By now you know where the photos come from. This is Al-Hazim (Al Wadah x Khuzama) from the King Abd al-Aziz Arabian Horse Center in Dirab, Saudi Arabia. His strain is Kuhaylan Abu Arqub. By the way, the photo of Al-Hazim’s sire Al Wadah, also an Abu Arqub, grace one of the volumes of the Asil Arabian Club, which means that the Dirab horses horses have the European label “Asil”. “Pure Man” can you tell us where the Abu Arqub horses of Dirab came from?
The string of beautiful photos through “pure man” continues. I am glad readers are enjoying it, because one of the main objectives of this blog is to make the case for the desert Arabian horse in its homeland today, and a picture is worth a thousand words. This is ‘Ajibah, a Hamdaniyah, daughter of Haleem. Haleem was featured in a video in an earlier post.
I finally had a chance to look at the lengthy section on the strain of al-Shuhayb in “Kitab al-Usul”, which is Saudi historian Hamad al-Jasir’s edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (the copy of Khayd al-Din al-Zarakli). Al-Shuhayb is the strain of the beautiful mare Sarkhah featured here. I will provide you with a detailed account at some other point, but for now suffice it to say that Kuhaylan al-Shuhayb is a branch of Kuhaylan Ibn Wabera (rather, the two are one and the same strain), and that the strain belongs to the ‘Ajman Bedouin tribe. The strain originated with the Sharifs (descendents of the Prophet) of the Yemeni region of al-Jawf (Jawf al-Yaman), which is as far south in the Arabian Peninsula that Arabian horses can get. It’s so nice to see that this strain is still in existence.
Another photo coming through “pure man” is that of the beautiful asil Arabian mare Al-‘Aadiyah (Al Wadah x Afaf), from the King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz government stud of Dirab, in Saudi Arabia. Al-‘Aadiyah is a Kuhaylah Umm ‘Arqub by strain. I recall reading somewhere that this particular strain had been owned by the Saud Royal Family for a long time. Other, separate branches of the strain are still present in Syria too. Enjoy!
Since we are talking about Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, here are a couple pictures, also from Pure Man, of another stallion from this srain. This is Taj El Melook, by Haleem (Saudi Stud Book #862) who was featured here, and out of Al Hafna (Saudi Stud Book #1915). Since we are talking about Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, here are a couple pictures, also from pure man, of another stallion from this srain. This is Taj El Melook, by Halem (Saudi Stud Book #862) and the horse feature here, and in this video, and out of Al Hafnaa (Saudi Stud Book #1915).
Another nice picture from “pure man” features Afruq (Al-Ahzum x Afaq), a desert-bred stallion ‘Ubayyan from Saudi Arabia. His sire’s strain is Suwayti, and his dam’s strain is ‘Ubayyat al-Suyayfi, a famous strain in Najd. The strain of ‘Ubayyan al-Sufayfi is that of the sire of a number of mares that were sent as a gift from the King of Saudi Arabia to the King of Egypt in the early 1940s: these were Nafaa, a Kuhayklah; Hind, a Saqlawiyah; and a third mare and probably a fourth mare whose lines died early, and the names of which escapes me now (I think one was out of a mare by the strain of “Saada al-Debdab”, and the second one out a mare by the strain of “Sowaytiyat Ben Kowayed” – Ref. “The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt”, by Pearson, Archer and Mol). From this, it seems that ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi was a strain much favored by King ‘Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and his sons from early on. I haven’t quite yet figured out how to transcribe the marbat in English, and there may be a variety of possibilities: al-Sayfi (least likely); al-Saiifi, al-Sayayfi, al-Sayifi, or al-Suyayfi (most likely). It’s a detail really, but I will try…
Today is a happy day. Over the past few days, a string of photos and videos has been coming from “Pure Man”, with awesome images of desert Arabian stallions. I mean, real desert Arabian horses. Born there, raised there. A delight to watch as they move and prance. “Where are the mares?” I thought. Well, here they are. This is one of the most beautiful desert mares I have ever seen. Some months ago, I put in a list of my 10 ten favorite mares, a list that had taken years to coalesce in its present form. That was before I see this picture of Sarkhah (Qais a Suwayti x Sahwah a K. al-Shuhayb), a stunning Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb from Saudi Arabia. This mare instantly skyrocketed on top of my all time favorites. Wow. I confess knowing close to nothing about the strain of Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb. I know that the late Saudi Arabian erudite Hamad al-Jasir, in his original Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (the Khayr al-Din al-Zarakli copy, not the Gulsun Sherif copy; sorry to get so technical on you guys, but this matters) has dedicated many pages to Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb, or al-Shuhaybah. I never bothered to read the section on al-Shuhaybah,…
Below is the hujjah (authenticity certificate) of the desert-bred stallion Taamri, imported to the USA by Sam Roach in 1960. Hujjah translation mine (cf. Al Khamsa III, p. 216). In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Compassionate, City of Riyadh, Region of Najd Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 12 Rajab 1376 corresponding to February 12th 1957 I, the undersigned, Mutlaq al-‘Atawi, supervisor of the Royal Stables of the Horses of his Royal Highness King Saud Ibn ‘Abdul ‘Aziz, declare that the following pieces of information are true The horse “Tamri” and his characteristics are as follows: The color of his body is “Tamri [“date-colored”, from ‘tamr’, date]; and his mane and tail are red; and he has a star and a white spot on his forehead, and a thin line of white hair on his left shoulder, and a small line of white hair toward the end of his mane; and a dotted line of white hair on both sides of his belly, exactly on the place of the strap, and a white hoof on his rear hind leg; as to his other hoofs, they are dark-colored, and he has a marking in the shape of an _] in the…
Someone guessed (or knew) that the “mystery mare” was a ‘Ubayyah. She is indeed a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah of the marbat of al-Sahlan of Shammar al-Jazirah, or a ‘Ubayyah Suhayliyah. If you are that someone, just respond to this thread.
