A fabricated hujjah from Egypt, 1856

Kate found an interesting document the other day, which this entry reproduces and comments on. The document was published in the “Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale Zoologique D’Acclimatation“, a French scientific society founded in 1854 during the French Second Empire, under Napoleon III.

Th document concerns the grey Arabian stallion “Bawab”, also known as “Aneze”, gifted in 1855 by the Viceroy of Egypt and his presumptive heir to French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps. De Lesseps, of Suez Canal fame, imported the stallion to France along with a mare and another stallion, also gifts from the Viceroy and his heir. A third stallion joined them from Syria, a gift from De Lessep’s brother Edmond, then France’s Consul General in Beirut. The Viceroy of Egypt at the time was Said, under whose tenure work on the Suez Canal begun. His presumptive heir was Prince Ahmed Rifaat Pasha, who died drowning in 1858 and was replaced by Ismail Pasha as Said’s heir.

The description the bulletin gives of Bawab is unenthusiastic:

Le deuxième étalon, du nom arabe Bawab dit Anézé, gris clair comme le précédent. Sa taille est de 1 mètre 48 centimètres . Il est âgé de douze ans . Ce Cheval a plus de taille que Habib ; il est aussi plus étoffé, mais il a moins de régularité dans son ensemble. Il donne de bons produits avec les juments communes du pays, et ces produits feraient de bons Chevaux de guerre.

Interestingly, the bulletin features, in a footnote, an official French translation of Bawab’s hujjah from the Arabic original Arabic, done by the French consulate in Alexandria. It is not possible to know if the French text is a full translation of the Arabic original, which was not reproduced in the Bulletin:

Certificat d’origine du Cheval gris BAWAB dit ANÉZÉ. (Traduction du texte arabe.)

Au nom de Dieu clément et miséricordieux, qu’il soit loué comme il doit l’être, que sa bénédiction et le salut soient sur notre seigneur Mahomet, sur lui, sur ses compagnons et sur ses soldats. Or donc, voici l’arbre généalogique du cheval nommé Bawab. Il est fils de Batène, fils de Houroun, fils d’El-Assassi, fils d’El-Hezer, fils de Zou-Essoufa, fils d’El-Aradj-el-Akbar. Ce cheval appartenait à Ziad, fils d’Obega. Il était d’origine pure et bien connue, d’une race transmise régulièrement de père en fils, sans interruption, de la race la plus illustre et la plus noble chez les Arabes, la plus renommée et la plus citée dans le langage des poëtes, la plus vantée et la plus estimée par les cavaliers. Il n’y avait pas d’étalon plus recherché que ce cheval. Jamais pour autre n’a été dit ce qui a été dit pour lui. Cette célébrité lui était a venue d’Awedj-el-Akbar, qui était chez les Béni-Aquel-el-Mourar. Le propriétaire d’Awedj était Ghâni, fils d’Asser, fils de Saad, fils de Keiss, fils d’Eilânej. Il passa ensuite aux mains des Béni-Hellal, fils d’Amer, fils de Sassa. Hellal a dit de lui: c’est le coursier, fils du Coursier, fils du Torrent à la course. Le poëte Dgérir l’a célébré dans ses poésies, en disant : « Les Chevaux illustres qui succombent en défendant nos tentes, sont de la race d’Awedj ou de Zou-el-Ukkal.» Dieu peut faire tout ce qu’il veut, il nous suffit, il est le meilleur des protecteurs et des témoins.

Signé HAFI-NAMI (L.S.)

Suivent les signatures des Arabes.
Pour traduction conforme au texte arabe ci-dessus.
Le secrétaire interprète de l’Empereur, premier drogman du consulat général de France,
Signé F.-G. JORELLE.

Vu pour légalisation de la signature ci-dessus de M. F.-G. Jorelle,
secrétaire interprète, premier drogman du consulat général.

En empêchement et par autorisation de M. l’agent et consul général,
L’Élève consul,

Signé: P. BENEDETTI.

Pour copie conforme à l’original qui nous a été exhibé et retiré à
l’instant par M. Ferdinand de Lesseps.
En empêchement et par autorisation de M. l’agent et consul général, L’Élève consul, Signé P. BENEDETTI.

