Category: General

The other morning on my way to work, I stopped at the main gate of the Manial Palace and took a walk in the garden. The palace itself, now a museum, has been closed for seven years, and is scheduled to reopen to the public in a couple months (says the guard at the entrance). Few places in the history of the Arabian horse carry as much significance as this place.

This post builds on the previous one below, about the Tunisian racing stallion Okba (1983-2006). Here is an initial list (in no order) of the desert-bred foundation horses in his pedigree, which I will keep updating as I move on: 1. Dynamite II, ca. 1920 (Hamdani x Tayyara), to Sidi Thabet 2. Tamerlan, a Dahman, to Sidi Thabet, imp. 1910 3. Goutta, to Tiaret, born 1884, imp 1889 4. Cheboub, a Hadban Enzahi born in 1872, to Tiaret 5. Zerga, to Tiaret, born in 1873 sire “Seglawi Regibi”, dam “Chouémé” (Shuwaymah) 6. Ibech, bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins, to Sidi Thabet, born 1891, i,p. 1896 7. Assacoulai, sire of Ould Assacoulai who was born in 1878 at Sidi Thabet 8. Anazaouia, dam of Ould Assacoulai 9. Harami, to Pompadour, imp. 1872-76 10. Dolma Batche, a Jilfa, to Pompadour “from Constantinople”, born in 1869, imp. 1876, chestnut. 11. Khamil, born 1894 imp. to Tiaret in 1898 (with Aziz and Salamie) 12. Ramses II, “from Syria”, sire “Kehelan El-Boulad”; dam “Hamdanie”, to Pompadour in the 1880s 13. Samaria, a Kuhaylah Ajuz, from Khalid Bey al-Assaad, in Taybeh, Lebanon, bought for 8,000 francs, to Pompadour in 1887 by M. de Gaanay, to Sidi…

    The photo and info are from the Khamsat magazine, Volume 6, Number 3, July 1989  

This morning I stumbled upon an erudite and thoroughly researched paper by Dr. Shihab al-Sarraf of the International Center of Furusiyyah [Horsemanship] Studies on “Mamluk Furusiyyah Literature and Its Antecedents”, published at the University of Chicago’s Mamluk Studies Review, VIII-1-2004. It is the most comprehensive review to date of the Islamic literature on horses and horsemanship from early to late medieval times. The following passage in this paper sparked my interest: “The main body of Arab philological works on horses was written in Iraq during the period from the latter half of the second/eighth century to the end of the first half of the fourth/tenth century. These works included both comprehensive and specific treatises. Of the former type, commonly titled Kitab al-Khayl, more than twenty treatises were written, all deemed lost except four. These are Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Ubaydah Ma‘mar ibn al-Muthanná (d. 209/824); Kitab al-Khayl by al-Asma‘i (d. 216/831); Kitab al-Khayl by Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-‘Utbi (d. 228/842), and Kitab al-Khayl by Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280/893). The last two treatises are still in manuscript and the fate of their extant copies, presumably kept in a private collection, is uncertain. In any case, the basic and unmatched contributions in this domain remain the above first…

Here is a photo of his son Brassicaire out of the wonderful Jilfat al-Dhawi mare Bossa Nova (Iricho x Bassala by Masbout)  

Photo from Olivia Greene. We are trying hard to find Bint Jadiba (Ibn Tirf x Jadiba), the foal in the picture. She was alive as of two years ago.

 Il est décevant de constater qu’effectivement la politique d’élevage à Tiaret obliqua très vite aux abords de l’année 1970 ! Il est à noter que deux mâles de trois ans furent exportés à Cuba en 1964 !? Il s’agit de : GUEM par Beyrouth et Alouta par Loubieh et Mesqa par Masbout (OR). GUEDACH par Masbout (OR) et Jezza par Bango (OR) et Maana par Safita (OR) !!! L’Algérie a importé en 1970 : De France : 1 étalon (fils de Ourour) De Suède : 6 étalons 8 juments L’Algérie a importé en 1979 : D’Angleterre : 3 étalons 3 juments De Suède : 2 étalons 4 juments Bilan fait seulement jusqu’en 1982 ! Depuis, je n’ai plus d’informations précises si ce n’est que je sais que de nombreux chevaux de tous poils sont importés de France pour les courses et je ne sais quoi d’autre. Nous leur envoyons semble-t-il nos excédants à bas prix, ce qui doit faire les beaux jours de certains maquignons. Je ne peux croire à un tel désastre, en la disparition d’un pur chef d’œuvre de conscience, travail minutieux et exemplaire de sélection sévère et intelligente de plus d’un siècle, anéanti en quelques années !? Toutes ces précieuses lignées pures adultérées par ces chevaux nordiques tous plus…

Anyone knows the exact location of the Sheykh Obeyd stud in today’s Cairo? It is supposed to be half way between the neighborhoods of Matarieh and Ain Shams, but I need a street address.

