of_the_northern_area_of_China_Mongolia_and_baikalian_Siberia_Part_Three_Historical_ Period_Bejing_2015_683-692, 2015, 683-692.

Al-Anṣārī, ʻUmar I. A Muslim Manual of War: Being Tafrij Al-karūb Fī Tadbīr Al-hurub. Translated by George T. Scanlon. Cairo: AUC Press, 1961.

Al-Athīr, ʻIzz A. The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athīr for the Crusading Period from Al-Kāmil Fīʼl- taʼrīkh. Pt. 1. The years 491-541/1097-1146: the coming of the Franks and the Muslim Response. Translated by D. S. Richards. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006.

446 See David Couch for further information regarding the tournament - Crouch, David. Tournament: The Medieval Sport of Battle. Hambledon & London, 2005.

Al-Athīr, ʻIzz A. The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period from Al-Kamil Fi'l- Ta'rikh: Pt. 2. The Years 541-589/1146-1193: the Age of Nur Al-Din and Saladin. Translated by D. S. Richards. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010.

Al-Athīr, ‘Izz A. The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period from Al-Kamil Fi'l- Ta'rikh: Part 3, The years 589-629/1193-1231 the Ayyūbids after Saladin and the Mongol menace. Translated by D. S. Richards. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010.

Al-Qalanisi. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi. Translated by H.A.R Gibb. North Chelmsford: Courier Corporation, 2012.

Al-Sarraf, Shihab. "Mamluk Furūsīyah Literature and Its Antecedents." Mamluk Studies Review 8, no. 1 (2004), 141-200.

Allsen, Thomas. Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi VI 1986. edited by Peter Goldon, Tibor Halasi- Kun, A. P. Martinez, Th. S. Noonan, and U. Schamiloglu. Harrassowitz Verlag: Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi VI 1986, 2014.

Allsen, Thomas T. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Allsen, Thomas T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Allsen, Thomas T., "Prelude to the western campaigns: Mongol military operations in the Volga- Ural region, 1217- 1237", Architum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, 3 (1983), 5-24.

Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

Alofs, Eduard. "Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia II: The Iranian Tradition – The Armoured Horse Archer in the Middle East, c. 550–1350." War in History 22, no. 1 (2014), 4-27.

Alvarez, Sandra. " The Art of War under Chinggis Qahan (Genghis Khan)." Medievalists.net. Posted June 2014. Accessed 20 August 20, 2019. http://deremilitari.org/2014/06/the-art-of-war- under-chinggis-qahan-genghis-khan/.

Amitai, Reuven. "Did the Mongols in the Middle East Remain Pastoral Nomads?" https://www.academia.edu. Last modified August 15, 2019. https://www.academia.edu/21768134/Did_the_Mongols_in_the_Middle_East_Remain_Pastoral_ Nomads.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. "Evidence for the Early Use of the Title īlkhān among the Mongols." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1, no. 3 (1991), 353-361.

Amitai, Reuven. Holy War and Rapprochement: Studies in the Relations Between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Mongol Ilkhanate (1260-1335). Brepols Pub, 2013.

Amitai, Reuven. "Mamluks of Mongol Origin and Their Role in Early Mamluk Political Life." Mamluk Studies Review, XII, no. 1 (2008).

Amitai, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281. 1995.

Amitai, Reuven. "Mongol raids into (A.D. 1260 and 1300)." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 119, no. 2 (1987), 236-255.

Amitai, Reuven, and Michal Biran. Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change: The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors. 2014.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. "Sufis and Shamans: Some Remarks on the Islamization of the Mongols in the Ilkhanate." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42, no. 1 (1999), 27- 46.

Amitai, Reuven, and David O. Morgan. The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy. Leiden: BRILL, 2000.

Anne-Camille Souris, Petra Kaczensky, Romain Julliard, and Christian Walzer, “Time Budget-, behavioral synchrony- and body score development of a newly released Przewalski’s horse group Equus ferus Przewalskii, in the Great Gobi, Allied Animal Behavior Science 107 (2007), 307-321.

Anonymous. Gesta Francorum Et Aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. Translated by Rosalind Hill. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Anthony, David W., and Dorcas R. Brown. "The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare." Journal of World Prehistory 24, no. 2-3 (2011), 131-160.

Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and Arrow and the Description Thereof. Translated by Robert P. Elmer and Nabi A Faris. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010.

Argent, Gala. "At Home, with the Good Horses: Relationality, Roles, Identity and Ideology in Iron Age Inner Asia." PhD diss., University of Leicester, 2010.

Argent, Gala. "Killing (constructed) horses – Interspecies elders, empathy and emotion, and the Pazyryk horse sacrifices." In People with Animals: Perspectives and Studies in Ethnozooarchaeology, edited by Lee Broderick. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016, 20-32.

Argent, Gala. "Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal Communication, Corporeal Synchrony, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses." In Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters, edited by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell, 111-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

Atwood, Christopher P. "Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty: Religious Toleration as Political Theology in the Mongol World Empire of the Thirteenth Century." The International History Review 26, no. 2 (2004), 237-256.

Ayalon, David. "Aspects of the Mamlūk Phenomenon Pt. 1." Der Islam 53, no. 2 (1976), 196- 225.

Ayalon, David. "Aspects of the Mamlūk Phenomenon Pt. 2." Der Islam 54, no. 1 (January 1977), 1-32.

Ayalon, David. "The Auxiliary Forces of the Mamluk Sultanate." Der Islam 65, no. 1 (1988).

Azoy, G. W. Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan. Long Grove: Waveland Press, 2003.

Bacon, Elizabeth E. "The Inquiry into the History of the Hazara Mongols of Afghanistan." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 7, no. 3 (1951), 230-247.

Baidaralin, Daniyar. Sadaqshiliq: the Art of Making and Shooting the Kazakh Horsebow. Independently published, 2016.

Baillif-Ducros, Christéle, and George McGlynn. "Stirrups and archaeological populations: Bio- anthropological considerations for determining their use based on the skeletons of two Steppe riders." Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie 19, no. 2 (2013), 43–44.

Ballerini, M., N. Cabibbo, R. Candelier, A. Cavagna, E. Cisbani, I. Giardina, V. Lecomte, et al. "Interaction ruling animal collective behavior depends on topological rather than metric distance: Evidence from a field study." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105, no. 4 (2008), 1232-1237.

Barfield, Thomas, et al. "Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross- Disciplinary Perspectives." Lecture, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, March 7, 2008.

Barfield, Thomas J. "The Hsiung-nu Imperial Confederacy: Organization and Foreign Policy." The Journal of Asian Studies 41, no. 1 (1981), 45-61.

Barfield, Thomas. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1992.

Barisitz, Stephan. "From the Beginnings to the Emergence of the Silk Road (SR)." Central Asia and the Silk Road, 2017, 13-48.

