On the strain of Bint El Bahreyn in Lady Anne’s Journals
The circumstances of the acquisition by Lady Anne Blunt of the Bahraini mare Bint El Bahreyn, an existing line in Egyptian Arabian horses, are well documented in her Journals and Correspondence, which Rosemary Archer and James Fleming published in 1986. The published Journals, however extensive, are only a curated subset of Lady Anne’s original handwritten journals at the British Library. They do not represent a full record of what Lady Anne recorded about Bint El Bahreyn in her journals, including a controversy about the mare’s actual strain. Read on.
Sometime in late 2021, as Judith Forbis and I were working on the publication of the book “The Arabian Horses of Abbas Pasha“, she shared with me typewritten excepts that she had transcribed from Lady Anne’s manuscript journals at the British Library visit in 1974 — so before Archer’s and Fleming’s publication.
What follows below is a compilation of the journal entries about the purchase of Bint El Bahreyn, from the published journals and as well as in Judi’s typewritten notes.
[From the published J&C] December 4, 1907: “He [Prince Mohammed Ali] says [his brother] the Khedive is also selling the two mares, Dahmeh Shahwanieh’s from I. Khalifeh, so I said why do you not buy them and then he said he did not think they had the perfect Arab type — too long and the heads not good enough, but he added “you might go and look at them“.
[from Judi’s notes, but not in the published J&C] Monday December 9 (with regard to the Dahmehs from Ibn Khalifeh: “H.H [the Khedive] has sold one to an Omde of the Said (the less good one I am told) and the other is at Bulak for sale in the Khedive’s stables there.”
[In both Judi’s notes and the published J&C] Tues. December 17: “… to visit the Khedival stables at Boulak in order to see the Bahreyn bay Dahmeh (from Ibn Khalifeh) now for sale. She is a handsome mare but rather high on the leg and with an imperfect head, broad enough but too long and the ears lopping. Still she has style.
[In the published J&C] Tues. December 17, continued: “She was said to be in foal […] and from Othman I heard she was in foal to the English bred ‘Cedar’“
[In the published J&C] December 22: “Sent Jaafar to ask price of the Dahmeh Shawanieh from Ibn Khalifeh. Thinking it over, she is a fine mare and authentic.”
[In the published J&C] December 26: “This day have bought one, the best one, of the two Dahmeh Shahwanieh’s sent as a gift to the Khedive by Ibn Khalifeh Sheykh of Bahreyn three or four years ago … […] . Then back to the Bulak stables, found the Effendi, looked at the mare, approved of her notwithstanding the faults I found in her (see Dec. 17). She was too good not to be bought at that price too, LE 60.“
[from Judi’s notes, but not in the published J&C] Thurs. December 26, continued: “Mutlak and mare followed by train… Mutlak keenly interested to find out the mare’s temper wondering what it would be so he rode her in the afternoon with me on Ghadia. She at once recognized the Reshmeh and though she had never been ridden all these years at once came into the right and left circles and figures of 8. Mutlak enchanted with her, so am I.”
[In the published J&C] December 30: “But I think I was right to buy her as she is otherwise all right and authentic blood from eastern Arabia is rare.”
[from Judi’s notes, but not in the published J&C] Saturday March 7: “then saw Othman who gave me his word that Bint El Bahreyn is a K. Rabda (not a Dahmeh). The Rabda or Rabdeh is a strain Mutlak thinks more of than of Dah. Shawan. Othman however has said that there is actually a D.S. filly still in Effendinas [the Khedive’s] stud, authentic from APS, ie her granddam and the sires authentic, and Mutlak is to look at her as she is to be sold.” [Edouard’s note: That would be Mezna, which Lady Anne would acquire later]
The sentence I bolded above had on me the effect of a little bomb, upon reading it a couple years ago in Judi’s typed notes (below). Bint El Bahreyn being a Rabda would explain how different her family looks, compared to the other Egyptian Dahman Shahwan line. The Bint El Bahreyns are taller, higher on the leg, and rangier than the El Dahma descendents, even after a 100 years of being bred within the same closed gene pool of the Straight Egyptians. Above all, Bint El Bahreyn being a Rabda could expain why the mitochrondrial DNA of both lines did not match.
What is puzzling is why Lady Anne, upon receving this information from her agent Othman (the same man who had told her on December 17 that the mare was in foal to the English TB Cedar) did not change the mare’s strain to Rabdan in her Sheykh Obeyd studbook, which she maintained until her death in 1917. Did she have any reason to doubt Othman’s word? Whatever the case, the Rabdan strain still exists in Bahrain, and a comparison of the mtDNa from Bahraini mares of that strain with the Bint El Bahreyn line might be due.
