حديث ابراهيم الدواس السعدي من ال سعدي عوارف شمر أجراه إدوار الدحداح وحازم الوعر عام 2006 :عن كحيلة الشريف هم اصحاب رسن كحيلة الشريف جابوا الرسن معهم من نجد من أكثر من 150 سنة الحين عندهم فرسين واحدة بنت صقلاوي السبيه والثانية أمها بنت صقلاوي أحمد الدهام الاثنين عشار من صقر سوريا حصان حمداني كحيلة الشريف هي نفسها كحيلة العاجوز سمعنا عن أجدادنا أن العاجوز يعني الاختيار وأن الشريف هو العاجوز وخيلنا اسمها كحيلات العاجوز الشريف من دور أهلنا و بعدين أسقطت كلمة الشريف وبقي اسمها كحيلات العاجوز :عن منيس السعدي منيس ودواس إخوان منيس كان يحب الخيل وكان عنده دهمه وحمدانية وكروش من زمان :عن ابو كتف حصان منيس السعدي ابو كتف أحمر محجل له صرة أي سيالة صغيرة ذيله طويلة كانوا يشبونه عندما ابراهيم الدواس كان عمره عشر سنين :عن الحصان الصقلاوي حصان عباد الدادان عباد الدادان من عبيد دهام الهادي حصانه الصقلاوي يكون ابو حصان ابراهيم الدواس السعدي كحيلان الشريف ابو فرس مدحي السحيان العبية الام كانوا مربعين قرب عباد الدادان فشبوا كحيلة الشريف من حصانه الشبوة تمت عام 1972 جابت حصان أدهم عاش ستة سنين شبا مدحي العبية منه عام 1975-1976 الدادان الآن في تل عنتر عن ُحميد بن مَدحي السحيان يسكن قرية خويتلة من خرصة…
I love it! Check out Mayassah’s entry for example. You can even hover over the photo icon and see the photos of the ancestors without having to click on each ancestor.
An interesting trend common to both Syrian and Bahraini Arabian horses is the disappearing of the old Bedouin concept of “Shubuw” or “Yishabby”. The concept means “fit for breeding” or “good for breeding”. Before the 1980s in Bahrain, and the 2000s in Syria, there was a distinction between the strains that were considered “fit for breeding” and the strains that were not. Within Syria, there was no broad agreement on which strains were “fit for breeding” and which were not, as each region, each tribe, even each group of people had their own opinion on the issue, but the concept did exist and was part of the conversation about Arabian horses. I recall that back in the 1990s a Syrian breeder could be chided for breeding his mares to a Sa’dan, a Rishan, a Rabdan or a Da’jani stallion. Today the distinction has become moot, and all strains are being bred from in both countries — for now.
The Facebook page for the publishing house, al-Dar al-Sultaniyah lil-Dirassat wal-Watha’iq al-‘Uthmaniyah publishes documents in the Arabic language from the Ottoman imperial archives in Istanbul. The publisher’s knowledge of Arabic and his apparent lack of familiarity with Ottoman Turkish, the official language of the Ottoman Empire, means that all the documents on the page are letters to Ottoman high-ranking officials from their Arabic-speaking subjects, usually urban notables, provincial leaders, or Bedouin tribal chiefs. They generally relay grievances, concerns, requests to officials in Istanbul. Occasionally, one finds documents about Arabian horses. The document below is one of these: The Facebook post mentioned that this was a list of horses sent by the Shammar to the Ottoman Sultan or his Grand Vizir in 1891. The document’s beginning and end appear to have been cropped by the publisher. This is my translation of the published excerpt: The blonde/chestnut Kuhaylah; also, the red/bay Kuhaylah, three legs white except the left foreleg, with a blaze (sayyalah); also they yellow and she is the Tuwayssah; also, the Kuhaylah Umm ‘Arqub, light grey; also the yellow/grey Kuhaylat ‘Aafess; also the red Kuhaylah, both hindlegs white, with a blaze; also the black Kuhaylah, right hindleg white, with a…
The British Arab Horse Society (AHS) celebrated its centennary in 2018. For this occasion, it curated an exhibition in Newmarket, England, where it showcased three hujaj of desert-bred mares imported to the UK, among other original documents. Kina Murray, who was then WAHO Secretary, had asked me to translate these for AHS. Below is the translation of the first hujjah. “Testimonial paper We, the undersigned from the tribe of al-Ghurayr, testify by God concerning the bay mare, a stripe in her forehead, named Nuha Khanum, the daughter of Salma, her origin is Kuhaylat Aba Snun al-Nawwakah, her sire is the Saqlawi of Ibn Mahmud, she belongs to Hazza’ al-Rashed of the tribe of al-Ghurayr; for this [reason] we composed this testimonial paper concerning the origin of the mare; God is a witness to and a trustee of what we say. About the sire of her dam he is the Hamdani, and the sire of her maternal grand-dam is the ‘Ubayyan al-Suhayli. Ubayd al-Jammagh One of the heads of the tribe of al-Ghurayr ‘Abdallah al-Rumman The head of the tribe of al-Masalihah Ibrahim al-Muhammad One of the heads of the tribe of Qartan Aswad al-Salbuh [uncertain reading] One of the heads…
An image of this document appears on page 79 of Peter Upton’s The Arab Horse (The Crowood Press, 1989). It is inconspicuously labeled as “Fig. 132. Facsimile of an Arab letter to Sir Gilbert Clayton“. Here is my translation, based off the image above, with my comments between the brackets: In the name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate [printed letterhead] The Hijazi and Najdi Kingdom and its dependencies [printed letterhead]The Diwan of His Majesty the King [printed letterhead] Number 87320 Dhul Qi’dah Year 1345 [printed year, date equivalent to Saturday May 21, 1927] From Abd al-‘Aziz son of ‘Abd al-Rahman of the House of Faysal [i.e., Faysal ibn Turki] to his Excellency the Sir Clayton:After greetings and compliments, we present Your Excellency with the horses, a male horse and a mare. As to the male horse, he is the Saqlawi of the most authentic [asaayil, plural of asil] horses of Najd; his sire is an ‘Ubayyan; the mare is Krush; her sire is a Kuhaylan.However, quite regrettably I saw today that their looks were not nice looks; the reason for this is the length of the journey, because they’ve been in the wilderness [al-barriyah, literally, “the bush”] for a…