Tonight I landed in Doha, Qatar, for a work-related conference. I will be confined in the city’s overwhelmingly luxurious Sheraton hotel for the next three days, while you ride, train feed and enjoy your horses. Thank God they have wireless internet in the conference room. I will be blogging about Asil Arabians in my little corner. If I am caught, I will say it’s for the good cause (and I will continue to hope that my boss does not read this blog). Arabian horses are a really big deal here. The majority was imported from the West. “Decorative” horses mostly. Not quite my cup of tea. Others hail directly from Egypt and Syria. A tiny minority are indigenous Asil Arabians from old Qatari bloodlines. I recall this wonderful picture of a bay Wadhnan stallion in one of the early volumes of the Qatari studbook. If only Qatar had a hundred more like him left. How many are left? Where are they? Who knows their histories? I wish I could sneak out and see some of these gems..
I just opened a Flickr account, and I put on it photos of Asil Arabian horses that I got from the web. I will be putting more photos I took myself as we go. Click here for a slideshow. Place on your cursor on the horse’s photo if you want to know his name. There is also a permanent link to these photos on the first right sidebar under “My photos”.
A previous post listed the strain of the desert-bred Asil Arabian stallion El Sbaa as Ma’naghi. That’s the strain France’s premier purist Arabian horse breeder Robert Mauvy attributed to him in one of his books. A manuscript note, found in El Sbaa’s file in the archives at the government’s Pompadour stud, and cited by Nicole de Blomac and Denis Bogros in their masterpiece “L’Arabe: Premier Cheval de Sang” (Paris, 1978), says otherwise. Note #1244, which bears the handwriting of Inspector Rieu de Madron, who imported El Sbaa at an Egyptian racetrack, can be roughly translated as follows: “According to the testimony of Barjas Ibn Nederi, the leader of the ‘Abdah tribe [one of the two main sections of the Sba’ah tribe] and of Nawaf al-Salih, the leader of the Hadidiyyin tribe, the Ju’aitni family to which El Sbaa belongs, is a branch of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, not a branch of the Saqlawi, as I had understood before. Horses from the J’aitni strain are very rare now. One needs to look for them among the ‘Anazah Bedouins who never left Najd.” So El Sbaa is of the Ju’aitni strain after all. Note that the confusion about the origin of the strain persists…
After an unfortunate technical problem with uploading pictures that lasted over one week, this blog is back at work. Apologies for this glitch. Last week, I provided the translation of the hujjah (authenticity certificate) of a desert-bred mare that mentions the stallion Duhayman al-Ajarrash. The mare traces to the horse through her maternal great-granddam. Duhayman al-Ajarrash may well be the sire of the stallion El Nasser, as discussed in this entry. I now provide a scanned copy of this hujjah, in Arabic. Click on it to enlarge it.
The mare in this picture is desert bred, from the strain of Jilfan Stam al-Bulad. Her breeder is an old Bedouin from the al-Yassar section of the tribe of Tay. The picture is frm the early 2000s, and I think that mare is still breeding today. She is of interest because she traces to a stallion of the Dahman ‘Amer strain, which was owned by Saud al-Ajarrache, a Bedouin of the Shammar tribe, in the 1940s. The information on that stallion matches that available for the stallion “Douhayman al-Ajarrache”, which the record of the Beirut racetrack list as the sire of the racehorse El Nasser, imported to Egypt in 1943, and later used by the Egyptian Agricultural Organization (EAO) as a breeding stallion.
A hujjah (plural hujaj) is usually a certificate of authenticity for Arabian horses. But it can be much more than that. Some hujaj offer a detailed snapshot of the lifestyle and mindset of its authors. The hujjah of the Blunt desert import Meshura is a case in point. Take a look at its translation, here. It will be the subject of subsequent posts. PS: Throughout this past week, I have been experiencing some problems in posting photos on the blog. I am trying to sort this out, and apologize for the inconvenience.
The entries on the French Asil Arabian horses continue to generate a lot of interest. To some, the photos of classic specimen of Arabians horses were like an eye opener, shedding light on Asil breeding in a country that has imported hundreds of desert bred stallions and mares from Arabian, and set up large-scale breeding ventures that go on in three other countries (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco). Some of the comments I received go a step further, and ask practical questions, for example about what can be done to save the remnants of these horses, before it is too late. Here is a lead: While I was still based in France, I tried to lease one of the last Asil mares, Bucolique (Besbes x Berthe by Irmak), a gorgeous 1981 bay mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain, and the dam of many racehorse champions, with the aim of breeding her to Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui), a 1983 chestnut stallion of the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain . Her owner, Jean-Marie Baldy, of the Haras du Cayrou in the Cantal area of central France, was willing to lease her, and the owners of Rubi de la Mouline were also willing to…
Back to El Nasser. An earlier post identified his sire, “Douhaymane El Ajarrache”, as a Dahman (or Duhayman) ‘Amer from the al-‘Ajarrash family of the Shammar Bedouin tribe. “Douhayman El Ajarrache” was actively breeding in 1937, when El Nasser’s dam was bred to him to produce El Nasser in May 1938. Last year – and here is the fresh information I promised – I stumbled on the hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of a desert-bred mare tracing to a stallion that could be “Douhaymane El Ajarrache”. The mare is now dead but she has descendants alive today in Syria, in the very area El Nasser was born, the Upper Jazirah. Here is the full translation of this mare’s hujjah: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I, the undersigned, ‘Ali al-Blaybil son of Husayn, from the village of Qartaba born in 1915, from the tribal section of al-Yassar, from the the tribe of Tai, testify by God Most High, that the grey mare which I sold to Mr. Nawaf al-Sulayman al-‘Abd al-Rahman in 1950, is from my horses, called Jilfat Stam al-Bulad; the sire of her dam is the horse of Sa’ud al-‘Ajarrash, a chestnut Dahman ‘Amer, and I did that breeding myself. And Gost is bears witness to what I say. Testifier: Ali Husayn al-Balybil, ID #: […], owner of…
One purpose of this blog is to bridge the gap between arabian horse breeders in the East (the cradle of the breed) and the West (its area of expansion). After introducing Joe Ferriss, RJ Cadranell and Charles Craver (who has yet to send me his contribution), all Asil Arabian horse figures from the West, now is the time to turn to the East. My first guest blogger from the East is Joe Achcar. Joe is a veteran Arabian horse breeder and enthusiast from Lebanon, and an early supporter of Asil Arabian breeding. He has published widely on Asil Arabians in Gulf country press outlets. He currently trains Arabian race horses in Damascus, Syria.
