What follows is an account of the origin of the Saqlawi strain from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, and my analysis of it. It ties together two distinct series of entries on this blog: a series on dating the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and a series on the history of the medieval tribal emirate of the Tai in Northern Arabia, under Muhanna ibn ‘Issa Aal Fadl (d. 1335 CE) and his descendants from the Aal Fadl clan of the Tai tribe (genealogy below). This account of the Saqlawiyaat needs to be handled with care, because of how it weaves together myth and reality. Careful analysis can however yield useful information, including a tentative dating for the origin of the strain. First, my translation of the account from Arabic, then my notes and analysis: A gathering was held in the presence of the prince (amir) of al-Mawali ‘Arif Bek, from the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, […], in the presence of Hammad al-‘Abitah, aged one hundred and twenty years — a caretaker in the household of the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, and in the presence of all the Mawali, old and young. Hammad al-‘Abitah and ‘Arif Bek were queried at the gathering:…
One consequence of my re-discovering George Tabet’s booklet after a twenty year hiatus is that it allowed me to solve a couple of puzzles related to Arabian horses imported to the USA. One of these relates to the 1947 W.R. Hearst desert-bred import *Rajwa and her son the stallion *El Abiad, who was imported by to the USA by F.E. Mars. Rajwa recorded strain is Saqlawi “Ejrifi”. *El Abiad’s is a variant: “Ejrefi”. I had not heard of this marbat of Saqlawi Ejrifi or Ejrefi. I long thought it was a spelling mistake. Tabet’s bilingual list of Arabian horse strains finally resolved that puzzle. Under the Saqlawiyaat to be mated, it had this: Saqlawi al-‘Ajrafi/’Ujrufi/’Ejrefi, goes back to Saqlawi al-‘Abd [in the French version: with Turki Ibn Najriss of the ‘Aqaydat] Here it was, as a branch of the Saqlawi strain, with the exact same spelling as for *Rajwa and *El Abiad, with additional information on the strain and its breeder. Tabet’s booklet was written in 1937, ten years before the Hearst importation. Tabet’s reference to the Shaykh of the ‘Aqaydat, Turki al-Najriss as the breeder of this strain also provides a clue about *Rajwa’s breeder, given how rare that strain…
Georges Philippe Tabet’s short booklet “Arabian Horse Lineages” (Ansaab al-Khayl al-Arabiyah, Dar al-Ahad, Beirut, June 1937, 56 pages in both Arabic and French) features a long list of Arabian horse strains. This is the “yellow booklet” I mentioned in an earlier entry. The list is different from lists of Western travelers — Blunt, Upton, Raswan, etc — I have seen before. It is also different from Ali al-Barazi’s equally comprehensive list. They would benefit from a thorough comparison with each other. Tabet mentions the Bedouins as the source of his information in the introduction to the book. He wrote: Faced with this state of ignorance, I decided to turn to the source of the breeding of the Arab horse — the people of the Badia — until after much effort, I was able to know the reasons for these terms [the strains] and what differentiates them from each other. The list has minor errors, which I will be noting in the comments sections over the coming days. Most errors are of two sorts: spelling errors resulting from differences between how Bedouins and settled people pronounce some Arabic letters, and the attribution of the wrong tribal affiliations to some strain owners,…
Today was a special day. As a child, I used to treasure the times spent talking with my father about Arabian horses. In the evenings, I would sit by his bedside,and read from the same books or magazines he read from. There was a white nightstand near his bed. In one of the nightstand’s drawers, there was a stack of small papers, bound together with a staple or two. My father would refer to it as “Abu Tahir’s booklet” (karrasit Abu Tahir), after the late Ahmad Ghalyun (Abu Tahir), who seems to have given it to him. Abu Tahir had a farm outside Homs in Syria, where my father kept some of his horses on occasion. Lots of nice teenage memories there. The booklet consisted of a list of Arabian horse strains, their owners and owners’ tribes in Arabic. It classified the strains into ‘hedud‘, those to be mated, and ghayr hedud, those not to be mated. More on this notion later. Over the years, the booklet’s printed words faded and its creased pages became yellow. That’s what I liked the most about it. I treasured it, and today I still attribute my passion for Arabian horses strains to the…
[This article was last revised on June 26] My dive into the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — for approximates dates of the beginning of the main strains of Arabian horses continues. The approach remains the same. After the Dahman Shahwan (ca. 1280 CE), Hamdani Simri (ca. 1670) and the Hadban and Harqan strains (both ca. 1650), now is the turn of the Krushan. The Krushan strain is the subject of Chapter 11 of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This my translation of the opening testimony: Al-Hamidi Al-Dawish, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Dawish, Husayn Ibn Farz, and Mutlaq al-Dawish, a man advanced in age, were queried in the presence of a crowd from the Dushan and the Mutayr about the Krush. Which of the Kahaayil does she go back to? ?Who did she originally spread from? The aforementioned reported: “She is a Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz; she is the first of the Kahaayil; she was was named Krush after Ibn Karshah of Qahtan, and al-Ghandur after al-Ghandur of the Buqum. She is a precious strain, [they are] authenticated and blessed horses. She first spread from Ibn Ramthayn of the ‘Abidah of Qahtan. The Sharif Abu Srur al-awwal asked for her from Ibn Ramthayn,…
