Ruwalah Bedouins on the effect of linebreeding
Today I took — yet another — deep dive into the Saqlawi Marighi section in the Arabic version of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript as published by the KAPL from the original of Gulsun Sherif. What I like the most in the book are the snippets where Bedouins share their views on breeding and conformation. These are usually buried within accounts of how horses passed from person or tribe to another. As such there are not gathered in one place.
For example, here’s what al-Hudayri, a Bedouin from the Frijah clan of the Ruwalah, and otherwise a key source on the histories of the Saqlawi Jadran, Saqlawi Ubayri and Saqlawi Marighi strains, had to say about the impact of inbreeding Saqlawi Marighi mares to Saqlawi Marighi stallions on the size of their progeny:
Whether the body of the mares is large or small has to do with the stallions, because the mares were not “struck by” (i.e., bred to) other stallions, only [to ones] from within and among them, the strain to itself, so they became the medium-sized mares that you are seeing now; and it is common knowledge that the shape [of the mares] is from the stallions; so when the strain was bred to itself, the bodies became the same.
A couple observations here:
first, the belief that the scope of the body [al-jism] comes from the sire;
second, that not just the scope, but also the “shape” of the mare’s bodies [al-kasm] comes from the sire;
third, that linebreeding within the strain resulted in uniformity of shape.
fourth, that linebreeding within the Saqlawi Marighi strain resulted in a decrease in size, but also, implicitly, in an increase in quality (or else, they would not have done it). In another passage, another Ruwalah Bedouin, Faysal al-Sha’laan opined that the better Marighi mares in his view were the ones bred within their strain, and the lesser ones those bred to stallions from other strains like Kuhaylan and Habdan (with some exceptions he noted).
Grabbed the Sales List to see how many of the Marighi horses have sires from their own strain.
The answer is twelve, as far as I can work out, possibly more, depending on when the Marighi diverged from the Ubayri, as I am counting the horse of Jadib, brother of al-Mahyubi, as Marighi based on testimony from Prince Mohammed Ali, but al-Mahyubi as Ubayri, since that is what the APM calls him. All but two of the pure in strain Marighi were Or. Ar., probably because Ghadir was the favourite stallion in Abbas Pasha’s stud.
Details below on the breeding of the Or. Ar. Marighiyat in the sale list. Sires of the desertbred mares will be noted regardless of strain, to check how common pure in the strain breeding may have been for the Marighiyat.
Mare 43, the old Khadra mare of Al-Shabuwa, was sired by the horse of Jadib, the brother of al-Mahyubi. The sire of her son, the Ashhab Marighi, is not recorded. Her daughter, Mare 46, al-Duwaybah, was sired by the horse of Muhammad al-Marighi. Another daughter, Mare 47, that of Daghir, was sired by the horse of ‘Ata, the Marighi.
Mare 44 is a half sister to Mare 43, but by al-‘Ayyuf the Horse of Ibn Jazlah, a Saqlawi Jadran.
Mare 45, Sadhah, is another maternal half sister, this time by the ashqar Marighi.
Mare 46, al-Duwaybah, has no Or. Ar. offspring in the list, but her half sister Mare 47, that of Daghir, does. The first of them is Mare 48, Tumah, sired by Kuhaylan ‘Abhul; the second is Mare 55, that of Wayil, ‘Asabiyah, sired by Ibn Durbiyyah, a Saqlawi Jadran Ibn Sudan. Mare 55 had a daughter by a Hamdani Simri, who produced in turn a daughter by a Saqlawi of ‘Ubayd al-Bil’asi of the Frijah Ruwalah, the dam to Pharaoh and Meshura, as well as to Azrek’s dam, the latter by a Hadban.
Mare 49, of Tu’ayss of al-Bala’ees, was sired by the Saqlawi Marighi horse of Shafi Ibn Shu’ayl. Her dam was a daughter of al-Mahyubi; according to Prince Mohammed Ali her second dam was sired by the horse of Jadib a Saqlawi Marighi, and her third dam was sired by the horse of Basitah. Her sister, Mare 50, that of Jasir al-Haydhal, was sired by the ashqar Marighi; Prince Mohammed Ali says her sire was the chestnut horse of al-Shabuwa.
Interestingly, both mares had offspring by Marighi stallions at the stud. Mare 49 had a son by the Saqlawi Marighi of al-Hudayri, and Mare 50 a daughter by the Ashhab Marighi, who went to Weil.
Mare 51, that of ‘Awad, also known as the Mare of Mindil, was a sister to Mares 49 and 50, sired by the Marighi of ibn Shu’ayl. Her daughter, mare 52, that of Yahya al-Faliti, was sired by ‘Ubayyan Labdah.
Mare 53, that of Tahmaj, was sired by the ashqar Marighi. Mare 56, according to Prince Mohammed Ali, was sired by the chestnut Saqlawi of al-Shabuwa, her dam sired by al-Mahyubi, and her second dam by a Saqlawi Mudayri.
So, of maybe twenty-one Or. Ar. Marighiyat mentioned (assuming, possibly incorrectly, that there is no overlap in pedigrees unless indicated), six were definitely sired by stallions not from their strain and ten by stallions of their strain (including two by the horse of Jadib). Of the remainder, two were sired by al-Mahyubi, one by a Saqlawi of ‘Ubayd al-Bil’asi, one by the horse of Basitah, and one by a Saqlawi Mudayri.
The data is a bit muddy, as I think al-Mahyubi and the horse of Jadib are maternal half brothers, even though one is given the strain Ubayri and one Marighi, so depending on how they are classified, pure in strain breeding may range from just over half (57%) of the Or. Ar. Marighiyat in the sales list to less than half (38%). At any rate, the current ratio suggests that Marighi stallions were used more frequently than horses from any other individual sub-strain on Marighyat mares, and adds to the evidence of linebreeding for this strain.
Also, of interest to me is your fourth point: “that linebreeding within the Saqlawi Marighi strain resulted in a decrease in size, but also, implicitly, in an increase in quality”.
RJ Cadranell’s article, Basilisk Defended, says:
“The Crabbet herdbook, which has a more complete account than either published stud book, says that her dam was a white mare
‘stolen by Faris Assaat from the desert. Neddi ibn ed Derri had sold the mare on shares to an Abadat (Sebaa Anazeh) and it was from him that she was stolen. Sire said to be a bay Seglawi of same strain. Faris Assaat sold the dam to Abd el Jadir of Deyr on the Euphrates in whose possession Basilisk was foaled.'”
Basilisk, according to the information in the Crabbet herdbook, was possibly a linebred Marighiyat, then.
Further on in Basilisk Defended, RJ describes her:
“BASILISK was a small mare, standing 14.1 hands. Lady Anne Blunt described her as having ‘wiry legs… not large below the knee’ and a ‘good head and small muzzle.’ Lady Anne Blunt commented that BASILISK had ‘something of the compact wiriness of a wild animal.’ BASILISK was likely fine-skinned; through her coat were visible some patches of pink skin. Grey horses with fine skin frequently exhibit some loss of pigment. Small as she was, Michael Bowling has noted that BASILISK ‘seems to have bred still smaller, since BOZRA and BUSHRA were both noted as standing 14 hands even’ (see CMK Record V/3).”
It really is tempting to match that description with al-Hudayri’s statement that the linebred Marighiyat “became the medium-sized mares that you are seeing now”.
ok, a couple observations here, since I spent part of yesterday afternoon digging deep into the Saqlawi Marighi chapter of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript:
1/ The Horse of Jadib and his maternal half brother Al-Mahyubi (sometimes both called “the two horses of Jadib”), are both out of the Mare of Jadib who is from the main Saqlawi Ubayri trunk before the Marighi line branched off of it — ie before Muhammad al-Marighi acquired his Saqlawi Ubayri mare and started a new branch.
2/ Ditto for the horse of Bassitah, another Saqlawi Ubayri in the main branch.
3/ By extension, all three horses above sometimes came to be referred to as Marighi, because the fame of the branch overtook that of the main trunk.
4/ The Saqlawi Marighi Ubayri of Ubayd al-Bila’si, maternal grandsire of Meshura in her hujjah, is likely connected to the “Mare of Ubayd”, a mare mentioned in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript as possibly being a Marighi mare (the agent of Abbas did not have enough information about her to verify this).
5/ Faysal al-Sha’lan, in the APM, ranked the S. Marighi mares (including all the mares you listed in your comments) in three categories: superior, medium, and lesser, depending on whether they were bred within the strain or not. He is however careful to say that all are dear and precious. Those who were by Kuhaylan or Hadban stallions were not in the superior category. Those who were by Saqlawi stallions but out of dams by Kuhaylan or Hadbdan were also not in the superior category. Interestingly, some who were bred within the strain were also not in the superior category, because their sire was not believed to have produced good offspring.
Re point one, can’t decide if that makes Marighiyah mares sired by the horse of Jadib and al-Mahyubi bred within the strain or not, because the split presumably happened in their lifetime? To me, technically, that would be breeding within the strain. Were the Ubayri being linebred as well?
Re point three, does Faysal al-Sha’lan name specific mares as superior, medium or lesser?
Yes, within the strain also applies to Saqlawi Jadran Ibn Sudan and Saqlawi Jadran al-‘Abd. See how the daughters of these stallions make it into the “superior grade” which the daughters of Kuhaylan, Ubayyan and Hadban stallions are downgraded.
Thank you. So … would breeding within the strain, for any strain, simply refer to horses of the same strain, regardless of sub-strain? If so, it allows a lot more flexibility and diversity than breeding within the substrain only.
I don’t know. To be honest, this preference for breeding within the strain seems to reflect more a preference to breed to their own stallions (ie the SJ and SU/SM of the Frijah section) whom they knew and liked over the horses of outsiders. It does not look to me as an outright preference for within-the-strain breeding regardless of the strain, for the intrinsic merits of within the strain breeding. They did recongize that linebreeding resulted in smaller horses. Also, Abbas, who was close to the Ruwalah, did not follow it as you know, and breed Saqlawi to Dahman and visa versa.
Ok, yes, that first part of the quote in your comment below from Faysal – “These are the dearest Marighiyat, because their sires are known to us” – definitely supports that.
Kate following up on your classification. On the ordering of the Marighi mares by Faysal al-Sha’laan in three grades: “superior, medium, and lesser”, “despite being the descendants of a single mare to begin with”:
Superior grade:
1- The “Old Yellow Mare of al-Shabuwa” [Mare 43 in our book]. Sire the horse of Jadib a S. Ubayri.
2- a daughter of 1, “Al-Duwaybah” [Mare 46], no sire recorded, implied to be a Saqlawi of her strain.
3- a daughter of 1, “The Mare of Daghir” [Mare 47]. Sire the horse of Ibn ‘Ata, a S. Marighi.
4- a daughter of 3, “The Mare of al-Duway’ani”. Sire a S. J. of Ibn Sudan
5- a daughter of 3 “The Mare of Wa’il” [Mare 55]. Sire Ibn Durbiyyah a S.J.
6- a sister of 1, “The shaqra mare of al-Hudayri [Mare 45]. Sire the ashqar Marighi of her strain.
7 – “The mare of Mandil”, a.k.a the “mare of ‘Awad ibn Dahi” [Mare 51]. Sire the S. Marighi of Ibn Shu’ayl.
8 – a sister of 7, “The mare of Jasir al-Haydal [Mare 50]. Sire the ashqar Marighi
9 – a sister of 7, “The mare of Tu’ayss”. Sire the S. Marighi of Ibn Shu’ayl.
Says Faysal on why he considers these “superior”: “These are the dearest Marighiyat, because their sires are known to us and their offspring [ie, of their sires] are turning out to be good and blessed.”
Medium grade:
10 – a sister of 1 and 6 above, “The shaqra mare of al-Shabuwa”, [Mare 44]. Sire the S. Marighi of Ibn Jazlah
11 – a daughter of 10, “The Mare of Nuwaydis”. Sire a Saqlawi al-Abd.
Says Faysal on why he considers these two “medium” (despite them being bred within the strain): “They are medium […] because the sire of the shaqra [of al-Shabuwa] is the horse of Ibn Jazlah. Despite being a Marighi and one of them, his offspring turned out not to be good”.
12 – a daughter of 3, “The daughter of the Mare of Daghir”. Sire a Kuhaylah ‘Abhul.
13 – the filly of al-Hudayri (not listed in our book, but probably a daughter of Mare 45, the Mare of al-Hudayri, by a non-Saqlawi stallion)
14 – “The mare of Tahmaj” [Mare 53]. Sire the ashqar Marighi, but sire of dam a Hadban al-Mahdi.
15 – a full sister of 14, “The Mare of Jabal’. Sire the ashqar Marighi, but sire of dam a Hadban al-Mahdi.
16 – a daughter of 7, “The Mare of al-Faliti” [Mare 52]. Sire an Ubayyan Libdah
Says Faysal on why he considers these “medium”: “Because their sires are different, unlike the other ones which are Saqlawi to Saqlawi”.
Lesser grade:
17 – The “Mare of Bunyan” (dam of 14 and 15). Sire a Hadban al-Mahdi.
18 – The “Mare of Ibn Munir” [Mare 56]. Sire not recorded but probably a non-Saqlawi stallion
19 – The “Mare of al-Mujfi” [Mare 54]. Sire not recorded but probably a non-Saqlawi stallion.
Says Faysal on why he considers these “lesser”: “Also because of their sires, with respect to the dearest ones of their marbat (ie the superior ones), they are lesser (or beneath)”
Then, as a good representative of the financial interests of his tribe, Shaykh Faysal concluded: “That said, all them of are from the marbat of al-Marighi, and all their male offspring are to be mated, there is no issue with them, and all are dear”.
Thank you, this is very clear and detailed, and answers all my questions!
I did have a good giggle at your concluding paragraph.
Lol. So nice to see ‘written’ confirmation of ‘strain’ breeding rather than ‘just’ the oral info from my KSA bedu descendent friends. We sure took some flack about practicing strain breeding over the years.