mtDNA from Syria

When I was in France this summer, I got some hair samples from the desert-bred Shuwayman stallion Mahboub Halab, owned by Jean-Claude Rajot. He is from an old Shammar lineage, and traces to the war mare of Faris al-Jarba. The al-Jarba own the marbat until now. MtDNA from this line will be compared with that of the Tahawi mare Fulla, also a Shuwaymat Sabbah, and with the Shuwayman horses from Bahrain which Jenny Lees owns in the UK.

A couple days ago, I received hair samples from the stallion Mokhtar, another desert Shammar stallion of the Krush al-Baida strain, owned by Chantal Chekroun of France. Chantal also sent me some nice photos of old Mokhtar, which I will post here soon. MtDNA from this line will be compared with a number of other lines recognized as Krush, such as that of Dafina in the UK, and El Kahila in Egypt, but also *Werdi in the USA.

Finally, Omar Anbarji of Aleppo promised to send hair samples from his stallion Kassar, a Kuhaylan al-Wati also from a famous Shammar marbat, and that will be used for comparison with the Kuhaylan Jellabi line of Makbula (back to Jellabiet Feysul of Abbas Pasha), since the two strains are reported to be related and to trace to the same original mare.

Lets see where the analysis will lead to. It will be done by the Institute of the Desert Arabian Horse, who is collaborating with Michael Bowling on the project.