In a recent post, I was expressing the hope that *Kola, the Arabian mare of French bloodlines imported by W.R. Brown to the USA in 1921, had left some living asil progeny. If that was the case, I had proposed to submit a proposal for her inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster. It now looks like I was being too optimistic. Jeanne Craver was too kind to go through the progeny of *Kola in the AHA Datasource, and just told me that nothing is left that would be otherwise Al Khamsa eligible (i.e., Al Khamsa + *Kola). Everything was “completely wiped out in the *Raffles/*Raseyn movement of the 60s”, wrote Jeanne. Not only is there nothing left from *Kola’s two daughters Fath and Fadih, but nothing remains either from her influential son Kolastra (by Gulastra), and his own son Chepe Noyon (out of Guemura). What a shame.. The mare Hallaba, b. 1970, by HMR Haltak (who by the way also carries rare lines which I think were recently lost to Al Khamsa) was one of the last asil mares carrying a line to *Kola, through Chepe Noyon. Take a look at her stunning pedigree here. One more line gone down…
In 1921-22, W.R. Brown imported a number of Arabian horses from France to the USA, for Army Remount purposes. Two of these horses, the mares *Kola (Latif DB x Destinee by Maksoude DB) and *Balkis II (El Hassan DB x Bedadine by Edhen DB) have left important lines in mainstream US Arabian horse breeding, *Kola through her daughters Fadih (by Sargon) and Fath (by *Rodan), and her son Kolastra (by Gulastra); *Balkis II through her daughter Fenzileh (by *Rodan). Balkis II also came with a colt (*Babel, b. 1921) [correction, *Babel was a filly] by the desert bred stallion Gadban, imported to France in 1902. I don’t know whethe any of *Kola, *Balkis II and *Babel have surviving asil progeny today. It wonder if anyone has gone through the trouble of looking for their progeny from Al Khamsa eligible horses. It would certainly be worthwhile to do so. If they do, I am going to try and put together a submission for inclusion into the Al Khamsa Roster of the following nine desert-bred horses, all of them included in the pedigrees of *Kola, *Balkis II and *Babel: — Latif, a desert-bred a Hamdani from the Fida’an tribe, imported to France in 1909 — Maksoude,…
Louis Bauduin sent me this picture of the stallion Ya’sub in old age. Ya’sub (Shawani x Belkis by Irmak), now deceased, was bred by Jean-Claude Rajot, and owned by James Legros. He combines two of the best Tiaret (the famous French government horsebreeding stud in Algeria) bloodlines: the Shuawyman Sabbah line to Cherifia (b. 1869, bred by the Sba’ah tribe, imported to Tiaret) through his sire Shawani (Saadi x Zarifa); and the Jiflan Dhawi line to Wadha (bred by the Fad’aan tribe, imported to Tiaret in 1875( through his dam Belkis (Imark x Belle de Jour by Iricho).
Je voudrais rappeler le cri d’alarme lancé par Monsieur Robert Mauvy ! : “Renouvelant mon cri d’alarme, mon cri de désespoir ! Il faut absolument et à tout prix sauver ce qui reste du véritable Pur Sang Arabe. Il est impossible de laisser disparaître l’une des plus belles oeuvres du Créateur. Que l’initiative privée, que les amis et admirateurs du Noble Cheval se resserent et prennent en main cette admirable mais dure tâche : Sauver à tout prix le Cheval Arabe ! Je les en supplie car demain … demain il sera trop tard !…” Monsieur Robert Mauvy qui avait plus de quatre vingt années d’expérience a fait éditer un petit livre; oh, non pas un album de photos ni même une encyclopédie mais le contenu en est d’une très grande richesse : “Le Cheval de Pur Sang Arabe” chez Crépin Leblond. Il est très néfaste et dangereux pour la race chevaline entière de vouloir élever l’Arabe en fonction d’une mode ou d’une discipline ! L’Arabe est et doit rester le cheval de chasse et de guerre des nobles Bédouins d’Arabie. c’est le “Don d’Allah”. “L’Arabe de Sang Pur” est fait pour l’attaque et le repli avec ses démarrages, accélérations et arrêts…
I am pleased to introduce Louis Bauduin as a guest blogger on “Daughter of the Wind”. Louis is a passionate preservation breeder, and a devoted enthusiast of true, “real” Arabians horses of old French and North African bloodlines. He was one of the closest disciples to the late masterbreeder Robert Mauvy, who is the main influence on his breeding philosophy (and mine). Louis is the vice-president of the Union pour la Sauvergarde du Cheval Arabe (USCAR) and the owner of Murad Arabians, which was the home of the Mauvy stallions Cherif (Saadi x Zarifa), and Ashwan (Irmak x Shawania).
Laszlo Kiraly kindly sent me this photo of an 1896 aquarel of an unidentified Arab horse at the French government stud of Tarbes. Thanks Laszlo!
