An image of this document appears on page 79 of Peter Upton’s The Arab Horse (The Crowood Press, 1989). It is inconspicuously labeled as “Fig. 132. Facsimile of an Arab letter to Sir Gilbert Clayton“. Here is my translation, based off the image above, with my comments between the brackets: In the name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate [printed letterhead] The Hijazi and Najdi Kingdom and its dependencies [printed letterhead]The Diwan of His Majesty the King [printed letterhead] Number 87320 Dhul Qi’dah Year 1345 [printed year, date equivalent to Saturday May 21, 1927] From Abd al-‘Aziz son of ‘Abd al-Rahman of the House of Faysal [i.e., Faysal ibn Turki] to his Excellency the Sir Clayton:After greetings and compliments, we present Your Excellency with the horses, a male horse and a mare. As to the male horse, he is the Saqlawi of the most authentic [asaayil, plural of asil] horses of Najd; his sire is an ‘Ubayyan; the mare is Krush; her sire is a Kuhaylan.However, quite regrettably I saw today that their looks were not nice looks; the reason for this is the length of the journey, because they’ve been in the wilderness [al-barriyah, literally, “the bush”] for a…
Below is a photo of the young filly that my father traded Dahess for. She was 10 days old in the picture. Her name was Amshet Shammar, born in 1995. Her sire was al-Aawar, the desert-bred Hamdani Ibn Ghurab stallion, and her dam was the old bay Krush mare Ghallaiah, which Radwan Shabareq had acquired from Rakan son of Nuri al-Jarba. Ghallaiah was sired by the black Saqlawi Marzaqani of al-‘Anud, the wife and mother of leaders of the Tai tribe. Ghallaiah’s dam was also sired by the same horse, which came from the Marazeeq, the owners of that strain since the 1840s (at least). That’s me on the background, and the late Mustafa al-Jabri to the right.
I finally dug up these two screenshots from a video of the Davenport stallion Invictus Al Krush, which the late Carol Lyons had given to Randall Harris. He is the sire of Jadah BelloftheBall and the grandsire of Barakah Al Arab and Bassmah Al Arab. Belle has his big, long head.
الفحل “الاشهب” المعروف بكروش الناعم ابن حمداني الدعبو ابن دهمان عامرمن خيل عجيل الياور مواليد عام 1988 توليد اسعد سليمان الحسن قرية عكرشة صاحب ام كروش وملك عبود عواد المضحي قرية الناعم امه كروش البيضا لونها ادهم مالكها اسعد سليمان الحسن ابوها المعنقي الحدرجي حصان ظاهر العفيتان لونه أصدأ وامها كروش صاحبها سليمان الحسن ابوها كروش وامها كروش من مربط مطلق عبد الكريم اللهبا من قرية الباردة
الفحل فواز كحيلان كروش من عيد وست الكل ملك صالح خدام السروجي الصورة في مزرعته من تصويري سنة ١٩٩٢
[This article was last revised on June 26] My dive into the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — for approximates dates of the beginning of the main strains of Arabian horses continues. The approach remains the same. After the Dahman Shahwan (ca. 1280 CE), Hamdani Simri (ca. 1670) and the Hadban and Harqan strains (both ca. 1650), now is the turn of the Krushan. The Krushan strain is the subject of Chapter 11 of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. This my translation of the opening testimony: Al-Hamidi Al-Dawish, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Dawish, Husayn Ibn Farz, and Mutlaq al-Dawish, a man advanced in age, were queried in the presence of a crowd from the Dushan and the Mutayr about the Krush. Which of the Kahaayil does she go back to? ?Who did she originally spread from? The aforementioned reported: “She is a Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz; she is the first of the Kahaayil; she was was named Krush after Ibn Karshah of Qahtan, and al-Ghandur after al-Ghandur of the Buqum. She is a precious strain, [they are] authenticated and blessed horses. She first spread from Ibn Ramthayn of the ‘Abidah of Qahtan. The Sharif Abu Srur al-awwal asked for her from Ibn Ramthayn,…
It is that time of the year in the USA, where the weather is nice, the grass green, and the cameras out. Kim Davis, who has a talent for taking good photos, recently took these of the 2011 bay Krushan stallion Inaam Al Krush (Monologue CF x HH Noura Krush). At ten years old, he is in his prime. Monologue has another Krush offspring of Davenport lines on the way, from Laura Fitz’s mare HH Karisma Krush.
