The wonderful Dahhmany Bagdady, one of the last representatives of the old, prepotent Babolna/Weil type of royal Arabian horse. He is 23 years old this year. The famed and storied tail male to Siglavy Bagdady exists through him and his few offspring, a handful of stallions scattered across Europe. I am so proud that he is in my care.
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 mare Laszlo also gave me. More on her later. I will share pictures of both soon. Dahhmany Badgdady, born in 2001, is the only asil son of the 1977 Sweden-born stallion Wahhabit. He has at least three breeding age sons across Europe, in Hungary, Switzerland and Lithuania. His sire Wahhabit had the distinction of being the only asil son of the 1949 (!) Babolna stallion Siglavy Bagdady VI (photos below). Wahhabit’s dam was a Kuhaylan Krush from the line of the Davenport mare *Werdi. Notice the resemblance between the grandson Dahhmany Bagdady (first photo on this page) and the grandfather Siglavy Bagdady VI (the photo just above). Siglavy Bagdady VI was the son of Siglavy Bagdady V (b. 1939), also a head stallion at Babolna, out of a daughter of Kuhaylan Haifi I (himself the son the famous desert-bred tallion Kuhaylan Haifi). Two photos SB…
The photo below shows 20 Farag, a daughter of the EAO import Farag, out of the mare 25 Amurath Sahib. Her dam was herself a granddaughter of the desert-bred stallion Kuhaylan Zaid, imported by Carl Raswan and Bogdan Zientarski for Bábolna on the same trip that they bought Kuhaylan Haifi and Kuhaylan Afas for Prince Roman Sanguszko’s Gumniska stud in Poland. Photo by Betty Finke, purchased from In The Focus. 20 Farag is tail-female to the mare Adjuse (60 Adjuze in the Al Khamsa roster), imported to Bábolna in 1885 by Fadlallah al-Haddad, along with the stallions Koheilan Adjuze and O’Bajan (both of whom feature in 25 Amurath Sahib’s pedigree). Foaled in 1876, Adjuse was a grey mare (Wrangel calls her forellenschimmel, “trout grey”), sired by a Koheilan Adjuse and out of a mare listed as Scheha; she stood 157cm tall, or just shy of 15.2. 20 Farag’s granddam 221 Kuhaylan Zaid was caught up in the Second World War, and it is by a small miracle that she survived to produce 25 Amurath Sahib. She was one of four daughters of Kuhaylan Zaid who landed up in the vaccine-manufacturing Behring Plant, Marburg, Germany, and who were subsequently exchanged for…
Below are photos of three Bábolna horses, from the 1896 Berättelse till Landtbruksstyrelsen öfver en år 1893-94 med statsunderstöd företagen resa i utlandet för studier i husdjursafvel. O’Bajan, above, was one of the four stallions acquired for Bábolna by General Fadlallah Mikhail el-Haddad in 1885. Erika Schiele, The Arab Horse in Europe, says of him: [He was] one of the most valuable stallions ever to come to Hungary. He covered mares at Bábolna for twenty-five years, until his death in 1910. Of his 312 foals, 112 stood at stud, and fifty-six became brood mares. At the World Exhibition in Paris of 1900, one of his sons won a first prize for pure-bred Arabs against competition from Russia, England, Constantinople, and even Aleppo. He lies buried under a two-hundred-year-old acacia tree in the stable-yard. In the photos below, the black stallion Jussuf is actually Jussuf I, the 1890 son of Jussuf and Bent-El-Arab, making him a full brother to the 1888 mare 46-Jussuf. Bent-El-Arab, imported on the same expedition as O’Bajan by Fadlallah el-Haddad, has died out in tail female descent at Bábolna, but still survives in Polish breeding, as the mares 233 Kuhailan Zaid-13 and 22 Kuhailan Zaid-1 were rescued from…
Laszlo Kiraly sent me this head shot of the Babolna mare 25 Amurath Sahib, from the last asil female line from Babolna. The photo was never published before Laszlo’s recent article in the Khamsat magazine about the asil lines of Babolna.
This asil 1977 stallion, Wahhabit, is by Siglavy Bagdady VI, a Babolna stallion, out of Delicate Air (Laertes x June), a Davenport mare. I had not seen this picture before.