I finally located the original reference to the famous account of the gift of a really expensive desert-bred mare to al-Malik al-Nassir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Syria and Hijaz. He reigned from 1293 to 1341 CE, with two interruptions (1294-99 and 1309-10). Al-Nassir Muhammad was really fond of desert-bred horses from Arabia. He paid large sums for them and collected them in large numbers — a sort of precursor to Abbas Pasha. When he died, he left behind 4,800 of these horses in his stables, not counting the ones he had given to his Mamluks during his long rule. The account of that expensive gift occurs in pages 503 and 506 of this edition of al-suluk li-ma’rifat duwal al-muluk (free download link for those who read Arabic!), a work by Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364-1442 CE). Maqrizi was one of the foremost historians and chroniclers of the Mamluk Sultanate. It is not to be found in Maqrizi’s al-mawa’izh wa al-i’tibar, as the Arabian horse website of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina says. Here is my translation of the account, under the events of the year 715 Hijri (1315-16 CE), followed by my notes: On [this year], Muhammad ibn ‘Issa, the…
Check out this excellent article about the modern Bani Lam tribe, a subset of the medieval tribe of same name. Some sections splintered, reformed, absorbed sections from other tribes, and become the modern day tribes of al-Dhafeer, al-Fudul, Aal Mughirah, and Aal Kathir. The remainder of the tribe retained its tribal name, and: Pushed out of northern Hejaz in the 9th/15th century, they moved to the lower Tigris-Euphrates region about 950/1550 (Oppenheim, II, pp. 320, 324; III, pp. 18-19). Late in the 10th/16th century they migrated to the east bank of the Tigris. They are now settled in the ‘Amarah district of eastern Iraq and the Khuzistan province of Iran. I guess they are the source of the Iranian Asils, at least in part. That would make a lot of sense, given that some of the strains of today’s Iranian Asils like Wadnan and Hamdani were originally Bani Lam strains. Some Iranian Wadnans below. You may be wondering why the focus on the Bani Lam on this blog over the past few entries. I feel I am onto something, in terms of the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and that such beginning may be connected to both the Sharifs of…
An interesting account from the Meccan chronicle Ghayat al-Maram bi Akhbar Saltanat al-Balad al-Haram by ‘Izz al-Din al-Hashimi al-Qurashi under the year 917 Hijri (1511-12 CE): The Sharif Barakat raided the Mafarijah [a tribe of the Bani Lam] and their allies the Bani ‘Uqbah. He [the Sharif] had some of the Mafarijah with him. Then he met with the Shaykhs of Bani Lam. They agreed with him that he’d give them their usual subsidies. They told him that the Sultan had sent six thousand [units of money] with al-Burhan al-Samarqandi, which they had not received. The Sharif gave the tribes of Bani Lam and Bani ‘Uqbah and others large numbers of horses and garments. He showed much beneficience to them. Bedouin oral histories have conserved the memory of many horses strains coming from the Sharif Barakat. However, there were at least three Sharifs of Mecca by this name. Also, this episode in another source, Nayl al-Muna, involving the same Sharif Barakat and his son Abu Numayy in the year 926 Hijri / 1520 CE: The tribe of Bani Lam laid siege to [the holy city] Medina. They cut some of its palm groves that were toward Mount Uhud. They asked…
Another Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain from the sharif. The below account of the Kuhaylan Harqan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript offers some of the clearest indications for dating an Arabian horse strain. The accounts of Kuhaylat al-Ru’ail and her name is al-Harqah: Those present at the gathering of Ha’il were queried about al-Ru’ail, “as it is said it is yours, O Shammar”. Talal Ibn Ramal and ‘Ubayd ibn Rashid reported: “The accounts we have heard from the forebears were that, in early times, al-Suwayt was in the home area [dirah] of al-Jabal [Jabal Shammar]. He [al-Suwayt] would raid the people of Najd each time one of the ashraaf from the people of Mecca took over power [in Najd]. When the Sharif Muhammad al-Harith, the leader of the ashraaf at the time, took over power [in Najd], he [i.e., al-Suwayt] raided Najd [again]. Muhammad al-Tulay’, a son of ‘Abdah, of the Fdayl of the Shammar, unhorsed the Sharif Muhammad al-Harith and took him prisoner. He made many demands over his release. Among his demands was the Kuhaylah. And she [i.e., a mare from that line, not the ransom mare herself] went to Abu Utait, the Shaykh of the Faddaghah [section] of…
I have been reading and writing a lot about the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe lately, because of its link with the origins of the Hamdani and Hadban strains. So here is a rare picture of ‘Ajmi ibn Suwayt (died 1988), the tribe’s Shaykh during most of the twentieth century. While the tribe’s traditional dira (i..e, the area associated with it, including the main wells and watering places) fell within the borders of Iraq, as well as the old neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia (in brown in the map below), ‘Ajmi Ibn Suwayt transferred his allegiance to Saudi King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Saud, and moved to Saudi Arabia with part of his tribe. The Dhafeer therefore acquired “Saudi tribe” status, which opened the door to the naturalization of its members as Saudi. Another part of the tribe remained in Iraq, under a rival cousin.
