Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

Having established the popularity of falconry as a noble sport in the late Middle
Ages, and appreciated the unique relationship between birds of prey and humans, it is
time to see how this relationship affects their portrayal in literature, particularly, the
literature of love. First we will examine these images briefly in literature outside Italy.
If one is going to use hunting imagery in speaking of love, the image of falcons in
their capacity of fearsome hunters being used to illustrate the pursuit of the beloved may
seem both transparent and obvious. However, the origin of the association between the
formal practice of falconry and the view of falcons as emblems of noble love, or what
becomesPn arnors, is less clear. Daniela ~occassini~~ finds this association beginning in
Arab falconry treatises, where, starting in the ninth century when falconry became
popular in Arab culture, courtly hunting poetry and anecdotes are added to the manuals
that tell how to train falcons.60
Training a falcon teaches it to deny its instincts; instead of hunting when it wishes
for itself, it hunts when told, and brings back the prey to its master. Metaphorically, such
training can be extended to the human denial of instinct; one who agrees to submit to a
king, though powerful, i.e. a nobleman, is like a falcon who hunts against its instinct.
Indeed one who submits to God is also like a falcon, agreeing to live to serve one's
master. Boccassini cites a passage from Abdfi'l-Majd Majdtid SanU, a 12th-century
writer, that is worth repeating here?
He draws thee to Himself by the kindness of the noose. If thou comest not, He
calls thee towards Himself; He offers thee Paradise in His kindness, but because
thou livest in this abode of sorrow, thou of thy folly hast taken the road of flight.
Thou art as a shell for the pearl of the belief in the Unity (. . .); if thou guard that
59 Boccassini, I1 volo della mente, 229 ff.
60 A good example of this is the Kitab al-Bayzara, a treatise written around 995 A.D. by the falconer of the
Caliph al-'Aziz bi-llah, ed. Franqois Vire (Leiden: E. H. Brill, 1967).
61 Boccassini, 239.