روى الضابط الفرنسي فيكتور مولر رئيس الاستخبارات الفرنسية في البادية السورية في عهد الانتداب الفرنسي عن لسان مشل باشا الجربا أن العبية الشراكية التي درجت إلى شمر بكون شمر والشريف تفرعت إلى فرعين فرع عند عبدة شمر هدية من الشيخ فارس أبو مشل باشا إلى ابن ربيش من عبدة وكان هذا الخط موجودًا عند ابن ربيش وغيره من عبدة وفرع آخر عند السحيلي من الفداغا عُرف لاحقًا بالعبية السحيلية
This morning Lyman Doyle broke the good news that Kinza Al Arab had foaled a filly by Bashir Al Dirri at the Doyle farm in Oregon. She will obviously be chestnut like both parents. She is Saqlawi Ibn Dirri to Basilisk on both sides of the pedigree, to Bushra (Azrek x Bozra) on the sire line, and Bukra (Ahmar x Bozra). Also, she carries “Code Red” (heck, code purple) Al Khamsa lines to *Mirage, *Euphrates, and *Al Mashoor one more generation forward, after her sire. Her name will be Karma Al Arab. Karma in Arabic means vine. Here’s a pedigree link while waiting for pictures.
From Lady Anne Blunt’s “A Pilgrimage to Najd” (1881): “To the present day in the North, the Anazeh distinguish the descendants of the mares brought with them from Nejd as “Nejdi” while they call the descendants of the mares captured from the tribes of the North, “Shimali” or Northerners.” and: “The Anazeh have disappeared from Nejd. They began to move northwards about two hundred years ago, and have ever since continued moving by successive migrations till all have abandoned their original homes. It may ben that the great name which Nejd horses undoubtedly have in the East, was due mainly to these very Anazeh, with whose horses they are now contrasted.” I had noted these two passages in comments on an earlier thread from 2019, but I thought they were worth bringing back.
I looked up the mentions of the Bedouin tribe of Bani Sakhr in the Journals of Lady Anne Blunt. There are five of them, ranked below in chronological order. [Saw at the Tahawis] One bay Abeyan el Khudr from a tribe near the Bani Sakkhr beyond the Hauran… [A Shaykh of the Samaritans told us] that the Beni Sakkhr etc tribes were owners of remarkably good strains… It was Khuddr again, this time with a bay horse to sell, he calls it Abeyan from the Beni Sokkhr (a tribe whose horses I have not heard much good of) and this was a heavy going horse, not worth the looking at. On Monday, the mare […] was bought through Webb for 30 pounds. She is described as good, not first rate but with some style. There is a really fine certificate of parentage which describes her as a ‘Hamdanieh Samirieh”of the Beni Sokkr — a tribe whose name does not inspire me with confidence but they are said to have some thoroughbreds. I distrust as a rule any horse or mare said to be from the Beni Sokkhr but Major Huseyn says that the Ibn Faiz have got a mazbut strain…
Lady Anne made the following remarks in a letter to Spencer Borden dated January 26th, 1910: At last I can send my Crabbet Stud List for 1910. You will see that I have altered the order of it, which was a good deal of trouble. I have put Kehilans first because in fact every strain harks back to Kehilan Ajuz, not only all the other Kehilans, but all those strains (Seglawi, Dahman, Manaki, etc) where for brevity the generic term Kehilan has been dropped. Of this my Manager here, Sheykh el Arab Mutlak Battal of the Mutayr tribe so famous for its horses, never ceases to remind me.
عبيات العفاري رسن من الخيل العربية الأصيلة تختص به سوريا من جميع البلدان العربية ولقبت عبية العفاري بسوريا بطراحة الظبي وذلك كناية عن سرعتها بأنها تسبق الظباء وسميت عبية العفاري نسبةً الى العفاري الشمري الذي هاجر من نجد إلى الجزيرة السورية والعفاري من النمصان من الزميل من سنجاره من شمر ونخوته راعي العليا وزايد العفاري هو الذي هاجر من الصهوة بحائل مع حفيده حماد العفاري الذي ورث عبية العفاري وجاء بها من نجد على الجزيرة وهن من خيل الشريف بركات متوارثين هذا المربط أبًا عن جد من أكثر من 150سنة :وأكدالشيخ أحمد مشل الجربا في قصيدته عن هذا المربط العريق عبيا العفاري وبأسم أهلها تسمتمن نجد حماد العفاري جن بها يم الجزيرة عندنا واستقرتنعمين براعي العليا ونسبها وعندما أعيد فتح باب تسجيل الخيل العربية الأصيلة في سوريا عام 1997 قد أبرز راعي المربط حينذاك حميد عبيد العفاري شهادة للشيخ حمود الجزاع اللحيدان شيخ النمصان في المملكة العربية السعودية بأن عبية العفاري متوارثة كابر عن كابر وأنها درجت عليهم من دور كون شمر والشريف وأنها معروفة بنجد باسم عبية خضر وأما عن مدراجها من عند العفاري في سوريا فدرجت من عند العفاري إلى خضير عيادة الماضي من البهيمان من الخرصة من شمر ومن عند خضير الماضي درجت إلى كلٍّ من1- الشيخ…
As I have written before — sixteen years ago already — no Arabian horse strain is intrinsically above or better than the other. Lady Anne Blunt had it right when she wrote that her stud manager, Mutlaq al-Battal, a Mutayr Bedouin, never ceased to remind her that all were Kuhaylan, and all were asil. Any ranking of strains is inherently subjective, and a matter of personal preference. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript’s foreword (J. Forbis and G. Sherif), usually attributed to his agent Ali al-Darwish but which could well have reflected the personal preferences of Abbas Pasha himself, starts with a short paragraph “On the Classification of Horses“: I say about classifying the lineage of Arabian horses, the first to take precedence is Duhayman Shahwan of the Kunayhir strain and Duhaym al Najib. Second is Kuhaylan Mimreh. After that Saqlawi Jedrani, which is divided into three sections: the dearest and most precious is the family of Al Samniyat, then the family of Al Sudaniyat, and third is the family of Al ‘Abd. After that is Saqlawi al Obeyri and Marighi, both from the same family. After that Hadban al Nazhi, which includes six families […]. After these Kuhaylan al Tamiri, then…
Maria Wallis’ beautiful Operetta HBF (Student Prince x Idyl CF by Atticus), a Kuhaylah of Davenport bloodlines also foaled a filly by Pulcher Ibn Reshan at Debbie Mackie’s in Illinois. He’s had three nice foals this year so far, two fillies and Mayassa’s colt.
