Najm Yarob 1999 Kuhaylan Krush stallion in Spain, Syrian bloodlines

Jose Manuel from Spain sent me these photos of his amazing 1999 Syrian stallion Najm Yarob (Fawaz x Karboujah by Saad x Roudeinah by Mashuj x Jamrah by Awaad x Doumah), a Kuhaylan Krush that is a close relative to the black Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah). Look at this black skin, this muzzle, and this croup! This photo of a survivor and the evocation of the names of the horses above, all of which I have seen, known and liked in my teenage, send shivers through my spine.  

Black Ma’naqi Sbayli mare

I so like this photo of the 1985 black Ma’naqi Sbayli mare Suuds Juli Aana (PRI Saqlawi Suud x Julyana ZHS). The muzzle, the jaws, the look in the eye (reminiscent of a mare from Cal Raswan’s pictures of desert horses, don’t remember which one), and again, that overall air of a wild animal. In the second photo, the same mare looks like a tank. A desert background would be mor fitting for these photos.

Back to the USA in July

So we will be heading back to the USA this summer after two years in Egypt. I am both happy and not happy about this development. I don’t know what it is, or rather, I don’t know how else to put it, but in Egypt, gravity, in the sense of the force that ties you to the land, is stronger than in other places I have lived in. It’s a place that is hard to leave, despite the challenges of life here. But looking forward to seeing my horses regularly, and my horse folks, too.

New old Doha

I am in Doha, Qatar for two days. I just came back from a visit to the brand new “old suq” of Suq Waqif. It’s an anthropological experience of the first order, in how a country can and did re-imagine and reinvent its past, or rather bits and pieces of the past of many neighboring countries, re-package it, and present it to the world as its own — with success. I could not distinguish what was specifically Qatari, if anything, but then again the Arabian Gulf culture is a largely supra-national culture. The architecture is a mix of Oman’s and Bahrain’s, the Bedouin-pattern textiles are Syrian imports, the metal lamps are Egyptian, the glass patterns in the walls are Yemeni. The tricks works, up to a point, even for the trained eye. Just imagine the effect on the random tourist.  

Oldest color photo of Damascus — 1908

This was taken in a Damascus interior by French photographer Gervais Courtellemont in 1908, and gleaned off the internet. The Facebook website I got it from notes that the oldest color photo ever was taken by the Lumiere brothers in Lyon in 1907 using the same autochrome technology. What epitomes of refinement old Damascus and old Aleppo were.. and old Bagdad, and old Mosul, and old Sanaa, old Mecca, old Medina, and old Jerusalem… now all gone.