This year a Bezatal grand-daughter won the Tevis Cup 100 miles ride 50 years after Bezatal’s first win in 1965.
SMR Filouette is 14 years old and her rider, Potato Richardson, third time Tevis Cup winner (and 22nd time finisher) is 73 this year. Respect. The mare is general list, tail female *Werdi through Kapiti and her daughter Talima by Oriental (like my Mayyassah)
If you happen to take good care of your horses, or you if you know that you will take of your first horse, and are interested in starting a new preservation breeding program centered around the esteemed Arabian horse strain of Ma’naqi Sbayli, please contact me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com I have a mare from that strain, 10 months pregnant, and she and/or her foal would be available to the right home to start such a program. Below is a noted in Arabic penned by one of Homer Davenport’s Arab guests during his 1906 trip to North Arabia to buy desert-bred Arabian horses. Part of it — the second paragraph — reads: “There is no better and more authentic strain to be found among the Arabs [Bedouins] than that of the Ma’naqi Sbayli which Mr. Davenport purchased. The Ma’naqi is from the Arab [Bedouins] of Gomussah, from the tribe of the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, and he is from the best strain in their possession; the name of his owner is al-Sbayli.”
Note the huge eye. He is leaving tonight to go to Kathryn Toth in Ohio, where he will be used on her two rare Arabian mares, a Hadbah and a Hamdaniyah. I want to thank Pamela Klein for her gift of him, and Darlene Summers for the chance to co-own him with her.
Another shot of Monologue from last weekend. Click on the picture to expand it.
This is the latest mare to join my herd, along with her 15 year-old daughter who is also black (not that it matters). Juans Aana (El Reata Juan x Suuds Juli Aana by PRI Saqlawi Suud) is a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, going back in tail female to Haidee imported by Major Roger Upton from the Gomussah Bedouin tribe of North Arabia in 1874. The mare is 25 years old, so don’t mind the sway back at her venerable age. That’s how the Gulastra sire line horses age, including the great Gulastra himself. A great-great-grand-daughter of Gulastra in the sire line with three additional crosses to him in the pedigree (and also to *Aziza, *Roda, *Zarife, *Fadl, etc). Her eyes are huge, and I love the prominent facial bones, the sloping shoulders, the clear legs and the long neck. I have high hopes to get this mare in foal to one of my stallions before it is too late.
CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” (Sar El Dine x Takelma Rosanna by Prince Charmming) is a 1999 mare from the rare Ma’naqi Sbayli line tracing to Ferida of Lady Anne Blunt. She is 10 months in foal to Monologue CF. She is for sale to a good home, if you know someone.
Jamr will be three years old very soon. He is coming along, but still needs more time, at least two more years to show his full potential. He’s always had nice ears, tipped inwards and slightly backwards at the top, that deep jowl keeps getting deeper, and the eye is showing better. Jamr al Arab is by Vice Regent CF out of Jadiba. He is a Saqlawi al-Abd tracing to *Wadduda, the war mare of Hakim (“Hatchim” in Bedouin dialect) Ibn Mhayd, the leader of the Northern ‘Anazah in 1906 (Nuri Ibn Sha’lan was the head of the southern ‘Anazah then). So far he looks a lot like his maternal grandsire Dib, overall. There is a bit of the Regency CF too.
This is Jadah BelloftheBall (aka “Belle”, and I am going to change this name with the registry). The background is an eyesore, but she otherwise looks good. She is a 2002 Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, tracing to *Nufoud, a mare from the stables of Ibn Saud. Her sire is Invictus Al Krush and her dam is one of my favorite Arabian mares, Belladonna CHF, by Audobon out of LD Rubic, another favorite.
This is my DA Ginger Moon (DB Destiny Moniet x Kumence RSI by Monietor), a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, tail female to Rabanna carrying a high percentage of horses from the lines of Abbas Pasha and Ali Pasha Sharif. Her body is still too thin to take a full conformation shot. She was in foal to the Bahraini stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon, but did not keep the pregnancy. Next time I will bring one of my old Bedouin halters. I never think of these things beforehand.
