Basilisk and Rabanna as Saqlawi Marighi

In my book The Arabian Horses of Abbas Pasha: New Discoveries: The 1860 Abbas Pasha Sale List and Other Original Documents (Ansata Publications, 2022), with Kate McLachlan and Moira Walker, I showed how the strain of the Blunt mare Basilisk and hence that of her female descendants, including the Pritzlaff mare Rabanna and her own descendants, is actually Saqlawi Marighi.

I made this discovery using two surviving original Arabic sources: the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, and the hujjah (Arabic certificate) of the Blunt mare Meshura, a close relative of Basilisk’s in the female line. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript was translated into English by Gulsun Sherif and beautifully published by Judith Forbis (Ansata Publications, 1993). The Arabic manuscript was then acquired by officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and published in Arabic under its original title Usul al-Khayl al-‘Arabiyah. An image copy of the hujjah of the Blunts’ mare Meshura was originally published in the book of her daughter Lady Wentworth, The Authentic Arabian Horse (1945). I published an English translation of it for the first time on this blog in May 2008 (link here), before publishing a slightly revised translation in my book in 2022. In summary, both primary sources are available in both Arabic and English. They are accessible to readers of either language.

My demonstration that Basilisk (as well as Meshura, Meshura’s maternal brother Pharaoh and the son of their maternal sister, Azrek) is a Saqlawiyah Marighiyiah takes us through both Arabic sources in several steps:

The starting point is the well-accepted fact that the two mares Basilisk and Meshura were closely related in the female line, both being Saqlawiyat mares bred by the same Bedouin family of Ibn Dirri of the Gmassah tribe, per Lady Anne Blunt’s Crabbet Stud herdbooks, her published works and her Journals. This means that whatever information exists about Meshura’s strain also applies to Basilisk’s, since Arabian horse strains are transmitted through the female line.

The hujjah of Meshura, which was written in stages between September 1879 and May 1880, says that Meshura was the great-granddaughter of a liver chestnut mare (shaqrah dibssah, ie, “molasses-colored”). The hujjah makes the link between Meshura and the liver chestnut mare in three different places.

First, in a testimony by several members of the family of Ibn Dirri:

“We testify by God Most High / we who have written our names below that the bay mare [i.e, Meshura] the Saglawiyah the mare of Barghi Ibn Dirri of al-Masaribah [of] al-Gumassah [of] al-Saba’ah, her great-grand dam is the molasses-colored chestnut with a stocking in her left hand; she is the one which the agent of Abbas Pacha bought […]”

Second, by other Bedouin leaders:

“As to me, o Jad’aan ibn Mahayd I know the granddam of this mare, the molasses-colored chestnut which Ali Bek bought for Abbas Pacha for 4,000 ghazis in my house, and she went to Abbas Pasha.“

Third, in the pedigree tree of Meshura:

Her [great grand] dam is the molasses-colored chestnut, large, with a stocking on her left [illegible word, either hand or leg] and a blaze, she came to us [in war] the day we did the morning raid at al-Sa’an; […] and she belonged to Nimr ibn Shu’ayl of al-Frijah of al-Ruwalah, and this mare was bought by Abbas Pacha from the house of Dirri […] and her price was 4,000 ghazis.

Her [maternal great great-grand] sire according to the stories of al-Ruwalah, he is the Saqlawi from her strain; the horse of ‘Ata […] of al-Frijah who are already referred to.

The hujjah of Meshura says four relevant things about this liver chestnut mare, which will enable her identification with a mare in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript.

First, it says that Ibn Dirri took the liver chestnut mare from the Ruwalah tribe, specifically from “Nimr ibn Shu’ayl of al-Frijah of al-Ruwalah“, in a raid. Remember this man’s name, Ibn Shu’ayl.

Second, it names the place where this raid occured: al-Sa’an (a desert town in Syria). Remember this place name, al-Sa’an.

Third, it tells the strain of the sire of the liver chestnut mare and the name of his owner: “the Saqlawi from her strain, the horse of ‘Ata […] of al-Frijah“. Remember this man’s name, ‘Ata.

Fourth, the Meshura hujjah indicates that the liver chestnut mare was later sold to Abbas Pasha of Egypt. (Her sale and exportation to Egypt obviously happened after she had produced at least one daughter for Ibn Dirri; otherwise the Blunts would not have found her descendants Meshura, Basilisk, Pharaoh, Azrek and their relatives with the Ibn Dirri clan and others in the North Arabian desert some twenty five years after the sale).

Moving on to the second Arabic source, the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. It is a record of the histories of the mares Abbas Pasha bought and imported from the Arabian desert to Egypt, arranged by strain. Under the sub-section of the “The Marighi and Ubayri” strain, which falls under the broader Saqlawi section, we find two references to a Saqlawi Marighi mare known as “The Chestnut Mare of Daghir”:

The old grey […] produced […] the chestnut mare of Daghir whose sire is the horse of ‘Ata, the Marighi.

and

“The mare of Daghir was lost [in a raid] from under Ibn Shu’ayl at al-Sa’an”

The information in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript about this chestnut Saqlawiyah “Mare of Daghir” allows us to identify her with the liver chestnut Saqlawiyah mare of Ibn Dirri in the Meshura hujjah. Both accounts say that she went to Abbas Pasha in Egypt. Both accounts say that she was sired by the Saqlawi horse of ‘Ata, a horse of the same specific strain as hers. Both accounts say that she was lost in a raid from under Ibn Shu’ayl. Finally, both accounts situate the raid at a place called at al-Sa’an. Both accounts refer to the same mare beyond the shade of a doubt.

Critically, the Abbas Pasha Manuscript identifies the strain of the chestnut “Mare of Daghir” as Saqlawi Marighi. This means that the mare identified in the Meshura hujjah as the liver-chestnut mare is a Saqlawi Marighi. Her great-grand daughter Meshura is also a Saqlawi Marighi, since Arabian horse strains are passed from mother to daughter in the female line. Consequently, the strain of Meshura’s close relatives Basilisk, Pharaoh and Azrek is also Saqlawi Marighi.

Of course, one can reach the same conclusion about the strain equivalence through another toute: the strain of the sire. The Meshura hujjah says that the sire of the liver chestnut mare was “the Saqlawi from her strain”, ie from the same line or marbat as his daughter. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript specifies that the strain of the sire was Saqlawi Marighi. That means that the strain of the liver chestnut mare that is the great-granddam of Meshura is Saqlawi Marighi.

Bottom line: The strain of Meshura’s close female relative Basilisk, and that of Basilisk’s descendants in the female line such as Rabanna and others, is Saqlawi Marighi.

A next article will delve into whether Saqlawi Marighi was a branch of Saqlawi Jadran or Saqlawi Ubayri (spoiler: it’s the latter), and why there was an enduring confusion about this in both the Arabian desert and the western world. Stay tuned.