The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the DesertDaumas, E. (Eugène)
History
The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the Desert
Daumas, E. (Eugène)
Arabian horse; Sahara
The Mâz is a district of the Hassasna, and the Biaz is the stream known
by the name of Foufet, that flows through their territory. The horses of
the Oulad-Khaled are also famous for the same qualities. In reference to
this tribe Sidi-Ahmed-Ben-Youssel has said: "The long locks and the long
_djellals_ will lie seen in the midst of you to the day of the
resurrection," thus eulogising their women and their horses.
8th. You say that people maintain against you that the horses of Algeria
are not Arabs but Barbs. It is a theory that turns against its own
authors, for the Barbs were originally Arabs. A well-known writer has
said: "The Berbers inhabit the Mogheb. They are all sons of
Kaïs-Ben-Ghilan. It is likewise stated that they spring from two great
Hemiarite tribes, the Senahdja and the Kettama, who came into the
country at the time of the invasion of Ifrikesh El Malik." According to
both these opinions, the Berbers are decidedly Arabs. Historians,
moreover, establish the descent of most of the Berber tribes from the
Senahdja and the Kettama. The arrival of these tribes was anterior to
Islam. Since the Mussulman invasion the number of Arabs who have
emigrated into the Mogheb is beyond computation. When the Obeïdin [the
Fatimites] were masters of Egypt, immense tribes passed into Africa,
among others the Riahh, and spread themselves from Kaïrouan to Merrakesh
[Morocco]. It is from these tribes that are descended the Algerian
tribes of the Douaouda, the Aïad, the Mâdid, the Oulad-Mahdi, the
Oulad-Iakoub-Zerara, the Djendel, the Attaf, the Hamïs, the Braze, the
Sbeha, the Flittas, the Medjahar, the Mehal, the Beni-Aâmer, the Hamian,
and many more. Without doubt the Arab horses were dispersed through the
Mogheb in like manner with the Arab families. At the time of
Ifrikesh-ben-Kaïf, the empire of the Arabs was all powerful. It extended
as far west as the confines of the Mogheb, just as in the time of Shamar
the Hemiarite it extended eastward to the frontiers of China, as it is
related by Ben-Kouteïba in his book entitled "El Marif."
It is quite true, however, that although the Algerian horses come of
Arab stock, many have degenerated from their nobleness from being
employed much too often in the plough, in carrying and drawing heavy
loads, and in other kinds of labour, and from other causes which did not
exist among the Arabs of the olden times. It is sufficient, they say,
for a horse to have walked over ploughed land to lose something of his
excellence, and by way of illustration they relate the following
anecdote:
"A man was riding one day, mounted on a thoroughbred, when he met his
enemy also mounted on a noble courser. The one turned and fled, while
the other gave chace. The latter was distanced, and despairing to
overtake the former, cried out to him:
"I demand of thee in the name of Allah, has thy horse ever been in the
plough?"
"He has ploughed for four days."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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