Here’s Charles Craver on the very masculine Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Tybalt (Tripoli x Asara by Kasar) doing a piaffe.. Photo by Judith Franklin, through Jeanne Craver
Here’s a YouTube video of the magnificent asil stallion Sportin Life (Brimstone x Asallah Al Krush), a Kuhaylan al-Krush tracing to the mare Werdi, imoprted by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. He passed away recently at Pamela Klein’s, but there are still some of his get and grandget.
All you need to know about this horse is in the photo’s legend. Nice horse. Line extinct like all the horses of the Strognaov/Sherbatov importation of 1888.
Clothilde Nollet of Maarena Arabians in France, just sent me this link to the website of a young Syrian lady, Dr. Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, who moved to Spain and brought with her an asil mare from Syria, Karboujah (Sa’d x Roudeinah by Mas’huj), and her grey asil son Najm Ya’rob, by the stallion Fawwaz (Ayid x Sit al-Kull). Dr. al-Abrash also has other horses at her Abrash Krush stud near Madrid. While I have never seen this stallion or his dam, I have very vivid memories of their sires, grandsires, and grand-dams: the stallions Ayid, Fawwaz, Mas’huj, Mahrous, Sa’d, and the mares Jamrah, and Sitt al-Kull populate my teenage memories, when my father and I used to drive from Lebanon to Syria and visit the studfarms of Syrian horse-breeders. The stallion Najm Yarob is interesting pedigree-wise, because he trace to two completely different branches of the Kuhaylan al-Krush strain. His sire, Fawwaz, comes from an old-established marbat of Kuhaylan al-Krush in the city of Hama in central Syria. This marbat traces a branch of the Krush horse family originating from the Fad’an Bedouin tribe, and know as Krush al-Sane’. The mare *Werdi, a Kuhaylat al-Krush mare imported by Homer Davenport to the…
… and this is Mazfufah (Haleem x Ma’zufah), who is Matrubah’s full sister. Matrubah was featured in an another post I wrote earlier today. Pure Man, who sent me Mazfufah’s picture, also told me the two mares are almost total look-alikes. Of course, one needs to recognize that Matrubah’s picture was taken by a professional, while her sister’s was taken by an occasional photographer, and shows the mare in an ungroomed condition.
“Pure Man” sent me this beautiful picture of the desert-bred mare Matrubah (Haleem x Ma’zufah), an asil Kuhaylat al-Krush from Saudi Arabia. Matrubah is owned by Prince ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Al-Sudayri and graces his new Aziziyah Stud. More on this original branch of the Kuhaylan al-Krush strain in this earlier post here. I know there is not many of you reading this blog who think that a desert bred horse cannot also be beautiful, but those of you who still think so, think again.
I have written a lot about the Kuhaylan Krush strain recently, more particularly on the branch of that strain that has been associated with the Dawish leaders of the Mutayr tribe. The mares Dafina (to the UK in 1926) and probably El Kahila (to Egypt in 1927) are both representatives of this branch, and so are the three Blunt imports to Sheykh Obeyd: the mares Aida, and Jauza and the stallion Krush. Below are two modern day representatives of that famed strain. The two mares Sharidah and Ma’yufah were bred at the stud of Prince Turki Ibn Fahd Ibn Muhammad Aal Saud in Najd, Saudi Arabia, then exported to the Nujaifi stud in Mosul, Iraq. PS — I wonder what an mtDNA test would show, if samples from these two mares were compared to the Dafina and El Kahila lines, or to some of the Krush Al-Baida horses with the Shammar Bedouins in Syria. The latter are known to trace to the “white Krush” of Ammash Raja al-Dawish of Mutayr, through a mare that had gone to Ibn Rashid. Read more about the Krush of Shammar in Syria here.
