طيرة ترد للمرازيق مباشرةً ابوها كحيلان الواطي الازرق الحديدي ملك دياب السبيه الشمري وولادة حاكم الحصيني الغشم الشمري، مبارك حمداني سمري توليد عبد العيادة الدرعان ابن غراب فيصير صايل اخو طاحوس Sayil, a Saqlawi Marzaqani of the breeding of Basil Jadaan, by Mubarak out of Tairah. Tairah traces directly to the horses of the Maraziq; her sire was the iron grey Kuhaylan al-Wati (b. ca. 1970) of Diab Sbeih of the Shammar, gifted to him by Hakim al-Ghishm also of the Shammar. Mubarak (b. 1987) was a Hamdani Simri of the breeding of ‘Abd al-Iyadah al-Dar’aan Ibn Ghurab. This makes Sayil the brother of Tahus, a major desert stallion registered in the second wave of the Syrian Studbook, Volume VII.
الصورة تقديم ابو فارس باسل جدعان
To the left, the late Wegdan (Dani) El Berbary. In the middle, my father, General Salim Al-Dahdah. To the right, Basil Jadaan. Lower right, Rosemary Doyle. Photo by the late Hansi Heck-Melnyk, in Karsten Scherling’s archives.
She really does look good and I am very pleased with her. Yasser tells me she has really fine skin and many of the personality traits of the desert horses. She may be barren this year. If so, we will try a breeding to one of the Bahraini stallions at the EAO, either the Jallabi or the other one.
Yasser Ghanem took that screenshot from the virtual AK Convention yesterday. It’s nice to see all the friendly faces on the same screen: Yasser, and Jeanne and Basil and Monica and Moira and Jeannie and Edie and Bev and Kim and PJ and Joe and Rosemary and Kate and all the others.
اتوجه بالشكر والتقدير الى الصديق باسل جدعان على سعيه باستضافتي في الحلقة السابعة من برنامج مساء الخيل الذي بمحاورة الدكتور محمد مشموم وتقديم السيد سعيد سامي
الفحل فواز كحيلان كروش من عيد وست الكل ملك صالح خدام السروجي الصورة في مزرعته من تصويري سنة ١٩٩٢
..for who she was, the horses she bred, the ideas she promoted and the values she stood by. And may she rest in peace forever. A visit to her was a life lesson.
A stunning photo of the 1966 Babson stallion the The Shah (Fabah x Bint Fada by Fa-Serr), exported from the USA to English. The 1978 British National Champion Stallion. Photo: Briery Close, reposted on Facebook by Wilton Burger.
I saw this horse, Daalimaar Al Sharif last year at the Al Khamsa Convention in Fayyetteville, Arkansas, and liked him instantly. He has style, presence and power. I just looked at his pedigree, and was pleasantly surprised at how diverse it was, the Julian/Gulastra, the Hallanny Mistanny, the Sirecho, and a drop of Ibn Halima (just enough) on top of the Serasabba tail female. In general, I am impressed at how Babson and Babson-related breeders in the US have been working with their horses, and how the younger generation of these horses is turning up. one of his young brothers, promising: another brother, WC Sir Habbas Azeer, also out of this mare, well built and equally stylish: and yet another sibling. That mare needs to produce some fillies too!
The stuff you learn on Facebook.. Today I learned the registered name and strain of the Arabian stallion that stars in the movies “The Black Stallion” and the “The Black Stallions Returns”. He is a Ma’naqi Sbayli tracing to the Blunt’s Ferida in the tail female, and his name is Cass Ole. I can already see an ad for my CSA Baroness Lady, the last living Al Khamsa mare tracing to that strain, with the headline: “From the strain of the Black Stallion”. A related anecdote: A few years ago, while having lunch with a prominent breeder from the Gulf in his stud farm, I asked: “So, where did you get your passion for Arabians? Was your grandfather a Bedouin warrior?”. The answer was not quite what I was expecting: “No, I read Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion”.
So there will be nothing left from my beautiful Shadows. The vet clinic wrote this morning that the last egg they had harvested from her had failed to result in an embryo. This marks the end of a heart-wrenching five year adventure with that beautiful mare. She was beautiful inside out. Shadows with the large, soulful eyes, prominent eye sockets and long eyelashes, delicately arched throatlatch, refined neck, fine cup-like muzzle and delicately shaped lower lip, the high withers, deep girth, round barrel and the broad chest of a lioness, who despite her bad hindleg injuries carried herself with dignity. Why is it always the best ones that leave like this? What sort of curse is that?