[I revised this article several times, the last time on June 16, 2020] The subject of this article is a battle between the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe and the Sharif Hamud Ibn ‘Abdallah either in the year 1667-68 Hijrdi (1078 Hijri) or 1669-1670 CE (1080 Hijri), depending on the sources. This episode is relevant to understanding the beginnings of the Hadban and Hamdani strains in Arabian horses. Both strains find their origins with the Dhafeer. Some context first: The Sharifs (Arabic plural ashraaf) are the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, which have over time come to form a special social group. In the Hijaz region of Arabia, the ashraaf have turned this special social status into political power. Different branches competed for the rulership of Mecca, with frequent conflicts. The Sharif Hamud never ruled Mecca. He was a cousin and a serious rival to the ruling Sharif, Sa’ad ibn Zaid whose rule began in 1666-7. Here is British explorer and historian Gerald De Gaury on this contested nomination episode and the ensuing conflict between Sa’ad ibn Zaid and his rival Hamud: “Sa’d it was, who in the end received the Sultan’s approval, and Hamud in consequence at once left Mecca for…
From the “History of Najd” of ‘Uthman Ibn Bishr: Under the year 1670-71 CE: In the year 1081 [Hijri], was the battle of al-Kaythal, a well known place in Najd, between al-Dhafeer and al-Fudul. Under the year 1674-75 CE: In the year 1085, [came] the famous time known [as] Jarman during which prices increased, and during which the nomads of the Fudul (bawadi al-Fudul) went eastwards. Under the year 1675-76 CE: In the year 1086 […], in this year, Salamah ibn Suwayt, the chief of the Dhafeer was made prisoner, Barrak Ibn Ghurayr felled him and made him prisoner.
It’s an exaggeration but this is what Hamid ibn Mudhi al-Suhayyan, the Shammari owner of the marbat of Ubayyan Ibn Suhayyan, told me in 2006. At the time I did not fully grasp the significance of what he had said. After reading the initial stories about the foundation of every strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, I now see what he meant. Bani Lam, a Najd branch of the Tai tribe, broke into four tribes sometime in the mid 1650s: Dhafeer, Fudul, Aal Kathir, and Aal Mughirah. The first three migrated easterwards, towards Iraq shortly after, because of pressures from the Sharif of Mecca, the rise power of the Shammar conferation (which was part Tai and part ‘Abidah/Qahtan) and a devastating famine known as Jarman. Today the Aal Kathir are considered part of the Dhafeer. The following strains were created with one or another of the branches of the Bani Lam. By “created”, I mean that they acquired their separate names as distinct branches of the Kuhaylan tree: Hadban (Dhafeer branch, at Mani’ of Dhafeer, then to Nzahi of Fudul) Wadnan (Fudul branch, at al-Khursan of Fudul) Shuwayman (Fudul branch, at Sabbah of Fudul) Mimrah (Aal Mughirah branch, started as…
The below account of the origin of al-Hadb is an application of the way I propose to date the origin of Arabian horse strains. I translated it from the Arabic version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. My own notes follow. The accounts of al-Hadb with al-Dhafeer: In the presence of Sultan Ibn Suwayt and a crowd of people at the gathering, Shabat al-Mani’ of al-Suwayt, a man advanced in age, and ‘Ali al-Mani’ the son of Shabat’s brother, were queried about al-Hadb, how they came about, their origins, and which of the strains they trace back to. The two aforementioned reported that: “Mani’ was at the time of Bani Lam. He was from our grandfathers. Between us, O those present here and Mani’, there are four grandfathers. We do not know how she passed to Mani’, except that we hear and know from our elders that there is no Hadbah other than the horses of Mani’. She [the strain] traces back to Kuhaylat Umm Ma’aarif. The reason for her being called Hadbah is that there was a mare at Mani’s with profuse hair, so abundant that it covered her crest. For this reason, she was called Hadbah. She [the strain]…
I take special interest in the origin of Arabian horse strains. I am particularly keen on establishing the approximate dates when the main strains first came about. In the context of oral Bedouin culture, this can present obvious challenges. Before the advent of modernization and mass literacy in the twentieth century, Bedouins did not assign numerical values to years the way literate societies did. They linked years to important events that took place in the same time period, e.g., “the year Sfug al-Jarba was murdered“. This was 1847, according to British spies’ cables to London. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript helps resolving the dating problem to some extent. It features hundreds of pages of written testimonies from several dozen Bedouins. The preamble to the manuscript mentions a completion date in 1269 Hijri, which extends from November 1852 CE to October 1853 CE. This means that Abbas Pasha’s envoys to the tribe must have gathered their accounts in 1851 or 1852 at the latest. Incidentally, one of the accounts refers to “the year Sfug al-Jarba was murdered” (1847) in the recent past, so the accounts must have been collected in or after 1848. A date of 1850 is therefore a good estimate,…
Also from the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, my translation: Ghadir al-Simri of the Dhafeer, a white haired man, the owner of al-Simr, was asked about the marbat of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah, in the house [Bedouin house, i.e., tent] of Farhan al-Jarba, at a gathering [majliss] in the presence of Farhan al-Jarba, Khuzaym the Shaykh of al-Sayih of Shammar, Ubayd Ibn Suqi, and Samir Ibn Zaydan al-Jarba [that’s the brother of ‘Ajil Ibn Zaydan owner of Davenport’s *Hadba], and a crowd of people, more than a hundred individuals. O Ghadir, by your honor and good fortune, and belongings and children, recount the story of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah, your marbat. From where he pass to you? To whom did she pass from you? What are the marabet which recognize? Inform us truthfully in this gathering! During the gathering, Ghadir al-Simri reported that: “As to the strains that passed from us to outsiders, our grandathers say that on the day of the battle of the Sharif, in times past, when our grandfathers were in Najd, twelves fillies from the daughters of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah our marbat left to the tribes [the tribes allied with the Sharif of Mecca]. This is…
