The Abbas Hilmi Archives at Durham University

Did you know that Mohammed Ali Foundation had deposited the archives of Khedive Abbas Hilmi (II) at the University of Durham? Michael Bowling, who had know this for years, suggested one of us visit at the first occasion, and I had the chance to go there last February, and spend 2.5 hours looking for references about Arabian horses.

One of the more interesting things I found were the veterinary records of all Khedivial Studs (Montazah, Qubbeh, Ras El Tin, Ismailia, etc). These are handwritten, and are available for four years: 1898, 1900, 1904, and 1907. Records of veterinary visits cover horses, donkeys, cows, buffaloes, small cattle, and birds. Horses include Arabian horses, but also horses imported from North Africa, Switzerland, and Austria, among other places.

I copied the sections relevant to Arabian horses, and came back with a wealth of information that, if analyzed in the context of existing information from other sources, can add to our – scant – knowledge about the Stud of Abbas Hilmi. I will be writing about some of these discoveries in subsequent posts. Stay tuned.

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