Another set of old photos I just scanned today features the Syrian desert bred mare Ghallaieh at the farm of Radwan Shabareq north of Aleppo, near the town of ‘Azaz. She was old and lame (you can see the broken front leg) and rather plain in the head, but what a grand and powerful mare she was. I took the first photo in 1998. My father took the second photo in 1996, and you can see a youthful me (the hair!) holding her halter. She was a bay Kuhaylat al-Krush from the breeding of Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal Basha al-Jarba, from the leading family of the Shammar. Mashal was the son of the famous Faris al-Jarba. The strain reached this family of the Jarba Shammar Sheykhs from their maternal uncles the Sheikh of the Tai Farhan al-Abd al-Rahman sometime in the 1950s or even 1960s. From here, there are two stories. One story is that the Sheykhs of the Tai obtained it from the Shammar who had it since the time of ‘Amsheh and Ibn Rashid (see next blog entry on the black mare). Another story is that Tai got the strain from the Fadaan. Ghallaieh was the daughter of a…
Jeanne Craver gratified me today with two pictures of my own Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Mayassah Al Arab (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David). Thank you Jeanne! She is now six years old, and a liver chestnut like her sire. Debbie Mackie boards her for me. She looks good and it seems Debbie has been spoiling her. I like horses built like tanks, and I like Arab horses that look like horses, not dolls. I wish Clarion CF had ten or twenty foals, not two. She is one of two remaining Al Khamsa mares to carry the blood of the three Al Khamsa foundation horses Kesia I, Kesia II and Mameluke. The other mare is Karin Floyd’s Samirahs Adlayah.
This spring my 24 year old mare Nuri Al Krush will be bred to Jamr Al Arab for a linebred foal to the great Hanad. Nuri brings the lines of the Hanad sons Tripoli and Mainad, and Jamr adds Sanad, Ibn Hanad and Ameer Ali. The photo was taken at her breeder and owner Trish Stockhecke in Ontario, Canada.
Kees Mol offered me this photo of the mare Faras (‘mare’ in Arabic), and in turn I donated it to the Arabian Horse Archives, on the website of which a copy can now be found. Faras was a 1927 desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush, gifted by Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia to her HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and the Earl of Athlone during their visit to Arabia and Bahrain in 1938. She was from the most precious and sougth after strain of Central Arabia. Peter Upton’s book “the Arab Horse” has a copy of her hujjah, written in Ibn Saud’s hand. She also appears to have been a producer of horses famed for their speed and endurance. Despite all these credentials, I am not sure she would be accepted in a halter show for Arabians today (or even thirty years ago). Most people familiar with Arabian horses in the West, and increasingly, in the East too, would not believe her to be an Arabian: where is the dish, the two-level profile? Where is the bird-like eye, popping out of its socket? the croup flatter than a counter top? the swan-like arched neck? the meaty face? the…
A new mare has joined my preservation herd of old American Arabian bloodlines. In what is by now a long-standing Edouard practice, she is 23 years old.. She is a Kuhaylat al-Krush tracing back to *Werdi. Her name is Nuri Al Krush. She was bred by Trish Stockhecke of Ontario, Canada, from the Krush stallion Janub Al Krush out of the Krush mare Mystalla. She carries some of the very last lines to the desert-bred imports *Haleb and *Azra in Al Khamsa. She has produced two outstanding colts before, one for Trish, gelded, and another for Kim Davis in Illinois. This latter one, dead in a freak accident, was the colt of the century in my opinion (photo below). I also owned her two half-sisters, and still own a daughter from one of these sisters, Mayassa. She will be bred to my Jamr al-Arab, to line-breed to Hanad (Tripoli, Sanad, Mainad, Ibn Hanad, Ameer Ali), but also he will complete her physically, with his short back, stronger coupling, and long hip. I am grateful to Laura Fitz for letting me have her.
