Daalimaar Al Sharif, 2015 Dahman Shahwan in the USA and his siblings

I saw this horse, Daalimaar Al Sharif last year at the Al Khamsa Convention in Fayyetteville, Arkansas, and liked him instantly. He has style, presence and power. I just looked at his pedigree, and was pleasantly surprised at how diverse it was, the Julian/Gulastra, the Hallanny Mistanny, the Sirecho, and a drop of Ibn Halima (just enough) on top of the Serasabba tail female. In general, I am impressed at how Babson and Babson-related breeders in the US have been working with their horses, and how the younger generation of these horses is turning up. one of his young brothers, promising: another brother, WC Sir Habbas Azeer, also out of this mare, well built and equally stylish: and yet another sibling. That mare needs to produce some fillies too!

An additional account on the origin of the Dahman Shahwan strain

Hamad al-Jassir’s Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Hadithah has an interesting passage from the version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript manuscript he consulted. This passage is not in the edition of the Manuscript that was published by the King Abd al-Aziz Public Library (KAPL) based on an original that was in the family of Gulsun Sharif. That original is now in the hands of a senior member of the Saudi Royal family. The passage is from an account by Sayyid Sultan Ibn Sharaf the ruler of Turabah in the land of the tribe of al-Buqum about the origin of the Dahman Shahwan. As I had indicated elsewhere, this strain is the oldest attested of the modern strains of Arabian horses, going back to around 1280 CE. It is not yet possible to determine whether the passage which al-Jassir translated is the full account or only an except. Here it in any case: The Sharif Sultan Bin Sharaf said: “The Duhm of Shahwan that are from Kunayhir were named after their owner Shahwan, the father of ‘Arar, the brother of Rashed, and the uncle of ‘Umayr. Their mention became famous because of events in relation with them. It is said that Shahwan was…

My article about the Dahman Shahwan strain in Judi Forbis’ book on Ansata Hejazi

This morning I received my copy of Judi Forbi’s latest book “Ansata Hejazi: Born to Rule” in the mail. It is a tribute to one of the best stallions she ever bred, Ansata Hejazi, a Dahman Shahwan. His owner Mohammad al-Marzouq showed him to me at his stud in Kuwait in 2012, along with more than a dozen of his daughters. I wrote an article in this book upon Judi’s request, about the historical origins of the Dahman Shahwan strain. I showed how it was – by far – the oldest attested Arabian horse strain, and I traced it back to north eastern Yemen in the XIIIth century AD. I also found that Shahwan was an historical figure, a Bedouin leader from the ‘Abidah tribe who played a prominent role in supporting the military conquests of the Rasulid dynasty of Yemen between 1270 and 1290 AD. It is original research based on evidence from three types of sources: a set of four Yemeni chronicles from Rasulid times; analyses of oral Bedouin epic folk tales, consisting of various versions of the “the epic of the Dayaghim” as recorded by Alison Lerrick in Central Arabia and Nino Van Reisen in Jordan in the 1980s, and in Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals from…

Two Dahman Shahwan stallions at Ahmed Pasha’s?

The long-held hypothesis that Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal had two grey Dahman stallions at the same time, developed by Pearson and Mol in a seminal footnote of their Arabian Horse Families of Egypt gets a boost when one carefully reads this passage of Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, March 9th, 1904, where she first describes the stallions she saw (numbering mine): To Ahmed Pasha’s stud. Of the horses, there was first (#1) the old bay like Mabruka, in color shape and mark on nose, blind of near eye, a Keyhilan A. of the Tanviri [actually, Tamiri] strain, his sire the old chestnut Seglawi of Ibn Sbeyni,   (#2) then a white Dahman Shahwan, dam the Dahmeh that belonged to Ahmed Bey Sennari, sire the Keh. A. of Mesenneh strain brought to A.B. Sennari from the desert, a handsome and very strong horse but wanting in something of quality (#3) and also the white with still some dark on the legs and mane;  (#4) Managhi Ibn Sbeyel (sire of our filly Jamila) his dam the Managhieh Sbeylieh brought from Arabia to the Tihawis (from whom Ahmed Pasha took her) his sire the old Seglawi Jedran from Ali Pasha Sherif belonging to Ahmed…

