Ghaddar is another desert-bred race-horse mentioned in the newspaper clipping below. He was racing at the same time as Mawj al-Athir. The Aldahdah Index happens to have an entry on him as well, with all of the information coming from old horse merchant Abd al-Qadir Hammami. GHADDAR: a gray desert-bred asil stallion; Strain: Hamdani Simri of the marbat owned by ibn Ghurab, also called Hamdani Ibn Ghurab; bred by ‘Ajil ibn Ghurab. Sire: al-Marzaqani al-Adham, “the black Marazaqani”, a Saglawi Marzaqani bred by the Shammar and later taken by the ’Anazah; Dam: a Hamdaniyah ibn Ghurab of Ibn Ghurab of Shammar. Racing and breeding career: Ghaddar raced successfully in Beirut in the 1950s, where he won 14 races. Races were held on both Saturdays and Sundays at that time, and Ghaddar was one of the very few horses that were entered and won races on two successive days. He was later used as a stallion. He died within the first year of his breeding career, and only left a few produce, and none of them have left lines today.
I wish to thank Troy Patterson for sharing with me this rare picture of the asil stallion Zairafan (Alwal Bahet x Maarah by Taamrud), from Mrs. J. E. Ott’s breeding. Zairafan is a Ubayyan whose tail female goes back to the mare *Mahraa, bred by Prince Saud ibn Abdallah ibn Jiluwi, governor of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and imported to the USA in 1950. Zairafan is a true son of the desert.
In 1971, H.R.H. Prince Salman b. Abd al-Aziz Aal Saoud, brother of the present king of Saudi Arabia, and then and now governor of the Province of Riyadh (which more or less corresponds to the historical region of Najd), presented the bay Hamdaniyah mare Gazala to a Dr. Klaus Simons of Germany. The latter imported his prized mare to Germany, where the Asil Club accepted her and her offspring, three mares by Farouss (Kaisoon x Faziza by Fa-Turf) and two stallions by Hamasa Arslan (Farag x Shar Zarqa by Negem) Jeanne Craver forwarded me her typewritten hujjah, which is signed by the hand of Prince Salman, and exists in both the original Arabic, and an awkward English translation. Here is the English version as it appears in the original document, word for word (capitals mine): [Printed Letterhead for Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud] To Whom It May Concern We certify hereunder that Gazala is Thoroughred Arabic (Assila), she is of Hamadaniah Kuhaylan family, she is brown colour, white line of the face, white spot on the upper lip, white line between the nostrils, white colour on the lower extremities of the limps. Her father Saker and her mother is…
Dick Reed of Toskhara Arabians in Texas shared this photo of the Ubayyah mare *Hamra Johara which was imported by Lewis Payne (pboto) to the USA in 1961. Dick’s stallion Line Dancer, who won 24 races in 30 starts in the USA and the UAE, traces four times to this mare which was bred in Najd, Saudi Arabia, by the House of Saud in 1952. Thanks Dick for sharing this photo and the information on this precious mare.
Recently, Jeanne Craver was able to access the hujjah and supporting documents about the mare *Hamra Johara, a desert-bred Arabian mare imported to the USA in 1961 by Lewis Payne. *Hamra Johara has no asil descendents, unfortunately. Jeanne obtained the documents from Gari Dill-Marlow, who got them from Dick Reed, who breeds Polish Arabians in Texas. I don’t know where Dick got them from. The mare’s hujjah in Arabic, and its very accurate English translation are part of the documents. I am reproducing the English translation here, which was originally done by James C. Stewart, “Acting Translation Analyst of the Translation Division of the Local Government Department and the Arabian American Oil Company [ARAMCO], in the offices of that company at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia”: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate Village of Khufs Dhughurah, Province of Nejd, Saudi Arabia 6 Rabi’ II 1978 (Corresponding to 20 October 1958) I, the undersigned, Turki Al-Hashishi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, residing in the village of Khufs Dhughurah, Province of Nejd, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declare the following to be true: The mare Johara described as chestnut with a white left hind foot and a white stripe from her jibbah…
Lebanese-American Amin Rihani (1976-1940) was a man of many talents. He is best remembered as the man who introduced free verse into Arabic poetry. He was also one of the early figures of the Arab literary movement known as “kuttab al-mahjar” or “writers of the diaspora” to which Khalil Gibran and other Arab-American intellectuals also belonged. He was one of the first intellectuals to support Arab nationalism. He was also a close friend of Saudi Arabia’s king Abdul al-Aziz al-Saud, and wrote a number of accounts of his travels in Arabia such as “Muluk al-Arab” (Kings of the Arabs), which won critical acclaim, and “Tarikh Najd al-Hadith” (the Modern History of Najd). The historians of oil discovery in the Middle East will also remember him as one of the first brokers of the enduring relationship between the House of Saud and the American businesses in general and oil business in particular. It was perhaps through this latter role that he became acquainted with Arabian horses. Rihani was influential in the importation of four Arabian mares bred by the House of Saud and imported to the USA by Albert Harris of Chicago in the early 1930s. He was also a key…
