Soft forelocks and soft dawny hair at the root of forelocks as a sign of authenticity of breeding
I have been working on a translation of Abu ‘Ubaydah al-Taymi’s (died 822-823 AD in Basra) masterful “Book of the Horse” for close to eight years now, on and off. I am doing for my friend Radwan Shabareq, on my free time — meaning some nights and some weekends, with Jeanne Craver as editor and Joe Ferriss as designer. All of us believe its publication will be a big deal.
Yassine raised the issue of the mysterious, hidden signs of purity by which Bedouins determined the purity of the Arabian horse. I have heard some of these from XXth century Bedouins, and written about them before (here), and ‘Ubayd al-Hafi al-‘Utaybi has also written about them on this blog (here), a few years back, and a fascinating conversation ensued.
Here is on one of these signs, by Abu ‘Ubaydah, some twelve hundred years ago. Translation mine (as part of the upcoming book).
Arabs like the forelocks [al-nasiyah] and the downy hair [al-zaghab] circling their root [al-shakir] to be soft, and the place from which the forelocks grow [al-’usfur] to subside; all this is for beauty.
The softness of the forelocks and the softness of the downy hair at their root are some of what indicates antiquity [‘itq, cf. ‘atiq] of origin; it is the clearest evidence of a horse’s antiquity of origin; he who feels it finds it like fine down [al-sukham] to the touch because of its softness; if there was a roughness to it, then the horse is not free of dishonorable cross-breeding with non-Arab bloodlines.
There are many more.
Thank you for sharing the translation, and the conversation, and your own investigation.
About the hidden signs : maybe they are “the sign of what is hidden”.
interesting subject matter..
Thank you ever so for you blog post.Much thanks again. Really Cool.
Anything about North African horses in this book ?
No. But a lot of descriptions of colors that don’t exist in Arabian horses today, so either he is talking about the colors of horses that are not Arabs or colors that used to exist in Arabians but do not exist anymore.
Are there piebald barbs? khou el-begra.
Very rare. I have seen some in Mali . Not black and white or red and white but grey and white, or mixed red-white and white. With blue eyes most of the time. Some people said that one of King Fahd half brother was very fond of them and used to take them to Saudi Arabia by plane ….
Même en français la robe de ces chevaux est difficile à décrire. Une robe majoritairement gris uni (ou rouan uni) avec de grandes éclaboussures blanches , et des sabots blancs. Une tête souvent rectangulaire et un corps plutôt large.
Ils étaient peu considérés . Et cette robe ne se rencontrait pas dans la région de Nara, la plus considérée .
j’ai vu beaucoup de chevaux de ces couleurs la tirer des carrioles au Caire.
Alors peut-être s’agit il d’une souche de Dongolas .
exactement, apres il faudra voir d’ou les Dongolas ont tire ces traits.