A preservation program that I watch closely is that of Carrie Slayton’s. Carrie has several nice Kuhaylan Haifi Davenports mares and a few non-Blunt horses, from a group that the late Carol Lyons identified, preserved a dubbed Sharps. Carrie had a handsome chestnut colt from breeding the bay Mohican CF (owned by Ambar Diaz) to her bay mare Aureoles Alnehaya. She named him Algonquin. His color is not a surprise in hindsight given how many close croses he has to both Dharanad and Ceres, not speaking of Tripoli. Link to Facebook post here.
Last week also saw the birth of the first foal of my Mayassa Al Arab: a colt by Pulcher Ibn Reshan (ex Anecdote CF). Mayassa is on a breeding lease to Deb Mackie, and the colt hers. He is Kuhaylan Krush by strain.
It’s foaling and breeding season and a new crop of foals in on the ground. Belle, who went to Moira Walker in October 2022, had a lovely filly this year by Anecdote CF (aka Pulcher Ibn Reshan). Moira named her Landrace Bellara, in keeping with the B names for this family. The filly, who will be grey, is double Iliad and double Plantagenet, and is the sixth Al Khamsa female from that strain, after her dam, her sister Bassma Al Arab (b. 2021), her other sister Barakah Al Arab (b. 2016), Barakah’s daughter Badia Al Arab (b. 2024), and Ninah Nufoud (b. 2013), a relative at Monica Respet’s.
Bedouin testimonies in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) do not mention the calendar year an event took place. That’s because Bedouins, having an oral culture, did not record years the way people with a written culture did. Instead, the referred to major events that took place in the those years: “The year water was sold”, “the year Ibrahim Pasha went back westwards”, “the year Saffuq Al Jarba was slain”. The latter event is mentioned on page 477: “In the year that Saffuq al Jarba was slain, a hamra mare came to us which had been captured by Musay’id, the son of my brother“. Using Ottoman archives, Wiliamson, in his “Political History of the Shammar tribe” dated the treacherous murder of Sfuq al-Jarba, leader of the Shammar, by the Ottomans to late October 1847: An Ottoman contingent under the leadership of Gange Agha left Baghdad in late October, 1847, and met Sufuq at his camp a few hours outside of the capital […]. Sufuq remained behind under the protection of his personal guard. Gange Agha, leader of the Ottoman troops, supposedly remained behind to assist Sufuq in the event of trouble. […] Gange Agha [now] had the opportunity to execute the…
The Najdi chronicler Ibn Bishr had this to say under the year 1229 Hijri (1814-15) the year of the death of the Wahhabi leader Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz: As to the number of agents he [Saud] would send to collect taxes in camels and sheep from the Bedouins of the Peninsula of the Arabs [living] beyond the two Holy Shrines [Mecca and Medina], Oman, Yemen, Iraq and Sham, and also from the Bedouins of Najd between these [lands], one of his [Saud’s] retinue, who later became a scribe for him, told me that the agents he [Saud] had sent to the Fad’aan, the well-known ‘Anazah Bedouins, [once] came back with their tax receipts, which amounted to forty thousand rials, not counting the revenues of the tax collectors, and eight mares of the choice horses, while the revenue collected by these agents [from other Bedouin tribes] did not normally exceed 2,500 to 3,000 riyals.
