Carl Raswan
Encyclopedia
Carl Reinhard Raswan born Carl Reinhard Schmidt, was one of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the asil
Arabian horse
. He was also a writer and author of numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin
people. He was also a scholar of desert Arabian bloodlines, publishing the Raswan Index, an extensive compilation of pedigree and strain information. In addition, he was an advocate for tolerance and understanding of the ways of life and culture of the Bedouin tribes of Arabia.
, Laubegast-Tolkewitz, the child of Martin Schmidt and a Hungarian mother. At the age of five, Carl Raswan first came into contact with horses when he received a pony named "Philie." as a gift from his father. When his father purchased property in 1898, Carl and his pony gained the opportunity to take large excursions in the Dresden area, without the need to cross the Elbe river. Carl spent his school holidays with his pony, often in the company of his uncle Bernhard Schmidt, a forester. During one of those holidays, Raswan observed the young Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
, who was riding a Shagya Arabian
. Raswan observed that the horse appeared to recognize its own reflection in the water and played with it. This experience, suggesting a high degree of animal intelligence for a horse, awakened his interest in the Arabian horse and later described as a key event in his life.
In 1902, Raswan enrolled in the humanistic Royal Wettin Gymnasium in Dresden. The choice of this school was fortunate for Carl Raswan as he got the opportunity to study classical European antiquity and its languages. 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
. This trip marked the beginning of the journey began the fulfillment of his childhood dream "on the search for the perfect horse." He spent most of his time with the study of ancient works of art representing horses, such as the Parthenon
frieze of the Greek sculptor Phidias
, and the then-still-existing procession that contained images of hundreds of horses. Through the inspection of the private library of a friendly Greek archaeologist, Raswan obained extensive insight into 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... ".
On their excursions on horseback in the area around Alexandria, Raswan and his sister first made the acquaintance with the Bedouins in the area. 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
. On this journey, he had his first opportunity to be in contact with the horse-breeding Bedouin tribes. Sheikh Ammer loaned Raswan his stallion Ghazal for this trip. The friendship between the Sheikh and Raswan became so close that he was nicknamed "Aziz" (Arabic for "the lovers"). This nickname also helped Carl Raswan later in other contacts with the Bedouin. During this journey, which lasted about one year, Raswan learned many ways to deal with the nomadic tribes of Arab Bedouin. He learned much about their ways of life, religion, and made a study to understand the social fabric of the Bedouin tribes.
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). This close relationship continued until the death of Raswan. During this trip, as Raswan later wrote in his book "Drinkers of the Wind", he finally realized in the stallion Ghazal, a representative of the asil
Arabian horse, his "dream horse." Sheikh Ammer later gave Ghazal to Raswan as a gift.
in 1917, where he witnessed the Russian-German armistice. On the way home, Raswan went through Warsaw, and due to the famine and other privation in Poland at the time, arrived in Dresden nearly emaciated.
to make his living there, and the USA became his home of choice. It took another four years, until 1925, before Raswan fully recovered from the health consequences of the First World War.
Raswan's passion for the Arabian horse, led to his acquaintance with W.K. Kellogg
, a breeder of purebred Arabians near Pomona, California
. 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
. On February 22, 1926 his selected Arabian horses, arrived. The best-quality horse of this group was the stallion *Raswan (foaled 1921), said to be the best son of the stallion Skowronek
. Lady Wentworth gave *Raswan the stallion to Carl Raswan (then still known as Carl Schmidt) as a gift. Raswan even Radhwan in the Muslim faith is the angel of mercy at the entrance to Paradise.
The horse *Raswan stood at stud at the Kellogg farm, but while there was killed in a tragic accident. Carl Raswan learned of the stallion's death, he cried: "Dead? No! He will live! From now on, everything I do is done in his name!" At that time he changed his name from Carl Schmidt to Carl Raswan.
The Kellogg ranch also provided horses for use in film. 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.
Beginning in the late 1930s, Carl Raswan maintained a small farm in the Sandia
mountains in New Mexico where he bred purebred Arabians.
