I had published this beautiful photo of the 1994 Syrian Kuhaylan Khallawi stallion Al Sabik (*Ta’an x Hallah) some ten years ago. Recently Arnault Decroix shared with me another photo of the same handsome horse taken a few moments before or after the first one. This was truly a special horse.
This new-to-me photo of the Syrian Kuhaylan Mimrah stallion Basil (Mahrous x Halah), of the breeding of the late Mustapha al-Jabri was taken at the Damascus Government Stud . It recently appeared on one of the many Facebook pages now focusing on Syrian Arabians, one hosted by “Alhorane”. I remember being struck by this horse the first time I saw him in 1990. He oozed Arabness.
Yet another one of my smartphone favorites is this photo of a Syrian Kuhaylat Ibn Mizher mare of the horses of Shaykh Hashim al-Jarba. Her name is al-Tayou’, and she is 13 years old. The strain is an offshoot of Kuhaylan Krush. She is a granddaughter of the black Saqlawi Marzaqani stallion Barazan I like so much.
The excerpt below comes from Eduard Löffler’s 1860 book, Die österreichische Pferde-Ankaufs-Mission, which is a firsthand account of the 1856-7 expedition helmed by Colonel Rudolf von Brudermann to the desert to buy horses for the state studs. The expedition, by this point, had already acquired a number of horses, including Aghil Aga, who still has a presence in Al Khamsa horses. They had met with the Wuld Ali, who were camping in the Hauran, to the south of the Tell al-Hara, “only 17 or 18 hours of riding from Damascus”. Löffler says the sheikh was Mohamed El Duchi (Mohammed Dukhi ibn Smeyr in Lady Anne Blunt’s Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, and Mohammed ed Douhi in Roger Upton’s Travels in the Arabian Desert), who happened to be in Damascus at the same time as the Austrians, negotiating with the governor over camels for a caravan of pilgrims travelling to Mecca in May. Colonel von Brudermann made arrangements via the Austrian consul Pfaeffinger to journey with the sheikh back to the Wuld Ali, where they might see their horses. Löffler remarks that the horses of the Wuld Ali were “edle, schöne, prachtvolle Thiere, die entzückten und jeden Pferdefreund enthusiasmirt haben würden”…
Dahjani Al Arab, a Kuhaylan Da’jani born in 2008, is one of four authentic, desert-bred Syrian stallions in France. The other three are Mahboub Halep, a grey Shuwayman Sabbah; Nimr Shabareq, a chestnut Ma’naqi Sbayli, and Dahess Hasska, a chestnut Kuhaylan Nawwaq. Photo of Dahjani taken earlier this month by owner Arnault Decroix in Normandy. I love the arched throatlatch and the small pricked ears on him.
Ghazal Al Layel and Louna are maternal half sisters, out of the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Ghazal Al Banat. Louna/Loonah is the 1993 daughter of the Hamdani ibn Ghorab stallion Mobarak, featured previously on this blog. The younger half-sister, Ghazal Al Layel, is the 1995 daughter of the Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Shaddad, who has also featured on the blog before. Their dam, Ghazal Al Banat, is a daughter of the ‘Ubayyan Sharrak stallion Mashuj, whom Edouard has written about here. Photos were purchased from In The Focus.
The mare in the photo below is Al-Qahira, daughter of the mare ‘Abeerah from Edouard’s earlier post, bred and owned by Basil Jadaan. Her sire was Mokhtar. The photo was taken at the Pure Syrian Show in 2008. Picture purchased from In The Focus.
Another rare set of photos, these of the Dahmat ‘Amer mare Ridaab also a the farm of Basil Jad’aan — with a young Basil holding her. She has a nice colt by Marzuk that year. Her sire was the Dahman ‘Amer stationed at the Military Housing in al-Hasakah in North-East Syria, and her dam one of the two Dahmat ‘Amer mares of Khidr al-Dairi of Ma’daan near Day al-Zur. Both sire and dam Dahman ‘Amer, but from different branches, the sire from a Jubur strain, but taken in war by them from the ‘Ajarrash clan of the Shammar ca. 1935, and the dam from a Sba’ah strain. Back in 1992, she was already the last Syrian mare from this precious strain, but her line survives today, thirty years later.
Below is a photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Marouf/Maroof, photographed in 2008 at the Pure Syrian show. Picture purchased from In The Focus.