This entry compares two Arabic primary sources some 53 years apart: First, my translation of a passage in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (1853) about the Hamdani Simri strain, with my notes in brackets. “Mughir Ibn Buraykan of the Gmassah [a clan of the Sba’ah tribe], a man aged one hundred years, was queried. He testified that ‘Abdallah Ibn Ghbain, one of the senior Shaykhs of the Fada’an had informed him that the Hamdaniyah Simriyah had reached al-Jad’ah [a clan of the Fad’aan tribe] from al-Simri of the Dhafeer. It happened that a raiding party from the Dhafeer had attacked them [“the Fad’aan tribe] at Wadi al-Rasha in Najd. Fad’aan and Sba’ah [who often camped together] pursued him [i.e., al-Simri, who was part of the Dhafeer raid] and unhorsed him. The Hamdaniyah escaped from her owner, and she was a two-year old. A horseman from al-Jad’ah — the owner of [the marbat of] Kuhaylat Ras al-Fidawi — went after her. He [the horseman from al-Jad’ah] offered him [al-Simri] protection in exchange for half of her [the mare] and gave him the [Kuhaylat] Ras al-Fidawi and twenty she-camels for the second half, and took her. So [the clan of] al-Jad’ah had the…
Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi was an authority on the horses of Homs and Hama in Central Syria. He was also a primary source of information about the horses of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, whose summer encampments were near these two cities. His family acquired many horses from the Sba’ah. His information about the racehorses of Egypt and Lebanon could be relied upon. His book “the Arab Horse” (in Arabic) is a lot less reliable when it comes to horses from other parts of Arabia. It also seems that Barazi had access to the English translation of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which Judith Forbis and Gulsun Sherif were working on in the 1960s and 1970s. His book features many photos from the Judith Forbis article “Pearls of Great Price” in Arabian Horse World about the horses of Bahrain. He also cites information that appears only in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. One can tell from the errors in his translations back to Arabic that he was working off excerpts from the English version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This is a minor criticism of what otherwise remains one of the better books to be published in Arabic about Arabian horses over…
I love reading the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its Arabic version. I find it entertaining, a bit like a novel. This is one of my favorite passages — my translation, and my annotations in brackets: Shahata al-Hunaydees was asked: “Do tell us about your marbat [a Bedouin stud], by your honor and good fortune. From where did the Ubayyah al-Hunaydisiyah come to you? Which marabet [plural of marbat] do you recognize? To whom did she pass from you? He declared: “She passed to my grandfather al-Hunaydis from al-Sharrak in person. Al-Sharrak was the maternal uncle of al-Hunaydis, and he gifted her to him as an elderly mare. As to her passing to outsiders [i.e., beyond his tribe], I will not tell you about it. So Farhan al-Jarba went to see him, and from noontime till the evening he tried to trick him [into discussing the horses from his stud]; he even threw his children in the lap of al-Hunaydis [a Bedouin way of pleading with someone] so that he traces his horses, but he would not trace them. Al-Hunaydis was eventually coerced to tell that: “a mare passed from us to al-Sardiyah [a small noble tribe in North Arabia] and…
This is not a photo I would have shared a few months ago. I don’t remember who sent it to me. It features a member of the Islamic State (IS) on the Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion Shamikh Al Jabri. The background to the photo is the equestrian club of Raqqah with its conspicuous blue gate. The club was destroyed in the US coalition bombings. Many horses perished. Shamikh and a few mares survived. He died last year, but several mares are alive that are in foal to him. His pedigree is one of the best in Syria, and certainly one of the cleanest. The sire of Shamikh is Wesam Halab (Raad x Aaliyah), a Hamdani al-‘Efri of the breeding of Omar ‘Anbargi. His dam is Fattanah (Faris II x Dawhah), a Kuhaylat al-Wati. Dawhah was one of the original Kuhaylat al-Wati mares of Mustafa Jabri, from the breeding of Hakim al-Ghism. Faris II was by the Kuhaylan Mimrah stallion Basil (Mahrous x Halah) out of the ‘Ubayyah Suhayliyah mare Qatheefah. Below, from top to bottom: Halah the chestnut, Qatheefah the bay, and Dawhah the chestnut. Three mares I have known through the 1990s and continue to admire. I don’t think either…
‘Azzah was one of my father’s favorite mares at Mustafa Jabri’s. She was a daughter of the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-Aawar and of Nadia, a desert bred Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah tracing to the marbat of Muhammad al-Dahdah of the Jawwalah clan of Tai and to Dari al-Mahmud of the Zawba’ Shammar before that. That strain originally goes back to the ‘Anazah. I took this photo of hers in the mid-1990s. Despite being the daughter of two registered horses, and the full sister of Mustafa’s other senior stallion Ihsan (photo below), Azzah was somehow missed by the first wave of registrations of the late 1980s, and was only registered in the second wave in 2001. By the way, it took me ten years before I realized that Ihsan was a son of Al-Aawar.
A younger me with Mustafa Jabri on the left and Radwan Shabareq on the right. The good years. Some 25 years ago if not more.
