Available information on the desert-bred mare Sitah D1

The late Danah Al Khalifah wrote in Volume 1 of the Amiri Arabian Studbook of Bahrain that “the breeding program at Danah Farm is centered around the foundation mare SITAH, ‘Hamdaniah Feisul’ and her offspring. Sitah’s history is documented from the time she was acquired as a two year old filly in 1964, at the Najd encampment of Emir Abdulla bin Saud. It was stated by the caretaker of the horse herd that Sitah was bred by Crown Prince Feisal bin Abdul Aziz, and was out of a Hamdaniah Ghiam mare of the horses of Al Saud, and by a stud stallion Saqlawy El Njemy from the horses of Al Rasheed.”  

Similarly, Judith Forbis wrote in her 1971 Arabian Horse World article (excerpt below) on the Bahraini horses that “We stopped to see SITAH, her [i.e., Danah] exquisitely refined white desert bred mare of the Hamdaniyah Ghiam strain. Sired by a Saqlawi Njemi from the Al Rashid family, Sitah was bred at the stud at Tiev, [Edouard’s note: Tiev = Ta’if, the city where the stud of King Faysal Ibn Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud was located] the long famous Saud stud, by King Feisul of Saudi Arabia, at the time he was a crown prince”.

An additional source on Sitah is a typewritten letter from Danah Al Khalifah to Jens Sannek (excerpt below), where she gives him information on Sitah including a specific date of birth of 1961 and the same information as above on her sire and her dam. This letter is courtesy of Edie Booth who has the original. Below a photo that Jens took of Sitah when he visited Danah in Saudi.  

By the way, the strain of Saqlawi El Njemy recorded as being that of the sire of Sitah is none other than the strain of Saqlawi Najm al-Subh (“Star of the Morning” in Arabic), also knows today as Saqlawi Marzakani among the Northern Shammar. The Northern Shammar are in Syria and Iraq. They often sent horses to their Southern Shammar brethren, whose leaders were from the Al Rasheed family.

Below, a photo of Sitah given by Erika Schiele to Jens Sannek. More on Sitah’s strain in a next post.