From an Al Khamsa news bulletin: “The Arabian Horse community worldwide lost a fierce advocate this morning. Hanna Luise Heck-Melnyk, known to all as Hansi, passed away at 11:43am EST, Sunday January 14, 2018, at her farm in Hawthorne, Florida, at the age of 86. Founder of Serenity Arabians, Hansi has been a long time supporter of Al Khamsa, Inc. The summer 2018 issue of the Khamsat will feature Hansi, her breeding program, and her accomplishments.” Hansi introduced me to western Arabian horse breeding and breeders, and instilled in me the passion of defending asil bloodlines. We met in 1994 and remained friends since. This page is a tribute to Hansi, her horses, her legacy, and her achievements.
Ten years already. I can hardly believe it. I feel so blessed for the old friends it has allowed me to keep in touch with, and the new friends it has allowed me to make, from around the world. Above all, I feel blessed for the collective knowledge and memory gathered here. One day we will all meet face to face, from Germany and the USA and France and the UK and Chile and Hungary and Canada and Croatia and Tunisia and South Africa and Australia and Spain and Pakistan and Belgium and Morocco and Egypt and Lebanon and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Iran and Israel and Palestine and many, many other places around the world. And we can all already tell what will be on the menu of discussions.
Don’t you love that strong, powerful neck and broad chest. Shueyman Redjem exudes power, and is reminiscent of his sire Murad Dahman (Ahshwan x Murad Hadiya by Ourki x Hamada) whom I rode across the fields and trails of Burgundy in the summer of 2010, with Jean-Claude Rajot. I also rode his dam Shueymah Sabbah (Mokhtar x Murad Haouda by Cherif x Hamada). r
Another daughter of Mach’al, this time a Ma’naqiyah named Cha’lah, also from an old strain of the Dandashi lords of Tal Kalakh. Sire of dam: al-Jazzar, a Kuhaylan Nawwaq; sire of granddam: Ghazwan, a Kuhaylan al-Kharas; pictured with a foal by a partbred stallion. Photographed by my father somewhere in Western Syria, most likely in Tal Kalakh in the late 1970s, and pedigree in his handwriting on the back of the photo. How much I would give for just one of those mares now. There numbered in the low hundreds at the height of the Lebanese national program, before the civil war of 1975-1990. In 1991, there were only 25 mares left, most born between 1965 and 1975. Today, zero left in asil form.
An asil Saqlawiyah, daughter of Mach’al (and hence paternal sister of the stallion Achhal, the sire of the tree mares in the previous entries), from an old strain of the Dandashis (perhaps the Saqlawi Ibn Zubaynah strain tracing to Umm al-Tubul), photographed by my father in Tal Kalakh, Syria, in the late 1970s. She was exported to Qatar during the Lebanese civil war. Many of the best asil Lebanese mares were sent to the Gulf countries, where they were wasted.
This is Nawakiat ‘Akkar, a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, and yet another Achhal daughter, born in 1976. She was the most valuable mare my father owned, and had established a dynasty of (part-bred) race winners of her own. She was a gift from Henri Pharaon at three years old, and was sold in 1992 to Henri’s cousin, Pierre Pharaon, along with Zenobia and a third mare (part-bred). This was when my father was transitioning to “purebred Arab” horses of international lines, which he then felt were equally “asil”, and had just acquired two mares of predominantly Crabbet lines from Jordan, Ziba (Dancing Magic x Shazla) and Shela (El Batal x Siva).
This mare, also a ‘Ubayyah, and also a daughter of Achhal, was the last two “asil” Lebanese mares. She was owned by Abd al-Hamid al-Halabi, who bred her to French stallions (non-asil) that my father had selected for Lebanon in 1992. She left no “asil” progeny as a result. Like most everyone in the Middle East at the time (and until today), he had no idea at the time that the notion of “asil” and the Western notion of a “purebred Arab” registered in a studbook were not the same. Years after that, we eventually understood that not all “purebred Arabs” traced to Bedouin-bred horses in all their lines, but it was too late for the Lebanese breeding from an “asil” perspective. When the Lebanese studbook was accepted by WAHO, it already consisted of 25 or so elderly mares, and one gelding racehorse. Stallions had to be imported from aboard. This mare was one of the youngest, born in 1980 I believe. I think her name was Chahla, but I am not sure.
