As I was telling you in an earlier entry, last Friday I spent a most delightful day as a guest of Yehia Abd al-Attar al-Tahawi in Geziret Saoud in the Sharqiyah province of Egypt, along with Mohamed Osman al-Tahawi and Yasser Ghanim al-Tahawi and a number of others. I took tons of pictures with my i-phone, but I am having trouble downloading them on the laptop, so that will have to wait a bit. However, I did take some pictures with Mohamed’s camera when my phone’s battery was dead, including the following ones of a wonderful speckled Kuhaylah Khallawiyah mare. She is not registered, and she is one of the few remnants of their old tribal horses, 11 mares and one stallion in total. Her name is Bint Rammah, and she was born in 2003. Her dam is by the tribal Tahawi stallion Marhaba and her grand-dam by the “Straight Egyptian” Tahawi stallion Marshall (Amlam x Bint Fulla), who is her only link to registered Egyptian horses. According to the oral histories I heard during my visit, the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain of the Tahawi clan traces to an original mare brought from the Syria desert by one of the Tahawi shaykhs. From there she spread among various members of the Tahawi clan, including to Sh. Abd…
Today I am crossing my fingers that Pirouette CF, shown below with her 2012 gray filly ADA Sareeah (by Dubloon CF) will check in foal to the late Palisades CF. Another of Sareeah:
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.
I just spoke to an old friend from Syria today. The economic situation is some parts of the country is so dire, cost of fodder has been multiplied by six, so much that people have been selling their asil mares and stallions to slaughterhouses in Iraq. I learned for instance that the young Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion from Shammar I had my eyes set on (below) was sold by the pound for meat. So sad, yet children are dying by the scores in both Syria and Iraq, so I will not shed a tear over a horse.
I had never heard of this branch of Kuhaylan until Radwan Shabareq told me about a number of Kuhaylat al-Beed (plural of al-Abyad, femine al-Baida) at the stud of Dr. Iskandar Qassis in Aleppo in the 1960s. I don’t know from which Bedouin tribe they came from.
Yasser Ghanim Barakat sent me this recent photo of the asil Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq Tahawi mare Felha (El Kharass x San’aa), aged 25. Felha was bred by Shaikh Soliman Eliwa al-Tahawi and is now owned by his grandson Hossam Abdullah Soliman. An ongoing campaign is currently taking place to get her and 11 other Tahawi mares accepted by the EAO and mtDNA testing was done to compare this line with that of another Tahawi Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq mare, *Malouma, as well with the existing K. al-Nawwaq lines in Syria and Lebanon.
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).
Also from Teymur comes this photo of the 1981 Turkish Arabian mare Almimruhiye.16 of the precious Kuhaylan al-Mimrah marbat of the Shaqfah family in Hama, Syria. The hujjah of her ancestress in the tail female, the original Almumruhiye is on the WAHO website, under “General Interest” then under “Turkish Stud Book Report”, and is reproduced below. She was purchased in the Syrian city of Hama in 1936 at the age of 5. Allah Almighty said in his precious book Q’uran ‘The love of passion that comes from women and children has attracted mankind, as well as accumulated gold and silver treasures, pedigreed horses, livestock and crops.’ The Asil Horses are blessed and valued for that Allah Almighty mentioned them many times in his precious book. The Republic of Turkey purchased from Hama by the help of Ali Saif Aldeem from the people of Hama some Asil Horses. Among them is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh, her family tree is shown above. We witness that her fourth grandmother the bay is the mare of Hilal Bin Adnan from the Sbaah (Anezeh) and her father is Ma’anagi Sbeli. At Anezeh, she gave birth to the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh whose father is the Ma’anagi Sbeli,…
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.
Today Wisteria CF left the care of Craver Frams in the trailer of her proud new owner Kathy Busch. Along with her rode Enchante CF (Zachary x Velveteen by Sir). I am sad to see Wisteria go but I am very happy that Kathy is the one who has her now, because Kathy keeps her horses for a long time and takes great care of them. Wisteria leaves behind a colt and a filly, and I could not wish for more. I am also forever grateful to Charles and Jeanne Craver for having kept her at their place, after selling her to me, and having taken such good care of her over the past five years. The day before, Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) and Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) left Craver Farms to go to Tom and Jess Maiyer in Galion, Ohio, for embryo transfer.
