A Personal Narrative on My Journey
through the Middle East

In Islamic style, this horse watering fountain in the courtyard of the Royal Jordanian Stables is colorfully decorated with tiles.

After the horse presentation, we were treated to a farrier demonstration in the beautiful stable courtyard, defined by a colorful mosaic fountain. We also visited a room housing Amira Alia’s fine collection of saddlessome 40 unique saddles of different riding erasfrom Spain, Africa and the Middle East. The visit to the stable was a memorable one and a fitting beginning for what was to come.

The next stop was at a new stable facility outside of Amman, set high on a hill which served as a quarantine station for imported horses. Here we saw the Syrian stallion Ta’an and 1 stallion and 7 mares of Davenport bloodlines and owned by Jerald and Debra Dirks and Jamal Rabia. These horses were recently imported to Jordan arriving just a few days before we did.

While at this facility I took a few moments to take in the enormous spread of colorful scenery across the valley below us. This endless valley was laced with strips of cultivated soil and plastic covered quonsets. Under the quonsets were thriving produce and flowers for export. Some of the cultivated strips were deep brown soil in waiting for the next planting, while other strips were lined with fresh green crops or with soft grey-green stripes being groves of olive trees. The quilting of planted patches were randomly separated by large, sometimes sandy, sometimes stony, nebulous areas of uncultivated ground. In the distance was the tinkling of bellsa sound that aroused my curiositybut without binoculars, I had to wait for the cause of this sound to come into view. Then a distant grey, flowing shape came streaming slowly across one of the uncultivated areas like lava. It was one solitary Bedouin on foot herding a very large flock of sheep wearing bellsa most intriguing site and sound and a foreshadowing of visits to come.

	A small portion of the large panoramic view of Amman, Jordan from our hotel. Traveling through the city I noted often these buildings would have steel rod extending beyond the top floor. Dr. Hijazi had explained that in many city residences, a family is the owner of the building and each new floor is added as the next generation comes of age and needs a place for its own family so that a taller building would contain, floor by floor a large extended family.
At left is the entrance to the Roman ruins in Jerash, Jordan which date back to 63 BCE. At right, a view from the top of the Roman Amphitheatre at the Roman ruins in Jerash. Randall Harris and I scaled these steps and promised to stop counting when we reached the top exhausted. Seeing the ruins is a subtle reminder that we are travelling in an ancient region whose humanity has been directed by more than one culture over a long period of time.

Returning to the city, Dr. Hani Hijazi invited us to an evening dinner at his residence where I had my first opportunity to enjoy a feast in true Bedouin fashion and learned the correct manner of eating which was great fun for me, though I had to train out of myself my lefthandedness. Dr. Hijazi was educated in the U.S., after which he returned to Jordan to run the family’s business, The Al-Maraai Establishment, a large meat and food producing establishment. His familiarity with both cultures made us feel right at home learning the new ways.
 

I had always wanted to visit the Dead Sea and found it captivating though nearly impossible to photograph. However, the local Bedouins offering horse and camel rides was a great pictoral. Having never ridden a camel I was treated to a camel ride by one of Dr. Hijazi’s associates, Jowad. My riding style was clearly untrained but it was a very relaxing ride.

Dr. Hani’s associate Jowad and staff kindly took us to see the ancient Roman ruins at Jerash, the historic Dead Sea (where I enjoyed my first camel ride) and a most amazing livestock operation of Al-Maraai on the edge of the desert near Zarqa. The Dead Sea is something that I had always read about and most wanted to see. Arriving in late afternoon I was not able to get the best photos but the almost blue silver, mirror like quality of the water was stunning. Its feel is so different than any of the ocean waters I had previously felt. The Dead Sea is the lowest, in altitude, (1300 feet below sea level) site on the entire planet and the water has nine times the saline content of any ocean.

Our time in Jordan was certainly not long enough and left the desire to return but we are very appreciative of Dr. Hani Hijazi, his family and associates for giving us true Bedouin hospitality. Time had come to depart to Syria.

Taking a late flight to Damascus we arrived November 1, warmly greeted by friendly hosts. Our primary hosts throughout the entire visit in Syria included representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Arabian breeders of the Damascus area, Arabian breeders of the Aleppo area, the Tai Bedouin Tribe, and the Shammar Bedouin Tribe. It is at this point in the article, that I wish to indicate that many of the names of people, locations, horses and strains which appear in this feature are not necessarily spelled correctly but spelled as best as I can determine from my audio tapes or materials shared with me by our delegation. So I apologize in advance for any misspellings, or also if I have inadvertently omitted the name of any of our wonderful hosts along the way. While I have no mastery of the language in this regard, I had no difficulty in appreciating the wonderful gestures of generosity and friendship of all the people we met along the way for which I am most grateful whether or not I have been able to identify them by name.

From Damascus, Syria:	H.E. Asa’ad Moustafa Dr. Mohammad Al-Wadi Dr. Ameen Al-Zarkan Basil Jadaan Saleh Srouji Dr. Abdul Shakour Al-Kari Mohammed Hisham Ghrayeb Safoh Nahhas Ahmad Sheikh Mouhammed Mustafa Al-Hafez Issam Haj Hassan Ibrahim Abboud Lina Balhawan	From Aleppo, Syria:	Radouan Chabarek Dr. Munzer Absi Mustafa Al Jabri Kamal Abdul Khalek Muhammad Ali Al-Hafez Abd-Al Muttaleb Al-Hafez Mohammed Fayad Al-Hafez Abdul Latif Al-Hafez Rida Issa	From the Tribes:	Sheykh Farouk Sweidan Sheykh Mohamad Abdul Razak AlTaiee Mohammad Abdul Suleim Al-Raheel Sheykh Humeidi Dham Al Asi Al Jarba Sheykh Rakan Al-Nuri Al Jarba Sheykh Jaddou Abdul Aqoub Haj Nawwaf Thallaj
From France:	Dr. Serge Cataheir Dr. Michel Minot Marie Goutenoire Andree Goutenoire Francois Pouillen	From Al-Hasakah, Syria:	Nedal Ahmed Al-Assa’ad Marwan Al-Assa’ad	From Lebanon:	Joe Achcar
From Abu Dhabi:	Hamdan Al Falahi	From Homs, Syria:	Abdul Muhsen Nassif	From Palmyra:	Khalid Assad

Next Page | Previous Page | Top