Jackson Hensley sent this photo of his stunning Monologue CF son, Inaam Al Krush. I had seen him a few months ago, and liked him, but he looks even better in this photo. Reminds me of that iconic photo of Kuhailan Haifi O.A. That Monologue CF, I should have bred all my mares to him.
This is my 2013 Kuhaylat al-Krush filly, Mayassah Al Arab (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David). Three years old this summer. I am very proud of this filly I bred for several reasons. She embodies my preservation efforts. The antiquity of her bloodlines is an obvious reason: for instance, Abu Zeyd (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond), b. 1904, is just five generations away. For comparison, he is thirteen generations away in a stallion like Marwan Al Shaqab. The extreme rarity of her lines, too: the stallions Gharis (Abu Zeyd x Guemura by Segario), Fartak (*El Bulad x *Farha), Abu Selim (*Azra x Domow), Tabab (*Deyr x Domow), Royal Amber (Ribal x Babe Azab), and Oriental (Letan x Adouba), were all popular stallions in early Arabian breeding in America, with thousands of descendants in general list Arabians, and she is very much the last Al Khamsa horse that traces to them — and pretty closely too. The effort I went through to make that breeding happen is a third reason. I leased, then acquired her dam and her dam’s sister from Trish Stockhecke in Canada. They were 19 and 20 years old, and had never been bred before. The older…
I scanned this archive photo of a famous event among Syrian horse breeders, the Latakia race of 1993, which I attended with my father. Arabians from all over the country and neighboring ones flocked to this national event, the first of its kind on such a scale. This is a photo of the finish line of the eighth and last race, over a distance of 2000 meters. Mokhtar, Basil Jadaan’s black desert-bred Kuhaylah al-Krush, (now in France and turning 30 next year) won the race, with minimal training. Khalid, Mustafa al-Jabri’s Saqlawi Jadran (Mahrous x Khalidah) came a close second. The biggest surprise was the third place (not showing in the first picture, but to the right in the second one) of Hakaya, the black desert-bred Shuwaymah Sabbah of the Sheykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai. She was 15 years old, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Tai Bedouin (the others were ridden by professional jockeys), and without a bit… only a Bedouin halter. Let me write this again to let it sink in: a 15 years old mare, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Bedouin, and without a bit coming third in…
I was unpacking today and I found my negatives’ scanner in a box I had not opened in years. I also came across some old negatives from the days of our travels to Syria, my father and I, to see desert Arabian horses, so I scanned them. These times did not feel particularly blessed back then, just normal days off from high school or university. If only I knew how fleeting these moments were.. During one of these trips in the mid to late 1990s, veteran Alepine horse merchant Abdel Qadir Hammami took Radwan Shabareq, my father and I on a drive a couple hours outside Aleppo — now a lawless area infested with ISIS thugs — to see three mares that had just arrived from the desert. This was our chance to see something new and different from the stud farms of our breeder friends. Hammami had brought the three mares for an Alepine man, the owner of an ice cream store who did not know much about horses, but Hammami — then in his nineties — knew what he was getting him. It did not take long for the old man to admit that he had the mares smuggled from the other side of the…
Jose Manuel from Spain sent me these photos of his amazing 1999 Syrian stallion Najm Yarob (Fawaz x Karboujah by Saad x Roudeinah by Mashuj x Jamrah by Awaad x Doumah), a Kuhaylan Krush that is a close relative to the black Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah). Look at this black skin, this muzzle, and this croup! This photo of a survivor and the evocation of the names of the horses above, all of which I have seen, known and liked in my teenage, send shivers through my spine.
This Kuhaylat al-Krush filly of Davenport lines is the second ray of the hope this strain, also born this month at Kim Davis’. She is by HH Tantalus Krush out of HH Nadira Krush.
This wonderful, very promising black Kuhaylat al-Krush filly was born this month at Kim Davis’ in Illinois, out of HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush LD by Sportin Life). After the devastating tragedy that befell the group of Krush mares in Texas, she is one of two rays of hope for the next generation of this precious (and ever) strain.
Basil Jadaan recently postly this beautiful photo of Mokhtar, the desert bred Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion from Syria, which Basil owned for several years before sending him to France.
A Kuhaylan Al Krush of Davenport breeding. In real life, did he look as good and as deserty as in this picture and others? Who is his best offspring today? What powerful shoulder he had and what short back! where do you find this today? Bred by Charles Craver.
The magnificent HH Tantalus Krush, a 2009 Arabian stallion of the Kuhaylan Krush strain, Davenport lines, out of Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush LD. Thanks to owner Kim Davis for sharing this beautiful video of a superior stallion, true heir to his sire.
The Kuhaylat al-Krush Nuri Al Krush (Janub Al Krush x Mystalla by SL Jacob) has just foaled a most wonderful colt by Quantum LD (Mandarin x Leafs Ivey by Wotan) for Kim Davis. The dam is a concentrate of rare lines from old American breeding with lines to Mainad (Hanad x Charmain by Abu-Selim), Royal Amber (Ribal x Babe Azab), Oriental (Letan x Adouba) and Kapiti in the tail female (Harara x Tamarinsk). I can’t get enough of looking at the pictures of this colt Kim sent to a few of us, and I think he is the strongest, most handsome, best built and most promising young fellow I have seen this year. He is certainly stallion material for any CMK or any old American breeding program, and even think he can improve the breed overall. In any case, he is testimony to what you can get by preserving some of these really old and rare lines. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Congratulations Kim! By the way, his dam Nuri had foaled another most special horse at Trish Stockhecke in Canada some years ago. His sire was a quasi Al Khamsa stallion with lots of lines to Hallany…
While perusing old handwritten notes I found this bit of information, from a conversation with Radwan Shabareq: “Dr Iskander Qassis had four Krush mares which he got from Abu Husayn Khattab (the premier horse merchant and expert in Syria in the 1950s) who in turn got them from his father who had in turn obtained them from Mijhim ibn Mhayd. They were from the Krush of Al-Sane’, which was the best Krush marbat of the Fad’aan (woul ne3m).”
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…
Yesterday Kim Davis and her daughter Taylor sent me this lovely shot of little Mayyassah (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David), who was born last week. I love the broad forehead, the low eye placement, and the delicate muzzle. All three are recognized Davenport features which the infusion of more Davenport blood brings into a line. I also love the long ears!
HH Spartan Krush (HH Solstice Krush x HH Nadirah Krush), the young colt at Kim Davis’ in Capron, Illinois, is simply magnificent.
My kind of mare. By Sportin Life out of Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush. Davenport lines. She reminds of Qadheefah, a bay Ubayyah Suhayliyah from the stud of Mustapha Jabri outside Aleppo. Note the high withers, the deep girth, the hocks well let out, and the long ears. As long as there are still mares like that 100 years after Davenport’s importation from Syria to the USA, then there is hope for this breed.
Abu al-Tayyeb is another one of these early Government Stud stallions in Syria, as was Sultan. That photo was also taken in 1958. He was reportedly a son of Krush Halba, the Kuhaylan Krush stallion from Lebanon that was sold to Turkey where he became a founding sire for the Turkish Arabian horse program. His dam was a Kuhaylat al-Krush from the Hama area in central Syria, and tracing to the Anazah Bedouins. His line is likely to be related to that of the Davenport imported mare *Werdi.
Also from Kim Davi’s Krush program comes the mare HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life), bred by Carol Lyons in 2005… … the 2001 mare HH Sonata Krush (Preseus KF x Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush) … and the 2009 daughter HH Serafina Krush, by Quantum LD as well as the 2009 stallion HH Tantalus Krush (Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life) and finally, the new colt’s sister, the 2010 filly Sabella Al Krush (Pulcher Ibn Reshan x HH Nadira Krush), who is also very promising Many of Kim’s horses also trace to Jackson Hensley’s old-established Kuhaylan Krush program.. and some of the exchanges between the two programs are pretty recent.