Last week, my beloved 28 year old Ma’naqi Sbayli mare, Dakhala Sahra, was put down. She had a stroke, which had left her moving in circles from point A to point B, instead of straight lines. I saw footage of this, which I will not share here out of deference for her. I had never seen anything like this before. The story of this mare is one of missed opportunities, since I first tried breeding her in 2010. With her breeder Jeanne Craver, and former owner Kathy Busch, we tried everything: ET, AI, live cover after treating her uterus cysts. Nothing worked. I feel guilty because the Ohio vet I chose for her ET was incompetent and inexperienced. I felt I had a window there. She is one of very few asil mares left with a tail female to Haidee of Captain Roger Upton (I have serious issues with those that trace to *Bint Shams in the middle of the pedigree, by the way), and has the most beautiful pedigree of all the mare I have owned. Imagine this: a daughter of Plantagenet, who is a grand-daughter of Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah), a great-grand-daughter of Julyan (Julep x Bint Maaroufa),…

I have previously written twice and in some detail about the desert-bred stallion El Sbaa imported to France in the 1920s (here and here). It turns out that the strain of the horse is Kuhaylan J’aitni (that’s from his file at Pompadour) and that he was purchased by French Inspector Rieu de Madron from Ahmad Ibish’s stables in Alexandria (that’s from de Madron’s book). The wiki website Allbreedpedigree.com has his dam as “El Ghermith A Kuhaylah Juatany” and his sire as a “Maneghi Sbyeli”. Does anyone know where this specific information comes from? do we know his breeder? Also Teymur made the interesting suggestion that he might be the El Sabaa sire of Hamdan Stables’ El Gadaa, who appears in Hamdan’s studbook.  

The interior of this historical landmark of Cairo was burned down by vandals on February 1, 2013. With it will disappear one of Cairo’s most storied and opulent residences, as well as a small part of the story of the Egyptian Arabian horse. See article here.      

From the British Journal of the Arab Horse Society, 1935-1938, p. 168, under “Royal Gifts of Arabian Horses”: In December 1937, 4 Arabian horses and 4 camels were unloaded from the liner Mantola at the Royal Albert Docks, London. They were presented by His Majesty King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia to His Majesty the King, as a token of friendship and in appreciation to the hospitality given to his son and heir at the Coronation. The contingent consisted of two stallions and two mares. Brief particulars of these horses are given below: 1. Manak (1928) […] 2. Kasim (1934)  […] 3. Tarfa (1935), a grey mare, of great quality and a nice mover. Her sire is an Obeyan Abdul Hamra and her dam is a Kehaileh Ajuz. Tarfa is being specially trained as a hack for Princess Elizabeth, and she is promising to make a very nice ride for the little princess.  4. Faras (1927) […] The “little princess” is Queen Elizabeth II..

Louis is the President of the French Union Pour la Sauvegarde du Cheval Arabe Oriental (USCAR), and guest writer on this blog. Here he conveys in powerful, precise yet evocative language his ideal Arabian horse, in the form of a short prayer. I have asked Louis’s permission to translate it.

I just arrived in Cairo Egypt with the family for a three year stint. Still busy settling. Sorry for the prolonged absence on the blog, and for not returning phone calls and emails from friends and others. I will start catching up this week.

Darlene Summers and I purchased a complete set of the Khamsat magazine. Darlene will scan them for the Al Khamsa archives project, and I will get the hard copies. I have been wanting a complete set for ten years. Isn’t this cool?

I find this photo of Walter Schimanski and his beloved stallion Fabo very touching, and emblematic of the friendship between man and horse. The horse clearly looks proud to walk next to his owner.

Does anyone know how the mare *Werdi made her way to Davenport in 1906? There is no mention of her in his “Quest”, and her original documentation (hujjah) points towards the central Syrian city of Hama as a place of origin. Hama is not a place Davenport or his friends visited, he only visited Aleppo and its semi-desert surroundings, while his friends visited Damascus and its immediate surroundings, where they bought *Muson, *Antar and a third horse I forget.

Mayyassah Al Arab is by Clarion CF out of Cinnabar Myst and is the youngest foal of the Al-Dahdah preservation program of old American asil lines. She has lines to Hanad from his son Mainad and his daughter Dhanad. All the photos are by Kim Davis. I am genuinely interested in your candid and critical feedback on her conformation and overall balance, even at this early stage. It will help me decide whether to breed her dam and/or her sister another time. The dam’s neck is a bit short and I worry that her daughter inherited that. I also think the hindquarter, while very strong, is a bit droopy. On the other hand, I really like the broad forehead, the long ears, and the good shoulder, as well as the showy attitude, the head and tail carriage and the vigor and athleticism of this filly.  