A minute of walk at the end of a nice workout. He’s a work in progress, of course, but I’m enjoying the steady improvement.
I have written about the 1982 “war mare” LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla by Tarff) several times on this blog. She is the kind of mare I wish I had owned or bred. She is a great-grand-daughter of the desert bred mare *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the Saud royal studs. *Nufoud was imported to the USA by Albert Harris in 1932 through Amin Rihani. At that time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was still the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz. LD Rubic is also a great-grand-daughter of another Saudi royal mare, *Turfa. LD Rubic was bred by the late Carol Lyons, out of the last Al Khamsa mare of that strain, Tarrla. Carol saved that line and many others from extinction. Rubic left two sons and five daughters: of the sons, Salil Ibn Iliad produced a number of asil mares here and there. He is getting older. The other son AB Razeel, is younger but has not had progeny as far as I know. The five daughters of LD Rubic are: MSF Rubie, Bint Rubic CHF, MSF Shamis, AB Dafiinah, and Belladonna CHF. MSF Rubie is a problem breeder, and has not had a foal in a long time.…
My friend Jenny Krieg has suggested the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Port Angeles CF (Portico x Aureole CF) as a horse I might want to consider breeding from in the spring. He is a brother of Porte CF from his sire, and a brother of Aurene CF from his dam. Here is a photo, gleaned off the website of his owner Randall Abler, at Eden Arabian Farms in Georgia.
Many of you have been writing to or hearing about Yasser al-Tahawi who is one of the main persons behind the recent revelations about the original horses of the Tahawi tribe. Well here’s a picture of him, riding bareback on his Kuhaylah Ju’athiniyah mare Bushra.
I think I may have already written that this mare was one of my favorite living asil mares, on pedigree, on photo, and in real life (I saw her at Carol Lyons in 2003 or was it 2004? I don’t remember): En Pointe CF is a war mare the likes of which seldom exist today. An ‘atiq (antique, ancient in Arabic) mare of the ancient desert type, reminiscent in her style and class of the Old Blunt mares of the Rodania tail female like Risala and Rissla. Her dam Pirouette CF is my all time favorite living Davenport mare, and her sire Triermain CF is my favorite living Davenport stallion. Her double grandsire Javera Thadrian is simply my all time favorite asil Arabian stallion in the West (but you knew that already). By the way, I do believe that linebreeding to Javera Thadrian does produce outstanding horses. En Pointe CF is one example; Tantris CF is another, and my own Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF, by Javera Thadrian) and Wadd (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) are not bad at all, either. Not sure who owns her today, but she is lucky.
I really like this small photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Fair Sair (Sir x Lady Fair by Tripoli), whom I saw at Alice Martin’s in 2005. I find him very reminiscent of his grandson Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole by Fair Sir), who is at Pamela Klein’s.
Teymur sent this picture of the other foundation sire of the Turkish Arabian breeding program, the 1928 bay stallion Sa’d (Kuheylan Cietni x Kuheyletul Sade Tukan), also known as Baba Saad, a Kuhaylan Sa’dan al-Tuqan, by a Kuhaylan Ju’aytni. He was Turkey’s most famous racehorse.
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.
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript [1993, edited by J. Forbis and G. Sherif], which is essentially the transcription by Abbas Pasha’s envoys of Bedouins’ testimonies about their horses, is the foremost primary source on the Bedouin-bred Arabian horse available today. Its hundreds of testimonies is the precious remnant of an oral culture, now long gone. No wonder modern Saudi families and clans who have nothing to do with horses anymore are relying on it as a bargaining chip to ask for favors from the Saudi royal family, or to ascertain their social status (things along the lines of: “Your Highness, my ancestor gave your ancestor a precious mare, they were close, it is written in the horse book, so now I need… from you in return”). However great the legacy of Judith Forbis as a breeder of Arabian horses of the show type has been, her most enduring legacy, IMO, is to have made this book available to Western audiences. Page after page, the information in the Manuscript debunks many Western misconceptions about Bedouin horse breeding. Really, the only thing missing from the book is an index of the individual horses, strains and Bedouins mentioned. Check out this quote, page 439 [notes between brackets are mine]: “The Sheikhs of Subayah [actually, Subay’, a Bedouin tribe…
Speaking of jewels (Confetti CF is on the left, Provance CF on the right): Edouard, take this out if you want — but their owner, Mary Ann Brewer, has decided to stop breeding, and is offering these two Kuhaylat, and Tokens Ceelen (a straight Davenport mare, tail female to Schilla) on a free lease to interested Davenport breeders. Contact her for details — she’s in Texas.
