The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

No records or delineations of the horse have been found in any of the temples or tombs of Egypt prior to the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, which was probably about the year 1570 B.C. and contemporaneous with the birth of Moses. If the Shepherd Kings left behind them any records or delineations of the horse it would be quite natural for the true kingly line to destroy and erase every vestige of whatever would revive a memory to them so bitter and hateful. But the absence of all traces of horses under the seventeenth dynasty of the Shepherds does not prove that there was none, for we have direct proof in Joseph’s case that they were there one hundred and fifty-six years, and in Jacob’s burial one hundred and nineteen years before the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty.

The question as to the time when they procured their horses having now been approximately settled, the inquiry naturally follows as to where they came from? In answering this question there seems to be no hesitation or doubt. They came from Northern Syria, which embraces not only the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean, including Phœnicia, but the countries north and east of it trading there, which means the great horse-breeding countries of Armenia and Cappadocia. Being largely engaged in the Egyptian trade for many centuries, it is probable the Phœnician merchants were the principal agents in supplying them. In speaking of the horse in Egypt, Prof. Maspero says: “The horse when once introduced into Egypt soon became fairly adapted to its environment. It retained both its height and size, keeping the convex forehead—which gave the head a slightly curved profile—the slender neck, the narrow hind-quarters, the lean and sinewy legs and the long, flowing tail which had characterized it in its native country. The climate, however, was enervating, and constant care had to be taken, by the introduction of new blood from Syria, to prevent the breed from deteriorating. The Pharaohs kept studs of horses in the principal cities of the Nile valley, and the great feudal lords, following their example, vied with each other in the possession of numerous breeding stables.”

There are some facts here that are worthy of special emphasis: (1) There were no horses in Egypt till the period of the Shepherd Kings, i. e., about the time of Joseph. (2) All Egyptologists down to the present day agree that the supply of Egyptian horses was procured from Northern Syria. (3) The Egyptians and the Arabians were adjoining nations in constant, friendly intercourse, exchanging the products of their respective countries, and yet there is no shadow of an intimation that the Arabians had then ever owned a horse. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, not only from what is written, but from what is implied, that the Arabians at about the period of 1600 B.C. had no horses. Northern Syria, as the source of Egyptian supply, points directly to Armenia, adjoining on the east, as the original source. When Strabo wrote at the beginning of the Christian era that there were no horses in Arabia at that time, he would still have been within the bounds of the truth if he had said there had been none there for more the sixteen hundred years before his day. All these considerations confirm the history that has come down to us from Philostorgius.

As early as the dynasties of the Shepherd Kings and while the Israelites were still in Egyptian bondage, the Phœnician merchants had accumulated great wealth and great power and were literally the masters of the seas. The Phœnicians were a commercial and maritime people and the Egyptians were, in fact, dependent upon them for all their foreign supplies. These conditions leave hardly a doubt that Egypt’s first supply of horses came through the Phœnicians. But upon the establishment of the eighteenth dynasty under the old Thebans, the spirit of war and conquest revived, and under Thutmosis I. and Thutmosis III., notably, numerous and successful campaigns were made against Northern Syria and then extending eastward across the Euphrates into the borders of Armenia and Assyria. And from the number of horses and chariots captured in battle and collected as tribute, the careful student cannot avoid the conclusion that this kind of spoil was the chief incentive to the various campaigns. “Besides the usual species,” Maspero informs us, “powerful stallions were imported from Northern Syria, which were known by the Semitic name of Abiri, the strong.” This is the first mention in history of an improved type of horse noted for his strength.

Whatever may have been the precise period in which the Patriarch Job lived, he was the author of the grandest panegyric on the war-horse that ever was written. Yet it seems strange that he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she asses, but did not own a horse. To draw his picture of the war-horse he must have seen him in action, on the field, and it is not improbable in his younger days he witnessed, or possibly participated in, some great battle between the Babylonians and the Persians, north of the latitude and country in which he lived. It is now generally conceded, I think, among learned men that the “land of Uz” was in the southeastern portion of Arabia Deserta, bordering on the Persian Gulf, where the horse is a useless luxury. Job was a very rich man, he certainly did not lack in admiration of the horse, and if he had thought that horses would add to his comfort and enjoyment he could easily have obtained them from the great herds in the north. But the camel is the great beast of service and utility in Arabia; it was so in Job’s time, it is so to-day, and it always will be so because it is suited to the environment.

When Joshua was subduing the tribes of Canaan, B.C. 1450, he found that the Phœnicians had several well-fortified cities and did not attack them, but he encountered a combination of “Northern Kings” with a vast army and “with horses and chariots very many.” His victory was complete, and he houghed their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

Jabin, called the King of Canaan, in the time of the Judges, had his kingdom on the northern border of Palestine and east of Phœnicia, at the southern extension of Mount Lebanon. Sisera, one of the greatest commanders of the time, B.C. 1285, commanded his army and he had nine hundred chariots of iron, but the victory of the Israelites was complete.

In the year B.C. 1056, David pursued some of the tribes of Western Arabia that had made a raid on Southern Palestine and carried away many captives and much spoil. He overtook them with his own followers and subdued them, and none escaped except four hundred young men who fled on camels. He recovered all the captives and brought back all the flocks and herds, but there were no horses among them. About the same time, historians inform us, the tribes of Eastern Arabia were paying their tribute to the Assyrians in camels and asses, while the northern countries were paying theirs in horses and money.

The Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon B.C. 992, to learn of his wisdom and “to prove him with hard questions.” Her kingdom was in that part of southeastern Arabia now called Yemen, bordering on the Red Sea. Her journey was a very long one and she “came with a very great train of camels that bare spices and very much gold and precious stones.” It will be observed that there were no horses in this “very great train.” It will be observed further, from the incidents above related, that whenever the Israelites met their neighbors north of them, whether in peace or war, they met horses with them; and whenever they met their neighbors south of them, they were mounted only on camels.

When the dominions of Solomon had become vastly extended, embracing numbers of tributary kingdoms, as well as nomadic tribes, and when his ships had gathered in untold riches from all parts of the world, he found it prudent to reorganize his army for the defense of his kingdom and his wealth, and on a scale commensurate with the dangers that might arise from a combination of the jealous and envious neighbors with whom he was surrounded. Among the northern kingdoms of that day it had been often demonstrated in battle that the effective force of an army must be estimated by its strength in horsemen and chariots of war. Solomon, therefore, bought horses and chariots from Egypt, and horses from all lands that had them for sale. It is probable that the superiority of the Egyptian chariots was the special reason for buying them in that country, as he paid six hundred shekels of silver for the chariots and one hundred and fifty for the horses to bring them home. The reorganized army consisted of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and they were quartered in the different large cities in his dominions. In the interval of seven hundred and twenty-eight years that had elapsed since Joseph was Prime Minister, and horses introduced in Egypt, they had greatly multiplied. When Solomon died and his kingdom was divided into two hostile camps, Hiram, King of Tyre, his lifelong friend and associate, became virtually his successor to the trade of the world.