This evening I had a bout of nostalgia for my old horses, so I went looking for pictures of Dahess, the desert-bred stallion my father and I bought from a racing stable in Beirut in 1993. I was 15. One afternoon, as I was just coming back from school, my father told me that he had been contacted by the secretariat of the organization managing the Beirut racetrack about two Arabian stallions that had recently been imported from Qatar, one of them a Syrian horse of desert lines. They were being housed at one of the racing stables on the road to the airport. Both were for sale. I pressed to drive down to the racetrack to see them at once. Half an hour later, we were standing in front of two stallions, an exquisitely balanced grey with a milky white coat, 14.3 hands, and a much taller, loosely built cherry bay. The grey we were told was “Syrian” and the bay “Russian”. Both were a bit thin. My father nudged me from his elbow, and started praising the bay horse, while deliberately turning his back to the grey one. The groom fell for the trick and hinted that the…
This year I will be using for the first time frozen semen from one of the Syrian stallions now in France. I chose Arnault Decroix’s Dahjani Al Arab (same prefix as my horses, by chance). He is a Kuhaylan Da’jaani from the old Syrian desert bloodlines I have known and loved for three decades (sheesh!). He traces directly to the Kuhaylan Da’jaani marbat of Ahmad al-Taha, the Shaykh of the large Juhaysh tribe in Northern Iraq. This is the same breeder as El Nasser’s, the Kuhaylan Da’jani which Egypt’s Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) used in the 1940s. These bloodlines are quite prized for racing in Syria today. Just look at the striking similarity between El Nasser and Dahjani Al Arab, 80 years apart.
Manua was bought in Homs by Prince Shcherbatov in 1900, on the second trip that he and Count Stroganov made to Syria, but went to Stroganov’s stud in Russia, rather than Shcherbatov’s. Her sire was a Hadban Enzahi; her dam was from the Sba’ah and sired by a Kuhaylan al-Ajuz horse. From Abeyan sherrak strain. Bay mare imported. Born in 1891 at Hajji Mohammed Khudur, mugkhtar of Babaa Amur village, near Homsa. Sire bay stallion from Khadban Yenzekkhi strain, born at Gomussa’s Bedouin (of Sebaa Anaze) and was sold by the said Bedouin to Fellakh Ibrahim Aga from Ashaee tribe in northern Syria. Dam – bay mare from Abeyan Sherrak strain, purchased by Hajji Mohammed Khudur in 1882 from Bedouin Uakhadj Ibn-Suan from Moadja tribe (of Sebaa Anaze); its sire was from Kekhaylan Adjus strain. Purchased personally by Prince A.G.Scherbatov in Homsa city in 1900 from Hajji Mohammed Khudur and imported to Russia. While in Arabia, she foaled twice. 1900 covered by grey stallion from Dagkhman Umm-Amr strain in Homsa. The stallion was born in Bedouin tribe Gomussa (of Sebaa Anaze) and bought from them by Ibn-Faras, who lived in Homsa. Stud Book of Arabian horses with their pedigrees present…
Latifa was one of the desertbred imports of Count Sergei Stroganov. Foaled in 1883, she was bred by the Shammar, and bought by Stroganov on his trip to Syria in 1895. She produced two fillies and two colts for Stroganov, three of them by the Krush stallion Emir-el-Arab, and one – her daughter Leyla, below – by Sharrak. Leyla was foaled in 1897, the first of Latifa’s foals in Russia. In 1902, she produced a grey colt by Stroganov’s desertbred Saqlawi Jadran, Sottam el-Kreysh. Photos from the History of Russia in Photographs.
Kehayley was foaled in 1893, and imported to Russia by Prince Shcherbatov in 1900. Kekhaylan Adjus strain. Bay mare imported, born in 1893. In 1895 was secretly bought by Akhmet Beg (citizen of Hama town) and Bedouin Simran from Kkhrissa tribe (of Fedhaan Anazeh) from Bedouin Jaetnee from Abadat tribe (of Sebaa Anaze). Sire of Dagkhman Umm-Amr strain. Bought personally by Prince A.G. Shcherbatov in Hama city from Akhmet Beg in 1900 and imported to Russia. Stud Book of Arabian horses with their pedigrees present in Russia In 1902 she foaled a colt, Dervish, by Dachman. Photo sourced from the History of Russia in Photographs.
