Some time in 1998 I had dinner with Sheikh Hmeidi al-Daham al-Hadi al-Jarba supreme sheikh of the Shammar tribe (qabilah) and its “satellite tribes” (acha’ir), as per his visiting card… When I asked him about the ghazu (tribal raids), Sheikh Hmeidi (Abu Faris) told me the following: “The ghazu between large tribes was not quite an act of war but rather a kind of competition the aim of which was to send the message to the raided tribe: “we are stronger than you”. The ghazu between the major tribes followed certain codes and regulations, at last between the Major tribes. Minor tribes and marauders raided to steal. Not major tribes. The raiding tribe had to inform the raided tribe of the ghazu, and it didn’t matter if the ghazu took place one year after the information was sent. The ghazu must take place in daylight to avoid colleteral damage like hurting women, children, or elderly people. Any such death led to all-out war, something nobody wanted. The ghazu was done through a combination of camels and horses. 90% of the distance was covered on camelback, and war mares were only used for the last part: the sudden attack and the escape.” That’s why…
Kuhailan Afas (by a Kuhaylan Wadnan x a Kuhaylat Aafess) came to Poland from the island of Bahrain in 1931. This stallion, along with Kuhailan Haifi, Kuhailan Kruszan, Kuhailan Zaid and a few mares, were bought by Bogdan Zietarski and Carl Raswan for the Gumniska stud. The Gumniska stud was owned by the Sanguszko princely family of Poland. Kuhailan Afas left three asil sons: -Bad Afas 1940 x Bad by Diab db -Drop 1939 x Donia by Koheilan Haifi db -Don Afas 1940 x Donia by Koheilan Haifi db Donia is out of Donka (Schehan Shammar db x Koheilan II), she is Babolna bred; this is the same dam line of the asil mare 25 Amurath Sahib.
Pictures taken at Mustapha al-Jabri’s farm in 1991-92. Later, a photo of Al Ward el Mayel was widely used, especially in the “Arabian horse world” were he was pictured jumping in front of a wall, if somebody can remember. Please Edouard give us the pedigrees and strain of the grey Taan and of Al Ward al-Mayel. Thank you.
Thanks Edouard so much for your wonderful post on Mubarak. It was not until 1996 that I had the pleasure of seeing this copper chestnut stallion of Ibn Ghurab at Al Basel the new government stud at the time. When I saw him I had the same reaction as you regarding how much like the Davenport stallion Plantagenet he appeared. Similar color but also similar charisma particularly in the eye and expression. He was quickly presented in hand and then his handler jumped on him for a quick bareback ride back to his stall. I thought I would share a photo of him I took in the late afternoon of that November 1996 day. Those who are familiar with the Davenport horses in the U.S. will certainly see the similarities. You can see the wonderful expression. It is so refreshing to see such continuity of centuries
The blog entry “Amer: a Saudi race stallion” and the ensuing online conversation has generated a heated debate, with potentially explosive consequences for many involved. To summarize using politically correct language: the stallion Amer, currently owned by Umm Qarn farms of Qatar, is an extremely controversial horse, owned by extremely powerful people. He has dozens of offspring around the world. Many people have questioned Amer’s purity over the years, more or less openly. Many people have written to WAHO about him (good luck with that…). There is lots of big money involved, and a lot of vested interests at stake. Fraud, when it does take place, takes place behind closed doors. You will not see the real pedigree in any WAHO-approved studbook records, and I don’t imagine anyone putting their lives and jobs on the line to enter a royalty-owned stud (how?), ask for DNA sample from Amer and his likes (how?), receive it, compare it with DNA sample from English Thoroughbreds in Jordan or elsewhere (which ones? how? culprits died long ago), send the whole package to labs for analysis (which labs?) and publis the results somewhere (where?). So all that’s left is people word, good faith, reputation, and…
I first saw Mubarak in 1989 when an old truck disembarked a batch of three horses at the farm of Hisham Ghurayyib in Damascus, Syria. I was told that the truck had just come from the desert area of al-Jazirah, “Upper Mesopotomia”. It was my first encounter with Arabian horses born and raised in the desert. I was 11. My father was breeding Asil Arabians back then and I was familiar with the first generation offspring of desertbred horses, or horses born on the fringes of the desert, but I had never seen the “real thing”. My very first reaction was one of disappointment. Not only were the three horses – a black Kuhaylat al-‘Armush mare, a fleebitten Kuhaylat ibn Mizhir mare, and a chestnut Hamdani Ibn Ghurab stallion – tiny, they were worn out, and extremely thin. They feet were badly damaged, and the hooves were so overgrown that the poor horses could badly walk. Were these the “horses of the desert” (khayl sahraa)? My father had given me his Nikon and asked me to take photos of all the horses, while he was checking them out and asking about their origins. I took a rapid photo shot of the…
(See the comments section below for a translation of this blog entry to English) A l’origine, en tant qu’améliorateurs des races locales, essentiellement en vue de fournir des produits pour le service de la guerre. La base de nombreux élevages a été les animaux pris dans les combats contre l’Empire Ottoman. Il en est résulté dans de nombreux pays une jumenterie plus ou moins pure que l’on a tenté de conserver par l’achat d’étalons importés d’Orient. La Hongrie avec la race Shagya a été éminemment honnête. La France, avec deux variétés régionales, le Tarbais et le cheval du Limousin a eu la même démarche. A partir de Napoléon III, le pays a cherché à se constituer une jumenterie pure (Asil) afin de pouvoir disposer de reproducteurs pour améliorer la race Barbe en Afrique du nord et perfectionner l’Anglo-arabe naissant. Les établissements les plus remarquables ont été Tiaret en Algérie, Sidi Thabet en Tunisie et Pompadour en France. C’est à partir de cette époque que l’on s’est rendu compte de la différence de qualité entre les produits de la métropole et ceux des deux autres établissements (dégénérescence rapide sous l’influence des sols et du climat). Entre les deux guerres et surtout…
Another favorite photo of a second generation offspring of four desert breds. This is Ibn Taamrud (b. 1988), an Asil Hamdani, by Taam-rud (Taamri x Rudann) out of Alwal el Shahhat (Jalam al-Ubayyan x Sindidah). All four grand-parents are either from the stables of the Royal House of Saud and their close relative Ibn Jiluwi. My translation of the hujaj of both Taamri and Rudann is in Al Khamsa Arabians III.