*Samirah is a Hamdaniyah Simriyah from the stud of the House of Saud in Najd, which was imported to the USA by Albert Harris in 1921. She has a very thin line that was the focus of a number of courageous, almost desperate preservation efforts over the last fourty years. The result is that the tail female line still goes on, albeit barely. A first line tracing back to *Samirah through her daughter Koweyt was discussed earlier, here. The second line to *Samirah is through her other daughter Kerasun, by the desert-bred stallion *Sunshine. *Sunshine was also from the Saud studs, and was imported in utero to USA in 1931 by Albert Harris, along with his dam *Nufoud, *Samirah, and two other mares. Kerasun in turn had two daughters, both bred by Albert Harris: Kaleta (by Alcazar) and Karamia (by Kulun, a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion from really old bloodlines tracing to *Nedjme). Through Kaleta runs a very thin line high in desert bred blood straight from Najd and the Syrian desert, with the arrows indicating a mother-to-daughter link: Kaleta –> her daughter Faleta (by Ibn Fadl, another Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz and a son of the desert, his dam being *Turfa) –> Faleta’s…
A friend who is around fifty years old just told me that he used to ride the grey mare who is the grand-dam of the chestnut Abu Junub colt when he was young, and that his grand-father had bought the original Kuhaylat Umm Junub mare from the Bedouins on the basis that she was asil, and on the basis of her hujjah which he said contained the seals of tribal Bedouin shaykhs. He said they had bought the original mare from Ibn Rakhis of Shammar who was settled in Rafha to the north of Hafr al-Batin. He also told me that they will look for her hujjah and if they find it, they will give me a copy. So fifty years ago, the tail female of the few Abu Junub horses now in Saudi Arabia were were with Ibn Rakhis from Shammar.
I have always felt considerable sadness whenever an Arabian horse strain dies out. With it, part of the rich and colorful history of this breed vanishes forever. I can’t really say why, but to me it feels just like losing the last copy of a rare manuscript. Most of the best-known and most important Arabian strains are still represented today in asil form, and we are lucky to have them. A number of really significant ones were lost in Arabia Deserta over the last fifty years. These include Kuhaylan Tamri (known to US breeders as the strain of the Davenport import *Houran), Kuhaylan al-Kharas (the strain of the Blunt import Proximo), Kuhaylan Harqan (the strain of the grandsire of the Ali Pasha Sherif stallion Mesaoud) and Kuhaylan Om Soura. Until last week, I thought Kuhaylan Abu Junub was one of these. Kuhaylan Abu Junub is a strain I have always been interested in. There are some indications it is somehow ‘related to’, in a way I am not yet in a position to explain fully, to Ma’naqi, Jilfan, and Frayjan, all of which are ultimately Kuhaylan branches as well. It is on the list of Abbas Pasha’s ten favorite strains,…
Amr Allah al-Hafi is my three year old stallion of my breeding, a desert bred Hamdani Simri, sired by al-Sarim (#1820 in the Saudi Arabian Stud Book) and out of al-Majmulah (#3164 in the same).
In 1931, Chicago businessman Albert Harris imported four desert-bred mares from Arabian ruler Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud through the Lebanese poet Amin Rihani. The mares were obtained through Mohammad Abd al-Ra’uf, Consult of the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz in Beirut (this Sultanate would take the name of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the following year, in 1932). Thee of the four left asil descendants here in the USA, and two of these have tail female descendants: *Nufoud and *Samirah. *Nufoud’s descendants, which include some of my favorite horses here in the USA (that is, LD Rubic and Belladonna CHF) were featured in an entry sometime last year. We’ll talk about *Samirah’s here. Two of her daughters left asil progeny: Koweyt by Alcazar, and Kerasun by *Sunshine, the latter being *Nufoud’s son, imported to the USA in utero. The mare Koweyt produced a daughter, Konight, by the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion Kaniht (Katar x Niht). Kaniht in turn produced the mare Amira Moda, by a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz from another line: Fa-Turf (*Fadl x *Turfa). According to the Al Khamsa Roster, there are only three asil mares left from this branch of the *Samirah’s family, all in their mid-twenties and none…
Click on the YouTube link below to listen to a story and poem (in Arabic) about ‘Arar ibn Shahwan, the original owner (ra’i) of the marbat of Dahman Shahwan. The audio was prepared by Sa’d al-Hafi al-‘Utaybi. ‘Arar is the from the very noble and ancient Dhayaghim clan of the Abidah section of the Qahtan Bedouin tribe. The poem records an episode of the Dhayaghim saga, when this clan and others left their original home of Wadi Tathlith in Southern Arabia after a sequence of severe droughts, and moved northwards to settle in the mountains around the central Arabian town of Hail, which were then inhabited by Tai tribes and were known as Jabal Tai. There the Dhayaghim and other southern clans merged with some Tai tribes to form the core of the Shammar confederation, which gave Jabal Tai it’s new name: Jabal Shammar. By the way, the Ibn Rashid ruling clan of the Shammar of Jabal Shammar traces to the Dhayaghim clan.
