Nisean horse

The Nisean horse, or Nisaean horse, is an extinct horse breed once native to the plains near modern-day Hamadan, Iran.

Described as the "superhorse of antiquity", it was the most prized breed in the history of ancient Persia due to its beauty, large size, and speed.

Sources

The Nisean horses are known mainly from textual and iconographical sources. The breed was mentioned in texts as far as China. The first written reference to the Nisean horse was in around 430 BCE, in Herodotus' Histories:

"In front of the king went first a thousand horsemen, picked men of the Persian nation then spearmen a thousand, likewise chosen troops, with their spearheads pointing towards the ground – next ten of the sacred horses called Nisaean, all daintily caparisoned. (Now these horses are called Nisaean, because they come from the Nisaean plain, a vast flat in Media, producing horses of unusual size.)"

The Nisean horse was first mentioned in great detail by A.T. Olmstead, in his History of the Persian Empire.

Origin

The Nisaean plain, surrounding Ecbatana (modern Hamadan)

The Median plains produced the finest horses in the Achaemenid Empire, and those of the royal stud were picked from them. Median plains at Nush-i Jan near Hamadan have produced remains of horses of varied sizes "from ponies or miniature horses that stood 1.05-1.10 m to horses standing over 1.50 m at the withers, with the majority standing 1.35-1.37m, and variation from light to heavy types". The Nisean horses were the most prized among them, celebrated for their beauty, large size, and speed. Alfalfa, an ideal fodder for horses, grew prolifically in these plains.

The Nisean horses came from the Nisaean plains (Nīšāya, Nisāya, Nesā), which is located at the site of Harunabad (Shahabad, modern-day Eslamabad-e Gharb in Kermanshah Province), on the road between Hulwan and Hamadan in Media. The town of Nisaia, is located at the foot of the southern region of the Zagros Mountains, Iran.

The Nisean plains had around 160,000 horses in the Achaemenid period, but the number was reduced to 60,000 in the reign of Alexander.

During the reign of Darius, Nisean horses were bred from Armenian Highlands to Sogdiana. The Nisean horse was so sought after that the Greeks (mainly, the Spartans) imported Nisean horses and bred them to their native stock, and many nomadic tribes (such as the Scythians) in and around the Persian Empire also imported, captured, or stole Nisean horses.[citation needed]

Description

Shapur I's victory relief at Naqsh-e Rostam is believed to depict a Nisean horse.

The Nisean horses were highly regarded for their bravery, tenacity, speed, large size, stamina, and beauty. Elwyn Hartley Edwards in The New Encyclopedia of the Horse described the breed as the "superhorse of antiquity".

According to Strabo, "Their shape is peculiar, as is that of the Parthian horses, compared with those of Greece and others in our country".

The Nisean horse was said[by whom?] to have come in several colors, including common colors such as dark bay, chestnut and seal brown, but also rarer colors such as black, roan, palomino, and various spotted patterns. The ancient Nisean horse was said to have had "not the slender Arabian head of the Luristan Culture but a more robust one that was characteristic of the great warhorse". This suggests the Nisean may have been a descendant of the "forest horse" prototype.[citation needed] The Nisean, according to one source,[who?] was "tall and swift, and color adorned his sides. The Chinese called the breed the tian ma – heavenly horse or Soulon-vegetarian dragon. Some were spotted, like a leopard or, as golden as a newly minted coin. Others were red and blue roan with darker color.[citation needed]

Use

The Nisean horses were used to carry the royal Achaemenid chariot, took part in Mithraic religious rituals, and in official ceremonies.

The Nisean and Ferghana horses had symbolic sacred role for royal legitimacy. Images of Nisean horses with a horn-like growth on their foreheads appeared on royal seals and coins from the Seleucid era.

Some later scholarship has connected the Nisean tradition of horn-like forehead growths with broader Eurasian descriptions of elite horses. A 2026 study by Olzhas Ospanov compared the Nisean and Ferghana "heavenly horse" traditions, arguing that both were associated with large size, speed, stamina, elite warfare, and high social rank. The study discusses Nisean horses with horn-like forehead growths in Seleucid-era royal imagery alongside Chinese textual descriptions of elite horses with a frontal protuberance. The authors suggest that these traditions may be understood within a wider Eurasian tradition of elite, sacred, and royal horses.

Olmstead also wrote that the Assyrians started their spring campaigns, by attacking the Medes for their horses. The Medes were the breeders of the first Nisean horses.

Describing the horses of the Parthian cavalry, Strabo notes that they were distinct from those of the Greek world, but similar to the Nisean horses of the Achaemenid kings. The Romans had their first encounter with the Nisean and the Parthian cataphract at the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC) when General Crassus went up against the great Parthian General Surena. After Crassus fell to the Parthians, his head and standards were presented to Orodes II. In 36 BC, Mark Antony avenged Crassus's death by launching a campaign against Media Atropatene with 16 legions. At his disposal were 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, drawn from as far away as Gaul and Spain. Of these, 30,000 were Roman Legionnaires. When the Parthians would not give him the battle he wanted, he ravaged Armenia, and brought back the Armenian King Artavasdes to Egypt. Among the prized possessions taken were the first Nisean horses in Rome. When Antony died, these horses fell into the hands of Augustus. According to Michael Decker in the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, Nisaean horses were the most famous Iranian breed.

