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.

 

Here is the text of my Roster proposal in 2009.

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 1943 mare *Kouhailane (photo above, not flattering) was one of the 14 horses to be imported to the USA by press magnate W.R. Hearst in 1947. She hails from the Lebanese plain of Akkar, north of Tripoli and close to the Syria border.

‘Akkar is the prime horse-breeding area in Lebanon. It is a very fertile agricultural plain, extending from the Mediterranean sea to the highlands of Mt. Lebanon, and bordering Syria. It is within an hour’s access to the Syrian desert by car, and it is was not unusual for ’Anazah clans and others from smaller Bedouin tribes used to pitch their tents in the plains.

Since the end of the XVII century, the feudal landlords of ‘Akkar have been from the Mer’abi family, who were of Kurdish origins (in Arabic). The Mer’abis were split in several rival clans: al-Muhammad, al-’Uthman, al-’Abd al-Razzaq, al-As’ad, al-’Ali, who were farming taxes from the various ‘Akkar districts on behalf of the Ottoman governor of Tripoli, and ultimately, who was the local representative of the Ottoman governor. At times, Mir’abi leaders were able to garner enough strength to become Ottoman govenors of Tripoli themselves.

In ‘Akkar, some of the most prestigious marabet were:

1. Kuhaylan al-Dunays, originally from Sba’ah, with the Mer’abis in the village of ‘Uyun al-Ghizlan;

2. Kuhaylan al-Kharas, also from the Sba’ah, with the Mer’abis but through the Jundi family of Hims in Syria;

3. Ma’naqi Sbayli, also from the Sba’ah;

4. Kuhaylan Tamri, originally from the Sba’ah; this is the very same marbat of the old stallion Taharror (Ghazwane x Tamria), of which we used to own a maternal granddaughter, as well as that of the mare Mamlakeh, of which a non-asil son was imported to the USA in the 1970s (*Najm Hilwane, by Hilwane, non-asil partbred Arab from Iraq x Mamlakeh).

There were other marabet too. I need to ask my father about them, as he knows the ‘Akkar marabet inside out. In any case, the records of the Hearst import *Kouhailane at the Arabian Horse Trust identify her sire as “Koheilan — Akkar” and her dam as Tamrie, and mention that she was known as “Bint Kouhailane” in Lebanon, and that she was in the ownership of Henri Pharaon (who else?).

The records are scanty, but when compared with the information from Lebanese old-timers (and not so old-timers), the pieces of the puzzle fit together and make sense:

*Kouhailane was  obviously from the Kuhaylan Tamri marbat of the Mer’abis; there was no other Tamri marbat there. Concerning her sire ”Koheilan — Akkar”, there was only one stallion by the name of “Koheilan” (his racing name) standing in ‘Akkar (in Halba) at the time, and he was a son of the famous Krush Halba out of a Kuhaylat al-Kharas mare. I think he was a government-owned stallion.

Unfortunately, nothing is left from this mare that is otherwise asil.

The first, and perhaps most famous here in the US, was Aiglon. Aiglon was a Saqlawi Jadran imported by Ibish to Egypt for racing, around 1920, according to the export document for his daughter, *Exochorda, attested to by Dr. Branch, the Director of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt. *Exochorda, named after the ship that brought her to the USA, is of course best known as the dam of Sirecho.

The second was El Sbaa. El Sbaa, a chestnut, was bought from Ahmad Ibish by a French government mission led by Madron and Denis at the Cairo Heliopolis racetrack in 1925, and sent to the French Stud of Pompadour where he was used as a stallion. De Madron related the circumstances around his purchase in his bool. El Sbaa was recorded as a Ma’naghi Sbayli, but there is an additional paper attached to his file at Pompadour, which clarifies that according to the leader of the Hadidiyeen Bedouin tribe, Nawaf al-Salih, his strain was actually Ju’aitni. I wrote about him extensively, here.

The third was a bay stallion named Ibisch, born in 1902. I  don’t know his strain. All I know is the French bought from Ahmad Ibisch, and took him to Tunisia, where they used him at their Etablissements Hippiques d’Afrique du Nord. Ibisch is still represented in modern pedigrees, since the two influential French bred stallion of Algerian/Tunisian lines Saadi and Ourki (both by Ourour out of Oureah, by Ghalbane and Fantazia by Vizir, who was out of Omphale, who was by Mossoul, by Ibisch).