I have started working on “Le French Directory” (click here to access) a section of this website dedicated to listing the hundreds of Arabian horses that were imported to France, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from the desert in the XIXth and XXth centuries. This is work in progress. So far there are only stallions, but mares will be added soon. If you have any additional informaiton about some of the horses listed, want to correct faulty information, or wish to add more horses, please send your comments!
Another horse from Egypt that has left his mark on Tunisian breeding is the chestnut Ibn Fayda (Ibn Rabdan x Lady Anne Blunt’s Feyda), a gift from Egypt’s Prince Kemal El Din Hussein to the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet. This chestnut Ibn Fayda, b. 1925, is the full brother of the bay Ibn Fayda, b. 1927 (picture below), who was the sire of the Inshass stallions Adham (xZabia), El Moez (x Bint Zareefa) and Zaher (xZahra). Inshass is Egypt’s King Fuad’s private stable, which had acquired the bay Ibn Fayda from Prince Kemal El Din. The chestnut Ibn Fayda (I’ve never seen a picture) had a long career at Sidi Thabet in Tunisia, where he was noted as a sire of broodmares. One of his daughters, Imama, produced the chestnut masculine stallion Ourour (photo below, by Duc) and another was the grand-dam of the beautiful brown stallion Sumeyr (photo below, by Bango O.A.) both of whom become important government stallions in France (Ourour at Tarbes, and Sumeyr at Pau then Pompadour). Sumeyr is the sire of the pretty Pompadour mare Ablette, featured here.
Nasr, the chestnut [January 23rd: Sporthorse-data lists hims as “brown”, and the French studbook as “bay”] horse pictured below was a desert-bred stallion that was imported to the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet in the 1920s. He was imported from Egypt, where he’d had a good career as a racehorse. French masterbreeder Robert Mauvy, who knew Nasr, referred to him as “the prestigious imported horse Nasr” in one of his books. MIchael Bowling tells me that the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) used a desert bred racehorse by the name of Nasr as a stallion in the 1920s, and that this horse was subsequently exported to Tunisia. He also tells me this horse is the reason why the other more famous *Nasr (Rabdan El Azrak x Bint Yemama) was renamed “Manial”, when he was raced by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik before being exported to the USA. If so, then it seems like the chestnut horse in the picture is the “Nasr, a racehorse” of one of the early EAO studbooks. He left many descendents in Tunisia, and in France, of which Mauvy’s Moulouki is one. Moulouki’s maternal granddam Arabelle is a granddaughter of this Nasr. [Jan 23rd update: He is also…
Niazi is another desert bred stallion imported to France. He may have been part of the last importation before World War, but I am not sure. I don’t know his strain either. What is sure is that he is one of the first French imports whose records show the mention “asil”, a term seldom used before in French horsebreeder circles. The imported stallions Nibeh (from the Fad’aan, featured here), Telmese (from the Shammar), El Moustabel (also from the Shammar), El Nesmeh and Chams are also indicated as being “asil”. Niazi left some Arabian descendents whose lines survive in South America, but not in France. PS: Sorry for my silence of late. Blame it all on Verizon and my home internet connection.
A recent entry featured the beautiful Mauvy stallion Moulouki. Here is a picture I took in 1995 of his son Doum (x Shawania) who like his sire before him, stood at stud at Pierre-Henri Beillard’s Le Sureau (South western France), which is now being dispersed. [Update Jan. 5th, 2009: Doum was also bred by Mauvy]
The magnificent grey stallion pictured below was bred was Robert Mauvy in 1969 near Tours, in France. Mauvy also bred his sire Amri (Saadi x Zarifa) and Amri’s dam Zarifa (Matuvu x Iaqouta). He sold Amri to Idaho in the USA as a three year old, but not before he used him on a couple of his best mares (I actually sometimes wonder if Amri left anything out there). Moulouki‘s dam Izarra, a beautiful grey mare, was a gift to Mauvy from Admiral A. Cordonnier, who certainly maintained the best private Arabian stud in North Africa, near Bizerte in Tunisia. Izarra (by David x Arabelle by Beyrouth) was bred by Cordonnier and so was her dam Arabelle. Their tail female was to Samaria, a grey Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare born in 1882 imported to Pompadour by Mr. de Ganay in 1887. Ganay bought Samaria for 8,000 Francs (an enormous amount!) from Khalid Bey al-As’ad of Taybeh, a village now located in Southern Lebanon. The al-A’sad were until the 1970s the overlords of South Lebanon and the most powerful family among this area’s Shi’a population. The older al-A’sad lords were known to maintain a small stud of Arabians that they’d usually acquire…
