This afternoon, I spent a good two hours with Hylke Hettema combing through her online version of al-Kitab al-Nasiri (The Complete Guide to the Professions of Veterinary Medicine and Horse Breeding, Called “The Nasiri Book”). This is the equestrian treatise which Nicolas Perron famously translated and published between 1852 and 1860 under “Le Naceri, la perfection des deux arts”. The book was written in 1333 CE by Abu Bark ibn Badr al-Din ibn al-Munthir al-Bitar, Master of Horses, for his boss, Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. Hylke and I were looking for an early mention of the word “asil” as applied to horses. We found several mentions, and made several other interesting discoveries and inferences. There is material for ten articles! One of the clearest mentions of the term “asil” as applied to horses occurs in the fifth chapter of the first book (page 8 in the link of Hylke): wa amma idha kaana al-fahlu asilan, wa-kaanat bihi ‘aahah kal-jardi wa-al-‘awari wa-al-kardi, fa inna haadhihi la tu’addi. Perron renders this sentence in French as follows (page 37 in the Gallica copy): “Mais si l’étalon, de race pure, est atteint de quelque maladie occasionnelle, si par exemple, il est glabre ou il…
This is my fourth and last attempt to breed — please don’t make fun of me — my lame, old, maiden mare SS Shadows Aana for a 2020 foal. She came in heat last week and Sue Moss had her bred by Jamr. We know he is fertile since another old mare of mine, Nuri, is in foal to him. Logs of previous attempts in 2016, 2017 and 2019 respectively here, here and here.