In 2000, while I was still living in Lebanon, I recall taking a trip to the area of Byblos, north of the capital Beirut, with my father, General Salim al-Dahdah, to see two young stallions that had recently been imported from Bahrain to Lebanon. The stallions were a gift from HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman Aal Khalifah to a Lebanese engineer by the name of Riad Az’our. There was a bay and a grey; and one was a Rabdan and the other a Hamdani. They both were quite tall, and stood high on the ground. I also recall their highly expandable nostrils as they moveed, and their high tail carriage. I am sorry I don’t have pictures at the present time. I don’t know whether they are still alive, and still in Lebanon. If so, then someone should use them. HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman Aal Khalifah is the same person who provided Jenny Lees of Pearl Island with some of her Bahraini stallions and mares. He is also the same person who gave Bill Biel in Michigan his stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon (Rabdan Al-Wasmy x Mlolesh Asila) in 1988. The stud of Shaykh Muhammad has a new webiste, which is…
Three desert-bred stallions from Najd, a Kuhaylan (called Namar), a Hamdani (called Robban), and a Ubayyan (called Hardane) are featured in this recent Youtube video. I wonder what marbat of Kuhaylan Namar is from.
In a recent post, I was expressing the hope that *Kola, the Arabian mare of French bloodlines imported by W.R. Brown to the USA in 1921, had left some living asil progeny. If that was the case, I had proposed to submit a proposal for her inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster. It now looks like I was being too optimistic. Jeanne Craver was too kind to go through the progeny of *Kola in the AHA Datasource, and just told me that nothing is left that would be otherwise Al Khamsa eligible (i.e., Al Khamsa + *Kola). Everything was “completely wiped out in the *Raffles/*Raseyn movement of the 60s”, wrote Jeanne. Not only is there nothing left from *Kola’s two daughters Fath and Fadih, but nothing remains either from her influential son Kolastra (by Gulastra), and his own son Chepe Noyon (out of Guemura). What a shame.. The mare Hallaba, b. 1970, by HMR Haltak (who by the way also carries rare lines which I think were recently lost to Al Khamsa) was one of the last asil mares carrying a line to *Kola, through Chepe Noyon. Take a look at her stunning pedigree here. One more line gone down…
I just found the pedigree of the handsome Saudi stallion Haleem (Qais x Nawal by Eidan), whose video was featured earlier. He is #862 in the Saudi Stud book. There is a picture too, and a list of his progney, which includes the stallion Lazam Najd, also featured in a video below:
Two other Youtube videos from the same provenance, show the handsome desert-bred stallion Lazam Najd, a Suwayti al-Hafi by strain. He is a son of the Hamdani stallion Haleem, featured in an earlier video posted here. This is the first time I hear from the strain of Suwayti al-Hafi, although I am familiar with that of Suwayti al-Farm, which was the marbat of Muhsin al-Farm, the Shaykh of the Bani ‘Ali section of the Harb tribe. Suwayti al-Farm is one of the mains strain currently represented in Saudi Arabia. But what is Suwayti al-Hafi, the strain of Lazam?
Someone just sent me this You Tube video of a superb 19 year old Hamdani stallion by the name of Haleem. It looks like the video was taken in Saudi Arabia. I wish someone could share more information about this horse, his background, his registration number (if he is registered somewhere..). We need horses with the masculinity and the stamina of Haleem to to rejuvenate the blood of degenerate show animals.
