Ramadan...

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Bismillah ir-rahman ir-raheem (In The Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Ever-Merciful)

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان, Ramaḍān) is a Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islaamic calendar, believed to be the month in which the Holy Qur'an began to be revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, sallaalahu alayhi wa salaam (may peace be upon him). It is the Islaamic month of fasting, in which Muslims refrain from eating or drinking anything from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to encourage greater patience and humility in humans. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, to offer even more prayers than normal and ask forgiveness for the sins of the past and for guidance in the future; a time to refrain from everyday worldly obsessions and try to purify oneself through self-restraint and good deeds.

The name "Ramadan" is the name of the ninth month of the Islaamic calendar; the word itself derived from an Arabic word for intense heat, scorched ground, and shortness of rations. It is considered the most venerated and blessed month of the year. Prayers, sawm (fasting), charity, and self-accountability are especially stressed at this time; religious observances associated with Ramadan are kept throughout the month.

In Islaam there is a clear and unambiguous methodology for determining the beginning of the lunar month. All months start upon the initial physical sighting of the waxing crescent moon on the western horizon of the evening sky. The method for beginning the month of Ramadan is no exception as ar-Rasool (the Prophet), salaalahu alayhi wa salaam, has said: “Begin your fast upon sighting [the crescent moon] and end your fast upon sighting [the subsequent crescent].”

For Muslims living in America, the waxing crescent will not be physically visible until Monday when the sun sets and the moon rises above the horizon, therefore the first day of fasting is Tuesday, Sept. 2nd. The month ash-Shawwal follows and pious Muslims often continue their fasting six days into the month of ash-Shawwal.

my beloved Kusaylah, who is gone from me, al hamdullilah...

an explanation...

...since starting this blog back in July I have received many comments...and I appreciate all of them!...but I have also received questions. One of the questions that sticks with me is "why do we not see pictures of all your dogs on the blog...we know you have more dogs than the ones you are always showing?" There are several simple and sometimes complex reasons for this:

• some dogs are very photogenic and these dogs tend to get photographed quite often
• some dogs are the type which can better be appreciated "in person". Their absence in the photos does not indicate that they are any less special than the more photographed dogs but simply that their "essence", just as with some people, cannot be properly conveyed in a two-dimensional image
• some dogs (currently three) are confined in their own paddock...making it hard to get photos of them without fencing being in the photo....the presence of which I think in most cases takes away from the "feel" of the image
• some dogs are just never around...I get the camera out and poof they are nowhere to be seen
• some dogs will not stand still for a second and this makes it very difficult to photograph them....also if I start to take pictures they rush to me to get involved in the process....leaving them too close to me for me to get a decent shot of them
• I will not publish photos which don't have an aesthetic appeal to me...for me the image must express something unique about the individual dog AS WELL AS something archetypal about the race
• all of the dogs and puppies run free (the puppies now that they are old enough to be with the "pack") except for three: Enhal, because he is an alpha male that will fight with any other male around...and although I await the day he can be with the others...for now he has his own paddock where he is not alone....Sikasso is also with him for company. I have tried to keep Sikasso out but he simply prefers the paddock...go figure. I think he just likes to be with Enhal. And Noowairah is the third...since she jumps back and forth over the fence and I worry that she will catch her leg on the cattle fencing and get injured...but it is a no-win situation for me since she digs out anyway, and if threatened, since at this point she is not sure she is part of the pack, and this makes her vulnerable to bullying by the other taidit....she continues to go back and forth (that was a little off-topic!...I just went off on a tangent)
• I will not specify the number of dogs I currently own and who live here with me because of the Animals Rights Radicals; Freaks whose primary agenda is to put an end to all breeding of domestic animals....they search out and monitor blogs whose main focus is the breeding of animals....so specifying the number of dogs I own and live with could put my dogs at risk from said radicals
• there are just so many hours during any given day! I just won't go around struggling to get photos of dogs...I see photo ops and I take them...but they must present themselves to me...I don't seek them out....because
• aside from the not having enough time issue I'm lazy!
• this blog is about Azawakh, their culture, their history, as well as other topics that are of interest to me...my website http://www.azawakh.com/ is the place to find pictures of ALL the dogs bred by me and/or living here.....(well, not at the moment since I am in the process of updating it and many of the pages are no longer linked....but I hope to get this finished soon....well, so much for worrying about the Animal Rights Radicals!)

more...of course...

...Azil, Hawa,and cacti I am trying to root. Insh'Allah.

Where did the mountains go?...

...only thing worse out here than a rattlesnake is RAIN. Rains mean humidity, mosquitoes, flies, giant black tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes, horned lizards, no way to get out to get to town...rains basically just suck. And everyone out here said "oh rain?...it only rains in July". That's crap! But anyway, al hamdullilah.

this late afternoon...

the Sahel...

...photo by Gerhard Hans, A.B.I.S. member.

Illi Tin Hinan Bennan...

...is the littermate and full sister of Batna. Bennan still lives with her breeder Brigitte Washington on Reunion Island. Bennan is a word in Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh (unfortunately still referred to as "Berbers" by most of the world), with means something like "of course". Batna was named for the village in Algeria where Brigitte was born.

Tamasheq, the language spoken in the Sahel by the culture of the Kel Tamasheq (which means simply "people who speak Tamasheq") is basically the same language as Tamazight. Really they are like language brother and sister. The Tamasheq (who are in reality an ethnicity of the Kel Tamasheq...albeit the dominant ethnicity within that region until recently) living in the Sahel and Sahara today are the descendants of North Africa Amazigh that moved into the central and southern Sahara and eventually further south into the Sahel around a thousand years ago.

Tezerift...

...a daughter of Afelahlah and Tiwul. I like little Mouna (Aslam X Semteende) standing there beside her...she always has to act like she is one of the adults. The name Tezerift comes from the Tamasheq word azeraf/ezerif, and is made feminine by beginning and ending the base word with 't'. Ezerif/ezzeref is a word used to descibe the color of camels....those camels having a "metallic" cast to their hair. As a newborn Tezerift was the color of pewter. Hence the name choice.

Tamasheq nobility...

...photographs of Manafi and his wife Areldelmeet...friends of A.B.I.S. Photos published here with the permission of A.B.I.S. But I am not sure who took these strangely moving photographs...photographs from a world and culture that have helped to shape the Azawakh.

another photo of Afsoon...

...for photos of Afsoon's puppies please visit Doug Koger's webpage.

Las Tres Hermanas....again....

this is a truck on crack...

...again, RAIN is a good thing...it makes things grow and gives us water to drink and does lots of other good things I'm sure...but it also makes mud. Sometimes I can't get off the property out here because of the muddy dirt roads. Like yesterday. Sucked. But finally got the truck out. Al hamdullilah.

and now...more pics from yesterday for today!

You see, I'm so addicted to posting images I can do it in my sleep! From top: some green thing that sprouted and grew after the rains...very beautiful...but in reality just another 'canopy' for a hidden SNAKE, then Ataram (Afelahlah X Tiwul) who is less than a year old, Tarakimt (Azenzer X Semteende) whose sister Tadamakat is pictured in the previous post (they were born just a few weeks after Afelahlah and his littermates, another shot of Ataram (means "the west"/'towards the west' in Tamasheq), and the ever-comforting Three Sisters...Las Tres Hermanas in Spanish.

can't sleep...so tomorrow's pictures now...