Here is the comment from Jehangir Rustomjee, Bahrain Royal Stud registrar: “It is with great regret that I inform you that neither of the Royal studs have any female Dhahma (Dahmeh) descendants left, my eyes well up and my chest tightens as I convey this to you. I am so pleased at the international interest in our horses about who so little is known outside Bahrain.” How tragic that a strain precious and ancient as that of the Dahmah would die out in its cradle. The link to the Dahman strain on the Bahrain Royal Studs website is still there. Check it out it while it lasts. Thank God a thin line to the mare Sawannah remains in North America, as well as the Bint El Bahreyn Egyptian horses too, of course. [Basil and Hazaim, if you are reading, this sad news makes Dahmat al-Tuwaymin all the more precious now.]
I am done reading my latest issue of the Khamsat magazine, which features the WAHO 2007 conference in Syria. Joe Ferriss has a nice article on “Some Reflections on the Continuity of the Desert Horse”, and Hazaim al-Wair and I have an article in that same edition with some nice photos too. Below is a photo of Joe Ferriss (to the right) and Pam Studebaker (current Al Khamsa President) with yours truly, during the 2001 Al Khamsa Convention in Springfield, IL.
I am back in the USA after more than a month in Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon (home) and France. It’s good to be back. There’s lot to catch up on, including news on the upcming Al Khamsa 2009 Convention in Redmond, Oregon. Check the website here, and if you haven’t registered yet, click here to do so.
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)
In 1953, K.M. Kelly, an American working in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, received a gift from Shaykh Khalifah bin Muhammad Aal Khalifah, the chief of police in the neighboring emirate of Bahrain (then a British protectorate), and cousin of Bahrain ruler Shaykh Salman ibn Hamad Aal Khalifah, who ruled the country from 1942 to 1961. See the family tree here. That gift was a chestnut mare, *Sawannah, born in 1948. She was later imported to the USA, and she still asil descendents in the USA and Canada. A September 1975 letter by Danah Aal Khalifa, gives some information about *Sawannah, in response to an inquiry about the mare: “The mare Sawannah pictured above was identified by Fatis, the old studmaster of H.H. Shaikh Issa bin Salman Al Khalifa, as a Dahmah, belonging to Shaykh Khalifa bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, (chief of Police). Dahmeh was bred by Shaykh Salman, Ruler of Bahrain at the time, out of one of his mares of the Dahman strain, and sired by one of his stud stallions serving at the time.” Whether *Sawannah was a Dahmah Shahwaniyah, a Dahmat Najib, a Dahmat Kunayhir, or a Dahmat Umm Amer is not mentioned. That is where an MtDNA comparison with the lines still…
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…
In 2000, while I was still living in Lebanon, I recall taking a trip to the area of Byblos, north of the capital Beirut, with my father, General Salim al-Dahdah, to see two young stallions that had recently been imported from Bahrain to Lebanon. The stallions were a gift from HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman Aal Khalifah to a Lebanese engineer by the name of Riad Az’our. There was a bay and a grey; and one was a Rabdan and the other a Hamdani. They both were quite tall, and stood high on the ground. I also recall their highly expandable nostrils as they moveed, and their high tail carriage. I am sorry I don’t have pictures at the present time. I don’t know whether they are still alive, and still in Lebanon. If so, then someone should use them. HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman Aal Khalifah is the same person who provided Jenny Lees of Pearl Island with some of her Bahraini stallions and mares. He is also the same person who gave Bill Biel in Michigan his stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon (Rabdan Al-Wasmy x Mlolesh Asila) in 1988. The stud of Shaykh Muhammad has a new webiste, which is…
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,…
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).
These four rare photos of Mohalhil are courtesy of the late Billy Sheets. No idea where he got them from. Mohalhil was a grey Ma’naghi Sbayli bred by the Shammar tribe in 1922 and imported to Egypt in 1925, by Fawzan al-Sabik, who raced him there before presenting him Charles Crane in 1929. Crane imported him to the USA, where Mohalhil still has a very thin line. Notice the striking physical resemblance between Mohalhil and another stallion that was featured on this blog, Bango. But the similarities in their backgrounds is even more striking. Like Mohalhil Bango was a grey, desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli; like him he was bred by the Shammar tribe, at around the same time (Bango in 1923 and Mohalhil in 1922); like him he raced in Egypt.