Barnard, Hans, and Willeke Wendrich. The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and Nomadism. ISD LLC, 2008.

Barthold, Vasilii V. Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Brill Archive, 1962.

Bartold, Vasilii V. Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1977.

Baumann, Brian. "By the Power of Eternal Heaven: The Meaning of Tenggeri to the Government of the Pre-Buddhist Mongols." Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident, no. 35 (2013), 233-284.

Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012.

Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Silk Roads. London: I.B.Tauris, 2014.

Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of Islam and the Mongols. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Belliveau, Denis, and Francis O'Donnell. In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A Companion to the Public Television Film. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.

Bennet, Matthew. "Some More Thoughts on Turcopoles." Slingshot 117 (January 1985), 27-29.

Berger, Joel. "Organizational systems and dominance in feral horses in the Grand Canyon." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 2, no. 2 (1977), 131-146. Bessac, Frank. "Review of Mongolian Archæology." Asian Perspectives 8, no. 1 (1964): 141-47.

Biran, Michal. The Empire of the in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Biran, Michal. "The Mongol Transformation: From the Steppe to Eurasian Empire." Medieval Encounters 10, no. 1-3 (2004), 339-361.

Bivar, A. D. "Cavalry Equipment and Tactics on the Euphrates Frontier." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 26 (1972), 271-291.

Blair, Shiela S. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid Al-Din's Illustrated History of The World. Khalili Collections, 2005.

Blake, Robert P., and Richard N. Frye. "History of the Nation of the Archers (The Mongols) by Grigor of Akanc Hitherto Ascribed to Malak'ia The Monk: The Armenian Text Edited with an English Translation and Notes." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12, no. 3/4 (1949), 269-399.

Blua, Antoine. "Environmentalists Battle Against Deforestation." RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Last modified August 29, 2006. https://www.rferl.org/a/1070904.html.

Boddice, Rob. Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments. Leiden: BRILL, 2011.

Boit, Bernard A. "The Fruits of Adversity: Technical Refinements of the Turkish Composite Bow During the Crusading Era." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 1991.

Boswell, A. Bruce. "The Kipchak Turks." The Slavonic Review 6, no. 16 (June 1927), 68-85.

Bowlus, Charles R. The Battle of Lechfeld and its Aftermath, August 955: The End of the Age of Migrations in the Latin West. London: Routledge, 2016.

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Psychology Press, 2001.

Boyd, Brian. "Archaeology and Human–Animal Relations: Thinking Through Anthropocentrism." Annual Review of Anthropology 46, no. 1 (2017), 299-316.

Boyd, James W. "Is Dualistic Or Monotheistic?" Journal of the American Academy of Religion XLVII, no. 4 (1979), 557-588.

Boyle, John Andrew. "A Form of Amongst the 13th and 14th Century Mongols." Central Asiatic Journal 10, no. 3/4 (1965), 145-50.

Boyle, John A. "The Thirteenth-Century Mongols' Conception of the After Life: The Evidence of Their Funerary Practices" Mongolian Studies 1 (1974), 5-14.

Bregel, Yuri. An Historical Atlas of Central Asia (Handbook of Oriental Studies - Part 8: Uralic & Central Asian Studies, 9). Brill, 2003.

Brett, Michael. "The way of the nomad." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58, no. 2 (1995), 251-269.

Brown, Christopher L., and Philip D. Morgan. "Military Slavery in the Islamic World: 1000 Years of a Social-Military Institution." In Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age, 40-52. Yale University Press, 2006. Lecture given by Reuven Amitai.

Brownstein, Eric X. "The Path of the Arrow: The Evolution of Mongolian National Archery." World Learning / SIT Study Abroad Mongolia, Spring 2008, 1-35.

Buell, Paul, D., Timothy May, David Ramey. “The Horse and the Silk Road: Movement and Ideas” Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/218892/The_Horse_and_the_Silk_Road_Movement_and_Ideas (17 August 2019).

Carpini, Giovanni di Plano. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Translated by Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing Company, 1996.

Cell Press. "A genomic tour-de-force reveals the last 5,000 years of horse history." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190502111040.htm (accessed February 13, 2020).

Chambers, James. The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe. Phoenix, 2001.

Chan, Hok-lam. ""The Distance of a Bowshot": Some Remarks on Measurement in the Altaic World." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, no. 25 (1995), 29-46.

Chapoutot-Remadi, Mounira. "Turkomans in Syria and Circassian Power." Mediterranean world 20 (2010), 47-55.

Christian, David. "Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History." Journal of World History 11, no. 1 (2000), 1-26.

Cleaves, Francis W. The Secret History of the Mongols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Clutton-Brock, Juliet. Horse Power: A History of the Horse and the Donkey in Human Societies. 1992.

Comnena, Anna. The Alexiad. Translated by E.R.A. Sewter. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

Conradt, L. D., and T.J Roper. "Democracy in animals: the evolution of shared group decisions." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274, no. 1623 (2007), 2317-2326.

Cosmo, Nicola Di. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Cosmo, Nicola Di. "Ancient Inner Asian Nomads: Their Economic Basis and Its Significance in Chinese History." The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 4 (1994), 1092-1126.

Cosmo, Nicola Di. Warfare in Inner Asian History (500-1800). Leiden: BRILL, 2001.

Couzin, Iain D., and Jens Krause. "Self-Organization and Collective Behavior in Vertebrates." Advances in the Study of Behavior, 2003, 1-75.

Creel, H. G. "The Role of the Horse in Chinese History." The American Historical Review 70, no. 3 (1965), 647-672.

Crouch, David. Tournament. London: A&C Black, 2007.

Cunliffe, Barry. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.

Cunliffe, Barry. The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2019.

Czegledy, K. "From East to West: The Age of Nomadic Migrations in Eurasia." In Archivum Eruasiae Medii Aevi, translated by P. B. Golden, 25-126. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.

Dani, Ahmad H., Vadim M. Masson, and Unesco. History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. : UNESCO, 2003.

Dashper, Katherine. "Moving beyond anthropocentrism in leisure research: multispecies perspectives." Annals of Leisure Research 22, no. 2 (2018), 133-139.

Davis, Beverly. "Timeline of the Development of the Horse." SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS 177 (August 2007), 1-208.

Davis, Ralph H. The Medieval Warhorse: Origin, Development and Redevelopment. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989.

Dawson, Christopher, and Medieval A. America. Mission to Asia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Dallongeville, Sophie, Mark Richter, Stephan Schäfer, Michael Kühlenthal, Nicolas Garnier, Christian Rolando, and Caroline Tokarski. "Proteomics applied to the authentication of fish glue: application to a 17th century artwork sample." The Analyst 138, no. 18 (2013), 5357-5364.

