In the French “Journal des Haras” much is said about the French Government missions to purchase Arabian stallions (and sometimes a couple of mares) during the 19th century. Although private initiatives may have occurred before, the first and oldest record I have found so far is the breeding program of Count of Tocqueville, with a strong emphasis on purebred Arabian breeding. The Count of Tocqueville was then owning the castle of Gueures in Normandy (photo above). Besides being involved in his earlier years in Arabian horse breeding, he also held in Gueures, the first racing events that would lead to the famous Dieppe City’s Racing Events in Normandy. The Count owned also talented Thoroughbred horses but he is likely one of the very first horsemen of his area to purposely create a separate breeding program focused on Arabian horses. By the late 1820’s he had managed to secure a group of Arabian mares and stallions. He thought of them as a “superior quality” compared to the oriental ancestors of the English Thoroughbreds and possessed “authentic titles” certifying their origins (probably some hujjaj which are left to be found!). Let me introduce them to you, translating their review in a 1828…
An excerpt by the French Gamont, who was in charge of Mehemet Ali’s stud of Choubra between 1828 and 1842. Google Translate will get you a good translation. Haras d’abas-pacha. — Le haras d’Abas-Pacha est situé dans une plaine de sable, auprès d’Héliopolis. Ce haras est une copie de celui de Choubra. Longtemps, Abas-Pacha a tenu ses chevaux en plein air, au soleil, à la pluie, sans qu’il en résultât d’accidents. Juments et étalons du Nejd; les plus belles variétés. La direction du haras est confiée à un homme de l’Hedjaz. On n’y voit point de maladies de misère, comme morve et farcin. Beaucoup de naissances, mais moins qu’à Choubra. Les poulains sont nourris avec du lait de chamelle et des dattes; Orge concassée; luzerne; paille hachée. Admission de quelques principes mis en pratique par nous. Appareillements comme à Choubra. Bonne tenue des écuries. Poulains en liberté. Pas d’entraves. Très beaux produits. C’est le haras le plus riche de toute l’Egypte, par la qualité très supérieure des étalons et des juments. Cet établissement renferme de cent cinquante à deux cents têtes. Abas Pacha aime extraordinairement les chevaux. De tous les enfants de Méhémet-Ali, c’est lui qui les connaît le mieux.…
Finally, a photo of Shaykh Ahmad al-Taha, leader of the Juhaysh tribe in Northern Iraq. The Juhaysh were a large sheep-herding tribe. The belong to the larger Zabid confederation, which migrated northwards from Yemen to the Euphrates valley some 500 year ago. Only the leaders of the tribe kept horses. The Juhaysh had two main strains: Kuhaylan Da’jani (of which the RAS El Nasser, bred by Ahmad al-Taha, was the best known representative) and Hadban al-Malali. They also had a Dahman ‘Amir strain, which I think they got either from their Shammar or their Jubur neighbours. The leaders of a Juhaysh peasant subtribe, the Bu Mutaywit, owned a strain of Shuwayman Sabbah which is they got from the Jarba Shammar in the early 1900s. This is the strain of the stallion al-Khaldi, who is now in most Syrian pedigrees.
I am sure many of you have alreay seen the piece Yasser Ghanim al-Tahawi recently wrote for the Kuwaiti Bait Al-Arab’s magazine. Yasser has emerged as one of most precise and boldest thought leaders on the subject of the identity of the Arabian horse. Scroll down to the end of the pdf for the piece.
This is Jamr again, in stills. I want to see similarities with the Blunt horses in this 1922 video by British Pathe. Again, I wish the neck was a tad longer; and if he had three more inches to him. Part of it was due to poor nutrition because he was weaned at three months old;
I feel very comfortable with Jamr‘s head, because of the combination of the straight profile, the small muzzle, and the deep jowls. I think one needs to see beyond the flashy, in-your-face, provocative, even disturbing “beauty” of present day heads of Arabian horses of the showring kind, with its exaggerated features. One instead needs to learn to look at the proportions and the interrelation of all the individual elements of the head together. A relaxing sense of harmony needs to prevail, one that draws you in, and makes you want to look longer, and look slower.
In relation to the previous post, I am showing here two screenshots from the book Heroic Poets, Poetic Heroes: The Ethnography of Performance in an Arabic Oral Epic Tradition, by Dwight Fletcher Reynolds (Cornell University, 1995). They provide a good introduction to the epic of the Bani Hilal.