I saw ‘Am’um (Kuhaylan al-Buthah x Raddah) in 2005 and snapped this photo. His sire is a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz from the very old marbat of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Jlaidan (or Kuhaylan Jlaidani). His dam is Raddah, a 1977 Ma’naqiyah Hadrajiyah of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan. The sire of Raddah is the black Ma’naqi Hadraji of Mudhi al-Sabah al-Shihaan al-‘Ufaytan, Faddan’s cousin. The sire of her dam is the chestnut Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz of Bardan Ibn Jlaidan. The Jlaidan and ‘Ufaytan are all cousins. They only use each other’s stallions, and seldom introduce outside horses to their closed breeding programs. This stallion met an untimely death. In my opinion, he was one of the best desert-bred stallions I had seen among the Shammar and Tai Bedouin tribes. Look at the prickled ears, the broad forehead, the low-set large eyes, the long neck, the long withers, the sloping shoulders, the strong back. And he was starving like most Bedouin horses I saw that year.
Dali was the brother of Radi al-Hkaysh and the paternal cousin of ‘Atallah al-Battu, who owned the Hamdani Simri stallion al-Aawar, and before him a Dahman ‘Amir of the horses of ‘Ajil al-Yawar. This Dahman ‘Amir had been given to him by his maternal uncles so he could earn a livelihood from charging stud fees. Both stallions were Shammar herdsires. Radi, Dali and ‘Atallah are descendants of the former black slaves of the Jarba leaders of the Shammar. The reference to their maternal uncles is a euphemistic reference to their former masters, the family of Hmaidi al-‘Ajil al-Yawar al-Jarba of the leaders of the Shammar in Iraq. It means that they are related to the Shammar shaykhs in blood, but through concubines. Dali had just returned from Damascus where he performed as a singer at wedding parties.
Faddan Salim al-‘Ufaytan and his son, from the Hdibah clan of the Northern Shammar. The ‘Ufaytan have owned the Ma’naqi Hudruji strain among the Shammar for some hundred years. They got the strain from the ‘Anazah. The strain originally belonged of the ‘Amarat tribe of the ‘Anazah. I think, but I am not sure, that Hudruj was an ‘Amarat Bedouin. Horse merchant and connoisseur ‘Abd al-Qadir Hammami once told me that he bought a Ma’naqi Hudruji colt from the ‘Ufaytan for the Beirut racetrack in 1938. The black Ma’naqi stallion of Dhahir al-‘Ufaytan (Faddan’s paternal uncle) was a major herdsire with the Shammar in the 1970s and 1980s. Most Syrian horses now trace to him. He was the sire of the Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan stallion Al-Asda’, of the Shuwaymah Sabbah mare ‘Abirah, and the Da’janiyah mare Nojomieh, among many others. It is now increasingly hard to find a Syrian horse that does not trace to any of these three horses. Here, with Raddah, a 1980 bay Ma’naqiyah Hudrujiyah. She, like their other horses, was registered in the second wave of the Syrian registration with WAHO in 2001-2. Raddah was my favorite mare at their place. Photo by Edouard Al-Dahdah in…
And now a picture of Wadd Al Arab, out of Oregon, from owner Jessie Heinrick. He has never looked so good.
Roxana Star, a very distinguished Kuhaylah Hayifyah of Davenport bloodlines, is the daughter of the timeless Jauhar El Khala by Personic LF. A Christine Emmert photo.
It is that time of the year in the USA, where the weather is nice, the grass green, and the cameras out. Kim Davis, who has a talent for taking good photos, recently took these of the 2011 bay Krushan stallion Inaam Al Krush (Monologue CF x HH Noura Krush). At ten years old, he is in his prime. Monologue has another Krush offspring of Davenport lines on the way, from Laura Fitz’s mare HH Karisma Krush.
Rosemary pointed my attention to the black eyeliner mark around his eyes. It is a relatively rare feature in chestnut Arabian horses, and a mark of authenticity. I think DeWayne took the first two pictures. This Ma’anaqi Sbayli strain really produces quality, and the hybrid vigor from the concentrated Doyle blood helped.
i am enjoying the book “Review of the ‘Anizah Tribe”: “An avenger should not kill the aggressor while asleep and he usually wakes him up to remind him of his evil deed before dispatching him. He then slits the corners of his mouth up to the ears, cuts off his ears and put them in his mouth to show that it is a killing of vengeance. He who unintentionally kills a man is not subject to vengeance unless he refuses to pay the compensation.” I will keep to the horses, thank you.
I just received two books in the mail. I am super excited about them. The first one is a previously unpublished “Review of the ‘Anizah Tribe” by Gerald de Gaury, the British explorer of Arabia (photo below). Bruce Ingham, who wrote the very informative “Bedouin of Northern Arabia” about the Dhafeer tribe, discovered this manuscript by chance in a London bookshop in 1995, and edited it for publication. I also bought De Gaury’s more famous “Rulers of Mecca“. I hope it will allow me to identify which of the Sharifs of Mecca was the “al-‘Ajuz” (the elderly) after which all the Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz are named, according to a persistent Shammar tradition. This tradition was told by Ibn Sa’adi told to Hazaim and I in 2005 or 2006. Jadu’ Ibn Saadi was the ‘arifah (Bedouin horse judge) of the Shammar. His account made so much more historical and linguistic sense than the silly story of the old woman rescuing a foal.