Daniel, Waugh C. "Richthofen's "Silk Roads": Toward the Archaeology of a Concept." The Silk Road 5, no. 1 (Summer 2007), 1-10.

Dennis, George T. Three Byzantine Military Treatises. Dumbarton Oaks, 2008.

Dibon-Smith, Richard. "The Stirrup as a Revolutionary Device" https://www.medievalists.net. Last modified August 19, 2019. http://www.medievalists.net/2012/03/the-stirrup-as-a- revolutionary-device/.

Dien, Albert E. "The Stirrup and Its Effect on Chinese Military History." Ars Orientalis 16 (1986), 33-56.

Diyarbekirli, Nejat. "Tomb Structure and Burial Customs Among the Turkish Peoples on the Silk Road | SILK ROADS." UNESCO | Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women. Accessed January 6, 2020.

Doniger, Wendy. The Rig Veda. London: Penguin UK, 2005.

Downs, James F. "The Origin and Spread of Riding in the near East and Central Asia." American Anthropologist 63, no. 6 (1961), 1193-1203.

Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London: Routledge, 2004.

Drompp, Michael R. "Imperial State Formation in Inner Asia: The Early Turkic Empires (6th to 9th Centuries)." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 58, no. 1 (2005), 101-111.

Eastoe, J. E. "The amino acid composition of fish collagen and gelatin." Biochemical Journal 65, no. 2 (1957), 363-368.

Edourie, Sylvia K. "Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1849-1902), In Relation to the Trend on Muslim-Arab Political Thought." PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1953.

Edwards, Mike. "Genghis Khan." National Geographic 190, no. 6 (December 1996), 2-37.

Edwards, Sean J. "Historical Cases." In Swarming on the Battlefield: Past, Present, and Future, 13-45. Santa Monica: RAND, 2000.

Elgood, Robert. Islamic arms and armour. Scolar Pr, 1979.

Elverskog, Johan. and Islam on the Silk Road. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

Evans, Patricia. "Equine Vision and Its Effect on Behavior." All Curr Publ Paper, 2010, 138. Fehrenbach, T. F. , the history of a people. London: Vintage Books, 2007.

Faḍlallāh, Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb. Jami'u't-tawarikh: A History of the Mongols, three Volumes. Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston. Harvard University, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998.

Faḍlallāh, Rashīd-al-Dīn Ṭabīb, and John A. Boyle. The Successors of Genghis Khan; Transl. from the Persian of Rashīd Al-Dīn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.

Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. London: Penguin, 2016.

Fijn, Natasha. "The domestic and the wild in the Mongolian horse and the takhi." Taxonomic Tapestries: The Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research, 2015, 279- 299.

Fitzhugh, William W., Morris Rossabi, and William Honeychurch. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Odyssey Publications, 2013.

Foltz, Richard. Religions of the Silk Road: Premodern Patterns of Globalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Formozov, A. N. "Adaptive Modifications of Behavior in of The Eurasian Steppes." Journal of Mammalogy 47, no. 2 (1966), 208-223.

Forrest, Susanna. The Age of the Horse: An Equine Journey through Human History. London: Atlantic Books, 2016.

France, John. Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Franke, Herbert. "Sino-Western Contacts Under the Mongol Empire." Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 6 (1966), 49-72.

Fuchs, Jeff. "The Tea Horse Road." The Silk Road 6, no. 1 (2008), 63-71. Frye, Richard N. The Heritage of Central Asia from Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion. Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996.

Gabriel, Richard A. Subotai the Valiant: Genghis Khan's Greatest General. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Gervers, Michael, Wayne Schlepp, and John M. Smith, Jr. "The Nomads' Armament: Home- Made Weaponry." In Religion, customary law, and nomadic technology: papers presented at the Central and Inner Asian Seminar, University of Toronto, January 2001.

Giese, M., H. Brueck, Y. Z. Gao, S. Lin, M. Steffens, I. Kögel-Knabner, T. Glindemann, et al. "N balance and cycling of Inner Mongolia typical steppe: a comprehensive case study of grazing effects." Ecological Monographs 83, no. 2 (2013), 195-219.

Gillingham, John. Richard I. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Giordano, Robert. “The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe.” PoeStories.com. Accessed January 11, 2020. https://poestories.com/read/purloined.

Golden, Peter B. "Religion among the Qipčaqs of Medieval Eurasia." Central Asiatic Journal 42, no. 2 (1998), 180-237.

Golden, Peter B. Nomads and Their Neighbours in the Russian Steppe: Turks, Khazars and Qipchaqs. Variorum, 2003.

Golden, Peter B. Turks and Khazars: Origins, Institutions, and Interactions in Pre-Mongol Eurasia. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.

Goodrich, Chauncey S. "Riding Astride and the Saddle in Ancient China." 44, no. 2 (1984), 279- 306.

Gommans, Jos. "Warhorse and post- in Asia, c. 1000–1800." Journal of Global History 2, no. 1 (2007), 1-21.

Graff, David A. The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium. London: Routledge, 2016.

Graff, David. Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900. London: Routledge, 2003.

Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Chicago: Rutgers University Press, 1970.

Guo, Li. Sports as Performance: The Qabaq-game and Celebratory Rites in Mamluk Cairo. Berlin: EBVerlang, 2013.

Haber, Marc, Claude Doumet-Serhal, Christiana L. Scheib, Yali Xue, Richard Mikulski, Rui Martiniano, Bettina Fischer-Genz, Holger Schutkowski, Toomas Kivisild, and Chris Tyler- Smith. "A Transient Pulse of Genetic Admixture from the Crusaders in the Near East Identified from Ancient Genome Sequences." The American Journal of Human Genetics 104, no. 5 (2019), 977-984.

Hadith - The Book of Horses, Races and Shooting - Sunan an-Nasa'i - Sunnah.com - Sayings and .Accessed January 11, 2020 .( ﻠﺻ ﻰ ﷲ ﻋ ﻠ ﯿ ﮫ و ﺳ ﻠ ﻢ ) Teachings of Prophet Muhammad https://sunnah.com/nasai/28/1.

Hakluyt, Richard. The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis: As Printed for the First Time by Hakluyt in 1598, Together with Some Shorter Pieces. London: Kukluyt Society, 1903.

Hall, Andrew, and Jack Farrell. "Bows and Arrows from , China." The Society of Archer- Antiquaries, no. 51 (2008), 89-98.

Hamblin, William. "Turcopoles II." Slingshot 112 (March 1984), 3.

Hampton, Stephanie E., Lyubov R. Izmesteva, Marianne V. Moore, Stephen L. Katz, Brian Dennis, and Eugen A. Silow. "Sixty years of environmental change in the world's largest freshwater lake - Lake Baikal, Siberia." Global Change Biology 14, no. 8 (2008), 1947-1958.