On a very old strain, from the Arabic original of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, translation mine: The Gmassah [a branch of the Sba’ah tribe] were asked about the [strain of] ‘Ubayyah of Ibn ‘Alyan, which marbat she is from? The elders of the Sba’ah informed that: ‘She is ‘Ubayyah Huwaynah, [belonging] to [the tribe of] Bani Sakhr; she came to them [i.e. to Bani Sakhr] in ancient times; when they [the Sba’ah elders] asked about her, they found out that she was from an ancient marbat, and is to be mated, so they started mating her; it is said that she belonged to Bani Hilal; the Qudat [a branch of the Bani Sakhr] took her in war [qila’ah] from under the Sultan Hasan [the leader of the Bani Hilal] when the Bani Hilal went westards [gharrabu, i.e. to North Africa].‘ Some context here: The tumultuous XIth century migration of the Bani Hilal and other tribes from Arabia to North Africa, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the defining moments in Egyptian and North African history. The historical events were described by XIVth century historian Ibn Khaldun. The saga of their migration was transmitted in verse by…
The following are excerpts from the RAS Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk’s book “A Journey to Arabia”, pertaining to his visit to Eastern Arabia in 1936: [King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia] gave me two recommendations, one to H.H. Prince Seoud Ibn Galawi, Ruler of El-Ehsa […]. The well known hospitality of H.M. The King and his Governors in Arabia was evident in H.H. Prince Ibn Galawi. In the Prince’s stables, near his private palace, I saw about 80 horses. These I believe ar the most pedigreed in Arabia owing to their concentration in a limited spot and the conseuqent exclusion of any outside blood. Nevertheless, I do not consider them bedouin bred horses but stable bred like those in Egypt […]. Photographs and descriptions of some of these horses follow. Among the stallions he noted, there were three of the ‘Ubayyan strain, two bays (one dark) and a chestnut; he also noted two ‘Ubayyan bay colts; two ‘Ubayyah mares, one a safra (light grey) the other a hamra (bay). Other strains he saw horses from include Krayaan (which he wrote was a branch of the Krush), Harqan, Krush, Musinn, and Kuhaylan (no details), and Hamdani. Mabrouk also noted the horses markings,…
A mes lecteurs francais: je vous conseille vivement ce livre, auquel j’ai eu le plaisir de contribuer il y a quelques annees: Homer Davenport’s Quest of the Arabian Horse. Les images sont superbes et les annotations tres documentees.
I bought AAS Nelyo last July from Edie Booth as a potential outcross for my horses down the line. He is a ‘Ubayyan, from the line of *Mahraa, a 1943 mare of the horses of Sa’ud ibn ‘Abd Allah Ibn Jalawi Aal Saud, the governor of the oil-rich Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. I think the full strain is ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, a branch of Ubayyan Hunaydees, which is itself among the best of branches of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, but I can’t prove it yet. AAS Nelyo, who is six years old, is closely linebred to a few of the early horses imported from Saudi Arabia, including close crosses *Taamri (9 crosses), *Rudann (8 crosses), *Munifan (8 crosses), *Munifeh (8 crosses), and Muhaira, his female line (7 crosses). He was being training for endurance racing. He is very different in type, temperament and coat color from anything else I have seen before. He is registered as bay, but he looks to me like he could be a seal brown or a dark shade of chestnut.
Barakah is now 5. I think she may have more growing (and widening) to do. She is 95% Davenport (four generations of Davenport stallions on top) but she looks nothing like full-Davenport horses. She is leggier, and differently balanced, with flatter bone. She has her sire’s drooping quarter (when moving this does not show). Pity she did not inherit her dam’s beautiful level croup, highly set tail, extra-long ears or blood mark. There may also be a looser coupling than either sire or dam, and I am not sure where that came from, or if it’s here to stay. Still, she has her sire’s deep girth and his broad chest. Overall, her build is an improvement over her dam’s, and I believe the line is now ready to be crossed with Monologue CF, who will bring extra balance. Like her dam, she has a lot of style, and a “dry”, “deserty” look.
Wadhah is now 11, and looks truly magnificent. She is in foal to Monologue CF, and due in mid-May for her first foal. She really looks like the Thadrian daughter that she is. She has fully transitioned from the zarqa (darker, blue-grey) to the safra (light grey, almost white, with yellowish mane and tail) shade of grey. That’s when you wish you had brushed her before the photoshoot.
I am about to state the obvious about horses that combine different, well-established bloodlines: sometimes they look like horses of one bloodline, and sometimes like horses of the other bloodline, depending on the angle, the stage of growth, the light, etc. Jamr, who is roughly half Davenport, half Doyle (i.e., Blunt), sometimes reminds of me his sire Vice Regent CF, like in the picture below; at other times, he reminds me of his paternal grandsire Regency CF (but he’s not nearly as good); and yet at other times, he looks like his material grandsire Dib, a Crabbet/Doyle horse. Vice Regent has a longer neck; his son has a better coupling, and longer hip (at least in this picture of Vice Regent, I have never seen him in real life). Both are smooth-bodied. The heads also look the same, with the small muzzle and the deep jowls. Vice-Regent’s eye is larger, but I think it’s because the muscles around the eyes, including those of the eyelids, are stronger and more dense in Doyle horses than in Davenports.
I went to see the horses a few days ago. They looked wonderful. The younger ones have finally matured into what I was expecting of their bloodlines. I felt so vindicated, in terms of the breeding decisions I took over the past decade. I had remained uncertain about these decisions until recently. Jamr, albeit small, looks magnificent. I waited almost ten years before seeing him mature into his current state. He is very masculine and tightly build; he has the deepest of jowls; a small muzzle; a naturally arched neck; a very broad forehead; large, prominent, bony eye sockets, and a straight profile — the way I like it in stallions. And he moves with so much power and style. When I remember Lady Anne Blunt’s quote ““A straight profile should not be a defect if the forehead is very broad, the eyes placed low and very large, and the muzzle small”, it’s him that I have in mind.
A very good endurance riding friend of ours is sending her mare to visit Gülilah Sawwan , the last living SE son of the German import Mahib. Assad Princess Surrayah is sired by the noted endurance sire (and all around sweetheart) Sidi el Nabiel out of the Maistro[imp] daughter Sidi Halima. She’s not exactly a spring chicken, but we’re hoping for the best. Helping to save the Mahib[imp] line for asil breeding out of a Freiha Al-Hamra (APK) tail female mare could have been worse. Assad Princess Surrayah
Below is a photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Marouf/Maroof, photographed in 2008 at the Pure Syrian show. Picture purchased from In The Focus.
