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”, “the year Ibrahim Pasha went back westwards”, “the year Saffuq Al Jarba was slain”. The latter event is mentioned on page 477: “In the year that Saffuq al Jarba was slain, a hamra mare came to us which had been captured by Musay’id, the son of my brother“. Using Ottoman archives, Wiliamson, in his “Political History of the Shammar tribe” dated the treacherous murder of Sfuq al-Jarba, leader of the Shammar, by the Ottomans to late October 1847: An Ottoman contingent under the leadership of Gange Agha left Baghdad in late October, 1847, and met Sufuq at his camp a few hours outside of the capital […]. Sufuq remained behind under the protection of his personal guard. Gange Agha, leader of the Ottoman troops, supposedly remained behind to assist Sufuq in the event of trouble. […] Gange Agha [now] had the opportunity to execute the…
كروش البيضا سلالة عريقة ترجع كحيلة العاجوز . اشتُهرتْ في نجد عند الدويش شيخ قبيلة مطير وعند ابن رشيد حاكم حائل انذاك وتحظى هذه السلالة بتقدير عالي عند البدو وقيل فيها الكثير من الأشعار. أمّا تاريخ هذه السلالة في نجد وشبه جزيرة العرب فهو معلوم وما يَهمّنا هو كروش في الجزيرة السورية ذكر الشيخ هاشم حمود الجربا أنّه بعد اعدام صفوگ الجربا 1847 م وابنه عبدالكريم صفوگ الجربا 1871 زمن الدولة العثمانية فرّت عمشة الحسين زوجة صفوگ بابنائها واحفادها وكانوا صغاراً أكبرهم فارس الصفوگ وقضوا بضعة سنين في حائل بضيافة ابن رشيد وعند عودتهم الى الجزيرة السورية أهداه ابن رشيد فرس من رسن كحيلة كروش البيضا وهذه الفرس أنسلت وتكاثرت عند ابناء فارس واحفاده وبالأخص عند علي العبدالرزاق ومنه انتقلت الى العبدالمحسن والعبدالكريم لأنه لم يكن له ذريّة من الذكورأمّا خيل العبدالمحسن أو ما يُعرف بكروشات العبدالمحسن فقام عليهن عيادة الگُرطة بعد انتقالهم من الريف الى المدينة وفي تسجيل منظمة الواهو تم قبول الخيل باسم عيادة الگُرطة وفي عام 1982 تُوفّي النوري الجربا وفي مجلس العزاء لمحَ جدوع السعدي مُهرة كروش دهماء فطلبها من راكان النوري فأعطاها إيّاه وبعد عِدّة سنوات أرسل راكان النوري الى جدوع السعدي فأخذَ مُهرة وبيعت ثلاث افراس إلى الداخل الأولى لقبها العرجة ذائعة الصيت وهي…
Lineages of desert-bred horses are surprisingly resilient. Each time I think a line is lost it seems to reappear somewhere else. I have been following the Shuwayman line of the Jarbah Shaykhs for three decades now. Many mares were lost during the Syrian civil war, and I feared the strain was lost. Yet a branch has survived with a branch of the Shaykhs of Tai in the Upper Jazirah. It is now helping regenerate that strain. It traces to that liver chestnut mare, born in 1986. Sire: a grey Saqlawi Jadran of the strain of Ibn ‘Amud, from the marbat of ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Talal al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shaykhs of Tai. His sire a Saqlawi Jadran Ibn ‘Amud of the same marbat. Sire of dam: a grey Saqlawi Jadran Ibn ‘Amud of Farhan al-Nayif al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shakyhs of Tai. His sire a Saqlawi Jadran Ibn Amud of ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Talal. His dam a grey Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah Ibn ‘Amud of Abd al-Hamid al-Talal. Sire of grand-dam: the black Marzaqani stallion of Al-‘Anud, the wife of Faris al-Abd al-Rahman of the Shaykhs of Tai. She had received him from the Maraziq as a colt. His sire I think the famous…
I came across the text of an administrative decision, dated April 30, 1921, signed by General Gouraud, French High Commissionner for Syria and Lebanon, and conferring upon Mashal Ibn Faris al-Jarba, Shaykh of the Shammar of Der Ezzor, the title of Pasha. I sent it to his grandson Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Mashal, Abu Nayif. He is my source of information for a lot of the horse-related information on the Jazirah today.
