In Africa, ancient domesticated horses were introduced no later than 2,500 years ago to the north-east and north of the continent. Over time, they spread further south, to the countries of Western and Central Sudan. The horse in Africa was a prestigious animal that played an important role in the ceremonial and ritual associated with the institution of royal power. It was one of the main commodities of barter trans-Saharan international trade. For centuries, the cavalry as the basis of the army played an important role in the formation and strengthening of local statehood.

The role of the horse in the development of world culture and civilization is truly great. Speaking about its multifunctional and economic significance, it is enough to note that until recently, the generally accepted unit of measurement for energy capacity was "horsepower". Horses were used for thousands of years to develop new territories and communications; cavalry played an important, sometimes decisive, role in battles. The horse occupies a significant place in the visual arts, in songwriting, in myths, legends and fairy tales of the peoples of the world.

The place of the horse in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa was somewhat different than in Europe and Asia, which is explained by the special natural and climatic conditions of the continent. Unlike Asia and Europe, most of the African continent has unfavorable conditions for breeding and keeping horses: the hottest climate on Earth, desert areas, including the vast expanse of the Sahara, which occupies about 1/3 of the entire area of Africa, and tsetse fly infested, equatorial and tropical evergreen forests to the north and south of the equator. Many peoples of Tropical Africa before their contact with Europeans had no idea about such an animal as a horse, and in medieval sub-Saharan West and Central Africa, horses were imported from the northern part of the continent, and they were very highly valued, along with the most prestigious goods.

The history of the African horse dates back, apparently, from Ancient Egypt. It is believed that the first horses were introduced to the continent by the Hyksos, nomadic tribes from Asia who invaded Egypt around 1700-1 or around 1710 B.C. 2 During excavations of the ancient Egyptian fortress of Buhan (otherwise spelled "Buhen") in Northern Nubia in layers dating back to the Middle Kingdom era (approximately 1675 BC). a horse skeleton was discovered 3 . So far, this is an isolated find; the horse's widespread distribution in Egypt occurred during the Hyksos rule, which lasted more than 100 years. The latter brought with them to Egypt and war chariots - two-wheeled carts drawn by pairs of horses. The introduction of chariots significantly increased the combat capability and maneuverability of the Egyptian army. The Egyptians first made extensive use of them during the war of liberation against the Hyksos.

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Pharaoh Yahmose I (first half of the XVI century BC, XVIII dynasty). This war marked the beginning of a New Kingdom and the subsequent transformation of Egypt into a world power. 4 Under the subsequent pharaohs of the XVIII, XIX and XX dynasties, the chariot army, formed from the nobility and wealthy strata, organized in detachments of 25 chariots each, became the main striking force of the Egyptian army. Each war chariot contained a standing charioteer and a fighter armed with a bow and arrow. In addition to war chariots, ceremonial chariots were also used for the departure of royalty and nobles. One such trip is depicted in a relief from the tomb of the priest Panehsi (during the reign of Akhenaten, XVIII dynasty) 5 .

Horses in ancient Egypt were not used as pack or draft animals in agriculture and construction, and were also little used for riding. They were groomed, decorated, and kept in stables separate from the livestock. 6 Veterinarians monitored the horses ' health .

The horse received a worthy reflection in the visual arts of Ancient Egypt, mainly in scenes of battles and hunting. The earliest extant reproduction of a horse harnessed to a war chariot on the scarab of Pharaoh Thutmose I 7 dates back to the beginning of the XVI century BC. Magnificent images of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun (XVIII dynasty) on a chariot, hunting lions, defeating black enemies (Nubians), were preserved on a golden fan and a painted casket, discovered in the Ancient Egyptian Museum of Ancient Egypt. in his tomb 8 . Ramses II (XIX dynasty) in the midst of the battle of the Egyptians with the Hittite cavalry near Kadesh (1296 BC) is depicted on the temple reliefs of Karnak and Luxor 9 . It is also worth noting the pommel of a wooden crest (first half of the XV century BC from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) in the form of a drinking horse. From the Byzantine period of Egyptian history, a sacred sculpture of a horseman with the head of a falcon - the ancient Egyptian god Horus, striking the god Set in the form of a crocodile with a spear-has been preserved. In fact, this is the prototype of St. George the Victorious striking the serpent. The sculpture is kept in the Louvre 10 .

To the west of Egypt, in the Central and Western Sahara, there are many petroglyphs and drawings of horses, horsemen and chariots on the rocks of the highlands and plateaus of Ahaggar, Tassilin Ajer, Iforas, Tibesti. These are traces of the so-called chariot routes-ancient trade routes from North Africa to the Sudan, laid no later than 2,500 years ago, that is, at a time when the last deterioration of the Sahara climate had not yet turned it into a desert, but led to the outflow of its tribes to the south, to the Nile Valley, to the lake Chad, the Niger and Senegal Rivers, and other now defunct water sources. The "chariot paths" ran along no less than four main routes. On a modern geographical map, the first route is traced from Tripoli and the surrounding areas through Ghadames, the Ahaggar highlands, Ghat and Janet to the Tassilin Ajer plateau, through the Iforas plateau to the Gao area on the Niger River; the second-bypassing Ahaggar, Tamanrasset, Agadez Tahwa, or Zinder, to Kano and further south; the third (main and earlier) - from Tripoli through Mourzouk to the south, through the Jado plateau to Lake Chad; the fourth (later) - from Morocco through the western part of Ahaggar and the Iforas Plateau to Timbuktu on the Niger River 11 .

