The young men seated on their knees, with thighs and shoulders touching, move with the fluidity of an ocean wave that slowly swells, crests and breaks in a thunderous crash, only to recede back into the gentle depths of the sea.

Buzkashi (literally "goat pulling"), which is thought to have originated among the tribes of Northern Afghanistan who would raid each other’s camps and ride away with stolen livestock, is not for the feint of heart.

Contrary to common assumptions, questions about the value and nature of animals were taken seriously in pre-modern thought. Scholars have explored ancient Greek and Indian discussions of animals, but little attention has been paid to the contribution of Islamic culture, which produced for instance philosophical and scientific works on animals, moralizing fables featuring animal characters, and treatises on veterinary medicine and on the types and uses of animals. The project will uncover the changing conceptions of animals revealed in such works, taking an innovative approach which explores the interaction between descriptive and normative accounts of animals.