I am locked down here in South Africa. Wherever you are, there is a high chance you’re locked down too. I am busier than ever, though, as work and the rest surreptitiously blend into each other. At least I am lucky to still have a job, so I am counting my blessings. One good thing about the lockdown in my case is that I found some time to open a box of old horse photos. “Old” here means from the time you could hold a photo in your hands. I scanned a few of those. Here’s one for you. I took it one evening of August 1999 in Hama, Syria, at the farm of the late Fuad al-Azem “Abu Tamer”. It shows the old Shuwaymah Sabbah mare Al-Jawzaa, a grand and classy mare of the old desert type, from the breeding of Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal Basha al-Jarba, and from the old war line of these Sheykhs of the Northern Shammar. The mare was taken out of her stall and brought back in within minutes as the sun was setting and we had finished sipping coffee, just long enough for me to snap three photos. Unfortunately, neither photo does justice to…
From the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — page 546: “and we mated her a second time to the Hadban horse of Saffuq al Jarba, and he is of the horses of al Jaless of al Kawakibah” Elsewhere in the Manuscript it is recorded that the stud/marbat of Hadban Enzahi of the al-Kawakibah section of the Ruwalah belonged to Nahi al-Mushayteeb of al-Kawakibah, and that it was an old stud. Al-Mushayteeb obtained them from al-Nazahi of the ancient Bedouin tribe of al-Fudul. That Hadban stallion in the testimony was the great-grandfather of a horse that was three years old in the early 1850s. This means that in the 1830s or early 1840s at the very least, there was already a branch of the Hadban strain of the Kawakibah with the Jarba leaders of the Shammar, and that one of the horses of this Shammar branch of that Hadban strain was used as a stallion. Saffuq al-Jarba, nicknamed “al-muhazzam”, meaning “Saffuq of the belt” because he was so warlike that he reportedly never left his military gear, died in 1843. This is very consistent with the testimony of the Jarba leaders of the Shammar in the mid 1980s about their prized Hadban strain…
This is my translation of the hujjah of Mumtazah, the maternal and paternal grand-dam of the Kuhaylan Krush stallion Mokhtar, who is now in France with Chantal Chekroun and is already 27 years old. I am happy to see the number of his descendants increase every year. “I the undersigned ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, known as al-Qartah from the Faddaghah tribe of the Shammar al-Zawr, who now lives in the village of al-Taif, which is in the district of Tall Hamis in the province of al-Qamishli, I testify by God Most High, a testimony free from all self-interest, that the grey flea-bitten mare that is eighteen years old is Krush al-Bayda; she [i.e., her line] came to us directly from the Shaykh of the Shaykhs of the Shammar, Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin, approximately twenty years ago; her sire is Krush from the same marbat; and so are the sire of her dam, and the sire of her sire; her paternal uncles are from her maternal uncles [i.e., her sire and dam are closely related and so are their sires and dams] and no outside horse was introduced among them [i.e., the line was only bred to stallions from the same line]. And…
The desert-bred ‘Ubayyah Suhayliyah mare Reem al-‘Ud, bred by the Shammar tribe in northeastern Syria, also known as “the mare of Mattori” from one of her past Bedouin owners, was featured several times on this blog. Here is yet another photo of her in extreme old age, which shows well the black skin around her eyes. Her last owner was Sh. Mayzar al-‘Ajil al-‘Abd al-Karim al-Muhammad al-‘Abd al-Karim al-Jarba, a descendant of the great Shammar hero ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jarba known as “Abu Khudah”.
