Part 6

In all times the horse has been regarded by peoples and Governments as one of the most potent elements of their strength and prosperity. At the present day there is no question relating either to rural economy or to the art of war, more canvassed than that touching the amelioration of the charger. The highest authorities of the State, learned societies, agriculturists, the army, every body, in short, is taken up with it in France, and yet we are very far from being agreed upon it. For my own part, I have never wearied of studying that noble animal, from taste quite as much as from patriotism or professional necessity. I have consulted the most esteemed authors and men of great erudition, but I confess that it is among the Arabs I have met with the most just and practical appreciations of the subject. To obtain the best possible information, I have frequently applied to the Emir Abd-el-Kader, that illustrious chief who, by reason of his exalted position in Mussulman society, his science, and his skill as a horseman, was of all men the most competent to remove the misgivings which still troubled me. The following is the last letter that he wrote to me in reply to certain questions I had proposed to him as to the origin of the Arab horse. It seems to me to contain some very remarkable suggestions, even from a zoological point of view. In any case it is sufficiently curious to justify my expectation that it will prove acceptable to all who, whether at home or abroad, feel an interest in the equine race.

LETTER OF THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.

Praise be to the one God!

To him who remains ever the same amidst the revolutions of this world:

To our friend, General Daumas.

Peace be with you, through the mercy and blessing of Allah, on the part of the writer of this letter, on that of his mother, his children, their mother, of all the members of his family and of all his associates.

To proceed: I have read your questions, I address to you my answers.

You ask me for information as to the origin of the Arab horse. You are like unto a fissure in a land dried up by the sun, and which no amount of rain, however abundant, will ever be able to satisfy.

Nevertheless, to quench, if possible, your thirst (for knowledge) I will this time go back to the very head of the fountain. The stream is there always the freshest and most pure.

Know then that among us it is admitted that Allah created the horse out of the wind, as he created Adam out of mud.

This cannot be questioned. Several prophets—peace be with them!—have proclaimed what follows:

When Allah willed to create the horse, He said to the south wind:

"I will that a creature should proceed from thee—condense thyself!"—and the wind condensed itself. Then came the Angel Gabriel, and he took a handful of this matter and presented it to Allah, who formed of it a dark bay or a dark chestnut horse, (koummite—red mingled with black) saying:

"I have called thee horse (frass); I have created thee Arab, and I have bestowed upon thee the colour koummite. I have attached good fortune to the hair that falls between thy eyes. Thou shalt be the lord (sid) of all other animals. Men shall follow thee wheresoever thou goest. Good for pursuit as for flight, thou shalt fly without wings. Upon thy back shall riches repose, and through thy means shall wealth come."

Then He signed him with the sign of glory and of good fortune (ghora, a star in the middle of the forehead).

Do you now wish to know if Allah created the horse before man, or if He created man before the horse? Listen:

Allah created the horse before man, and the proof is that man being the superior creature, Allah would naturally give unto him all that he would require before creating himself.

The wisdom of Allah points out that He made all that is upon the earth for Adam and his posterity.

Here is another testimony to that:

When Allah had created Adam, He called him by his name and said unto him:

"Choose between the horse and Borak."

Adam answered: "The fairest of the two is the horse," and Allah replied:

"It is well; thou hast chosen thy glory and the eternal glory of thy children; so long as they shall exist, my blessing shall be upon them, for I have created nothing that is more dear to me than man and the horse."

Likewise Allah created the horse before the mare. My proof is that the male is more noble than the female, and he is, besides more vigourous and potent. Though they are both of the very same species, the one is more impassioned than the other, and the Divine Power is wont to create the stronger of the two the first. What the horse most yearns after is the combat and the race. He is also preferable to the mare for the purposes of war because he is more fleet and patient of fatigue, and because he shares his rider's emotions of hatred or tenderness. It is not so with the mare. Let a horse and a mare receive exactly the same sort of wound, and one that is sure to be fatal, the horse will bear up against it until he has succeeded in carrying his master far from the field of battle; while the mare, on the contrary, will sink at once upon the spot, without any force of resistance. There is not a doubt on the subject—it is a fact known by proof among the Arabs. I have seen frequent instances of it in our combats, and have experienced it myself.

This being granted, let us pass on to another point. Did Allah create the Arab horse before the foreign horse, or did he create the foreign horse before the Arab?

As a consequence of my former argument every thing leads us to believe that He created the Arab before all others, because he is without dispute the most noble. Besides, the foreign horse is only a species of a genus, and the Almighty has in no case created the species before the genus.

Now whence come the Arab horses of the present day?

It is related by many historians that after the time of Adam, the horse—like all other animals, such as the gazelle, the ostrich, the buffalo, and the ass—lived in a wild state. According to these writers the first man who, after Adam, mounted the horse was Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. He was the son of our lord Abraham, beloved of Allah. Allah taught him to call the horses, and when he did so, they all came galloping up to him. He then took possession of the finest and most spirited, and broke them in.