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!
In my opinion, *Abeyah was the best mare of the Davenport importation, and perhaps one of the best mares to come out of Arabia. She was certainly the best authenticated one. Look at my translation of her hujjah (also published in Al Khamsa Arabians III): I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which on her face has a blaze and on her two back legs has a stocking, [i.e.] she has two stockings on her hindlegs, that she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, [that she] is to be mated in the dark night, [that she] is purer than milk, and we only witness to what we know and do not keep [information] about the unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [Faris al-Jarba’s seal] A hujjah couldn’t get any better than this. Concise, to the point, and written and sealed by the supreme leader of the preeminent Bedouin horse-breeding tribe of Arabia Deserta: the Shammar al-Jazirah. In comparison, how many horses otherwise known to have been berd by the Aal Saud have Ibn Saud’s own seal on their hujjah? How many other imported mares have Faris al-Jarba’s seal? [I know of only another one: the…
It seems almost impossible to believe that this line has been lost to asil breeding in the tail female. Where have all the Kuhaylan Da’jani gone? Dajania‘s was the second-most important line in Crabbet breeding, which is one of the preeminent components of today’s mainstream Arabian horse breeding. True, there has never been as many mares from the Dajania tail female as there has been from the Rodania line at any given point in time, but that makes this line’s contribution to the breed all the more spectacular. Dajania’s daughter Nefisa (x Hadban) produced 21 foals at Crabbet. Of the mares, Narguileh (x Mesaoud) and Nasra (x Daoud) were the most prepotent. A look at Al Khamsa’s online Roster allows one to trace the evolution of Nefisa’s Al Khamsa eligible progeny over the first half of the twentieth century. The record is impressive, but but most of the contribution to asil breeding is through males: Nadir, Narkise, *Nasik, Rustnar, Najib, *Nafia, Nusi, Adonis, etc. The last Dajania Al-Khamsa eligible tail female descendent is Nadirat (Rizvan x Nusara), born in 1927, when most of us were not born yet.. That said, Al Khamsa doesn’t accept Nureddin II (by Rijm x Narguileh,…
The new Al Khamsa website’s got a facelift. Check out the nice feature on Portico CF, too.
A heads up for the joint Al Khamsa / CMK preservation symposium that will be held in Redmond, Oregon in August 2009. The 1924 stallion Gulastra will be the star of the event. It will coincide with the 2009 Al Khamsa Convention.
Here is the link to the Babolna Roster Proposal that seeks to include Babolna bred asil Arabians into Al Khamsa. It contains a wealth of information about the proposed foundation horses, as well as the rare pictures, including the only picture of 25 Amurath Sahib I am aware of. Jeanne Craver put the proposal together, with key support from R.J. Cadranell (mainly), T. Idan, T. Rambauer, J. Sennek and myself. The proposal passed a first round of voting at this year’s Al Khamsa convention in Tulsa. If it passes the next round at the 2009 Oregon convention, then the eligible living descendants of these horses are in!
Think of this new “Lost asil tail females” series as an obituary section in a newspaper.. I know there is no point in grieving over what is lost, but it’s a good reminder of how lucky we are to have what we still have. The series starts with *Nedjme, just because “she was given the position of the first registration in the stud book of the Arabian Horse Club of America, […] an indication of the regard in which she was held by Arabian horse breeders in this country of her day” (Craver and Craver, Horses of the White City). *Nedjme was one of the horses the Ottoman Hamidie Society exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. She is registered as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz by a Saqlawi Jadran. However, evidence from a letter J.R. Dolbony (who was involved with the Hamidie Society, perhaps as an performer in the Ottoman exhibition) to Homer Davenport, mentions that her dam was of the Sa’dat al-Tuqan strain, from the Wuld Ali Bedouins and her sire of the Nkhayshi strain, from the Hssinah tribe, which is certainly more interesting. Whatever the case, *Nedjme was the pick of the Hamidie Society horses, and fetched the highest price when the…
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]
I love this picture, and I love this horse. Alwal Bahet (Jalam al-Ubayyan x Sindidah), an Asil Hamdani Simri, the son of two desert-bred horses imported from Saudi Arabia to the USA, is just magnificent. Click on his parents’ link to learn more about his background. I read somehere that this picture was taken a few days (hours?) before he died, at the venerable age of thirty.
