An Emaciated Horse

mid 17th century

In Sufi poetry, the ego is often represented by the metaphor of a horse (as seen here) that is starved and humiliated, suggesting the training necessary to transport its rider (the soul) to the desired destination. This theme, which was meant to remind viewers that the physical world is transient while the soul is eternal, was a popular subject in sixteenth-century Iran and seems to have spread to India in the seventeenth century. It may have been inspired by similar depictions in China, where the image of the horse was often used to represent humans and their behavior. Such images probably reached the Islamic world after the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century.