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.
This entry is a follow up on an earlier entry on the Egyptian stallion Ibn Ghalabawi, sire of the 1971 mare Azeema out of Naglaa 1963 (Azeema’s photo is below, thanks Timur Hasanoglu for sharing it with me), which was exported to Germany. While implicitly included in the Pyramid Society’s definition of a Straight Egyptian Arabian, Ibn Ghalabawi is explicitely left out of the Asil Club’s otherwise wholesale embrace of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization’s Studbook. He shares that distinction with two other stallions, Sharkasi, and Registan (Skowronek x Riz). In 1978, WAHO accepted Ibn Ghalabawi’s daughter Azeema as purebred, based on the testimony of Sayed Marei of Al Badeia Arabians. That testimony identifies Ibn Ghalabawi as by Ghalabawi out of the mare “Bint Nabras”, by Nabras out of “Bint Soniour”. Soniour is only identified as a “desert-bred horse”. Assuming that pedigree information is correct, further research is needed on the following four horses before the credentials of Ibn Ghalabawi can be bolstered: the three stallions “Ghalabawi”, “Nabras”, “Soniour” and the great-granddam in the tail female, about which nothing is known. “Ghalabawi” is said to be by Balance x Bint Magboura by Ibn Rabdan, and to be bred by the RAS. I…
Notice the large, round, watery eyes, the dished profile, the prominent jibbah, the delicately shaped, flexible nostrils, the deep jowls, and the perfectly set, arched neck. I firmly believe that sea horses should be allowed to compete in future Arabian horse halter shows.
For decades, several different authors (Raswan, Forbis, Schiele in Germany and also Lady Blunt and her daughter Lady Wentworth) have been telling us that the best breeding stock of Arabian horses had left the Arabian peninsula during the 19th century to go to the Egyptian Pashas by either force or negotiation, or as gifts. The stud of Abbas Pasha I was famed for its unrivalled quality of authentic Arabian horses in his time. We even have a report that tells us that some Abbas Pasha horses were brought back to the Bedouin tribes because of their outstanding reputation. One such returning stallion was bought by Von Bruderman (an Austrian) for his government from the Rualla for exportation to Europe and we are told that this particular stallion was even exchanged between the tribes for mating their mares after he had come back from Egypt. As a result of this and also because of missing information from the Arab countries, the opinion was widespread in the West that nothing of interest was left with the Bedouins, who had already been settled by the second half of the last century (1950-2000), when a greater interest in Arabian horses aroused in the West. And was it not much…
I am proud to introduce Dr. Matthias Oster as an occasional contributor to this blog. Matthias is breeder and student of “Straight Egyptians in Germany” and a veterinarian. His wife is a daughter of the late Gunter W. Seidlitz (the breeder of Messaoud by Madkour and Maymoonah), and they now own the stallion Safeen (Ibn Safinaz x Abitibi Madeenah). His website, Arabian Heritage Source, is a resource for those breeders who like to think of Egyptian Arabians as part of the broader heritage of the asil horse of the Bedouins. Below is Masr El Dahman (Madkour x Maymoonah), bred by Matthias’ family.
Yesterday night, as I was sitting to draft notes for my presentation at National Breeder’s Conference tomorrow in Atlanta, I had some thoughts on the evolution of asil Arabian breeding, which I thought I’d share with you, for feedback: The greatest risk – and there are many – facing the asil Arabian horse today is the “decoupling” of the “Straight Egpytian” Arabian from the rest of the asil Arabian community. The “Straight Egyptian” brand/label is so strong, so prevalent, so well-marketed that your average Arabian horse breeder — including an ever increasing number of Middle Eastern breeders, completely disconnected from their ancestors’ breeding legacies and traditions — now believes that the only asil Arabian horses left in the world are the “Straight Egyptians”. The implications of this disconnect are several, and they play themselves out on many levels: at the financial level, where the gap between the prices of some “Straight Egyptian” horses and those of other asil horses is ever widening; at the genetic level, where the gene pool of the “Straight Egyptian” horse is ever narrowing; finally, and perhaps most significantly, at the cultural level, where the “Straight Egyptian” horse is being experienced, branded and understood as more “Egyptian” and less “Arabian” (less “Arabian” as in less from…
The Dahman stallion Barakat is the paternal grandsire of three “Straight Egyptian” mares: Folla, Futna and Bint Barakat. The Tahawi family website, maintained by Mohammed son of Mohammed son of Othman son of Abdallah son of Seoud al-Tahawi, has these few lines on Barakat: As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“. Somewhere else on this website, there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.” Now here’s what the Arabic edition of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, edited by the late Saudi royal historian Hamad al-Jasir, has to say on these Dahman horses of Ibn Maajil, in the section about a specific descendent of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare known as Al-Khadeem: “The mare, and she is a green [a shade of grey] daughter of the yellow [another shade of grey] Rabdan the horse of al-Dahham, had these foals while in a possession [a list of two foals follows, of which is the second is] a filly whose sire is Duhayman [‘little Dahman’], the stallion of Ibn Rashid, from the horses of Ibn Maajil.” You can find this except on pages 408…
Friday, I will be flying to Atlanta to deliver the opening presentation, jointly with Joe Ferriss, at the Pyramid’s Society’s National Breeders Conference 2010. Check out the announcement and the program here.I just wonder when people will stop referring to me as “younger”, including at work. I have been at my current job as an economist at the World Bank for ten years now, give or take, and, in business meetings, whenever a foreign government official asks for a cup of coffee, all looks still converge towards me.
