CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” is coming back, after four years in the caring ownership of Cathy Fenton in Michigan. Thank you Cathy for letting me have her back. She is perhaps the last living Al Khamsa mare from the strain of Ferida, a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah bred in the Arabian desert and imported by Lady Anne Blunt from Egypt to the UK in 1891. Three other mares from Carol Stone’s Ma’naqi preservation breeding program, CSA Amira Kista (Sharif Zaraq x Takelma Rosanna) a 1997 grey mare; CSA Trilours (Mahtar x Takelma Velours), a 1999 grey mare and CSA Zaraqa (CSA Maneghi Amir x Takelma Velours), an unregistered 2000 grey mare, all died within a few years of each other. There are three other mares of breeding age, from another breeding program. The AK Preservation Task Force is trying to establish whether they are still alive, and if so, to locate them. Tall order..
I finally managed to make sense of the short section in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript that deals with the genealogies of the Sudaniyaat mares — from the strain of Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan. This section consists of about eighteen lines of a testimony by Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan of the Gmassah, on pages 86 and 87 of the Arabic edition. The English translation is confusing by the translators’ own admission, because of a couple missing words at the end of the testimony. I would like to propose the following genealogy, based on my translation of the Arabic text: Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan and the elders of the Gmassah reported that: A mare of the Saqlawiyaat of Ibn Jadran [Mare 1] was left by him with the Bani Husayn on the year water was being sold. From them, she [Mare 1] passed to Saliim the son of the paternal uncle of Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi by way of purchase. She [Mare 1] was bred to the Saqlawi Jadran horse al-Bahim which passed to Saud and she produced a chestnut mare [Mare 2], which ‘Ali ibn Sudan purchased. The daughter of al-Bahim…
What follows is an account of the origin of the Saqlawi strain from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, and my analysis of it. It ties together two distinct series of entries on this blog: a series on dating the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and a series on the history of the medieval tribal emirate of the Tai in Northern Arabia, under Muhanna ibn ‘Issa Aal Fadl (d. 1335 CE) and his descendants from the Aal Fadl clan of the Tai tribe (genealogy below). This account of the Saqlawiyaat needs to be handled with care, because of how it weaves together myth and reality. Careful analysis can however yield useful information, including a tentative dating for the origin of the strain. First, my translation of the account from Arabic, then my notes and analysis: A gathering was held in the presence of the prince (amir) of al-Mawali ‘Arif Bek, from the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, […], in the presence of Hammad al-‘Abitah, aged one hundred and twenty years — a caretaker in the household of the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, and in the presence of all the Mawali, old and young. Hammad al-‘Abitah and ‘Arif Bek were queried at the gathering:…
One consequence of my re-discovering George Tabet’s booklet after a twenty year hiatus is that it allowed me to solve a couple of puzzles related to Arabian horses imported to the USA. One of these relates to the 1947 W.R. Hearst desert-bred import *Rajwa and her son the stallion *El Abiad, who was imported by to the USA by F.E. Mars. Rajwa recorded strain is Saqlawi “Ejrifi”. *El Abiad’s is a variant: “Ejrefi”. I had not heard of this marbat of Saqlawi Ejrifi or Ejrefi. I long thought it was a spelling mistake. Tabet’s bilingual list of Arabian horse strains finally resolved that puzzle. Under the Saqlawiyaat to be mated, it had this: Saqlawi al-‘Ajrafi/’Ujrufi/’Ejrefi, goes back to Saqlawi al-‘Abd [in the French version: with Turki Ibn Najriss of the ‘Aqaydat] Here it was, as a branch of the Saqlawi strain, with the exact same spelling as for *Rajwa and *El Abiad, with additional information on the strain and its breeder. Tabet’s booklet was written in 1937, ten years before the Hearst importation. Tabet’s reference to the Shaykh of the ‘Aqaydat, Turki al-Najriss as the breeder of this strain also provides a clue about *Rajwa’s breeder, given how rare that strain…
Georges Philippe Tabet’s short booklet “Arabian Horse Lineages” (Ansaab al-Khayl al-Arabiyah, Dar al-Ahad, Beirut, June 1937, 56 pages in both Arabic and French) features a long list of Arabian horse strains. This is the “yellow booklet” I mentioned in an earlier entry. The list is different from lists of Western travelers — Blunt, Upton, Raswan, etc — I have seen before. It is also different from Ali al-Barazi’s equally comprehensive list. They would benefit from a thorough comparison with each other. Tabet mentions the Bedouins as the source of his information in the introduction to the book. He wrote: Faced with this state of ignorance, I decided to turn to the source of the breeding of the Arab horse — the people of the Badia — until after much effort, I was able to know the reasons for these terms [the strains] and what differentiates them from each other. The list has minor errors, which I will be noting in the comments sections over the coming days. Most errors are of two sorts: spelling errors resulting from differences between how Bedouins and settled people pronounce some Arabic letters, and the attribution of the wrong tribal affiliations to some strain owners,…
