Al-Khaldi’s line is the most popular line of race horses in Syria today. It is now hard to find a Syrian Arabian without a line to him. Hazaim took the these two photos in 2005 in Garhok, in the extreme North East of Syria. Yours truly is holding him, in bad need of a haircut. In the Syrian Studbook, the sire of al-Khaldi appears as the Hadban Enzahi stallion Burhan. In reality his sire was al-Asda’, the dark bay Kuhaylan ibn Jlaidan of Ali al-Basha, by the Ma’naqi Hadraji of Zahir al-‘Ufaytan, out of the Kuhaylat ibn Jlaidan of Raja al-Ghishm, herself by the chestnut Kuhaylan Ajuz of Bardan Mit’ab al-Jlaidan, a strain the Jlaidan brought from the Sharif of Mecca five human generations ago. Dam: ‘Abirah, a black Shuwaymah Sabbah from the marbat of Muhammad al-Rahbi of the Shammar, and before that from the Juhaysh clan of al-Bu Mutaiwit between Sinjar and Tall Afar, Iraq and before that from the Jarbah Shaykhs of the Shammar. I recall a really small horse, pony size, and I was certainly not impressed.
Lately, I have been enjoying regular evening discussions with Radwan. He is energized now that several of the mares he had lost to the IS were found and brought back. He is part of a WhatsApp group with Bedouin shaykhs and breeders in Syria to discuss desert horses and strains. Yesterday’s discussion yielded a wonderful, just wonderful surprise: the specific Ubayyan Sharrak line to the 1906 Davenport import *Abeyah still exists among the Shammar. *Abeyah, per her hujjah now on the Arabian Horse Archives, was from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, the leader of the Thabit clan of the Northern Shammar, and one of its “men of war” (rijal harb) — military commanders. In the course of the 20th century (still trying to find out when), this precious Ubayyan Sharrak marbat, which originally hailed from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, passed from the sons of Mit’ab to their paternal cousins the sons of Shugayyif. They are now known after Shughayyif. By the 1980s, Muhammad ibn Mit’ab al-Hadb only had Saqlawiyat Jadran — and what Saqlawiyah these were! More on them another time. But their cousins the Shughayyif kept the line going. Two mares made it in the second rounds of registrations in…