Question : Quand a eu lieu la dernière razzia en Syrie ? Réponse : La dernière razzia a eu lieu en 1943, des Shammar sur les Sba’ah. Ils sont partis d’ici (Hassakè ou al-Hassakah) avec 100 cavaliers le matin. Ils sont tombés sur le campement Sba’ah distant de 40 miles, à midi. Tous les cavaliers étaient de retour dans l’après-midi. Question : Vous voulez dire dans la nuit ? Réponse : Non, non dans l’après-midi. Je me suis permis d’insister : mais vers les 8 ou 9 heures du soir ? Réponse empreinte d’un certain agacement : Non dans l’après-midi vers les cinq heures ! Voilà ce qu’aux yeux des Bédouins leurs chevaux pur sang sont à même de faire naturellement. Il est à noter qu’à l’heure actuelle cette moyenne horaire correspond à ce que l’on fait avec les 4×4 en dehors des pistes.
Edie Booth of Antique Arabian Stud, Canton, Texas, just posted this video of three of her Asil stallions on the comments section of this blog. The black stallion is AAS al-Sakb, and the grey one is AAS Enan. I don’t know who the third one is. [Update Nov. 18, 2008: Edie Booth tells us the third horse is AAS El Hezzez]
I love this picture, and I love this horse. Alwal Bahet (Jalam al-Ubayyan x Sindidah), an Asil Hamdani Simri, the son of two desert-bred horses imported from Saudi Arabia to the USA, is just magnificent. Click on his parents’ link to learn more about his background. I read somehere that this picture was taken a few days (hours?) before he died, at the venerable age of thirty.
I am starting a series on the desert-bred Arabians imported to Poland and Hungary in the twentieth century. The first I will highlight is Kuhailan Zaid. This stallion came to Europe in 1931 at the same time as Kuhailan Haifi and Kuhailan Afas. He was purchased by Bogdan Zietarski and Carl Raswan for the Hungarian stud of Babolna. He was bred by the Ruwalah Bedouin tribe, by a Kuhailan Abu Junub out of a Kuhaylat al-Zyadah. Here’s Zietarski’s account of his purchase: “At last they bring a stallion of Kuhailan Zaid strain; bay, stripe, black legs over the knees, a splendid line of the trunk, a long strongly expressive neck, a dry head, legs somewhat worn out, hoofs in awful condition, but on the whole with much type, a first class sire, as created for Babolna… We buy him without any bargain.” Kuhailan Zaid was a herd sire at Babolna between 1931 and 1946, and 26 of his daughters were used for breeding, but only a handful of his sons (none in Hungary, only in Poland). Of these Kuhailan Abu Urkub (b. 1935) out of 22 Kemir, and of Kuhailan Said (b. 1934) out of 204 Kemir were perhaps the most influential. Both of them are asil.
