Horse Breeding, A Sacred Mission on the Arabian Penninsula

Horses in the area of Arabia before the beginning of the Christian era were very scarce and a folly of the rich or royalty. This was still the case until the lifetime of Mahomet, who in his holy wars demonstrated the horse's superiority over camels for military purposes.

It was the compulsion to spread the faith of Islam by force of arms that led to a change of view of the horse, and the expansion of horse breeding among the desert tribes to its widest feasable limits. Although the Koran might command the faithful to produce as many foals as possible for service against the enemies (those of different religions), this could only be done in the Arabian peninsula, by the same means that had been practiced in pre-Islamic times by the wealthy.

These limits remained very narrow-- the number of horses that could be reared was directly proportional to the amount of barley that could be acquired from the Fertile Crescent bordering the desert zone, and the amount of dates that could be produced in oases in surplus to what was needed for human consumption. Foals were raised on camel's milk since poor conditions only allowed mares to lactate for a couple of months at best.

As a result, breeding standards became imperative.