From the 1936 book of Dr. Ahmad Mabrouk of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt, “Rihlah ila Bilad al-‘Arab”, comes this picture of a stallion of King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud at the al-Kharj stud in Najd. Arabian horse fans would do well to carefully study the horse in this picture: he was the senior stallion in the senior stud of the most senior person in Arabia at the time. You’re looking at the archetype of the breed in its native homeland. Note the power, length and slope of the shoulder, the pointy ears, prominent withers and the length of hip. Note the straight profile and the strong neck. Neither swan necks nor extreme dished profiles were not a thing. Ten years later, in 1946, the archetype at al-Kharj did not look much different.
We’re in the process of getting the stallion Harab Bachir’s registration in the Namibian stud book finalised. These are some VERY candid photos and as you can see my talent for equine photography blossomed at a young age and promptly withered. I’m very excited about this stallion. Apart from the line to Tuwaisan[imp] that is rare in asil Southern African breeding, he also traces back in his dam line to the mare Lar Shawania[imp] (Ibn Dahman x Talara, by Talal). She was unfortunately overshadowed by her maternal half-sister Lar Malika[imp]. You’ll also find the stallion Maistro[imp] in his pedigree, a noted endurance sire albeit a bit late. Harab Bachir, 2016 stallion Harab Bachir Side view of Bachir
This video sent along by Talal Farah shows a race held in Bahrain between a part-bred Arab horse from Lebanon and a Bahraini mare owned by the Bahraini ruler. The part-bred, a grey owned by famous racehorse owner Mahmud Fustuq, is Bahr al-Hadi, who sired a good deal of the Lebanese part-breds. He was very handsome. The Bahraini mare is a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah. See how she overtook him in the long run, after he led on a short distance.
In the same vein as the photos of lesser-known Crabbet horses which Kate re-published below, here is a photo of Rasim (Feysul x Risala, born 1906) from the December 1933 edition of the French magazine Le Sport Universel Illustre, with a nice description of him in French. The photo was taken during a visit of the author of the article to the Ujazd stud of Baron William Bicker in present-day Poland. Baron Bicker had purchased the 18 year old stallion from Lady Wentworth in 1924 for a very large sum.
This evening I had a bout of nostalgia for my old horses, so I went looking for pictures of Dahess, the desert-bred stallion my father and I bought from a racing stable in Beirut in 1993. I was 15. One afternoon, as I was just coming back from school, my father told me that he had been contacted by the secretariat of the organization managing the Beirut racetrack about two Arabian stallions that had recently been imported from Qatar, one of them a Syrian horse of desert lines. They were being housed at one of the racing stables on the road to the airport. Both were for sale. I pressed to drive down to the racetrack to see them at once. Half an hour later, we were standing in front of two stallions, an exquisitely balanced grey with a milky white coat, 14.3 hands, and a much taller, loosely built cherry bay. The grey we were told was “Syrian” and the bay “Russian”. Both were a bit thin. My father nudged me from his elbow, and started praising the bay horse, while deliberately turning his back to the grey one. The groom fell for the trick and hinted that the…
From the Arabian Horse Archives comes this beautiful photo of the 1922 desert-bred Hamdani Simri stallion *Saoud, imported by Amin Rihani to the USA in 1928.
Today I found the following note in the 1935 book of Prince Mohammed Ali. It is an excerpt from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (or one of its drafts), on a mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain acquired by Abbas Pasha: The intensely black Jilfah Dahwa mare of the Fid’an, owned by Nasir al-Wayil of Shammar, came into the possession of Nasir from the Tawman of Shammar. The Tawman got it from the Fid’an. Its mother is still in the possession of Shammar and its father is the black Mu’niqi Hadraji of the horses of the Tawman of Shammar. The mare was acquired by its (present) owner through purchase. Just noting that this is the same marbat as that of the mare Wadha, a Jilfat Dhawi bought by a French government commission from a Fad’aan camp in 1875, and sent to Algeria, where she founded a famous damline.