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) mentions many war episodes (manakh) between the Bedouin tribes, of which that of Al-Rudaymah (incorrectly spelled Al Radeemah in the Sherif-Forbis translation) was perhaps the most important. This was no regular ghazu, but more a set of pitched battles, during which many horses died or changed hands over three months. The Najdi chronicler ‘Uthman ibn Abdallah Ibn Bishr dated the beginning of the “battle” of al-Rudaymah to the month of Rajab 1238 of the Hijri calendar, equivalent to March-April 1823, some 30 years before the completion of the APM. Here’s Ibn Bishr, my translation: In this year, in Rajab, [was] the famous battle of al-Rudaymah [after] a well-known place in al-‘Armah, between Faysal al-Dawish and his followers from Mutayr and the ‘Ajman and other Bedouins Arabs, and Majid ibn ‘Uray’ir and his followers from Bani Khalid and others including ‘Anazah and Subay’. A protracted battle and combat involving horsemen and men on foot took place […]. Combat was so intense that the hair on a child’s head would have turned grey. Bani Khalid and their followers lost. Much treasure, jewelry, fancy cloth and provisions was gained [by the winners]. Many were killed from both sides.…
Bunyan Fahd al-Dawsari, whose Facebook page I follow with great interest, posted these beautiful, smiling, sunny photos of desert life among the Dawasir Bedouins in 1969. The photos were probably taken by members of the archaeological mission excavating the major pre-Islamic site of Qaryat al-Faw, capital of the Central Arabian kingdom of Kinda, in the Saudi Arabian province of al-Sulayyil.
Jeanne Craver shared a photo of the Davenport stallion *Muson which I had not seen before. I recall reading somewhere — forgetting the source now — that the breed in its original form displayed more distance between the back legs than between the front legs.
The strain of Kuhaylan Tamiri was one of the first strains the Sba’ah Bedouins chose to breed from. From Prince Mohammed Ali’s lists, based on notes taken by the agents of Abbas Pasha: “Says Murshid al-Nawwaq [of the Sba’ah]: The horses which were in our possession in Najd sometime ago have no parallel anywhere. When asked which ones were allowed to mate, he replied that the ones they allowed to mate were only three: first the Saqlawi, second Kuhaylan Tamiri and third Shuwayman Sabbah.“ Similarly, but in the APM itself: Dabbi ibn Shutaywi [of the Sba’ah, specifically their Gmassah section] was asked what stallions of the stud were used on their mares at the time al Gomussa were at Nejd. He replied, “As long as I can remember we mated al Saqlawiyat and other stallions that are well known to this day. But our white haired men told us when I was a child, that before al Saqlawiyat, al Gomussa were using a Kuhaylan al Tamiri as a stallion. And also a Kuhaylan al ‘Ajuz that belonged to al Gomussa and was cut off.
The twin strains of Kuhaylan ‘Abhul and Kuhaylan Mu’abhil belong the Ruwalah and are named after men from this tribe. These strains are themselves branches of the better known Kuhaylan Tamiri. On the first, page 595: Orar al Honaydi al Sha’lani of the Ruwalah, upon being asked about the sire of a certain mare: “O Ali, we do not remember that time, but they mated them to Saqlawi Jedran and Kuhaylan Tamiri of the horses of Ibn Abhul“ On the second, page 522: Faysal al-Sha’laan, leader of the Ruwalah, upon being asked about it: “[…] and as for al Moabheliyah [alt. spelling Mu’abhiliyyah, masc Mu’abhil], she is Kuhayla Tamiriya, and her owner is Tamir of al Daghman and she is Kuhayla om Maarif.”
Arnault Decroix posted this photo of the Syrian stallion Nimr Shabareq on his Facebook page. He is standing him at stud in Normandy this yesr. I believe this stallion to be, despite some defects, the embodiment of the old desert type. I love his balance, and how the parts all fit together.
The digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) has allowed me to follow the tracks of particular horses as they changed hands from one Bedouin tribe to another. One of these horses is Saqlawi Al Araj (“the lame”), apparently a famous horse in the mid 1800s. A search of Al Araj in the APM yields the following information: he was a Saqlawi Jadran from the strain of Ibn Sudan. He was probably bred by Ibn Sudan of the Sba’ah, and the Sba’ah certainly used him for breeding. Several mares of the Sba’ah were bred to him, whose daughters then went to the Abbas Pasha stud. Subsequently, he reappeared in the ownership of Bandar Ibn Sa’adun, the leader of the Muntafiq tribe in Southern Iraq. Bandar also used him as a stallion, and bred from his Wadnan son after him. Example on page 547: “And we mated the daughter of Hadban a second time to Saqlawi al Araj of the strain of Ibn Sudan, belonging to Bandar al Sa’doun“. The lists of Abbas Pasha imports gathered by Prince Muhammad Ali Tewfik include several daughters of Al Araj (correctly spelled al-A’raj). From a quick look, most appear to be out of…
Arnault Decroix published this photo of the 1967 Arabian stallion Salam (Agres x Tosca by Fellous) on his social media accounts. Salam, who I saw during the 1994 WAHO conference in Rabat at the age of 27, was the head stallion for the Moroccan government. He struck me then as a very correct stallion with excellent proportions. His pedigree blends old, authentic French bloodlines (75%) and Tunisian/Algerian lines (25%). I don’t know who took the picture. He is very reminiscent of some Davenport horses in the USA.