Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
hare,
l. arabicus
, is found on the borders of
the Sahara, together with
l. pallidior, l. har-
terti
and
l. barcaeus
, from Morocco to the
Sinai peninsula. A systematic study of the
hares of the Arabian Peninsula has yet to
be made. The species
l. europaeus
is repre-
sented in the Near East in several isolated
places as well as
l. syriacus
(Lebanon) and
l. judeae
(Palestine).
Literary authorities differ about the
gender of the noun
arnab
; some see it as
masculine with an associated feminine
arnaba
, but country people, both sedentary
and nomadic, knew from very early times
how to distinguish the sex and age of hares
by a specific terminology which is unam-
biguous. The male, or buck, was called
¶
uzaz
(pl.
¶
izzān, a
¶
izza
) or
aw
ª
ab
or
uffa
(Ma
∞
ribī
akrū
ª
). The female, or
doe, was named
ikri
ª
a
(Saūdī,
idana
);
while suckling she was called
¡
amari
ª
.
The levret was called
¶
irni
(pl.
¶
arāni
)
or the
¶
awta
, and the weanling
sula
(Ma
∞
ribī
¶
arbū
ª
, arbū
ª
; Tamaa
eberewel
, pl.
iberewēlen
, fem.
teberewelt
, pl.
tiberewēlīn
). From an ethnological point of
view, these country folk knew the habits
of the hare in detail and its simple form
or lair (
makā/mak/makw
, pl.
amkā,
¶
itl
,
Ma
∞
ribī,
margad
) did not escape the eyes
of the herdsmen; it was found facing the
prevailing wind behind a tuft of grass.
Regions where hares were plentiful were
named
muarniba/murniba
or
ma
¶
azza
or
mu
¶
arnia
, according to whether adults
or young hares were predominant. Most
of the Bedouin observations about the
leporids have been recorded by the natu-
ralists al-azwīnī (
A
¡
āib al-ma
¶
lūāt
),
al-Damīrī (
ayāt al-ayawān al-kubrā
)
and
especially al-
⁄
āi (
ayawān
). From these
records scholars can learn that the hare
has hair inside its cheeks, that it dozes with
its eyes wide open, and that it is always on
the alert and flees at the slightest danger,
which has gained it a universal reputation
as a coward. The doe, like a bitch or she-
ass, menstruates from time to time and
because of this impurity in the family of
leporids, the species was not mounted by
the djinn. The passion of the rut linked
with the phenomenon of superfoetation in
fertilising the doe led to a popular belief
in the hare changing sex annually. In
antiquity, it was also considered to be a
case of hermaphroditism.
The hare is certainly one of the most
highly-prized game animals in Muslim
countries, as elsewhere. To catch it, man
has employed all kinds of ingenuity; he
has caught it with nets (
ibāla
, pl.
abāyil
),
snares (
ª
arak
, pl.
a
ª
rāk
) and traps (
mi
∞
wāt
,
pl.
ma
∞
āwī;
mu
∞
awwāt
, pl.
mu
∞
awwayāt;
una
, pl.
uan
), and he has hunted
(
arada
) with the help of trained beasts
(
awārī
) like the gazehound (
salūī salūī
,
pl.
-iyya
), which always hunts by sight, and
pointers or other hounds (
za
∞
ārī
, pl.
-iyya
,
Ma
∞
ribī
ārūs
, pl.
awāris
) which hunt by
scent. The Persian lynx (
anā al-ar
) and
trained birds of prey (
¡
awāri
) are also
used. He has used various weapons to
attack the hare like the thrown cudgel
(
hirāwa, zarrīa/zarwāa
), which the young
shepherds of the plains of the Ma
∞
rib
can wield so skilfully, as well as the sling
(
mi
¶£
afa, milā
), the bow, then the cross-
bow and eventually firearms. As well as
man, the hare is surrounded by a number
of natural enemies, carnivores and rapa-
cious predators; it is especially threatened
by the tawny eagle (
aquila rapax
) which is
appropriately called
uāb al-arnab
or
ar
al-arnab
. Hare flesh has no fat or tendons,
owing to the alimentary eclecticism of the
animal. It is instinctively attracted to cer-
tain aromatic and sweet plants, and the
Bedouin expression
arnab al-
¶
ulla
, “the
hare of the sweet plants” summarises
the appreciation of the gourmet and the
glutton (
ayawān
, iv, 134). The gastro-
nomic authority Abu 'l-Wa
¡
īh al-Uklī, a
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