Part 1 introduced the young stallion Menjad Maram al-Baida, whose sire and dam were imported from Syria to France. Some people would refer to this horse as a “Straight Syrian”. I don’t like this phrase, nor any term with “Straight”. Others who know more than I do don’t seem to like it either. [Incidentally I wonder whether the descendants of the Arabian horses imported to the USA by H. Davenport would qualify. And the Tunisian, Algerian and French horses too. All these folks imported most if not all their horses from Syria]. We had left off with Manjam’s maternal great granddam Marwah, a Saqlawiyah Jadaniyah straight from the marbat of Ibn Amud, arguably the most authentic desert-bred marbat of Saqlawi Jadran in the second half of the twentieth century. More about this marbat in a subsequent entry dedicated to this strain. I first saw Marwah at Basil’s in 1990, when I took the (rather poor) picture above. A very small mare (you can tell from the way her handler is holding her bridle in the picture), with a strong girth, high withers, a very short back, a flat croup, a round hindquarter, she conveyed an overall appearance of roundness and sturdiness that was reminiscent of the descriptions I had read of…
Recently I became aware of the existence of a young bay stallion of desert-bred stock that was bred in France, where he is now standing at stud. The name of this young stallion is Menjad Maram al-Baida, and his strain is Saqlawi Jadran (photo below, from his owners website). Menjad was bred by Mrs. Chantal Chekroun, and sired by the black stallion Mokhtar out of the bay mare Hijab. Both Mokhtar and Hijab were owned by Basil Jadaan in Damascus, Syria, then by Mrs. J. Menning to whom Basil gave them, and are now owned by Mrs. Chekroun. Mrs. Chekroun sold Menjad to Sophie and Dominique Balthasar of the Haras de la Lizonne, and still retains a full sister. A sketchy pedigree of Menjad looks like this: Awaad (S. Shaifi x Mumtazah) Mokhtar …
A previous entry had discussed how the young children of Shammar Shaykh (and prominent Syrian politician) Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba lost the ownership of their father’s prestigious marbat of Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida strain upon the latter’s death (late 1960s? early 1970s?), and how the man Mayzar had entrusted with his assets took the horses for himself. That man was a Bedouin from the Faddaghah section of the Shammar tribe, by the name of ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, and was also known as al-Qartah. Al-Qartah bred Mayzar’s horses until the mid-1980s, continuing the practice of close inbreeding that Mayzar (and perhaps Mayzar’s father and grandfather before him) had been practising before. The grey Mumtazah was Iyadah al-Qartah’s main broodmare. Both her parents were bred by Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarbah, and all four grandparents were from the same Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida strain. It’s not clear whether Mumtazah was bred by ‘Iyadah al-Qartah, or whether she was taken by him from Mayzar’s estate as a foal. An impressive mare with a crested neck not unlike the Godolphin Arabian (see my picture of her in old age, below), Mumtazah produced the bay mare Doumah, also by a Kuhaylan al-Krush (maybe a full brother), and the grey…
Jean-Claude Rajot just sent me this rare photo of the important desert bred stallion El Managhi, bought in 1923 in Hama (central Syria) by veterinary Dr. Bardot for the Algerian stud of Tiaret. The stallion Bango, bought in Alexandria was part of the same importation. There is another picture of him in F. Klynstra’s book “Nobility of the desert”. Note that according to R. Mauvy, there is no indication that his strain was Ma’naghi, as his name may suggest. Most Tunisian Arabians now include his blood yet El Managhi’s most important product was perhaps the Asil Jilfat Dhawi mare Saponnaire, dam of Bassala which was acquired by the Pompadour stud in France. Here is an incomplete list of El Managhi’s progeny.
Question : Quand a eu lieu la dernière razzia en Syrie ? Réponse : La dernière razzia a eu lieu en 1943, des Shammar sur les Sba’ah. Ils sont partis d’ici (Hassakè ou al-Hassakah) avec 100 cavaliers le matin. Ils sont tombés sur le campement Sba’ah distant de 40 miles, à midi. Tous les cavaliers étaient de retour dans l’après-midi. Question : Vous voulez dire dans la nuit ? Réponse : Non, non dans l’après-midi. Je me suis permis d’insister : mais vers les 8 ou 9 heures du soir ? Réponse empreinte d’un certain agacement : Non dans l’après-midi vers les cinq heures ! Voilà ce qu’aux yeux des Bédouins leurs chevaux pur sang sont à même de faire naturellement. Il est à noter qu’à l’heure actuelle cette moyenne horaire correspond à ce que l’on fait avec les 4×4 en dehors des pistes.