Han, Junhi. "Background to UNESCO Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains Project and Perspectives for Transboundary Protection through the World Heritage Convention." World Heritage Centre, Culture, UNESCO (n.d.).

Hanks, Bryan. "Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes and Mongolia." Annual Review of Anthropology 39, no. 1 (2010), 469-486.

Halperin, Charles J. Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. Bloomington: University Press, 1987.

Halperin, Charles J. The Tatar Yoke: The Image of the Mongols in Medieval Russia. Slavica Pub, 2009.

Hamblin, William. "Turcopoles II." Slingshot 112 (March 1984), 3.

Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Harari, Yuval. "The military role of the Frankish Turcopoles: A reassessment." Mediterranean Historical Review 12, no. 1 (1997), 75-116.

Hartmann, E., J. W. Christensen, and L. J. Keeling. "Training young horses to social separation: Effect of a companion horse on training efficiency." Equine Veterinary Journal 43, no. 5 (2011), 580-584.

Hartmann, Elke, Janne W. Christensen, and Paul D. McGreevy. "Dominance and Leadership: Useful Concepts in Human–Horse Interactions?" Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 52 (2017), 1-9.

Hartog, Leo D. Genghis Khan: Conqueror of the World. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2004.

Hautala, Roman. "Early Hungarian Information on the Beginning of the Western Campaign of Batu (1235–1242)." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 69, no. 2 (2016), 183- 199.

Hayward, Tim. "Anthropocentrism: A Misunderstood Problem." Environmental Values 6, no. 1 (1997), 49-63.

Halperin, Charles J. "The Kipchak connection: the Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63, no. 2 (2000), 229-245.

Hendricks, Bonnie L. International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.

Heppner, Frank. "Structure of Turning in Rock Dove (Columba livia) Flocks." The Auk 109, no. 2 (1992), 256-267.

Herodotus. The Histories. edited by Donald Lateiner. Translated by G. C. Macaulay. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

Herodotus. The Histories. edited by Paul Cartledge. Translated by Tom Holland. Viking, 2014.

Hildinger, Erik. Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to 1700 A.D. Spellmount, Publishers, 1997.

Hobson, J. M. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004.; Dien, Albert E. "The Stirrup and Its Effect on Chinese Military History." Ars Orientalis 16 (1986).

Holescak, Michal. "Mongol Archery Equipment Through The Prism of the Secret History of the Mongols." Mongolica an International Journal of Mongol Studies 52 (2018), 38-44.

Holt, Frank L. Alexander the Great and Bactria: The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia. New York: Brill Archive, 1988.

Honeychurch, William. "The Nomad as State Builder: Historical Theory and Material Evidence from Mongolia." Journal of World Prehistory 26, no. 4 (2013), 283-321.

Hoppitt, William, and Kevin N. Laland. Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.

Howorth, Henry Hoyle, History of the Mongols: From the 9th to the 19th Century, Cosimo Classics, 2013.

Humphrey, Caroline. Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge and Power Among the Daur Mongols. Oxford: Oxford University Press on Demand, 1996.

Humphreys, R. S. "The Emergence of the Mamluk Army." Studia Islamica, no. 45 (1977), 67- 99.

Humphreys, R. S. "The Emergence of the Mamluk Army (Conclusion)." Studia Islamica, no. 46 (1977), 147-182.

Hurley, Vic. Arrows Against Steel: The History of the Bow and how it Forever Changed Warfare. Cerberus Books, 2011.

Hyland, Ann. The medieval warhorse: from Byzantium to the Crusades. Sutton Pub, 1996.

Ibrahim Keles, “Training of Mamluk Faris,” Academia.edu, accessed 20 September 2019, https://www.academia.edu/14829224/the_training_of_mamluk_faris.

Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. London: Penguin UK, 2012.

Ibn Khaldun, N. J. Dawood, and Bruce Lawrence. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History - Abridged Edition / Edition 1. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton University Press, 2004.

Irwin, Robert. Camel. London: Reaktion Books, 2010.

Islam, Arshad. "The Mongol Invasions of Central Asia." International Journal of Social Science and Humanity 6, no. 4 (2016), 315-319.

Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther. Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai: An Atlas. Esri Press, 2009.

Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther. "Cultural Riddles: Stylized Deer and Deer Stones of the Mongolian Altai." Bulletin of the Asia Institute 15 (2001), 31-56.

Jackson, Peter. "Jalāl al-Dīn, the Mongols, and the Khwarazmian Conquest of the Panjāb and Sind." Iran 28 (1990), 45-54.

Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West, 1221-1410. London: Pearson Education, 2005.

Jagchid, S., and C. R. Bawden. "Some Notes on the Horse-Policy of the Yuan Dynasty." Central Asiatic Journal, 10, no. 3/4 (December 1965), 246-268.

James Yates, “Sagitta,” University of Chicago, updated 29 September 2018 / Accessed 21 September 2019, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Sagitta.html.

Jensen, Kjersti E. "The Mamluk Lancer: A philological study of Nihāyat al-suʾl wa-ʾl-ʾumnīya fī taʿlīm ʾaʿmāl al-furūsīya." Master's thesis, University of Oslo, 2013.

Jones, Janet, Ph.D. "How Horses See the World." EQUUS, no. 462 (February 2016). https://equusmagazine.com/riding/eye-eye-31022.

Jonge, Francien H., Ruud V. Bos, and Machteld Van Dierendonck. "Social contact in horses: implications for human-horse interactions." In The Human-animal Relationship: Forever and a Day, 66-81. Uitgeverij Van Gorcum, 2005.

Jordana, Xavier, Ignasi Galtés, Tsagaan Turbat, D. Batsukh, Carlos García, Albert Isidro, Pierre- Henri Giscard, and Assumpció Malgosa. "The warriors of the steppes: osteological evidence of warfare and violence from Pazyryk tumuli in the Mongolian Altai." Journal of Archaeological Science 36, no. 7 (2009), 1319-1327.

Juping, Yang. "Alexander the Great and the Emergence of the Silk Road." The Silk Road 6, no. 2 (Winter 2009), 15-22.

Juvaini, Ata-Malik, and David Morgan. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Translated by John A. Boyle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.

Juzjani, Minhaj al-Siraj. Tabakat-i-Nasiri - A general history of the Muhammadan dynasties of Asia including Hindustan Two Volumes. Translated by Henry G. Raverty. Low Price Publications, 2010.

Kaegi, Walter E. "The Contribution of Archery to the Turkish Conquest of Anatolia." Speculum 39, no. 1 (1964), 96-108.

Kahn, Paul, and Francis W. Cleaves. The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chinghis Khan (expanded Edition : an Adaptation of the Yüan Chʼao Pi Shih, Based Primarily on the English Translation by Francis Woodman Cleaves. Cheng & Tsui, 1998.

Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600 BC–AD 1300. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004.

Karpowicz, Adam, and Stephen Selby. "Scythian Bow From Xinjiang." Journal of the Soc. of Archer-Antiquaries 53 (2010), 94-102.

“Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo.” Kassai School of Horseback Archery, USA, Todd Delle, Törzsfo. Accessed January 13, 2020. http://horsebackarcheryusa.com/.

Kaszuba, Sophia C. "Wounds In Medieval Mongol Warfare: Their Nature and Treatment in The "Secret History", with some notes on Mongolian Military Medicine and Hygiene." Mongolian Studies 19 (1996), 59-67.

Katariya, Adesh. "Yuezhi-Gurjar Migration from Tarim Besin." https://www.academia.edu/31033333/Yuezhi-Gurjar_Migration_from_Tarim_Besin.pdf (n.d.), 1- 8.

Kedar, Benjamin Z., and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. The Cambridge World History: Volume 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500CE–1500CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. New York: Knopf, 1993.

Kelekna, Pita. The Horse in Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Kemery, Becky. Yurts: Living in the Round. Layton: Gibbs Smith, 2006.

Kennedy, Hugh N. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001.

Kennedy, Hugh N., and John Keegan. Mongols, Huns and Vikings: Nomads at War. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.

Khazanov, Anatoly M. "The Eurasian Steppe Nomads in World Military History." In Nomad Aristocrats in a World of Empires, edited by Jürgen Paul, 187-207. Weisbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2013.

Khorasani, Manouchehr M., and Bede Dwyer. "A Persian archery manual by Mohammad Zamān." Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas 11, no. 1.

Kia, Ardi, Donald Bedunah, Rick Graetz, Alexey Gunya, Spike Hampson, and Mehrdad Kia. Discovering Central Asia: An Introduction to Its History, Culture, Geography and Politics. University of Montana Press, 2012.

Kia, Mehrdad. Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011.

Kierman, Frank A., and John K. Fairbank. Chinese Ways in Warfare. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Kirksey, S. E., and Stefan Helmreich. "The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography." Cultural Anthropology 25, no. 4 (2010), 545-576. Klopsteg, Paul E. Turkish Archery and the Composite Bow: A Review of an Old Chapter in the Chronicles of Archery and a Modern Interpretation. Martino Fine Books, 2016.

Kohl, Philip L. "Taming the Steppe – The Development of Mobile Economies: From Cattle Herders with Wagons to Horseback Riders Tending Mixed Herds; the Continued Eastward Expansion of Large-Scale Metallurgical Production and Exchange." In The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia, 126-181. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Komnene, Anna. The Alexiad. edited by Peter Frankopan. Translated by E. R. Sewter. London: Penguin UK, 2009.

Kopnina, Helen, Haydn Washington, Bron Taylor, and John J Piccolo. "Anthropocentrism: More than Just a Misunderstood Problem." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31, no. 1 (2018), 109-127.

Kostick, C. "Chapter Five. Milites: Knights Or Simply Mounted Warriors?" The Social Structure of the First Crusade, 2008.

Kradin, Nikolay N., and Thomas J. Barfield. Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution. MeaBooks, 2015.

Kwanten, Luc. Imperial Nomads: A History of Central Asia, 500-1500. London: Burns & Oates, 1979.

Lagarde, J., C. Peham, T. Licka, and J. A. Kelso. "Coordination Dynamics of the Horse-Rider System." Journal of Motor Behavior 37, no. 6 (2005), 418-424.

Lane, George. Daily Life in the Mongol Empire. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006.

Lane, George. Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2004.

Lang, Hannah, “Ancient Sport of Horseback Archery Sparks Unexpected Bond,” National Geographic, July 21, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07/iranian-horseback-archery- photography/

Latham, J. D. "Notes on Mamlūk horse-archers." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 32, no. 2 (1969), 257-267.

Latham, John D. Saracen Archery: An English Version and Exposition of a Mameluke Work on Archery (ca. A.D. 1368). 1970.

Latham, J. D. "The Archers of the Middle East: The Turco-Iranian Background." Iran 8 (1970), 97-103.

Legg, Stuart. The Barbarians of Asia: the Peoples of the Steppes from 1600 B.C. Marboro Books, 1990.

Leibs, Andrew. Sports and Games of the . Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Levine, Emma. A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat: In Search of the Ancient Sports of Asia. Andre Deutsch, 2003.

Levine, Marsha A. "Botai and the Origins of Horse Domestication." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18, no. 1 (1999), 29-78.

Librado, Pablo, and Et al. "The Evolutionary Origin and Genetic Makeup of Domestic Horses." Genetics 204, no. 2 (October 2016), 423-434.

Lindner, Rudi P. "Nomadism, Horses and Huns." Warfare in the Dark Ages, 2017, 49-65.

Lindner, Rudi P. "What Was a Nomadic Tribe?" Comparative Studies in Society and History 24, no. 4 (1982), 689-711.

Lipschitz, Oded, and Oeming. "‘We All Returned as One!’:Critical Notes on the Myth of the Mass Return Bob Becking." In Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period, 3-18. Eisenbrauns, 2006.

Lister, R. P. Genghis Khan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Little, John. Bruce Lee: Artist of Life. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1999.

Liu, Xinru. The Silk Road in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Lizhu, Fan. "The Cult of the Silkworm Mother as a Core of Local Community Religion in a North China Village: Field Study in Zhiwuying, Boading, Hebei." The China Quarterly 174 (2003), 359-372.

Loades, Mike. War Bows: Longbow, crossbow, composite bow and Japanese yumi. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

Lobell, Jarrett A., and Eric A. Powell. "The Story of the Horse." Archaeology 68, no. 4 (July/August 2015), 28-33.

Lorge, Peter. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795. London: Routledge, 2006.

Lorge, Peter. Warfare in China to 1600. London: Routledge, 2017.

Lorge, Peter. "Wu in an Age of Wen Martial Culture in Song China." unplublished (n.d.), unpaginated.

Lovrovich, Paola, Claudio Sighieri, and Paolo Baragli. "Following human-given cues or not? Horses (Equus caballus) get smarter and change strategy in a delayed three choice task." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 166 (2015), 80-88.

Mackerras, Colin. The Uighur Empire According to the Tʻang Dynastic Histories: A Study in Sino-Uighur Relations 744-840. Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences, 1972.

Man, John. Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection. London: Macmillan, 2013.

Man, John. The Mongol Empire: Genghis Khan, his heirs and the founding of modern China. New York: Random House, 2014.

Man, John. . New York: Random House, 2012.

Marcellinus, Ammianus. Delphi Complete Works of Ammianus Marcellinus (Illustrated). Delphi Classics, 2016.

Martin, H. D. "The Mongol Army." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 75, no. 1-2 (1943), 46- 85.

