The Rishan strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript

Another very rare Arabian horse strain is that of Rishan (feminine Rishah). The most common marbat is Rishan Shar’abi. I have developed a special interest in this strain over the years, because of the high quality of the individual representatives I have seen.

A search for ”Rishan” in my digital Abbas Pasha Manuscript copy turned up a single mention. This reference is on page 346. A man who appears to be from the southern Shammar (the Shammar at Jabal/Mount Shammar in Central Arabia) speaks of his Saqlawiyah mare: “and we covered her at our place by al Rishan Sharabi of the horses of Beni Wahab, the horse of al Fawadi of Shammar al Jazirah.” Shammar al Jazirah is a reference to the Northern Shammar, the Jazirah (island) is Northern Mesopotamia between Euphrates and Tigris). The Beni Wahab are a ‘Anazah tribal confederation that includes the Wuld ‘Ali tribe among others.

The Arabic i/y (ya’) letter is often mistaken for a b (ba’) in handwritten texts, because the only difference between these is a dot under the letter. The b has one dot, while the i/y has two. So I searched for “Ribshan” and “Rabshan” as well. The latter was more productive, and turned out four more mentions of the strain of Rishan, mistranslated into English:

The first was on page 369, where another man from Jabal Shammar talks about a mare of the Hadban Enzahi strain: “Jawlan mated her to Rabshan [sic] Sharabi from the horses of al Fid’an.”

The second is on page 439, where the leaders of the Central Arabian Subay’ (Subayah) tribe talk about a mare of the Ubayyan al-Sayfi strain, his own strain: “And Fuhayd al Saifi, the Sheikh of Subayah, mated her to Rabshan [sic] al Moaydi of the horses of al Ajman”.

The third is on page 534, and refers to the same horse as above. Here a leader of the Eastern Arabian ‘Ajman Bedouin tribe speaks of a mare of the Kuhaylan Ibn Jarshan strain: “And Ibn Darjan mated her to Rabshan [sic] al Moaydi of our horses, O Ajman“.

The fourth is on page 544, and is yet another reference to the same horse as the previous two. Here Salem Ibn Wabera, a man of the ‘Ajman, speaks about a Kuhaylat Ibn Wabera of his own strain: “And my grandfather mated the daughter of ‘Abeyyan to the Rabshan horse of the family of Maayad of al Ajman”. The Aal Ma’yad (Maayad) are a section of the ‘Ajman, and the reference (nisbah) to them Ma’yadi (Moaydi).

To sum up, it appears that in Northern Arabia, both the Northern Shammar and the Fad’aan ‘Anazah already mated the strain of Rishan, specifically its branch Rishan Shar’abi, around 1850. This could have either been the same stallion or two different ones. In Central/Eastern, the Aal Ma’yad of the ‘Ajman tribe used a stallion from a strain of Rishan known after themselves.

In 1881 (I think), Lady Anne Blunt saw and considered acquiring a mare from the strain of Rishan Shar’abi at an encampment of the Gmassah section of the Sba’ah tribe. Today a single branch of the strain survives in North Eastern Syria, originally with the Northern Shammar, and I will have more to say about it in a later post.