This morning I was talking to Jean-Claude Rajot over the phone and I asked him if he would agree to write on Daughter of the Wind. I didn’t think he would, but I still asked. He agreed. And I am happy he did. Jean-Claude, a French breeder of Arabian horses, is the president of USCAR (Union pour la Sauvergarde du Cheval Arabe). USCAR is a grassroots preservationnist organization of the old kind (the good kind), in many ways the French version of the US-based Al Khamsa. Jean-Claude was also a disciple and one of the closest people to master breeder Robert Mauvy, during the last 11 years of Mauvy’s life. Mauvy called Jean-Claude “mon fils” (‘son’). Jean-Claude and friend Louis Bauduin, USCAR’s vice-president, owned several of Mauvy’s horses. Their offspring now constitute the nucleus of their breeding programs. Mauvy’s teachings have had a most profound influence on me. His small book “Le Cheval Arabe” is my Arabian horse Bible since I was ten. One of the book’s photos features the stallion Cherif (by Saadi x Zarifa, by Matuvu), bred by Mauvy in 1967. A chapter of the book is dedicated to the nursing of Hamada (by Irmak x Shawania by Amri),…
“Excellent horse, but his grey color makes him unusable”. So the French government, prompted by the cavalry’s dislike of the color grey, sold the stallion Burgas to Poland in 1923, without using him. Burgas, a Saqlawi Jadran by a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, born in 1907, was one of 20 Arabian stallions imported to France in 1914, just before World World One. Of these, ‘Adwan, Ghoumar, Madfah, Nazim, Taleb, and Burgas went to the stallion depot of Pau, in southern France. Below are pictures of the last two. The sale of Burgas was a obviously a mistake, since he went on to sire Federacja for the Poles. She was the dam of Witez II. Taleb, a Ma’naghi Sbayli, sired the stallion Rabat, who is the represented in the pedigree of the handsome stallion Nichem.
One more French desert-bred import. This one is Nibeh. All I know about him is that he was bred by the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe and imported to France in 1912, where he stood at the government stud of Tarbes (one of the three main Arabian stallions depots in France, with Pau and Pompadour). If anyone knows anything else about him, please let me know. I am trying to compile a list as comprehensive as possible of the desert-bred Arabians imported to France that still have descendents alive today (Asil or not). Not sure all would qualify as Asil (the criteria being the existence of good original documentation), but many probably would. Notice the nice, prickled ears this one has. Nibeh was the sire of Nedjari, exported from France to the Breniow stud in Poland.
Musette (b. 1932), a Saqlawiyah by strain, is a good specimen of the Asil Arabians bred by the French government stud of Pompadour in the first half of the twentieth century. She reminds me of some of the first and second generation offspring of the horses imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. She was by the desert import El Sbaa (strain: Ju’aitni) out of Musotte, who was by the famous Dahman (strain: Rabdan, sire: a Dahman) out of Mysterieuse. Mysterieuse was by yet another desert bred stallion, Enwer – a Ma’naghi, bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe like Dahman, and like him imported to France in 1909 – out of Mysie. Mysie was by the desert-bred Beni Kaled, a chestnut Hamdani, out of the imported desert-bred mare Meleke. Meleke was imported to Pompadour in 1891, a Saqlawiyah by a Ma’naghi, himself by a Hamdani Simri (or by a Hamdani Simri by a Ma’naghi, the French importation records are ambiguous). This precious line has unfortunately completely died out by the 1940s, and only survives in the middle of the pedigrees, through the Asil stallions Matuvu, and Minos. Matuvu (by El Sbaa out of Manon, by Dahman out of Mysterieuse), stood at…
In 1909, a French government commission led by Inspector Quinchez bought 24 desert-bred stallions from the Egyptian racetrack of Sidi Gaber in Alexandria. Of these, 17 went to Algeria (then a part of France), and the remaining 7 were distributed in government studs across mainland France. The seven were: Dahman, Meenak, Farid, Aslani, Hamdany El Samry, Latif and Maarouf. The magnificent Dahman, to which this blog paid a tribute some time ago, was no doubt the star of this importation. Dahman’s hujja – which I will translate for you soon – tells us that he was bred by the Shammar tribe, from a Dahman sire and a Rabda dam. He stood at Pompadour for twenty-some years, leaving behind many pretty Asil mares like Ninon (picture below), Melinite, Musotte, and Noble Reine, and some excellent stallions, one of which, Minos (x Melisse) was sent to the King of Morocco. Today Minos appears in many modern Moroccan pedigrees. If Dahman was the most striking, Aslani was the French breeders’ favorite. He originally came from the tribe of Bani Sakhr, by a Ubayyan and a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz. Quinchez had to pay the hefty sum of 8,000 Francs to snatch him away from Alexandrian trainer and racehorse owner Michaelides – the same individual who…
In the spirit of continuing to pick on French “Arabians”, here is an old picture of Gosse d’Avril (Gosse du Bearn x Fleur d’Avril), a horse any English Thoroughbred breeder would want to own..
It’s been some time I have been saying that I will write a post about this French Arabian stallion, by the desert import Latif, from the Fad’aan tribe, out of the French-bred mare Djaima, by Khouri also an import from the Fad’aan. That article will come soon, I promise. Meanwhile, here is Denouste, a Mukhallad by strain, pictured as a youngster.
