Uncommon strains: Kuhaylan al-Shaykhan

This is the second item in the series on rare, uncommon Arabian horse strains, after the strain of Hazqan Misrabi, featured earlier. This time I will mention the strain of Kuhaylan al-Shaykhan, feminine Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah. This is one of the most respected branches of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, and the Sba’ah tribe possessed a couple marabet from that strain. As far as I know, the last Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah mare in Arabia Deserta was with Dr. Iskander Kassis of Aleppo. I believe she came from the Sba’ah or the Fad’aan, like most of Kassis’ horses. Kassis was one of the Middle East’s foremost master breeders in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and had a collection of the some of the rarest and most precious strains of desert-bred, asil, Arabian horses.  Radwan Shabareq, who saw that mare in his youth, tells me she had the most elegant and fine neck he had seen on a mare. In the West, the strain is represented in the asil descendants of the desert-bred mare 60-Adjuse, imported by Mikhail Fadllallah al-Haddad to Babolna, Hungary. According to Haddad in his travel journals, she was bought from the “Anazeh El Sbaa Mseni (?)” tribe, her sire a “Kuhaylan Adjuze”, her dam a “Schecha”.…

What is a hujjah?

I wrote the following the following for Al Khamsa Arabians III (2008), and I will be expanding on it to deal with other aspects of a hujjah over the following days:   “Certificates of origin (singular hujjah, plural hujjaj) of horses written in the Arab world follow a clear and uniform pattern that seldom varies. The first part of these certificates is always a more or less extensive religious invocation that includes passages from the Qur’an (the Holy Book of Islam) and quotations of the Hadith (the approved and authenticated collections of the deeds and sayings of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam). In general, the shorter the religious preamble the greater the chance that the by a Bedouin and the greater the probablity that the horse was Bedouin-owned at the time of the sale. Conversely, the longer a greater the likelihood that the certificate is the work of a townsman. There are several reasons for this situation, and at least a few words may be said of these. First, Bedouins tend to be less pious, or at least to have a different kind of piety, than townsfolk. At the time these certificates were being written for Europeans and Americans, Bedouins were still…

Twelve Davenports of Christmas: Lili Marlene SHF

If I want to guess at the looks of a Davenport I only know from their pedigree, I look at their grandparents. This is the 2004 Hamdaniyah Simriyah Lili Marlene SHF, granddaughter of Major Barbara and Trill, of Ibn Alamein and Salutation. She certainly is. Lili Marlene is the work of the hands and hearts of Dr. Fred and Barbara Mimmack, Smoky Hill Farm. Photo by Linda Sherrill.