This picture is from the Craver photo collection, courtesy of Jeanne Craver. It is another one of my favorite pictures of Arabian stallions of Davenport lines.. Lysander (Sir x Dhalana by Salan), was one of the main stallions at Craver Farms in the 1970s and 1980s.
The first lesson I took from from the success of “Davenport” breeding in the USA is connectedness, and I talked about it in an earlier entry. Another lesson is that it’s a nice story that was also nicely told. The history of every single Arabian horse breeding group is equally fascinating: Egyptian Arabians and the splendor of the kings and pashas, Crabbet Arabians and the travels of Lady Anne Blunt against the backdrop of a British Empire at its zenith, etc. The history of the Davenports as a breeding group ranks among the most inspiring of these for several reasons: first and foremost, because of its extraordinary simplicity: one man, Homer Davenport, falls in love with desert-bred Arabian horses at the 1893 Chicago World Fair; he decides to own some of his own, so he jumps on a ship on the first occasion (in 1906), spends a few weeks in Northern Arabia and comes back to the USA with 27 of these coveted horses, but dies shortly after. Yet a hundred years later, the horses are still there, thanks to the foresight and fortitude of a small number of courageous individuals. It is a quintessentially American story of self-made men…
I am a relatively recent addition to the group of North American-based breeders of the Arabian horses known as “Davenport Arabians”, since I bought Wisteria CF in from Charles and Jeanne Craver in 2006. “Davenports” are a very special group of horses descending from the horses imported by Homer Davenport from the Northern Arabian desert in 1906 (some of them also trace to the horses which the Ottoman Empire sent to the 1893 Chicago World Fair). I am very fond of this group horses (and even more so of their ‘inventors’, the Cravers), although I don’t identify as a ‘Davenport breeder’, nor do I think of my horses as ‘Davenport horses’. I’d rather think of Wisteria CF, her daughter Wadha and the other mare I have an interest in, Javera Chelsea, as asil Kuhaylat mares tracing to the war horses of the Bedouin tribes of the Northern Arabian desert. As such, they are the same kind of “Syrian” horses as those my father and I used to own, before I came to the USA in 2000. That said, I think there are some lessons to be learnt from the group of “Davenport breeders” in recent years, i.e., since I have…
Ambar reminded me of this 1994 video by Carol Mingst, where some of the Davenport Arabian stallions in the North-West USA appear. You will see the magnificent stallions Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Audobon (Iliad x Audacity) and a paternal grandson of Monsoon, SA Apogee (Ascendant x Copper Hill Rysa by Flight Plan), as well as Al Mujiz Jauhara who is Javera Thadrian’s half brother. There are nice shots of the black Kuhaylan al-Krush Sportin Life (Brimstone x Asallah Al Krush), and the bay Mandarin (Regency CF x Lotus), too. There are some non-asils in the middle of the video.
Bon Vivant CF was bred at Craver Farms by Lysander out of Bonne Fortune by Dharanad. He looks splendid in that picture.
There is this photo of the beautiful asil stallion Sumeyr (Bango d.b. x Jamnia by the Algerian asil Oukrif out of Taflia by the Egyptian Ibn Fayda) on allbreedigree here. He was bred at a private stud in Tunisia, then exported to France where he stood at the government stud of Pau, in the South West. His sire Bango was a Ma’naqi Sbaili from the Shammar, was imported to Algeria in the 1920s, and this makes Sumeyr very close to the desert. Photo from the Deblaise collection on their site Lozanne Publications. Now this one is of the very desert looking Tabriz (Oukrif x Hama by Agege out of Taflia by Ibn Fayda), a close relative of Sumeyr who had all this sallion career in Tunisia. He is also very close to the desert blood, his grandsire being the stallion El Managhi, imported from Hama, Syria, at the same time as Bango.
Iricho was born in Tunisia in 1959 at the stud of French Navy Admiral – and otherwise master Arabian horse breeder – Anatole Cordonnier, who sold him to the French government a few years later. Iricho, a Jilfan Dhawi tracing to Wadha, bred by the Fad’aan Bedouins and imported from the Arabian Desert to Algeria in 1875 by the Frnech, subsequently stood at the Haras de Pompadour for most of his breeding career. Although a horse of excellent conformation and irreproachable bloodlines, Iricho was little used by French breeders who preferred taller stallions of racing bloodlines. He did produce three asil Arabian stallions: Zab in 1971 (out of the beautiful Izarra), Jahir in 1975 (out of Ciada), and Nichem (out of Caida). Very little asil blood if anything at all, remains from Iricho today. Photo from the collection of Pierre-Henri Beillard of Le Sureau, France.