Sandra Uhlig’s mare Djoumanah El Nil, from Germany, has an interesting pedigree: Egyptian bloodlines on top, and a Jiflan Dhawi tail female from Tunisia through the mare Malaga and her dam Berriane. Berriane was bred in Algeria and imported to Tunisia by Admiral Cordonnier for his Sidi Bou Hadid stud). Note the line to the stallion Barr in her pedigree, through his grandson Koraich. More about Barr later. Jenny Lee’s weanling Amr, from the UK, has a different yet equally interesting pedigree. His sire is the Egyptian stallion Goudah (Gad Allah x Ramiah), and his dam Jenny’s Bahraini mare Shuwaimeh Bint Warda.
In 1921-22, W.R. Brown imported a number of Arabian horses from France to the USA, for Army Remount purposes. Two of these horses, the mares *Kola (Latif DB x Destinee by Maksoude DB) and *Balkis II (El Hassan DB x Bedadine by Edhen DB) have left important lines in mainstream US Arabian horse breeding, *Kola through her daughters Fadih (by Sargon) and Fath (by *Rodan), and her son Kolastra (by Gulastra); *Balkis II through her daughter Fenzileh (by *Rodan). Balkis II also came with a colt (*Babel, b. 1921) [correction, *Babel was a filly] by the desert bred stallion Gadban, imported to France in 1902. I don’t know whethe any of *Kola, *Balkis II and *Babel have surviving asil progeny today. It wonder if anyone has gone through the trouble of looking for their progeny from Al Khamsa eligible horses. It would certainly be worthwhile to do so. If they do, I am going to try and put together a submission for inclusion into the Al Khamsa Roster of the following nine desert-bred horses, all of them included in the pedigrees of *Kola, *Balkis II and *Babel: — Latif, a desert-bred a Hamdani from the Fida’an tribe, imported to France in 1909 — Maksoude,…
The horses of Tzviah Idan are now on Facebook. One link includes horses of Egyptian bloodlines that Tzviah imported from Babolna, and the other is a link to their progeny. Tzviah, I like them all, and feel that you’ve been doing an outstanding job, but I can’t help feel that there is something extra special about Hila B and her progeny. PS — social networking sites are all over now. I never thought I’d be linking to Facebook on an desert Arabian horse blog..
I personally believe that the strains of Arabian horses are mere family names, created to identify lineages of asil horses in an oral society. I have had the occasion to make my case in other venues. I also believe that strains and types are to be dissociated, and cannot be related to each other in general. Finally, I don’t believe that anyone, however expert they are, can guess the strain of a horse simply by looking at him. So lets play a little game: the first reader to guess the strain of the mare in the photo below gets to write post (or an article) on Daughter of the Wind on the topic of his/her choice (related to Arabian horses of course). The possible answers are in a poll which you can find by scrolling down, on the bottom right of the website. Good luck (since it’s a matter of luck and not more)! Note: the sire, the dam and the maternal grandsire of the mare are from the same strain and marbat. In case some of you are tempted to say that a horse is only representative of the type of the strain which is most represented in its pedigree, and…
Yet another great article by Joe Ferriss, this time in the Khamsat magazine (scroll down), with comparisons, pictures and descriptions asil Arabian horses, old and new.
As I get ready to post the second entry on Kuhaylan al-Wati, after weeks and week of delay, you can read the previous entry as a refresher..
The mare *Amiraa was a 1959 grey Hamdaniyah bred by the Sa’ud royal family and imported in 1960 to the USA by Sam J. Roach. Below is her hujjah, as I translated it into English for Al Khamsa Arabians III: “In the name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate Riyadh, Region of Najd, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 11 Jumadah al-Akhar 1380 I, Mutlaq al-‘Atawi, head of the royal horse stables of His Highness King Saud ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, declare that the following testimony is correct: On the 11th of Rabi’ al-Thani 1378, the ownership of the red Hamdaniyah mare “Halwaaji” was transferred to Sam Roach. And it was know that this mare was in foal to the grey Hamdani horse “Mas’ud” at the time of the transfer of her ownership. And the horse “Mas’ud” covered the mare “Halwaaji” onthe date of the 14th of Dhu al-Hujjah 1377, and he covered her another time on the date of the 16th of Dhu al-Hujjah 1377. And I certify in front of God Most High that the mare “Halwaaji” and the horse “Mas’ud” are both from pure blood and a noble origin, tracing to horses whose purity of blood and lineage have been preserved by the Saud family.” [Signature of Mutlaq al-‘Atawi] Witness: [signature], The Secretary.” Translation ends here. Photo…
Another nice article by Joe Ferriss in the Arabian Essence online magazine, on the desert-bred stallion El Deree and his get.. Joe’s articles, always insightful and often filled with old pictures I have never seen before, are the only thing I read in this magazine. To me, everything else is glossy pictures of poor four-legged creatures forced to adopt artificial pauses, with shaved ears and make-up on their nostrils and their eyes. But the most appalling sight is no doubt that of these poor little foals with shaved heads and faces. For heaven’s sake, these are Arabian horses, not sheep! Not sure if this is the right time to start another war — I feel I have been provocative enough here — but I happen to have to lot to say about El Deree and his origins. Maybe another time.