Today was a special day. As a child, I used to treasure the times spent talking with my father about Arabian horses. In the evenings, I would sit by his bedside,and read from the same books or magazines he read from. There was a white nightstand near his bed. In one of the nightstand’s drawers, there was a stack of small papers, bound together with a staple or two. My father would refer to it as “Abu Tahir’s booklet” (karrasit Abu Tahir), after the late Ahmad Ghalyun (Abu Tahir), who seems to have given it to him. Abu Tahir had a farm outside Homs in Syria, where my father kept some of his horses on occasion. Lots of nice teenage memories there. The booklet consisted of a list of Arabian horse strains, their owners and owners’ tribes in Arabic. It classified the strains into ‘hedud‘, those to be mated, and ghayr hedud, those not to be mated. More on this notion later. Over the years, the booklet’s printed words faded and its creased pages became yellow. That’s what I liked the most about it. I treasured it, and today I still attribute my passion for Arabian horses strains to the…
[This article was last revised on June 26] My dive into the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — for approximates dates of the beginning of the main strains of Arabian horses continues. The approach remains the same. After the Dahman Shahwan (ca. 1280 CE), Hamdani Simri (ca. 1670) and the Hadban and Harqan strains (both ca. 1650), now is the turn of the Krushan. The Krushan strain is the subject of Chapter 11 of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This my translation of the opening testimony: Al-Hamidi Al-Dawish, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Dawish, Husayn Ibn Farz, and Mutlaq al-Dawish, a man advanced in age, were queried in the presence of a crowd from the Dushan and the Mutayr about the Krush. Which of the Kahaayil does she go back to? ?Who did she originally spread from? The aforementioned reported: “She is a Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz; she is the first of the Kahaayil; she was was named Krush after Ibn Karshah of Qahtan, and al-Ghandur after al-Ghandur of the Buqum. She is a precious strain, [they are] authenticated and blessed horses. She first spread from Ibn Ramthayn of the ‘Abidah of Qahtan. The Sharif Abu Srur al-awwal asked for her from Ibn Ramthayn,…
I finally located the original reference to the famous account of the gift of a really expensive desert-bred mare to al-Malik al-Nassir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Syria and Hijaz. He reigned from 1293 to 1341 CE, with two interruptions (1294-99 and 1309-10). Al-Nassir Muhammad was really fond of desert-bred horses from Arabia. He paid large sums for them and collected them in large numbers — a sort of precursor to Abbas Pasha. When he died, he left behind 4,800 of these horses in his stables, not counting the ones he had given to his Mamluks during his long rule. The account of that expensive gift occurs in pages 503 and 506 of this edition of al-suluk li-ma’rifat duwal al-muluk (free download link for those who read Arabic!), a work by Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364-1442 CE). Maqrizi was one of the foremost historians and chroniclers of the Mamluk Sultanate. It is not to be found in Maqrizi’s al-mawa’izh wa al-i’tibar, as the Arabian horse website of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina says. Here is my translation of the account, under the events of the year 715 Hijri (1315-16 CE), followed by my notes: On [this year], Muhammad ibn ‘Issa, the…
Check out this excellent article about the modern Bani Lam tribe, a subset of the medieval tribe of same name. Some sections splintered, reformed, absorbed sections from other tribes, and become the modern day tribes of al-Dhafeer, al-Fudul, Aal Mughirah, and Aal Kathir. The remainder of the tribe retained its tribal name, and: Pushed out of northern Hejaz in the 9th/15th century, they moved to the lower Tigris-Euphrates region about 950/1550 (Oppenheim, II, pp. 320, 324; III, pp. 18-19). Late in the 10th/16th century they migrated to the east bank of the Tigris. They are now settled in the ‘Amarah district of eastern Iraq and the Khuzistan province of Iran. I guess they are the source of the Iranian Asils, at least in part. That would make a lot of sense, given that some of the strains of today’s Iranian Asils like Wadnan and Hamdani were originally Bani Lam strains. Some Iranian Wadnans below. You may be wondering why the focus on the Bani Lam on this blog over the past few entries. I feel I am onto something, in terms of the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and that such beginning may be connected to both the Sharifs of…
