Page 89 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 8 9

But we find in the hunt for the gazelle described here, the “battle of speed and agility”,
precisely the virtues of the Agon, the competition that the Greeks “invented” and of
which Arrian reports.

General Eugène Daumas, as a military man, is not a rapturous nature. His description of
the horses of the Sahara and the sighthound is a factual account of the facts found. He
describes the circumstances and characteristics described to him by the “Arabs” and

supplements them with his own observations. This work thus reaches a scientific level, as
was already noted at the time the book was written. It thus reflects the state of
knowledge of the time in the middle of the 19th century. But also the impartiality of
Daumas, as can be read in the main topic on “The Horses of the Sahara”.

Hadrumetum, Tunisia, late 2nd / early 3rd century, mosaic of the wealthy breeder of
racehorses, Sorothus, free-roaming horses in the pasture and famous winners of horse races
© M. Ayeb, G. Mermet

Thus Daumas writes in his introduction to the first part of the book: “The Numidian
horsemen were already famous in Roman times. The Oriental horsemen are in no way
inferior to their ancestors....”

There is an inaccurate term here: the Oriental horsemen. By “Orient” is meant the great

empire of Persia, it does not mean Arabia. The horsemen he means, referring also to the
Numidian horsemen, are Berbers. This must also apply to the horses he describes. They
are not “Arabian horses” as we understand them today, the horses imported from the
Arabian region, for example from Jordan, only came to North Africa in the 19th century.

Daumas continues: “The first need for such a study is the diligence of research; ...

During the sixteen years that I spent in Africa, I was entrusted with missions and business
that kept me in constant contact with the Arabs, with this still little-known people whose
character we must study in order to learn to master it.