Louis Bauduin sent me this picture of the stallion Ya’sub in old age. Ya’sub (Shawani x Belkis by Irmak), now deceased, was bred by Jean-Claude Rajot, and owned by James Legros. He combines two of the best Tiaret (the famous French government horsebreeding stud in Algeria) bloodlines: the Shuawyman Sabbah line to Cherifia (b. 1869, bred by the Sba’ah tribe, imported to Tiaret) through his sire Shawani (Saadi x Zarifa); and the Jiflan Dhawi line to Wadha (bred by the Fad’aan tribe, imported to Tiaret in 1875( through his dam Belkis (Imark x Belle de Jour by Iricho).
I am back on the map, and slowly emerging from processing a couple hundred emails that have piled up in my inbox during my absence. I am looking forward to the new Khamsat issue, with a focus on the WAHO 2007 conference in Syria. Hazaim al-Wair and I have an article in there on Arabian horse strains represented in the Syrian Arabian Horse Studbook, in which you will see some of the pictures you’ve already seen and liked on this blog, and some which you haven’t seen yet, like the one below. This is Hallah, a Kuhaylah Khallawiyah bred by the tribe of Tay in North eastern Syria in 1983, and owned by Mustapha al-Jabri, who sold her to one of the Gulf countries (I think Kuwait) in the mid-nineties (not sure of the exact date, either). Enjoy the picture which I took in 1993, and more on the strain and the mare later..
I can’t believe it’s been more than one month I haven’t blogged. I just flew into Kuwait city, coming from Yemen, where I spent a little less than a week, for work. I had been meaning to see the registering authorities of the newly accepted Yemeni WAHO studbook, but ended up working round the clock for three days in a row, in the mountain areas of Ibb and Ta’izz. Yemen is just gorgeous. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, it is one of my favorite Arab countries, and I like everything about it: the people, the culture, the history, the architecture, the food, etc. I will be in Kuwait for five more days, also for work. That’s another country I have come to like over the years.. I have been fascinated by Arab seafaring history for some time now, and Kuwait was one its hotspots. If you are a sailing buff or just happen to like good travel literature, then I recommend you read “Sons of Sinbad”, by Australian traveler and photograph Alan Villiers. It is an account of the author’s voyage on of the last Arab sail boats along the centuries old maritime trading line from Kuwait to Zanzibar via Aden (and back).…
As usual, scroll down along the right column, and you’ll find it..
Two nice articles (part 1 and part 2) from Joe Ferriss in the website/newsletter Arabian Essence on the influence of the grey stallion Rabdan Al Azrak on Egyptian Arabian lines.
While visiting Egypt for week a couple weeks ago, I spent a morning at the Egpytian Agricultural Organization’s (EAO) stables of El Zahraa in Ein Shams. I was joined by my father, General Salim Al-Dahdah, who lives in Beirut, and came to Cairo to spend a few days with me. EAO Director Ali Said welcomed us, and we spent three hours visiting the stallions‘ stables as well as the mares‘ paddocks. The magnificent grey stallions Harras (Kisra x Hebat El Nil) , Serag El Din (Mourad x Safinaz) and Baydoun (Gad Allah x Bint Ibtisam), in that order, were both our personal favorites. Too bad I did not bring my digital camera with me.. The photo of Harras below is from the Asil Club’s website.
I am pleased to introduce Louis Bauduin as a guest blogger on “Daughter of the Wind”. Louis is a passionate preservation breeder, and a devoted enthusiast of true, “real” Arabians horses of old French and North African bloodlines. He was one of the closest disciples to the late masterbreeder Robert Mauvy, who is the main influence on his breeding philosophy (and mine). Louis is the vice-president of the Union pour la Sauvergarde du Cheval Arabe (USCAR) and the owner of Murad Arabians, which was the home of the Mauvy stallions Cherif (Saadi x Zarifa), and Ashwan (Irmak x Shawania).
Laszlo Kiraly kindly sent me this photo of an 1896 aquarel of an unidentified Arab horse at the French government stud of Tarbes. Thanks Laszlo!
I have started working on “Le French Directory” (click here to access) a section of this website dedicated to listing the hundreds of Arabian horses that were imported to France, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from the desert in the XIXth and XXth centuries. This is work in progress. So far there are only stallions, but mares will be added soon. If you have any additional informaiton about some of the horses listed, want to correct faulty information, or wish to add more horses, please send your comments!