The book from these pictures were taken was published in the Hungarian language in 1904. It was translated into Arabic language in 2004 by Mr. Tha’er Saleh with the support of the Hungarian Translation Fund. The original photos are at the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture in Budapest. The book is about the travels of Austro-Hungarian government envoy Fadlallah Mikhail el-Haddad to the Arabian desert, a few years before the trip of Homer Davenport. The purpose of the trip of Mikhail el-Haddad to Ottoman Iraq (Mesopotamia) was apparently to access alternative sources of desert blood to the ‘Anazah blooflines, which the Austro-Hungarians already had access to. His trip first followed the Damascus-Palmyra-Deir-ez-Zor axis, then the Euphrates valley to down to Fallujah and Baghdad. From there, Haddad went along a large circular route south of Bagdad, which included Najaf, Kerbala, the ‘Amarat Bedouin (a branch of the ‘Anazah) pastures and then crossed the Euphrates river eastwards until he reached the Tigris river. From top to bottom, and left to right: Photo 1: In Tell Kalakh, which is west of the city of Homs in Syria, with Abdallah Agha al-Dandashi from whom the stallion O’Bajan was bought in 1885; photo 2: with some…
Jeanne Craver just sent me this other photo of the desert-bred mare 214 Scherife (Cherife), the Shammar-bred Kuhaylat al-Sharif, which was imported by Fadlallah al-Haddad to the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1903. She actually very much looks like the the Kuhaylat al-Sharif of Ibrahim Dawwas al-Saadi, who was registered in the first Syrian Studbook as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz. It would be interesting to do a mtDNA analysis of the descendants of these two mares.
Another picture from the 1903 issue of “Sport Universel Illustre”, also sent by Adrien Deblaise, shows the Hungarian desert-bred import Cherife, from the same importation as Hagayle below. No further information. Perhaps RJ or Laszlo know more.
Laszlo Kiraly of Hungary has two colts this year, both sired by his stallion Dahhmany Bagdady (Wahhabit X Tisrina B by Salaa El Dine): the first, Shahhran Bagdady (below) was born on 5th of March, out of the Wahhabit daughter Shahhra (Wahhabit x 225 Sheherazade B by Ibn Galal III). The second, Sulayman Bagdady is out of the Farag II daughter Soraya B (Farag II x 204 Ghalion) and was born on the 10th of April. Both colts are from the Kuhaylah al-Shaykhah line of 60-Adjuse, and combine old Babolna, Egyptian and Davenport bloodlines. Laszlo says little Sulayman moves like a dancer.
This entry expands the list to non-Straight Egyptian asil tail females in the USA to lines surviving in Europe and South Africa. It ties together several other blog entries that preceded it. So in Europe, and also excluding relatively recent Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan, Bahraini, Syrian and Saudi imports to European countries, you have the lines of : Kuhaylan: 1) 60-Adjuse, Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah (a branch of K. al-‘Ajuz), imported to Hungary in 1885, with female descendants only through 25-Amurath Sahib, from the Sba’ah (Anazah) Hamdani: 2) Sobha, Hamdaniyah Simriyah, imported to the UK in 1891, a handful asil descendants in Austria now. No Strain recorded: 3) Murana I, imported to what is now Germany in 1816, female descendants through Soldateska only, mainly in Germany. All three lines are accepted by Al Khamsa, including n. 2, which has lines to the Courthouse desert-bred stallions Nimr, and Fedaan, who were accepted by Al Khamsa in 1987.
This young fellow is the latest member of one of my favorite asil Arabian lines from around the world, that of 25 Amurath Sahib, from Hungary. He is by Laszlo Kiraly’s stallion, Dahhmany Bagdady (Wahhabit x Tisrina B) out of Laszlo’s Sarife B (El Thay Mameluk x 205 Farag II).
