My
father’s friend Mr. khaled , 58, was excited to help me with this interview
about the differences between activities in the past and now in the UAE.
He started first talking about falconry which one of the most popular activities that people like doing in the Gulf countries in general and in the UAE in particular. It is an integral part of the UAE culture and traditions. It represents in the Arabic civilization and was used before to make a living besides doing it as a type of sports. This activity was prosperous ages ago and was known as the hobby of kings. For instance, it was one of the best hobbies for the late sheikh Zayed, May he rest in peace, where he wrote a book titled “falconry sport”, and he is the only leader who wrote a book about this topic. Archeological findings proved that falconry is as old as the time of early civilization in the area. It was known in China, Japan and Korea and then moved to the Islamic World. The sport then travelled to Europe and North America as a high class sport.
He also said that falcons were used as people went into exploration trips in the desert, and that was a long time before technology has become dominant and before streets were paved. This activity was used by the Sheikhs of tribes to communicate with each other through those trips as they hunted during the day and gathered at night and expressed their respect and love to others as well as they shared their issues and ideas with one another.
Falconry was used to hunt animals and birds such as rabbits. Nowadays, it is used as a sport and has a lot of support. Technology has become involved in it where falcons are free to fly once the season is finished. Unlike wise, falcons used to be kept all the season long in the past. Now, falcons can be tracked through chips that are installed into their skin besides a numbered circle that is attached to their legs. Falcons are released after a heavy training to make sure they can survive harsh environments.
He
finally mentioned the processes of training falcons. The time needed to train a
falcon varies from one another. The first step is to stabilize the falcon on
the falconer’s hand or shoulder. Then the falcon is trained to be familiar with
humans. After that, the falcon is left to starve to make it accustomed to hard
conditions. Finally the falcon is trained to be familiar with the new
environment so as to adapt to its features and start hunting.
