The first falconers were the rulers of the Arabs, Byzantines, Sassanians, Central Asians and Visigoths. An eighth-century site in Syria contains the earliest preserved image of a falconer in Islamic history, who is a prince or even a caliph.

Rulers are presented as the first to hunt with a particular species, such as saker falcons, peregrine falcons and hawks. Falconry was perceived as a universal practice of Eurasian leaders. It is among this upper social stratum that we can grasp falconry more easily, since it was those with ample economic resources who served as patrons of our sources.

For example, the Abbasid caliphs had a keen interest in the practice and theory of falconry. The popular book of Adham and al-Ghitrif is synonymous with the rulers al-Mahdi and Harun al-Rashid. Some had their own falconry books dedicated to them.

Arabic literature sheds light on the complex symbolism of falconry with stories about royal falconers. One story describes a Turkish king who observes a hawk in nature. When another bird passes the hawk, it kills and eats it. The ruler compares the hawk to a king who defends his territory and does not waste his food.

In another story, an Arab ruler watches a saker falcon pursuing a bird that has just been caught by a human hunter in a net. The saker is injured and the ruler oversees its recovery. The bird becomes more familiar with humans until it flew from the hand of a person to hunt prey.

Arabic falconry literature developed in a dynamic period in the Middle East in conjunction with the development of science, particularly during the Abbasid caliphate (which ruled from the eight-century until 1258).

As a vibrant capital, Baghdad attracted talent from afar. Subsequently, the caliphs inherited not only the contemporaneous cultures of the areas under their rule, but also their knowledge and practices. This is seen in the Abbasid translation movement when philosophical and scientific works were translated from Greek, Persian, Sanskrit and Syriac into Arabic.

Arabic falconry books cite foreign authorities such as Byzantines or Sassanians. If such texts were indeed translated, the original versions are not preserved. Abbasid authors may have wanted to present their knowledge as cosmopolitan and prestigious. It was not until the thirteenth century that Arabic falconry literature was in turn translated into Latin and Castilian. For example, the influential Moamin was translated into Latin for Frederick II.