A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
The photo below comes from the Imperial War Museum’s Ministry of Information Second World War Collection. The description from the Imperial War Museum’s page reads as follows: CONTINGENT ARRIVES IN ENGLAND FOR VICTORY PARADE, LIVERPOOL, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, UK, 1946 (D 27677) Sergeant Major Mahmoud Zahaire of the Trans Jordan Frontier Forces tends to the two … Read more
Rehan Ud Din Baber has this amazing Facebook page where he displays dozens of pictures of desert Arabian horses in their original environment. Most of the photos are from the US Library of Congress Digital Archives. My absolute favorite is this photo of the  mare of Emir Abdullah of Transjordan. The photo, taken by John D. Whiting, has … Read more
If you have a Facebook account, click here and take a look at this wonderful slideshow of photographs of the Jordanian Majali Bedouins in the 1940s, taken by Australian photographers Frank Hurley. Wow. Only the Raswan photo collection comes close to the beauty of these pictures. Link shared by Majid al-Sayigh. Let me know if … Read more
Photo taken when the horse was more than 30 years old, and covered with scars from battles. Gleaned off the internet. Not sure in which book, magazine or article it was originally taken from. This is how the horses of Arab kings looked like, not like these show….. well, you know what I am going … Read more
Here’s an interesting and well-referenced analysis on the social transformations of Bedouin society in Jordan spanning 150 years from the middle of the XIXth society until today, from Rami Zurayk’a blog Land and People. Rami teaches at the Faculty of Agriculture of the American University of Beirut (my alma mater).
Beshier El Ashkar and Badria, the two Arabian horses known in modern Egyptian pedigrees as the Bisharat horses, are some of the least documented Arabians to have joined the Al Khamsa Roster of Arabian horses (in 1995, I think). Â There was another mare, Ward, from the same source, but she did not leave any modern … Read more
Click here for an informative article on the Jordanian Bisharat family, by one of its scions, George Bisharat, a professor of law at Hastings College in San Francisco. The article appeared in a political journal, and is not concerned with Arabian horses but it nonetheless offers interesting background information about the Bisharat family, which may … Read more
Louis Bauduin just sent me this older photo of the masculine stallion Jazour, a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, by Saadi out of Izarra. Jazour was bred in France by Robert Mauvy, and reflects a blend of Tunisian and Algerian breeding.  Too bad Izarra, bred by Admiral Cordonnier at Sidi Bou Hadid in Tunisia, never left a female line. … Read more
This magnificent white stallion is not a show horse but a desert bred stallion that took part in a halter competition organized in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His name is Ruzayq, and he was sired by Haleem, a Hamdani. Ruzayq stands at the Saudi government stud in Dirab. He traces to Saqlawi mares bred by the … Read more