Arnault Decroix send me this picture of his very promising 2005 stallion Dahess Hassaka (al-Ameer Dahess x Oghareet by Marzouk out of Hanadi by Krush Juhayyim), which was bought from Radwan Shabareq and imported to France in 2009. An asil Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the very old marbat of the Naqashbandi sufi mystics of the Middle Euphrates valley, Dahess Hassaka is the paternal grandson of my Dahess and is now being used as a stallion by Arnault. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Dahess (Awaad x Al-Jazi by the Ubayyan of ‘Atnan al-Shazi) was a 1987 grey stallion. He was bred by sayyid Muhammad al-Shaykh Salim a Tufayhi, a non-Bedouin from a family of religious notables in Upper Mesopotamia, as so was his dam. He was a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak by strain, tracing to the marbat of ‘Awwad ‘Azzam al-Sahlan, or ‘Ubayyan Suhayli. He was sired by the grey Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Awaad, who hails from the famed marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba, and as such he is a half brother to the black stallion Mokhtar now in France. His dam, al-Jazi, was reportedly one of the prettiest mares in Syria, and eventually came to be owned by the late Basil al-Asad, brother to the current president of the Syrian Arab Republic. Dahess was sold as a youngster to the former Qatari consul in Damascus, the late Yusuf al-Rumaihi, who owned a wonderful collection of beautiful and well-authenticated desert-bred mares (more on this later), as well as the two Egyptian stallions Okaz (Wahag x Nazeemah) and al-Qahir (Ikhnatoon x Marium). When Rumaihi passed away, the horses were dispersed and some of them found their way to Qatar, where they were overlooked and eventually given away. Dahess then…
J’aimerais revenir sur le cheval Tunisien nommé Jehol Sahraoui (Ouaffar x Kalthoumia par Sabour), un bai soutenu né chez M Heinz Gerd Bergmann… J’ai eu loisir de monter cet étalon en 1989 lors d’une visite chez les Ghobber, éleveurs semi nomades à l’époque dans la région de Maknassy. Sortie en compagnie du Chef de Tribu Rhida Ghobber, de frères et cousins dont Youssef et Amara Ben Ghabri. Je revois encore le visage de mon ami Jean-Claude chevauchant à mes côtés et photographiant du regard le superbe coursier en pleine action, puis entendre Rhida crier de derrière : « Tu imagines « Luis » comme cela durant trente kilomètres ?… Attention aux trous de renards ». Réponse en cœur : « Où ? trop tard » Nous fondions dans cette immensité sur l’horizon à très grande vitesse. Jehol ne connaissait qu’une allure : le Galop ! En action sur place une fois enfourché, les renes semblaient élastiques, la bouche pourtant pas dure pour autant, ce diable de cheval semblait s’enfoncer dans le sol pour, les doigts légèrement ouverts, partir progressivement en dérapage dans une gerbe de sable. Ici l’expression « à la nage, à la nage » prenait tout son sens. N’étant pourtant à l’époque pas au mieux de ma forme et sous traitement, l’environnement aidant,…
The first and only desert-bred Syrian stallion we ever owned. More on him later, as I dig up better photos. This one was taken in 1995 at the farm of Mustafa Jabri in Aleppo, where Dahess was standing at stud. My father is teasing him..
Starting in the 1950s, so-called “Iraqi Arabians” swept across the Middle East race tracks of Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, of Egypt and the Sudan. Until then, the overwhelming majority of the racehorses involved in the racing industry of these countries were asil desert-breds from the Northern and Central Arabian deserts. The Iraqi Arabians were different. They were not just Arabian horses from Iraq. They were taller, bigger, stronger, faster, and often more attractive than the plainer, smaller desert-breds. They looked like Arabians, but they ran like greyhounds, their tails down. They also matured much faster. Most significantly, they easily outraced the smaller desert-bred on the 1 mile and 1.3 mile races. They were more ‘horse’ than ‘Arabian’, standing above 16 hands. Almost every racehorse owner in Beirut wanted them in his stalls. Iraqis like Shahin ‘Iqab and Sfoug al-Yawer (al-Jarba) brought entire convoys of such “Iraqi” colts to Beirut. Few filles were bought. From the 1950s trickle, the business quickly grew to a major industry in the 1960s and 1970s. The Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) barely slowed it down, but the first Gulf war (1990-1991) dealt it a devastating blow. The names of the first generation racehorses are synonymous…
The 1943 mare *Kouhailane (photo above, not flattering) was one of the 14 horses to be imported to the USA by press magnate W.R. Hearst in 1947. She hails from the Lebanese plain of Akkar, north of Tripoli and close to the Syria border. ‘Akkar is the prime horse-breeding area in Lebanon. It is a very fertile agricultural plain, extending from the Mediterranean sea to the highlands of Mt. Lebanon, and bordering Syria. It is within an hour’s access to the Syrian desert by car, and it is was not unusual for ‘Anazah clans and others from smaller Bedouin tribes used to pitch their tents in the plains. Since the end of the XVII century, the feudal landlords of ‘Akkar have been from the Mer’abi family, who were of Kurdish origins (in Arabic). The Mer’abis were split in several rival clans: al-Muhammad, al-‘Uthman, al-‘Abd al-Razzaq, al-As’ad, al-‘Ali, who were farming taxes from the various ‘Akkar districts on behalf of the Ottoman governor of Tripoli, and ultimately, who was the local representative of the Ottoman governor. At times, Mir’abi leaders were able to garner enough strength to become Ottoman govenors of Tripoli themselves. In ‘Akkar, some of the most prestigious marabet were: 1. Kuhaylan al-Dunays, originally from Sba’ah, with the Mer’abis in the…
I thought I’d gather in one place all the relevant information on this blog about those asil lines that just about to vanish. In most cases, the line is down to one single individual horse. You’ll find that information by scrolling all the way down the middle column, in a series of link called “Rare asil lines around the world”. There is also a section on “Recently Lost asil lines”. The *Samirah tail female (Hamdani Simri, from the Saud Royal Stud, Early American Foundation line) is in the first category. If we lose the last two mares, now both in a preservation program with the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse, then that lines will go from the first category (Rare) to the second (Lost). It’s as simple as that.