Amer is one of the most successful current arabian racing sires and has produced nearly 300 offspring to date. His progeny has raced in Europe and Middle East and currently more than 80 offspring have won a total of 339 races. 40 of these wins are Group 1 wins, 39 by horses bred and raised at Umm Qarn’s farms in UK and Qatar. His progeny have additionally been placed in 25 Group 1 races, won 4 Group 2 races and 6 Group 3 races. The text and photos are taken from Umm Qarn Farms, Qatar, Amer’s owners (joe)
The first Saudi Arabian Stud book was issued in 1991 by the “Dirab Arabian Horse Center” later named the King Abdul-Aziz horse Center. In 1935 Dr. Mabrouk of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt, traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a horse-buying mission. He wrote about and took pictures of the horses he saw, from the stud of Prince Faysal in Taif near the Red Sea to the stud of Ibn Jiluwi stud near the Persian Gulf. As I’m now in Beirut and the book is in my stables in Damascus ,a post will follow with pictures from Dr. Mabrouk’s trip (if they are good) inshallah. In 1936 a lot of Saudi horses died of a horsesickness, so King Abdul-Aziz received as a present a lot of mares and stallions of Syrian origin,especially from Ibn Mehayd, the sheikh of the Fad’aan Bedouins, Looking at Volume I of the Saudi Arabian studbook one notices the following : The strains are Hamdani Simri, Kuhaylan Abu Arqub, ‘Ubayyan al-Saifi, Kuhailan Suwayti al Firm, Kuhaylan al-Sekti, etc. Saqlawis are very rare. A quick survey of the 1980’s Saudi mares gives the following: Daughters of Safeer (100) a Hamdani Semri: 474 Farasha Kuhaila Sowaitia; 476 Soad Kuhaila Um Arqub; 481 Afeefa Kuhaila Sowaitia; 503…
… occurs in the archives of Dur-Sharrukin (today’s Khorsabad), the capital of Assyrian King Sargon II (721-705 BC). It dates from around 715 BC. It mentions king Sargon II exacting tribute from “Pir’u king of Musuri, Shamsi queen of the Arabs (a-rib-bi in the original text), Itamra king of Saba, the kings of the coast and the desert I received gold, products (?) from the mountain, precious stones, ivory, all kinds of perfumes, horses, and camels as their tribute.” The same tablet mentions “the distant Arabs, dwellers of the desert, who did not know learned men or scribes, who had not brought tribute to any king”. In other words, these Arabs are the Bedouins. Horses? Yes! Horses as tribute from the Queen of the Bedouins to the allmighty Assyrian king! (There is some speculation as to whether “Pir’u king of Musuri” is one of the Pharaohs of Egypt). Of course, a large number of earlier ancient Middle Eastern sources mentions horses, but this one is the earliest one where the mention of horses is paired with a mention of the ” dwellers of the desert”. Perhaps the coolest thing is that these Arab Bedouins were ruled by a woman. I…
I am no “expert” on Polish Arabians (and I have a lot of trouble with the concept of “expert” in general anyway), so don’t expect these posts will tell you anything many of you don’t know already. I am writing them for the record only. As a reminder to reader that there was a blessed time when some Arabian horses from Poland – this great horsemanship country – were Asil. Then there was a time when only, or two, or perhaps three Polish Arabians were Asil. That was in the 1960s and 1970s, not such a long time ago. When Arwila, Rozka, Lassa and a few others were alive. Now that time is gone. This new series of posts will feature the last Asil mare from each desert-bred line imported to Poland or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Lets start with Arwila (Amurath Sahib x Wilga, photo above from Skorkowski’s book, I think), a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz tracing to the desert bred Gazella, imported by Count Juliusz Dzieduszycki in 1845. Her pedigree is one of the 24 extended pedigrees originally compiled by Ursula Guttmann in her 1968 book Arwila was born in 1947 and exported to England in 1965. She did not leave any Asil progeny. The…
A beautiful representative of the Shaykhan strain tracing to the Lebanon-bred mare *Layya imported by W.R. Hearst is the 1992 mare Nile Swan (Ansata Nile Comet x Fadda Laila). Congratulations to Michelle, her new owner. I hope this mare and others from her strain, like Jenny Krieg’s HS Marayah, contribute to a renaissance of this rare and precious strain.
This morning I was talking to Jean-Claude Rajot over the phone and I asked him if he would agree to write on Daughter of the Wind. I didn’t think he would, but I still asked. He agreed. And I am happy he did. Jean-Claude, a French breeder of Arabian horses, is the president of USCAR (Union pour la Sauvergarde du Cheval Arabe). USCAR is a grassroots preservationnist organization of the old kind (the good kind), in many ways the French version of the US-based Al Khamsa. Jean-Claude was also a disciple and one of the closest people to master breeder Robert Mauvy, during the last 11 years of Mauvy’s life. Mauvy called Jean-Claude “mon fils” (‘son’). Jean-Claude and friend Louis Bauduin, USCAR’s vice-president, owned several of Mauvy’s horses. Their offspring now constitute the nucleus of their breeding programs. Mauvy’s teachings have had a most profound influence on me. His small book “Le Cheval Arabe” is my Arabian horse Bible since I was ten. One of the book’s photos features the stallion Cherif (by Saadi x Zarifa, by Matuvu), bred by Mauvy in 1967. A chapter of the book is dedicated to the nursing of Hamada (by Irmak x Shawania by Amri),…
I’ve just geotagged several photos in my Flickr roll. You can now see the horses’ photos on a map, according to where they were bred. I will add more geotagged photos as we go.
“Excellent horse, but his grey color makes him unusable”. So the French government, prompted by the cavalry’s dislike of the color grey, sold the stallion Burgas to Poland in 1923, without using him. Burgas, a Saqlawi Jadran by a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, born in 1907, was one of 20 Arabian stallions imported to France in 1914, just before World World One. Of these, ‘Adwan, Ghoumar, Madfah, Nazim, Taleb, and Burgas went to the stallion depot of Pau, in southern France. Below are pictures of the last two. The sale of Burgas was a obviously a mistake, since he went on to sire Federacja for the Poles. She was the dam of Witez II. Taleb, a Ma’naghi Sbayli, sired the stallion Rabat, who is the represented in the pedigree of the handsome stallion Nichem.
