TALES

THE HORSE AND THE DROMEDARY

POEMS, PROVERBS, QUOTATIONS on the ARAB THOROUGH-BRED

Eugène FROMENTIN “Bedouin camping in the desert” 1850.

♦ Bedouin proverbs:

- “Will wash the feet of your mare and drink water.”

♦ 7th century:

More than 2000 proverbs and recommendations on the horse are allotted to the Prophet.

The Prophet
- “Their belly is a treasure and their back a seat which honours.”

Yazid poet and companion of the prophet:
- “And if what one had taken to her of the reins were returned to her,
she launched out to the full gallop
such a pigeon of the desert
pursued by the falcons. “

- “She is one of the horses of this race
who is stretched all her length in full gallop,
with the rebounding paces and the light foot,

- “And in truth,
she always was for me
an invaluable good,
born and high in our tents."

Omar, companion of the Prophet:
- “Love the horses and take care of them,
because they deserve tenderness;
treat them like your own children. “

Jarîr ibnAbd Allâh al-Bajallî said :
“I saw the Prophet, that the peace and the blessing of God are on him,
to cherish the cheeck of his horse with his hand and to say:
The Good is tied with the cheeck of the horses until the day of the Last Judgement,
as well as the divine favours and success”

Atâ said
- "The Prophet, that the peace and the blessing of God are on him said:
" Do not lead the horses by their cheeck because of being to offend them” “

Mujâhid said :
- "The Prophet, that the peace and the blessing of God are on him,
saw a man hitting his horse in the face and insulting him, he said to him :
'Both of your attitudes will make you touch the flames of Hell ..."

11th century Museum of Islamic Art - Cairo.

♦  Old Arab proverbs

- When Allah wanted to create the horse, he said to the wind South:
“I will make leave you a creature which will be
the glory of My faithful and the terror of My enemies
Happiness will be on his face,
generosity on his back
and joy at his owner."

- “When God wanted to create the horse, he said to the wind south:
'I want to make a creature of you; condense'
and the wind condensed. “

- The three most invaluable goods are a mare,
followed by his/her daughter full with a filly.

- The paradise on ground is
On the back of a good horse,
In the study of the beautiful books or
Between the centres of a woman.

- Wild boar, he has the courage;
gazelle, grace;
antelope, cheerfulness;
ostrich, speed."

- Imrou Al-Qays :(death in 550):
Gazelle, he has the hips
and of the ostrich legs;
The trot of the wolf,
and relaxation of the fox cub.

Henri Emilien Rousseau "An Arab falconer" 1890.

♦ 11th century:

- Ibn Rachid de Kairouan ( 1064) :
“The Arabs congratulate themselves for three things:
birth of a boy, the emergence of a poet among them
and the poulinage of a mare. “

- Asadi Poet:
“Of day he exceeded the sun,
from night, he exceeded the moon;
under the powder of his gallop
he eyes of the sun were closed
and each time he neighed,
“he tore the ear of the sky."

♦ 14th century:

One finds in splendid “the NACERI”:
Hippology and medicine of the horse,
at the 14th Century. Of Abû Bakr Ibn Badr:
- Amir ibn al-Tufayl ibn ‘Awf put in poem:

"- As poor as I can be,
nothing could separate me;
like the ostrich with the lengthened pace,
- Charger with the black face and the sure foot,
one deals with him for day
of the terrible battle."


♦ Anonymous authors:

- Poem of an anonymous author quoted by the Daumas general in :
“the horses of the Sahara”.
" Do not say that he is my horse,
say that he is my son.
He is pure like gold.
he has the sight so good that he sees a hair during the night.
He reaches the gazelle.
He says to the eagle: go down or I go up towards you.
When he hears the cries of the young girls,
he starts to neigh of joy.
When he runs,
he tears off the tear of the eye.
He is a horse of race, the head of the horses.
Nobody never had his similar.
I count on him as on my heart."

Victor Adam "a mare" 1824.

♦  Arab poem of an anonymous author,
quoted by Victor Hugo in the Easterns :

- "His hairs which float
on the sides of his head
are as the loops of the women
who cross the desert
by one day of wind."

♦ Other arab poets:

- Bahreïni poet:
" his ears are exquisite
pointing such a bud of flowers of date palm.
A charming flame underlines
His soft cheeks
His generous mouth
And his long black lashes."

Alberto Pasini “Arab camping”1866.

- "Her tread swallows the distance
And yet her gallop
Is like a soft cushion.
She is held high above ground,
Broad with the strap and thin with the side
As a sloughi who leaps.
Length is her neck which joined
A delicate throat.
Her broad head is bent with ease,
Yes she is comparable with the trunk
Yes she is comparable with the trunk of a commercial rich person."

- Abou Zeyd :
" His slim and fine head,
pointed ears close one to the other;
His cheeck is a net,
His face a lit light which illuminates the tribe;
His neck curves a such branch of palm tree."

- Salaman ibn Djandal :
" His forelock is not dismantled,
nor his nose rounded,
nor his too weak members;
He is the favourite in the distribution of milk,
nourished well at his place.
Each one of his quite isolated members
in full gallop
seems to sprinkle the ground
of a flash speed
as if water ran of a bucket
above fields."

Georges Washington “Arabic Riders near a wadi” 1880.

♦ United States:

- Homer Davenport (American explorer having traversed the desert in search of Thorough-bred Arab):
"The morphology of Arabic is perfect. It is primarily that of the effectiveness."

Antoine-Jean GROS "Marengo" 1801.

♦ European poets:

♦ England

- William Shakespeare (16th-17th century):
"In the same way, this horse overrode the others more ordinary
by the aspect, courage, the color, by the frame
as well as by the pace."

♦ France :

- Paul Valéry (1871-1945)
"The horse walks on the tips, four nails carry it, and no animal holds the first dancer, the star of the ballet corps, like a thoroughbred in perfect equilibrium, which the hand of the one who rides it seems to hold suspended, and advancing at a small step in full sun.
"Degas painted it with a verse: he says of him 'all nervously naked in his silk dress'. "

- Jules Supervielle (1884 - 1960), French-Uruguayan poet and writer.
The Horses of Time

'When the horses of Time stop at my door
I hesitate a little always to watch them drink
Because it is of my blood that they quench their thirst.
They turn to my face a grateful eye
While their long features fill me with weakness
And leave me so tired, so lonely and disappointing
That a passing night invades my eyelids
And that I must suddenly redo in myself forces
For a day when the thirsty team would come
I can still live and quench them.'

'The Horses of Time' by Jules SUPERVIELLE - Vidéo of Dame Sarrasine

- Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
The Horse : Poem from the Bestiary or Procession of Orpheus.1911.

'The Horse' by Guillaume Apollinaire - Vidéo of Dame Sarrasine