Daughters of the Wind

The other day Hazaim told me very casually, almost in passing, that the Shaykh of the Sba’ah (‘Anazah) tribe Ma’jun Ibn Hudaib was his uncle’s best friend, and that Hazaim knew him personally. He even sent me his picture. He also told me that the Shaykh of the Gmassah (‘Anazah) tribe, Rakan Ibn Mirshid, lived in his neighborhood in Homs, and that he also knew his children. It reminded me of the time my late mother, who also grew up in Homs, mentioned in a similarly casual way that Trad al-Milhim, the Shaykh of the Hssinah (also ‘Anazah) tribe, was a frequent guest at their family home. Her father was a colonel in the police force. I assume Trad al-Milhim was coming to settle issues with the law.

Al-Khaldi’s line is the most popular line of race horses in Syria today. It is now hard to find a Syrian Arabian without a line to him. Hazaim took the these two photos in 2005 in Garhok, in the extreme North East of Syria. Yours truly is holding him, in bad need of a haircut. In the Syrian Studbook, the sire of al-Khaldi appears as the Hadban Enzahi stallion Burhan. In reality his sire was al-Asda’, the dark bay Kuhaylan ibn Jlaidan of Ali al-Basha, by the Ma’naqi Hadraji of Zahir al-‘Ufaytan, out of the Kuhaylat ibn Jlaidan of Raja al-Ghishm, herself by the chestnut Kuhaylan Ajuz of Bardan Mit’ab al-Jlaidan, a strain the Jlaidan brought from the Sharif of Mecca five human generations ago. Dam: ‘Abirah, a black Shuwaymah Sabbah from the marbat of Muhammad al-Rahbi of the Shammar, and before that from the Juhaysh clan of al-Bu Mutaiwit between Sinjar and Tall Afar, Iraq and before that from the Jarbah Shaykhs of the Shammar. I recall a really small horse, pony size, and I was certainly not impressed.

Yesterday I learned that Wisteria had died in January 2020, at 25 years of age. She was the reason for my love for Arabians of Davenport bloodlines. She was also the first horse I owned in the US, fourteen years ago. She had “wondeful eyes, very great style and beauty“, like Jauza in the words of Lady Anne Blunt. The best photos of her were never taken.

Arched neck. Fine throat-latch (mithbah). Broad jibbah. Low placed, large eye. Long fine muzzle. Deep jowls. What’s not to like? Meanwhile, some people with common sense are ringing the alarm bell. No black background here. I am not picking on a particular horse, but showing a global trend. The photos are meant for illustration purposes.

Arched neck. Fine throat-latch (mithbah). Broad jibbah. Low placed, large eye. Long fine muzzle. Deep jowls. And, soo cute! Bright golden chestnut color. What’s not to like? Who cares about legs anyway?

The filly is a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah daughter of Provance CF, the little girl is Kuhaylat al-Wair daughter of Hazaim. Both originally from Syria.

Thanks to Kate, I was able to purchase the unpublished PhD. thesis of John F. Williamson, “A political history of the Shammar Jarba tribe of al-Jazirah: 1800-1958“, Indiana University, Ph.D., 1975. Here is a quote from the thesis about the rebellion of Shammar leader ‘Abdul Karim al-Jarba against the Ottomans: ‘Abd al-Karim revolted in early August, 1871. Within a week the rebel leader at the head of some 3,000 Shammar warriors succeeded in reducing the area around Nisibin to ruins. Before effective government action could be taken, the rebellious Shammar raided over 200 villages, setting seventy of them on fire, killing a large number of persons and carrying off everything they could remove. In the meantime, ‘Abd al-Karim wrote various tribal leaders, complaining that Midhat Pasha sought to force the Shammar to settle as mere fallabin, and solicited their support. When several of these letters reached Midhat Pasha, he offered a reward of 10,000 piastres for ‘Abd al-Karim alive, and 5,000 piastres for his head. Meanwhile, ‘Abd al-Karim divided his forces into three sections and dispatched them against Dayr az-Zor, Mosul and Baghdad. This ill-conceived plan for destroying the Ottomans collapsed when the Shammar were decisively defeated at Qalat ash-Sharqat.…

Photo here. Afif is one of the largest wells in Arabia. The ‘Ataiba was one of the most powerful Bedouin tribes in Arabia.

