I have already written about al-Abjar here. He was a Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni, from the marbat of al-Dali’ (like his relative *Mirage), later in the marbat of the Mudariss family. There is still a thin tail female line running through his sister, in Damascus.

Zuhur is by Mahrous (of Mustafa al-Jabri, his nephew) out of the small bay mare Durra whose photo was one of the first ones posted on this blog in 2008. Some time ago I also posted photos of Zohoor

I saw both mares at Alaa al-Din Jabri’s back in 1991, and I also saw Durra’s dam Freihat; I remember all three of them very well. They are from the most asil, authenticated marbat of K. Hayfi in Syria, that of Wawi al-Kharfan of the Fad’aan. Theirs is one of the best marabit in Syria, and it is now with the Yakan family.

His name is mistakenly spelled “Wadi” (which is not a man’s name, but means ‘valley’ in Arabic) in the Syrian Studbook and the error was picked up by others since. No one seems to remember who that Wawi al-Kharfan was, but he seems to have been one of the men of the Fad’aan Bedouin leaders Muqhim (Mijhim) al-Mayahd close circle. There is a lingering story, which I was not able to verify, that these horses actually trace back to Muqhim’s own horses.

The line came from the Shammar, from Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal al-Jarba, but before that it was his maternal uncles the Tai chiefs; and while most everyone among the horse breeders in Syria thought this line traced back to the Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar (it is even registered as Krush al-Baida in the Syrian studbook) which ultimately goes back to the Mutayr Bedouins, it turned out, following questioning of the elders and leaders of the Tai Bedouins in the late 1990s that this Krush marbat actually came from the Fad’aan Bedouins of the ‘Anazah.

There are two distinct lines of Kuhaylan Krush in North Arabia: one going back to the Fad’aan ‘Anazah (like Krush Halba below, like the Davenport import *Werdi, like the mare in this picture), and another line, known as Krush al-Baida (the white Krush) going back to the Mutayr through the Shammar (like Mokhtar, the Syrian stallion in France). I am still not sure how the two relate to each other. I haven’t able so far to trace one marbat to the other, or both to a common root marbat.

Below is another picture of the same mare, a few years later.

This is the mare I thought was reminiscent of the Davenport Second Foundation mare Asara (who traces to *Werdi) in body structure, although this photo does not show it well. The grey mare behind the Krush mare in the photo just above, with the dark hair, is the ‘Ubayyat al-Hunaydis mare Muna. Both photos taken by me at different times in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from the diary of Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk’s of the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society on this horse:

“At Beirut I found a Krush, a nice grey horse who won 17 races.  This horse out of El Nowagia by Krush belongs to Saad el Din Shatila Pasha.  The sire of the Krush horse which I bought was sold a few years ago to the Turkish government …it is worth mentioning that in the only 3 stables I visited in Beirut, I saw about 30 offspring of the famous stallion Krush ….”. 

The Kuhaylan Nawwaq stallion named Kroush, who was imported by the same Dr. Mabrouk to Egypt for the RAS and sired a number of horses for the RAS, including the mare Bushra and the stallion Tamie’, was a son of Krush Halba/Baba Kurus. In the USA, a number of the 1947 Hearst imports trace directly to him, including *Bint Rajwa.

Now here is the hujjah of Krush Halba/Baba Kurus, as excerpted from the WAHO website:

We the undersigned witness that the grey horse that was purchased by the Turkish Committee from his owner, so called Abdul Hameed Al Yosef, from the people of Halba village, centre of Akkar province, is Kehailan Krush who was brought to Homs previously by his owner (breeder), so called Ibn Swaileh from the Arabs of Al Sibaa clan and sold by him to Mr Mohammad Tawfic Al Quadi for the sum of one hundred Ottoman Lira when he was a yearling.  And the above mentioned sold him to Solaiman Ojel from the people of Homs at the sum of one hundred and twenty Ottoman Lira and Solaiman Ojel sold him to his owner that is purchased from now, Abdul Hameed Al Yosef Al Halbawi, the above mentioned.  His owner (breeder) Ibn Suaileh the above mentioned also brought his mother (dam) to Homs and sold her to the Sheikh of the Al Naim clan, so called Mohammed Al Sheyokh, at the price of one hundred lira (mathani – he will take two fillies from her or from her and from her daughter in the future). 