A beautiful representative of the Shaykhan strain tracing to the Lebanon-bred mare *Layya imported by W.R. Hearst is the 1992 mare Nile Swan (Ansata Nile Comet x Fadda Laila). Congratulations to Michelle, her new owner. I hope this mare and others from her strain, like Jenny Krieg’s HS Marayah, contribute to a renaissance of this rare and precious strain.
The dark chestnut stallion Shaykh al-‘Arab is one of the foundation stallions of the (now defunct) Lebanese Asil Arabian horse breeding. Born in the desert somewhere between Hims and Palmyra, he was bred by Rakan ibn Mirshid, Shaykh of the Gomussah section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe in the 1930s, then sold to Beirut for racing. His sire was a desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli, the stallion of ‘Awdah al-Mis’ir of Sba’ah, and his dam a ‘Ubayyat al-Usayli’, one of the best marabit (pl. of marbat, i.e., desert stud) of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. [Other equally good marabit of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak with the Sba’ah tribe ainclude ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, ‘Ubayyan al-‘Awbali, ‘Ubayyan ibn Thamdan, and ‘Ubayyan ibn ‘Alyan, the latter being the strain of the Blunt import Queen of Sheba, then owned by Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, Rakan’s ancestor.] In Beirut, the horse was successfully raced by Henri Pharaon under the name of Shaykh al-‘Arab (a reference to his prestigious breeder), and then given to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture as a breeding stallion. Shaykh al-‘Arab’s sons and daughters became good race horses, so much so that veteran Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi recalled attending race in Beirut where the top…
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…
My father took this photo at Craver Farms in 2002. I remember really liking this mare, but can’t recall her name or breeding. Would this be Una CF?
The new Al Khamsa website has a pedigree directory. Check it out.
Clue: bred at Craver Farms.. Photo taken by Majestic Lineage (nice nickname!) Mare’s strain is Ma’naghiyah Hudrujiyah of Ibn Sbayyil, or Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah.
Walladah CF is my Wisteria’s daughter by the stallion Javera Thadrian. She is now with Anita Enander in California. Walladah CF was named after a tenth century (A.D.) Andalusian princess, Walladah Bint al-Mustakfi, who was famous for her independent mind and her strong personality.
Thanks Edouard, for posting that photo of Yalim. In 1974 we visited his owners the Andersons in Davison, Michigan. Actually I knew who they were well before my involvement with Arabians because they ran a music store near the city where I grew up. When we got involved with Arabians we made friends with some breeders nearby who were among the first to breed to Shaikh Al Badi and it got us curious about the Egyptian imports. In 1972 we visited the Jamisons and saw Shaikh Al Badi as a 3 year old and the youngsters, Bint Alaa El Din, Bint Magidaa, Bint Nabilahh, and Negmaa. We started attending shows in Michigan and saw some offspring of the new Egyptian horses which got our attention. We also saw all of the Lancer imports from Egypt that were in quarantine. I also started looking for other desert breeding that we could find to see in our general area. Someone nearby had a daughter of the Hearst import, *Mounwer, out of a Crabbet bred mare that went to see. A nice mare but grey, not chestnut like her sire. Good quality though, and excellent movements and disposition. Later we had seen the…
Since the past two entries have been about the Hearst import *Layya, I thought you’d enjoy this picture of Yalim (by *Ansata Ibn Halima x Zamayya, by *Zamal out of *Layya). Joe Ferriss has actually seen Zamayya, and I think he even has video footage of her.