So yesterday and today I went up to Pennsylvania to see my horses, and Jeannie Lieb met me there. I learned a lot from Jeannie about proper nutrition and hoof care, and I took hundreds of photos of my horses — with the iPhone unfortunately. Still, many are not that bad. Here are a couple of Wadha. Click on them to enlarge them. Wadha, born in 2010, is by Javera Thadrian out of Wisteria CF, by Triermain CF. They are three of my four favorite Davenport Kuhaylan Hayfis. Wadha is now being trained with the lounge; she has learned to lead, trot and canter, and just had a saddle put on her.
Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare by Rodan). Charles Craver has taken video of him at B. Tankersley in D.C. at age 30-plus.
This filly is the best news of the foaling season in the US so far. A young Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah (yay!), by a Doyle (100% old Blunt) stallion out of a mare with seven crosses to Julep (Gulastra x *Aziza). She is the result of the first cross of a stallion from the Julep-Gulastra-Astraled tail male to Mesaoud to a mare from the Ghadaf-Ribal-Seyal tail male to Mesaoud ever, and the first cross between two different tail males to Mesaoud in at least 90 years. Think of it, the Doyle horses were never bred to the Julep horses. I like this filly, and I like her dam SS Lady Guenevere too, especially that purple chestnut color. The tail female is from Jane Ott, back to Haidee, imported by Major Roger Upton from Arabia, from the Gmassah Bedouins of Sulayman ibn Mirshid to be precise. That’s the wellspring of Ma’naqi Sbayli. The famous *Haleb was from there, too.
This young stallion from France is, in my opinion, one of the most representative elements of the original Arabian type. This is one of the types once favored by North Arabia’s Bedouins as a sire. Click on the photo to enlarge it. He is Murad Sbaa, by Shueyman el Badawi and Murad Ouarda Sabah, by Jahir et Murad Hadiya, par Ourki and Hamada, by Irmak (Tunisia); his sire Shueyman el Badawi by Mokhtar (Syria) and Murad Haouda Sahib, by Cherif et Hamada, by Irmak (Tunisia). He looks both like his sire and his maternal grandsire, Jahir. He won French USCAR’s 5200 meters race — by a long shot — in September 2014. The real Arabian horse still exists. Photo of his maternal grandsire Jahir (a gem of a horse, that should have bred 300 foals) below:
Jeanne Craver just shared this photo of the 2003 Kuhaylan Hayfi Davenport stallion Twickenham (Regency CF x Kiddleywink CF by Regency CF), who is still at Craver Farms. I have always loved that little stallion.
I was browsing the internet (I finally got connected a connection set), and I came across an amazing photo of the 2011 stallion Shuwayman Fahad. He is by Mahboob Halab (desert bred lines from Syria) out a Mokhtar (desert bred, Syria) daughter, so 75% desert Syrian lines (and some of the bset) and the grand-daughter is from old French/Tunisian/Algerian lines. He is from Jean-Claude Rajot’s breeding in France and the last I checked, he was owned by Arnault Decroix.
Jose Manuel from Spain sent me these photos of his amazing 1999 Syrian stallion Najm Yarob (Fawaz x Karboujah by Saad x Roudeinah by Mashuj x Jamrah by Awaad x Doumah), a Kuhaylan Krush that is a close relative to the black Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah). Look at this black skin, this muzzle, and this croup! This photo of a survivor and the evocation of the names of the horses above, all of which I have seen, known and liked in my teenage, send shivers through my spine.
Check it out here.
Of the new generation of stallions rising at the EAO thanks to Ali Shaarawi’s tireless efforts, the Saqlawi Gabour (El Ragel x Gobrana by Kasemy x Gomanah by Maleeh x Bedaat by Ibn Akhtal) is certainly my favorite. He is not striking, but is well built and well balanced.
