This morning Lyman Doyle told me that young Pippa had delivered her first foal, a large, strong colt by Tamaam DE. Pippa foaled on her own, at dusk. The colt, chestnut of course, was quickly up and nursing. I am so grateful to Terry and Rosemary Doyle for boarding her at their farm (and for the photo), and to DeWayne for leasing her (and her dam) to me. This is my first Ma’naqi Sbayli foal, and I certainly hope not the last. How I love this strain. I was talking to Hazaim the other day, and he was telling me how much he loved it too. Just the evocation of his strain reminds me of the stories of my childhood about the horses and horsemen of the Sba’ah leaders from the house of Ibn Mirshid. One day, if this young fellow lives and grows, he will become a stallion, and see his name — which I still need to choose — added to the long and prestigious list of asil Ma’naqi stallions from the Sba’ah Bedouins, where his maternal line hails from: Funaytil, who made it back to the Sba’ah encampment along with 34 of his daughters and grand-daughters, out…
A quick overview of the various parts of Arabic/Islamic male names (people not horses) during and before the XIXth century may help. A typical name was constituted of different parts: The kinya: Abu Amin, “father of Amin”, people were referred as fathers of their firstborn son; if they did not have sons, they were still referred to as fathers of a hypothetical son carrying their own father’s first name. Example: your name is Ahmed, your father’s name is Ali, you don’t have a son, but your kinya would still be “Abu Ali”. The laqab: that’s the title: Agha, Pasha, Bey, Zadah, Effendi, Sheykh, Amir, etc. The ism: that’s the first name, Mohammed, Ahmed, Ali, Hussayn, etc. Sometimes in official documents or formal correspondence, the name of one’s father and grand father (and so on) would be included too: Mohammed ibn (son of) Ali ibn (son of) Ahmed ibn …. etc. The nisba: where the person came from, or resided last, or was born: al-Halabi (from Aleppo), al-Masri (from Cairo), al-Qudsi (from Jerusalem); one could have more than one, if for instance, they were born in one place, but resided in another, then moved to a third. This was regardless of…