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.

Later I thought more about it, and it remembered that Ibn Ghalabawi’s recorded great grandsire Soniour (to be pronounced Senor like in the Spanish for “Sir”) was mentioned in Ali al-Barazi’s old book in Arabic as as a famous desert-horse having raced in Egypt in the 1920s or 1930s. He is mentioned alongside other famous old racehorses such as Renard Bleu and Nabras, who was later used by the Royal Agricultural Society as a stallion.

Now it is a shame that I have lost that Barazai book in one of my moves, first from Lebanon to the USA in 2000, then from the USA to France in 2004, then from France back to the USA in 2006. I don’t know of anyone who has another copy of that old book. Mine was a copy which my father had obtained from his late friend Musa de Freije, who had received it from Barazi as a gift. The author Ali al-Barazi, was a Syrian horsebreeder from Hama who had lived in Egypt where he raced Arabian horses. It contains rare and interesting photos of old Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi horses, including a rare photo of Sid Abouhom at the racetrack, which I have not seen anywhere else.

Anyway, what this lead about Soniour points to, if anything is the need to mine the archives of the Heliopolis and Alexandria racetracks. Until then, any discussion about Ibn Ghalabawi, who clearly comes from a racing background, and other horses as well such as *Exochorda’s sire and dam, will prove to be of little added value, given the scant evidence now at our disposal.

GHUZAYYIL: a grey desert-bred stallion, born c. 1952; [no picture available]

Strain: Saqlawi Nijm al-Subh, of the marbat owned by the Maraziq clan of the Shammar tribe, also called Saqlawi Marzaqani.

Sire: Hamdani al-Jhini a Hamdani Simri of the Shammar tribe, a celebrated horse among the Bedouins, sometimes simply referred to as al-Jhini; sire of sire: Hamdani Simri of Shammar, known as al-Malkhukh, also a famous horse; dam of sire: Hamdaniyat al-Jhini of Shammar;

Dam: a Saqlawiyah Marzaqaniyah, from the Maraziq clan of the Shammar tribe. According to Fawaz al-Rajab, a horse merchant from Hims, who told Hazaim al-Wair, who told me, the dam of Ghuzayyil and the dam of Mawj al-Athir were maternal sisters.

Racing and Breeding Career: Ghuzayyil raced in Beirut starting in 1956, in the ownership of the Marquis Musa de Freije and won at least eight races (he is recorded as having won eight races in one of my notebooks, based on notes I took from one of the Hippodrome de Beyrouth’s racing records); his reputation as a racehorse eventually reached the Bedouin clan who had bred him, and they reacquired the horse to use him on their mares; according to Radwan Shabariq, a horsebreeder in Aleppo, who told me, he covered one hundred mares in his first year as a lead stallion with the Shammar tribe (this is perhaps an exaggeration but is noneless revealing of the fame Ghuzayyil had achieved as a racehorse of authenthic descent). Ghuzayyil was later owned by Alaa al-Din al-Jabiri of Aleppo, where he covered many more mares.

Progeny: He is the sire of Malakah, the Saglawia Jedrania of Ibn Zubayni dam of Al-Abjar; of the Kuhaylan Krush of Alaa al-Din al-Jabiri, whose dam was one of the mares of Mayzar Abdul Mohsen al-Jarba; of Basmet Farah, an Umm Arqub; of the Kuhaylan Mimrah of Hamkah; and of the Umm Arqub (perhaps same mare as Basmet Farah) dam of the mare Uswarah and the granddam of the mare Neamah bred by Amin Yakan of Aleppo, among other horses. All these were bred during Ghuzzayil’s stay in Aleppo with Jabri. It is highly likely that Ghuzayyil is also represented in the pedigree of many more pedigrees of desert-bred Syrian horses, under the generic strain name “Saqlawi Marzaqani – Shammar” during his stay with the Bedouin clan that bred him and repurchased him after his racing career was over.

Comments: According to Fawaz al-Rajab [who told Hazaim al-Wair, who told me], who claims his uncle bought Ghuzayyil from the Maraziq clan of Shammar, the horse had a very thick tail, was extremely pretty, and beat several part-bred horses on the Hippodrome de Beyrouth — the Beirut racetrack. Fawaz also remembers that Ghuzayyil won a horse beauty show in Lebanon.

