Daughters of the Wind: a blog on desert arabian horses, past and present

This morning Adrien Deblaise, from France, sent me two photos of his superb stallion, Murad Ghazy. Ghazy was bred by Louis Bauduin, by Jahir (Iricho x Ciada by Ghalbane, d.b.), out of Murad Hadra (Medicq Allah x Hamada by Irmak), of Algerian and Tunisian lines. He traces to all three Cordonnier-bred stallions (Iricho, In Chaallah, Irmak) the French Government brought from Tunisia in the 1960s, sparking a small revival of asil Arabian breeding in France. Note also the not-so-distant line to the great desert import Nibeh in Murad Ghazy’s pedigree: Murad Ghazy — Murad Hadra — Medicq Allah — Medica — Meziana — Messina — Nibeh.

Many of you have been writing to or hearing about Yasser al-Tahawi who is one of the main persons behind the recent revelations about the original horses of the Tahawi tribe. Well here’s a picture of him, riding bareback on his Kuhaylah Ju’athiniyah mare Bushra.

Fabienne Vesco, from France, shared these two informative videos about Barb and Arabian horse breeding in North Africa. It mainly talks about Arabian horses in the context of Arab Barb breeding for remounts, but also in the context of preservation breeding.

Le Barbe – Cheval Des Berbères – Part 1 by NacirAdhrar

Le Barbe – Cheval Des Berbères – Part 2 by NacirAdhrar

Teymur from Germany sent me this picture of the Arabian mare Cehide (pronounce it Jahidah), born in 1915. She was at the Ottoman Sultans’ stables until she joined the Turkish state studs when the Empire era came to an end. She was a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah by a Saqlawi Jadran.

Hussain Ghashemi from Iran sent these pictures from Iran. Not an

Arabian horse obviously, but a gorgeous specimen of an Iranian

Turkmen horse.

I think I may have already written that this mare was one of my favorite living asil mares, on pedigree, on photo, and in real life (I saw her at Carol Lyons in 2003 or was it 2004? I don’t remember): En Pointe CF is a war mare the likes of which seldom exist today. An ‘atiq (antique, ancient in Arabic) mare of the ancient desert type, reminiscent in her style and class of the Old Blunt mares of the Rodania tail female like Risala and Rissla.

Her dam Pirouette CF is my all time favorite living Davenport mare, and her sire Triermain CF is my favorite living Davenport stallion. Her double grandsire Javera Thadrian is simply my all time favorite asil Arabian stallion in the West (but you knew that already).

By the way, I do believe that linebreeding to Javera Thadrian does produce outstanding horses. En Pointe CF is one example; Tantris CF is another, and my own Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF, by Javera Thadrian) and Wadd (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) are not bad at all, either.

Not sure who owns her today, but she is lucky.

Cindy, who trains the stallions at Desert Bred Arabians in Illinois sent me this impressive video of the horses of Rodger and Mimi Davis displaying their versatile athletic skills. Just watch it.. and watch it again.

I really like this small photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Fair Sair (Sir x Lady Fair by Tripoli), whom I saw at Alice Martin’s in 2005. I find him very reminiscent of his grandson Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole by Fair Sir), who is at Pamela Klein’s.

Tomorrow I am going to Tunisia for work, for a week. Back next Saturday.

The desert-bred ‘Ubayyah Suhayliyah mare Reem al-’Ud, bred by the Shammar tribe in northeastern Syria, also known as “the mare of Mattori” from one of her past Bedouin owners, was featured several times on this blog. Here is yet another photo of her in extreme old age, which shows well the black skin around her eyes. Her last owner was Sh. Mayzar al-’Ajil al-’Abd al-Karim al-Muhammad al-’Abd al-Karim al-Jarba, a descendant of the great Shammar hero ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jarba known as “Abu Khudah”.