Photos sourced from Le Sport Universel Illustré, no. 906, 21 December 1913 Helwan (Mesaoud x Hilmyeh). He is registered in Vol. 20 of the General Stud Book (GSB), issued in 1905. He was sold to C. E. Poole, of Caledon, South Africa, and exported in 1907. Poole used him on his part-bred Cleveland mares, and Helwan had no recorded purebred get in South Africa. (See Charmaine Grobbelaar, 2007, The Arabian horse and its influence in South Africa.) Nawab (Astraled x Nefisa). Like Helwan, he too is registered in Vol. 20 of the GSB, but as an unnamed foal for the year 1905; his name, colour and sex are given in Vol. 21 of the GSB, issued in 1909. He was the sire of the mare Selmnab (out of Simrieh), who was imported to the USA by Roger Selby. Unfortunately, Selmnab has no known asil descendants alive today. The 1937 Selby Stud Brochure of Arabian Horses describes Selmnab as follows: SELMNAB. (Next page). Bay. 14.0. Foaled 1920. 900 lbs. A Hamdanieh Simrieh. Sire: Nawab. Dam: Simrieh. Bred at Crabbet Stud, England. 812 Arabian Horse Club. 5407 Jockey Club. Selmnab has the wildest desert appearing eye of the group of brood mares. She is of the…
Today Kate found my Holy Graal. Two of my Holy Graals. Ever since I was 12, I have been wanting to see photos of the two fountainhead mares of Algerian Arabian horse breeding, at the Jumenterie of Tiaret: the two mares Olympe and Primevere. Robert Mauvy’s precious gem of a book, “Le Cheval Arabe” has a section on these two mares that left an imprint of the teenager I was. Today, 31 one years later, when I need to take a flight somewhere, the first book I instinctively grab is this one. I never tire of reading it again and again and again. I don’t believe anyone has captured the essence of the Arabian horse the way Mauvy has. Both Olympe and Primere are the grand-daughters of two mares imported from Arabia to Algeria by the French: respectively Wadha, a Jilfat al-Dhawi of the Fad’aan Anazah, and Cherif (b. 1869), a Shuwaymah Sabbah of the Sba’ah Anazah. The French bought both mares at the camps of these of two tribes. Some 150 years later, both lines are still thriving worldwide. Here are the two pictures from the Sport Universel Illustre. Thank you, Kate. You have given shape to a longstanding…
I just miss beautiful photos of Davenport mares and stallions, so I went digging among the old ones. I am particularly fond of chestnuts with blazes, long pricked ears, broad foreheads, protruding eye sockets and beautiful soulful eyes like Decibel CF.
روى سليمان العزو السليمان الفيحان من قبيلة الشرابين تجاوز الستين من العمر عن تاريخ قدوم الخلّاوية الى أهله قال: درجت الخلّاوية الى جد أبي اسمه فيحان منذ ما يقارب 180 عام من اعنزا حيث حدثت مشاجرة بين الرعاة من اعنزا والشرابين على المراعي حوالي منطقة جبل سنجار وفي هذه المشاجرة أُصيب رجل من الشرابين وبعد سنة توفّي متأثراً بهذه الاصابة فاصبح الرعاة من الشرابيين يشاجرون اي اعنزي في تلك المنطقة لعلهم يجدون القاتل فيأخذون بالثأر فأرسلوا اعنزا وفد جاهة لفض هذا الخلاف وبالفعل تم دفع الديّة لذوي المقتول وكان سيّدهم وشيخهم فيحان وبعد دفع الديّة اهدوا فيحان فرس وقالوا له (( دير بالك عليها تراهي الخلّاوية وهي فرع من كحيلة العجوز )) واعطوه حجة يشهدون بها أنّها أصيلة وفحلها من الخيل الشبوّة { للأسف لم نجد الحجة } ونمتْ هذه الفرس عند فيحان وبعد فترة بسيطة وُلدَ سليمان الفيحان بتاريخ 1842 تقريباً توفي 1951 عاش قُرابة مائة وعشرة سنين عندما كبر سليمان اهتم بالخيل كثيراً فأعطاه والده وهو فتى صغير فرس أو فرسين قبل زواجه. وهو الوحيد الذي حافظ على هذه الخيل وانقطعت عند باقي اهله واقربائهوعاد ووزع عليهم من خيله فاستمرت عند حفيده سليمان العزو الفيحان صاحب (( الراوي )) وجوديف الحمود واخوانه يطلق عليهن اسم خلاويات الفيحان ومدرجات…
Marwah had these magical soulful eyes and long eyelashes. She was small, but built like a tank. Both photos from Marwa’s owner Basil Jadaan. The strain belongs to Hasan ibn Amud who led the Amud clan of the Northern Shammar, but traces to the Jadraniyat mares of the Frijah clan of the Ruwalah. The Frijah were the fountainhead of the Saqlawi Jadran strain.
Basil Jadaan’s gorgeous foundation mare Marwah, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of the marbat of Ibn ‘Amud from the Shammar, pictured here with the late Najm al-Himmayri. Najm’s day job was “horseman”, or “horse expert”. Marwah was the dam of Hijab (by Ward al-Mayel), exported to France and the maternal grandam of the French-bred Syrian stallion Menjad Maram Al Baida (by Mokhtar). Najm, together with a few others like Abd al-Qadir Hammami (from Aleppo), ‘Uqlah al-Hanshul (from Deyr), Fawwaz al-Rajab (from Homs), Rashid ‘Issa (from Hama), Shakir al-Salluh (from al-Mayadin), was a fountain of knowledge. He knew all the stories and the all the horses and all the strains. I never met him, but Basil knew him well.
Fawaz al-Rajab passed away last week. The news of his passing saddened me greatly, perhaps because he was directly connected to my family’s story with horses. Fawaz was one of Syria’s very last hassanah, (in Arabic حصانة, “men of horses”). Part merchants, part experts, part brokers, part stallion handlers, but never breeders nor owners, the hassanah lived for and from the horses. They were one’s first point of contact when buying, selling or inquiring about a horse. They knew the landscape like nobody else. Abu Hussein Khattab and Abd al-Qadir Hammami were the main hassanah of Aleppo. Uqlah al-Hanshul and Najm al-Himmayri were the main two for Deyr al-Zor. They all passed. Today, with the rise of direct advertising, social media, and specialty magazines, there is no room for the hassanah anymore. The profession is a thing of the past. Fawaz was the main such “man of horses” for the Syrian city of Homs from the 1960s to the 2010s. He took over his father’s business. In 1976, my father, then newly engaged to my mother, made his first visit to her family in Homs. He asked his future in-laws where he could see horses around the city. My uncle…
Register here to attend, if you can.