The starting point of any serious discussion on El Nasser should be a short statement in Judith Forbis’ “Authentic Arabian Bloodstock”, p. 137, where she cites a letter from Henri Pharaon, the one-time owner of El Nasser. “Pharaon wrote to me on October 6th, 1970 that El Nasser was born on May 1938, that he had purchased the horse from Cheikh Ahmad Taha, that it was bred by the Gheiheich (Ajarash, El Ajarrache) of Upper Syria, the Jezirah region, and that his sire was Douhayman El Ajarrache of the Tibour tribe.” I saw the letter Pharaon wrote to Forbis, in French. I also saw a copy of the horse’s Lebanese racing papers, which match the information in Pharaon’s letter. Save a few small transcription errors (Tibour is Jibour, for example), and one incorrect analogy (Gheiheich and El Ajarrache are two different entities), all the names in the letter are those of well known and identifiable tribes, clans, and individuals. In September 1997, I asked a 90 year old horse merchant, ‘Abdl al-Qadir Hammami what he knew about all these names. Click here for his answer, which one of several inputs that helped clear El Nasser as an Asil Arabian horse. Hammami did not recall Douhayman El Ajarrache, the sire of El Nasser, but identified the strain of the horse as being Dahman (female…
I feel I have been maintaining a fairly uncontroversial blog – so far. But it did not escape me that the only times I broached slightly contentious topics (the issue of an international registry for Asil horses, and the piece on the myth of Kuhaylan Jallabi in Egyptian breeding), readers’ interested was sparked, comments reached the double digits, a lively discussion ensued which went on for several days, and visitors’ stats skyrocketed. Well, not quite. Anyway, time to spice things up… hence the sexy title. El Nasser was until recently one the most controversial topics in Asil Arabian breeding. Was he Asil? or wasn’t he? A passionate debate, albeit one based on very little information had been raging for about thirty (thirty!) years before fresh information contributed to the inclusion of the horse in the Al Khamsa roster six or seven years ago, thanks to the patient efforts of many, including yours truly. As usual, many more claimed undue credit for this, but hey, such is the reality of life; there are those who do the work, and those who take credit for doing it; I’d rather belong to the first category, where competition is less intense. The inclusion of El Nasser automatically led…
I took this pricture in 1996, on a horse trip outside Aleppo. These kids lived in the stables, among the horses their father cared for. What struck me is how the colt seemed to be one them, following them everywhere, and wanting to partake in their games. The colt is a Kuhaylan al-Krush, whose dam, a pretty black mare I had come to buy, was bred by Atallah al-Nassar al-Jarbah of the Shammar tribe. His sire was a Kuhaylan al-Sharif of the horses of Ibrahim al-Dawwas al-Saadi. The mare had come in foal from Iraq, which was then under a UN embargo, and people were selling their horses and other assets to feed their families. Both strains are signature Shammar strains, and very dear to their breeders. The owner did not want to sell the mare at the price we were offering (5,000 USD, a huge sum for a non-WAHO-registered horse). Maybe it was for the better, I thought. They would have hated to see their little friend go.
A headshot of the same Ma’naghiyah Hadrajiyah mare, whose name now escapes me. Her sire was a Kuhaylan al-Krush from Shammar, from the marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarbah. That marbat is known to trace to the “white Krush” of the Mutayr tribe. Kuhaylan al-Krush will be featured next in “the Strain of the Week” series.
This pretty bay mare, heavy in foal is a desert-bred Ma’naghiyah Hadrajiyah from the Shammar tribe. The strain originally came from the ‘Anazah tribe by way of tribal raiding.
It was already two in the afternoon when our van stopped at the house of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan, the owner of the marbat of Ma’naghi Hadraji I had heard so much about. We had spent the entire morning looking at the horses of the Sherabiyin, in the villages of Tall al-‘Arab al-Gharbi and Tall al-‘Arab al-Sharqi, formerly Kurdish villages of North-Eastern Syria, now settled by a majority of Arab sheep-herders turned farmers. The modern-day Sherabiyin constitute a loose tribal grouping of Bedouins of humble descent and disparate origins, with a solid reputation as cattle thieves and petty robbers. Bedouins from more noble tribes do not typically hold them in high esteem as a group, and jokes about the Sharabiyin’s dubious sense of truth abound. Our host, Dahir al-Salih was a Sharabi from Tall al-‘Arab al-Gharbi, which everyone called by its more common Kurdish name: Garhok. Dahir’s sons and his extended family made a living by training horses for long distance racing. The traditional sport was quickly transforming into a profitable industry, fueled by rising demand for endurance horses from Damascus and the Gulf countries. Dahir was making good money, and his horses were fat. Our party included two friends from Aleppo, both horsebreeders, Radwan Shabareq and Kamal Abd al-Khaliq, in addition to Hazaim and I. Radwan and Kamal boarded their horses at Dahir’s, and visited…
I took this picture in 2002 at Craver Farms. Pirouette CF (Javera Thadrian x Piquante) is arguably one of the prettiest Asil Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares alive today.
I have a dream that one day all the Asil Arabians of the world will be united in one unique World registry. I have a dream that one day breeders of Asil Arabians worldwide will rise above specific labels, breeding groups and sub-groups, and will start breeding their horses to each other to produce the best Asil Arabians possible, the Straight Arabian. I have a dream that one day the remaining Asil horses of Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and other Arab countries will be recognized for what they are, true authentic Arabian horses, on par with Asil Arabians bred in Egypt, Europe and the USA. Let us work together towards that dream.