I so like this photo of the 1985 black Ma’naqi Sbayli mare Suuds Juli Aana (PRI Saqlawi Suud x Julyana ZHS). The muzzle, the jaws, the look in the eye (reminiscent of a mare from Cal Raswan’s pictures of desert horses, don’t remember which one), and again, that overall air of a wild animal. In the second photo, the same mare looks like a tank. A desert background would be mor fitting for these photos.
So we will be heading back to the USA this summer after two years in Egypt. I am both happy and not happy about this development. I don’t know what it is, or rather, I don’t know how else to put it, but in Egypt, gravity, in the sense of the force that ties you to the land, is stronger than in other places I have lived in. It’s a place that is hard to leave, despite the challenges of life here. But looking forward to seeing my horses regularly, and my horse folks, too.
This photo of the 1964 French and North African Arabian stallion Saadi (Ourour x Oureah by Ghalbane OA) has recently surfaced on the internet. I had not seen it before. It is likely from a magazine.
I am in Doha, Qatar for two days. I just came back from a visit to the brand new “old suq” of Suq Waqif. It’s an anthropological experience of the first order, in how a country can and did re-imagine and reinvent its past, or rather bits and pieces of the past of many neighboring countries, re-package it, and present it to the world as its own — with success. I could not distinguish what was specifically Qatari, if anything, but then again the Arabian Gulf culture is a largely supra-national culture. The architecture is a mix of Oman’s and Bahrain’s, the Bedouin-pattern textiles are Syrian imports, the metal lamps are Egyptian, the glass patterns in the walls are Yemeni. The tricks works, up to a point, even for the trained eye. Just imagine the effect on the random tourist.
This was taken in a Damascus interior by French photographer Gervais Courtellemont in 1908, and gleaned off the internet. The Facebook website I got it from notes that the oldest color photo ever was taken by the Lumiere brothers in Lyon in 1907 using the same autochrome technology. What epitomes of refinement old Damascus and old Aleppo were.. and old Bagdad, and old Mosul, and old Sanaa, old Mecca, old Medina, and old Jerusalem… now all gone.
Today was an important and solemn day of my two-year stay in Egypt. I found the Cairo cemetery where Lady Anne Blunt is buried and the old lady who guards it led me to her tomb. The “noble lady of the horses” was right there. I had a thought for many of you, and wished you were there with me. Few minutes of silence and then I walked back to the car. I did not take pictures.
By far my favorite stallions at Mrs. Barbary’s Shams El Asil farm are the 2002 bay Hadban stallion Zay El Amar (SEA Halawat Zaman x Meshmesha by Anas x El Anood by Akhtal) and his own sire the 1998 grey SEA Halawat Zaman (SEA Shams El Asil x SEA Set el Hosn by Lokman a.k.a. Ibn Adaweya). Perfect conformation, muscular stallions, with high withers, deep girth, sloped shoulders, good bone, short backs, plus all the rest, the result of 50 years of selection. Mrs. Barbary is a master breeder for sure. Photo below by Ahmed Nashaat.
Pedigree link here. Dam of Sahmet, and granddam of Saher, Safir, and others.
Yet another Hayfiyah, and another Presto CF daughter (it’s never too late) out of Ala Athena Hafiah (Riposte CF x Femina by Ibn Alamein), one of my favorite mares of this strain. She is pretty and looks a lot like her dam.
A newly born Kuhaylah Hayfiyah filly of Davenport bloodlines by Presto CF (Ibn Alamein x Pretty Fancy by Ionian) out of Du Soleil BPA (Triermain CF x Circe by Odysseus) at Claudia and Jim Burris. The dam is a Triermain daughter out of a Triermain sister.