Zenobia, born in 1977, was one of the prettiest asil mare in Lebanon, my father’s favorite horse, and a notoriously difficult producer. A ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah tracing to the marbat of Ibn Thamdan of the Sba’ah, with a regal pedigree that was linebred to Mach’al, the foundation stallion of Lebanese asil breeding. She left no asil progeny, and my father sold her in 1992 at the age of 15. Sire: Achhal, a son of Mach’al; dam: Bint Su’ad; sire of dam: Wazzal, another son of Mach’al; dam of dam: Su’ad; sire of granddam: al-Jazzar; dam of granddam: Mash’al’s sister, a daughter of Shaykh al-Arab.
While scanning old photos this morning, I happened on these two photos. There is a story to them. One evening in 1985 or 1986, a Lebanese visitor came to see my father in Beirut, and left the two photos behind. He spoke emphatically about his trip to the Syrian Jazirah (Upper Mesopotomia in North Eastern Syria today) and the desert-bred horses he had seen there. I was seven or eight years old, I did not catch much of the conversation but the photos made a lasting impression on me. It was in the middle of the Lebanese civil war, communications between Syria and the part of Lebanon we lived in were infrequent and difficult, and most Lebanese horsemen involved in the Lebanese horse racing scene, including my father, were convinced that no more good, authentic, pure desert-bred horses were left in the Syrian desert, because of the degenerescence of the breed and its contamination by part-bred Arabs from Iraq. “You will only find leftovers there”, my father was once told. These photos and the visitor’s description showed otherwise, just at a time when the Syrian breeders were launching a large-scale effort to register all the horses of the Bedouins. Indeed,…
“If you’ve ‘eard the East a-callin’, you won’t never ‘eed naught else.” No! you won’t ‘eed nothin’ else But them spicy garlic smells, An’ the sunshine an’ the palm-trees an’ the tinkly temple-bells; On the road to Mandalay . . .
The neighborhood of al-Darb al-Ahmar. Photo from the Facebook page Ahl Masr Zaman.
Pauline Du Plessis’s Saruk Arabians is standing the bay 1999 Bahraini stallion Mlolshaan Mutab (Mlolshaan Hilal x Mlolesh Durra by Jellaby Adari) at stud in South Africa. He was bred by the stud of Sh. Mohammed Bin Salman Aal Khalifah, and is heavily linebred with Mlolesh (Mulawlishan) blood. He is a sire of endurance winners. Photo from Saruk’s stud Facebook page.
“Belle” (photo below) is one of just four Al Khamsa mares from the female line of *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the stud of King of ‘Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabia, imported to the USA in 1931. When *Nufoud was born around 1925, Saudi Arabia was still known as the “Kingdom of Najd and the Hijaz”. Peter Upton, in the tables at the end of the book “Royal Heritage: The Story of Jordan’s Arab Horses”, mentions that *Nufoud was from originally from the stud of the Hashemite King of Hijaz, ‘Ali ibn al-Hussain, whose short-lived kingdom was overtaken by the Saudis in late 1925. I don’t know the source of Upton’s information, but it is certainly likely, since the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain was bred by the Hashemites in the Hijaz. A mare from this strain accompanied King ‘Abdallah (King ‘Ali’s brother) on the armed march northwards from Hijaz to Syria, during the Arab Revolt of 1916-17, and founded a line that still exists at the Royal Stud of Jordan. The Saudis maintained a stud near Ta’if, in the Hijaz, which Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of the Egypt RAS visited in 1936. This stud may well have included horses taken…
The three imported mares of Jenny Lees (her photo): Hamdanieh Habiba, Shuwaimeh Bint Warda and Kray Mohammedia
Wadhah and Belle are now boarded at a farm near my home where the children can enjoy them and see them more often. They will return to Pennsylvania for breeding to the Bahraini stallion Shuwaiman Al Rais this spring.
A beautiful photo of the interior of one of the few remaining wonders of Syria still standing.
