The history of horsesinIran goes back to Greek sources from ancient Persia, which mention horse worship and the practice of hippomancy. Today, Iranians breed several breeds of horse, [1] in particular the Koheilan and Saklawi lines.
Horses played an important cultural role in ancient Persia. [2] Herodotus and Ctesias attest to the practice of hippomancy (divination by horse), which continued into the Sasanian era. [3] According to Herodotus' Histories, the Nisean horse was considered sacred in the 5th century BC. [4]
Darius exploited this Persian belief in hippomancy to ensure his royal legitimacy. [5] It is possible that Darius used this ruse or propagated the story to appease his people, who strongly believed in hippomancy. [6]
Georges Dumézil sees it as a possible Indo-European rite of enthronement. [7] Persian military horsemen may also have been diviners. [8]
In 1965, an American, Louise Firouz, rediscovered the Caspian horse in the Elbourz mountains, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. [9] In the 1970s, the Royal Iranian Horse Society proposed the name "Persian plateau horse" to designate a group of fairly heterogeneous horses bred in the tribal areas of the Iranian plateau with various Indo-European influences. [10]
The DAD-IS database lists 21 breeds of horse currently or formerly bred in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Bakhtiari, Basseri, Caspian, Dareshuri, Ebian, Haddian, Hamdani, Iranian horse, Jaf, Kahilan, Kurdish horse, Persian, Qarabagh, Qashqai, Saklawi, Shirazi, Sistani, Taleshi, Taropud, Turkemin and Yabu. [11]
The CAB International study (2016) distinguishes three main types or breeds of horse in Iran: the Persian, the Persian Plateau horse and the Turkoman, divided into numerous subtypes, whose characterizations remain unclear. [10] It also mentions the existence of the Tchenaran horse. [10]