From the collection of his grandson and namesake Ahmed Ibish, Jr, who writes: These are some photos of winning horses of Ahmed Ibish, you can identify them with the previous photos, by horse shapes and numbers. It’s a pity no names preserved. I can only recollect my father describing how some of his father’s horses “took the Primo.” As to the racing track I can not be sure, is it that of Beirut or Alexandria? No clue. Mostly Beirut, simply because it could not be practical for him to transport his stallions all the way to Alexandria for the sheer purpose of racing. He used to go there for rather selling some of them, and given his old age in the photos I do not think he would have taken the burden. I only can remember how my father spoke of the exquisite method of training and weight loss (Tadhmeer) Ibish used to apply on his horses. He also said that he was a stern man who would not utter a single word about these secret methods. But in general he was close to the Bedouin tribes of the Syrian desert, hence he learned most of his techniques.
Jeannie Lieb’s war mar Fin deSiecle CF (Jamboree CF x Bonne Fortune). I saw Jamboree at Craver Farms last month, and what a regret he is not as fertile as she should be. What a good sire, judging from his only offspring.
News this morning that Saudi Arabian airstrikes have leveled the 1,100 year Imam Hadi mosque in Sa’dah, in the far north of Yemen. Sa’dah is one of the last well-preserved medieval cities in the Middle East.
This Kuhaylat al-Krush filly of Davenport lines is the second ray of the hope this strain, also born this month at Kim Davis’. She is by HH Tantalus Krush out of HH Nadira Krush.
This wonderful, very promising black Kuhaylat al-Krush filly was born this month at Kim Davis’ in Illinois, out of HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush LD by Sportin Life). After the devastating tragedy that befell the group of Krush mares in Texas, she is one of two rays of hope for the next generation of this precious (and ever) strain.
This Arab (ie, Bedouin, not Egyptian peasant) village was right next to Lady Anne’s Sheykh Obeyd property. The photo was taken in 1911. Today it is a sprawling informal, poverty-stricken suburb of Cairo, home to around a million people.
This rare shot is from the Facebook page “Ahl Misr Zaman” which I thoroughly recommend you to follow. It’s a great window to Egypt’s past. King Fuad of Egypt and the Sudan heads the procession (in black, towards the right). The page notes that Prince Kemal El Dine was offered the Egyptian throne upon the death of his father Sultan Hussein (who ruled 1914-1917) but he turned it down, so his paternal uncle King Fouad ascended the throne.
The other day I was on the 16th floor of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance (the one where they have this impressive portrait gallery of all former ministers of finance), and I saw a painting of Muhammad Sherif Pasha (with a tenure date around 1840, don’t remember exactly), with the mention “father of Ali Sherif Pasha”). I was reminded of this upon reading the December 8th, 1910 entry of Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, where she mentions that “on the conquest of Syria the plan was — Mohd. Ali’s plan — to have Egypt for himself and his heirs, Syria for M. Sherif (his Minister and Govr. of Syria) and Yemen for Kurshid.“
From Carrie Slayton, a fellow Arabian horse preservationist (thank God for these angels): “Polynesia LD foaled a lovely bay Sharp filly April 23rd,sire is the Davenport stallion Fire Dragon LF. She will be named DI (Desert Ice) Pele, for the Hawaiian volcano goddess”. That’s the same pedigree as this horse, three generations of Davenports on top, and a particularly close tail female line to Manial’s Mahroussa. Photos below from Carrie.