It is assumed that the chariots depict Garamantes - an ancient people of the Sahara, formed from the Libyan, Aegean and Negroid components and mysteriously disappeared in the first half of the first millennium AD. e. References to Garamantes are found in ancient authors. In particular, Herodotus wrote:"...These garamantes hunt 12 cave Ethiopians in chariots drawn by four horses. After all, cave Ethiopians are the fastest-footed people we have ever heard of. " 13 Most of the images of Sahrawi chariots are really quadrigs, as Herodotus wrote about it.

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Yu. K. Poplinsky, who devoted a special study to the Garamantes, emphasizes the crucial importance of war chariots in the struggle of this people for the dominant position in the Sahara .14 Until the first centuries of our era, the Garamantes kept under control the trade and cultural ties of North Africa and the Aegis with the Niger Bend region, delivering black slaves, gold, precious stones, wild animal skins, ostrich feathers and other exotic goods to the north, to the Mediterranean coast. It has been suggested that iron-smelting skills were introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by "chariot paths" .15 Also associated with garamantes is another assumption about the origin of the African horse.

The "Hyksos hypothesis" about the appearance of the horse on the continent remains the most widespread, and it also appears in the encyclopedic literature .16 However, Yu. K. Poplinsky presents arguments that call into question the indisputability of this hypothesis, using a comprehensive analysis of sources reflecting the history of cultural contacts between Africa and the Aegis in ancient times, as well as data on the chronology of horse distribution from Central Asia in the following sequence: Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine - since 2000 BC; the Apennine Peninsula (Sicilian I culture) - since 2000; Cyprus and Crete - since 1800; Egypt - since 1700; horse and chariot ubiquity - since 1500 BC 17 .

Among the rock art of the Sahara on the Ennedi plateau (north-east of Lake Baikal). Chad) there are images of saddled horses running in the so-called flying, or Mycenaean, gallop. Noting that the images of horses and chariots in Africa and the Aegean are "strikingly similar" in their style and precise rendering of the chariot design, 18 Poplinsky is inclined to consider them as one of the evidences of the presence of Aegean borrowings in the Garamantes culture, meaning several ethnic groups, including the legendary Atlanteans. 19 Some grounds for supporting this hypothesis can be found in a study by Atlantean scientists of the second half of the twentieth century, who provided evidence for the Eastern Mediterranean localization of Plato's legendary Atlantis .20

The evidence for horse distribution in sub-Saharan Africa in ancient times is very sparse. One of the reasons for this may be the weak archaeological survey of this part of the continent and the specific climatic conditions, which determine the possibility of preserving only minor organic remains. So far, only one horse tooth has been found, dating back about 2,000 years, from the Rop Rock Grotto excavation (on the Joye Plateau in Northern Nigeria) in 1964. [21] In a cultural layer containing many microliths - small tools from the Middle Stone Age used as arrowheads, and four horse teeth have also been found. teeth dating from about the same time in the rocky Kariya Wuro Grotto (near Bauchi, Northern Nigeria) 22 . These are the oldest surviving horse remains in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, in the village of Geji (130 km south of Birnin Kudu-Northern Nigeria), among the rock carvings of people and livestock, there is an image of a horse that can be attributed to approximately 1500 BC23 .

In the 80-ies of XX century in the area called Bura (in the territory of the modern Republic of Niger), during the excavations of an extensive necropolis (more than 400 graves), dating back to the III-X centuries AD, fragments of terracotta sculpture were found, from which archaeologists collected a figure called the "Big Horseman" (height - 62 cm) 24 . In addition to artistic expressiveness, the sculpture of the "Big Rider" is also very interesting from an educational point of view: it is clear that the decoration of the horse in those days (a necklace of six rows of leather or copper plaits and something like a mitre on the top of the head) far exceeded the complexity of the harness, which consisted of reins in the form of a simple rope passed through the nostrils of the horse.

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In the forest zone of sub-Saharan West Africa, the earliest evidence for the presence of a horse is found in the Igbo Ukwu culture (in the vicinity of the main city of Igbolanda-Nsukki, located in Eastern Nigeria). There, in 1959, during excavations of the burial chamber of a noble person, a bronze handle of a fan in the shape of a rider on a small horse was found. On the rider's cheeks are notches identical to those seen on the faces of modern Igbo. Like the" Big Rider " of Bura, the Igbo Ukwu horse was controlled by a rein without a bit. The accompanying material dates back to the 9th century AD25 .

Also in the area of Nsukka, excavations of the Ukpo Eze hill in Umuket (near Agaleri) revealed horse bones that had been buried for at least 750 years .26 This finding correlates with the dating of the bronze horseman from Igbo Ukwu. The Igbo Ukwu culture dates back to the Early Iron Age. Archaeological evidence suggests that its creators had contacts with peoples living far to the north, exporting ivory, slaves, and possibly kola nuts in exchange for honey and beads. As part of the prestigious goods from the north, horses also came to the forest zone.

Some recent data may support the hypothesis of horse ritualization in Igbo Ukwu. The fact is that in our time, the part of the Igbo people that continues to adhere to traditional beliefs and customs, the rite of "horse sacrifice" is an important component of the funeral ceremonies of persons who bear traditional titles. During the colonial period, there was a large horse market in Nsukka; it sold mostly culled animals brought from the North and intended for sacrifice. The Igbo continued to maintain their reputation as the main horse traders within Nigeria. According to data dating back to the second half of the twentieth century, traders sought out old animals in the markets of Borno and Sokoto and transported them in trailers to the south-east, to the cities of Abakaliki and Onicha27 .

