Making sense of the genealogy of the Sudaniyaat

I finally managed to make sense of the short section in the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript that deals with the genealogies of the Sudaniyaat mares — from the strain of Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Sudan.

This section consists of about eighteen lines of a testimony by Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan of the Gmassah, on pages 86 and 87 of the Arabic edition. The English translation is confusing by the translators’ own admission, because of a couple missing words at the end of the testimony.

I would like to propose the following genealogy, based on my translation of the Arabic text:

Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi and Nimr Ibn Sudan and the elders of the Gmassah reported that: A mare of the Saqlawiyaat of Ibn Jadran [Mare 1] was left by him with the Bani Husayn on the year water was being sold. From them, she [Mare 1] passed to Saliim the son of the paternal uncle of Dabbi Ibn Shtaywi by way of purchase.

She [Mare 1] was bred to the Saqlawi Jadran horse al-Bahim which passed to Saud and she produced a chestnut mare [Mare 2], which ‘Ali ibn Sudan purchased.

The daughter of al-Bahim [Mare 2] produced a chestnut [Mare 3] by the Rabdan Khushaybi horse of ‘Unayzan, which Mutlaq Ibn Rushud of al-Masaribah purchased.

The aforementioned [Mare 3] was bred to the Hamdani Simri that was with al-Gasim. She [Mare 3] produced a chestnut [Mare 4], which Ibn Sudan took back as methnawi. From her [Mare 4] the Sudaniyaat are descended in their totality, for the mare of Mutlaq [Mare 3] and the first mare of Ibn Sudan [Mare 2] died and did not produce anything [else].

The aforementioned daughter of the Hamdani [Mare 4] was bred to a Hamdani of the horses of al-Jad’ah. She produced a bay filly [Mare 5A] which the Sahaahiir took.

She [Mare 4] was bred to the aforementioned Hamdani and produced [Mare 5B] the dam of the chestnut mare of Ibn Qufayfah, which produced the chestnut mare [Mare 6B] of Ibn Qufayfah, by the Saqlawi horse of Sha’f.

She [Mare 4] produced the bay [Mare 5C] which Faysal bought, by a Kuhaylan al-Kharas stallion.

Also, the old chestnut [Mare 4] produced, by a Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz Abul-Hatchi, a chestnut mare [Mare 5D], dam of the red mare of ‘Abdallah Bey [Mare 6D], whose sire is al-Dahu the Kuhaylan Abu Ma’arif.

Also, the aforementioned old one [Mare 4] produced a chestnut [Mare 5E], from the Saqlawi horse of Hurayr, dam of the chestnut filly [Mare 6E] which Faris bought, a daughter of al-A’raj.

The mare which Faysal took [Mare 5C], her dam is the old one which is with Ibn Sudan [Mare 4].

[Missing text] [Mare 7D] is the daughter of al-Aswad, and her dam is the mare of ‘Abdallah Bey [Mare 6D].

Notes:

1/ Numbers (1, 2, 3, …) represents a generation. Mares with similar letters after the generation’s number are mothers and daughters (6E is the daughter of 5E, and 7D the daughter of 6D].

2/ The Hamdani of Ja’dah is from the same marbat as the Davenport import *Jedah.

3/ At least three of the younger mares and fillies went to Abbas Pasha: the mare of Ibn Qufayfah [Mare 6B], the mare of ‘Abdallah Bey [Mare 6D], the filly which Faris brought [Mare 6E].

4/ I believe, without proof, that [Mare 7D] is Ghazieh, gone to Abbas Pasha as a young filly. I cannot prove it because of few words that are missing (mare’s color, owner). If my hypothesis is correct, Ghazieh would be by Al-Aswad out of the mare of ‘Abdallah Bey [Mare 6D], which also went to Abbas Pasha.

5/ Methnawi: A Bedouin practice in selling horses, whereby a mare is sold for a certain sum, provided that the seller gets back a filly from her. Methna mean dual/double. Here Ali Ibn Sudan sold Mare 3 to Mutlaq Ibn Rushud, who gave her daughter Mare 4 back to Ali Ibn Sudan as methnawi.