A Syrian desert-bred stallion from the 1940s

I have been trying to go back in time as far as possible with the pedigrees of modern Syrian Arabian horses, looking for male ancestors as early as the 1930s and 1940s. It’s a difficult task, because the registration of Syrian foundation horses (the first wave in Volume 1, and the second wave in Volume 7) is based on oral testimonies, which seldom go beyond three or four generations, whether in horses or in humans. How many of us can readily remember the name of our paternal great-grandmother? A horse that keeps coming back in the back of the pedigrees of Syrian Arabians is the Dahman Amer of Sa’ud al-‘Ajarrash. In the back of the pedigree of this mare born in 1971, for example, where his owner’s name is misspelt and his strain is misrepresented. The mare’s hujjah shows the right strain and owner for this stallion, her great-grandfather, which was likely active in the 1940s. The same stallion appears as the sire of the Egyptian RAS desert-bred stallion El Nasser. Below a photo of this really fine mare in extreme old age (around 32). She was a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of the strain of Ibn ‘Amoud. I took this photo…

الصگلاوية الجدرانية في الجزيرة برواية حمّاد الجدوع الجزعة توثيق محمد معصوم العاقوب

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…

قصص كحيلة الربدا عن محمد معصوم العاقوب من شيوخ حرب طي

حدثنا محمد معصوم العاقوب من شيوخ حرب طي قال  الربدا كحيلة عجوز والربداء من أسماء النعامة وتميّزت بهذا الاسم لأنها طَرحتْ ذَكر النعام والنعامة معروفة بسرعته في عام 1810-1815 للميلاد غزتْ قبيلة اعنزا باشات الاكراد مرتين في منطقة قورانشار شمالي بلدة رأس العين السورية في المرّة الأولى استطاع الباشا صد اعنزا وكان اسمه عَبْدي الكَلَشْ وغَنِمَ من اعنزا مجموعة من الخيل والابل وأسير يُقال له في لهجة البدو (( گضيب)) في هذه الاثناء كانت قبيلة حرب في هذه المنطقة لأنها وفيرة بالماء والمرعى وتربط شيخهم جميل الدرويش علاقات قوية مع الاكراد ويلقّبونه جَمّو حسب لهجتهم كان جميل يُحسن الى الاسير الاعنزي ويعامله معاملة جيدة فقال له خُذ تلك المهرة فإن الاكراد لا يعرفون قيمتها فأرسل الشيخ أبنه الصغير خليوي لطلبها من الباشا فأعطاها له وأخبرهم الاعنزي بأنّ هذه المهرة ربدا خشيبي من خيل ابن هذال وأنها من أرفع الخيل عندهم ومنذ ذلك الحين والخيل الربد مع حرب الى يومنا هذا شاركتهم كُل تفاصيل حياتهم وانتقلت معهم الى منطقة القامشلي بعد حدوث خلاف مع الباشا ودخلت حرب ضمن حلف طي في منطقة القامشلي وكان لها مواقف كثيرة معهم لا يتسع المجال لذكرها فأعزوها كثيراً واذكر أنّ عمي عبدالرزاق يحدثني عن فرسهم الربدا بأنهم كانوا في الربيع في بيت الشعر تأتي الفرس…

Azzah, Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah from Syria

‘Azzah was one of my father’s favorite mares at Mustafa Jabri’s. She was a daughter of the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-Aawar and of Nadia, a desert bred Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah tracing to the marbat of Muhammad al-Dahdah of the Jawwalah clan of Tai and to Dari al-Mahmud of the Zawba’ Shammar before that. That strain originally goes back to the ‘Anazah. I took this photo of hers in the mid-1990s. Despite being the daughter of two registered horses, and the full sister of Mustafa’s other senior stallion Ihsan (photo below), Azzah was somehow missed by the first wave of registrations of the late 1980s, and was only registered in the second wave in 2001. By the way, it took me ten years before I realized that Ihsan was a son of Al-Aawar.

