I am a big fan of the breeding program of Terri Somers at Royal Blue Arabians in New Jersey. Terri is the owner of the striking grey Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion RB Bellagio (photo below, in harness, by Arabi Fadh Onyx x Sirrunade by Faaryan), and has been breeding classic and athletic horses of this Ma’naghi Sbayli strain for some years now (check out her story here). Her horses trace all the way back to Haidee, the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare of Sulayman Ibn Mirshid, the leader of the Bedouin tribe of Qumusah – no less. Haidee was bought by Major R. Upton and taken to the UK in 1874; her daughter Naomi was then exported to the USA in 1887 where the line bred on. The young stallion [okay, Terri tells me he is a gelding not a stallion. Tood bad] pictured below is one of the most promising yet bred by Terri. His name is GTS Hawa El Adhar (RB Bellagio x SS Fajulya by PRI Saqlawi Suud) and his pedigree is a tapestry weaving together several 1960s American Arabian breeding programs the likes of Jane Ott’s, Charles Krausnick’s and Joseph Zoran (note the four crosses to Julyan and hence Gulastra, and the multiple crosses…
From left to right: Lirac HD (Shiraz CF x Bint Meringue), ADA Selene (Ascendant x Petit Point CF), Celestia (Cantador x Laikah, non-asil). Here’s a Youtube link to about a minute and a half of these three fillies rocketing around on a beautiful May morning.
Now if there is one Arabian mare that needs no introduction, it’s *Turfa. Ever since her importation by Henri Babson to the USA in 1941, almost seventy years ago, this pretty Kuhaylah mare has continued to embody the ideal desert-bred Arabian mare. Her famous picture trotting in the snow-covered paddocks of the Babson Farm (below) was a constant source of fascination for me, as I was growing up. In the 1980s, asil Arabians tracing to *Turfa were a major building block of Al Khamsa, and a quick glance at one of the ads which breeders of *Turfa-bred horses placed in books like Al Khamsa Arabians (1983) suffices to convince one of the popularity of this bloodline back then. *Turfa-bred horses were athletic, had good disposition and looked like classic Arabian horses of the first order. The *Turfa blood was to be found mainly — but not exclusively — in combination with Babson Egyptian bloodlines, horses tracing to Babson lines with the addition of the stallion Sirecho (Nasr x Exochorda by Aiglon), and in many combinations within the BLUE STAR group of horses. Stallions looked especially attractive: Fa-Turf, Ibn Fadl, Dhahran (photo below, note the resemblance with his grand-dam above, he…
The Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Basilisk is perhaps one of the best known mares imported by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt from the desert. The line produced important horses early on such as the stallions Berk (Seyal x Bukra, out of Bozra, out of Basilisk) and Ibn Mahruss (Mahruss x Bushra, out of Bozra, out of Basilik). Thanks for the efforts and foresight of Carl Raswan and Richard Priztlaff, the Saqlawi Jadran tail female line to Basilisk survives in US asil breeding through the mare Rabanna (Rasik x Banna by Nasr) and her progeny. This line thrived during the second half of the twentieth century, and acquired a certain degree of notoriety, but has been dwindling steadily during the past ten years, as many breeders stopping breeding their mares. What most people are not aware of, is that there is another asil line to Basilisk in American breeding. It’s fleeting but it’s still there, miraculously. That’s the line of Basilisk through the mare Slipper (Yima x Sabot by *Euphrates), and her daughter Peraga (by *Mirage), both foundation mares in early American breeding (both asil and non asil). If you like to learn more about this line, you may want to read Michael Bowling’s article…
Oregon breeder Joan DeVour recently circulated this picture of the beautiful black stallion El Reata Juan (Julyan x Mist Aana by Hallany Mistanny), a 1968 black Dahman Shahwan of old US Egyptian lines, with the particularity of being one of the handful of stallions to still carry the prized Mesaoud sire-line through his grandsire Julep (Gulastra x Aziza). El Reata Juan was a popular sire of blacks and dark bays. Indeed, many asil mares that would otherwise have been bred to non-asil stallions have been bred to Juan for black foals.
Blog reader Francois Julien, from France, sent me a link to a photo album about equine photographer Bob Langrish’s visit to Iran in 2007. The album has nice photos of Iranian bred horses of various breeds, including Arabians (called Asil in Iran), Kurdish, Turkmen and other local breeds of horses. Check it out by clicking here.
