2004.130.25351.1

Collection type

Photograph

Description

Portrait of a peregrine falcon (shahin), belonging to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's hunting party, resting in the sands near Al Ain. A peregrine falcon perches on a carved wooden wakir (block) staked in the sand, facing towards the near left. The falcon's burqa (hood) lies in the sand to the right of the wakir. In the background a vast expanse of sand continues into the far distance.

Geographical reference

United Arab Emirates

Asia > Western Asia > United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi Emirate; Al Ain Region; Al Ain City

Person

Photographer Wilfred Patrick Thesiger

Expedition or compiler Wilfred Thesiger United Arab Emirates and Oman Winter 1949-50

PRM source Wilfred Patrick Thesiger

Date / Period

Date of photograph: 01/12/1949 - 12/01/1950

Acquisition information

Acceptance in Lieu: 03/2004

Photographic process

Negative film Kodak

Black & White

Dimensions

Image dimension 35 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 2004.130.25351.1 Previous PRM number: WT.1950.2.34 Previous other number: 1950/2.34

Research and responses

Research Notes - 'Last winter I spent three weeks hawking with the Abu Falah sheikhs on the Trucial Coast at the southern end of the Persian Gulf.... The Arabs here use the peregrine, which they call "shahin", whereas on the open gravel plains of the Nejd they prefer the saker falcon or "hurr". The peregrine is swifter, bolder and more persevering, but the saker is said to have better eyesight and is worth up to twenty pounds, whereas a peregrine can be had for ten pounds.' Wilfred Thesiger, 'Hawking in Arabia', Listener, 42 (1949), p.803. [AK 23/05/2011]

Research Notes - 'I spent the next month hawking with Zayid in the Khatam sands. The Al Bu Falah and Bin Maktum sheikhs of the Trucial Coast look forward eagerly to the hawking season which in these parts starts in November and usually ends in March. Zayid uses peregrines (shahin, pl. shuahin) mostly of the Eastern race, though I noticed one Barbary falcon among his birds, in preference to saker falcons (hurr pl. harar) which are preferred on the open plains of the Najd. The saker has better eyesight than the peregrine and can see a bustard on bare ground at an incredible distance, but among the sands, where bustards are easily tracked and where they can be approached from behind the dunes, the Arabs fancy the peregrine since it is swifter, bolder and more persevering than the saker. These peregrines are caught on the islands and salt flats along the Trucial Coast while on migration in November and December.' Wilfred Thesiger, pp. 143, in 'Desert Borderlands of Oman', Geographical Journal, 116, Oct. - Dec. 1950, pp. 137-168. [AK 23/05/2011]

Research Notes - 'I have been told that in England it takes fifty days to train a wild falcon, but here the Arabs had them ready in a fortnight to three weeks. This is because they were never separated from them. A man who was training a falcon carried it about everywhere with him. He even fed with it sitting on his left wrist, and slept with it perched on its block beside his head. Always he was stroking it, speaking to it, hooding it and unhooding it.' Wilfred Thesiger, pp. 269, Arabian Sands (London, 1959). [AK 23/05/2011]

Search terms: Hunting, Portrait