Falconry - Celebrating a Living Heritage

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F alconry celebrating a living heritage Published with the support and encouragement of

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Transcript of Falconry - Celebrating a Living Heritage

Page 1: Falconry - Celebrating a Living Heritage

Falconrycelebrating a living heritage

Published with the supportand encouragement of

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Falconrycelebrating a living heritage

Javier Ceballos

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Text: Dr Javier Ceballos English translation: Beatriz Candil

Editorial team: Nick Kester(International Wildlife Consultants) Nick Fox Mary Allgood Photo sourcing: Jevgeni Shergalin

Design and picture editing: Terry & Seth Anthony

Published by Motivate Publishing

Dubai: PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAETel: (+971 4) 282 4060; fax: (+971 4) 282 7898e-mail: [email protected] www.booksarabia.com

Office 508, Building No 8, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAETel: (+971 4) 390 3550; fax: (+971 4) 390 4845

Abu Dhabi: PO Box 43072, Abu Dhabi, UAETel: (+971 2) 677 2005; fax: (+971 2) 677 0124

London: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ERe-mail: [email protected]

Directors: Obaid Humaid Al Tayer and Ian Fairservice

Editors: Moushumi Nandy Simona CassanoSenior Designer: Cithadel FranciscoDesigner: Charlie Banalo

General Manager Books: Jonathan GriffithsPublishing Coordinator: Zelda Pinto

© Motivate Publishing 2009© International Wildlife Consultants 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means) without the written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for the copyright holders’ written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers. In accordance with the International Copyright Act 1956 and the UAE Federal Law No. (7) of 2002, Concerning Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, any person acting in contravention of this will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

ISBN: 978 1 86063 276 1

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed by Emirates Printing Press.

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Foreword

Introduction and Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1 Origins – man’s fascination with birds of prey

CHAPTER 2 From Asia to the Far East – an oriental migration

CHAPTER 3 The Arab Tradition

CHAPTER 4 Europe – for the princes and the people

CHAPTER 5 The New Worlds – the expanding frontiers of falconry

CHAPTER 6 An Ancient Legacy in a Modern World

Photo credits

Contents page 6

page 8

page 10

page 18

page 86

page 144

page 236

page 282

page 304

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Falconers are often asked, What made you take up falconry? For some, falconry was learnt from their fathers, woven through the fabric of their childhood, passed down from one generation to the next. For others, they profess no family background, but rather an affinity with the birds.

The question that we will never be able to answer is ‘How did the first person take up falconry?’ Did he find a chick and rear it up as a pet and then go hunting with it? Or did he trap an older bird somehow, and then without any guidance, manage to tame it, train it and tap into its hunting skills? Were his actions a single occurrence in history, or was falconry developed in several countries, unknown to one another?

All this happened so long ago. Far back behind the curtain of pre-history. Beyond legend or the written word, part of the long process of civilization which we are still going through. We will never know who it was who for the first time held a falcon on his fist and gazed into those dark eyes and smelled that hot breath, who carefully smoothed back in place that disarranged feather and who sat immobile, scarcely daring to move, when that first falcon ate its first mouthful perched on a human fist.

We do know that falconry is still practised by sixty-eight nations and despite all these thousands of years is still alive and well. And we have been able to document in this book some of the amazing variations in culture and practice amongst falconers from different regions of the

world. We can see how falconers have faced the same problems yet solved them differently, and how they have adapted to local conditions and habitats.

Nobody has faced faster or greater change than the falconers of Abu Dhabi. In the lifetime of the late Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan (God rest his soul), we have changed from the original ways of living with the desert to a modern urban oil-rich nation. Our children now face a very different future than we did just one generation ago. The danger is that in becoming urban and technology-based we forget the desert, and we fail to care for nature, so that one day nature will fail to care for us.

Falconry has enabled us to hold onto that link, not just with the past, but with nature herself. It gives us a reason to take our children out into the desert, to appreciate the silent night sky, our smallness under the stars, to arise bleary-eyed before dawn and trace the faint footprints of the desert hare on the still-moist sand. When we take our falcon on hand, setting forth once more with hope to witness that vital hunt between falcon and her prey, we can only be an inferior companion but are privileged to see nature take her course.

This book tries to explain to you what falconry means to us as falconers. How it bridges nations, creeds and politics. How we share a common bond, both with each other and with the natural world.

His excellency Mohammed ahmed al Bowardi

Foreword

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Falconry is more than 5,000 years old. Few human activities have endured without interruption for so long and it is currently practised in more than sixty-eight countries.

We don’t know how it first started. Early man knew how to harvest prey remnants from the nests of raptors and in many cultures the keeping of pets has become ingrained. Some of man’s domesticated animals such as horses, dogs and cats, were found useful in hunting. As such they often also obtained spiritual value and were worshipped as Gods. Birds of prey with their powers of flight, keen eyesight and range that extended beyond the mere arrow or spear, were obvious candidates for reverence. So as falconry emerged, it was in a tangled mystique of awe, status and power. Some of the hawks, such as the goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), were valued for their ability to catch a wide variety of prey for food, whereas others, especially the falcons, gave inspiration through their high flights. The ability to manage a wild bird that in a moment could disappear beyond the reach of the keenest eye, and yet return to

an outstretched fist, evoked respect and awe for the falconer from his companions. It was and is almost magical.