Kim Davis shared with me these photos of very promising young Kuhaylan al-Krush colt from her “marbat”. He is now about a month old is by her stallion HH Solstice Krush (Brass Band x Sarra Al Krushah) and the mare HH Nadira Krush (RC Janub Krush x Naufali Al Krush).
Kurus, known in Turkey as Baba Kurus and in Lebanon as Krush Halba, was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, first became the foundation stallion of the racing-oriented Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program and was then exported to Turkey where he also founded the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program. Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.
Marie Arthur sent these photos of the nice Kuhaylat al-Krush mare IV Shtika Al Krush (CL Hi Ned x Tika Al Krush by Krushan Al Krush), who Hi Ned’s only Krush daughter. If you scroll down you will see a photo of this impressive stallion.
Jeanne Craver has sent a number of precious photos of the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Asara (Kasar x Badia by Jadaan) to be uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website. Asara is one of the Second Foundation Davenport mare, whose is the tail female of a number of favorites featured on this blog, such as the Krush stallions Janub Al Krush, CL Hi-Ned, and Indie Star. Below are are some of these photos, which you can click on to enlarge. What a mare.
This mare, Al-Shumuss, was at the stud of Mustafa al-Jabri in Aleppo in the 1990s, and her dam was at Radwan Shabareq’s. She was a Kuhaylat al-Krush, by a Hamdani Simri who was himself by the black Saqlawi Marzaqani stallion of al-Anoud, Princess of Tai; the mare’s dam was by the same black Saqlawi Marzaqani. The line came from the Shammar, from Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal al-Jarba, but before that it was his maternal uncles the Tai chiefs; and while most everyone among the horse breeders in Syria thought this line traced back to the Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar (it is even registered as Krush al-Baida in the Syrian studbook) which ultimately goes back to the Mutayr Bedouins, it turned out, following questioning of the elders and leaders of the Tai Bedouins in the late 1990s that this Krush marbat actually came from the Fad’aan Bedouins of the ‘Anazah. There are two distinct lines of Kuhaylan Krush in North Arabia: one going back to the Fad’aan ‘Anazah (like Krush Halba below, like the Davenport import *Werdi, like the mare in this picture), and another line, known as Krush al-Baida (the white Krush) going back…
Teymur sent me this photo of the phenomenal 1921 grey asil Kuhaylan Krush stallion known in Lebanon as Krush Halba, and in Turkey as Baba Kurus. He was the foundation stallions for both countries asil Arabian horse breeding programs, even his line does not survive in Lebanon anymore, and is holding on by a thread in neighboring Syria. Teymur can tell you more about this horse’s performance in Turkey. Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from the diary of Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk’s of the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society on this horse: “At Beirut I found a Krush, a nice grey horse who won 17 races. This horse out of El Nowagia by Krush belongs to Saad el Din Shatila Pasha. The sire of the Krush horse which I bought was sold a few years ago to the Turkish government …it is worth mentioning that in the only 3 stables I visited in Beirut, I saw about 30 offspring of the famous stallion Krush ….”. The Kuhaylan Nawwaq stallion named Kroush, who was imported by the same Dr. Mabrouk to Egypt for the RAS and sired a number of horses for the RAS, including the mare Bushra and the stallion Tamie’, was a son…
Arnault Decroix is now the proud owner of the weanling Shuwayman Fahad (Mahboob Halab (SYR) x Shueymah Sabbah by Mokhtar (SYR)), a Shuwayman Sabbah bred by Jean-Claude Rajot in France. This exceptional young fellow is the son and the grandson of two stallions of Shammar lines imported from Syria to France in the late 1990s and the late 2000s respectively. I think you will hear a lot about this horse in the coming years, especially in the endurance realm.
One of the new photos recently uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this one of CL Hi-Ned (Dharanad x Hi-C by Sir), a 1977 Kuhaylan al-Krush of Davenport lines.
