Daughters of the Wind

Thanks to Kate, I was able to purchase the unpublished PhD.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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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. … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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

I just downloaded the “Book of Sheep” and the “Book of Camels” of Al-Asma’i from archive.org. Al-Asma’i was also one of the earliest authors of the “Book of Horses”. Al-Asma’i was the rival of Abu ‘Ubaydah, the author of another early “Book of Horses”. I don’t nearly love sheep and camels the way I love … Read more

The more pictures I see of this horse, the more I like him. The old blood of Ali Pasha Sharif’s horses comes through very strongly in him. He is the sire of little Kinza. This is one of the few times I was happy with my choice of stallions. Look at that withers/shoulders complex.

By Sheikh El Arab out of Ragia by Ibn Rabdan. Dam of Ibn Halima by Nazeer, who became Ansata Ibn Halima in the USA. Long ears (good, an indication of asalah), long face (good), narrow forehead (less good). That type of Straight Egyptian horses disappeared in one generation. Mares like these were absorbed in the … Read more

She is perhaps the very last one from that strain left in the desert, and a distant relative to the Davenport Hadbans.

The picture is not so good, but the mare pictured is interesting. She is the only offspring the Shuwayman stallion Mahboub Halep produced in Syria before leaving for France. Her strain is Kuhaylan al-Wati (same strain as Kuhaylan Jallabi, by the way) Sire: Shuwayman, Mahboub Halep (a maternal grandson of Al-Aawar with another cross to … Read more

An very early photo, taken in 1857, of this superb Mamluk Sultan mausoleum, which now lies in the heart of Cairo. Abbas Pasha had just died afew years earlier.

Tamaam DE died a couple days ago at the Doyle ranch in Oregon. I am happy the two leased Ma’naqiyah mares are in foal to him for next year. I hope one of them produces a colt so I could use him as a stallion. What a dream to have one’s own Ma’naqi stallion.

A fascinating article in the BBC.

How do they manage to produce horses of this caliber, amidst war, insurgency, uncertainty and the absence of the rule of law?