This horse was purchased in Syria by Prince Shcherbatov. State Derkulskiy farm. Both parents belonged to Dagkhman Umm-Amr strain. Bay stallion, imported; height 2 arshins 1 3/8 inches. Born in Arabia in 1895 at Bedouin Jeral Ibn-Tuerish from Gomussa tribe (from Sebaa Anaze). The latter sold it to Aga-ed-Diun, mufti of Hama. Purchased for Department of State Horse Breeding personally by Prince A.G. Shcherbatov in 1990 from Aga-ed-Din in the town of Hama. Stud Book of Arabian horses with their pedigrees present in Russia
Prince Alexander Grigorievich Shcherbatov was one of the Russian aristocratic horse breeders, who established an Arabian stud in the late nineteenth century. Together with his brother-in-law, Count Sergei Aleksandrovich Stroganov, Prince Shcherbatov, inspired by the Blunts, journeyed to Syria in 1888, in order to purchase Bedouin Arabian horses. They succeeded in buying horses from the Anazah and the Shammar, and in 1900 made a second trip to Syria. Neither Shcherbatov nor Stroganov’s studs survived the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, though part of the Tersk stud is situated on Stroganov’s farm. El-Kader (above), a Kuhaylan Swayti stallion from the Ruwalah, by a Ma’naqi ibn-Sbayli. Born in Arabia in 1882 at Bedouin Mis’ar Ibn-Moadjil of Ashadjaa tribe (from Roal Anaze). The said Bedouin sold the horse to Ahmet Pasha Shaaman in Damascus where it served as a sire for Roala tribe. Sire of Manegi Ibn-Sbeiyel strain. Purchased by Prince A.G. Shcherbatov in person in Damascus and brought to Russia in 1888. Stud Book of Arabian horses with their pedigrees present in Russia Faris (above), an Ubayyan Sharrak stallion from the Shammar, by a Kuhaylan Ras-el-Fedawi. From Abeyan Sherrak strain, from Gkhenedish family (of Selga Shommar). Pebble grey stallion, imported, height 2…
The Saqlawi Jadran Jawlan Al Kheir, by the Ubayyan Suhayli Taj Al Kheir out of Bushra Al Kheir a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, at Basil Jadaan’s studfarm outside Damascus.
الصورة تقديم ابو فارس باسل جدعان
الفحل فواز كحيلان كروش من عيد وست الكل ملك صالح خدام السروجي الصورة في مزرعته من تصويري سنة ١٩٩٢
From the March 1864 issue of the Sporting Magazine, Vol 43, pp. 179f.. This magazine was identical in content with the Sporting Review, hence the differing references for this letter in later sources. The anonymous Scotch gentleman has sometimes been identified as John Johnstone; his correspondent, the author of the letter, is almost certainly James Henry Skene, the British Consul at Aleppo, as it contains the quote attributed to him about “blood and stride in the desert”. The following very admirable letter from Aleppo has been handed to us by a Scotch gentleman, who has just imported two Arab mares by way of an experiment: “I have just received your letter of the 10th inst., and reply to it at once. “I have made five experiments in horses here— “1st. Out of thorough-bred English mares, by Arab stallions. “2nd. Out of the best Arab mares, by thorough-bred English horses. “3rd. Rearing the best Arab blood on succulent forage, as in England. “4th. Rearing thorough-bred English stock in the Desert, on dry food. “5th. Buying colts and fillies superior to those usually sold by the Arabs. “The first experiment has led to no great results, the produce being merely handsomer than English horses, without being…
Pardon the silence on my end, life has been busy. I wanted to share a photo of one of the desert bred stallions that found their way to South America (namely, Argentina) in the early 20th century. A chestnut with a large blaze and four white legs (edit: I appear to have been mistaken. see comments for further information), Tatar came to Argentina to stand stud at Hernan Ayerza’s farm in 1931. As best as I can understand, his arrival to South America was a coordinated effort, with Hernan enlisting the help of the prolific Carl Raswan. Carl Raswan went to his friend (his blood brother) Fawaz al-Shaalan, a leader of the Roala people in the southern part of Syria. Per Peter Upton’s publication “Arabians,” Fawaz sold Tatar to Carl Raswan, though it’s unclear to me if he was also the breeder. Fawaz was also involved in the Hearst importations of 1947, was involved with the Arab League delegation to the United Nations in the wake of the post-WWII developments of Israwl and Palestine, and if I’m not mistaken (someone please correct me if I am!) he was involved in Syrian parliament in the 60s as part of the Bedouin…
