The myth of Kuhaylan Jellabi in Egyptian Arabian breeding
By Edouard
Posted on April 16th, 2008 in Bahrain, Egypt, Strains, USA
I find it baffling that some Arabian horse breeders here in the US still believe that the strain of Kuhaylan Jellabi is carried on in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding.
Ten years have elapsed since Michael Bowling’s ground-breaking article on the Arabian mare Bint Yemama and her descendants at the stud of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik in Egypt, yet most breeders of Asil Arabians of Egyptian bloodlines still refer to the stallions *Fadl, *Nasr, *Adhem, among others, and the mares *Maaroufa, Mahroussa, Negma and their tail-female descendants as Kuhaylan Jellabi.
I refrained from using the pedigree website www.allbreedpedigree.com to link to the pedigrees of the horses mentioned above, because it erroneously has them tracing back to the desert-bred mare Jellabiet Feysul, owned by Abbas Pascha, and otherwise a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah true and true. Even respected Arabian horse breeders and researchers such as Judi Forbis show these horses as Kuhaylan Jallabi (I prefer to write Jallabi with an ”a”, but I aslo want this entry to be found by those using the more common form “Jellabi” in their search engines).
Michael Bowling shows that the mare Bint Yemama (Saklawi I x Yemama) of Prince Mohammed Ali is actually the maternal half-sister of the famous Mesaoud, the Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan bought by Lady Anne Blunt from Ali Pasha Sharif. Michael also uses mtDNA genetic analysis to prove that the descendants of Bint Yemama and those of Bint Helwa, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah closely related to Mesaoud share the same tail female. He uses the same method to show that the true descendants of Jellabiet Feysul through Makbula (her allbreedspedigree.com is correct and can be safely linked to) do not share the same tail female. Such objective, rock solid evidence should have put the debate to bed, but it hasn’t. I wonder when it will.
*Fadl, *Maaroufa, their descendants and other relatives in the tail female are all of the Saqlawi Jadran strain. They are not Kuhaylan Jallabi. They do not trace to Jellabiet Feysul. There are no tail-female Kuhaylan Jallabi horses in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding today. Even more, the Kuhaylan Jallabi line of Jellabiet Feysul is extinct, as far as Asil horses are concerned. The last Asil horse of this line was the 1911 mare Kerbela (Ibn Yashmak x Kantara), bred at the Crabbet Stud by Lady Anne Blunt.
The only place where Asil horses of the Kuhaylan Jallabi strain can be found today is the Kingdom of Bahrain. May they last forever.
April 17th, 2008 12:00 am
Note that it’s http://www.allbreedpedigree.com,
not allbreedSpedigree.com (you have a typo in a couple of places.)
As Michael Bowling likes to say, everything has the defects of its virtues, and allbreedpedigree is no exception: errors found in pedigrees there can be fixed by the finder. This is a virtue if the finder is competent, and a defect otherwise.
April 17th, 2008 1:48 am
Hi Edouard. You have written a very thoughtful post. After Michael Bowling published his mitochondrial study, I remember speaking with Carolyn Collets of Asala Arabians in Ohio. Carolyn owned the great stallion Fadl Starr and had leased my absolute favorite Serr Maariner daughter, Princeton Maaroufa (Serr Maariner x Black Satin) at the time. I remember Carolyn telling me her observations regarding pure-in-the-strain KJ breeding and how ultra-refined the resulting horses were, ther further she bred within the strain. She really believed that this was further proof over the accuracy of Michael Bowling’s findings. I have never forgotten that statement and wanted to share it with you.
April 17th, 2008 3:23 pm
R. J. Cadranell tells me that the 1911 Crabbet filyl Kerberla (Ibn Yashmak x Kantara) was not the last Asil Kuhalyah Jallabiyah tracing to Jellabiet Feysul of Abbas Pasha.
He gave me a list of Asil horses foaled the same years Kerbela was and later:
Kaftan 1911 gr c (Shanfara x Kibla)
Jezabel 1912 b f (Berk x Jellabieh)
Kamar 1913 ch c (Rustem x Kantara)
Kandil 1914 b c (Berk x Kasima)
Karun 1915 ch c (Rustem x Kantara)
Kahtan 1915 b c (Sotamm x Kasima)
Kasmeyn 1916 b c (Sotamm x Kasima)
Kesratain 1917 ch f (Ibn Yashmak x Kantara)
Jellal 1919 b c (Riyal x Jask)
Kabrit 1920 ch c (Rasim x Kantara)
Keslan 1920 ch c (Nadir x Kibla)
Karam 1920 ch c (*Abu Zeyd x *Kasima)
Kiyama 1926 ch f (Rafeef x Julnar)
Kuleyb 1928 b c (Shareer x Julnar)
Kuraan 1929 ch c (Nureddin II x Julnar)
Kizama 1933 ch f (*Mirzam x *Kiyama)
Geyama 1937 ch f (*Mirage x *Kiyama)
Yamage 1938 gr c (*Mirage x *Kiyama)
He also tells me that the last mare, Geyama, was still producing as late as 1955. Now that was just about when a large scale Asil preservation effort was starting in the USA, with the likes of John Doyle, Charles Craver, and Jane Ott. Perhaps that strain could have stood a chance at being saved.
I don’t want to be aching over lost strains anymore. Lets work on preserving what is left.
April 20th, 2008 5:05 am
Edouard: Richard Pritzlaff named a horse John Doyle, but the Arabian horse breeder who owned Ghadaf was Dr. Joseph Lyman Doyle. I once mistakenly referred to Dr. Doyle as “John Doyle” myself, so you’re in good company!
April 20th, 2008 5:45 pm
Thanks for the correction R.J. I hope Rosemary will forgive me!
June 19th, 2008 10:53 pm
Hi,
You might want to check on your list of “famous asil Arabian photos”
Indian Magic and Sheer Magic asil? (multiple crosses to Skowronek)
Cheers,
Pat
June 20th, 2008 2:55 pm
Thanks Patrick, will take them out. They were initially in a folder under “Crabbet” which I uploaded without editing.