Mahrous, desert bred Ubayyan and herd sire at Jabri Arabian, Syria

The ‘Ubayyan Suhayli stallion Mahrous was, until his death in the late 1990s, the herd sire at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud in Aleppo, Syria. Today his sire line is, along with that of the Damascus stallion Ayid, the most prolific in modern Syrian Arabian horse breeding. If you check Mahrous’ entry in the Syrian Arabian Horse Studbook, you will find relatively little information about him, in comparison with other major stallions of his generation (e.g, Mobarak, Mashuj, Raad, Marzuq, Mokhtar, all born between 1982 and 1987). I was able to learn more about Mahrus’ background by asking a number of persons, including Mustafa, Radwan Shabariq and the late Abd al-Qadir al-Hammami, as well as others who knew the horse well. Hazaim al-Wair has also conducted a masterful inquiry among the Shammar Bedouins clans of al-Sbeih and al-Ghishm about Mahrous’ sire. Mahrous was born in 1981, in the steppe area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, in Northeastern Syria. He was bred by a Bedouin of the Faddaghah clan of the Shammar tribe, a man named Wuhayyid al-Hamad al-Duhayyim. Wuhayyid then sold Mahrous to horse merchant, who sold him to another, before Mustafa bought him as a young stallion in 1983/84. The photo of Mahrous,…

On the parameters that make the Arabian Horse a ‘breed’

The term breed, in my opinion, defines a closed (more or less) poulation within a species. A breed does not neccesarily need a stud book, but this is the way we define our breeds in the western world today. Before the time of using stud books a breed could and was defined by the following parameters: 1)  its place of origin (country, region) 2) the existence of a group of breeders 3) purpose for breeding 4) a certain phenotype Not only Arabian horses but all other breeds existing before the beginning of stud book records apply to those 4 categories. Today for (nearly) every breed a standard is fixed by those who keep the stud books. If a stud book is introduced, someone has to decide which horse is registered and which one not. Sometimes a horse is registered in a sublist and her (because that applies mostly to mares) offspring by registered stallions are registered under certain rules, or a horse of a different breed is accepted for reason of breeding progress. The Arabian breed has also been put in studbooks that follow the same principles as all studbooks of different breeds do, except for the fact that Arabians are…

Remembering Mabruk, the desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq stallion

This horse should have been mine, years ago. Actually, he was about to be mine, and he somehow slipped between my fingers by going to greener pastures. I first encountered him on a hot summer afternoon in 1996, while on a visit to the Aleppo Equestrian Center, with friends Radwan Shabareq, Kamal Abdul-Khaliq, and my father, Salim al-Dahdah. We had come to see a famous Arabian mare, owned by a man of the leading clan of the Shammar, the Jarba clan, with the intention of buying her. She was a celebrated mare in the desert, and I have featured her several times on this blog. The Aleppo Equestrian Center is located inside a gated compound; a paved road takes you from the main entrance to the stables and the administration offices uphill. Paddocks and jumping competition arenas are in the middle of the compound. As the four of us were walking up the paved road to the stables, the afternoon sunrays pounding on our heads, I was faced with this un-real image of a light grey Arabian stallion, tethered to the paddock fences, with a majestuous yet very gentle attitude, one that welcomes and inspires awe at the same time. I thought to myself: “I didn’t know they had…

Lovas Nemzet horse photo competition

Lovas Nemzet, the Hungarian equine magazine of Laszlo Kiraly, is launching an  international horse photo competition (click here for more information) for photos highlighting the bonds between man and horse and links between horse and nature. The deadline for submitted amateur and professional photos has been extended to October 10th, for Daughters of the Wind readers.

Photo of the Day: Iliad, Kuhaylan Haifi stallion, USA

Finally, I was able to see a photo of the 1975 asil Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Iliad (Ibn Alamein x Oriole by Sir), bred by Charles Craver of “Davenport” bloodlines. Iliad is the sire of two stallions I really like, Audobon (out of Audacity), and Salil Ibn Iliad (out of LD Rubic. His extremely correct conformation reminds me of some of the asil stallions of Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines that stood at the government studs of France in the 1960s, Iricho in particular. Photo from the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.

Desert Horses’ Dispersal

Joe Ferriss sent me this announcement about a herd dispersal in Arkansas. There are 8 asil Arabians involved, all of BLUE STAR bloodlines. Five of these are ‘Straight Desert’, meaning that they entirely to horses imported from Saudi Arabia in the 1950s and 1960s. All need homes and quickly. Normally, Joe does not like to get involved in placing horses, and neither do I, but given the rarity of bloodlines we thought it important to let people knows. Click on this links to open a PDF document with the list of the horses, their pedigrees and the contact information of the owners. No picture of the horses are available here, but both the senior stallion and the senior mare are out of Desert Kalila, also dam of the mare DB Kalila pictured below. The line is a distinguished ‘Ubayyan line, from the horses of Prince Saud ibn ‘Adballah ibn Jalawi, governor of Eastern Saudi Arabia, in the 1930s and 1940s. Back there, it is highly valued.