On paper, this stallion looks okay. I mean he has the pedigree of an Arabian horse. But he is not. He is an Anglo-Arab in disguise. Ba-Toustem (Djerba Oua x Bacchantara, at least that’s what his papers say) was born in France, at a time when Arabians raced in the same same races as Anglo-Arabs and English Thoroughbreds, with a weight “discount”. Ba-Toustem (check out his picture on allbreedpedigree.com, pretty typey, eh?) is the result of what French purist breeders call the “midnight breedings”. Arabian mares mated to Anglo-Arabian stallions. Their products registered as Arabians, with Arabian sires as a fig-leaf. Raced against Anglo-Arabians, and English Thoroughbreds [correction: only against anglos; thank you Jean-Marc di Francesco]. Then used as stallions on pure Arab mares. And the story goes on, and on, and on. The few French purist breeders that stood against such widespread practices were silenced. And WAHO accepted these horses. What a shame. From now on, “Daughter of the Wind” will seek to escalate the debate on purity by featuring a regular series called “This is not an Arabian horse”, with the aim of “naming and shaming” those horses that should not even be called Arabians. Photo of Ba-Toustem courtesy of Pierre-Henri…
WARNING: DON’T READ ON UNLESS YOU ARE A PEDIGREE FREAK OR INTEND TO BECOME ONE. Of the Arabian horses bred in the three North African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, the latter is the only one that did not develop its own “brand” of Arabians. Rather, Morocco relied on importations from its two North African neighbors as well as France and Egypt. Lets look at the pedigree of a typical modern Moroccan-bred Arabian horse: Fata, a chestnut stallion of the Jilfan Dhawi strain imported in utero from Morocco to France in 1976. Fata’s dam Tobiha was actually sold by the Moroccan Government stud of Meknes to French breeder jean Deleau, the founder of Haras de la Lizonne, in Western France. Fata is by El Sud El Aaly (Nazeer x Lateefa), an Asil stallion born in Egypt and gifted to the King Mohamed V of Morocco (a full brother to SF Ibn Nazeer, by the way). Fata’s dam Tobiha is by Burhan (Morafic x Mona by Sid Abouhoum x Moniet el Nefous), another Egyptian Asil, and also a present from Egypt to the Moroccan King. Fata’s maternal granddam, Mousson is by Murols, a stallion bred at the French stud of Pompadour and imported from France…
Looks like my recent series of entries on Tunisian Asil Arabian horses has sparked a good discussion on Straightegyptians.com, which by the way, I am not subscribed to. I wish I had enough time to contribute to it, but there are only so many hours in a day, and besides, I am pretty certain my boss would fire me.. Still, a couple points on that discussion, if I may: the horses of the stud of La Lizonne are from Moroccan lines, not Tunisian. The stallion El Sudd El Aaly (Nazeer x Lateefa), a full brother of SF ibn Nazeer (Lateef) was sent from Egypt to the King of Morocco as a gift, and never went to Tunisia.. Also, I have promised the readers of this blog an aricle on the Denouste issue, which I hope will shed some light on the status of this horse (i.e., whether he is Asil or not, which would have many implications on the status of many French and North African Arabians). This article in under preparatin, so stay tuned.
Some of you have emailed me privately with questions about French and North African Asil Arabians of the past and the present. Thank you for your messages. It is nice to see that there is interest in these horses. I reread the posts I have been writing on French Asil horses to refresh my memory. Most are “gloom and doom”, with words like “lost” and “last” all over the entries’ titles. The sad reality is that this grim assessment is true, and that French Asil are on the brink of extinction, despite the enormous number of desert horses imported to France and to its former North African possessions over the last two centuries. Arabian horse in France were – and are still – bred by two categories of breeders: the Government and private breeders. Since Napoleon’s time and until WWII, the French government has been importing and maintaining desert Arabian stallions in stallion depots across the country, as well as a small herd of broodmares in the stud of Pompadour. Arabian stallions and, to a lesser extent Arabian mares, were bred to English Thoroughbreds to produce Anglo-Arabs, a breed France is credited for creating and developing. A small nucleus of…
Another picture of the magnificent Tunisian Asil stallion Irmak (Aissaoui x Leila by Duc), bred by Anatole Cordonnier in Tunisia in 1959 and exported to France. I posted another picture of Irmak here. Irmak was a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz by strain. Photo courtesy of P. H. Beillard, of the stud of Le Sureau in France.