In 1928, Raswan undertook another trip to Central Arabia, during which he visited several Bedouin tribes. 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 (eg 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. Also, the year 1928 was marked by a drought which affected the Ruala for weeks, resulting in the deaths of up to 2,000 camels.
On April 15, 1929, Carl Raswan was formally added as a member of the Ruala and into the family of Nuri Shaalan. This was a great honor for a European and a Christian (Raswan quote: "My religion, I had never denied to the Bedouin.") In the same year, Raswan brokered a peace agreement between 21 leaders of rival Bedouin tribes, which helped give him an excellent reputation. His experiences were described in his book The Arab and his horse, as well as in the text of the book Arabian horse by U. Guttmann.
"... After months of negotiations ... for a personal consultation with the King of Egypt ... I finally succeeded in convincing those great lovers and breeders of fine Arabian horse in Egypt to co that their sacrifice, to send Jasir to send to Germany, would prove in the course of time to be a gain for Egypt. "
The stallion was then within a 16-day journey by ship and train from Cairo to Weil. However Jasir appreciated freedom above all. In Venice, he escaped onto on the sun deck of the ship, then fell into a hatch, two decks deep in thick cotton bales, jumped up, shook himself and then ran along a narrow steel corridor into a platform from which one could overlook the entire engine room, where the runaway was captured, miraculously intact. One in Germany, Jasir was later one of the horses,who, after the dissolution of the Royal Stud in Weil, was transferred to become part of the breeding stock of the Marbach state stud
.
In another journey to add to the European stock of Arabian horses, Raswan traveled in 1930 with the Polish prince Roman Sanguszko and his stud manager, Bogdan Zietarski, to acquire desert-bred Arabian horses for his farm in Gumniska (southern Poland). Together they traveled about 12,000 km in the Middle East and visited more than 10,000 horses. The result of the journey, from November 1930 until mid-1931, was the import of five stallions and four mares, of which the stallion Kuhailan Zaid db (= desertbred) went to the Hungarian stud of Bábolna
, and the remaining horses to Gumniska . Another stallion from this purchase was Kuhailan Haifi, sire of the stallion Ofir, who stood at the Polish State Stud at Janów Podlaski
and had a far-reaching influence on the breeding of Arabian horses worldwide through his offspring, including his son Witez II
and grandson Bask
. Raswan and Zietarski developed a close friendship and deep respect for each other. In a letter dated August 6, 1955 at the renowned Hippo Lodge, to Dr. John Erich Flade, a fellow countryman and friend of Raswan's, Raswan praised the expertise and horsemanship of Zietarski.
In the summer of 1936, Raswan undertook another trip to the Middle East. Originally, the purpose of the trip a visit to his Arab friends. Due to the political situation, however, this proved to be extremely dangerous. Raswan usually traveled by car from Cairo to Aqaba in the present-day Syria, from there by Iraq after Baghdad and in Iran after Tehran before returning by way of Alexandria and Genoa on the way back. Raswan described his odyssey in his book "Escape from Baghdad".
After this project, he wrote to In a letter to Dr. Flade, on May 11, 1955 that his next project would be to publish an index of all Arabian family trees, listing Bedouin breeders and imports of the last 100 years to Europe and America. The project was originally planned in twelve volumes, which he would produce at a rate of one every three months. However, this work, now known as the Raswan Index, took far longer. In the preparation of this work, Carl Raswan was helped extensively by his wife, Esperanza Raswan, who assisted with the writing and corrections. The work was finally published in seven volumes from 1957 to 1967, the last volumes published Post-mortem, edited by Esperanza Raswan. Today, the Raswan index is still an important reference work for breeders of Arabian horses.
In 1955, Raswan drew some conclusions from his eventful life. 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.
