A new translation of Kariban’s hujjah with new insights
The chestnut Arabian mare Kariban, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, was imported from the Middle East by Hernan Ayerza in 1898 for his large El Aduar stud in Argentina. El Aduar can be thought of as the historical equivalent of Crabbet in Latin America.
Kariban is the tail female for the mare *Aire. She has a very thin tail female in Al Khamsa, down to a single mare, San Luis Solstice, despite having contributed many important horses to US breeding programs.
I had translated Kariban’s hujjah for Al Khamsa Arabians III some twelve years ago, but the fact that the mare is in the pedigree of one of my mares led me to take another look today, which proved fruitful.
Here is my translation of the original Arabic document:
On the below date, we sold our chestnut mare, the daughter of our burnt bay mare; the mare that was sold, her strain is Saqlawiyat Jadran, she was born with us; her sire is the bay Ma’naqi horse of Shawkat Pasha; her dam is from Bagdad, her origin being from the horses of Ibn Sattam Sha’lan, leader (Amir) of the tribe of the ‘Anazah Arabs. She was born with us, her age is three years old, she has a white star on her face and white on her left hind leg; to clarify her origin and description we produced this on April (Nisan) 22, 1898.
Written by Nasr Gharzuzy
[In latin script: N. Gharzuzy]
[Seal, in Arabic: Nasr Gharzuzy]
Witnesses
[illegible first and last name, illegible seal, perhaps last name is ‘Abbud]
Yusuf Nassar
Sa’d Nassar [and a seal]
Khalil Melki [and a seal]
Yusuf Bassila
Saleem As’ad Nassar [and a seal: Saleem Nassar]
[In french:] The chancellor of the general consulate of France in Syria certifies that the named Mr. Gharzuzy, owner of the horse designated in the above certificate, was fully paid the sale price in [missing word]. [Square stamp]
The breeders and the witnesses are all Syrian (or Lebanese) Christians. I found a reference to a obituary for “Alfrid Nasr Gharzuzi, Hakimbashi of Port Said” in a 1927 Arabic book by Ilyas Zakhura, al-Suriyyun fi Misr (‘The Syrians in Egypt’), page 65, itself referenced in footnote 37 in page 250 of the book “The Origins of Syrian Nationhood: Histories, Pioneers and Identity” edited by Adel Beshara (Taylor and Francis, 2012).
This Alfred Nasr Gharzuzy is probably the son of the Nasr Gharzuzy in the hujjah above, or the man himself. The many possible spellings for Gharzuzy (Gharzouzi; Gharzuzi; Gharzouzy, etc) complicated a preliminary online search of his trace but I think I have a lead there.
Also, the records of the American University in Beirut (formerly the Syrian Protestant College, built on land bought from a Michel Gharzouzi) kept the trace of an Alfred Gharzuzi, an 1899 alumnus.
For now, I am finding the attribution of the Saqlawi Jadran reference to Kariban to be highly dubious. It’s THE strain to chose if a horse dealer wants to swindle a gullible customer.
Fascinating. Lots of questions are begged:
1) Is this the same Ibn Sha’lan who was the Ruala chief known by Schmidt/Raswan;
2) If so, how would the Baghdad location have come about;
3) Can you tell us more about Christian tribes or breeders– new concept to me;
4) Would they likely have been Maronite, Melkite, or Orthodox;
5) Although quite ignorant of the Arab Nationalist movement, I had been under the impression that it was heavily Islamic in flavor — if so, how did these Christians fit in?
I realise this is an old post & my comment may not be picked up but, I thought it worth noting some hearsay that might be worth following up.
Maureen de Popp came to England from Argentina with a few Ayerza mares (all post Obayan 6) but she always claimed that it was known by Herman Ayerza that Kariban was a sister to Azrek imported by the Blunts. It may be a total fairytale but I wondered if there was any correspondence between the two studs that supported any kind of connection.
There might be some correspondence in the material Lady Wentworth left to the British Library.