Kuhaylan Khdili in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

The strain of the Kuhaylan al-Khdili (alt. spellings Hedili, Khadali, Khadli) is not well known outside Arabia. It is however one of the most esteemed and revered strains of Arabian horses. Connoisseurs speak of its authenticity (asalah) with awe and respect. Few horses of that strain made it to the West. One such horse is Safita, a red bay desert-bred who according to the French Studbook Volume 21 was by a sire “de race Koheilan en Naouak” and a dam “de race Koheilan El Kedilih”. Safita was imported by the French General Detroyat from Syria to Algeria in 1934. Writes Robert Mauvy who knew him well and loved him: Safita, bai cerise. Cheval à très grandes lignes dont une encolure exceptionnelle. Sa tête était fine et légère, sculptée, avec des oreilles pointées… à l’excès. L’une d’elles endommagée par un coup de sabre- sa gorge arquée était d’une rare netteté; si le corps était excellent, l’arrière main était d’une puissance exceptionnelle; ses postérieurs, de ce fait, très distants l’un de l’autre, et ses jarrets droits, longs et larges -actions éblouissantes crins tissus d’une grande finesse. Kuhaylan al-Khdili is a branch of the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, owned by the Khdilat clan of the…

Remembering Thalia CF

I am featuring Thalia CF (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) on social media. She was one of the best I have owned. She was in my ownership between late 2015 and mid 2017. Sadly, she came in my life at the ripe age of 24 years old, after having had two foals for her previous owner. I was not able to get any foals out of her, but I will always remember her as a true illustration of the real Arabian horse.

Prince Puckler Muskau on a Sa’adan Tuqan stallion sent to Abbas Pasha

Kate found another Western source citing early Arabian horse strains: Prince Hermann Puckler Muskau (1785-1871), in the 1830 . Kate did the research for this entry. “Amongst the thousand tribes that inhabit Arabia and the desert, almost every one has its race and its particular denominations, and, naturally, their opinion differs as to their value ; nevertheless, all agree in according the first rank to two races. The first is that of the real Nedschdis, that is to say, those bred in the province of that name ; for, as it is supposed, that all the noble horses of Arabia originally came from thence, the term Nedschdi is a general name for all horses of pure Arab blood ; a difference which should be remarked, for it has already led many foreigners into error. There are five races of these real Nedschdis : 1st, Sada – Tokan ; 2nd, Touesse-al-Hamié ; 3rd, Schouahi – emAnhoub ; 4th, Hamdanije-Symra; 5th, Souat- Hije-Aeden-Sachra. The first of these names is that of the mare, from which they derive their origin ; the second, that of the proprietor. “The second excellent race is that of Kachel. I only know four kinds 1st, Kaehel el…

The Mulawlish strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

There are four references to the Mulawlish (also spelled Mulawlishan, Mlolshaan, Mlolshan, etc) strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM). Both occur in accounts by members of the Ibn Khalifah family of Bahrain, who were already using stallions from that strain by the early 1850s, and perhaps earlier on the Dahman mares. The first is on page 251: “[she] was covered by Kuhaylan al Moulawlish and she foaled a safrafilly.” The second is on the same page: We covered the shaqra mare, daughter of alJallabi, by Kuhaylan al Moulawlish (ibn al Jallabi, ibn Kuhaylan Zoayr) and she gave birth to anashqar colt which died”. In both cases, the strain is referred to as a branch of the Kuhaylan.

The Krayan strain in Burkhardt’s writings (ca. 1815)

One of the Western travelers to write about Arabian horse strains was the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burkhardt. His Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys: Collected During His Travels in the East were only published in 1831, but were based on information collected in the Hijaz between 1814 and 1815. Burkhardt died in Cairo in 1817. His book featured this anecdote: “The favourite mare of Saoud, the Wahaby chief, which he constantly rode on his expeditions, and whose name, Keraye, became famous all over Arabia, brought forth a horse of uncommon beauty and xceellence. The mare, however, not being of the khomse, Saoud would not permit his people to use thatfine horse as a stallion; and not knowing what to do with it, as Bedouins never ride horses, he sent it as a present to the Sherif. The mare, Keraye, had been purchased by Saoud from a Bedouin ofthe Kahtan Arabs for fifteen hundred dollars.” This account ties the strain of Kuhaylan al-Kray, a branch of the Krush strain that was present with the ‘Ajman Bedouins at the time of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (ca. 1850), to the Qahtan Bedouins from a very early date. It corroborates the information which ‘Ubayd al-Hafi al-‘Utaybi…

