Another photo of SAFRAN (*Shahwan x Safra), Hamdani Simri

An 1893 grey Hamdani Simri stallion. His dam, Safra, was by the Ali Pasha Sharif stallion Shueyman and out of the Mahmud Bey-Ghezireh mare Sobha. His sire, *Shahwan, has been featured on this blog before, and you can read about him here. Safran was used by the Blunts for breeding, although his influence ended up being pretty much negligible, and he was sold at the 1898 Crabbet Park sale. He had actually been bred to his 2nd dam, Sobha, who produced a grey colt in 1899, “…died immediately, a loss as [Safran] had been sold in 1898.”

A description of him, Country Life Illustrated, 7 August 1897: “…but the pick of the basket was a really beautiful four year old named Safran, by Shahwan – Safra (Hamdani Simri). He is quite a pony, only 14h., I think , but a perfect little gentleman, with wonderful power and substance for his size, on the shortest of legs, with long sloping shoulders, short powerful back and loins, the most bloodlike head and neck imaginable, and all quality. He is a perfect little picture, and worth a big price, if only to look at, though I was told that he is a beautiful hack, and has never been known to tire.”

In addition to Safra, the other Shueyman offspring that the Blunts acquired was the mare Bint Jamila, who died the same year she was purchased – 1901. Bint Jamila’s son Jamil was acquired for the Sheykh Obeyd Stud, also in 1901, and his line has continued through Jamil’s three daughters and one colt. Most were incorporated to the Khedive, RAS, and later EAO programs, but Henry Babson bought Jemla’s daughter Serra’s only daughter to survive in asil breeding: *Bint Serra I. This line is extremely well-represented by the Straight Babson Egyptians, the Babson-Influence horses, and the Combined Source horses utilizing Babson breeding. Jemla’s son, Zareif, has had a little more than 200 asil descendants born in the US in the past 30 years, and only 30 were born in the past decade – a rare branch of this family.

They did also acquire his daughter Helwa’s daughters 1) Bint Helwa (famously, the broken-legged mare) and 2) Johara. Both are represented in modern lines today, and Bint Helwa’s daughter *Ghazala was also the dam of Jemla’s sire Jamil, son of Bint Jamila. The Doyle family is also represented in the United States through *Ghazala’s daughter, Gulnare, through her son Gulastra (Nusi and Gulida) and her son Ghadaf. This is another rare branch of the family, though slightly better represented than Zareif’s.

Similarly, Lady Anne’s favored mare Kasida was a great granddaughter of Shueyman via her damline: Makbula –> Makbula El Kebira –> Shueyman. This mare’s influence on modern lines comes in through her daughter’s son Kazmeen, whose influence in the RAS and EAO is not insignificant – not the least of which because Kazmeen’s daughter Bint Samiha was the dam of Nazeer. Another grandget of Kazmeen, *Bint Bint Sabbah, was also a Babson import.

Much, much more could be said about the impact of Shueyman on the pedigrees of the Straight Egyptian and asil derivatives, but these things deserve their own posts. He will hopefully be featured again in the near future.