This is one of the nice surprises which maintaining this blog can offer you from time to time. Some time ago, Dr. Ahmed Ibish, the grandson of his famous namesake, left some comments on Daughters of the Wind about his grandfather’s involvement with horse-racing, and he now sent me these precious, precious photos. I believe these are the first photos the Arabian horse community gets to see of Ahmed Ibish (of Aiglon, hence, *Exochroda, hence Sirecho fame). Please do not take them or reproduce them without his permission. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Ahmed wrote in his message: “I could copy these pictures in Damascus; Unfortunately none of them was dated, and they have not titles or comments of any kind. I believe that the racing track shown is that of Beirut? Date must be around end of 1930s; My grand father lived between 1857-1941; the young man with the mare is my late father Nouri Ibish (1891-1975), picture apparently taken in Damascus. While the picture of Ahmed Ibish sitting, shows his two sons, Hussein (1884-1967) & Nouri; None of them was a horse breeder, but were both keen enthusiasts of outdoor life and big game hunting. I wish I…
This morning I was reflecting on the number of tail females left at the Stud of Ali Pasha Sharif after the plague which ravaged his stud around 1875, until his death in 1897. It is surprisingly small: 1) Ghazieh line (Saqlawi Jadran ibn Sudan); mares: Horra, Helwa, Bint Helwa, Johara, Bint Horra, Yemameh (dam of Mesaoud); stallions: Wazir, Amir (Aziz x Horra) offered for sale to Blunts but declined; young stock: Ghazala, Mesaoud, Ibn Johara, Ibn Helwa, Ibn Yemameh Sr, Ghazieh, etc. 2) Nura line (Dahman Najib); mares: Bint Nura Esh-Shakra, various Bint Nura mares (a brown, a bay and a white); stallions: Ibn Nura; Ibn Bint Nura El Hamra (offered for sale to the Blunts March 5 1891 but declined); young stock: (ibn) Mahruss; Abu Khasheb; Kaukab 3) Faras Naqadan line (Dahman Shahwan); mares: Bint ‘Azz (went to Amato the dealer), Mumtaza, Bint Mumtaza (Badiaa); stallions: Aziz, Azz (Aziz x Mumtaza) offered to the Blunt who delined, Nasrat; young stock: Bint Bint Azz; Sahab; 4) Arussa line (Kuhaylan Nawwaq); mares: Noma, Bint Arussa (Harkan x Arussa); 5) Jellabiet Feysul line (Kuhaylan Jallabi); mares: Bint Bint Jellabiet Feysul; Makbula; El Argaa; Yamama; young stock: Khatila; (Bint) Makbula; Kasida; Manokta; Jellabieh; Merzuk; Yatima…
I could not get decent pictures of Jamr (Vice Regent CF x Jadiba), who is not three years old yet, and is going through a growth spurt — a real teen-ager. I was taken aback at first (my eye got used to the Egyptians) but then I took a second look and thought he was promising and had a lot of the right things in the right place. He still needs at least three years before I showing his true promise. What I could already see was that Vice Regent’s Davenport blood shortened the longer back of Jadiba and did not affect the deep girth. It turned Jadiba’s rectangle into a square. The legs are good. The head I could not tell yet (he had a few teeth coming out), I could already see his sire and dam’s big jowls, but it looks like he will be taking a lot after his dam’s sire, Dib.
That’s the best head shot I could get of my DA Ginger Moon, a tail female Rabanna mare, with lots of Blunt and Ali Pasha Sharif blood (and it shows). There is a lot of the Bint Moniet el Nefous in there (Nazeer x Moniet el Nefous), close up, and it shows too. That’s a very different mare from my other horses, all of whom have a majority of Davenport and other early desert blood. She turned out not to be in foal to the Bahraini Mlolshaan stallion. What a disappointment. So much time and resources invested to make it happen, all gone to waste. Oh well.
Last week I saw “Belle” for the first time. Jadah BelloftheBall (I so don’t like that name and I want to change it) is Jeannie Lieb’s gift to me in 2013. I liked the mare, she sent all the right vibes to me. Looking at her, you’d easily forget you are in the woods of Pennsylvania, and you would feel transported in time and space to Arabia in the early twentieth century (one of my favorite time and space combinations, but I don’t think I would have survived more than a few days there and then). She is a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz tracing in tail female to *Nufoud of King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, sent to Albert Harris in 1932. She is only five generations removed from the desert (from both *Nufoud and *Turfa), and she looks like she came straight out of there. The mare is not without defects, I would have especially liked to see a deeper girth and a longer croup, but I don’t mind her just the way she is; I appreciate the big bone, the short and thick cannons, the large hocks and hooves, the high wither, the highly set tail, and above everything else, that overall look…
A photo of the Davenport foundation mare Portia (Tripoli x Dhalana) I had not seen before.
