Carl Raswan

Carl Reinhard Raswan (7 March 1893 – 14 October 1966), born Carl Reinhard Schmidt, was one of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the asil Arabian horse. He authored numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin people who raised them. A scholar of Arabian bloodlines, he also published the Raswan Index, an extensive compilation of Arabian horse pedigree and strain information. He advocated tolerance and understanding of Bedouin ways of life and culture in Arabia.

Carl Raswan was born Carl Reinhard Schmidt in Dresden, Laubegast-Tolkewitz, in 1893, the son of Martin Schmidt and a Hungarian mother. At the age of five, Carl Raswan received a pony named "Philie" as a gift from his father. When his father purchased property in 1898, Carl took long excursions on his pony in the Dresden area, without the need to cross the Elbe river. Carl spent his school holidays with riding, often in the company of his uncle Bernhard Schmidt, a forester. During one of those holidays, Raswan observed the young Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, who was riding a Shagya Arabian. Raswan noticed the horse appeared to recognize its own reflection in the water and played with it. This experience, suggesting a high degree of animal intelligence for a horse, awakened his interest in the Arabian horse; he later described it as a key event in his life.

In 1902, Raswan enrolled in the humanistic Royal Wettin Gymnasium in Dresden. The choice of this school was fortunate for him as he got the opportunity to study ancient Greece and Rome as well as the languages. Carl Raswan deepened his study of classical languages during his high school years, reading the works of Simon of Athens, Xenophon, Varro, Oppian and Palladius. After graduation in May 1911, his parents sent him on a three-week trip to Greece, during which he spent a few days in Constantinople (now Istanbul), the former capital of the Ottoman Empire. This trip marked the beginning of his journey to fulfill his childhood dream to "search for the perfect horse." He spent most of his time studying ancient works of art representing horses, such as the Parthenon frieze of the Greek sculptor Phidias, and the then-still-existing procession that contained images of hundreds of horses. Through the inspection of the private library of a friendly Greek archaeologist, Raswan learned extensively about the ancient history of the horse.

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