أفاد مشل باشا الجربا في حديث مع ضابط المخابرات الفرنسية فيكتور مولر- المسؤول عن مراقبة البدو في دولة سوريا الخاضعة انذاك للانتداب الفرنسي – أن ارسان الخيل التي غنمتها شمر (الثابت وخرصة وفداغه) في كون الشريف خمسة ارسان هي: العبية الشراكية وقد ال مربطها الى السحيلي من فداغه كحيلة الشريف وقد عدها مولر من الارسان المنقطعة الشنين عند القعيط النخيشة عند الحدب وهم شيوخ الثابت كحيلة الجلالا عند ابن دايس من الخرصة وأضاف مولر في حاشيته أن هذا الرسن قد انقطع بعد أن نفقت اخر فرس منه فرس شقراء كانت شراكة بين دهام الهادي والقعيط وقد أورد مولر هذه المعلومات في إحدى حواشي كتابه “مع البدو في سوريا” (١٩٣١) نقلًا عن الشيخ مشل باشا الجربا اقول: مما لم يذكره الضابط مولر ان مربط كحيلة الشريف لابن سعدي من عوارف شمر وهو ما زال موجودًا عندهم حتى الان كما أن مربط العبية السحيلية ما زال موجودًا أما الشنينة والنخيشة فانقطع الرسنين عند شمر منذ مدة ومن المعروف أن حرب شمر والشريف أستمرت سنوات عدة وتخللتها معارك كثيرة شاركت فيها معظم عشائر شمر وأفخاذها ولعل عشائر شمرية أخرى ليست تابعة مشل باشا الجربا غنمت أرسانا غير هذه الارسان مثلًا ذكر المؤرخ عبدالله العثيمين في كتاب “نشاة إمارة ال رشيد” اربعة ارسان اخرى…
Yaqut is another gorgeous Saqlawiyat Ibn ‘Amud from the breeding of Basil Jadaan, by Shaddad (Marzuq x Aseelah) out of Karawiyah (Odeilan x Marwah). She is a maternal grand-daughter of Marwah and the dam of Basil’s stallion Shadeed. Sadly, this maternal line was lost due to the war in Syria and is now only represented through Shadeed. Yaqut’s sire Shaddad, a Ma’naqi Sbayli, was bred by Kamal Abd al-Khaliq in Aleppo, and his lines blended very well with Basil’s mares. Below, her son Shadeed against the backdrop of Palmyra’s ruins
Keep your fingers crossed but I guess I will not end up with seven foals from Shadows: “Of the 7 oocytes we received, only two oocytes were able to mature. They were fertilized and one cleaved and started to divide and grow. We need it to continue to develop until it becomes a blastocyst. I will know its outcome in the next few days.”
أفاد مشل باشا الجربا في حديث مع ضابط المخابرات الفرنسية فيكتور مولر- المسؤول عن مراقبة البدو في دولة سوريا الخاضعة انذاك للانتداب الفرنسي – أن ارسان الخيل التي غنمتها شمر (الثابت وخرصة وفداغه) في كون الشريف خمسة ارسان هي: -العبية الشراكية وقد ال مربطها الى السحيلي من فداغه -كحيلة الشريف وقد عدها مولر من الارسان المنقطعة -الشنين عند القعيط -النخيشة عند الحدب وهم شيوخ الثابت -كحيلة الجلالا عند ابن دايس من الخرصة وأضاف مولر في حاشيته أن هذا الرسن قد انقطع بعد أن نفقت اخر فرس منه فرس شقراء كانت شراكة بين دهام الهادي والقعيط .وقد أورد مولر هذه المعلومات في إحدى حواشي كتابه “مع البدو في سوريا” (١٩٣١) نقلًا عن الشيخ مشل باشا الجربا اقول: مما لم يذكره الضابط مولر ان مربط كحيلة الشريف لابن سعدي من عوارف شمر وهو ما زال موجودًا عندهم حتى الان. كما أن مربط العبية .السحيلية ما زال موجودًا أما الشنينة والنخيشة فانقطع الرسنين عند شمر منذ مدة ومن المعروف أن حرب شمر والشريف أستمرت سنوات عدة وتخللتها معارك كثيرة شاركت فيها معظم عشائر شمر وأفخاذها. ولعل عشائر شمرية أخرى ليست تابعة مشل باشا الجربا غنمت أرسانا غير هذه الارسان . مثلًا ذكر المؤرخ عبدالله العثيمين في كتاب “نشاة إمارة ال رشيد” اربعة ارسان…
After a twelve year wait, DOW finally has Arabic language functionality. I am over the moon. Thanks to Yasser the magician, who revived his programming skills from 20 years ago and took a dive in this blog’s underbelly. Guest bloggers and I can write in Arabic, and Arabic speaking readers can post their comments in Arabic. Posts can either be in the English Left to Right (LTR) interface, or readers can click on the green flag on the blog’s menu (just under the main DOW title) which will take you to the Right to Left (RTL) interface, which looks better since Arabic is an RTL language. To convey my profound gratitude, I asked Yasser to write the first Arabic entry on DOW. Other Arabic-language guest bloggers will follow.
