The Ostrich: From Biblical Texts to Arabian Souks

This book's chapters are organized by region and period, starting with Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. While Leviticus and Deuteronomy deemed the ostrich unclean, North African Numidians feasted on it. (Quoting Dr. Duncan of the Department of Agriculture, the author suggests contemporaries try ostrich as a New Year or Easter bird.) Hebrew speakers called the ostrich bath haya’anah (“daughter of the desert”); Arabic speakers used similar epithets, calling it the desert’s father, but also the magician, the strong one, the fugitive, the stupid one, and the gray. While researching, the author found abundant ostrich feathers in the souks of Aleppo, Damascus, and Smyrna, and recounts an Islamic legend about the bird's weak wings: competing with a bustard, the ostrich forgot to invoke Allah's aid before flying near the sun, scorching its wings and those of all future generations.