Abbas Hilmi Pasha I (1813-1854) is probably the one modern Egyptian ruler Arabian horse breeders know best, for the magnificent collection of desert-bred Arabian horses he is said to have kept. His son’s only claim to fame was to have dispersed this collection in 1861. In every single Arabian horse related publication, I have seen the name of Abbas Pasha’s son transcribed as “El Hami” Pasha, which sort of means ‘the Protector’, but which is not a first name. I always wondered about this, since Arabic first names seldom start with the definite article El/Al, and thought it was a mistake of some sort. Yesterday, I fell upon an Egyptian chancery document where Abbas Pasha’s son’s name is clearly written “Ilhami”, which literally means ‘My Inspiration’, and was a rather common first name within the Egyptian upper class at the time. Names with a possessive form and a romantic connotation were not uncommon within Egypt’s ruling family at the time. Another example is Ilhami’s own father’s second name: Abbas Pasha’s middle name was Hilmi, and it means “My Dream”. It was also the middle name of Abbas Hilmi II. By the way, if you’re into the history of Egypt around this time,…
This is photo of the chestnut stallion ‘Abbar, a magnificent desert-bred ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi stallion, now deceased, from the old marbat of Badi Ibn Zubyan al-Subay’i. Compare with the Davenport stallion Tripoli (Hanad x Poka), a Saqlawi al-‘Abd.
Kuhaylan Khallawi (often misspelt Halawi) is a strain of Arabian horses little-known in the West. It is mentioned in Lady Anne Blunt’s list of strains derived from the Kuhaylan family, and in Carl Raswan’s list. The only other place it is mentioned is in Roger Upton’s writings, where his desert-bred import Yataghan (sire of the Ma’naqiyah mare *Naomi, which still has an asil tail female in the USA) was recorded as having been sired by a well-regarded Kuhaylan Khallawi stallion belonging to the Shammar. That’s it. In Egypt, the 1943 mare Futna, bred by the Tahawi Arabs, and bought by Ahmad Hamza as a broodmare for his Hamdan Stables, was from that same strain. Her dam is recorded as a Kuhaylah “Halawiyah”, just another way to write Khalawiyah, depending on how you choose to pronounce the Arabic letter [?]. Futna still has a thin tail female alive in the USA and Egypt, so the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain still goes on. According to their family website, wihch has a very rich section on horses, the Tahawi clan leaders brought all their horses from the area of Hims and Hama in Central Western Syria in the period extending between the 1880s and 1930s. …
Yesterday, the Al Khamsa Board of Directors unanimously approved the proposal submitted by Joe Ferriss to include the three mares Folla, Fotna, and Bint Barakat in the Al Khamsa Roster. The three mares were bred by the Tahawi tribes and sold to Ahmad Hamza of Hamdan Stables. On Saturday, the general assembly of Al Khamsa will be taking a vote on these three mares, in the next step towards their final inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster.
This photo of the stallion Rock (Ragie x El Charsaa by Gezeier) with proud owner Shaykh Sulayman ibn Abd al-Hamid ibn ‘Ulaywa al-Tahawi was taken from the Tahawi family website. I am so grateful to Bernd Radtke for among other things, his sharing with me the pedigree of Rock’s daughter Bombolle (Rock x Maskerade), which has allowed to reconstitute Rock’s pedigree. Rock’s strain is Kuhaylan al-Kharass, and his tail female traces to the Kuhalyan al-Kharas marbat of the Sba’ah Bedouins. Kuhaylan al-Kharas is a flagship strain of the Sba’ah, and is the strain of the Blunt import Proximo, among other well known Arabians of Lebanon and Syria. Rock’s pedigree is heavily linebred to the two strains of Dahman ‘Amer (from the marbat of Jarallah Ibn Tuwayrish) and ‘Ubayyan Sharrak (from the marbat of Abu Jreyss).
