Dahman of Ahmed Pasha Kamal
There is not a single mention in Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals and Correspondence of a Dahman of Ahmed Pasha Kamal sired by Jamil out of Farida of Ahmed Bey Sennari.
There are only two such Dahmans of Ahmed Pasha mentioned again and again in these Journals, both sons of Farida of Ahmed Bey Sennari (a Dahmah Shahwan of Abbas Pasha lines): the first is mentioned as the sire of Rabdan, Tarfa, etc, and the old white Seglawi of Ali Pasha Sherif (then to Ahmed Pasha then to Khedive Abbas Hilmi) is mentioned as his sire; the second appears a couple of time and his sire is said to be the Koheilan El Mossen of Sennari.
The lengthy footnote in the Foundation Tables of the precious book by Pearson and Mol (“The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt”) about the Dahman sire of Rabdan and the other horses being in all probability the son of the old Seglawi of Ali Pasha Sharif then takes all its meaning. I am reproducing parts of this footnote here:
Dahman (Jamil El Ahmar x Farida El Debbani); ca. 1893. Grey: “This is the breeding attributed throughout EAO Vol. I to the Dahman given as the sire of Rabdan and others. Lady Anne Blunt agrees with the identity of his dam but on four separate occasions (three in her Journal and one in her Stud Book), states without equivocation that his sire as Saklawi I, the ‘old white Seg. Jed. Ahmed Pasha had from APS.’ Since two of these references, for March 10th, and Dec. 2nd, 1907, occur immediately after she had seen the horse in the compnay of Prince Ahmed’s stud manager, they are inherently persuasive […]. Bint Noma is the only progeny of the K. el Mesenneh son mentioned by Lady Anne. The Dahman that was the sire of other horses to whom she refers was the son of Saklawi I.
I think it is time to change the pedigrees and the sire lines.
Lady Anne’s 1909 Sheykh Obeyd catalogue does mention a grey Dahman bred by Prince Ahmed Pasha sired by a bay stallion named Jamil and out of Ferida. So Lady Anne does document the existence of such a Dahman, at least as sire of Noma and Sabah. Whether or not this Dahman was also the sire of Rabdan and grandsire of Ibn Rabdan is another question.
Yes but that quote in Pearson and Mol, which I should have quoted in full, says that in her copy of the SO studbook that she keeps at Crabbet, LAB erased the name Jamil from the entries of Noma and Sabah and replaced it with that of K. El Mossen, hence suggesting that the parentage was wrong. The other Dahman is always referred to as a son of the Seglawi of APS that APK had.
We just could not figure out how many ‘old grey Dahman’ stallions there were, and who was the sire of what, without a doubt.
Which edition of Pearson and Mol is that in? I’m sorry, but I don’t remember that!
Jeanne, Edouard refers to the 1988 book, where the discussion is on page xxv.
that’s right. This bolsters the hypothesis that there are two Dahmans sons of Ferida, one a son of the Seglawi of APS then APK and whom she qualified as “splendid” and “with the old APS stamp”, and the other a son of K. El Mossen (first thought to be a son of Jamil Al Ahmar) and qualified as “handsome and very strong, but wanting somewhat in quality”, which confirms many of her impressions about K. El Mossen and his progeny in her Journals.