Page 116 - Arabian Studies (II)

SOME NOTES ON HUNTING
TECHNIQUES AND PRACTICES IN

THE ARABIAN PENINSULA1
by M. J. S. ALLEN and G. R. SMITH

‘Law la firadu'l-saydi lam yaku ladhdhatun’2

The above hemistich typified the attitude of medieval hunting
literature to the chase. The latter appeared as the sport of kings,
amirs and nobles and had no regard for the hunter who hunted in
order to supplement his diet rather than for recreation. Many of the
inhabitants of the present-day Peninsula hunt because they enjoy
hunting and not because they have to, to eat meat. In Saudi Arabia and
some of the Gulf states large hunting establishments exist where all
the participants in the chase, hounds and hawks and their keepers,
exist side by side. On the other hand, the desert dweller maintains a
more modest team. For him the one or two hawks and hounds which
he possesses become part of his family.
Origins are the traditional starting-point for treatises and dis­
cussions of sports. Hawks and gazehounds appear in the bas reliefs of
the Assyrians; hawks again in Chinese quotations from the late third
century B.C. Hawks are mentioned in the Old English poem, ‘The Battle
of Maldon’ and by Aristotle in Thrace. However, literacy and skill in
carving or drawing have never been conspicuous among the qualities
required of the hunter. This has largely been the case among the
nomads of Arabia. Travellers and those who have lived in Arabia have
i i written of proud hawks and hounds, of the romance of the chase, of
fantastic feats beyond the powers of either and of methods of
training which would, if practised, certainly eliminate the most
optimistic hope of success. However much the Arabs may hunt or
have hunted, one thing is now sadly all too clear: hunting in the
Peninsula is declining. Much of the quarry, until recently common,
has disappeared. Firearms have taken the place of the hawk and are
thus accelerating the extinction of game. Circumstances no longer
dictate that the bedouin remain in the desert. As more and more
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