Following an inquiry about photos of descendents of Mohalhil in an earlier post, Jeanne Craver kindly sent me the two pictures below. The first one of his unique offspring, Prince Faisal, out of the desert-bred Hadbah mare Mahsuda, herself a gift from King Abd al-‘Aziz al-Sa’ud to Charles R. Crane. This photo of a rather fat Prince Faisal was taken at an Arabian horse shown in 1952 by Charles Craver’s father (thanks Charles and Jeanne for the picture!). Prince Faisal in turn sired a daughter, Jeddah Princess (second photo), out the desert-bred Hamdaniyah mare La Tisa, another gift to Charles Crane from Ibn Sa’ud. It is such a shame La Tisa and Mahsuda did not leave more offspring. They seem to have been very beautiful mares even by today’s altered (do you like that euphemism?) standards of what an Arabian horse ought to look like. La Tisa was featured in an earlier post on this blog (click here).
These four rare photos of Mohalhil are courtesy of the late Billy Sheets. No idea where he got them from. Mohalhil was a grey Ma’naghi Sbayli bred by the Shammar tribe in 1922 and imported to Egypt in 1925, by Fawzan al-Sabik, who raced him there before presenting him Charles Crane in 1929. Crane imported him to the USA, where Mohalhil still has a very thin line. Notice the striking physical resemblance between Mohalhil and another stallion that was featured on this blog, Bango. But the similarities in their backgrounds is even more striking. Like Mohalhil Bango was a grey, desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli; like him he was bred by the Shammar tribe, at around the same time (Bango in 1923 and Mohalhil in 1922); like him he raced in Egypt.
Three more pictures this time from the region in eastern Yemen known as Hadramout. From top to bottom, the magic city of Shibam (“the Manhattan of the desert”), the palace of the Kathiri sultan at Say’un (now a hotel), the minaret of the mosque of Tarim (the tallest in Arabia), and a palace in a Hadramout village.
Nothing to do with horses, but I thought some of you would enjoy these pictures of the green mountains of Yemen, which I gleaned from the internet. They help dispel some stereotypes about this area of the world.. The name ancient Romans knew Yemen by was ‘Arabia Felix‘, “Fertile Arabia”, because of its running waters, its lush vegetation and the riches it garnered from the frankincense, myrrh and spice trade.
According to the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century, a Bedouin warrior by the name of Rashid ibn Jarshan, from the tribe of al-Buqum, owned a branch of the strain of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz that was known as Kuhaylat Ibn Jarshan, after his name. His marbat was famous, and one of his mares was even the subject of a Bedouin ode. Ibn Jarshan sold one of his Kuhaylat mares, a grey by the name of al-Shuhaybah, to another Bedouin, Sarhan al-‘Abd of the tribe of al-‘Ajman. The strain of Kuhaylan Ibn Jarshan seems to have prospered at al-‘Abd, because al-Shuhaybah produced a grey daughter for him (by a Saqlawi), and that daughter in turn produced a grey daughter (also by a Saqlawi). Al-‘Abd leased the latter, the grand-daughter of Ibn Jarshan’s Kuhaylah, to a third Bedouin, Ibn Jallab of the tribe of Aal Murrah. She stayed at Ibn Jallab for six years without producing any foals, so al-‘Abd took her back by force, and sold her to Ibn Khalifah of Bahrain for a ton of money, plus camels, falcons, clothes, a slave (!) and a sizeable bunch of dates, a sale that effectively turned him (al-‘Abd) into a precursor of today’s Gulf millionnaires.. Her short and unproductive stay at…
Rosemary B. Doyle, who is attending the 2009 WAHO conference in Oman, just reported to the Al Khamsa Board about the first day of WAHO meetings. One event worth noticing is that Yemen was voted in as a WAHO member. Yemen, the cradle of the Arabian breed, if one is to believe the old Arab legends. Great. Now the Yemenis can safely import and register Polish and Spanish “Arabians” from the Gulf countries and cross them with whatever asil Arabians Yemen has left, in the name of “improving the heads of their horses”. Let me make a forecast, and I really hope time will prove me wrong: there will be no asil Arabians left in Yemen ten years from now. That’s how long it took to destroy the remnants of asil Arabian breeding in countries like Lebanon and Algeria. Asil Arabians in these two countries survived two civil wars (Lebanon: 1975-1990; Algeria: 1991-2004), looting by militias, air raids and bombings, famine and government neglect. By the time Lebanon was a full WAHO member, in 1992, non-asil stallions of Russian, French and Spanish lines had been imported to the country and crossed with the remaining elderly asil mares. By 2000, not…
I haven’t written for more than a week, and feel guilty about it. I just landed in Cairo this morning, where I will stay for three days, after spending one week in Morocco. The weather here is cold, and I am about to get out for a breath of (not so) fresh air. I wish the view from my window looked like the picture below, but it doesn’t..
