This is Jalaa’, a young chestnut ‘Ubayyan Sharrak stallion at the Jabri stud farm in Aleppo. Jalaa is a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak of the marbat of Ibn Duwayhiss of the ‘Anazah. Thanks to Arnault for posting his pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com. Photo by G. Waiditschka. He is by the Shabareq-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion Tadmor (Al-Aawar x Holwah) out of the Jabri-bred mare Shareefah (Ihsan x Dalahem by Mahrous out of Nawal). Al-Aawar was featured here; Holwah here; Ihsan here; Mahrous here and Nawal here, all on this blog. Here is a full shot, also by by G. Waiditschka.
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…
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…