8vo. 288 pp., [24 Hutchinson’s publication catalogue], b/w photographs, original cloth, faded spine with small tear at top spine, title printed in Arabic & English within borders, scattered foxing, otherwise copy in good condition, Hutchinson & Co. London, 1938.

Synopsis

The author travelled to Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Arabia to acquire Arabian stallions. An interesting work on Arab horse. Raswan first traveled to the Middle East in 1911 on an invitation to Egypt from his cousin, who handled an Import/Export operation in Cairo.
In 1928, Raswan undertook another trip to Central Arabia, during which he visited several Bedouin tribes. From this trip, he gained an insight that made him write a moving portrayal of the following: “The world war was the last fall of the Romantic ideals of the Bedouin life. Mauser and machine guns, and now automobiles destroy hundreds of horses in the current fighting, they advance with spears and primitive weapons … only innocuous wounds caused chivalric virtues and with their passion and laws (e.g. the blood-revenge) held in check. ‘… In October 1927, I experienced a … case with the Fid’an-‘Anaza Bedouin in which 135 mares were lost in one day …’. Carl Raswan was therefore witness a radical development, the a decline of pure Arabian horse in its region of origin, an effect breeders can still perceive. Also, the year 1928 was marked by a drought which affected the Ruala for weeks, resulting in the deaths of up to 2,000 camels.