This morning Troy Patterson of Texas sent a few pictures of a yearling colt of his. The colt is by the Ubayyan stallion Zairafan (Alwal Bahet x Maarah by Taam-Rud) and out of the Canadian-bred Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Saideh (Bahri x Qaisumeh by Qaisum). Below is one such picture. In the USA and Canada, these horses are called BLUE STAR (with the caps). While I don’t adhere to this denomination (BLUE STAR = no recorded Ma’anaghi strain in the pedigree), and don’t buy into the underlying assumptions (e.g., recorded Ma’anaghi blood = not pure) behind such a denomination, I love these horses, and value them for what they are: real horses straight from the heart of Arabia Deserta, straight from the stables of the House of Saud. The antecedents of these horses were in their original desert homeland as late as the 1960s. I feel that horses such as this yearling would bring new strength and stamina to many of the older lines of asil Arabians (e.g., the Egyptian lines).
Teymur Abdelaziz of Germany sent me this photo of the 1993 grey mare Chira (Saymoon x Cylia by Madkour I), a great-great-grand daughter of Nafaa, the desert-bred Kuhaylah mare gifted by Ibn Saud to the king of Egypt in the 1940s. Chira is unique in the sense is that she is the last mare to trace to Nafaa through Nafaa’s daughter Bint Nafaa (by El Gadaa) and as such, the last mare to carry El Gadaa’s blood. Read more about Bint Nafaa and her sire El Gadaa here. I am glad to know Teymur is working on preserving this precious line, which is so close to some of the choicest desert bloodlines. Best of luck with that, Teymur.
This is Nauwas, a chestnut mare born in 1967. Her sire is the Hamdani stallion Al-Khobar (Ibn Fadl x *Al Hamdaniah), and her dam is the desert-bred mare *Muhaira, a ‘Ubayyah from the horses of Prince Saud ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Jalawi Aal Saud. Her pedigree is interesting because the sire line is Egyptian, and all the mares are desert-bred imports to the USA from Central and Eastern Arabia. Fadl sired the stallion Ibn Fadl, out of the desert-bred mare *Turfa; Ibn Fadl in turned sired Al-Khobar (photo below), out of the desert-bred mare *Al-Hamdaniah (the “bloody shouldered mare”, who was featured in one of the first entries of this blog); the beautiful Al Khobar sired Nauwas, out of the desert-bred *Muhaira. You can’t get better bloodlines than these, so noble, and so close to the source. I love this photo of Nauwas. It blends two of the characteristics of the true Arabian mare: the sweet, soft look of a new mother; and the strength of a war mare. This is a mare I wish I had seen, and owned. PS: I just noticed, after publishing this post that Nauwas bears some resemblance in her body structure, her ears, and the…
The bay stallion, Hadban, the sire of the two Crabbet foundation mares Rose of Sharon and Nefisa, comes from my tribe, ‘Utaybah. His strain was Hadban Enzahi. His breeder was Jafin (not Jakin as recorded) ibn ‘Aqil al-Da’jani al-‘Utaybi. The house of ‘Aqil are well known among us, and are among the Shaykhs of the Da’ajin section of the tribe of ‘Utaybah. The paramount Shaykh of the Da’ajin who yield great respect comes from the clan of al-Hayzal. Al-Hayzal Shaykhs such as Thiql al-Hayzal are cited several times in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. For instance, Saudi leader Faysal ibn Turki gave a Saqlawiyah mare that had belonged to al-Hayzal to Abbas Pasha of Egypt.
I bought back the stallion Taj al-Muluk after having sold him at age 2. His strain is Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, his sire is the old Hamdani stallion Haleem (Saudi Arabian Stud Book #862); his dam is al-Hafna (#1915 in the same), a daughter of al-Barraq and Ghazwa. Here is a recent 6 minute video, the stallion looks at his best as of minute 2.30. You can see a video of his sire Haleem by clicking here.