Tybalt did love to dance as did his son Asar. Asar also had a son named Lente. He could stand at his stall door, dancing as well. I had stall guards installed so the long stallion barn would show all the stallions, waiting and dancing. The day was completly filled with the joy of horses. Odd they never tried to fight, they just show an interest at the others, and what they were doing. Tybalt was ridden here daily, usually for an hour or so. Charles had trained him well. Richard would even come to see him work, I have had several stallions that always made me stand straight, Tybalt was one. My six year old would sometimes hold him, if I had to take a call, Tybalt would simply dance waiting. I always was happy to realize his ability to be kind. His son Asar was taller and even more filled with inner reaction to alive, yes, those were days filled with expection. Next to Tybalt was Rafaar, a Pritzlaff bred Stallion. Rafaar was a little like Tripoly, only, as to type. The farm in those days had visitors from all over the world on a daily bases. One…
This magnificent Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion (Tripoli x Asara by Kasar), bred by Charles Craver in 1962 must have been the kind of horse a tribe would plan a ghazu to take away from another tribe. I wish I was around when that stallion was alive.
I found some of my notes on the subject of the now extinct strain of Kuhaylan al-Jalala. Victor Muller, a French army intelligence officer who had overall responsibility over the Syrian desert area at the time of the French Mandate on this country authored an authoritative book on the Bedouins of Syria. In one chapter, he wrote that the initial marbat of Kuhaylat al-Jalala among the Shammar was with Ibn Dayes of the Khrissah clan, but that it had recently become extinct with Ibn Dayes. He also wrote that he knew of a Kuhayla al-Jalala mare with the Jayss tribe, the traditional enemies of the Shammar, whose pastures are by the Turkish border with Syria. He also added in what looks like an update to the previous information that the last Kuhaylat al-Jalala mare, owned jointly by Dham al-Hadi al-Jarba (leader of the Northern Shammar in Muller’s time) and by the Qa’it clan (a clan of Shammar warriors) had died recently. He also adds that the number of ancient strains taken by the Shammar in that famous battle with the Sharif of Mecca were five, and cites all the strains I cited except Kuhaylat al-Dhabi. That said, I heard al-Dhabi…
Samura, a chestnut 1895 mare, is a first generation offspring of two desert-bred Arabians imported to Russia by Count Stroganov and Prince Sherbatoff, and was bred by the former at what is now the Tersk Stud. Stroganov’s breeding program was completely wiped out in the events that led to the bolchevik revolution of 1917, and nothing remains of it today. A couple words on the strain of Kuhaylan al-Jalala: it is specific to the Shammar tribe, among which it is now extinct. It is one of the seven (some say eleven) strains which the Shammar took in war from the Sharif (Ruler) of Mecca, when this tribe crushed the Sharif forces in a grueling and epic battle still celebrated by the Shammar in their poems, some two hundred years ago. The other strains taken by the Shammar from the Sharif of Mecca in this battle (actually, a series of battles) are, off the top of my head: Kuhaylan al-Sharif, Obayyan al-Sharif (also known as ‘Ubayyan Suhayli), Kuhaylan al-Dhabi, Kuhaylan al-Jalala, Nkhayshi, Kuhaylan al-Shnaynan, and a seventh I don’t recall now as I am writing from work without my notes. The first two strains are still extant among the Shammar in Syria today,…
Look what I just found in the archives of the Egyptian weekly newspaper Al Ahram: a recent (2006) article citing a much older (1938) Al Ahram article reporting on the january 20, 1938 wedding of Egypt’s king Faruk to Safinaz Zulfiqar, who became Queen Farida. All the article is interesting, but what is most remarkable is this sentence: “Al-Ahram presented a register of the gifts that states had presented to “His Majesty the King of Egypt”. Ibn Saud, the king of the Hijaz, presented four horses “that are pure-bred from 400 native horses. They are “Kahilan, a colt, Al-Saqlawiya, Abiyan, a race horse, and Al-Jilabiya. The name of each is traced back to the names of the Arab houses that have preserved them since the ages of the first Arabs.” What happened to these horses? Do you think we can find their trace in the Inshass Original Herd Book?
Check out this website and tell me what you think: the Bedouin Heritage Project. In many ways, Daughters of the Wind and it is are ‘like-minded’ websites. I was just telling Jeanne Craver, who pointed me to it, that I expected a lot of such websites to crop out in the coming years, as a ‘Bedouin revival’ trend takes root in several Middle Eastern countries, as as global knowledge and interest around this topic converge online. I eventually expect this trend of longing for everything Bedouin to reach the asil Arabian horse in the USA, especially after the launch of the Gift of the Desert exhibition and the opening of the Arabian Horse Gallery in Lexington, KY this year. So here is a prediction for you: in five years’ time, Middle Eastern people, whether of Bedouin heritage or not, will be knocking at the doors of American backyard breeders of asil Arabians of desert background — BLUE STAR, Davenports, etc — and asking to buy some of their Hamdani, Haifi, Krush or ‘Ubayyan horses. If you are curious about this ‘Bedouin revival’ now taking place in the Middle East, read this 1999 (more than ten years old already!) article by…
If anyone who reads this website and lives in the USA knows where the 1987 stallion Tabbou (Saddat x Rose Al Badi by Shaikh Al Badi) and his 1985 sister PH So Uneeq (Imperial Faneeq x Rose Al Badi), both of the rare and coveted Shaykhan/’Ubayyan strain which hails from Lebanon, please email me privately: ealdahdah@hotmail.com. Their trace was lost some time ago, and I would like to track them back, and perhaps help them get back in production.