Missed connections: Ibn Ghalabawi, Soniour and their links to the Tahawi

This entry is a follow up on an earlier entry on the Egyptian stallion Ibn Ghalabawi, sire of the 1971 mare Azeema out of Naglaa 1963  (Azeema’s photo is below, thanks Timur Hasanoglu for sharing it with me), which was exported to Germany. While implicitly included in the Pyramid Society’s definition of a Straight Egyptian Arabian, Ibn Ghalabawi is explicitely left out of the Asil Club’s otherwise wholesale embrace of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization’s Studbook. He shares that distinction with two other stallions, Sharkasi, and Registan (Skowronek x Riz). In 1978, WAHO accepted Ibn Ghalabawi’s daughter Azeema as purebred, based on the testimony of Sayed Marei of Al Badeia Arabians. That testimony identifies Ibn Ghalabawi as by Ghalabawi out of the mare “Bint Nabras”, by Nabras out of “Bint Soniour”. Soniour is only identified as a “desert-bred horse”. Assuming that pedigree information is correct, further research is needed on the following four horses before the credentials of Ibn Ghalabawi can be bolstered: the three stallions “Ghalabawi”, “Nabras”, “Soniour” and the great-granddam in the tail female, about which nothing is known. “Ghalabawi” is said to be by Balance x Bint Magboura by Ibn Rabdan, and to be bred by the RAS. I…

On the links between Egyptian Arabians and the rest of the global asil herd

For decades, several different authors (Raswan, Forbis, Schiele in Germany and also Lady Blunt and her daughter Lady Wentworth) have been telling us that the best breeding stock of Arabian horses had left the Arabian peninsula during the 19th century to go to the Egyptian Pashas by either force or negotiation, or as gifts. The stud of Abbas Pasha I was famed for its unrivalled quality of authentic Arabian horses in his time. We even have a report that tells us that some Abbas Pasha horses were brought back to the Bedouin tribes because of their outstanding reputation. One such returning stallion was bought by Von Bruderman (an Austrian) for his government from the Rualla for exportation to Europe and we are told that this particular stallion was even exchanged between the tribes for mating their mares after he had come back from Egypt. As a result of this and also because of missing information from the Arab countries, the opinion was widespread in the West that nothing of interest was left with the Bedouins, who had already been settled by the second half of the last century (1950-2000), when a greater interest in Arabian horses aroused in the West. And was it not much…

New Guest Blogger: Dr. Matthias Oster, from Germany

I am proud to introduce Dr. Matthias Oster as an occasional contributor to this blog.  Matthias is breeder and student of “Straight Egyptians in Germany” and a veterinarian. His wife is a daughter of the late Gunter W. Seidlitz (the breeder of Messaoud by Madkour and Maymoonah), and they now own the stallion Safeen (Ibn Safinaz x Abitibi Madeenah). His website, Arabian Heritage Source, is a resource for those breeders who like to think of Egyptian Arabians as part of the broader heritage of the asil horse of the Bedouins.    Below is Masr El Dahman (Madkour x Maymoonah), bred by Matthias’ family.

On filling the knowledge gap between modern Egyptian horses and their desert bred heritage

Yesterday night, as I was sitting to draft notes for my presentation at National Breeder’s Conference tomorrow in Atlanta, I had some thoughts on the evolution of asil Arabian breeding, which I thought I’d share with you, for feedback: The greatest risk – and there are many – facing the asil Arabian horse today is the “decoupling” of the “Straight Egpytian” Arabian from the rest of the asil Arabian community. The “Straight Egyptian” brand/label is so strong, so prevalent, so well-marketed that your average Arabian horse breeder — including an ever increasing number of Middle Eastern breeders, completely disconnected from their ancestors’ breeding legacies and traditions — now believes that the only asil Arabian horses left in the world are the “Straight Egyptians”. The implications of this disconnect are several, and they play themselves out on many levels: at the financial level, where the gap between the prices of some “Straight Egyptian” horses and those of other asil horses is ever widening; at the genetic level, where the gene pool of the “Straight Egyptian” horse is ever narrowing; finally, and perhaps most significantly, at the cultural level, where the “Straight Egyptian” horse is being experienced, branded and understood as more “Egyptian” and less “Arabian” (less “Arabian” as in less from…

