Die Edelvögel der Fürsten von Hama

For over 500 years, people in the Fertile Crescent practised a hitherto unexplored sport in the form of a hunt for 14 precisely defined species of bird with a bow that shot bullets. The birds were exhibited as trophies. This strictly regulated sport continued the tradition of futuwwah, ‘young manhood’, which was introduced around 1200 by the caliph an-Nāṣir. (1180–1225). It was reflected in numerous literary texts, but also met with criticism due to its cross-class circle of participants. In this study, the sport's ornithological, technical and social backgrounds and its literary aspects are explained, and, in addition to texts by Ibn Nubātah and others, the book contains a risālah by Ṣafiyyaddīn al-Ḥillī and a maqāmah by aṣ-Ṣafadī al-Barīdī, which are edited and translated here for the first time.