I first met this one-of-a-kind stallion in 1991. Before Radwan acquired him, Al-Aawar was one of the herdsires of the Shammar in North Eastern Syria. His then owner was Atallah al-Battu al-Hkaysh, a descendant of the slaves of the Jarba shaykhs of the Shammar. Yesterday Radwan and I were reflecting on his legacy. We remarked on two things: First, how many more male offspring he has left than is generally acknowledged: in addition to his offspring at Radwan’s (Dinar, Tadmor, Amoori, Saad II, etc), he has left many more in the desert: the Saqlawi stallion Ehsan at Mustafa al-Jabri; the Saqlawi stallion Sa’oud; the Hamdani ibn Ghurab of Lofan (from the horses of Ekaidi ibn Ghurab), sire of the Hadban Enzahi Burhan who was an important sire; the Shuwayman Sabbah of Salih ‘Abdallah al-Hasan, sire of Kuhaylan al-Buthah and others. These are existing sire lines. Second, how many different names he appears under: his own registered name al-Aawar; the Hamdani Simri of ‘Attallah al-Battu al-Hkaysh, the Hamdani Simri of Radi and Dali al-Hkaysh, and sometimes “Hamdani Simri. Ibn Ghurab”.
Radwan told me a nice story yesterday. Veteran horse expert and merchant ‘Abd al-Qadir Hammami once asked the Shammar Bedouin breeder Bardan Ibn Jlaidan why the younger generations of his Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz were smaller in size and scope than the older generation. Bardan Ibn Jlaidan replied, with a Bedouin accent that Hammami loved to imitate: Hadink banat al-bil: “The others were the daughters of the camels“, meaning that they were raised on camel milk. The story is from fifty years ago at least.
A grey desert-bred asil stallion. Strain: Saqlawi Jadran, from the marbat of ‘Abd al-Hamid (a.k.a. Hamid) al-Talal al-‘Assaf of the leading family of the Tai tribe, who got the strain from Ibn ‘Amud of Shammar (according to Hamid himself). From the strain that came to Ibn ‘Amud from al-Frijah of al-Ruwalah. Sire: Saqlawi Jadran of Hamid al-Talal of Tai, from the marbat of ibn ‘Amud of Shammar. Dam: a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of Hamid al-Talal of Tai, from the marbat of ibn ‘Amud of Shammar. This grey horse was standing at stud with the Shaykh of Tai Farhan al-Nayif al-‘Assaf. His nephew Muhammad al-‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif, the current Shaykh of Tai, borrowed him for a while. It is unclear whether he was bred by the Nayif clan of the al-‘Assaf ruling family of Tai or by their cousins the Talal clan. It does not really matter. Hamid al-Talal said that this horse was a Saqlawi Jadran of the marbat of ibn ‘Amud from his horses. According to Hamid al-Talal, his Saqlawis came directly from Hasan Ibn ‘Amud of Shammar in 1928 (verify the date). According to Mahruth ibn Haddal, the ruling Shaykh of the ‘Amarat and paramount Shaykh of the ‘Anazah,…
The other day Hazaim told me very casually, almost in passing, that the Shaykh of the Sba’ah (‘Anazah) tribe Ma’jun Ibn Hudaib was his uncle’s best friend, and that Hazaim knew him personally. He even sent me his picture. He also told me that the Shaykh of the Gmassah (‘Anazah) tribe, Rakan Ibn Mirshid, lived in his neighborhood in Homs, and that he also knew his children. It reminded me of the time my late mother, who also grew up in Homs, mentioned in a similarly casual way that Trad al-Milhim, the Shaykh of the Hssinah (also ‘Anazah) tribe, was a frequent guest at their family home. Her father was a colonel in the police force. I assume Trad al-Milhim was coming to settle issues with the law.
Al-Khaldi’s line is the most popular line of race horses in Syria today. It is now hard to find a Syrian Arabian without a line to him. Hazaim took the these two photos in 2005 in Garhok, in the extreme North East of Syria. Yours truly is holding him, in bad need of a haircut. In the Syrian Studbook, the sire of al-Khaldi appears as the Hadban Enzahi stallion Burhan. In reality his sire was al-Asda’, the dark bay Kuhaylan ibn Jlaidan of Ali al-Basha, by the Ma’naqi Hadraji of Zahir al-‘Ufaytan, out of the Kuhaylat ibn Jlaidan of Raja al-Ghishm, herself by the chestnut Kuhaylan Ajuz of Bardan Mit’ab al-Jlaidan, a strain the Jlaidan brought from the Sharif of Mecca five human generations ago. Dam: ‘Abirah, a black Shuwaymah Sabbah from the marbat of Muhammad al-Rahbi of the Shammar, and before that from the Juhaysh clan of al-Bu Mutaiwit between Sinjar and Tall Afar, Iraq and before that from the Jarbah Shaykhs of the Shammar. I recall a really small horse, pony size, and I was certainly not impressed.
