Dating the strain of Kuhaylat al-Jalala: ca. 1700

Kuhaylan al-Jalala is yet another strain that goes back to the Sharif of Mecca. A mare from this strain, Saida, was imported by Count Stroganoff and Prince Sherbatoff from the Northern Arabian desert to Russia.

I had written about this strain ten years ago, here. Back then, my sources were Shammar oral histories through veteran horse merchant ‘Abd al-Qadir Hammami. They were supplemented by information French intelligence officer Victor Muller had collected from the Northern Shammar around 1922.

I am now reading the account on Kuhaylan al-Jalala in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, which is very consistent with the oral histories of the Shammar. Here is my translation of the relevant excerpt:

Sultan Ibn Suwayt the Shaykh of al-Dhafeer was queried about al-Jalala: “Which of the Kahaayil is she, and what is the original source from which she spread (shiyaa’ah)?”

The aforementioned reported in the gathering: “She is a Kuhaylah, to be mated. The original source from which she spread (shiyaa’ah) was the Sharif, of the first Sharifs of Mecca. She passed from the Sharif to Ibn Dayiss of the ‘Ulyan of Shammar al-Jazirah.

In ancient times, at the time of Shuhayl [who was] one of our ancestors, Ibn Dayiss stayed with our first forefathers as a neighbor [jaar]. Ibn Dayiss slaughtered a [illegible word], and the ‘irafah became ours O Dhafeer, and with Shammar to Ibn Dayiss.

According to Shammar oral histories, this strain passed from the Sharif to the Shammar in a famous episode (or series of episodes) known as “the battle of the Sharif”. This is the same battle during which the Shammar acquired other strains like the Ubayyat al-Sharif (which became the Ubayyah Suhayliyyah) and the Kuhaylat al-Sharif. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript account does not mention the name of this Sharif, but other clues in the text can help dating both the Jalala strain and the famous “battle of the Sharif”.

The account mentions that the strain was already with Ibn Dayiss of the Shammar at the time of Shuhayl Ibn Suwayt. We know Shuhayl was alive and active in 1699/1700 CE, so the battle of Shammar with the Sharif must have taken place before that time.