Asfar Waraq

A foundation strain of the Nawa'em with a character of its own, and one crossed both within the house and onto the Rihani (producing the Azraq Qateefa). Keepers differ over its foundation colours — one camp counts the Mawardi, Hagari and Sokkari, another only the Mawardi and Hagari — but since the standard is one for all its shades and only the colour and eye differ, the dispute matters less here. Its defining feature is the beak: very small, very fine front and back, and mekneer — what keepers call a barley-grain beak, emerging directly from the forehead — the shortest, finest and most mekneer beak in the whole Nawa'em house. High forehead widening as it rises, wide crown, small chest, slender build and light weight, with the wing carried under the tail.