Getting *Layya into the list of Al Khamsa Foundation Horses was not easy. There were a lot of rumors about the Hearst importation from the very beginning. Many people here in the USA, believed that H. Pharaon, who sold most of the horses to Hearst, was a crook, and that the horses were not Asil, but mongrels. These persistent rumors meant that the descendents of the 14 horses of the Hearst importation stayed out of the radar screen of the US purist breeding community for years. For instance, they never made it to Jane Ott’s Blue Arabian Horse Catalog (new website!). Skepticism about *Layya was not limited to US breeders. Some people in the Middle East wondered how Pharaon could have parted with such a precious mare. Also, people took it for granted that the Khamis family of Rayaq, Lebanon, who bred *Layya, would never sell a mare from their prized Shaykhan strain to Pharaon in the first place. Of course this is contradicted by the fact that George Khamis, who at one time was staying in the USA for health reasons, wrote the pedigree of *Layya in his own handwriting (I will ask if I can share a jpg of…
In 1947, American billionnaire and press magnate W.R. Hearst (of Hearst Castle fame) sent a party of several people, including his stud manager Preston Dyer, and the photographer J. Williamson, all around the Middle East in search of Arabian horses for his San Simeon stud. They toured Egypt, Arabia, Syria and ended up buying 14 horses from the racetrack of Beirut, Lebanon, most of them from Henri Pharaon. Pharaon was then president of the SPARCA (Societe Pour l’Amelioration de la Race Chevaline Arabe), which managed the Beirut racetrack. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs of the newly independent Republic of Lebanon (my home country). If you want to known more about the Hearst importation and its circumstances, check this article out. One of the horses Preston brought back to the USA was the grey mare *Layya, the subject of this entry and a couple others to come. According to papers given by *Layya’s Lebanese breeder Georges Khamis to Dick Skinner of the Hearst Stables, *Layya (which he writes Leah) was a “Shikeh” by strain, by the stallion “Kayan” out of the mare “Naileh”. Khamis’s handwritten pedigree of *Layya provides somes details about *Layya’s ancestors. All of these are Asil Arabians that lived in…
Yesterday night Jeanne Craver wrote to me about Wisteria (my Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare, by Triermain out of HB Wadduda), which is in the care of the Cravers: “It looks as though Wisteria had a false pregnancy. She got big (as you saw in the photo), made an udder and came to milk. None of these were as evident as you would ideally like to see. Then the udder went down and she got smaller, and that appears to be that. The odd thing is that Femina did the same thing at the same time. She was due a week later than Wisteria.” Bummer. But you know what, it happens. I don’t mind waiting one more year, because I know the output will be worth the wait. Wisteria will be put back to Javera Thadrian (Thane x HB Diandra) for a fall 2009 baby. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, here is a picture of Javera Thadrian I took in 2002. I am told he still looks as great.
Siglavy Bagdady VI, born in 1949, was the last Asil stallion of 100% old Babolna lines (i.e., no Egyptian Arabian lines in his pedigree). His strain was Kuhaylan Abu ‘Arqub, tracing in tail female to the mare Semrie, imported from the desert by Michael Fadlallah El Heddad. Siglavy Bagdady VI left one Asil son, Wahhabit, a 1977 stallion out of the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Delicate Air. Delicate Air was bred by Craver Farms and traces to the mare *Werdi, imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. Pity there are so few of these Babolna Asil Arabians. They are of such a different type than anything else we see nowadays. They remind me of the last Lebanese Asil I used to see in my childhood. They also are a genetic treasure: each one of them traces to dozens of horses imported from the desert by the kings of the Austria, not found in any other current Asil bloodlines (except in the one remaning German Weil line). If you want to know more about the remaining Asil Arabians of Babolna, you can check out this post (dated May 2 2007, 10.44 pm) in the online forum Straightegyptians.com. This photo of Siglavy Bagdady VI is from the…
A rare picture of the magnificent black Asil stallion Fabo (Fabah x Misimma by Fa Serr). Fabo, a 1962 Saqlawi Jadran, and the head sire at the late Walter Schimanski’s Masada Arabians. Photo from the collection of the late William J. Sheets (Billy). Check out another gorgeous picture of Fabo here.
Western Arabian horse breeders are relatively familiar with the Arabian horse strain of Kuhaylan al-Krush (also known as Kuhaylan Krushan) through a variety of sources. A specific branch of this strain, Krush al-Baida (“the white Krush”) will be the subject of the sixth part of the “Strain of the Week” series (which, by the way, is starting to look like a “Strain of the Month” in disguise). For now, I’ll start the discussion with a brief resfresher of the encounters between Arabian horse breeders and the more general Krush family (beyond Krush al-Baida). Feel free to pitch in with feedback in the comments section of this blog post if you noticed that I omitted a reference or more, or visit this site, which also offers an overview (with pictures) of the main Krush lines around the world. The early fame of Kuhaylan al-Krush was certainly associated with the quest of the Egyptian Viceroy Abbas Pasha I for Asil horses from this strain. Several sources (or perhaps one source that was quoted several times, will look that up later) tell us that Abbas’s quest eventually failed, and that Bedouin owners of Krush mares refused to sell them, or give them…
Jeanne Craver tells me my Wisteria (Triermain x HB Waddaudah) is due to foal in two weeks. Fingers crossed. I am hoping for a filly, a full sister to Walladah CF (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF), also pictured here, but would not mind a colt either.