The mountain region of ‘Asir, in south western Saudi Arabia is one of the areas of the Middle East that fascinates me the most. Historically it was part of Yemen until 1934, I think. I have recently bought Thierry Mauger’s beautiful book, “Undiscovered Asir”, and recently Pure Man sent me this video of the moutain ‘Asir tribe of Al-Rayyith. The ‘Asir tribes were not horse breeding tribes.
The mare *Subaiha and her daughter *Taffel were bred in Saudi Arabia, by Prince Saud ibn Abdallah ibn Jiluwi, a close relative of Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abd al-Aziz, and governor of the eastern, oil-rich Hasa (al-Ahsa’) province starting from 1938. His father Abdallah was governor of Hasan from 1913 to 1938. They were imported by John Rogers to California in 1950. No asil progeny left. I don’t know their strain. Most of Ibn Jiluwi’s horses were either from the ‘Ubayyan strain or the Hamdani strain, though.
Just felt like posting this photo of the stallion Dhahran (Sirecho x Turfara) when he was at the Sheets’ Arabian Stud Farms (ASF). The photo is from the collection of pictures the late Billy Sheets gave me. Dhahran’s tail female goes back to the mare *Turfa, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the horses of the House of Saud, stationed at their stud in al-Khurmah, and gifted to the King of England, who then sent her to Canada during WWII, where she was bought by Henri Babson of Chicago. An absolute favorite of mine, *Turfa is a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, sired by a Ubayyan al-Hamrah, as per her registration information in the Arab Horse Society Studbook of the UK, Volume VI [Correction: as per the letter sent by Brigadier Gen. Anderson, then Secretary General of the UK’s Arab Horse Society, to Henry Babson]. Everything else that has been said about her strain being ‘Ubayyan is completely unsubstantiated, as I will try to shoe in a next entry. The blood of *Turfa is just so precious. I really feel that the more *Turfa in a horse, the better the horse, as the fine specimen pictured below show. Both are 25% *Turfa.
Did you know that there were monkeys in Arabia? Hamadyas baboons live — proliferate — in southwest Saudi Arabia and in Yemen. Check these pictures out! and this video too:
… and this is Mazfufah (Haleem x Ma’zufah), who is Matrubah’s full sister. Matrubah was featured in an another post I wrote earlier today. Pure Man, who sent me Mazfufah’s picture, also told me the two mares are almost total look-alikes. Of course, one needs to recognize that Matrubah’s picture was taken by a professional, while her sister’s was taken by an occasional photographer, and shows the mare in an ungroomed condition.
“Pure Man” sent me this beautiful picture of the desert-bred mare Matrubah (Haleem x Ma’zufah), an asil Kuhaylat al-Krush from Saudi Arabia. Matrubah is owned by Prince ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Al-Sudayri and graces his new Aziziyah Stud. More on this original branch of the Kuhaylan al-Krush strain in this earlier post here. I know there is not many of you reading this blog who think that a desert bred horse cannot also be beautiful, but those of you who still think so, think again.
Those of you who have looked at the Saudi Arabian Stud Book may have noticed that most of the horses registered in it trace back to a grey horse by the name of Al-Harqan, born in 1947. This horse is the sire of 25 horses in Volume I of the Saudi Stud Book. Pure Man, who by virtue of his knowledge of asil Arabians in Saudi Arabia, is a main contributor to this blog, tells me that Al-Harqan is Kuhaylan Harqan by strain. He also tells me that King Abdel-Aziz Aal Saud (d. 1953) asked a Bedouin from the tribe of Harb by the name of Ibn Fadliyah for a stallion from his famed Harqan horses, and that Ibn Fadliyah gave the king his best stallion: Al-Harqan. Pure Man also tells me that before Al-Harqan, the House of Saud maintained two other stallions of the same strain, but that they don’t appear in modern pedigrees because Saudi authorities did not keep written stud records back then. I think the strain of Kuhaylan Harqan is extinct in the tail female today, but I may be wrong, because there might still be desert horses of this strain in Saudi Arabia which I would not…
This one has an “artistic” touch to it. Still, the grey horse leading the pack has an impressive tail carriage.
Note the well-built grey horses with the high-tail carriage in the video.