Arabian horse strains as we know them today (i.e., family names of horses transmitted through the dam) are about 350 years old, and perhaps more, but we don’t how much more, because of the lack of written sources. The earliest mention of Arabian horses strains in Western Literature occurs in one of the several travel accounts of France’s Chevalier d’Arvieux (b. 1635 – d. 1702), “Voyage a la Palestine”. Published in Paris in 1717, it was translated into English in 1718 and published in London as “Travels in Arabia the Desart”, sixteen years after d’Arvieux death. Chapter XI, “Of the Arab Horses” has the following mention: “A Marseilles Merchant that liv’d at Rama, was Part’ner so in a Mare with an Arab whose Name was Abrahim Abou Vouasses: This Mare, whose name was Touysse, besides her Beauty, her Youngness, and her Price of Twelve hundred Crowns, was of that first noble Race. That Merchant had her whole Genealogy, with her Descent both of the Sire’s and Mother’s side, up to Five hundred Years of antiquity, all from public Records…” “Touysse”, the colloquial form of Tuwayssah, is clearly the earliest mention of any strain in Western literature. “That first noble race” refers to the “Kehhilan”, (or Kuhaylan…
Louis Damoiseau was born in 1775 in Chartres (France). In 1818 France interior minister M. Laine sent M. de Portes to Syria on the head of a mission to buy some 40 Arab Stallions. The aim was to replace the Arab and Oriental stallions bought by Napoleon and taken from the Imperial French Studs in 1814 and 1815 by the European armies who had invaded France (Prussians, Austrians, Hungarians). Louis Damoiseau was the veterinary of the mission, which bought 40 stallions and some mares from the Syrian Desert, Aleppo, and the Lebanese coast until Acre. Some legendary names like ”Massoud” the founder of the French Anglo-Arab race and ”Nichab” Lady’s Stanhope’s mare. When he returned to France Damoiseau wrote a book edited in 1833. One of the many interesting things in the book is a testimony of life in Aleppo, Tripoli, Beirut, Damascus, Saida, etc.. Plus families that Edouard, his father and myself know; The way in which the horses were medically treated or defigured to hide them from a greedy Turkish pasha, and the presence of many non-arab horses at that that time are also interesting aspects. Moreover, apart the love letters (in French) Count Rzewuski sent to Lady Stanhope, we have a third party testimoning on the Count’s horses…
Several recent blog entries have mentioned the Arabian mare Bucolique (Besbes x Berthe by Irmak). Bucolique is arguably one of the few remaining Asil mares of French bloodlines still in breedable age. She was born in 1982, so that window of opportunity is closing fast. Bucolique is not quite representative of “Old French” bloodlines: both her sire Besbes and her maternal grandsire Irmak (a gorgeous horse of the most classic type, pictured below) were born in Tunisia (at Sidi Thabet and Sidi Bou Hadid, respectively), and her maternal granddam Bassala was born in Algeria (at Tiaret). All three were subsequently imported to the French goverment stud of Pompadour, where they conspired to produce Bucolique and her full sister Best, pictured below. Best’s picture was sent to me by her owner Rose Cambon. Best, born in 1981, was still alive in 2006, but had stopped breeding. She is pensioned at Jean Cambon’s stud in South-Western France, after having produced a string of race winners in France and the United Arab Emirates, none of them by Asil stallions (I am being polite here: saying that some of these stallions are non-Asil is a euphemism). At the time, Ms. Cambon was open to the idea of trying to breed here again, this time…
According to noted French breeder and author Nicole de Blomac, in this article (in French), France imported 230 mares and 720 stallions from the desert up to 1945. Of course this includes French imports to Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. . Where have all these horses gone?
A previous post listed the strain of the desert-bred Asil Arabian stallion El Sbaa as Ma’naghi. That’s the strain France’s premier purist Arabian horse breeder Robert Mauvy attributed to him in one of his books. A manuscript note, found in El Sbaa’s file in the archives at the government’s Pompadour stud, and cited by Nicole de Blomac and Denis Bogros in their masterpiece “L’Arabe: Premier Cheval de Sang” (Paris, 1978), says otherwise. Note #1244, which bears the handwriting of Inspector Rieu de Madron, who imported El Sbaa at an Egyptian racetrack, can be roughly translated as follows: “According to the testimony of Barjas Ibn Nederi, the leader of the ‘Abdah tribe [one of the two main sections of the Sba’ah tribe] and of Nawaf al-Salih, the leader of the Hadidiyyin tribe, the Ju’aitni family to which El Sbaa belongs, is a branch of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, not a branch of the Saqlawi, as I had understood before. Horses from the J’aitni strain are very rare now. One needs to look for them among the ‘Anazah Bedouins who never left Najd.” So El Sbaa is of the Ju’aitni strain after all. Note that the confusion about the origin of the strain persists…
The entries on the French Asil Arabian horses continue to generate a lot of interest. To some, the photos of classic specimen of Arabians horses were like an eye opener, shedding light on Asil breeding in a country that has imported hundreds of desert bred stallions and mares from Arabian, and set up large-scale breeding ventures that go on in three other countries (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco). Some of the comments I received go a step further, and ask practical questions, for example about what can be done to save the remnants of these horses, before it is too late. Here is a lead: While I was still based in France, I tried to lease one of the last Asil mares, Bucolique (Besbes x Berthe by Irmak), a gorgeous 1981 bay mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain, and the dam of many racehorse champions, with the aim of breeding her to Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui), a 1983 chestnut stallion of the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain . Her owner, Jean-Marie Baldy, of the Haras du Cayrou in the Cantal area of central France, was willing to lease her, and the owners of Rubi de la Mouline were also willing to…
He reminds of a mythological creature, with flowing lines, and a graceful way of carrying himself. The best blood of North Africa flows in this horse’s veins… Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma) is a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, tracing to the desert-bred mare Samaria, imported to France in 1887 by M. De Ganay, then exported to Tunisia, where her line bred on.
