Book description
From antiquity to the nineteenth century, the royal hunt was a vital
component of the political cultures of the Middle East, India, Central
Asia, and China. Besides marking elite status, royal hunts functioned
as inspection tours and imperial progresses, a means of asserting
kingly authority over the countryside. The hunt was, in fact, the
"court out-of-doors," an open-air theater for displays of
majesty, the entertainment of guests, and the bestowal of favor on subjects.
In the conduct of interstate relations, great hunts were used to
train armies, show the flag, and send diplomatic signals. Wars
sometimes began as hunts and ended as celebratory chases. Often
understood as a kind of covert military training, the royal hunt was
subject to the same strict discipline as that applied in war and was
also a source of innovation in military organization and tactics.
Just as human subjects were to recognize royal power, so was the
natural kingdom brought within the power structure by means of the
royal hunt. Hunting parks were centers of botanical exchange, military
depots, early conservation reserves, and important links in local
ecologies. The mastery of the king over nature served an important
purpose in official renderings: as a manifestation of his possession
of heavenly good fortune he could tame the natural world and keep his
kingdom safe from marauding threats, human or animal. The exchanges of
hunting partners-cheetahs, elephants, and even birds-became diplomatic
tools as well as serving to create an elite hunting culture that
transcended political allegiances and ecological frontiers.
This sweeping comparative work ranges from ancient Egypt to
India under the Raj. With a magisterial command of contemporary
sources, literature, material culture, and archaeology, Thomas T.
Allsen chronicles the vast range of traditions surrounding this fabled
royal occupation.
Thomas T. Allsen is Professor Emeritus, Department of History,
College of New Jersey.