One more French desert-bred import. This one is Nibeh. All I know about him is that he was bred by the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe and imported to France in 1912, where he stood at the government stud of Tarbes (one of the three main Arabian stallions depots in France, with Pau and Pompadour). If anyone knows anything else about him, please let me know. I am trying to compile a list as comprehensive as possible of the desert-bred Arabians imported to France that still have descendents alive today (Asil or not). Not sure all would qualify as Asil (the criteria being the existence of good original documentation), but many probably would. Notice the nice, prickled ears this one has. Nibeh was the sire of Nedjari, exported from France to the Breniow stud in Poland.
I thought I’d share this photo of Nawal with you, after the mention of the strain of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss in a previous post of mine. ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss is a branch of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak owned by the Sba’ah tribe. Nawal was bred by Khairi Ajil al-Dibs, of the Aqaydat semi-nomadic sheep herding tribe, on the Euphrates valley not from the border between Syria and Iraq (lately a hotspost of military activity). Her sire was al-Ma’naqi al-Najrissi, a famous Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion, known throughout the Syrian desert for producing extremely typey and good-moving broodmares. The Aqaydat obtained the two strains of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss and Ma’naqi Sbayli directly from the Sba’ah tribe, whose seosonal migration routes spanned Aqaydat territory. Nawal was later acquired by Mustapha al-Jabri of Aleppo, for whom she went on to produce several good broodmares. Mustapha once told me a couple of nice stories about the pride in which Sba’ah Bedouins took in the particular strain of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, in the contexts of their wars against the Ruwalah tribe, but I am afraid I don’t recall any of these stories in enough detail to relate it here. Will ask him next time we speak over the phone. I took this photo at Mustapha’s in the spring of…
Well, after that introduction, I probably shouldn’t write my first post about the location of the gray gene in the horse. (That’s Michael’s cue, anyway.) Instead, let’s talk about one of the joys of backyard stallions. Here at Deferred Maintenance Acres, the stallion pens are seven feet from the bedroom window. Being able to glance out the window at Palisades is an unqualified delight. (The shot, below, of Palisades enjoying breakfast in bed was taken through said window.) At night, the occasional contented snort or thump on a feed tub is soothing. Stallions exchange news and views over the fence, the wind blows, the birds sing. All is well in California in the autumn. However, pasture breeding season is another story — time to break out the earplugs and the bedtime whiskey. Three AM seems to be a favored time for noisy couplings. I’m sure there’s a paper in this somewhere — Conception Rates Considered As a Function of Time of Day of Service or some such. That would require Data, though, in the form of enough pregnancies to bring any statistical link to light. While Palisades would serve enthusiastically, I’m sure, I’m a bit short of minions for such…
Kuhaylan al-Mimrah: so where were we? In the last post about this strain, we had left it in the hands of the Muwayni’ section of the Sba’ah tribe, to which the Mimrah clan belongs. Today, the noble section of Al-Muwayni’ is split between Syria and Saudi Arabia but no longer owns horses from this famous strain. Sometime during the twentieth century (not sure when, but earlier rather than later), a branch of this strain passed to the al-Mazhur clan of the Shammar tribe, and then, about fifty years ago to the Jawwalah section of the Tai tribe, among which it could still be found until very recently. Below are photos of two fine specimen of the Kuahylan al-Mimrah of the Jawwalah marbat. The one above is a picture of Aminah (Hayfi Juhayyim x Kuhaylat al-Mimrah, by the grand Saqlawi ‘Ibbo, more on all these great old timers later), the founder of a prominent dynasty at Mustapha al-Jabri’s stud in Aleppo, Syria. The second is Za’rur al-Barari, a grandson of Aminah, and a stallion at Radwane Shabariq’s stud, also in Aleppo. Za’rur is the younger brother of the stallion Basil, which Joe Ferriss recently wrote about, here and here. Za’rur has been…
Of course it is not. This is Shagya XVII, from the Hungarian Arab-related Shagya breed. You have to give credit to the Hungarians for being honest about the Thoroughbred and other non-Arab blood they infused in these horses.
The dark chestnut stallion Shaykh al-‘Arab is one of the foundation stallions of the (now defunct) Lebanese Asil Arabian horse breeding. Born in the desert somewhere between Hims and Palmyra, he was bred by Rakan ibn Mirshid, Shaykh of the Gomussah section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe in the 1930s, then sold to Beirut for racing. His sire was a desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli, the stallion of ‘Awdah al-Mis’ir of Sba’ah, and his dam a ‘Ubayyat al-Usayli’, one of the best marabit (pl. of marbat, i.e., desert stud) of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. [Other equally good marabit of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak with the Sba’ah tribe ainclude ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, ‘Ubayyan al-‘Awbali, ‘Ubayyan ibn Thamdan, and ‘Ubayyan ibn ‘Alyan, the latter being the strain of the Blunt import Queen of Sheba, then owned by Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, Rakan’s ancestor.] In Beirut, the horse was successfully raced by Henri Pharaon under the name of Shaykh al-‘Arab (a reference to his prestigious breeder), and then given to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture as a breeding stallion. Shaykh al-‘Arab’s sons and daughters became good race horses, so much so that veteran Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi recalled attending race in Beirut where the top…
Do you visit Ralph Suarez’s blog? I think you ought to.