He reminds of a mythological creature, with flowing lines, and a graceful way of carrying himself. The best blood of North Africa flows in this horse’s veins… Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma) is a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, tracing to the desert-bred mare Samaria, imported to France in 1887 by M. De Ganay, then exported to Tunisia, where her line bred on.
My fourth feature in the “Strain of the Week” series is late. This time, I will be telling you about the Ma’anaghi Hadraji strain, and in particular about the marbat (Bedouin stud) of Ibn ‘Ufaytan of Shammar. Meanwhile, here is a picture of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan (left), the Shammar Bedouin who owns the strain, which we took at his house in North-Eastern Syria, in October 2005.
Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui) is a 1983 Asil Arabian stallion of old Tunisian bloodlines. His sire Ilamane (David x Berriane) was from the stud of Admiral Anatole Cordonnier in Tunisia. Ilamane was one of several hugely influential stallions bred by Mr. Cordonnier. Others include: Esmet Ali (Hazil x Arabelle), the cornerstone of modern Tunisian breeding; David (Hazil x Salome); Aissaoui (Beyrouth x Cherbia); Iricho (David x Chanaan); Irmak (Aissaoui x Leila); Inchallah (Madani x Gafsa); the last three were imported to France, where they contributed to (short-lived) revival of Asil Arabian breeding. Rubi was imported from Tunisia in utero. Picture taken in 2006.
Algeria was a French colony from 1830 to 1848, and an integral part of France from 1848 till its indepedence in 1962, following one of the bloodliest colonial wars. The conquest of Algeria by France was extremely long and arduous, and could only completed by 1900, when the latest of the Tuareg chiefs (ethnic Berbers, not Arabs) surrendered to French troops. Horses were a major factor in the conquest and stabilization of Algeria. In 1877, the French Ministry of War (the equivalent of a Department of Defense), established a breeding stud near the town of Tiaret, in the mountains of central Algeria. The objective of the “Jumenterie de Tiaret”, which later became the “Haras de Tiaret-Chaouchaoua“, was to produce Arabian stallions, which were sent to local stallion depots, where they were used on Barb mares. The result was a sturdy Arab-Barb cavalry horse. Hundreds of Arabian stallions and dozens of mares were imported to Tiaret (and its equivalent in neighboring Tunisia, Sidi-Thabet) from the deserts of Arabia and the racetracks of Egypt and Lebanon. Depending on the expertise of the horse-buying commission and its budget, imports ranged from the outstanding to the mediocre. Overall, Algeria received much better quality desert-bred imports than Tunisia or even France. Outstanding genitors included: Bango, a grey Ma’anaghi…
The term Asil in the Arabic language means “pure”, “authentic” and “original” all at once. In principle, all Arabian horses should be Asil. Either Arabians horses are “pure”, “original”, and “authentic” (Asil), or they are not Arabians, but partbreds. Arabians just cannot be a little bit Asil. Still, things are not that simple! Most Arabian horses studbooks around the world include horses with varying, often tiny, percentages of non-Arabian blood. These horses are not Asil, and hence not Arabians, as far as I am concerned. Indeed, in some cases such as Spain, Russia and Poland, such horses compose the entire studbook (except for imports from another country that breeds “pure”, “original”, and “authentic” Asil horses.) These non-Asil, non-Arabian horses are nevertheless registered as Arabians in the Arabian horse studbooks, and these studbooks are accepted by WAHO (the equivalent of the United Nations for Arabian horses, and I leave it up to you to push that analogy as far as you want). Indeed, most of the world recognizes and designates these horses as Arabians. People like me and many of the readers of this blog are a small minority, a “subversive cell in Arabian breeding” to quote the words of Reba Troxell to Charles Craver (thanks Ambar for the quote). Hence the need arises to differentiate these so-called…
Look at the picture of the magnificent El Sbaa below: a French government commission led by M. Rieu de Madron purchased this Asil Ma’anaghi Sbayli stallion straight from the desert [correction: from Cairo, Egypt] in 1925. El Sbaa stood at the Stud of Pompadour, France, but he was ill suited for its humid climate, so he developed a form of asthma and died a few years later. He left too few offspring behind, including the stallions Nemer (out of Ninon), Khartoum (out of Kioumi), the full borthers Medard and Meat (out of Medea), and the dark brown stallion Matuvu (out of Manon). Nemer was exported to Poland, and Khartoum to Romania, where they both started famous racing lines that endure to this day (although not in Asil form). Meat was retained for the Stud of Pompadour, where he took over from his sire, and Matuvu was sent to the stallion depot of Blois, where only a handful Arabian horse breeders used him. Two Asil lines to El Sbaa survived well into the 1970s: one old French dam-line at Pompadour, and another Algerian dam-line with the French breeder Robert Mauvy. At Pompadour, the last Asil to carry a line to El Sbaa was the very typey mare Ablette (by…
This morning I stumbled on an article I had written on the stallion *Al Mashoor some six years ago. I wish I could find the time to research and write more of this stuff..
We don’t know for sure, but it is possible to list a number of hypotheses. One hypothesis has to do with the lifestyle of the Bedouins who created these strains. Bedouins were nomads who roamed the steppes of Arabia searching for food and water for their flocks. Migrating Bedouin clans and families crossed paths around wells and pastures, mingled there for a few days, information was exchanged, social events took place, horses were bred to each other, then everyone moved on, often in opposite directions. Foals resulting from these breedings were born eleven months later. If the sire belonged to a clan or family that was following a diffrent migration pattern from that of the dam, he could be hundreds of miles away at the time of the foal’s birth. Because the most practical way to identify a foal and trace its origin was to associate it with the parent it was born next to, foals took the strain (i.e., the family name) of their dams, rather than their sires’. A second hypothesis may have to do with Bedouins not keeping the same numbers of mares and stallions. It was not uncommon for a tribe that was endowed with two hundred broodmares to maintain only two or three breeding stallions. Why? One reason was that stallions were rarely used at…
Another photo of my beloved Zanoubia, an Asil mare of Lebanese bloodlines. Zanoubia was by Ach-hal, a stallion of the Kubayshan strain, and out of Zanoubia (II), a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah tracing to the marbat of Ibn Thamdan of the Sa’ba’ah tribe.