Rosemary Doyle sent me these photos of the younger Ma’naqi colt Shaman (Tamaam DE x SE Lady Guenevere) who looks like a good stallion prospect. He has both style and substance.
This quote in the recent DNA study led by Samantha Brooks in the journal Nature is pretty damning, I thought: The presence of Thoroughbred-specific Y chromosome haplogroups among Arabian racehorses indicates that the large chromosomal blocks of Thoroughbred origin detected in flat racing Arabian horses are likely derived, at least in part, from crosses with Thoroughbred stallions that occurred after the emergence of the “Whalebone” haplotype in the 1800s.”
Update: that Arabic font is not working. I am giving up. Please bear with me as I update the look and feel of this blog. It’s been twelve years since the last update. Blog design has changed a lot since then. I am also trying to enable Arabic language entries. Let me know what you think of the new design. أول سطر عربي في مدونة بنات الريح
In other happy news, Wadha was checked in foal to Monologue CF today. I had been trying to get this mare in foal for three years.
My beautiful Shadows left us today. What a sweet, gentle, soulful mare she was. Shadows was euthanized this morning, and her ovaries collected for shipping to the University of Pennsylvania veterinary center in New Bolton, PA. There, oocytes will recovered and sent to the Equine Medical Services clinic in Columbia, Missouri. This clinic is a world leader in equine reproduction. There, the oocytes will be placed in an incubator. Mature ones will then be injected with tiny doses of semen, a revolutionary micro-technology called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Some of the embryos to be produced via ICSI will then be transferred into a recipient mare right away, and others will be frozen for transfer at a later date. Hopefully this will ensure several male and female offspring from this precious mare. I just wish this technology was both more affordable and more widely available ten years ago, when grand old mares like Javera Chelsea and Dakhala Sahra could have benefited from it. The semen is from Jenny Lees Bahraini stallion Shuwaiman Al Rais.
A large DNA study published in the Journal Nature (link to full study here) comes to confirm what we purist breeders have known for a long time: that so-called “Arabian” horses of flat racing lines have a significant blood of English Thoroughbred running in their veins. The author, Samantha Brooks, very elegantly suggests a different labeling of these “Arabian” lines. I still like “Pseudo-Arabians”, which I coined a decade ago.
This year the Al Khamsa Convention will be virtual (on Zoom), but the lineup of speakers is great as always. Make sure you register here. RJ Cadranell and I are also making a presentation on Saturday, on a surprise topic.
I am very impressed with this young lad. And I thought his half-brother and close Ma’naqi Sbayli relative Shaykh was already a winner! Shaman looks more “old Egyptian”, Shaykh more “Crabbet”. Hard to choose between the two. They both speak well for their sire, Tamaam DE, who met an untimely death last year. Photos by Rosemary and Terry Doyle.
Check out the Wikipedia page of Captain G.E. Leachman, the British explorer, army officer, political officer and above all, spy. Photo below, disguised as a Bedouin. The Bedouins, who feared him, called him Njayman. His murder in 1920 in Abu Ghraib by Dari al-Mahmud, Shaykh of the Shammar Zawba’, is a famous episode in Bedouin lore. It sparked the Arab revolt in Iraq. The article says Dari’s son Khamis shot him in the back over a disagreement over a local robbery. Bedouin lore perpetuates a different explanation: Njayman insulted Dari and Khamis killed Leachman with his sword in revenge. The episode is worth a book. I am not surprised Saddam Hussein financed a movie based on it. Modern descendants of Dari’s horses of the Saqlawi Jadran strain, and to a lesser extent, the Dahman Amer strain, are famous in the North Arabian desert, and a regular fixture on this blog.
I found the photos I was looking for, so I will stop scanning for the night. They don’t do justice to the effect this horse had on you. This is Qayss, by Mahrous out Zabbaa’, a stylish bay mare registered in the studbook as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, but actually from the prestigious branch of Kuhaylan Junaydi. The authorities in Syria registered many horses from unfamiliar strains under the generic Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz, including horses of the Rishan Shar’abi, Mlayhan, Kuhaylan Junaydi, Kuhaylan al-‘Anz and Kuhalyan al-Sharif strains. According to Abbas al-Azzawi’s masterful ‘Asha’ir al-Iraq (Volume 1, under the Shammar section), the war mare of Beneyeh Ibn Quraymis al-Jarba was a Kuhaylah Junaydiyyah. Beneyeh was killed in war in 1231 Hijri (1815 CE). He was the paternal cousin of Sfug al-Jarba, the Shaykh of the Shammar whom the Ottomans treacherously murdered in 1847. Qayss’ eye was placed high, and his head was plain, but what charisma he had and what impression he made on you! What personality and what strength!
