Hunting
Usāmah devotes a section of his book to his hunting experiences. He describes the hunting practice of Zengi:
The falconers would proceed ahead of us with the falcons which would be flown at the waterfowl. The drums would be beaten in accordance with the prevailing custom. The falcons would catch whatever birds they could. ..
He also describes hunting partridges with his father:
My father would draw near the sleeping partridge and throw at it a stick from his hand. The moment the Partridge was flushed he would throw off al- Yahshiir (the falcon), who would seize it. ..The falconer would then descend to it, slay the bird...
The falconer had to slay the bird himself as it was forbidden by the Qur'an to eat anything which is killed by a blow. Usāmah also describes a system of hunting using sakers:
At first should be sent the leader which, striking a gazelle, binds on its ear. The auxiliary is sent after the leader, and hits another gazelle...The leader, now clutching the gazelle by its ear, isolates it from the herd.
Read more about this topic: Kitab Al-I'tibar
Famous quotes containing the word hunting:
“As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in primeval years lived under these heavens, and their small implements of war and hunting were brought to the light of this modern day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run down by much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs’ dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)