The series of articles on the Ma’naghi Hadraji strain – the fourth in the “train of the Week” feature – is not over yet. There is at least one more post I want to write. Yet I feel the urge to talk about something else for a change, so I thought I’d introduce you to the strain of Kuhaylan al-Dunays. Kuhaylan al-Dunays or Kuhaylan Dunaysan is now extinct in Asil Arabians in tail female, and this has been the case for about 30 years. In the late nineteenth century, the strain belonged to the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, and stallions from that strain could be bred from [shubuw]. I don’t know where the Sba’ah got the strain from, and I don’t know who owned it within Sba’ah. All things for future research. Perhaps the most famous representative of this strain was the stallion Padishah, a chestnut Kuhaylan Dunaysan from the marbat owned by the al-Mi’rabi landlords of the northern Lebanon plain of Akkar. The al-Mir’abi were not Bedouins, but landowners of Kurdish descent, yet their stud was held in high esteem by Bedouins and townsfolk alike. The Dunaysan marbat was known as the marbat of “Dunaysat of ‘Uyun al-Ghizlan”, in reference to the village of same…
Clue: photo is courtesy of Jeanne Craver, but the mare is not from Craver Farms..
The idea of an international registry for Asil Arabian horses has been gaining momentum over the last few years, not only within Western Asil breeeders’ circles, but among Arab breeders as well. Such a registry is long past due and would be the purists’ answer to WAHO. Several Western organizations have come close to establishing such a registry. The largest effort so far is that of the Asil Club, which in addition to bloodlines represented in Western breeding [Egyptian bloodlines, various bloodlines from the USA, the Asil remaining lines from Crabbet in the UK, Weil-Marbach in Germany and Babolna in Hungary] also includes the horses of the Royal Arabian Studs of Bahrain and those of the Saudi Arabian government stud of Dirab. In the 1970s, the Asil Club has also considered adding the Tunisian horses to its list, and is currently considering adding the Syrian horses (more on this move later, and what I think of it). Then there is Al Khamsa. While their roster is not the most inclusive (indeed, they tend to consider only those horses whose descendants came to the USA or Canada), it is without a doubt the most serious effort at researching the horses’ background and establishing their authenticity. Most recently, the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse has been…
A lot of “Photos of the Day” these days.. it is easier to keep a quasi daily writing routine when posting a photo with a short comment, as opposed to posting in the “Strain of the Week” series, which requires me to access research material, old and new.. Don’t take this as a sign of laziness however, it is just that work has been keeping me busy recently, or busier than usual. Today’s photo is about La Tisa, a gift from Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, (then Sultan of Najd and Hjaz) to Charles R. Crane, a noted Arabist and philantropist, and of the two main actors of the King-Crane Commission, which was to have such an impact on post-World War One Middle Eastern politics. La Tisa was imported to the USA in 1931. A year later, the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Crane had helped the USA secure some of its earliest oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, so if you are feeling the heat at the gas pump and ran out of people to blame, you can just blame it on him.. Joking aside, the gift of that mare was probably a small “thank you” gesture from Ibn Saud to Crane, for brokering some of these oil deals.…
I feel I have been maintaining a fairly uncontroversial blog – so far. But it did not escape me that the only times I broached slightly contentious topics (the issue of an international registry for Asil horses, and the piece on the myth of Kuhaylan Jallabi in Egyptian breeding), readers’ interested was sparked, comments reached the double digits, a lively discussion ensued which went on for several days, and visitors’ stats skyrocketed. Well, not quite. Anyway, time to spice things up… hence the sexy title. El Nasser was until recently one the most controversial topics in Asil Arabian breeding. Was he Asil? or wasn’t he? A passionate debate, albeit one based on very little information had been raging for about thirty (thirty!) years before fresh information contributed to the inclusion of the horse in the Al Khamsa roster six or seven years ago, thanks to the patient efforts of many, including yours truly. As usual, many more claimed undue credit for this, but hey, such is the reality of life; there are those who do the work, and those who take credit for doing it; I’d rather belong to the first category, where competition is less intense. The inclusion of El Nasser automatically led…
I took this picture in 2002 at Craver Farms. Pirouette CF (Javera Thadrian x Piquante) is arguably one of the prettiest Asil Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares alive today.