The desert-bred Saqlawi Jadran stallion Ihsan (Hamdani Simri x Nadya, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah) was the second stallion at the Jabri stud in the 1990s. He was mainly used as an outcross to Mahrous daughters. What I liked about him was his large expressive eye, his huge half-moon cheekbone, his nice croup, as well as his good tail carriage. I took this photo in 1990. Ihsan traces all the way back to the famous Saqlawi Jadran marbat of Dari al-Mahmoud, the leader of the Zawba’ Shammar of Iraq, and a hero of the Iraqi resistance to the British in the 1920s. There are only three Saqlawi Jadran marbat among the Shammar today, and they will be the subject of an entry to come. The 1922 stallion *King John, who raced in Egypt, and was later imported to the USA, was also a Saqlawi Jadran from Dari al-Mahmoud’s marbat, according to his hujjah (featured in the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians II, 1993). A thin asil line to *King John survived in the USA until the 1980s, through his great-grandson Beau Nusik (Nusik x Reshan Azab by Janeo, who was by *King John), but it was eventually lost. *King John (photo below)…
This mare was mentioned several times on this blog. She is a Kuhaylat al-Wati of the marbat of Hakim al-Ghishm of the Shammar Bedouins in Nort-Eastern Syria. Her sire, dam, grandsire and granddam, and her ancestors beyond that are from the same marbat, and bred by the same family. She was owned by Mustafa Jabri of Aleppo, is the dam of the stallion Kassar, owned by Omar Anbarji. I took this photo in 1990
This is the unbeaten racehorse Al Sakbé (Kesberoy x Morgane de Piboule by Djourman), born in 1995. This is Akim de Ducor by Akbar (Djelfor x Fantasia by Gosse du Bearn) out of Ishra, who is by Tornado de Syrah (by Djourman), born in 2005. This is Elios de Carrere, 1992, by Manganate out of Nerva du Cassou by Baroud III. All three are “Arabians”, and duly recognized by WAHO. Actually, one comment: some people just have no shame. Time for a paradigm shift.
Al Khamsa has a new website, larger, slicker, with tons of information and at your fingertips. The education section is particularly rich, with articles, lists of foundation horses and a preservation section about endangered lines.
From now on, I will use the term “Pseudo-Arabian” to refer to horses that are registered as Arabians in a WAHO-approved studbook, but are in reality part-bred Arabians with varying amounts of non-Arabian blood running in their veins. They are part-breds in disguise. The Qatari horse Amer (by Wafi x Bushra on paper), the Saudi horse Tiwaiq (by Unknown 1 x Unkown 2 out of Unknown 3, photo below) and a majority of horses of French racing bloodlines such as Djourman (Manguier x Djouranta by Saint Laurent, photo below) fall under this category. They and their offspring are among the most expensive and sought after “Arabian” horses today. Their presence in WAHO-registered studbooks represents a scandal unlike any other in the world of equine breeding, in no small part because they belong to rich and powerful people who can get away with this behavior.
This photo is from the collection of the late Mary Gharagozlu, through Brigitte Killian. It pictures the Bahraini Kuhaylat al-Mulawlish mare Mlolesh Al-Yatima (Jellabi al-Asil x Mlolesh).
Fancy Flight (Tripoli x Ceres by Aramis) was a full sister to Monsoon. Asil Kuhaylah Hayfiyah bred by Craver Farms, and founder of a family of herself. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Craver.
This is a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah at the stud of the late Alaa Din Jabri (Mustafa’s uncle), east of Aleppo. I forgot what her name was, but you can easily find her in the first Volume of the Syrian studbook. Her sire was Mahrous, and her dam one of the two bay Kuhaylah Hayifiyah mares daughters of the Saqlawi Marzakani stallion Ghuzayyil (there were two of these back in 1992 when I took that picture, a younger one and an older one). This mare was very pretty and very strongly built at the same time. Certainly one of the best Mahrous daughters. Alaa Din Jabri bred this line for at least four decades, and before that time the line was with Wawi al-Kharfan of the Fad’aan Bedouins. It is said the line is somehow related to the horses of the last of the leader of the Fad’aan Bedouins to live in Syria: Miqhim Ibn Mhayd. In any case, the strain of Kuhaylan al-Hayfi belongs to the leading Mhayd clan of the Shumaylat section of the Fad’aan Bedouins, as I mentioned earlier on this site, here. This is where the Hayfiyah mare *Reshan came from. She was imported by Homer Davenport to…
This mare is a desert-bred Hamdaniyat al-‘Ifri, bred by a Bedouin named Mus’ir Hamad al-Sakran, who also bred her son *Ta’an. *Ta’an was imported to the USA in 1994. Her sire was the grey Kuhaylan al-Wati of Diab al-Sbeih of the Shammar Bedouins, a stallion who was used over a short period of time, but sired influential horses, such as Mahrous. Hamdani al-‘Ifri is a very respected strain in the Northern Arabian desert and the Jazirah area (Upper Mesopotomia in Syria and Iraq today). Upon being asked how his horses compared with Hamdani al-‘Ifri, ‘Abd al-‘Iyadah al-Dar’an Ibn Ghurab, owner of the old and otherwise very famous Hamdani Simri marbat of same name, is reported to have said that the Hamdani horses of the al-‘Ifri were even more authenticated than his, because al-‘Ifri had obtained them directly from Simri himself. The Hamdani horses of Ibn Ghurab also came from Simri, but via another Bedouin. The clan of al-‘Ifri are Bedouins from ‘Anazah (from the people of Ibn Haddal I think), who kept a marbat alive until the 1970s. I am not sure how the dam of *Ta’an relates to the horses of al-‘Ifri (i.e., what the chain of owners from…
