I also read “the Horse” by Al-Asma’i today. I came across this mention: It was mentioned that Hisham [the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, died in 743 CE] said: “I desire to see al-Dhaa’id [a horse] defeated. So they brought him a birdhawn of the Berbers [birdhawn barbari], called al-Mukatib, after a disease had weakened the legs of al-Dhaa’id, who had been undefeated for twenty years. He put them together […]. They tied and he [al-Mukatib] did not outdistance him at all. We have here an indication that by ca. 740 CE, the horses of the Berbers, however fast they were, were considered birdhawn. These would be the ancestors of today’s Barb horse. The Barb is the historical horse of the Berbers.
Today I read Hisham Ibn al-Kalbi’s (d. 819 CE) “Horse Lineages in the Jahiliyyah and Islam” from cover to cover. It is a a quick read, and the earliest of the Arabic books on horses. I was looking for specific things, but I found this fascinating story, about a specific horse named al-Dubayb. My translation: Al-Dubayb: the horse of Hassaan ibn Hanzhalah al-Taa’i. He carried Khosrow Anushirvan [on his back] when he [i.e., Khosrow] was defeated by Bahram Chobin, so he [i.e., Khosrow] survived. And there was a long story about him. So Hassaan ibn Hanzhalah recited: “I avoided Khosrow being trounced; I was not going // to leave him looking for a horse on foot! I offered him the chest of al-Dubayb // as the mare of the Turks and Kabul went off” Khorsow’s birdhawn had reared and thrown him. When his reign stabilized, Hassaan came to see him [i.e., see Khosrow], and he [i.e., Khosrow] granted him the district [tassuj] of Khutarnia. This amazing story relates how Hassaan ibn Hanzhalah, an Arab knight from the tribe of Tay in the army of Sassanian Persian King Khorsow, saved the king in battle by putting him on his horse and…