Recently, I wrote here about the little-known group of horses from the Hadban strain tracing to the desert-bred mare *Hadba, imported by Homer Davenport from Arabia in 1906. The hujjah (Arabic authentication certificate) of that mare is available, and I did a new translation of it, which appeared in the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III (2008). I am reproducing an updated, revised version of this translation here: We, who put our names and seals below, based on our honor, say that the bay mare whose has a stocking on her left hind leg and a star on her face, that her dam is a Hadbah to be mated and her sire is Shuwayman Sabbah, and the sire of her filly is Ma’naqi Sbayli; Abd al-Sakam Azraq took this mare from Hajj Ismail the Shaykh of Sfireh, and Hajj Ismail took her from ‘Ajil ibn Zaydan the Shaykh of Shammar, and for the sake of clarity, we have put our names and seals [below]. Written by: Abdessalam Azraq [seal] From the people of [the town of] Sfireh: Muhammad Nur [or Nadar or Thawr, unclear] [finger print] Ahmad al-Muhammad [seal] Mustapha al-Bdeiwi [seal] Hajj Ahmad al-Abdallah from the tribe of al-Fardun [seal] Ahmad Sarraj [seal] I swear by God…
Below is a translation of the Arabic language hujjah of the mare *Abeyah, imported by Homer Davenport from the Northern Arabian (i.e., Syrian) desert to the USA in 1906. It is adapted from the translation of this hujjah which I did in 2005 for the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III. The Al Khamsa Arabians III translation remains the one readers ought to refer to, because it is a word for word translation of the original Arabic, but the one below reads better in English: “I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which has a blaze on her face and two stockings on her hindlegs is a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, to be mated in the dark night, purer than milk; we only witness to what we know, and don’t withhold what is unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [seal of Faris al-Jarba follows] I testify by God that the witness referred to, Faris Pasha from the tribe of Shammar, is a just man and that his testimony is acceptable. Ahmad al-Hafez [seal of Ahmad al-Hafez follows]” I will be discussing this hujjah in detail in the comments section below, so when you…
Mustafa al-Jabri is a longtime Syrian breeder of desert Arabian horses from Aleppo, Syria, and a beloved family friend. Mustafa’s stud near Aleppo, which has up to 100 mares and two dozen stallions, is one of the most highly regarded studs in Syria. Over the past decades, Mustafa spent extensive amounts of time with Bedouins and those familiar with them, and collected a large compendium of stories, some in verse, some in prose about Arabian horse strains, Bedouin feats and deeds, and the relationship of Bedouins with their horses. Mustafa’s family is now working on putting these stories in writing in Arabic, for education and awareness raising purposes. Below is one of these story from Mustafa, which I translated from the original Arabic, and which Mustafa and his family graciously agreed to share: One day Dham al-Hadi al-Jarba the Shaykh of the Shammar tribe went hunting with one of the men from his tribe, a Bedouin known as Wati al-Ghishm (as an aside: Wati means lowly and vile, and it was a Bedouin habit to give their children rough or negatively connotated first names to draw the evil eye away from them ; they would keep positively connotated first names to…
Reader Chantal Chekroun of France just sent me these recent photos of her desert-bred stallion Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah), a 1987 black Kuhaylan al-Krush from the Shammar tribe in north-eastern Syria. This venerable horse has been regularly featured on this website, and for good reason. He is the epitomy of asil. Mokhtar is a Kuhaylan al-Krush, tracing to the marbat of the Sheykh Mayzar Abdul al-Muhsin al-Jarba, Shaykh of the Northern Shammar. This precious marbat goes back to the ‘white Krush’ of the leading Dawish clan of the Mutayr Bedouins, who are the most famous custodians of the strain. Mokhtar was bred by Ayadah al-Khalaf, known as al-Qartah, who took control of the marbat from Mayzar’s family, and bred the Krush horses to each other for two or three generations. Syrian breeder Basil Jadaan of Damascus acquired Mokhtar as a yearling in the late 1980s, and later bought his sire Awaad and his double grand-dam Mumtazah both in extreme old age. Mukhtar was a leading sire at Jadaan Arabians for several years, producing a number of influential sons and daughters such as Al-Qaherah, a black Shuwaymat Sabbah mare and the founder of a dynasty at Basil’s; Hayel, a black Saqlawi…
Before I move to discussing the two stallions just imported from Syria to France, and following the posting of Shahm’s photos a couple days ago, I want to share with you a couple pictures of the second stallion, Mahboob Halab, a 4 year old Shuwayman Sabbah from the marbat of the Jarbah leading family of the Shammar tribe. Both photos are courtesy of Jean-Claude Rajot, who owns Mahboob. The above one was just taken in France, and the one below in Syria, about 6 months ago, before the horse’s importation. Desert bred horses heavy on the blood of al-Aawar, the Hamdani ibn Ghurab stallion, are very slow to mature, according to Radwan Shabareq, al-Aawar’s last owner. They typically reach full maturity at 8 years old.