One of the few asil Tahawi mares left in Egypt is this old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah owned by Helga al-Tahawi, the wife of the late Shaykh Soliman al-Tahawi. She is one of those which the Board of Directors of Al Khamsa recently recognized as tribal “horses of interest”. I think the photo is from Bernd Radtke, but it might directly from the Tahawis. A collective effort on three continents is under way to get these 15 or so remaining Tahawi horses recognized by the EAO in Egypt, and as a result, by WAHO.
Recently uploaded on the website of the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this photo of the beautiful 1975 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Irade (Ibn Alamein x Iras), bred at Craver Farms.
Raed Yaken, who lives in London but is originally from Aleppo, Syria, sent me these pictures of his asil mare Zohoor (“Flowers”), a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah bred by Alaa al-Din al-Jabri. Zuhur is by Mahrous (of Mustafa al-Jabri, his nephew) out of the small bay mare Durra whose photo was one of the first ones posted on this blog in 2008. Some time ago I also posted photos of Zohoor I saw both mares at Alaa al-Din Jabri’s back in 1991, and I also saw Durra’s dam Freihat; I remember all three of them very well. They are from the most asil, authenticated marbat of K. Hayfi in Syria, that of Wawi al-Kharfan of the Fad’aan. Theirs is one of the best marabit in Syria, and it is now with the Yakan family. His name is mistakenly spelled “Wadi” (which is not a man’s name, but means ‘valley’ in Arabic) in the Syrian Studbook and the error was picked up by others since. No one seems to remember who that Wawi al-Kharfan was, but he seems to have been one of the men of the Fad’aan Bedouin leaders Muqhim (Mijhim) al-Mayahd close circle. There is a lingering story, which I was…
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.
Kim Davis, who has been breeding Kuhaylan al-Krush horses of Davenport bloodlines for several decades, sent me this picture of her Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Quantum LD (Mandarin CF x Leafs Ivey by Wotan), who was bred by Carol Lyons.
I took this photo of the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz Chahata (Hosni xHamida by Soufyan) at the stallion depot of the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet in 2006. He was a great race horse, and I thought he was exceptionally well built, while at the same time displaying good Arab type. I wonder what’s with the hocks, though.
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.
Another photo recently uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this picture of the 1972 asil Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Ibn Dharantez (Dharantez x Silvia by Sir), bred by Charles Craver. I don’t know why, but I feel that this photo will appeal to a number of Egyptian breeders who read this blog.
Teymur, from Germany, sent me this picture of the Turkish Arabian mare Halepguzeli 3 (in Turkish, the “Beauty of Aleppo”), a Kuhaylat Umm Junub by Fis Fis (Hilaluzzaman d.b. x Macera d.b.) out of Halepguzeli 2 (Kurus, i.e., “Krush Halba” x Halezguzeli d.b). The original “Beauty of Aleppo” who was the grand-dam of the mare in the photo was a Kuhaylat Umm Junub born in 1930 and bred by a Nuri Effendi of Aleppo, Syria, and later imported to Turkey. So know we know at least two surviving lines for the precious strain of Kuhaylan Abu Junub, one in Saudi Arabia (but came from Syria in the 1960s-70s), and one in Turkey, which also came from Syria in 1930. I am simply amazed at the resilience of these rare strains that were so prevalent before and which at some point were thought to be lost. It’s like new sightings of birds everyone thought were extinct.
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.
Arnault Decroix from France sent me this photo of two yearling fillies, daughter of his excellent Syrian asil stallion Dahiss Hassaka (Al-Ameer Dahiss x Ogharet by Marzouq, out of Hanadi), a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the marbat of Shaykh Abd al-Jalil al-Naqashbandi, a leader of the Sufi Naqashbandi mystics of the Euphrates valley. Dahiss Hassaka (photo below) was bred by Radwan Shabareq and later imported to France. I owned his grandsire Dahiss, as well as a sister of his dam, “Zahra” who was by Dinar out of Hanadi. A head shot of hers was published earlier, you will find it if you scroll down.