A ritually buried stallion from Parthian period was discovered in Armenia, which suggests similarities to a Nisean horse.

Sasanian metalwork depicting a Nisean horse.

The Nisean horses continued to be the most famous breed in the Sasanian period, which was favored most along with a small traditional breed.

The Nisean horse was likely the ancestor of the Turkoman horse. Modern horse breeds such as the Thoroughbred are considered to have some Nisean roots. Many hippologues consider Rakhsh, the stallion of the legendary Iranian hero Rostam, to be a Nisean horse.

Historical events

References

  1. 1 2 Nachmias, A.; Bar-Oz, G.; Nadel, D.; Petrosyan, I.; Gasparyan, B. (27 October 2021). "A Monumental Horse Burial in the Armenian Highlands". Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 49 (3): 41–50. doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.3.041-050.
  2. ↑ Hanson, Chris (1 January 2020). "SYNCHRONY: AN ASPECT OF THE ABILITIES OF STEPPE HORSE ARCHERS IN EURASIAN WARFARE (525 BCE – 1350 CE)". Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers.
  3. ↑ Herodotus, Histories, 7.40.2-3
  4. ↑ Olmstead, A. T. History of the Persian Empire. University of Chicago Press. 1948
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Shahbazi, Alireza Shapur. "ASB i. In Pre-Islamic Iran". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  6. ↑ Aḥsan, ʻAbdushshakūr (1992). Studies in Persian Language and Literature. Bazm-e-Iqbal. p. 44.
  7. ↑ Edwards, Elwyn Hartley (1987). Horses: Their Role in the History of Man. Willow Books. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-00-218216-4.
  8. ↑ Strabo noted that both Media and Armenia were adapted for breeding fine horses. He again states (11.14.9) that the Nisaean type was bred in Armenia also, adding: "the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia 20,000 foals at the time of the festival of Mithracina (Mehregan)".
  9. ↑ "Nisaia". Archived from the original on 2013-02-11. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  10. ↑ Bläsing, Uwe; Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (15 May 2020). Cultural, Linguistic and Ethnological Interrelations In and Around Armenia. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-5275-5136-7.
  11. ↑ Amjadi, M. A.; Yeganeh, H. M.; Sadeghi, M.; Abbas Raza, S. H.; Yang, J.; Najafabadi, H. A.; Batool, U.; Shoorei, H.; Abdelnour, S. A.; Ahmed, J. Z. (2021). "Microsatellite Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Iranian Kurdish Horse". Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. 98 103358. doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103358. PMID 33663714.
  12. ↑ Chidwick, Hannah-Marie (2024). The Body of the Combatant in the Ancient Mediterranean. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 92.
  13. 1 2 Markman, Sidney David (1969). The Horse in Greek Art. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8196-0247-3.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Olzhas, Ospanov; Alan, Vincelette (June 2026). "Galloping Across Realms: Scientific and Symbolic Interpretations of the Eurasian 'Heavenly Horse' and Other Galloping Horses in Art". Arts. 15 (6). doi:10.3390/arts15060116. ISSN 2076-0752.
  15. ↑ Edwards, Elwyn Hartley (2000). The New Encyclopedia of the Horse. Dorling Kindersley. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7894-7181-9.
  16. ↑ Ospanov, Olzhas; Vincelette, Alan (2026-05-29). "Galloping Across Realms: Scientific and Symbolic Interpretations of the Eurasian "Heavenly Horse" and Other Galloping Horses in Art". Arts. 15 (6): 116. doi:10.3390/arts15060116. ISSN 2076-0752.
  17. ↑ Olmstead, A. T. History of the Persian Empire. University of Chicago Press. 1948[citation needed]
  18. ↑ Decker, Michael (2018). "horses and donkeys". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
  19. ↑ "TURKMEN CULTURAL TREASURE AND HISTORIC SYMBOL" (PDF). Aeterna. ISSN 2541-8076. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  20. ↑ Amjadi, Motahareh Ala; Yeganeh, Hassan Mehrbani; Sadeghi, Mostafa; Abbas Raza, Sayed Haidar; Yang, Jinmeng; Najafabadi, Hamed Amirpour; Batool, Uzma; Shoorei, Hamed; Abdelnour, Sameh A.; Ahmed, Jam Zaheer (March 2021). "Microsatellite Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Iranian Kurdish Horse". Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. 98 103358. doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103358. PMID 33663714.
  21. ↑ Bläsing, Uwe; Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (15 May 2020). Cultural, Linguistic and Ethnological Interrelations In and Around Armenia. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5275-5136-7.
  22. ↑ The unit was either Iranian cavalrymen from Media, or cavalrymen from elsewhere who were armed in the Median manner. Wójcikowski, R. S. (10 December 2019). "A Grazing Horse and a Mare with a Foal-Achaemenid Motives in the Coinage of Antiochus III the Great?". Parseh Journal of Archaeological Studies. 3 (9): 129–138. doi:10.30699/PJAS.3.9.129.

Further reading