I have always admired the bright bay horse pictured on Jackson Hensley’s Bedouin Arabians website (one photo below, with Jackson’s daughter), without knowing who the horse was. Jackson, as an artist, emphasizes the essence of the Arabian horse more than it’s official identity, and this is perhaps why he does not mention the names of his horses on his website.  I always thought this stallion was a nice combination of masculinity and sweetness, like a stag, or a male gazelle..

I just found out from a comment Jackson left below, that the horse is actually mine, one I own jointly with Darlene Summers, Monologue CF. I confess I felt a little out of touch.. but then again, I only saw Monologue twice, once at Pamela Klein’s and once at Craver Farms, where he is currently stationed.

Kathy Busch and Crista Couch kindly took a day trip to see the stallion Rahim Regency WAF (Regency CF x Dakhala Sahra) near Kansas City, MO, of which here is a video (click on rahim).

Sired by Regency CF (Ibn Alamein x Bint Antan by El Alamein) and looking very much like his sire, Rahim is the son (and otherwise the only offspring — so far) of my new acquisition, the 26 year old Ma’naqiyah Sbailiyah Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir). He is some 88% Davenport, with a tail female to Miss Ott’s Sirrula, all the way back to Major Upton’s Naomi.

His owner Joseph Walters, has been breeding him to Polish mares, and was not aware of his Al Khamsa, asil status.

The book these pictures come from was published in the Hungarian language in 1904 and was translated  into Arabic language in 2004 by Mr. Tha’er Saleh with the support of the Hungarian Translation Fund. The original photos are at the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture in Budapest. The book is about the travels of Austro-Hungarian government envoy Fadlallah Mikhail el-Haddad to the Arabian desert just a few years before the trip Homer Davenport took there.

The purpose of the trip of Mikhail el Haddad to Ottoman Iraq (Mesopotamia) was apparently to access alternative sources of desert blood than the ‘Anazah blooflines that Babolna already had access to. His trip first followed the Damascus-Palmyra-Deir-ez-Zor axis, then it followed the Euphrates valley to down to Fallujah  and Baghdad. From there, Haddad went along a large circular route south of Bagdad that included Najaf, Kerbala, the ‘Amarat Bedouin (a branch of the ‘Anazah) pastures and then crossed the Euphrates river eastwards until he reached the Tigris river.

From top to bottom, and left to right: Photo 1: In Tell Kalakh, which is west the city of Homs (my mother’s town by the way) in Syria, with Abdallah Agha al-Dandashi from whom the stallion O’Bajan was bought in 1885; photo 2: with some ‘Anazah Bedouins, top, and at the Sultan stables at”Al Waziria” near Bagdad, bottom; photo 3: the mare Ferha of the Shammar; photo 4: Mikhail’s three uncles, all Maronite clergymen in Beit Shebab, in the Mountains of Lebanon.

Teymur sent this picture of the other foundation sire of the Turkish Arabian breeding program, the 1928 bay stallion Sa’d (Kuheylan Cietni x Kuheyletul Sade Tukan), also known as Baba Saad, a Kuhaylan Sa’dan al-Tuqan, by a Kuhaylan Ju’aytni. He was Turkey’s most famous racehorse.

Marie Arthur sent these photos of the nice Kuhaylat al-Krush mare IV Shtika Al Krush (CL Hi Ned x Tika Al Krush by Krushan Al Krush), who Hi Ned’s only Krush daughter.  If you scroll down you will see a photo of this impressive stallion.

The day before yesterday was my daughter’s fourth birthday, and also Daughters of the Winds fourth anniversary.

While digging through old pictures, I came across this headshot of the asil Saqlawi stallion al-Abjar, which I took in the mid 1990s, at the studfarm of the late Hajj Amin Yakan near al-Bab, not far from Aleppo. He was a tall stallion of tremedous style, carriage and presence. My father is the man in the picture.

I have already written about al-Abjar here. He was a Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni, from the marbat of al-Dali’ (like his relative *Mirage), later in the marbat of the Mudariss family. There is still a thin tail female line running through his sister, in Damascus.