I am a big fan of the 1998 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Indie Star (Mandarin CF x Gbarh Asjah by Astrologer), bred by Carol Lyons. I really would like to breed a mare to him at some point. The photo is by Christine Emmert (who is a really good photographer) and was recently uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website. I had posted an earlier photo on this blog.
Some of you asked for photos of progeny ofthe superb Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Janub al-Krush (Pompey x June), who was bred by Jackson Hensley from Davenport lines. Kim Davis kindly sent me these photos of his 1994 daughter Januba al-Krush (out of Tika Al Krush by Krushan Al Krush).
One of my all-time favorite pictures of Arabian horses is this famous photo of the superb 1977 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Janub Al Krush (Pompey x June by El Alamein) with a young Kim Davis at his side. The first time I saw this picture, all I could think is that I wanted to be Kim, and be owned by a horse like Janub. The photo is from the DAHC website, who now has a bunch of new photos under the 1970s category, many of them I saw of the first time.
I recently retrieved that photo of the black Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah) which I had taken on my first visit to Basil Jadaan’s in 1989 or 1990. You can easily recognize Basil’s old farm from the red tile rooftops in the back. Mokhtar was then a two or three year old stallion, which Basil had recently obtained from his breeder, a Shammar Bedouin. He was literally born under the tent, and is from the best of the Shammar. Basil knew what he was doing. Mokhtar eventually made his way to France, where he still thriving with Chantal Chekroun at the age of 24. He is a frequent feature on this blog, and any European breeder within reach should try to breed from him while he is still alive. We will only know the value of these horses when they are gone.
Ziba (Dancing Magic x Shazla by Shazda out of Darthula out of Saladin II) was one of my father’s favorites. A 1980 mare from the ‘marbat’ of Lord and Lady Moyne, and tracing to the desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush Dafina, a gift from Ibn Saoud to Judith Wentworth, Ziba had no less than ten lines to Skowronek, and this, along with her Krush tail female to Dafina, is exactly the reason why my father bought her from Said Khair’s stud in Jordan and imported her to Lebanon, together with her son Sharif by a show horse of European lines. At the time, my father was a big fan of the Crabbet breeding program (and he still is in some ways), both under Lady Anne and then under her daughter Judith, and we did not know anything about Skowronek’s pedigree. We believed that Skowronek was the best thing that ever happened to Crabbet Stud, and Judith Wentworth certainly did a good job leading her readers to this conclusion. When we learned more about Skowronek, we sold Ziba to some local politician and she eventually found her way to Syria. Her non-asil status aside, Ziba had glorious tail carriage and movement, and was a…
Nice photo by Christine Emmert in 2007 of the 2000 bay Kuhaylat Krush mare Cataree (Mandarin CF x Minaret CF by Heir Apparent). The photo appeared this week on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.
Mokhtar, the old asil Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion, bred by the Shammar Bedouins in Syria and now in France, continues to sire nice foals at 24 years of age. Here is a photo of the little filly Mutarak Nesba (Mokhtar x Murad Diffa) bred by Guillaume Lambert and Margot Leroux-Berger, in France. By the way, it turned out that Mokhtar’s semen does not ship well, and that means he will have to be used live. It is still time to catch him before he leaves us, because if I had to vouch for the asil status of one horse in the world, it would be him. He is a time capsule straight from the 18th century.