This desert-bred mare is a representative of the rare and precious strain of Rishan. She traces to a most ancient and authenticated marbat of the Rishan strain, that of Ibn Hathmi of the ‘Abdah section of the Shammar Bedouin tribe. Her breeder Ayid al-Fnaish obtained the line from Ibn Hathmi a few decades ago. Mustafa al-Jabri is her current owner and I took this photo at his stud in 1995. She was registered in Volume 1 of the Syrian Studbook under the generic strain of Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, reportedly because one of the members of the local registration committee was unaware of the existence of the Rishan strain. This oversight was fixed in the next Studbook iterations. She was born in 1986, and I believe her registration name is Bint al-Badiah. Her sire is al-A’war, the chestnut Hamdani (Simri) Ibn Ghurab stallion which the Shammar Bedouins were heavily using at the time, before he ended up with Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo in the 1990s. Her dam’s sire is the Saqlawi (Jadrani) Ibn ‘Amud of Muhammad al-Faris al-‘Ad al-Rahman of the ‘Assaf, the leading clan of the Tai Bedouins. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Basil Jadaan with WAHO, Volume 7 of…
I had been reading about the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet in Robert Mauvy’s writings since my teenage years. I happened to be in Tunisia for work and did not want to miss the opportunity to go there and visit, so I took half a day off, bought a Kodak camera for 10 bucks and took the bus to Sidi Thabet in the rural outskirts of the capital Tunis. The stud manager was not there, only a couple grooms who showed me around. I took photos of all the stallions, except for the French ‘pseudo-Arabians’ who were very becoming increasingly popular in Tunisia and are all over the pedigrees now, and photos of the broodmares in the paddocks, but I did not take notes, and I am unable to identify any of the mares now. If the Tunisian readers could help with that, it would be great. The photo below is of one of these Tunisian mares. This dark chestnut old mare was so refined, so regal. Back then, she reminded of Moniet El Nefous and her daughters Mona and Mabrouka in the famous photo with Dr. Marsafi which Judith Forbis took at the EAO in Egypt in the 1960s.…
A rare photo of French master-breeder Robert Mauvy in his later days. Courtesy of Pierre-Henri Beillard, a disciple of Mauvy and the owner the splendid Mauvy-bred stallion Moulouki (Amri x Izarra by David). Mauvy’s little book “Le Cheval Arabe” is in my opinion, the most beautiful and passionate piece ever written in defense of the real Arabian horse of the desert. Neither Anne Blunt’s writing nor Carl Raswan’s compare to his in their intensity and inspirational power. Not even close.
I recently scanned a number of photos of Syrian Arabian horses that I took in the early 1990s, and I will be sharing them with you over the next days and weeks. It makes sense to begin this series of photos with the 1981 ‘Ubayyan Suhayli stallion Mahrous, head sire at the Jabri stud in Aleppo, Syria in the 1980s and much of the 1990s. He is consequently one of the most influential stallion in Syrian pedigrees today. I took these photos in 1992. Mahrous was a masculine and prepotent stallion, who stamped his progeny. All his sons and daughters inherited his balanced, near-faultless conformation and his good disposition. His head was criticized by some for not being a classic Arabian head with a ‘dish’ — Mahrous had a straight profile and a — but you can see from these pictures that it had all the essential characteristics of the head of a true desert-bred Arabian stallion: huge soulful eyes, short pricked ears, huge arched cheekbones, a broad forehead between the eyes, and a clean, delicately arched throat (mithbah). I have already discussed Mahrous’ very well-established pedigree in an earlier entry, to which I refer you (click here).
I think I just made a good bargain: a portable Pandigital photo scanner for 90 USD. It scans a photo in seconds, and the resolution, while not perfect, is quite decent. When I was studying in Chicago in 2001, Joe Ferriss offered me a state-of-the-art scanner which I used to scan the photos of the desert-bred Arabians that you see on this blog. Then I broke that scanner in 2004, and I have been using the same photos again and again since. Today, I scanned 76 horse photos in just a few minutes, most of them I took in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Syria, some of them from my trip to Tunisia in 2005 and the rest of France. So get ready for dozens of photos of Syrian desert-bred Arabians, and let me know when you have had enough.
A beautiful head shot of the 1980 asil Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Audobon (Iliad x Audacity by Lysander out of Bint Dharebah by Monsoon), bred by Charles Craver and later owned by Carol Lyons and Marge Smith in Oregon.
Since we were discussing Monsoon, here is his most influential daughter, Bint Dharebah (x Dharebah). The DAHC pedigree database credits her with 7 registered foals and a total of 74 descendants as of the 2006 update. I have heard RJ quoted to the effect that she is the modern echo of *Reshan — perhaps he will expand on that for us. Photos courtesy of Jeanne Craver.