Missed connections: the Egyptian stallion Barakat and the horses of Ibn Maajil

The Dahman stallion Barakat is the paternal grandsire of three “Straight Egyptian” mares: Folla, Futna and Bint Barakat. The Tahawi family website, maintained by Mohammed son of Mohammed son of Othman son of Abdallah son of Seoud al-Tahawi, has these few lines on Barakat: As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’  ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“. Somewhere else on this website, there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.” Now here’s what the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, edited by the late Saudi royal historian Hamad al-Jasir, has to say on these Dahman horses of Ibn Maajil, in the section about a specific descendent of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare known as Al-Khadeem: “The mare, and she is a green [a shade of grey] daughter of the yellow [another shade of grey] Rabdan the horse of al-Dahham, had these foals while in a possession [a list of two foals follows, of which is the second is] a filly whose sire is Duhayman [‘little Dahman’], the stallion of Ibn Rashid, from the horses of Ibn Maajil.” You can find this except on pages 408…

National Breeders Conference 2010 – Atlanta, Sept. 17-19

Friday, I will be flying to Atlanta to deliver the opening presentation, jointly with Joe Ferriss, at the Pyramid’s Society’s National Breeders Conference 2010. Check out the announcement and the program here.I just wonder when people will stop referring to me as “younger”, including at work. I have been at my current job as an economist at the World Bank for ten years now, give or take, and, in business meetings, whenever a foreign government official asks for a cup of coffee, all looks still converge towards me.

On the name of the son of Abbas Pasha I of Egypt — Ilhami

Abbas Hilmi Pasha I (1813-1854) is probably the one modern Egyptian ruler Arabian horse breeders know best, for the magnificent collection of desert-bred Arabian horses he is said to have kept.  His son’s only claim to fame was to have dispersed this collection in 1861. In every single Arabian horse related publication, I have seen the name of Abbas Pasha’s son transcribed as “El Hami” Pasha, which sort of means ‘the Protector’, but which is not a first name. I always wondered about this, since Arabic first names seldom start with the definite article El/Al, and thought it was a mistake of some sort. Yesterday, I fell upon an Egyptian chancery document where Abbas Pasha’s son’s name is clearly written “Ilhami”, which literally means ‘My Inspiration’, and was a rather common first name within the Egyptian upper class at the time. Names with a possessive form and a romantic connotation were not uncommon within Egypt’s ruling family at the time. Another example is  Ilhami’s own father’s second name: Abbas Pasha’s middle name was Hilmi, and it means “My Dream”. It was also the middle name of Abbas Hilmi II. By the way, if you’re into the history of Egypt around this time,…

A couple words on the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain

Kuhaylan Khallawi (often misspelt Halawi) is a strain of Arabian horses little-known in the West.  It is mentioned in Lady Anne Blunt’s list of strains derived from the Kuhaylan family, and in Carl Raswan’s list. The only other place it is mentioned is in Roger Upton’s writings, where his desert-bred import Yataghan (sire of the Ma’naqiyah mare *Naomi, which still has an asil tail female in the USA) was recorded as having been sired by a well-regarded Kuhaylan Khallawi stallion belonging to the Shammar. That’s it. In Egypt, the 1943 mare Futna, bred by the Tahawi Arabs, and bought by Ahmad Hamza as a broodmare for his Hamdan Stables, was from that same strain. Her dam is recorded as a Kuhaylah “Halawiyah”, just another way to write Khalawiyah, depending on how you choose to pronounce the Arabic letter [?]. Futna still has a thin tail female alive in the USA and Egypt, so the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain still goes on. According to their family website, wihch has a very rich section on horses, the Tahawi clan leaders brought all their horses from the area of Hims and Hama in Central Western Syria in the period extending between the 1880s and 1930s. …

Al Khamsa Board unanimously votes in favor of inclusion of the three Tahawi mares in the AK Roster

Yesterday, the Al Khamsa Board of Directors unanimously approved the proposal submitted by Joe Ferriss to include the three mares Folla, Fotna, and Bint Barakat in the Al Khamsa Roster. The three mares were bred by the Tahawi tribes and sold to Ahmad Hamza of Hamdan Stables. On Saturday, the general assembly of Al Khamsa will be taking a vote on these three mares, in the next step towards their final inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster.

Photo of the Day: Rock, Kuhaylan al-Kharas stallion bred by the Tahawi

This photo of the stallion Rock (Ragie x El Charsaa by Gezeier) with proud owner Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al-Hamid ibn ‘Ulaywa al-Tahawi was taken from the Tahawi family website. I am so grateful to Bernd Radtke for among other things, his sharing with me the pedigree of Rock’s daughter Bombolle (Rock x Maskerade), which has allowed to reconstitute Rock’s pedigree. Rock’s strain is Kuhaylan al-Kharass, and his tail female traces to the Kuhalyan al-Kharas marbat of the Sba’ah Bedouins. Kuhaylan al-Kharas is a flagship strain of the Sba’ah, and is the strain of the Blunt import Proximo, among other well known Arabians of Lebanon and Syria. Rock’s pedigree is heavily linebred to the two strains of Dahman ‘Amer (from the marbat of Jarallah Ibn Tuwayrish) and ‘Ubayyan Sharrak (from the marbat of Abu Jreyss).

