In the medieval era, the Gyrfalcon was considered a
royal bird. The geographer and historian
Ibn Said al-Maghribi (d. 1286) described certain northern
Atlantic islands west of
Ireland where these falcons would be brought from, and how the Egyptian
Sultan paid 1,000
dinars for each Gyrfalcon (or, if it arrived dead, 500 dinars).
[8] Due to its rarity and the difficulties involved in obtaining it, in
European falconry the Gyrfalcon was reserved for kings and nobles; very rarely was a man of lesser rank seen with a Gyrfalcon on his fist.
[9]
In the 12th century AD China, swan-hunting with Gyrfalcons (???
h?id?ngq?ng in Chinese) obtained from the
Jurchen tribes became fashionable among the
Khitan nobility. When demand for Gyrfalcons exceeded supply, the
Liao Emperor imposed a tax payment-in-kind of Gyrfalcons on the Jurchen; under the
last Liao emperor, tax collectors were entitled to use force to procure sufficient Gyrfalcons. This was one cause of the Jurchen rebellion, whose leader
Wányán ?g?d? annihilated the Liao empire in 1125, and established the
J?n Dynasty in its stead.
[10]
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