Arabian Horses in Ancient History


Muslim invaders reached as far north as France, where they were stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arabian and other oriental horses captured in the wake of this defeat were crossed with local stock, adding agility to the heavier animals, influencing the development of the Percheron.

Fiery war horses with dished faces and high-carried tails were popular artistic subjects in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, often depicted pulling chariots in war or for hunting. Horses with oriental characteristics appear in artwork as far north as that of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. While the horse wasn't called an "Arabian" in the Ancient Near East until later, (the word "Arabia" itself only first appeared in writings by the ancient Persians, circa 500 B.C.,) these "proto-Arabian" or "Oriental" horses shared many characteristics with the modern Arabian, including speed, endurance, and refinement. A horse skeleton was unearthed in the Sinai peninsula, dated to 1700 B.C., and is considered the earliest physical evidence of the horse in Ancient Egypt. It was probably brought by the Hyksos invaders. This horse had a wedge-shaped head, large eye socket and small muzzle, all characteristics of the Arabian horse.

Arabian horses in Islamic history
Following the Hijra in A.D. 622 (also sometimes spelled Hegira), the Arabian horse spread across the known world of the time, became recognized as a distinct, named breed, and played a significant role in the History of the Middle East and of Islam. By A.D. 630, Muslim influence expanded across the Middle East and North Africa. By A.D. 711, Muslim warriors had reached Spain, and controlled most of the Iberian peninsula by 720. Their mounts were of various oriental types, including both Arabians and the Barb horse of North Africa.

Muslim invaders reached as far north as France, where they were stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arabian and other oriental horses captured in the wake of this defeat were crossed with local stock, adding agility to the heavier animals, influencing the development of the Percheron.

From the Middle East to Europe
Muslim invasions were not the only source of Arabians in Europe. During the Crusades, beginning in 1095, European armies invaded Palestine and many knights returned home with Arabian horses as spoils of war. As development of the longbow and gunpowder made knights and the heavy, armored war horses who carried them obsolete, Arabians were used to develop faster, agile light cavalry horses that were used in warfare into the 20th century.

Another way Arabian horses spread to the rest of the world was from the Ottoman Empire, which rose in 1299, and came to control much of the Middle East. Though it never fully dominated the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, this Turkish empire obtained many Arabian horses through trade, diplomacy and war. Ottoman nobility, such as Muhammad Ali of Egypt also collected pure, desert-bred Arabian horses. These horses often were sold, traded, or given as diplomatic gifts to Europeans and, later, to Americans.

One major infusion of Arabian horses occurred when the Ottoman Turks sent 300,000 horsemen into Hungary in A.D. 1522. Many Turks were mounted on pure-blooded Arabians captured during raids into Arabia. By 1529, the Ottomans reached Vienna, where they were stopped by the Polish and Hungarian armies, who captured Arabians from the defeated Ottoman cavalry. Some of these horses provided foundation stock for the major studs of eastern Europe.