I received the following message yesterday, as a comment to one of the entries on the Tahawi tribe horses. Dear Edouard, I write to you on behalf of Al-Tahawia website managed by my cousin Mohammed ‘Etman (Othman) El-Tahawi. We are glad that the photos and documents we posted on the site were valued by you and your visitors. We are also very pleased with the recent acceptance of the three Tahawi mares to the notable Al Khamsa Roster. By this decision the Tahawi mares are now fully acknowledged by all the Arabian horse organizations. In addition to the few documents from our website that you posted here, we still have a larger number of authentic documents that we will be glad to share with you. We are in contact with Mr. Bernd Radtke who visited us in the 80s and we are aware of his work about Arabian horses. We will be glad to communicate with you and see how we can help. I will be glad to receive from you on the e-mail registered here. Best Regards This message illustrates the generosity and authenticity (asalah) of the Bedouin in general and the Tahawia in particular. I feel humbled by it,…
The asil stallion Ghalion-6 is by Ghalion (Morafic x Lubna) out of 25 Amurath-Sahib (Amurath Sahib x 221 Kuhaylan Zaid by Kuhaylan Zaid out of 11 Siglavy Bagdady II). He traces to the mare 60-Adjuze, imported from the Arabian desert by Austro-Hungarian Empire official Fadlalla El Hedad. Adjuze was reportedly bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins, her sire being a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz and her dam a “Schecha”, the transliteration of which is “Shaykhah”. “Shaykhah” is either a mare’s name or a strain’s name, depending on the context in which it occurs. In that case, it is likely to the strain of the mare, the full strain being Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz al-Shaykhah, a lesser-known strain primarily owned by the Sba’ah and Fad’aan Bedouins.
[November 1 2010, update from Edouard: The last two otherwise Al Khamsa eligible descendents of *Bint Rajwa have died. There is no point proposing *Bint Rajwa for inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster] I want to submit a proposal to include the mare *Rajwa and the stallion Karawane in the Al Khamsa Roster before this coming November. I have already written about *Rajwa here. She was a grey desert-bred mare of the Saqlawi “Ejrifi” (not a recognizable marbat, probably a spelling mistake) mare imported by W.R. Hearst in 1947, along with her daughter *Bint Rajwa. Her son *El Abiad was also imported to the USA at a later time. Both by the Lebanese-bred asil stallion Karawane (Ghazwane x a Ma’naqiyah). *Bint Rajwa had a daughter in the USA, Gulastra Raajiah by Gulastra. That daughter in turn had a son, Sheik Hallany by Hallany Mistanny (Zarife x Roda by Mansour). There are two horses potentially alive who closely trace to *Bint Rajwa, although not in the tail female: a 1988 mare, TCR Hallany Idol (by Sheikh Hallany x TCR Kassandra 1979, who was by Kazmeen Ibn Shiko out TCR Saantanny, also by Sheikh Hallany, so two crosses to *Bint Rajwa there); and a…
Below is a translation of the Arabic language hujjah of the mare *Abeyah, imported by Homer Davenport from the Northern Arabian (i.e., Syrian) desert to the USA in 1906. It is adapted from the translation of this hujjah which I did in 2005 for the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III. The Al Khamsa Arabians III translation remains the one readers ought to refer to, because it is a word for word translation of the original Arabic, but the one below reads better in English: “I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which has a blaze on her face and two stockings on her hindlegs is a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, to be mated in the dark night, purer than milk; we only witness to what we know, and don’t withhold what is unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [seal of Faris al-Jarba follows] I testify by God that the witness referred to, Faris Pasha from the tribe of Shammar, is a just man and that his testimony is acceptable. Ahmad al-Hafez [seal of Ahmad al-Hafez follows]” I will be discussing this hujjah in detail in the comments section below, so when you…
The strain of al-Kray is a branch of Kuhaylan al-Krush and it originates from either the Bedouin tribe of al-‘Ajman or that of Bani Hajar.
I am really looking forward to the forthcoming publication in English of the book of King Abdallah I of Jordan, edited by his great-granddaughter Princess Alia Bint al-Hussein. The book “Jawab al-Sa’el ‘an al-khayl al-asayil” is a short treatise mainly concerned with the physical characteristics of the Arabian horse, and was already published three times in Arabic, and all three editions are now out of print.
A few days ago, Michael Bowling sent me the following photos of the 1964 Tunisian stallion Omran (Esmet Ali x Simrieh by Oukrif), from the rare tail female that goes back to the desert-bred mare Mzeirib, imported to Tunisia by the French in 1891. Omran was exported to one of Germany’s zoos, says Michael. The black and white photo was taken while the stallion was still in Tunisia, and the color one in Germany by Dr. Zimmerman of the Koln zoo, who gave both photos and others to Michael.
This beautiful 1905 desert-bred stallion was imported from Northern Arabia to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. He is a son of the mare *Urfa, a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd from the horses of Didhan al-‘Awaji of the Wuld Sulayman Bedouins’ ruling clan. His sire is the “Great Hamdani” Simri stallion, apparently a major sire among the Bedouin at them time, which also sired the Davenport imports *Haffia, and *Hamrah, the latter being *Euphrates more famous older full brother. None of todays’ asil Arabian horses that trace entirely to Davenport’s original imported Arabians carries the blood of *Euphrates. Indeed, a single asil horse carries *Euphrates’ blood today: an unregistered 1991 mare named Sarita bint Raj, by Rajmoniet RSI out of the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Nejd Sahra Nisan (*Faleh x Daalnisan by Daaldan), bred and still owned by Helen McClosky in California. Interestingly Sarita bint Raj also carries the single last line to the asil Hamdani Simri stallion *Al-Mashoor, of the famous marbat of Damascus’ Baroudi Pashas. She also carries one of the very last lines to the famous *Mirage, another desert-bred Saqlawi Jadran. This mare dies, and two Al Khamsa Foundation Horses go down the drain, with a third hanging by a thread.