Same photographer as the image below, different setting: an oasis, a wealthier man, a better-groomed horse, an Arab bit.

This morning Hylke shared with me this photo of a grey Bedouin mare. British army officer and explorer Gerald De Gaury took it in Saudi Arabia. The photo is on the website of the British Royal Geographical Society. It is numbered S0024244 and titled the “the last (Horses) of the Managia strain”. And another photo, by the same author, in the same setting. I think this one is a stallion. De Gaury’s books are on my purchase list.

A short video of Doyle Arabians from 1996, with Shenandoah, Greggan and Ibn Gulribbon, whom I liked. That was before the time of Lyman’s high definition videos on social media.

I am being ambitious here. Do we know if any may have survived, other than that of Meshura, and if so, where would they be?

This is meant mostly as a note to myself, on the tribe of al-Bu-Matyut, a section of the tribe of Juhaysh in the area of south of Mount Sinjar in North Western Iraq. It references a detailed and very learned blog entry on the Jazirology blog. The shaykhs of the al-Bu-Matyut are from the clan of al-Jarallah. Current Shaykh is Jarallah son of Muhammad son of Jarallah son of ‘Issa son of ‘Abdallah. The semi-nomad sheep herding tribe of al-Bu-Matyut — 250 rifles in the 1930s compared to the 6000 of the Northern Shammar — rose to fame when it defeated a coalition of the Shammar and allied tribes in 1946 at the battle of al-Khunayssi. [Edouard speculating here]: this battled is likely the context during which the Jarallah acquired the Shuwayman Sabbah strain from the Shammar. The strain then went from them to Muhammad al-Sfug al-Rahbi of the Shammar on the Syrian side of the border and from him to the sufi shaykhs of the Tfayhiyyin. The stallion of Salih al-Abd Allah al-Hasan, b. 1983, by the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab al-A’awar and the mare ‘Abeerah dam of the famous al-Khalidi come from this Tfayhiyyin branch of the strain.

Hazaim al-Wair shared with me this old photo about 15 years ago. It shows one of the Nawwaqiyat mares of Fanghash al-Nawwaq in the early 1960s. There was a drought in the desert, and Fanghash had entered into partnerships (sharaakah) with townsfolk from Homs on one of his mares. I am not sure who is pictured riding the mare. I need to ask Hazaim.

He is really built like a tank, as are his sire and dam. The neck looks a little short in this picture. Picture from Terry Doyle through Lyman.

Lyman and I were wondering the other day if anyone had dug into the records of James Henry Skene, HM’s Consul in Aleppo. He organized the first Blunt importations and Upton’s too, after all.

One advantage of these weekends on lockdown is that I could catch up on conversations I have been delaying to have. The reach that social media allows for is just incredible, triangulating information from photos and audio records almost in real time. I received many requests for scanned photos of Syrian horses from my archives. The requests in turn prompt conversations that lead to a lot more information. One such query was prompted by a Syrian breeder from the Jazirah who had read the entry on the Shuwaymah mare of the Jarbah, registered as al-Jawzaa in the Syrian studbook. He was inquiring about specific descendants. Radwan Shabareq had most of these, from an older grey daughter of al-Jawzaa, Dallah. These were lost during the Syrian civil war, except for the stallion Mahboub Halab and a mare now in France. The second round of registrations in the Syrian Studbook has, however added a previously unregistered younger bay daughter of al-Jawzaa named Waddaahah and Waddaahah’s black daughter. They were bred by Nawaf son of Turki son of Mashaal Pasha al-Jarba. This black mare, Qumayrah, has existing offspring. She is a ray of hope for this storied Shuwayman strain. I had seen Qumayrah…

Monologue CF (Riposte x Soliloquy) has a new colt out of Laura Fitz’s Mi Blue Angel (DB Krush out of Thank Heaven by Mlolshaan Hager Solomon).