وقعت عيناي على حجة باسم جهيم المطخان يفيد بها ان ام الفحل الشهير كروش جهيم المعروف باسمه هي كروش محمد النواف الجربا مما يعني ان كروش جهيم يرد الى فرس علي العبد الرزاق الجربا التي وردت مع امه العمشة اثر رجوعها من حائل حيث اقامت عدة سنوات في ضيافة ابن رشيد وقد اتى ابن رشيد بالكروش من الدويش شيوخ مطير
Seven years after this post, it’s time to say goodbye to Ginger (DA Ginger Moon, photo below). She went to Bev Davison, who had been keeping her for me for some time. Bev now has quite a collection of horses with high percentage Abbas Pasha blood from the dam lines of both Gulida and Rabanna, where Ginger will fit in nicely. She also has Ginger’s younger full sister, DA Moon Dancer, who at 21 is yet to produce a foal . It was very rewarding to have owned Ginger. She is a grand mare, with style, power, distinction, a long slender neck, deep jowls, soulful eyes, and an unmatchable shoulder-withers complex. She has produced several good foals over the past years, in addition to those she’s had for her breeder Sheila Harmon, who sold her to me. Ginger came to me with a 2014 black colt by Sheila’s good Babson stallion Serr Serabaar; I gave the colt to Chris Yost who’s been training him for endurance racing. He has grown into a fiery black stallion (video here). Chris also owns the colt’s full sister, DA Ebony Moon. Together they finished the Tevis Cup in 2013 (photo below). I then…
This interesting 2019 article from Aramco Expat is an obituary of sorts for John Ames, an early (pre-World War II) Aramco employee. He was the husband of Dr. Esther Ames, who imported the Ubayyah mare *Mahraa and her daughter *Muhaira to the USA. The following exceprt struck me: John was married to Esther – Esther Ames MD. As the only American woman doctor in Aramco, she spent a fair amount of time in Riyadh tending to the women of the royal family: the dowagers, the princesses and their daughters. She was a great favorite and was showered with elaborate hand-embroidered dresses, finely worked brass coffee pots, silk scarves and the like. Sometimes Emir Saud bin Jiluwi, the governor and most powerful man in eastern Saudi Arabia, would send his personal black Cadillac and two bodyguards to take her to his palace. John even managed to get a blade out of the connection when some grateful prince sent him a curved, eight-inch dagger in a beautiful jet black scabbard filigreed in fine gold-plated wire. Surely, if Dr Ames, the only American female doctor in East Arabian, had attended to the wealth of the wives, sisters or daughters of Saud Ibn Jalawi,…
This handsome stallion, a personal favorite of mine, born in 1988, is the sire of the flee-bitten Kuhaylat Ibn Mizhir mare that many of you liked in the entry below. He was one of the last stallions the Tai Bedouins used as a herdsire, in the village of al-Na’em, where some Tai had settled. This earned him the nickname “Krush al-Na’em”. His sire was a Hamdani Ibn Ghurab of the Tai, sired by a Dahman Amer of ‘Ajil al-Yawir al-Jarba, the Shammar. His dam’s sire was the Ma’naqi Hadraji of Zahir al-Ufaytan, and the sire of the maternal grand dam — is said to have been a Kuhaylan Krush. The maternal grand-dam is from the horses of Mutlaq al-Haybah of the Shammar.
تُعتبر كحيلة ابن مزهر من الارسان الحديثة وهي بالأصل كروش بطحها رجل من الجوالة من قبيلة طي يُقال له حماد الاسيود الخابور من رجل من الفدعان يُقال له ابن ماضي ثم اخذها من الجوالي ابن مزهر من اقارب شيخ طي انذاك محمد العبدالرحمن العساف توفّي نهاية اربعينيات القرن العشرين وهو الذي أطلق عليها اسم كحيلة ابن مزهر لأن الاعنزي اخفى نسبها عندما سُلبت منه وبعد فترة من الزمن جاء الاعنزي الى شيخ طي يطلب فرسه فقال له الشيخ اذهب الى تلك الفيضة والخيل موجودة فيها إن عرفت فرسك فهي لك فذهب الرجل وجاء ثلاث رؤوس من الخيل تزيد او تنقص وبالفعل جميعهن من فرسه سأله الشيخ كيف عرفتهن ؟ قال: قصر جين وبگاع عين فقال له الشيخ نعطيك نصفهن بشرط ان تخبرنا اصلهن فقال الاعنزي هن من رسن كروش وبقيت الخيل تتبارك عند مشايخ طي وعندما بدأ الواهو بالتسجيل تم قبول الخيل في المنظمة ودرجت من الشيخ محمد الفارس العبدالرحمن فرس الى نزار الاسعد اسمها مواضي وفي عام 1983 أعطي عبدالعزيز المحمد العبدالرحمن مهرة لحمود الملحم الجرباء من مشايخ شمر وبينهم قرابة خولة ولحمود الجرباء ومن بعده ابنائه دور كبير في الحفاظ على هذه السلالة ونمت وتباركت عندهم تميّز من هذا المربط بطل السرعة هدّار وهيشان وبرزان وفرسي الانتاج لزاز…