GHADDAR: a gray desert-bred asil stallion;

 Strain: Hamdani Simri of the marbat owned by ibn Ghurab, also called Hamdani Ibn Ghurab; bred by ‘Ajil ibn Ghurab.

 Sire: al-Marzaqani al-Adham, “the black Marazaqani”, a Saglawi Marzaqani bred by the Shammar and later taken by the ’Anazah;

 Dam: a Hamdaniyah ibn Ghurab of Ibn Ghurab of Shammar.

 Racing and breeding career: Ghaddar raced successfully in Beirut in the 1950s, where he won 14 races. Races were held on both Saturdays and Sundays at that time, and Ghaddar was one of the very few horses that were entered and won races on two successive days. He was later used as a stallion. He died within the first year of his breeding career, and only left a few produce, and none of them have left lines today.

Joe Achcar also scanned and sent this old Lebanese newspaper clipping from Nov. 11, 1954, which has a picture of Mawj al-Athir on the racetrack, with the mention, in French: The “strongest horse of the Middle East”.  Note the mention in the clipping of two other desert-bred asils, about which there will be more on this blog, soon: Chatt el-Arab and Ghaddar.

Now here is Mawj al-Athir’s entry in the ‘Aldahdah Index’:

MAWJ AL-ATHIR: a chestnut desert-bred Asil stallion [photo available];

Strain: Saglawi Nijm al-Subh, of the marbat owned by the Maraziq clan [or guild] of the Shammar tribe; the strain is also called Saqlawi Marzaqani.

Sire: a Saqlawi Marzaqani; according to Abd al-Qadir Hammami, an old horse merchant from Aleppo, his sire was al-Marzaqani al-Adham (“the black Marazaqani”), a celebrated stallion of the Saqlawi Marzaqani strain, bred by the Maraziq clan of the Shammar tribe, used by them as a stallion and later taken by the ’Anazah tribe; according to Fawaz al-Rajab, an older horse merchant from Hims, the sire of Mawj al-Athir was also his maternal brother, then a yearling, who bred his own dam by accident. He also mentioned that Mawj al-Atheer’s brother later broke a shoulder, which would mean his sire is the famous Saqlawi Marzaqani Abu-Kitf. According to Radwan Shabariq, [both of the potential sires of Mawj al-Athir, as per the above] Abu-Kitf and the black Marzaqani were maternal haf-brothers. Also according to Fawaz al-Rajab, Mawj al-Athir and another great desert-bred racehorse, Ghuzayyil, were sons of two sisters.

Dam: a Saqlawiyah Marzaqaniyah from the Maraziq clan of the Shammar;

Racing and Breeding Career: Mawj al-Athir raced successfully in Beirut and was later bought by the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture for breeding.

Progeny: Mawj al-Athir was the sire of the beautiful grey Kuhayla Nawwaqiyah mare “Bint Mawj al-Athir”, dam of my father’s “Nawwaqiat ‘Akkar” (herself by Achhal). He left no other produce I know of in Lebanon. His line survives in Syria however through his son, Amali, the Kuhaylan Khdili of ‘Abdu Tannus in Aleppo.

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”):

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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.

*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.

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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.

Notice the striking physical resemblance between Mohalhil and another stallion that was featured on this blog, Bango. But the similarities in their backgrounds is even more striking.

Like Mohalhil Bango was a grey, desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli; like him he was bred by the Shammar tribe, at around the same time (Bango in 1923 and Mohalhil in 1922); like him he raced in Egypt.

MIchael Bowling tells me that the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) used a desert bred racehorse by the name of Nasr as a stallion in the 1920s, and that this horse was subsequently exported to Tunisia. He also tells me this horse is the reason why the other more famous *Nasr (Rabdan El Azrak x Bint Yemama) was renamed “Manial”, when he was raced by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik before being exported to the USA. 