Al-Dahdah Index: The grey Saqlawi Jadran of Farhan al-Nayif, Tai

A grey desert-bred asil stallion. Strain: Saqlawi Jadran, from the marbat of ‘Abd al-Hamid (a.k.a. Hamid) al-Talal al-‘Assaf of the leading family of the Tai tribe, who got the strain from Ibn ‘Amud of Shammar (according to Hamid himself). From the strain that came to Ibn ‘Amud from al-Frijah of al-Ruwalah. Sire: Saqlawi Jadran of Hamid al-Talal of Tai, from the marbat of ibn ‘Amud of Shammar. Dam: a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of Hamid al-Talal of Tai, from the marbat of ibn ‘Amud of Shammar. This grey horse was standing at stud with the Shaykh of Tai Farhan al-Nayif al-‘Assaf. His nephew Muhammad al-‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif, the current Shaykh of Tai, borrowed him for a while. It is unclear whether he was bred by the Nayif clan of the al-‘Assaf ruling family of Tai or by their cousins the Talal clan. It does not really matter. Hamid al-Talal said that this horse was a Saqlawi Jadran of the marbat of ibn ‘Amud from his horses. According to Hamid al-Talal, his Saqlawis came directly from Hasan Ibn ‘Amud of Shammar in 1928 (verify the date). According to Mahruth ibn Haddal, the ruling Shaykh of the ‘Amarat and paramount Shaykh of the ‘Anazah,…

Ghallaieh, 1973 desert-bred Kuhaylat al-Krush from the Shammar

Another set of old photos I just scanned today features the Syrian desert bred mare Ghallaieh at the farm of Radwan Shabareq north of Aleppo, near the town of ‘Azaz. She was old and lame (you can see the broken front leg) and rather plain in the head, but what a grand and powerful mare she was. I took the first photo in 1998. My father took the second photo in 1996, and you can see a youthful me (the hair!) holding her halter. She was a bay Kuhaylat al-Krush from the breeding of Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal Basha al-Jarba, from the leading family of the Shammar. Mashal was the son of the famous Faris al-Jarba. The strain reached this family of the Jarba Shammar Sheykhs from their maternal uncles the Sheikh of the Tai Farhan al-Abd al-Rahman sometime in the 1950s or even 1960s. From here, there are two stories. One story is that the Sheykhs of the Tai obtained it from the Shammar who had it since the time of ‘Amsheh and Ibn Rashid (see next blog entry on the black mare). Another story is that Tai got the strain from the Fadaan. Ghallaieh was the daughter of a…

Another Rabdan stallion in 2019

This Rabdan stallion’s name is Jurnass. He is the most noteworthy Syrian stallion of the last couple years. His current owner is Dham al-Ahmad al-Daham al-Hadi al-Farhan al-Jarba, Sheikh of the Shammar. A few years ago, some Syrian Bedouins started started mating Rabdan stallions from Tai marbats, probably because they are so handsome. It was not the case before. Breeders from the cities followed suit. This new trend started with the very handsome Zayn al-Khayl (Ghaseeb x Raghdanah), who was used heavily across Syria with excellent results. Those same breeders who used to deride Egyptian pashas for having mated Rabdans a hundred or so years ago (e.g., Rabdan al-Azrak, the sire of Ibn Rabdan) used Zayn al-Khayl in a heartbeat.

The desert-bred Saqlawiyah of Muhammad al-Rhayyil

I spent the morning digging through old photos, which also bring back stories. I like this photo so much. It features a Tai Bedouin horse breeder, Muhammad al-‘Abd al-Sulayman al-Rhayyil, putting one of his toddler sons on his Saqlawiyah mares near Al-Qamishli, North Eastern Syria. The photo belongs to the sons, now grown men in their thirties and fourties. I believe it is from the early 1980s. The mare is a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah from the breedeing of al-Rhayyil. He or his father obtained what would have been the granddam of this mare in 1952 from the family of the Shaykh of the Tai, Abd al-Hamid (a.k.a Hamid) al-Talal al-‘Abd al-Rahman. The latter got the line from the family of the owner of the marbat, Hasan al-‘Amud, the Shaykh of the ‘Amud section of the Northern Shammar. According to ‘Abbas al-Azzawi (in his encyclopedic book “The Tribes of Iraq”, in Arabic), who quotes the Shaykh of the ‘Amarat Bedouins Mahruth ibn Haddhal, the ‘Amud had obtained the prized original mare in war from the Frijah section of the Ruwalah. This piece of information makes this line one of the most authenticated Saqlawi lines in the desert, because the Frijah are the…