This photo was sent by a horse merchant in Syria to one of the Tahawi clan leaders in Egypt, bto probe his interest in purchasing the horse. Here is what figures on the back of the photo: “Photo of the Saqlawi Jadrani horse, his sire is ‘Ubayyan of the horses of Ibn Samdan and his dam a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of the horses of the Sba’ah” A couple noteworthy observations: 1. The marbat of Ibn Thamdan (mispelt Samdan on the back of the photo) is one of the most respected and authenticated marabet of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. It survived in asil form in Lebanon until the late 1950s. 2. Notice the resemblance of the horse in the photo with the Blunt mare Basilisk, who was from the same strain and the same tribe.
This hujjah comes from the Tahawi tribe website and is very interesting, because of the place of origin of the horse: unlike most of the Tahawi hujaj I saw, this one comes from the Upper Mesopotamia area (al-Jazirah) while the others came from Western Syria. I hope the horse referenced in this hujjah document left some modern descendants, because his origin is precious. Here’s my translation of the document: “We testify by God and his Prophet, in truth and righteousness, that the grey horse, brother of the bay horse, which [the grey] has a small star on his face, and which is five years of age, and which was purchased by Abdel Aziz Bek and Husayn al-Hilal from Adham al-Humayyid that he is Saqlawi Jadran, and that his dam is a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, and his sire a Saqlawi Jadran, from the horses of Dari Ibn Mahmud, the Shaykh of the tribe of Shammar al-Zawba’; and the horse is ‘shubuw’ [to be mated] and can be mated, and is protected [from the side of both] his sire and his dam, and that there is no impurity in his origin; and for this reason we have prepared this testimony, and God is the…
This stallion, from the area of Hims and Hama in Syria, was offered for the sale to one the Tahawi leaders in Egypt; the back of the photo reads as follows: “His dam is the Nawwaqiyah and his sire a Nawwaq from the horses of ‘Arsan al-Nawwaq of the Arabs of [illegible, stain on the reverse of the photo, probably the tribe which is Sba’ah], golden chestnut, 5 years old
Excerpts from the Tahawi clan/family website, translation mine: When in the 1850s, the Tahawi began to settle in the province of al-Sharkiyah, in the areas of Bilbeis, Abu Hammad, Geziret Saoud, Kfar Saqr, al-Ismailia, and Abu Sultan, they owned horses which they used for transportation and nomadizing; then they settled down and acquired agricultural land, and gave up their pastoral and war-like lifestyle; their Sheykhs then went on to constitute their own horse studs (marabet); around this time, the Syrian region of Hims and Hama was the homeland of the Arab horse, and was known as al-Sham, since it was home to some of the Bedouin tribes like ‘Anazah, Shammar, al-Fad’aan, and al-Sba’ah, which specialized in the breeding of Arab horse and the tracing of its bloodlines; The Tahawi Arabs owned some land and maintained social ties with their relatives living in this area, as well as some close friends, so they started bringing brood-mares and stallions to Egypt. Some of them would travel there [to the area of Hims and Hama in Syria] and buy horses, then return [to Egypt] and wait for their horses to arrive; others would buy horses through an agent. Each horse came with a pedigree document, which included a description…
The Tahawi family website in Arabic is a gold mine of original information on the asil horses of Egypt’s Tahawi tribe. Here’s what I found today on this website concerning the horse Barakat, who is the paternal grandsire of the three foundation mares Folla, Futna, and Bint Barakat [my own annotations in between square brackets]: “The stallion Barakat is the son of the old Dahman, the stallion of ‘Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi which was bought from the ‘Anazah Arabs in 1322H (1898 AD), and the origin of this Dahman stallion is from the Dahmat ‘Amer mare of Jar Allah ibn Tuwayrish, and his sire is a Saqlawi Jadran [Note from Edouard: This is the same horse whose hujjah was reproduced and translated in an entry below]. As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“. Further above on the website there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.” The information on Barakat’s dam is extremely interesting. Not only because it allows us to go one generation back in the pedigrees of the three Hamdan stables foundation mares: Folla, Futna, and Bint Barakat.…
I am back in the USA after a monthlong break with the family, during which I managed to keep my promise to take a brake from writing. New themes and ideas are bouncing all over my head. Thanks to all the readeers who kept checking on this blog and reading earlier entries, and a big thank you to Ambar who held the fort during my absence.
We had a brisk discussion in the comments of an earlier posting about whether the leg faults apparent in the photograph were actually characteristic of the subject. While we did touch on age and injury, I wanted to point out another way in which photos can misrepresent a horse. Herewith, two photos of a nine-year-old Davenport stallion, HF Shaton (Wotan x Chiffon CF, Hamdani Simri): Same photographer (Anita Enander), same equipment, taken within a minute of each other. But see how a tiny change in the viewing angle stretches out the middle of the body, narrows the neck and shortens the hip? The effect can be even more exaggerated with the wide-angle lens in consumer cameras. This is not to say that we should not discuss or judge horses from photographs, but a healthy awareness of the limitations of the medium helps. How else can we reconcile *Wadduda’s reputation as a great beauty with the rather indifferent images we have of her?