Different theories on the origin of the Arabian horse exist. The range is from a wild Proto-Arabian that lived in Arabia and is said to have been domesticated by the Bedouins, to theories that an already domesticated horse reached Arabia from outside. Some authorities maintain that the Arabian horse came from Egypt and compare the pictures of horses in ancient Egyptian art with petroglyphes (stone carvings) in Arabia and the modern Arabian horse. But except from the resemblence of those three groups no other proof can be found. The Arabian vocabulary concerning horses and horse-gear (saddles and so on) is on the other hand derived from Arameic or Persian words. Furthermore genetic findings, especially on maternal DNA (mtDNA) suggests that the Arabian horse has its origins from different sources. On the latter I have attached an excerpt from my book BEDOUIN HERITAGE. Click here for more: science Assyrian horses on the so called Lachisch relief Stallion Musannan Awaad (Rabdan Baher X Musannah Ghazwa) 2011 in Bahrain at the stables of Prince Mohammed
A photo of the desert-bred stallion Cherine from the magazine Le Sport Universel Illustre. Cherine, born in 1903, was one of the best looking stallions to be imported by the French to their government stud of Pompadour, and then on to their Algerian stud in Tiaret in 1909.
I have visited many great cities around the world, and nothing comes close to Aleppo before the Syrian civil war. Fes, in Morocco is a distant second. Photo from the Aleppo Photographic Museum
After several centuries of existence, the last French National Studs were sadly disbanded last year. However, bad things can sometimes lead to lucky opportunities. Many of the regional stallion stations and National Studs have kept listing of stallions at stud, details of imports, reports of missions to purchase foundation oriental horses, and those are now available for public review at the National Archives. I hope in the coming months to provide more information about them, recover our forgotten heritage and give more insight about some of the most important European foundation horses. Malheureusement, après plusieurs siècles d’existance, les derniers vestiges des Haras Nationaux français ont été dissous l’année dernière. Néanmoins, un événement aussi triste peu aussi parfois amener son lot de surprises. De nombreuses stations locales et certaines de nos grandes écuries nationales ont maintenu pendant toutes ces années des listing détaillés des étalons à la monte, de nombreux détails sur nos importations, les rapports sur les achats en Orient etc. Ceux-ci ont été regroupés et sont désormais accessible via les Archives Nationales. J’espère dans les prochains mois pouvoir vous donner de nouvelles informations à ce sujet, renouer avec notre héritage oublié et récupérer de nombreuses données sur certains de…
The following excerpt from the book BEDOUIN HERITAGE – THE WORLD OF THE ARABIAN HORSE deals with a question of importance: violence in Bedouin society. The horse made an important contribution to Bedouin warfare and raiding and has thus increased violence. click here Wadi Rum, Jordan
Arabic Poetry, the only art of the desert, reflects the close relationship between man and his horse. In the book BEDOUIN HERITAGE – THE WORLD OF THE ARABIAN HORSE this is discussed at length. Here is an excerpt: Powerofpoetry To order this book, please go to www.arabianheritagesource.com! Price 63,50 € (includes shipment worldwide), payment via PAYPAL. The power of Bahrain: Hamdaany Zaizoom (Saqlaawy Saba´an X Hamdanieh Khaznah) 2004
Jeanne Craver just shared this short note signed on a White House card by US President Theodore Roosevelt to the US ambassador to Turkey. The note reads: “June 13 1906. Dear Mr. Leisheman Mr. Davenport is an awfully good fellow in every way. I hope that you can make a special effort to help him in his arab horse scheme; and any courtesy you can show him I shall accept as personal. Sincerely yours T. Roosevelt.”
Wonderful photos of a time long gone.
Monica Savier has two articles on the Bahrain WAHO conference, one is Desert Heritage, and the other in Tutto Arabi.
Sharon Meyers has a comprehensive and nicely illustrated report in the Australian Arabian Horse Society New in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) on the WAHO conference in Bahrain. Lots of great photos of Bahraini horses.
Al Khamsa is updating its online roster to include registrations from 2012 and 2013, and I was very happy to see two of my own breeding feature online: both Mayassa Al Arab and Jamr Al Arab now have their own pedigree page, and it’s very rewarding to see their old American pedigrees on an Al Khamsa page.
