Mourad Oufah Habib (Jahir x Murad Had’ra by Medicq Allah), a Shuwaymat Sabbah, and one of Louis Bauduin’s mares in France foaled a colt last year, by the asil Syrian stallion Mahboub Halab, who also happens to be a Shuwayman Sabbah from the Shammar Bedouins. Louis sent me these two pictures of the mare; the first one shows the mare heavily in foal on April 30th, and the second, followed by her baby on May 1st.
Reader Amirhosein Ghasemi from Iran is the administrator of the online Persian Horse Forum, and a breeder of asil Araiban horses, and turkmen and Kurdish horses too. He sent me these breathtaking photos of one of his asil stallions, Nasman. I am completely taken with this horse. His strain, also Nasman, is now only found in Iran, and traces back to the old Arab tribe of Bani Lam (so do the Hadban, Shuwayman and Wadnan strains).
Veteran preservation breeder George Hooper sent these old pictures of the asil ‘Ubayyah mare Nauwas (Al-Khobar x *Muhaira), one of my favorite mares of old Saudi bloodlines, and her filly foal Hisani Jzairah by the desert bred sire *Jalam al-Ubayan. The one below is of Nauwas and her colt Princeton Kadil:
Arnault Decroix sent me the following account of the first endurance race (13 miles) of the Syrian stallion Hussam al-Shamal: “Hussam a fait sa course avec Nicolas aux Andelys en Normandie. Epreuve élevage 20 kms pour 6ans. Il l’a fait en 14,84 kms/heure, le meilleurs temps de l’épreuve de vitesse imposée entre 12 et 15 kms/heure. Ayant été gêné par d’autres concurrents pendant la course, il a terminé sur l’hippodrome à 40 kms/heure, parfaitement sec avec une récupération à 40 de pulsation. Pendant la course il était tout à son affaire, restant trés froid, ce qui n’était pas le cas au vet gate où il avait tendance à s’enerver à la vue des autres chevaux…A la remise des prix, le jury à souligné ses origines syriennes et son cachet et le public de cavaliers et d’éleveurs, semble t’y avoir été sensible de par leurs applaudissements. Il fera une autre course de 40 km le 9 Juillet à Vatteville la rue toujours en Normandie et si tout va bien une 60 km par la suite.” Here are some pictures of this race from Arnault:
Marie Arthur sent me these four lovely pictures of her asil Kuhaylat al-Krush filly: IV Milady Qiana Krushah by IV Sir Nekey out of IV Shtika Al Krush. This one will be a true beauty. I can’t wait to see her grow.
Adrien Deblaise sent me this picture of his new filly: Bismilah Bint, a Jilfat al-Dhawi by the Syrian import Hussam al-Shimal out of his mare B’Oureah Marine (Ourki x Bismilah by Irmak).
Laszlo Kiraly of Hungary has two colts this year, both sired by his stallion Dahhmany Bagdady (Wahhabit X Tisrina B by Salaa El Dine): the first, Shahhran Bagdady (below) was born on 5th of March, out of the Wahhabit daughter Shahhra (Wahhabit x 225 Sheherazade B by Ibn Galal III). The second, Sulayman Bagdady is out of the Farag II daughter Soraya B (Farag II x 204 Ghalion) and was born on the 10th of April. Both colts are from the Kuhaylah al-Shaykhah line of 60-Adjuse, and combine old Babolna, Egyptian and Davenport bloodlines. Laszlo says little Sulayman moves like a dancer.
The 1974 Hadban Inzihi stallion Asjah ibn Faleh (*Faleh x *Dawlat by Anter) was the best Egyptian racehorse of all time. I am no fan of what the Egyptian horse has become today, but that was a very good horse. See the naturally arched neck, curvy throat and deep girth. He was no china doll. Ralph Suarez’s blog has an article about his sire *Faleh, here.
