The Iraqi Arabians were different. They were not just Arabian horses from Iraq. They were taller, bigger, stronger, faster, and often more attractive than the plainer, smaller desert-breds. They looked like Arabians, but they ran like greyhounds, their tails down. They also matured much faster. Most significantly, they easily outraced the smaller desert-bred on the 1 mile, and 1.3 mile races. They were more ‘horse’ than ‘Arabian’, standing above 16 hands. Almost every racehorse owner in Beirut wanted them in his stalls.

Iraqis like Shahin ‘Iqab and Sfoug al-Yawer (al-Jarba) brought entire convoys of such ”Iraqi” colts to Beirut. Very few filles were bought. From the 1950s trickle, the business quickly grew to a major industry in the 1960s and 1970s. The Lebanese Civil (1975-1990) barely slowed it down, but the first Gulf war (1990-1991) dealt it a devastating blow.

The names of the first generation racehorses are synonymous with the golden era of Lebanese horse-racing: Hisham, Helwan, Fahd el-Chol, Zeer, etc. The first two were owned by Henri Pharaon, the third by Musa de Freije. These two men were archrivals, but also friends, and they often entered in bidding wars for the most promising colt that would drive the price of the “Iraqis” higher and higher.  The first generation Iraqis were mostly sired by Walans, Dahman Baghdad, Ala Mahlak and Wadi’ Amal, all three sons of the grey Anglo-Arabian stallion Tabib also known as “Dahman Amer” and “al-Suri” (some, like me, believe he was an English Thoroughbred; more on him later). A single cross to Tabib meant up to 25% of English Thoroughbred blood.

Very soon, it became so unusual for desert-breds to beat these Iraqis that when it happened, people would talk about for years. Such was the case when desert-bred Minjim, a Tuwayssan, beat the “Iraqi-born” Saad Jamil, or when the asil Ashhal, a Kubayshan, beat the homebred second-generation “Iraqi” Saad El-Chol by a nose in the 1970s. In the photo that was used to determine the winner on the finish line, the small Ashhal (14.1 hands) look like he was litterally under the enormous Saad El-Chol.

The damaging influence of the “Iraqi” stallions on the asil Arabian breeding in Lebanon and neighboring Syria began to be felt when that first generation of Iraqi race-horses became breeding stallions. Mares from the best marabet of the Biqaa plateau in eastern Lebanon and the Akkar plain in northern Lebanon, were sent to these stallions, resulting in the first generation of Lebanese-bred “Iraqis”: Zeer el-Foddi (by Zeer), Serri, Moulouki (both by Hisham), etc. These became stallions as well, once their stellar racing careers were over.

Meanwhile, a second wave of Iraqi-born “Arabians” was hitting the race market: Amir Al-Zaman, Lark and his half-brother Rabdan, Black Arrow, etc. These were one more generation removed from the the infamous Tabib, and they were nicer looking than their predecessors Hisham, Helwan, et. al. This new wave of Iraqi-born stallions hit Lebanon in the 1970s; they were mostly sired by the stallions Daksi, Mared, and Asad Anwar. They were also incorporated in to Lebanese (and Syrian, but to a lesser extent) asil breeding, or what remained of it, after the damage inflicted by the first generation ”Iraqis”. Indeed by the end of the 1980s, it was virtually impossible to find a Lebanese mare with a line to Amir al-Zaman.

The third wave of Iraqis came in the mid-1980s; their sire line were one more generation removed from Tabib a.k.a Dahman ‘Amer a.k.a al-Souri, but they had more than one cross to him. These were less famous than the Iraqis from the first and second wave, because by this time, Lebanon was producing its own brand of part-bred Arabians: offsprings of the first and second wave of Iraqi stallions and Lebanese asil mares of reliable, ascertained bloodlines. Nevertheless, some third wave Iraqi stallions were used as sires: Surra Man Ra’a (by Saad Sattar, by Asad Anwar, by Dahman Bagdad, by Tabib); Hilal al-Shark, Shayyal, Tsolias, etc. Most of these were sired by Iraqi sires Saad Sattar and Mahboob Fawzia.

From time to time, word went around that such and such Iraqi stallion of the third wave had no lines to Tabib; the stallion Golden Arrow (by Taj Nadeem), and Ibn Mared (not by Mared, but by a desert Hamdani Simri) were a couple of these and were both asil, reportedly. But they were the exception.