Today, preservation breeders of asil Arabians in the USA breed on a small scale. They are fewer breeders than before and they are far between. Many of these breeders don’t always have the stallions their mares need, whether in their barns of just around the corner. Some breeders have the stallions but not the mares. Some have stallions who are sons and brothers of their mares, and don’t want to inbreed.

There needs to be a good supply of (non-Egyptian) Al Khamsa stallions registered to ship semen from. When I wanted to breed Jadiba to a Davenport stallion this past summer, the only ones I could find who were ready to ship were Triermain CF in Illinois, Vice Regent CF in Georgia, and Pal-Ara Sensation and Mandarin in Oregon. Mandarin died last year, and Triermain is getting old. I opted for Vice Regent but now I have more mares and I wish there are other stallions to choose from.

There is no shortage of outstanding Davenport and BLUE STAR and other asil stallions, who ought to be registered to ship. I wish Davenport stallions like Regatta CF, Daedalus LD, Porte CF, Silverton CF, Indie Star, Eldar HD, Shiraz CF, Clarion CF, Firebolt, Chancery CF, Popinjay, Bah-Rani, Pulcher Ibn Reshan, Cobalt KH, Quantum LD, Aurene CF, were available to ship semen from. These and others are the sires of the future.

I realize registration for shipping is expensive, but there must be way to recoup the costs, and perhaps a collective effort can be undertaken, will several breeders cooperating to pool funding and get stallions of common interest frozen or registered to ship. It is well worth the effort, and there is no other way forward for the future of the asil Arabian in the USA.

The Abbas Pasha Manuscript [1993, edited by J. Forbis and G. Sherif], which is essentially the transcription by Abbas Pasha’s envoys of Bedouins’ testimonies about their horses, is the foremost primary source on the Bedouin-bred Arabian horse available today. Its hundreds of testimonies is the precious remnant of an oral culture, now long gone. No wonder modern Saudi families and clans who have nothing to do with horses anymore are relying on it as a bargaining chip to ask for favors from the Saudi royal family, or to ascertain their social status (things along the lines of: “Your Highness, my ancestor gave your ancestor a precious mare, they were close, it is written in the horse book, so now I need… from you in return”).  

However great the legacy of Judith Forbis as a breeder of Arabian horses of the show type has been, her most enduring legacy, IMO, is to have made this book available to Western audiences. Page after page, the information in the Manuscript debunks many Western misconceptions about Bedouin horse breeding. Really, the only thing missing from the book is an index of the individual horses, strains and Bedouins mentioned.

Check out this quote, page 439 [notes between brackets are mine]:

“The Sheikhs of Subayah [actually, Subay', a Bedouin tribe long allied to the Aal Saud] came and they were asked about their horses of the ‘Abeyya strain [in context, 'Ubayyan al-Suyayfi]: Baddah al Saifi [actually, al-Suyayfi] and Shafi the son of Fuhayd al Saifi [ditto] and Mesud ibn Ghadir, the sheikhs of Subayah [Subay'] replied: She is ‘Abeyya Sherrakiya of al Sherrak [...]. And we [in context, Fuhayd al-Suyayfi, Shaykh of Subay'] mated the safra, Hosayna, to a Kuhaylan Saada [actually Sa'dan or Sa'd] Tuqan, the horse of Hubaylis of al Qublan of Mutayr. And she gave birth to a shaqra filly whose name is Barissa who is with Shafi, the son of Fuhayd.”

Here you have a Bedouin shaykh, the son of the tribe’s leader, talking about the horses he and his father bred. They mention having bred one of their mares to a Sa’dan Tuqan stallion, and refer to that strain as a branch of Kuhaylan, like the Kuhaylan Hayfi, Rodan, or Mimrah. There is another instance of a breeding to the same Sa’dan Tuqan stallion on page 430.