Particularly during its heyday during the Middle Ages, falconry served as an excellent training regimen for nobles and gentlemen. Skills developed and honed on the hunting grounds could later be applied on the field of battle. And, today, venturing out into the country to hunt with a bird of prey gives urban man the chance to reconnect with nature.

Falconry transcends politics, nationality and religion. It is a common thread through vastly different cultures, whether Chinese, North American, Arabian, or European. Man’s love of birds of prey brings disparate peoples together and strengthens and defines each of their distinct cultures.

Falconry enables us to participate in nature instead of being merely passive observers. The falconer delights in witnessing the flight of his hawk or falcon. He thrills at the pursuit of quarry and applauds the successful escape of one that survives to live another day. Infact,

introduction

Many consider falconry to be one of man’s finest relationships with the animal

kingdom. It is hugely exciting and very rewarding; it brings out much that is to be admired in our character and provides a real link with the environment. Indeed, it has often been described as putting man on nature’s stage rather than staying in his normal role as a member of the audience. As this book will show, for some people, falconry is passed down the generations with each value carefully explained. For others it is introduced either by chance or design but for a few it is kept alive, although badly in need of a renaissance. Falconry, once discovered, quickly moves from mere hobby to an obsession that becomes all consuming; so much so that a falconer will often select a career that enables this passion to flourish having less concern for more material ambitions. That being said, like all rewarding pastimes, it can be frustrated by negative legislation, modern hazards, and personal prejudice as well as the daily highs and lows involved with an activity that includes a top predator as its principal partner. The centuries of dedication demonstrated in this book, is proof positive that falconry still has a very relevant role in today’s society.

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an experienced falconer often prefers a good pursuit that ultimately fails, to a capture achieved with little effort. So it is easy to understand that even though the falconer needs more technical skills and more dedication than any hunter who uses only a gun, he catches less game. For him, success is not measured by the size of the bag but by the effort and style of his bird, which in turn is a reflection of his own abilities.

The photographs in this book are a land-mark in the history of falconry. Until now, such a complete collection of images has never been published. It has involved the collaboration of dozens of photographers representing many different nationalities.

The selection of photographs was based on their ability to accurately represent falconry in each country. In some cases, the photographs provide documentary evidence of contempo-rary falconry in regions where it was thought to have disappeared.

Acknowledgements

The labour involved in producing the present volume has been the result of an ambitious vision. I would like now to thank a number of my collaborators, many of whom are my personal friends, for their contributions to this effort.

I would first like to thank His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for graciously supporting falconry through this book. This was a gesture that was simply one more indication of the commitment of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates to preserving the heritage of falconry, both within the UAE and beyond its frontiers.

I would like to express my appreciation to His Excellency Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi for his unconditional support of this book and kindly writing the Foreword. It was he who encouraged me to begin this project. I am grateful for this vote of confidence, and I only hope that he himself is satisfied with the result. Thanks also to His Excellency Majid Al Mansouri at the Emirates Falconers’ Club and His Excellency Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouie and his team at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

Many thanks are due to Dr Nick Fox for both his confidence and his patience with me during the course of my work, and also for the insightful comments and suggestions he offered with respect to the contents and structure of this book. Dr Fox has demonstrated the three

classic qualities of a falconer: confidence, patience, and intuition, all of which have vastly improved the quality of this book.

Beatriz Candil translated my Spanish into English and offered many helpful comments while Nick Kester patiently edited my text into its current form. Particular thanks to Mary Allgood, who endlessly and tirelessly read the proofs of the book.

I would like to acknowledge the Inter- national Wildlife Consultants team, especially Jevgeni Shergalin, for their infectious enthusi- asm, for making themselves available, for providing valuable sources of information and for collecting photographs that were taken in some of the most remote places on earth. Thanks to Jo Oliver and Delphine Delire for their encouragement and to Terry and Seth Anthony for their design concept and layout of the book.

The pictures in this book, in addition to their aesthetic and documentary value, represent the fruit of international collaboration. The falconer-photographers hail from all four corners of the world. It is a privilege to have been able to benefit from the observational powers of these distinguished colleagues. I bestow upon each of them my boundless gratitude for enriching the text of this volume.

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my wife Ana and to my children Álvaro, Borja, Santiago and Julieta, who have had to sacrifice time with their father so that he could complete his work on time.

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Origins – man’s fascination with birds of preyCHAPTER 1

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11Falconry – celebrating a living heritage

T here were probably a number of different

motivations that led man to take the

momentous step to capture, tame, and train

birds of prey so that they could hunt for him. It

is likely that their ability to fly and their capacity

to catch prey, unattainable using primitive man’s

unaided hunting techniques, were sufficient reasons

for making such an effort.

It is not difficult to imagine an early encounter

between a man and a bird on one of the great plains

of Central Asia; an encounter that has since become

legend. Although there is no verifiable evidence of

the events in this story, the very fact that they were

passed down the generations does indeed provide

valuable information about the customs and

traditions of the people who told and retold them.

As well as including actual historical characters,

the tale shows how falconry had the potential to

arise spontaneously at any time and in any place in

human history, even though it must have already

been in existence for 4,000 years before this date.

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