Muniqui-related strains in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), compiled around 1852, is the single most comprehensive — and perhaps the only — source of Bedouin accounts and stories about their Arabian, faithfully and painstakingly recorded by the envoys of Abbas Pasha. The unique value of the APM lies in the Bedouins being both the narrators and the protagonists of these stories. Every other written source at our disposal comes from Western travelers and explorers who, with few exceptions, did not speak the language, communicating mostly through interpreters and other intermediaries who “explained” things to them, which they would then go on and explain to us the readers of their books. We readers became accustomed to seeing the Bedouins and their horses through the more or less distorting lens of travelers like Upton, Blunt, Davenport, etc. The Bedouins in these Western accounts lost their agency and became subjects. Arabian horses became a Western field of knowledge. Carl Raswan, despite living among the Ruwalah for some years, is a good example of this distorting lens: what his numerous writings show is his own perspective, as illustrated by his classification of Arabian horse strains. For example, Raswan classified Sa’adan, Rishan, and Samhan under the “Muniqi related”…

The Rishan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

Another very rare Arabian horse strain is that of Rishan (feminine Rishah). The most common marbat is Rishan Shar’abi. I have developed a special interest in this strain over the years, because of the high quality of the individual representatives I have seen. A search for ”Rishan” in my digital Abbas Pasha Manuscript copy turned up a single mention. This reference is on page 346. A man who appears to be from the southern Shammar (the Shammar at Jabal/Mount Shammar in Central Arabia) speaks of his Saqlawiyah mare: “and we covered her at our place by al Rishan Sharabi of the horses of Beni Wahab, the horse of al Fawadi of Shammar al Jazirah.” Shammar al Jazirah is a reference to the Northern Shammar, the Jazirah (island) is Northern Mesopotamia between Euphrates and Tigris). The Beni Wahab are a ‘Anazah tribal confederation that includes the Wuld ‘Ali tribe among others. The Arabic i/y (ya’) letter is often mistaken for a b (ba’) in handwritten texts, because the only difference between these is a dot under the letter. The b has one dot, while the i/y has two. So I searched for “Ribshan” and “Rabshan” as well. The latter was more…

Shaman and Julep

Lyman pointed to me the similarity between my young stallion Shaman Al Arab and his multiple ancestor Julep (Gulastra x Aziza) Shaman has seven close crosses to Julep. Putting side by side the photo of Julep that was recently shared online, and the last good photo I have of Shaman at three years old in August last year, the resemblance is striking. Lyman tells me that the likeness is more striking now that Shaman looks more mature, fuller, with bigger withers and a stronger butt. I was unable to see beyond the coat color difference but Lyman has a good eye.

On the Sa’dan Tuqan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — and beyond

A search for horses of the strain of Sa’dan (Sa’adan/Saadan) Tuqan in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, using two different spellings of the name, Tuqan and Tawqan, yielded three mentions, all pertaining to the same horse, which was owned by the Mutayr: The first is on page 439 and occurs in a testimony by Shafi ibn Fuhayd al-Sayfi, the leader of the Central Arabian Bedouin tribe of Subay’, about a mare from the strain of Ubayyan Sharrak that was known after his name (Ubayyan al-Sayfi): “And we mated the safra, Hosayna, to a Kuhaylan Saada Tuqan, the horse of Ibn Hobaylis of al Qublan of Muteer“. The second is on page 440, in the same account, about a close relative of the first mare being bred to the same horse: “We mated the safra Al Dughayim to Kuhaylan Saada Tuqan, the horse of Ibn Hobaylis of al Qublan of Muteer”. The third account is on page 620. It is by Sharyan ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Dawish, of the leading Dawish clan of the Mutayr tribe, about a mare of the Rabdan strain, which this clan bred: “And we mated the shaqra a second time to Sa’adan, whose mother is Saada Tawqan, the…

How I like them

This is a recent shot of Shaykh Al Arab, courtesy of Lyman Doyle whose father Terry owns him. Shaykh is four years old this spring, so he hasn’t fully developed yet. He will become drier and more refined as he ages, and will reach full maturity around eight or even nine years old. Here’s why: he has a short back, a strong coupling, a high tail set, a round croup, a thick tail bone, a long, strong hip, a strong loin, a muscled gaskin, a deep abdomen, a round barrel, ribs well sprung, a deep girth, long withers extending well into his back, a sloped shoulder, a broad chest, a long forearm, a short cannon bone, flat bone, and a naturally shiny coat. Overall, he exudes balance, harmony, tightness, condensed power, like a compressed spring, all parts fit together, nothing is loose, nothing is too much or too little. That’s how I think Arabian stallions should look like. At least that’s how I like them, and how I will keep advocating for them tirelessly. The old-fashioned type (I balk at the meaning the term “classic type” has taken in today’s Arabian horse circles, so I say old-fashioned). It’s the type…

My digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

Two years ago, Judi gave me a digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. It’s been a game changer to work with, because it allowed me to search for a specific person’s name, or for a particular strain, across multiple recorded accounts by Bedouin breeders over hundreds of pages. Not only does it save time, but the large number of horses mentioned (in the thousands) also gives a bird-eye’s view of a certain topic, a horse, strain, making more in-depth analysis possible. For example, a search for “India” will result in 21 mentions. In the context of the Manuscript, looking for “India” will give you an idea of the stallions and colts that went there for racing, their strains, breeders, buyers, approximate area of origin, etc. Patterns emerge. More on some interesting findings later.

