Ahmed Mabrouk on the ‘Ubayyan horses of Ibn Jalawi at al-Hasa in 1936

In his 1936 book “A Journey to Arabia”, Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of Egypt’s Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) has this to say of the horses of Prince Sa’ud Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi, the governor of the al-Hasa province of the new kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

“In the Prince’s stables, near his private palace, I saw about 80 horses. These I believe are the most pedigreed in Arabian owing to their concentration in a limited spot and the consequent exclusion of any outside blood.”

Dr. Mabrouk lists two mares of the ‘Ubayyan strain:

8. Ebeya El-Safra, grey, 8 y., fine bones and short neck.

9. Ebeya El-Hamra, bay, 10 y., big eyes but progeny with small eyes, spavin [sic], off hind, faint star and marking off hind coronet, very fine.

He also lists two ‘Ubayyan stallions and two ‘Ubayyan colts:

1. Ebeyan, bay, 7 y., 140 cent, both fore off hind white, faint race

2. Ebeyan, dark-bay, 11 y. white coronet, near fore, off hind, week [sic] hocks.

3. Two colts, bay, ex Ebeya El-Safra, by Ebeyan El-Ahmar, four whites, blaze, like sire. [sons of number 8]

The markings on stallion 1 appear to correspond to this picture in Dr. Mabrouk’s book, with the generic caption of “Horses of El Emir Seoud of El Hasa”. He also exhibits some of the looser coupling that characterizes some of the *Muhaira descendents in the US.

*Muhaira and her dam *Mahraa were themselves of the Ubayyan of Ibn Jalawi, and were likely closely related to the mares, stallions and colts Mabrouk saw. *Mahraa in particular was bred by the same Prince Saud Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi whom Dr. Mabrouk visited. She was born in 1943, a mere seven years after his visit, and was by an ‘Ubayyan of Ibn Jalawi out of an ‘Ubayyah of Ibn Jalawi. Her sire is likely to have been one of the stallions or colts Dr. Mabrouk saw.