An American lady once asked one of my friends attending the 2006 WAHO conference in Syria whether I was a real person, or just an alias used by some other guy. She had apparently read a few of my writings on Asil horses here and there, and seen my name on the programs of a number of events, including that WAHO conference (which I eventually did not attend), but had never met anyone who had ever seen me. Well, I do exist, and guess what, some of you have even seen me! For those who haven’t, I am the guy on the right in the picture below. The guy on the left is more famous.
A previous post gave me the occasion to mention Zanoubia, which is something I have been looking forward to for some time now. Zanoubia was my first mare. Rather she was the first mare from my father’s horses in Lebanon that I considered mine. She did not make it in my recent top ten of the best Asil mares ever bred; she would have ten years ago, before I become acquainted with the wonderful Asil Arabians bred in the USA. Dad had bought her as a yearling in 1977 0r 78. At that time, he owned some 15 mares and a couple stallions, not all of them Asil. There were few Asil Arabians left in Lebanon, and Zanoubia was one of the them. She was a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the horses of the Dandashi landowners of Western Syria, who were famed for the beauty and purity of their horses. The strain came from the Sba’ah tribe. A couple of the Dandashi horses made their way to Europe and the USA. The Dandashi were the owners of the 1880 black Babolna stallion O-Bajan, who’s left such an imprint on Asil breeding in Europe. They were also the breeders of the Saqlawi Jadran, sire of the Asil mare *Muha, imported by Ameen al-Rihani to the USA. That Saqlawi Jadran was a gift from…
This is one of my favorite old pictures. The horse pictured is Dahman, a dark chestnut stallion bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe in 1905, and sold to a French horse-buying commission led by Inspecteur Quinchez in 1909. Dahman was a herd sire for the Shammar prior to his importation to France. He was by a stallion of the Dahman strain out of a mare from the Rabdan strain. Al-Rabdah is one of the many families of Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, but somehow the Kuhaylan part is frequently dropped from the strain’s name, and the horses are simply referred to as Rabdan (fem. Rabdah). Dahman stood at the French government stood of Pompadour until he was 25, and sired some of the best Arabians of his day. Unfortunately, there are no Asil horses tracing to Dahman left today. [Correction, Jan. 06th, 2009: well, maybe there are]
I found a picture of a Kubaylat Ibn Jlaidan to show you, as well as a writtten certificate of origin (hujjah, plural hujaj). The picture, taken in the mid 198os, does not do justice to the mare, and I hesitated a bit before posting it: it shows a chestnut desert-bred mare in rather poor condition, against a background of miserable mudhouses. These were built in the second half of the twentieth century by impoverished Shammar Bedouins who had finally abandoned their black tents and camel herds, and settled in a relatively barren area of North Eastern Syria (known as the Upper Jazireh), not far from the Iraqi and Turkish borders. Many Shammar clans paid a heavy price for clinging to their nomadic lifestyle till the very end: the more fertile lands had already been grabbed by earlier settlers. The picture also shows the concrete houses which Bedouins started building as of the 1980s, to replace the older mudhouses. Barely an improvement. The mare herself is well built, with a deep girth, high withers, a round hindquarter, a well-sloped shoulder, a nicely set tail, and a pretty head. Her neck is thick though, a defect typical of many of the desert-horses of the twentieth century. The man holding her…
Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan is the third strain featured in the “Strain of the Week” series. You will almost certainly not find a representative of this strain outside of Arabia today. A few of you may have heard of it in the context of their trips to Syria. The strain is emblematic of the Shammar tribe, as opposed to the two other strains featured previously, Kuhaylan al-Hayf and Kuhaylan al-Mimrah, both of which were owned by the ‘Anazah group. Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan is very simply, Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz of the marbat of Ibn Jlaidan, a Bedouin from the Hdibah clan of the Shammar. Many Shammar Bedouins still refer to the strain as Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz. Some time in 2006, my friend Hazaim and I spoke to ‘Abdallah Ibn Jlaidan over the phone, as part of our project to collect as much information as possible strainght from Bedouin sources. ‘Abdallah told us that his “fifth grandfather” (i.e., the grandfather of his grandfather) Muhammad al-Jlaidan once visited the Sharif of Mecca, and that the latter gave him a Kuhayla al-‘Ajuz mare as a gift. He could not tell us the exact day when this occured, but said that it was more than a hundred years ago…
I find it baffling that some Arabian horse breeders here in the US still believe that the strain of Kuhaylan Jellabi is carried on in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding. Ten years have elapsed since Michael Bowling’s ground-breaking article on the Arabian mare Bint Yemama and her descendants at the stud of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik in Egypt, yet most breeders of Asil Arabians of Egyptian bloodlines still refer to the stallions *Fadl, *Nasr, *Adhem, among others, and the mares *Maaroufa, Mahroussa, Negma and their tail-female descendants as Kuhaylan Jellabi. I refrained from using the pedigree website www.allbreedpedigree.com to link to the pedigrees of the horses mentioned above, because it erroneously has them tracing back to the desert-bred mare Jellabiet Feysul, owned by Abbas Pascha, and otherwise a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah true and true. Even respected Arabian horse breeders and researchers such as Judi Forbis show these horses as Kuhaylan Jallabi (I prefer to write Jallabi with an ”a”, but I aslo want this entry to be found by those using the more common form “Jellabi” in their search engines). Michael Bowling shows that the mare Bint Yemama (Saklawi I x Yemama) of Prince Mohammed Ali is actually the maternal half-sister of the famous Mesaoud, the Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan bought by Lady Anne Blunt from Ali Pasha Sharif. …
The presence of a French mare of Algerian/Tunisian bloodlines in my top ten list of best Asil Arabian mares ever bred has achieved its (undeclared) goal: it has sparked an interesting and lively debate about the Asil status of these bloodlines and their place within the broader community of Asil Arabian horses. Such a debate was way overdue, in my opinion. Yet before delving into a discussion of these little-known Asil Arabians, let me share with you a few pictures of some of these horses, to give you a feel for what they look like. Below is the magnificent Nichem, a 1970 Asil stallion, bred in France from Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines. Nichem was by Iricho and Caida, who was Rabat and Salammbo, by Bango. Nichem’s sire Iricho was born in Tunisia in 1959 at the stud of French Navy Admiral – and otherwise master Arabian horse breeder – Anatole Cordonnier, who sold him to the French government a few years later. Iricho subsequently stood at the Haras de Pompadour for most of his breeding career. Although a horse of excellent conformation and irreproachable bloodlines, Iricho was shunned by French Arabian (?) horse breeders who preferred taller stallions of racing (i.e., highly dubious) bloodlines. In addition to a number of…
Al Khamsa Arabians III is out! Order your copy now. AKA III is the ultimate reference on Asil Arabian horses in North America (but then, I do have a couple articles in there, as well as translations of some Arabic original documents). I wish someone had the time (and energy!) to produce an Arabic version of this book.. Maybe I will some day, Lord willing. Meanwhile I haven’t managed to maintain my daily blogging routine this week, so I should keep my expectations (and yours) reasonable.