From left to right: Persephone CF (Hamdani Simri), Tapestry CF (Kuhaylan Haifi), Chiffon CF (Hamdani Simri). Photo c1986 in Las Vegas, NV. Chiffon was at one time the mascot for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She carried the flag and was ridden around the track at football games, and in parades. Persephone has founded a family in her own right. Chiffon breeds on only through one son, Ibn Don Carlos, but her presence makes herself felt two and three generations down. (See the photos from the 2007 Al Khamsa Fantasia for many of her descendants.) Thanks to Jeanne Craver for providing the photo! (There are more of Chiffon at the DAHC photo archive.)
Another major piece of history I fell upon while reading through the Seoud al-Tahawi family website is this hujjah of “Dahman Abdallah Seoud”, the sire of the stallions Barakat and Soniour, and the great-grandsire of the three Tahawi mares of Hamdan Stables in Egypt: Fulla, Futna, and Bint Barakat. Here is my rough translation, with a more refined translation to follow, as well a transliteration of the Arabic in latin script so that readers of Arabic can double-check the translation: We testify by God and by his Prophet that the metallic grey horse which is five years of age, and which was bought by Sheykh Abdallah Abu Seoud al-Tahawi al-Hindawi is Dahman ‘Amer; his dam is the Dahmah ‘Amer from the horses of Jarallah Ibn Tuwayrish of the Arabs of Gomussah, and his sire is the Saqlawi Jadran from the horses of Ibn Zubaynah of the Sba’ah; and that the aforementioned horse, the Dahman, is well authenticated [mathbut], and well known [mashhur], to be mated [hadudah] with all the asil mares, there is not the shade of a doubt about him [ma fihi laww qat’iyah abadan], and he is protected [muhaffadh] at Muhammad Na’san Agha ibn Ahmad Agha al-Barazi, and for…
I think I just made a remarkable discovery from the website of the Tahawi clan in Egypt (eltahawysaoud.com): a scanned copy of the original hujjah (Arabic authentication document) of three horses acquired by the Tahawi Bedouins of Egypt from the Sba’ah tribe. Below is the scanned copy of the hujjah in Arabic, and my own translation of it — a rough and dirty translation for now: In the Name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate To his Excelleny the Honorable Sheykh Faysal Bey al-Abdallah al-Saud [al-Tahawi] I testify by God and his Prophet that the two grey horses, the first of which is aged two and a half years, and which is with Husayn Hilal, are [both] Duhm [plural of Dahman] al-‘Amiri, of the horses of Jarallah Ibn al-Tuwayrish from the Arabs of Sba’ah from the tribal section of Saheem, and the sire of one of them is Kuhaylan al-Kharas, and the sire of the other one is Kuhaylan al-Tamri of the horses of the Sba’ah; and I testify by God and by Muhammad the Prophet of God that they are protected [muhaffadhat] and free of impurities; And concerning the bay ‘Ubayyah mare, which has a foal by a her…
I am currently working with a prominent Syrian breeder to get a desert-bred stallion or two from reputable bloodlines to the USA. I don’t mean to sound mysterious or coy but I cannot tell you more about it at this stage, since it’s still cooking..
Tzviah Idan just sent me this except from a book she found on Google Books: “Customs and Traditions of Palestine Illustrating the manners of the Ancient Hebrews” by Ermerte Pierotti, who’s presented as “former architect engineer, civil and military to his excellency Surraya Pasha of Jerusalem”. The book was published in London in 1864. Surraya Pasha was the Ottoman Wali (Governor) of Jerusalem. The except is a testimony about Bedouin horses in 19th century Palestine.