It looks like the WAHO conference in Syria has given a number of Syrian entrepreneurs a bright idea: the desert Arabian horse as a commercial good. They are hosting “Arabian Passion: the Damascus International Horse and Equestrian Fair” (I made it a policy not to link to commercial stuff, so Google it yourselves if you want), for the second time, on October 16-19th, 2009 in Damascus. Not sure which passion they mean.. The exhibitors’ target is “making this exhibition an ideal place for those who would like to offer their products and services”. Fascinating. Gone indeed are the days when idealistic Syrians would offer visitors their lasting friendship and the hospitality of their homes and barns. Now they want to offer you their products and services, including those coveted “bedding and flooring products”. I knew that era would reach Syria one day, but I didn’t know that it would happen so soon… which reminds me of this quote from French writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944): “Nous nous sommes nourris de la magie des sables. D’autres peut-etre y creuseront leurs puits de petrole et s’enrichiront de leurs marchandises. Mais ils seront venus trop tard. Car les palmeraies interdites ou la poudre vierge des…
Another horse from Egypt that has left his mark on Tunisian breeding is the chestnut Ibn Fayda (Ibn Rabdan x Lady Anne Blunt’s Feyda), a gift from Egypt’s Prince Kemal El Din Hussein to the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet. This chestnut Ibn Fayda, b. 1925, is the full brother of the bay Ibn Fayda, b. 1927 (picture below), who was the sire of the Inshass stallions Adham (xZabia), El Moez (x Bint Zareefa) and Zaher (xZahra). Inshass is Egypt’s King Fuad’s private stable, which had acquired the bay Ibn Fayda from Prince Kemal El Din. The chestnut Ibn Fayda (I’ve never seen a picture) had a long career at Sidi Thabet in Tunisia, where he was noted as a sire of broodmares. One of his daughters, Imama, produced the chestnut masculine stallion Ourour (photo below, by Duc) and another was the grand-dam of the beautiful brown stallion Sumeyr (photo below, by Bango O.A.) both of whom become important government stallions in France (Ourour at Tarbes, and Sumeyr at Pau then Pompadour). Sumeyr is the sire of the pretty Pompadour mare Ablette, featured here.
Nasr, the chestnut [January 23rd: Sporthorse-data lists hims as “brown”, and the French studbook as “bay”] horse pictured below was a desert-bred stallion that was imported to the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet in the 1920s. He was imported from Egypt, where he’d had a good career as a racehorse. French masterbreeder Robert Mauvy, who knew Nasr, referred to him as “the prestigious imported horse Nasr” in one of his books. MIchael Bowling tells me that the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) used a desert bred racehorse by the name of Nasr as a stallion in the 1920s, and that this horse was subsequently exported to Tunisia. He also tells me this horse is the reason why the other more famous *Nasr (Rabdan El Azrak x Bint Yemama) was renamed “Manial”, when he was raced by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik before being exported to the USA. If so, then it seems like the chestnut horse in the picture is the “Nasr, a racehorse” of one of the early EAO studbooks. He left many descendents in Tunisia, and in France, of which Mauvy’s Moulouki is one. Moulouki’s maternal granddam Arabelle is a granddaughter of this Nasr. [Jan 23rd update: He is also…
Niazi is another desert bred stallion imported to France. He may have been part of the last importation before World War, but I am not sure. I don’t know his strain either. What is sure is that he is one of the first French imports whose records show the mention “asil”, a term seldom used before in French horsebreeder circles. The imported stallions Nibeh (from the Fad’aan, featured here), Telmese (from the Shammar), El Moustabel (also from the Shammar), El Nesmeh and Chams are also indicated as being “asil”. Niazi left some Arabian descendents whose lines survive in South America, but not in France. PS: Sorry for my silence of late. Blame it all on Verizon and my home internet connection.