Musette (b. 1932), a Saqlawiyah by strain, is a good specimen of the Asil Arabians bred by the French government stud of Pompadour in the first half of the twentieth century. She reminds me of some of the first and second generation offspring of the horses imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. She was by the desert import El Sbaa (strain: Ju’aitni) out of Musotte, who was by the famous Dahman (strain: Rabdan, sire: a Dahman) out of Mysterieuse. Mysterieuse was by yet another desert bred stallion, Enwer – a Ma’naghi, bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe like Dahman, and like him imported to France in 1909 – out of Mysie. Mysie was by the desert-bred Beni Kaled, a chestnut Hamdani, out of the imported desert-bred mare Meleke. Meleke was imported to Pompadour in 1891, a Saqlawiyah by a Ma’naghi, himself by a Hamdani Simri (or by a Hamdani Simri by a Ma’naghi, the French importation records are ambiguous). This precious line has unfortunately completely died out by the 1940s, and only survives in the middle of the pedigrees, through the Asil stallions Matuvu, and Minos. Matuvu (by El Sbaa out of Manon, by Dahman out of Mysterieuse), stood at…
I bet some of you think this is overkill, but here are two more pictures of that lovely Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare that went from Egypt to South Africa. The first one also features a headshot of the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisaan. With kind permision Pauline Du Plessis, Saruk Stud, RSA
A fascinating and thoroughly documented article (in French) by anthropologist Bernadette Lizet on the French manuscript of count Wenceslas Rzewuski, which was touched upon in an earlier post and ensuing thread.
The readership of Daughter of the Wind keeps growing. Yesterday it reached the 100,000 clicks milestone. Sometimes I struggle to keep up with the flow of queries, comments, and new topics for blogging that readers address to me through the website or by way of email. Yet, sometimes I feel that the blog’s focus on pedigrees, strains, and concepts is too narrow, and perhaps a bit too “intellectual”. In the spirit of broadening the blog’s focus to address general issues of interest to the global Asil Arabian horse community, and reach out to a new generation of Asil Arabian breeders and enthusiasts, I have asked a number of friends to contribute to Daughter of the Wind as regular bloggers. They will bring a new perspective to breeding and understanding Asil Arabians in their native land (Arabia) and in their countries of adoption (the rest of the world). Their ideas will complement the valuable contributions of Joe Ferriss, Joe Achcar, R.J. Cadranell, and other guest-bloggers to come. I am glad that Jean (Ambar) Diaz has agreed to be a (more or less) regular blogger on Daughter of the Wind. Ambar acquired her first Asil Arabian, Petit Point CF, in 1999. Since then, she’s completed a BS…
A good article by Peter Harrigan is Saudi Arabia’s Aramco World. Peter was a keynote speaker at the last Al Khamsa Convention in Tulsa, OK.
Seanderich, a desert bred stallion born in 1902, is one of the founders of Arabian horse breeding in Spain. Both his sire and his dam are stated to have been from the Saqlawi strain. The Spanish Stud-book actually has all his four grandparents as Saqlawi. For more details about his importation to Spain through an Istanbul-based horse dealer by the name of Ismailion, and his influence on Spanish breeding, read this article. And if you are interested in early (1900s) Spanish Arabian horse breeding, check this Flickr roll. One can’t help but lament the consequences of the addition to Spanish Arabian breeding of Polish Branicki bloodlines through Ursus and Wan Dick, and their overshadowing the influence of desert-bred imports like Seanderich, Sawah II and Bagdad.