The 1988 grey Hamdani al-‘Ifri stallion *Ta’an (Awaad x al-Efrieh by a Kuhaylan al-Wati) was born in the Jazirah area of North-Eastern Syria. His breeder, Mis’ir al-Hamad is a member of one of the small Arab nomadic tribes that settled in this area in the XXth century. I first saw *Ta’an in 1990 as a yearling, at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud outside of Aleppo. I took pictures which I will scan and share with you. I then saw him again in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, Mustafa gifted *Ta’an to Gerald and Debra Dirks who took him to the USA, then to Jordan in 1996. At that time, the Arab Horse Association studbook did not recognize the Syrian Studbook, so *Ta’an never got registered, even though Al Khamsa, Inc accepted him on the basis of his being a Bedouin-bred horse from Syria. The two pictures below were taken at the Dirks’ farm, and are courtesy of Marie Arthur. *Ta’an’s sire was Awaad, a grey Kuhaylan al-Krush bred by ‘Iyadah Talab al-Khalaf, of the Shammar Bedouins, from the prestigious Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar. Awaad sired many good mares and stallions in Syria, among them the…
Back in 2001, I had put forward the hypothesis that a Saqlawi Sh’aifi stallion bred by a Bedouin of the Sb’aah tribe, and sold to Egypt by Ahmad Ibish was the same horse as Aiglon, the sire of the Egyptian mare *Exochorda (Leila II). I also wrote to Miss Ott about it. I had used information contained in the hujjah of the stallion known in Lebanon as Krush Halba (b. 1921) and in Turkey as Kuru, who was a son of this Saqlawi Sh’aifi, to formulate this hypothesis. This hujjah can be found here (scroll down to approx. the middle of the page). I was wrong. My hypothesis was based on the common ownership of these two horses by Ahmad Ibish, but the dates don’t match, so the two horses cannot possibly be one and the same. Kuru was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, so that Saqlawi Sh’aifi must have bred his dam in 1920, in the desert too, as the analysis of the hujjah suggest. Meanwhile, in 1920/21, the stallion Aiglon was in Egypt, where he sired the mare Exchorda who was born in 1922. I am sorry it took me so long to correct this, but I confess I had completely forgotten about…
This is Ibn El Iat (El Iat x Marecho by Ibn Sirecho) a 1992 Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion owned by Elta Cook Ozier in Illinois. His pedigree is special because it consists of three horses only: *Fadl, Sirecho and *Turfa. There used to be many horses with that pedigree pattern a couple decades ago. Ibn El Iat is and his full sister MD Bint Marecho are the only two left, and both are 31.2% *Turfa. While I am not a fan of percentages, I tend to feel that the more *Turfa in a horse of these lines, the better the horse. Photo from Jeanne Craver.
This interesting conference took place in March 2009, at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, which is where I did some graduate work. You won’t find the papers that were presented, but you can read the abstracts.
The French “Arabian” stallion Flipper, photo below, is representative of ‘midnight breedings’, a practice which saw some (just some) greedy French breeders of the 1970s and 1980s breed their Arabian mares to English Thoroughbred or Anglo-Arab stallions, and register their offspring as Arabians. On paper, Flipper is by Gosse du Bearn out of Fleur d’Avril. In reality, only God and his breeder know who his sire was. People who defend horses such as Flipper will tell you that French Arabians were bred with a focus on speed, not on classic Arabian type, over a ten to fifteen generations, which is why they look the way they do. It’s true, and there was no shortage of ‘untypey’ French Arabians since the 1910s; yet, as far from classical type as they may have been, they were of authentic Arab blood. Flipper belongs to a different league: he has non-Arabian blood in his veins — and more than a trickle. So do his sons Dunixi and Tidjani (photos below), both of whom are major progenitor of French racing lines. The status of Flipper’s line as ‘purebred’ Arabian is safely guaranteed by the presence by a senior staff of the French National Haras on WAHO’s Board of Directors.
Check out this article from the New York Times archives, dated Oct. 14, 1906, on the importation of 27 horses from Arabia by Homer Davenport. You can actually go to the website of the New York Times, type “Homer Davenport” in the search box, and access a lot of really interesting articles from the archives section. Don’t forget to choose the category “All results since 1851”.
This handsome stallion, Regatta CF (MV Reflection x Frill by Adrian out of Trill by Tripoli) was bred by Craver Farms and is now owned by Mike and Cindy Pollman of Blu Skai Farms.
Jenny Krieg, of Maryland has partnered with Rodger Davis of Illinois to send two of Rodger Davis’ mares to the stallion from Bahrain, *Mlolshaan Hager Solomon (Rabdaan Alwasmy M19 x Mlolesh Asila M105 by Sharid), who is up in Michigan with Bill Biel. All of us have five pairs of fingers crossed for what should be Solomon’s second and third asil foals. We are also hoping that others will follow Jenny’s and Rodger’s lead and send more mares to this desert-bred stallion before it is too late. One of the two mares, DB Kalila, (AAS El Hezzez x Desert Kalila by *Furtha Dhellal), a 2002 ‘Ubayyah tracing to the mare *Mahraa of Prince Saudi Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi, Governor of Hasa, was leased by Jenny. Her photo is below. I like the long ears and the croup.