The new Annotated Quest features a re-edition of Charles Craver’s article “Horses of the White City”, the most comprehensive article to date on the history of the Hamidie importation of Arabian horses to the Chicago World Fair of 1893. The history of the Hamidie horses themselves and that of the people around them is still shrouded with mystery. One of those people is J.R. Dolbony, who was associated with the importation in some way or other (he hailed from the Dalbani Shi’a Muslim family of Baalbeck in Lebanon today). I have found his testimonies about the Hamidie horses very intriguing, and I believe they should be taken seriously. In a letter to Homer Davenport from 1909 now at the US National Archives, Dolbony made several claims: 1) that he raised the Hamidie import *Mannaky; 2) that both *Mannaky’s sire and dam were of the Ma’naqi strain (hence his name); 3) that both were owned by “Sage el Misrub”, and 4) that *Mannaky was bred by this same “Sage el Misrub”. I have just identified this “Sage el Misrub”. He was none other than Sagr al-Misrub (that ‘r’ at the end of his first name must have been mistaken for an…
When I first opened Volume One of the Syrian Studbook some twenty five years ago, the first thing that struck me was the very limited number of horses that traced to the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe. After all, this powerful and wealthy tribe which is part of the larget ‘Anazah confederation spent its summer quarters in the area directly east of the city of Hama in central Syria. As a result it was familiar to Western travelers and government agents who took off from Aleppo, Damascus or Beirut, in search for Bedouin Arabian horses. Another result of this geographical location was that many of the early desert-bred imports to the West and Egypt, which form the antecedents of many of today’s Arabian horses, hailed from the Sba’ah tribe. Major Roger Upton, for instance, spent some time with Sba’ah leader Shaykh Sulayman Ibn Mirshid in 1874, and bought horses like Kesia, Yataghan and Haidee from his tribesmen. Similarly, Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt visited with Beteyen Ibn Mirshid a few years later and some of their best known early desert imports were bred by the Sba’ah: Queen of Sheba, Meshura, Azrek, Pharaoh, Dajania, Hagar, etc. Some of the horses imported by Homer…
Another daughter of Mach’al, this time a Ma’naqiyah named Cha’lah, also from an old strain of the Dandashi lords of Tal Kalakh. Sire of dam: al-Jazzar, a Kuhaylan Nawwaq; sire of granddam: Ghazwan, a Kuhaylan al-Kharas; pictured with a foal by a partbred stallion. Photographed by my father somewhere in Western Syria, most likely in Tal Kalakh in the late 1970s, and pedigree in his handwriting on the back of the photo. How much I would give for just one of those mares now. There numbered in the low hundreds at the height of the Lebanese national program, before the civil war of 1975-1990. In 1991, there were only 25 mares left, most born between 1965 and 1975. Today, zero left in asil form.
An asil Saqlawiyah, daughter of Mach’al (and hence paternal sister of the stallion Achhal, the sire of the tree mares in the previous entries), from an old strain of the Dandashis (perhaps the Saqlawi Ibn Zubaynah strain tracing to Umm al-Tubul), photographed by my father in Tal Kalakh, Syria, in the late 1970s. She was exported to Qatar during the Lebanese civil war. Many of the best asil Lebanese mares were sent to the Gulf countries, where they were wasted.
While scanning old photos this morning, I happened on these two photos. There is a story to them. One evening in 1985 or 1986, a Lebanese visitor came to see my father in Beirut, and left the two photos behind. He spoke emphatically about his trip to the Syrian Jazirah (Upper Mesopotomia in North Eastern Syria today) and the desert-bred horses he had seen there. I was seven or eight years old, I did not catch much of the conversation but the photos made a lasting impression on me. It was in the middle of the Lebanese civil war, communications between Syria and the part of Lebanon we lived in were infrequent and difficult, and most Lebanese horsemen involved in the Lebanese horse racing scene, including my father, were convinced that no more good, authentic, pure desert-bred horses were left in the Syrian desert, because of the degenerescence of the breed and its contamination by part-bred Arabs from Iraq. “You will only find leftovers there”, my father was once told. These photos and the visitor’s description showed otherwise, just at a time when the Syrian breeders were launching a large-scale effort to register all the horses of the Bedouins. Indeed,…
I had never seen this photo of the Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Bango, bred by the Shammar in 1923, and imported to Algeria by the French government in 1928, from an Egyptian racetrack. The photo was taken from an article on the Algeria stud of Tiaret, which appeared in the magazine Le Sport Universel Illustre N1375 of 1929/07/06. Although French studs did not favor grey horses at the time, Bango left behind 142 offspring in both Algeria and Tunisia, including the stallions Sumeyr, Beyrouth, Titan, Caleh, and the mares Tosca, Salome, Palmyre, El Balaska, Gafsa, Themis, Diyyena, and others that stamped Northern African studs with their quality.
