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Reading Raswan |
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THE IMMORTAL FRIEZES of the Parthenon had once been covered with subjects chosen from Attic mythology, riders and horses of the Panathenaic Festival. These ancient masters were famous for the faithful likeness of hteir work to the original, to the perfect form, and loving horses as I did I was filled with a deep certainty that these models were not creations of human imagination, but must haved lived on this earth. |
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| I longed to touch the broken stones of the Parthenon; all that was
left in marble by the master, Phidias, who had not only conceived the sacred
temple, but had designed and supervised, and with his own hands helped
to create this majestic work, and all its details.
Fragments alone remained of the statuary, and some of the parts of the pediments and friezes with the Thessalian horses (a cross with a Scythian breed), but there in Greece was let down into my heart a desire to search for the perfect horse in Desert Arabia. This thought of the ideal creature urged me on to live with the Bedouins of Arabia until I ws rewarded in my quest, and I found the living horses of antiquity, as perfect and beautiful as my eyes had seen them on the frieze of the Parthenon.
It is neither bold nor challenging to credit the Arabian horse with perfection. Those "fanatics" among the desert people who breed Arabian horses for "Purity" only--for the love of seeing the finest blood perpetuated--judge a horse from its HEAD first. Desirable are (in the classic-antique type): A pyramidal (wedge) shaped skull--a convex (bulging, shield-like) forehead--a concave nasal profile line ("dish-face")--large "liquid" dark eyes of oval shape set deep down towards the middle of the skull--the diagonal cut of the nostrils is very important: with the "wrinkle"(or "edge") of the nostrils starting above the profile line of the face--also a firm, small lower lip (receding backward)--and laarge disk-like jawbones with great width between the jowls are essential. The head must "fit" the horse; it should "match" harmoniously into the total (complete) picture of the animal. A "plain" head becomes a "plain" horse better than one with extremely Arabian characteristics. A "gazelle" head goes well with an arched neck, high tail carriage and a "deer-like" small, refined (graceful) body. In other (not Arabian) breeds we find identically related parts of the animal's body too. For example: A heavy boned "Roman-nosed"(aggressive) profile-line of the head is well sjuited for the bold big-boned Irish Hunter. An "upturned" Arabian profile would look "miserable" on a hunter. |
Two Arabians of the classic (Antique) type in America. Top, Raffles, Kuhaylan (masculine) type, Short and wide head. Lower, Mirage, Saqlawi (Feminine type) wide and somewhat longer head |
| Among the Arabians the KUHAYLAN (masculine type) has the shortest
and widest (broadest) head with the most details (fine tracery of veins,
wrinkles, "bumps," bulges, "tear-bones," etc.) "engraved"
upon its intelligent features.
The SAQLAWI (feminine type) has almost the same (antique or classical) head as the Kuhaylan, except that the skull of the Saqlawi (and Saqlawi-related strains) is somewhat longer. The HAMDANI (belongs to the Kuhaylan strain) has a long, fleshy head wiht almost level (straight) profile-line, but very intelligent expression of eyes. The eyes in fact are like all Kuhaylan: exquisite (huge, with "soulful" gentle character revealed in their orbs.). The nostrils of the Hamdani are very fine and much dilated. The Hamdani head is ideally right with the long, level body (exceptional long hind-quarters, "eggshaped") and powerful, long muscles. Tail carriage is good, but not extreme like the Kuhaylan or Saqlawi. The HADBAN (also belongs ot the Kuhaylan) has a short, extremely wide and level head(hardly any "bulge" or "dish"), but otherwise with every Arabian characteristic (huge eyes, fine nostrils, disk-like jowls, etc.). The Hadban has corresponding conformation: level topline of body and broad (wide) from front, short-coupled, tail carriage not extreme. The MU'NIQI (Race-strain) has the largest, longest and plain head of all Arabians. The Mu'niqi heaad is in harmony with the extremely long (angular) and somewhat coarse lines of its racing body: long, straight neck, legs and long lines between fore and hind legs. The indwelling gentle spirit of Arabian horses finds expresssion in their intelligent, sympathetic features, the glory of their beautiful countenqance and in their soulful eyes. |
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| Of such beauty are all "celestial" beings, the Arabs say,
and their "meditating" horses are no exception.
