Month: March 2021

This is Erika Schiele’s photo of Jallad (Arras x Atlassi, by Sepid) imported to Austria by Gustl Eutermoser, Gestüt Schieferegg. He was instrumental in the exportation of another of Arras’ offspring, Jezabel. Eutermoser also managed to take a photo of Jezabel’s maternal grandsire Ajdar.  

In Arabian horses, strains are traditionally transmitted by the dam. This is how Bedouins did it for about half a millennium, for reasons I discussed elsewhere. Strains, and their transmissions are intimately connected to the concepts of asil/atiq (roughly, authentic) in an Arabian horse. In other words, the daughter of an asil/atiq Hamdaniyah Simriyah and an English Thoroughbred is not a Hamdaniyah Simriyah. She is a hajin, a part-bred, not an Arabian horse. I think there is a universal consensus on that. Now let us assume that this half-Arabian part-bred daughter of the asil/atiq Hamdaniyah Simriyah is bred to an asil/atiq Arabian for one more generation. You still don’t have a Hamdaniyah Simiriyah. You’d still have a hajin, a partbred with 25% Engligh Thoroughbred blood and 75% Arabian blood. One more generation of breeding of this line to an asil/atiq Arabian horse will not get you your Hamdani Simri label back. You’d still have a hajin on your hands, this time with 12.5% Engligh Thoroughbred blood and 87.5% Arabian blood. The consensus on this horse not being an Arabian horse still holds, pretty much across the spectrum of the Arabian horse world. Where the consensus falls apart is on how…

From the article written by Betty Finke for “Araber Journal”:  In early 1980, Jezabel shared the fate of many of her two-legged countrymen and had to leave the country in a hurry. Being owned by the Royal Horse Society, she was technically the property of Shah Reza Pahlevi, who’s reign was abruptly ended by the return of the Ayatolla Khomeini, who called out the Islamic Republic of Iran and opposed everything from the West. The Shah’s horses with their connection to the US-based WAHO were in acute danger of their lives. Jezabel and other horses from the Royal Stud owed their life to the efforts of Gustl Eutermoser and Ulrike Marcik from Austria, who with the help of Mary Gharazoglou brought them out of the country to their own stud farm in Austria. On 1 March 1981 received her WAHO papers and was entered in Vol. 1 of the Asil Club. Jezabel (Arras x Atlass, by Ajdar) age 18 with her son sired by Inta  (Ibn Insiatur x Sabah, by Arras) Inta and Jezabel at Birgitte Degn’s farm in Austria. Jezabel, age 25 with her last foal Juna     Jezabel and Inta’s 1992 daughter, Jello.  

Here is a side-on photo of Barakah (Ibn Manial x Gamalat, by Ibn Samhan) and 2 headshots. This photo was taken at the Kingswills’ Gordonville Stud by Ian Thompson. I’m not sure how old Barakah is in the photo, but her full-grown daughter Gordonville Zahara (1956 – 1966) was also pictured that day. Sadly, Zahara left no registered purebred offspring. This photo was taken at Dr. Valérie Noli-Marais’ Sahiby Stud. It shows Barakah with the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisan. A memorial photo published by Ian Thompson.  On the left is Barakah’s son, Gordonville Ziyadan, by Zahir (Ibn Fayda x Zahra, by Gamil Manial). Ziyadan is a full brother to Gordonville Zahara mentioned earlier.

These are photos that accompanied two articles written by Kirsten and Bernd Radtke when they helped to document the Tahawy horses. If you allow for the odd typo, this could be the same stallion, but the photos tell a different story. The photo captions are as they appeared in the articles. Can anybody shed some light on who these horses are? “SHEIKH SULMAN’s breeding stallion IBN EL CHAAESSA” THE TAHAWY HORSES By Bernd Radtke Photo: Wolfgang Bitterle NordArab April 1988 “The stallion Ibn el Chaarssa of the Barakat line, owned by Sheik Soliman.” The Tahawys and their Horses by Kirsten & Bernd Radtke Photo: Radtke AHS News Summer ’88

Yesterday Arnault Decroix sent me this photo of his Syrian stallion Dahjani al-Arab, a Kuhaylan Da’jani born in the Syrian Jazirah (Upper Mesopotomia) in 2008. Dahjani al-Arab was part of the same batch of Syrian imports to France in 2009. The lot also included the stallions Mahboub Halep (a Shuwayman Sabbah); Dahess Hassaka (a Kuhaylan Nawwaq); Nimr Shabareq (a Ma’naqi Sbayli); Shahm (a Ubayyan Sharrak, who sadly died soon after the importation and was the best of the lot, in my opinion); and Meliar Halab (a Kuhaylan Krush), as well as the mare Rafikat al-Darb (a Shuwaymah Sabbah). For years I overlooked Dahjani al-Arab on this blog, and highlighted other imports like Mahboub, Dahess and Nimr, because I had some doubts about his Kuhaylan Da’jani tail female. Today, after a decade of follow up, I was able to access first-hand evidence of the authenticity of this strain. I will elaborate further in a next entry. Dahjani al-Arab is and always was, an asil Arabian horse    

In the 1975 article “Famous Arabian Horses of Argentina”, Verónica Medda wrote: “The first arabian horse importation to Argentina was in the nineteen-hundreds. The most important importation was in the year 1892 when Mr. Hernán Ayerza personally travelled to the Middle East to select Arabian stock for his own stud. These horses were the anestors of the famous stallion Haurram II. On September 30, 1912 Haurram II is born in “El Aduar” (Mr. Ayerza’s stud), by Racid, bred also at “El Aduar” and out of Haydee, a mare imported from Siria who at foaling was 20 years old. This great stallion was grand champion of the Argentine Rural Society’s exposition in the years 1915, 1916, 1920 and 1924. In 1916 the exposition was international since horses from all over the world were present. This was Haurram II’s greatest victory since the competition was not only between argentine stock but from other parts of the world. A very knowledgable judge of Arabian horses considered him to be perfect. He was so impressed by this horse that he went to England and told the owner of England’s most famous stud about Haurram II. They negotiated on leasing Haurram II to England for…