From reader Monique in the Netherlands comes this picture of the impressive dark bay Hamdani Simri stallion Monar (Kheibar x Aaghigh by Haddad). Click here for his pedigree, which is unusually long and detailed from an Arabian from the Middle East. Below is also a picture, also from allbreedpedigree.com, of his very typey great-grandsire Arras, an Ubayyan Sharrak, with Mary Gharagozlu up.
I am relaying this invitation to Rodger V. Davis’ Open House at his Desert Arabian Stud, which has been circulating over email.
Al Khamsa President Pam Studebaker, her daughter Jill Erisman, and a few other dedicated breeders have began an effort to identify, locate, and preserve the remaining horses of Richard Pritzlaff’s breeding in the USA, which includes the bloodlines from Rabanna (Rasik x Banna by Nasr), pictured below. I wish them good luck. RJ Cadranell wrote about Pritzlaff’s life and breeding program, in an article which you can read here.
Reader Regina from Germany sent me this picture of her 2001 mare AAS Ghazala (Ibn Taamrud x DB Jasidah by Desert Jalam). Regina’s mare is special for many reasons: first, she is one of the very few asil Arabian horses — less than 10, I think — of the Dahman Shahwan line to *Sawannah, a mare imported from Bahrain to the USA in 1954. Second, all her ancestors came from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain straight to the USA, as part of the last major batch of desert imports to the country. Third, she is only four generations away from her closest desert ancestor. Sometimes, I just can’t believe mares like AAS Ghazala still exist today. I am so glad they do, thanks to people like Regina who try to preserve these bloodlines. Ghazala’s beautiful and proud little colt is sired by AAS Theeb (AAS Al-Sakb x Bint Amiraa by Taamrud), a Hamdani Simri tracing to the marbat of the Saudi royal family. The colt was born on April 13th 2010, and is the latest addition to this small but precious family.
In 1874 and again in 1875, Captain Roger Upton traveled to the Syrian desert and purchased a number of Arabian horses from the Bedouin tribe of Sba’ah, which he imported to Great Britain. One of the mares he bought for a Mr. Sandeman, was the Ma’naghiyah Sbailiyah Haidee. Another was the mare Kesia (I), which he bough for a certain Mr. Henry Chaplin. Kesia (I) was a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, sired by a Kuhaylan Nawwaq, bred by the Qumusah section of the Saba’ah Bedouin tribe, which owns the marbat. The head of the Qumusah, Shaykh Sulayman Ibn Mirshid put his seal on the mare’s hujjah, which makes this mare very precious. Kesia (I) came to Great Britain in foal to a desert-bred Saqlawi al-‘Abd stallion, and produced a filly Kesia (II). The dam and the filly are two of the few mares of the Nawwaq strain to have been imported to a Western country – another one is *Malouma. The tail female of Kesia II no longer exists in asil breeding anywhere. However, her great-grandson Segario (Nimr x Shabaka, out of Kesia II) is still represented in asil pedigrees in the USA, where his dam was imported from Great Britian by Colonel Spencer Borden. Today, the blood of Kesia survives in…
I got my copy of the Khamsat magazine in the mail two days ago. Articles by Jeanne Craver, Joe Ferriss and RJ Cadranell on rare asil lines of yesterday and today, plus a primer on genetics and color inheritance by Michael Bowling, and much more. I waited till everyone was asleep and locked myself down in the basement to read it..