If so, then it seems like the chestnut horse in the picture is the “Nasr, a racehorse” of one of the early EAO studbooks. He left many descendents in Tunisia, and in France, of which Mauvy’s Moulouki is one. Moulouki’s maternal granddam Arabelle is a granddaughter of this Nasr. [Jan 23rd update: He is also in the pedigree of Irmak]

I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which on her face has a blaze and on her two back legs has a stocking, [i.e.] she has two stockings on her hindlegs, that she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, [that she] is to be mated in the dark night, [that she] is purer than milk, and we only witness to what we know and do not keep [information] about the unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [Faris al-Jarba's seal]

A hujjah couldn’t get any better than this. Concise, to the point, and written and sealed by the supreme leader of the preeminent Bedouin horse-breeding tribe of Arabia Deserta: the Shammar al-Jazirah. In comparison, how many horses otherwise known to have been berd by the Aal Saud have Ibn Saud’s own seal on their hujjah?  How many other imported mares have Faris al-Jarba’s seal? [I know of only another one: the Blunt's Meshura, hujjah and seal here]

Mit’ab al-Hadb was the leader of the Thabit section of the Northern Shammar. The al-Hadb have been known as “bayt al-harb”, the ‘war household’ among the Shammar. These tough fighters could claim credit for many of the Shammar war deeds. As ghazu professionnals, they had to have what it takes to prevail: a speedy, tough, resistant war mare. *Abeyah seemed to have fitted the bill, according to Homer Davenport. 

There has never been many asil female descendents of *Abeyah in the USA. The last ones were bred by the Drapers of Richmond, California. They were true to their glorious ancestress. One of them, the stallion Jubilo, won a number of endurance competition in the late 1940s. 

The very last tail-female asil descendent of *Abeyah was the mare Carila (by Caravan x Akila by Akil x Sali by Rasik), born as late as 1964. Sorry I don’t have a picture. Maybe someone else does? 

Interestingly, and as an aside, several of the stallions in Carila’s pedigree were associated with other asil tail females lines that were also hanging by a thread and ended up being saved: Akil was the grandsire of Milanne, at one point the last asil tail-female descendent of the Blunts’ Ferida, a Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah; Rasik was the sire of Rabanna, also at some point the last asil tail-female descendent of the Blunts’ Basilisk; Caravan (Ribal x Fasal) was a well-known sire who lived to the ripe age of 34 years, who has unfortunately left very few asil offspring alive today, if any. 

At some point in the 1980s, the late Billy Sheets and Gerald and Debra Dirks took Carila to the University of Colorado where they tried artificial insemination, but the mare was too old and wouldn’t conceive. And that was the end of this.

The stallion Ghandour (ca. 1930) is another. Ghandour was reportedly sired by Merzug, a good racehorse owned by Mahmoud al-Itribi at one point, out of Lady Anne Blunt’s Jazia (Sahab x Jauza), a Kuhaylat al-Krush. Jauza is one of my all-time favorite Asil mares judging from the one picture I have seen of her. Ghandour was also raced by Itribi Pasha before being used by the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) of Egypt as a stallion. The RAS History book has him as “an imported Arab and very good racer, owned by the late Mahmoud Pasha El Itribi”. 

A quick search on Itribi Pasha on the net yielded meager results: a list of Egyptian Pashas mentions him as a notable from the Daqahliya farming area by the Nile delta, who was granted the title of Pasha in 1919. I recall seeing a photo of him somewhere. 

That said, Ghandour was the sire of El Garie, out of the 100% Blunt mare Zareefa (Kazmeen X Durra). El Garie was in turn the sire of Khairia. The latter produced a mare by Gassir (Kheir x Badia) who in turn produced two mares by Hassan (Nazeer x Hemmat), one of whom produced a son by Emad (El Araby x Ebeda). This pretty much takes us into our times, which means that Jauza might have some descendants alive today. Ghandour was also the sire of Khattab, a good race horse, and of many other horses, which you can find in Pearson and Mols excellent book, “The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt“.

I am going to track this Merzug down.. He can’t keep hiding for that long.

The seven were: Dahman, Meenak, Farid, Aslani, Hamdany El Samry, Latif and Maarouf.

The magnificent Dahman, to which this blog paid a tribute some time ago, was no doubt the star of this importation. Dahman’s hujja - which I will translate for you soon – tells us that he was bred by the Shammar tribe, from a Dahman sire and a Rabda dam. He stood at Pompadour for twenty-some years, leaving behind many pretty Asil mares like Ninon (picture below), Melinite, Musotte, and Noble Reine, and some excellent stallions, one of which, Minos (x Melisse) was sent to the King of Morocco. Today Minos appears in many modern Moroccan pedigrees.