Layth, by Mahrous out of Hallah, was spectacular. He was the prototype of the masculine stallion. I had never seen a neck like that on a Syrian horse. Photo from my 1995 visit to Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud. His strain goes back to the Khallawiyyaat marbat of the Ja’alifah of the Northern Shammar in Iraq, through the Tai. Anything from that marbat is now gone, I believe. I am not sure if the Khallawi strain is a branch of the Kuhaylan strain (the Abbas Pasha Manuscript says it is) or a strain of its own. Below, one of his daughters, out of a Kuhaylat al-Wati mare, either Dawhah or one of her daughters. She was very impressive too. Photo from my last visit to Jabri’s, in 2000.
I have written frequently about this horse. In my opinion, Saad II was one of the three best sons of al-Aawar. He was out of a grand mare, Leelas, a Kuhaylah Khdiliyah of ‘Abbud al-‘Ali al-‘Amud of the ‘Aqaydat. That strain harked back to the Kuhaylaat al-‘Ajuz of the Khdilat section of the Fada’an. It was held in high esteem by all the Bedouins across Arabia. Indeed, I have rarely seen such unanimity about a strain. I took these pictures at Mustafa al-Jabri’s farm in 1997. Saad II was in poor condition then. My father, who really had an eye for picking good stallions for his mares, thought the world of him. He sent his favorite mare, a bay Saqlawiyah Sha’ifyah of Ibn Bisra from Rayak, Lebanon all the way to Aleppo, Syria, to be bred to him. She produced that gorgeous colt, below. Photos at the farm of Michel Pharaon, then leased by Husayn Nasser. I never knew what happened to him. My father probably gave him away to someone.
Also at Hisham Ghorayed. Sire: Sa’ad, a Saqlawi Sh’aifi son of Mahrous; dam: a desert-bred Kuhaylat al-Wati mare of the marbat of Hakim al-Ghishm of the Shammar, acquired by Hisham Ghorayeb. Sa’ad produced so well.
This mare was one of the most sought after in Syria. I took this photo in 1992 at the stud of Hisham Ghorayeb in Damascus. Her dam was a Ma’naqiyah Sbaliyah of the marbat of Turki al-Najriss of the ‘Aqaydat Bedouins, a prestigious strain that goes back to the Rasaalin of Sba’ah. Her sire was the Saqlawi Sh’aifi of Diban al-Ka’r. He traced to the horses of Hajjo Ibn Mahel of the Shammar. I recall that Hazaim Alwair and I spent an entire summer in 2005 making phone calls to multiple Bedouins to verify the authenticity of this horse. I have it all written somewhere.
I used to have a photographic memory. One glance at one of the thousands of pictures in my archives and I could tell you the name of the horse, his owner’s name, his parents, and his entire pedigree. Lately I have been catching myself gazing at a photo and asking myself: “who the hell is this horse?”, before reaching for the back of the photo in the hope of finding a handwritten note. I guess it’s called ageing. I thought it would never happen.