I have to admit that this mare has always been a favourite of mine, ever since I saw her at my first endurance ride at the age of sixteen. One of her owners, Mr. Paul Kotzé of Diepsand Stud, sent me some screenshots of her, that I will replace when I receive the photos. The photos were taken when she was already 23, after foaling, but you can still see what a quality mare she was. Sidi Mabrouka was bred by Mr. A.W.A. (Jack) Maritz of Farm Kamkuip, South Africa. She is by Raafeek[imp] (Ibn Morafic x Surrayah, by Morafic) out of Sahîby Juleemah (Ahir[imp] x Sahîby Noura, by Ahir[imp]). She falls within the earlier non-Minstril group of offspring. Sidi Mabrouka age 23 List of registered offspring (South African Studbook): Durakha Sarab, by W.D. Majesty[imp] (Prince Fa Moniet x Lar Monieta, by A.K. Shah Moniet) 1991 stallion. No offspring. Sabaa Hamdan, by Sabaa Ibn Muneera (Sidi Ibn Muneera x Durakha Arisa, by Ahir[imp]), 2000 stallion. Sired one filly, Sabaa Juleemah. Status: “Biological Identification Required”. No registered offspring. Kibriya Nishkur – to be discussed later. Sidi Mabrouka then found her way to the Tir’at Stud of Mr. P.A.L. Nel, a long-time…
The hujjah published by Rousseau, in 1813, in Fundgruben des Orients, vol. 3, was printed by the journal both in Arabic, and translated into French. I reproduce both versions here below. “Au nom de Dieu, clément et miséricordieux, de qui nous attendons, toute assistance et secours.” “Le prophète dit: mon peuple ne se réunira jamais pour affirmer l’erreur.” “Voici l’objet de cet écrit authentique: Nous soussignés déclarons devant le Dieu suprême, certifions et attestons, en jurant par notre sort, notre fortune et nos ceintures, que la jument baie marquée d’une étoile blanche au front, et dont un pied de l’arrière-main, et un de l’avant sont blancs, descend d’aïeux nobles, tant du côté maternel que du côté paternel, par trois filiations directes et consécutives; qu’elle est véritablement née d’une cavale seglaaouié d’Al-Cazran du Nedjed, et d’un étalon de la race de choueyman Elisebbah, et qu’elle reunit les qualités de ces jumens dont parle le Prophète, lorsqu’il dit: leurs seins sont des trésors et leurs dos des sièges d’honneur. “Appuyés du témoignage de nos predecesseurs, nous attestons, sur notre sort et notre fortune, que la jument en question est d’une origine noble et qu’elle est aussi pure que le lait; qu’elle est renommée par sa légèreté et sa…
The works of the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817) were published after his death, by the African Association. The book in which this hujjah is found, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, was the last of his books to be published, in 1831. The subject of the hujjah is a Saqlawi colt, out of a famous white Saqlawiyah, sired by a bay Kuhaylan stallion. “GOD. “Enoch. “In the name of the most merciful God, the Lord of all creatures, peace and prayers be with our Lord Mohammed and his family and his followers until the day of judgment; and peace be with all those who read this writing, and understand its meaning. “The present deed relates to the grayish brown colt, with four white feet and a white mark on the forehead, of the true breed of Sakláwye, called Obeyán, whose skin is as bright and unsullied as milk, resembling those horses of which the Prophet said, ‘True riches are a noble and pure breed of horses;’ and of which God said, ‘The war horses, those which rushed on the enemy with full blowing nostrils,—those which plunge into the battle early in the morning.’ And God spoke the truth in his incomparable…
Below is the text of a hujjah from the early eighteenth century. It was published in Thomas Pennant’s 1776 British Zoology. Note that the English consul was already aware of the fact that proof of ancestry was needed to confirm that a horse was truly an Arab. The horse that is the subject of this hujjah appears to be a Ma’naqi. The footnote to the hujjah also mentions pure in the strain breeding. Taken before ABDORRAMAN, KADI of ACCA. The Occaſion of this present Writing or Inſtrument is that at ACCA in the Houſe of Badi legal establiſh’d Judge, appear’d in Court Thomas Uxgate the Engliſh Conſul and with him Sheikh Morad Ebn al Hajj Abdollah, Sheikh of the County of Safad, and the ſaid Conſul deſir’d from the aforeſaid Sheikh proof of the Race of the Grey Horſe which he bought of him, and He affirm’d to be Manaki Shadûhi*, but he was not satiſfied with this but deſir’d the Teſtimony of the Arabs, who bred the Horſe and knew how he came to Sheikh Morad; whereupon there appear’d certain Arabs of Repute whoſe names are undermention’d, who teſtified and declar’d that the Grey Horſe which the Conſul formerly bought of Sheikh Morad, is Monaki Shadûki of the pure Race of Horſes, purer than Milk†, and that the…