By now, the damage was speading to some of the Syrian towns who had hitherto been home of dozens of asil marabet: the Iraqi Zeer was sent to Aleppo late in his life, and in Damascus Tsolias, Black Arrow and Shayyal were standing at stud. The same thing was happening in the central Syrian Hims and Hama, and as far as Deir el Zor and Qamishli in the midst of the Bedouin horse-breeding area: the Iraqi stallions Marechal, Hilal al-Rafidain, and Nafir were active in the Upper Jazirah area, and the stallions al-Tamri (a son of Hisham), Hazza’, Mared, and others were active in the Lower Jazirah. Fortunately, the Bedouin tradition of breeding to their own old tribal bloodlines proved resilient, and these stallions were not heavily used. In the late 1980s, when the Syrian government went about registered the horses of the Bedouins, its committees of experts diligently culled out the offspring of the Iraqi horses from the registration process. The Syrian Studbook was largely free of these horses, thanks to a number of courageous and committed individuals, with Basil Jadaan in the lead. For instance, out of the several hundreds horses in Damascus, the Syrian registring committee accepted three horses in its studbook: the elderly asil Kuhaylan Ajuz stallion Ayid, and the two old asil mares Nijmeh, a Kuhaylat al-Ajuz, and Salha, a Kuhaylah Khallawiyah.

Lebanon was less lucky. In 1974, it had submitted a first studbook to the nascent WAHO, with 120 or so asil mares and stallions free to “Iraqi” blood. But the civil war that erupted on the following year thwarted that effort and the draft studbook remained a draft (the single copy left is in my Lebanon). Things were left to deteriorate for the next 15 years of the devastating Lebanese civil. When the war ended in 1990, my father was put in charge of a task force that was responsible for identifying the remaining Lebanese asil horses, those who free of “Iraqi” blood, and registering them in a studbook to be submitted to WAHO, with the help of Basil Jadaan and the Syrian Studbook registration authorities. The Lebanese task force my father headed found 22 elderly mares, and one stallion who later gelded. Most where in the late twenties and way past breeding age. A lot of pressure was put on that task force to register the prettier-looking Lebanese-Iraqi crosses (we owned several of these ourselves), but the task force stood firm, even though though it knew that the Lebanese asil breeding was not viable. Today, all 22 mares are dead, and their offspring are all by non-asil Polish, French, and Spanish Arabians.

Iraq, the source of the infamous did a better job, in a way. Its registering authorities included hundreds of the “Iraqi Arabian” descendants of Tabib, who was conveniently “hidden” under the name “Dahman Amer”, in the studbook that was submitted to WAHO. Of course, some Iraqis have their own version of Tabib story and will relentlessly claim that the horse is asil. The asil Iraqi horses of the Bedouin tribes were largely excluded from the registration process in which Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half brother, himself a big owner of these Iraqi horses, intervened directly. Of course, WAHO accepted the entire studbook. Today, the offspring of the partbred Asad Anwar, Mahboob Fawzia, Saad Sattar, and countless others are accepted by WAHO as purebred Arabians. Here is one example. Wait until you see some pictures of some of these Iraqi horses. The French ‘pseudo-Arabians’ look like Bedouin steeds from the stud of Abbas Pasha in comparison.

The archives include this first photo of a Shammar camel rider, with horses in the background, near the ancient Arab ruins of al-Hadr (ancient Hatra), in Iraq; and this second photo of Fahd Ibn Haddal, leader of the ‘Amarat Bedouins, and Gertrude’s “friend”.

Much of this information is actually included in “Al-Dahdah Index” (don’t laugh), an annotated catalog of noteworthy asil and non-asil horses that were bred in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, the northern Arabian desert, etc) throughout the twentieth century. I have already shared with you the entries on the stallion Shaykh al-Arab and Kayane.

The “Al-Dahdah Index” is a living document, which I have been patiently working on for the past twelve years, and I update as often as I can.  The information is based on oral and written primary sources from the Middle East — i.e., it is not extracted from books written by Western travelers, horse buyers, and other occasional visitors. I would like to see the “Al-Dahdah Index” published some day, but not before I add a couple thousand more entries. I think I’ll give it another ten years or so, before getting it out in print. It’s the project of a lifetime.

The stallion Sergent-Major is the sire of the mare *Lebnaniah and the stallion *Zamal. Both were imported to the USA by Preston Dyer for W.R. Hearst in 1947. The above photo of the handsome *Zamal was taken at the Beirut racetrack by John Williamson, the photographer of the Hearst/Dyer expedition. The photo is from the collection of Suzi Morris, and is published on the website of Arieana Arabians.