This past weekend I took part of my family to visit with Jenny Krieg, of Poolesville, Maryland. Jenny is the president of Al Khamsa for a few more days. A new board will take over for a year after the 2009 Tulsa Convention, which starts today, and which I am so sorry for not being able to attend. Jenny is otherwise the proud owner of HS Marayah (2 pics below). Marayah traces to the Shaykhah mare *Layya, imported to the USA by W.R. Hearst in 1947. Jenny is one of the few breeders preserving this rare line in Asil form, and this year she bred Marayah to DB Khrush (pic also below) for a 2009 foal. In 2007, mtDNA research showed that Marayah and a Lebanese mare from the same strain and the same original breeder as *Layya shared the same haplotype, implying a common tail female ancestor. *Layya’s original strain, and therefore Marayah’s, is ‘Ubayyan, from the marbat of the Donato family, a merchant family of Italian origin settled in Lebanon’s Biqaa’ valley. *Layya’s great-grand dam was a famous and important mare, and was hence known as “al-Shaykhah” (feminine of al-Shaykh, or al-Sheikh, a honorific title in the Arab world). Her descendents were named al-Shaykhat, after her. They practically formed a new strain, and back in…
In 1909, a French government commission led by Inspector Quinchez bought 24 desert-bred stallions from the Egyptian racetrack of Sidi Gaber in Alexandria. Of these, 17 went to Algeria (then a part of France), and the remaining 7 were distributed in government studs across mainland France. The seven were: Dahman, Meenak, Farid, Aslani, Hamdany El Samry, Latif and Maarouf. The magnificent Dahman, to which this blog paid a tribute some time ago, was no doubt the star of this importation. Dahman’s hujja – which I will translate for you soon – tells us that he was bred by the Shammar tribe, from a Dahman sire and a Rabda dam. He stood at Pompadour for twenty-some years, leaving behind many pretty Asil mares like Ninon (picture below), Melinite, Musotte, and Noble Reine, and some excellent stallions, one of which, Minos (x Melisse) was sent to the King of Morocco. Today Minos appears in many modern Moroccan pedigrees. If Dahman was the most striking, Aslani was the French breeders’ favorite. He originally came from the tribe of Bani Sakhr, by a Ubayyan and a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz. Quinchez had to pay the hefty sum of 8,000 Francs to snatch him away from Alexandrian trainer and racehorse owner Michaelides – the same individual who…
Looks like some of my last posts (here, and here) have really (like, really) angered a particular category of people: cynical French breeders who make big money out of breeding and selling “pseudo-Arabian” racehorses. They are now fully mobilized and want to launch a campaign to defend their horses by the next WAHO conference. Some even stand ready to destroy the reputation of anyone who dares pointing a accusatory finger at their horses. Poor them. They think they are victims of another campaign to kick their horses out of WAHO – now that they have recovered from the Manganate controversy that erupted at the 1974 WAHO conference in Sweden. Don’t worry, cynical French breeders of “pseudo-Arabians”. There is nothing to be scared of. Your livelihood will not be threatened, and your financial interests are safe. WAHO will certainly keep you in its fold. Its circular, hopelessly tautological definition protects your horses: “A pure-bred Arabian horse is one which appears in any pure-bred Arabian Stud Book or Register listed by WAHO as acceptable”. That’s bullet-proof. My two posts – and the others to follow 🙂 – are not an attempt to throw French pseudo-Arabians out of WAHO, this low-ceiling benchmark of purity.…
Pretty mare, eh? Nabilah Fanatasia (Omar El Shaker x Nabilah Bint Saklabilah) is from South Africa’s Nabilah Stud and traces to the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Nabilah (Enzahi x Zamzam) in tail female, as well as to the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah Barakah in the midde of the pedigree. Both Nabilah and Baraka were imported to South Africa in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of Eugene Geyser of South Africa.
This little known importation is the earliest ever made to the United States. Between 1851 and 1856, Keene Richards took two trips to the Arabian desert, visiting virtually every region of North Africa and the Middle East. He came back with several horses, of which the stallions Massoud, Faysul, Mokhladi (no doubt a Mukhallad, the same rare strain as the French desert import Merjane) and Sacklowie. He left an account of his travels, edited by Thornton Chard, who also wrote this article about the importation. Sadly, the US Civil War broke out and completely destroyed what were extremely promising seeds of early USA Asil Arabian breeding.
In the spirit of continuing to pick on French “Arabians”, here is an old picture of Gosse d’Avril (Gosse du Bearn x Fleur d’Avril), a horse any English Thoroughbred breeder would want to own..
My father took this photo at Craver Farms in 2002. I remember really liking this mare, but can’t recall her name or breeding. Would this be Una CF?
I can’t help keep showing pictures of the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare Baraka (Ibn Manial x Gamalat). Here is a photo with her daughter, Sahibi Bint Baraka, by the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisaan (Jellabi al-Marshoosh x a Tuwayssah). Below is Sahibi Bint Baraka as a grown-up mare. Both photos courtesy of Calvyn Badenhorst of South Africa.
This 1997 article by Michael Bowling and R.J. Cadranell mentions the Babolna-bred mare 125 Ghalion (b. 1975), which has only one distant cross to the English Thoroughbred mare 30-Maria, her tail female ancestor (scroll down to the middle of the article for the question about 30-Maria). RJ and Michael calculated that after 125 years and 12 generations of breeding to Arabian stallions, 125 Ghalion was left with 0.024% English Thoroughbred blood. 125 Ghalion is not registered as an Arabian mare. That’s probably because her cross to 30-Maria is in the tail female, which Arabian horse breeders pay particular attention to. (What’s her strain? “Kuhaylan Maria”). Now someone please tell me why Skowronek, with his 9 non-Arabian crosses, would be considered an Arabian horse.
It’s been some time I have been saying that I will write a post about this French Arabian stallion, by the desert import Latif, from the Fad’aan tribe, out of the French-bred mare Djaima, by Khouri also an import from the Fad’aan. That article will come soon, I promise. Meanwhile, here is Denouste, a Mukhallad by strain, pictured as a youngster.