Marshall, Christopher. Warfare in the Latin East, 1192-1291. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Masako, Mori. "Restoring the "Epic of Hou Yi"." Asian Folklore Studies 54, no. 2 (1995), 239- 257.

Maurice. Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

May, Timothy. "Genghis Khans Secrets of Success." Military History 24, no. 5 (August 2007), 42-49.

May, Timothy. "Mamluks." The Encyclopedia of War 3 (November 2011), 1299-1303.

May, Timothy. "Nomadic Warfare before ." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, March 2018, 1-22.

May, Timothy. The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System. Westholme Publishing, 2007. New York: Random House, 2012.

May, Timothy. "The Mongol Art of War and the Tsunami Strategy." Golden Horde Civlization 8 (2015), 31-37. May, Timothy. The Mongol Conquests in World History. London: Reaktion Books, 2012.

May, Timothy. The Mongol Empire. Edinburgh History of the Islam, 2018.

May, Timothy. The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016.

May, Timothy. "The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre-Modern Period." The Journal of Military History 70, no. 3 (2006), 617-635.

McEwen, Edward, Robert L. Miller, and Christopher A. Bergman. "Early Bow Design and Construction." Scientific American 264, no. 6 (1991), 76-82.

McKillop, Beth. "Islamic Frontiers of China: Peoples of the Silk Road and Tea Horse Road: China's Ancient Trade Road to Tibet." Asian Affairs 43, no. 2 (2012), 349-352.

McLeod, W. "The Range of the Ancient Bow: Addenda." Phoenix 26, no. 1 (1972), 1-14.

McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. 2015.

McNab, Keelin. "Anthropocentrism: Are Humans the Centre of Existence?" Peace Research 34, no. 1 (May 2002), 113-116.

Mehmet Akif Okur, "Classical Texts Of the Geopolitics and the “Heart Of Eurasia", Journal of Turkish World Studies, XIV/2.

Micklin, Philip. "The Aral Sea Disaster." Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 35 (2007), 47-72.

Miller, R., E. McEwen, and C. Bergman. "Experimental approaches to ancient near eastern archery." World Archaeology 18, no. 2 (1986), 178-195.

Mitchell, Russ. "Archery versus Mail: Experimental Archaeology and the Value of Historical Context." Journal of Medieval Military History (2006), 18-28.

Mode, Markus, and Jürgen Tubach. Arms and Armour as Indicators of Cultural Transfer: The Steppes and the Ancient World from Hellenistic Times to the Early Middle Ages. Reichert Verlag, 2006.

Morgan, David. "The Decline and Fall of the Mongol Empire." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 19, no. 4 (2009), 427-437.

Morgan, David. The Mongols. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1991. Muesse, Mark W. "The World of Zoroaster, lecture two." Presentation, Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World's Religions, The Great Courses, https://www.thegreatcourses.com/digital-library/course/view/id/1899/format/0/, n.d.

Munqidh, Usāmah I., and Philip K. Hitti. An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh (Kitāb Al-Iʻtibār;Translated from the Original Manuscript by Philip K. Hitti; with a New Foreword by Richard W. Bulliet. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Musset, Lucien. The Bayeux Tapestry. Boydell Press, 2005.

Nabih A., and Robert P. Elmer. Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500 Arab Archery, an Arabic Manuscript of about A.D. 1500: A Book on the Excellence of the Bow and A. Princeton: Kessinger Legacy Reprints, 1945.

Nagy, Máté, Iain D. Couzin, Wolfgang Fiedler, Martin Wikelski, and Andrea Flack. "Synchronization, coordination and collective sensing during thermalling flight of freely migrating white storks." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 373, no. 1746 (2018), 20170011.

Nettles, Isolde B. "Mamluk Cavalry Practices: Evolution and Influence." PhD diss., The University of Arizona, 2001.

Nicola, Bruno Di., Charles Melville, and Timothy May. "Mongol Conquest Strategy in the Middle East." In The Mongols' Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran, 13- 38. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Nicola, Bruno Di., Charles Melville, and Reuven Amitai. "Continuity and Change in the Mongol Army of the Ilkhanate." In The Mongols' Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran, 39-54. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Nicolle, David. Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350: Islam, Eastern Europe and Asia. Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal, 1999.

Nicolle, David. Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350: Western Europe and the Crusader States. 1999.

Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume I: Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007.

Nicolle, David. Crusader Warfare Volume II: Muslims, Mongols and the Struggle against the Crusades. Bloomsbury Academic, 2007.

Nicolle, David. "Horse Armour in the Medieval Islamic Middle East." Chroniques yéménites, no. 8 (2017). https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.3293

Nicolle, David. Medieval Warfare Source Book: Christian Europe and Its Neighbor. Arms & Armour, 1996.

Nicolle, David. Medieval Warfare Source Book: Warfare in Western Christendom. Arms & Armour, 1995.

Nieminen, Timo. "The Asian War Bow." 19th Australian Institute of Physics Congress, 2010, Unpaginated.

Nikonorov, Valerii P. The Armies of Bactria 700 BC - 450 AD (volume-2). Stockport: Montvert Publications, 1997.

Noble, Duncan. Dawn of the Horse Warriors: Chariot and Cavalry Warfare, 3000 - 600 BC. 2015.

Nolan, Cathal. The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Northedge, Alastair. "The Race Courses at Sāmarrā’." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53, no. 1 (1990), 31-56.

Norwich, John J. Byzantium: the decline and fall. New York: Alfred a Knopf, 1996.

Novembre, John. "Ancient DNA steps into the language debate." Nature 522, no. 7555 (2015), 164-165.

Oman, Charles. The Art of War in the Middle Ages, A.D. 378-1515. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953.

Outram, A. K., N. A. Stear, R. Bendrey, S. Olsen, A. Kasparov, V. Zaibert, N. Thorpe, and R. P. Evershed. "The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking." Science 323, no. 5919 (2009), 1332- 1335.

Oztopcu, Kurtulus. "A 14th Century Mamluk-Kipchak Military Treatise: Manyatu'l Guzat." PhD diss., University of California, 1986.

Paine, Sheila. Amulets: Sacred Charms of Power and Protection. Inner Traditions, 2004.

Paksoy, H. B. "Two Altaic Games: ‘Chelik-Chomak’ and ‘Jirid Oyunu’." Aspects of Altaic Civilization III 145 (1990).

Parry, Vernon J., and Malcolm Yapp. "The Training of the Mamluk Faris." In War, technology and society in the Middle East, p.153-163. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1975.

Parzinger, Hermann. "Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains." UNESCO (n.d.), 1-79.

Peacock, A.C.S. "Georgia and the Anatolian Turks in the 12th and 13th centuries." Anatolian Studies 56 (2006), 127-146.