Guest blogger and friend Ambar Diaz in California is now the proud owner of the very pertty Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare Pirouette (Javera Thadrian x Piquante by Plantagenet), one of the jewels of the Craver breeding program.
It is that season of the year again, and new asil Arabians colts and fillies are being born all around the world. Here is the filly, now two weeks old of Walid Maazaoui’s Tunisian very asil 1992 chestnut mare Ezzina (Chaabane x Ouilayah by the handsome Egyptian stallion Ragheb). Walid is a modern preservation breeder, one of those few like-minded breeders around the world who pay special attention to keeping their horses’ bloodlines pure and protected. He goes to great pains to select the right stallion for his mare, and is now considering a breeding to the Syrian desert-bred stallion Mokhtar, the black Kuhaylan al-Krush, bred by the Shammar Bedouins and now in France. Walid’s mare Ezzina is particular in that she does not have any lines to the now ubiquitous (yet asil) Tunisian stallion Esmet Ali. Note the very close cross to Oramino 1947 (Masbout d.b. x Ramie by El Managhi d.b.), one of Algeria’s last asils.
Adrien Deblaise also sent me this recent photo of another Syrian stallion now in France, Hussam al-Shamal (Ra’ad x Rouba al-Shamal by Al-Abjar), a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq bred by Saed and Raed Yakan in al-Bab near Aleppo, Syria. Hussam is owned by Damacus breeder Naji al-Chaoui, who has him stationed in France with Arnault Decroix. Adrien has a very nice filly from Hussam that will be featured here next, out a mare from an old asil Algerian line.
French preservation breeder Adrien Deblaise sent me this recent picture of the young Syrian asil stallion Nimr Shabareq (Zaarour Al-Barary x Yamhad by Al-Aawar), a Ma’naqi Sbayli of the marbat of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, bred by Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo. He is now in France covering mares at Louis Bauduin’s. See how much he’s changed from the last time he was featured here.
Rodger Davis of Desert Bred Arabians and Cindy Stafford, of Freeburg, IL, sent me the above pictures of a gelding they bred, DB Dahman (AHR*576605), out of the mare DB Jasidah by DB Shahhat. DB Dahman is currently owned by Paula Kaigh who has been competing with him an endurance since 2004. He has completed 1,230 endurance miles with a record of 10 first place finishes and 8 Best Condition awards. When they’re not doing endurance, Paula has been training DB Dahman at arena jumping and reining.
This is the well balanced and very correct stallion Saqlawi Jadran stallion Jadib (Ghadaf x Gulida by Gulastra), bred in 1954 by Ellen Doyle, with young Barbara Baird up. He carries ten close crosses to the Blunt’s Mesaoud (through his sons Seyal, Harb, Astraled, Abu Zeyd and Daoud, and his daughter Risala), and it shows.
Almost ten years after I became acquainted with the horses descending from the 1906 importation of Homer Davenport, one of the many things that still astonish me about them is the relatively large number of the grandsons and great-grandsons of *Wadduda (one of the stars of the importation, with *Haleb and *Urfah) who rose to prominence by becoming major breeding stallions at a time when the Arabian horse population in the USA was very small. Here is a list of grandsons: — Antez (out of Wadduda’s daughter Moliah); — his half-brother Dhareb; — their half-brother Mustakim (Oriental x Moliah). — Jadaan (out of her daughter Amran); … and great-grandsons: — Akil (out of *Wadduda’s grand-daughter Sedjur); — Hanad (out of her grand-daughter Sankirah); — Kasar (out of her grand-daughter Fasal); — his half-brother Salan; — their half brother Caravan. Wow. Below is the grear sire Caravan (Ribal x Fasal by Hamrah), at 32.
