Treasure trove of Tahawi documents on their Arabian horses

Both Mohammad al-Tahawi and Yasir Ghanim have sent me a new link to the website on the Tahawi Bedouins where they have uploaded many, many more documents about the original Tahawi horses, including the herd-book of their leader Shaykh Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi, which contains hundreds of entries documenting purchases of horses from the desert, dates of breedings, foal productions, sale records, etc.

It is a treasure trove of information like no other, and it establishes the asil credentials of the Tahawi horses beyond any doubt. I will even go further to point of saying that many Tahawi horses are by now more authenticated than the majority of desert-breds from the RAS (e.g., Halabia, Nafaa al-Saghira, Badaouia, Eid, etc), and Inshass (e.g., El Samraa, El Shahbaa, Badria, Beshier El Achkar, Bint Karima). It’s a paradise of primary sources for those who love the original Bedouin horses.

This is of course related to the great work Bernd Radtke is doing with his upcoming book, about which those of you went to the EE (Extreme and Exotic) already heard.

I will be slowly working on the translation of these documents over the next several weeks. I think I need to find a replacement at work, so I can dedicate myself to this task. I am in Senegal now, and need to be in Congo in two weeks. Any volonteers? The mosquitoes will love you.

28 Replies to “Treasure trove of Tahawi documents on their Arabian horses”

  1. Sorry, Edouard, I’m afraid they broke the mold after they made you, and you are irreplaceable for both jobs (WB and here in asil-horse-land). And you get to be in Congo in the heat of summer – what fun (not).

    Anita

  2. Very interesting if these horses could accepted by WAHO. As descendants from asils imported to Egypt it would make them “straight Egyptians” as well and healthy outcross for the inbred SE’s 🙂

  3. If I recall correctly, weren’t there several Eygyptian horses with Tahawi elements in their pedigrees exported in the late 70’s early 80’s
    Thanks
    Bruce Peek

  4. Edouard,

    Glad to hear your working hard on something other then Stallion’s for your Mare’s. The world of horses sometimes needs reflection, and down time. Although a ride is often
    the relief needed to enjoy and brake the everyday routine of busy. Find an upright long necked Arabian horse, and ride the wind, listen to the inner soul, saying, this is why I am and so I am.

    Jackson

  5. If there are still Tahawi horses left, we must all get together and to what we can to see that their lines continue!

  6. Folla (Fulla), Futna, and Bint Barakat (3 Tahawi horses) are accepted by the Pyramid Society as straight Egyptian. Usually you find one of the three in straight Egyptian pedigrees, but rarely find two or three of them in the same pedigree.

  7. You will find in Egypt some horses who trace all three of these Tahawi mares. One example is the mare Bardees, 1996 chestnut mare sired by Anter II (who is tail female to Bint Barakat), and out of Hamida (whose sire Marshall is tail female Folla and whose dam is Bint Futna, the daughter of Futna).

  8. Marshall is a 1961 grey stallion bred by Hamdan Stud in Egypt. His sire is Emam (Balance x Komeira) and his dam is Bint Folla (Hamdan x Folla).

  9. Thank you Joe,
    i would like to know,what do you think about this name.
    A Marshall here and a Marshall there,at about the same time.
    Who was the “Godfather ” of these horses. Who was Marshall?
    This name sounds a littlebit strange for me as a simple horsename.

  10. If we wind up with additional horses for the SE roster we are way ahead of the game genetically.
    Edouard, keep up the great work. Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labor….

  11. Dear Mr. Laszlo, Ahmed Hamza founder of the Hamdan stud sometimes gave his horses the names that were popular in racing in Egypt. Marshall is one example. Now what specific person that “Marshall” is in tribute to I don’t know.

    As it was explained to me, the British having long been involved in racing in Egypt were comfortable with the “English sounding” names so that is what became fashionable for some. The Nazeer son Talal (Nazeer x Zaafarana) had a racing name of Johnny Boy. The Alaa El Din son Kased Kheir (x Sherifa) raced under the name Pepsi-Cola.

    1. This trend also tells us that by the first half of the XXth century Egypt was far more globalized than other countries.

      Other examples: Aiglon (“little eagle” in French) and Marquita (a Spanish name), who are Exochorda’s parents.

  12. Dear Joe,
    really hate to correct you there but it should be “Dear Mr. Király” … 😉 Lásló would be his first name. 🙂

    Regards
    Sandra

  13. A dog ate my Hamdan Studbook (no, really) but I’ve been able to confirm through Datasource that HSB registrations, besides Marshall, foaled in 1961, include fillies named Rhita, foaled in 1958 but apparently registered later; and Judi, foaled 1968.

    I would be surprised if those horses weren’t named for Rhita McNair (“Rita” would be a more usual spelling), Doug Marshall and Judi (again, the more standard spelling is “Judy”) Forbis.

  14. My apologies to Mr. Kiraly since i did not see the comma. Thanks Sandra. Just another example I guess of an Englishman having trouble with a non-English name, ha, ha.

    As for Michael’s comment, they were infact named after Rhita McNair and Judi Forbis. I have the photos of these two as youngsters that Judi took on her frequent visits to Hamdan in the 1960s. I believe that “Judi” became “Ramses Judi” when imported to the U.S. (Fol Yasmeen x Foze). Rhita produced only two sons in Egypt but neither bred on. One was by El Gadaa, which I think is unfortunate that El Gadaa did not get recognized by WAHO.

  15. Michael, if your well used books look anything like some of mine, the dog probably thought they were fair game, ha, ha.

  16. Dear Joe,
    don’t worry… 😉 Sometimes it is a little bit difficult with the hungarian names if you ‘re not Hungarian yourself. 😉 I only have some inside knowledge, since the company I work for runs a shared service center in Budapest and I work with the colleagues there every day. 🙂

    Best Regards
    Sandra

  17. Sandra has right, don’t worry Mr. Joe Ferris! But you must be careful with the coming chinese ,japanese and korean bloggers. They use the same naming system as we, hungarians :).
    And thank you, Sandra for the kind correction.

    Best wishes,
    László

  18. Dear Edouard,

    Thank you for your post. I am glad that many people now started to realize the value of the Tahawy horses including notable persons like you. When Shaikh Soliman Eliwa El-Tahawy was trying in the 1980s to get recognition for our horses with the assistance of Mr. Bernd Redtke and others, there were more than 600 Tahawy mares of the quality you see in the certificates; more than 50% of Egypt’s whole stock of Arabian horses including EAO and all the private studs altogether. In contrary to most of those registered horses, we were able to link our horses to their original sources from Eneza and Shammar in Arabia and the Syrian desert. But to the great sadness of all genuine horse lovers, 600 pure desert bred mares were subject to the biggest “massacre” of Arabian horses in history. Now there are very few left and if we are lucky we can find something like 10 to 15 mares. I personally know 8 pure mares most of them were sold out as “Kedish” horses because they were not registered. We are trying now to recover these horses back which is not an easy job. But some of the very rare strains are already extinct. We pray to God to save the few ones remaining and revive a new herd once again.

    Best Regards,
    Yasser Ghanim

  19. Yes! We will be also be praying for you, and as Jeanne stated, will be advocating for this priceless heritage.

    Thank you for working so hard on behalf of the precious Tahawi horses!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *