A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
Saudi historian of the ‘Anazah tribe ‘Abdallah ibn Duhaymish Ibn ‘Abbar al-Fad’aani, whose work I generally value, found a mention of the date of the mass migration of several ‘Anazah tribes from Central Arabia to the Syrian desert (North Arabia, which covers part of Syria and Iraq and Jordan today), in a contemporary Lebanese chronicle, … Read more
I have managed to trace back the strain of Ubayyan Abu Jurayss (Umm Jurayss for the females) to the ‘Utayfat (alt. spellings ‘Atayfat and ‘Otayfat), one of the main clans of the Wuld ‘Ali tribe of ‘Anazah. But I don’t know yet how they got to the Wuld ‘Ali and where from. In the below … Read more
Last week Kinza stepped on the leg of her newborn filly. The filly has been lame since, but the leg is no longer swollen and her situation is improving slowly, per Lyman Doyle who sent me these videos. The filly is otherwise very nice and Kinza looks really great for a four year old first-time … Read more
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), in its English translation, has nineteen mentions of a Bedouin community named “the people of the north”. These mentions are often associated with names of tribes that seem to form part of this “people of the north”, such as the tribes of al-Sirhan (pages 501, 508, 511), al-Sardiyah (page 311, … Read more
Lyman sent this picture of young Shamsah (Cascade DE x SS Lady Guenevere by SS Dark Prince). She is I think nine months old, and is growing into a very solid young mare.
The stallion Dahman (b. 1900) was one of the most admired horses ever imported by the French government from the Middle East. Robert Mauvy, who knew him well, wrote beautiful pages about Dahman and his influence on both the Arabian and Anglo-Arabian breed in his book Le Cheval Arabe. Mauvy held Dahman as the archetype … Read more
Kate found an interesting document the other day, which this entry reproduces and comments on. The document was published in the “Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale Zoologique D’Acclimatation“, a French scientific society founded in 1854 during the French Second Empire, under Napoleon III. Th document concerns the grey Arabian stallion “Bawab”, also known as “Aneze”, … Read more
Kate recently asked about how old the strain name of Ubayyan Suhayli was. In other words, when did the specific strain of Ubayyan Sharrak owned by al-Suhayli of the Shammar stopped being referred to as Ubayyan Sharrak and became known as Ubayyan Suhayli after its owners’ name. The earliest written reference to Ubayyan Suhayli I … Read more
روى الضابط الفرنسي فيكتور مولر رئيس الاستخبارات الفرنسية في البادية السورية في عهد الانتداب الفرنسي عن لسان مشل باشا الجربا أن العبية الشراكية التي درجت إلى شمر بكون شمر والشريف تفرعت إلى فرعين فرع عند عبدة شمر هدية من الشيخ فارس أبو مشل باشا إلى ابن ربيش من عبدة وكان هذا الخط موجودًا عند ابن … Read more
This morning Lyman Doyle broke the good news that Kinza Al Arab had foaled a filly by Bashir Al Dirri at the Doyle farm in Oregon. She will obviously be chestnut like both parents. She is Saqlawi Ibn Dirri to Basilisk on both sides of the pedigree, to Bushra (Azrek x Bozra) on the sire … Read more
From Lady Anne Blunt’s “A Pilgrimage to Najd” (1881): “To the present day in the North, the Anazeh distinguish the descendants of the mares brought with them from Nejd as “Nejdi” while they call the descendants of the mares captured from the tribes of the North, “Shimali” or Northerners.” and: “The Anazeh have disappeared from … Read more
I looked up the mentions of the Bedouin tribe of Bani Sakhr in the Journals of Lady Anne Blunt. There are five of them, ranked below in chronological order. [Saw at the Tahawis] One bay Abeyan el Khudr from a tribe near the Bani Sakkhr beyond the Hauran… [A Shaykh of the Samaritans told us] … Read more
Lady Anne made the following remarks in a letter to Spencer Borden dated January 26th, 1910: At last I can send my Crabbet Stud List for 1910. You will see that I have altered the order of it, which was a good deal of trouble. I have put Kehilans first because in fact every strain … Read more
عبيات العفاري رسن من الخيل العربية الأصيلة تختص به سوريا من جميع البلدان العربية ولقبت عبية العفاري بسوريا بطراحة الظبي وذلك كناية عن سرعتها بأنها تسبق الظباء وسميت عبية العفاري نسبةً الى العفاري الشمري الذي هاجر من نجد إلى الجزيرة السورية والعفاري من النمصان من الزميل من سنجاره من شمر ونخوته راعي العليا وزايد العفاري … Read more
As I have written before — sixteen years ago already — no Arabian horse strain is intrinsically above or better than the other. Lady Anne Blunt had it right when she wrote that her stud manager, Mutlaq al-Battal, a Mutayr Bedouin, never ceased to remind her that all were Kuhaylan, and all were asil. Any … Read more
Maria Wallis’ beautiful Operetta HBF (Student Prince x Idyl CF by Atticus), a Kuhaylah of Davenport bloodlines also foaled a filly by Pulcher Ibn Reshan at Debbie Mackie’s in Illinois. He’s had three nice foals this year so far, two fillies and Mayassa’s colt.
A preservation program that I watch closely is that of Carrie Slayton’s. Carrie has several nice Kuhaylan Haifi Davenports mares and a few non-Blunt horses, from a group that the late Carol Lyons identified, preserved a dubbed Sharps. Carrie had a handsome chestnut colt from breeding the bay Mohican CF (owned by Ambar Diaz) to … Read more
Last week also saw the birth of the first foal of my Mayassa Al Arab: a colt by Pulcher Ibn Reshan (ex Anecdote CF). Mayassa is on a breeding lease to Deb Mackie, and the colt hers. He is Kuhaylan Krush by strain.
It’s foaling and breeding season and a new crop of foals in on the ground. Belle, who went to Moira Walker in October 2022, had a lovely filly this year by Anecdote CF (aka Pulcher Ibn Reshan). Moira named her Landrace Bellara, in keeping with the B names for this family. The filly, who will … Read more
Bedouin testimonies in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) do not mention the calendar year an event took place. That’s because Bedouins, having an oral culture, did not record years the way people with a written culture did. Instead, the referred to major events that took place in the those years: “The year water was sold”, … Read more
The Najdi chronicler Ibn Bishr had this to say under the year 1229 Hijri (1814-15) the year of the death of the Wahhabi leader Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz: As to the number of agents he [Saud] would send to collect taxes in camels and sheep from the Bedouins of the Peninsula of the Arabs [living] … Read more
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) mentions many war episodes (manakh) between the Bedouin tribes, of which that of Al-Rudaymah (incorrectly spelled Al Radeemah in the Sherif-Forbis translation) was perhaps the most important. This was no regular ghazu, but more a set of pitched battles, during which many horses died or changed hands over three months. … Read more
Bunyan Fahd al-Dawsari, whose Facebook page I follow with great interest, posted these beautiful, smiling, sunny photos of desert life among the Dawasir Bedouins in 1969. The photos were probably taken by members of the archaeological mission excavating the major pre-Islamic site of Qaryat al-Faw, capital of the Central Arabian kingdom of Kinda, in the … Read more
Jeanne Craver shared a photo of the Davenport stallion *Muson which I had not seen before. I recall reading somewhere — forgetting the source now — that the breed in its original form displayed more distance between the back legs than between the front legs.
The strain of Kuhaylan Tamiri was one of the first strains the Sba’ah Bedouins chose to breed from. From Prince Mohammed Ali’s lists, based on notes taken by the agents of Abbas Pasha: “Says Murshid al-Nawwaq [of the Sba’ah]: The horses which were in our possession in Najd sometime ago have no parallel anywhere. When … Read more
The twin strains of Kuhaylan ‘Abhul and Kuhaylan Mu’abhil belong the Ruwalah and are named after men from this tribe. These strains are themselves branches of the better known Kuhaylan Tamiri. On the first, page 595: Orar al Honaydi al Sha’lani of the Ruwalah, upon being asked about the sire of a certain mare: “O … Read more
Arnault Decroix posted this photo of the Syrian stallion Nimr Shabareq on his Facebook page. He is standing him at stud in Normandy this yesr. I believe this stallion to be, despite some defects, the embodiment of the old desert type. I love his balance, and how the parts all fit together.
The digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) has allowed me to follow the tracks of particular horses as they changed hands from one Bedouin tribe to another. One of these horses is Saqlawi Al Araj (“the lame”), apparently a famous horse in the mid 1800s. A search of Al Araj in the APM … Read more
Arnault Decroix published this photo of the 1967 Arabian stallion Salam (Agres x Tosca by Fellous) on his social media accounts. Salam, who I saw during the 1994 WAHO conference in Rabat at the age of 27, was the head stallion for the Moroccan government. He struck me then as a very correct stallion with … Read more
The strain of the Kuhaylan al-Khdili (alt. spellings Hedili, Khadali, Khadli) is not well known outside Arabia. It is however one of the most esteemed and revered strains of Arabian horses. Connoisseurs speak of its authenticity (asalah) with awe and respect. Few horses of that strain made it to the West. One such horse is … Read more
I am featuring Thalia CF (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) on social media. She was one of the best I have owned. She was in my ownership between late 2015 and mid 2017. Sadly, she came in my life at the ripe age of 24 years old, after having had two foals for … Read more
Moira Walker took these photos of Reema CF (Trilogy x Fragrance CF by Regency CF), Debbie Mackie’s beautiful milky white mare, a Hamdaniyah of Davenport bloodlines, during the latest Al Khamsa get together in Illinois, which featured a long-awaited presentation by Jeanne Craver on strain.
Kate found another Western source citing early Arabian horse strains: Prince Hermann Puckler Muskau (1785-1871), in the 1830 . Kate did the research for this entry. “Amongst the thousand tribes that inhabit Arabia and the desert, almost every one has its race and its particular denominations, and, naturally, their opinion differs as to their value … Read more
A stunning aerial photo of the Syrian border town of al-Bu Kamal, on the Euphrates, before the river flows into Iraq. From the IFPO (French Institute for the Near East). The photo is dated March 6, 1936. The river to the left, the fertile plain, and the wide open desert, all the way to Iraq, … Read more
There are four references to the Mulawlish (also spelled Mulawlishan, Mlolshaan, Mlolshan, etc) strain in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM). Both occur in accounts by members of the Ibn Khalifah family of Bahrain, who were already using stallions from that strain by the early 1850s, and perhaps earlier on the Dahman mares. The first is … Read more
One of the Western travelers to write about Arabian horse strains was the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burkhardt. His Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys: Collected During His Travels in the East were only published in 1831, but were based on information collected in the Hijaz between 1814 and 1815. Burkhardt died in Cairo in 1817. His book … Read more
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), compiled around 1852, is the single most comprehensive — and perhaps the only — source of Bedouin accounts and stories about their Arabian, faithfully and painstakingly recorded by the envoys of Abbas Pasha. The unique value of the APM lies in the Bedouins being both the narrators and the protagonists … Read more
Another very rare Arabian horse strain is that of Rishan (feminine Rishah). The most common marbat is Rishan Shar’abi. I have developed a special interest in this strain over the years, because of the high quality of the individual representatives I have seen. A search for ”Rishan” in my digital Abbas Pasha Manuscript copy turned … Read more
Just sharing it here for easy reference, given my lease of a direct paternal grandson of Siglavy Bagdady VI (b. 1949), an Al Khamsa horse since 2009.
It is nice to repost this Crabbet video every ten years or so.
This photo of Subanet Jabbar SDA caught my attention on Bev Davison’s social media feed. She bred him and still owns him. He is the sire of my Kinza Al Arab. Note the depth of the jowls, the thickness of the tail bone and the width between the eyes. Also the flat bone and the … Read more
Balia (top) was an asil daughter of Kuhaylan Zaid, bred in 1936 at Babolna in Hungary. Bona (bottom), bred in 1937 was another daughter of his, from the same damline of Bent El Arab. Both later went to Poland.
Lyman pointed to me the similarity between my young stallion Shaman Al Arab and his multiple ancestor Julep (Gulastra x Aziza) Shaman has seven close crosses to Julep. Putting side by side the photo of Julep that was recently shared online, and the last good photo I have of Shaman at three years old in … Read more
A search for horses of the strain of Sa’dan (Sa’adan/Saadan) Tuqan in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, using two different spellings of the name, Tuqan and Tawqan, yielded three mentions, all pertaining to the same horse, which was owned by the Mutayr: The first is on page 439 and occurs in a testimony by Shafi ibn … Read more
This is a recent shot of Shaykh Al Arab, courtesy of Lyman Doyle whose father Terry owns him. Shaykh is four years old this spring, so he hasn’t fully developed yet. He will become drier and more refined as he ages, and will reach full maturity around eight or even nine years old. Here’s why: … Read more
Two years ago, Judi gave me a digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. It’s been a game changer to work with, because it allowed me to search for a specific person’s name, or for a particular strain, across multiple recorded accounts by Bedouin breeders over hundreds of pages. Not only does it save time, … Read more
I am very happy to have obtained the 2001 stallion Dahhmany Bagdady (two photos of him below, from a few years ago) on a permanent lease from his owner, through the good offices of his breeder Laszlo Kiraly. He arrived in France this past Friday, to Arnault Decroix’s stud farm, together with an older bay … Read more
Bev Davison recently posted these two photos of Bint Sierra SS (Parnell x Sierra Summersong), one of her previous mares. I had never seen photos of her before. She is of Babson and Doyle lines. She is the paternal granddam of Subanet Jabbar SDA, the sire of my Kinza. You can see the resemblance between … Read more
I am really liking how the new little filly is shaping up. She is beautiful, three circle, and solidly built. Too early too tell if she features some of the damline’s characteristic legginess and dryness, which I like. What is certain is that Monologue fixed the dam’s short and droopy croup, at least in part, … Read more
The superb Larabi, born in 1966 and a Jilfan Dhawi by strain, was together with the Shuwayman Sabbah stallion Guercif (b. 1961), one of the last asil stallions from Algeria. The small group of asil Arabians from the Algerian state stud of Tiaret were, in my opinion, the best in the world. As a group, … Read more
The article was written by Fouad Abaza, the Director-General of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt and a Governor of the Arab Horse Society of England. It includes a description by Doris Walter of her 1934 visit to Kafr Farouk, as well as a description of T.G.B. Trouncer’s Sidi Salem stud. There are a few … Read more
From time to time, I see nice photos posted on Facebook, which I feel deserve to be featured here. This is one of them. I don’t know the source or the photographer. That stare.. [Update: a cranky reader cited Ilo Battigelli as the photographer in the comments]
Very proud of the lastborn Al Arab filly. Both Monologue CF and Barakah Al Arab did a wonderful job there. Jeanne Craver said that the filly looked like a camel — in a good way. I so agree.
I saw Judi last week at a Pyramid Society even in Morocco, where she spoke about her long and successful career as a breeder, and asked me to speak about the consistency of Arabian horse type over the past 500 years, based on Western and (the very few) Arab first hand accounts. It was a … Read more
This precious photo of Julep (Gulastra x *Aziza by Gamil Manial) popped up on my Facebook feed this morning, posted by Julie Koch, who indicated that it was “a photo Joan Yerkie took of Julep at Cedardell Arabians in the 1960s”. It is dated Aug 1966. Julep is in at least three horses I have … Read more
The Hamdani Simri stallion Monologue CF (photos below, earlier and in 2022) has been producing extremely well over the years. His son Haykal Al Arab (x CSA Baroness Lady), now gelded, is perhaps the showiest colt I have bred so far (video below as a colt). My recollection from seeing Monologue’s other son Inaam Al … Read more
Jeanne Craver tells me that she “love[s] “the head shape, and the low set eye, nicely cut ears, very close coupling, love[s] the angles of the shoulder and hip”.
This was once one of the largest and nicest groups of Al Khamsa Arabians in North America.
This morning Barakah delivered a strong, healthy filly by Monologue CF. Mother and baby are doing well. I feel so blessed, and I pray things continue to go well. The vet is coming this afternoon for an IgG blood test and plasma transfusion. This filly is special because she is the first third-generation foal from … Read more
My friend Muhammad Ma’sum al-Agub recently acquired a promising young Saqlawi Marzakani stallion of Shammar lines. His sire is my black Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion Mushahhar, his dam is a daughter of Zayn al-Khayl. Notice the short back, the long hip, the sloped shoulder, the round barrel, the strong coupling, the long neck, and the (moderately) … Read more