As for the peoples of Eastern Tropical Africa, they did not know horses in their pre-colonial past. The testimony of a medieval Arabic-speaking author from the middle of the 12th century has been preserved: "In the city of Manbasa (meaning Mombasa, Kenya. - N. K.) is the residence of the king of Zinja. All his army is made up of foot soldiers, because they have no mounted animals, because they do not live in their land." 28

Thus, archaeological evidence suggests that, having appeared in the Sahara no later than 2500 years ago, the domesticated horse in the first millennium AD spread all the way to the rainforests of West Africa. While crossing the Sahara, some of the horses may have gone wild again. Information about this has been preserved in the following sources:"...In our time (i.e., in the first half of the sixteenth century - BC), one can still see quite a few of these wild horses in the deserts of Arabia and Africa... A wild horse is considered a wild animal and can only be seen occasionally. " 29

The ancient images of the horse that have come down to us, combined with written sources, indicate that the West African horse was undersized. "Ghanaian horses are very small," al-Bakri noted in the mid-eleventh century .30 In al-Omari's essay " Ways of Looking at states with large cities "(the first half of the XIV century), it is written: "Their horses (the inhabitants of medieval Mali - N. K.) are different breeds of Tatar half-breeds, 31 as for their mules, they are very short, like all their domestic animals... you can't find any other animals among them than the undersized ones... " 32 . According to Lev Afrikantsky, " in this country (i.e., in the Songhai state of the first half of the 16th century - N. K.) there are no horses, except for small pacers, which are usually ridden by merchants, as well as some

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courtiers to move around the city. But good horses come from Barbary. " 33

There is also evidence from European travelers about short and hardy horses in the states of Nupe and Borgu (Central Nigeria), about small "like Scottish ponies" horses in the city-states of Yoruba 34. In the middle of the XIX century. The Yoruba people had two types of horses - ponies and large ones, imported from the North at very high prices .35 Short and hardy horses were also common in the pre-colonial period on the Adamaua plateau (far east of Nigeria), in the territory of modern Togo and to the east of it.

Al-Masudi wrote about Nubia in the middle of the tenth century: "Their king uses blood horses, but most of the mounts of their common people are heavy and slow to move," 36 and according to information dating back to the end of the XII century, "the Nubian horses are short, they look like large Egyptian donkeys and are hardy." 37

Describing the horses of sub-Saharan Africa, modern researchers call them "ponies" and "dwarf breeds" mainly of bay or chestnut color, with a heavy head and a thick short neck. The height of some breeds does not reach 90-110 cm at the withers. The further south you go, the smaller the size of the African horse, as a rule. As for the large North African horses, which were readily bought by the nobility of sub-Saharan Africa, they appeared as a result of the introduction of Arab breeds starting from the end of the first millennium AD. Experts explain the shortness of the African horse for two reasons: first, they were already short when they appeared on the African continent, and secondly, they were exposed in sub-Saharan Africa dwarfs (like all African wild and domestic animals) in the process of adapting to unfavorable natural conditions. Unlike Arab horses, small African horses are more resistant to tsetse fly bites and are adapted to any pasture .38 Unpretentious and hardy little horses occupied an important place in the daily life of many African peoples. In the iconography of the state of Benin (Southern Nigeria)- in a round sculpture made of copper alloys and on plaques that once decorated the walls of the royal palace-there are more than a dozen images of mounted soldiers in headdresses, the shape of which is the same as that of the bodyguards of the Fulbian emirs. The horses of these riders are undersized.

An equestrian bronze sculpture of Oranmiyan, the legendary founder of the royal dynasties of Oyo (Yoruba) and Benin, dates back to the 18th century. According to one oral tradition, it was he who introduced the horse to Benin. The sculpture captures the previously noted method of controlling a horse without a bit, which was typical in the past for other areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Oranmian controls the horse with his left hand using the bridle.

Many peoples of Africa did not use saddles when riding. Thus, according to an Arabic - language author of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, Zaghawa (Central Sudan) "rides on bareback horses" 39; according to a source in the first half of the 14th century, in Aufat (now Ifat, in what is now Ethiopia) "all the mounted troops, including the king, ride on bareback horses, covering the ground." their backs are goat skins. " 40 The same custom was observed in the Principality of Dawaro (Douaro) and the people of Amhara (Ethiopia) .41

In Central Nigeria, ponies were valued for the agility with which they could move over rocky terrain. The Piti (a subgroup of the Jerawa people in Plateau - Central Nigeria) rode bareback, controlling the horse with a rope. In the same places, according to eyewitnesses of the early twentieth century, "the natives (the Angas - N. K. people) ride their mountain ponies without saddles and, since they themselves do not wear clothes, except for the fancy dress of woven grass on the small of their backs, riding on their mountain ponies without saddles."

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frisky ponies are hindered. So they scratch the backs of their animals until the blood runs out and use it to stick to them. " 42 A slightly different riding style has also been attested: "The saddle, if there is one, consists of a goatskin tied to the horse's back, but some pagans make an incision about a foot long on the horse's skin along the ridge and open it so that the animal's flesh protrudes out and forms a light pad that hardens over time." 43 The hard padding created in this way provided enough friction to keep the rider on the horse.

Ponies were used during war, collective hunting, as well as at festivals: they paid a marriage ransom. In other words, owning a pony was prestigious. The story of a man from the Berom (Plateau) people about a touching, almost kinship relationship between a horse and its owner has been preserved: "A horse is like a person: you send her to bring home a tired man, you give her water to drink, you walk miles to get herbs for her food, she carries you in hunting and war; when she gets tired, you unload her and carry the load on your head. When you die and she is brought to your grave, her spirit may fly out of her body in her quest to find you. " 44

During the 20th century, the number of African ponies gradually decreased. By the end of the century, in Central Nigeria, the remaining stock of these stunted animals continued to be preserved as prestigious property and used for ritual purposes.