This is the third feature on the series on uncommon strains, and it features the strain of Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir. Kuhaylan ibn Mizhir is a little known strain in the West. It is specific to Syria and to parts of Iraq that are adjacent to the Syrian border. The strain belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Tai, who are very proud of it. The reason it is so little known is that the strain is actually Kuhaylan al-Krush. About eight or ninety years ago, a Tai Bedouin by the name of Ibn Mizhir acquired a Kuhaylat al-Krush from ‘Anazah (either from the Fad’aan or the Sba’ah, and more probably the former), and many in the Tai tribe started calling the strain after its new owner. Other Tai Bedouins stuck to the old Krush strain name. One of the descendants of this original Kuhaylat Krush of Ibn Mizhir went to the leading clan of the Tai Bedouins, and one of the offspring of this mare then passed to Nuri al-Mash’al al-Jarba of the Shammar, who married a woman from the Tai leading clan. The Jarba leaders of the Shammar, who took pride in their own Kuhaylan al-Krush marbat (Krush al-Baida, a marbat that came to the Shammar from the Mutayr Bedouins…
Ambar reminded me of this 1994 video by Carol Mingst, where some of the Davenport Arabian stallions in the North-West USA appear. You will see the magnificent stallions Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Audobon (Iliad x Audacity) and a paternal grandson of Monsoon, SA Apogee (Ascendant x Copper Hill Rysa by Flight Plan), as well as Al Mujiz Jauhara who is Javera Thadrian’s half brother. There are nice shots of the black Kuhaylan al-Krush Sportin Life (Brimstone x Asallah Al Krush), and the bay Mandarin (Regency CF x Lotus), too. There are some non-asils in the middle of the video.
Dahess (Awaad x Al-Jazi by the Ubayyan of ‘Atnan al-Shazi) was a 1987 grey stallion. He was bred by sayyid Muhammad al-Shaykh Salim a Tufayhi, a non-Bedouin from a family of religious notables in Upper Mesopotamia, as so was his dam. He was a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak by strain, tracing to the marbat of ‘Awwad ‘Azzam al-Sahlan, or ‘Ubayyan Suhayli. He was sired by the grey Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Awaad, who hails from the famed marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba, and as such he is a half brother to the black stallion Mokhtar now in France. His dam, al-Jazi, was reportedly one of the prettiest mares in Syria, and eventually came to be owned by the late Basil al-Asad, brother to the current president of the Syrian Arab Republic. Dahess was sold as a youngster to the former Qatari consul in Damascus, the late Yusuf al-Rumaihi, who owned a wonderful collection of beautiful and well-authenticated desert-bred mares (more on this later), as well as the two Egyptian stallions Okaz (Wahag x Nazeemah) and al-Qahir (Ikhnatoon x Marium). When Rumaihi passed away, the horses were dispersed and some of them found their way to Qatar, where they were overlooked and eventually given away. Dahess then…
The strain of al-Kray is a branch of Kuhaylan al-Krush and it originates from either the Bedouin tribe of al-‘Ajman or that of Bani Hajar.
The 1988 grey Hamdani al-‘Ifri stallion *Ta’an (Awaad x al-Efrieh by a Kuhaylan al-Wati) was born in the Jazirah area of North-Eastern Syria. His breeder, Mis’ir al-Hamad is a member of one of the small Arab nomadic tribes that settled in this area in the XXth century. I first saw *Ta’an in 1990 as a yearling, at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud outside of Aleppo. I took pictures which I will scan and share with you. I then saw him again in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, Mustafa gifted *Ta’an to Gerald and Debra Dirks who took him to the USA, then to Jordan in 1996. At that time, the Arab Horse Association studbook did not recognize the Syrian Studbook, so *Ta’an never got registered, even though Al Khamsa, Inc accepted him on the basis of his being a Bedouin-bred horse from Syria. The two pictures below were taken at the Dirks’ farm, and are courtesy of Marie Arthur. *Ta’an’s sire was Awaad, a grey Kuhaylan al-Krush bred by ‘Iyadah Talab al-Khalaf, of the Shammar Bedouins, from the prestigious Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar. Awaad sired many good mares and stallions in Syria, among them the…
This mare, Cataree (Mandarin CF x Minaret CF by Heir Apparent), is a Kuhaylat al-Krush of Davenport bloodlines, tracing to the mare *Werdi imported by Homer Davenport from Syria in 1906. She was presented at the 2007 Al Khamsa Convention in California. Photo by Christine Emmert.
Here is a link to his pedigree: Sportin Life (Brimstone x Asallah Al Krush by Dharanad), bred by Craver Farms.
