Ahmed Ibish photos and information from his grandson

This is one of the nice surprises which maintaining this blog can offer you from time to time. Some time ago, Dr. Ahmed Ibish, the grandson of his famous namesake, left some comments on Daughters of the Wind about his grandfather’s involvement with horse-racing, and he now sent me these precious, precious photos. I believe these are the first photos the Arabian horse community gets to see of Ahmed Ibish (of Aiglon, hence, *Exochroda, hence Sirecho fame). Please do not take them or reproduce them without his permission. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Ahmed wrote in his message: “I could copy these pictures in Damascus; Unfortunately none of them was dated, and they have not titles or comments of any kind. I believe that the racing track shown is that of Beirut? Date must be around end of 1930s; My grand father lived between 1857-1941; the young man with the mare is my late father Nouri Ibish (1891-1975), picture apparently taken in Damascus. While the picture of Ahmed Ibish sitting, shows his two sons, Hussein (1884-1967) & Nouri; None of them was a horse breeder, but were both keen enthusiasts of outdoor life and big game hunting. I wish I…

Small number of tail female lines at Ali Pasha Sharif post 1875 disease

This morning I was reflecting on the number of tail females left at the Stud of Ali Pasha Sharif after the plague which ravaged his stud around 1875, until his death in 1897. It is surprisingly small: 1) Ghazieh line (Saqlawi Jadran ibn Sudan); mares: Horra, Helwa, Bint Helwa, Johara, Bint Horra, Yemameh (dam of Mesaoud); stallions: Wazir, Amir (Aziz x Horra) offered for sale to Blunts but declined; young stock: Ghazala, Mesaoud, Ibn Johara, Ibn Helwa, Ibn Yemameh Sr, Ghazieh, etc. 2) Nura line (Dahman Najib); mares: Bint Nura Esh-Shakra, various Bint Nura mares (a brown, a bay and a white); stallions: Ibn Nura; Ibn Bint Nura El Hamra (offered for sale to the Blunts March 5 1891 but declined); young stock: (ibn) Mahruss; Abu Khasheb; Kaukab 3) Faras Naqadan line (Dahman Shahwan); mares: Bint ‘Azz (went to Amato the dealer), Mumtaza, Bint Mumtaza (Badiaa); stallions: Aziz, Azz (Aziz x Mumtaza) offered to the Blunt who delined, Nasrat; young stock: Bint Bint Azz; Sahab; 4) Arussa line (Kuhaylan Nawwaq); mares: Noma, Bint Arussa (Harkan x Arussa); 5) Jellabiet Feysul line (Kuhaylan Jallabi); mares: Bint Bint Jellabiet Feysul; Makbula; El Argaa; Yamama; young stock: Khatila; (Bint) Makbula; Kasida; Manokta; Jellabieh; Merzuk; Yatima…

Jamr, last week

I could not get decent pictures of Jamr (Vice Regent CF x Jadiba), who is not three years old yet, and is going through a growth spurt — a real teen-ager. I was taken aback at first (my eye got used to the Egyptians) but then I took a second look and thought he was promising and had a lot of the right things in the right place. He still needs at least three years before I showing his true promise. What I could already see was that Vice Regent’s Davenport blood shortened the longer back of Jadiba and did not affect the deep girth. It turned Jadiba’s rectangle into a square. The legs are good. The head I could not tell yet (he had a few teeth coming out), I could already see his sire and dam’s big jowls, but it looks like he will be taking a lot after his dam’s sire, Dib.    

Ginger, last week

That’s the best head shot I could get of my DA Ginger Moon, a tail female Rabanna mare, with lots of Blunt and Ali Pasha Sharif blood (and it shows). There is a lot of the Bint Moniet el Nefous in there (Nazeer x Moniet el Nefous), close up, and it shows too. That’s a very different mare from my other horses, all of whom have a majority of Davenport and other early desert blood. She turned out not to be in foal to the Bahraini Mlolshaan stallion. What a disappointment. So much time and resources invested to make it happen, all gone to waste. Oh well.

My Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz

Last week I saw “Belle” for the first time. Jadah BelloftheBall (I so don’t like that name and I want to change it) is Jeannie Lieb’s gift to me in 2013. I liked the mare, she sent all the right vibes to me. Looking at her, you’d easily forget you are in the woods of Pennsylvania, and you would feel transported in time and space to Arabia in the early twentieth century (one of my favorite time and space combinations, but I don’t think I would have survived more than a few days there and then). She is a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz tracing in tail female to *Nufoud of King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, sent to Albert Harris in 1932. She is only five generations removed from the desert (from both *Nufoud and *Turfa), and she looks like she came straight out of there. The mare is not without defects, I would have especially liked to see a deeper girth and a longer croup, but I don’t mind her just the way she is; I appreciate the big bone, the short and thick cannons, the large hocks and hooves, the high wither, the highly set tail, and above everything else, that overall look…

Wadd, yesterday

I am in the USA for a few days, for the first time in two years. I am here for work reasons, but you can imagine I took advantage of the weekend to go see my horses. So Saturday, Darlene Summers and Jenny Krieg drove up with me to Pennsylvania to see the 7 (well, 6.5) I have there, and had a wonderful time talking horse on the way. As usual, my camera died on me half-way through the visit, and I have to rely on my friends’ photos. Here is a photo of my Wadd, which Darlene too. He will be 4 years old this September. He is a slow grower, and Charles Craver told me today that the inbred ones are even slower growers than the others. He had just rolled in the mud, and still had a lot of his winter coat. I still think highly of him, and hopefully he will keep improving and taking more after his sire, the glorious Triermain CF (whom I also saw today — what a privilege).  

Two Dahman Shahwan stallions at Ahmed Pasha’s?

The long-held hypothesis that Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal had two grey Dahman stallions at the same time, developed by Pearson and Mol in a seminal footnote of their Arabian Horse Families of Egypt gets a boost when one carefully reads this passage of Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, March 9th, 1904, where she first describes the stallions she saw (numbering mine): To Ahmed Pasha’s stud. Of the horses, there was first (#1) the old bay like Mabruka, in color shape and mark on nose, blind of near eye, a Keyhilan A. of the Tanviri [actually, Tamiri] strain, his sire the old chestnut Seglawi of Ibn Sbeyni,   (#2) then a white Dahman Shahwan, dam the Dahmeh that belonged to Ahmed Bey Sennari, sire the Keh. A. of Mesenneh strain brought to A.B. Sennari from the desert, a handsome and very strong horse but wanting in something of quality (#3) and also the white with still some dark on the legs and mane;  (#4) Managhi Ibn Sbeyel (sire of our filly Jamila) his dam the Managhieh Sbeylieh brought from Arabia to the Tihawis (from whom Ahmed Pasha took her) his sire the old Seglawi Jedran from Ali Pasha Sherif belonging to Ahmed…

The French, the Suez Canal and the Tahawis

Historian Mohamed Saud al-Tahawy is digging into what appears to have been a privileged and deep relationship between the Tahawi leaders of the house of Saud al-Tahawi and the French engineers who dug the Suez Canals and the French managers who operated it afterwards, including Ferdinand de Lesseps; he has some correspondence between de Lesseps’ successor Jules Guichard, who operated the Suez Canal company from 1892 t o1896, and Saud al-Tahawi. Meanwhile, I was able to find the following in Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, Feb. 19, 1887 entry: “Arrived at Tihawi camp at 1.30: it is as it were a sand oasis in the midst of cultivations; all the surrounding country belongs to Haj Sa’oud and his family. They must be good sort of people among themselves, though hating all fellahin, for they seem to be all very happy together […]. In the evening two black agas arrived from Cairo, they belong to the ladies of the late Abbas Pasha. There was also a French engineer stationed at Salahieh.” I wonder who he was.

Virginia Deyr, 1979 Hamdaniyah Simriyah tracing to Sobha from the Abbas Pasha line

This photo of the lovely 1979 Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Virginia Deyr (Tristram x LR Double Bubble by Ar-Raad) in old age appeared in one of the Khamsat magazine issues and is courtesy of Jeanne Craver.   This Hamdani strain, going back to the mare Sobha (Wazir x Selma) is one of the handful strains handed down from the Abbas Pasha collection in asil form. Owing to this fact only, Sobha’s Hamdani Simri strain ought to receive so much more attention within an outside Al Khamsa’s realm. The credit for saving this line in Al Khamsa/asil form goes to Charles Craver who acquired the mare Arabesque (Rouf x Koreish by Alcazar out of the Crabbet/Blunt mare Simawa). The other Abbas strains still in existence in tail female today, within Al Khamsa, are: El Dahma’s (Dahman Shahwan); Ghazieh’s (Saglawi Jadran); and Roga’s (Saglawi Jadran); other Abbas Pasha strains such as Jellabiet Feysul’s (Kuhaylan Jellabi), Noma’s (Kuhaylan Nawwaq), Nura’s (Dahman Najib), and Samha’s (Saglawi ibn Zubaynah) died out early on. Jellabiet Feysul’s still exist, but outside Al Khamsa. By the way, Virginia Deyr carries two lines to the Davenport Second Foundation stallion Tripoli: she is by a Tripoli son out of a Tripoli grand-daughter.