The hujjah of her ancestress in the tail female, the original Almumruhiye is on the WAHO website, under “General Interest” then under “Turkish Stud Book Report”, and is reproduced below. She was purchased in the Syrian city of Hama in 1936 at the age of 5.

Allah Almighty said in his precious book Q’uran ‘The love of passion that comes from women and children has attracted mankind, as well as accumulated gold and silver treasures, pedigreed horses, livestock and crops.’ The Asil Horses are blessed and valued for that Allah Almighty mentioned them many times in his precious book. The Republic of Turkey purchased from Hama by the help of Ali Saif Aldeem from the people of Hama some Asil Horses. Among them is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh, her family tree is shown above. We witness that her fourth grandmother the bay is the mare of Hilal Bin Adnan from the Sbaah (Anezeh) and her father is Ma’anagi Sbeli. At Anezeh, she gave birth to the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh whose father is the Ma’anagi Sbeli, the horse of Ibn Daffak from Sbaah, and her daughter is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh. And her daughter is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh and her father is Ma’anagi Sbeli the horse of Ibn Fnaitel from the Risaleen Anezeh. And her daughter is the grey Kehaileh Mimrehieh and her father is Kehailan Nowaq the horse of Hitmi Bin Roshda from Sbaah Anezeh. And she gave birth to the chestnut mare that the Republic of Turkey purchased from Hama by the committee formed from Nurettin Aral Bey and Ihsan Akhun Bey in December 1936. And her father is the Ma’anegi Sbeli in Hama and as because the mentioned mare is a Kehaileh Mimrehieh from the horses of Ibn Adnan (Anezeh) which are from the famous Asil horses of the Anezeh as shown above, we came with the testimony for Allah and his Messenger.
Witnessed and Signed by:

Mokhtar Mohammad Al Shaqfeh	Hasan Mohammed Al Shaqfeh
Shafeeq Shaqaqi	Saad Aldeen Al Saffaf
Hamdo Al Zakkar	Ahmead Ashour
And others

Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.

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.

 

The original “Beauty of Aleppo” who was the grand-dam of the mare in the photo was a Kuhaylat Umm Junub born in 1930 and bred by a Nuri Effendi of Aleppo, Syria, and later imported to Turkey.

So know we know at least two surviving lines for the precious strain of Kuhaylan Abu Junub, one in Saudi Arabia (but came from Syria in the 1960s-70s), and one in Turkey, which also came from Syria in 1930.

I am simply amazed at the resilience of these rare strains that were so prevalent before and which at some point were thought to be lost. It’s like new sightings of birds everyone thought were extinct.

First, as a student of Middle Eastern history, I am deeply aware that the area composed of the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and alternativelly known as Bilad al-Sham, Greater Syria, or the Levant (depending on who you talk to), was governed out of two cities during most of the last thousand years: Cairo and Istanbul.

Both the  Ayubid (1171- 1250) and the Mameluk Sultanates (1250-1516) ruled over this area from the city of Cairo, while the Ottoman Empire’s domination of the same area out of Istanbul lasted from 1516 until 1918. The Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt Mohammad Ali Pasha and his son Ibrahim Pasha also ruled the area from Cairo for a brief period (1832-1840), when they openly challenged the Ottomans’ authority. More recently, Syria and Egypt were also briefly united in one country from 1958 to 1961.

If Cairo and Istanbul were the centers of power and prestige, then desert-bred Arabian horses, which are themselves major objects of power and prestige, must have flocked to Cairo and Istanbul in large numbers over this entire period. They were either obtained as gifts, purchases for cavalry remounts or war trophies. While most everybody knows about the fabled Arabian horse collections of Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt Muhammad Ali the Great, his son Ibrahim Pasha and especially his grandson Abbas Pasha I, much less is known about the Arabian horses of the Ottoman Sultans in Istanbul. They must have been equally good.

When the Ottoman empire came to an end in 1923 in the aftermath of World War One, at least eight of the Sultan’s horses were incorporated into the new Turkish Republic’s Arabian horse breeding program. They were referred to as being from the “Palace”. This is not unlike the Arabians of Abbas Pasha of Egypt forming the historical foundation  of Egypt’s EAO breeding program.

The second reason why I am intrigued by these Turkish Arabians is that Krush Halba (Saqlawi Sh’aifi x Kuhaylat Krush), the foundation stallion of the Arabian horses breeding program of my home country — Lebanon — was sold to the Turkish Government for 200 gold pounds in the early 1930s, and fhas ounded a major sire line that still exists there.

Anyway, I am really intrigued by these horses, and I want to learn more about them. The excellent WAHO Investigation and Inspection Report on the Turkish Arabian Stud Book of April 1997, to which Basil Jadaan and Kees Mol contributed, is a good place to start.

Below is a photo of one of these Turkish Arabian stallions, Canberk (Tufan x Meliketulcemal). He was born in 1957.

Compare with the two photos of the desert-bred Davenport stallion *Hamrah, below.

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.