HISTORY OF BEDOUINS
In the past, UAE local Bedouins lived quite a different life from their
younger generations. One of the differences was that these Bedouins were
travelling to be able to survive in their hot and dry environment. Their
location was dependent on the availability of food. The way they were hunting
for their food varied from using rifles, falcons and dogs. Falcons were part of the UAE desert
environment. These big birds were capable of flying at a very high speed while
focusing on the prey from a very far distance in hot and dry environment.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SPORT
Falcon hunting has been also part of the pride and honor that our
current community has as it represents courage and strength against tough life
circumstances. In addition, and during their free time Bedouins have also been
enjoying their time in competing against each others on who has gotten the best
falcon. This creates from this competition a great sport that has been
practiced since then and affected many people’s lives as well. Winning birds
were considered as a valuable assets that could be sold at a very high price.
THE INTERVIEW WITH THE EXPERT
To learn more about this sport in particular and the challenges Bedouins
have had in their old days, I met an expert in falcons, an old man, who is 62
years old and whose name is Saeed Alrumaithi. I asked him some questions about
his experience with the traditional sport of falcon hunting. He explained many
things and showed me many pictures his son has taken of his trips. On the other
hand, Alrumaithi explained the difference between the different types of
falcons and what each one of them can hunt out of preys. For example, he told
me that “alhurr” is one of the medium sized birds that can hunt “hamam albarr”.
From his experience he also shared the challenges the falconer may have in
preparing young wild falcons. He said that they would need to prepare the
falcon through three different stages before they would rely on the bird in
hunting. At the beginning, with a minimum of 2 months old falcon and before it
changes its feather which they call it “fasfery”, they start with a treatment
that teaches the falcon to trust their master. The idea is to keep the falcon
in a closed room that has no sun exposure and without windows so the falcon
wouldn’t know the day from the night. The falconer will then control that room
with an artificial lighting and use cooling systems to keep the bird calmer. In
the meantime Mr. Alrumaithi says that they may also use cameras to make sure
that the falcon eats well and reacts according to the light. The second stage
would be named “Altlwah” stage, which is to use a dead pigeon that is strangled
by a rope and to use it as a bait for the falcon by throwing it up in the sky.
Using the other hand, the falconer would have one of the falcon’s legs attached
with another long rope that he will be holding. The falconer would then allow
the falcon to catch the pigeon while it is in the sky. Then, different heights
would be tried to train the falcon for maneuvering and using its speed to catch
the prey at different heights and speeds. At the last stage, the falconer would
use a live pigeon that has half of its feathers only, to make it less able to
fly, as a bait for a falcon that is free from any ropes. At this stage, the
falconer would train the falcon to hunt the pigeon without eating from it.
Afterwards, the falcon would be eligible to be freed whenever a prey is
spotted. In the past this type of training was also practiced with similar
manner. However, currently, this sport is only considered as a hobby for only capable
Bedouins and the way of taking care of the birds is a little different from
what it was in the old days. Mr. Saeed loves the sport of falconry and he still
travels and shares great deal of his experience with the younger generation of
his family. He usually practices this passion with them in their free time as
he thinks that this traditional sport is supposed to be memorable by all of the
people who live in the UAE. He mentioned also that he would train them to join
local tournaments in this field. His revived energy to teach and train others
came from his father and grandfather who were sharing their memories and
importance of this sport with him since he was 7 years old. He also finds it
really important that many Sheikhs encourage locals to take this sport
seriously by increasing the size of the tournaments to cover the whole Arabian
Gulf area. He thinks that Sheikhs have inspired not only younger generations,
but other nationalities to learn more about this tradition.
My thoughts
At the end I'm happy that I met Mr. Saeed. I really learned a lot about
this traditional sport, about the falcons which represent UAE logo, the
importance of this bird in UAE’s culture, the different types of falcons and
how difficult it is to take care of them. It was very nice experience to me also
to touch “Alhurr” falcon and to carry it on my hand with the special gloves Mr.
Saeed allowed me to use. I am really considering to be one of Mr. Saeed’s next
hunting trip group members.
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