Ooh, another mtDNA test. There’s one Dahman stallion left in Bahrain, right?
I remember talking about this a while back– As I understand, according to the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, all Dahmah Shahwaniyah mares and their sons in Egypt should be able to be traced back to a single mare from the 1820-30s, The Old Mare of Kunayhir: the chestnut mare of Farraj ibn Kunayhir of the Ajman Bedouins, who was purchased by Ibn Khalifah and from whom the Bahraini Dahmahs stem from. Which means in principle, all of the Bahraini Dahman Shahwan horses should match in mtDNA, and they would all be Dahman Kunayhir, and because all the Egyptian Dahmah Shahwaniyah mares that Abbas Pasha acquired supposedly stem from the same taproot mare, they should match all of the Bahraini mtDNA.
I believe our options for testing are the *Sawannah damline, the El Dahma damline, the Bint El Bahreyn damline, and, whatever Bahrain has remaining. And something with the Tahawis? Obviously BEB and ED do not match, which is the big head scratcher. We need to send a bucket full of hairs to Michael, clearly!
Dear Edward, why do you go away?
Check with Mohamed al aqoob Because he has the same strain(Rabda khushibi) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
or check whith jenny less… I think it still owns RABDAAN ASEER Or if he is still alive.
This is the easier way
Dear Ahmed, the Rabdan strain of al-Aqub is from Ibn Haddal. I think the Rabdan strain of Bahrain is from Mukhaimir al-Dawish of Mutayr, not Ibn Haddal.
unfortunately dear Edward.. lefted by the way with bani Hajer tribe in one the ground local battles in bahrain. and mentioned previously in osul al khayl.. In a paragraph meaning in arabic (aoqrat al khayl or al faras yum daq’t al bahrain) .. His legs were cut with a sword or even beheaded or killed.
Written and oral narrations always revolve around the authenticity of this news related to the tribe of Ibn Hathal from al amar’aat from eanza(the mare of ibn hathal.. In return, he received female slaves, servants, and some purebred Omani camels and some money.
can you send me the page number please?
hi dear Edward ” According to my recent review of the book The osul al khyal al haditha by Hamad Al-Jasser, you are right and I am also right on one point.
1- that one is missing mare with bani Hajer tribe in one In one of the Wild battle، “The mother mare…which Mukhaimer Al-Dawish inherited from his grandfather and was requested by Muhammad bin Khalifa”.
2-Muhammad bin Khalifa bin Salman bought the mare and her daughter from Mukhaimer Al-Dawish, and three of their horses and a gray mare whose father or sire, Rabdan, were also produced from their horses.
3- Another is a bay mare requested by Muhammad bin Khalifa from Al-Humaidi Al-Dawish.
4- Another is a gray mare by Batel Al-Wasali, whose father is Shawaf, one of the horses of Bani Hussein, which was requested by Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Salman.
And another mare, according to what Bahraini documentary books claim, from the royal court, from Ibn Hathal Al-Anazi, which is a story that is transmitted and spread among the ruling family, and royal stud . Accordingly, there may be more than one line for the Rabada mare conclude the following: There may already be a mare by Ibn Hathal out of Aenza, Mukheimer Al-Dawish, Al-Hamidi Al-Dawish, and Batel Al-Wasali (all from the Mutayr tribe).
Or she actually lost Al-Dawish’s mare and remained ibn Hathal over time.
Or there is confusion between the two novels . The story of the krush mare that Ibn Khalifa obtained from Ibn Hathal Al-Anazi also A long time ago.
Your analysis is correct.
Yub, dear Edward.. In an old and previous conversation, at least 3 or 4 years ago, on WhatsApp, a relative of Sheikh Emharouth bin Mohsen baik Al-Humaidi Al-Hathal (his father’s uncle) spoke to me. According to the news they had, the mare that Mishaan bin Megalith Al-Hathal gave to Ibn Khalifa at that time was Kuhila’at Al-Karush that before Krush El Araibi the dam of “Krushan Al Marshosh”speckled , but it was not proven to them by a poem or a historian.
Through this website, you can find out the facts of the story.
https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D9%87%D8%B0%D8%A7%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%8A
Through the book Bahraini Arabian Horses and the Royal Stud, you will see a different story. It’s actually a very controversial and strange story.
i know what you mean’t dear Edward rubad al duwish or rabd’t al duwaish..
actually That strain or al marbat has been lost from long time , and two remain since that time .. One was taken off or take it off by Bani Hajar and the other remained in the possession of the Sultans of Oman, Al Busaidi.. Sultan Saeed bin Sultan and his son Thuwaini bin Sayyed Saeed only. and if you seen from that list of abas pasha horses.. Rabdan.. it was used him for breeding with Al dahmah kunihar mares.