Sassanian riding a horse, facing backwards

[Druzhina]

Moya Catherine Carey uses a silver-gilt plate (Sasanian period) Iran Bastan Museum 1275, Tehran, for the typical costume on Sasanian royal hunting plates:


It has the king sitting backwards on the horse. This is unusual as other Sassanid and post Sassanid plates have figures making Parthian shots mounted normally. For example:



Turushev plate, A Sasanian King Hunting Lions, 310-320 CE, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg


Hormizd plate, A Sasanian King Hunting Lions, 5th-6th Century, The Cleveland Museum of Art 1962.150


Ufa plate, Sasanian King Hunting Mountain Sheep, 1st half 7th century, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg


Post Sasanian or Khorosanian Dish with hunting scene, 7th-9th century, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg


Did they ride facing backwards? Is Iran Bastan Museum 1275 plate indeed Sasanian? Does it have a better dating?

Mirror site:
Silver-gilt plate (Sasanian period) Iran Bastan Museum 1275, Tehran

Druzhina
Plates with figures from Persia and Central Asia

[Temüjin]

in my opinion the artist of the plate made a mistake, maybe because he has never seen a parthian Shot himself. while it's indeed possible to ride and shot this way, it makes no sense to do so as the Parthian Shot is entirely sufficient to cover the rear end of a horse archer's firing angle.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

I also suspect an artistic mistake here, as all the other examples show the archers doing the Parthian shot.

[Druzhina]

Was there a cultural humiliation in riding backwards?

As an example from 16th century India: Hamid Bakari is punished by being mounted backwards on an ass. A Moghul illumination in the Akbarnama.

An example from 16th century Ottoman Empire.

I Turchi. Codex Vindobonensis 8626

Druzhina
Moghul Illustrations of Costume and Soldiers

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Yes, it was in the Ottoman Empire.

[Druzhina]

Jul 29, 2017 22:41:04 GMT 3 H. İhsan Erkoç said:

Yes, it was in the Ottoman Empire.

Is there any evidence that this was derived from steppe culture?

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Jul 31, 2017 4:30:59 GMT 3 Druzhina said:

Is there any evidence that this was derived from steppe culture?

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Unfortunately I have no information on that.