THE ARABIAN HORSE 



79 



language, give what Is accepted to be more definite and 

 satisfactory information on the subject'. They trace the 

 origin back to the time of Ishmael, whom they say prob- 

 ably was contemporary with Isaac. According to the 

 tradition, Ishmael inherited a valuable horse from the 

 Kuhl race of very remote antiquity. The Anezah tribes 

 who, by common consent of all the Bedouins, are the most 

 wealthy, the most powerful, and have the best horses. 



FIG. 55.— ARABIAN STALLION "OBBEIAN" 



descended In a direct line from Ishmael through Sheik 

 Salaman, four generations removed from Ishmael. Sala- 

 man lived about 1635 B. C, and owned five famous mares 

 called "Al-Khamseh" (the five). The blood of the Kuhl 

 race has been preserved in these mares and from this 

 ancestry has come the purest and best Arab horses. 



Families of Arab horses. — ^According to Upton there 

 are five great families of Arabian horses descending from 