From Rehan Ud Din Baber on Facebook: “Here is a story about how “Azrek” was acquired by “Zeyd” — the Bedouin horse master of Lord Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (Zeyd was from the Muteyr tribe in Nejd). Zeyd says: “I will tell you how I bought the Seglawi [this was the stallion ‘Azrek’]. I did not, of course, tell them the truth, that I was the servant of the Bey (Lord Blunt). There is no shame in this. It is policy (siasa). I am a master of policy. I made a deceit. I said to them that I was of the Agheylat, looking for horses for India, horses from the north and tall ones, for those are the horses that bring most price in India. What did I want with the pure bred? I wanted to make money. And so I went to the Sebaa. I alighted at Ibn ed Derri’s tent, as it were by accident. But I made a mistake. It was not the tent of Mishlab Ibn ed Derri, but of his brother Fulan (the name Fulan is used as we say So-and-So). There are four brothers. Fulan and Fulan and Fulan and Mishlab. Mishlab was the owner of…
The Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Yemameh/Yamama was the dam of the Crabbet foundation stallion Mesaoud, and the progenitor of the female line of Saqlawi Jadran that runs through the world famous Mahroussa and her offsprings at Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfiq of Egypt, many of which were exported to the USA and Europe and founded important families there. Yemameh/Yamama (same spelling in Arabic, different pronunciation depending on whether it’s pronounced in Egpytian Arabic or Classical Arabic) was from the breeding of Ali Pasha Sharif and went to the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II in his Qoubbeh/Koubbah stables. Wilfrid Blunt entered the following entry in his diary: “11th Jan. [1896] — Took Anne and Judith to Koubbah to see the Khedive. He received us with great empressement… and showed us his stud. He has got together some nice mares, but nothing quire first class, except two of Ali Pasha Sherif’s, one of which is our horse Mesaoud’s dam, a very splendid mare, with the finest head in the world. He has bred some promising colts and altogether the thing is well done.” The veterinary records for the Khedivial Stud offer the following additional information on the mare’s production: 2 July 1900: “The colt ibn Yamama is…
Did you know that Mohammed Ali Foundation had deposited the archives of Khedive Abbas Hilmi (II) at the University of Durham? Michael Bowling, who had know this for years, suggested one of us visit at the first occasion, and I had the chance to go there last February, and spend 2.5 hours looking for references about Arabian horses. One of the more interesting things I found were the veterinary records of all Khedivial Studs (Montazah, Qubbeh, Ras El Tin, Ismailia, etc). These are handwritten, and are available for four years: 1898, 1900, 1904, and 1907. Records of veterinary visits cover horses, donkeys, cows, buffaloes, small cattle, and birds. Horses include Arabian horses, but also horses imported from North Africa, Switzerland, and Austria, among other places. I copied the sections relevant to Arabian horses, and came back with a wealth of information that, if analyzed in the context of existing information from other sources, can add to our – scant – knowledge about the Stud of Abbas Hilmi. I will be writing about some of these discoveries in subsequent posts. Stay tuned.
I had never seen this photo of the Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Bango, bred by the Shammar in 1923, and imported to Algeria by the French government in 1928, from an Egyptian racetrack. The photo was taken from an article on the Algeria stud of Tiaret, which appeared in the magazine Le Sport Universel Illustre N1375 of 1929/07/06. Although French studs did not favor grey horses at the time, Bango left behind 142 offspring in both Algeria and Tunisia, including the stallions Sumeyr, Beyrouth, Titan, Caleh, and the mares Tosca, Salome, Palmyre, El Balaska, Gafsa, Themis, Diyyena, and others that stamped Northern African studs with their quality.
A very exciting development is the digitizing and online publication of eight Middle Eastern library collections, the result of a collaboration with the French National Library. There are so many Arabian horse related treasures in the French National Library, and I can’t help think how many more lie in the Middle Eastern ones.
Better resolution photos from the Shuwayman Sabbah stallion Mahboub Halab in France this summer.
I spent some time with my friend Jean-Claude Rajot and his companion Fabienne Vesco and her daughter Severine this past summer. His imported Syrian stallion Mahboub Halab is looking glorious. I have other better photos too.
