*Abeyah tail female survives with the Shammar

Lately, I have been enjoying regular evening discussions with Radwan. He is energized now that several of the mares he had lost to the IS were found and brought back. He is part of a WhatsApp group with Bedouin shaykhs and breeders in Syria to discuss desert horses and strains.

Yesterday’s discussion yielded a wonderful, just wonderful surprise: the specific Ubayyan Sharrak line to the 1906 Davenport import *Abeyah still exists among the Shammar.

*Abeyah, per her hujjah now on the Arabian Horse Archives, was from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, the leader of the Thabit clan of the Northern Shammar, and one of its “men of war” (rijal harb) — military commanders.

In the course of the 20th century (still trying to find out when), this precious Ubayyan Sharrak marbat, which originally hailed from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, passed from the sons of Mit’ab to their paternal cousins the sons of Shugayyif. They are now known after Shughayyif. By the 1980s, Muhammad ibn Mit’ab al-Hadb only had Saqlawiyat Jadran — and what Saqlawiyah these were! More on them another time.

But their cousins the Shughayyif kept the line going. Two mares made it in the second rounds of registrations in the Syrian studbook. One of them is in the photo below. Both have unusually pretty heads for a desert-bred. Does that ring a bell?

I reserved as filly. Not sure how I will fetch her all the way from the Upper Jazirah in Syria (IS territory until recently), but the opportunity was just too good pass. I will pause my desperate search for an *Abeyah descendant in the USA. Time for an mtDNA comparison!