His father (sire of the Krush) is the golden chestnut horse with blaze and markings on the left legs, he is the Saglawi Shaifi of the breeding of Ibn Ghobosh from the Al Fidaan tribe, that was purchased by Solaiman Ojel from the Fidaan and sold by him to the famous Ahmad Afandi Ebesh at the price of one hundred and sixty Ottoman Lira.  The above mentioned sold him to Egypt at the price of five hundred English Lira and after that he won two races.  His mother (dam) is the Saglawieh Shaifieh, the dark bay with a star who was purchased by Ibn Ghoboosh from the Imarat.  His father (sire) is the bay Ma’anagi Sbeli, the large horse with a star, from the breeding of Ibn Hathal from the Arab clan of Al Imarat.

And the mother (dam) of the Krush Horse is the Keheilet Al Krush bred by the Al Fidaan.  Her father (sire) is the Ma’anagi Sbeli that is also the breeding of the Al Fidaan.

We also witness that the mentioned Krush horse has sired the horses that are present in Syria and Egypt now and the degree of first class such as Ghazwan, Kohailan, and Mosheer.  The mentioned horse is from the best sires that exist in Syria and for verification this was written on 29 December 1934.

Witnessed and Signed by: Khalil Al Barazi, Khalid Abu Shehab, Mohammed Mahmoud, Ibrahim Al Naasan [al-Barazi], Ahmad Ajlouk, Rakaan Al Hamid Al Terkawi, Hasan Al Harbeshi, Ahmad Al Shihab, Abdul Ali Al Hasan Al Terkawi, and others.

 

Dahiss Hassaka (photo below) was bred by Radwan Shabareq and later imported to France. I owned his grandsire Dahiss, as well as a sister of his dam, ”Zahra” who was by Dinar out of Hanadi. A head shot of hers was published earlier, you will find it if you scroll down.

They brought back one mare, Rafikat al-Darb, a Shuwaymah, as well as several stallions: Mahboub Halab, a Shuwayman; Nimr Shabareq, a Ma’anaqi; Dahess Hassaka, a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq; Milyar Halab, a Kuhaylan al-Krush; and Shahm, a Ubayyan who, in my opinion, was the best of the lot, and died a premature death a few months after his importation, without having had the chance to leave offspring.

Look at where the ears of the Hamdaniyah mare in the photo are set, and how they point. They horses are like wild animals, in this sense.

Most of the Hamdani of Ibn Ghurab are of a very rich chestnut color; both Radwan Shabareq’s al-A’awar, and Basil Jadaan’s Mobarak, were of this color; they were both born at Ibn Ghurab’s and were closely related anyway (not sure how, though; I once heard the second was a nephew of the first); most of the mares we saw in 2005 were from that color too.

Ameenah was sired by the “first horse of Juhayyim”, a Kuhaylan Hayfi who was used by Juhayyim al-Mitkhan of the Tai as his breeding stallion (he later stood a Kuhaylan al-Krush at stud, and this was the “second horse of Juhayyim”); her dam was sired by the “second horse of ‘Ebbo”, a Saqlawi Jadran of the strain belonging to Dari al-Mahmoud of the Shammar, but which was used by ‘Ebbo al-Humayyid as a herd stud for the Tai Bedouins in the 1950s.  You will recall that Dari had sought refuge with the Tai in Syria the 1920s, after he had killed the British military intelligence chief in Iraq, an incident which sparked a country-wide rebellion against British rule in Iraq.  The “first horse of Ebbo” was a Saqlawi Jadran and was closely related to the second, and he was probably directly bred by Dari or one of his sons. Ameenah’s grand dam was sired by a Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz from the marbat of Bardan Ibn Jlaidan of the Shammar, a strain that goes back to the original Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz horses of the Sharif of Mecca.

In a nutshell, Ameenah was from the best blood in the Syrian desert, and her owner, Mustafa al-Jabri was rightly proud of her. She was his favorite mare, and he would call her “Mama”, or ‘mother’.

One of Ameenah’s daughters, Hallah, is frequently featured on this blog, and so are Hallah’s sons, Basil by Mahrous, and Zaarour al-Barary, by Ihsan al-Thani. Zaarour sired two of the Syrian horses now in France, Mahboub Halab, a Shuwayman, and Nimr Shabareq, a Ma’naghi.