A photo of the desert bred stallion Telmèse, born in 1903, imported to France by Quinchez in 1912 has surfaced on allbreedpedigree.com. His name is spelled “Telmez” there. There is no strain recorded for Telmese, only that he was an “Asil de la tribu des Chammars”. This marks one of the first usages of the term “Asil” for an Arabian horse in French official records. His most important progeny includes the stallion Djebel Moussa, sent to Tunisia, out of Dragonne, and the mare Medje, out of Dragonne’s daughter Dourka.
The desert-bred Arabian stallion Dahman, born in 1900, imported from Syria to France’s Pompadour stud in 1909 by Quinchez, remains one of the prototypes of the authentic Arabian stallion. He was bred by the Shammar, by a stallion of the Dahman strain, out of a mare of the Rabdan strain. This photo is in a 1923 article from the magazine “Le Sport Universel Illustre”, from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
Among the foundation stock of Old French Bloodlines, I would like to discuss one specific horse : the stallion Emmon born in 1819. Some have considered his blood as “Asil” for decades. But, does he really fit the “Asil” definition? What do we actually know about this horse? Honestly not much. The first french studbook describe him as : “a grey 1819 Arabian stallion, bought in England by Strubberg Senior and de Bony”. He stood at Pompadour from 1825 to 1836 and died in January 1837. Can we trace him to “Bedouin breeding of the Arabian peninsula”? No. No data from his breeding source is given in the French Studbook, nor inside the Journal des Haras. Indeed, he is sometimes listed as an Arabian horse…but also, he is sometimes not. Although, one must confess that French authorities did their best to try to classify their “oriental imports” (from Persians to Barbs), having him or any other horse listed as “Arabian” is not enough to prove he was “Asil”. We shall agree that the knowledge of “oriental breeds” was lacking depth at that time. The difference between Thoroughbred horses bred in England and orientals imports was also suffering great troubles. They…
Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Sleigh Roberts was the commander of the British expeditionary forces — the Kabul Field Force — that fought the second Anglo-Afghan war from 1878 to 1880. General Roberts led his 10,000 troops, including 2800 British soldiers, on the legendary march from Kabul to Kandahar, where he defeated the forces of Ayub Khan. The war horse General Roberts rode on the 20 days march from Kabul to Kandahar and on much of the campaign was Vonolel, a desert-bred Arabian stallion (photo below, at the National Army museum). Vonolel ranks high in the pantheon of history’s most famous war steeds
The French military airport in the foreground, the Euphrates and its modern bridge in the background. The bridge was built by the French in 1927 and destroyed by ISIS in 2013.
I will never, ever tire of watching that mythical photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion, Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres). Thank you Anita Westfall, for taking it. My Thalia (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) is a Monsoon granddaughter.
This week, my beautiful Ginger (DA Ginger Moon) left for Idaho, on lease to Bev Davison. She will be missed, but I could not give her the chance she deserved over the past three years, for lack of a suitable stallion, and competing breeding projects (and programs). Her 2015 miscarriage after a successful breeding to the aged Bahraini Mlolshaan stallion in Michigan still haunts me. Bev will attempt a breeding to Buckner (photo below), on lease from Rosemary, Terry and Lyman Doyle, and then to one of her handsome Babson-Doyles, if all goes well. Buckner is double Greggan and double Subani, and it does not get better than that!
This beautiful photo of Pericles appeared on Facebook yesterday, courtesy of PG Gregory.
So much has been said about the five lumbar vertebra of the Arabian horse. Many authors still mention it up till now. But History and science reject this assumption. This feature was described by Auguste Rochau, then by his pupil André Sanson. Both of them were French veterinarians in the second half of the nineteenth century. This is a summarized translation of what Sanson said on the topic : — The aryan horse, with a straight frontal bone and rectilinear nose bones and six lumbar vertebra is from Asia. — The mongolic horse, with a convex profile and nose bones and five lumbar vertebra is from Africa. Here under is the translated text of Sanson ( extract from Denis Bogros’s book) [Both brachycephalic, one has a flat frontal bone, rectilinear nose bones and six lumbar vertebra in the spinal column, with seven cervical , eighteen dorsal and five sacral. The other has a convex or rounded frontal bone, slightly curved nose bones, and only five lumbar vertebra, and seven cervical vertebra, eighteen dorsal, and five sacral; and this one’s lumbar vertebra are not only different from the others by their inferior number, but they differ also by their transverse apophyses’s shape…
The two K. Haifi mares Provance CF 2001 (Triermain CF x Anjou CF by Plantagenet x Bint Dharebah), right, and Confetti CF 2000 (Triermain CF x Domina CF by Plantagenet x Bint Dharebah), left, on a hot day last Saturday, at Hazaim Alwair.