Alexandrie,le 18 février 1856

This hujjah follows the patrilineal system of transmission. It also ascribes to De Lessep’s “Bawab” a famous early Islamic pedigree for a horse of same name. Al-Zubaidi’s dictionary Taj al-Aruss, which was compiled between 1760 and 1774 CE and was widely available in Egypt around the mid-nineteenth century, indeed mentioned that al-Bawab was the horse of Ziyad Ibn Abihi, from the lineage of Al-Harun, and was the brother of al-Dha’id, son of al-Butayyin, son of al-Battan, son of al-Harun.

البواب: فرس زياد ابن أبيه من نسل الحرون، وهو أخو الذائد بن البطين بن البطان بن الحرون

The owner of this first al-Bawab, Ziyad Ibn Abihi, was the Umayyad governor of Basra in Iraq in the 680s CE. He is the one whose name was badly mangled in the French translation of the hujjah (“Ziad fils d’Obega”). Al-Zubaidi must have picked up this reference from a much earlier source, such as the “Names and Lineages and Mentions of the Knights of the Horses of the Arabs” (أسماء خيل العرب وأنسابها وذكر فرسانها) of Ibn Al-A’raabi’ (760-846 CE), which has a similar entry for al-Bawab:

 البوّاب لزياد بن أبيه، من نسل الحرون، وهو أخو الذائد بن البطين بن البطان بن الحرون

The same Ibn al-A’raabi has an entry for al-Harun, which allowed for futher extension of the lineage, per the hujjah above: al-Harun is the son of al-Athathi, son of al-Khuzaz, son of Dhi al-Sufah, son of A’waj.

الحرون بن الأثاثي بن الخزز بن ذي الصّوفة بن اعوج 

Other entries from Ibn al-A’raabi’s book or a similar one also found their way into the hujjah, that of A’waj for instance: A’waj al-Akbar was to [the tribe of] Ghani son of A’assar.

أعوج الأكبر لغنيّ بن أعصر

The sentence in the hujjah “Il n’y avait pas d’étalon plus recherché que ce cheval. Jamais pour autre n’a été dit ce qui a été dit pour lui” can also be found in the book of lbn al-A’raabi, almost word for word, but it is attributed there to A’waj, not to his descendent Bawab: “They had no stallion more famous or more prolific, and none which poets and knights mentioned and celebrated more than A’waj“.

وليس لهم فحل أشهر في العرب ولا أكثر نسلا، ولا الشعراء والفرسان أكثر ذكرا له وافتخارا به من أعوج

Finally the verse of the Umayyad-era poet Jarir (“Djerir” above), mistranslated in the French translation of the hujjah, can also be found in Ibn al-A’raabi’s book: the horses that dwell around our homes are from the family of A’waj or to Dhu al-‘Uqqal:

إن الجياد يبتن حول قبابنا … من آل أعوج أو لذي العقّال

The bottom line is that the hujjah of the grey stallion of De Lesseps drawn heavily on early Islamic sources for horse pedigrees in general, and on the famous patrilineal line to A’waj in particular. Even more so, the hujjah seems to have “borrowed” the patrilineal pedigree of an famous horse from the seventh century CE and ascribed it to a modern horse in the 1850s.

Did this happen because the particulars of the horse were unknown? Did someone — whoever that was — make up a pedigree using older literary sources and references? In other words, was this hujjah fabricated? One indication that it might have been is that no mention is made of the typical information that characterizes such documents: color, markings, strain, breeder, tribe, etc. It is therefore possible that the original hujjah was lost lost or never provided, and that this flowery document was produced in its lieu upon the request of De Lesseps or consular officials in Alexandria. It is even possible that the document was forged by its translators, the consulate’s dragoman. That the horse had two names, “Bawab”, a name “borrowed” from a reference to early Islamic horses, and “Aneze”, a name from a more likely tribal source, points towards a forgery as well. Had the names of the Arab signatories of the hujjah been made available in the French translation, perhaps it would be have been able to identify the source of the mischief.