This morning Laszlo Kiraly of Hungary sent me this picture of his young Sahara (Sabek ibn Saher x Shahhra by Wahhabit), a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz that combines some of the best asil bloodlines from the world over: Her sire Sabek ibn Saher (picture bel0w), from the German Government Stud of Marbach, has not one but two close lines to Soldateska (1911), and so plenty of that precious old Weil blood of Ghadir, Amurath 1881, and Tajar. Her grand-sire Wahhabit (Siglavy Bagdady VI x Delicate Air by Laertes) is half Davenport bloodlines from his dam and half old Babolna bloodlines from his sire Siglavy Bagdady VI (Siglavy Bagdady V x 250-Kuhailan Haifi I), which is a unique combination. He brings in the equally precious blood of Kuhaylan Haifi and Kuhaylan Zaid. Her grand dam 225 Sheherazade B (Ibn Galal III x 220 Ibn Galal I) brings in the tail female to the Babolna asil mare 25-Amurath Sabib, as well as the Egyptian lines to Hanan that Dr. Hans Nagel breeds. Laszlo, can you find a good stallion from Syria or Saudi Arabia to breed to her?
Hurrah! The Babolna Roster proposal unanimously (41 – 0) passed the second round of voting during the Al Khamsa assembly in Redmond, Oregon. This means, among other things, that the living descendants of the mare 25-Amurath Sahib and the stallion Siglavy Bagdady VI are now accepted by Al Khamsa, following a thorough research process. Below is a photo of the Babolna head stallion Farag II (Farag x 25-Amurath Sahib), courtesy of Tzviah Idan. To me, this marks the second step towards constituting an international Roster of asil Arabians horses, based on the Al Khamsa Roster. The first step was taken when Al Khamsa accepted the line of Soldateska (1911), the one remaining asil line from the Weil-Marbach stud in Germany, a few years ago.
These an interesting dicussion currently going on on this blog, about whether this horse here is indeed Siglavy Bagdady VI (Siglavy Bagdady V x 250 Kuhailan Haifi I). In this context, here two more pictures of that asil Babolna stallion from Laszlo Kiraly of Hungary. The picture above distinctly shows the pink lips on the right side of the horse’s muzzle. In the photo below, there is much less pink on the left side of the lips, from what I can distinguish.
[August 10, 2009 correction: The uplaoding of the picture below elicited a discussion between Laszlo Kiraly and RJ Cadranell, as a result of which the horse in the picture was identified as the non-asil Babolna stallion Koheilan XI (Koheilan X x 242 Kuhailan Zaid), a stallion with a distant line to the English Thoroughbred mare 30-Maria. Apologies to the readers for this mistkae. Edouard] The discussion on asil Arabian facial features expands as more and more readers and contributors send pictures of beautiful profiles without the prominent ‘dish’ now so common in show horses. Laszlo Kiraly of Pecs, Hungary, sent me this stunning photo of the asil Babolna stallion Siglavy Bagdady VI (Siglavy Bagdady V. – 250 Kuhaylan Haifi I), taken in 1967. Laszlo tells me it reminds him of Bahrain’s horses’ heads. It also reminds me of some of the best Lebanese horses of the olden days; and of the best desert breds from Syria; and the Saudi Arabian horses; and some many Tunisian horses; and of the Egyptian horses before most of them became show toys. All these are one and the same horse. Look at this picture and look well. There are not many horses like this…
This is a rarely seen picture of the very pretty asil Babolna mare 25-Amurath Sahib (Amurah Sahib x 221 Kuhaylan Zaid, by Kuhaylan Zaid), courtesy of Jeanne Craver. The blood of legends like Kuhaylan Zaid, Siglavy Bagdady, Kuhaylan IV, Amurath 1881, Jussuf, Tajar, and Ghadir, to name but a few, flows in the veins of this mare and her living descendents, who are “living history” as far as the Arabian horse (in its asil and non-asil forms) is concerned. I am never tired of repeating that the blood of the descendents of this mare constitutes one of the last hopes for an outcross to the heavily inbred European asil bloodlines.
The horses of Tzviah Idan are now on Facebook. One link includes horses of Egyptian bloodlines that Tzviah imported from Babolna, and the other is a link to their progeny. Tzviah, I like them all, and feel that you’ve been doing an outstanding job, but I can’t help feel that there is something extra special about Hila B and her progeny. PS — social networking sites are all over now. I never thought I’d be linking to Facebook on an desert Arabian horse blog..
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.