Four horsemen riding around the hippodrome, from Manual on the Arts of Horsemanship (Nihayat al-su’l wa al-umniya fi ta‘allum ‘amal al-furusiyya) by al-Aqsara'i

`Umar b. `Abdallah b. `Umar al-Shafi’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 pool, with side-caption: “Image of four horsemen, each one with a sword and a hide shield, and each one carrying his shield on his horse’s croup ". 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 Three, "On the Use of the Sword", under Method Nine, "On the Use of the Sword and the Medium Leather Shield, a Method invented by the Author". 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.