It’s all in the title. Mokhtar is the black desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion bred by the Shammar, and has been a recent fixture on this blog.. His owner Chantal Chekroun says that professionally frozen semen will be available for him this coming September, to respond to international demand. The horse is turning 24 next year, so the clock is ticking.. Soon, with Bedouins becoming sedentary and more integrated in the global economy, the notion of a desert-bred horse born under a tent will itself come to and end. Below is a photo of one of Mokhtar’s sons in France, the stallion Quarzai, who recently earned third place at a 90 miles endurance race.
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…
Jackson Hensley, of Bedouin Arabians Farm, in New Mexico, just sent me pictures of the latest addition to his stud; Sabella Al Krush, an asil Kuhaylat al-Krush filly, tracing in tail female to the mare *Werdi imported from Syria to USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. *Werdi hails from the Krush marbat of the Fad’aan Bedouins. As an aside, the famous stallion Krush Halba, the foundation sire for the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program, hailed from the same Fad’aan marbat as *Werdi. Krush Halba was one of the most prepotent sires of racehorses of his time. He was active in the northern Lebanese town of Halba in the 1920s and 30s, and was purchased in 1933 by a Turkish Government Commission and exported to Turkey where he was known as Baba Kurus. Check out his hujjah here (scroll down to Appendix B). One of Krush Halba’s sons, the grey stallion Kroush (actually a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq by strain) was bought from the Beirut racetrack in 1936 by Dr. Mabrouk of the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS), and was used by the RAS for breeding . Kroush appears in the Egyptian “RAS History” studbook (EAO Vol 1) on page 48. He had three registered offspring in Egypt: the stallion Tamie (1937) out of Nagiya; the mare Bushra…
Tybalt did love to dance as did his son Asar. Asar also had a son named Lente. He could stand at his stall door, dancing as well. I had stall guards installed so the long stallion barn would show all the stallions, waiting and dancing. The day was completly filled with the joy of horses. Odd they never tried to fight, they just show an interest at the others, and what they were doing. Tybalt was ridden here daily, usually for an hour or so. Charles had trained him well. Richard would even come to see him work, I have had several stallions that always made me stand straight, Tybalt was one. My six year old would sometimes hold him, if I had to take a call, Tybalt would simply dance waiting. I always was happy to realize his ability to be kind. His son Asar was taller and even more filled with inner reaction to alive, yes, those were days filled with expection. Next to Tybalt was Rafaar, a Pritzlaff bred Stallion. Rafaar was a little like Tripoly, only, as to type. The farm in those days had visitors from all over the world on a daily bases. One…
This magnificent Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion (Tripoli x Asara by Kasar), bred by Charles Craver in 1962 must have been the kind of horse a tribe would plan a ghazu to take away from another tribe. I wish I was around when that stallion was alive.
The series on Barely Surviving Al Khamsa lines continues (and it’s not likely to stop anytime soon given the number of asil lines in dire straits now in the USA). This eighth entry on Barely Surviving Lines comes after earlier entries on the critically endangered tail female asil lines to Safarjal in Austria (Hamdani Simri, to Selma from Abbas Pasha’s stud); to Serije (Saqlawi al-Abd, to *Wadduda, desert-bred, imported by Davenport to the USA); to Dihkenna (Kuhaylan Hayfi, to *Reshan, desert-bred, imported by Davenport to the USA); to Koweyt and Kerasun (Hamdani Simri, to *Samirah, from Ibn Saud); to Rosina in South Africa (Kuhaylan Rodan, to Rosemary and her dam Rodania, desert-bred, imported by Anne Blunt to the UK); and to Rayim in the USA (also to Rosemary). Today’s entry focuses on the Kuhaylan Krush line that goes back to the mare *Werdi, imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. There are two tail female lines to *Werdi in America today. The first is through *Werdi’s grand-daughter Babe Azab (Letan x Tamarinsk by *Hamrah), it’s continuing in Davenport-only breeding, and it’s essentially doing well (picture below). The second of the lines to *Werdi is hanging by a thread. It is the line through Babe Azab’s sister Kapiti (Harara x…