A few days ago, I began a thread on the early story of strain of Kuhaylan Abu ‘Arqub, as it was mentioned in the ‘Abbas Pasha Manuscript. The information is reconciled from two slightly different sources: first, my notes from the English translation of the Manuscript (a copy of the book is in my father’s library in Beirut); second, from the book “Usul al-Khayl” by Hamad al-Jasir, which contains excerpts of the original Manuscript in Arabic (and a xeroxed copy of which was given to me by my friend Hazaim Alwair). The story of Kuhaylan Abu ‘Arqub involves central Arabian tribes such as the Qahtan, the Bani Khalid and the Mutayr, as well as the House of Saud, who were major breeders of the strain in the 1850s. The Manuscript’s account of the strain stops around this time. There are conflicting accounts of what happened to the strain after that, but what is clear is that the strain reappears in areas of the desert further to the north, with the “northern” tribes of the Bani Sakhr in today’s Jordan and the Hadideen in today’s central Syria. More recently, and according to author Khalid Bakr Kamal in his book “the Arab Horses”…
Bill Biel, the owner of the desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Mulawlish stallion “Mlolshaan Hager Solomon“, told Jenny Krieg that he was open to shipping semen from his 25 year old Bahraini stallion, if his semen actually proved shippable. This is a unique opportunity to breed from the only Arabian horse currently alive in the USA that was actually born in Arabia. Kuhaylan al-Mulawliwsh is known as Kuhaylan Mulawlishan. Photo Jenny Krieg.
I have never seen these two pictures of the Saqlawi al-‘Abd stallion Tripoli (Hanad x Poka by *Hamrah), the foundation sire of the modern Davenport program. Both are from the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.
When I purchased my first copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, I was surprised not to find a mention of the well-known strain of Kuhalyan Abu ‘Arqub (fem. Umm ‘Arqub). Its absence was particularly puzzling since it was listed as one of the ten favorite strains of the viceroy of Egypt Abbas Pasha Hilmi I. Upon taking a closer look however, I found it, “hidden” under the inconspicuous strain of Kuhaylan al-Fajri, which I had never heard of before. Here is what the Manuscript has to say about this strain of Kuhaylat al-Fajri or Umm ‘Arqub, around 1850, which is when the manuscript was compiled: — it goes back to Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, and is ‘to be mated in the darkest night’ (which means that the tribe could use males from the strain as stallions). — it is of a precious stud (or marbat in Arabic). — it is originally of the ‘Abidah sub-tribe of the great Bedouin tribe of Qahtan (where a lot of the best and most ancient strains seem to have hailed from — stay tuned for a list of these ‘Abidah strains). — it passed from the ‘Abidah to a man of the Bedouin tribe of Bani…
just very busy with unfolding events in the Middle East.. I will resume writing soon.
Ambar Diaz told me that the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Ascendant (Monsoon X Demetria by Lysander) died last week at Michael Bowling’s in California. He was 32. The only remaining link to the Monsoon sire line is through Ascendant’s son SA Apogee.
If you have not done so already, check out the rerun of this article by Charles Craver on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy (DAHC) website. It is adorned with this beautiful photo, below, of the 1998 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Indie Star (Mandarin x Gbarh Asjah by Astrologer), bred by the late Carol Lyons. My kind of Arabian horse head. Photo of Indie Star by C. Emmert.
Matthias Oster sent me these two photos of the 2003 mare Wassayef al Thalitha (Nader x al-Barsaa). She won the Saudi desert bred mare class at al-Khalidiyyah show. Her owner is HM King Abdallah ibn Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud. I could not imagine her being owned by anyone else than a king.
Karsten Scherling just sent the link to the article of Matthias Oster about the visit of the Asil Club delegation (and our own Rosemary Doyle!) to Saudi Arabia. Lots of pictures of desert horses, some of which Matthias has shared here before. Thank you Matthias for your generosity.