Many readers know of my passion for rare strains. They represent both genetic and cultural diversity. I am encouraged by the many rare lineages still extant in Syria, particularly in the Upper Jazirah area. It is the area where the formerly nomadic Shammar Bedouins chose to settle — at least those who did not go back to Saudi Arabia. It’s also the area where semi-settled tribes like the Tai and the Jubur are to be found. In addition to those registered, I have been able to verify the continued existence of the following stains, some not currently registered: 1/ Wadhnan, not registered, with the Tai. 2/ Mlayhan. One mare registered in Volume 1 of the Syrian Studbook, under K. al-‘Ajuz, and another in the second wave of Volume 7, with her offpsring. A dozen more unregistered, with the Tai. 3/ Kuhaylan Shukayli, which is Kuhaylan al-‘Ushayyir (not “al-‘Asheer” as wrongly spelled in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript). One mare was registered in Volume 1 of the Syrian studbook and another in Volume 1 of the Lebanese studbook, but no offspring from these. With the Tai. 4/ Kuhaylan al-Sa’eedan, which is different from Sa’dan. Not registered. Likely the same strain as the…
Lineages of desert-bred horses are surprisingly resilient. Each time I think a line is lost it seems to reappear somewhere else. I have been following the Shuwayman line of the Jarbah Shaykhs for three decades now. Many mares were lost during the Syrian civil war, and I feared the strain was lost. Yet a branch has survived with a branch of the Shaykhs of Tai in the Upper Jazirah. It is now helping regenerate that strain. It traces to that liver chestnut mare, born in 1986. Sire: a grey Saqlawi Jadran of the strain of Ibn ‘Amud, from the marbat of ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Talal al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shaykhs of Tai. His sire a Saqlawi Jadran Ibn ‘Amud of the same marbat. Sire of dam: a grey Saqlawi Jadran Ibn ‘Amud of Farhan al-Nayif al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shakyhs of Tai. His sire a Saqlawi Jadran Ibn Amud of ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Talal. His dam a grey Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah Ibn ‘Amud of Abd al-Hamid al-Talal. Sire of grand-dam: the black Marzaqani stallion of Al-‘Anud, the wife of Faris al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shaykhs of Tai. She had received him from the Maraziq as a colt. His sire I think the famous…
Evidence on the Mlayhan strain about the Gmassah, and the Shammar of both Mesopotamia and the Najd, from her book “Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates”: Wilfrid then inquired about the horses, or rather mares, in Jebel Shammar, and asked if the Arabs there had the same breeds as the Mesopotamian Shammar. “Just the same,” he answered. ” They have Kehilehs, and Jilfehs, and Dakhmehs, and Meleyhas, just as with us. There are not many horses (kheyl) bred there. And here: Several Arabs of the Gomassa have been here, talking principally about horses, for they are the great breeders of horses in the desert. Among others, they spoke of a wonderful mare, a Meleyha, which they said a certain European had once offered 6oo for, when they were in their summer-quarters near Aleppo ; but the manner of his dealing seems to have impressed them with the idea that he was out of his mind, and they would not sell the mare. They made very merry over this. We asked them the usual question about the horses of Nejd, and the existence of separate breeds there, and they gave the usual answers. […] Our horses are the same as those of…
I came across the text of an administrative decision, dated April 30, 1921, signed by General Gouraud, French High Commissionner for Syria and Lebanon, and conferring upon Mashal Ibn Faris al-Jarba, Shaykh of the Shammar of Der Ezzor, the title of Pasha. I sent it to his grandson Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Mashal, Abu Nayif. He is my source of information for a lot of the horse-related information on the Jazirah today.
Lyman Doyle sent these photos of this year’s last arrival, another colt and another Ma’naqi Sbayli: Shaman Al Arab (Tamaam DE x SS Lady Guenevere by SS Dark Prince) was born two days ago. I am leasing his dam from DeWayne Brown. Shaman, pronounced SHAAH-MAAN, means “the one with a distinctive mark”, shamah. His odd blaze is certainly one. He also takes his name from a handsome Shammar desert-bred stallion in Syria, which I have been coveting for a while. He is the maternal uncle of the young Shaykh Al Arab. I will retain one of the two, not sure which one yet.
Radwan is looking for a new stallion for his growing herd. I advised him to purchase this young Mlayhan stallion, whose sons have been winning races. He is quite small but his origins are top notch. The Tai tribe, the clan of al-Nahhab in particular, have owned a marbat of the Mlayhan strain for a long time. They brought it with them from Iraq a long time ago, maybe two hundred years. His maternal grand-dam was part of the second wave of registrations in Volume 7 of the Syrian studbook. She had several sisters and relatives, but only she was registered. I don’t know if he is a Mlayhan Shahm al-Rass or from another branch. This is the strain of the “parrot-mouthed mare” which Major Roger Upton saw among the Sba’ah Bedouins in 1874, and which Lady Anne Blunt saw again in 1878. Upton and Blunt spelled it “Meleyhan”.
Lyman Doyle sent me these scanned photos of grand mare Jabinta (Jadib x Bint Malakah by Subani), a 1969 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing to Homer Davenport’s *Wadduda. She has my Jadiba (by Dib) at her side. Jadiba and Jabinta are the kind of mares that should have produced ten foals not one, and certainly not by the same stallion. As my father would say: “Ya hayk faras ya bala!“, or “Either a mare like that, or none at all!”