In November and December 1965 Raswan became ill and spent a week in the hospital. In a letter to Dr. Flade on December 22, 1965, he wrote that his old injuries from the First World War, his stay in the desert of Arabia, and a kidney injury inflicted on Raswan in 1934 in the Wiener Straße in Dresden by the Nazi SS were all examined. The doctors determined that the scarring of the wounds to his lungs caused by sand storms during his stays in the desert has led to the appearance of silicosis
. 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.
On October 14, 1966, Carl Reinhard Raswan died suddenly and unexpectedly, presumably as a result of silicosis. On January 14, 1967 condolences were received from Mútab Prince Fawaz as-Shaalan and the Ruala, stating that Carl Raswan (aka Abd al-Aziz Ibn Radhwan, the Ruala) a loyal, loving friend, was lost.
Raswan left one son, Harold, and three daughters, Mildred, Anita and Evalynn, from his first marriage. His last marriage, to Esperanza, left two daughters, Chela and Beatriz. Carl Raswan was very close to Esperanza, about which he once said: "She is much more than my better half, she is a substance made from the angels."
Asil
The word "Aseel" Is an Arabic Name and adjective that means: Original, Authentic, Genuine, Pure, Origin, Root, Unique.The word "asil" is Arabic in origin and means "pure"...
Arabian horse
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
. He was also a writer and author of numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
people. He was also a scholar of desert Arabian bloodlines, publishing the Raswan Index, an extensive compilation of pedigree and strain information. In addition, he was an advocate for tolerance and understanding of the ways of life and culture of the Bedouin tribes of Arabia.
Early years
Carl Raswan was born Carl Reinhard Schmidt in DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Laubegast-Tolkewitz, the child of Martin Schmidt and a Hungarian mother. At the age of five, Carl Raswan first came into contact with horses when he received a pony named "Philie." as a gift from his father. When his father purchased property in 1898, Carl and his pony gained the opportunity to take large excursions in the Dresden area, without the need to cross the Elbe river. Carl spent his school holidays with his pony, often in the company of his uncle Bernhard Schmidt, a forester. During one of those holidays, Raswan observed the young Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, Duke of Saxony was a member of the Saxon Royal Family. Ernst Heinrich was the youngest son of the last Saxon monarch Frederick Augustus III and his wife Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany...
, who was riding a Shagya Arabian
Shagya Arabian
The Shagya Arabian was developed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 19th century at the Bábolna, Mezőhegyes, Radautz, Piber, and Topolcianky studs. Today it is most often seen in the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, the former Yugoslavian countries, Poland, Germany, and Hungary, but has...
. Raswan observed that the horse appeared to recognize its own reflection in the water and played with it. This experience, suggesting a high degree of animal intelligence for a horse, awakened his interest in the Arabian horse and later described as a key event in his life.
In 1902, Raswan enrolled in the humanistic Royal Wettin Gymnasium in Dresden. The choice of this school was fortunate for Carl Raswan as he got the opportunity to study classical European antiquity and its languages. Carl Raswan deepened his study of classical languages during his high school years, reading the works of Simon of Athens, Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
, 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
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
), the former capital of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. This trip marked the beginning of the journey began the fulfillment of his childhood dream "on the search for the perfect horse." He spent most of his time with the study of ancient works of art representing horses, such as the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
frieze of the Greek sculptor Phidias
Phidias
Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...
, and the then-still-existing procession that contained images of hundreds of horses. Through the inspection of the private library of a friendly Greek archaeologist, Raswan obained extensive insight into the ancient history of the horse.
This period of reading also introduced Raswan to the two volumes of Lady Anne Blunt
Lady Anne Blunt
Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, née King-Noel, 15th Baroness Wentworth , known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, was co-founder, with her husband the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, of the Crabbet Arabian Stud. The two married on 8 June 1869...
'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... ".