The fate of large imported thoroughbred horses was somewhat different. The history of their appearance and distribution in sub-Saharan Africa is closely connected with the emergence and rise of the medieval early states of Western and Central Sudan-Ghana and Kanem (in the first millennium AD); Mali, Songhai, Bornu (in the second millennium AD), which developed as trade intermediaries between the peoples of North Africa and the rainforest zone, as well as wooded savanna. "Since the appearance of the Arabs in North Africa," wrote L. E. Kubbel, " Kanem and Ghana are already in the role of near-peripheral societies. The borders of the far periphery are pushed far to the south, to the border of the rainforest zone... The near Sudanese periphery... It acted as an intermediary in trade between the Mediterranean and the interior of the continent, exchanging with the North such goods that came from areas that already belonged to the far periphery. This was most evident in the slave and gold trade, both coming from the south. " 45

Large-scale caravan trade across the Sahara was carried out mainly by western roads (through Sijilmasu-Audagost-Valata and Ghadames-Takeddu-Gao, respectively), and from the end of the 16th century, trade routes began to shift to the east, and the bulk of goods from North Africa now came through Fezzan to Borna and the Hausa city-states (back, respectively, on the same road) 46 . In the 19th century, the road to the west of the main, eastern, route was also quite busy. Located in Savanna, Salaga (in Gonja) was an important transit trading town, with an entire block of Hausa horse traders. [47 ] Similarly, the city of Yatenga, the capital of Moi, served as a transit point from which salt, horses, donkeys, and cattle were supplied to the peoples who inhabited the territory of present-day Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Benin .48

Pedigreed horses were among the luxury items that resellers used to win over the rulers and nobles of the Sudanese states. They were ferried across the desert with camel caravans. Arabic-language sources record the appearance of thoroughbred horses among the African nobility from the end of the first millennium AD. For example, al-Bakri (XI century) mentions "horses in gilded veils" at the tent of the ruler of Ghana 49 ; he is echoed by an anonymous Arabic author of the end of the XII century.,

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reporting "ten magnificent horses covered with gilded blankets of silk and brocade" 50 . An Arabic-language source from the beginning of the 13th century contains information about the gifts of Berber tribes to the ruler of Ghana - "black and white horses, which they call al-jariya" .51 A source from the first half of the 14th century tells of Arab horses "in the army of King Aufat" 52 ; a Portuguese source from the middle of the 15th century tells of the sale of seven Spanish horses with harness to the ruler of Cayor 53; another Portuguese source (late 15th century) tells of horses sent as a gift to the ruler of "the state of Mandingo, or Mali" in Timbuktu"from King Joao II of Portugal 54 . The Sudanic Chronicles (16th century) mention the Songhai ruler's favorite" blood black riding horse "and the" blood gray horse" that he rode into the palace "on the day he was proclaimed sultan" .55 According to Leo Africanus, the ruler of Bornu "likes to show that he is rich and has untold treasures. I saw that his horses 'harnesses, stirrups, spurs, bridles, and bits were all made entirely of gold." 56 Hausan chronicles of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries report on raids for large riding horses .57

Everywhere on the continent, and apparently at all times during the colonial period, horses were very expensive, competing in price with luxury goods and slaves. One of the earliest reports on the prices of thoroughbred horses belongs to Muhammad al-Hamawi, author of the Mansurov Chronicle: "The children of Abd al-Mumin (leader of the Zenata Berber tribe, from the Almohad dynasty. - N. K.) always maintained a truce with the ruler of Ghana and sent him gifts. And he is the king of the Sudans and Berbers. They gave them black-and-white horses..., Roman slaves and al - Ashkari clothes. In return, they gave the children of Abd al-Mumin gold dust in bags made of camel skins and lamti (that is, from the skin of an antelope. - N. K.) shields, wild donkeys and giraffes and Babujian eunuchs, and the latter are more beautiful than the Indians and more pleasant to them " 58 .

In medieval Mali, horses were also highly valued. Ibn Battuta (mid-14th century) wrote: "I rode on a camel, for horses are very expensive in this country, each one costs 100 ducats." 59 To the west of Mali, in the country of the Serer people. Senegal) in the mid-15th century, a horse with harness could be purchased "for the price of 9 to 14 head of black slaves, depending on the quality and beauty of the horses" 60 . An African source in the second half of the 17th century reports about the ruler of the Songhai state: "And Askia Muhammad (reigned at the end of the 15th century - N. K.) took some of their children (his slaves. - N. K.), turning them into the price of horses " 61 . In the middle of the 16th century, in Gao (the capital of Songhai), according to Leo Africanus, "a horse that costs 10 ducats in Europe is sold here for 40-50 ducats." 62 At the same time, according to the same source, the ruler of Bornu acquired horses from merchants from Barbary (North-West Africa) by exchanging for slaves at the rate of 15 or 20 people per horse .63 Such a valuable gift as a horse could be used to establish good neighborly relations. To the north - east of Bornu, in the state of Gaoga (Kanem), its ruler, " having bought horses from white merchants, began to raid his enemies. The Sultan of Cairo sends him weapons, cloth, and horses... "I was present," continues Leo Africanus, " when a nobleman from Damietta (a city in Egypt. - N. K.) presented this king with a very beautiful horse, a Turkish saber, chain mail, a gun, several beautiful mirrors, scallops, a coral rosary and several knives. The whole thing could be worth 150 ducats in Cairo. The king gave him in return 5 slaves, 5 camels, and 50 ducats in the coin of this country. " 64