An American lady once asked one of my friends attending the 2006 WAHO conference in Syria whether I was a real person, or just an alias used by some other guy. She had apparently read a few of my writings on Asil horses here and there, and seen my name on the programs of a number of events, including that WAHO conference (which I eventually did not attend), but had never met anyone who had ever seen me. Well, I do exist, and guess what, some of you have even seen me! For those who haven’t, I am the guy on the right in the picture below. The guy on the left is more famous.
A previous post gave me the occasion to mention Zanoubia, which is something I have been looking forward to for some time now. Zanoubia was my first mare. Rather she was the first mare from my father’s horses in Lebanon that I considered mine. She did not make it in my recent top ten of the best Asil mares ever bred; she would have ten years ago, before I become acquainted with the wonderful Asil Arabians bred in the USA. Dad had bought her as a yearling in 1977 0r 78. At that time, he owned some 15 mares and a couple stallions, not all of them Asil. There were few Asil Arabians left in Lebanon, and Zanoubia was one of the them. She was a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the horses of the Dandashi landowners of Western Syria, who were famed for the beauty and purity of their horses. The strain came from the Sba’ah tribe. A couple of the Dandashi horses made their way to Europe and the USA. The Dandashi were the owners of the 1880 black Babolna stallion O-Bajan, who’s left such an imprint on Asil breeding in Europe. They were also the breeders of the Saqlawi Jadran, sire of the Asil mare *Muha, imported by Ameen al-Rihani to the USA. That Saqlawi Jadran was a gift from…
The Kuhaylan Jallabi strain as an extant female line in Egyptian bloodlines will forever be something of a curiosity. Modern evidence of MtDNA work on this line combined with interpreting Lady Anne Blunt’s notations should make people feel comfortable in choosing the Saqlawi Jidran strain for this line though it is not officially recorded as such. To be fair to Judi Forbis, in her 2003 book Authentic Arabian Bloodstock II, in the section on Kuhaylan Jellabi, she gives a five page presentation of most of the known information over time on this strain including citing Prince Mohamed Ali, Travelers Rest, Abbas Pasha Manuscript etc. She implies that people need to make their own choice on this. She chose to follow the name of traditional record as certified on the pedigrees of the imports. The Pyramid Society also footnotes this in their reference handbook pedigrees. How that traditional record became certified as Kuhaylan Jellabi is a mystery but it must have its origins somewhere yet to be discovered. Judi does make the point that no matter what the strain, the authenticity of the line is without question. When I first heard of the MtDNA, it was no surprise to me having…
I find it baffling that some Arabian horse breeders here in the US still believe that the strain of Kuhaylan Jellabi is carried on in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding. Ten years have elapsed since Michael Bowling’s ground-breaking article on the Arabian mare Bint Yemama and her descendants at the stud of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik in Egypt, yet most breeders of Asil Arabians of Egyptian bloodlines still refer to the stallions *Fadl, *Nasr, *Adhem, among others, and the mares *Maaroufa, Mahroussa, Negma and their tail-female descendants as Kuhaylan Jellabi. I refrained from using the pedigree website www.allbreedpedigree.com to link to the pedigrees of the horses mentioned above, because it erroneously has them tracing back to the desert-bred mare Jellabiet Feysul, owned by Abbas Pascha, and otherwise a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah true and true. Even respected Arabian horse breeders and researchers such as Judi Forbis show these horses as Kuhaylan Jallabi (I prefer to write Jallabi with an ”a”, but I aslo want this entry to be found by those using the more common form “Jellabi” in their search engines). Michael Bowling shows that the mare Bint Yemama (Saklawi I x Yemama) of Prince Mohammed Ali is actually the maternal half-sister of the famous Mesaoud, the Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan bought by Lady Anne Blunt from Ali Pasha Sharif. …
Al Khamsa Arabians III is out! Order your copy now. AKA III is the ultimate reference on Asil Arabian horses in North America (but then, I do have a couple articles in there, as well as translations of some Arabic original documents). I wish someone had the time (and energy!) to produce an Arabic version of this book.. Maybe I will some day, Lord willing. Meanwhile I haven’t managed to maintain my daily blogging routine this week, so I should keep my expectations (and yours) reasonable.