First trip to the Middle East
Inspired by the writings of Lady Blunt and his studies of ancient artwork, Raswan returned from Greece and soon began to study everything related to Arabia, and in a few years he mastered both the language as well as the writing to a native level. Raswan first traveled to the Middle East in 1911 on an invitation to Egypt from his cousin, who handled an Import/Export operation in Cairo. He traveled via Trieste and Alexandria to Cairo and saw for the first time the beauty and diversity of the Middle East. By 1912, Raswan had moved up to a job as an assistant at the Santa Stefano farm near Ramle, east of Alexandria, where he was responsible for irrigation techniques and farm issues, working extensively with the problems facing the rural population. His then 16-year-old sister, Charlotte Schmidt, followed Raswan to Egypt to help him to take over the financial management at Ramle.On their excursions on horseback in the area around Alexandria, Raswan and his sister first made the acquaintance with the Bedouins in the area. One day they met Sheikh Ammer Ibn-el-Aide of the Would Ali tribe, who rode a small Arabian stallion
Stallion
A Stallion is a male horse.Stallion may also refer to:* Stallion , an American pop rock group* Stallion , a figure in the Gobot toyline* Stallion , a character in the console role-playing game series...
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
Equerry
An equerry , and related to the French word "écuyer" ) is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a Sovereign, a member of a Royal Family, or a national...
to the Egyptian king Tewfik
Mohammed Ali Tewfik
Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik was the heir presumptive of Egypt and Sudan from 1892-1899 and 1936-1952.-Regent:...
(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
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
. On this journey, he had his first opportunity to be in contact with the horse-breeding Bedouin tribes. Sheikh Ammer loaned Raswan his stallion Ghazal for this trip. The friendship between the Sheikh and Raswan became so close that he was nicknamed "Aziz" (Arabic for "the lovers"). This nickname also helped Carl Raswan later in other contacts with the Bedouin. During this journey, which lasted about one year, Raswan learned many ways to deal with the nomadic tribes of Arab Bedouin. He learned much about their ways of life, religion, and made a study to understand the social fabric of the Bedouin tribes.
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). This close relationship continued until the death of Raswan. During this trip, as Raswan later wrote in his book "Drinkers of the Wind", he finally realized in the stallion Ghazal, a representative of the asil
Asil
The word "Aseel" Is an Arabic Name and adjective that means: Original, Authentic, Genuine, Pure, Origin, Root, Unique.The word "asil" is Arabic in origin and means "pure"...
Arabian horse, his "dream horse." Sheikh Ammer later gave Ghazal to Raswan as a gift.
World War I
With the beginning of World War I Raswan's life changed drastically. In the autumn of 1914, he received orders to report to the Saxon Royal Hussars Regiment No. 18 following Großenhain, but his enlistment was postponed. Raswan then reported in May 1915 to the German embassy in Constantinople as a volunteer. 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. After participating in battles in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), Raswan went to the UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in 1917, where he witnessed the Russian-German armistice. On the way home, Raswan went through Warsaw, and due to the famine and other privation in Poland at the time, arrived in Dresden nearly emaciated.
Emigration to the United States
Back in his native city, Carl Raswan no longer felt at home. In 1921, he decided to move to Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
to make his living there, and the USA became his home of choice. It took another four years, until 1925, before Raswan fully recovered from the health consequences of the First World War.
Raswan's passion for the Arabian horse, led to his acquaintance with W.K. Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg, generally referred to as W.K. Kellogg was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which to this day produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals...
, a breeder of purebred Arabians near Pomona, California
Pomona, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Pomona had a population of 149,058, a slight decline from the 2000 census population. The population density was 6,491.2 people per square mile...
. In 1925, Raswan was asked by Kellogg to travel to obtain breeding stock from the Crabbet Arabian Stud
Crabbet Arabian Stud
The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was a horse breeding farm established on 2 July 1878 when the first Arabian horses brought to England by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt arrived at Crabbet Park, their estate in Sussex...
in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, UK, then owned by Lady Wentworth
Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth
Judith Anne Dorothea Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth also known as Lady Wentworth was a British peeress, Arabian horse breeder and tennis player...