Consistently high prices for horses remained in the XIX century. At the beginning of the century, in the Yoruba state of Oyo, a horse was 3.5-4 times more expensive than a cow and 2 times more expensive than the best slave 65 . At about the same time, in the extreme west of West Africa, in Futa Jallon, a Moorish horse could be traded for 50 slaves .66

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In West Africa, the practice of buying horses on credit has developed. Payment for purchased horses could be made long after their actual transfer to the buyer (the ruler of the city, military commander, etc.), namely, after the successful completion of a predatory raid by his soldiers in order to extract the funds necessary for payment. Raids were seasonal in nature, traditionally they were undertaken after the harvest, i.e. in case of failure, the next predatory campaign was organized for another year. During all this time, horse dealers settled in the buyer's homeland and fed at his expense. Such an unfavorable situation for both sides contributed to the interpenetration of cultures. This is particularly evident in the Hausa chronicle of the first half of the 19th century, which covers the practice of reselling horses from the area adjacent to the middle course of the Niger to Dagomba (in what is now Ghana) .67

Three centuries earlier, Leo Africanus observed something similar in Bornu:".. .The present king of this country, having summoned merchants from Barbary, instructed them to bring him horses, which they exchange for slaves. ...Then he gives orders to make a raid on horseback against the enemy and makes the merchants wait for their return. They wait for him sometimes for two or three months, and during this time they live at his expense. Sometimes their number (slaves. - N. K.) is enough to pay the merchants, sometimes the merchants have to wait for the next year, since the king does not have slaves to pay, and such a trip can only be made safely once a year 68 .

The earliest written sources available to us indicate that horses were originally acquired by the rulers of the early states of sub-Saharan Africa mainly for use in ritual and ceremonial purposes. Ritualization of the horse has become one of the stable elements of traditional culture. A horse, especially one brought from afar, was considered one of the most prestigious attributes of power, a sign of wealth and high social status of its owner.

Al-Bakri, in the Book of Ways and States, wrote about the rules of the court of the ruler of Ghana:" When he gives an audience to people to deal with injustices, he is in a tent, and ten horses in gilded veils are tied around the tent. " 69 This information is repeated by an anonymous Arabic-language source of the XII century. 70 In the same century, the ruler of the same country was reported: "In the palace of the king there is a golden brick made of one single piece of gold... Allah created it as a whole ingot, which was not cast in fire or worked with tools. A hole is made in it, and the king's horse is tied to it. Every day the king rides around the city on horseback. If an injustice has been done to someone or a misfortune has befallen him, that person turns to the king and stands before him until the king examines his complaint .71

Both of the above messages reflect the horse's prestigious place on the scale of traditional values: it is placed next to gold , the main wealth of the country; in addition, in both passages there is a certain connection between the royal horse and the justice of the supreme power; a connection that, apparently, can be explained by the belief in the sacredness of the royal animal. It seems that this conclusion is supported by another piece of evidence - an African source from the 16th century, which tells about the rituals of caring for royal horses: "It is said that kayamage (kayamaga-the title of the ruler of ancient Ghana. - N. K.) owned a thousand horses tied up in his palace. [There was] a well-known custom: if one of the horses dies in the morning, then another is brought in its place in return before [the onset of] evening. And at night they did the same. Not one of them slept except on a pallet, and was not tied except by a silk cord around the neck and leg. Each horse had brass vessels in which it urinated, and not a single drop of its urine fell on the ground.

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earth - only in a vessel - neither by night nor by day. And you wouldn't see a single piece of manure under any of them. Each horse had three servants sitting by its side: one of them was engaged in feeding it, one of them was engaged in watering it, and one was assigned to watch its urine and carry out its dung. This is what Shaykh Muhammad Tokado ibn Mori-Muhammad ibn Abd al-Kerim Fofana (may Allaah have mercy on him) told me about it." 72 Even if the exotic details with which the narrator has colored his story are considered fiction, it remains significant in terms of reflecting the traditional view of the role and significance of the horse in ancient Ghana.

Echoes of the beliefs associated with the idea of the sacred properties of the horse can be seen in the information of Arabic-language sources about the state of Mali of the XIV century: before the audience with the "Sultan Malli", as well as before the meeting of the state Council, "two horses saddled and bridled were brought to the entrance to the room where it was supposed to take place, and two rams, because the blacks claim that they are useful against the evil eye. " 73 In the Songhai state, the royal horses occupied an important place in the ceremony of the ruler's entrance to the people: "And when he (Askia Daoud. - N. K.) rode on horseback, with two people walking with him - one of them, who held the pommel of his saddle, on his right; and the second-on his left, askia put his right hand on the head of the one who was on his right, and the left-on the head of the one who was on his left. him. In the same way, his sons followed him. " 74 The belief in the supernatural qualities of horses persisted in some groups of the Songhai people until the twentieth century: it was believed that some of these animals were riding horses of the patron spirits of their owners. Such "ritual" horses have never been ridden before .75 The previously mentioned "Big Horseman" from the Bure necropolis and the bronze Horseman from the Igbo Ukwu archaeological complex were undoubtedly associated with some unknown funeral rites.

One of the most popular subjects of the Yoruba iconography is the victorious mounted warrior-a symbol of vitality, self-control, courage and perseverance. In Yoruba mythology, the deity of thunder and lightning, Shango, lives in the sky in a glittering palace and has many wives and horses (both of which characterize his wealth and power). In this myth, we can see two ideas at once, two widely spread motifs around the world - about the horse as a sign of wealth and prestige, as well as about the heavenly horses of the deity - the ruler of the natural elements.