The photo below shows the three mares (from left) Sachida, Sadana and Sandara, daughter, dam, and granddam, at Marbach in 1992. Photo purchased from In The Focus. Sachida’s pedigree. Sachida had nine registered foals, five of whom were asil fillies. These were: Sarina, 1993 grey mare, by Nami Saadawi, 1995 grey mare, by Nami Sabita, 1996 grey mare, by Serenity Habib Sahalina, 1997 grey mare, by Neshan Sabola, 2004 grey mare, by NK Bolbol Sarina has three asil daughters who have produced foals at Marbach, Sabiha II, Sangule, and Sarafine. Of Saadawi’s asil daughters, only WM Sahaabah has produced registered offspring to date. Sabita and Sahalina have no recorded foals, and Sabola is the dam of two colts. Sadana’s two other asil daughters Sahira and Souha have left no asil fillies to continue their line. That said, the stallion Sahil Ibn Farag II-3 (out of Souha) is a source of Murana I in mid-pedigree, with two asil colts bred at Marbach, and a daughter Farah Hafida Farag II-3 foaled in 2020 at Stephanie Weirich’s Farag Arabians. (A previous post on the 25-Amurath Sahib descendants being bred at Farag Arabians can be read here.) Sandara has another asil branch of descent…
يقول حماد الجدوع الجزعة سمعتُ من أبي يقول الصگلاوية الجدرانية التي عندنا بالأصل لآل غبين شيوخ الفدعان من اعنزا وقدا أهدوا فرس الى ابن اختهم ضاري ابن محمود شيخ زوبع من شمر في ثورة العشرين في العراق جَلى ابن محمود الى الجزيرة السورية لأنّه كان احد القادة للثورة وجلبَ معه مجموعة من الخيل ضمنها الصكلاوية الجدرانية فباع هذه الصكلاوية لمحمد الدندح شيخ الجوالة من طي من خلال سائس الخيل اسمه سرحان فارسل معه الفرس وحجتها وكانت الفرس لاقح وذُكر في الحجة اسم الحصان الذي تشبت منه الفرس وهو دهمان عامر من خيل ضاري ابن محمود وبعد عِدّة أشهر ولدتْ الفرس مهرة اشترى جدوع الجزعة نصف هذه المهرة ب 125 نيرة رشادية وجمل ( جمل بيت ) سمّاها جدوع فرحة جدوع عندما كبرت هذه المهرة ( فرحة جدوع ) شبّاها من حصان عبو الحميّد من رسن صكلاوي جدراني اسمه فرحان ايضاً وصل للحميّد من ضاري ابن محمود ثم افلت فرحة جدوع بمهرة شقراء ثم شبّاها من نفس الحصان فرحان وبعد شهور قليلة حان موعد الفكك جعل محمد الدندح المهرة وفوقها 20 نيرة كوم (( حُصّة )) والفرس كوم (( الحصة الثانية )) فاختار جدوع الجزعة الفرس ودفع 20 نيرة لمحمد الدندح (( هذه طريقة للمشاركة في الفرس عند الفكك المالك يكوّم…
DeWayne Brown visited the horses at Terry and Rosemary Doyle’s farm in Alfalfa, OR the other day. He sent me these two pictures of my Ma’naqi Sbayli colt Shaykh Al Arab (Tamaam DE x DaughterofthePharaohs by Chatham DE), who is now 15 months old. He has many barn names: Terry calls him Naj, Rosemary calls him Notch, and DeWayne calls him Eddy. I call him Shaykh. I have seldom seen such strong barrel, deep girth and round rib cage on an Arabian yearling, at least not in the USA. My friend Pienaar Du Plessis from South Africa said the same thing. I feel it’s worth to wait to see him grow. He is the first colt in the second picture, the third is his maternal uncle Shaman, who is a couple months younger. Long live the Ma’naqis.
This is the year I have planned the most breeding since 2006. Five mares were bred or about to be bred. Of these three are going to Davenport stallions: Andre DL, Anecdote CF, and Monologue CF. 1/ CSA Baroness Lady to the Da’jani stallion from Syria (planned) 2/ Wadha Al Arab to Monologue CF (in foal) 3/ Mayassa al Arab to Anecdote CF (planned) 4/ DaughterofthePharaohs (Pippa) to Bashir Al Dirri (in foal) plus a fifth mare I am not talking about yet.
Jens Sannek sent me this message, a few days ago: In Germany Falko Zimmermann bred the mare Murjana, a Saglawieh Jedranieh Ibn Sudan via Ghazieh, born 2012, bay, by Menjad Maram al Baida (Mokthar x Hijab) out of Assads Galifah (Maamoon Tarik x Gazeera (Sindbad x Golson)). Sindbad is by Hadban Enzahi out of Sahmet and she is by Hadban Enzahi out of Jatta by Jasir). Falko takes Murjana and Assads Galifah for Western riding. I add two photos. I think you will enjoy them. The first is Murjana, the second is Assads Galifah. The dapples on the bay of Murjana is characteristic of Mukhtar’s lineage; his dam was like that. So much rare and precious Arabian blood in these mares. Not just the Syrian desert blood of Menjad, which is very clean, but also that of Maamoon Tarik, which I had pointed to in another entry on this blod, but also that of Soldateska, through Sindbad. Wow.
This is the stallion I am going to breed my mares to this year. I chose him because of his extreme arched neck, his extreme throat latch, his extreme high set tail, his extreme muzzle, the extreme black skin around his eyes, and above all else, his extreme floating action. Wish me extreme luck.
Susanne Schreibvogel published these two photos, along with a short article in Arabische Pferde Des 92 – Feb 93 after she payed a visit to Sidi Thabet. I’ve added a translation of the photo captions. “Mourad M’Barek, Sidi Thabet’s director, with one of the two-year-old arabian mares.” “The twenty-year-old, Tunisian-bred, chief sire Dynamite III by Esmet Ali out of Njoua”
Monologue CF still looks his same old self at 20. If anything his eyes look even more bulging with age. I like the balance on this horse so much, and I wish he was used more. Wadha is in foal to him. I think I will breed him to Barakah next. Because of his high percentage *Wadduda blood (18.8%) he is being used by other Al Khamsa breeders on their *Wadduda tail female mares through Sahanad.