If Dahman was the most striking, Aslani was the French breeders’ favorite. He originally came from the tribe of Bani Sakhr, by a Ubayyan and a Kuhaylat al-’Ajuz. Quinchez had to pay the hefty sum of 8,000 Francs to snatch him away from Alexandrian trainer and racehorse owner Michaelides – the same individual who trained and raced Saadun for Lady Anne Blunt. Sadly, by 1914 Aslani had died, leaving behind several broodmares, including Adelaide (a Hamdaniyah tracing to the desert import Zenab, and the great grand-dam of the pretty Asil mare Ablette, mentioned in an earlier post) and the influential Dinah (a Saqlawiyah from Baron Fechtig’s Warda’s line). 

Latif was not the most striking of the batch, judging from his photo below (thanks Joe Achcar for pointing me to this photo on the website Sportshorse-data.com). His sire appears to have been a Hamdani from the Sba’ah tribe and his dam a Hamdaniyah of the Fad’aan tribe. Latif’s claim to fame is his son Denouste (x Djaima), by far the most influential French Arabian stallion of the first half of the XXth century.

Latif also sired *Kola (x Destinee), exported to W.R. Brown of Maynesboro Farm, New Hampshire, and Kaymah (x Keronnelle), exported to Brazil (picture below). *Kola left her mark on US Arabian breeding as the dam of Fath, by Rodan and Kolastra by Gulastra. 

Meenak, by a Ma’naghi out of a Hamdaniyah, also hailed from the Fad’aan tribe and was also a breeders’ favorite. His most important offspring was Djerba. Djerba traced to the desert import Merjane, a  Mukhalladiyah, and was noted as the dam of the influential Asil stallion Duc II, sent from France to the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet. 

More on the remaining three imports, Farid, Hamdani El Samry and Maarouf, who left important lines in Spain and South America, in a subsequent post.

From now on, “Daughter of the Wind” will seek to escalate the debate on purity by featuring a regular series called “This is not an Arabian horse”, with the aim of “naming and shaming” those horses that should not even be called Arabians. Photo of Ba-Toustem courtesy of Pierre-Henri Beillard.

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.  

The sireline of Dynamite II was perpetued until today through his son Ibn (Dynamite II x Gafir), a Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz and famous racehorse, and Ibn’s son Koraich (Ibn x Targuia).  

By the way, if you read French and are curious about Tunisian racing bloodlines, checkout this article. There is also another article in English on Tunisian Arabian horse breeding in general here, which I think is informative, but difficult to follow at times – perhaps because it was translated from French.

The gorgeous Bint Nafaa was born in Egypt in 1962, and bred by Ahmed Hamza’s Hamdan Stables, yet she does not have the “Straight Egyptian” label.

The Pyramid Society, who coined the “definition” of a Straight Egyptian and Egyptian breds, does not accept El Gadaa, Nafaa’s sire, as a Straight Egpytian.

El Gadaa was a racehorse, who stood at Hamdan stables for a while and was bred by Miqhim ibn Mahayd, the Shaykh of the Bedouin Fad’aan tribe. Egyptian records have him as being by El Sabaa, also a racehorse, out of a Ma’naghiyah of Ibn Mhayd. 

Fine. But many questions remain unanswered. Did Miqhim race Arabian horses in Egypt? or did he sell the horse to a racehorse owner? did he own El Gadaa’s sire El Sabaa? where was El Gadaa bred, in Egypt, or in the desert?  

I know Miqhim ibn Mahayd left Syria sometimes in the 1950s (will get back to you with the exact date) after a series of problems with the Syrian regime, and moved to Saudi Arabia, where he received royal treatment from the King - himself a fellow Anazeh tribesman, who incidentally bred Bint Nafaa’s dam Nafaa, a desertbred Kuhaylah (so marbat) by a ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi – a strain that branched off ‘Ubayyan al-Hunaydees. I know Miqhim kept a small herd of horses in Syria with the care of an agent. 

One definitely needs to learn more about El Gadaa.. Meanwhile, check out this breeding program, which seeks to preserve the descendants of Nafaa through her other daughter Nadia and her granddaughter Serenity *Bint Nadia (by Sameh x Nadia by Ezzat).