After Kuhaylan al-Hayf and Kuhaylan al-Mimrah, next week’s “Strain of the Week” series will feature Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan, a personal favorite of mine. Stay tuned.
This is Reem al-Oud, a desert bred Ubayyah Suhayliyah of the horses of Mayzar al-Ajil al-Abdul Karim al-Jarba of Shammar, and the number one on my top ten list of best Asil mares ever bred. A diamond in the rough.
My Wisteria is in foal to Javera Thadrian! Due date: late August. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a filly. I even have a name ready! Wisteria, which is at Craver Farms, already has two foals by Thadrian, a five year old stallion, Tantris CF, and a yearling filly, Walladah CF. Wisteria and a few other mares of the “Core Haifi” groups she belongs to, are often referred to as a “four generation pure-in-the-strain Kuhaylah Hayfyiah”, which they are of course. I like to refer to Wisteria as an Asil Kuhaylat al-Hayf tracing to the marbat of Ibn Hubayqan of the Fad’aan. It’s a question of personal preference, really. The latter description reflects my Arab heritage, and my desire to keep emphasizing the Bedouin origin of these horses. If Charles Craver were a Bedouin – God forbid, for it would be fair game to raid his farm and take some horses – then Wisteria and her relatives would be called Kuhaylat Craver or Kuhaylah Craveriyah. I wonder how that would fly with today’s Bedouins…
It tends to change every other day. For what it’s worth, here is today’s top ten: 1. Reem al-Oud, (Ubayyan Suhayli x Ubayyah Suhayliyah) desert bred from the Shammar tribe, born ca. 1980 2. Reema, (Ma’anaghi Sbayli x Hamdaniyah Simriyah) desert bred from the Aqaydat , born ca. 1975 3. Jauza, (Dahman Shawan x Kuhaylat al-Krush) desert bred from Mutayr, born ca. 1910, imported by Lady Anne Blunt to her Sheykh Obeyd farm in Egypt 4. Bismilah (Besbes x Berthe), a Jilfat al-Dhawi, bred by the French government at the Pompadour stud, born ca. 1985 5. Sahmet (Hadban Enzahi x Jatta), from the strain of Murana, bred by the German government at the Marbach stud, born ca. 1960 6. *Turfa, (Ubayyan al-Hamrah x Kuhaylat al-Khorma), bred by Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud at the Al-Khorma stud, imported to the USA by Henri Babson, born ca. 1930 7. *Bint Maisa al-Saghirah (Nazeer x Maisa) , a Dahmah Shahwaniyah, bred by the Egyptian government (the Egyptian Agricultural Organization) at the al-Zahraa stud, born ca. 1950 8. Sayfia, desert bred from the Fad’aan tribe (Ma’naghi Sbayli x Ma’anaghiyah Sbayliyah), born ca. 1985 9. LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla), a Kuhaylah, bred by Carol Lyons, born ca. 1980 10. Ceres (Aramis x Dharebah),…
As with many Arabian horse strains, Kuhaylan al-Mimrah takes its name from its owner. The Kuhaylat al-Maryum mare that came from the tribe of al-Dhafeer to tribe of the Sba’ah became known as Kuhaylat al-Mimrah, or Kuhaylah Mimrahiyah, after the Sba’ah Bedouin who owned her. The strain bred on at al-Mimrah’s, and was passed to his sons and grandsons. Of these, Subaylah al-Mimrah was the most well known for breeding it. Al-Mimrah (the people) is one of the many closely-related families that compose the larger Muwayni’ clan (click here for a genealogical table of this clan). The Muwayni’ is the leading clan of the Bayayi’ah section of the ‘Abdah tribe — itself one of the two branches of the Sba’ah tribe. The clan even assumed the leadership of the entire ‘Abdah, until a date in the 1880s when an armed incident with an Ottoman tax-collecting detachment resulted in its downfall and replacement by another rival clan. Still, the Muwayni’ enjoy special respect within the Sba’ah tribe and the general ‘Anazah, partly because of their past status, and partly because of their famous copper seal, one of ‘Anazah’s oldest. Around the time the Abbas Pasha Manuscript was compiled, the Shaykh of the Muwayni’ and head of the Sba’ah ‘Abdah was Nahar Ibn Muwayni’, whose close cousin was Za’aazi’ al-Mimrah. Za’aazi’ al-Mimrah was a fierce warrior who owned a…
According to the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, Kuhaylan al-Mimrah was one of the favorite strains of Abbas Pasha, the man who ruled Egypt from 1848 to 1854. The Manuscript contains an interesting account of the history of the strain. Unfortunately, it assumes a good deal of prior knowledge of Arabian medieval history, without which the story’s full significance cannot be grasped. Here is a summary of the account in the Manuscript: the strain is one of the most ancient Kuhaylan strains. Its history can be traced back to the time of a certain ‘Ijl ibn Hulaytim, “from the ancient tribe of Aal Mughirah”. The Kuhaylah of ‘Ijl was lost to the Qahtan tribe during a raid, and a mare tracing to this Kuhaylah was taken from Qahtan by al-Maryum, a Bedouin of the Suwayt ruling clan of the al-Dhafeer tribe. It became known as Kuhaylat al-Maryum after his name. The strain then went from al-Maryum to al-Mimrah, a Bedouin of the Saba’ah tribe, and there it became known as Kuhaylat al-Mimrah. This may look like your standard story of Bedouin horses constantly changing hands, and changing strains in the process, but it isn’t. The mention of ‘Ijl ibn Hulaytim is very…
It is a great honor for me to introduce my third guest blogger: Charles C. Craver III. Charles is to Asil Arabian horse breeding what Franklin D. Roosevelet is to American history: someone who assumes stewardship of omething on the verge of collapse, dedicates a lifetime to restoring it to its former glory, and hands it over to the next generation when the job is done. Charles is a second father and a friend. I am thrilled he has agreed to share his thoughts and about breeding Asil Arabians on this weblog, drawing on 50-plus years of experience and knowledge at the helm of Craver Farms.