Fayrouz Beni Sakr (Mahboob Halab x Safiyah Beni Sakr by Hortal El Din) is a young and promising son of the Syrian stallion Mahboob Halab, now in France. Bred and owned by Fabienne Vesco.    

Another filly — now a mare — I have been following on this blog for some time is Jenny Krieg’s Labwah Al Shaykhah (DB Khrush x HS Marayah) now 4 years old.. Many more pictures here. I have to keep reminding myself to learn more about which family of Ubayyan she belongs to.

One of the pleasures of being in Lebanon for a few days is having access to my father’s Arabian horse library. I have been feeling deprived of all these books over the years, as I never dared taking them with me to the States when I moved there in 2000. As always, after glancing at the shelves, I ended up with a copy of Lady Anne’s Journals and Correspondence, which I take to be, along with the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, the single most important contribution to knowledge on Arabian horses in the past fifty years. Every time I read through it, I keep stumbling across information I had not noticed before . I had never noticed the following for example, under the Journal entry of April 11, 1891: “We galloped to Ahmed Pasha’s bersim. Then we walked round and looked at the horses.”  A list of the five mares “we liked best” follows, including two sisters of the K. Nawwaq strain (“Saba” and “Atwa”), “Roja” [Roga el Beda, tail female to Moniet El Nefous] and “Sobha” [Sabha el Zarka, dam of Jamil El Ahmar, registered tail male to Anter and Ibn Rabdan]. Then this entry: “5) Lastly the Kehileh en Nimr…

Did you know about this book? Published in 1998.  

I am in Beirut, Lebanon, visiting family for a week. I opened my email with 24 hours delay and found this wonderful piece of news from Kim Davis, who told me that the Kuhaylat al-Krush Cynnabar Myst (ASF David x Mystalla) foaled a filly yesterday at 4.15 pm. Sire is the grand Clarion CF. Pics coming later. I am indebted to Kim for having taking this mare when heavy in foal and foaled her in the best of conditions. Thank you, Kim, you are the best.  

Did you know that what is currently considered as Volume I of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization studbook, the one published in English in 1948 (I think) was only the English translation of a previous volume published in Arabic in 1942 by Dr. Abdel Halim Ashoub? Well, I didn’t,  until Yasser Ghanem al-Tahawi pointed me to it recently. Yasser was looking for explicit evidence of use by the RAS of Tahawi stallions in the early years, so he bought a recent reprint of this 1942 book from the EAO library. I look forward to acquiring one, too.  

Does anyone has a valid email address for Pam Baker of Myrtle Beach, SC? I had a valid email address but when I tried writing last week, it bounced back.  

I have now relocated to Cairo, Egypt for three years. If you want to write to me, please use this address: Edouard Aldahdah CAIWB 3301 Pennsy Drive Landover MD 20785 USA Mail (and books, magazines, etc, but not horses) to this address will be forwarded to my work address in Cairo via diplomatic pouch twice a week.

  This little girl looks exactly like my youngest daughter.

A “new” photo of *Exochorda, the best of her so far, has recently surfaced on Facebook. Here it is below, with filly Suleika at her side. It shows a well built mare of good Arabian type, reminiscent of some of the asil bloodlines from the Syrian desert such as the early Davenport Arabians, and the Hamidie horses. The croup was obviously passed on to her son Sirecho. Click on the photo to enlarge it. From the recent research, there is no doubt anymore about *Exochorda having been bred in Egypt, of two desert bred parents. Aiglon, owned by Ahmed Effendi Ibish, a Syrian race horse owner in Cairo and a native of Damascus, appears to have been bred in the Syria desert. All of Ibish’s horses came from there.

This is the text of Jane Ott’s obituary by Edie Booth on the Blue Arabian Horse Catalogue Facebook page: “On Wednesday, April 24th, 2013, at 1:50 AM, Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott slipped peacefully away.  Miss Ott is a major historic figure and prime mover in recognizing the loss of the original desertbred horses among American breeders.  Her primary research work is The Blue Arabian Horse Catalog.  The Catalog listed all the horses Miss Ott could find, frequently with the help of Carl Raswan, that were authenticated as the original horses of the Bedouin tribes of Arabia.  These horses were jotted down in a notebook with a blue cover, and the additional grouping of a star/asterisk was added for the horses that were without the Managhi strain of horses anywhere in their pedigree.  This separation was due to unknown background on some of the Managhi horses, and as Miss Ott might say, the separation may not matter at all, but if it does matter and all the horses have been mixed, there is no way back. My introduction to Miss Ott was in 1986 after reading an interesting full page ad in EQUUS magazine.  Located about 180 miles and under 3…

Just love this photo of Flourishes CF (Lydian x Fragrance CF by Regency CF) on Randal Abler’s Facebook page. That Anthesis dynasty (Fragrance, Chancery, Firebolt, Lexington) is quite something within the Davenport lines.