I am in the USA for a few days, for the first time in two years. I am here for work reasons, but you can imagine I took advantage of the weekend to go see my horses. So Saturday, Darlene Summers and Jenny Krieg drove up with me to Pennsylvania to see the 7 (well, 6.5) I have there, and had a wonderful time talking horse on the way. As usual, my camera died on me half-way through the visit, and I have to rely on my friends’ photos. Here is a photo of my Wadd, which Darlene too. He will be 4 years old this September. He is a slow grower, and Charles Craver told me today that the inbred ones are even slower growers than the others. He had just rolled in the mud, and still had a lot of his winter coat. I still think highly of him, and hopefully he will keep improving and taking more after his sire, the glorious Triermain CF (whom I also saw today — what a privilege).
The long-held hypothesis that Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal had two grey Dahman stallions at the same time, developed by Pearson and Mol in a seminal footnote of their Arabian Horse Families of Egypt gets a boost when one carefully reads this passage of Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, March 9th, 1904, where she first describes the stallions she saw (numbering mine): To Ahmed Pasha’s stud. Of the horses, there was first (#1) the old bay like Mabruka, in color shape and mark on nose, blind of near eye, a Keyhilan A. of the Tanviri [actually, Tamiri] strain, his sire the old chestnut Seglawi of Ibn Sbeyni, (#2) then a white Dahman Shahwan, dam the Dahmeh that belonged to Ahmed Bey Sennari, sire the Keh. A. of Mesenneh strain brought to A.B. Sennari from the desert, a handsome and very strong horse but wanting in something of quality (#3) and also the white with still some dark on the legs and mane; (#4) Managhi Ibn Sbeyel (sire of our filly Jamila) his dam the Managhieh Sbeylieh brought from Arabia to the Tihawis (from whom Ahmed Pasha took her) his sire the old Seglawi Jedran from Ali Pasha Sherif belonging to Ahmed…
Historian Mohamed Saud al-Tahawy is digging into what appears to have been a privileged and deep relationship between the Tahawi leaders of the house of Saud al-Tahawi and the French engineers who dug the Suez Canals and the French managers who operated it afterwards, including Ferdinand de Lesseps; he has some correspondence between de Lesseps’ successor Jules Guichard, who operated the Suez Canal company from 1892 t o1896, and Saud al-Tahawi. Meanwhile, I was able to find the following in Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, Feb. 19, 1887 entry: “Arrived at Tihawi camp at 1.30: it is as it were a sand oasis in the midst of cultivations; all the surrounding country belongs to Haj Sa’oud and his family. They must be good sort of people among themselves, though hating all fellahin, for they seem to be all very happy together […]. In the evening two black agas arrived from Cairo, they belong to the ladies of the late Abbas Pasha. There was also a French engineer stationed at Salahieh.” I wonder who he was.
In my opinion, the 1984 Saqlawiyah mare Tohama (Akhtal x Ibdaa by Ikhnatoon x Ibtisam by Nazeer x Mouna by Sid Abouhom) was one of the nicest mares at the EAO in the 1980s. Photo by Judi Parks.
