The Arabs, who neither understand nor practice our system of fighting in compact and serried masses, at times immovable, but who charge without any semblance of order and see nothing disgraceful in a headlong flight, are naturally disposed to love and to vaunt above all others the drinker of air. "The air-drinker," say they, "is the first in the combat to rush at the enemy; and the first after victory to fly at the booty, and in case of defeat the first to escape from danger."
A poet has said: "There are things which an intelligent King should never neglect. The first is a horse, that by its swiftness shall be able to rescue him from the enemy he has failed to overcome."
The favourite steed of the Prophet was named Ouskoub, "the torrent," from the word sakab, "quickly flowing water." The intervention of the Angel Gabriel in the creation of the horse commends that animal to the good offices of the true Believers, for the Angel Gabriel is the constant medium of communication between the Deity and the Prophets, especially Mohammed. Now it was by means and with the assistance of the horse alone that the Mussulman tribes succeeded in accomplishing that immense system of emigration, that propaganda war, as far as China to the eastward, and westward to the Ocean, which was in the mind of Mohammed to impose upon them. It was indispensable, therefore, that the horse should be looked upon in the light of a sacred animal, a providential instrument of war, created by the Deity for a special purpose, and of a nobler essence than that with which He fashioned the other animals. To produce the horse in a manner beyond the common law of creation, to envelop his origin in a symbolism that wanders abroad from natural history to lose itself in mysterious legends, to place him thus beneath the safeguard of religious reverence, evinced, as the result has proved, a thorough knowledge of the spirit of the people upon whom Mohammed purposed and was about to operate.
The Koran in speaking of horses calls them El-Kheir, "the especial treasure," and from this simple word the commentators of the Sura, sad, have arrived at the conclusion that "an Arab ought to love horses as a part of his own heart, and to sacrifice for their keep the very food of his own children." A volume might be composed of phrases detached from the sacred book, or from the hadites of the Prophet (his conversations as handed down by tradition), and of the commentaries upon them, which under the form of maxims and precepts, prescribe to Mussulmans, as a religious duty, the love of horses. I shall quote only a few of them.
"Blessings, good fortune, and a rich booty shall be attached to the forelock of horses until the day of the resurrection." "Whoso keeps a horse for the holy war in the way of the Most High, increases the number of his good works. The hunger and thirst of such a steed, the water he drinks, the food he eats, every one of his hairs, each step he takes, and every function of nature, shall all weigh in the balance at the day of the last judgment."
"The horse prays thrice a day. In the morning he says: 'O Allah! make me beloved of my master.' At noon: 'Do well by my master, that he may do well by me.' In the evening: 'Grant that he may enter into paradise upon my back!'"
It was doubtless under the impression of these last words that El-Doumayry wrote in his history of animals, Hayat-el-hayouan: "The horse is the animal that by his intelligence approaches nearest to man." While on this subject I cannot help remarking that the Arabs, when they advanced this proposition, were well acquainted with the animals which pass with us as being the most intelligent such as the elephant, the dog, etc. How is it then? May it not be that the Arabs, by living on such intimate terms with the horse, have succeeded in developing faculties the very existence of which is unknown to us, who accord to that animal only the instinct of memory? With them, in fact, the horse is a friend of the family. With us, on the contrary, it is no more than an article of luxury or an instrument of labour, which we are ever ready to change through interest or caprice; as witness the common saying: "One does not marry one's horse!" But the Arab does marry his horse. Be this as it may, the maxims quoted above all tend to the same end, to identify man with the horse. Let it not be supposed, however, that that is all. It was necessary that the horse should be the companion of the Believer alone, to the exclusion of all infidels,—a dogma the political hearing of which will be readily appreciated. Allah hath said: "The horse shall be cherished by all my servants, but he shall be the despair of all those who do not follow my laws, and none will I place on his back save those who know me and who worship me."
It is needless to add that the Mussulman princes have availed themselves of this dogma to prohibit in the name of Allah the sale of Arab horses to Christians, under pain of sin and damnation. These commands, though of divine origin have, I am well aware, been disobeyed in some countries. The Arab loves money, it is true; but for all that we may rest assured that for the most part the animals sold to us are of an inferior order, and that the horses or mares whose noble and precious qualities have been ascertained by proof, whether as regards speed or as breeders, are never parted with to foreigners for any price. Even if the owner were willing to let them go, the whole tribe in the name of their common interest would oppose it. This is the real truth, and probably explains the disrepute into which Arabians appear to have fallen in Europe. One seldom there meets with any except such as the Arabs have no desire to keep. But enough on that head: let us now turn to another topic.
The Emir Abd-el-Kader asserts that the horse was created koummite, red mixed with black, that is to say, dark bay or dark chesnut. Desengaged from the cloudiness of fancy, this assertion will at least go far to prove that these colours have in all ages been esteemed by the Arabs as the index to superior qualities. It is a fixed idea with this observing people. It is constantly turning up. The Prophet said:
"If after having collected all the horses of the Arabs I were to make them race against one another, it is the euchegueur meglouk, the dark chesnut, that would outstrip the rest." Moussa, the celebrated conqueror of Africa and Spain, is reported to have said: "Of all the horses of all my armies the one that has best borne the fatigues and privations of war is the true bay, hameur somm."