I recently received some fresh news from Muhammad al-Tahawy who maintains the fascinating website of the Tahawi tribe with a large section dedicated to their horses. Muhammad directs me to one of the sections of the website, where he is regularly uploading photos and documents of original horses purchased by the Tahawi from Syria, mainly from the central city of Hama, a major horsebreeding center near the pastures of the Sba’ah Bedouins. Here is one such photo, reproduced with his permission. This is the legend on the back of the photo, and my translation follows: “This mare, a Kuhaylat al-Mimrah, now in Hama at the Iskafi [‘the shoemaker’, not clear whether it’s a reference to the owner’s surname or his profession], and she is the daughter of the grand old mare, whose owner was offered 800 gold pounds and refused to sell her, and she [i.e., the dam] is currently with him.” The information on the back of the photo does not tell us who the owner of the dam was, but we know this from another source: in his book “the Arab horse”, Hama native and racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi talks about the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare of Mukhtar [Mumtaz,…
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She originally traces to the marbat of Ibn Duwayhiss of the ‘Anazah, and was bred at the Jabri Stud.
Audacity (Lysander x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) was one of the pretties Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares of Davenport bloodlines, and the matriarch of a important sub-family of equally beautiful horses, including Audobon, Nuance, Affinity, Piquante, and Pirouette . Bred by Craver Farms.
DB Rulique (Ruta-Am x Desert Malique by Desert Jalam) is a 1987 Hamdani Simri stallion bred by Rodger Davis entirely from original desert stock. He traces in tail female to Sindidah, a mare from the stables of the House of Saud. His owner Kelly Miller of Alberta, Canada, trained him as a level 3 dressage horse. Bedouins consider the ‘blood marking’ on the body to be a mark of ‘asalah’ (purity, authenticity). Photo from Lee Oellerich, who owned the horse for a couple years.
The cause of the asil Arabian horse in the USA just gained a major boost last week, with the coming of Hazaim Alwair to this country. Hazaim, a heart surgeon, and a native of Hims in Syria, is now settled in Greenville, NC, and is more knowledgeable and passionate bout the Syrian asil Arabian horse than anyone I know. Wait till you meet him, and you’ll understand what I mean.
Below is a photo of Hamdani Ibn Bahri (Bahri x Qaisumeh by Qaisum who is Bahri’s full brother), a 2001 asil Hamdani Simri stallion from the breeding of Lee Oellerich in British Columbia, Canada. He has six lines to the stallion *Taamri, DB and carries 50% Taamri blood and three lines to *Rudann, DB and thee lines to *Halwaaji, DB. *Taamri, Rudann, and *Halwaaji were all imported to the USA in 1960 by Sam Roach from the Saud Royal Stud of al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. The hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of *Taamri was featured here.
In this photo, Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) on *Muson, and Said Abdallah on *Wadduda, face off in a the Wild West show in 1907. Both *Muson and *Wadduda were imported from the Arabian desert by Homer Davenport in 1906; Said Abdallah, one of the slaves of Bedouin leader Hakim Ibn Mhayd came to the USA with *Wadduda, which he did not want to leave.
Matthias is back from Saudi Arabia from a horse tour organized by Europe’s Asil Club, and he and his wife brought back pictures of Arabians of the desert-bred lines, including one he sent me, below, of the stallion Khaleel Dirab, a Kuhaylan Abu ‘Urqub by by Rezaiq out of Khuzamah, bred and owned by the Dirab government stud. Rezaiq was featured here before. Not sure why the Dirab folks insist on mimicking the West by putting this stupid makeup on their desert-horses; it makes sick to see this proud asil steed, this son of the desert, this Kuhaylan (he who has beautiful eyes [naturally] with black around them, as if it was kohl), Kuhaylan by strain and by soul, so painted like a vulgar show horse. More soon on the background of the Kuhaylan Abu ‘Urqub horses of the Dirab Stud, and on that strain in general.
An exciting collaborative project that brings together Jeanne Craver, Radwan Shabareq, Joe Ferriss and your favorite Arab blogger is in the works, which will hopefully find its way on the equine section of your bookshelves as of this coming June. I foresee its impact on the scholarship on Arabian horses to be nothing short of transformational. More in the coming weeks…
Another handsome young stallion from the Jabri Stud in Aleppo, Syria, is Yazan. Photo by Gudrun Waiditschka. Don’t know his strain or his pedigree, but will inquire.
