A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
كحيلة الخِدلي أو الِخدلية .. يعدّها العوارف من أصايل الخيل العراب هي أساسًا كحيلة عجوز مربَطها الى عشيرة الخِديلات من الخرصة من الفدعان من عنزة فعرفت باسمها (ولست أدري من أين درجت على هذه العشيرة قبل ذلك) وكانت كل قبائل البدو تشبّي كحيلان الخِدلي على خيلها وخير دليل على ذلك ذِكر كتاب “أصول الخيل” (1850م) … Read more
The strain of the Kuhaylan al-Khdili (alt. spellings Hedili, Khadali, Khadli) is not well known outside Arabia. It is however one of the most esteemed and revered strains of Arabian horses. Connoisseurs speak of its authenticity (asalah) with awe and respect. Few horses of that strain made it to the West. One such horse is … Read more
I have not looked at my “Aldahdah Index” in a while. It is a compendium of standardized entries on older Middle Eastern Arabian horses, mostly Syrian and Lebanese, in the style of the Raswan Index. I will publish it one day. I looked up the entry of the Khdili stallion of Abbud Ali al-Amud, who … Read more
فرس شقراء كحيلة الخدلية يعود مربطها الى عضيب الوقاع السبيعي ابوها الصقلاوي الجدراني من خيل دريعي الاحدب من عشيرة شمر ابو امها المعنقي السبيلي حصان الشويطي من خيل النجرس من عشيرة العقيدات
I have written frequently about this horse. In my opinion, Saad II was one of the three best sons of al-Aawar. He was out of a grand mare, Leelas, a Kuhaylah Khdiliyah of ‘Abbud al-‘Ali al-‘Amud of the ‘Aqaydat. That strain harked back to the Kuhaylaat al-‘Ajuz of the Khdilat section of the Fada’an. It … Read more
I don’t know if this stallion of excellent lines is still alive or not, but a reader asked about him. He was bred by Radwan Shabareq in Aleppo, and given to the late Mustafa al-Jabri who used him at stud. I knew him as a newborn, as a colt and as a stallion. His mother … Read more
The family of Adrien Deblaise has one of the largest rare equine books collection in Europe, and certainly in France. From time to time, he sends me scans of precious photos, for which I am very grateful, like this photo of the splendid desert-bred war mare Hadialeh, a Kuhaylat al-Ajuz purchased from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah … Read more
Now that’s my Zahrah (Dinar x Hanadi by Krush Juhayyim), a Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq from the marbat of Shaykh Abdul Jalil al-Naqabashbandi, a sufi leader from the area of Der al-Zor, in the Middle Euphrates region of Syria. My father and I picked Zahra from Kamal Abdul Khaliq’s herd when she was 10 days old, in … Read more
Algeria was a French colony from 1830 to 1848, and an integral part of France from 1848 till its indepedence in 1962, following one of the bloodliest colonial wars. The conquest of Algeria by France was extremely long and arduous, and could only completed by 1900, when the latest of the Tuareg chiefs (ethnic Berbers, not … Read more
The previous discussion concluded (for now) that the strain of Kuhaylan Hayfi has developed sometime between 1850 and 1875. What was it known as before that? and where did it derive its name from? Like many, but not all, Kuhaylan strains, Kuhaylan Hayfi, which by the way is also called Kuhaylan al-Hayf, branched out of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz. Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz appears to have been … Read more