The following on the desert-bred stallion Dynamite II is an excerpt from a typed text in my archives, “Les Chevaux de Pur Sang Arabe de Sidi Thabet — Tunisie 1931”. The text looks like it was copied from an anonymous 1931 book the details for which are available online, here. The text cites Dynamite II as one of three Arabian stallions brought from Egypt for the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet in 1928. The other two are Nasr and Ibn Fayda. Nasr and Dynamite II were purchased, and Ibn Fayda was gifted by Prince Kemal El Dine Hussein. On Dynamite II: Etalon Dynamite II. de la lignée Hamdani et de la famille simrie, né en 1920, bai, 1,50 m. File de la jument Rayarra [sic] appartenant a l’Emir Hadissi. On ne vendait jamais les produits de cette jument renommée dans toute l’Arabie. Mais ce poulain avait été enlevé dans une razzia opérée par une tribu ennemie qui s’empressa de vendre les chevaux de prise, par crainte de représailles. Le poulain a pu ainsi être acheté a l’âge de trois ans, par un riche banquier libanais, M. Elie Bey Sursock, qui le paya 500 L.E. [Livres Egyptiennes] et le mit aussitôt…
مقطع فيديو لعرض خيول اسطبلات حمدان عام 1972 يظهر فيه الفحل فل ياسمين في الدقيقة الثالثة Thanks to Kate for finding it.
Photos of Moira Walker’s rising three-year-old colt Landrace Belisarius (Jamr Al Arab x Jadah Belloftheball, by Invictus Al Krush) having fun in the snow. Belisarius is a Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz from the Nufoud mare line. While his pedigree is predominantly Davenport, he has Doyle blood from his sire’s dam Jadiba, as well as a line to the Reverend Francis Furse Vidal’s Garaveen (Kismet x Kushdil), and through Garaveen to Roger Upton’s imports Yataghan and Haidee. His dam goes back to the mare Tarrla, a daughter of Henry Babson’s stallion Tarff, so bringing in another Sa’udi-bred mare, Turfa, to complement Nufoud. Belisarius also traces to five horses who each have only a handful of living Al Khamsa descendants. These are the three Hamidie Society imports Mannaky, Galfia and Pride, the Davenport import El Bulad, and Nejdran, the last-mentioned a chestnut Saqlawi Ubayri bought in Beirut by Captain W. I. Gaisford, who imported him to England, where he apparently used Nejdran as a polo pony, before selling him to a Harvard student, who imported him to the U.S..
A September 1975 letter by the late Danah Aal Khalifa in response to a photo sent to her by Lee Oellerich identified the chestnut mare *Sawannah, born in 1948, and later imported to the USA, as follows:
I am enjoying looking at a treasure trove of photos of Bev Davison’s horses over the years that she has been uploading on Facebook. I particularly like those dark bay horses with high percentage of Ali Pasha Sharif bloodlines. This was said to be the Prophet Muhammad’s favorite coat color in horses. He said: خيرُ الخيلِ الأدهَمُ الأقرَحُ الأرثَمُ ، ثمَّ الأقرَحُ المُحجَّلُ طَلقُ اليمينِ ، فإن لم يَكُن أدهَمُ فكُمَيْتٌ علَى هذِهِ الشِّيَةِ which roughly translates as: The best of horses is black, with a small star and a snip, then that with a small star and three white leg markings except for the right foreleg, and if not black then dark bay with these same markings. This is Sierra Sandarac, a 1974 Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan, of half Doyle, half Babson lines, who fits these markings. Photos Bev Davison.
The photo below comes from James Fleming’s 1992 booklet, The Courthouse Arabian Stud of Bill Musgrave Clark, published by Alexander Heriot. Solomon was the first foal of his dam. In 1952, he was exported to Italy along with his half-brother Sennacherib, by Joseph. Neither horse left offspring at the Courthouse Stud. Solomon’s sire Atesh was a chestnut Ma’naqi Sbayli, bred by the Gomussa Sba’ah, while his dam, Somra II, was by Fedaan, a grey Saqlawi Jadran, bred by Ibn Zubaynah of the Fed’aan. Atesh was imported to England circa 1922 and bought by Bill Musgrave Clark by 1925, while Fedaan was imported in 1926 and acquired by Clark the following year. Somra II’s dam was the Blunt-bred Safarjal, a brown mare by Berk out of the Daoud daughter Somra. Safarjal was Lady Wentworth’s peace offering to Clark, after she roused his ire by using an agent, claiming to be acting on behalf of a group of Americans, to buy Skowronek from him. She came to the Clarks carrying Sainfoin (by Rasim), who would go on to be a successful show horse in hand and under saddle, as well as a winning racehorse. In the tail female, Safarjal goes back to the…