Strain rankings in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript
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 ranking of strains is inherently subjective, and a matter of personal preference.
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript’s foreword (J. Forbis and G. Sherif), usually attributed to his agent Ali al-Darwish but which could well have reflected the personal preferences of Abbas Pasha himself, starts with a short paragraph “On the Classification of Horses“:
I say about classifying the lineage of Arabian horses, the first to take precedence is Duhayman Shahwan of the Kunayhir strain and Duhaym al Najib. Second is Kuhaylan Mimreh. After that Saqlawi Jedrani, which is divided into three sections: the dearest and most precious is the family of Al Samniyat, then the family of Al Sudaniyat, and third is the family of Al ‘Abd. After that is Saqlawi al Obeyri and Marighi, both from the same family.
After that Hadban al Nazhi, which includes six families […]. After these Kuhaylan al Tamiri, then Shuwayman al Sabbah, Hamdani Simr al Khales, ‘Abeyyan Sherrak, Rabdan Khoshaybi, Kuhaylan om ‘Arqub Shuwayha and then Kuhaylan om Janoub.
Besides those abovementioned strains of the horses belonging to the Arabs, no others are to be mated. And I say, although the Saqlawi is the most preferred, I prefer Duhayman Shahwan of the family of Kunayhir and Duhaym al Najib, and Kuhaylan al Mimreh. Therefore, I have arranged the classification in the order of what I consider the best.
Two interesting facts here: first, how Saqlawi al-Abd is clearly a branch of Saqlawi Jadran (cf. the hujjah of the Davenport imported mare *Urfah, which says she is Saqlawi al-Abd, and Homer Davenport saying that she was Saqlawi Jadran); second, how Saqlawi al Obeyri and Marighi are ” both from the same family.”
It’s interesting re the preference for Duhayman and K. Mimreh expressed in this passage, when what remained at the stud come Ilhami’s death showed an apparent (and marked) preference for Saqlawi stallions as sires. I would so love to know what Abbas Pasha books Lady Anne Blunt saw (J&C p. 346):
“They contain exact lists of all mares and stallions Abbas Pasha possessed. He had begun to collect years before coming to the throne, in 1260 Hejira he had already 40 mares and 16 stallions, in 1268 he has 133 mares. It is written in which stables they were kept – these were Abbassieh, and Khazin (query where) etc. Also in another book the history of each mare bought, there seemed to me countless various Kehilan strains, among which Rodan prominent.”
The book with the history of each mare is presumably the APM, but the first one sounds like nothing we have so far, and might have evidence changing the picture in the sales list of breeding at the stud.
the first book is his stud book.