Now according to Carl Raswan, the Sa’dan strain is Ma’naqi related, and is not a branch of the Kuhaylan. In his (totally arbitrary, IMO) strain categorization, the Sa’dan is one of the strains a purist Bedouin breeder should avoid breeding his asil mare to. If that were true, why would the leader of the Subay’, a major Bedouin tribe in the area of Riad in Najd, breed his mare to a stallion of this strain? and why the Mutayr, another major Bedouin tribe from Najd, maintain a Sa’dan Tuqan as a stallion, which means the strain is shubuw (to be mated from) to both the Mutayr and the Subay’?

Who would you believe in this case? the documented Bedouin primary source, or the undocumented western secondary source?

The thread below contains very interesting and valuable observation by Joe Ferriss on Western need for a systematic classification of Bedouin strains, and by Lisa on the value of written versus oral information in Bedouin culture.

Let me add the following general principles: The Bedouins’ culture was an oral one; information was transmitted orally between people of the same generation and from generation to generation. They did not need anything in written when dealing with each other. The truthfulness and probity (‘adl in Arabic, a value depending on honor) of the man ensured the trustworthiness of the information, and it was confirmed by other men who acted as witnesses.

When dealing with outsiders, whether non-Bedouin Arabs like the town people or Aleppo, the Cairo-based missaries of Abbas Pasha, as well as Westerners, there arose the need to have this information put in writing, for two reasons :first, the system of values that bound Bedouins to each other did not apply to outsiders. Conversely, the outsiders did not trust information that was not put in writing.

So, as far as Arabian horses were concerned, the hujjah was the transcription in writing of information that was originally shared and transmitted orally. I am not sure it was designed for Westerners first. Rather I think the Cairo based Mameluk Sultans and the Istanbul based Ottoman Sultans were likely the first to request written hujaj for the horses they bought. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript is essentially a compendium of hujaj.

Of course, when trade in horses reached a larger scale, and foreigners who did not speak Arabic became involved as clients, a whole industry of agents, intermediaries, translators, guides and businessmen arose, who made sure that if a foreigner employing them wanted a piece of paper with Saqlawi Jadran written on it, well, they would create one for him. The Bedouin who was made to sign on the piece of paper, either did not know what he was putting his seal on, because he was illiterate (oral culture again), or he did not feel concerned, because the transaction involved non-Bedouins, and hence fell outside his value system.

I am in Lebanon for the holidays with the family, and have been catching up on some Arabian horse reading. All the important books are here, and I only quote from memory when in the USA. Just finished re-re-reading “The Crabbet Arabian Stud” by R. Archer et al, and have started Lady Wentworth’s “The Authentic Arabian Horse”. Can’t help lamenting how she messed with her mother’s “Book of Fragments” each time. Someone ought to reconstitute that book from scratch and republish it.

I also flipped through Raswan’s “Black Tents of Arabia”. Somehow I never feel safe with Raswan. There is some good information, in the middle of a sea of misleading and often wrong statements. I really feel I could fill an entire new blog at the rythm of a post per day documeting these, and I know I eventually will some day. Meanwhile, I have learned to respect him as a passionate advocate of the preservation of the asil Arabian in the USA. He must have been a really nice person, too.

I think there are two ‘golden rules’ about Lady Blunt and Raswan, concerning information about horses, strains, tribes, etc. I have said this before, and will continue to say it: I would consider her generally right unless proven wrong, and him generally wrong unless proven right.

Speaking of jewels (Confetti CF is on the left, Provance CF on the right):

Edouard, take this out if you want — but their owner, Mary Ann Brewer, has decided to stop breeding, and is offering these two Kuhaylat, and Tokens Ceelen (a straight Davenport mare, tail female to Schilla) on a free lease to interested Davenport breeders. Contact her for details — she’s in Texas.

One of the few asil Tahawi mares left in Egypt is this old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah owned by Helga al-Tahawi, the wife of the late Shaykh Soliman al-Tahawi. She is one of those which the Board of Directors of Al Khamsa recently recognized as tribal “horses of interest”. I think the photo is from Bernd Radtke, but it might directly from the Tahawis.

A collective effort on three continents is under way to get these 15 or so remaining Tahawi horses recognized by the EAO in Egypt, and as a result, by WAHO.