Horse Stirrups

A simple metal or wooden fixture in the sole of a horse’s rider’s foot, the stirrup has been one of the most underappreciated military technologies of all time. The paired iron stirrups of the Mongol saddle were designed to be used in conjunction with a high-pommel wooden saddle. This allowed the warrior to lock his feet into the stirrups and stand upright in the saddle with his upper body free to turn in any direction. Thus the ‘Parthian Shot’ became possible – firing an arrow backwards over his shoulder while riding in the opposite direction. And he could do this for hours on end.

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Importance to the Empire

The stirrups of the Mongol Army played a huge part in the immense mobility of their troops. They were a fundamental aspect of the tactics that the Mongols employed to crush their enemies, combining the power of the horse with that of the rider. Above all the stirrups allowed the precision archery from moving horses at high speed, that the Mongols used to such devastating effect. The army of Genghis was able to travel 80 to 100 miles a day, arrive at a distance in a very short space of time and then concentrate their troops on the enemy. In this way the Mongols were able to defeat opponents who greatly outnumbered them.

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The Yam System

As for the importance of stirrups to the Silk Road, they were the foundation for the Mongol’s Yam system, the world’s first international postal service. Mongol couriers knew that their endurance on horseback was key to this system’s success.

They could travel for days and then jump off their horses at a relay station and, after a few minutes, be off again on another stage of their long journey. All news, decrees and taxes were dispatched across the vast stretches of the Empire in a matter of weeks.

And it was the simple stirrup that provided the courier’s endurance to keep the communication lines open on the Silk Road. Thus the stirrup created a system that joined the East to the West in economic terms. ³

Technological Expansion

The Mongol Empire was instrumental in the spread of the stirrup, a tool that was found in China much earlier but initially offered little advantage. The strong, paired iron stirrups used by the Mongol warriors, the famous mounted archers, gave a degree of stability, unmatched by earlier designs.

The Mongols roamed the length and breadth of the Silk Road and so took the technology west to Western Eurasia. There it brought a revolution in warfare, and caused armies to change or die. The powerful, stable stirrups allowed for rapid mounted charges and a number of complex new tactics that were all to be used by cavalry.

The equestrian revolution brought about by these stirrups was to have a profound effect on the face of warfare and lead to the development of the Western knight in the form of the knight. ⁴

Bibliography

• Bayarsaikhan, Jamsranjav, et al. 2024. “The Origins of Saddles and Riding Technology in East Asia: Discoveries from the Mongolian Altai.” Antiquity 98 (397): 102–18. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.172.
• Williamson, Alayna. 2020. “Technological Developments in the Mongol Empire.” Clemson.edu. Pressbooks. July 29, 2020. https://opentextbooks.clemson.edu/sciencetechnologyandsociety/chapter/technological-developments-in-the-mongol-empire/.
• Ferragamo, Federico. 2022. “Technological Spread from Central Eurasia.” ArcGIS StoryMaps. Esri. December 17, 2022. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a3ed74e646844a0f995981d5e24823d8.
• Norman, Jeremy. n.d. “Genghis Kahn Installs a Postal System within the Mongol Empire and China : History of Information.” Historyofinformation.com. https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3043.
• Pittard, Dana. 1986. “Genghis Khan and 13th-Century AirLand Battle.” Www.armyupress.army.mil. July 1986. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/Directors-Select-Articles/Genghis-Khan/.
• Stirrup, 16th-17th Century, The Met, New York City, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/35172