Who was El Dahma of Ali Pasha Sharif?

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El Dahma is the foundation mare of the most prized tail female line of Arabian horses worldwide. Yet she remains shrouded in mystery. She was a mare from the Stud of Ali Pasha Sharif of Egypt, born around 1880, no color given, and was known only by her strain name as “The Dahma”. The little we know about this elusive … Read more

Barely Surviving Lines: Kuhaylan Krush to *Werdi through Kapiti

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The series on Barely Surviving Al Khamsa lines continues (and it’s not likely to stop anytime soon given the number of asil lines in dire straits now in the USA). This eighth entry on Barely Surviving Lines comes after earlier entries on the critically endangered tail female asil lines to Safarjal in Austria (Hamdani Simri, to Selma … Read more

Photo of the day: Jauhar al-Khala, Kuhaylah Hayfiyah in the USA

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This mare, Jauhar El-Khala, is arguably one of the pretties asil Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares of Davenport bloodlines in the USA. Click on this link and then use the arrows to scroll for more pictures. She is very reminiscent of the prettiest Syrian desert-breds. Photos by C. Emmert, I think. Don’t you think she is just … Read more

In response to the “Combined Source” challenge

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Pictured above is Zarlan the handsome 1964 chestnut Al Khamsa stallion who I saw at age 15 and was noble and full of Arabian character. His pedigree blends 5 different ancestral elements. In person, he was beautiful, agile, noble and the image of many of the traditional turn of the century horses in my old … Read more

from Combined Source to Straight Arabians

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In Al Khamsa parlance, a “Combined Source” Al Khamsa Arabian, is one that has more than one Al Khamsa ancestral element in its pedigree. Ancestral elements are the basic building blocks of Al Khamsa. You can learn about them more by clicking here. Take the Early American Foundation Stallion Caravan (Ribal x Fasal) for instance. … Read more

Why I own “Davenport Arabians”

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The other day, I was reflecting back on what is already ten years of interest and involvment in asil breeding in the USA. Ellen May and Jeanne Craver had asked me to provide some answers to questions they had drafted about the experiences and memories of second generation Al Khamsa supporters (i.e., people whose parents … Read more

New domain names

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If you now type “daughtersofthewind.org” and “daughtersofthewind.com” (with an “s” in daughters) you will be redirected to this site, because I just bought these two domain names.  Two years ago, the plan was to buy these two domain  names, and the idea was to call this blog “Daughters of the Wind”, or “banat al-rih”, which … Read more

New foal crop at Jadaan Arabians in Syria

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It is that time of the year, and asil foals are starting to crop up everywhere. I just received these two photos of newborns at Basil Jadaan’s stud in Damascus, Syria (thanks Basil and Joe). They are representative of the latest generation of Syrian asils: pretty, expressive, and true to type.  Their grandparents and great-grandparents … Read more

Children of the Wind: Between Orient and Occident: WAHO sponsored conference in Sicily

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Check out the program of this interesting conference to be held in Sicily, Italy in two weeks time. The choice of the venue is ominous, since Sicily is along with Andalusia, one of the regions of Europe where Arabo-Islamic culture blended with Western culture over several centuries. Note also the panel of speakers and the … Read more

Misconceptions in Straight Egyptian pedigrees are harder to dispel

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I recently saw in the online brochure of a well known stud that breeds “Straight Egyptians” that the Saqlawi Jadran descendents of Roga El Beda (i.e., the tail female line represented by Moniet El Nefous and El Bataa in modern pedigrees, among others) was made to trace back to the desert-bred mare Ghazieh through Bint … Read more

Photo of the day: Al Bark, Shuayman Sabbah stallion from Syria

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I just received this beautiful headshot of the bay stallion Al-Bark (Beebars x Etidal by Burhan x Obeirah) from Joe Achcar in Syria. This stallion is a Shuwayman Sabbah by strain, but from a different marbat that that of the Jarbah leaders of the Shammar Bedouin tribe.  The marbat of Shuwayman Sabbah to which Al-Bark traces … Read more

A simple framework for assessing the purity of desert bred Arabian horses

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Just reposting this old article, to stimulate a new discussion around it. It is slightly revised, to reflect the evolution of thought on this issue. —————- The idea of an international registry for Asil Arabian horses has been gaining momentum over the last few years, not only within Western asil breeeders’ circles, but among Arab … Read more

Photo of the Day: *Houran, Kuhaylan Tamri

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I love this old photo of the stallion *Houran, a Kuhaylan Tamri, imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. The horse is standing so proudly, his neck beutifully arched, and his gaze fixing a far-reaching point on the horizon. Tood bad *Houran only left one daugher in asil USA breeding (the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare Bint Nimnaarah). *Houran was sired by … Read more