Mustafa heard this story from ‘Anazah Bedouins, and graciously accepted to let me publish my translation of it; you can also find these stories in Arabic and soon in English, on the website: al-Khuyul al-‘Arabiyah al-Asilah, on Facebook: “Kuhaylat al-Musinnah is originally a Kuhaylah Khdiliyah, in reference to the clan of al-Khdilaat of the Fad’aan tribe of ‘Anazah; some clan members were once safely sitting in their tents, when suddenly one of their mares broke loose and started running around, knocking the ground with her foreleg; then she leaned down and put her ear on the ground, then she rose and ran up to a nearby hill; then she came down and went on to repeat the same actions all over again; the mare’s owner realized something unusual was going on across the hill, and upon checking, he and his fellow tribesmen saw enemies trying to make their way to the came and take its people by surprise; they prepared themselves for a fight and were eventually able to repell the attack thanks to the mare. The mare was henceforth known as “al-Musinnah”, because in the Bedouin dialect of Arabic the verb ‘sanna’ means ‘to listen’, and al-Musinnah means ‘she…
Triermain CF (Javera Thadrian x Demetria by Lysander), a 1988 Kuhaylan Haifi of Davenport bloodlines, with a dam line going back to the mare *Reshan of the Fad’aan Bedouins, is the sire of my mare Wisteria (Triermain x HB Wadduda by Mariner). He is in residence at Craver Farms in Illinois. The photos were sent to me by Jenny Krieg. Not sure who took them.
Mustafa al-Jabri is a longtime Syrian breeder of desert Arabian horses from Aleppo, Syria, and a beloved family friend. Mustafa’s stud near Aleppo, which has up to 100 mares and two dozen stallions, is one of the most highly regarded studs in Syria. Over the past decades, Mustafa spent extensive amounts of time with Bedouins and those familiar with them, and collected a large compendium of stories, some in verse, some in prose about Arabian horse strains, Bedouin feats and deeds, and the relationship of Bedouins with their horses. Mustafa’s family is now working on putting these stories in writing in Arabic, for education and awareness raising purposes. Below is one of these story from Mustafa, which I translated from the original Arabic, and which Mustafa and his family graciously agreed to share: One day Dham al-Hadi al-Jarba the Shaykh of the Shammar tribe went hunting with one of the men from his tribe, a Bedouin known as Wati al-Ghishm (as an aside: Wati means lowly and vile, and it was a Bedouin habit to give their children rough or negatively connotated first names to draw the evil eye away from them ; they would keep positively connotated first names to…
These two were sent to me by Jeanne Craver, and come from the Nyla Eshelman photo collection. *El Abiad, by Karawane, by Ghazwane, by Krush Halba, was imported by W.R. Hearst to the USA in 1947, and left no modern asil descendants here.
Robin Weeks is spoiling me with photos of horses she owned, which happen to be horses I like a lot, and I am on a roll. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya by Julyan) in old age. She was bred by Jeanne Craver, and later owned by Robin Weeks. A favorite mare of mine, as you can tell from the several blog entries about this family. By now I think it’s time I shared with you the news that I am working with Kathy Busch of Kansas City, MO, on leasing a 25 year old chestnut daughter of Soiree which she owns. Her name is Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), she was also bred by Jeanne Craver, and she is all I am thinking about these days. She’s been treated at the vet clinic recently for a minor uterus infection, and she’ll be ready to be bred over the next couple weeks via artificial insemination. I am still looking for the right stallion for her, with ‘right’ in this case including ‘ready to collect from and ship’ in addition to the other meaning it has for me. By the way,…
Today I was able to find a photo of the stallion *El Abiad (by Karawane x *Rajwa), a Saqlawi “Ejrifi” imported by W.R. Hearst from Lebanon in 1947. For an interesting discussion of El Abiad’s origins, click here. Too bad he does not have asil descendants left in the USA. His full sister, *Bint Rajwa, should have a couple elderly asil horses left, which otherwise trace to Al Khamsa horses in all their lines. I intend to propose *Bint Rajwa and her dam *Rajwa for the inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster, next year. Photo from the Arabian Stud Book Volume VII, 1953
The second of three videos of foundation horses of Antique Arabian Stud, who draws on desert-bred Arabians from Saudi Arabia. Courtesy of Edie Booth.
Robin Weeks sent me more of these, all tracing to the Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), one of the main progenitors of the *Urfah tail female in asil breeding in the USA. All photos by Sugar Hill Farms, courtesy of Robin Weeks. Below is Dahriefa, still: The young grey one below is Sugar Hill Sassy (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), by a Sirecho son out of a mare by another Sirecho son. This is Dahmira (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), a full sister of the above and this is Dahmira’s daughter SH Hamira (Abay-Hami x Dahmira by Joramir), with her grand-dam Dahriefa in the background.. The last photo features SH Hamira on the left and her grand-dam Dahriefa, on the right. She looks so special even in old age, and strongly reminds me of the some of the old desert bred mares at Basil Jadaan’s in Damascus.