The “Strain of the Week” series continues this week with the second strain featured: Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. Modern breeders and pedigree students, especially those familiar with Asil Arabian bloodlines from Egypt will remember Kuhaylan al-Mimrah as the strain of several of the older Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) horses: the stallions Mansour and Mabrouk Manial, present in almost every pedigree of Asil Arabians of Egyptian bloodlines, are both from this strain, and so are their respective maternal half-brothers, Ibn Samhan and Hadban. Mansour and Ibn Samhan trace to Donia, a bay desert-bred Kuhaylah Mimrahiyah bred by Ibn Muwayni’ of the Saba’ah Bedouin tribe, and imported to Egypt in 1880. Mabrouk Manial and Hadban trace to Freiha, another bay desert-bred Kuhalyah Mimrahiyah bred by Ibn Huraymis of the Fad’aan tribe and imported to Egypt around the same time. The line to Donia has died out a long time ago, but a thin Asil line to Freiha survives in South Africa, through the famous Barakah, which the RAS sold to this country in 1945. Other than its rarity and prestigious origin, this line is of interest because it brings in the blood of the Asil stallion Tuwaisaan, a present of the ruler of Bahrain…
I took this photo of the Asil stallion Khalid (Mahrous x Khalidah) in Aleppo, Syria in the mid-1990s, at the farm of Mustapha al-Jabri. Khalid is a half-brother to the stallion Basil, the subject of an previous post by Joe Ferriss. Both Khalid’s sire and dam are desert breds. Notice the excellent legs and the strong sinews on this horse. Khalid’s dam, Khalidah, is a Saglawiyah Jadraniyah from the horses of Hulu al-Hulu, the leader (Shaykh) of the ‘Adwan Bedouin tribe, and traces to the glorious marbat (tribal stud) of Ibn ‘Amud of the Shammar tribe. His sire is a ‘Ubayyan Suhayli (a branch of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak), also from the Shammar. According to Mahrus ibn Haddal, who was Shaykh of the al-‘Amarat tribe in the 1920s, Ibn ‘Amud obtained his original mare in a ghazu (tribal raid) against the al-Frijah section of the Ruwalah tribe. Ibn Haddal’s testimony is given in Khairi al-‘Azzawi’s great book on the tribes of Iraq (in Arabic). Other accounts I have gathered from recent conversations with Bedouins have the Saglawiyah Jadraniyah of the marbat of Ibn ‘Amud (or Saglawiyat ‘Ibn ‘Amud for short) trace to the ‘Anazah tribe in general, of which the Ruwalah is a part of. To me Khalid is the quintessential Asil stallion: powerful but graceful, strong but…
It’s Friday afternoon, and I am in a light mood. So I have a game (again!) for you all. Give me your ultimate top ten list of the greatest Asil Arabian mares ever bred. Here are the rules of the game: 1. The mares need to be Asil. A working definition of Asil for the purposes of this game is: Al Khamsa eligible if the mares are from bloodlines imported to North America, Asil Club eligible if the mares are from bloodlines imported to Europe, and tracing exclusively to Bedouin-bred horses if the mares are in Arab countries. For a more accurate (and conceptual) definition of Asil, click here. 2. The mares don’t need to be alive now: they may have been bred as early as the late XIXth century (when photography was invented). 3. You have to provide me with at pictures of at least two mares out of ten, preferably your top 2. 4. You don’t need to justify why you have ranked them the way you did (but it would nice if you did) 5. You can be the current or former owner of all ten mares (but it would be nice if you included at least some mares owned or bred by others in…
.. is Naziha, an Asil Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from Tunisia. That this small North African country is home to such classic specimen of Asil Arabians as Naziha may come as a surprise to some, yet Tunisia harbors one of the best collections of Asil Arabians anywhere. Most Tunisian Asils trace to desert-bred horses imported from Arabia by the French. The French? France occupied Tunisia in 1881, but kept the local ruling family in place. The ruling family owned a small stud of Arabian horses in the town of Sidi-Thabet, to the southwest of the capital city of Tunis, which the French overtook and expanded. The stud of Sidi Thabet specialized in breeding Asil Arabians using original desert stock imported from the Arabian desert. The resulting Tunisian Asils were either raced or bred to Barbs to produce an Arab-Barb cross that was highly appreciated by the French cavalry units stationed in North Africa. When the French finally withdrew in 1956, the newly independent Tunisian goverment took over Arabian horse breeding at Sidi-Thabet, following the French’s footsteps, but many fine horses went to France with the returning European settlers. More horses went to France in the 1960s, and 1970s. Naziha was one of those. She was raced in Tunisia before being exported to France. I took this photo of her at the farm of her owner Pierre-Henri Beillard, in 1995.…
Basil, the masculine grey stallion pictured in Joe’s entry below was one of the first acquisitions Syrian Government Stud as it began operating in the mid 1990s. Basil, born in 1985 at the stud of Mustapha al-Jabri in Aleppo, was not Bedouin-bred, but both his sire and dam were. He was by Mahrous, a ‘Ubayyan Suhayli from the Shammar, then Mustapha’s head stallion, out of Hallah, a chestnut Kuhaylah Mimrahiyah also from the Shammar. Basil’s dam Hallah, pictured below at al-Jabri’s farm in 1996, was arguably the best of Mustapha’s herd, which consisted of 100-plus mares; Mustapha owned her dam and her sister as well. Basil joined his sire as a herd stallion for Mustpaha before he was gifted to the Government. Abdul-Qadir Hammami, a veteran horse-merchant and one of the sharpest experts on desert horses I have come to meet, picked Hallah, her dam and her sister for Mustapha’s stud. Next week’s “Strain of the Week” series will be about Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. It will discuss Hallah’s family, among other families belonging to this ancient strain.