Asil as a cultural notion

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This is an excerpt from Christa Salamandra’s book “A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria”, which I am about to finish reading. It has nothing to do with horses nor with Bedouins, but I thought you’d find her characterization of ‘asala’, authenticity, (from which ‘asil’, “he who is authentic”) interesting: “In Syria, as elsewhere … Read more

Off to Kuwait

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I will be in Kuwait for the week, for work, and paradoxically this might mean you will be reading more of me, just because there is little to do there after 9.00 pm, except work very hard (in case my boss is lurking)

These horses can run

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This pretty and deserty 17 year old Hamdaniyah mare of Davenport breeding, Artemisia CF (MV Reflection x Artema by Tripoli) “recently completed 70 miles at the El Paso-Las Cruces endurance ride in Texas in fine form and loved every minute of it, and made the list for Top Twenty Limited Distance Endurance Mileage Horses of … Read more

Ibn Ghalabawi

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A few days ago a friend asked me if I knew whether anything about the Egyptian stallion Ibn Ghalabawi and I said I didn’t. Then I consulted his pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com. Granted, this is by no means a reliable source (anybody can enter, remove or edit whatever the want), but in this case I suspect … Read more

Even more Assyrian horses

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Now look at these Assyrian wall panels, from a palace in Nineveh, in Northern Iraq today. Note the short back, rounded croup and arched neck. And the slightly dished profile and inflated nostrils of the one on the left. We should go back to breeding horses like these.

More Assyrian horses

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I still taken by the realism and accuracy of the Assyrian representations of horses of distinct Arabian type on the walls of their palaces. Here is one more. Note that I am not saying “desert-bred Arabian horses” but rather “horses of distinct Arabian type”, because there is no way to tell whether these horses came … Read more

Power outage

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I just emerged from more than three days of power outage due a record setting snow storm that buried the Washington area under 30 inches of snow. I lost my telephone and internet connection last Friday night and did not get it back until this morning. I apologize to those of who wrote and were … Read more

Les Buveurs d’air et les filles du vent

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Bien que je suive très attentivement et très régulièrement les articles de ce blog merveilleux , je me rends compte avoir laissé passer de nombreuses occasions d’apporter commentaires et précisions. Je m’empresse donc de réparer cette négligence en ce début d’année 2010. Tout d’abord , je m’étonne de la perplexité qu’a suscité la petite maxime … Read more

Girl Solo in Arabia

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Even since I found Caroyln’s McIntyre’s blog “Girl Solo in Arabia”, I have been reading it avidly to the point of neglecting everything else. Just take a deep breath, click and start reading. You’ll emerge from it three hours later, with red eyes, but the journey it takes you on is worth every minute of … Read more

Technical Tips

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I just noticed I wrote my 500th blog entry a few days ago, and with it came the realization that the amount of material available on ‘Daughter of the Wind’ may soon become unmanageable to some of the readers less familiar with the various – and not always user-friendly – ways of navigating it. So here … Read more

Photo of the Day: desert-bred Kuhaylah Trayfiyyah from Syria

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 This very old mare is a Kuhaylah Trayfiyyah from the Middle Euphrates valley in Syria, near the small town of al-Mayadin. This area general is home to the tribe of al-Aqaydat (Ageydat), a wealthy and powerful semi-nomadic tribe of cultivators and small herders whose Shaykhs obtained a number of really good desert-bred mares in the first … Read more

Ghuzayyil’s entry in the Aldahdah Index

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Ghuzayyil was a famous desert-bred horses from Syria, whose bloodlines are present today in a number of modern pedigrees from Syria, including that of the stallion Hussam al-Shimal now in France. This is his entry in the Aldahdah Index: GHUZAYYIL: a grey desert-bred stallion, born c. 1952; [no picture available] Strain: Saqlawi Nijm al-Subh, of … Read more

Ghaddar’s entry in the Aldahdah Index

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Ghaddar is another desert-bred race-horse mentioned in the newspaper clipping below. He was racing at the same time as Mawj al-Athir. The Aldahdah Index happens to have an entry on him as well, with all of the information coming from old horse merchant Abd al-Qadir Hammami. GHADDAR: a gray desert-bred asil stallion;  Strain: Hamdani Simri … Read more

Mawj al-Athir’s entry in the Aldahdah Index

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If you follow this blog regularly, then you must have already heard about the chestnut desert-bred stallion Mawj al-Athir: he is in the pedigree of the bay stallion from Syria, Hussam al-Shimal, now in France. He is also the sire of the pretty mare below, whose photo you have already seen before. Joe Achcar also … Read more

