Kuheilaan Umm Zorayr Zyad

I am very proud to announce the acquisition of the black roan stallion Kuheilaan Umm Zorayr Zyad D23. Zyad was bred by the late Danah Al Khalifah in 2001.

He belongs to the extremely rare strain of Kuhaylan Wuld Umm Surayyir that is now unique to the Kindgom of Bahrain. Originally the “house strain” of the Bedouin clan of Ibn Hathleen, leaders of the Ajman Bedouin tribe of East Arabia, it passed to their neighbors the rulers of Bahrain around the turn of the XXth century.

The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), compiled around 1850, lists at least three stallions from this strain as herd sires, including one acquired by famed Najd ruler Faisal Ibn Turki Al Saud (below my rendering of the strain genealogy based on the APM entry for this strain).

In Central and East Arabia in the XIXth century, the mares from this strain were collectively known as the “Duhm” — the black ones — and individual stallions as the “Kuhaylan named Dahman” (no relation to the better known Dahman strain), because of their consistently dark color.

The foundation mare from that strain in Volume I of the Amiri Studbook of Bahrain was also black, and so were some of her progeny (like the stallion Kuheilaan Weled Umm Zorayr Al Dheleem, below, a beautiful mover photographed during the 1998 WAHO Conference in Bahrain). This foundation mare has a most interesting story, related here. Some years ago, I wrote about the origin of the name “Umm Surayyir” here. Little did I know then that this spectacular stallion would find his way to me.

Below, Zyad as a young colt in Bahrain in 2001, with a younger Jehangir Rustomjee, Registrar for the Royal Arabian Stud of Bahrain.