In the pre-colonial state of Dahomey (in the territory of the modern Republic of Benin), during the annual feast of remembrance of the royal ancestors, nobles were required to hand over their horses to the king. After some time, he returned them to their owners for a certain fee, and this was repeated from year to year as a demonstration of the nobility's dependence on the tsar. 76 The horse was also part of the sacrifices (along with people, cattle and roosters).

In Gondja, in the north of present-day Ghana, after the death of a high chief, his regalia - a horse, a rod of power, and sandals - were sent to his successor as a sign that the high chief was indeed dead .77 In the states of Morocco (in the territory of modern Burkina Faso), the saddle of the royal horse was considered an attribute of supreme power. One of the dignitaries was responsible for its safety. After the death of the king, the saddle passed to his successor as a sign of legitimizing him as the bearer of supreme power. The horse of the deceased king was sacrificed at the grave of Yenongi, the legendary progenitor of my family .

In the Yoruba state of Oyo, one of the close associates of the supreme ruler - Alafin-had the title olokun eshin "master of the horse". It was believed that his main duty was to accompany Alafin in the afterlife. Along with

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by several other courtiers, he was forced to commit suicide after the death of the tsar, and during his lifetime he was in a privileged position: he enjoyed unlimited freedom to live as he wanted. Criminals who were sentenced to death could find shelter in the house of the "owner of the horse", if they managed to get to it quickly .

Traces of horse worship are also found far to the northeast of Oyo, among the Kanuri (Kanem-Bornu) people, in their mythology and court rhetoric. The hymn addressed to the supreme ruler contained a laudatory symbol: "You own the battle stallion market." Reconstruction of the dominant symbols of the Kanuri mythforital complex allows us to characterize this expression as "a fairly frequently used symbol of the ruler" and "one of the modifications of the idea of the center (settlement, universe)", meaning that the main city market was located in the center of the settlement, near the palace, and was "one of the markers of the highest authority of Mai" 80 . According to Kanuri mythology, horses participated in the creation of the world: in one of the cosmogonic myths, it is said that the progenitor of mankind threw a nut to the four corners of the world. Nuts turned into horses, followed by the expansion of the world to all four sides 81 .

These examples suggest that a greater or lesser degree of sacralization and ritualization of the horse was characteristic of the cultures of almost the entire range of its distribution in sub-Saharan Africa.

As the North-South trade system expanded and developed, and as the intermediary states and chiefdoms grew stronger, the importance of cavalry in conquering campaigns increased. Plunder and the imposition of tribute in favor of the victors were legalized means of obtaining a surplus product. However, the natural and climatic conditions served as obstacles to the widespread use of mounted troops: not only because of the tsetse fly, which was fatal to the horse, but also because in the rainforest cavalry lost maneuverability and lost advantages over foot soldiers. But mounted warriors, used against those peoples who had never seen horses before, inspired them with fear and horror just by their appearance, which guaranteed victory to the attackers.

By the 13th century, there are reports of the Nubian king's campaign against Egypt "with a hundred thousand black horsemen on a hundred thousand black horses" 82 (a metaphorical expression for the multitude) and about 15 thousand horsemen in the army of the ruler of Aufat (Ifat) 83 . In the 16th century, the Songhai governor's viceroy in Timbuktu had a detachment of about 3,000 horsemen at his disposal .84 About Songhai, L. E. Kubbel wrote that the monopoly of military power was "the basis on which the entire Songhai administrative and political system was based" 85 , in turn, "the main striking force of the tsarist army" was its cavalry 86 . The backbone of the Songhai cavalry was the aristocracy. However, since the second half of the XVI century, cavalry has been formed from slaves - the royal guard, a guard of 4,000 selected eunuch soldiers. At the end of the sixteenth century, during Askia Daoud's campaign to the west, his allies were two Tuareg chieftains, each of whom brought 12,000 horsemen .87

The military strength of the early states of the Empire also rested on cavalry, formed entirely of the nobility, who alone had the right to own horses. Commoners and slaves could only be foot soldiers 88 .

In the northeastern part of West Africa, the Bornu State was the main importer of horses from North Africa, 89 and had its own mounted army. The description of the ceremonial cavalry parade in the capital Bornu at the end of the XIX century has been preserved: 35 units participated in the parade, each of which numbered at least 50 horsemen .90

Hausan city-states that were in a state of constant hostility and competition among themselves and with their neighbors for control of trans-Saharan trade,

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they highly valued the art of equestrian combat. They used davakin zaggi, a tactic of using cavalry as a kind of shield for infantry .91 Some idea of the scale of their mounted battles can be obtained from Hausan sources of the first half of the XIX century, for example: "When the war started, King Kebbi Karari gathered the people of Kebbi and said: "Tomorrow we will gather and fight Fulbe. They have 12 thousand horses, we have 140 and 25 mounted trumpeters... Tomorrow, during the battle, if I don't capture 50 horses, Allah will despise me." 92

In the pre-colonial Yoruba state of Oyo, there was, according to legend, a peculiar way of "counting" the number of horsemen required to achieve military success: a buffalo hide was spread on the ground, over which mounted warriors had to gallop; their number was considered sufficient when the skin turned into rags under the hooves of horses. Since it is well known that the Yoruba were well able to perform complex and accurate calculations when it was necessary, for example, in trading operations, such a "counting system" should be considered symbolic, as part of rituals related to the moral and psychological preparation of warriors for battle.

