This morning I stumbled upon an erudite and thoroughly researched paper by Dr. Shihab al-Sarraf of the International Center of Furusiyyah [Horsemanship] Studies on “Mamluk Furusiyyah Literature and Its Antecedents”, published at the University of Chicago’s Mamluk Studies Review, VIII-1-2004. It is the most comprehensive review to date of the Islamic literature on horses and horsemanship from early to late medieval times. The following passage in this paper sparked my interest: “The main body of Arab philological works on horses was written in Iraq during the period from the latter half of the second/eighth century to the end of the first half of the fourth/tenth century. These works included both comprehensive and specific treatises. Of the former type, commonly titled Kitab al-Khayl, more than twenty treatises were written, all deemed lost except four. These are Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Ubaydah Ma‘mar ibn al-Muthanná (d. 209/824); Kitab al-Khayl by al-Asma‘i (d. 216/831); Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-‘Utbi (d. 228/842), and Kitab al-Khayl by Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280/893). The last two treatises are still in manuscript and the fate of their extant copies, presumably kept in a private collection, is uncertain. In any case, the basic and unmatched contributions in this domain remain the above first…
Stephan Eberhardt shared with me this photo of his Algerian/Tunisian/Egyptian mare Dachna (Khaiber x Dahna by El Aswad a.k.a Ibn Galal-15), a Shuwaymah Sabbah tracing to the Tiaret mare Cherifa. I am always pleased to see that these asil lines from North Africa have crossed well with Egyptian lines in Europe. The mare has two close crosses to Tunisian lines: her paternal grand-dam is the Jilfat al-Dhawi mare Rissala (Esmet Ali x Chanaan by Souci), whose sire and dam are from Anatole Cordonnier’s breeding in Tunisia but mostly from Algerian lines; and her maternal grand-dam is the beautiful Dar Essalam (Koufi x Djamila by Titan) whose sire is from Tunisian lines from Sidi Thabet and dam from Algerian lines from Tiaret.
Last year, I posted a photo of the grey Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Sultan, one of the Syrian government stallions at the stallion depot of the Veterinary Unit of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture in 1958 (Syria’s then equivalent of the EAO). Now I am posting this photo of Sultan’s mate, the Hamdani Simri stallion Hassaan. Photo from Hazaim Alwair. Judging from these pictures and others, the Syrian government appears to have maintained of asil stallions at this time. I was told that when in the late 1950s Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser offered it the stallion Amro (Nazeer x Amara by Kheir x Zahra by Hamran II), many Syrian breeders shunned him because they felt the government stallions were better.
Here is a photo of his son Brassicaire out of the wonderful Jilfat al-Dhawi mare Bossa Nova (Iricho x Bassala by Masbout)
This is my translation of the hujjah of Mumtazah, the maternal and paternal grand-dam of the Kuhaylan Krush stallion Mokhtar, who is now in France with Chantal Chekroun and is already 27 years old. I am happy to see the number of his descendants increase every year. “I the undersigned ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, known as al-Qartah from the Faddaghah tribe of the Shammar al-Zawr, who now lives in the village of al-Taif, which is in the district of Tall Hamis in the province of al-Qamishli, I testify by God Most High, a testimony free from all self-interest, that the grey flea-bitten mare that is eighteen years old is Krush al-Bayda; she [i.e., her line] came to us directly from the Shaykh of the Shaykhs of the Shammar, Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin, approximately twenty years ago; her sire is Krush from the same marbat; and so are the sire of her dam, and the sire of her sire; her paternal uncles are from her maternal uncles [i.e., her sire and dam are closely related and so are their sires and dams] and no outside horse was introduced among them [i.e., the line was only bred to stallions from the same line]. And…
This one is from Louis Bauduin, who owns Shuwayman Badawi (Mokhtar x Murad Haouda by Cherif out of Hamada by Irmak). Guillaume Lambert Gilles Shwaar in the photo.
Adrien Deblaise just shared with me this photo of the Syrian stallion imported to France, Hussam al-Shamal (Raad x Rouba al-Shamal by Al-Abjar). He is reminicent of his sire the desert-bred (literally born under a tent) Kuhaylan al-Mossen Raad in color, size of the eye, croup, and of his maternal grandsire, the impressive Saqlawi ibn Zubayni al-Abjar (neck, ears, shoulder).