I love the website allbreedpedigree.com . It’s one of those wikis that let you do whatever you want. Readers’ comments on the last entry I posted just put me in a subversive mood, so I went and changed the race of the mare Polka from “Arabian” to “Thoroughbred”. For those who are not aware of the facts, the stallion Skowronek has multiple lines to the English Thoroughbred mare Polka, and so does everyone of his descendents. One of these several genealogical paths is as follows: Skowronek –> his dam Jaskolka –> her sire Rymnik –> his sire Kortez –> his dam Gonta –> her dam Helada –> her sire Szumka III –> his sire Szumka II –> his dam Polka, an English Thoroughbred. This makes Szumka II an Anglo-Arab (even if he is not registered as such), and someone needs to change that in allbreedpedigree too (I hope I am not starting a war). Now comes the million dollar question: if you cross the descendents of an Anglo-Arab like Szumka II to Arabians for several generations, do they become Arabian horses or will they always and forever be Anglo-Arabs? [okay, partbreds]. To be sure, this question is worth much more than a million dollars, if the prices of…
On paper, this stallion looks okay. I mean he has the pedigree of an Arabian horse. But he is not. He is an Anglo-Arab in disguise. Ba-Toustem (Djerba Oua x Bacchantara, at least that’s what his papers say) was born in France, at a time when Arabians raced in the same same races as Anglo-Arabs and English Thoroughbreds, with a weight “discount”. Ba-Toustem (check out his picture on allbreedpedigree.com, pretty typey, eh?) is the result of what French purist breeders call the “midnight breedings”. Arabian mares mated to Anglo-Arabian stallions. Their products registered as Arabians, with Arabian sires as a fig-leaf. Raced against Anglo-Arabians, and English Thoroughbreds [correction: only against anglos; thank you Jean-Marc di Francesco]. Then used as stallions on pure Arab mares. And the story goes on, and on, and on. The few French purist breeders that stood against such widespread practices were silenced. And WAHO accepted these horses. What a shame. From now on, “Daughter of the Wind” will seek to escalate the debate on purity by featuring a regular series called “This is not an Arabian horse”, with the aim of “naming and shaming” those horses that should not even be called Arabians. Photo of Ba-Toustem courtesy of Pierre-Henri…
The new Al Khamsa website has a pedigree directory. Check it out.
Since the last couple posts have been about mares of the Shuwayman Sabbah strain bred by the Shammar, here is a quote from Lady Anne Blunt‘s “Bedouin tribes of the Euphrates” (p. 235) that had a lasting impression on me: “Faris’s own mare is a tall bay, Shuéymeh Sbàh, with a powerful shoulder, great girth, legs like iron, but a rather coarse hindquarter.” Also, in the same book, in an annex on strains (p. 439), under “Shueyman Sbàh”: “Faris, Sheykh of the Northern Shammar, has a mare of this breed. She is coarse, but of immense strength and courage, and when moving becomes handsome.” How true of Hakayah, the black Shuwaymah mare from Tai. Uninspiring when standing, magnificent when moving. Again, Hakayah’s g. g. granddam (I may be adding “g” or two) was a wedding gift from Nuri al-Jarba to the Shaykh of Tai. Nuri is son of Mah’al (Pasha) al-Jarba, who is son of Faris. The same Faris in the above quotes. Does it mean that Hakayah and her offspring trace directly to Faris’ war mare? There is no way to know for sure, but they certainly are from the same close family.
Just came across an interesting article from 2005 in the New Scientist: Irish researchers analyzing Y-chromosome sequences in the DNA of a sample representative of the 500,000 or so English Thoroughbred racehorses alive today found that 95% of these horses traced to a single horse in the tail male: the Darley Arabian, born in 1700 (who by the way, was a Ma’naghi from the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe, which makes this strain one of the oldest recorded). I wonder how many different sire lines a similar study could identify within the Arabian horse population…
Following the recent entry on the pretty black mare Shams al-Ghurub, and to Joe Ferriss recalling that he saw her dam Hakayah in 1996 in Syria, I am posting a picture of Hakayah that I took back in 1989. Hakayah was then with Ahmad (Abu Tahir) al-Ghalioun, who had leased her from her owner, the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai. I don’t remember anything about the foal at her side. Here is my partial translation to English of the Arabic hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of Hakayah, skipping the introductory religious blessings: “I, shaykh Mohammad al-Abd al-Razzaq al-Ta’i, testify, and my testimony is before God Most High, that the mare whose strain and marbat is Shuwaymat Sabbah and with the following description: [her] color [is] black, her age ten years old is from our horses, from the horses of the Tai, protected, without any impurities, her sire is the horse of Juhayyim, and he is Krush, and protected; the sire of her dam is the same horse, Krush Juhayyim, he is protected, and is from the horses of the Tai; the sire of her grand-dam is the horse of Juhayyim, al-Hayfi, and he is protected; She is well known and bred [by us] one generation after the…
Clue: bred at Craver Farms.. Photo taken by Majestic Lineage (nice nickname!) Mare’s strain is Ma’naghiyah Hudrujiyah of Ibn Sbayyil, or Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah.
Walladah CF is my Wisteria’s daughter by the stallion Javera Thadrian. She is now with Anita Enander in California. Walladah CF was named after a tenth century (A.D.) Andalusian princess, Walladah Bint al-Mustakfi, who was famous for her independent mind and her strong personality.