These are some of the horses of the Bedouin tribe of Yam, who lives in the area in and around the famous historical city of Najran, in the province of same, which lies in South-Western Saudi Arabia. Pure Man tells me that the Yam Bedouins in this area of Saudi Arabia, while now settled, are known to have preserved ancient horsemanship traditions. He also tells me that they have preserved Arabian horses pure since the time of their grandfathers, and that they are deeply attached to their horses and very proud of them. They should be. Yam’s horses mostly belong to the two strain of Kubayshan — an ancient strain originating from that area, with the Qahtan tribe, Yam’s northern neighbors — and Khumayssan — a strain I had never heard of before. They are reportedly asil, but have never been registered in WAHO by the Saudi Government authorities in Dirab (and it’s better like this – who is WAHO anyway to tell Bedouins what standards of purity are?). Below is the picture of a sunset in Najran
Now this one is asil. This is al-Sakb, a desert-bred Hamdani from Saudi Arabia, bred and owned by Pure Man. His sire: Suhayl, an Ubayyan; his dam: Wajjabah, a Hamdaniyah, by the stallion al-Harir, an Ubayyan out of Wassamah, by Qays, a Suwayti.
Tiwaiq is the head stallion at al-Khalediah Farm in Saudi Arabia. Al-Khaledia, the property of H.R.H. Prince Khalid ben Sultan ben Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, is one of the largest horse farms in the Middle East, with more than 500 Arabian horses. Judging from pictures such as this one and others (here), Tiwaiq, described on the website as a ‘pure desert horse’, does not look like an Arabian to me, but like a good English Thoroughbred. I wish there was a pedigree to look at.
This magnificent white stallion is not a show horse but a desert bred stallion that took part in a halter competition organized in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His name is Ruzayq, and he was sired by Haleem, a Hamdani. Ruzayq stands at the Saudi government stud in Dirab. He traces to Saqlawi mares bred by the Bani Sakhr tribe (now settled in both Jordan and Saudi Arabia). The Shaykhs of this tribe, Aal Fayiz, were famous for their Saqlawis. Thanks Pure Man for forwarding this beautiful photo. What a horse. What a HORSE.
I have written a lot about the Kuhaylan Krush strain recently, more particularly on the branch of that strain that has been associated with the Dawish leaders of the Mutayr tribe. The mares Dafina (to the UK in 1926) and probably El Kahila (to Egypt in 1927) are both representatives of this branch, and so are the three Blunt imports to Sheykh Obeyd: the mares Aida, and Jauza and the stallion Krush. Below are two modern day representatives of that famed strain. The two mares Sharidah and Ma’yufah were bred at the stud of Prince Turki Ibn Fahd Ibn Muhammad Aal Saud in Najd, Saudi Arabia, then exported to the Nujaifi stud in Mosul, Iraq. PS — I wonder what an mtDNA test would show, if samples from these two mares were compared to the Dafina and El Kahila lines, or to some of the Krush Al-Baida horses with the Shammar Bedouins in Syria. The latter are known to trace to the “white Krush” of Ammash Raja al-Dawish of Mutayr, through a mare that had gone to Ibn Rashid. Read more about the Krush of Shammar in Syria here.
Strain: Ubayyat al-Suyayfi.
Another picture of the masculine Hamdani stallion Haleem, a senior stallion at the Stud of Prince Turki ibn Fahd ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman Aal Saud at Zurayq, near al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia. Prince Turki’s grandfather Muhammad is the brother of King Abd al-Aziz, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You’ve already seen a video of Haleem here.
This is old Nader, a senior stallion at the Dirab government stud in Saudi Arabia, a Hamdani Simri by Eidan (# 263 in the Saudi Studbook) out of Nadra (#400). Nader is from that same Hamdani line that was kept at the Royal Saudi stud of al-Kharj, and from which several of the 1960s desert-bred imports to the USA (*Amiraa, *Halwaaji, *Rudann) trace to. Notice that this would mean that these imports are Hamdani Simri, too as a result. Only the Hamdani strain information was available before. Pure Man (translated from Arabic by Edouard)
A previous entry (here) on the strain of Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida mentioned the mare Dafina, a 1921 Kuhaylat al-Krush, sent by King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud to Lady Wentworth of the UK in 1927, through Mr Gilbert Clayton, the British Representative in what was not yet called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dafina was apparently bred by the Mutayr tribe, and sired by a Kuhaylan al-Krush from the same marbat. An asil line tracing to Dafina in the tail female survived until at least the mid 1950s, when the last asil mare was bred: this was the oddly-named and heavily inbred Foum Tattoene (by Flame of Reynall x Yaronda by Flame of Reynall), born in 1954. Had it survived, this precious line would have also safeguarded rare lines to the Blunt desert imports Jilfa (a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad from the Shammar), Ashgar (a Saqlawi Ubayri from the Shammar), and Meshura (a Saqlawiyat ibn Derri from the Anazah). Below is another picture of the regal Dafina, from an old article on the Krush strain, (fraught with faulty assumptions, by the way, including the wrong assumption that the Lebanon-bred Krush Halba is the Blunt Sheykh Obeyd desert stallion Krush):
What you have below is a very precious and informative document: It is clipped from an Arabic horse magazine article, a scanned copy of which was sent to me by Pure Man. It sheds light on Arab royalty’s regular practice of sending each others horses as gifts. The letter, from King abd al-Aziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabia, to Shaykh Hamad ibn Issa Aal Khalifa, ruler of Bahrain, mentions the former’s awareness with the latter’s loss of the treasured Dahman strain. It also mentions that the father of the King of Bahrain had once offered a Dahmah mare to the father of the Saudi King. Finally, it offers to send the daughter of that mare, by a Hamdani stallion, to the rule of Bahrain as a replacement. You can read a short account of that story here. The letter starts with the usual blessing, “In the name of God Most Merciful and Compassionate”. To the left, there is the number of the correspondence item, and the date of the correspondence. Only the year is legible: 1356 Hijri, which is our 1936. To the right, in elaborate calligraphy, there is the mention: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Diwan [Office] of his Majesty the King.”…
… and this is Ruzayq (Haleem x Zahria), one of the Suwayti [May 16th correction by Edouard: Ruzayq is not Suwayti but a Saqlawi originally tracing to the horses of the tribe of Bani Sakhr] stallions at the government stud in Dirab. Those of you who have been following this blog over the recent weeks are already familiar with Haleem the Hamdani stallion in the video. For an additional picture of the stallion Ruzayq, click here, and scroll down.
