ENCOMIUMS ON THE ARAB TAKEN AT RANDOM 159 



a few more which I have come across in casual 

 reading : 



In the year 800 Haroun al Raschid sent a present 

 of five Arabs to Charlemagne. In the tenth cen- 

 tury the Grand Vizier presented to the Caliph 

 fifteen Arab horses of the best breed. 



In 1 131 Alexander I. presented an Arabian 

 horse to the Church of St. Andrews. Mehemmed 

 Khan, Governor of Balk, presented Shah Abbas, 

 amongst other presents, with fifty horses of 

 Turkestan. The Imaum of Muscat sent a present 

 to King William IV. of some horses of the purest 

 breed of Arabia. 



Megder, a Tartar Prince, one of the great con- 

 querors of history, sent a present of Tartar horses 

 to the Chinese Emperor about 200 b.c. In a.d. 635 

 the Turkish Khan sent a present of horses to the 

 founder of the Tang Dynasty in China. 



When Ibn Batula visited Sarunda in Asiatic 

 Turkey in 1332, the Sultan presented him with a 

 dress of honour and riding-horses. They never 

 thought of sending pigs or oxen or Suffolk punches, 

 admirable in their way as these creatures may be, 

 and all these horses were Arab horses or Eastern 

 horses more or less improved by Arabian blood. 



The favourite horse of William the Conqueror 

 was of Arab breed. 



Richard Coeur de Lion so admired the Arab that 

 he brought two Eastern horses from Cyprus, and 

 Edward III. purchased fifty Spanish steeds (of 



