A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
I used to have a photographic memory. One glance at one of the thousands of pictures in my archives and I could tell you the name of the horse, his owner’s name, his parents, and his entire pedigree. Lately I have been catching myself gazing at a photo and asking myself: “who the hell is … Read more
Many readers know of my passion for rare strains. They represent both genetic and cultural diversity. I am encouraged by the many rare lineages still extant in Syria, particularly in the Upper Jazirah area. It is the area where the formerly nomadic Shammar Bedouins chose to settle — at least those who did not go … Read more
Lineages of desert-bred horses are surprisingly resilient. Each time I think a line is lost it seems to reappear somewhere else. I have been following the Shuwayman line of the Jarbah Shaykhs for three decades now. Many mares were lost during the Syrian civil war, and I feared the strain was lost. Yet a branch … Read more
Evidence on the Mlayhan strain about the Gmassah, and the Shammar of both Mesopotamia and the Najd, from her book “Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates”: Wilfrid then inquired about the horses, or rather mares, in Jebel Shammar, and asked if the Arabs there had the same breeds as the Mesopotamian Shammar. “Just the same,” he … Read more
I came across the text of an administrative decision, dated April 30, 1921, signed by General Gouraud, French High Commissionner for Syria and Lebanon, and conferring upon Mashal Ibn Faris al-Jarba, Shaykh of the Shammar of Der Ezzor, the title of Pasha. I sent it to his grandson Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Mashal, Abu Nayif. … Read more
Lyman Doyle sent these photos of this year’s last arrival, another colt and another Ma’naqi Sbayli: Shaman Al Arab (Tamaam DE x SS Lady Guenevere by SS Dark Prince) was born two days ago. I am leasing his dam from DeWayne Brown. Shaman, pronounced SHAAH-MAAN, means “the one with a distinctive mark”, shamah. His odd … Read more
Radwan is looking for a new stallion for his growing herd. I advised him to purchase this young Mlayhan stallion, whose sons have been winning races. He is quite small but his origins are top notch. The Tai tribe, the clan of al-Nahhab in particular, have owned a marbat of the Mlayhan strain for a … Read more
Lyman Doyle sent me these scanned photos of grand mare Jabinta (Jadib x Bint Malakah by Subani), a 1969 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing to Homer Davenport’s *Wadduda. She has my Jadiba (by Dib) at her side. Jadiba and Jabinta are the kind of mares that should have produced ten foals not one, and certainly not by … Read more
This was my father’s answer when I asked him why he was about to purchase a beautiful, authentic desert-bred mare that was not registered in any studbook. There was something both idealistic and foolish — these two tend to overlap — about his stance which left a mark on the teenager I was. No formal … Read more
This horse is magnificent. He looks better and better with age and more like his paternal great grand sire, the Kuhaylan Nawwaq of ‘Iyadah al-Madi, a son of Krush Juhayyim. Photo by Severine Vesco in France. Pedigree here (couple minor errors in the back)
I think I am going to trace down the descendants of Ibn Jadran, and hint to them that they could become overnight millionaires if they copyrighted the use of their family name by thousands of people around the world each and every time the phrase “Saqlawi Jadran” is uttered. Just saying.
Looking back at more than thirty years around Arabian horses, I still remember the grand old Hamdani Simri stallion al-Aawar as one of two or three desert-bred horses I have admired the most in my life. He had this way of looking at you with a hint of disdain, as if he was the king … Read more
A new Hadban Enzahi colt by Vorrtex out of Zubaidah Assahara.
Hamad al-Jassir’s Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Hadithah has an interesting passage from the version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript manuscript he consulted. This passage is not in the edition of the Manuscript that was published by the King Abd al-Aziz Public Library (KAPL) based on an original that was in the family of Gulsun Sharif. That … Read more
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript is, at its core, a compilation of Bedouin accounts of the origins and ancestry of Arabian horses purchased by Abbas Pasha. Saudi historian Hamad al-Jassir, in his Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Haditha, listed the accounts featured in the version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript he consulted. I had already pointed to discrepancies … Read more
Each of the eleven chapters of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its Arabic version starts with a table. The table lists the titles of the accounts on every marbat and the page number where the account begins. Sometimes the title includes information not present in the body of the account. There are six sections under … Read more
DA Ginger Moon delivered a beautiful, strong chestnut filly by Subanet Jabbar this morning. This one is for Bev.