An interesting account from the Meccan chronicle Ghayat al-Maram bi Akhbar Saltanat al-Balad al-Haram by ‘Izz al-Din al-Hashimi al-Qurashi under the year 917 Hijri (1511-12 CE): The Sharif Barakat raided the Mafarijah [a tribe of the Bani Lam] and their allies the Bani ‘Uqbah. He [the Sharif] had some of the Mafarijah with him. Then he met with the Shaykhs of Bani Lam. They agreed with him that he’d give them their usual subsidies. They told him that the Sultan had sent six thousand [units of money] with al-Burhan al-Samarqandi, which they had not received. The Sharif gave the tribes of Bani Lam and Bani ‘Uqbah and others large numbers of horses and garments. He showed much beneficience to them. Bedouin oral histories have conserved the memory of many horses strains coming from the Sharif Barakat. However, there were at least three Sharifs of Mecca by this name. Also, this episode in another source, Nayl al-Muna, involving the same Sharif Barakat and his son Abu Numayy in the year 926 Hijri / 1520 CE: The tribe of Bani Lam laid siege to [the holy city] Medina. They cut some of its palm groves that were toward Mount Uhud. They asked…
Another Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain from the Sharif of Mecca. The below account of the Kuhaylan Harqan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript offers some of the clearest indications for dating an Arabian horse strain. The accounts of Kuhaylat al-Ru’ail and her name is al-Harqah: Those present at the gathering of Ha’il were queried about al-Ru’ail, “as it is said it is yours, O Shammar”. Talal Ibn Ramal and ‘Ubayd ibn Rashid reported: “The accounts we have heard from the forebears were that, in early times, al-Suwayt was in the homeland area [dirah] of al-Jabal [Jabal Shammar]. He [al-Suwayt] would raid the people of Najd each time one of the ashraaf from the people of Mecca took over power [in Najd]. When the Sharif Muhammad al-Harith, the leader of the ashraaf at the time, took over power [in Najd], he [i.e., al-Suwayt] raided Najd [again]. Muhammad al-Tulay’, a son of ‘Abdah, of the Fdayl of the Shammar, unhorsed the Sharif Muhammad al-Harith and took him prisoner. He made many demands over his release. Among his demands was the Kuhaylah. And she [i.e., a mare from that line, not the ransom mare herself] went to Abu Utait, the Shaykh of the Faddagha…
I have been reading and writing a lot about the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe lately, because of its link with the origins of the Hamdani and Hadban strains. So here is a rare picture of ‘Ajmi ibn Suwayt (died 1988), the tribe’s Shaykh during most of the twentieth century. While the tribe’s traditional dira (i..e, the area associated with it, including the main wells and watering places) fell within the borders of Iraq, as well as the old neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia (in brown in the map below), ‘Ajmi Ibn Suwayt transferred his allegiance to Saudi King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Saud, and moved to Saudi Arabia with part of his tribe. The Dhafeer therefore acquired “Saudi tribe” status, which opened the door to the naturalization of its members as Saudi. Another part of the tribe remained in Iraq, under a rival cousin.
[I revised this article several times, the last time on June 16, 2020] The subject of this article is a battle between the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe and the Sharif Hamud Ibn ‘Abdallah either in the year 1667-68 Hijri (1078 Hijri) or 1669-1670 CE (1080 Hijri), depending on the sources. This episode is relevant to understanding the beginnings of the Hadban and Hamdani strains in Arabian horses. Both strains find their origins with the Dhafeer. Some context first: The Sharifs (Arabic plural ashraaf) are the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, which have over time come to form a special social group. In the Hijaz region of Arabia, the ashraaf have turned this special social status into political power. Different branches competed for the rulership of Mecca, with frequent conflicts. The Sharif Hamud never ruled Mecca. He was a cousin and a serious rival to the ruling Sharif, Sa’ad ibn Zaid whose rule began in 1666-7. Here is British explorer and historian Gerald De Gaury on this contested nomination episode and the ensuing conflict between Sa’ad ibn Zaid and his rival Hamud: “Sa’d it was, who in the end received the Sultan’s approval, and Hamud in consequence at once left Mecca for…
From the “History of Najd” of ‘Uthman Ibn Bishr: Under the year 1670-71 CE: In the year 1081 [Hijri], was the battle of al-Kaythal, a well known place in Najd, between al-Dhafeer and al-Fudul. Under the year 1674-75 CE: In the year 1085, [came] the famous time known [as] Jarman during which prices increased, and during which the nomads of the Fudul (bawadi al-Fudul) went eastwards. Under the year 1675-76 CE: In the year 1086 […], in this year, Salamah ibn Suwayt, the chief of the Dhafeer was made prisoner, Barrak Ibn Ghurayr felled him and made him prisoner.