A precise date pinned down for Shahwan founder of the Dahman Shahwan strain

I mentioned earlier that Shahwan of Dahman Shahwan fame was an historical character. I am now happy to report that I found a solid, dated historical reference to this Shahwan in a book by Mamluk-era chronicler Abu al-Mahasin Taj al-Din Abd al-Baqi ibn Abd al-Majid al-Yamani (born in Mecca in 1281 AD — died in Damascus in 1343 AD). The book is called “Bajhat al-Zaman fi Tarikh al-Yaman“, in short, “History of Yemen”. It is a chronicle of historical events in Yemen before and during the time of the author, who appears to have lived at the same time as Shahwan. The mention of Shahwan of ‘Abidah (of Qahtan) occurs in page 95 of the book, under the events of the year 678 Hijri (1279 AD), under the title of “Account of Muzaffar’s takeover of Dhofar, Hadramaut and the city of Shibam“. This Muzaffar is King al-Muzaffar Abu al-Mansur Shams al-Din Yusuf, second king of the Rasulid dynasty of Yemen. Muzaffar ruled Yemen and its dependencies from 1249 to 1295 AD. The account is as follows (my translation from Arabic): “Account of Muzaffar’s takeover of Dhofar, Hadramaut and the city of Shibam: the cause for this was that the warships of Salem son of Idris al-Habudhi…

‘Arar ibn Shahwan and his Dahman stallion, from Lady Anne’s visit to the Tarabin Bedouins

During her February 1881 visit to the Tarabin Bedouins of the Sinai and Negev/Naqab deserts on the North Western fringes of Arabia, on her way from Cairo to Jerusalem, Lady Anne Blunt reported this very interesting Bedouin tale: ” Story of the horse that came out of the sea. Its son from a Dahmeh Kehileh mare Meshur belonged to Arar and from him 5 mares, the originals of the strains of (1) Kebeyshan, (2) Seglawi, (3) Makludi [?], (4) Jaythani (Jeytani) (5) Tueyfi. Dahman Shahwan is better than Em Amr of Ranat el Awaj he spoke as of awaj el araqib (crooked hooks) whence ‘Om Argub’ — he never heard of Doheymeh Nejib. […] Maneqy and Jilfan are by themselves.” The account is partial and confused, either because Lady Anne did not understand all what she was being told, or because she did not write down the entire story in her Journals. It is also possible these are only excerpts of a longer journal entry that was not published in full. Be it what it may, it is possible, with some effort, to disentangle the various elements of that story from each other, and try to make sense of each one. There are…

Ibn Naqadan of Aal Murra: who he was

He was of course the owner of the “mare of Naqadan”, a Dahmah Shahwaniyah bred by Abdallah ibn Khalifah of Bahrain, which went to Abbas Pasha and is the tail female for ‘Azz, ‘Aziz, Sahab, Nasr (Kasida’s sire) and others. She is well documented here in the AK Roster. Together with the mare of Ibn Aweyde, she is one of the only mares mentioned in the Abbas Pascha Manuscript with modern day descendants. According to Muhammad Saud al-Hajri, Ibn Naqadan was ‘Abdallah son of Ali son of ‘Abdallah Naqadan frm the section of Aal Uthbah of the Aal Murra tribe, of which he was the leader at the time of Faysal Ibn Turki before the leadership went into another family. He was not from the ‘Ajman as Lady Anne mistakenly thought (one of her very few mistakes). On Aal Murra, everyone should read Donald Powell Cole’s: Nomads of the Nomads: The Al Murra Bedouin of the Empty Quarter.  

Ibn Aweyde of Bani Hajar: who he was

He was obviously the owner of the bay Dahmah Najibah which went to the Abbas Pasha stud, and was the dam of the stallion Jerboa (“Jerbou”) the sire of Shueyman, who was in turn the sire of Helwa dam of Bint Helwa, etc. etc.His bay Dahmah Najiba of the Ibn Aweyde is one of the very very few horses described int he Abbas Pasha Manuscript with modern descendants today. The information about her is well summarized here in the Al Khamsa Roster. One minor correction is in order: According to the Al Khamsa Roster, translations of lists of Abbas Pasha horses published by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik [p89] confirms the acquisition of a bay Dahmah al-Najib mare, “mother the mare of Sami: owner Ibn-‘Uwaytah, father Duhayman.” It seems to me, reading the relevant entry in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, that the “mare of Sami”, dam of the bay mare of Ibn Aweyde, should instead read the “mare of Shafi” and that would be her owner Shafi Ibn Shab’an, leader of the Bani Hajar of Qahtan, and the cousin of Ibn Aweyde. This mare is mentioned twice in this as “the mare of Shafi” in this entry. It looks like Prince Mohamed Aly…