One more nice picture coming through “Pure Man” is that of Al-Jahfaa, a desert bred mare from Saudi Arabia. She is a Suwaytiyah by strain, by the Suwayti stallion El Bashir and out of the mare Al Hanfaa.
This is Ahazeej, an asil desert-bred Ubayyat al-Suyayfi from Saudi Arabia. Sire: Qais (by Safeer x Mohret Qais by Bahar), a Suwayti; dam: Azheeq, a Ubayyat al-Suyayfi.
“Pure Man” told me about Jafil (El Basheer x Hadha), an asil Arabian stallion from Saudi Arabia, of the ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi strain (that’s how it’s pronounced by the way) that was gifted to a European Royalty. He doesn’t know the name of the King, but thinks it’s either the Netherlands or Belgium or Luxemburg. If someone from any of these countries happens to read this entry (Patrick?), it would be great if they could look him up. I would also try looking in Denmark and the othern nordic kingdoms. It would be great news if Jafil, who was bred by Prince Turki ben Fahd ben Mohammad, would be made available at public stud. If anyone knows about Jafil, please feel free to let us know.
By now you know where the photos come from. This is Al-Hazim (Al Wadah x Khuzama) from the King Abd al-Aziz Arabian Horse Center in Dirab, Saudi Arabia. His strain is Kuhaylan Abu Arqub. By the way, the photo of Al-Hazim’s sire Al Wadah, also an Abu Arqub, grace one of the volumes of the Asil Arabian Club, which means that the Dirab horses horses have the European label “Asil”. “Pure Man” can you tell us where the Abu Arqub horses of Dirab came from?
The string of beautiful photos through “pure man” continues. I am glad readers are enjoying it, because one of the main objectives of this blog is to make the case for the desert Arabian horse in its homeland today, and a picture is worth a thousand words. This is ‘Ajibah, a Hamdaniyah, daughter of Haleem. Haleem was featured in a video in an earlier post.
I finally had a chance to look at the lengthy section on the strain of al-Shuhayb in “Kitab al-Usul”, which is Saudi historian Hamad al-Jasir’s edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (the copy of Khayd al-Din al-Zarakli). Al-Shuhayb is the strain of the beautiful mare Sarkhah featured here. I will provide you with a detailed account at some other point, but for now suffice it to say that Kuhaylan al-Shuhayb is a branch of Kuhaylan Ibn Wabera (rather, the two are one and the same strain), and that the strain belongs to the ‘Ajman Bedouin tribe. The strain originated with the Sharifs (descendents of the Prophet) of the Yemeni region of al-Jawf (Jawf al-Yaman), which is as far south in the Arabian Peninsula that Arabian horses can get. It’s so nice to see that this strain is still in existence.
Another photo coming through “pure man” is that of the beautiful asil Arabian mare Al-‘Aadiyah (Al Wadah x Afaf), from the King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz government stud of Dirab, in Saudi Arabia. Al-‘Aadiyah is a Kuhaylah Umm ‘Arqub by strain. I recall reading somewhere that this particular strain had been owned by the Saud Royal Family for a long time. Other, separate branches of the strain are still present in Syria too. Enjoy!