Al-Shumuss, Kuhaylat al-Krush, Syria

This mare, Al-Shumuss, was at the stud of Mustafa al-Jabri in Aleppo in the 1990s, and her dam was at Radwan Shabareq’s. She was a Kuhaylat al-Krush, by a Hamdani Simri who was himself by the black Saqlawi Marzaqani stallion of al-Anoud, Princess of Tai; the mare’s dam was by the same black Saqlawi Marzaqani. The line came from the Shammar, from Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal al-Jarba, but before that it was his maternal uncles the Tai chiefs; and while most everyone among the horse breeders in Syria thought this line traced back to the Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar (it is even registered as Krush al-Baida in the Syrian studbook) which ultimately goes back to the Mutayr Bedouins, it turned out, following questioning of the elders and leaders of the Tai Bedouins in the late 1990s that this Krush marbat actually came from the Fad’aan Bedouins of the ‘Anazah. There are two distinct lines of Kuhaylan Krush in North Arabia: one going back to the Fad’aan ‘Anazah (like Krush Halba below, like the Davenport import *Werdi, like the mare in this picture), and another line, known as Krush al-Baida (the white Krush) going back…

Ameenah, asil Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare from Syria

Ameenah was the foundation mare for all the Kuhaylan al-Mimrah horses currently in Syria. They all trace to her in the tail female. She was bred by the Tai Bedouins, from a marbat that had belonged to the Shammar, and which traced all the back to the Muwayni’ clan of the Sba’ah Bedouins, who own the strain of Kuhaylan al-Mimrah.  If a Kuhaylat al-Mimrah cannot be traced back to the clan of Ibn Muwayni’, then she is not a Kuhaylat al-Mimrah. That’s because the original man known al-Mimrah belonged to the Muwayni’ clan. The Muwayni’ clan, one of the noblest of the ‘Anazah confederation, were such famous breeders of Arabian horses that they were known as ‘ahl al-khayl’, the “people of the horses”. Nahar Ibn Muwayni’ is one of the Bedouin witnesses in the ‘Abbas Pasha Manuscript. Ameenah was sired by the “first horse of Juhayyim”, a Kuhaylan Hayfi who was used by Juhayyim al-Mitkhan of the Tai as his breeding stallion (he later stood a Kuhaylan al-Krush at stud, and this was the “second horse of Juhayyim”); her dam was sired by the “second horse of ‘Ebbo”, a Saqlawi Jadran of the strain belonging to Dari al-Mahmoud of the Shammar,…

Saqlawiyah Ubayriyah from the Tai Bedouins, Syria, 1990s

Bay Saqlawiyah Ubayriyah bred by the Yusuf al-Du’bu of the Tai Bedouins, obtained by Hasan and ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Nassif of Tal Bisah, then gifted to Salim and Edouard Al-Dahdah, then given by them to Ahmad Ghalioun of Hims. Sire: the dark bay Ma’naqi Hadraji of Dhahir al-Ufaytan (asil); dam of a celebrated endurance winning mare, Wudyan; not registered in WAHO, and not 100% sure if asil. Should have been more diligent and taken the time to inquire further about her; but there were so many asil horses in Syria back in the early 1990s that trying to trace the origins of a non-registered mare was not always deemed worth the effort. Big mistake in this case. PS: I am at my father’s in Lebanon, scanning old pictures and posting some.  

Photo of the Day: Amoori, Kuhaylan Krush stallion, Syria

Amoori (Al-Aawar x Ghallaieh, by the black Saqlawi Marzakani, the “horse of Al-‘Anud”) is a full brother to Amshet Shammar, pictured below. He was bred by Radwan Shabareq in Aleppo, from a mare bred by Rakan al-Jarba of the Shammar Bedouins, from a line originating from the Tai leaders, in turn originating from the Fad’aan Bedouins. This is the same line that produced the Kuhaylan Ibn Mizhir horses. The photo comes from Arnault Decroix who took it in 2000.

