Uncommon strains: Hazqan Misrabi
In the interest of resurrecting, if only for the duration of a minute or two, a now defunct component of the Bedouin heritage on desert-bred Arabian horses, I am starting this new series on extinct or uncommon strains. It will consist of a mention of the strain, and a couple anecdotes about it.
The first such strain I will mention is Hazqan, which is now extinct. The only known marbat of Hazqan that I know of was that of the Masaribah clan of the Sba’ah tribe, and it was called after their name: Hazqan Misrabi. The Dandashi landlords of Tall Kalakh in Western Syria had a branch of that marbat, which they celebrated in their poetry.
Interestingly, the stallion Shour, first owned by Lord Herbert Kitchener (d. 1916) and later given to Egypt’s RAS as one of its foundation stallions, was from that strain, which the RAS refers to as “Kuhaylan Hazakan”. Shour qualifies as “Straight Egyptians. Not that it matters, because he did not leave any modern descendents.
The Tahawi clan in Egypt, and the branch of Shaykh Sulayman Eliwa in particular, once had a line of Hazqan Misrabi.
I would love to read any pieces of poetry from the Dandashi about their Hazqan Misrabi horses, if you have the inclination to share them on here.
Looking at Shour in Pearson and Mol, he’s listed as the sire of Bint Nafaa El Saghira (foaled 1916), Bint Bint Hadba (foaled 1917) and Bint Jamila (1918) and a son Ibn Shamma (1917). He “was said to have been a first-class racehorse.”
Shour turned out to be a Tahawi horse.
Oh, how interesting! Will he be among the Tahawi horses that are being added to the AK Roster, or does his lack of modern descent make that pointless?
There is no point to do it, except for historial reasons.