Since we are talking about Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, here are a couple pictures, also from Pure Man, of another stallion from this srain. This is Taj El Melook, by Haleem (Saudi Stud Book #862) who was featured here, and out of Al Hafna (Saudi Stud Book #1915). Since we are talking about Ubayyan al-Suyayfi, here are a couple pictures, also from pure man, of another stallion from this srain. This is Taj El Melook, by Halem (Saudi Stud Book #862) and the horse feature here, and in this video, and out of Al Hafnaa (Saudi Stud Book #1915).
Another nice picture from “pure man” features Afruq (Al-Ahzum x Afaq), a desert-bred stallion ‘Ubayyan from Saudi Arabia. His sire’s strain is Suwayti, and his dam’s strain is ‘Ubayyat al-Suyayfi, a famous strain in Najd. The strain of ‘Ubayyan al-Sufayfi is that of the sire of a number of mares that were sent as a gift from the King of Saudi Arabia to the King of Egypt in the early 1940s: these were Nafaa, a Kuhayklah; Hind, a Saqlawiyah; and a third mare and probably a fourth mare whose lines died early, and the names of which escapes me now (I think one was out of a mare by the strain of “Saada al-Debdab”, and the second one out a mare by the strain of “Sowaytiyat Ben Kowayed” – Ref. “The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt”, by Pearson, Archer and Mol). From this, it seems that ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi was a strain much favored by King ‘Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and his sons from early on. I haven’t quite yet figured out how to transcribe the marbat in English, and there may be a variety of possibilities: al-Sayfi (least likely); al-Saiifi, al-Sayayfi, al-Sayifi, or al-Suyayfi (most likely). It’s a detail really, but I will try…
Today is a happy day. Over the past few days, a string of photos and videos has been coming from “Pure Man”, with awesome images of desert Arabian stallions. I mean, real desert Arabian horses. Born there, raised there. A delight to watch as they move and prance. “Where are the mares?” I thought. Well, here they are. This is one of the most beautiful desert mares I have ever seen. Some months ago, I put in a list of my 10 ten favorite mares, a list that had taken years to coalesce in its present form. That was before I see this picture of Sarkhah (Qais a Suwayti x Sahwah a K. al-Shuhayb), a stunning Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb from Saudi Arabia. This mare instantly skyrocketed on top of my all time favorites. Wow. I confess knowing close to nothing about the strain of Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb. I know that the late Saudi Arabian erudite Hamad al-Jasir, in his original Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (the Khayr al-Din al-Zarakli copy, not the Gulsun Sherif copy; sorry to get so technical on you guys, but this matters) has dedicated many pages to Kuhaylat al-Shuhayb, or al-Shuhaybah. I never bothered to read the section on al-Shuhaybah,…
Below is the hujjah (authenticity certificate) of the desert-bred stallion Taamri, imported to the USA by Sam Roach in 1960. Hujjah translation mine (cf. Al Khamsa III, p. 216). In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Compassionate, City of Riyadh, Region of Najd Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 12 Rajab 1376 corresponding to February 12th 1957 I, the undersigned, Mutlaq al-‘Atawi, supervisor of the Royal Stables of the Horses of his Royal Highness King Saud Ibn ‘Abdul ‘Aziz, declare that the following pieces of information are true The horse “Tamri” and his characteristics are as follows: The color of his body is “Tamri [“date-colored”, from ‘tamr’, date]; and his mane and tail are red; and he has a star and a white spot on his forehead, and a thin line of white hair on his left shoulder, and a small line of white hair toward the end of his mane; and a dotted line of white hair on both sides of his belly, exactly on the place of the strap, and a white hoof on his rear hind leg; as to his other hoofs, they are dark-colored, and he has a marking in the shape of an _] in the…
Three desert-bred stallions from Najd, a Kuhaylan (called Namar), a Hamdani (called Robban), and a Ubayyan (called Hardane) are featured in this recent Youtube video. I wonder what marbat of Kuhaylan Namar is from.
I just found the pedigree of the handsome Saudi stallion Haleem (Qais x Nawal by Eidan), whose video was featured earlier. He is #862 in the Saudi Stud book. There is a picture too, and a list of his progney, which includes the stallion Lazam Najd, also featured in a video below:
Two other Youtube videos from the same provenance, show the handsome desert-bred stallion Lazam Najd, a Suwayti al-Hafi by strain. He is a son of the Hamdani stallion Haleem, featured in an earlier video posted here. This is the first time I hear from the strain of Suwayti al-Hafi, although I am familiar with that of Suwayti al-Farm, which was the marbat of Muhsin al-Farm, the Shaykh of the Bani ‘Ali section of the Harb tribe. Suwayti al-Farm is one of the mains strain currently represented in Saudi Arabia. But what is Suwayti al-Hafi, the strain of Lazam?