This mare is one of my all-time favorites. I had featured her earlier on this blog, here. Her name is Reem al-Oud [see correction below, actually this is Reem’s daughter Bint al-Oud], she is a Ubayyah Suhayliyah (a branch of the Sharrakiyah) from the tribe of Shammar in Syria. She is currently owned by Shaykh Mayzar al-Ajeel al-Abd al-Karim al-Jarba. Shaykh Mayzar is a direct descendant of the famous Shaykh ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jarba, who led a bloody rebellion against the Ottoman Turks. The Turks quelled the rebellion, hung ‘Abd al-Karim on a bridge in Mossul, Iraq, in 1874. They put his half-brother Farhan in charge of the Shammar in North Arabia. ‘Abd al-Karim’s mother, Amsheh al-Husayn (a daughter of Husayn al-Assaf, the Shaykh of Tayy) then fled North Arabia with her younger son, Faris, and sought refuge with Ibn Rashid, the ruler of Hail in Central Arabia, and the leader of the Shammar there. Years later, Lady Anne Blunt met both Amsheh and Faris. Faris became Wilfrid Blunt’s “blood brother”. Back to Reem al-Oud. She is from the marbat of Maskawi al-Ju’aydan al-Shammari, whose clan, al-Ju’aydan, breeds some of the best Ubayyan Suhayli horses among the Shammar. Maskawi’s father Madfaa…
In my opinion, *Abeyah was the best mare of the Davenport importation, and perhaps one of the best mares to come out of Arabia. She was certainly the best authenticated one. Look at my translation of her hujjah (also published in Al Khamsa Arabians III): I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which on her face has a blaze and on her two back legs has a stocking, [i.e.] she has two stockings on her hindlegs, that she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, [that she] is to be mated in the dark night, [that she] is purer than milk, and we only witness to what we know and do not keep [information] about the unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [Faris al-Jarba’s seal] A hujjah couldn’t get any better than this. Concise, to the point, and written and sealed by the supreme leader of the preeminent Bedouin horse-breeding tribe of Arabia Deserta: the Shammar al-Jazirah. In comparison, how many horses otherwise known to have been berd by the Aal Saud have Ibn Saud’s own seal on their hujjah? How many other imported mares have Faris al-Jarba’s seal? [I know of only another one: the…
A previous entry had discussed how the young children of Shammar Shaykh (and prominent Syrian politician) Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba lost the ownership of their father’s prestigious marbat of Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida strain upon the latter’s death (late 1960s? early 1970s?), and how the man Mayzar had entrusted with his assets took the horses for himself. That man was a Bedouin from the Faddaghah section of the Shammar tribe, by the name of ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, and was also known as al-Qartah. Al-Qartah bred Mayzar’s horses until the mid-1980s, continuing the practice of close inbreeding that Mayzar (and perhaps Mayzar’s father and grandfather before him) had been practising before. The grey Mumtazah was Iyadah al-Qartah’s main broodmare. Both her parents were bred by Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarbah, and all four grandparents were from the same Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida strain. It’s not clear whether Mumtazah was bred by ‘Iyadah al-Qartah, or whether she was taken by him from Mayzar’s estate as a foal. An impressive mare with a crested neck not unlike the Godolphin Arabian (see my picture of her in old age, below), Mumtazah produced the bay mare Doumah, also by a Kuhaylan al-Krush (maybe a full brother), and the grey…
As I put the final touches of the fourth and last entry of the feature on the Krush al-Baida strain, take a second look at the three previous entries on this precious strain, here, here, and here. Also, check out this account of a conversation about Krush al-Baida with Shaykh Faysal ibn Sattam ibn Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba. By the way, the Royal Stud of the Kingdom of Bahrain still retains a line from the Kuhaylan al-Krush strain, from the same branch as Krush al-Baida, “the White Krush”. Here is an exerpt from the Krush page of the Royal Stud’s website, followed by a picture of a Bahraini representative of this strain: “It is said by some that the original Krushieh mare came from the Muteyr tribe – and by others that the original came from the Al Rasheed, Amirs of Hail from 1835-1924. Yet everyone agrees that the strain has been in Bahrain since the 1850’s. This old family of Krush is perpetuated through the tail female line, and is predominantly of bay colour.” Note that the Krush al-Baida horses of the marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar tribe in Syria are from the very same fountainhead – that…
Since the last couple posts have been about mares of the Shuwayman Sabbah strain bred by the Shammar, here is a quote from Lady Anne Blunt‘s “Bedouin tribes of the Euphrates” (p. 235) that had a lasting impression on me: “Faris’s own mare is a tall bay, Shuéymeh Sbàh, with a powerful shoulder, great girth, legs like iron, but a rather coarse hindquarter.” Also, in the same book, in an annex on strains (p. 439), under “Shueyman Sbàh”: “Faris, Sheykh of the Northern Shammar, has a mare of this breed. She is coarse, but of immense strength and courage, and when moving becomes handsome.” How true of Hakayah, the black Shuwaymah mare from Tai. Uninspiring when standing, magnificent when moving. Again, Hakayah’s g. g. granddam (I may be adding “g” or two) was a wedding gift from Nuri al-Jarba to the Shaykh of Tai. Nuri is son of Mah’al (Pasha) al-Jarba, who is son of Faris. The same Faris in the above quotes. Does it mean that Hakayah and her offspring trace directly to Faris’ war mare? There is no way to know for sure, but they certainly are from the same close family.