There are currently about four hundred entries in the “Al-Dahdah Index”, of which that on Sergent-Major is one. I reproduced it below, in the interest of transparency (underlined terms refer the reader to other entries in the “Al-Dahdah Index”):

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SERGENT-MAJOR: Grey asil stallion [photo available];

Strain: Hadban al-Fawa’irah; a branch of Hadban al-Nazhi. The origin of the strain of Hadban al-Fawa’irah is with the Fawa’irah, a small but noble and very wealthy sheep-herding Bedouin tribe pasturing in the area extending from Hims and Hama to the north down to the Golan (al-Julan) plateau in the south; the strain is a celebrated strain among the horse-breeders of the region of Hims and Hamah in Central Syria. The Shaykh of al-Fawa’irah, a man named Fad’us, was a main breeder of the strain of Hadban al-Fawa’irah, and supplied the Beirut racetrack with such good asil racehorses as Hadban Fad’us and Ghazal. Both are closely related to Sergent-Major.

Sire: Padishah, a chestnut Kuhaylan Dunaysan (the strain is also known as Kuhaylan al-Dunays), from the marbat of the al-Mi’rabi landlords of Lebanon, and known as the marbat of the “Dunaysat of ‘Uyun al-Ghizlan” (in reference to a village in the Northern Lebanese plain of ‘Akkar where the Mir’abi lords used to keep their horses); Padishah was sired by Ma’naghi Halba and was raced in Beirut by Henri Firaun (or Henri Pharaon); he was out of a Kuhaylah Dunaysah mare of the Mir’abi landlords of Northern Lebanon. The Dunaysan marbat originally goes back to the tribe of Sba’ah.

Dam: a grey Hadbat al-Fawa’irah.

Racing and breeding career: Sergent-Major raced successfully in Beirut, Lebanon and was later used as a breeding stallion in the governement-owned breeding facility of Ablah in the Biqa’ plain, Lebanon; he was possibly owned by the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture; he was active in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. He was the fastest racehorse of his time, according to Syrian breeder Ali al-Barazi who knew Sergent-Major and whose book has a nice photo of him.

Progeny: Sergent Major is the sire of the mare *Lebnaniah, and of the stallion *Zamal, both imported to the United States of America by Preston Dyer for W.R. Hearst in 1947. Sergent Major also sired numerous asil horses registered in the draft Lebanese Studbook submitted to WAHO in 1974. None of these horses left any asil progeny in Lebanon today. The late Marquis M?sa de Freije claimed that Sa’dah, the dam of the stallion Sa’d al-’Arab (by Shaykh al-’Arab) was a daughter of Sergent-Major. However, many breeders of Central Syria (the region of Hims and Hamah) agree that Sa’dah was by an unknown horse, possibly of non-Arabian blood, called ’Abduh.

Below are two modern day representatives of that famed strain. The two mares Sharidah and Ma’yufah were bred at the stud of Prince Turki Ibn Fahd Ibn Muhammad Aal Saud in Najd, Saudi Arabia, then exported to the Nujaifi stud in Mosul, Iraq.

PS — I wonder what an mtDNA test would show, if samples from these two mares were compared to the Dafina and El Kahila lines, or to some of the Krush Al-Baida horses with the Shammar Bedouins in Syria. The latter are known to trace to the “white Krush” of Ammash Raja al-Dawish of Mutayr, through a mare that had gone to Ibn Rashid. Read more about the Krush of Shammar in Syria here.

These two horses are from the Tabib blood line

 They are completely diferent from the French horses,with Thouroughbred blood, that we posted and from today French race horses.

The Iraqis are saying roughly that if Tabib (al Souri) was really a Thouroughbred or an Anglo Arab  his sons and grand -sons  should have been faster than ordinary Arab  horses.

Dr. Mohamed el Nujaifi have published the results and times recorded by Iraqi horses on the Bagdad racetrack with and without Tabib blood they are almost the same.

He also posted  the times of Iraqi Anglo -Arabs, there is really a difference between the times recorded between them and the Tabib blood line horses.

 I ‘m not taking the Iraqi horses defense ,they are  WAHO registered,and free to be sold anywhere in the world.This is what matter for the Iraqis after a ban who lasted more than 15 years,and many scandals due to wars, horses substitution and forged papers;the same happened in the beginning of the 90′s with Russian horses due to the late USSR end.

Today everything is in order and they can export horses,the Nujaifi’s sent, this year, 6 horses to race in Europe with not much success ,I may say.

  They dont care much on what we think about their horses, as long as they are convinced that they are Asil.Anyway,this what they told me.

I will post later the Iraqi’s version of the Tabib story,It is a compleltely different story that the one we know.

According to them ,he was  from the Dahman Amer strain,bred by the Bani Sakhr Tribe,  given as a present from Emir Abdallah of Jordan to the famous Lebanese owner Saad el Dine Pasha  Chatila.(the one who sold Krush to Dr Mabrouk’s Egyptian mission) 

It is a long chapter in the book that I have to translate and resume into English,together with other picture from horses with and without Tabib blood