Photo from Olivia Greene. We are trying hard to find Bint Jadiba (Ibn Tirf x Jadiba), the foal in the picture. She was alive as of two years ago.
This colt is Murad Aman, by Nimr Shabareq (imported from Syria) out of Murad Ouafah Habib (Jahir x Mourad Had’ra by Medicq Allah x Hamada).
Il est décevant de constater qu’effectivement la politique d’élevage à Tiaret obliqua très vite aux abords de l’année 1970 ! Il est à noter que deux mâles de trois ans furent exportés à Cuba en 1964 !? Il s’agit de : GUEM par Beyrouth et Alouta par Loubieh et Mesqa par Masbout (OR). GUEDACH par Masbout (OR) et Jezza par Bango (OR) et Maana par Safita (OR) !!! L’Algérie a importé en 1970 : De France : 1 étalon (fils de Ourour) De Suède : 6 étalons 8 juments L’Algérie a importé en 1979 : D’Angleterre : 3 étalons 3 juments De Suède : 2 étalons 4 juments Bilan fait seulement jusqu’en 1982 ! Depuis, je n’ai plus d’informations précises si ce n’est que je sais que de nombreux chevaux de tous poils sont importés de France pour les courses et je ne sais quoi d’autre. Nous leur envoyons semble-t-il nos excédants à bas prix, ce qui doit faire les beaux jours de certains maquignons. Je ne peux croire à un tel désastre, en la disparition d’un pur chef d’œuvre de conscience, travail minutieux et exemplaire de sélection sévère et intelligente de plus d’un siècle, anéanti en quelques années !? Toutes ces précieuses lignées pures adultérées par ces chevaux nordiques tous plus…
Anyone knows the exact location of the Sheykh Obeyd stud in today’s Cairo? It is supposed to be half way between the neighborhoods of Matarieh and Ain Shams, but I need a street address.
Last week, my beloved 28 year old Ma’naqi Sbayli mare, Dakhala Sahra, was put down. She had a stroke, which had left her moving in circles from point A to point B, instead of straight lines. I saw footage of this, which I will not share here out of deference for her. I had never seen anything like this before. The story of this mare is one of missed opportunities, since I first tried breeding her in 2010. With her breeder Jeanne Craver, and former owner Kathy Busch, we tried everything: ET, AI, live cover after treating her uterus cysts. Nothing worked. I feel guilty because the Ohio vet I chose for her ET was incompetent and inexperienced. I felt I had a window there. She is one of very few asil mares left with a tail female to Haidee of Captain Roger Upton (I have serious issues with those that trace to *Bint Shams in the middle of the pedigree, by the way), and has the most beautiful pedigree of all the mare I have owned. Imagine this: a daughter of Plantagenet, who is a grand-daughter of Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah), a great-grand-daughter of Julyan (Julep x Bint Maaroufa),…
Perhaps I should not be doing that, but I am posting a list of potentially surviving Tiaret lines in a Word document. There are less than a handful potentially left, as John was writing earlier. If someone finds a way to get hold of one, let me know. I will jump on the next flight to Algiers. Let me know if you can open it. Legend: in bold: stallions, underlined: potentially alive.
I have previously written twice and in some detail about the desert-bred stallion El Sbaa imported to France in the 1920s (here and here). It turns out that the strain of the horse is Kuhaylan J’aitni (that’s from his file at Pompadour) and that he was purchased by French Inspector Rieu de Madron from Ahmad Ibish’s stables in Alexandria (that’s from de Madron’s book). The wiki website Allbreedpedigree.com has his dam as “El Ghermith A Kuhaylah Juatany” and his sire as a “Maneghi Sbyeli”. Does anyone know where this specific information comes from? do we know his breeder? Also Teymur made the interesting suggestion that he might be the El Sabaa sire of Hamdan Stables’ El Gadaa, who appears in Hamdan’s studbook.
To complete the trio of photos from the French and North African studs, here is one of the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet, also courtesy of Michael Bowling.
Yesterday Michael Bowling shared with me this lovely post card of an Arabian mare and her foal at the French government stud of Pompadour, in the Correze district. No date on the postcard.