Someone just sent me this You Tube video of a superb 19 year old Hamdani stallion by the name of Haleem. It looks like the video was taken in Saudi Arabia. I wish someone could share more information about this horse, his background, his registration number (if he is registered somewhere..). We need horses with the masculinity and the stamina of Haleem to to rejuvenate the blood of degenerate show animals.
The mare *Amiraa was a 1959 grey Hamdaniyah bred by the Sa’ud royal family and imported in 1960 to the USA by Sam J. Roach. Below is her hujjah, as I translated it into English for Al Khamsa Arabians III: “In the name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate Riyadh, Region of Najd, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 11 Jumadah al-Akhar 1380 I, Mutlaq al-‘Atawi, 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 know that this mare was in foal to the grey Hamdani horse “Mas’ud” at the time of the transfer of her ownership. And the horse “Mas’ud” covered the mare “Halwaaji” onthe date of the 14th of Dhu al-Hujjah 1377, and he covered her another time on the date of the 16th of Dhu al-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] Witness: [signature], The Secretary.” Translation ends here. Photo…
Following an inquiry about photos of descendents of Mohalhil in an earlier post, Jeanne Craver kindly sent me the two pictures below. The first one of his unique offspring, Prince Faisal, out of the desert-bred Hadbah mare Mahsuda, herself a gift from King Abd al-‘Aziz al-Sa’ud to Charles R. Crane. This photo of a rather fat Prince Faisal was taken at an Arabian horse shown in 1952 by Charles Craver’s father (thanks Charles and Jeanne for the picture!). Prince Faisal in turn sired a daughter, Jeddah Princess (second photo), out the desert-bred Hamdaniyah mare La Tisa, another gift to Charles Crane from Ibn Sa’ud. It is such a shame La Tisa and Mahsuda did not leave more offspring. They seem to have been very beautiful mares even by today’s altered (do you like that euphemism?) standards of what an Arabian horse ought to look like. La Tisa was featured in an earlier post on this blog (click here).
A nice picture of Jalam al Ubayyan as a young stallion in Saudi Arabia. He was bred in 1949 by Saud Ibn Adballah ibn Jalawi, Governor of the Saudi province of al-Hasa, and was imported to the USA by Connie Cobb in 1966. He is present in many of the shorter (i.e., closer to the desert) pedigrees of US-bred asil horses (mainly through the category known as BLUE STAR Arabians). Photo courtesy of the late Billy Sheets. Not sure if it was published before. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
As a follow up to the previous post on the quizz mare, Binni II (*Shams x *Munirah), here is a picture of her dam *Munirah, a Kuhaylat ‘Afayr bred by the Saud royal stables, imported in 1962 from Saudi Arabia to the USA by Richard and Laura Cavedo. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Craver. Thanks Jeanne!
If you anyone knows someone who could volunteer to write intelligently about asil horses in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain today, please email me privately at ealdahdah@hotmail.com. I am looking for someone who knows the horses and the country context hands on, and preferably but not necessarily from there. Fluency in English is not required since I am ready to translate. This would leave me handling Syria and North Africa.
The blog entry “Amer: a Saudi race stallion” and the ensuing online conversation has generated a heated debate, with potentially explosive consequences for many involved. To summarize using politically correct language: the stallion Amer, currently owned by Umm Qarn farms of Qatar, is an extremely controversial horse, owned by extremely powerful people. He has dozens of offspring around the world. Many people have questioned Amer’s purity over the years, more or less openly. Many people have written to WAHO about him (good luck with that…). There is lots of big money involved, and a lot of vested interests at stake. Fraud, when it does take place, takes place behind closed doors. You will not see the real pedigree in any WAHO-approved studbook records, and I don’t imagine anyone putting their lives and jobs on the line to enter a royalty-owned stud (how?), ask for DNA sample from Amer and his likes (how?), receive it, compare it with DNA sample from English Thoroughbreds in Jordan or elsewhere (which ones? how? culprits died long ago), send the whole package to labs for analysis (which labs?) and publis the results somewhere (where?). So all that’s left is people word, good faith, reputation, and…
Another favorite photo of a second generation offspring of four desert breds. This is Ibn Taamrud (b. 1988), an Asil Hamdani, by Taam-rud (Taamri x Rudann) out of Alwal el Shahhat (Jalam al-Ubayyan x Sindidah). All four grand-parents are either from the stables of the Royal House of Saud and their close relative Ibn Jiluwi. My translation of the hujaj of both Taamri and Rudann is in Al Khamsa Arabians III.
Edie Booth of Antique Arabian Stud, Canton, Texas, just posted this video of three of her Asil stallions on the comments section of this blog. The black stallion is AAS al-Sakb, and the grey one is AAS Enan. I don’t know who the third one is. [Update Nov. 18, 2008: Edie Booth tells us the third horse is AAS El Hezzez]