Shams al-Ghurub is a black-bay mare from Syria, born in 1987. Her strain is Shuwayman Sabbah. She was bred by the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai, Mohammad al-‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif near al-Qamishli in North Eastern Syria, from a strain that originally belonged to the Shaykhs of Shammar, the al-Jarba. The leading families of the two tribes intermarry frequently, and it was on the occasion of the marriage of one of the Tai princesses to Nuri al-Jarba that a Shuwaymah mare was given to the Tai Shaykhs. Shams al-Ghurub is one descendent of this mare. More on this particular strain in a subsequent entry. I took this picture in 1990 in Hims, Syria.
Horse bought by Michael el Haddad trip to Iraq 1901/ 1902 Koheilan Raschid :This was his first buy. 5 years .Height 1.61cm sire a Koheilan Moradi, Dam a Koheilat el Ajuz He was bought from Raschid Pasha Kaimmakam (governor) of the Holy city of El Najaf. He was agift from Ibn El Rashid the Shammari ruler of Hail so El Haddad named him Koheilan Raschid. He was bought for 150 gold pounds. Farha : 6 years Height 1.56cm Sire Saklawi x Dam Kuhailat el Ajuz Schechan Shammar 6 years chesnut Height 1.57cm Sire Koheilan Ajuz x Dam Scheha Djilfe Bought for 50 gold pounds Mares from Sheikh Nayef supreme Sheikh of the Shammar Em Tiur (meaning mother of the birds) this name was given to her for her speed..For 130 gold pounds.no further details given. Ayda: grey 3 years old bought for 125 gold pounds. Semrie :grey 5 years old.bought for 80 gold pounds. Hagyale (or the grouse) Bay mare taken in war from the Annaze .bought for 220 gold pounds .She became one of Babolna’s most beautiful mares. Hazem Pasha, the governor of Baghdad, horses. A deal was made Between the Governor and Haddad to buy as a”package…
Thanks Edouard, for posting that photo of Yalim. In 1974 we visited his owners the Andersons in Davison, Michigan. Actually I knew who they were well before my involvement with Arabians because they ran a music store near the city where I grew up. When we got involved with Arabians we made friends with some breeders nearby who were among the first to breed to Shaikh Al Badi and it got us curious about the Egyptian imports. In 1972 we visited the Jamisons and saw Shaikh Al Badi as a 3 year old and the youngsters, Bint Alaa El Din, Bint Magidaa, Bint Nabilahh, and Negmaa. We started attending shows in Michigan and saw some offspring of the new Egyptian horses which got our attention. We also saw all of the Lancer imports from Egypt that were in quarantine. I also started looking for other desert breeding that we could find to see in our general area. Someone nearby had a daughter of the Hearst import, *Mounwer, out of a Crabbet bred mare that went to see. A nice mare but grey, not chestnut like her sire. Good quality though, and excellent movements and disposition. Later we had seen the…
Since the past two entries have been about the Hearst import *Layya, I thought you’d enjoy this picture of Yalim (by *Ansata Ibn Halima x Zamayya, by *Zamal out of *Layya). Joe Ferriss has actually seen Zamayya, and I think he even has video footage of her.
Getting *Layya into the list of Al Khamsa Foundation Horses was not easy. There were a lot of rumors about the Hearst importation from the very beginning. Many people here in the USA, believed that H. Pharaon, who sold most of the horses to Hearst, was a crook, and that the horses were not Asil, but mongrels. These persistent rumors meant that the descendents of the 14 horses of the Hearst importation stayed out of the radar screen of the US purist breeding community for years. For instance, they never made it to Jane Ott’s Blue Arabian Horse Catalog (new website!). Skepticism about *Layya was not limited to US breeders. Some people in the Middle East wondered how Pharaon could have parted with such a precious mare. Also, people took it for granted that the Khamis family of Rayaq, Lebanon, who bred *Layya, would never sell a mare from their prized Shaykhan strain to Pharaon in the first place. Of course this is contradicted by the fact that George Khamis, who at one time was staying in the USA for health reasons, wrote the pedigree of *Layya in his own handwriting (I will ask if I can share a jpg of…
In 1947, American billionnaire and press magnate W.R. Hearst (of Hearst Castle fame) sent a party of several people, including his stud manager Preston Dyer, and the photographer J. Williamson, all around the Middle East in search of Arabian horses for his San Simeon stud. They toured Egypt, Arabia, Syria and ended up buying 14 horses from the racetrack of Beirut, Lebanon, most of them from Henri Pharaon. Pharaon was then president of the SPARCA (Societe Pour l’Amelioration de la Race Chevaline Arabe), which managed the Beirut racetrack. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs of the newly independent Republic of Lebanon (my home country). If you want to known more about the Hearst importation and its circumstances, check this article out. One of the horses Preston brought back to the USA was the grey mare *Layya, the subject of this entry and a couple others to come. According to papers given by *Layya’s Lebanese breeder Georges Khamis to Dick Skinner of the Hearst Stables, *Layya (which he writes Leah) was a “Shikeh” by strain, by the stallion “Kayan” out of the mare “Naileh”. Khamis’s handwritten pedigree of *Layya provides somes details about *Layya’s ancestors. All of these are Asil Arabians that lived in…