Haziz, asil Dahman Shahwan stallion in Canada

I really enjoy the images Lee Oellerich sends me from British Columbia, Canada from time to time, and I have the highest regard for his taste in breeding, what he selects for, and what he achieves with his herd of Saudi and Bahraini-origin Arabian horses. This is an absolute favorite, the 2002 Dahman Shahwan stallion Haziz (Bahri x Haulaifah by Naizahq). Lee, if you read this, I hope all is well with you. I miss our talks.

2014 Bahraini/Saudi Dahman Shahwan foals in Germany

To continue with the series of this year’s foals, here are a couple from Regine and Warren Staas in Germany, from desert Saudi-Bahraini lines, tracking to *Savannah in tail female. This black filly is alredy on allbreedpedigree.com (here) by AAS Japik (AAS Sail out of AAS Al Kamila) out of AAS Ghazala, and both dam and daughter look splendid!   The chestnut colt below is also a Dahman, by AAS Japik out of AAS Muharraq (AAS Theeb x AAS Ghazala), and is also a promising one. These are all close lines to the desert, and as Lady Anne Blunt wrote in her Journals about a mare of same strain and same origin (Bint El Bahreyn) “the Dahmeh Shawanieh from Ibn Khalifeh, she is a fine mare and authentic” (Dec. 22 1907) and “authentic blood from eastern Arabia is rare” (Dec. 30 1907). It still is.  

Asil Dahman horses in Germany

Regina and Warren from Germany wrote the other day to give me an update about their asil Arabians which are from desert bred Saudi and Bahraini lines (no Egyptian blood) by way of the US, and from the rare and precious Dahman Shahwan strain. Here is the 2009 Dahmah mare AAS Muharraq (AAS Theeb x AAS Ghazala by Ibn Taam-Rud), whose tail female is to *Savannah, a mare bred by Shaykh Salman Ibn Hamad al-Khalifah of Bahrain and imported from Bahrain to the United States of America in 1954 by K.M. Kelly. Note the striking resemblance with the mare Bahraini Bint El Bahrein of Lady Anne Blunt in Sheykh Obeyd, of same strain, marbat and same provenance (the Royal Stud of Bahrain, we need to run an mtDNA test). Striking, no, even though AAS Muharraq has not one ounce of Bint El Bahrein blood! This one is Ralihadiyyah, Muharraq’s brother. Note the shoulder. This one is his brother Gudaibiyah, Muharraq’s other brother.

DB Ibn Najm Huda, asil Dahman Shahwan stallion in the USA

A recent photo of the 2006 Dahman Shahwan stallion DB Ibn Najem Huda at the stud of Rodger Vance Davis in Illinois.  The rider in the photo is the Davis’ head trainer, Sarah Sanders who has been preparing him to be another one of her demo horses in her Ride with Excellence clinics.  Photo by Lone Oak Photography.

Naizahq, 1977 asil Dahman Shahwan stallion in Canada

Another asil horse bred and owned Lee Oellerich in Canada was the 1977 asil stallion Naizahq (Mirath x Dahma al-Shaqra by Ruta-Am), also a Dahman Shahwan of the Bahraini line that traces back to *Sawannah. Lee tells me: “He is a winnner of numerous match races, against all comers, including English Thoroughbreds (TB). He ran 4 F. (1/2 M.) in 47.2 and beat a TB in a morning work, carrying close to 20 pounds more than the TB. He sprinted a F. (1/8 M.) in 11 seconds. He could also run a distance and beat TB’s over 1-1/2 and 2 mile match races. Many Arabians ate his dust, mostly in 1/2M. and 1M. Races. Typically they would, get a 5 to 10 length moving start, and he would break from a starting gate. He also won over his sire Mirath, by a head, in a 5 F. Race.  His daughter Hulaifah produced the mare Saudah and the two stallions Hulaif and Haziz. All sired by Bahri. Although they never raced, they show a “good turn of foot”, reminiscent of their grandsire Naizahq.” 