Better resolution photos from the Shuwayman Sabbah stallion Mahboub Halab in France this summer.
I spent some time with my friend Jean-Claude Rajot and his companion Fabienne Vesco and her daughter Severine this past summer. His imported Syrian stallion Mahboub Halab is looking glorious. I have other better photos too.
A photo of the desert bred stallion Telmèse, born in 1903, imported to France by Quinchez in 1912 has surfaced on allbreedpedigree.com. His name is spelled “Telmez” there. There is no strain recorded for Telmese, only that he was an “Asil de la tribu des Chammars”. This marks one of the first usages of the term “Asil” for an Arabian horse in French official records. His most important progeny includes the stallion Djebel Moussa, sent to Tunisia, out of Dragonne, and the mare Medje, out of Dragonne’s daughter Dourka.
The desert-bred Arabian stallion Dahman, born in 1900, imported from Syria to France’s Pompadour stud in 1909 by Quinchez, remains one of the prototypes of the authentic Arabian stallion. He was bred by the Shammar, by a stallion of the Dahman strain, out of a mare of the Rabdan strain. This photo is in a 1923 article from the magazine “Le Sport Universel Illustre”, from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
I spent part of the weekend at Hazaim’s house and small farm in North Carolina, and got to see his five Davenports, four Kuhaylan Haifis and a Hadba Enzahi. The best part was a trail ride around the subdivision, him on Gilad Ibn Dubloon and me on Una CF. Below are two photos of his 2010 Hadba Enzahi mare, Zubaida Assahara (RL Thunder Cloud x RL Angel Girl by Letarnard), with 4 lines to *Hadba. She was in many ways my favorite, despite being the smallest of the lot. A war mare, built like a tank, with a broad chest, a deep girth and a broad, round rib cage, exuding stamina and power, with a pleasing and dry head, a big eye and prominent eye socket, a dry bony face, an elegant arched throat, hair fine like silk, a shiny copper coat, overall not without style, and so reminiscent of the small and valiant desert horses of my childhood in Syria.
More photos, this time from a Syrian village, from this Delcampe.net old memorabilia auction site. I am more and more eager to find the source of these photos, and exactly where and when they were taken.
Enjoy these photos from an auction site, Delcampe.net, which have never been published before. I don’t know their source, but I suspect they were taken during official government buying missions. A breeder from Algeria, Farid Chaoui, shared them with me, and should know more. The legend for some of them say “Hadideen”, the name of a Syrian Bedouin tribe, for others they say “Raqqa”. There are more.
This is “Maanaghieh Safra Marshoosha”, literally “the yellow fleebitten Ma’naqiyah mare” from Bahrain. The photo is from Volume 1 of the Bahrain Studbook, and I think by Danah Al Khalifah. I don’t have it in a better resolution. I need help figuring out whether the mare is sticking her tongue out in the photo. It sounds stupid, but there is a reason for this request: ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, the Fad’aan Bedouin from Syria who owned one of the most reputable XXth century Ma’naqi marbat told Kamal ‘Abd al-Khaliq who told me several years ago that ‘Atiyah once (in the 1950s-60s?) gave a grey/yellow Ma’naqiyah mare to Jad’aan the son of Miqhim Ibn Mhayd who in turn gave her to a senior member of the royal family of Bahrain. ‘Atiyah told Kamal that the mare’s nickname was Umm Lssoon, the ‘mother of tongues’ because she always stuck her tongue out. He also told him that she was closely related to Atiyah’s mare Wadeehah (b. 1970), photo below taken by me at Kamal’s stud outside Aleppo in the early 90s.