I spent part of the weekend at Hazaim’s house and small farm in North Carolina, and got to see his five Davenports, four Kuhaylan Haifis and a Hadba Enzahi. The best part was a trail ride around the subdivision, him on Gilad Ibn Dubloon and me on Una CF. Below are two photos of his 2010 Hadba Enzahi mare, Zubaida Assahara (RL Thunder Cloud x RL Angel Girl by Letarnard), with 4 lines to *Hadba. She was in many ways my favorite, despite being the smallest of the lot. A war mare, built like a tank, with a broad chest, a deep girth and a broad, round rib cage, exuding stamina and power, with a pleasing and dry head, a big eye and prominent eye socket, a dry bony face, an elegant arched throat, hair fine like silk, a shiny copper coat, overall not without style, and so reminiscent of the small and valiant desert horses of my childhood in Syria.
One of Hungary’s veteran Asil Arabian horse breeders, Laszlo really needs no introduction. Laszlo owns and edits a horse magazine owner and editor Lovas Nemzet, an historian of the breed, and a believer in the universality of Asil bloodlines. Suffice it to say he owns some of the last lines to Babolna’s Siglavy Bagdady VI and 25-Amurath Sahib, and the very last line to Abbas Pasha’s Selma that runs through Musgrave Clark’s Courthouse Stud, and that he has been successfully breeding them to some of the best Egyptian lines in addition to the Davenport bloodline of Delicate Air.
It is an honor for me to publish my thoughts and my experiences on the Daughters of the wind Blog from time to time. At the same time an honor and pleasure knowing and learning from the opinions of other people about our beloved Arabian horse. One of my experiences about the Arabian horses was a film from Bahrain. A long time ago, at the turn of the millenium, in 1998 or 1999 I received it as gift from a German friend, Jens Sannek. The film was made by an Austrian breeder, Anton Tucek in 1985 (!). Today I learned that Anton Tucek died in 2004. I spoke with his very kind widow, who agreed to let me publish the recording. Anton Tucek was a breeder of Asil Arabian horses. I’m sorry I didn’t know him personally, but I knew about his horses. He imported two stallions from Bahrain in the 1980’s. One of them was Sarhan, whose 26-year-old son (out of an original Iranian mare) is still living, now owned by the family. It is not easy to identify the horses in the film. I only can guess the names of someone, but I hope there are people who knows them exactly. I…
This beautiful lithography of some of the stallions imported by the famous greek dealer Nicholas Gliocho in the 1820’s can be seen at the Tylers Museum in Netherlands and online here
Le débat autour de l’origine exacte et de la genèse du pur sang arabe date approximativement du XIXème siècle, en Europe du moins. L’hypothèse d’une origine purement arabe suppose l’existence d’un cheval préhistorique local dont descendrait presque sans changement le pur sang arabe actuel. Carl Raswan entre autres défendait ce point de vue. L’autre hypothèse rejette l’idée d’un cheval arabe préhistorique et situe l’arrivée du cheval dans la Péninsule arabique sous forme domestiquée très tardivement , vers le premier siècle après JC. Les premiers chevaux de par leur rareté auraient eu un statut prestigieux, semi divin, avant d’être utilisés pour la guerre ou la chasse. La croissance des effectifs, très lente, est évaluée à travers des inscriptions détaillant le nombre de fantassins, chameliers et cavaliers ayant participé à des batailles antéislamiques. Christian Robin et Saud Soliman Theyab ,(chevaux et cavaliers arabes, ouvrage collectif) résument ainsi une énumération d’inscriptions découvertes au Yémen et dans le Hadramaout :”Cette longue récapitulation n’est pas sans intérêt. Au Ier siècle les chevaux se comptent en unités; au IIIème siècle c’est par dizaines; enfin au IVème siècle c’est par centaines. Le cheval, très rare en Arabie méridionale au début de l’ère chrétienne, devient relativement commun trois…
A veterinarian by training who worked with Veterinarians without Borders in the Sahel, Yassine Jamali now breeds Arabians, Arab-Barbs and North African greyhounds (Sloughis) at his family farm in central Morocco, on the banks of the Oum er Rabiaa river. I have been enjoying and appreciating Yassine’s online contributions on the breeding of Arabian and Barb horses and Sloughis for many years now. His thoughts on function driving form in conformation and temperament, on the breed’s adaption and resilience to evolving market needs, and bringing equine history to bear, resonate with me. I am excited at the opportunity to share them with you here.
