Missed connections: Ibn Ghalabawi, Soniour and their links to the Tahawi
This entry is a follow up on an earlier entry on the Egyptian stallion Ibn Ghalabawi, sire of the 1971 mare Azeema out of Naglaa 1963 (Azeema’s photo is below, thanks Timur Hasanoglu for sharing it with me), which was exported to Germany.
While implicitly included in the Pyramid Society’s definition of a Straight Egyptian Arabian, Ibn Ghalabawi is explicitely left out of the Asil Club’s otherwise wholesale embrace of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization’s Studbook. He shares that distinction with two other stallions, Sharkasi, and Registan (Skowronek x Riz). In 1978, WAHO accepted Ibn Ghalabawi’s daughter Azeema as purebred, based on the testimony of Sayed Marei of Al Badeia Arabians.
That testimony identifies Ibn Ghalabawi as by Ghalabawi out of the mare “Bint Nabras”, by Nabras out of “Bint Soniour”. Soniour is only identified as a “desert-bred horse”.
Assuming that pedigree information is correct, further research is needed on the following four horses before the credentials of Ibn Ghalabawi can be bolstered: the three stallions “Ghalabawi”, “Nabras”, “Soniour” and the great-granddam in the tail female, about which nothing is known.
“Ghalabawi” is said to be by Balance x Bint Magboura by Ibn Rabdan, and to be bred by the RAS. I looked him up in Colin Pearson’s “The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt” but could not find him. I don’t have the EAO Studbooks, and maybe someone else can look him up there. Nabras must be the the 1921 grey Hadban Enzahi bred the tribe of the al-Aqaydat (“El Agidad”) on the Euphrates river in Syria, and later used by the RAS.
Soniour is the one on which there is “new” information: According to Syrian author and racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi in his book on the Arabian horse, Soniour (c. 1910). was a racehorse owned by Emile Pharaon who had him race in Cairo and was a son of the Dahman ‘Amer (b. 1898 – d. 1923) of Abdallah Seoud al-Tahawi. The hujjah of that Dahman ‘Amer stallion, who was also the sire of Barakat, was first displayed here. Soniour appears to have been bred by the Tahawi and his dam to be a Tahawi mare.
I used to own a copy of that Barazi, which my father gave to me, but I lost it. Basil Jadaan still has a copy, and both Joe Achcar and Hazaim Alwair have xeroxed or scanned copies of this book.
While this information is still not enough to establish the asil credentials of Ibn Ghalabawi once and for all, it represents nonetheless a first step in this direction. The maternal great-grand-dam, the one who was bred to Soniour, remains the major unknown element so far.
The stud book shows Bint Magboura as “Sold on 24th May 1935 [at age 3] to the late Ahmed Mahrei Bey.” If Ghalabawi was bred by the RAS, then his dam must have been sold in foal to Balance.
Is it likely a three-year-old filly would be sold in foal?
Is Ahmed Mahrei Bey related to Sayed Marei?
I searched EAO stud books from Vol I(second edition 1983) to Vol VI (1989) ,I could not find “Ghalabawi” nor “Ibn Ghalabawi” or “Azeema”.
But what I found that
“Bint Durra” a Dahma Shahwania dam of “Bint Bint Durra” was by:
“Eid”x”Durra”
“Durra”,bay, bought by the society on june 19th 1924 from Mr Kasdughli.
“Eid'” a race horse belonging to Mr Kasdughli,sold to the late Sayed Khashaba Pasha.
“Durra” came in foal to “Eid” as “Bint Bint Durra” was foaled
on 31st of August at the society’s Bahtim stables.
Colin Pearson about “Eid”: “Nothing certain is known of this horse,but is probable that is was the animal named “Aid” who was bred by Lady Blunt at Sheikh Obeyd.”
A very elegant,and easy, way ,to give a respectability to a pedigree “Aid” was the son of “Aida” both names meaning
“The one who returns” “Aida”being the feminine and “Aid” the masculine.
While “Eid” meaning is “Party” “Feast” or “Holiday”.
The RAS stud book keeper could not be so mistaken to write “a race horse” while the horse was
a Sheikh Obeyd horse.
Bint Bint Durra was exported to M.Babson
her gets “Durroufa” Fa Rabdan” “Fad Zarka” “Fadurra””Farrab”
“Faydalla”
As I cannot put my finger on my copy of the Al Badeia Studbook, quick email to Nasr Marei might clarify alot. I’ll write and alert him to this thread on the blog and we may yet get a response from him.
Ahmed (Bey) Marei is the father of Sayed Marei, and it is not uncommon that three year old filles were sold in foal. Was Balance active as a stallion at the time?
1935 was apparently the first season Balance was used–accepting Datasource as at least an approximation, his first foal was a 1936.
7 Foals of Azeema
1975 AZEELA by Shaker El Masri
1976 IBN AZEEMA by Shaker El Masri
1977 AZEEZA by Shaker El Masri
1979 ABDALLAH by Ibn Shaker I
1980 ABDULLAH by Ibn Shaker
1981 AZEEM by Malik
1982 AZIRA by Ibn Bassima