Man and beast thou savest, o Lord

Based on the picture of the herder and his sheep as reflection of the relation between God and men, as cited above, we will return to the Bedouin world, this special part of the heritage of the Old East. The first question we will ask here is: What is the very essence of Bedouin life? The answer is obvious: The relationship between man and animal. There was and is no other society on earth that was formed by this inter-species relation to such great extent. Bedouin society was shaped by animals, more precise, by the relation of man and animal. Especially two bonds with different animal species were characteristic of badu life. Both animals were considered to belong to the family of the Bedouin, but occupied different places in it.

The camel was not only the center around which the badu world was built, but also its main and absolutely necessary foundation. The camel was much more than the main economic factor. Everything, from material things to the life of a person, was measured in the unit of camels. The Bedouin was defined by the camel. By himself and by others. A camel-herder was a Bedouin, and vice versa. Without the camel there would never have existed a Bedouin world. This we can say with full right. The Bedouin society developed in the circumstances of the desert into a violent society, also thanks to the camel. The camel was at one time instrument of aggression and object of aggression.

The life surrounding camel-herding was also the reason behind the development of the only art of the desert: the poetic word. The camel did even help to shape the Arabic language by its own sounds and its rhythmic movements. All this we have come to learn on the pages of this book. The camel, on which the society of the desert was built, was a symbol for the relationship of a child to her mother. On the dromedary´s adaptation to the desert and its milk daily life was dependend, but also especially on raids, or in war. The Bedouin was a nomad, and his profession was the raising and herding of camels, and to go out for plundering. What we call raids was an undertaking not aimed at killing, as any bloodshed had long lasting consequences, but only to secure camels or other booty. Also the right of the weak to survive was clearly regulated. A woman, for example, could claim back part of the booty by addressing the raiders with her words only. The spoken word figured prominently in the desert. Over centuries the only art the desert knew was the poetic word, a fact already stressed many times. Poetry occupied and shaped a large portion of social life and coined public opinion and personal inclinations at a time.

In its sophisticated verses an ideal developed: a triad of the horse-riding poet-warrior. The horse symbolized manhood and all attributes connected. Identification of man and horse reached a climax. We have examined this in detail in pillar four: Bedouin tradition. The horse transformed the camel-riding raider into another person: the horse-riding warrior poet. The poet or any Bedouin considered the horse his likeness, given to him by God. The horse has reached Arabia centuries after the camel. It was, in opposition to camels, a heavy burden for the Bedouin to keep horses in the desert, as it was more difficult to sustain them than humans. But he did nevertheless do anything to save it. It was taken inside the tent in times of perils, like storms, but had also the right to enter it at any time. This pearl of great pride, as it was called, was sheltered in a sort of black shell hidden in the immense desert-sea. It became much more of a family member than any other animal of the Bedouin. Because the horse was the animal most dear to him, allowing him to set out for combat, man against man. Thus, the horse became the beloved comrade of the Bedouin in the decisive times and matters of life and death, the times when both together faced the enemy.

Still, there remains the puzzling and not fully solved question of how the Arabian horse could be transformed into this unique man-loving war-horse by the hands of the Bedouin warrior and  raider. And the answer is simple and at the same time absolutely convincing: through love. Through the love of the warrior, or better of his whole family. The war-horse was mastered by his master not by submission, but by love. Therefore: The mystery of the violent Bedouin society is the mutual love between man and horse. Man loved horse and horse loved man. It was a relationship of trust and respect. This is an anacronism: To train a horse to become a war horse by love. How can this be understood? The answer again is simple. The fleeing instinct of the horse was overcome through confidence, through confidence of the horse in its rider. The horse became the friend of the Bedouin, because the Bedouin knew how to tame it. Mutlak Batal told the following to Lady Blunt: “Our ancestors caught the foals like we catch young gazelles.” They took them into their home, into their family. The relationship was sometimes so close that horse and rider even shared their feelings, their likes and dislikes, just like an elderly marriage after many years together. This closeness has formed the character of the Arabian horse, until today.

Although the wisdom of Salomon was said to have been without parallel, his statement on the horse does not reveal horsemanship: “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.” (Proverbs 26: 3). The Bedouins have reached farther. Their relationship towards the horse, described in detail on the pages of this book, is also illustrated by the following true story: Hans Jürgen Gottet from Switzerland, and his wife have lived and worked in Saudi Arabia during the 1980s. Hans Jürgen, a lover of Arabian horses since childhood, since the books of the German author Karl May, had bought himself a desert bred stallion and a mare for his wife. But soon he would not get along with his dominant horse, that was a true war horse. Hans Jürgen became afraid of his temperament and did only handle his stallion with a whip in his hand. But when he used it to control the horse, the horse did not react as he had thought. Instead of obeying the force used on him, the stallion became angry, very angry. Hans Jürgen found himself lying flat on the ground and his head between both front legs of the fiery animal and the front teeth snarling into his face. He believed that the last bell had rung for him. But the horse only menaced him. An old Bedouin, who had observed this, approached Hans Jürgen later and told him: Do never use a whip on one of our horses! Do not even hold it in your hands! Don´t you see that your stallion loves you? He is just waiting for you to show your love to him, too. Hans Jürgen was thunderstruck. But he followed the advice and he and his stallion became the closest friends you can imagine. If you should hear, or some day hopefully read the stories about their eleven month long trip from Saudi Arabia back home to Switzerland, you will understand the great personality of this true Bedouin horse.

This incidence and the astonishing wisdom of the old Bedouin opened the author´s eyes. The simple truth that helped heal the broken relation between a man and his horse came from a man of the East, not from a westerner. The understanding of the stallion´s behavior does not fit into “common sense” of our days. This mutual love across the inter-species barrier between man and horse as we find it in the Bedouin world cannot be compared to the relation of sheep to their shepherd, as the above cited Biblical texts describe. It reaches farther, has become a much closer relation. It much rather resembles a team, the rider relying on his horse, in the most dangerous times. The badu attitude towards their horses and animals and their standing in society is striking compared to the traditional standing of the animals in Jewish and Christian societies. The latter two did not pay great attention to them. Both were and are hadar societies. The animals are not vital to them, although today animals, especially pets, but also horses, occupy a new role as family members. A shepherd and his sheep is the ultimate relationship that Christianity and Judaism know as model of the relation between God and man. But Bedouin society has, as has already been stressed, reached farther.