by Marwan Abusoud

Palestinian Folklore of Strains

by Marwan Abusoud

The strains that have graced the lives of the Bedouins in the Naqab desert are Kubayshat, Mokhaldiat, Jraibat, Ubayyat, Shananiat, Jilfat, Swaitat, Hudub, Dahmat, Kuhaylat, Tuwaisat and Ma’anaghiat. I have always found it interesting to learn of the origin of these strains and how they arrived at the names. Of course, most of us have heard the originating stories of the al Khamsa, the main five strains, and how they arrived at their names. I have recently located the tales of how two of the strains in the Naqab desert developed their names. One is very brief and the other is a tale, and like the Bedouins from which it derived, it is a rough one.

Recently a family member of mine travelled back home to Jerusalem. He asked me before he left if he could bring anything back to me. There was one thing I really had been wanting and have not been able to find. So I asked him if he could try to locate it for me while he was there. It was a book that I could not find in the U.S., a book called Law Between Bedouins, by Aref al Aref. I had heard there was a small section in it about the Palestinian Arabian horses. I really wanted to see it and read it for myself.

My passion for the Palestinian Arabian horse compelled me to impose on my cousin. I told him about the book and asked if he could find it while he was there. He agreed that he would look for it. Once he was in Jerusalem, I got a call and he told he had not been able to locate the book. He had visited several bookstores between Jerusalem and the West Bank to no avail. He said he was travelling to Jordan next and would look there as well. His trip to Jordan ended and he was also unsuccessful in his search for the book there. When he was leaving Jerusalem, there were street vendors lining the path with their wares. He saw one older gentleman sitting amongst a large pile of books and asked him if he had ever heard of the book or knew where it might be located. The old, weathered man thought for a moment and before telling him where he could possibly find it, he searched through his pile of books and luckily pulled the exact book from his stack. My cousin was elated and returned to the U.S. with the book in his hand.

When I received the book, I immediately started poring through the pages until I found the section about the Palestinian horses. It was only a few pages long, but I relished reading every word. It talked about two or three strains of the Asil. The most common was the Kubayshat, Mokhladyat and Tuwaisat strains which are mostly unfamiliar to the people of the U.S. The Kubayshat and Mokhladyat are exclusive to Palestine, the Tuwaisat is now extinct there. The book revealed the stories behind the development of two of their strain names. The first strain name, Mokhladyat is believed to be from the Palestinian Bedouin’s horses of Khalid ibn al Walid. He was a great warrior of the Arabs and Islam who was known as the ‘Sword of God’. The Mokhladyat honors this warrior and is in tribute to his name Khalid.

The second, depicts Bedouin folklore of the Kubayshat strain’s origin. It emanates from Bedouin folklore. The harsh tale portrayed in the Aref al Aref book is as follows: There was a Bedouin named Araar, and he owned a noble stallion which he called Mashoor. The Bedouin, Araar had a cousin named Omire. Omire was the owner of five good mares. As it often is in the Bedouin culture, Araar married Omire’s sister, and Omire married Araar’s sister.

One day, Araar and Omire got into an argument, and even as time

Author Marwan Abusoud, astride a Mokhladiyah mare on a recent trip to Palestine.

passed, they could not resolve the dispute. Therefore, a war was declared between them.

The war lasted for a very long period of time. Usually, Araar was victorious in the battles, much thanks to his fearless and trusted stallion, Mashoor, who on several occasions rescued him from certain death due to his swiftness and speed. Omire eventually discovered that Mashoor was the secret to Araar’s successes. Omire knew that his people were stronger, they had more men, and they had more money, by all accounts they should be the ones that were victorious. Upon discovering the secret to Araar’s continuous victories, Omire decided to send a message to his sister, Araar’s wife. In the message Omire asked his sister for her help. Omire requested his sister to send Araar’s stallion to him, so that he could breed his own five mares to Araar’s stallion, Mashoor. She could not tell her husband Araar, because he would be furious, and must keep her brother’s request in her confidence.

The two of them decided on the best time and a secretive place to meet and breed the horses. Once the day and time arrived, they met and successfully bred the first four mares to Mashoor. But when they tried to breed the fifth mare, the stallion had lost his strength and could not complete the breeding to the last mare. Mashoor was so exhausted, he dismounted the mare, and spilled his seed on the ground. Omire not wanting to lose this single opportunity, he swiftly grabbed a handful of his essence and deposited into the fifth mare. The tale goes, that the pregnancy that resulted from the fifth mare is where they got the strain name Kubayshat. The Bedouin word Kubayshat is derived from the Arabic word Kabash meaning ‘to collect’ or ‘grab’.

The folklore continues, when Araar saw his horse later that evening the horse was weak, and he asked the reason. He checked his horse’s coat; he knew his stallion had been either run very hard or he had mounted five mares. He asked his son, who responded to his father that he had not run him, nor had he bred him. Then, Araar asked his son to play chess with his wife and find out what happened. His son obeyed his father. During the chess game, while moving his knight, the son did what comes naturally to the poetic Bedouins, he recited two lines of poetry about the stallion. In response, the wife recited poetry back to him revealing the truth about the stallion to the son. The son armed with the knowledge of what took place, reported to Araar that his wife took Mashoor to Omire and the stallion was bred to Omire’s five mares. Araar became so angry, he picked up the chess table and threw it. When he left, his wife found one of her teeth lying beside her on the ground. She slyly retrieved her tooth and wrapped in a cloth, then sent it through a messenger from the tribe of the Shararat.

When Omire received the wrapped tooth by messenger, he immediately understood what it meant. He was silently enraged at what Araar had done to his sister. However, he did not react or disclose anything to the messenger standing nearby. He acted as if the message meant nothing to him. The Shararat tribe was known for being deceitful and untrustworthy. Omire told the messenger he was about enter a ghazu on his cousin Araar from one

Two Kubayshan stallions. Photo: Naeem Abu Ayadh. side. The next morning, they mounted their horses and headed for the fray. Just as Omire suspected, the messenger from the Shararat tribe informed Araar that his cousin, Omire was coming to attack him and announced from which side they were planning on attacking. Araar’s and all his men went to the area that the attack was coming from to surprise them and ambush them. However, Omire had tricked him, and attacked from the camp from the opposite side to avenge his sister. There were no men left to protect the camp, so Omire, took all their women, goats and camels as revenge for what Araar did to his sister. Then as payback he sent a clear message to Araar. The outraged Omire had one tooth removed from each of the 80 women of Araar’s camp. Afterwards he wrote 8 lines of poetry that said in exchange for her tooth, he took 80 teeth away. Hamad Abu Rabeeh on a Kubayshan stallion, photo Naeem Abu Ayadh. As in many of the stories passed generation to generation in any culture, there are obvious embellishments found in this tale. According to this rare book of Aref el Aref’s, Law Between Bedouins, this is the folklore that accompanies the name of the Kubayshat in the Naqab desert. Also, it reveals the derivative name for the strain of Mokhladyat and its origin.