Jeanne Craver just sent me these other pictures of Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd whose tail female goes back to *Urfa.
Doug Marshall of Gleannloch Farms was behind one of the largest and most famous importations of asil Arabians from Egypt to the USA: *Morafic, *Ibn Hafiza, *Zaghloul, *Sakr, *Bint Maisa El Saghira, *Bint Mona and many others were part of this imortation. Here’s a short movie from YouTube, which shows the Marshalls at the Egyptian Agricultural Organization ‘s El Zahraa Stud, then in USA. I believe the white horse in the video is *Morafic (Nazeer x Mabrouka by Sid Abouhom), the star of the first Gleannlock importation.
Robin Weeks sent me this photo of Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), a 1975 Saglawiat al-‘Abd and one of the few sources left to the Davenport import *Urfah in tail female, bred by Mrs. John Ekern Ott and her daughter Jane Ott, and the holder of one of my favorite asil pedigrees. One of the collateral implications of the mtDNA-based findings that the Davenport horses descending from the mare Schilla do not trace back to *Urfah in tail female (but rather do the Hamdaniyah mare Galfia), is that the remaining number of tail-female descendants of *Urfah left has automatically gone down to a couple dozen horses at best. The only remaining line to *Urfah — one of the foundation mares of American Arabian breeding — is through her 1931 great-grand-daughter Ferka (Ferdilan x Poka by *Hamrah), Tripoli’s maternal half-sister. Dahriefa one of the main progenitors of this line, which Pam Baker in South Carolina and Monica Respet of Pennsylvania are among the few breeders perpetuating. I am currently involved in an Al-Khamsa effort to identify and map out critically endangered asil lines in the USA. Mapping the tail female lines horses to both *Urfah and *Waddudah (both Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd by strain) is actually on top of…
This handsome horse, very reminiscent of the some of the horses found in Syria today was presented at the 2007 Al Khamsa Convention in California. His name is Bah-Rani LF (Ibn Don Carlos x Persephone CF by Regency CF) and he traces to Shilla (Letan x Freda by Obeyran) and further back to Galfia, the Hamdaniyah Simriyah imported by the Hamidie Hippodrome Society to the USA in 1893. Photo also by Christine Emmert, who is certainly very talented.
This mare, Cataree (Mandarin CF x Minaret CF by Heir Apparent), is a Kuhaylat al-Krush of Davenport bloodlines, tracing to the mare *Werdi imported by Homer Davenport from Syria in 1906. She was presented at the 2007 Al Khamsa Convention in California. Photo by Christine Emmert.
Syrian breeder and Arabian horse expert Mustafa al-Jabri is closely associated with this Facebook page, “al-Khuyul al-Arabiyah al-Asilah (Authentic Arabian Horses), which has more than 3,000 fans. The page has very useful information on Arabian horses, including scores of ancient poetry, old sayings, and accounts of the deeds of old Arabian horses and horsemen. Unfortunately, it is in the Arabic language only, but I am currently involved in getting some of the material translated to English for the benefit of a braoder audience, mainly some of the many stories on Arabian horse strains which Mustafa has collected over the years, and which have never been published before. Below is a photo of a mare from Mustafa’s stud, which graces the Facebook page, along with many others. It’s actually pretty easy to identify the pictures featuring Mustafa’s horses: basically every picture in which horses look natural and real, as opposed to the highly staged, romanticized pictures of Arabians with full makeup looking like they just came out of air conditioned stalls for a 10 minute photo shoot in the sands..
Photo taken when the horse was more than 30 years old, and covered with scars from battles. Gleaned off the internet. Not sure in which book, magazine or article it was originally taken from. This is how the horses of Arab kings looked like, not like these show….. well, you know what I am going to say here.
Another video from Edie Booth of the horses and the life at Antique Arabian Stud.. I really like these two mares Bint Amiraa and Alwal al-Shahhat. They remind me of mares I was familiar with back in Lebanon..
Thanks to Edie Booth for this video of some of the old horses of Antique Arabian Stud, which trace closely to desert-bred Arabians imported from Saudi Arabian, mostly from its Royal Studs. The segment where the newborn foal plays with Edie’s son (now a young man) is very touching. How I wish my children could have this interaction on a daily basis.. Two more videos were shared by Edie, too..