Take a look at the descendants of the 1920 stallion Ribal (Berk x Rijma by Rijm), one of the foundation sires of old American (asil) Arabian horse breeding: he has 11 progeny that bred on within Al Khamsa (asil) lines; I am re-listing them below: 1. Baribeh, out of Babirah (who is from 100% Blunt lines) 2. Ghadaf, out of Gulnare (who is from 100% Blunt lines) 3. Ghanighat, out of Guemura (who is from Blunt and other Old English lines) 4. Ghawi, out of Gulnare (100 % of Blunt lines) 5. Sahalli, out of Sherah (who is from 100% Davenport lines) 6. Curfa, out of Nardina (who is from 100% Blunt lines) 7. Pareta, out of Zenee (who is mostly from Davenport lines) 8. Borkaan, out of Babe Azab (who is from 100% Davenport lines) 9. Caravan, out of Fasal (who is from 100% Davenport lines) 10. Royal Amber, out of Babe Azab (see above) 11. Yakouta, out of Ferdika (who is from 100% Blunt lines) All of these 11 offspring of Ribal are otherwise foundation horses of early American breeding and have bred on successfully outside the asil realm. Of these 11 lines, no less than five lines…
Another younger asil stallion of the Dahman Shahwan strain owned by veteran breedere Lee Oellerich of Canada is Haziz (Bahri x Hulaifa), a full brother of Hulaif, pictured below. No wonder Bedouins used the word ‘Bahr’ (sea) to refer to their horses, ever since the time of the Prophet Muhammad: the action of this horse is reminiscent of sea waves swirling towards you.
Another stallion of Lee Oellerich in Canada in Hulaif (Bahri x Hulaifa by Naizahq) a 1997 asil Dahman Shahwan stallion of the strain tracing the *Sawannah, imported from Bahrain to the USA in 1954. The photo is from Lee and a bit fuzzy, but it shows the might of this horse.
The glorious asil Hamdani Simri stallion Bahri (Ruta-Am x Taamhal by Taamri out of Halwaaji), a four-times grandson of the desert, since all his grandparents were imported by Sam Roach from the stables of King Ibn Saud in al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Bahri was bred by Lee Oellerich in Canada, and is still doing great at 28 years old. His color certainly comes from his double grandsire *Taamri, whose name means ‘date-color’ from ‘tamr’, dates in Arabic.
This is Jenny Krieg’s mare HS Marayah, from the rare Shaykhan strain from Lebanon, which is actually Ubayyan Sharrak. Photo C. Emmert, 2009
This is Jalaa’, a young chestnut ‘Ubayyan Sharrak stallion at the Jabri stud farm in Aleppo. Jalaa is a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak of the marbat of Ibn Duwayhiss of the ‘Anazah. Thanks to Arnault for posting his pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com. Photo by G. Waiditschka. He is by the Shabareq-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion Tadmor (Al-Aawar x Holwah) out of the Jabri-bred mare Shareefah (Ihsan x Dalahem by Mahrous out of Nawal). Al-Aawar was featured here; Holwah here; Ihsan here; Mahrous here and Nawal here, all on this blog. Here is a full shot, also by by G. Waiditschka.
I am taking a break from writing about asil horses to support my Egyptian and Yemeni friends as they fight for democracy against the oppressive regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdallah Saleh. Arab horses and heritage are important, but Arab freedom and dignity are more important. By the same occasion, you get are rare glimpse into my political views. 😉
Another photo taken by G. Waiditschka at the Jabri Stud outside Aleppo, Syria. This one shows the young mare ‘Afaf, a Hamdaniyat al-‘Ifri (from the same family as the stallion *Ta’an who was imported to the USA). These horses, also known as Hamdaniyat al-Tulan after their original Bedouin owner Munwikh al-Tawil, are Hamdani al-‘Ifri. Al-‘Ifri was a man from the ‘Anazah who bred a most famous and reputed marbat of Hamdani Simri. In the Northern Arabian desert, the two marabet of Hamdani al-‘Ifri and Hamdani Ibn Ghurab are equally valued branches of Hamdani Simri.
