Page 123 - Arabian Studies (II)

Hunting Techniques and Practices in the Arabian Peninsula 115

other. »l 3 ‘If you release your dog and say “In the name of God”,
then eat [what it kills].’ ‘O Apostle of God, can we unleash our
trained dogs [to hunt]?’ He replied, ‘Eat what they catch for you.’
‘Even if they have killed it?’ ‘Yes, even if they have killed it. >1 4 Even
also the meat of a victim killed by an untrained dog is lawful, for
‘you have succeeded in slaughtering it in a lawful manner’.15 ‘We are
a people who hunt with these dogs.’ ‘If you unleash your trained
dogs and mention God’s name, eat what they catch for you, even if
they kill it, except if the dog eats it. >1 6
To sum up the formal position therefore, despite the strict
prohibition on the eating of carrion, dead quarry - at least that
which is lawful in itself — killed by a trained hound may be eaten,
provided the formulae prescribed for the slaughter of an animal are
uttered upon the release of the hound. One must be certain that only
those hounds so despatched in pursuit of the quarry are involved in
its killing. Even a less than fully-trained hound may kill the prey. If
the hound eats from the victim, it cannot be then eaten by the
hunter.
Hawks are nowhere dealt with in detail in the Hadlth literature, so
one must assume that, by analogy, the above formal rules apply
when hunting with them. 1 7

Hawking

The Hawks

The birds trained in the Peninsula are:
1. The saker* (falco cherrug cherrug Gray: Plates 2 and 10) is the
largest of the hawks found in the desert and, being a true desert bird,
it is held in unrivalled esteem by the bedouin. It has great resilience
to the uneven and hard life of the bedouin. Able to survive on food
which would kill the peregrine, the saker works best under pressure
and will tolerate the rough and ready treatment it receives at the
hands of some falconers, though it is worthy of note that the
bedouin have achieved greater success with the saker than have
falconers in Europe. The bedouin credit it with sharper intelligence
and eyesight than the peregrine. This is borne out by their using a
saker and not a peregrine — though both may be to hand — to scan
the desert for quarry from the fist. The saker is a tactician; it will
exploit the lie of the land brilliantly to conceal a low-level attack,

* Words marked with an asterisk are included in the Glossary below.