Faris Agha al-Turkmani in *Werdi’s hujjah

*Werdi was one of the Davenport imports. I may have identified the owner of her dam, as mentioned in her hujjah, but I am awaiting confirmation from sources in Hamah. Here is the available information meanwhile:

It can be inferred from *Werdi’s hujjah that her dam was the “grey mare of Faris Agha al-Turkmani of the people of Hamah“. This gives out the owner’s first name (Faris), his title (Agha), his ethnic origin (Turkmen), the city he was from (Hamah in central Syria, south of Aleppo), and the approximate date he lived (1893).

A quick internet search with the keywords “Faris + Agha + Hamah” in Arabic yielded a Faris Agha Tayfur who fit all five criteria above. This was encouraging because I already knew that the Tayfur were one of Hamah’s most prominent families. I met several horse breeders from this family in Hamah in the late 1980s .

Gertrude Bell, on page 224 of her book “The Desert and the Sown” (I downloaded a free online copy here) mentioned the Tayfur among Hamah’s four prominent families along with the Barazi, the Azem and the Kaylani (who held the position of Naqib al-Ashraaf in the city). The Tayfur are either of Turkmen or Circassian origin. A blog from a family member mentioned the family mansion of Zaki son of Faris Agha Tayfur, in the Tayfuriyah neighborhood of Hamah, by the Orontes river. It also mentions the arch of Faris Agha Tayfur (photo below) in the same neighborhood.

This family of military commanders came to Hama in the wake of the invasion of Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, around 1830. Its main member was the city’s governor under the Egyptians.

I have put out feelers in Hamah, asking if this Faris Agha Tayfur was indeed a horse breeder, and whether he owned a Kuhaylan al-Krush marbat. I know that some members of this family did own a marbat of Kuhaylan al-Kharas. Let us see.