The photo is part of a series of professional shots which G. Waiditschka took at the stud of Jabri Stud. I don’t know the stallion, nor his strain, but I will call Mustafa to find out. The last time I was there was in 1998 and Omeir was certainly not born yet. That said, he looks to me like a son of Zayn al-Khayl, the Rabdan stallion which Mustafa got from the Tai Bedouins. Note Omeir’s general likeness to the asil Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Zachary, owned by Diane Lyons in Oregon, USA. Photo below by C. Mingst.
This is Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba, a leader of the Shammar in Syria and an MP in the Syrian House of Representatives in the 1940s. He was the owner (sahib or ra’i) of the marbat of the Kuhaylan Krush strain as Krush al-Baida, or Krush al-‘Abd al-Muhsin. The desert-bred stallion Mokhtar, now in France and often featured on this blog, is from his marbat.
I just emerged from three days without power because of a heavy snowstorm in the Mid-Atlantic region. It’s good to be back.
Amoori (Al-Aawar x Ghallaieh, by the black Saqlawi Marzakani, the “horse of Al-‘Anud”) is a full brother to Amshet Shammar, pictured below. He was bred by Radwan Shabareq in Aleppo, from a mare bred by Rakan al-Jarba of the Shammar Bedouins, from a line originating from the Tai leaders, in turn originating from the Fad’aan Bedouins. This is the same line that produced the Kuhaylan Ibn Mizhir horses. The photo comes from Arnault Decroix who took it in 2000.
This is the third feature on the series on uncommon strains, and it features the strain of Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir. Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir is a little known strain in the West. It is specific to Syria and to parts of Iraq that are adjacent to the Syrian border. The strain belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Tai, who are very proud of it. The reason it is so little known is that the strain is actually Kuhaylan al-Krush. About eight or ninety years ago, a Tai Bedouin by the name of Ibn Mizhir acquired a Kuhaylat al-Krush from ‘Anazah (either from the Fad’aan or the Sba’ah, and more probably the former), and many in the Tai tribe started calling the strain after its new owner. Other Tai Bedouins stuck to the old Krush strain name. One of the descendants of this original Kuhaylat Krush of Ibn Mizhir went to the leading clan of the Tai Bedouins, and one of the offspring of this mare then passed to Nuri al-Mash’al al-Jarba of the Shammar, who married a woman from the Tai leading clan. The Jarba leaders of the Shammar, who took pride in their own Kuhaylan al-Krush marbat (Krush al-Baida, a marbat that came to the Shammar from the Mutayr Bedouins…
When Arabia’s Bedouins tribes engaged in warfare with one another, mares were typically chosen over stallions as war mounts. A number of these war mares found their way to the hands of Western buyers like Homer Davenport and the Blunts, and became part of the foundation stock of Arabian horse breeding in the West. Below is a non-exhaustive list of such mares, which had actually taken part in these battles and raids: — Rodania, taken in war by Tays ibn Sharban of the Sba’ah Bedouins from Sattam ibn Sha’lan of the Ruwalah Bedouins; the Blunts bought her from Tays. — *Wadduda, the war mount of Hakim ibn Mhayd of the Fad’aan Bedouins; Hakim gave her to Ahmad al-Hafiz, who gave her to Davenport. She had two battle scars on her body. — *Abeyah, the war mare of Mit’ab al-Habd of the Shammar Bedouins, taken in war by the ‘Anazah, and later obtained by Davenport. — *Hadba, the war mare of ‘Ajil ibn Zaydan al-Jarba of the Shammar, went to two other people after his death, before she was obtained by Davenport. There should be more, but, as far as I can recall, there is no direct evidence of their participation…
Ralph just nominated Daughters of the Wind for the Bloggers Choice Award under the “best animal blogger” category (sometimes, I forget that Arabian horses are animals, but that was a useful reminder). I am not sure what this entails, but if you like this blog more than other animal blogs, click here and vote for it by clicking on the yellow “vote” button. Thanks, Ralph, how thoughtful of you.