This photo of the lovely 1979 Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Virginia Deyr (Tristram x LR Double Bubble by Ar-Raad) in old age appeared in one of the Khamsat magazine issues and is courtesy of Jeanne Craver. This Hamdani strain, going back to the mare Sobha (Wazir x Selma) is one of the handful strains handed down from the Abbas Pasha collection in asil form. Owing to this fact only, Sobha’s Hamdani Simri strain ought to receive so much more attention within an outside Al Khamsa’s realm. The credit for saving this line in Al Khamsa/asil form goes to Charles Craver who acquired the mare Arabesque (Rouf x Koreish by Alcazar out of the Crabbet/Blunt mare Simawa). The other Abbas strains still in existence in tail female today, within Al Khamsa, are: El Dahma’s (Dahman Shahwan); Ghazieh’s (Saglawi Jadran); and Roga’s (Saglawi Jadran); other Abbas Pasha strains such as Jellabiet Feysul’s (Kuhaylan Jellabi), Noma’s (Kuhaylan Nawwaq), Nura’s (Dahman Najib), and Samha’s (Saglawi ibn Zubaynah) died out early on. Jellabiet Feysul’s still exist, but outside Al Khamsa. By the way, Virginia Deyr carries two lines to the Davenport Second Foundation stallion Tripoli: she is by a Tripoli son out of a Tripoli grand-daughter.
Last week I visited Mrs. Barbary at her Shams El Asil Farm outside Cairo. It was a lovely moment, and I enjoyed seeing her and her horses; I was especially struck by the stallions from the Bilal (Morafic x Mona) sire line, who have a very desert look about them, and are very correct and well built. The grey 1998 stallion SEA Halawat Zaman (SEA Shams El Asil by Sabah El Noor by Bilal, out of SEA Set El Hosn by Lokman/Ibn Adaweya) stood out, and so did his bay son and otherwise lookalike, SEA Zay El Kamar. That said, one interesting part of the conversation was about the stallion Sharkasi; Mrs. Barbary is the custodian of the most credible story about him, a story apparently obtained first hand from one of the protagonists. I recall reading a short version of this story in an investigative report WAHO commissioned in 1976. In essence, Mrs. Barbary told me that there was a sandy open area near the present location of the El Zahraa farm, where horse merchants from al-Sham (Syria, I asked if traders from other areas like Najd came there too, but no, these were apparently only horse traders from Syria) used to bring horses for…
A photo of Saudi Arabian King Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud with King Faruk during the former’s official visit to Egypt in 1946. Taken on board of the train from Suez to Cairo (King Ibn Saud had come to Egypt by sea from Jeddah to Suez). The year before, several Saudi desert mares had been presented to King Faruk.
This is Kalthoom (Farazdac x Nahed by Sid Abouhom x Zaafarana by Balance), tail female to Ghazieh through Radia, a mare born in 1974 at the EAO. Talk about a racing pedigree, and an athletic conformation that reflects it. Not a flattering photo, as she sticks her tongue out, but what a mare! I specifically love the black skin from the eyes all the way down to the muzzle. It is a mark of asalah/authenticity, for the Bedouins at least.
A verse from pre-islamic [Bedouin] Arabian poet Tufail b. ‘Awf al-Ghanawi (died ca. 610), know as Tufail al-Khail [Tufail of the horses] for the emphasis on horses in his poetry, from Abu Ubaida’s “Book of Horses” [translation mine]: Horses the likes of wolves, so well-protected, for they are the pick of what’s left of [the bloodlines] of al-Ghurab and Mudh-hab Al-Ghurab and Mudh-had are two famous steeds from these ancient times. Their offspring had become rare, at least within Tufail’s tribe, and they were treasured and well-guarded for that reason.
I am looking for a template with placeholders for the names of the parents, the grandparents, the great-grandparents, etc. which can be printed later. I am tired of doing all that stuff by hand.
Another beautiful photo from the Dandashi landlords of Tall Kalakh, those master breeders of Asil Arabian horses; they were the equivalent of the Tahawis in Syria, really. Photo courtesy of Mukarram Abd al-Karim Othman al-Dandashi.
If you are on Facebook, I really recommend this page of wonderful old photos of Egypt in the XIXth and early century. https://www.facebook.com/Ahl.Misr.Zamaaan?fref=nf