I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but the alarming situation of some of the rare asil lines here in the USA has become a cause of real concern to me, so much so that most of the entries of the past few weeks have been dedicating to writing about these lines. Here is rare picture of a representative of one of these rare lines, courtesy of Jeanne Craver: the 1966 stallion ASF David (by Daaldan x Dihkenna by Gharis). Back in the 1950s, the blood to his grandsire Gharis (Abu Zeyd x Guemura) was really popular in the USA, and his great grand-dam Tebuk was one of the foundation mares of American Arabian horse-breeding at large. David himself is one of the survivors of the Arabian Stud Farms tragedy, where scores of asil horses were left to starve on the farm, and this picture was taken one year after he was rescued from there, at 24. Today, only seven mares in the USA and Canada, known to be alive and of breeding age, trace to ASF David, and as far as I know, are the single remaining tenuous link to Gharis. Two are Krush by strain,…
[Edouard’s note: the story below was sent to me to Pure Man in Arabic, and is posted here under his name. Translation mine. It was first published a year ago, almost day for day and is being republished now] These horses, al-Musinnat [plural form of Kuhaylat al-Musinn or al-Musinnah] are very ancient. They are from the horses of ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Faysal ibn Turki Aal Saud, the brother of King ‘Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud. Prince Abd Allah, the brother of the king, had kept his horses in a private, separate farm. Upon his death, the horses went to his son, Prince Abd al-Rahman, and then to his grandson, Prince Faysal. And Prince Faysal is now aged. Then the horses went to Prince Turki Ibn Fahd Ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Faysal ibn Turki, who is now preserving what remains from the asil horses, per God’s will. Some of the Musinnat horses of Prince Abdallah, the brother of King Abd al-Aziz, participated in the Hedjaz campaign [i.e., the takover of the Hedjaz region from the Sharif of Mecca by the army of Ibn Saud in 1924]. Two men from Ibn Saud’s army fought particularly well in some episodes of this campaign:…
[This article, first published on April 16th, 2010, was just updated and expanded, and is being reposted now] The inquiry on the “Davenport Arabian” hujaj begins with *Urfah, who is present in the pedigree of our “case study” mare Jauhar El-Khala 75 times. My own Wisteria has a 151 crosses to *Urfah, and her newborn daughter Wadhah traces to *Urfah a stunning 219 times (!) Click here for what the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III has to say about *Urfah. Most of the information is essentially extracted from the hujjah itself, a translation of which is below (translation mine, adapted from the version I did for Al Khamsa Arabians III in 2005, which was a word-to-word translation): “I, Dhidan, testify by God that she came from [the clan of ] ‘Abdah from the tribe of Shammar; they [i.e, the clan of ‘Abdah] testified to my father Jar Allah al-‘Awaji, the father of Dhidan al-‘Awaji; they testified to my father that she is the Saqlawiah from the horses of al-‘Abd; I testify by God on the testimony of my father that she is Saqlawiah from the horses of al-‘Abd; I swear by God, I o Dhidan al-‘Awaji that she is Saqlawiah al-‘Abd; she is to…
Recently, I have been re-reading a lot of the old articles RJ wrote for Arabian Visions magazine, to refresh my memory as I start working on an Al Khamsa project on rare lines (more on this later). One of my favorite RJ articles is “The Blunts and Crabbet Stud: An Abbreviated History and Description of the Breeding Program“, from the time Crabbet Stud was founded in 1878 to Lady Anne Blunt death in 1917, including the dam lines that were represented at Crabbet across 40 years of breeding: In 1917, “the desert mares still represented at Crabbet at the end of Lady Anne’s life were Basilisk, Jerboa, Dajania, Queen of Sheba, Meshura, Rodania, and Ferida. However, the Jerboa line had died out in tail-female.” So, six of the Blunt’s desert damlines were still represented in 1917. Also, “of the Ali Pasha mares, the 1917 catalog details that […] the blood of the families of Sobha, Bint Helwa, Bint Nura, Makbula and her daughter Kasida, ran strong in the herd, with all but the latter having provided sires to the stud.” Four damlines from the Ali Pasha Sharif mares were still there in 1917, for a total of ten damlines. It would be…
In tribute to one of the best stallions in America, the stallion Joe Ferriss says ‘comes out of a 19th century engraving’ … and the sire of my little Wadha (and grandsire of her dam Wisteria). Javera Thadrian, a 1982 asil Kuhaylan Haifi stallion. Photo taken by either Charles Craver or Anita Westfall (photographer supreme).
This young fellow is the latest member of one of my favorite asil Arabian lines from around the world, that of 25 Amurath Sahib, from Hungary. He is by Laszlo Kiraly’s stallion, Dahhmany Bagdady (Wahhabit x Tisrina B) out of Laszlo’s Sarife B (El Thay Mameluk x 205 Farag II).
I just saw this nice photo of Michael Bowlings’ black mare Almohada, a Hamdaniyah Simriyah of ‘Davenport’ bloodlines. I don’t know where the black gene in ‘Davenport’ horses comes from, but I will make I ask Michael next time I talk . Ambar Diaz tells me this mare has a really nice 2009 colt.
As Jeanne Craver sends me and more pictures from Wisteria’s new daughter Wadha, I thought I’d create a new page especially dedicated to her, instead of keeping to bug readers with new pics every other day. Here’s the link, which you can check for updates from time to time.