Yesterday, long-time asil Arabian breeder Lee Oellerich of British Columbia, Canada, and I initiated a fascinating conversation that was long overdue. Lee knew several of the importers and owners of the last asil desert-breds to come to North America, like Sam Roach, John Rogers, and Ella Chastain, as well as other veteran breeders like the Otts and the Searles. The video below is one of the outputs of this rich conversation: it features the 2002 dark chestnut asil stallion Haziz (Bahri x Hulaifah by Naizahq), of the precious Bahraini Dahman Shahwan strain that is now extinct in Bahrain. mikarrun, miffarun, muqbilun, mudbirun, ma’an // kajulmudi sakhrin hattahu al-sayllu min ‘ali This very roughly tranlates as: “[My horse] attacks, and retreats, he runs forward and bounces backwards, all at once, like a big rock which the floods have driven down from above [the mountain]“. I will look for a more exacts translation in the orientalists’ publications.
The Tahawi website maintained by Mohammed al-Tahawy is a wonderful resource of original testimonies about the horses that this Bedouin clan bred throughout the XXth century. A few months ago, English translations of some of the hujaj (Arabic certification documents) of some of the foundation horses acquired by the Tahawi were featured on this website, as part of the collective effort of getting the three Tahawi mares of Egypt’s Hamdan stables accepted in the roster of Al Khamsa, Inc, the North American preservation organization. Here is a translation of another one of these original documents; this one is not a hujjah but rather a letter written to a member of the Tahawi tribe: To our beloved brother Faysal Abu Abdallah [al-Tahawi] may God protect him, Greetings and salutations, and longings to see your beautiful face, and after that, I would like to congratulate you on the advent of this holy month [of Ramadan], may God make you witness its advent again in health and well-being. You had asked us about the lineage of the colt, and in accordance to your demand, we are writing to you about the lineage of his dam and her ancestors, and that of his sire and his ancestors. The dam of the horse is al-Dahmah…
Check out this compelling article, by W. Michael Briggs Jr., on the website of the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy. It is graced with the picture of the beautiful Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Audobon LD (Iliad x Audacity by Lysander), ridden by owner Marge Smith, and by the Hamdani Simri stallion Personic LF (Ibn Don Carlos x Persephone by Regency CF), photo below by Christine Emmert.
This is an old photo from the collection of French breeder Pierre-Henri Beillard. It shows the 1916 asil mare Noble Reine (by Dahman d.b. out of Nacre by Achmet out of Naeleh d.b.), a mare bred at the French government stud of Pompadour. Noble Reine is a daughter of the magnificent desert-bred stallion Dahman (by a Dahman Amer out of a Kuhaylat al-Rabdah), a former herdsire with the Shammar Bedouins, who has been often featured on this blog, including here. Noble Reine also traces to another prominent desert-bred stalli0n, the Saqlawi Jadran Edhen, bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins. Note the resemblance with some of the early horses of Davenport bloodlines in the USA.
Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo told me the fascinating story of what is believed to be Thomas Darley’s rifle. Thomas Darley was Her Majesty’s Consul to the Levant, based in Aleppo, during the reign of British Queen Anne. In 1702, Thomas Darley acquired a young colt from the Fad’aan ‘Anazah Bedouins, which became the most prepotent of three foundation stallions of the English Thoroughbred horse breed. This was the “Darley Arabian”. Radwan told me that he had heard the story of Darley’s rifle from Raymond Juwayyid, an elderly Alepine collector, many years ago. According to Juwayyid, an ‘Anazeh Bedouin came to an Armenian jeweler in downtown Aleppo in the early XXth century to sell a long rifle intricately ornated with silver. Upon being asked for its provenance, the Bedouin admitted that he stolen it from his Shaykh, who had had it in his family for several generation. He reportedly claimed that his Shaykh would refer to the rifle as “Darley’s rifle”, and it was treasured family heirloom. The Armenian jeweler bought the rifle, and later sold it to Nu’man al-Dali’ (see the entry on *Mirage’s strain below, which is how I learned of this story), who gave it to his heirs, who gave it to Raymond…
Today, Daughters of the Wind turned three. I recall starting this blog on January 11, 2008, towards the last days of my wife’s pregnancy, to keep in touch with a small circle of likeminded friends and breeders of asil Arabians. I had become aware that the duties of a soon-to-be-father were going to make it harder for me to see these friends and enjoy the horses and the horse talk as often as I would have liked, and I felt I had to find a way to remain in touch online. This small circle of breeders and horse enthusiasts had been exchanging regular group emails about preservations issues, and I thought a blog would provide an appropriate platform. I never thought it would become what it is now: a truly global community of enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation of the original qualities and heritage of the asil Arabian horse. Neither did I ever think it would achieve its current status as the number 1 most visited website on Arabian horses at large. Indeed, a quick look at traffic ranking websites this morning puts Daughters of the Wind among the 75,000 most visited websites in the USA on any subject, up from 12 millions when it started. This…
The 1919 grey desert-bred stallion *Mirage (photo below, with owner Roger Selby) is a legend in American Arabian horse breeding. This Saqlawi Jadran stallion was born in the desert, and selected as a mount of the newly installed King of Iraq, Faysal I, before he was sold to a European ambassador and ending up in Lady Wentworth’s hands by 1923. You can read more about this in a good article by Michael Bowling, here. He was her dream grey horse, but the British registration authorities would not let her register him, so he sold him to Roger Selby of Ohio in the USA in 1930. Here *Mirage had a brilliant career at stud, and his is now one of the most successful sire line in the USA (that of Bey Shah, Huckleberry Bey, and Barbary, among others). *Mirage’s strain is recorded as “Seglawi Jedran of Dalia” which is better transliterated as “Saqlawi Jadran of al-Dali’ “. Recently, while looking at some documents pertaining to the Syrian Saqlawi Jadran stallion al-Abjar (photo below, from Raed Yakan, thank you Raed), which was owned the Yakan family of Aleppo, and which I saw at their stud in the early 1990s, I came across his breeder’s description of al-Abjar’s strain as…
The Egyptian foundation mare Venus is the tail female for one of Egypt’s most successful lines. The stallions Nazeer, Aswan, Khofo, and the mares Yosreia, Samha, Kamla, all come from this line, and so do countless others. Page 63 of Egypt’s Royal Agricultural Society’s Volume I Studbook, also known as the RAS History, has Venus as a chestnut Hadbah Inzihiyah imported in 1893 to Egypt by Hassan Abu Amin Agha, later in the stud of Khedive (Egypt’s Viceroy) Abbas II Hilmi. There is no recorded information as to her tribal provenance in the RAS History. The only tribal information on Venus comes from Carl Raswan. Venus, like other horses owned by the Western educated Abbas II (he was still studying in Vienna when he was called to assume the throne upon the sudden death of his father), had a Western name. She was called Venus after the Roman goddess of love. Another Egyptian foundation mare from the same stud, and probably from the same provenance, was known as the “Halabia mare”, or the ‘mare from Aleppo’ (Halab in Arabic), but she had a Western name, Carmen, after the opera of Bizet. Carl Raswan, who had a habit of conflating Arabian horses’…
Joe Achcar passed away this morning, from a heart attack. I will miss him sorely. This place will not be the same without him.