Madani (by Souci x Sissana by Mossoul) was one of Tunisia’s best Arabian racehorses in the 1950s.  This old photo was originally published here. Madani is among others the sire of the stallion Inchallah, exported to France in the late 1950s. He also has progeny in Germany.

We reached the village of Ibn ‘Ufaytan [update July 17 2008: the village is Buthat al-Taqch] in the early afternoon, after having taken a dirt road that cut through the steppe. Faddan al-’Ufaytan and his son, whose name I unfortuantely don’t recall, were waiting for us at the entrance of their house.  

Faddan, a Shammar Bedouin in his fifities, was the nephew and heir of Dahir al-’Ufaytan, who owned the most famous and best authenticated marbat of Ma’naghi Hadraji in recent memory.  Any Ma’naghi stallion coming from Dahir al-’Ufaytan could be used as a stallion in the darkest of nights, as Bedouins would put it.  Ibn ‘Ufaytan would only mate his mares to his own stallions, or to the stallions of his close relative and neighbour, Ibn Jlaidan, the owner of a famous Shammari marbat of Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz, and the subject of earlier post.  

Back in the nineteen fourties and fifties, the horses of Ibn ‘Ufaytan made a name for themselves at Beirut racetrack as good racehorses of Asil stock, and it was said they were favorites of famous racehorse owner Henri Pharaon. I need to take a dive at the archives of the Beirut racetrack, or what is left of these, and see if any traces of these horses are left.

During the second half of the twentieth century, several Ma’naghi stallions stood at Ibn ’Ufaytan’s. One of them, a dark bay, almost black, was particularly famous as a sire of good broodmares, and was active in the 1980s. He was simply known as “Fahl al-’Ufaytan”, the Stallion of the Ufaytan.  He was one of the most popular sires in the entire area of North Eastern Syria, and passed on pretty head, excellent conformation, and good disposition. Another bay stallion of Ibn ‘Ufaytan was given to ‘Atallah al-Nassar al-Jarbah, who called him, and was known as ‘Am’um.

I was longing to see the next representative of this long line of famous stallions. A number of mares and colts were fettered outside the house, and Faddan took us to see them. A young stallion stood quietly in the afternoon sun, with sworms of flees around his muzzle and eyes. He was the older brother of the one I had seen at Dahir al-Salih the evening before…

[to be continued] 

Note #1244, which bears the handwriting of Inspector Rieu de Madron, who imported El Sbaa at an Egyptian racetrack, can be roughly translated as follows:

“According to the testimony of Barjas Ibn Nederi, the leader of the ‘Abdah tribe [one of the two main sections of the Sba'ah tribe] and of Nawaf al-Salih, the leader of the Hadidiyyin tribe, the Ju’aitni family to which El Sbaa belongs, is a branch of Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz, not a branch of the Saqlawi, as I had understood before. Horses from the J’aitni strain are very rare now. One needs to look for them among the ‘Anazah Bedouins who never left Najd.”

So El Sbaa is of the Ju’aitni strain after all. Note that the confusion about the origin of the strain persists until today, with some people linking the strain to the Kuhaylan family, while others claim it is a branch of the Saqlawi family.

Some of the comments I received go a step further, and ask practical questions, for example about what can be done to save the remnants of these horses, before it is too late. Here is a lead:  

While I was still based in France, I tried to lease one of the last Asil mares, Bucolique (Besbes x Berthe by Irmak), a gorgeous 1981 bay mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain, and the dam of many racehorse champions, with the aim of breeding her to Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui), a 1983 chestnut stallion of the Kuhaylan al-’Ajuz strain .  

Her owner, Jean-Marie Baldy, of the Haras du Cayrou in the Cantal area of central France, was willing to lease her, and the owners of Rubi de la Mouline were also willing to let him breed her, despite his old age.  Agreements were reached, transportation arrangements were made, but the project eventually failed to materialize because the next month I had to leave France for the USA.

I wish someone could revive this project, and take it forward, and I am willing to help in every way I can. It is an endeavor worth pursuing. I believe that a good case can be made for these horses: the supporting documentation exists, and the horses speak for themselves.