Yesterday, January 11th 2009 marked the first birthday of “Daughter of the Wind”. I want to pause for a minute and take a look at one year of blogging about desert Arabian horses. As a trained economist I can’t resist sharing the latest figures from my dashboard. Since March 26th, 2008 (which is when I started keeping track of stats) there have been 10,694 unique visitors and 163,884 clicks or visits to the website; it has featured 6 bloggers (me included), who posted a total of 240 posts, with 87 readers posting 925 comments. 100 links were added and 281 tags created. Also, 70% of the reader used English on their web browsers (which doesn’t mean they all come from English speaking countries); 10% used French; 5% used German; 2% used Hungarian; 2% used Arabic and the rest were divided in 19 other languages. Beyond the numbers, Daughter of the Wind has drawn together readers from countries as diverse as Croatia, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Namibia and South Africa, in addition to the US, Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, etc. It has featured the wonderful asil Arabians of South Africa as well as the precious Babolna lines of Hungary, and shed some light on…
A nice picture of Jalam al Ubayyan as a young stallion in Saudi Arabia. He was bred in 1949 by Saud Ibn Adballah ibn Jalawi, Governor of the Saudi province of al-Hasa, and was imported to the USA by Connie Cobb in 1966. He is present in many of the shorter (i.e., closer to the desert) pedigrees of US-bred asil horses (mainly through the category known as BLUE STAR Arabians). Photo courtesy of the late Billy Sheets. Not sure if it was published before. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
I don’t know where to start from.. the story of Kuhaylan al-Wati is so long and so rich, and begins way before the strain acquired its current name.. It also encompasses a number of other related, albeit better known strains. While I mull this over, let me leave you with this picture of Falat, a Kuhaylat al-Wati (by a Ma’naghi Hadraji from Ibn Ufaytan) from the sons of Hakem Hsaini al-Ghishm of the Shammar Bedouins. This family is the owner of the strain.. Falat was later sold to Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo, Syria.
As a follow up to the previous post on the quizz mare, Binni II (*Shams x *Munirah), here is a picture of her dam *Munirah, a Kuhaylat ‘Afayr bred by the Saud royal stables, imported in 1962 from Saudi Arabia to the USA by Richard and Laura Cavedo. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Craver. Thanks Jeanne!
In my opinion, *Abeyah was the best mare of the Davenport importation, and perhaps one of the best mares to come out of Arabia. She was certainly the best authenticated one. Look at my translation of her hujjah (also published in Al Khamsa Arabians III): I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which on her face has a blaze and on her two back legs has a stocking, [i.e.] she has two stockings on her hindlegs, that she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, [that she] is to be mated in the dark night, [that she] is purer than milk, and we only witness to what we know and do not keep [information] about the unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [Faris al-Jarba’s seal] A hujjah couldn’t get any better than this. Concise, to the point, and written and sealed by the supreme leader of the preeminent Bedouin horse-breeding tribe of Arabia Deserta: the Shammar al-Jazirah. In comparison, how many horses otherwise known to have been berd by the Aal Saud have Ibn Saud’s own seal on their hujjah? How many other imported mares have Faris al-Jarba’s seal? [I know of only another one: the…
Do you happen know who this gorgeous beauty is (was)? Clue: bred in the USA, but a daughter of the desert. Definitely an absolute favorite of mine, judging only from the few (rather poor) pictures I have of her. Here is another one:
I just wanted to take this occasion to wish everyone a Happy, happy new year. It’s been a great year for Daughter of the Wind, which by the way will blow its first candle in a just a few days.. Here’s to another great year of enjoying these wonderful horses and the great people who breed them across the world.
A recent entry featured the beautiful Mauvy stallion Moulouki. Here is a picture I took in 1995 of his son Doum (x Shawania) who like his sire before him, stood at stud at Pierre-Henri Beillard’s Le Sureau (South western France), which is now being dispersed. [Update Jan. 5th, 2009: Doum was also bred by Mauvy]
When I started this blog, I thought I’d be able to write about a strain each week, which means you should have read about 50 strains by now. Well, I was able to only feature six strains on this blog, with varying degrees of detail: Kuhaylan al-Hayf (i.e., K. Hayfi), Kuhaylan al-Dunays (i.e., K. Dunaysan), Kuhaylan al-Mimrah, Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan (a branch of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz), Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida, and Ma’naghi Ibn Ufaytan (a branch of Ma’naghi Hadraji). Here’s a new year resolution: I will try to feature ten strains in 2009, and will call it “Strain of the Month”, accounting for the summer break, when I will try to leave my laptop at home. Here’s what I have lined up so far in no particular order. The list is based in part on requests received from readers and friends, and in part on personal selection: – Kuhaylan al-Wati – Kuhaylan al-Khdili – Jilfan Dhawi – Kuhaylan al-‘Armush – Kuhaylan al-Sharif – ‘Ubayyan Suhayli – Ma’naghi Abu Sayfayn I still have three slots to fill; if you have any favorite strains you’d like me to feature, just let me know by replying to this threads, and I will do my best…
I can’t resist sharing with you the nice holiday card I just received from Joe and Sharon Ferriss. Thank you Joe and Sharon.. and the one Laszlo and Eva Kiraly also sent me.. Thanks Laszlo and Eva.. and a Happy Holiday to all..
