Since the prizes of falconry competition measure in the millions of dollars, and a single falcon can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, there are those who are willing to risk breaking the law for the opportunity to make more money. However, falcons are protected by international wildlife laws, as they were at one point close to going extinct. There are those in the industry who believe that wild falcons may perform better than falcons bred in captivity. Since falconry is a multimillion-dollar industry, it may come as no surprise that there is a black market for falcons.
Falconry as a sport has become a business industry that makes millions of dollars every year. There is competition between the Gulf families, which has fueled a quest for the fastest, hardiest, and most beautiful falcons in the world. The President Cup is a huge tournament and attracts breeders from all over the world. The President Cup held each January at the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club offers a prize of $11 million. In 2014 Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and the fourth wealthiest monarch in the world, with a fortune estimated at $15 billion, creating a tournament with even greater rewards.
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The crown prince created separate racing categories for sheikhs, professional falconers, and the public, with distinct heats for juvenile and adult birds, hybrids and purebreds, and males and females. In 2007, Sheikh Hamdan created the Fazza Championships, a two-week competition with $8 million in prizes provided by his family. The race quickly caught on and has led to falcon breeders, trainers, and elite falcon coaches. Racing was Sheikh Hamdan’s ambitious attempt to keep Emiratis connected to their heritage, which also turned into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.Īt the first falcon race, organized in January 2002, several thousand people participated. The crown prince had a private reserve for falconry but realized that not everyone had those opportunities. In 2002, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, son, and heir of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the billionaire ruler of Dubai, introduced a new sport to the Arab world: falcon racing. Falcons appear on corporate logos, banknotes, and they are the national emblem of the United Arab Emirates. Falconry As A Sportĭespite the fact that falconry is no longer predominantly used for hunting, falconry remains an intrinsic part of the Arab world, especially in the Gulf. However, with the rise of guns and other modern weapons, the prevalence of falcons as the favored hunting tool began to decrease. In 1228 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, the Holy Roman Emperor, hunted in the desert with Malik al-Kamil, the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, for three months during a lull in the Sixth Crusade. However, falconry was something that brought the East and West together. When falconry spread to the West, it was used less as a way of procuring food and more as a sport for the upper classes. Bedouins in the deserts trapped peregrines and trained the birds to hunt as kill as a way of providing food for themselves and their families.
Thousands of years ago, falconry served as a means of survival. It made its way to the Islamic Empires of Central Asia and across North Africa, spreading the tradition of falconry all over the world.
As Arab influence spread, so too did falconry.
There is evidence that the Babylonians, located in present-day Iraq, had game reserves and trained falcons to hunt. in 2000 B.C., the Gilgamesh Epic clearly referred to hunting by birds of prey in Iraq. In the Al Rafidein region, which is in Iraq, falconry was widely practiced in the year 3500 B.C. This discovery is the earliest known representation of falconry and made a strong case that the sport was prominent in the Arab world at least 2,500 years ago. There, he found relief showing a man with a falcon on his wrist. In 1832, a British archaeologist named Austen Henry Layard excavated the ruins of Dur-Sharrukin, an Assyrian capital built between 720 and 700 B.C. Read on to learn a little more about the history of falconry and where it is headed today. While the exact origins of falconry are unknown, some of the earliest evidence of falconry points to the Arab world. Falconry has been transformed from hunting for sustenance to a multimillion-dollar sports industry. If you’ve spent any time in the Arab world, you may have seen a falcon on an airplane, heading to the Gulf (yes, on an airplane!). By: Dani Meyer / Arab America Contributing Writerįalconry is the ancient art of taking wild quarry with a trained bird of prey.
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