Michael Bowling shared this beautiful picture of the Davenport mares Pirouette CF (Kuhaylah Hayfiyah, 29 years old) and Fragrance CF (Hamdaniyah Simriyah, 23) at his farm. Perhaps the most beautiful Davenport mares of their strains.

J’interviens sur ce blog à la demande d’Edouard, non pas pour vous parler historique et lignées, tout simplement car si le sujet me passionne, il y a bien plus compétent que moi dans ce domaine, mais plutôt pour vous parler de ce qui peut inscrire nos chevaux dans le marché actuel du cheval arabe, créer de nouvelles vocations, et aussi donner envie aux propriétaires de chevaux asils de faire naître la prochaine génération, et ainsi éviter de perdre plus de lignées que celles que nous avons déjà perdues. On sait tous qu’essayer nos chevaux signifie quasi systématiquement les adopter, mais tout se joue en général sur ces 2 paramètres : la performance (quelque soit la ou les disciplines visées) et/ou leur tempérament Tous les éleveurs de chevaux arabes asils veulent le meilleur pour leurs chevaux, mais force est de constater que si on a besoin de travailler ensemble, on a aussi besoin des éleveurs de chevaux arabes non asils, voire même des éleveurs de poneys de sport, de chevaux de course, de chevaux d’endurance pour offrir à nos chevaux des « débouchés » (je n’aime pas ce mot, mais nos chevaux ne se nourrissant pas encore d’amour et d’eau fraîche, il est nécessaire…

From the archives of Edie Booth, from Jen Sennek from Danah Al Khalifah.

I must have taken these during a visit to the latin cemetery of Abbassia, Cairo, where Lady Anne is buried. The cemetery is on al-Nasr road, right before it intersects with “Imtidad Ramses”, to the left, facing the Arab Contractors Medical Center, which is to the right.

Photos by Terence Doyle. His back is short, his withers high and his shoulder strong. He seems to have good bone too. I are not count how many crosses to Gulastra. Around a hundred I would say. Certainly 45 just in his sire Tamaam.

I am waiting to see when their muzzles will start bending upwards and then backwards to reach their ears. At the rate things are “evolving”, I am saying ten years. Meanwhile, I will be busy breeding real Arabian horses, with straight or slightly concave profiles, a triangular nor rectangular head, a small muzzle and deep jowls.

That will be the pompous official name of my new Ma’naqi colt. He is so named in memory of the foundation sire of Lebanese Arabians. The original Shaykh Al Arab (1940s) was an ‘Ubayyan Sharrak but he was sired by a Ma’naqi Sbayli. His owner Henri Pharaon named him after his breeder, Rakan Ibn Mirshid, the Shaykh of the Gmassah Bedouins and of the larger Sba’ah Bteynat tribe (b. 1892 in the desert — d. 1982 in Kuwait). Rakan (photo below, I think by Carl Raswan, and another photo holding his mare) was the son of Bashir, the son of Sulayman Ibn Mirshid, the leader of Sba’ah from whom Captain Upton bought Haidee in 1874. The new colt traces to Haidee in the maternal line. Rakan was a progressive and open Bedouin leader, who called for peace between the tribes and for them to abondon their nomadic lifestyle. Rakan was preceded in the leadership of the Sba’ah by his father Bashir, his uncle Ghatwan, his other uncle Hazza’, his father’s paternal cousin Butayyin (the Beteyen of Lady Anne), his father’s other paternal cousin Mashhur, and his grandfather Sulayman. Sulayman had led a rebellion of his tribe against the Ottomans. He…