A previous entry (here) on the strain of Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida mentioned the mare Dafina, a 1921 Kuhaylat al-Krush, sent by King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud to Lady Wentworth of the UK in 1927, through Mr Gilbert Clayton, the British Representative in what was not yet called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dafina was apparently bred by the Mutayr tribe, and sired by a Kuhaylan al-Krush from the same marbat. An asil line tracing to Dafina in the tail female survived until at least the mid 1950s, when the last asil mare was bred: this was the oddly-named and heavily inbred Foum Tattoene (by Flame of Reynall x Yaronda by Flame of Reynall), born in 1954. Had it survived, this precious line would have also safeguarded rare lines to the Blunt desert imports Jilfa (a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad from the Shammar), Ashgar (a Saqlawi Ubayri from the Shammar), and Meshura (a Saqlawiyat ibn Derri from the Anazah). Below is another picture of the regal Dafina, from an old article on the Krush strain, (fraught with faulty assumptions, by the way, including the wrong assumption that the Lebanon-bred Krush Halba is the Blunt Sheykh Obeyd desert stallion Krush):
Recently I became aware of the existence of a young bay stallion of desert-bred stock that was bred in France, where he is now standing at stud. The name of this young stallion is Menjad Maram al-Baida, and his strain is Saqlawi Jadran (photo below, from his owners website). Menjad was bred by Mrs. Chantal Chekroun, and sired by the black stallion Mokhtar out of the bay mare Hijab. Both Mokhtar and Hijab were owned by Basil Jadaan in Damascus, Syria, then by Mrs. J. Menning to whom Basil gave them, and are now owned by Mrs. Chekroun. Mrs. Chekroun sold Menjad to Sophie and Dominique Balthasar of the Haras de la Lizonne, and still retains a full sister. A sketchy pedigree of Menjad looks like this: Awaad (S. Shaifi x Mumtazah) Mokhtar …
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…
Even the otherwise ultra-standardized pedigrees of Egyptian Arabians can yield a surprise or two. That of the mare Bint Nafaa and her descendents, with their cross to El Gadaa, a horse bred by Fad’aan Bedouin leader Miqhim ibn Mahayd, and later raced in Egypt and used by Hamdan stables, is a case in point. The stallion Ghandour (ca. 1930) is another. Ghandour was reportedly sired by Merzug, a good racehorse owned by Mahmoud al-Itribi at one point, out of Lady Anne Blunt’s Jazia (Sahab x Jauza), a Kuhaylat al-Krush. Jauza is one of my all-time favorite Asil mares judging from the one picture I have seen of her. Ghandour was also raced by Itribi Pasha before being used by the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) of Egypt as a stallion. The RAS History book has him as “an imported Arab and very good racer, owned by the late Mahmoud Pasha El Itribi”. A quick search on Itribi Pasha on the net yielded meager results: a list of Egyptian Pashas mentions him as a notable from the Daqahliya farming area by the Nile delta, who was granted the title of Pasha in 1919. I recall seeing a photo of him somewhere. That said, Ghandour was the sire…
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…
This past weekend I took part of my family to visit with Jenny Krieg, of Poolesville, Maryland. Jenny is the president of Al Khamsa for a few more days. A new board will take over for a year after the 2009 Tulsa Convention, which starts today, and which I am so sorry for not being able to attend. Jenny is otherwise the proud owner of HS Marayah (2 pics below). Marayah traces to the Shaykhah mare *Layya, imported to the USA by W.R. Hearst in 1947. Jenny is one of the few breeders preserving this rare line in Asil form, and this year she bred Marayah to DB Khrush (pic also below) for a 2009 foal. In 2007, mtDNA research showed that Marayah and a Lebanese mare from the same strain and the same original breeder as *Layya shared the same haplotype, implying a common tail female ancestor. *Layya’s original strain, and therefore Marayah’s, is ‘Ubayyan, from the marbat of the Donato family, a merchant family of Italian origin settled in Lebanon’s Biqaa’ valley. *Layya’s great-grand dam was a famous and important mare, and was hence known as “al-Shaykhah” (feminine of al-Shaykh, or al-Sheikh, a honorific title in the Arab world). Her descendents were named al-Shaykhat, after her. They practically formed a new strain, and back in…
Following the recent entry on the pretty black mare Shams al-Ghurub, and to Joe Ferriss recalling that he saw her dam Hakayah in 1996 in Syria, I am posting a picture of Hakayah that I took back in 1989. Hakayah was then with Ahmad (Abu Tahir) al-Ghalioun, who had leased her from her owner, the Shaykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai. I don’t remember anything about the foal at her side. Here is my partial translation to English of the Arabic hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of Hakayah, skipping the introductory religious blessings: “I, shaykh Mohammad al-Abd al-Razzaq al-Ta’i, testify, and my testimony is before God Most High, that the mare whose strain and marbat is Shuwaymat Sabbah and with the following description: [her] color [is] black, her age ten years old is from our horses, from the horses of the Tai, protected, without any impurities, her sire is the horse of Juhayyim, and he is Krush, and protected; the sire of her dam is the same horse, Krush Juhayyim, he is protected, and is from the horses of the Tai; the sire of her grand-dam is the horse of Juhayyim, al-Hayfi, and he is protected; She is well known and bred [by us] one generation after the…