Photo of the Day: Dahman Al Bahrain, asil Dahman stallion in Canada

This photo is of my stallion Dahman Al Bahrain (now deceased) a chestnut  Dahman Shahwan, born in 1977, by Mirath out of Hadriya DB. Dahman was a Flat Racing, Endurance and CTR veteran and a winner of numerous Match races. His dam Hadriya lived to be 36 years old and produced to age 28.  His sire Mirath (Ruta-Am x Taamhaal) was also a Racing, Endurance and Trail Ride stallion of pure Hamdani bloodlines and had a priceless disposition. He was the sire of racing and endurance horses, including Naizahq, out of Dahmah Al Shaqra, who ran 4 furlongs in 47.2 seconds, and 1 furlong in 11 second. This is the blood that has been used for centuries to upgrade and regenerate the breeding programs of Egypt, Poland and Europe in general. “Blood alone is the most important factor in selecting a stud stallion. Quality means evidence of blood. Blood implies superior energy, wind, muscular power, endurance, bones of ivory-like texture, steel-like tendons and faultless disposition.“ “Dahman” was one of the greatest horses I ever put my saddle on. I could write a book just about him. I still have two of his daughters Hadiyeh and Bahiyeh.

AAS Sawannah, an asil Arabian back to her homeland

Below is a photo of a USA bred Arabian mare, which we saw at the stables of Prince Turki bin Fahd Bin Jiluwi Aal Saud, a scion of the Jiluwi family who were the Eastern al-Ihsaa (Hasa) province governor. The mare is a Dahmat Shahwan, AAS Sawannah, by AAS Hezzez out of DB Jasidah by Desert Jalam. Prince Turki bint Fahd Al-Jalawi told us that this mare traces to the horses of his family’s stud in al-Hufuf, and that he had bought her because this line had died out in Saudi Arabia. Prince Turki also imported two ‘Ubayyah mares from his grandfathers’ horses: Sahar Ataeq and DB Faimah, both from the *Muhaira tail female. It is nice to see that least one member of the Saud Royal family obtained horses preserved with us Westerners back their homeland, and is proud to continue the horsebreeding tradition of his family.

Photo of the Day: Haziz, 2002 asil Dahman Shahwan in Canada

Another younger asil stallion of the Dahman Shahwan strain owned by veteran breedere Lee Oellerich of Canada is Haziz (Bahri x Hulaifa), a full brother of Hulaif, pictured below.  No wonder Bedouins used the word ‘Bahr’ (sea) to refer to their horses, ever since the time of the Prophet Muhammad: the action of this horse is reminiscent of sea waves swirling towards you.

Video: Haziz, 2002 asil Dahman Shahwan stallion of Najd and Bahrain lines

Yesterday, long-time asil Arabian breeder Lee Oellerich of British Columbia, Canada, and I initiated a fascinating conversation that was long overdue. Lee knew several of the importers and owners of the last asil desert-breds to come to North America, like Sam Roach, John Rogers, and Ella Chastain, as well as other veteran breeders like the Otts and the Searles. The video below is one of the outputs of this rich conversation: it features the 2002 dark chestnut asil stallion Haziz (Bahri x Hulaifah by Naizahq), of the precious Bahraini Dahman Shahwan strain that is now extinct in Bahrain. mikarrun, miffarun, muqbilun, mudbirun, ma’an // kajulmudi sakhrin hattahu al-sayllu min ‘ali This very roughly tranlates as: “[My horse] attacks, and retreats, he runs forward and bounces backwards, all at once, like a big rock which the floods have driven down from above [the mountain]“. I will look for a more exacts translation in the orientalists’ publications.    

Missed connections: the Egyptian stallion Barakat and the horses of Ibn Maajil

The Dahman stallion Barakat is the paternal grandsire of three “Straight Egyptian” mares: Folla, Futna and Bint Barakat. The Tahawi family website, maintained by Mohammed son of Mohammed son of Othman son of Abdallah son of Seoud al-Tahawi, has these few lines on Barakat: As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’  ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“. Somewhere else on this website, there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.” Now here’s what the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, edited by the late Saudi royal historian Hamad al-Jasir, has to say on these Dahman horses of Ibn Maajil, in the section about a specific descendent of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare known as Al-Khadeem: “The mare, and she is a green [a shade of grey] daughter of the yellow [another shade of grey] Rabdan the horse of al-Dahham, had these foals while in a possession [a list of two foals follows, of which is the second is] a filly whose sire is Duhayman [‘little Dahman’], the stallion of Ibn Rashid, from the horses of Ibn Maajil.” You can find this except on pages 408…