I am writing in response to Edouard’s article on Esmet Ali. I have photos of him as a foal at his mother’s side, as well as documents about his debut at the Tunisian racetrack of Kasr Said. I can garantee you this is the same horse as the later Esmet Ali. All you have to do is take a look at his rather uncommon blaze, the shape of his leg stockings, and his relatively plainer head, which he already had from early on, etc. All the archives I am attaching below were graciously given to me by his breeder and one-time owner Mrs. Chantal De Moussac, who was at the time (mid to late 1950s) the “right arm” of Admiral Cordonnier. Esmet Ali was Cordonnier’s pride. This lady, Mrs. De Moussac was the owner of Esmet Ali’s dam Ambria (by Nasr, Original Arab), which she had bought from Tunisia’s government stud of Sidi Thabet as a foal; of Ambria’s daughter Arabelle, and of Salome (by Bango, Original Arab), bought from Algeria’s government stud of Tiaret as a foal. She had to leave Tunisia well before Admiral Cordonnier, so she gave him her mares. Mrs. De Moussac has witnessed the birth…
Check this feature out on the Bedouin Heritage Project website.
Nimr Shabareq (photo below, by Zaarour al-Barary out of Yamhad by al-A’war) is one of the desert bred stallions that were recently imported to France. He is now standing at stud with Louis Bauduin, who took this picture and gave it to Arnault Decroix, who sent it to me (Merci, Arnault). This is not your usual Arabian horse. This is a horse from hell. This is fire made horse. Both Jean-Claude Rajot and Arnault Decroix told me about their first encounter with this horse in 2008, when he was just a weanling at the stud of his breeder Radwan Shabareq: three grooms were needed to handle him as he was being shown to the stunned visitors. This is probably why Radwan called him Nimr — tiger. He hails from one of the most prestigious desert bloodlines: the Ma’naqi Sbayli marbat of Shawwakh al-Bu-Rasan, Shaykh of the Wuldah tribes of the Euphrates valley. Shawwakh had obtained the line from his neighbor and friend ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, a Fad’aan Bedouin who owns the strain now. ‘Atiyah’s great-grandfather had stolen the original mare from the Sba’ah (click here to read how), the fountain-spring of the Ma’naqi Sbayli strain. The clan of al-Bu-Rasan is…
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),…
I finally found the reason for my aversion for Babson horse pedigrees (not the horses themselves): it’s got to do with the names. These all look the same to me, and I still have trouble recognizing one horse from another on a pedigree. Try figuring this out: there is a Serrou, a Serr El Rou, an El Serrou, and they are three different horses. There is a a Maarou, a Maar-Ree, a Maar-Rab and they are three different horses. There is a Serrasab, a Serasaab, a Serasabba and they are three different horses. It’s been almost eighty years since the 1932 Babson importation from Egypt, and we’re still stuck with foal names with every single possible combination of the names of some or all the original imports (*Fadl, *Maaroufa, *Bint Serra, *Bint Bint Sabbah, *Bint Saada, and *Bint Bint Durra) and some of their direct offspring. I would not be surprised if one day a horse by the name of Daal-Serr-Fad-Maar-Abbah popped out of a pedigree. Why the torture?
He will remain for ever one of my three favorite Arabian stallions. Nancy Becker is in the photo.
This is a raelly unique photo, by Carl Raswan, from the Craver photo collection. It shows the mare Szeikha, a chestnut Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz purchased in the Arabian desert in 1931 by Bogdan Zientarski and Carl Raswan on the behalf of Prince Roman Sanguszko for the Gumniska Stud. She was bred i n 1923 by “Sheikh Farhan bin Haji Barak al Rahman” of the Muntefiq. She was lost during World War II and never found again. She may or may not have been of the strain of Kuhaylat al-Ajuz al-Shaykhah, Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah for short, or Szeikha (Shaykhah) may just be her name. She is the quintessential war mare, and I am a strong advocate of breeding back to this type of Arabian mares – the upright neck aside.
The chestnut stallion Kassar (Mahrous x Dawha by K. al-Wati) was bred by Mustafa al-Jabri and purchased by Omar Anbarji of Aleppo, who sent me the picture below. Kassar’s dam Dawha hails from the ma’ruf (well-known — by the Bedouin community, that is) and mazbut (reliable, authenticated, trusted) marbat of Kuhaylan al-Wati of the sons of Hakim al-Hsayni al-Ghishm of the Shammar, now settled in North-Eastern Syria. Hakim, his sons Mohammed, Ali and Fawaz and his grandsons such as Husayn followed a policy of only breeding their Kuhaylat al-Wati mares to their Kuhaylan al-Wati stallions. They own several branches of the same horses. Kassar in particular is heavily linebred to the Kuhaylan al-Wati strain. Kassars sire Mahrous is a son of a dark grey Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion, also from Hakim’s, and so is his paternal grandsire. Kassar’s paternal grandsire and Kassar’s dam are said to be very closely related. Theirs is a relatively old marbat with the Shammar; The grey stallion “Koheilan”, imported to England in the early 1910s (I think, but maybe it was the 1920s, in any case the horse is pictured in the first pages of Al Khamsa Arabians I, 1983), where he left no progeny, was of that strain. The Kuhaylan…
Jeanne Craver scanned the photo of Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres by Aramis) which some readers have mentioned and which I was so eager to see. She wrote: “I have it as a slide and as a page proof from an Arabian Horse World ad we did years ago. I used the ad page, so there creases in the paper. This actually makes his head look more dished than it was. It was really fairly straight in profile, but very dry and classy. Anita Westfall took the photo, another one of her jewels! She also made the halter.” I don’t know how to put it otherwise, and this is perhaps inappropriate, but he looks … ‘sexy’.