The fourth was a chestnut stallion, whose racing name was lost, but who remains forever influential as the sire of Krush Halba, a Lebanese-bred stallion exported to Turkey where he founded an important sire line, in addition to being the foundation stallion of the now defunct Lebanese asil breeding program (below is headshot of my own Al-Tuwayssah, the last suviving mare of the program. She has two close lines to Krush Halba). The hujjah of Krush Halba is featured on the WAHO website, from which comes the following quote:

“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.”

While this Saqlawi Shaifi will probably remain unnamed for a long time, his story provides with a number of interesting insights as to the supply chain that ends with Ahmad Ibish. From the above quote, and the information available about the other horses, we learn that :

a) Ahmad Ibish used to deal with Sulayman Ujayl, the scion of a family of Syrian horsemerchants from Hims in Central Syria, who used to buy their horses from the ‘Anazah tribes whose summer pastures were near Hims.

b) Ibish did not hesitate to acquire mature horses who already had an opportunity to be used as stallions before being raced.

c) Ibisch bought horses straight from the desert source: El Sbaa came from the Hadidiyeen and the Saqlawi Shaifi came from Sba’ah.

d) Ibisch used to pay large sums for his horses: One Hundred and Sixty Ottoman Liras. (Will need to see how large this amount was for the time).

e) Ibisch used to act as a horse-merchant as well. He bought horses for racing, but he also sold them to racehorse owners, presumably  with a profit margin. Not sure how much the conversation rate between Ottoman Liras and English liras was at the time.

f) Ibisch, a native of Damascus, Syria, was active in both Syria and Egypt.

The Arab Horse Association Datasource shows Cealie as being last owned by John and Sharon Campbell Bower of 8042 Rivergreen Dr. Everta, California 95626, who have since moved elsewhere. Cealie produced  gelding with a Polish “Arabian” in 1998, and might still be alive. If so, she would be 23.

She was bred by Dr. Richard J. or Arlene Kuhn 26969 Ladera St. Redlands, CA 92373, who also bred and owned the 1987 stallion Aliziz (by Haziz Halim out a full sister of Bint Alliette). Below is a photo of Haziz Halim (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Serenity Shahrabi, by Serenity Osiris), the sire of both Cealie and Aliziz. Haziz Halim was bred by Dr. Gradin, or Corvallis, Oregon.

If anyone knows how to locate these two couples of breeders as well as Cealie and Aliziz, please get in touch with me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com.  There is an ongoing effort to submit *Lebnaniah for inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster, but there needs to be descendants known to be living.  So far only the Hearst import *Layya, a Ubayyah, has been added to the Al Khamsa Roster. There are possibly living descendants of a third Hearst import, *Bint Rajwa, but I need to confirm this.

As an aside, the famous stallion Krush Halba, the foundation sire for the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program, hailed from the same Fad’aan marbat as *Werdi. Krush Halba was one of the most prepotent sires of racehorses of his time. He was active in the northern Lebanese town of Halba in the 1920s and 30s, and was purchased in 1933 by a Turkish Government Commission and exported to Turkey where he was known as Baba Kurus. Check out his hujjah here (scroll down to Appendix B).

One of Krush Halba’s sons, the grey stallion Kroush (actually a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq by strain) was bought from the Beirut racetrack in 1936 by Dr. Mabrouk of the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS), and was used by the RAS for breeding . Kroush appears in the Egyptian “RAS History” studbook (EAO Vol 1) on page 48. He had  three registered offspring in Egypt: the stallion Tamie (1937) out of Nagiya; the mare Bushra (1940) out of Kahila; and the mare Madiha (1938) out of Bint Sabah (hence a sister of Bukra, of Sheikh El Arab, of Layla the dam of Sid Abouhom, and of Babson’s *Bint Bint Sabbah). Pity none of them bred on.

Another of Krush Halba’s sons, the stallion Ghazwan was the foundation sire for the now defunct Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program. Some of Ghazwane’s daughters and grand-daughters came to the USA as part of the Hearst importation of 1947.

A third asil line to Krush Halba now survives in Syria, through his other son Abu Al-Tayyeb, also a Kuhaylan al-Krush from that Fad’aan marbat.

