Four horsemen taking part in a contest, from Manual on the Arts of Horsemanship (Nihayat al-su’l wa al-umniya fi ta‘allum ‘amal al-furusiyya) by al-Aqsara’i

Detached folio, ink, pigments and gold on paper, painting (on verso) and Arabic text, from a set of twelve detached folios and one codex, Cairo, Egypt, dated 1366. Painting: four horsemen riding around a square pool, with side-caption: "Image of a number of horsemen taking part in a contest, their lances on their shoulders". First composed in Mamluk Damascus, al-Aqsara'i's well-known military encyclopaedia describes the many skills required for an effective cavalry army, organised in twelve lessons. This painting is from Lesson Two, "On the Use of the Lance", under section seven, "On Advancing, Retreating and Encircling". There is an extensive Arabic literature on the arts of horsemanship, and this copy (made in Cairo in 1366) is one of the earliest illustrated examples in existence. These arts include the care and training of horses, the correct handling of weapons, and equestrian parade displays for the hippodrome, as well as cavalry formations in battle, just distribution of war booty, and treaty negotiations.