This photo, also from Kina Murray, is from the 2007 WAHO conference in Syria, from the post-conference Tour to North Eastern Syria. In Kina’s words: “[This photo] was taken when we had many horses presented to us when we were hosted by the Tai [Bedouins]. She was a lovely mare. […] I do remember that the owner of the mare (sorry I know he was an Ibn Ghorab but dont have his first name) was not only holding his mare so proudly, but also 2 mobile phones, and a large gun which you can just about see in the photo! “ Below a photo I took of Ibn Ghurab’s mares in Rumaylan, North Eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border, two years earlier, in 2005. Click on it to enlarge it. Happy times…
I love this photo of the desert-bred Ubayyah Suhayliyah Reem al-Oud in Bedouin gear with Kina Murray riding. It was taken in the North East Syria in 2002. Here’s Kina’s description of this moment: “Attached is me having a gentle walk on an elderly mare on the trip when we went to do the investigation on all the horses that were added to the studbook, in 2002. […] I can’t remember her strain, possibly Obeyah Seheilieh, I rode her when we visited the home of Sheikh Mezer Ojail Abdull Kareem of the Shammar in Al Hassaka, as far as I recall. One of my best memories ever. In fact she had just taken part in an impromptu 5km race across the desert! Here are a couple of quotes from the report I wrote about that trip: “At the home of Sheikh Mezer Ojail Abdull Kareem of the Shammar in Al Hassaka, a slightly longer race across the desert with about 5 mares taking part was arranged for our entertainment, it seemed that this was a regular activity. One of the mares taking part was 22 years old. The ‘finishing line’ appeared to be exactly where our group was standing, and it…
In the same vein as this note in 2014: Fadlallah Jirjis, a Syrian Christian from the area of Wadi al-Nasara, and a close friend of Dr. Iskandar Qassis, owned a precious Hamdaniyat al-Simri mare from the Qassis herd. He would never be tired of repeating that she was from the breeding of ‘Ajaj (Ajaaaaaaj as he would say it) ibn Shibib, one of the Sba’ah leading Shaykhs. She was a bay daughter of Sahab, the beautiful bay Ma’naqi Abu Sayfayn head stallion of Qassis; her daughter Zabia, was by Qassis’ other stallion, Kharuf, a Ma’naqi Zudghum. Ma’naqi Abu Sayfayn and Ma’naqi Zudghum are the two most precious branches of Ma’naqi Sbayli, the first from the Fad’an and the second from the Sba’ah.
I scanned this archive photo of a famous event among Syrian horse breeders, the Latakia race of 1993, which I attended with my father. Arabians from all over the country and neighboring ones flocked to this national event, the first of its kind on such a scale. This is a photo of the finish line of the eighth and last race, over a distance of 2000 meters. Mokhtar, Basil Jadaan’s black desert-bred Kuhaylah al-Krush, (now in France and turning 30 next year) won the race, with minimal training. Khalid, Mustafa al-Jabri’s Saqlawi Jadran (Mahrous x Khalidah) came a close second. The biggest surprise was the third place (not showing in the first picture, but to the right in the second one) of Hakaya, the black desert-bred Shuwaymah Sabbah of the Sheykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai. She was 15 years old, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Tai Bedouin (the others were ridden by professional jockeys), and without a bit… only a Bedouin halter. Let me write this again to let it sink in: a 15 years old mare, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Bedouin, and without a bit coming third in…
Still digging into photo archives from ten years ago. These two pictures of the beautiful Rishah Shar’abiyah mare of Khudr al-Khawwaf, taken at sunset in October 2005 near Qamishli, Syria are one of them. Her dam is a daughter of al-Aawar, and the strain traces to the marbat of Hawwash al-Hatmi of the ‘Abdah clan of the Shammar.
This is one of the few photos I snapped of the young stallion Al Ameer Dahess (Dahess x Mari by al-Aawar) in Garhok, north-eastern Syria in 2005. He is the sire of the Syrian stallion in France Dahess Hassaka (below).
New scans, taken in 1997, of Wadeehah, 27 years old, the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah from Atiyah Abu Sayfayn at Kamal Abd al-Khaliq outside Aleppo. An outstanding mare, born under a tent, and one of purest in Syria.