Speaking of Hadban stallions of Egyptian bloodlines, I was lucky to have known the grey stallion Kaheel (by Ashour who was by Anter out of Ayda x Yosr by Ibn Fakhri out of Bint Yosreia), who was bred by the Egyptian Agricultural Organization in Cairo, and died in my home country of Lebanon, leaving no progeny, some time in the late 1990s. I made plans to purchase Kaheel after I saw him for the first time. When I went to see him again at some equestrian center north of Beirut, he had just died from a colic.   Kaheel was a unique individual in many ways: a Anter grandson in the tail male, both sire and dam from the Hadban strain (he actually qualifies as Sheykh Obeyd and Heirloom) and otherwise the direct grandson of three lesser known but very special Nazeer offspring, all three of which belong to good racing lines:

1: Ayda, by Nazeer x Lateefa, and hence a full sister of Serenity Ibn Nazeer / Lateef  

2: Bint Yosreia, by Nazeer x Yosreia, and a full sister of Tersk’s Aswan / Rafaat, among others;

3: Ibn Fakhri / Korayem, by Nazeer x Helwa, and a full brother of the unique Abla at the EAO 

He was also near perfect in conformation, with tremendous presence, and beautiful, graceful movement, and a kind disposition. I can’t help thinking what things would have looked like had I been able to acquire him. The last I heard, his full brother Sadek, a chestnut, was alive in Saudi Arabia.  

PS: when you look at his pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com, you can’t help but notice the near dominance of Crabbet horses at the sixth generation and beyond: Rustem, Kazmeen, and Hamran, in addition to Sheykh Obeyd mares bred by Lady Anne Blunt: Radia, Durra, Zareefa, Dalal, Fayda, etc. I mean, I always knew that Egyptian horses were full of Blunt blood, but I never saw it displayed on a pedigree in such a striking way as on Kaheel’s.

Lebanese-American Amin Rihani (1976-1940) was a man of many talents. He is best remembered as the man who introduced free verse into Arabic poetry. He was also one of the early figures of the Arab literary movement known as “kuttab al-mahjar” or  ”writers of the diaspora” to which Khalil Gibran and other Arab-American intellectuals also belonged. He was one of the first intellectuals to support Arab nationalism. He was also a close friend of Saudi Arabia’s king Abdul al-Aziz al-Saud, and wrote a number of accounts of his travels in Arabia such as “Muluk al-Arab” (Kings of the Arabs), which won critical acclaim, and “Tarikh Najd al-Hadith” (the Modern History of Najd). The historians of oil discovery in the Middle East will also remember him as one of the first brokers of the enduring relationship between the House of Saud and the American businesses in general and oil business in particular. It was perhaps through this latter role that he became acquainted with Arabian horses.

Rihani was influential in the importation of four Arabian mares bred by the House of Saud and imported to the USA by Albert Harris of Chicago in the early 1930s. He was also a key player in the importation of the Saud mare *Noura and her daughter *Muha to the USA. Lets pause here and see what the records say about *Noura, for she is an important mare.

*Noura was from the Stud of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, a bay Ma’naghiyah Hudrujiyah born in 1916 and given by Ibn Saud as present to Amin Rihani. Noura was apparently taken by Rihani to his Lebanon homeland, where she was bred in 1927 to ‘a Seglawi Jedran, bred at the Stud of Omar Bey Dandash[i] in Akkar. This stallion was presented to General Gouraud, the French High Commissioner for Syria and Lebanon, and is now in the Etablissement Hippique de Levant. His dam, a Seglawieh Jedranieh, is still in the possession of Dandash[i] Bey of Danadeshah House of Akkar. The Danadeshah of Akkar keep in their studs only the pure Desert blood.’ This was a quote from the Arab Horse Society Studbook of the UK, as quoted by Jane Ott in page v of the 1963 Blue Catalog Supplement.

This mating produced the bay filly *Muha, which Rihani imported to the USA in 1928 along with her dam. *Muha was her dam’s only registered offspring. *Muha, very early into her importation to the USA appears among the horses of John A. George of Indianapolis, IN, an early breeder of Davenport horses and other Early American Foundation stock. It may even be that Rihani imported *Muha for John A. George, just like he imported the 1922 bay stallion *Saoud (also from King Ibn Saud, as his name indicates) on behalf of Don Schulz of Indiana in the same year.

