Below are three beautiful verses from famed pre-Islamic Arab poet al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani (535 AD -604 AD) about the desert Arabian horses of the Bedouin tribe of Asad. Al-Nabigha praises the tribe in this poem, and part of this exercise consists in praising its horses: fihim banatu al-‘asjadiyyi wa-lahiqin, wuruqan marakiluha min al-midmari yatahallabu al-ya’didu min ashdaqiha, sufuran manakhiruha min al-jarjari tushla tawabi’uha ila ullafiha, khababa al-siba’i al-wullahi al-abkari which in English, approximately translates into the following: [translation mine]: “Among them are the daughters of al-‘Asjadi and Lahiq, their flanks are grey from training Daisy juice drips from their cheeks, their nostrils are yellow from chewing on groundsels They call their young, who trot back to their mothers like worried adult leopards” It’s notoriously difficult to render the beauty of Arabic poetry in other languages, but these lines are particularly challenging to translate because they describe events and things tied to the particular context of pre-Islamic central Arabia. Some further explanation is due: “Them ” in the first verse refers to the Asad tribe. Al-‘Asjadi and Lahiq are famous pre-Islamic desert Arabian stallions from some 1500 years ago. This verse is proof of their actual existence. More about them later. The reason al-Nabigha…