This morning Lyman Doyle told me that young Pippa had delivered her first foal, a large, strong colt by Tamaam DE. Pippa foaled on her own, at dusk. The colt, chestnut of course, was quickly up and nursing. I am so grateful to Terry and Rosemary Doyle for boarding her at their farm (and for the photo), and to DeWayne for leasing her (and her dam) to me. This is my first Ma’naqi Sbayli foal, and I certainly hope not the last. How I love this strain. I was talking to Hazaim the other day, and he was telling me how much he loved it too. Just the evocation of his strain reminds me of the stories of my childhood about the horses and horsemen of the Sba’ah leaders from the house of Ibn Mirshid. One day, if this young fellow lives and grows, he will become a stallion, and see his name — which I still need to choose — added to the long and prestigious list of asil Ma’naqi stallions from the Sba’ah Bedouins, where his maternal line hails from: Funaytil, who made it back to the Sba’ah encampment along with 34 of his daughters and grand-daughters, out…

A quick overview of the various parts of Arabic/Islamic male names (people not horses) during and before the XIXth century may help. A typical name was constituted of different parts: The kinya: Abu Amin, “father of Amin”, people were referred as fathers of their firstborn son; if they did not have sons, they were still referred to as fathers of a hypothetical son carrying their own father’s first name. Example: your name is Ahmed, your father’s name is Ali, you don’t have a son, but your kinya would still be “Abu Ali”. The laqab: that’s the title: Agha, Pasha, Bey, Zadah, Effendi, Sheykh, Amir, etc. The ism: that’s the first name, Mohammed, Ahmed, Ali, Hussayn, etc. Sometimes in official documents or formal correspondence, the name of one’s father and grand father (and so on) would be included too: Mohammed ibn (son of) Ali ibn (son of) Ahmed ibn …. etc. The nisba: where the person came from, or resided last, or was born: al-Halabi (from Aleppo), al-Masri (from Cairo), al-Qudsi (from Jerusalem); one could have more than one, if for instance, they were born in one place, but resided in another, then moved to a third. This was regardless of…

This post is part of an ongoing series of posts on the Arab horses and other horse breeds in medieval equestrian treatises in the Arabic language. I have been discussing the subject with Hylke Hettema on various social media. I don’t like how social media platforms classify and archive discussions, so I am transferring it here. An earlier post from August 2019 had pointed to early mentions of “the Asil Arab horse” or “al-faras al-arabi al-asil” in the Nasiri book which is from 1333 CE. A second post recorded mentions, in the same book, of “the breeding of Arab horses” or “nitaaj al-khuyul al-arabiyyat“. Recently Hylke posted this short passage from a later treatise, Muhammad Musa al-Damiri‘s “Kit?b Hay?t al-Hayaw?n al-Kubra” which is from 1372 CE. This zoological treatise was translated to English in 1906 and is more commonly known as the “Life of Animals”: “wal-khaylu naw’aan: hajin wa ‘atiq, fal-‘atiqu min al-khayli ma abawaahu ‘arabiyyaan wal-hajinu alladhi abuhu ‘arabi wa ummuhu ‘ajamiyyah, wal-muqrif […] ‘aksuhu, wa kadhalika fi bani Aadam“ Hylke’s translation from Arabic to English is very good, and an edited version of it follows: Horses are of two kinds: hajin and ‘atiq; the ‘atiq among horses is…

I have already written about this about a decade ago, but I still love coming back to Samir Raafat’s list of the names and occupations of residents of the very upscale Cairo neighborhood of Koubbeh Gardens in 1936. It features two names which fans of old Egyptian Arabian horses will immediately recognize: Ibrahim Khairy Pasha, Lewa Mohamed Nafea Pasha, Rentier Both are Pashas, the highest rank in Egyptian/Ottoman nobility after the royal family. You will recognize the first as the owner of the mare Badaouia and the breeder of the RAS stallion Kheir (named after him), and the second as the owner of Nafaa El Saghira (also named after him). The occupation of the first is Lewa, a military title equivalent to Brigadier (e.g., my father was a Lewa in the Lebanese Army). The second has no real occupation, and lives from his rents, like most of the aristocrats of his time.