PS: I took this photo is 1989 on my first visit to Mustafa’s stud. I was 11 then. I will be really upset to see this photo on a specific Facebook page without due credit to both the photographer and the owner of the horse. This is why I haven’t been posting photos of these horses in a while.

The Aqaydat of the Middle Euphrates area, who in the late 1800s and the early and mid 1900s were semi-nomadic sheep herders, and as such were much less mobile than the camel-breeding ‘Anazah Bedouins, would lease the elderly and the sick mares of the ‘Anazah, especially the Sba’ah, before these moved south towards Najd on their annual preregrinations. As a result of the most esteemed ‘Anazah strains found their way to ‘Aqaydat, including Ma’naqi Sbayli, ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, Hamdani Simri, and others.

This mare was never registered eventually. There was conflicting information about a male ancestor (“Nawwaq ‘Abu ‘Erneh) four generations back in her pedigree, so she was left out. The horse expert in the ‘Aqaydat tribal area, Shaker al-Salluh, vouched for her origin, however, and knew her well.

Picture from my restored computer photo database.

Sire: the dark bay Ma’naqi Hadraji of Dhahir al-Ufaytan (asil); dam of a celebrated endurance winning mare, Wudyan; not registered in WAHO, and not 100% sure if asil. Should have been more diligent and taken the time to inquire further about her; but there were so many asil horses in Syria back in the early 1990s that trying to trace the origins of a non-registered mare was not always deemed worth the effort. Big mistake in this case.

PS: I am at my father’s in Lebanon, scanning old pictures and posting some.

“Then, in the year 1356 H, we bought the bay ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from Ibn Samdan, when she was in foal, and she gave birth, while in our ownership, to a chestnut colt whose sire is the [Kuhaylan] Nawwaqi who was [standing at stud] with the Arabs of Sba’ah, and whose owner was Fanghash, on the first day of Rabi’ al-Awwal 1356 H [equivalent to the 12th of May, 1937]. And we solt that colt to Cairo.”

And further down:

“And on July 27, 1949, Faran Ibn Samdan came to us, and we each took our shares [in horses], and he gave up his shares in al-’Ubayyah and received from us 172 pounds. This was the bay ‘Ubayyah which came from Salih al-Misrab at the hand of Husayn Abu Hilal in 1356 H.” 

Now please tell me, how many people in 1950, just over sixty years ago, had the luxury of receiving Ibn Samdan, the breeder of the best and most authenticated marbat of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah, in his own house, to pay him his share of the ‘Ubayyat Ibn Samdan, herself the daughter of the Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq, the Bedouin herd sire owned by none other than Fanghash al-Nawwaq himself?

The Tahawy were indeed dealing with the most respected Bedouin breeders, and the most authentic strains of desert Arabia. I, who was born as late as 1978, grew around the very last of these prestigious horses; check here the story of another stallion of Fanghash al-Nawwaq (by then an old man), which was almost mine.

Here is a photo of the little filly Mutarak Nesba (Mokhtar x Murad Diffa) bred by  Guillaume Lambert and Margot Leroux-Berger, in France.

By the way, it turned out that Mokhtar’s semen does not ship well, and that means he will have to be used live. It is still time to catch him before he leaves us, because if I had to vouch for the asil status of one horse in the world, it would be him. He is a time capsule straight from the 18th century.

Here’s his daughter Shueymah Challawieh, out of one of Jean-Claudes’ mares, also a Shuwaymah by strain, but tracing to the imported Cherifa, bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins and imported to Algeria in 1869.

By the way, this stallion will be the subject of my upcoming talk at the next Al Khamsa Convention in Pennsylvania: “A closer look at a modern Syrian Arabian horse pedigree: the case of Mahboob Halab”. Photos of his first foal crop coming soon..

