ABSTRACT
Amir Fuaz had not brought his tribesmen to al-Hajal for the purpose of routing out marauding Fid’an. The encounter with them was accidental. The object of the Ruala ghazu (raid) was the recovery of a blood mare which the Saba had “lifted” a short time before. Falha, the “Luckbringer” as she was called, was of the best strain in Arabia and famed throughout the land. As soon as Fuaz learned that she had been taken, he dispatched Mnahi to the Saba with an offer of forty camels for her restitution—an exceedingly high value to put on a mare. But the Saba declined the offer. The only alternative to buying back Falha, as the Saba well knew, would be taking her back by force; and Fuaz honourably informed them that such was his intention. This did not amount to a declaration of war. It was rather a knightly challenge, and the rules of the game involved the tacit understanding that no blood should be shed on either side.