Peers, Chris. Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine. Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2015.

Petersen, Jessica L., James R. Mickelson, E. Gus. Cothran, Lisa S. Andersson, et al. "Genetic Diversity in the Modern Horse Illustrated from Genome-Wide SNP Data." PLOS ONE 8, no. 1 (January 2013), e54997.

Petit, Odile, and Richard Bon. "Decision-making processes: The case of collective movements." Behavioural Processes 84, no. 3 (2010), 635-647.

Phillips, Gervase. "Longbow and Hackbutt: Weapons Technology and Technology Transfer in Early Modern England." Technology and Culture 40, no. 3 (1999), 576-593.

Pipes, Daniel. "Mawlas: Freed slaves and converts in early Islam." Slavery & Abolition 1, no. 2 (1980), 132-177.

Pipes, Daniel. Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a Military System. Daniel Pipes, 1981.

Pittard, Dana J., and U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. School of Advanced Military Studies. Thirteenth Century Mongol Warfare: Classical Military Strategy Or Operational Art?: a Monograph. 1994.

Polo, Marco, Sir H. Yule, and Henri Cordier. The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule- Cordier Edition: Including the Unabridged Third Edition (1903) of Henry Yule's Annotated Translation, as Revised by Henri Cordier, Together with Cordier's Later Volume of Notes and Addenda (1920). North Chelmsford: Courier Corporation, 1993.

Porter, Patrick. Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes. Oxford: Oxford University Press (UK), 2013.

Pour, Ali Bahrani. "The Trade in Horses Between Khorasan and India in the 13th – 17th Centuries" The Silk Road 11 (2013), 123–138.

Powell, Debra M., Karen Bennett-Wimbush, Amy Peoples, and Maria Duthie. "Evaluation of Indicators of Weight-Carrying Ability of Light Riding Horses." Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 28, no. 1 (2008), 28-33.

Prawdin, Michael. The Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, 1967.

Pryor, John H. Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of , 30 September to 4 October 2002. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2006.

Rachewiltz, Igor D. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Shorter version Edited by John C. Street. Madison: Books and Monographs, 2004. Rahmati, Mohsen. "The Frontiers and Place-Names of in the Ilkhanid Period Based on Nuzhat al-Qulūb." Review of European Studies 10, no. 2 (2018), 68-81.

Rahmonova-Schwarz, Delia. "Migrations during the Soviet Period and in the Early Years of USSR’s Dissolution: A Focus on Central Asia." Revue européenne des migrations internationales 26, no. 3 (2010), 9-30.

Ralph of Caen, and David S. Bachrach. The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade. Translated by Bernard S. Bachrach. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.

Ranjbar, Roohollah, Fereydoon Allahyari, and Hussein Mir Ja'fari. "A Study on the Effects of Ghazan Khan’s Reformative Measures for the Settlement of the Nomadic Mongols (1295- 1304)." Asian Culture and History 5, no. 2 (2013), 77-86.

Raphael, Kate. Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols. London: Routledge, 2010.

Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1993.

Ravignani, Andrea. "Rhythm and synchrony in animal movement and communication." Current Zoology 65, no. 1 (2018), 77-81.

Rea, Cam. Mongol Warfare: Strategy, Tactics, Logistics, and More!. Scotts Valley: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.

Rees, Lucy. Horses in Company. The Crowood Press, 2017.

Rees, Lucy. The Horse's Mind. Arco, 1985.

Reid, Robert W. "Mongolian Weaponry in "The Secret History of the Mongols"." Mongolian Studies 15 (1992), 85-95.

Reisinger, Michaela R. "New Evidence About Composite Bows and Their Arrows in Inner Asia." The Silk Road, no. 8 (2010), 42-62.

Renatus, Flavius V. Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science. Translated by N. P. Milner. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996.

Reynolds, Craig W. "Flocks, herds and schools: A distributed behavioral model." Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques - SIGGRAPH '87, 1987.

Richard de Templo, The Chronicle of the Third Crusade; The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, trans. Helen J. Nicholson, Aldershot; Ashgate Publishing, 1997.

Richardson, William C. "Culture Warfare: A War Against Culture." U.S. Army War College, 2011, p.1-24. doi:10.21236/ada547314.

Rifá, Héctor. "Social facilitation in the horse (Equus caballus)." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 25, no. 1-2 (1990), 167-176.

Rosenberg, Matt. "Coldest Capital Cities." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/coldest- capital-cities-1435314 (accessed December 12, 2019).

Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Oakland: University of California Press, 1988.

Rossabi, Morris. The Mongols and Global History: A Norton Documents Reader. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Roy, Olivier. The New Central Asia: Geopolitics and the Birth of Nations. New York: NYU Press, 2007.

Rubruck, William. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Mongke 1253-1255. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009.

Rule, Margaret. “The Raising of the Mary Rose.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 129, No. 5298 (1981), 332-343.

Rumschlag, Samual. "One Bow (or Stirrup) Is Not Equal to Another: A Comparative Look At Hun and Mongol Military Technologies." The Silk Road 16 (2018), 78-90.

Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Vol. III: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Ruysbroeck, Willem V., Peter Jackson, and David Morgan. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253-1255. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2009.

Sanders, Clinton R. "Mind, Self, and Human-Animal Joint Action." Sociological Focus 40, no. 3 (2007), 320-336.

Saunders, J. J. The History of the Mongol Conquests. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

Shan, Yueying. "A study of Xiongnu tombs." Chinese Archaeology 12, no. 1 (2012), 149-157.

Shehada, Housni A. Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Shim, Hosung. "The Postal Roads of the Great Khans in Central Asia under the Mongol-Yuan Empire." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 44, no. 1 (2014), 405-469.

Shiratori, Kurakichi. "On the Titles Khan and Kaghan." Proceedings of the Imperial Academy 2, no. 6 (1926), 241-244.

Siep Stuurman. "Herodotus and Sima Qian: History and the Anthropological Turn in Ancient Greece and Han China." Journal of World History 19, no. 1 (2008), 1-40.

Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: Han dynasty. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian: Qin dynasty. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961.

Simpson, St J. "A.H. Dani & V.M. Masson (ed.). History of civilizations of Central Asia I: The dawn of civilization: earliest times to 700 BC." Antiquity 68, no. 260 (1994), 672-674.

Sinor, Denis. "Horse and pasture in Inner Asian History." In Inner Asia and its contacts with medieval Europe, 171-183. London: Variorum, 1977.

Sinor, Denis. "The Inner Asian Warriors." Journal of the American Oriental Society 101, no. 2 (1981), 133-144.

Smail, R. C. Crusading Warfare 1097-1193. Barnes & Noble Books, 1995.

Smith, John M. "Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984), 307-345.