Photo of the Day: desert bred Saqlawi Jadran stallion, Syria

This photo was sent by a horse merchant in Syria to one of the Tahawi clan leaders in Egypt, bto probe his interest in purchasing the horse. Here is what figures on the back of the photo: “Photo of the Saqlawi Jadrani horse, his sire is ‘Ubayyan of the horses of Ibn Samdan and his dam a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of the horses of the Sba’ah” A couple noteworthy observations: 1. The marbat of Ibn Thamdan (mispelt Samdan on the back of the photo) is one of the most respected and authenticated marabet of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. It survived in asil form in Lebanon until the late 1950s. 2. Notice the resemblance of the horse in the photo with the Blunt mare Basilisk, who was from the same strain and the same tribe.

Hujjah of Saqlawi Jadran stallion from Tay, bought by the Tahawis, c. 1936

This hujjah comes from the Tahawi tribe website and is very interesting, because of the place of origin of the horse: unlike most of the Tahawi hujaj I saw, this one comes from the Upper Mesopotamia area (al-Jazirah) while the others came from Western Syria. I hope the horse referenced in this hujjah document left some modern descendants, because his origin is precious. Here’s my translation of the document: “We testify by God and his Prophet, in truth and righteousness, that the grey horse, brother of the bay horse, which [the grey] has a small star on his face, and which is five years of age, and which was purchased by Abdel Aziz Bek and Husayn al-Hilal from Adham al-Humayyid that he is Saqlawi Jadran, and that his dam is a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, and his sire a Saqlawi Jadran, from the horses of Dari Ibn Mahmud, the Shaykh of the tribe of Shammar al-Zawba’; and the horse is ‘shubuw’ [to be mated] and can be mated, and is protected [from the side of both]  his sire and his dam, and that there is no impurity in his origin; and for this reason we have prepared this testimony, and God is the…

Photo of the Day: Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq stallion from Syria

This stallion, from the area of Hims and Hama in Syria, was offered for the sale to one the Tahawi leaders in Egypt; the back of the photo reads as follows: “His dam is the Nawwaqiyah and his sire a Nawwaq from the horses of ‘Arsan al-Nawwaq of the Arabs of [illegible, stain on the reverse of the photo, probably the tribe which is Sba’ah], golden chestnut, 5 years old

How the Tahawi used to choose asil Arabians from Syria

Excerpts from the Tahawi clan/family website, translation mine: When in the 1850s, the Tahawi began to settle in the province of al-Sharkiyah, in the areas of Bilbeis, Abu Hammad, Geziret Saoud, Kfar Saqr, al-Ismailia, and Abu Sultan, they owned horses which they used for transportation and nomadizing; then they settled down and acquired agricultural land, and gave up their pastoral and war-like lifestyle; their Sheykhs then went on to constitute their own horse studs (marabet); around this time, the Syrian region of Hims and Hama was the homeland of the Arab horse, and was known as al-Sham, since it was home to some of the Bedouin tribes like ‘Anazah, Shammar, al-Fad’aan, and al-Sba’ah, which specialized in the breeding of Arab horse and the tracing of its bloodlines; The Tahawi Arabs owned some land and maintained social ties with their relatives living in this area, as well as some close friends, so they started bringing brood-mares and stallions to Egypt. Some of them would travel there [to the area of Hims and Hama in Syria] and buy horses, then return [to Egypt] and wait for their horses to arrive; others would buy horses through an agent. Each horse came with a pedigree document, which included a description…

On the connections of the Tahawi tribe with specific ‘Anazah Bedouin clans

The Tahawi family website in Arabic is a gold mine of original information on the asil horses of Egypt’s Tahawi tribe. Here’s what I found today on this website concerning the horse Barakat, who is the paternal grandsire of the three foundation mares Folla, Futna, and Bint Barakat [my own annotations in between square brackets]: “The stallion Barakat is the son of the old Dahman,  the stallion of ‘Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi which was bought from the ‘Anazah Arabs in 1322H (1898 AD), and the origin of this Dahman stallion is from the Dahmat ‘Amer mare of Jar Allah ibn Tuwayrish, and his sire is a Saqlawi Jadran [Note from Edouard: This is the same horse whose hujjah was reproduced and translated in an entry below]. As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’  ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“. Further above on the website there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.” The information on Barakat’s dam is extremely interesting. Not only because it allows us to go one generation back in the pedigrees of the three Hamdan stables foundation mares: Folla, Futna, and Bint Barakat.…