page_title: Carl Raswan
section_title: Second trip to the Middle East
hierarchical_section_title: Carl Raswan / Second trip to the Middle East
caption_attribution_description: Amir Nuri Sha'lan. Langjähriger Führer der Ruala-Beduinen. Trotz seines strapaziösen Lebens wurde er 103 Jahre alt. Amir Nuri Sha'lan. Long-time leader of the Ruala Bedouins. Despite his exhausting life, he was 103 years old
context_page_description: Carl Reinhard Raswan, born Carl Reinhard Schmidt, was one of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the asil Arabian horse. He authored numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin people who raised them. A scholar of Arabian bloodlines, he also published the Raswan Index, an extensive compilation of Arabian horse pedigree and strain information. He advocated tolerance and understanding of Bedouin ways of life and culture in Arabia.
context_section_description: 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 (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. 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.
  In 1929, Raswan also accompanied the American breeder W.R. Brown on a trip to Egypt and Syria to look for desert-bred horses.  However, according to Brown’s wife, the two men apparently did not get along well, and the horses they purchased on the trip somehow never made it to America. Following that uncomfortable trip, Brown wrote the well-received The Horse of the Desert, though he never mentioned Raswan in its pages.
caption: Amir Nuri as-Shaalan, long-standing leader of the Bedouin Ruala, who lived to be 103 years old. (Photo by Carl Raswan, 1927)
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