This was my father’s answer when I asked him why he was about to purchase a beautiful, authentic desert-bred mare that was not registered in any studbook. There was something idealistic and foolish — these two tend to overlap — about his stance which left a mark on the teenager I was. No formal authority at the time was ever going to recognize the purebred status of this beauty. Her resale value and that of her offspring were almost nil. Despite having given it a lot of thought over the years, I am still conflicted about registration. On one hand, one does not really need a formal registry to confirm the purebred status of a horse. Registries get their information from somewhere. That somewhere, in the case of this mare, was the spotless reputation and the word of the mare’s owner. Also, I reasoned, registries got it the other way around. The very definition of a “purebred” for most breeds is a horse entered in a registry. That includes WAHO’s famously circular definition of a purebred Arabian horse. Besides, registries around the world are full of horses proven not to be purebred. Heck, that is the rule more than it…
This horse is magnificent. He looks better and better with age and more like his paternal great grand sire, the Kuhaylan Nawwaq of ‘Iyadah al-Madi, a son of Krush Juhayyim. Photo by Severine Vesco in France. Pedigree here (couple minor errors in the back)
I think I am going to trace down the descendants of Ibn Jadran, and hint to them that they could become overnight millionaires if they copyrighted the use of their family name by thousands of people around the world each and every time the phrase “Saqlawi Jadran” is uttered. Just saying.
Looking back at more than thirty years around Arabian horses, I still remember the grand old Hamdani Simri stallion al-Aawar as one of two or three desert-bred horses I have admired the most in my life. He had this way of looking at you with a hint of disdain, as if he was the king and you were his subject. When he was led out of his stall, the third from the top at Radwan’s, he would walk slowly to the middle of the arena, then he would pause and gaze at the horizon, his head high. Every movement, every twist of his head was so dignified and majestic that you felt you were in the company of an important representative of his ‘people’. He demanded respect, and obtained it. The photo below, from 1995, captures some of that aura. I don’t think I published it before.
A new Hadban Enzahi colt by Vorrtex out of Zubaidah Assahara.
Hamad al-Jassir’s Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Hadithah has an interesting passage from the version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript manuscript he consulted. This passage is not in the edition of the Manuscript that was published by the King Abd al-Aziz Public Library (KAPL) based on an original that was in the family of Gulsun Sharif. That original is now in the hands of a senior member of the Saudi Royal family. The passage is from an account by Sayyid Sultan Ibn Sharaf the ruler of Turabah in the land of the tribe of al-Buqum about the origin of the Dahman Shahwan. As I had indicated elsewhere, this strain is the oldest attested of the modern strains of Arabian horses, going back to around 1280 CE. It is not yet possible to determine whether the passage which al-Jassir translated is the full account or only an except. Here it in any case: The Sharif Sultan Bin Sharaf said: “The Duhm of Shahwan that are from Kunayhir were named after their owner Shahwan, the father of ‘Arar, the brother of Rashed, and the uncle of ‘Umayr. Their mention became famous because of events in relation with them. It is said that Shahwan was…
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript is, at its core, a compilation of Bedouin accounts of the origins and ancestry of Arabian horses purchased by Abbas Pasha. Saudi historian Hamad al-Jassir, in his Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Haditha, listed the accounts featured in the version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript he consulted. I had already pointed to discrepancies between the accounts in this version and the accounts in the version published by the King Abd al-Aziz Public Library (KAPL) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The KAPL version is a facsimile of Gulsun Sharif’s original manuscript. I compared both lists, and there are more discrepancies that I thought. Here is, chapter by chapter and section by section, a list of the accounts that are not in the KAPL version, but which al-Jassir says are in the version he consulted: 1/ In the Dahman chapter: On Dahmat Shahwan The account of Muhammad Ibn Khalifah, Ra’i of Bahrain The account of Faysal ibn Turki, Imam of Najd (al-Jassir mentions two accounts by Faysal Ibn Turki, of which the second one is in the KAPL version The account of Sayyid Sultan Ibn Sharaf the ruler of Turabah in the land of the Buqum On Dahmat Najib: The account…
Each of the eleven chapters of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its Arabic version starts with a table. The table lists the titles of the accounts on every marbat and the page number where the account begins. Sometimes the title includes information not present in the body of the account. There are six sections under the general title “Chapter Three on the Saqlawiyaat”. Section One is on the Saqlawi Simni, section Two is on the Saqlawi Sudani, and so on. The last section, “Section Six on stand-alone Saqlawiyaat” is where the author of the Manuscript grouped those Saqlawiyaat not falling under the previous five sections. This sixth section includes the following title entry: “Accounts of the parti-coloured (rabshah) Najmat al-Subh, the mare of Hussayn al-‘Awwadi, page 129“. Here is my translation of the account on page 129: Accounts of the parti-coloured (rabshah) Saqlawiyah, the mare of Hussayn al-‘Awwadi of al-Ghubayn, her sire is al-Mahyubi. Saddah ibn Jadran informed that: “This mare belonged to a Ruwalah man [who was] in al-Jazirah, beholden (qasir) to Farhan al-Jarba. The Ghubayn [clan] had unhorsed him [in a raid] and taken her. She is Saqlawiyah of al-Njaymaat. Her dam had passed to the Ruwalah from…
DA Ginger Moon delivered a beautiful, strong chestnut filly by Subanet Jabbar this morning. This one is for Bev.