More photos, this time from a Syrian village, from this Delcampe.net old memorabilia auction site. I am more and more eager to find the source of these photos, and exactly where and when they were taken.
Enjoy these photos from an auction site, Delcampe.net, which have never been published before. I don’t know their source, but I suspect they were taken during official government buying missions. A breeder from Algeria, Farid Chaoui, shared them with me, and should know more. The legend for some of them say “Hadideen”, the name of a Syrian Bedouin tribe, for others they say “Raqqa”. There are more.
I extended the pedigree of some foundation horses of the Bahrain royal studs by a few generations drawing on information from Vol. 1 and 2 of the studbooks, and other sources (like the pedigree of South Africa’s Tuwaisan). You can see it on allbreepedigree here. The only Bahraini sire line now extends beyond the Shawaf stallion “Felhaan Alshawaf” to his sire “Dhahmaan Aloud” (al-Oud meaning “the ancient”), which must have been active towards the end of the XIXth century. Other than being the sire of “Old Jellabi Speckled”, a.k.a. Jellaby Almarshoosh Alawal, b. 1914, “Felhaan Alshawaf” now appears as the sire of the Jellabieh that is the maternal granddam of the three foundation Jellabi brothers (Jellaby Alwasmiya, Jellaby Sakhir, and Jellaby Najib). In turn, “Old Jellabi Speckled” is the sire of “Wathnan Bay” a.k.a. “Wadhnaan” (photo below).
I made a small but interesting breakthrough in further understanding old Bahraini pedigrees, and I am excited to share it. It concerns the background of one of the Bahraini foundation mares of the Ma’naqi strain. This is the mare “Managhieh Bin Hiddfa Al-Murra”, the maternal grand dam of the two Royal Stud stallions Managhi Al Kabir, and his brother the superb Managhi Al Saghir (photo below). It just occurred to me, after reading a letter from Jens Sannek to Edie Booth, where the name of the mare was spelled slightly differently as “Ma’anaghieh (Bin Hidfah Almorrah)”, that the part of the name between brackets referred to her breeder and his tribe. Al-Murra/Almorra refers to the South-Eastern Arabian Bedouin tribe of same name; Bin Hidfah/Bin Hiddfa would be the breeder’s clan. I set off looking for a clan by the name of Bin/Ibn Hidfah among the Aal Murra, and I found many mentions of it online. There is a reference to the warrior/poet Dayes Aal Hidfah, where he refers to “al-Mu’niq” in his verses, here. There are also many references to social events involving men from the Aal Hidfah clan on the tribe’s social media outlets, which are also maintained by a…
This is “Maanaghieh Safra Marshoosha”, literally “the yellow fleebitten Ma’naqiyah mare” from Bahrain. The photo is from Volume 1 of the Bahrain Studbook, and I think by Danah Al Khalifah. I don’t have it in a better resolution. I need help figuring out whether the mare is sticking her tongue out in the photo. It sounds stupid, but there is a reason for this request: ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, the Fad’aan Bedouin from Syria who owned one of the most reputable XXth century Ma’naqi marbat told Kamal ‘Abd al-Khaliq who told me several years ago that ‘Atiyah once (in the 1950s-60s?) gave a grey/yellow Ma’naqiyah mare to Jad’aan the son of Miqhim Ibn Mhayd who in turn gave her to a senior member of the royal family of Bahrain. ‘Atiyah told Kamal that the mare’s nickname was Umm Lssoon, the ‘mother of tongues’ because she always stuck her tongue out. He also told him that she was closely related to Atiyah’s mare Wadeehah (b. 1970), photo below taken by me at Kamal’s stud outside Aleppo in the early 90s.