Lately, I have been enjoying regular evening discussions with Radwan. He is energized now that several of the mares he had lost to the IS were found and brought back. He is part of a WhatsApp group with Bedouin shaykhs and breeders in Syria to discuss desert horses and strains. Yesterday’s discussion yielded a wonderful, just wonderful surprise: the specific Ubayyan Sharrak line to the 1906 Davenport import *Abeyah still exists among the Shammar. *Abeyah, per her hujjah now on the Arabian Horse Archives, was from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, the leader of the Thabit clan of the Northern Shammar, and one of its “men of war” (rijal harb) — military commanders. In the course of the 20th century (still trying to find out when), this precious Ubayyan Sharrak marbat, which originally hailed from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, passed from the sons of Mit’ab to their paternal cousins the sons of Shugayyif. They are now known after Shughayyif. By the 1980s, Muhammad ibn Mit’ab al-Hadb only had Saqlawiyat Jadran — and what Saqlawiyah these were! More on them another time. But their cousins the Shughayyif kept the line going. Two mares made it in the second rounds of registrations in…
For much of the 2000s, the chestnut Saqlawi Sh’aifi stallion Mash-hur Shammar was herd sire in the desert stud of the paramount Shaykh of the Northern Shammar, Dham Ahmad al-Dham al-Jarba. I never saw him in real life but the three photos below provide a good idea of what a desert-bred stallion looks like well into the XXIst century. I am especially taken by the resemblance with wild desert creatures, bird, gazelle or fox. The eye sockets, the jowls, the lower lip and the long nostrils stand out. The story of his line is fascinating. Sometime in the 1980s, a tribal dispute broke out between the ‘abid, descendants of the slaves of the Jarba shaykhs of the Shammar, and a Shammari man of the Bsaylan clan, during which a mare of the Bsaylan was shot and killed. The Jarba shaykhs stepped in to resolve the dispute, as they are legally responsible for the actions of their ‘abid in Bedouin tribal law. One of the shaykhs offered to give a mare to the Bsaylan clan as compensation for the one they had lost. He sent one of his men to Khleif ibn Bisra, to buy a three year old mare from…
Yesterday I learned that Wisteria had died in January 2020, at 25 years of age. She was the reason for my love for Arabians of Davenport bloodlines. She was also the first horse I owned in the US, fourteen years ago. She had “wondeful eyes, very great style and beauty“, like Jauza in the words of Lady Anne Blunt. The best photos of her were never taken.
Arched neck. Fine throat-latch (mithbah). Broad jibbah. Low placed, large eye. Long fine muzzle. Deep jowls. What’s not to like? Meanwhile, some people with common sense are ringing the alarm bell. No black background here. I am not picking on a particular horse, but showing a global trend. The photos are meant for illustration purposes.
Arched neck. Fine throat-latch (mithbah). Broad jibbah. Low placed, large eye. Long fine muzzle. Deep jowls. And, soo cute! Bright golden chestnut color. What’s not to like? Who cares about legs anyway?
The filly is a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah daughter of Provance CF, the little girl is Kuhaylat al-Wair daughter of Hazaim. Both originally from Syria.
Tuwaisaan Thaathaa is now accepted by Al Khamsa, which makes his owner, H.M. Elizabeth II, an Al Khamsa supporter. All is needed is owning one horse that qualifies as Al Khamsa Arabian. There is an empty slot on the board should you be interested, Your Majesty.
Cherifa is a foundation mare of the breeding program of the French colonial stud of Tiaret, Algeria. From Algeria, the line has spread to France, Poland and elsewhere around the world. Cherifa is particularly well documented. She is entry #1333 in the French Stud Book: bay, born in 1869 in the desert, imported to Algeria around 1875, died in 1878, strain “Chouimi-Sebayé”, acquired from “Farhan ibn Hudaib of the Sbaa Enezah”. The information on her Bedouin owner is significant. French importation records often mangled the spelling of the names of the strain, breeder or tribe. They sometimes gave their imported horses the strain of the sire instead of that of the dam. In this case, the owner was none other than the paramount Shaykh of the Sba’ah tribe, Farhan, son of Ma’jun son of Sallal son of Barjas son of Sahu son of Mu’di son of Hudaib. Lady Anne Blunt met him during her first trip to the desert three years after the French purchased Cherifa. She details her encounter with him in her journals entry for April 5, 1878, and writes that he was 22 or 23 years old (so born ca. 1855). Farhan ibn Hudaib was also photographed…
Bev sent these videos of little Kinza. Shes moves well, like her dam. She is getting closer to what I am looking for in an Arabian horse.
Thanks to Kate, I was able to purchase the unpublished PhD. thesis of John F. Williamson, “A political history of the Shammar Jarba tribe of al-Jazirah: 1800-1958“, Indiana University, Ph.D., 1975. Here is a quote from the thesis about the rebellion of Shammar leader ‘Abdul Karim al-Jarba against the Ottomans: ‘Abd al-Karim revolted in early August, 1871. Within a week the rebel leader at the head of some 3,000 Shammar warriors succeeded in reducing the area around Nisibin to ruins. Before effective government action could be taken, the rebellious Shammar raided over 200 villages, setting seventy of them on fire, killing a large number of persons and carrying off everything they could remove. In the meantime, ‘Abd al-Karim wrote various tribal leaders, complaining that Midhat Pasha sought to force the Shammar to settle as mere fallabin, and solicited their support. When several of these letters reached Midhat Pasha, he offered a reward of 10,000 piastres for ‘Abd al-Karim alive, and 5,000 piastres for his head. Meanwhile, ‘Abd al-Karim divided his forces into three sections and dispatched them against Dayr az-Zor, Mosul and Baghdad. This ill-conceived plan for destroying the Ottomans collapsed when the Shammar were decisively defeated at Qalat ash-Sharqat.…
This is perhaps one of the most circulated photos of Bedouins warriors. Maybe it has to do with the rider’s grin. Or the horse. It features Sulayman son of Sfug son of Dham al-Qu’ayshish, a leader of the Fada’aan. I am trying to find the original source of the photo (who took it?) and a higher resolution version. The type of horse he is riding has disappeared in the West. The long oval shaped nostrils extending back toward the face, the triangular muzzle, the bones above the eyes. This type resurfaces in some Davenports from time to time, e.g., Aurene CF, FindeSiecle CF. British Foreign Office correspondence recorded that Sulyman’s grandfather Dham led 20,000 ‘Anazah Bedouins on two campaigns against the Shammar, one in 1844 and another in 1848, across the Euphrates and all the way to the outskirts of Mossul. Below, another photo of the same Sulayman. Source Oppenheim? See this photo of the Blunt import Sherifa for similarly shaped nostrils.