While *Noura was listed in Miss Ott’s Blue Arabian Horse Catalog (BAHC), the first attempt at listing the asil Arabian stock in the USA and otherwise the precursor of the Al Khamsa Roster, her daughter *Muha never made it to the BAHC: “*Muha may have been a Blue List. She was left out of the Catalog for lack of evidence. She was bred in Lebanon by Ameen Rihani, who had received her dam, the Blue List Muniqiyah-Hadruijiyah *Noura, as a gift from King Ibn Sa’ud of Arabia…” [quote from BAHC 1963 Supplement, p. v]. Jeanne Craver, who supplied much of the information above, also tells me that ’Miss Ott said she was unable to discover anything about Omar Bey Dandashi, [the breeder of *Muha's sire], and held open the possibility of including *Muha upon receipt of convincing evidence of Dandashi’s stud’s asil character.’

How I wish Miss Ott had access to more information about *Muha’s sire, who was an asil Saqlawi Jadran from the famed Dandashi breeding of Tall Kalakh, Syria. *Muha’s pending status in the BAHC meant that, while her line, when crossed with the non-asil blood of *Raffles (Skowronek x Rifala by Skowronek), became very popular in the USA thanks to Margaret Shuey of North Caronlina, no deliberate attempt was made to preserve it within American asil Arabian breeding. Last September on this blog, RJ Cadranell ran the first few generations of *Muha’s ‘asil’ [inverted commas his] descendents:

‘I haven’t run the *Muha descent all the way down. Here are the first few generations: Sunny Acres Joepye (1952 mare) died in 1974. She was by the Davenport stallion Ibn Hanad, out of Joharah (by *Mirage), out of Rihani (*Saoud x *Muha). Joepye had a younger sister, Sunny Acres Panchita. They were otherwise Blue List descendants of *Muha whose “asil” lines are now gone. *Muha also produced Miralai (by Asil), dam of Zamira (by *Zarife), dam of Lamira (by Leidaan). Lamira produced a series of foals by Chanad (Hanad x Charmain) between 1957 and 1961. I have not looked at the progeny of the Chanad x Lamira foals yet. Maybe later tonight.’ [Edouard update: this branch of the *Noura line is now gone, too]

*Noura’s and *Muha’s line is not the first asil line to go down the drain, nor will it be the last one. So what’s the point of this, will you ask? Pointless grieving over the ghosts of long dead Arabian horses? I don’t think so. I will tell you why I think *Noura is really important to asil breeding in the next post.

Malek (Achchal x Bint Ghazwane by Ghazwane) was the last stallion of Lebanese breeding that did not trace to the infamous Iraqi-born part-bred Arabian racehorses thath flooded the Beirut racetrack in the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately led to the demise of the Lebanese Arabian horse breeding, after they were crossed with Lebanese (and some Syrian) asil Arabian mares.

Malek was used mostly on non-asil part-bred arab mares tracing to these Iraqi stallions, and bred only one asil mare: a bay 28 year old Tuwaysah mare from Syria, which we owned and which traced to the horses of the ‘Anazah tribe. That old mare settled, and her daughter was my favorite mare while I was growing up. I recall hearing that Malek ended his life pulling a cart in the northern Lebanon city of Tripoli.

His strain was Saqlawi Jadran from the horses of the Dandashi landlords of Tall Kalakh, in Western Syria. This wealthy and powerful clan of chieftains of Kurdish origins, who had the title of agha were the premier asil Arabian settled (i.e., non-Bedouin) horse breeders of Syria. Together they literally owned dozens of asil marabet from the choicest bloodlines, which they brought for large amounts of money from the neighboring Bedouin tribes, mostly from the Sba’ah and some from the Fad’aan.

The most famous marabet of the Dandahshis were those of ‘Abdallah Agha al-’Umar al-Dandashi, who owned an extremely precious and highly regarded marbat of Jilfan Sattam al-Bulad; Dabbah Agha al-Dandashi who owned a marbat of Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq, ‘Abd al-Karim al-’Uthman al-Dandashi who owned a rare marbat of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, and Nayif Agha al-Dandashi who owned a marbat of Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni. I am almost certain that  the stallion Malek pictured here traces to the latter marbat, but I am not 100% sure, because there were other marabet of Saqlawi Jadran with the Dandashis, including that of the stallion who sired the mare *Muha (imported to the USA in the 1920s by Amin Rihani). I will need to check that and get back to you.

