An overview of the historical development of the wooden horse play and its mythological roots as one of the forms of puppetry in Iran

The wooden horse play is a set of traditional and ritual puppetry performed in different regions of Iran using skirted wooden horses. There is no much historic information about the origin of these shows in Iran, and a few researches which has been done only indicates the areas and methods of the performances in different regions of Iran. The present study examines the first examples of this kind of performance mentioned in Pahlavi, Persian and Arabic texts through the library research method and historical research, and then tries to find the roots of this performance through mythological analysis in Indo-European culture. At the end of the research, the hypothesis is proposed that the wooden horse play has its roots in the horse totem in Indo-European culture and later became popular as a play under the name of saddle play or Korra in Iran and then spread across the Arabian Peninsula (Hejaz) into the Islamic world.