Blog reader Mathias, from Germany, asked a pertinent question a few weeks ago: How come, he observed, “the horses from Saudi sources […] mostly have one strain name and no substrain, like Turfa and […] the mare Ghazala imported to Germany from Saudi Arabia”? I had never noticed before, but Mathias is correct. Check out the available, recorded information on the Saudi horses sent to Egypt’s royal Inshass Stud as gifts: Nafaa, a Kuhaylah, but what Kuhaylah? Hind, a Saqlawiyah, but what Saqlawiyah? Mabrouka, a Saqlawiyah, again with no “substrain”, or marbat; El Kahila, a Kuhaylah with no marbat, etc. Now check out the recorded information on the Saudi horses imported to the USA: *Mahraa and her daughter *Muhaira: Ubayyan, but which Ubayyan? *Al Hamdaniah: Hamdaniyah, but no substrain; *Taamri, *Jalam al-Ubayyan, *Al Obayya: all Ubayyan, no substrain; *Amiraa, *Rudann, *Halwaaji, *Sindidah, *Bedowia El Hamdani: all Hamdanis but no substrain; *Turfa: Kuhaylan, but no substrain, etc. etc. These horses came from famous and well established studs like that of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud at Al-Khorma, or that of Saud Ibn Jalawi in al-Hasa, they were from the Bedouin tribes, who were justifiably proud of their horses’ origins and who carefully, albeit orally, transmitted…
.. and now a video of Aelfleah Hadhafang (Gwaihir TOS x Anduril TOS by Qadifan), a 2004 Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare tracing in tail female to the desert import *Amiraa, imported in 1960 to the USA by Sam J. Roach. The video was sent by the mare’s breeder Tamara Woodcock, who added: “She is competing now at 2’9″ in showjumping and in Beginner Novice in eventing. Her main, actual only, rider is a 11yo girl. I think this goes a long way to sowing the trainability and athleticism of the desertbred horse.” Update July 18th, 2010: Here’s another video
Another Youtube video of an asil black stallion: this is RB Cavalier (Arabi Fadh Onyx x BA Cerulean Ebony by Aza Faabo), a 1991 stallion of predominantly Egyptian lines, with close up crosses to desert imports from Saudi Arabia (*Al Hamdania, *Turfa, *Muhaira), a distant Davenport line, and a tail female to the Ubayyah mare *Muhaira, bred in 1948 by Prince Saud ibn Abdallah ibn Jalawi, governor of the province of al-Hasa in Saudi Arabia.
Here is a link to his pedigree: Sportin Life (Brimstone x Asallah Al Krush by Dharanad), bred by Craver Farms.
If you happen to have a complete set of the Khamsat magazines and would like to part for it (but why would you!?), please let me know. I will buy it from you.
Video of AAS Al Humrah, a Hamdani Simri gelding of desert bloodlines bred by Edie Booth’s Antique Arabian Stud.
*Haleb: As the flagship of the importation, *Haleb was bestowed the honor of being named after Aleppo (in Arabic, Halab), the city where Davenport’s quest began, and around which his desert trip was organized. *Reshan: Oddly enough, the grey Kuhaylah Hayfiyah whose tail female is the most predominant in Davenport breeding today bears a male horse’s name. She was apparently named after a stallion of the Rishan (hence, Reshan) Shar’abi strain, to which she was bred when Davenport first saw her in Aleppo. Reshan’s hujjah mentions her being bred to that horse. One may picture a conversation going on in Arabic around the mare, in Davenport’s presence, where her breeding to that stallion was being discussed. One can imagine Davenport trying to pick up some words from the conversation, and the word “Rishan” sticking in his mind. *Hamrah: this young colt has a female’s name, as hamrah means bay in the feminine, in Arabic; he was probably referred to as ‘the son of the bay mare’ during the trip, ‘ibn al-faras al-hamrah’, and the word hamrah stuck in Davenport’s head. *Muson, *Hadba, *El Bulad, *Simri, *Enzahi and *Abeyah: They were was named after their strain, Kuhaylan al-Musinn, Hadban (Enzahi), Jilfan Sattam…
Did you ever wonder how early Arabian horse breeders such as the Blunts and Homer Davenport chose names for their original desert imports? I sometimes do, and in the process of doing so, I find many original details about these horses and the circumstances of their acquisition coming back to life. The names of the Blunt’s desert imports fall in three readily recognizable categories: Some of the earliest imports were named after plants and animals, reflecting the Blunt’s interest in botany and zoology, and probably bringing back memories of their day-to-day lives during their desert journeys: Wild Thyme, Tamarisk, Basilisk, Francolin (a bird), Jerboa, Canora (another bird), Purple Stock (a flower), and Damask Rose. Other names clearly fell into the mythological Biblical register: Queen of Sheba, Pharaoh, Hagar, Lady Hester (Dajania’s original name), Babylonia, and Burning Bush, whose early name was Zenobia. The third group consisting mainly of later desert imports were named after their strains and substrains: Rodania, Zefifia (a branch of the Kubayshan strain), Dahma, Jedrania, Jilfa, Hadban, Abeyan and Dajania (whose earlier name was Lady Hester). The names of the other desert imports do not seem to follow a distinctive pattern: Meshura (famous, in Arabic) seems to…