Horses

from: Jean-Paul Roux, Hisroire des Turcs, Deux mille ans du Pacifique à la Méditerranée, Fayard 2000,Paris.

translation: doxa-louise

Horses

Herding is the principal occupation of the steppe-inhabitant Turks. Their homeland, Mongolia, is the example country in this regard, which explains why empires establish their headquarters there. It is the key to their history which is, in fine, a story of horses.That only makes sense of the destiny of Turks and Mongols in the world, explains many essential traits which, otherwise, irrespective of valid arguments, remain shrouded in mist, like a photo taken with a badly set objective. For all of the qualities which give nomads their superiority to express themselves, they need the essential support of the cavalry.

The intensive breeding of horses will find its optimum in Mongolia and will be extensive in pretty much all of the countries of the steppe. But it remains impossible in deserts,in forest or agricultural regions, in Siberia certainly, but also in China, in Europe and even more so in the valleys surrounding great rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile. Turkish muslim power in the Balkans, the Near-East, in India, will rest on other basis. For no sedentary country possesses the necessary grasslands to nourish great herds. Which is why so often, men will prefer to raid them rather than to establish themselves, knowing that, sooner or later, they would be assimilated or expulsed, less by the softening effect of civilization than by the ruin of what had made conquest possible: the cavalry.

We know that the independant Republic of Mongolia (excluding inner or Chinese Mongolia) could nourish in 1918, before the introduction of a modern economy, 1,5 million horses, plus 1 million bovines, 225,000 camels and more than 7 million sheep, thus in total  3 895 000 animal units, a unit being comprised of one horse, one sheep, one bovid or five sheep. It must have been thus earlier, when wars, epizootics, grasshoper invasions (46 AD), droughts did not bring about catastrophic, but passing diminutions in the livestock or when happy circumstances did not make for unreasonable growth. But in 1918, Mongolia no longer had warlike or conquering goals; pastoralism was more important than horseback riding. It had been different when war was the basis for all activity; then horses were more precious than other animals. The herd of the Xiongnu, normally, varied between 15 and 25 heads of cattle per person; it went down to less than 2 in the poorer tribes, during difficult years, went up to  almost 300 in the richer tribes during prosperous times (evaluation for 127 BC). As we estimate the population of the Xiongnu at 1,5 million, their herds must comprise a minimum of 2 million animals, in general 20 to 30 million, thus two or three times  the 1918 numbers, a time of decadence, and it is true, a much greater territory. We know that the percentage of horses held between 12 and 15 %, which translates to some 3 million heads, but could grow to 40 %, a stunning total of 12 million horses (evaluation for 46 BC). For comparison purposes, there were 12 million in the soviet Union in 1955, 8 million in 1965.

These numbers, carefully arrived at, answer to other information to the effect that  the nomads each brought with them a minimum of two or three horses per person, which assured them of always having a fresh mount. Upwards of 1 million horses was thus more than sufficient for an army of 300 000 men, a colossal army for the times, no doubt without precedent, but which sources often mention, not without inviting doubts on the part of many historians, to my mind unjustified. One didn’t need so much to reign supreme on all the infantries on the planet, on the medieval knights of the Orient or the Occident. Neither China, India nor Europe could feed so many animals. The high plains of Iran, and to some extent Turkey could in a lesser fashion. The hungarian plain, the richest region in the west for grazing land, can feed at the most 323 000 animal units, a mere 1\12 of Mongolia’s capacity and forests were earlier more important than they are today. Reducing beyond probable the number of ovines and bovines necessary for human consumption, it could entertain 50 000 to 70 000 cavalry: this was suffecient for launching expeditions to Gaul and Italy, certainly with the help of allies, but not sufficient to occupy these countries, especially so since horses could not have been fed. Thus Attila did not intend to conquer Europe.

Similarly, the Seljuqs, also faithful to the cavalry, will find themselves obliged to inflict a profound setback to agriculture in Iran and Anatolia. The Mongols or Turks will not obtain sustainable success in Syria or Irak nor use these countries as bases for incursions in the Nile valley and will remain exposed to the attacks of the Mamluks (but could a large cavalry have crossed the Sinaï desert?). And Genghis Khan, with a lively intelligence, having perfectly understood the givens of the problem, but not wanting to give up on world leadership, will consider turning into grazing land all the agricultural land of China. When one was not waging war, one thus had to export horses. China, to maintain peace with the Uyghurs, might thus be forced to make massive purchases, at insane prices, and then letting them starve as quickly as possible. This explains why the expeditions were often brief; they took no longer than the time for the expiry of the feed and the weakening of the beasts, and would be done anew from year to year.

To inhabit the lands of civilization without transforming them into steppes, will be needed a slow adjustment of a century or two to new conditions. This will be the result of becoming sedentary which, while allowing for a strong equestrian force, will no longer give to cavalry an essential role, as will be the case for the Ottomans. For his part, Attila, arbitrer of the Roman Empire, will never leave the plains of Hungary.

As with the wolf that is often his emblem, his paragon, the true nomad must live on the borders of civilization to feed himself at its expense, but not penetrate it. What could be the purpose of arms, mounts, clothing adapted to life on a horse that the Turks had known to develop and would adopt the civilized if horses came to no longer be in sufficient numbers? They could only be thus on the steppe. One remains mystified that so many great conquerors resigned themselves to remaining in sedentary lands. One understands the desolate character of so many lands of modern Asia which were earlier cultivated lands when one knows that nomads have sojourned there.