Uncommon strains: Kuhaylan Ibn Mizhir

This is the third feature on the series on uncommon strains, and it features the strain of Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir. Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir is a little known strain in the West. It is specific to Syria and to parts of Iraq that are adjacent to the Syrian border. The strain belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Tai, who are very proud of it. The reason it is so little known is that the strain is actually Kuhaylan al-Krush.  About eight or ninety years ago, a Tai Bedouin by the name of Ibn Mizhir acquired a Kuhaylat al-Krush from ‘Anazah (either from the Fad’aan or the Sba’ah, and more probably the former), and many in the Tai tribe started calling the strain after its new owner. Other Tai Bedouins stuck to the old Krush strain name. One of the descendants of this original Kuhaylat Krush of Ibn Mizhir went to the leading clan of the Tai Bedouins, and one of the offspring of this mare then passed to Nuri al-Mash’al al-Jarba of the Shammar, who married a woman from the Tai leading clan. The Jarba leaders of the Shammar, who took pride in their own Kuhaylan al-Krush marbat (Krush al-Baida, a marbat that came to the Shammar from the Mutayr Bedouins…

A couple words on the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain

Kuhaylan Khallawi (often misspelt Halawi) is a strain of Arabian horses little-known in the West.  It is mentioned in Lady Anne Blunt’s list of strains derived from the Kuhaylan family, and in Carl Raswan’s list. The only other place it is mentioned is in Roger Upton’s writings, where his desert-bred import Yataghan (sire of the Ma’naqiyah mare *Naomi, which still has an asil tail female in the USA) was recorded as having been sired by a well-regarded Kuhaylan Khallawi stallion belonging to the Shammar. That’s it. In Egypt, the 1943 mare Futna, bred by the Tahawi Arabs, and bought by Ahmad Hamza as a broodmare for his Hamdan Stables, was from that same strain. Her dam is recorded as a Kuhaylah “Halawiyah”, just another way to write Khalawiyah, depending on how you choose to pronounce the Arabic letter [?]. Futna still has a thin tail female alive in the USA and Egypt, so the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain still goes on. According to their family website, wihch has a very rich section on horses, the Tahawi clan leaders brought all their horses from the area of Hims and Hama in Central Western Syria in the period extending between the 1880s and 1930s. …

Hujjah of Saqlawi Jadran stallion from Tay, bought by the Tahawis, c. 1936

This hujjah comes from the Tahawi tribe website and is very interesting, because of the place of origin of the horse: unlike most of the Tahawi hujaj I saw, this one comes from the Upper Mesopotamia area (al-Jazirah) while the others came from Western Syria. I hope the horse referenced in this hujjah document left some modern descendants, because his origin is precious. Here’s my translation of the document: “We testify by God and his Prophet, in truth and righteousness, that the grey horse, brother of the bay horse, which [the grey] has a small star on his face, and which is five years of age, and which was purchased by Abdel Aziz Bek and Husayn al-Hilal from Adham al-Humayyid that he is Saqlawi Jadran, and that his dam is a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, and his sire a Saqlawi Jadran, from the horses of Dari Ibn Mahmud, the Shaykh of the tribe of Shammar al-Zawba’; and the horse is ‘shubuw’ [to be mated] and can be mated, and is protected [from the side of both]  his sire and his dam, and that there is no impurity in his origin; and for this reason we have prepared this testimony, and God is the…

Photos of the Day: *Ta’an, from Syria to the USA and back to Jordan

The 1988 grey Hamdani al-‘Ifri stallion *Ta’an (Awaad x al-Efrieh by a Kuhaylan al-Wati) was born in the Jazirah area of North-Eastern Syria. His breeder, Mis’ir al-Hamad is a member of one of the small Arab nomadic tribes that settled in this area in the XXth century. I first saw *Ta’an in 1990 as a yearling, at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud outside of Aleppo. I took pictures which I will scan and share with you. I then saw him again in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, Mustafa gifted *Ta’an to Gerald and Debra Dirks who took him to the USA, then to Jordan in 1996. At that time, the Arab Horse Association studbook did not recognize the Syrian Studbook, so *Ta’an never got registered, even though Al Khamsa, Inc accepted him on the basis of his being a Bedouin-bred horse from Syria. The two pictures below were taken at the Dirks’ farm, and are courtesy of Marie Arthur.   *Ta’an’s sire was Awaad, a grey Kuhaylan al-Krush bred by ‘Iyadah Talab al-Khalaf, of the Shammar Bedouins, from the prestigious Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar. Awaad sired many good mares and stallions in Syria, among them the…

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.

