Kubbeh Garden Residents – Daughters of the Wind

I have already written about this about a decade ago, but I still love coming back to Samir Raafat’s list of the names and occupations of residents of the very upscale Cairo neighborhood of Koubbeh Gardens in 1936. It features two names which fans of old Egyptian Arabian horses will immediately recognize:

Ibrahim Khairy Pasha, Lewa

Mohamed Nafea Pasha, Rentier

Both are Pashas, the highest rank in Egyptian/Ottoman nobility after the royal family. You will recognize the first as the owner of the mare Badaouia and the breeder of the RAS stallion Kheir (named after him), and the second as the owner of Nafaa El Saghira (also named after him). The occupation of the first is Lewa, a military title equivalent to Brigadier (e.g., my father was a Lewa in the Lebanese Army). The second has no real occupation, and lives from his rents, like most of the aristocrats of his time.