A rare photo of Farhan al-‘Olayyan al-Faraj made it today on the Facebook page of the Shumaylat section of the Fadaan Bedouin tribe. He is the man on the left of the photo. The young man in the middle is Tamir son of Nuri son of Miqhim ibn Mhayd, who went on to become the Shaykh of the Fadaan tribe during the 1980s and 1990s. Starting from the late 1950s and well into the 1980s, Farhan al-‘Olayyan, acting as the agent of the Mhayd Sheykhs, organized the purchase and the shipment to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of several hundreds of the best desert-bred mares in Syria, the large majority from the ‘Anazah Bedouin tribes. Most of them went as gifts to Aal Saud princes and other senior government officials in Saudi Arabia. Some of the Bedouins who would not sell willingly were coerced into selling. In the span of those three decades, the Kingdom granted Saudi citizenship to tens of thousands of ‘Anazah Bedouins that were Syrian citizens, as well as monetary and other material incentives to settle in Saudi Arabia. All the Sba’ah and the Fad’aan, and most of the Hsinah and Wuld Ali moved to Saudi Arabia.…

This is another photo of the “Black Lady”, about which I had written before, here. I took this photo in 1999 or in 2000 in the countryside outside Aleppo. She is one of my two or three favorite Syrian mares. She is a Kuhaylat al-Krush from the breeding of ‘Atallah al-Nassar al-Jarba of the Northern Shammar. The latter got the strain from his cousin Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba (ca. 1960s), whose family had it from Muhammad ibn Rashid of Hail (ca. 1880s) who in turn had it from the Sheykhs of the Mutayr tribe. After the Ottomans quelled the rebellion of the Northern Shammar and hung their leader ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jarba on a bridge in Mossul in 1875, ‘Amsheh, the mother of ‘Abd al-Karim (and the daughter of the Sheykh of the Tai) fled with her younger son Faris and sought refuge with Muhammad ibn Rashid, the leader of the Southern Shammar in Hail. When peace was made with the Ottomans, she and her son returned to their tribe, and a Kuhaylat al-Krush from the horses of Ibn Rashid came with them.

Nuri Al Krush to Monologue. Not my first choice but she was barren to Jamr this past year. Her ovaries are in great shape for a 25 years old. Jamr, on the other hand, may be sub-fertile. Wadha to Monologue, for a Davenport foal that promises to be beautiful. Belle to Jamr. If she takes, it means he’s fertile. If she doesn’t, at least I have a Sharp (no Blunt blood) filly already. Pippa due in a few days, from Tamaam DE in Oregon.

I just noticed this entry in Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, dated March 4th, 1910. I am making a note for myself: “This morning the mare of Amin Husseyn Koja Zade was brought to Jamil. She has no Ali Pasha Sherif’s stud connection but is by a quite other Shueyman, but a good horse that belonged to Prince Aziz – her dam a mare of the Khedive – Amin, an elderly man, was in some position at the Court at one time. She is not a bad mare — rather in Kehilan Mimrieh style.“ I need to look back at the documentation of the Khedive’s non-APS mares, particularly Carmen (Halabia), Venus and Makkaouia. I remember an Amin or an Abu Amin somewhere there. Maybe there is a connection there. I really need to get to the bottom of who Abu Amin was, this has been hanging for too long.

