🐆 WAS YAZĪD IBN MU’ĀWIYA THE FIRST TO HUNT WITH CHEETAHS? 🐆
📌 The Popular Claim
A claim circulates in lectures and pamphlets that Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiya was the first to hunt with cheetahs (fahd / فهد). On closer inspection of the classical Arabic sources, this is a misquotation ❌ — the actual narration is far more specific. 🔍
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📖 What The Classical Sources Actually Say
The definitive statement comes from Imām Shihāb al-Dīn al-Nuwayrī (d. 733 AH / 1333 CE) in his monumental Mamlūk-era encyclopaedia Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab (نهاية الأرب في فنون الأدب) — a 9,000-page Sunnī compendium of classical Arab knowledge. ✨
In the chapter “Fī al-Fahd” (On the Cheetah), he arranges the awā’il (firsts) of cheetah-hunting in a precise sequence:
🖋️ “The first person to hunt with a cheetah was Kulayb Wā’il, or perhaps Hammām ibn Murra. The first to carry a cheetah on a horse was Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiya ibn Abī Sufyān. The one most famous for sporting with cheetahs was Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī. The first to establish the practice of the hunting circle (ḥalqa) was al-Mu’taḍid bi’llāh.”
📚 — al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab, Bāb fī al-Fahd
So according to the classical Sunnī tradition itself, four distinct firsts are recorded — and Yazīd is credited with only one narrow, technical first. ☝️
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🏹 The Four Firsts In Cheetah-Hunting
1️⃣ First to hunt with a cheetah at all ➡️ Kulayb ibn Wā’il (or Hammām ibn Murra) — Pre-Islamic Jāhiliyya 🏜️
2️⃣ First to carry the cheetah on horseback ➡️ Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiya — Early Umayyad era 🐎
3️⃣ Most famous for sporting with cheetahs ➡️ Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī — Early Abbāsid era ⚔️
4️⃣ First to organise the hunting circle (ḥalqa) ➡️ al-Mu’taḍid bi’llāh — Late Abbāsid era 👑
🔎 Kulayb ibn Wā’il — chief of Banū Taghlib and the famed figure of the Ḥarb al-Basūs — lived more than a century before the advent of Islam. So even the Arabic tradition itself places the origin of cheetah-hunting firmly in the Jāhiliyya, not in Yazīd’s reign. ✅
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🌍 Cheetah-Hunting Long Predates Islam
The broader historical record confirms this: 🧐
🇪🇬 Ancient Egypt: Trained cheetahs appear as royal hunting animals in Pharaonic iconography going back to the Old Kingdom.
🇮🇷 Sasanian Persia: Firdawsī’s Shāhnāma records that King Bahrām V Gūr (r. 420–438 CE) trained captive cheetahs for the hunt — two centuries before Yazīd was born! ⏳
🐪 Pre-Islamic Arabia: As al-Nuwayrī records, the Arabs already knew the sport from Kulayb Wā’il and Hammām ibn Murra.
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💡 Summary
❌ Yazīd ibn Mu’āwiya was NOT the first to hunt with cheetahs.
✅ According to al-Nuwayrī’s Nihāyat al-Arab, he was the first to carry a trained cheetah behind him on horseback 🐎🐆 — a specific technical practice, not the origin of the sport itself.
🌐 Cheetah-hunting was already well-established in pre-Islamic Arabia, Sasanian Persia, and Pharaonic Egypt long before his time.
🤲 وَاللهُ تَعَالَىٰ أَعْلَم — And Allāh ﷻ knows best.
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📚 Book References
📖 al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb (d. 733 AH). Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab (نهاية الأرب في فنون الأدب), Vol. 9, Kitāb al-Ḥayawān, Bāb fī al-Fahd (“On the Cheetah”). Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, Cairo.
📖 Muhanna, Elias (trans.). The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World (abridged English translation of al-Nuwayrī). Penguin Classics, 2016.
📖 Firdawsī, Abū al-Qāsim. Shāhnāma — account of Bahrām V Gūr and the training of hunting cheetahs.
📖 Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006 — academic survey tracing cheetah-coursing from antiquity through the Islamic world.
#IslamicHistory #AhlusSunnah #ClassicalSources #Nuwayri #UmayyadHistory #MythBusting