I have been aware of the existence of another version of usul al-khayl, a.k.a the Abbas Pasha Manuscript for some time now. Hamad al-Jassir, in the introduction of his book usul al-khayl al-arabiyah al-khadithah (“Origins of the modern Arab horses”), wrote that he accessed a copy then with his friend Khair al-Din al-Zarkali (photo below) during a visit to his house in Beirut. Zarkali, a Syrian by birth, was a leading Arab intellectual, a diplomat, and Saudi Arabia’s envoy to League of Arab States. For a long time, I thought Zarkali’s manuscript was identical to the one Gulsun Sherif had inherited from her family, translated into English, and beautifully published with Judith Forbis, under the title The Abbas Pasha Manuscript: And Horses and Horsemen of Arabia and Egypt During the Time of Abbas Pasha, 1800-1860. Hamad al-Jassir’s Arabic book quoted liberally from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. I never paid much attention to these, always preferring to go back to the original text. Recently, after rereading the original manuscript cover to cover, I realized that it did not include several accounts of strains that Hamad al-Jassir had attributed to the text of the Manuscript. One of these accounts is that of…
From the Arabian Horse Archives comes this beautiful picture of the Stud of King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Sa’ud at al-Kharj, the dream of many a horse breeder. From the collection of Comar Arabians. It is not available in better resolution anymore.
Kuhaylan al-Jalala is yet another strain that goes back to the Sharif of Mecca. A mare from this strain, Saida, was imported by Count Stroganoff and Prince Sherbatoff from the Northern Arabian desert to Russia. I had written about this strain ten years ago, here. Back then, my sources were Shammar oral histories through veteran horse merchant ‘Abd al-Qadir Hammami. They were supplemented by information French intelligence officer Victor Muller had collected from the Northern Shammar around 1922. I am now reading the account on Kuhaylan al-Jalala in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which is very consistent with the oral histories of the Shammar. Here is my translation of the relevant excerpt: Sultan Ibn Suwayt the Shaykh of al-Dhafeer was queried about al-Jalala: “Which of the Kahaayil is she, and what is the original source from which she spread (shiyaa’ah)?” The aforementioned reported in the gathering: “She is a Kuhaylah, to be mated. The original source from which she spread (shiyaa’ah) was the Sharif, of the first Sharifs of Mecca. She passed from the Sharif to Ibn Dayiss of the ‘Ulyan of Shammar al-Jazirah. In ancient times, at the time of Shuhayl [who was] one of our…
Bait al-Arab Kuwaiti researcher Yahya al-Kandari found a manuscript on Arabian horse strains in a private library in Jerusalem. The manuscript seems to date from 1264 Hijri, equivalent to 1848 CE. The handwriting is indeed characteristic of the mid-XIXth century Arabic script. I am eager to learn more, but for now, I will take what’s in that screenshot, which Radwan Shabareq sent me. It says: The second chapter is on the types of Arabian horses (al-khayl al-‘arabiyyaat), their names and their affiliation with their tribes. The horses of Bani Jamil: Sawafiyyah, Haraabah, al-Lulu, Sawdat al-‘Ayn, al-Juwayrah, al-Trayfiyyah; the horses of Bani Tay: al-Hawqah, al-Hajiniyyah, al-Ruhaybiyyah, al-Mar’aaniyyah, Umm ‘Amer, al-Ju’aythiniyah, al-Dahhakah, al-Da’jaaniyah, al-Ru’ayl, al-Ghazalah… Some strains I recognize, many I do not. The Bani Jamil, also known as al-Mujamma’, are a large Bedouin tribe settled in Iraq, in the province of Diyala. Their area of settlement is along the Tigris river, from Tikrit to Balad with a concentration around Samarra’. Of the horses listed under them, I recognize the strain of al-Haraabah and the much older strain of al-Trayfiyyah. The Tai mentioned in that snippet are not the segment of this tribe settled in North East Syria around al-Qamishli and Tall…
Monologue CF recently had a very showy son for Laura Fitz in Michigan, the outcome of his stay there last here. His dam is Laura’s 2014 grey mare Mi Blue Angel (DB Khrush x Thank Heaven by Mlolshaan Hager Solomon). Unfortunately, Laura’s other mare, HH Karisma Krush proved barren to him.