The Dandashi also owned, among other strains, a marbat of the ancient strain of Hazqan Misrabi., which was featured in odes by a number of poets. The strain of Hazqan is now long gone.

Bint Mawj al-Athir was an asil (heck, she is the mother of all asil) Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq (that’s the right spelling, other spellings include Nowag, Nuwwag, Nawag, Nawaq, etc), or Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, from Lebanon. I never saw that mare in person, but my father, who took this picture of her in the 1970s when she was in her late twenties and in very poor condition, holds her and her particular lineage in the highest regard.

I will no doubt come back to Bint Mawj al-Athir to introduce you to her pedigree, which by the way contains the blood of many horses now represented in the USA. For now, I just wanted you to look at the expression in the eyes of this beautiful, classic, regal Arabian mare. If you have more pictures of arabian mares with long eyelashes and a “human eye”, feel free to send them to me.

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”):

————————————————————————————————

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.

July 20th update: By the way, Jenny and I have an article on that strain in the next Khamsat issue. You should subscribe!

*Mounwer’s handwritten pedigree by his Lebanese breeder George Khamis indicates that he was sired by the stallion Kayane, out of the chestnut mare Bint El Berdowny, who seems to have raced at the Beirut racetrack in the 1930s. I have a lot of information on Kayane here.  Bint El Berdowny, “the Daughter of the Berdowny”, is a name commonly given to racing mares hailing from the town of Zahlah and its vicinity, in the central part of the fertile Biqaa valley of Lebanon. The Berdowny is the name of the stream on the banks of which Zahlah lies.

View Larger Map

According to Khamis, *Mounwer’s dam Bint El Berdowny was sired by a black Ma’anaqi Sbayli, and his maternal grand-dam, a chestnut mare by the name of Subayha that may have also raced in Beirut, was sired by a desert-bred, grey Ma’anaqi Sbayli stallion of the French Army, which controled Lebanon and parts of Syria at the time. [The French Army maintained a large military base in Rayak, the village of Khamis, as well barracks and horse stables in Ablah, some 3 miles further to the north. They even buily a military airport in Rayak, which you can still see on the map, above].

*Mounwer, and his dam, grand-dam and entire female line as a result, is a Shuwayman by strain, according to Khamis. So I asked my father, retired Lebanese Army General Salim Al-Dahdah, a longtime Lebanese breeders who used to keep most of his horses in the Biqaa valley, whether Shuwayman was one of the strains that was bred by the landlords of  the Central Biqaa valley (a relatively small area, as you can see from the scale of the map, above). He told me that one well-to-do Zahlah families, perhaps the Braidis (he was not sure of the name, so he promised to check), indeed owned a good, well authenticated marbat of Shuwaymat, and that he owned a grey mare from this marbat at some point in the late 1970s.  It was the only marbat of Shuwayman he knew of in the entire Biqaa valley. Unfortunately, the line of the Shuayman horses of the Biqaa valley is now extinct.

I think there is a good chance that *Mounwer comes from this particular line of horses, although I cannot prove it at this stage. I’d have to call some Biqaa old-time breeders and let you know.

Below, a scanned article of the CMK Record, Fall 1988 issue, courtesy of Micheal Bowling, where he discusses the 1942 asil stallion *Mounwer, imported to the USA by W. R. Hearst in 1947. *Mounwer was a Shuayman Sabbah by strain, and was bred by the Khamis family of Rayaq, Lebanon, by Kayane out of Bint al-Berdowni. Check out my entry on Kayane here.

*Mounwer is the paternal half-brother of the mare *Layya, also bred by the Khamis family and imported by Hearst. While *Layya has left (too few) asil descendants, and was accepted by Al Khamsa in 2002, the blood of *Mounwer is now completely lost to asil breeding. (If you have a PC, right-click on your mouse, and download Michael’s article to be able to read it without damaging your eyes. If you have a Mac, I don’t know what to tell you…)

And that’s a photo of *Mounwer, who really looked like he was a lovely horse. More on some of his ancestors later.

HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman Aal Khalifah is the same person who provided Jenny Lees of Pearl Island with some of her Bahraini stallions and mares. He is also the same person who gave Bill Biel in Michigan his stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon (Rabdan Al-Wasmy x Mlolesh Asila) in 1988. The stud of Shaykh Muhammad has a new webiste, which is currently under construction. Check it out soon, and meanwhile read the page on Shaykh Muhammad’s horses on Jenny Lees’ Pearl Island website.

Great. Now the Yemenis can safely import and register Polish and Spanish “Arabians” from the Gulf countries and cross them with whatever asil Arabians Yemen has left, in the name of “improving the heads of their horses”. 

Let me make a forecast, and I really hope time will prove me wrong: there will be no asil Arabians left in Yemen ten years from now. That’s how long it took to destroy the remnants of asil Arabian breeding in countries like Lebanon and Algeria.  Asil Arabians in these two countries survived two civil wars (Lebanon: 1975-1990; Algeria: 1991-2004), looting by militias, air raids and bombings, famine and government neglect. By the time Lebanon was a full WAHO member, in 1992, non-asil stallions of Russian, French and Spanish lines had been imported to the country and crossed with the remaining elderly asil mares.  By 2000, not one asil horse was left in Lebanon (save for the Egyptian imports). Algerian asils suffered exactly the same fate. Lets hope Yemen doesn’t follow suit.

Izarra (by David x Arabelle by Beyrouth) was bred by Cordonnier and so was her dam Arabelle. Their tail female was to Samaria, a grey Kuhaylat al-’Ajuz  mare born in 1882 imported to Pompadour by Mr. de Ganay in 1887. Ganay bought Samaria for 8,000 Francs (an enormous amount!) from Khalid Bey al-As’ad of Taybeh, a village now located in Southern Lebanon. The al-A’sad were until the 1970s the overlords of South Lebanon and the most powerful family among this area’s Shi’a population. The older al-A’sad lords were known to maintain a small stud of Arabians that they’d usually acquire from Bedouin ‘Anazah clans who had they summer pastures in the nearby Golan Heights. Samaria did not stay at Pompadour for a long time, for she was sold to the stud of Sidi Thabet in French-controlled Tunisia, where she founded one of the most successful North African damlines.  

Moulouki does carry one line to the stallion Denouste through his great-grandsire Ourour. To be frank, I have always been wary of Denouste for three main reasons: 1) type: he certainly looks like a poor representative of an Arabian horse; 2) progeny: his many (too many) sons, grandsons and greatgrandsons are even further away from classic Arabian type than he was; and 3) a flaw in the pedigree of his great-grandsire Burkeguy, which will be the subject of a discussion that’s now long overdue.  

I recently asked Jean-Claude Rajot about Mauvy’s opinion of Denouste. I have the utmost trust for Mauvy’s knowledge and judgment, for he was uncompromising in his quest for purity of blood, and paid a heavy price for his stand. I thought to myself: “If Mauvy bought and used the young stallion Saadi (by Ourour x Oureah by Ghalbane, picture below) on all his mares, then it must be because Saadi (and hence Ourour and Denouste) met his standards of purity.” Other breeders would not get away with far less than that, as this is not the type of argument upon which any  student of bloodlines one ought to rely in assessing the authenticity of an Arabian horse’s origin [even though it is widely used in the context of Egyptian bloodlines and the horses of Ali Pasha Sherif, for instance]. But there was still that lingering uneasiness about Denouste. 

Jean-Claude’s answer was somewhat reassuring: Mauvy did not think there was anything wrong with the horse himself (“he thought the horse was okay” said Jean-Claude), even though he didn’t think consider him to be a true representative of Arabian type (Mauvy, sarcastically: “definitely not a horse before which you’d kneel down in admiration”);  that said, Mauvy apparently reported that Denouste’s racing success heralded the beginning of the “fraud era”, with every other horse being presented as a Denouste son. However, Mauvy wrote enthusiastically about Ourour (picture below), describing him as the prototype of an Arabian stallion, despite his relatively excessive height (155 cm or 15.1 hands).

Issue resolved, then? Maybe. I will ask Jean-Claude to write about all this, and then we still need to discuss Denouste’s pedigree.