I have been aware of the existence of another version of usul al-khayl, a.k.a the Abbas Pasha Manuscript for some time now. Hamad al-Jassir, in the introduction of his book usul al-khayl al-arabiyah al-khadithah (“Origins of the modern Arab horses”), wrote that he accessed a copy then with his friend Khair al-Din al-Zarkali (photo below) … Read more
From the Arabian Horse Archives comes this beautiful picture of the Stud of King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Sa’ud at al-Kharj, the dream of many a horse breeder. From the collection of Comar Arabians. It is not available in better resolution anymore.
Kuhaylan al-Jalala is yet another strain that goes back to the Sharif of Mecca. A mare from this strain, Saida, was imported by Count Stroganoff and Prince Sherbatoff from the Northern Arabian desert to Russia. I had written about this strain ten years ago, here. Back then, my sources were Shammar oral histories through veteran … Read more
Bait al-Arab Kuwaiti researcher Yahya al-Kandari found a manuscript on Arabian horse strains in a private library in Jerusalem. The manuscript seems to date from 1264 Hijri, equivalent to 1848 CE. The handwriting is indeed characteristic of the mid-XIXth century Arabic script. I am eager to learn more, but for now, I will take what’s … Read more
Monologue CF recently had a very showy son for Laura Fitz in Michigan, the outcome of his stay there last here. His dam is Laura’s 2014 grey mare Mi Blue Angel (DB Khrush x Thank Heaven by Mlolshaan Hager Solomon). Unfortunately, Laura’s other mare, HH Karisma Krush proved barren to him.
Shoq is another one of Basil’s mares. I had written about her earlier, here. She is the only daughter of Mahboub Halep in Syria. Her breeder had seen Mahboub at Radwan’s stud in Aleppo prior to this importation to France, and bred her dam to him. She should have foaled by now.
The past few weeks have been fairly productive, in terms of my digging into the origins of Arabian horse strains, based on the accounts in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. I wrote about the origins of the Dahman, Saqlawi, Hamdani, Hadban, Shuwayman, Krushan, Mimrah, and Harqan strains. I also have upcoming entries … Read more
Last week Basil Jadaan sent me photos and videos of his mares. He is carefully rebuilding his stud after having lost all his horses during the Syrian civil war. This is his lovely 2007 Ubayyat Ibn Suhayyan mare Zamzamah. She is by a Kuhaylan Hayfi government-owned stallion Midyan al-Ghouta (Layth al-Arab x Mayyada), out of … Read more
Some twelve years ago, I wrote several blog entries about the strain of Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. One of these entries, here, summarized the strain’s origin as it was reported in one account in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This account traced this strain’s origin to a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare owned by ‘Ijl Ibn Hulaytim, a celebrated figure … Read more
CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” is coming back, after four years in the caring ownership of Cathy Fenton in Michigan. Thank you Cathy for letting me have her back. She is perhaps the last living Al Khamsa mare from the strain of Ferida, a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah bred in the Arabian desert and imported by Lady Anne … Read more
I finally managed to make sense of the short section in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript that deals with the genealogies of the Sudaniyaat mares — from the strain of Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan. This section consists of about eighteen lines of a testimony by Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn … Read more
What follows is an account of the origin of the Saqlawi strain from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, and my analysis of it. It ties together two distinct series of entries on this blog: a series on dating the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and a series on the history of the medieval tribal emirate of … Read more
One consequence of my re-discovering George Tabet’s booklet after a twenty year hiatus is that it allowed me to solve a couple of puzzles related to Arabian horses imported to the USA. One of these relates to the 1947 W.R. Hearst desert-bred import *Rajwa and her son the stallion *El Abiad, who was imported by … Read more
Georges Philippe Tabet’s short booklet “Arabian Horse Lineages” (Ansaab al-Khayl al-Arabiyah, Dar al-Ahad, Beirut, June 1937, 56 pages in both Arabic and French) features a long list of Arabian horse strains. This is the “yellow booklet” I mentioned in an earlier entry. The list is different from lists of Western travelers — Blunt, Upton, Raswan, … Read more
