A previous entry by Kate McLachlan on the modern descendants of the Weil Stud foundation mare Murana I led me to the family of Cassis-Faraone of Trieste. Murana I was acquired in 1816 by Baron Fechtig for Weil by way of the port of Trieste. Some of Europe’s most illustrious foundation Arabian horses were associated with Fechtig: Tajar, Bairactar, Murana I, Warda, Koeyl, etc. But who was he? Lets pin down some places first: Weil was the royal stud of the King Wilhem I of Wurttemberg (1781-1854), whose capital was Stuttgart. Trieste, now in Italy, was at the time the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the Mediterranean sea. The trade of Austro-Hungarian Empire with the Orient, including Egypt and Syria, went through Trieste. Baron Ferdinand Fechtig Von Fechtenberg, the son of a senior magistrate in Vienna of same name, became a merchant when he married Teresa, daughter of a wealthy merchant from Trieste, Antonio Cassis-Faraone. This marriage marks the beginning of his trading association with the Orient. Antonio Cassis-Faraone was born in Damascus in 1745, the scion of a Greek-Catholic (ie, Melkite) family of traders. This is the same family as that of Henri Pharaon, who played such…