Saudis give beauty new meaning with camel pageant

Radiate_Truth · Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 1056

Saudis give beauty new meaning with camel pageant

The legs are long, the eyes are big, the bodies curvaceous.

Contestants in this Saudi-style beauty pageant have all the features you might expect anywhere else in the world, but with one crucial difference - the competitors are camels.

This week, the Qahtani tribe of western Saudi Arabia has been welcoming entrants to its Mazayen al-Ibl competition, a parade of the "most beautiful camels" in the desolate desert region of Guwei'iyya, 120 km (75 miles) west of Riyadh.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon," jokes Walid, moderator of the competition's Web site. "Here we have Miss Camel."

While tremendous oil wealth has brought rapid modernisation to the desert state of Saudi Arabia, the camel remains celebrated as a symbol of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of Bedouin Arabs.

Throughout history camels have served multiple purposes as food, friend, transport and war machine. They were key to the Arab conquests of the Middle East and North Africa nearly 1,400 years ago that brought Islam to the world.

Camels are also big business in a country where strict Islamic laws and tribal customs would make it impossible for women to take part in their own beauty contest.

Delicate females or strapping males who attract the right attention during this week's show could sell for a million or more riyals. Sponsors have provided 10 million riyals (1.36 million pounds) for the contest, cash that also covers the 72 sports utility vehicles to be will be awarded as prizes.

"Bedouin Arabs are intimately connected to camels and they want to preserve this heritage. The importance of this competition is that it helps preserve the pure-breds," said Sheikh Omair, one of the tribe's leaders,

"We have more than 250 owners taking part and more than 1,500 camels," he said inside a huge tent where the final awards ceremony takes place.

Over at the camel pen, the contestants are getting restless as the desert wind howls and whips up swirls of sand in the hot afternoon sun.

Amid a large crowd of Bedouin who have gathered to watch, the head of the judging committee emerges to venture into an enclosure with some two dozen angry braying camels.

Camel-drivers sing songs of praise to their prized possessions as they try to calm the animals down.

"Beautiful, beautiful!" the judge mutters quietly to himself, inspecting the group. Finalists have been decorated with silver bands and body covers.

"The nose should be long and droop down, that's more beautiful," explains Sultan al-Qahtani, one of the organisers. "The ears should stand back, and the neck should be long. The hump should be high, but slightly to the back."

The camels are divided into four categories according to breed - the black majaheem, white maghateer, dark brown shi'l and the sufur, which are beige with black shoulders. Arabic famously has over 40 terms for different types of camel.

Some females have harnesses strapped around their genitalia to thwart any efforts by the males to mount them. One repeat offender called Marjaa has been moved away.

"This one would fetch a million!" says Hamad al-Sudani, a camel-driver, admiring the heavy stud, or fahl.

SOURCE

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Camels had been a blessing there forthousands of years.

Al-A'raf (The Heights)

7:73 AND UNTO [the tribe of] Thamud
[We sent] their brother salih [56]
He said:
"O my people!
Worship God alone:
you have no deity other than Him.
Clear evidence of the truth has now come
unto you from your Sustainer.
"This she-Camel belonging
to God shall be a token for you:
so leave her alone to pasture
on God's earth,
and do her no harm,
lest grievous chastisement befall you.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Al-A'raf (The Heights)

7:77 And then they cruelly slaughtered
the she-camel [61] and turned with disdain
from their Sustainer's commandment,
and said:
"O Salih!
Bring about that [punishment] with which thou
hast threatened us,
if thou art truly one of God's message bearers!"

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Al-Isra (The Journey by Night)

17:59 And nothing has prevented Us
from sending [this message, like the earlier ones,]
with miraculous signs [in its wake],
save [Our knowledge] that the people of olden times [only too often]
gave the lie to them: [71] thus,
We provided for [the tribe of] Thamud
the she-camel as a light-giving portent,
and they sinned against it. [72]
And never did We send those signs
for any other purpose than to convey a warning.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage)

22:27 Hence, [O Muhammad,]
proclaim thou unto all people the [duty of] pilgrimage: [37]
they will come unto thee on foot
and on every [kind of] fast mount, [38]
coming from every far-away point [on earth],

Radiate_Truth · Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 1056

The only time I have ever seen a camel up close is at the zoo. The young lady attending it was giving it pain medication. It was old and had arthritis, the poor thing. Aching of the joints is something all us old folks understand...

I had hoped one of these days I could be able to get close enough to pet one, maybe even ride one. I think that would be really COOL!!!