Today was a special day. As a child, I used to treasure the times spent talking with my father about Arabian horses. In the evenings, I would sit by his bedside,and read from the same books or magazines he read from. There was a white nightstand near his bed. In one of the nightstand’s drawers, … Read more
[This article was last revised on June 26] My dive into the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — for approximates dates of the beginning of the main strains of Arabian horses continues. The approach remains the same. After the Dahman Shahwan (ca. 1280 CE), Hamdani Simri (ca. 1670) and the Hadban and Harqan … Read more
I finally located the original reference to the famous account of the gift of a really expensive desert-bred mare to al-Malik al-Nassir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Syria and Hijaz. He reigned from 1293 to 1341 CE, with two interruptions (1294-99 and 1309-10). Al-Nassir Muhammad was really fond of desert-bred horses from Arabia. … Read more
Check out this excellent article about the modern Bani Lam tribe, a subset of the medieval tribe of same name. Some sections of the first, old tribe of Bani Lam splintered, reformed, absorbed sections from other tribes, and become the modern day tribes of al-Dhafeer, al-Fudul, Aal Mughirah, and Aal Kathir (Al-E-Kassir in Farsi). The … Read more
An interesting account from the Meccan chronicle Ghayat al-Maram bi Akhbar Saltanat al-Balad al-Haram by ‘Izz al-Din al-Hashimi al-Qurashi under the year 917 Hijri (1511-12 CE): The Sharif Barakat raided the Mafarijah [a tribe of the Bani Lam] and their allies the Bani ‘Uqbah. He [the Sharif] had some of the Mafarijah with him. Then … Read more
Another Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain from the Sharif of Mecca. The below account of the Kuhaylan Harqan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript offers some of the clearest indications for dating an Arabian horse strain. The accounts of Kuhaylat al-Ru’ail and her name is al-Harqah: Those present at the gathering of Ha’il were queried about al-Ru’ail, … Read more
I have been reading and writing a lot about the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe lately, because of its link with the origins of the Hamdani and Hadban strains. So here is a rare picture of ‘Ajmi ibn Suwayt (died 1988), the tribe’s Shaykh during most of the twentieth century. While the tribe’s traditional dira (i..e, the … Read more
[I revised this article several times, the last time on June 16, 2020] The subject of this article is a battle between the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe and the Sharif Hamud Ibn ‘Abdallah either in the year 1667-68 Hijri (1078 Hijri) or 1669-1670 CE (1080 Hijri), depending on the sources. This episode is relevant to understanding … Read more
From the “History of Najd” of ‘Uthman Ibn Bishr: Under the year 1670-71 CE: In the year 1081 [Hijri], was the battle of al-Kaythal, a well known place in Najd, between al-Dhafeer and al-Fudul. Under the year 1674-75 CE: In the year 1085, [came] the famous time known [as] Jarman during which prices increased, and … Read more
It’s an exaggeration but this is what Hamid ibn Mudhi al-Suhayyan, the Shammari owner of the marbat of Ubayyan Ibn Suhayyan, told me in 2006. At the time I did not fully grasp the significance of what he had said. After reading the initial stories about the foundation of every strain in the Abbas Pasha … Read more
The below account of the origin of al-Hadb is an application of the way I propose to date the origin of Arabian horse strains. I translated it from the Arabic version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. My own notes follow. The accounts of al-Hadb with al-Dhafeer: In the presence of Sultan Ibn Suwayt and a … Read more
I take special interest in the origin of Arabian horse strains. I am particularly keen on establishing the approximate dates when the main strains first came about. In the context of oral Bedouin culture, this can present obvious challenges. Before the advent of modernization and mass literacy in the twentieth century, Bedouins did not assign … Read more
Also from the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, my translation: Ghadir al-Simri of the Dhafeer, a white haired man, the owner of al-Simr, was asked about the marbat of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah, in the house [Bedouin house, i.e., tent] of Farhan al-Jarba, at a gathering [majliss] in the presence of Farhan al-Jarba, Khuzaym … Read more