— The grey Kuhaylah Hayfiyah Wisteria CF (Triermain x HB Wadduda by Mariner) was bred back to her sire Triermain CF (Javera Thadrian x Demetria by Lysander) last week at Craver Farms. — The chestnut Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner), also a Hayfiyah, on lease from Doris Park of Iowa, will also be bred to Triermain on the next heat cycle. — So will the chestnut Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), with Kathy Busch of Missouri, via AI.
I think this stallion, Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres) is stunning. I am sorry about the poor quality of the picture. He was born at Craver Farms in 1967 and it is a shame he died young [well not so young, says Joe Ferriss, my memory is failing me] and therefore left little progeny.
The outstanding stallion Esmet Ali (photo below) is at the center of a controversy that has been quietly brewing for several decades now in Tunisia and beyond. Since Esmet Ali is in the pedigree of almost every single Arabian horse in Tunisia today, the matter is of some importance. I do not know what position to adopt with respect to this controversy, and I will actually refrain from adopting one until more information emerges from within the country, which I am sure will be the case at some point. The original Esmet Ali was born in 1955 at the famed and well-respected Sidi Bou Hadid stud of french Navy Admiral Anatole Cordonnier, one of the savviest and most knowledgeable breeders of Arabian horses of his time (little known in the USA, unfortunately). That Esmet Ali was by Cordonnier’s stallion Hazil and out of one of Cordonnier’s best mares, Arabelle (Beyrouth x Ambria by Nasr d.b). In 1956, Tunisia became independent from France, and some troubled times followed for a brief period, during which the stud of Sidi Bou Said was looted, and many animals ran away, and others were lost or stolen. The yearling Esmet Ali was one of these. He was taken…
I am really intrigued by the Arabian horses of Turkey, for two reasons. First, as a student of Middle Eastern history, I am deeply aware that the area composed of the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and alternativelly known as Bilad al-Sham, Greater Syria, or the Levant (depending on who you talk to), was governed out of two cities during most of the last thousand years: Cairo and Istanbul. Both the Ayubid (1171- 1250) and the Mameluk Sultanates (1250-1516) ruled over this area from the city of Cairo, while the Ottoman Empire’s domination of the same area out of Istanbul lasted from 1516 until 1918. The Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt Mohammad Ali Pasha and his son Ibrahim Pasha also ruled the area from Cairo for a brief period (1832-1840), when they openly challenged the Ottomans’ authority. More recently, Syria and Egypt were also briefly united in one country from 1958 to 1961. If Cairo and Istanbul were the centers of power and prestige, then desert-bred Arabian horses, which are themselves major objects of power and prestige, must have flocked to Cairo and Istanbul in large numbers over this entire period. They were either obtained as gifts, purchases for cavalry remounts or war trophies. While most everybody knows about the fabled Arabian…
Finally, a photo of the 24 year old desert-bred Bahraini stallion *Mlolshaan Hager Solomon at his owner Bill Biel in Michigan. Jenny Krieg went up there and took this picture, from which Jeanne Craver removed the tack. Jenny has leased a mare of Saudi Arabian lines from Rodger Vance Davis to breed to him, and Rodger also sent in another mare too. If all goes well, there will be two foals from him next year, and I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed. His blood is rare and precious because he is one of the few stallions out of Bahrain in the West. He is also rare because of his strain: Kuhaylan al-Mulawlish is only present in Bahrain today.