We had spent the entire morning looking at the horses of the Sherabiyin, in the villages of Tall al-’Arab al-Gharbi and Tall al-’Arab al-Sharqi, formerly Kurdish villages of North-Eastern Syria, now settled by a majority of Arab sheep-herders turned farmers.  The modern-day Sherabiyin constitute a loose tribal grouping of Bedouins of humble descent and disparate origins, with a solid reputation as cattle thieves and petty robbers.  Bedouins from more noble tribes do not typically hold them in high esteem as a group, and jokes about the Sharabiyin’s dubious sense of truth abound.    

Our host, Dahir al-Salih was a Sharabi from Tall al-’Arab al-Gharbi, which everyone called by its more common Kurdish name: Garhok.  Dahir’s sons and his extended family made a living by training horses for long distance racing. The traditional sport was quickly transforming into a profitable industry, fueled by rising demand for endurance horses from Damascus and the Gulf countries.  Dahir was making good money, and his horses were fat. 

Our party included two friends from Aleppo, both horsebreeders, Radwan Shabareq and Kamal Abd al-Khaliq, in addition to Hazaim and I.  Radwan and Kamal boarded their horses at Dahir’s, and visited them every once in a while.  Hazaim and I were visiting Dahir for the first time.

Dahir proposed to take us to see the horses of Ibn ‘Ufaytan, about an hour drive from his place.  The evening before, I had been struck by a young bay colt from Ibn ‘Ufaytan at Dahir’s, probably the best Asil stallion I had seen over the course of this trip to the Upper Jezireh, the Mesopotamian steppe.  The yearling was returning from evening training,  as the sun was setting on the hilltpos of nearby Turkey, and his sight as he drew near us, prancing and dancing, his head and tail set so high that they almost touched his rider, had on me the effect of a vision… 

[to be continued, and a photo of young Hakim coming soon]

In 1877, the French Ministry of War (the equivalent of a Department of Defense), established a breeding stud near the town of Tiaret, in the mountains of central Algeria. The objective of the “Jumenterie de Tiaret”, which later became the ”Haras de Tiaret-Chaouchaoua“, was to produce Arabian stallions, which were sent to local stallion depots, where they were used on Barb mares. The result was a sturdy Arab-Barb cavalry horse.

Hundreds of Arabian stallions and dozens of mares were imported to Tiaret (and its equivalent in neighboring Tunisia, Sidi-Thabet) from the deserts of Arabia and the racetracks of Egypt and Lebanon.  Depending on the expertise of the horse-buying commission and its budget, imports ranged from the outstanding to the mediocre.  Overall, Algeria received much better quality desert-bred imports than Tunisia or even France. Outstanding genitors included: Bango, a grey Ma’anaghi Sbayli from the Bedouin Shammar tribe, bought at at an Egyptian racetrack and perhaps the most famous Tiaret import; Safita, a bay Kuhaylan Khdili from the desert; Ghalbane, an Asil Hamdani Simri and Masbout, a Saqlawi Jadran, both winners of many races on the Beirut racetrack, etc.

Below is the wonderfully refined and feminine Fadd’a (Baleck x Foul), a 1907 mare representative of the  Asil Arabians typically bred by Tiaret.  Fadd’a was the first mare owned by Robert Mauvy. She traced to the desert-bred Yamouna, born in 1869 in the Najd area of Arabia, and imported to Algeria in 1876.

That this small North African country is home to such classic specimen of Asil Arabians as Naziha may come as a surprise to some, yet Tunisia harbors one of the best collections of Asil Arabians anywhere.  Most Tunisian Asils trace to desert-bred horses imported from Arabia by the French.

The French?

France occupied Tunisia in 1881, but kept the local ruling family in place.  The ruling family owned a small stud of Arabian horses in the town of Sidi-Thabet, to the southwest of the capital city of Tunis, which the French overtook and expanded.  The stud of Sidi Thabet specialized in breeding Asil Arabians using original desert stock imported from the Arabian desert.  The resulting Tunisian Asils were either raced or bred to Barbs to produce an Arab-Barb cross that was highly appreciated by the French cavalry units stationed in North Africa.     

When the French finally withdrew in 1956, the newly independent Tunisian goverment took over Arabian horse breeding at Sidi-Thabet, following the French’s footsteps, but many fine horses went to France with the returning European settlers. More horses went to France in the 1960s, and 1970s. Naziha was one of those. She was raced in Tunisia before being exported to France. I took this photo of her at the farm of her owner Pierre-Henri Beillard, in 1995. She was 32 years old.