Carl (Schmidt) Raswan (1893-1966)
The most influential preservationist in the history of modern Arabian horse breeding, Raswan made his first trip to Desert Arabia in search of purebreds in 1912. A native of Germany, he emigrated to America in 1921. Between 1927 and 1936, Raswan made 13 journeys to Arabia and exported 91 desertbred Arabian horses for leading studs in Europe and America. He was a prolific writer for magazines and the author of informative books, including Black Tents of Arabia (1934), Escape from Baghdad (1938), Drinkers of the Wind (1941), and The Arab and His Horse (1955). Throughout his travels, he recorded what his Bedouin companions told him about their horses and also made copious notes about the individual animals he saw in studs outside the desert. In 1952, he began to organize all this information with the help of his wife Esperanza. During the last decade of his life, they produced the vast reference work on the asil Arabian horse entitled The Raswan Index.

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