This entry compares two Arabic primary sources some 53 years apart: First, my translation of a passage in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (1853) about the Hamdani Simri strain, with my notes in brackets. “Mughir Ibn Buraykan of the Gmassah [a clan of the Sba’ah tribe], a man aged one hundred years, was queried. He testified … Read more
Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi was an authority on the horses of Homs and Hama in Central Syria. He was also a primary source of information about the horses of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, whose summer encampments were near these two cities. His family acquired many horses from the Sba’ah. His information about the racehorses … Read more
I love reading the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its Arabic version. I find it entertaining, a bit like a novel. This is one of my favorite passages — my translation, and my annotations in brackets: Shahata al-Hunaydees was asked: “Do tell us about your marbat [a Bedouin stud], by your honor and good fortune. From … Read more
This is not a photo I would have shared a few months ago. I don’t remember who sent it to me. It features a member of the Islamic State (IS) on the Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion Shamikh Al Jabri. The background to the photo is the equestrian club of Raqqah with its conspicuous blue gate. The … Read more
‘Azzah was one of my father’s favorite mares at Mustafa Jabri’s. She was a daughter of the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-Aawar and of Nadia, a desert bred Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah tracing to the marbat of Muhammad al-Dahdah of the Jawwalah clan of Tai and to Dari al-Mahmud of the Zawba’ Shammar before that. That strain originally … Read more
A younger me with Mustafa Jabri on the left and Radwan Shabareq on the right. The good years. Some 25 years ago if not more.
I saw ‘Am’um (Kuhaylan al-Buthah x Raddah) in 2005 and snapped this photo. His sire is a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz from the very old marbat of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Jlaidan (or Kuhaylan Jlaidani). His dam is Raddah, a 1977 Ma’naqiyah Hadrajiyah of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan. The sire of Raddah is the black Ma’naqi Hadraji of Mudhi … Read more
Dali was the brother of Radi al-Hkaysh and the paternal cousin of ‘Atallah al-Battu, who owned the Hamdani Simri stallion al-Aawar, and before him a Dahman ‘Amir of the horses of ‘Ajil al-Yawar. This Dahman ‘Amir had been given to him by his maternal uncles so he could earn a livelihood from charging stud fees. … Read more
Faddan Salim al-‘Ufaytan and his son, from the Hdibah clan of the Northern Shammar. The ‘Ufaytan have owned the Ma’naqi Hudruji strain among the Shammar for some hundred years. They got the strain from the ‘Anazah. The strain originally belonged of the ‘Amarat tribe of the ‘Anazah. I think, but I am not sure, that … Read more
And now a picture of Wadd Al Arab, out of Oregon, from owner Jessie Heinrick. He has never looked so good.
Roxana Star, a very distinguished Kuhaylah Hayifyah of Davenport bloodlines, is the daughter of the timeless Jauhar El Khala by Personic LF. A Christine Emmert photo.
It is that time of the year in the USA, where the weather is nice, the grass green, and the cameras out. Kim Davis, who has a talent for taking good photos, recently took these of the 2011 bay Krushan stallion Inaam Al Krush (Monologue CF x HH Noura Krush). At ten years old, he … Read more
Rosemary pointed my attention to the black eyeliner mark around his eyes. It is a relatively rare feature in chestnut Arabian horses, and a mark of authenticity. I think DeWayne took the first two pictures. This Ma’anaqi Sbayli strain really produces quality, and the hybrid vigor from the concentrated Doyle blood helped.
i am enjoying the book “Review of the ‘Anizah Tribe”: “An avenger should not kill the aggressor while asleep and he usually wakes him up to remind him of his evil deed before dispatching him. He then slits the corners of his mouth up to the ears, cuts off his ears and put them in … Read more
I just received two books in the mail. I am super excited about them. The first one is a previously unpublished “Review of the ‘Anizah Tribe” by Gerald de Gaury, the British explorer of Arabia (photo below). Bruce Ingham, who wrote the very informative “Bedouin of Northern Arabia” about the Dhafeer tribe, discovered this manuscript … Read more
I first met this one-of-a-kind stallion in 1991. Before Radwan acquired him, Al-Aawar was one of the herdsires of the Shammar in North Eastern Syria. His then owner was Atallah al-Battu al-Hkaysh, a descendant of the slaves of the Jarba shaykhs of the Shammar. Yesterday Radwan and I were reflecting on his legacy. We remarked … Read more