The capital of Oyo was located in the extreme northwest relative to the main body of Yoruba lands. The savanna climate and vegetation allowed the Oyo-Yoruba to maintain a significant mounted army. Through the so - called Dahomey Pass, a vast clearing in the rainforest, the Oyo cavalry has been making regular raids south for more than 100 years, all the way to the Gulf of Guinea coast, to plunder and collect tribute. Eighteenth-century European sources report tens of thousands of Yoruba horsemen, "so terrifying to the surrounding Negroes that the mere mention of them makes them tremble." 93 The given data on the number of Yoruba cavalry are most likely exaggerated. In Oyo, as in other pre-colonial States of West Africa, horses were monopolized by the nobility.

In Oyo, there was a special category of noble warriors - bada. Each of them had at least one or two warhorses and several bodyguards, which he maintained at his own expense. Bada had to be proficient in the art of war, fight exclusively on horseback, and be prepared to throw himself into the thick of battle at a dangerous moment. Bada formed independent military units 94 .

Summing up a few archaeological and ethnographic data, combined with fragmentary information extracted from external (Arabic-speaking and European) and internal (Sudanese and Hausan) sources and from historical studies of Russian and foreign Africanists, we can conclude that the horse among the peoples of Africa was primarily a prestigious animal, which was assigned an important role in ceremonial and ritual. Imported horses were very expensive and were in the exclusive possession of the nobility.

With a few exceptions, the horse was practically not used for agricultural and cargo transportation purposes in sub-Saharan Africa. The main reason for this lay in the peculiarities of traditional agriculture - the dominance of hoe farming, which did not need draft animals. The possibilities of using a horse as a vehicle were also limited. Historically, colonial sub-Saharan Africa did not have its own wheeled transport and did not borrow it from outside. In the forest zone, porters were traditionally used to carry loads, whose labor cost many times cheaper than any horse. The use of horses in military affairs was limited to the natural and climatic zones of the Sahel and wooded savanna.

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All this does not mean that the horse occupied a marginal place in the cultures of African peoples. On the contrary, it maintained a very high status and fulfilled a specific role for many centuries, if not thousands of years, gradually spreading across the African continent from the north and northeast to the south, to the countries of West Africa and Central Sudan.

notes

1 The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. L. & N.Y., 1993. P. 65; The Age of God-Kings, 3000 - 1500 B.C. Amsterdam, 1992. P. 167.

2 Kul'tura Drevnego Egypti [Culture of Ancient Egypt], Moscow, 1976, P. 30.

3 The Archaeology of Africa... P. 65; Kul'tura Drevnego Egypti. P. 32, 79.

4 History of the Ancient East. The origin of the oldest class societies and the first foci of slave-owning civilization, Moscow, 1988, part 2, pp. 422-423.

Mathieu M. E. 5 In the time of Nefertiti, Moscow, 1965, pp. 14-18.

6 Culture of Ancient Egypt, Pp. 79-80.

7 Ibid., p. 79.

8 Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs. New Jersey, 1992. P. 152-153; Mathieu M. E. Edict. soch. Incl. 5.

9 History of the Ancient East ... Pp. 538-542.

10 UNESCO courier service. Paris-Moscow, 1980. March-April. p. 29.

Poplinsky Yu. K. 11 From the history of ethno-cultural contacts of Africa and the Aegean world. Berzina identifies two" chariot roads": the eastern one - from the south of Tripolitania to the Niger River and the western one - from the central part of Morocco to the Niger River, and the eastern one originated as a military road, and the western one-as a commercial "chariot road": (Berzina S. J. Meroe and the surrounding world. I-VIII centuries AD .. Moscow, 1992. p. 142).

12 "Ethiopians" - the most common name for the Negroid population of Africa in the works of ancient authors; "cave Ethiopians" - one of the tribes of ancient West Africa. The territory of their settlement is approximately north-east of Lake Chad. [Poplinsky Yu. K. Edict op. P. 91 (map-reconstruction)].

Herodotus. 13 A story in nine books. Book IV, 183. L., 1972. P. 233.

Poplinsky Yu. K. 14 Edict. soch. p. 118-119.

Olderogge D. A. 15 Afrika i drevniye tsivilizatsii [Africa and ancient Civilizations]. Problems of cultural and scientific construction in Africa at the present stage. Collection of scientific papers based on the materials of the visiting session of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on problems of Africa. (Leningrad. 11-13.05.1985). Moscow, 1986. Part 1. P. 21.

Bray U., Trump D. 16 Arkheologicheskiy slovar ' [Archaeological Dictionary], Moscow, 1990, p. 141; Afrika. Encyclopedic reference Book, Moscow, 1986, vol. 1, p. 449.

Poplinsky Yu. K. 17 Edict. soch. P. 110.

18 Ibid., p. 111; On the state of the Garamants, see also: Berzina S. Ya. Decree, op. pp. 128-132.

Poplinsky Yu. K. 19 Decree. soch. P. 148.

Galanopoulos A. G., Bacon E. 20 Atlantis: behind the legend - the truth / Translated from English, Moscow, 1983.

Shaw Th. 21 Nigeria: Its Archaeology and Early History. L., 1978. P. 41.

22 The Archaeology of Africa... P. 92.

Shaw Th. 23 Op. cit. P. 59.

24 Vallees du Niger. P., 1994. P. 45; Vallees du Niger (Exposition au Musde National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie). P., 1993. P. 10.

Shaw Th. 25 Unearthing Igbo Ukwu. Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria. Oxford, 1977. P. 101 - 102; The Archaeology of Africa... P. 92; Vallees du Niger (Exposition...). P. 20.

