Introduction

Summary

In 1906, Homer Davenport, an American who had been deeply interested in the Arab horse for many years, planned a journey from the United States to Syria to obtain Arab mares and stallions of absolute purity of blood that he could trace as coming from the Anizah Bedouin, whose pure-bred horses had worldwide recognition. It was not, however, easy to obtain permission from the Ottoman authorities as the imperial government forbade the exportation of Arab horses. He appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt for help and was granted an endorsement letter, with which he applied to the Ottoman embassy and an İrade was issued by the Sultan permitting him to export ‘six or eight’ mares from the Ottoman Empire. Davenport immediately set off on his journey and arrived in Istanbul, from where he took the road for Syria. In Antioch, the vice-consulate assigned an interpreter to him and they departed for Aleppo where they were to meet Ahmed Hafız, an Anizah sheikh and the political and commercial agent of the tribe settled in the city for thirty years who was described by the governor of Aleppo ‘as the smartest and shrewdest Bedouin that the Ottoman Empire had ever known’.¹ Davenport’s intention was to finish his trip in Deir al-Zor on the Euphrates where he might be sure of purchasing horses from the Anizah themselves. Firstly, they visited the bazaar in Aleppo to buy ‘saddles and bridles, and horse trimmings which were used in the desert’. Hundreds of Bedouin were available in the town market for shopping. They also came across an Anizah tribesman in the bazaar who informed them that the Anizah were within ten hours’ ride of Aleppo. Shortly after that they fell in with another Anizah, who told them that Hajim Bey, the paramount sheikh of all Anizah tribes, was then in Aleppo paying a visit to Ahmed Hafız. The Bedouin offered to take them to Ahmed Hafız, which meant that they could buy their horses directly from the Anizah tribe itself. ‘It was no longer a question of going to Deyr [sic].’²