Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

ii. XXVIII.] NiebiLlir quoted. 267
niay he merely a new name for tlie Ahwaj, used
first as an epitliet, but afterwards superseding the
older name in Arabia.
This supposition is favoured
by Niebuhr, who evidently treats tlie Kochlani, as
he calls them, as the generic name of the pure
Bedouin race, as contrasted with the Radishes or
town horses of the peninsula.
"The Kochlani," he says, "are reserved for riding
solely. They are said to derive their origin from
King Solomon's studs. However this may be, they
are fit to bear the greatest fatigues * * *. The
Kochlani are neither large nor handsome — " (It must
be remembered that Niebuhr was a Dane, and took
his ideas of beauty in all probability from the great
Flanders' horses ridden by our ancestors. The
Eastern breed in his day, more than a, hundred
years ago, was liardly yet quite established even in
England),— " but amazingly swift ; it is not for their
figure, but for their velocity and other good qualities
that the Arabians esteem them.
chiefly l^red by the
These Kochlani are
Bedouins settled between Basra
Merdin and Syria, in which countries the nobility
never choose to ride horses of any other race. The
wiiole race is divided into several families, each of
which has its proper name ;
that of Dsjulfa seems
to be the most numerous. Some of these families
have a higher reputation
than others, on account of
their more ancient and uncontaminated nobility.
Although it is known by experience, that the
Kochlani are often inferior to the Kadischi, yet the