Shams al-Ghurub is a black-bay mare from Syria, born in 1987. Her strain is Shuwayman Sabbah. She was bred by the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai, Mohammad al-‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif near al-Qamishli in North Eastern Syria, from a strain that originally belonged to the Shaykhs of Shammar, the al-Jarba. The leading families of the two tribes intermarry frequently, and it was on the occasion of the marriage of one of the Tai princesses to Nuri al-Jarba that a Shuwaymah mare was given to the Tai Shaykhs. Shams al-Ghurub is one descendent of this mare. More on this particular strain in a subsequent entry. I took this picture in 1990 in Hims, Syria.
One day in 2006, my friend Hazaim al-Wair and I, intrigued by the addition of “al-Baida” to the strain of many (not all) Kuhaylan al-Krush horses in the Syrian studbook, made a number of phone calls to inquire about the owner of the marbat of Krush al-Baida. All the roads led to one Shaykh of Shammar by the name of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba. Mayzar was a prominent and respected member of the Syrian parliament in the 1940s, where he was known to defend the interests and the causes of all Bedouin tribes, at a time when the lifestyle and economic conditions of the Bedouins were changing rapidly. Mayzar and his son Antar al-Mayzar were associated with nearly every one of the older horses from the Krush al-Baida strain that we could find in Volume I of the Syrian Studbook. We thought we’d start locating Mayzar’s descendants, and eventually located and telephoned a grandson of his, Faysal (ibn Sattam ibn Mayzar ibn ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba). Faysal told us that his branch of the family owned two separate marabit (pl. of marbat) of Kuhaylan al-Krush: an older marbat from the time of al-Sharif Barakat (a ruler of Mecca back in the sixteenth century A.D., at the time all Shammar was still in Najd), and a second, more recent marbat, straight from the al-Dawish head clan of the…
I took this pricture in 1996, on a horse trip outside Aleppo. These kids lived in the stables, among the horses their father cared for. What struck me is how the colt seemed to be one them, following them everywhere, and wanting to partake in their games. The colt is a Kuhaylan al-Krush, whose dam, a pretty black mare I had come to buy, was bred by Atallah al-Nassar al-Jarbah of the Shammar tribe. His sire was a Kuhaylan al-Sharif of the horses of Ibrahim al-Dawwas al-Saadi. The mare had come in foal from Iraq, which was then under a UN embargo, and people were selling their horses and other assets to feed their families. Both strains are signature Shammar strains, and very dear to their breeders. The owner did not want to sell the mare at the price we were offering (5,000 USD, a huge sum for a non-WAHO-registered horse). Maybe it was for the better, I thought. They would have hated to see their little friend go.
A headshot of the same Ma’naghiyah Hadrajiyah mare, whose name now escapes me. Her sire was a Kuhaylan al-Krush from Shammar, from the marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarbah. That marbat is known to trace to the “white Krush” of the Mutayr tribe. Kuhaylan al-Krush will be featured next in “the Strain of the Week” series.
This is Reem al-Oud, a desert bred Ubayyah Suhayliyah of the horses of Mayzar al-Ajil al-Abdul Karim al-Jarba of Shammar, and the number one on my top ten list of best Asil mares ever bred. A diamond in the rough.