HORSES

Arabic far as ( فرس‎ ), k͟hail ( خيل‎ ), pl. k͟huyūl . Muḥammad’s affection for horses was very great, as was natural to an Arabian. Anas says there was nothing the Prophet was so fond of as women and horses. Abū Qatādah relates that Muḥammad said: “The best horses are black with white foreheads and having a white upper lip.” But Abū Wahhāb says the Prophet considered a bay horse with white forehead, white fore and hind legs the best. An instance of the way in which the traditionists sometimes contradict each other! ( Mishkāt , book xvii. c. ii.) In the Hidāyah (Arabic edition, vol. ii. p. 432) it is said that horses are of four kinds: (1) Birẕaun , Burẕūn , a heavy draught horse brought from foreign countries. (2) ʿAtīq , a first blood horse of Arabia. (3) Hajīn , a half-bred horse whose mother is an Arab and father a foreigner. (4) A half-bred horse whose father is an Arab and whose mother is a foreigner. In taking a share of plunder, a horseman is entitled to a double share, but he is not entitled to any more if he keep more horses than one.