Today I am pleased to introduce my second guest blogger, Joe Ferriss. Joe is known to most breeders and enthusiasts of Asil Arabian horses, East and West; he needs no introduction. Joe’s reputation extends to unlikely places. In the fall of 2006, I was in the desert near the Syrian-Iraqi border with some friends. We were gathered around a camp fire on a late afternoon, sipping coffee and talking horses. Some Bedouins from the neighboring village had joined us, and one of them asked me where I came from. When I mentioned that I had lived in the USA for some time, the Bedouin, who was from the Tai tribe, told me of an American man he had come to meet a few years back: “Ju Faris”. He said of Joe: “Hada Faris”, which roughly translates into: “Now that’s a horseman”. I thought it was funny that Joe’s last name translated in to the Arabic word for “horseman”. Joe and I go back a long time. When we started corresponding in 1994, I was still living in Lebanon, and email had not been invented yet. We did not meet in person until the year 2000, when Joe visited me at the University of Chicago, and I returned the visit to his home in Quincy, Michigan. I am thrilled to resume our correspondence on this blog.
When I was a child (not too long ago), I used to enjoy playing a game with my father, General Salim Al-Dahdah, where I would sit in his lap and try to guess the names of the horses in the pictures he was showing me. My all-time favorite was Zenobia, a ‘Ubayyah mare we owned at the time, and I wanted to see Zenobia in every picture. Lets see whether any of you recognizes where the Asil mare in this picture came from (don’t worry, I won’t go as far as asking you to guess who she actually was). Three hints: 1. This is not Zenobia (she was grey) 2. This is not Moniet El-Nefous, either. 3. This is not a Moniet descendant, nor a Moniet relative, nor an Egyptian horse for that matter, nor … ok, you should be playing, not me.
Several readers informed me they had trouble posting comments to this blog. It is as easy as 1,2, 3: 1. Click on the title of the entry you want to comment on (e.g., “Books: The Rwala Bedouin Today”). This will take you to this entry’s specific page. 2. Scroll down to “Leave a Reply” 3. Write your comment, enter your user name, your email address, your website (optional), and click “submit”. That’s it. Note that you needen’t be logged in, registered or anything else. I realize I may have unintentionally misled some of you in an email in which I announced the launch of this blog, by wrongly linking a reader’s ability to post comments to his/her being registered, and to receiving an email with a password upon registering. This was an error, for which I apologize. I am still learning here, so please bear with me…
I am never tired of showing this picture of the lovely mare Wadeehah, a 1970 desert-bred Asil Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah from the marbat of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn. The strain is also known as Ma’naghiyat Abu Sayfayn. I took this picture of Wadeehah in 1992 in Aleppo, Syria, where she spent the latter part of her life in the ownership of my friend Kamal ‘Abdul Khaliq. It is a shame Kamal never managed to get a filly out of her, only colts. She did produce the mare Sayfia, however, which is the subject of an earlier post. Sayfia is now in her early twenties and is still in the desert with ‘Abdallah Abu Sayfayn, ‘Atiyah’s son. Sayfiah has now a filly by a Saglawi Jadran of from the tribe of al-Baqqarah. So the line goes on. Kamal had bought Wadeehah in 1982 from ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn himself. She had a young colt by her side. The colt, named Marzuq, was accidentally hit by a truck soon after arriving at Kamal’s, but he survived his hinquarter injury and went on to become a leading stallion for Kamal, leaving plenty of splendid colts and fillies, before dying a few months ago. The most striking thing about Marzuq was his kindness. You…
If anyone of you is in the mood for some serious reading about Bedouin tribes in modern day Arabia, then William Lancaster’s The Rwala Bedouin Today is the book to read. I found it a rather easy read for an academic book that delves deep into into anthropological theory. It describes in detail how the Rwala creatively used a number of assets and options in their possession to cope with the many transformations modernity brought about to their identity and lifestyle. The chapter on the history of the tribe is informative, too.