It’s an exaggeration but this is what Hamid ibn Mudhi al-Suhayyan, the Shammari owner of the marbat of Ubayyan Ibn Suhayyan, told me in 2006. At the time I did not fully grasp the significance of what he had said. After reading the initial stories about the foundation of every strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, I now see what he meant. Bani Lam, a Najd branch of the Tai tribe, broke into four tribes sometime in the mid 1650s: Dhafeer, Fudul, Aal Kathir, and Aal Mughirah. The first three migrated easterwards, towards Iraq shortly after, because of pressures from the Sharif of Mecca, the rise power of the Shammar conferation (which was part Tai and part ‘Abidah/Qahtan) and a devastating famine known as Jarman. Today the Aal Kathir are considered part of the Dhafeer. The following strains were created with one or another of the branches of the Bani Lam. By “created”, I mean that they acquired their separate names as distinct branches of the Kuhaylan tree: Hadban (Dhafeer branch, at Mani’ of Dhafeer, then to Nzahi of Fudul) Wadnan (Fudul branch, at al-Khursan of Fudul) Shuwayman (Fudul branch, at Sabbah of Fudul) Mimrah (Aal Mughirah branch, started as…
The below account of the origin of al-Hadb is an application of the way I propose to date the origin of Arabian horse strains. I translated it from the Arabic version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. My own notes follow. The accounts of al-Hadb with al-Dhafeer: In the presence of Sultan Ibn Suwayt and a crowd of people at the gathering, Shabat al-Mani’ of al-Suwayt, a man advanced in age, and ‘Ali al-Mani’ the son of Shabat’s brother, were queried about al-Hadb, how they came about, their origins, and which of the strains they trace back to. The two aforementioned reported that: “Mani’ was at the time of Bani Lam. He was from our grandfathers. Between us, O those present here and Mani’, there are four grandfathers. We do not know how she passed to Mani’, except that we hear and know from our elders that there is no Hadbah other than the horses of Mani’. She [the strain] traces back to Kuhaylat Umm Ma’aarif. The reason for her being called Hadbah is that there was a mare at Mani’s with profuse hair, so abundant that it covered her crest. For this reason, she was called Hadbah. She [the strain]…
I take special interest in the origin of Arabian horse strains. I am particularly keen on establishing the approximate dates when the main strains first came about. In the context of oral Bedouin culture, this can present obvious challenges. Before the advent of modernization and mass literacy in the twentieth century, Bedouins did not assign numerical values to years the way literate societies did. They linked years to important events that took place in the same time period, e.g., “the year Sfug al-Jarba was murdered“. This was 1847, according to British spies’ cables to London. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript helps resolving the dating problem to some extent. It features hundreds of pages of written testimonies from several dozen Bedouins. The preamble to the manuscript mentions a completion date in 1269 Hijri, which extends from November 1852 CE to October 1853 CE. This means that Abbas Pasha’s envoys to the tribe must have gathered their accounts in 1851 or 1852 at the latest. Incidentally, one of the accounts refers to “the year Sfug al-Jarba was murdered” (1847) in the recent past, so the accounts must have been collected in or after 1848. A date of 1850 is therefore a good estimate,…
Also from the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, my translation: Ghadir al-Simri of the Dhafeer, a white haired man, the owner of al-Simr, was asked about the marbat of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah, in the house [Bedouin house, i.e., tent] of Farhan al-Jarba, at a gathering [majliss] in the presence of Farhan al-Jarba, Khuzaym the Shaykh of al-Sayih of Shammar, Ubayd Ibn Suqi, and Samir Ibn Zaydan al-Jarba [that’s the brother of ‘Ajil Ibn Zaydan owner of Davenport’s *Hadba], and a crowd of people, more than a hundred individuals. O Ghadir, by your honor and good fortune, and belongings and children, recount the story of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah, your marbat. From where he pass to you? To whom did she pass from you? What are the marabet which recognize? Inform us truthfully in this gathering! During the gathering, Ghadir al-Simri reported that: “As to the strains that passed from us to outsiders, our grandathers say that on the day of the battle of the Sharif, in times past, when our grandfathers were in Najd, twelves fillies from the daughters of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah our marbat left to the tribes [the tribes allied with the Sharif of Mecca]. This is…
