La question des parcs de chasse à l’époque abbasside : le cas emblématique de Sâmarrâ’

• Main Author: Chloé Capel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2012-02-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Subjects: Baghdâd; Bisutun; Bizerte; enclosure; hunt; paradeisoi
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/7456

In spite of the sizeable quantity of information collected from the medieval literature and the archaeological investigations, the caliphal city of Sâmarrâ’ still brings up many questions. Four large enclosures whose function remains unknown are among the most enigmatic structures of this huge site. Considering them as hunting parks is convincing, but does this hypothesis survive a confrontation with a thorough survey of the hunt in the context of an enclosed area, in the first centuries of Islam? As a consequence, this study attemps to take an inventory and main features of hunting parks in the Islamic world as a means to get some clues for characterizing the Samarran enclosures, far beyond the hunting park myth which emerges from the historiography. The first conclusions, on the one hand, would suggest serious doubts about the common existence of parks dedicated to hunting activities among the Islamic elite, and would suggest, on the other hand, multiple uses of the Samarran structures, where hunting practices would be only limited or seasonal.