Photo of the Day: El Reata Juan, 1968 Dahman Shahwan in the USA

Oregon breeder Joan DeVour recently circulated this picture of the beautiful black stallion El Reata Juan (Julyan x Mist Aana by Hallany Mistanny), a 1968 black Dahman Shahwan of old US Egyptian lines, with the particularity of being one of the handful of stallions to still carry the prized Mesaoud sire-line through his grandsire Julep (Gulastra x Aziza). El Reata Juan was a popular sire of blacks and dark bays. Indeed, many asil mares that would otherwise have been bred to non-asil stallions have been bred to Juan for black foals.

A Bedouin poem about ‘Arar ibn Shahwan, owner of the Dahman strain

Click on the YouTube link below to listen to a story and poem (in Arabic) about ‘Arar ibn Shahwan, the original owner (ra’i) of the marbat of Dahman Shahwan. The audio was prepared by Sa’d al-Hafi al-‘Utaybi. ‘Arar is the from the very noble and ancient Dhayaghim clan of the Abidah section of the Qahtan Bedouin tribe. The poem records an episode of the Dhayaghim saga, when this clan and others left their original home of Wadi Tathlith in Southern Arabia after a sequence of severe droughts, and moved northwards to settle in the mountains around the central Arabian town of Hail, which were then inhabited by Tai tribes and were known as Jabal Tai. There the Dhayaghim and other southern clans merged with some Tai tribes to form the core of the Shammar confederation, which gave Jabal Tai it’s new name: Jabal Shammar. By the way, the Ibn Rashid ruling clan of the Shammar of Jabal Shammar traces to the Dhayaghim clan.

*Sawannah, 1948 Dahmah from Bahrain in the USA

In 1953, K.M. Kelly, an American working in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, received a gift from Shaykh Khalifah bin Muhammad Aal Khalifah, the chief of police in the neighboring emirate of Bahrain (then a British protectorate), and cousin of Bahrain ruler Shaykh Salman ibn Hamad Aal Khalifah, who ruled the country from 1942 to 1961. See the family tree here. That gift was a chestnut mare, *Sawannah, born in 1948. She was later imported to the USA, and she still asil descendents in the USA and Canada. A September 1975 letter by Danah Aal Khalifa, gives some information about *Sawannah, in response to an inquiry about the mare: “The mare Sawannah pictured above was identified by Fatis, the old studmaster of H.H. Shaikh Issa bin Salman Al Khalifa, as a Dahmah, belonging to Shaykh Khalifa bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, (chief of Police). Dahmeh was bred by Shaykh Salman, Ruler of Bahrain at the time, out of one of his mares of the Dahman strain, and sired by one of his stud stallions serving at the time.” Whether *Sawannah was a Dahmah Shahwaniyah, a Dahmat Najib, a Dahmat Kunayhir, or a Dahmat Umm Amer is not mentioned. That is where an MtDNA comparison with the lines still…

Abbas Pasha Manuscript — First page in Arabic

This document recently appeared on one of the discussion threads below. For those of you who know the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its English edition, this is just the first page in one of the original Arabic editions.. This is a quick and dirty translation (writing from work, gotta go home soon), without the Quran verses in the reversed triangle: “Warning/advice about breeding/mating horses; I say, about stallions to be mated; the first to be mated (yushabbi) is Duhayman Shahwan from the strain (rasan) of Kunayhir, and Duhaym al-Najib;  the second is Kuhaylan al-Mimrah; then al-Saqlawi al-Jadrani and it is from three branches, the dearest of which is the strain of al-Simniyyat, then the strain of al-Sudaniyat, then the strain of al-Abd; followed by the strain of al-Saqlawi al-Ubayri and al-Marighi, which are the same strain; and following that, Hadban al-Nzahi which consists of six strains: the first (ie, the best) is Hadbat al-Munsariqah; the second is Hadbat Mushaytib; the third is Hadbat Jawlan; the fourth is Hadbat al-Fard; the fifth is Hadbat al-Mahdi; the sixth is Habdat al-Bardawil which is not to be mated; following that is Kuhaylan al-Tamri; and after that, Shuwayman al-Sabbah; and after that, Hamdani Simri al-Khalis; and…