This entry compares two Arabic primary sources some 53 years apart: First, my translation of a passage in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (1853) about the Hamdani Simri strain, with my notes in brackets. “Mughir Ibn Buraykan of the Gmassah [a clan of the Sba’ah tribe], a man aged one hundred years, was queried. He testified that ‘Abdallah Ibn Ghbain, one of the senior Shaykhs of the Fada’an had informed him that the Hamdaniyah Simriyah had reached al-Jad’ah [a clan of the Fad’aan tribe] from al-Simri of the Dhafeer. It happened that a raiding party from the Dhafeer had attacked them [“the Fad’aan tribe] at Wadi al-Rasha in Najd. Fad’aan and Sba’ah [who often camped together] pursued him [i.e., al-Simri, who was part of the Dhafeer raid] and unhorsed him. The Hamdaniyah escaped from her owner, and she was a two-year old. A horseman from al-Jad’ah — the owner of [the marbat of] Kuhaylat Ras al-Fidawi — went after her. He [the horseman from al-Jad’ah] offered him [al-Simri] protection in exchange for half of her [the mare] and gave him the [Kuhaylat] Ras al-Fidawi and twenty she-camels for the second half, and took her. So [the clan of] al-Jad’ah had the…
Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi was an authority on the horses of Homs and Hama in Central Syria. He was also a primary source of information about the horses of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, whose summer encampments were near these two cities. His family acquired many horses from the Sba’ah. His information about the racehorses of Egypt and Lebanon could be relied upon. His book “the Arab Horse” (in Arabic) is a lot less reliable when it comes to horses from other parts of Arabia. It also seems that Barazi had access to the English translation of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which Judith Forbis and Gulsun Sherif were working on in the 1960s and 1970s. His book features many photos from the Judith Forbis article “Pearls of Great Price” in Arabian Horse World about the horses of Bahrain. He also cites information that appears only in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. One can tell from the errors in his translations back to Arabic that he was working off excerpts from the English version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This is a minor criticism of what otherwise remains one of the better books to be published in Arabic about Arabian horses over…
I love reading the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its Arabic version. I find it entertaining, a bit like a novel. This is one of my favorite passages — my translation, and my annotations in brackets: Shahata al-Hunaydees was asked: “Do tell us about your marbat [a Bedouin stud], by your honor and good fortune. From where did the Ubayyah al-Hunaydisiyah come to you? Which marabet [plural of marbat] do you recognize? To whom did she pass from you? He declared: “She passed to my grandfather al-Hunaydis from al-Sharrak in person. Al-Sharrak was the maternal uncle of al-Hunaydis, and he gifted her to him as an elderly mare. As to her passing to outsiders [i.e., beyond his tribe], I will not tell you about it. So Farhan al-Jarba went to see him, and from noontime till the evening he tried to trick him [into discussing the horses from his stud]; he even threw his children in the lap of al-Hunaydis [a Bedouin way of pleading with someone] so that he traces his horses, but he would not trace them. Al-Hunaydis was eventually coerced to tell that: “a mare passed from us to al-Sardiyah [a small noble tribe in North Arabia] and…
This is not a photo I would have shared a few months ago. I don’t remember who sent it to me. It features a member of the Islamic State (IS) on the Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion Shamikh Al Jabri. The background to the photo is the equestrian club of Raqqah with its conspicuous blue gate. The club was destroyed in the US coalition bombings. Many horses perished. Shamikh and a few mares survived. He died last year, but several mares are alive that are in foal to him. His pedigree is one of the best in Syria, and certainly one of the cleanest. The sire of Shamikh is Wesam Halab (Raad x Aaliyah), a Hamdani al-‘Efri of the breeding of Omar ‘Anbargi. His dam is Fattanah (Faris II x Dawhah), a Kuhaylat al-Wati. Dawhah was one of the original Kuhaylat al-Wati mares of Mustafa Jabri, from the breeding of Hakim al-Ghism. Faris II was by the Kuhaylan Mimrah stallion Basil (Mahrous x Halah) out of the ‘Ubayyah Suhayliyah mare Qatheefah. Below, from top to bottom: Halah the chestnut, Qatheefah the bay, and Dawhah the chestnut. Three mares I have known through the 1990s and continue to admire. I don’t think either…
‘Azzah was one of my father’s favorite mares at Mustafa Jabri’s. She was a daughter of the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-Aawar and of Nadia, a desert bred Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah tracing to the marbat of Muhammad al-Dahdah of the Jawwalah clan of Tai and to Dari al-Mahmud of the Zawba’ Shammar before that. That strain originally goes back to the ‘Anazah. I took this photo of hers in the mid-1990s. Despite being the daughter of two registered horses, and the full sister of Mustafa’s other senior stallion Ihsan (photo below), Azzah was somehow missed by the first wave of registrations of the late 1980s, and was only registered in the second wave in 2001. By the way, it took me ten years before I realized that Ihsan was a son of Al-Aawar.