vault onto the horses in a single leap, and shoot at the targets⦗1⦘.

I say: In this he was teaching them horsemanship, conditioning the body to roughness, keeping it from ease and luxury, and obliging them to wear the dress of the descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham. Accordingly he ordered them to gird themselves with waist-wrappers, wrap themselves in mantles, wear sandals, and cast off leather socks so that their feet would grow used to heat and cold, toughen, and gain the strength to withstand both.

His statement, “and discard the trousers,” is because waist-wrappers suffice in their stead; that is the garb of the Arabs.

The respective benefits of a waist-wrapper and trousers differ in various respects: each is superior in one way and not in another. The waist-wrapper is better in hot weather⦗2⦘, while trousers are better in the cold; trousers serve the mounted man, whereas the waist-wrapper serves the pedestrian.

His words, “Hold fast to the dress of your forefather Ishmael,” indicate that his clothing consisted of waist-wrappers⦗3⦘ and mantles.

And his words, “Beware of luxury and the dress of the non-Arabs”: luxury effeminates the soul, planting in it softness and indolence; it betrays its owner precisely when he is most in need of himself, and no one who preferred it ever prospered.

As for “the dress of the non-Arabs,” it is because⦗4⦘ outward resemblance in visible attire leads to