Lost asil tail females: Jilfa, a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad

In 1887, Lady Anne Blunt purchased the little-known desert-bred mare Jilfa from her breeder, Khashman al-Kassab of the Mawaheeb section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe. She was imported to Crabbet in 1888, as part of a batch that also included Azrek, and Ashgar, a Saqlawi Ubayri from the Shammar. Jilfa, a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad by strain, was given away in 1896. I have never seen a photo of Jilfa..

At Crabbet, Jilfa produced Jamusa by Azrek, who in turn produced Mareesa in 1902, by Mareb (Mesaoud x Mansura, by Ashgar out of Meshura, another imported mare rarely found in Crabbet pedigree). Interestingly, Mareesa blends the three 1888 desert imports with the rare Meshura line, providing for an unusual early Crabbet pedigree. Mareesa produced the pretty Alfarouse by Berk (by now the line was out of Crabbet) and her sister Yakuta by Rasim (Feysul x Risala). In 1937, the latter produced Rasheeqa by the closely related Azym (Sher-i-Khurshid x Alfarouse), a son of Yakouta’s sister Alfarouse. Rasheeqa was 100% old Crabbet breeding and both her sire and her dam were of the same Jilfan strain. Rasheeqa produced the mare Resique in 1948, by Aaron (Algol x Rythma by Berk), carrying the asil Jilfa tail female one generation further. Resique produced the mare Amirat in 1956, by the asil Courthouse stallion Rashid (Saoud x Rangha by Berk, three Berk crosses); Rashid’s picture is bel0w.

At this point allbreedpedigree.com goes crazy and mixes that UK line with that of another totally unrelated Amirat, of the Fred Glass breeding in Oklahoma, USA. I don’t have Datasource to continue tracking the line. All I can tell is that in 1956, an asil Jilfa mare by the name of Amirat was born that was 100% Old English breeding, and that she was exported to the Netherlands in 1962.  No idea whether that line has left something there, or elsewhere for that matter. My suspicion is that nothing was left. Of course, allbreedpedigree is not a reliable source for tracking pedigrees, but I am at work, and it’s all I got here.

the asil stallion Rashid (Saoud x Rangha)
the asil stallion Rashid (Saoud x Rangha)

[October 9th, 2009 update: Check out Michael Bowling’s informative article on the minor pedigree lines at Crabbet from imported Blunt mares, of which Jilfa was one].

12 Replies to “Lost asil tail females: Jilfa, a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad

  1. Eduard, I saw many troubles in the allbreedpedigree too.I must subscribe the Datasource,so we, “asil-believers” will be through day and night on Datasource.When I’m sleep,You or R.J.searching,then I will searching..No.I will searching day and night..:)

    László

  2. I just looked up Amirat AHSB in DataSource and she is listed with only one foal, a bay mare named Halime foaled 1963. Halime’s sire is Hamad [1953 bay] who is all old Blunt with the exception of two lines to Skowronek on his dam’s side via the mare Niseyra, who includes Skowronek’s famed son Naseem and Naseem’s full sister Nasifa.

  3. Thanks Joe, for taking the time to do some of that research. That’s too bad. I will look for Jilfa descendents elsewhere. I understand some have been exported to Australia.

  4. The person to whom Jilfa was given, the Hon. Terence Bourke, was a cousin of Wilfrid Blunt’s and the son of the 6th Lord Mayo. Elizabeth Longford’s biography of Wilfrid Blunt says that Blunt visited the 24-year-old Terence in 1894: “Terence had gone native in Tunis with a thoroughness that Wilfrid could not match.”

    Jilfa produced six foals at Crabbet. Her son Jilfan was sold in the winter of 1892-3. Three of Jilfa’s foals died in 1895 of various causes (a 3 yr old filly, a yearling colt, and her 1895 colt, which had to be put down following an injury). Jilfa’s son Jedaan and her daughter Jamusa were both sold at the 7th sale on July 27, 1895. That left Jilfa herself as the only representative of her line at Crabbet. Jilfa was not covered in 1895, then given away in August of 1896.

  5. I should add that Jamusa produced two foals at Crabbet, an 1894 foal (“lovely filly”) that died at 4 months when “digestion went wrong” and an 1895 foal (“beautiful colt”) that was found in his stall at about 5 months old with a broken leg. So Jilfa’s line was an unlucky one at Crabbet.

  6. So I guess one cannot assume that the Blunt’s had no intention to keep this line at Crabbet, if only because of the positive comments on Jamusa’s two foals.

  7. It looks to me like this: after four of Jilfa’s descendants died in 1895, the Blunts went ahead and sold the last two in the July 27, 1895 sale. That left just Jilfa herself, but rather than continue to breed from Jilfa, they gave her to a cousin the next year. That’s my interpretation, anyway.

    Jamusa might have rejected both of her foals, which could be the reason she was sold. The first foal had the note “Brought up by hand, mare having no milk… The mare an unkind mother.” The second one was also “brought up by hand.” In July 1899, Lady Anne heard that Jamusa had foaled to a Thoroughbred stallion, and she made a special note that “the foal was well treated by her,” so this was obviously an issue that concerned Lady Anne and one that Jamusa seems to have got past by 1899.

  8. I just ran the Jilfa tail female. It does breed on thinly to today, but nothing left that is asil. Amirat’s tail female is through Halime, by Hamad (The Chief x Tehoura).

  9. Yep.. that bloodline nearly made to the time there was awareness about Skowronek crosses. Halime was bred once to The Shah (Babson). Frustrating..

  10. Just what the heck was Lady W. doing not using rashid as a new foundation stallion to save crabbet.. His conformation appears that much better than most of those exported to the U.S. and U.S.S.R too for that matter. His Gaskins are pleasingly short- connecting to long well muscled thighs- not to mention an exemplary coupling,that is where the power comes from behind. A shame there are no Asil lines left to him..Which raises the question of whether its possible to rejuvenate the ,” Asilness,” of some lines? After all some of the CMK horses for example do have quite a lot of the better Davenport and pre studbook 5 horses without of course a lot of outcrosses to partbreds.

  11. I think I may have found some from this line. I do not know if they are asil. Would someone with more experience be willing to assist? I have spreadsheets of pedigree going back generations beyond what was listed in allbreed. The allbreed links for my stallion and 3 mares are all on the website. If I am incorrect that they have an unbroken dam line, I need to fix my descriptions.

  12. All Breed Pedgree Database can be very useful but it is not the last word and should be cross checked with other sources for some extended pedigrees. Please note that Al Breed Database does have some glaring errors in some Egyptian pedigrees such as the famous Prince Mohammed Ali mare Negma. ABDB shows her sire as Aziz, the Ali Pasha Sherif sire of Mesaoud. This is clearly in error. Negma’s sire is Dahman El Azrak. Aziz was never used by Prince Mohammed Ali, and he would have to have been 34 years old to sire Negma which is not at all likely. It is also important to note foaling dates of sires and dams and their progeny as other such errors show impossible parentages.

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