One topic that keeps popping up on this blog is the culturally-rooted Arab notion of authenticity and purity in Arabian horses: the notion of an ‘asil’ Arabian. I have been trying to look at this notion from a number of different angles, and have written about it on several occasions (including here). I continue to grapple with this notion and my thinking about it keeps evolving. One way to understand the notion of an asil Arabian is to look at conceptually related notions, in particular the notions of ‘hajin’ and ‘kadish’. This entry focuses on ‘hajin’, and leaves the altogether different discussion of ‘kadish’ for a later time. Understanding what ‘hajin’ means may help to better understand ‘asil’. So what’s a ‘hajin’ horse, according to Bedouins and other Middle Eastern Arab breeders of Arabian horses? Simply put, a hajin (pronounce it hah-JEEN) is a horse of foreign, non-Arab blood, such as the English Thoroughbred, Kurdish, Turkmen or Barb horses. There is also an Arabic verb for this notion of hajin: hajjana. ‘Hajjana al-khayl’ is the act of mixing or interbreeding one’s asil horses with horses of non-Arab blood. The notion of tahjin (to cross one’s horses with hajeen horses) has…