. On February 22, 1926 his selected Arabian horses, arrived. The best-quality horse of this group was the stallion *Raswan (foaled 1921), said to be the best son of the stallion Skowronek
Skowronek
Skowronek was an Arabian stallion foaled in 1909. He was bred by Count Józef Potocki who owned the Antoniny Stud in Poland. He was imported to England as a young horse. Upon purchase by Lady Wentworth, Skowronek became a foundation stallion at Lady Wentworth's famed Crabbet Arabian Stud...
. Lady Wentworth gave *Raswan the stallion to Carl Raswan (then still known as Carl Schmidt) as a gift. Raswan even Radhwan in the Muslim faith is the angel of mercy at the entrance to Paradise.
The horse *Raswan stood at stud at the Kellogg farm, but while there was killed in a tragic accident. Carl Raswan learned of the stallion's death, he cried: "Dead? No! He will live! From now on, everything I do is done in his name!" At that time he changed his name from Carl Schmidt to Carl Raswan.
The Kellogg ranch also provided horses for use in film. The Kellogg-owned stallion Jadaan was ridden by Raswan in April 1926 when he served as a stunt double for the actor Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
during shots requiring fast or dangerous riding in the film Son of the Sheik.
Beginning in the late 1930s, Carl Raswan maintained a small farm in the Sandia
Sandia Mountains
The Sandia Mountains name posu gai hoo-oo, "where water slides down arroyo") are a mountain range located in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, immediately to the east of the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The range is largely within the Cibola National...
mountains in New Mexico where he bred purebred Arabians.
Second trip to the Middle East
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. During this trip, the close relationship between Raswan and his blood brother Prince Fawaz deepened. The prince's grandfather, Amir Nuri as-Shaalan Raswan, was also very affectionate. The experiences and lessons of this journey Raswan described in his book Black Tents of Arabia.In 1928, Raswan undertook another trip to Central Arabia, during which he visited several Bedouin tribes. 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 (eg 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. Also, the year 1928 was marked by a drought which affected the Ruala for weeks, resulting in the deaths of up to 2,000 camels.
On April 15, 1929, Carl Raswan was formally added as a member of the Ruala and into the family of Nuri Shaalan. This was a great honor for a European and a Christian (Raswan quote: "My religion, I had never denied to the Bedouin.") In the same year, Raswan brokered a peace agreement between 21 leaders of rival Bedouin tribes, which helped give him an excellent reputation. His experiences were described in his book The Arab and his horse, as well as in the text of the book Arabian horse by U. Guttmann.
Later journeys
In the journal ST.GEORGES, Raswan noticed a photograph of the stallion Jasir in 1929, taken at the stud of Prince Mohamed Ali. This led to a request from Pauline, Princess of Wied, the owner of the Royal Stud at Württembergische, Weil, to Raswan to attempt to purchase the stallion. Raswan took the job, which proved to be harder than expected. He wrote:"... After months of negotiations ... for a personal consultation with the King of Egypt ... I finally succeeded in convincing those great lovers and breeders of fine Arabian horse in Egypt to co that their sacrifice, to send Jasir to send to Germany, would prove in the course of time to be a gain for Egypt. "
The stallion was then within a 16-day journey by ship and train from Cairo to Weil. However Jasir appreciated freedom above all. In Venice, he escaped onto on the sun deck of the ship, then fell into a hatch, two decks deep in thick cotton bales, jumped up, shook himself and then ran along a narrow steel corridor into a platform from which one could overlook the entire engine room, where the runaway was captured, miraculously intact. One in Germany, Jasir was later one of the horses,who, after the dissolution of the Royal Stud in Weil, was transferred to become part of the breeding stock of the Marbach state stud
Marbach stud
The Marbach Stud, also known as Weil-Marbach, is Germany's oldest state stud farm for horse breeding, has a history that dates back over 500 years. It is located in southwest Germany near Gomadingen in the Reutlingen district of Baden-Württemberg. The annual stallion parade is an internationally...
.