Smith, John M., and Reuven Amitai-Preiss. "Nomads on Ponies vs. Slaves on Horses." Journal of the American Oriental Society 118, no. 1 (1998), 54.

Smith, Gerald R. Medieval Muslim Horsemanship: A Fourteenth-Century Arabic Cavalry Manual. London: The British Library, 1979.

Smith, Julie A., and Robert W. Mitchell. "Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal: Communication, Corporeal Synchrony, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses." In Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters, 111-128. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

Starr, S. F. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Stepanova, Elena V. "Reconstruction of a Scythian Saddle from Pazyryk Barrow No. 3." The Silk Road 14 (2016), 1-18.

Sumpter, David J. Collective Animal Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Sun Tzu. Art of War. Translated by Ralph D. Sawyer. New York: Basic Books, 1994.

Sverdrup, Carl F. The Mongol Conquests: The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei. 2016.

Świętosławski, Witold. Arms and Armour of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Times of the Mongol Expansion (12th-14th Centuries). Akanthina, 1999.

Świętosławski, Witold. "A Confrontation Between Two Worlds. The Arms and Armour of Central European and Mongol Forces in the first half of the Thirteenth Century." Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae, FASC. XIX (2006), 59-66.

Sykes, Percy M. "Khorasan: The Eastern Province of Persia." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 62, no. 3196 (February 1914), 279-286.

Symonenko, Oleksandr. "Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, (2017), unpaginated.

Talbot, Lee. "Chinese Silk: A Cultural History. Shelagh Vainker." Studies in the Decorative Arts 12, no. 2 (2005), 143-147.

Tamim, Elmetwali. "Cumans and (1055-1240)." http://www.analecta.hu/index.php/chronica/article/view/10793/10684 (n.d.), 198-210.

Taylor, William T., Burentogtokh Jargalan, K. B. Lowry, Julia Clark, Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal, and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan. "A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe." Journal of Archaeological Science 81 (2017), 49-58.

Tian, Jie, and Justin Ma. The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual. Schiffer Military History, 2015.

Tibble, Steve. Crusader Armies: 1099-1187. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.

Tor, D.G. "The Mamluks in the Military of the Pre-Seljuq Persianate Dynasties." Iran 46, no. 1 (2008), 213-225.

Tumen, D., D. Navaan, and M. Erdene. "Archaeology of the Mongolia Period." The Silk Road 4, no. 1 (Summer 2006), 51-55.

Turchin, Peter. "A theory for formation of large empires." Journal of Global History 4, no. 2 (2009), 191-217.

Tyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. London: Penguin UK, 2007.

Verbruggen, J. F. The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 1997.

Von Humboldt, Alexander. "Mémoire Sur Les Chaines des Montagnes et Les Volcans de L'Asie Intérieure."Fragmens de géologie et de climatologie Asiatiques (n.d.), 1-162.

Waal, Frans de. The Age of Empathy: A Nature’s Lessons for Kinder Society. New York: Harmon Books, 2009.

Wallner, Barbara, Nicola Palmieri, Claus Vogl, Doris Rigler, Elif Bozlak, Thomas Druml, Vidhya Jagannathan, et al. "Y Chromosome Uncovers the Recent Oriental Origin of Modern Stallions." Current Biology 27, no. 13 (2017), 2029-2035.

Wang, Jin-Ting. "The Steppes and Deserts of the Xizang Plateau (Tibet)." Vegetatio 75, no. 3 (1988): 135-42.

Warmuth, V., A. Eriksson, M. A. Bower, G. Barker, E. Barrett, B. K. Hanks, S. Li, et al. "Reconstructing the origin and spread of horse domestication in the Eurasian steppe." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 21 (2012), 8202-8206.

Warry, John G. Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome. 1995.

Waterson, James. Defending Heaven: China's Mongol Wars, 1209-1370. Frontline Books, 2013.

Waterson, James. Sacred Swords: Jihad in the Holy Land, 1097-1291. Havertown: Casemate Publishers, 2010.

Waterson, James. The Knights of Islam: The Wars of the Mamluks. Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal, 2007.

Waterson, James. "The Men Who Stopped the Mongols." Military Illustrated, September (2007).

Waugh, Daniel C. "Richtofen's "Silk Roads": Toward the Archaeology of a Concept." The Silk road 5, no. 1 (Summer 2007), 1-10.

Weatherford, J. M. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Broadway Books, 2004.

Welsh, Daniel A. "Population, behavioral and grazing ecology of the horses of Sable Island." PhD diss., Dalhousie University, (1975).

“Weta Digital.” Visual Effects . Accessed January 11, 2020. https://www.wetafx.co.nz/.

Wing, Patrick. "The Decline of the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate’s Eastern Frontier." Mamluk Studies Review, XI-no. 2 (2007), 77-88.

Wilkins, Sally E. Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.

Wise, Terence. The Wars of the Crusades 1096-1291. London: Osprey Publishing, 1978.

Wittfogel, Karl A., and Chia-shêng Fêng. History of Chinese Society: Liao, 907-1125. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society / Macmillan, 1949.

Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia. Oakland: University of California Press, 2004.

Worthen, Shana. "The Influence of Lynn White, jr.'s Medieval Technology and Social Change." History Compass 7, no. 4 (2009), 1201-1217.

Wynne, Clive D., and Monique A. Udell. Animal Cognition: Evolution, Behavior and Cognition. Red Globe Press, 2013.

Yamada, Nobuo. "Formation of the Hsiung-Nu Nomadic State." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 36, no. 1/3 (1982), 575-582.

Yazdzik, Elisabeth. "The Mongolian Horse and Horseman." Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection, (2011), 1068.

Yosef, Koby. "The Term Mamlūk and Slave Status during the Mamluk Sultanate." Al-Qanṭara 34, no. 1 (2013), 7-34.

Youn, M., J. C. Kim, H. K. Kim, D. , D. Navaan, and M. Erdene. "Dating the Tavan Tolgoi Site, Mongolia: Burials of the Nobility from Genghis Khan's Era." RADIOCARBON 49, no. 2 (2007), 685–691.

Yueying Shan, “A study of Xiongnu tombs.” Chinese Archaeology 12 (2012): 149-157.

Zartarian, Vahe. “Asian Traditional Archery Manual.” www.co-creation.net, July 2017. https://www.co-creation.net/labo/archerie_doc/asian_archery_manual.pdf., 1-103.

Zheng, Ying, Steve Gu, and Carlo Tomasi. "Detecting motion synchrony by video tubes." Proceedings of the 19th ACM international conference on Multimedia - MM '11, 2011.

Zouache, Abbès. "Western vs. Eastern Way of War in the Late Medieval Near East: An Unsuitable Paradigm: A Review Essay of David Nicolle’s Late Mamlūk Military Equipment*." Mamlūk Studies Review 18 (2014-15), 301-325.