National Breeders Conference 2010

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Kent Mayfield of Second  Wind Arabians invited me to speak at the Pyramid’s Society National Breeders Conference, 2010, in Atlanta Gerogia. The National Breeders Conference is an annual event organized by the Pyramid Society’s Education Committee, which Kent chairs, to educate its members about the Arabian horses of Egyptian bloodlines. This year’s theme is “Back to the Future: Models for Egyptian … Read more

Photo of the Day: Zairafan, Ubayyan stallion in the USA

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I wish to thank Troy Patterson for sharing with me this rare picture of the asil stallion Zairafan (Alwal Bahet x Maarah by Taamrud), from Mrs. J. E. Ott’s breeding. Zairafan is a Ubayyan whose tail female goes back to the mare *Mahraa, bred by Prince Saud ibn Abdallah ibn Jiluwi, governor of the Eastern Province of … Read more

Hujjah: Gazala, a desert-bred mare from Hail, Saudi Arabia, 1971

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In 1971, H.R.H. Prince Salman b. Abd al-Aziz Aal Saoud, brother of the present king of Saudi Arabia, and then and now governor of the Province of Riyadh (which more or less corresponds to the historical region of Najd), presented the bay Hamdaniyah mare Gazala to a Dr. Klaus Simons of Germany. The latter imported … Read more

Photos of the Day: Hussam al-Shimal, Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq stallion from Syria in France

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This striking bay stallion who recently came to France from Syria has already been featured here before. Hussam Al-Shimal is a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the old-established Stud of Saed Aghan Yakan in al-Bab, Syria. His sire is a desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Mussin called Raad who has also received a lot of visibility on this website. Hussam … Read more

Hujjah Translation: *Hamra Johara, a 1952 Ubayyah mare from Saudi Arabia

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Recently, Jeanne Craver was able to access the hujjah and supporting documents about the mare *Hamra Johara, a desert-bred Arabian mare imported to the USA in 1961 by Lewis Payne. *Hamra Johara has no asil descendents, unfortunately. Jeanne obtained the documents from Gari Dill-Marlow, who got them from Dick Reed, who breeds Polish Arabians in … Read more

El Samraa: gone with the wind, or daughter of the wind?

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[Republishing this piece, which was already published here last July – Edouard] The mare El Samraa is certainly one of the least documented horses in Egytian Arabian horse breeding. To me, that’s a big problem. Heck, it should be a big problem for every researcher and breeder with an interest in these horses. Given El Samraa’s contribution to … Read more

Geo stat and a new poll

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I recently added a new feature that allows readers to visualize the geogprahical location of the readers of this blog. In red, those who have accessed the blog over the past 24 hours; in green, the readers who are still on the page. Check also the new poll, on the same column.

The horses of Amin Rihani

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  Lebanese-American Amin Rihani (1976-1940) was a man of many talents. He is best remembered as the man who introduced free verse into Arabic poetry. He was also one of the early figures of the Arab literary movement known as “kuttab al-mahjar” or  “writers of the diaspora” to which Khalil Gibran and other Arab-American intellectuals … Read more

Re: endless dilemma

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We in Syria always judge horses by their breeders and where they come from, an Arabian horse is as good as his breeder. When we have a horse bred by a legend we never ever question the purity because we take the word of men as a contract and when they swear by the name … Read more

Horse photos from France under the snow

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This morning I woke up to find these two pictures of horses from snowed-in France in my inbox.. the first one is from Clothilde Nollet of Maarena Arabians, and features her new acquisition Bint Fay Amy (Mahrouf x Fay Amy by Ibn Fa-Serr), a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah born in 1995 at the Babson Farm. The second … Read more

Video of the Day: Dandashi horsemen in Tall Kalakh, Syria in 1958

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Since the subject entry below was the Dandashi horse breeding clan of Tall-Kalakh, Syria, here is a 1958 YouTube video of Dandashi family members celebrating the union of Syria and Egypt into one single state with horse fantasias and other equestrian games with swords and spears. Note the pretty grey horse from 2.20 to 2.40 PS … Read more

Photo of the Day: Malek, Saqlawi Jadran from Lebanon

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My father took these two photos of the grey Lebanese stallion Malek in the mid 1980s, at the farm of Husayn Nasir in Rayak, Lebanon. Malek (Achchal x Bint Ghazwane by Ghazwane) was the last stallion of Lebanese breeding that did not trace to the infamous Iraqi-born part-bred Arabian racehorses thath flooded the Beirut racetrack in … Read more

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