I was talking to Lee Oellerich earlier today. It had been a while since we last spoke, more than two years. I always learn new things from him. He told me that he acquired Sawannah then thought to be 22 from Mrs. Kelly and her daughter *Hadriya then 16 (for free) [see amendment in the comments below] from Mrs. Ott in 1970. Both mares were then at the Searle’s ranch in Arizona and running with Ibn Fadl. Sawannah never took but *Hadriya did and foaled a filly (Al Hadiyya) at Lee’s in Canada in 1971. Sawannah died before Lee could come down from Canada to Arizona to pick her up. Both mares were turned down by an AHA inspector because they were “too small”, so had to be registered in IAHRONA. Canada accepted their papers from IAHRONA and registered them. Lee has pictures of both of them unseen before. Lee also told me that Sawannah was given by a member of the Bahraini Aal Khalifah Royal family to a Saudi prince who in turn gave her to the Kellys. He also told me that Danah Al Khalifah had told him that she had shown the well known photo of Sawannah…

Last week I received an unexpected call from a Syrian gentleman living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His name is Muhammad al-‘Aqub. His family belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Harb, a tribe long affiliated with the Tai tribe. He wanted to tell me about their horses and their origins. We spoke for about an hour, but I was driving for most of the time and I did not take any notes. He told me that his family, the ‘Aqub, had owned the strain of Rabdan for more than 200 years without interruption, since around 1810 or 1815. Here is my recollection of what he told me about how they got the strain: There was a battle between Ibn Haddal, the leader of the ‘Amarat ‘Anazah Bedouins, and a Kurdish tribe around 1810 or 1815. It took place north of the town of Ras al-‘Ayn which is in the extreme tip of North Eastern Syria today. The Kurds held their own, taking several mares and even one prisoner from the ‘Anazah. The Kurds did not care to know the strains and origins of the horses they took, just in their being war mounts. At the time, his seventh paternal ancestor (I…

I want to follow up on the previous blog entry about the 2010 magazine article about the horses of the USA expat families working for the oil company Aramco and living in the Abqaiq gated community, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. I am specifically interested in this reference from the article: “More horses arrived when Ibrahim Abu Boutain, the agriculture minister, presented Abqaiq with seven of his fine Arabians. [Four of the seven] were sired by the famous Balalil, a foundation stallion for the Tunisian National Stud.” I am not aware of a “famous Balalil, a foundation stallion for the Tunisian National Stud“, which would be Sidi Thabet. If this piece of information turned out to be correct, it could either mean the Saudis gave the Tunisians this stallion, or less likely at that time, that the Tunisians gave the Saudis one of their stallions. This is a matter for further investigation. However, there was an Arabian stallion by the name of Balabil (with a “b” not an “l”) racing in Beirut in the late 1940s or early 1950s in the ownership of Prince Badr Aal Saud, a son of King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud. This Balabil is…

The pedigree pages at skowronek.io pertaining to Skowronek’s non Arabian ancestors are updated and a new article discussing the local mares at the heart of his pedigree was published yesterday. Some of the horses referenced we have discussed previously on this site, so I will list them here for those that are interested: The local mares including Szweykowska and Polka. Stallions including Szumka I, Szumka II, Zboj, Gniady, and the sires of Sawicka Anusia, Sawicka Duza and Matka.

I am still looking for a first class stallion, more than fourteen years after having acquired my first US mare. I came across many outstanding stallions during these years, but I was never lucky enough to acquire one. The Davenport stallions Popinjay CF, Javera Thadrian, Triermain CF and Daedalus LD were some of these. Also the Ma’naqis RB Bellagio, which I saw, and Dakhala Sabiq from the breeding of Jeanne Craver, which I did not see. They must have been something else, judging from the photos. Proud carriage of head and tail, sparkly eyes, deep jowls, a slight arched neck, high withers, a short back, a deep girth and a long hip are a must. Have you recently seen a horse with these features?

I absolutely love this horse. He reminds me of the horses of my childhood. Whenever I see a picture of him, I recall his grandparents, great-grandparents, and the horses of Aleppo before the Syrian war. He has the deep, full chestnut color of his grand-dam Hanadi, a superior broodmare, and of Hanadi’s daughter, which was my father’s mare. His owners Fabienne Vesco and Jean-Claude Rajot can be proud of him. He has produced very well. Photo by Severine Vesco.

From the BBC the other day comes this wonderful article on 4000 years old recipes from Mesopotamia.