The magnificent grey stallion pictured below was bred was Robert Mauvy in 1969 near Tours, in France. Mauvy also bred his sire Amri (Saadi x Zarifa) and Amri’s dam Zarifa (Matuvu x Iaqouta). He sold Amri to Idaho in the USA as a three year old, but not before he used him on a couple of his best mares (I actually sometimes wonder if Amri left anything out there). Moulouki‘s dam Izarra, a beautiful grey mare, was a gift to Mauvy from Admiral A. Cordonnier, who certainly maintained the best private Arabian stud in North Africa, near Bizerte in Tunisia. Izarra (by David x Arabelle by Beyrouth) was bred by Cordonnier and so was her dam Arabelle. Their tail female was to Samaria, a grey Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare born in 1882 imported to Pompadour by Mr. de Ganay in 1887. Ganay bought Samaria for 8,000 Francs (an enormous amount!) from Khalid Bey al-As’ad of Taybeh, a village now located in Southern Lebanon. The al-A’sad were until the 1970s the overlords of South Lebanon and the most powerful family among this area’s Shi’a population. The older al-A’sad lords were known to maintain a small stud of Arabians that they’d usually acquire…
If you anyone knows someone who could volunteer to write intelligently about asil horses in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain today, please email me privately at ealdahdah@hotmail.com. I am looking for someone who knows the horses and the country context hands on, and preferably but not necessarily from there. Fluency in English is not required since I am ready to translate. This would leave me handling Syria and North Africa.
It seems almost impossible to believe that this line has been lost to asil breeding in the tail female. Where have all the Kuhaylan Da’jani gone? Dajania‘s was the second-most important line in Crabbet breeding, which is one of the preeminent components of today’s mainstream Arabian horse breeding. True, there has never been as many mares from the Dajania tail female as there has been from the Rodania line at any given point in time, but that makes this line’s contribution to the breed all the more spectacular. Dajania’s daughter Nefisa (x Hadban) produced 21 foals at Crabbet. Of the mares, Narguileh (x Mesaoud) and Nasra (x Daoud) were the most prepotent. A look at Al Khamsa’s online Roster allows one to trace the evolution of Nefisa’s Al Khamsa eligible progeny over the first half of the twentieth century. The record is impressive, but but most of the contribution to asil breeding is through males: Nadir, Narkise, *Nasik, Rustnar, Najib, *Nafia, Nusi, Adonis, etc. The last Dajania Al-Khamsa eligible tail female descendent is Nadirat (Rizvan x Nusara), born in 1927, when most of us were not born yet.. That said, Al Khamsa doesn’t accept Nureddin II (by Rijm x Narguileh,…
Part 1 introduced the young stallion Menjad Maram al-Baida, whose sire and dam were imported from Syria to France. Some people would refer to this horse as a “Straight Syrian”. I don’t like this phrase, nor any term with “Straight”. Others who know more than I do don’t seem to like it either. [Incidentally I wonder whether the descendants of the Arabian horses imported to the USA by H. Davenport would qualify. And the Tunisian, Algerian and French horses too. All these folks imported most if not all their horses from Syria]. We had left off with Manjam’s maternal great granddam Marwah, a Saqlawiyah Jadaniyah straight from the marbat of Ibn Amud, arguably the most authentic desert-bred marbat of Saqlawi Jadran in the second half of the twentieth century. More about this marbat in a subsequent entry dedicated to this strain. I first saw Marwah at Basil’s in 1990, when I took the (rather poor) picture above. A very small mare (you can tell from the way her handler is holding her bridle in the picture), with a strong girth, high withers, a very short back, a flat croup, a round hindquarter, she conveyed an overall appearance of roundness and sturdiness that was reminiscent of the descriptions I had read of…
The new Al Khamsa website’s got a facelift. Check out the nice feature on Portico CF, too.
It’s been some time I have been telling you this: some really good Arabian horses can come out of the North African government studfarms. This is an unidentified mare at the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet. Photo courtesy of Jean-Claude Rajot and Louis Bauduin, 1988.
Recently I became aware of the existence of a young bay stallion of desert-bred stock that was bred in France, where he is now standing at stud. The name of this young stallion is Menjad Maram al-Baida, and his strain is Saqlawi Jadran (photo below, from his owners website). Menjad was bred by Mrs. Chantal Chekroun, and sired by the black stallion Mokhtar out of the bay mare Hijab. Both Mokhtar and Hijab were owned by Basil Jadaan in Damascus, Syria, then by Mrs. J. Menning to whom Basil gave them, and are now owned by Mrs. Chekroun. Mrs. Chekroun sold Menjad to Sophie and Dominique Balthasar of the Haras de la Lizonne, and still retains a full sister. A sketchy pedigree of Menjad looks like this: Awaad (S. Shaifi x Mumtazah) Mokhtar …