Muhammad Sadyk Pasha, owner of *Shahwan
The splendid Arabian stallion Shahwan, purchased by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt in 1892, was foaled in the possession of Muhammad Sadyk Pasha, who was given his dam in foal by Ali Pasha Sharif. He is the maternal grandsire of Ibn Yashmak, through whom he finds his way into modern Egyptian pedigrees.
I found the trace of Muhammad Sadyk Pasha (1832-1902). He was a senior military official — a Lewa, just like Ibrahim Khairi Pasha, owner of Badaouia –, a geographer, an explorer, and a military engineer, graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, as well as the president of the Egyptian Geopraphic Society in his later days. He undertook four journeys to Hijaz and Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which he described in great detail in a book, “al-Rahalat al-Hijaziyah”, translated as “Journeys to Hijaz”. He was reportedly the first person to take photos of the two holy cities, which appeared in Oriental and Western publications. Muhammad Sadyk Pasha was the treasurer of the Pilgrimage (Hajj) caravan on two journeys. Click on this superb Biritish Museum link for a more complete bio, a photo of him, and a selection of his wonderful photographs. Saudi Aramco also has an article about him.
What a magnificent looking stallion!
Seeing this photo of *Shahwan immediately made me thing of the stallion Karimkhan (Dhahmida x Hamara). Karimkhan was of “Sharp” breeding, no Blunt ancestors in his pedigree. Further indication that the source of differing Asil/Al Khamsa lines is the same.
*Shahwan is of “sharp” breeding, isn’t he?
Yes, he was, and there are probably some common ancestors between Shahwan and some of the Price Mohammad Ali horses present in Karimkhan’s pedigree… maybe between Shahwan’s dam and El Dahma (just speculating here) dam of Saklawi II.
Check this link out, it turns out he was born in 1822 after all.
http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/files/Meccas%20First%20Photographers%20-%20NVIC-20130418.pdf
http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Sui-2008-Photos/Sui-2008-Arabia-photos-050-059.pdf
Thanks R.J. If I had bothered to really look at *Shahwan’s pedigree I would have seen his pedigree was a “non-blunt,” just that he was purchased by the Blunts.
What remains a mystery to me is why this beautiful stallion was not a more successful cross with the Crabbet mares. The Blunts bred fewer mares to him each year he was at Crabbet, and sold him after just a few seasons. Most of his progeny were not kept for breeding. *Shahwan’s line would have died out entirely at Crabbet had it not been re-introduced through the importation of his grandson bred in Egypt, Ibn Yashmak.
Then again, a magazine writer who reported on one of the Crabbet sales wrote very enthusiastically about *Shahwan’s son Safran (*Shahwan x Safra), and the Blunts tried to breed Safran back to his granddam, Sobha, for what would have been a triple Wazir foal. So clearly at least some of *Shahwan’s foals at Crabbet had merit.
Why would they linebreed to the Hamdani strain in this way?