The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History Book

This book caught my eye (because of the painting on the cover from the Akbarnama, a 16C manuscript showing a tiger hunt) in a University bookstore about a year ago; I had no reason to purchase it then but it looked vaguely interesting, so I picked it up, bought it, took it home and put it on a shelf, and forgot about it.

A few months ago, while researching the subject of dogs in Chinese art, I spotted it and opened it in the hope it might have some useful information on hunting dogs. What a gold mine of information! This is one of the richest, most informative books I've ever read that appears to be on one subject but which opens up hundreds of other areas for you to become lost in. I knew from previous research that one of the forefathers of modern Chinese gardens were hunting grounds--it's all here with excerpts from court records, European travellers who recorded their visits to these grounds, examples from diaries and paintings. I watched a saluki hound in Turkmenistan a few years ago racing after its owner on horseback and marvelled at its elegance and speed--author Allsen tells us the history of the saluki and explains the breeding that enabled it to become one of the fastest dogs bred specifically for desert hunts (and how to distinguish it from greyhounds). Readers learn that cheetahs are the most tameable of cats, perfect as hunting companions, and their special prowess is due to their bone structure that enables them to lurch more than run (think of horses galloping), to large nostrils that give them extra oxygen, to their tire-like padded claws that enable them to grip better as they run, and on and on.

This is a book that one can read cover-to-cover, or dip in and out of, chapter by chapter, to learn not only about royal hunts, but also animal breeding, social behaviour, courtly etiquette, power politics, historical periods, and the peculiarities of rulers from King Frederick II to Jahangir. The references lead you to other materials I, for one, would never have found on my own, including an especially helpful article "Rising from Blood-Stained Fields: Royal Hunting and State Formation in Shang China". It included anecdotes that for one odd reason or another I know I will one day be sharing somewhere (the Emperor Kangxi had special strawberry patches planted in his hunting grounds for the enjoyment of his guests). It reminded me through its extensive bibliography of many references and sources for my research I had forgotten in my own library. The richness of the content and the extent of the research that went into this volume fully warrants the book jacket's words: "This sweeping comparative work ranges from ancient Egypt to India under the Raj...with a magisterial command of contemporary sources literature, material culture, and archaeology."