26 The Archaeology of Africa... P. 93.

27 Ibid. P. 98.

28 Arab sources of the X-XII centuries on the ethnography and history of Africa south of the Sahara. Moscow-L., 1965. p. 305.

29 See: The Lion of Africa. Africa is the third part of the world. Description of Africa and the sights that are in it. L., 1983. p. 360.

30 Arab sources of the X-XII centuries on the ethnography and history of Africa south of the Sahara. Moscow-L., 1965. p. 183.

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31 The author refers to the similarity of bad West African breeds with crossbreeds of Tatar horses. Note: translators of the quoted text.

32 Cit. po: The history of Africa in ancient and medieval sources. Khrestomatiya, Moscow, 1990, p. 351. The African lion. Decree. op. p. 306.

Clapperton H. 34 Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Soccotoo. L., 1829. P. 56.

Bowen T. J. 35 Adventures and Missionary Labours in Several Countries in the Interior of Africa from 1849 to 1856. Charleston, 1857. P. 263.

36 Arab sources of the VII-X centuries... p. 228.

37 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries on the ethnography and history of Africa south of the Sahara. L., 1985. p. 45.

38 The Archaeology of Africa... P. 89 - 92. As for the" resistance " to tsetse fly bites, this statement should be treated with a certain degree of caution. Studies of the Yoruba culture (Southern Nigeria) show that almost the entire territory of their residence (i.e., in the wooded savanna and in the forest zone), the bites of the Tsetse fly - Glossina longipalpis and especially Glossina polpalis-are harmful to horses. However, they can be safe if they are located in the center of the settlement, i.e. at a distance from the forest. This is why in the past nobles, whose compounds were traditionally located in the city center, could keep horses ( Jo G. G. A. Yoruba Culture. L., 1966. P. 112, 114).

39 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries... p. 154.

40 History of Africa... P. 344.

41 Ibid., p. 346.

42 Cit. по: The Archaeology of Africa... P. 96.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

Kubbel D. E. 45 Songhai Power, Moscow, 1974, p. 9.

46 Ibid., pp. 16, 85, 97.

47 West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford, 1976. P. 183.

48 Ibid. P. 158.

49 Arab sources of the X-XII centuries... p. 182.

50 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries... p. 77.

51 Ibid., p. 195.

52 History of Africa... P. 342.

53 Ibid., p. 387.

Hennig R. 54 Neizvestye zemli [Unknown Lands], Moscow, 1963, vol. 4, p. 349.

55 Sudanskiye khroniki [Sudan Chronicles], Moscow, 1984, pp. 98, 108.

The African lion. 56 Edict. op. p. 312.

57 Hausan texts from the Krause collection. Attached. In: Olderogge D. A. Western Sudan in the XV-XIX centuries. Ocherki po istorii i istorii kul'tury [Essays on the History and History of Culture], Moscow-L., 1960, p. 166.

58 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries... p. 195.

59 Cit. by: Hennig R. Edict. soch. 1962. Vol. 3. p. 300.

60 History of Africa... P. 390.

61 Sudanskiye khroniki [Sudan Chronicles], p. 55.

The African lion. 62 Edict. op. p. 307.

63 Ibid., p. 312.

64 Ibid., p. 313.

Clapperton H. 65 Op. cit. P. 59.

66 Fulbe Futa-Djallona, Moscow, 1976, p . 79.

67 Hausan texts ... pp. 175-189.

68 Lei African. Decree. op. p. 312.

69 Arab sources of the X-XII centuries... p. 182.

70 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries... p. 77.

71 Ibid., p. 286.

72 Sudanskiye khroniki [Sudan Chronicles], pp. 43-44.

73 History of Africa ... pp. 361, 362.

74 Sudanskiye khroniki [Sudan Chronicles], p. 99.

75 Ibid., p. 415. Note 113.

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Argile W. J. 76 The Fon of Dahomey. A History and Ethnography of the Old Kingdom. Oxford, 1966. P. 116.

77 West African Kingdoms... P. 197.

78 Ibid. P. 169.

Johnson S. 79 The History of the Yorubas. L., 1921. P. 56.

Bondarev D. G. 80 Kanuri mythforital complex: experience of reconstruction of dominant symbols. Cand. diss. (manuscript). St. Petersburg, 2000, pp. 63-66.

81 Ibid., p. 161.

82 Arab sources of the XII-XIII centuries... p. 214.

83 History of Africa... P. 342.

The African lion. 84 Edict. op. p. 306.

Kubbel L. E. 85 Edict. soch. P. 308.

86 Ibid., p. 427.

87 Ibid., p. 315.

Skalnik P. 88 Early States in the Voltaic Basin // The Early State. The Hague-Paris-New York, 1978. P. 487. Smith R. The Alafin in Exile: a Study of the Igboho Period in Oyo History // The Journal of African History. 1965. V. 6. N l. P. 72.

Nachtigall, 90 Sahara and Sudan. Moscow, 1987, p. 16.

Kiselev G. S. 91 Houses. Essays on Ethnic, social and political history, Moscow, 1981, p. 136.

92 Hausan texts ... pp. 149, 150.

Bosnian W. 93 A New and Accurate Description of the Coasts of Guinea // A Collection of Voyages and Travels. L., 1746. V. V. P. 398, 454; Barbot J. A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea; and the Ethiopia Interior, Vulgarly Angola // A Collection of Voyages and Travels.V. V. P. 351; Dalzel A. The History of Dahomey, an Inland Kingdom of Africa, Complied from Authentic Memoirs with Introduction and Notes. L., 1793. P. 14, 52, 73.

Johnson S. 94 Op. cit. P. 131.

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