Rubi de la Mouline (Ilamane x Hamma by Raoui) is a 1983 Asil Arabian stallion of old Tunisian bloodlines. His sire Ilamane (David x Berriane) was from the stud of Admiral Anatole Cordonnier in Tunisia. Ilamane was one of several hugely influential stallions bred by Mr. Cordonnier. Others include: Esmet Ali (Hazil x Arabelle), the cornerstone of modern Tunisian breeding; David (Hazil x Salome); Aissaoui (Beyrouth x Cherbia); Iricho (David x Chanaan); Irmak (Aissaoui x Leila); Inchallah (Madani x Gafsa); the last three were imported to France, where they contributed to (short-lived) revival of Asil Arabian breeding. Rubi was imported from Tunisia in utero. Picture taken in 2006.
Algeria was a French colony from 1830 to 1848, and an integral part of France from 1848 till its indepedence in 1962, following one of the bloodliest colonial wars. The conquest of Algeria by France was extremely long and arduous, and could only completed by 1900, when the latest of the Tuareg chiefs (ethnic Berbers, not Arabs) surrendered to French troops. Horses were a major factor in the conquest and stabilization of Algeria. In 1877, the French Ministry of War (the equivalent of a Department of Defense), established a breeding stud near the town of Tiaret, in the mountains of central Algeria. The objective of the “Jumenterie de Tiaret”, which later became the “Haras de Tiaret-Chaouchaoua“, was to produce Arabian stallions, which were sent to local stallion depots, where they were used on Barb mares. The result was a sturdy Arab-Barb cavalry horse. Hundreds of Arabian stallions and dozens of mares were imported to Tiaret (and its equivalent in neighboring Tunisia, Sidi-Thabet) from the deserts of Arabia and the racetracks of Egypt and Lebanon. Depending on the expertise of the horse-buying commission and its budget, imports ranged from the outstanding to the mediocre. Overall, Algeria received much better quality desert-bred imports than Tunisia or even France. Outstanding genitors included: Bango, a grey Ma’anaghi…
Look at the picture of the magnificent El Sbaa below: a French government commission led by M. Rieu de Madron purchased this Asil Ma’anaghi Sbayli stallion straight from the desert [correction: from Cairo, Egypt] in 1925. El Sbaa stood at the Stud of Pompadour, France, but he was ill suited for its humid climate, so he developed a form of asthma and died a few years later. He left too few offspring behind, including the stallions Nemer (out of Ninon), Khartoum (out of Kioumi), the full borthers Medard and Meat (out of Medea), and the dark brown stallion Matuvu (out of Manon). Nemer was exported to Poland, and Khartoum to Romania, where they both started famous racing lines that endure to this day (although not in Asil form). Meat was retained for the Stud of Pompadour, where he took over from his sire, and Matuvu was sent to the stallion depot of Blois, where only a handful Arabian horse breeders used him. Two Asil lines to El Sbaa survived well into the 1970s: one old French dam-line at Pompadour, and another Algerian dam-line with the French breeder Robert Mauvy. At Pompadour, the last Asil to carry a line to El Sbaa was the very typey mare Ablette (by…
This is one of my favorite old pictures. The horse pictured is Dahman, a dark chestnut stallion bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe in 1905, and sold to a French horse-buying commission led by Inspecteur Quinchez in 1909. Dahman was a herd sire for the Shammar prior to his importation to France. He was by a stallion of the Dahman strain out of a mare from the Rabdan strain. Al-Rabdah is one of the many families of Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, but somehow the Kuhaylan part is frequently dropped from the strain’s name, and the horses are simply referred to as Rabdan (fem. Rabdah). Dahman stood at the French government stood of Pompadour until he was 25, and sired some of the best Arabians of his day. Unfortunately, there are no Asil horses tracing to Dahman left today. [Correction, Jan. 06th, 2009: well, maybe there are]
The presence of a French mare of Algerian/Tunisian bloodlines in my top ten list of best Asil Arabian mares ever bred has achieved its (undeclared) goal: it has sparked an interesting and lively debate about the Asil status of these bloodlines and their place within the broader community of Asil Arabian horses. Such a debate was way overdue, in my opinion. Yet before delving into a discussion of these little-known Asil Arabians, let me share with you a few pictures of some of these horses, to give you a feel for what they look like. Below is the magnificent Nichem, a 1970 Asil stallion, bred in France from Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines. Nichem was by Iricho and Caida, who was Rabat and Salammbo, by Bango. Nichem’s sire Iricho was born in Tunisia in 1959 at the stud of French Navy Admiral – and otherwise master Arabian horse breeder – Anatole Cordonnier, who sold him to the French government a few years later. Iricho subsequently stood at the Haras de Pompadour for most of his breeding career. Although a horse of excellent conformation and irreproachable bloodlines, Iricho was shunned by French Arabian (?) horse breeders who preferred taller stallions of racing (i.e., highly dubious) bloodlines. In addition to a number of…