Early mentions of Kuhaylan Hafi by Western travelers to the desert link it to two Fad’aan clans (large families): al-Mahayd and al-Hubayqan. Lady Anne Blunt mentions that the strain acquired a certain reputation when Turki Ibn Jad’aan al-Mahayd, the head of the Fad’aan tribe, was killed in a raid against the Ruwalah tribe, who captured his war mare, a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah. Turki was slain by Khalaf al-Adhn al-Sha’laan after he fell on the ground, his mare having stumbled on a jerboa – a desert rodent – hole. The Fad’aan felt that the Ruwalah had violated the rules of desert warfare, and a long feud between the two tribes ensued. Bedouin accounts of the story say that the mare was not captured, but that she made it back to the Fad’aan camp, where Turki’s fellow tribesmen ragingly hamstrung her for letting their leader down (yikes!). I don’t know the exact date of this event, altghough I suspect it took place in the 1890s. The clan of al-Mahayd, which is the ruling clan of the Fad’aan, is generally acknowledged as the “owner” of the marbat of Kuhaylan Hayfi. Most hujaj (authentication certificates delivered for desert bred Arabian horses) of Kuhaylan Hayfi horses I have seen trace the horse in the hujja…
The previous discussion concluded (for now) that the strain of Kuhaylan Hayfi has developed sometime between 1850 and 1875. What was it known as before that? and where did it derive its name from? Like many, but not all, Kuhaylan strains, Kuhaylan Hayfi, which by the way is also called Kuhaylan al-Hayf, branched out of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz. Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz appears to have been more than a strain — i.e., a family name for Arabian horses related through the dam line. Rather, it seems to have been a generic name for a “pool” of horses not necessarily related to each other, but sharing something else in common, perhaps the same owner (more on that in a subsequent post). Kuhaylan al-Ajuz typically “mutates” into a new strain when it becomes associated with a new owner (e.g., Kuhaylan Khdili), a celebrated mare with a specific characteristic (e.g., Kuhaylan al-Musinn), or an event of some importance. The later case is that of Kuhaylan Hayfi or Kuhaylan al-Hayf. Kuhaylan Hayfi “belongs” to the tribe of the Fad’aan, which means that the mare that founded the strain and became the first Kuhaylah Hayfiyah was a Kuhaylah al-‘Ajuz owned by Fad’ann Bedouins. Al-Hayf in Arabic means the social exclusion resulting from a ban. A rough synonymous term would be the word “ostracism”…
Why am I starting this “Strain of the Week” series with this particular strain? Shameless promotion. Kuhaylan Hayfi just happens to be the strain of my Asil Arabian mare, Wisteria CF, which also gives me an excuse to display her picture. There are other reasons, too: many Asil Arabian horsebreeders are familiar with the strain, as a result of the importation of the desert-bred Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare *Reshan to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. *Reshan went on to become one of the foundation mares of Arabian horse breeding in America, and left hundreds of Asil descendants in this country, most of which belong to the Davenport group, like Wisteria CF. (For those of you who have been living on the moon for the past half-century, the term “Davenport” refers to those Asil Arabians descended exclusively from the desert-bred Asil Arabian horses imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906, and from a few others desert-breds he’d owned prior to this importation). Back to the strain itself, of which *Reshan is only the most famous desert-bred representative. First, how old is it? Youthful as strains go, Kuhaylan Hayfi ‘only’ goes back to the second half of the nineteenth century: the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which collects Bedouin testimonies about Arabians horses up to ca. 1850, makes no mention of it. …
I may not fully realize what I am getting into. That’s 52 different strains of Arabian horses per year! The good news is that there are enough strains to keep going at this pace for at least three years. The bad news is that I will have to research the lesser known ones, and find pictures of representatives of such strains, many of which have vanished. But then, that’s the fun part in this challenge. Lets see how far this will take me…
I am pleased to introduce my first guest blogger: Robert J. Cadranell II (RJ) is a friend, a dedicated breeder of Arabian horses of Davenport bloodlines, and one of the foremost Arab horse researchers of our generation. RJ was, together with Michael Bowling, the co-editor of the Arabian Visions magazine, during the nineties, and is currently leading the effort behind the Davenport Conservancy. RJ will be blogging about the history of Arabian horses in the West, and one couldn’t think of a better person to do so.
Anyone interested in objective (vs. romanticized) knowledge of Bedouins in the 20th century needs to read this book. The author, Jibrail Jabbur, a Syrian, was born at the turn of the twntieth century in a town on the fringes of the desert, near Palmyra; he studied in Princeton, NJ, and went on to become a Professor of Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut (my alma mater).
When in March of 2007, I called Abdallah ibn ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn on his mobile, I knew I had a date with history. Abdallah, 55, lives in the desert in north-eastern Syria, and is the owner [sahib] of a marbat of the strain of Maanaghi Sbayli known as Maanaghi Abu Sayfayn, after his family. He is the son of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, a Bedouin who reportedly lived to the age of one hundred, and was an authority on Arabian horses. ‘Atiyah was a master breeder, too and you can see for yourselves: he bred the gorgeous mare Sayfia, which is pictured here. The Abu Sayfayn are a clan of the Shumaylat, which is one of the main branches of the Fad’aan tribe. Other closely related Shumaylat clans include Ibn Hubayqan’s, who owns the main marbat of Kuhaylan Hayfi, and Ibn ‘Amayir’s, who owns Kuhaylan al-Musinn (more on these guys later). If you take out the flurry of unfamiliar names of people, places, and horses that clutter the interview and may seem off-putting, you will find this conservation helpful in shedding light on a number of Bedouin practices: inbreeding, stealing horses, exchanging horses from brides, transfers of ownership, and so on. Read the full text of the conversation here, and let me know what you think.
The discussion about the blood marks on the bodies of grey Arabian horses elicited the most reactions this week. Readers shared photos of Asil Arabian horses from different breeding groups (Bahraini, Davenport, Egyptian, “modern” Syrian, and Saudi) with bloodmarks on their shoulders and bellies. These pictures serve as reminders that regardless of the artificial breeding categories in which breeders have sought to put them, these horses are all one. They are all Asil. Thanks to Jenny Lees for this photo of an Asil Kuhaylat al-Kraay at the Royal Studs of Bahrain with the blood mark on her shoulder.. I will be blogging more about such fun topics, showing pictures whenever possible.
It was a hot and humid summer afternoon in Marseille, France, where I was living at the time, and a rather less hot, albeit equally humid afternoon in Bristol, UK, where my friend (and fellow horse enthusiast) Hazaim still lives. We were in the midst of one of these heated phone conversations about the origin of a particular strain of Arabian horses, with little hope of converging any time soon, when Hazaim said: “Lets just ask the Bedouin who owns the strain!” “How?” “Well, just like we’re doing here: over the phone!” So we started calling our friends and contacts in Syria, many Bedouins themselves, and we asked them to give us the contacts of the Bedouins horsebreeders they knew. It often took days, even weeks, before these friends came back to us with the number we wanted. Sometimes we were lucky enough to get hold of them directly on a cell phone number; sometimes the number was that of the only household that had a land line in the village, and we had to wait until whomever answered the phone went and fetched the Bedouins we wanted to speak to; and sometimes, we were just informed that their neighbor or relative had packed his tent and taken his flock some place else, and that we had to call back in the…