PS: Moulouki was owned by Pierre-Henri Beillard, who gave me this picture of him, as well as the two others. Beillard, who appears in the photo, also used a son of Moulouki’s Doum (x Shawania by Amri), also bred by Mauvy. Moulouki’s 3 generation pedigree is here: 

                                   Saadi [Ourour (Tunisia) x Oureah (Tiaret)] 

                        Amri [Mauvy]

                                   Zarifa [Matuvu (Pompadour) x Iaqouta (Tiaret)] 

Moulouki [Mauvy]

                                  David [Hazil (Cordonnier) x Salome (Cordonnier)]

                      Izarra [Cordonnier] 

                                 Arabelle (Beyrouth (Tiaret) x Ambria (Cordonnier)]

His sire was a desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli, the stallion of ‘Awdah al-Mis’ir of Sba’ah, and his dam a ‘Ubayyat al-Usayli’, one of the best marabit (pl. of marbat, i.e., desert stud) of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. [Other equally good marabit of 'Ubayyan Sharrak with the Sba'ah tribe ainclude 'Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, 'Ubayyan al-'Awbali, 'Ubayyan ibn Thamdan, and 'Ubayyan ibn 'Alyan, the latter being the strain of the Blunt import Queen of Sheba, then owned by Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, Rakan's ancestor.]  

In Beirut, the horse was successfully raced by Henri Pharaon under the name of Shaykh al-’Arab (a reference to his prestigious breeder), and then given to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture as a breeding stallion.  Shaykh al-’Arab’s sons and daughters became good race horses, so much so that veteran Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi recalled attending race in Beirut where the top four horses were all his daughters.  

At one time in the nineteen seventies, most (if not all) of the Asil horses of Lebanon and many Asil horses in Syria traced to Shaykh al-’Arab in one way or another. One of his sons was even imported to the USA, where a thin line of Asil horses still traces to him (curious, eh?). Another son, Mash’al, also a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak (but tracing to the marbat of Ibn Thamdan) became the cornerstone of the Lebanese Asil breeding in the period immediately preceding the 15 year civil war (1975-1990). A daughter of Shaykh al-’Arab, Zanubia, was the great-grand dam of my own Zanubia (III). 

Today, nothing Asil remains of the precious blood of Shaykh al-’Arab in Lebanon. We sod his last living descendent, a Tuwayssah mare (by Malek, by Achhal, by Mash’al, by Shaykh al-’Arab), to Syria, in 1995. Syria actually still has a few horses tracing to Shaykh al-’Arab through his grandson Mun’im, but I don’t know if they are being bred from.  

Photo courtesy of Hazaim al-Wa’ir (but I don’t know where Hazaim got it from)

In 2007, mtDNA research showed that Marayah and a Lebanese mare from the same strain and the same original breeder as *Layya shared the same haplotype, implying a common tail female ancestor.  *Layya’s original strain, and therefore Marayah’s, is ‘Ubayyan, from the marbat of the Donato family, a merchant family of Italian origin settled in Lebanon’s Biqaa’ valley. *Layya’s great-grand dam was a famous and important mare, and was hence known as “al-Shaykhah” (feminine of al-Shaykh, or al-Sheikh, a honorific title in the Arab world).  Her descendents were named al-Shaykhat, after her. They practically formed a new strain, and back in Lebanon, few people if any recall that these horses were originally from the ‘Ubayyan strain.  

Thanks Edouard, for posting that photo of Yalim. In 1974 we visited his owners the Andersons in Davison, Michigan. Actually I knew who they were well before my involvement with Arabians because they ran a music store near the city where I grew up.

When we got involved with Arabians we made friends with some breeders nearby who were among the first to breed to Shaikh Al Badi and it got us curious about the Egyptian imports. In 1972 we visited the Jamisons and saw Shaikh Al Badi as a 3 year old and the youngsters, Bint Alaa El Din, Bint Magidaa, Bint Nabilahh, and Negmaa. We started attending shows in Michigan and saw some offspring of the new Egyptian horses which got our attention. We also saw all of the Lancer imports from Egypt that were in quarantine. I also started looking for other desert breeding that we could find to see in our general area. Someone nearby had a daughter of the Hearst import, *Mounwer, out of a Crabbet bred mare that went to see. A nice mare but grey, not chestnut like her sire. Good quality though, and excellent movements and disposition.