I mentioned in previous articles the "MULUQ," the "Angel"-horses of the desert, with their contemplating eyes, and I spoke of ishmael, who according to Bedouin tradition was the first man in Arabia to acquire a wild horse in the red Nufud desert. The Bedouins in their black goat-hair tents and when riding in their company on The Bedouins in their black goat-hair tents and when riding in their company on Ghazu (raid), often brought up the name of their ancestor Ishmael to me as of a divine authority. It was to pre-Islamic history and legend they would call my attention. There is so much in their oral transmission of ancient knowledge about Arabian horses which should interest us too. They call for example the sweat behind the ear of a Muluq hrose the "incense" which has the scent of sandal-wood and is pleasing to the angels who are guardians of their horse. Bedouins never consider food left by an Araian horse unclean, nor his excrements, nor its foam, nor any moisture from its mouth, nor the perpiration from its body. Ishmael attached to the strand of hair that fell over the eyes and over the white star and over the whorl in the center of the forehead of his wild mare a blue bead for "good fortune," and said these famous words:>"al Khayr ma'qud fi nauwasil al-Khayl... < weal is braided into they sacred forelock, my noble stee, until the day of judgment." Then Ishmael repeated the Thalil ("There is no God but God") and it is claimed that the horse repeated these words in his heart every time his master prayed. Exhaling his breath over the horse's sacred forelock, Ishmael exclaimed: "My blessed companion, and friend of my Creater, thou wilt never fail me. Through thy eyes I see reflected the love of God and in their orbit I behold thy soul meditating upon the unseen." |
"Drinkers of the Wind" with the contemplating eyes. |
| The Bedouins explained to me that Ishmael had attained that sense
of Oneness of life, which does not any longer separate man's feelings of
love from animals. He had learned the mystery how to project himself into
the soul of the creature and how to become One with the mare and her life
energy. He grew in consciousness of the love that binds all living beings
to each other and to their Creator.
Ishmael's form of illumination (his singleness with all life) went out from himself in a spiritual (supernatural) quest for the perfected horse of the psychic (celestial) seed. Ishmael sent forth his intelligence an dsympathies into the soul fo the wild mare and thus she became "tame"(seeking or desiring his companionship so much that she even preferred him to her own kin.). It made Ishmael apprehend that this wild creature was not just a physical being endowed with life and destined to serve him, but the horse of the desert was a RATIONAL being within a divine form that was capable of love, of spiritual affection and intelligent reasoning like himself, though her impulse and her instinct were more powerfully developed than his (Ishmael's) own. Ishmael's genius (the Arabs say) dispensed sweet virtues (above all; love and kindness) around him, removing the last vestige of Cain's (the Killer-man's) vicious disposition, which not only separates man from the love of his fellowman, but man from the subject creature. A Bedouin of the Arabian desert (so different from the village and city-Arab) leads his shy, gentle horse by an invisible charm, by an unseen and unheard persuasion of his heart (and his eyes) and not by the brute strength of his hand and will, or his whip or any other cruel means. According to the Bedouins Ishmael's steeds have a three-fold existence (bodies). Most men are only aware of one, but to htose who have an insight, a divine form of illumination like Ishmael, will discern these three bodies: ONE: a body of MATERIAL appearance (subject creation); the Earthly Image of the Heavenly Creation projected into the OUTER (physical) Realm of our existence (our Earth). TWO: a body of LIFE (vitality and mentality); a magnetic, elementary body of the INNER Domain of the five senses. THREE: A body of the RATIONAL SOUL, an impersonal spiritual (Celestial) body, the true, EVERLASTING Creature of God existing "with the Morning-stars" of Creation, and forever in harmony (IN LOVE) with God and His children. The most perfect of Arabians then are the "MULUQ" (the "Angel") Horses, who are not only physically the most beautiful and perfect, but who have one more feature, which is revealed in the "windows" (or "mirrors") of their handsome heads: an expression in their eyes which proves that they are "thinking" (meditating), rational beings with a soul and not just subject creatures to serve us physically. |
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| Perhaps the Bedouins have taught us something which we may discover today by looking into the eyes of our horse--something which we may have "sensed" that it was there--and it will make no difference whether it is just in the eyes of an old "cayuse," or a registered Thoroughbred, or an Arabian, or a little-children pony or big Percheron. I thought I saw THAT soul today in an old broken-down "livery-hack." Beautiful old horse she was, and a poor old horse, abused and neglected, with sprung knees and calloused lips. I am sure she is waiting for Ishmael and the "Angels" too and is sick and tired of men who only saw in her an "object," but never the rational being the "contemplating companion" of Adam's child. |
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Davenports: Articles of History Arabian Visions' |
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