Photo of the day: Hallah, Kuhaylah Khallawiyah from Syria

I am back on the map, and slowly emerging from processing a couple hundred emails that have piled up in my inbox during my absence. I am looking forward to the new Khamsat issue, with a focus on the WAHO 2007 conference in Syria. Hazaim al-Wair and I have an article in there on Arabian horse strains represented in the Syrian Arabian Horse Studbook, in which you will see some of the pictures you’ve already seen and liked on this blog, and some which you haven’t seen yet, like the one below. This is Hallah, a Kuhaylah Khallawiyah bred by the tribe of Tay in North eastern Syria in 1983, and owned by Mustapha al-Jabri, who sold her to one of the Gulf countries (I think Kuwait) in the mid-nineties (not sure of the exact date, either). Enjoy the picture which I took in 1993, and more on the strain and the mare later..

Strain of the week: Kuhaylan al-Mimrah (final)

Kuhaylan al-Mimrah: so where were we? In the last post about this strain, we had left it in the hands of the Muwayni’ section of the Sba’ah tribe, to which the Mimrah clan belongs. Today, the noble section of Al-Muwayni’ is split between Syria and Saudi Arabia but no longer owns horses from this famous strain.  Sometime during the twentieth century (not sure when, but earlier rather than later), a branch of this strain passed to the al-Mazhur clan of the Shammar tribe, and then, about fifty years ago to the Jawwalah section of the Tai tribe, among which it could still be found until very recently. Below are photos of two fine specimen of the Kuahylan al-Mimrah of the Jawwalah marbat. The one above is a picture of Aminah (Hayfi Juhayyim x Kuhaylat al-Mimrah, by the grand Saqlawi ‘Ibbo, more on all these great old timers later), the founder of a prominent dynasty at Mustapha al-Jabri’s stud in Aleppo, Syria. The second is Za’rur al-Barari, a grandson of Aminah, and a stallion at Radwane Shabariq’s stud, also in Aleppo. Za’rur is the younger brother of the stallion Basil, which Joe Ferriss recently wrote about, here and here. Za’rur has been…

Famous quote: Lady Anne Blunt on Faris al-Jarba

Since the last couple posts have been about mares of the Shuwayman Sabbah strain bred by the Shammar, here is a quote from Lady Anne Blunt‘s “Bedouin tribes of the Euphrates” (p. 235) that had a lasting impression on me:  “Faris’s own mare is a tall bay, Shuéymeh Sbàh, with a powerful shoulder, great girth, legs like iron, but a rather coarse hindquarter.”  Also, in the same book, in an annex on strains (p. 439), under “Shueyman Sbàh”:  “Faris, Sheykh of the Northern Shammar, has a mare of this breed. She is coarse, but of immense strength and courage, and when moving becomes handsome.”  How true of Hakayah, the black Shuwaymah mare from Tai. Uninspiring when standing, magnificent when moving. Again, Hakayah’s g. g. granddam (I may be adding “g” or two) was a wedding gift from Nuri al-Jarba to the Shaykh of Tai. Nuri is son of Mah’al (Pasha) al-Jarba, who is son of Faris. The same Faris in the above quotes. Does it mean that Hakayah and her offspring trace directly to Faris’ war mare? There is no way to know for sure, but they certainly are from the same close family. 

