Breeding certificate of the Saud royal mare *Halwaaji to a Saud royal stallion

In the same vein as other articles on the original documentation on desert Arabians imported to the US from Saudi Arabia, this is my translation from Arabic of a hujjah about the breeding of the mare *Halwaaji of the Saud Royal Stud to the stallion Mas’ud:

In the name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Riyadh

Province of Najd

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

11 Jumadah al-Aakhar 1380

I, Mutlaq al-‘Atawi, the head of the royal horse stables of his Highness King Saud ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, declare that the following testimony is correct:

On the 11th of Rabi’ al-Thani 1378, the ownership of the red Hamdaniyah mare “Halwaaji” was transferred to Sam Roach; and it was well-known that this mare was in foal to the grey Hamdani horse “Mas’ud” at the time of the transfer of her ownership; the horse “Mas’ud” bred the mare “Halwaaji” on the date of the 14th of Dhul Hujjah 1377; he bred her another time on the date of the 16th of Dhul Hujjah 1377. And I certify in front of God Most High that the mare “Halwaaji” and the horse “Mas’ud” are both from pure blood and a noble origin, tracing to horses whose purity of blood and lineage have been preserved by the Saud family.

[Signature of Mutlaq al-‘Atawi]

The secretary

Witness: [signature]

This breeding certificate is a formal government document: it has the city, province, country, and date of production all on different lines; it has the official title of the person providing it; it has the exact dates of breeding, as well as the date of the transfer of ownership, all in the official Muslim (Hijri) calendar of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is all indicative of a government bureaucracy that was keeping records, or at least one able to produce precise records on demand; finally, in classic hujjah fashion, the document has both a signatory and a witness. The witness to its preparation is an unnamed secretary of the Court. All the document lacks is a reference number assigned to it for archival purposes.

Also, the document is in the first person, written in the voice of the person who provided the certification: “I … declare”; “I certify”. God is invoked twice: first, the document is in His Name: “In the name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate” is how most if not all formal documents prepared by Muslims begin; He is invoked another time to attest to the nobility of origin of both horses, also in classic hujjah style. Compare and contrast with the document on the stallion Walid El Seglawi.

The rest of the text is standard information in a hujjah: name (Halwaaji), strain (Hamdani) and coat color (red) of dam; name (Mas’ud), strain (Hamdani) and coat color (grey) of sire. There is also an indication of the horses marbat: the royal family of Saud itself. These are not horses brought into the royal family from outside. Rather, the Hamdani is the “house strain” of the Aal Saud (cf. the Blunt’s mare Sherifa), even if one can be fairly sure that the royal family owned horses from many different branches of this strain over the years.

So much for the text, which is straightforward. One of the few things one can infer from context is about the name of the stallion: per Arab tradition, “Mas’ud” is one of the default names for senior stallions in large studs (cf. the Blunt’s Mesaoud, the French foundation stallion and desert-bred Massoud, or the early Egyptian stallion Mas’aud, otherwise known as Koheilan El Mossen). Whether one has one stallion or a hundred, the main stallion is usually named Mas’ud (different spelling variants there), Marzuq (Merzug, Marzouk, Merzuk, etc), or Mabruk (Mabrouk, Mebruk). These three “blessings” names are meant to bring luck and prosperity to the stud. Stallion names that refer to a quality about the horses themselves (e.g., Farhan “Happy”, and Jamil “Beautiful) are next in popularity. Bottom line: the stallion referenced in this document was in all likelihood a senior stallion in the stables of King Saud.

By the way, the mating documented in the document above produced the 1959 mare *Amiraa, imported to the USA as a yearling. Her female line still exists.