Later we had seen the young stallion Yalim in a Michigan horse show in Fall of 1973 and we like him very much. Then we discovered his owners were the Andersons so we went to visit. We first visited in early February of 1974 and saw Zamayya with a Shaikh Al Badi colt at side. She was an old mare at the time but she was very impressive. She was a beautiful mare of the classic desert type with large eyes, and that kind of classic old world head type that has no dish, per se, but nicely shaped. Her movement was absolutely incredible. We also saw her son Yalim again who was a 3 year old at the time. He was also a very nice horse with wonderful temperament and classic type. We took a few color sides on that visit even though there was a lot of snow on the ground. I think we returned to visit later that year and I took some movies but I cannot locate the footage at the moment. However I am posting one of the slides here that we took in February 1974 so you can at least see something of her. It is not the best of pictures but if you look closely you can see very good overall quality.

Since the past two entries have been about the Hearst import *Layya, I thought you’d enjoy this picture of Yalim (by *Ansata Ibn Halima x Zamayya, by *Zamal out of *Layya). Joe Ferriss has actually seen Zamayya, and I think he even has video footage of her. 

Skepticism about *Layya was not limited to US breeders. Some people in the Middle East wondered how Pharaon could have parted with such a precious mare. Also, people took it for granted that the Khamis family of Rayaq, Lebanon, who bred *Layya, would never sell a mare from their prized Shaykhan strain to Pharaon in the first place. Of course this is contradicted by the fact that George Khamis, who at one time was staying in the USA for health reasons, wrote the pedigree of *Layya in his own handwriting (I will ask if I can share a jpg of that pedigree with you). But it didn’t matter. People were still talking fifty years after the importation. 

Despite such skepticism, Al Khamsa accepted *Layya a few years ago, and the current President of Al Khamsa, Jenny Krieg, even owns an Asil *Layya tail female descendent, HS Marayah (Hadaya Nile Anwar x Sherlaila), pictured below.

So last year, Michael Bowling and I had the idea to analyze mtDNA samples of a *Layya descendent (we chose HS Marayah) and compare it with mtDNA from mares of the Shaykhan strain from the Khamis stables in Rayaq, Lebanon. The Khamis bred horses of this strain until very recently, and with help from my father, we easily located a Shaykhah mare born at the Khamis stables. A few weeks later, Michael sent me this short message: 

From: michael bowling 
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: *Layya mtDNA

HS Marayah does match the Shaykah mare from Lebanon. They both type as
A34 [...].

Michael

 

I suppose this doesn’t leave much to argue about, does it?  

One of the horses Preston brought back to the USA was the grey mare *Layya, the subject of this entry and a couple others to come. 

According to papers given by *Layya’s Lebanese breeder Georges Khamis to Dick Skinner of the Hearst Stables, *Layya (which he writes Leah) was a “Shikeh” by strain, by the stallion “Kayan” out of the mare “Naileh”. Khamis’s handwritten pedigree of *Layya provides somes details about *Layya’s ancestors. All of these are Asil Arabians that lived in the Biqaa’ valley of Lebanon in the 1940s – the golden era of Lebanese Asil Arabian horse breeding. Old time Lebanese horse breeders are familiar with many of them.

I spent much time gathering and cross-checking available information about these horses. The result of my inquiries is gathered in an “Index of Asil and Non-Asil Arabian Horses of Lebanon and Syria”, which I hope to publish some day.  So far, the “Index” contains more than 100 horse entries, many of which shed new light on the background of Arabian horses imported to the USA, such as *Layya. Click here to read what the “Aldahdah Index” ;) has to say about the stallion Kayan, *Layya’s sire. It also has other entries about the rest of the horses in *Layya’s pedigree, which I will share with you in due course. 

George Khamis sold Layya to Henri Pharaon who sold her to Preston Dyer for W.R. Hearst. *Layya was imported to the USA, where she founded an important family, through crosses with Hallany Mistanny and Arabian stallions from Richard Pritzlaff’s breeding. The rareakstrains website has a list of her progeny. Al Khamsa, which accepted *Layya as a Foundation Horse a few years ago has a detailed entry for *Layya on its website, drawing in part on information available in the Aldahdah Index.