———————————————–

“Blessings upon God who created horses from the Wind of the South (1), and put goodness in their forelocks (2), and domesticated them for [the benefit of] the Prophets — prayers and peace be upon them; the first who domesticated them was the Prophet Solomon Son of David — prayers and peace be upon both — and he said, after he became enamored with them: “Bring them back to us”, and went on stroking their necks and their legs (3); and [God] most high said: “by the racers, panting, and the chargers at dawn”(4); and [the Prophet Muhammad] prayers and peace be upon him said: Goodness is in the forelocks of horses (5); and there remained five of them (6), and from these came forth this blessed lineage;

And after that, the blonde (7) horse with a star and a snip that drinks with him (8), and his age is two years old as of today, is from that aforementioned lineage (9), and his dam is Hamdaniyat al-Simri of the horses of Sattam al-Sha’lan (10), she went from his slaves (11) to ‘Ali Effendi (12) al-Maghribi Zadah (13), and from him to the British pastor; and his sire is Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz of the horses of Sa’id Agha (14) al-Bdeiwi (15), and from him he passed to Musa al-Sayyid from the notables of al-Midan in Damascus (16); on our honor and good fortune, we recognize and acknowledge and testify, we who put our names and seals [below] that the aforementioned and documented horse is from the best of asil (17) horses as was mentioned [above], and that is why this [document] was prepared in the month of Rabi’ al-Thani [date illegible]…”

[all seals illegible except one bearing the name of "Ali"](18)

(1) this phrase is derived from a folktale about the origin of Arabian horses.

(2) this phrase is derived from a saying [hadith] of the Prophet Muhammad.

(3) this part is taken from a legend about the thousand horses of Solomon, who distracted him from the prayer rituals, so according to one version of the legend, he ordered the 900 horses he had already looked at to be killed, and retained the remained 100 and stroked their necks and blessed them; all Arabians are said to trace to these 100.

(4) this is from the Qu’ran; surah 100, verse 1; and surah 100, verse 3.

(5) this is from a saying/hadith by the Prophet Muhammad (see note 2 above).

(6) this is a reference to Al-Khamsa, the five mares of the Prophet (a townsfolk legend of course).

(7) “ashqar”, literally blonde, but in this case meaning chestnut.

(8) this means that the extend extends all the way down the face to the upper lip, so that when the horse drinks, the blaze/snip “drinks with him”.

(9) this is a reference to the Hamdani strain being recognized to be one of the Khamsa.

(1o) Supreme leader of the Ruwalah, Lady Anne Blunt met him, he had recently died by the time of Davenport’s trip to the desert in 1906.

(11) Black slaves were a common occurence among tribal leaders, and remained so until the 1960s. They were trusted with all the sheykh’s belongings, which they often inherited upon his death, and often became very wealthy.

(12) Effendi is a Turkish title meaning “sir”. Here, Ali Effendi is a man from Damascus.

(13) Zadah is a Persian title also meaning “sir”.

(14) A Turkish title bestowed upon notables of Turkish and Kurdish descent and equivalent to “Bey”.

(15) Bdeiwi not sure about the translation.

(16) This is very interesting: Musa al-Sayyid is the same person as the owner of the sire of *Al-Mashoor imported to the USA some twenty years; see my translation *Al-Mashoor’s hujjah here. Musa seems to have been an owner of breeding stallions.

(17) one of the rare occurences of the term “asil” in a hujjah; it was clearly a term used mostly by townsfolk.

(18) General: hujjah definitely written by town people from Damascus, and the colt was born in Damascus out of a Bedouin mare of high repute, and sired by an Arabian horse standing at stud in Damascus.

“Hussam a fait sa course avec Nicolas aux Andelys en Normandie. Epreuve élevage 20 kms pour 6ans.  Il l’a fait en 14,84 kms/heure, le meilleurs temps de l’épreuve de vitesse imposée entre 12 et 15 kms/heure. Ayant été gêné par d’autres concurrents pendant la course, il a terminé sur l’hippodrome à 40 kms/heure, parfaitement sec avec une récupération à 40 de pulsation. Pendant la course il était tout à son affaire, restant trés froid, ce qui n’était pas le cas au vet gate où il avait tendance à s’enerver à la vue des autres chevaux…A la remise des prix, le jury à souligné ses origines syriennes et son cachet et le public de cavaliers et d’éleveurs, semble t’y avoir été sensible de par leurs applaudissements. Il fera une autre course de 40 km le 9 Juillet à Vatteville la rue toujours en Normandie et si tout va bien une 60 km par la suite.”

