Mythology of Horses Horse Legend and Lore Throughout the Ages

The Horse of Muhammad Arabian The Arabian horse came out of the great deserts of the East, but equine experts do not know precisely where any more than etymologists know the origin of the word Arab, which remains a mystery to this day. Yet over the centuries the stunning desert horse and the nomadic Bedu have become nearly synonymous. Indeed, the Arab horse was hot-blooded; so was her master. The horse was the wind, and her master put a bridle to it. As it says in the Koran, the Bedu horseman was a refined instrument of war, a wielder of death to all infidels; "By the snorting war steeds, which strike fire with their hoofs as they gallop to the raid at dawn and with a trail of dust split apart a massed army; man is ungrateful to his Lord! To this he himself shall bear witness" ("The Chargers" [100:1-7]). The great horse probably existed on the Arabian Peninsula around 2500 b.c. The mystery of the Arabian's origin is certified by the extreme aridity of the desert climate; she couldn't have lived in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula without the aid of people. Where did she come from? "In the beginning there was a wild horse, and that horse was man. . . ." So goes the oldest of Babylonian myths. So the equine didn't come before man but at the same time. This is to say that the Arab people have not been known longer than the Arabian horse has been known. Actually, the name Arab, a Semitic word, refers not to a race or nationality but to an inhabitant of the desert, one who is either from the valley of the Nile or the steppes of southern Turkey. In any case, the Arabian horse was bred some 3,500 years ago and raised as "a drinker of the wind, a dancer of fire," the Arab poets say. According to the Emir Abd-el-Kader, a nineteenth-century Arab king, the lineage of breeders is as celebrated as the horse. And it goes from Adam to Ishmael, from Ishmael to Solomon, and from Solomon to the prophet Muhammad. Ishmael, the cast-out son of Abraham and maybe the first Bedu tribesman, bred and refined the Arabian stock. An even earlier breeder, though, was Baz, the great-great-grandson of Noah. The archetypal mare Baz was named after him and bred to the stallion Hoshaba. The Bedu horse breeders were an odd lot of belligerent yet congenial people. They would accept a desert guest as if he were a family member. The unwritten code of honor called for a traveler to be honored and fed in camp, and this included his entourage and his animals, which could number in the hundreds. All a visitor had to do was touch a Bedu tent pole, and he became a welcome guest. His horse's bridle was then hung from the highest part of the tent to show the great respect the stranger was going to be given. Thus did the tribes find themselves in the company of other horsemen like themselves. These were men with whom they shared secrets and passions and for whom they suspended ancient tribal disputes. In this way, the Arabian horse became a healer of nations. Not only did she transport the guest to the host, but she would often become the mother of blooded foals that united everyone. So peace was achieved when a desert wanderer and his horse came into a strange camp and found a haven from the sun. In time, the pact was sealed by stallion, mare, and foal. The Bedu raced their best horses, and the winners of these races got the finest stock from the loser's herd; this diversity made champion racers, horses of myth, well groomed and proud. An unknown Arab poet of long ago wrote, "The nostrils of a racer are like petals of a rose. . . . The neck is an elongated wave from which floats brilliant ripples of silken mane. . . . The ears, inward pointing, are lilies in trembling water, and the whole body of the mythical, yet fleshly, horse sways with the supple strength of wind, sun, and sand." King Solomon disregardedHausman, Gerald is the author of 'Mythology of Horses Horse Legend and Lore Throughout the Ages', published 2003 under ISBN 9780609808467 and ISBN 060980846X.