It tends to change every other day. For what it’s worth, here is today’s top ten: 1. Reem al-Oud, (Ubayyan Suhayli x Ubayyah Suhayliyah) desert bred from the Shammar tribe, born ca. 1980 2. Reema, (Ma’anaghi Sbayli x Hamdaniyah Simriyah) desert bred from the Aqaydat , born ca. 1975 3. Jauza, (Dahman Shawan x Kuhaylat al-Krush) desert bred from Mutayr, born ca. 1910, imported by Lady Anne Blunt to her Sheykh Obeyd farm in Egypt 4. Bismilah (Besbes x Berthe), a Jilfat al-Dhawi, bred by the French government at the Pompadour stud, born ca. 1985 5. Sahmet (Hadban Enzahi x Jatta), from the strain of Murana, bred by the German government at the Marbach stud, born ca. 1960 6. *Turfa, (Ubayyan al-Hamrah x Kuhaylat al-Khorma), bred by Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud at the Al-Khorma stud, imported to the USA by Henri Babson, born ca. 1930 7. *Bint Maisa al-Saghirah (Nazeer x Maisa) , a Dahmah Shahwaniyah, bred by the Egyptian government (the Egyptian Agricultural Organization) at the al-Zahraa stud, born ca. 1950 8. Sayfia, desert bred from the Fad’aan tribe (Ma’naghi Sbayli x Ma’anaghiyah Sbayliyah), born ca. 1985 9. LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla), a Kuhaylah, bred by Carol Lyons, born ca. 1980 10. Ceres (Aramis x Dharebah),…
.. is Naziha, an Asil Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from Tunisia. That this small North African country is home to such classic specimen of Asil Arabians as Naziha may come as a surprise to some, yet Tunisia harbors one of the best collections of Asil Arabians anywhere. Most Tunisian Asils trace to desert-bred horses imported from Arabia by the French. The French? France occupied Tunisia in 1881, but kept the local ruling family in place. The ruling family owned a small stud of Arabian horses in the town of Sidi-Thabet, to the southwest of the capital city of Tunis, which the French overtook and expanded. The stud of Sidi Thabet specialized in breeding Asil Arabians using original desert stock imported from the Arabian desert. The resulting Tunisian Asils were either raced or bred to Barbs to produce an Arab-Barb cross that was highly appreciated by the French cavalry units stationed in North Africa. When the French finally withdrew in 1956, the newly independent Tunisian goverment took over Arabian horse breeding at Sidi-Thabet, following the French’s footsteps, but many fine horses went to France with the returning European settlers. More horses went to France in the 1960s, and 1970s. Naziha was one of those. She was raced in Tunisia before being exported to France. I took this photo of her at the farm of her owner Pierre-Henri Beillard, in 1995.…
Why am I starting this “Strain of the Week” series with this particular strain? Shameless promotion. Kuhaylan Hayfi just happens to be the strain of my Asil Arabian mare, Wisteria CF, which also gives me an excuse to display her picture. There are other reasons, too: many Asil Arabian horsebreeders are familiar with the strain, as a result of the importation of the desert-bred Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare *Reshan to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. *Reshan went on to become one of the foundation mares of Arabian horse breeding in America, and left hundreds of Asil descendants in this country, most of which belong to the Davenport group, like Wisteria CF. (For those of you who have been living on the moon for the past half-century, the term “Davenport” refers to those Asil Arabians descended exclusively from the desert-bred Asil Arabian horses imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906, and from a few others desert-breds he’d owned prior to this importation). Back to the strain itself, of which *Reshan is only the most famous desert-bred representative. First, how old is it? Youthful as strains go, Kuhaylan Hayfi ‘only’ goes back to the second half of the nineteenth century: the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which collects Bedouin testimonies about Arabians horses up to ca. 1850, makes no mention of it. …