By far the nicest surprise of yesterday’s visit to see my horses was little Bassma Al Arab, now three months old. She is Belle’s daughter by Jamr Al Arab. She looks absolutely superb, and I hope she lives long enough to fulfill her promise. She is going to be grey. I confess having taken that breeding decision on a hunch, and I caught a lot of flak for it: parents’ conformations don’t match each other, pedigrees don’t match, foal will be small, etc. I tried it in part to test whether Jamr was fertile, after a few unsuccessful attempts with older mares. I also did because I felt the resulting foal could benefit from his broad forehead, his extra-deep jowl, his small muzzle, his very short back (which Belle lacks), his muscular arched neck, and his big “Doyle butt” – essentially a long, hip and a muscular thigh. And Jamr delivered on most of the above, building my confidence in my him as a stallion along the way. He even brought size (!) balance and depth of girth on top of that. Look at the outcome: The head is the same as the dam’s as you can tell from the…
I was pleased to see how my 2016 mare Barakah Al Arab (Wadd Al Arab x Jadah BellOfTheBall) had developed over the past two and a half years. I left her a gangly two year old, and she has filled up since. She certainly has some more growing to do. Wadd improved the shoulder angle and the length of the shoulder, added much needed depth of girth and breadth of ribcage; he left the head pretty much the same as her mother’s, except for adding more distance between the eyes, the ears are as long and prickled as her mother’s. On the other hand, Belle’s beautiful level croup and highly set tail are gone; instead Barakah inherited Wadd’s slightly sloping croup and the short hip which is a legacy his dam Wisteria. When going you don’t notice it as much. I did not pay as much attention to her feet as I should have. Overall, Barakah is an improvement over Belle, without having lost her “desert” look. By the way, I feel breeders needs to be as openly candid about their horses as they can, if they want to improve on them in the long term, especially if they do…
Yesterday I went to see my horses for the first time since the onset of COVID-19 some two and a half years ago. Belle the Kuhaylat al-Ajuz looks good and has had two fillies in the last four years. Both fillies are an improvement over her, in terms of balance and structure. I am going to breed her at least one more time, this time to the Syrian Kuhaylan Da’jani stallion for which I now have semen thanks to Arnault Decroix. I thought she was looking very much like her maternal grandsire Audobon and his dam Audacity in that picture.
The dry, arid climate and terrain of the South Western USA are much closer to that of the steppes of Arabia than the wetter climate and more lush pastures of, say, the mid-Atlantic region or the plains of the Midwest. I have observed that these drier conditions are resulting in Arabian horses that look much closer to the horses raised in Syria and Arabia, and to those raised in Namibia and the drier parts of South Africa. Drier skin, stronger, more solid bone, more visible tendons, and something different in the way the eyes shine that I cannot describe. This observation is a central tenet of the writings of French master breeder Robert Mauvy, based on his empirical observations. I would like to read any scientific papers on the climate and terrain impact on horse phenotypes, if anyone knows of any. The mare below, Roxana Star (Personic LF x Jauhar Al Khala by Sportin Life), a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah of Davenport bloodlines born in 2005, illustrates this observation. She is in the Southwestern USA, with Christine Emmert. Photos by Christine.
WhatsApp and Twitter threads of Gulf countries Arab horse and saluki breeders are spreading the news of the passing of Danah Al Khalifah of natural causes, the day before yesterday. Rest in Peace, noble lady of the horses, you have done so much.
Some more of what I received from Tunisia. I’ve added the pedigree information I could find. (That in and of itself is a caveat). Kesseb (Sibawaih x Remada, by Cheikh El Ourbane) Mezerib Loubieh (Bouq x Eqbatane, by Ihalli)
Jens Sannek sent me these three photos of a stallion of his breeding in Europe. The bloodlines lines are absolutely unique in Europe. Ajman (Maamoun Tarik x Bint Aja by Mirath x Aja by El Haml) is a 1996 liver chestnut of the Hamdani Simri strain that traces to the *Halwaaji, a mare of Saud stock imported to the USA. His dam Bint Aja was bred by Lee Oellerich in Canada in 1980 and imported to Europe. Lots of old Saudi blood up close in that pedigree: *Al Hamdaniah, *Turfa, *Muhaira, *Nufoud, *Taamri, *Rudann and *Halwaaji. The sire of Ajman, Maamoon Tarik, carries even unique and interesting bloodlines. He is of predominantly Olms lineage, which means that on top of the EAO and Babson Egyptian blood (Kaisoon, Farag, Negem) he carries additional Saudi lines to *Sunshine, *Nufoud, and *Tairah through mares of Krausnick breeding imported from the USA to Germany, as well as a hint of Davenport through Shiba (Hanad x Schilan). The cherry on the cake of this pedigree tapestry is the line to Gazala, a 1967 desert-bred mare of Shammar breeding imported from Hail, Saudi Arabia to Germany in 1971. Jens, who also bred Ajman’s sister Ajibah by Wahhabit,…
Hopefully this time is the right time. Last time she slipped her foal at five months. She will be taking progesterone until she delivers. I can’t wait for this foal.
شكر وتقدير للاستاذ خالد الرخلاني الذي جهد في ادخال بيانات انساب الخيول العربية السورية على قاعدة www.allbreedpedigree.com
I received this photo from a friend in Tunisia, taken at Sidi Thabet. Kesseb (Sibawaih x Remada, by Cheikh El Ourbane) This is the only information that I could find, for what it’s worth.