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…
A previous entry quickly went through the Kuhaylan al-Krush horses that came out of Arabia. Of these, the stallion Krush (sometimes called Krushan), imported by Lady Anne Blunt to Egyptian stud of Sheykh Obeyd in 1911, is of particular relevance for the Krush al-Baida branch of that strain. This is what the Sheykh Obeyd Studbook, quoted by Rosemary Archer in “The Crabbet Arabian Stud: its History and Influence“, has to say about Krush: A Kehilan el Krush. Grey stallion bred in 1909. Sire: Kehilan el Sueti of the Harb stock. Dam: Grey Kehilet el Krush whose dam was the mare of Ammash el Reja el Duish, known as the ‘white Krush’ famed for her speed. Purchased in the desert in 1911. As far as I know, these three lines are the only Western reference to the ‘white Krush’, “Krush al-Baida” . They are important because they give away the name of the owner of “Krush al-Baida” – a Bedouin warrior of the al-Dawish ruling clan of the Mutayr tribe, the reason for her fame – speed in tribal warfare – and an approximate date. If Krush was foaled in 1909, and “Krush al-Baida” was his granddam, then she would have been alive in the 1880s-1890s. Bedouin oral tradition remembers “Krush al-Baida” as a mare that carried her rider and…
Siglavy Bagdady VI, born in 1949, was the last Asil stallion of 100% old Babolna lines (i.e., no Egyptian Arabian lines in his pedigree). His strain was Kuhaylan Abu ‘Arqub, tracing in tail female to the mare Semrie, imported from the desert by Michael Fadlallah El Heddad. Siglavy Bagdady VI left one Asil son, Wahhabit, a 1977 stallion out of the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Delicate Air. Delicate Air was bred by Craver Farms and traces to the mare *Werdi, imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. Pity there are so few of these Babolna Asil Arabians. They are of such a different type than anything else we see nowadays. They remind me of the last Lebanese Asil I used to see in my childhood. They also are a genetic treasure: each one of them traces to dozens of horses imported from the desert by the kings of the Austria, not found in any other current Asil bloodlines (except in the one remaning German Weil line). If you want to know more about the remaining Asil Arabians of Babolna, you can check out this post (dated May 2 2007, 10.44 pm) in the online forum Straightegyptians.com. This photo of Siglavy Bagdady VI is from the…
Western Arabian horse breeders are relatively familiar with the Arabian horse strain of Kuhaylan al-Krush (also known as Kuhaylan Krushan) through a variety of sources. A specific branch of this strain, Krush al-Baida (“the white Krush”) will be the subject of the sixth part of the “Strain of the Week” series (which, by the way, is starting to look like a “Strain of the Month” in disguise). For now, I’ll start the discussion with a brief resfresher of the encounters between Arabian horse breeders and the more general Krush family (beyond Krush al-Baida). Feel free to pitch in with feedback in the comments section of this blog post if you noticed that I omitted a reference or more, or visit this site, which also offers an overview (with pictures) of the main Krush lines around the world. The early fame of Kuhaylan al-Krush was certainly associated with the quest of the Egyptian Viceroy Abbas Pasha I for Asil horses from this strain. Several sources (or perhaps one source that was quoted several times, will look that up later) tell us that Abbas’s quest eventually failed, and that Bedouin owners of Krush mares refused to sell them, or give them…
Next on the list for the “Strain of the Week” series is Krush al-Baida. A celebrated strain, Krush al-Baida is only a small branch of the larger Kuhaylan al-Krush (or Kuhaylan Krushan) family. There is a lot to talk about.. Meanwhile, here is a picture of a desert-bred mare from this strain.
Here’s a headshot of the pretty desert-bred mare Nomah, a Kuhaylat al-Mizher (some say Kuhaylat Ibn Mizher) from the Bedouin tribe of Tai, in North-Eastern Syria. Nomah, which was owned by B. Jadaan, was one of the most photographed Syrian mares, but this is one of her earlier photos. I have heard several people say that Kuhaylan Ibn Mizher is only a branch of Kuhaylan al-Krush, owned by a man by that name. Still, I am left wondering why anyone would change the name of such a prestigious strain as Kuhaylan al-Krush into something else. Perhaps mtDNA analysis could help elucidate this question.
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.