Photo here. Afif is one of the largest wells in Arabia. The ‘Ataiba was one of the most powerful Bedouin tribes in Arabia.
Same photographer as the image below, different setting: an oasis, a wealthier man, a better-groomed horse, an Arab bit.
This morning Hylke shared with me this photo of a grey Bedouin mare. British army officer and explorer Gerald De Gaury took it in Saudi Arabia. The photo is on the website of the British Royal Geographical Society. It is numbered S0024244 and titled the “the last (Horses) of the Managia strain”. And another photo, by the same author, in the same setting. I think this one is a stallion. De Gaury’s books are on my purchase list.
I recently took part in a discussion on Facebook about the Samhan strain. Mohammed al-Matrooshi of the UAE had posted a photo which Carl Raswan had taken of a Samhat Qumay’ mare of the Ruwalah. Not posting here because I assume Raswan’s photo is copyrighted. Someone asked if the strain was extinct. I then shared a photo of this beautiful Samhat Qumay’ mare, which I had taken in the early 1990s outside Aleppo. She had come from the area of al-Mayadin, in the valley of the Euphrates, to be covered by one of the Jabri stallions. She was not registered. The ‘Aqayat got most of their strains from the Sba’ah. Then, out of the blue, someone from that same area posted a photo of his chestnut mare, and said that she was the grand-daughter of the above mare, and that the strain was alive and well. Then I dug in my own photo archives and found another photo of the same grey mare, one year later, this time with her daughter by my stallion Dahiss, the ‘Ubayyan Sharrak/Suhayli, then with Radwan Shabareq. I need to show it the man from al-Mayadin, to see if he recognizes the filly, who could…
A short video of Doyle Arabians from 1996, with Shenandoah, Greggan and Ibn Gulribbon, whom I liked. That was before the time of Lyman’s high definition videos on social media.
I am being ambitious here. Do we know if any may have survived, other than that of Meshura, and if so, where would they be?
This is meant mostly as a note to myself, on the tribe of al-Bu-Matyut, a section of the tribe of Juhaysh in the area of south of Mount Sinjar in North Western Iraq. It references a detailed and very learned blog entry on the Jazirology blog. The shaykhs of the al-Bu-Matyut are from the clan of al-Jarallah. Current Shaykh is Jarallah son of Muhammad son of Jarallah son of ‘Issa son of ‘Abdallah. The semi-nomad sheep herding tribe of al-Bu-Matyut — 250 rifles in the 1930s compared to the 6000 of the Northern Shammar — rose to fame when it defeated a coalition of the Shammar and allied tribes in 1946 at the battle of al-Khunayssi. [Edouard speculating here]: this battled is likely the context during which the Jarallah acquired the Shuwayman Sabbah strain from the Shammar. The strain then went from them to Muhammad al-Sfug al-Rahbi of the Shammar on the Syrian side of the border and from him to the sufi shaykhs of the Tfayhiyyin. The stallion of Salih al-Abd Allah al-Hasan, b. 1983, by the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-A’awar and the mare ‘Abeerah dam of the famous al-Khalidi come from this Tfayhiyyin branch of the strain.
Hazaim al-Wair shared with me this old photo about 15 years ago. It shows one of the Nawwaqiyat mares of Fanghash al-Nawwaq in the early 1960s. There was a drought in the desert, and Fanghash had entered into partnerships (sharaakah) with townsfolk from Homs on one of his mares. I am not sure who is pictured riding the mare. I need to ask Hazaim.
He is really built like a tank, as are his sire and dam. The neck looks a little short in this picture. Picture from Terry Doyle through Lyman.
Lyman and I were wondering the other day if anyone had dug into the records of James Henry Skene, HM’s Consul in Aleppo. He organized the first Blunt importations and Upton’s too, after all.
One advantage of these weekends on lockdown is that I could catch up on conversations I have been delaying to have. The reach that social media allows for is just incredible, triangulating information from photos and audio records almost in real time. I received many requests for scanned photos of Syrian horses from my archives. The requests in turn prompt conversations that lead to a lot more information. One such query was prompted by a Syrian breeder from the Jazirah who had read the entry on the Shuwaymah mare of the Jarbah, registered as al-Jawzaa in the Syrian studbook. He was inquiring about specific descendants. Radwan Shabareq had most of these, from an older grey daughter of al-Jawzaa, Dallah. These were lost during the Syrian civil war, except for the stallion Mahboub Halab and a mare now in France. The second round of registrations in the Syrian Studbook has, however added a previously unregistered younger bay daughter of al-Jawzaa named Waddaahah and Waddaahah’s black daughter. They were bred by Nawaf son of Turki son of Mashaal Pasha al-Jarba. This black mare, Qumayrah, has existing offspring. She is a ray of hope for this storied Shuwayman strain. I had seen Qumayrah…