Carl Raswan

When his father purchased property in 1898, Carl took long excursions on his pony in the Dresden area, without the need to cross the Elbe river.

During one of those holidays, Raswan observed the young Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, who was riding a Shagya Arabian.

Carl Raswan deepened his study of classical languages during his high school years, reading the works of Simon of Athens, Xenophon, Varro, Oppian and Palladius.

After graduation in May 1911, his parents sent him on a three-week trip to Greece, during which he spent a few days in Constantinople (now Istanbul), the former capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Through the inspection of the private library of a friendly Greek archaeologist, Raswan learned extensively about the ancient history of the horse.

This period of reading also introduced Raswan to the two volumes of Lady Anne Blunt's A Pilgrimage to Nejd, which impressed him deeply and inspired his later statement: "After my return from Athens I could no longer imagine my future in Europe... ".

One day they met Sheikh Ammer Ibn-el-Aide of the Would Ali tribe, who rode a small Arabian stallion named Ghazal (Arabic for gazelle).

In the tent of Sheikh Raswan first learned about the customs and family life of the Bedouin, and where he also became acquainted with Marzuki, the former equerry to the Egyptian king Tewfik (also Taufik).

In his ongoing search for the "dream horse", Raswan was invited by Marzuki to join him as an assistant on a trip to Jerusalem and Damascus.

During this journey, which lasted about one year, Raswan learned many ways to deal with the nomadic tribes of Arab Bedouin.

During this first journey, his interest in the Arabian horse and his experiences in the desert led to the blood brotherhood between Raswan and young Bedouin Prince Fawaz as-Shaalan (Fuaz).

Raswan was involved in heavy fighting at Galipoli and fought with the 4th Turkish army at the Suez Canal, where he caught malaria and typhoid fever.

In 1925, Raswan was asked by Kellogg to travel to obtain breeding stock from the Crabbet Arabian Stud in Sussex, UK, then owned by Lady Wentworth.

The Kellogg-owned stallion Jadaan was ridden by Raswan in April 1926 when he served as a stunt double for the actor Rudolph Valentino during shots requiring fast or dangerous riding in the film Son of the Sheik.

[2] Beginning in the late 1930s, Carl Raswan maintained a small farm in the Sandia mountains in New Mexico where he bred purebred Arabians.

The tragic and dramatic events in America gave Carl Raswan the longing for "his" Bedouin, and so in 1926 he made a trip to the tribe of Ruala.

From this trip, he gained an insight that made him write a moving portrayal of the following: "The world war was the last fall of the Romantic ideals of the Bedouin life.

Mauser and machine guns, and now automobiles destroy hundreds of horses in the current fighting, they advance with spears and primitive weapons ... only innocuous wounds caused chivalric virtues and with their passion and laws (e.g. the blood-revenge) held in check.

In October 1927, I experienced a ... case with the Fid'an-'Anaza Bedouin in which 135 mares were lost in one day ... " Carl Raswan was therefore witness a radical development, the a decline of pure Arabian horse in its region of origin, an effect breeders can still perceive.

In the same year, Raswan brokered a peace agreement between 21 leaders of rival Bedouin tribes, which helped give him an excellent reputation.

I finally succeeded in convincing those great lovers and breeders of fine Arabian horse in Egypt that their sacrifice, to send Jasir to Germany, would prove in the course of time to be a gain for Egypt. "

Originally, the purpose of the trip was a visit to his Arab friends, but owing to the political situation this proved to be extremely dangerous.

He extolled the lifestyle of the Bedouin, the children of Ishmael, their dignity, their life in freedom, their honor code, and their principles of humanity.

In another letter to Dr. Flade, on January 16, 1965, Raswan discussed the connectedness of people of all countries and their commitment to nature and all animals.

Raswan reported in the letter that even the Arabian horses in the desert were affected by bleeding lungs if sandstorms went on longer than two days.