My Wisteria is in foal to Javera Thadrian! Due date: late August. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a filly. I even have a name ready! Wisteria, which is at Craver Farms, already has two foals by Thadrian, a five year old stallion, Tantris CF, and a yearling filly, Walladah CF. Wisteria and a few other mares of the “Core Haifi” groups she belongs to, are often referred to as a “four generation pure-in-the-strain Kuhaylah Hayfyiah”, which they are of course. I like to refer to Wisteria as an Asil Kuhaylat al-Hayf tracing to the marbat of Ibn Hubayqan of the Fad’aan. It’s a question of personal preference, really. The latter description reflects my Arab heritage, and my desire to keep emphasizing the Bedouin origin of these horses. If Charles Craver were a Bedouin – God forbid, for it would be fair game to raid his farm and take some horses – then Wisteria and her relatives would be called Kuhaylat Craver or Kuhaylah Craveriyah. I wonder how that would fly with today’s Bedouins…
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),…
It’s Friday afternoon, and I am in a light mood. So I have a game (again!) for you all. Give me your ultimate top ten list of the greatest Asil Arabian mares ever bred. Here are the rules of the game: 1. The mares need to be Asil. A working definition of Asil for the purposes of this game is: Al Khamsa eligible if the mares are from bloodlines imported to North America, Asil Club eligible if the mares are from bloodlines imported to Europe, and tracing exclusively to Bedouin-bred horses if the mares are in Arab countries. For a more accurate (and conceptual) definition of Asil, click here. 2. The mares don’t need to be alive now: they may have been bred as early as the late XIXth century (when photography was invented). 3. You have to provide me with at pictures of at least two mares out of ten, preferably your top 2. 4. You don’t need to justify why you have ranked them the way you did (but it would nice if you did) 5. You can be the current or former owner of all ten mares (but it would be nice if you included at least some mares owned or bred by others in…
I am pleased to introduce my first guest blogger: Robert J. Cadranell II (RJ) is a friend, a dedicated breeder of Arabian horses of Davenport bloodlines, and one of the foremost Arab horse researchers of our generation. RJ was, together with Michael Bowling, the co-editor of the Arabian Visions magazine, during the nineties, and is currently leading the effort behind the Davenport Conservancy. RJ will be blogging about the history of Arabian horses in the West, and one couldn’t think of a better person to do so.
This question was one of several that were asked to a virtual panel of American, German and Arab breeders and students of Arabian horses, to be featured in Al-Khamsa‘s flaghship publication, Al Khamsa Arabians III. You will no doubt have guessed that the question elicited as many different answers as there were ‘experts’. This was my answer to the question: “Strains are typically a collection of names (Kuhaylan, Saqlawi, Ubayyan, Dahman, etc.) that constitute the Bedouins’ way of identifying a horse and tracing its provenance. This would help them determine whether a horse is an Asil Arabian or not. Strains function very much like family names for human beings. The only difference is that Arabian horses’ family names (i.e., strains) are invariably transmitted through the dam, while in most societies human beings family names are transmitted through the father.”
Let me share with you this picture of one of my all-time favorite desert-bred Arabian mares. *Al-Hamdaniah, the bloody-shouldered mare, was a present from the governor of the oil-rich al-Hasa province of Saudi Arabia to Admiral Richard Lansing Connolly, who brought her to the USA in 1947. Superstitious Bedouins believed that the large reddish spots on some horses’ shoulders were the blood of slain warriors, and considered that these horses brought bad luck to their owners. Others, on the contrary, valued these marks as a sign of purity and good breeding. Take a look at similar markings on the body of the mare Helwah, a Maanaghiyah Sbailiyah born in the Syrian desert in the early 1970s.