G. E. Leachman, “Njayman”

Check out the Wikipedia page of Captain G.E. Leachman, the British explorer, army officer, political officer and above all, spy. Photo below, disguised as a Bedouin. The Bedouins, who feared him, called him Njayman. His murder in 1920 in Abu Ghraib by Dari al-Mahmud, Shaykh of the Shammar Zawba’, is a famous episode in Bedouin lore. It sparked the Arab revolt in Iraq. The article says Dari’s son Khamis shot him in the back over a disagreement over a local robbery. Bedouin lore perpetuates a different explanation: Njayman insulted Dari and Khamis killed Leachman with his sword in revenge. The episode is worth a book. I am not surprised Saddam Hussein financed a movie based on it. Modern descendants of Dari’s horses of the Saqlawi Jadran strain, and to a lesser extent, the Dahman Amer strain, are famous in the North Arabian desert, and a regular fixture on this blog.