Randal Abler posted this photo of Vice Regent CF son Laarado (x Laarisa EAF, who is by Alaadri). He is owned by Kathy Kelly in Georgia. My Jamr Al Arab (out of Jadiba) is his half brother.

This she-camel recently won first prize in a regional Gulf beauty contest in the category of white camesl “al-wuduh”. I am increasingly interested in the production of camel beauty criteria in modern Arabia, because unlike Arabian horses, the lack of significant camel breeding in the West could mean that the codification of such criteria for camels may have taken place without Western influence.  

That’s how the clerk at the Egyptian consulate in Washington DC spelled my name on my visa’s receipt, when I dropped my passport last week.. I had always thought of myself as a Ma’naqi, but this fellow did not seem to agree.

Carrie Slayton of the Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force has succeeded in placing the blind 1998 mare Jadah Kerasun (ASF Raphael x ASF Ubeidiyah by ASF Ezra), a rare Hamdaniyah Simiryah tail female to the Ibn Saudi mare *Samirah in the hands of preservation breeder Marge Smith of Oregon. The mare just got there yesterday. In related news, Carrie sent the following two pictures of the other remaining Samirah tail female mares: 1993 Jadah Samirah (ASF Hercules x ASF Ubeidiyah by ASF Ezra) and her 2008 daughter Samirahs Adlayah (by Jadah Echos Amir).  Pictures are the mares’ owner Stephanie Theinert McCloud. Both look very good. By the way, this is the same tail female as some of the Rushcreek Endurance horses.

This nice portrait of the Syrian desert-bred stallion Nimr Shabareq unfortunately sold on Feb. 2013. I wish I had know about it.  

The horses of Mustafa Jabri, located in rebel-held areas, were stolen and sold to Turkey, and so were the horses of Fouad al-Attar and other breeders. Half of the horses of Radwan Shabareq have died, not from starvation (plenty of grass there) but from inhaling strange and suspicious gases. The other are sick. Their caregivers has to endure countless ordeals to prevent the remaining horses from being stolen or confiscated. Sigh.

It’s that time of the year again, and Arabian foals are popping up here and there. One of the newborns I chose to feature is little Niinah Nufoud (AEP Kamar x AB Dafiinah by HHA Manabi), a 2013 bay Kuhaylat al-Ajuz tracing to *Nufoud of the Saudi Royal Stud. This little filly traces twice to *Nufoud as her sire, Monica Respet’s AEP Kamar is also from this line. She is her dam’s and her owner Linda Uhrich’s first filly and represents a ray of hope for this precious tail female line. Congrats to both Linda and Monica.    

This is one of the foundation stallions for the Blue Star program, he is a Hamdani Simri, a son of the imported Sindidah, and of the Ibn Jalawi stallion Jalam Al Ubayyan. The more I look at this picture, the more he reminds me of old Lebanese asil horses. The photo was posted by Susan Whitman on the Blue Arabian Horse Catalog Facebook page.

This morning I was looking up “Ibn Duwayhiss” , owner of an excellent marbat of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak in my notes — why? I will tell you later; this is more like a note to myself at this stage — and I found the following: “Ibn Duwayhiss, a family from al-Mawazin, from al-Jabbar, from al-‘Umayrah, from al-Husayn, from al-Bteynat, from al-Sba’ah”  

Few passages from Lady Anne Blunt’s (LAB) Journal and Correspondence have left me thinking more than this one, from May 14, 1906:   “Saw Mutlak for some time going through old list I had of families in various tribes, owners of special strains of blood. Found most of them correct.” How I wish I had access to LAB’s list.  Over the past twenty years I have been compiling from various sources and updating a list of Bedouin sheykhs, notables and rank-and-file warriors and trying to match these to strains of blood (marabet) associated with them. The list is pretty extensive for the Shammar and ‘Anazah (in all its branches) tribes of Northern Arabia, but thinner for the other tribes. I will be publishing this list progressively here.

I am sure I have said this here before, but here it is again: Lady Anne Blunt’s Jauza is my favorite Arabian mare of all time.  

I am so fond of this picture of Lady Anne’s Radia/Ghadia (Feysul x Ghazala) and can’t stop looking at these eyes and muzzle. Why did so many of today’s Egyptian horses, as beautiful and pretty as they are, lose these soulful eyes? Their eyes now have the size, the sparkle, the stare, the dark skin, but not the soul. Where has the soul gone? From time to time, it makes a comeback in a few individuals, and then it vanishes again.

There are a couple of hypotheses that could be tested. If anyone has a horse that is tail female Bint Kareema or knows someone who has one, please contact me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com