Dahhmany Bagdady!

I am very happy to have obtained the 2001 stallion Dahhmany Bagdady (two photos of him below, from a few years ago) on a permanent lease from his owner, through the good offices of his breeder Laszlo Kiraly. He arrived in France this past Friday, to Arnault Decroix’s stud farm, together with an older bay mare Laszlo also gave me. More on her later. I will share pictures of both soon. Dahhmany Badgdady, born in 2001, is the only asil son of the 1977 Sweden-born stallion Wahhabit. He has at least three breeding age sons across Europe, in Hungary, Switzerland and Lithuania. His sire Wahhabit had the distinction of being the only asil son of the 1949 (!) Babolna stallion Siglavy Bagdady VI (photos below). Wahhabit’s dam was a Kuhaylan Krush from the line of the Davenport mare *Werdi. Notice the resemblance between the grandson Dahhmany Bagdady (first photo on this page) and the grandfather Siglavy Bagdady VI (the photo just above). Siglavy Bagdady VI was the son of Siglavy Bagdady V (b. 1939), also a head stallion at Babolna, out of a daughter of Kuhaylan Haifi I (himself the son the famous desert-bred tallion Kuhaylan Haifi). Two photos SB…

Bint Sierra SS, Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of Babson and Doyle lines

Bev Davison recently posted these two photos of Bint Sierra SS (Parnell x Sierra Summersong), one of her previous mares. I had never seen photos of her before. She is of Babson and Doyle lines. She is the paternal granddam of Subanet Jabbar SDA, the sire of my Kinza. You can see the resemblance between him in the third photo and his granddam in the second. All photos from Bev Davison That’s how I like them, coat color included.

New Badia pictures

I am really liking how the new little filly is shaping up. She is beautiful, three circle, and solidly built. Too early too tell if she features some of the damline’s characteristic legginess and dryness, which I like. What is certain is that Monologue fixed the dam’s short and droopy croup, at least in part, and brought more width between the eyes, and a larger and lower-set eye. The shoulder-girth complex is still there (thanks to her maternal grandsire Wadd), and so is the short back. I decided to use Monologue a lot more. He was bred to Wadha two weeks ago. Jamr was bred to Miracle on the same day. Photos from Monica Respet’s visit to the horses last weekend.

Larabi, superb asil stallion from Algeria

The superb Larabi, born in 1966 and a Jilfan Dhawi by strain, was together with the Shuwayman Sabbah stallion Guercif (b. 1961), one of the last asil stallions from Algeria. The small group of asil Arabians from the Algerian state stud of Tiaret were, in my opinion, the best in the world. As a group, they were better than the Straight Egyptians in my view. Too bad only one stallion and one mare are now left. Below, a photo of Larabi’s asil daughter Bakra (x Guemria by Zilzal), from the collection of Jean-Claude Rajot.

Excerpts from “The Arab in Egypt”, from the 1937 Journal of the Arab Horse Society

The article was written by Fouad Abaza, the Director-General of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt and a Governor of the Arab Horse Society of England. It includes a description by Doris Walter of her 1934 visit to Kafr Farouk, as well as a description of T.G.B. Trouncer’s Sidi Salem stud. There are a few studs of pure-bred Arabs, of which we may mention those of:— His Royal Majesty the King. The Royal Agricultural Society. H. E. Mahmoud Attribi Pasha. Said Bey Samaha. Mr. Trouncer. Daira Lotfallah Pasha. Some members of the the El Tahaoui family in the Sharkia Province, and a few other individuals, also own mares obtained from the above-mentioned studs. The mares in the first five studs are nearly all the descendants of Abbas Pasha I famous horses, and all these studs maintain their own stallions. Nearly all the other breeders all over the country depend entirely on the Royal Agricultural Society’s stallions, which are distributed in twenty-five districts in Egypt. The stallions were distributed as follows (p. 107): Doris Walter records her impressions of some of the horses at Kafr Farouk: Prominent among the mares in the paddocks was FARIDA, mother of BALANCE, and all those…