Mobarak, desert-bred Hamdani ibn Ghurab from Syria
The 1987 Hamdani ibn Ghurab Mobarak was Basil Jadaan’s foundation stallion. The photo was taken at Basil’s farm, and first published online by Hazaim Alwair. I first saw Mobarak at the farm of Hisham Ghrayyib in Damascus as a three year old. He had come a few days before from his native Shammar Bedouins, and was on his way to Basil Jadaan’s farm.
Mobarak was not without defects, but he had such style, such fine skin and such desert looks that it was impossible not to be smitten by him. He did not walk, he pranced, sideways. He oozed Arabness.
His face is a handsome one. How fare his descendants today?
They still exist, albeit decimated by the war.
You know I love these photos. Love and tears.
He was bred by ibn Ghurab, and a close relative, perhaps a nephew of Al Aawar.
His lineage even survives in France, at Chantal Chekroun who owns the mare Hijab by Ward Al Mayel out of Nisreen by Mobarak out of Marwah, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of Ibn Amoud — some of the best blood of the Shammar, ultimately going back to the ‘Anazah.
Somewhat the same stamp of horse, and certainly the same coloring, as the Davenport stallions Antez and his sire Harara. And of course Harara was a grandson of a Hamdani stallion, who seems to have been the source of his coloring.
Yes, RJ, even down to the “comet” facial marking.