In another journey to add to the European stock of Arabian horses, Raswan traveled in 1930 with the Polish prince Roman Sanguszko and his stud manager, Bogdan Zietarski, to acquire desert-bred Arabian horses for his farm in Gumniska (southern Poland). Together they traveled about 12,000 km in the Middle East and visited more than 10,000 horses. The result of the journey, from November 1930 until mid-1931, was the import of five stallions and four mares, of which the stallion Kuhailan Zaid db (= desertbred) went to the Hungarian stud of Bábolna
Bábolna
Bábolna is a town in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary.In 1437-1438 there was a peasant revolt.Bábolna also houses the famous riding school, and a world-famous stud farm.-References:...
, and the remaining horses to Gumniska . Another stallion from this purchase was Kuhailan Haifi, sire of the stallion Ofir, who stood at the Polish State Stud at Janów Podlaski
Janów Podlaski
Janów Podlaski is a village in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Janów Podlaski...
and had a far-reaching influence on the breeding of Arabian horses worldwide through his offspring, including his son Witez II
Witez II
Witez II was a bay Arabian stallion foaled at the Janów Podlaski stud in Poland. Foaled April 1, 1938, he spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life...
and grandson Bask
Bask
Bask, bred at the Albigowa State Stud in Poland and foaled in 1956, was a bay Arabian stallion who was imported into the United States in 1963 by Dr. Eugene LaCroix of Lasma Arabians and became a major sire of significance in the Arabian breed....
. Raswan and Zietarski developed a close friendship and deep respect for each other. In a letter dated August 6, 1955 at the renowned Hippo Lodge, to Dr. John Erich Flade, a fellow countryman and friend of Raswan's, Raswan praised the expertise and horsemanship of Zietarski.
In the summer of 1936, Raswan undertook another trip to the Middle East. Originally, the purpose of the trip a visit to his Arab friends. Due to the political situation, however, this proved to be extremely dangerous. Raswan usually traveled by car from Cairo to Aqaba in the present-day Syria, from there by Iraq after Baghdad and in Iran after Tehran before returning by way of Alexandria and Genoa on the way back. Raswan described his odyssey in his book "Escape from Baghdad".
Final years
When World War II began, Raswan sought to obtain his records from Germany in order to publish his book "Sons of the Desert", but was prevented from doing so for more than eight years.After this project, he wrote to In a letter to Dr. Flade, on May 11, 1955 that his next project would be to publish an index of all Arabian family trees, listing Bedouin breeders and imports of the last 100 years to Europe and America. The project was originally planned in twelve volumes, which he would produce at a rate of one every three months. However, this work, now known as the Raswan Index, took far longer. In the preparation of this work, Carl Raswan was helped extensively by his wife, Esperanza Raswan, who assisted with the writing and corrections. The work was finally published in seven volumes from 1957 to 1967, the last volumes published Post-mortem, edited by Esperanza Raswan. Today, the Raswan index is still an important reference work for breeders of Arabian horses.
In 1955, Raswan drew some conclusions from his eventful life. 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.
In November and December 1965 Raswan became ill and spent a week in the hospital. In a letter to Dr. Flade on December 22, 1965, he wrote that his old injuries from the First World War, his stay in the desert of Arabia, and a kidney injury inflicted on Raswan in 1934 in the Wiener Straße in Dresden by the Nazi SS were all examined. The doctors determined that the scarring of the wounds to his lungs caused by sand storms during his stays in the desert has led to the appearance of silicosis
Silicosis
Silicosis, also known as Potter's rot, is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in forms of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs...
. 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.
On October 14, 1966, Carl Reinhard Raswan died suddenly and unexpectedly, presumably as a result of silicosis. On January 14, 1967 condolences were received from Mútab Prince Fawaz as-Shaalan and the Ruala, stating that Carl Raswan (aka Abd al-Aziz Ibn Radhwan, the Ruala) a loyal, loving friend, was lost.
Raswan left one son, Harold, and three daughters, Mildred, Anita and Evalynn, from his first marriage. His last marriage, to Esperanza, left two daughters, Chela and Beatriz. Carl Raswan was very close to Esperanza, about which he once said: "She is much more than my better half, she is a substance made from the angels."