A birdhawn from the Berbers

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.