Here are some pictures of this race from Arnault:

Adrien has a very nice filly from Hussam that will be featured here next, out a mare from an old asil Algerian line.

See how much he’s changed from the last time he was featured here.

He is by the Shabareq-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion Tadmor (Al-Aawar x Holwah) out of the Jabri-bred mare Shareefah (Ihsan x Dalahem by Mahrous out of Nawal).

Al-Aawar was featured here; Holwah here; Ihsan here; Mahrous here and Nawal here, all on this blog.

Here is a full shot, also by by G. Waiditschka.

Photo G. Waiditschka.

Al-’Ifri was a man from the ‘Anazah who bred a most famous and reputed marbat of Hamdani Simri. In the Northern Arabian desert, the two marabet of Hamdani al-’Ifri and Hamdani Ibn Ghurab are equally valued branches of Hamdani Simri.

The photo is part of a series of professional shots which G. Waiditschka took at the stud of Jabri Stud. I don’t know the stallion, nor his strain, but I will call Mustafa to find out. The last time I was there was in 1998 and Omeir was certainly not born yet. That said, he looks to me like a son of Zayn al-Khayl, the Rabdan stallion which Mustafa got from the Tai Bedouins.

Note Omeir’s general likeness to the asil Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Zachary, owned by Diane Lyons in Oregon, USA. Photo below by C. Mingst.

There are surviving first-hand accounts of how Farhan al-’Ulayyan, one of the most trusted slaves of Miqhim ibn Mhayd, who was the leader of the Fad’aan Bedouins during much of the first half of the XXth century, organized the collecting and the shipping of hundreds of  ’Anazah’s desert-bred horses from Syria to Saudi Arabia, in batches of ten, during the 1960s and 1970s and well up to the 1980s. Farhan would buy all the horses he could find, coaxing the impoverished ‘Anazah (but also Shammar) Bedouins out of their horses, and send them to the stables of the Saud family. He would use intimidation when owners did not part with their mares.

The stud of Dr. Iskandar Qassis in Aleppo, in Aleppo, became known as a last refuge for ‘Anazah Bedouins who did not want to see their horses gone to Farhan, and who would lease their mares or sell them in shares to Qassis. In the early 1980s, the late Qatari consul in Damascus Yusuf al-Rumaihi, who was a true passionate and connoisseur of the real desert-bred Arabian horse, caught the tail end of the exodus of the Syrian desert-bred horses to Saudi Arabia, and was able to persuade Farhan to part with two or three older mares.

Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir is a little known strain in the West. It is specific to Syria and to parts of Iraq that are adjacent to the Syrian border. The strain belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Tai, who are very proud of it.

The reason it is so little known is that the strain is actually Kuhaylan al-Krush.  About eight or ninety years ago, a Tai Bedouin by the name of Ibn Mizhir acquired a Kuhaylat al-Krush from ‘Anazah (either from the Fad’aan or the Sba’ah, and more probably the former), and many in the Tai tribe started calling the strain after its new owner. Other Tai Bedouins stuck to the old Krush strain name.

One of the descendants of this original Kuhaylat Krush of Ibn Mizhir went to the leading clan of the Tai Bedouins, and one of the offspring of this mare then passed to Nuri al-Mash’al al-Jarba of the Shammar, who married a woman from the Tai leading clan.

The Jarba leaders of the Shammar, who took pride in their own Kuhaylan al-Krush marbat (Krush al-Baida, a marbat that came to the Shammar from the Mutayr Bedouins and was from an altogether different Krush line than the Krush of Ibn Mizhir), were reluctant to refer to the mare of Nuri al-Mashal by the strain of Kuhaylan Ibn Mizhir, and reverted to using the older Krush strain. 

The Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Ghallaieh, whom Aleppo breeder Radwan Shabareq (who told me this story) bought from Rakan, son of Nuri al-Mashal, and Ghallaieh’s daughter ‘Amshet Shammar (photo below) whom I owned,  were from these horses. They could be rightly referred to as a Kuhaylat ibn Mizhir as well, even if they were registered as Kuhaylat al-Krush in the Syrian Stubook. Conversely, the Kuhaylat ibn Mizhir horses can correctly be referred to as Kuhaylat al-Krush.

Generally, strain names are fluid and dynamic and they reflect the preferences and choices of the people who used them.