Photo and Hujja of the day: Hakayah

Following the recent entry on the pretty black mare Shams al-Ghurub, and to Joe Ferriss recalling that he saw her dam Hakayah in 1996 in Syria, I am posting a picture of Hakayah that I took back in 1989. Hakayah was then with Ahmad (Abu Tahir) al-Ghalioun, who had leased her from her owner, the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai.  I don’t remember anything about the foal at her side. Here is my partial translation to English of the Arabic hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of Hakayah, skipping the introductory religious blessings:   “I, shaykh Mohammad al-Abd al-Razzaq al-Ta’i, testify, and my testimony is before God Most High, that the mare whose strain and marbat is Shuwaymat Sabbah and with the following description: [her] color [is] black, her age ten years old is from our horses, from the horses of the Tai, protected, without any impurities, her sire is the horse of Juhayyim, and he is Krush, and protected; the sire of her dam is the same horse, Krush Juhayyim, he is protected, and is from the horses of the Tai; the sire of her grand-dam is the horse of Juhayyim,  al-Hayfi, and he is protected; She is well known and bred [by us] one generation after the…

Photo of the day: Shams al-Ghurub

Shams al-Ghurub is a black-bay mare from Syria, born in 1987. Her strain is Shuwayman Sabbah. She was bred by the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai, Mohammad al-‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif near al-Qamishli in North Eastern Syria, from a strain that originally belonged to the Shaykhs of Shammar, the al-Jarba. The leading families of the two tribes intermarry frequently, and it was on the occasion of the marriage of one of the Tai princesses to Nuri al-Jarba that a Shuwaymah mare was given to the Tai Shaykhs. Shams al-Ghurub is one descendent of this mare. More on this particular strain in a subsequent entry. I took this picture in 1990 in Hims, Syria.    

Photo of the day: Nomah, a Kuhaylat al-Mizher

Here’s a headshot of the pretty desert-bred mare Nomah, a Kuhaylat al-Mizher (some say Kuhaylat Ibn Mizher) from the Bedouin tribe of Tai, in North-Eastern Syria. Nomah, which was owned by B. Jadaan, was one of the most photographed Syrian mares, but this is one of her earlier photos.  I have heard several people say that Kuhaylan Ibn Mizher is only a branch of Kuhaylan al-Krush, owned by a man by that name. Still, I am left wondering why anyone would change the name of such a prestigious strain as Kuhaylan al-Krush into something else. Perhaps mtDNA analysis could help elucidate this question.  

El Nasser: the new information

Back to El Nasser. An earlier post identified his sire, “Douhaymane El Ajarrache”, as a Dahman (or Duhayman) ‘Amer from the al-‘Ajarrash family of the Shammar Bedouin tribe. “Douhayman El Ajarrache” was actively breeding in 1937, when El Nasser’s dam was bred to him to produce El Nasser in May 1938. Last year – and here is the fresh information I promised – I stumbled on the hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of a desert-bred mare tracing to a stallion that could be “Douhaymane El Ajarrache”. The mare is now dead but she has descendants alive today in Syria, in the very area El Nasser was born, the Upper Jazirah. Here is the full translation of this mare’s hujjah:   “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I, the undersigned, ‘Ali al-Blaybil son of Husayn, from the village of Qartaba born in 1915, from the tribal section of al-Yassar, from the the tribe of Tai, testify by God Most High, that the grey mare which I sold to Mr. Nawaf al-Sulayman al-‘Abd al-Rahman in 1950, is from my horses, called Jilfat Stam al-Bulad; the sire of her dam is the horse of Sa’ud al-‘Ajarrash, a chestnut Dahman ‘Amer, and I did that breeding myself. And Gost is bears witness to what I say. Testifier: Ali Husayn al-Balybil, ID #: […], owner of…

Addendum to “blogging as anger management”

I just wanted to follow up with a few photos of some horses I mentioned in my previous comments on this blog that were of the Maanagi strain. These three I saw on my trip in 1996 through Jordan, Syria, and the Gulf region. I have other photos of representatives of this strain on that tript but these three just happened to be quickly available on my computer. The first is the grey Maanagi Sbaili stallion Atiyah, a son of the mare Wadeehah which Edouard posted. Atiyah was presented at Basil Jadaan’s place in Syria. As you can see he is a splendid horse. His balance and harmony were impressive, forming an ideal silhouette of an Arabian, and you can see the exceptional overall leg and conformation quality he has. the second picture is the grey Maanagi Hadruj stallion owned by Shaikh Mohamed Abdul Razak Al-Taiee. He was another magnificent horse and although our photo opportunity was more limited here, this horse left a very favorable impression on all of his for his quality, character, and noble appearance. The third picture is of a bay Maanigieh filly owned by the Emir of Bahrain and a part of the WAHO presentation…