Ezzina (Chaabane x Wilaya by Ragheb), proudly owned by Walid Maazaoui, is one of the last asil mares in Tunisia. Ten years ago, Tunisia was still one of the last reservoirs of asil blood in the “East”, but that is quickly changing, and today there are only a few dozen asil mares and stallions left. The country has traditionally bred Arabians for the racetrack, and it continues to have a very dynamic racing scene. When I was there last, in 2006, I took some pictures of the unbelievable stallion Akermi (Dynamite III x Ichara by Koraish) at the government stud of Sidi Thabet. 46 starts, 40 wins, 5 seconds, 1 third, can you believe it? Several of Akermi’s stablemates were “Arabian” stallions imported from France, all of dubious racing bloodlines. They’re just about as much “Arabian” as I am Chinese. The groom who was walking me through the stables told me that there was a lot of enthusiasm among Tunisian breeders about these French horses, and that most breeders were using them. There is a growing market for these French-Tunisian crosses in the Gulf countries too, and prices are on the rise. Today, nobody, save a few purists and oldtimes, cares about preserving the Tunisian asil Arabian anymore. Walid…
I was sorry to hear about the passing of Majd, the bay Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion whose picture i recently posted. While visiting the Al Basel government stud in Syria, Majd’s sire was introduced. He is an imposing grey of good size, and his name is Basil [Mahrous x Halah]. He is of the Kuhaylan Mimrah strain and is bred by Mustapha Al Jabri. He is a horse of great quality and has a wonderful nobility which reminds me of that sense of quiet, confident, but strong diginity akin to a great war horse. The Blue Star stallion Muhairon (Sirecho x *Muhaira) was very much like this. [askterisks are used to denote imported to North America.] I wish I had more photos of Basil but the one here is descriptive of his quality which shows great proportions, leg quality and wonderfully shaped ears, a true Bedu charger to be proud of. -Joe Ferriss
The ‘Ubayyan Suhayli stallion Mahrous was, until his death in the late 1990s, the herd sire at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud in Aleppo, Syria. Today his sire line is, along with that of the Damascus stallion Ayid, the most prolific in modern Syrian Arabian horse breeding. If you check Mahrous’ entry in the Syrian Arabian Horse Studbook, you will find relatively little information about him, in comparison with other major stallions of his generation (e.g, Mobarak, Mashuj, Raad, Marzuq, Mokhtar, all born between 1982 and 1987). I was able to learn more about Mahrus’ background by asking a number of persons, including Mustafa, Radwan Shabariq and the late Abd al-Qadir al-Hammami, as well as others who knew the horse well. Hazaim al-Wair has also conducted a masterful inquiry among the Shammar Bedouins clans of al-Sbeih and al-Ghishm about Mahrous’ sire. Mahrous was born in 1981, in the steppe area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, in Northeastern Syria. He was bred by a Bedouin of the Faddaghah clan of the Shammar tribe, a man named Wuhayyid al-Hamad al-Duhayyim. Wuhayyid then sold Mahrous to horse merchant, who sold him to another, before Mustafa bought him as a young stallion in 1983/84. The photo of Mahrous,…
The term breed, in my opinion, defines a closed (more or less) poulation within a species. A breed does not neccesarily need a stud book, but this is the way we define our breeds in the western world today. Before the time of using stud books a breed could and was defined by the following parameters: 1) its place of origin (country, region) 2) the existence of a group of breeders 3) purpose for breeding 4) a certain phenotype Not only Arabian horses but all other breeds existing before the beginning of stud book records apply to those 4 categories. Today for (nearly) every breed a standard is fixed by those who keep the stud books. If a stud book is introduced, someone has to decide which horse is registered and which one not. Sometimes a horse is registered in a sublist and her (because that applies mostly to mares) offspring by registered stallions are registered under certain rules, or a horse of a different breed is accepted for reason of breeding progress. The Arabian breed has also been put in studbooks that follow the same principles as all studbooks of different breeds do, except for the fact that Arabians are…
This horse should have been mine, years ago. Actually, he was about to be mine, and he somehow slipped between my fingers by going to greener pastures. I first encountered him on a hot summer afternoon in 1996, while on a visit to the Aleppo Equestrian Center, with friends Radwan Shabareq, Kamal Abdul-Khaliq, and my father, Salim al-Dahdah. We had come to see a famous Arabian mare, owned by a man of the leading clan of the Shammar, the Jarba clan, with the intention of buying her. She was a celebrated mare in the desert, and I have featured her several times on this blog. The Aleppo Equestrian Center is located inside a gated compound; a paved road takes you from the main entrance to the stables and the administration offices uphill. Paddocks and jumping competition arenas are in the middle of the compound. As the four of us were walking up the paved road to the stables, the afternoon sunrays pounding on our heads, I was faced with this un-real image of a light grey Arabian stallion, tethered to the paddock fences, with a majestuous yet very gentle attitude, one that welcomes and inspires awe at the same time. I thought to myself: “I didn’t know they had…
Lovas Nemzet, the Hungarian equine magazine of Laszlo Kiraly, is launching an international horse photo competition (click here for more information) for photos highlighting the bonds between man and horse and links between horse and nature. The deadline for submitted amateur and professional photos has been extended to October 10th, for Daughters of the Wind readers.
Finally, I was able to see a photo of the 1975 asil Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Iliad (Ibn Alamein x Oriole by Sir), bred by Charles Craver of “Davenport” bloodlines. Iliad is the sire of two stallions I really like, Audobon (out of Audacity), and Salil Ibn Iliad (out of LD Rubic. His extremely correct conformation reminds me of some of the asil stallions of Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines that stood at the government studs of France in the 1960s, Iricho in particular. Photo from the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.
Joe Ferriss sent me this announcement about a herd dispersal in Arkansas. There are 8 asil Arabians involved, all of BLUE STAR bloodlines. Five of these are ‘Straight Desert’, meaning that they entirely to horses imported from Saudi Arabia in the 1950s and 1960s. All need homes and quickly. Normally, Joe does not like to get involved in placing horses, and neither do I, but given the rarity of bloodlines we thought it important to let people knows. Click on this links to open a PDF document with the list of the horses, their pedigrees and the contact information of the owners. No picture of the horses are available here, but both the senior stallion and the senior mare are out of Desert Kalila, also dam of the mare DB Kalila pictured below. The line is a distinguished ‘Ubayyan line, from the horses of Prince Saud ibn ‘Adballah ibn Jalawi, governor of Eastern Saudi Arabia, in the 1930s and 1940s. Back there, it is highly valued.