I was browsing the internet (I finally got connected a connection set), and I came across an amazing photo of the 2011 stallion Shuwayman Fahad. He is by Mahboob Halab (desert bred lines from Syria) out a Mokhtar (desert bred, Syria) daughter, so 75% desert Syrian lines (and some of the bset) and the grand-daughter is from old French/Tunisian/Algerian lines. He is from Jean-Claude Rajot’s breeding in France and the last I checked, he was owned by Arnault Decroix.
Jose Manuel from Spain sent me these photos of his amazing 1999 Syrian stallion Najm Yarob (Fawaz x Karboujah by Saad x Roudeinah by Mashuj x Jamrah by Awaad x Doumah), a Kuhaylan Krush that is a close relative to the black Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah). Look at this black skin, this muzzle, and this croup! This photo of a survivor and the evocation of the names of the horses above, all of which I have seen, known and liked in my teenage, send shivers through my spine.
Basil Jadaan recently postly this beautiful photo of Mokhtar, the desert bred Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion from Syria, which Basil owned for several years before sending him to France.
It was in early 1928 according to French army officer Victor Muller in his book “En Syrie avec les Bedouins”. Hakim was the leader of the Fad’aan Bedouins when Davenport visited in 1906. Muller is a most reliable source since he was the military and intelligence commander of the “Bedouin country” (the part of Syria inhabited by Bedouins, from Jordan to Turkey and eastwards to Iraq) for several years. Among his feats was the peace treaty between the Fad’aan and the Shammar and the Bedouin conferences of Palmyra and Bu Kamal in the mid-1920s. Muller’s headquarters were in Deyr el-Zor.
Today was one of those days when you receive a bottle you threw in the oceans of your memories ten years ago. Back in 2004, I made a note about a rare book I have long wanted to read or get a hold of. It’s French Army Commandant Victor Muller’s “En Syrie avec les Bedouins: les Tribus du Desert” (Paris, 1931). It’s a complete account of nomadic life in Syria in the early 30s, with references to horse-breeding, strains, and histories of battles during which horses were acquired. In my 2004 note, I was saying that only two copies of that book could be found for sale: one at a bookshop in Nice, France (which turned out to have closed); and another at L’Orientaliste bookshop in Cairo. I left it at that. Yesterday, I found this note, and this morning I entered L’Orientaliste, and asked them where they still had it. They did. I bought it and sent it for binding, as it’s in pretty bad shape. I still can’t believe I bought it, and that I will be able to read it soon (and share it with you). What a treasure.
I don’t know if this stallion of excellent lines is still alive or not, but a reader asked about him. He was bred by Radwan Shabareq in Aleppo, and given to the late Mustafa al-Jabri who used him at stud. I knew him as a newborn, as a colt and as a stallion. His mother bellonged to an old Bedouin, ‘Aboud al-‘Ali al-‘Amoud of al-Uqaydat, who was extremely attached to her, and held her in the highest esteem. He refused to part with her at any cost, despite many offers. He refused to breed her, because he did not think that any stallion he knew was worthy of her in purity or othewise. Yusuf al-Rumaihi, the late Qatari consul in Syria (we are in the mid-1980s), a collector of desert-bred horses and an avid learner and fine connoisseur of desert lines, wanted her at any price, but the old Bedouin would not sell. The mare was getting up in age. He did agree to lease her, and the mare went to Damascus where she was bred to the Egyptian stallion Okaz (Wahag x Nazeemah). She foaled a filly which the Qatari consul retained. After this, the old Bedouin nagged so much…
These Journals are a gold mine. There is not a single horse related entry which does not yield new information about the horses of yesterday and today. Look at this set of entries: July 17, 1911: “In the evening Teddy arrived with the (reported wonderful) bay stallion which Mr. Learmouth took to Australia and brought back not being allowed to land it — he bought the horse at Damascus and H.F. [Wilfrid] went to see it at Tatterstalls where today it was sold for 100 gs. Teddy bidding for H.F. It seems that H.F., if the details of pedigree show it to be genuine, intends to breed from it — the advertisement particulars were not convincing: I saw them in the Morning Post.” July 18, 1911: “The horse is a fine horse but does not carry conviction to me. We shall see what is said of pedigree later. Damascus is not a good starting place nowadays. August 3, 1911: “H.F. sends the bay horse’s certificate asking what I can make of it. The horse does not convince me to look at and as far as I can see there is no date or year on the document not clue…