Shoq is another one of Basil’s mares. I had written about her earlier, here. She is the only daughter of Mahboub Halep in Syria. Her breeder had seen Mahboub at Radwan’s stud in Aleppo prior to this importation to France, and bred her dam to him. She should have foaled by now.
The past few weeks have been fairly productive, in terms of my digging into the origins of Arabian horse strains, based on the accounts in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. I wrote about the origins of the Dahman, Saqlawi, Hamdani, Hadban, Shuwayman, Krushan, Mimrah, and Harqan strains. I also have upcoming entries on the Wadnan and Rabdan strains. I will be pulling all these together into an article or a book chapter, while trying to identify some emerging common trends. One can already see that three groups, the Sharifs of Mecca, the tribe of Bani Lam (from Tai) and the tribe of ‘Abidah (from Qahtan), play a central role in the original configuration of modern Arabian horse strains. Whatever analysis emerges will remain incomplete without accounts of other ancient strains, such as Jilfan, Trayfi, Tuwayssan, Sa’dan and Frayjan.
Last week Basil Jadaan sent me photos and videos of his mares. He is carefully rebuilding his stud after having lost all his horses during the Syrian civil war. This is his lovely 2007 Ubayyat Ibn Suhayyan mare Zamzamah. She is by a Kuhaylan Hayfi government-owned stallion Midyan al-Ghouta (Layth al-Arab x Mayyada), out of Zamzam, who was by Dinar (Al-A’war x Aseela) out of Raabi’ah (Al-A’war x Freiha al-Sughra). Freiha al-Sughra was bred by Shammar Bedouin Hamid Ibn Suhayyan, the owner of the strain. The strain is a branch of ‘Ubayyan, which the Shammar clan of Ibn Suhayyan has been breeding for close to 200 years. Before that, the strain was with al-Lumaylimi of the Wuld ‘Ali Bedouin, and before that with al-Hunaydees of al-Dhafeer. The maternal grand-dam of this mare was the full sister of the stallion Shahm that was imported to France but died soon after.
Some twelve years ago, I wrote several blog entries about the strain of Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. One of these entries, here, summarized the strain’s origin as it was reported in one account in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This account traced this strain’s origin to a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare owned by ‘Ijl Ibn Hulaytim, a celebrated figure in the history of Najd. He was from the old tribe of Aal Mughirah. Aal Mughirah, now vanished as a single tribal unit, was one of the sections of the larger Bani Lam tribe. ‘Ijl was the ruler (amir) of a small but powerful principality in Najd centered around the town of al-Shu’araa, some 200 kilometres west of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The second map zooms in on the black box area in the first map, enlarged. Ignore the red point. According to this account, a precious, ancient line of Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz had passed in war from ‘Ijl ibn Hulaytim to the tribe of Qahtan, then from Qahtan to al-Maryum, who was from the Dhafeer tribe. From al-Maryum, it had passed to al-Mimrah, who was from the clan of al-Muwayni’ of the Sba’ah. The line has been known as Kuhaylat al-Mimrah ever since.…
CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” is coming back, after four years in the caring ownership of Cathy Fenton in Michigan. Thank you Cathy for letting me have her back. She is perhaps the last living Al Khamsa mare from the strain of Ferida, a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah bred in the Arabian desert and imported by Lady Anne Blunt from Egypt to the UK in 1891. Three other mares from Carol Stone’s Ma’naqi preservation breeding program, CSA Amira Kista (Sharif Zaraq x Takelma Rosanna) a 1997 grey mare; CSA Trilours (Mahtar x Takelma Velours), a 1999 grey mare and CSA Zaraqa (CSA Maneghi Amir x Takelma Velours), an unregistered 2000 grey mare, all died within a few years of each other. There are three other mares of breeding age, from another breeding program. The AK Preservation Task Force is trying to establish whether they are still alive, and if so, to locate them. Tall order..
I finally managed to make sense of the short section in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript that deals with the genealogies of the Sudaniyaat mares — from the strain of Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan. This section consists of about eighteen lines of a testimony by Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan of the Gmassah, on pages 86 and 87 of the Arabic edition. The English translation is confusing by the translators’ own admission, because of a couple missing words at the end of the testimony. I would like to propose the following genealogy, based on my translation of the Arabic text: Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan and the elders of the Gmassah reported that: A mare of the Saqlawiyaat of Ibn Jadran [Mare 1] was left by him with Bani Husayn on the year water was being sold. From them, she [Mare 1] passed to Saliim the son of the paternal cousin of Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi by way of purchase. She [Mare 1] was bred to the Saqlawi Jadran horse of al-Bahim which passed to Saud and produced a chestnut mare [Mare 2], which ‘Ali ibn Sudan purchased. The daughter of al-Bahim [Mare…