Jeanne Craver just sent me this other photo of the desert-bred mare 214 Scherife (Cherife), the Shammar-bred Kuhaylat al-Sharif, which was imported by Fadlallah al-Haddad to the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1903. She actually very much looks like the the Kuhaylat al-Sharif of Ibrahim Dawwas al-Saadi, who was registered in the first Syrian Studbook as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz. It would be interesting to do a mtDNA analysis of the descendants of these two mares.
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 Bedouins by a Hungarian mission in 1903. I don’t have more information on this importation, but I am sure Adrien can say some more to that, and it may be of one of the missions with which Fadlallah El Hedad was associated. The mare sounds like she is from the Khdili marbat of Kuhaylan al-Ajuz, judging from her name. This is the same branch of Kuhaylan which both Carl Raswan and Lady Anne Blunt refer to as “Hedeli”. Click on the image to enlarge it.
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.
Ameenah was the foundation mare for all the Kuhaylan al-Mimrah horses currently in Syria. They all trace to her in the tail female. She was bred by the Tai Bedouins, from a marbat that had belonged to the Shammar, and which traced all the back to the Muwayni’ clan of the Sba’ah Bedouins, who own the strain of Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. If a Kuhaylat al-Mimrah cannot be traced back to the clan of Ibn Muwayni’, then she is not a Kuhaylat al-Mimrah. That’s because the original man known al-Mimrah belonged to the Muwayni’ clan. The Muwayni’ clan, one of the noblest of the ‘Anazah confederation, were such famous breeders of Arabian horses that they were known as ‘ahl al-khayl’, the “people of the horses”. Nahar Ibn Muwayni’ is one of the Bedouin witnesses in the ‘Abbas Pasha Manuscript. Ameenah was sired by the “first horse of Juhayyim”, a Kuhaylan Hayfi who was used by Juhayyim al-Mitkhan of the Tai as his breeding stallion (he later stood a Kuhaylan al-Krush at stud, and this was the “second horse of Juhayyim”); her dam was sired by the “second horse of ‘Ebbo”, a Saqlawi Jadran of the strain belonging to Dari al-Mahmoud of the Shammar,…
Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) is now 18 months old and is looking more and more like her sire. I am very happy with how she’s turning out. Jeanne Craver told me she is starting to look like Pirouette CF (Javera Thadrian x Piquante by Plantagenet), which in my opinion as well as that of a number of Davenport breeders, is the best looking of the Kuhaylan Hayfi mares alive today.
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…
As I am going through the horse photos in my restored hard drive, I thought I’d share with you photos of some of the horses we have owned over time, some asil, others not. As it were, there were 25 years of continuous Aldahdah breeding in Lebanon, but there never was an Aldahdah breeding program. Mares came and went, and the turnover was high, every few years, save for a core of personal favorites. There never was a third generation of Aldahdah foals, except for the Sa’dan Tuqan lines owned in partnership with the Hindi family. I begin with this headshot of Zahra (not her registered name), a Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq from the stud of Kamal Abd al-Khaliq in Aleppo, Syria, by the Ma’naqi Zudghum stallion Dinar son of the Hamdani Simri stallion al-A’war, out of the mare Hanadi who was by Krush Juhayyim. We bought this mare from Kamal when she was 10 days old and then sold her when I moved to the USA. She traced back to the old marbat of the Naqashbandi sufis of Deyr-el-Zor, who have had this line for some 120 years now. The line originally came from the Sba’ah Bedouins. Zahra produced two foals, a colt…
An American couple bought the 1993 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Regalia CF (Regency CF x Taradiddle by Ibn Alamein) from Craver Farms some years ago and took him to the south of France, where he is currently. Not sure whether he still there now.
Another of the handful of remaining asil Tahawi mares in Egypt is Mayssa, of the Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq strain, tracing to a marbat from the Sba’ah tribe. Mayssa belongs to Mrs. Helga al-Tahawi, the German wife of the late Sheykh Soliman al-Tahawi. Mrs. Helga is on the far left of the picture with Yehia, Sheykh Soliman’s nephew, and otherwise a breeder of registered (WAHO, EAO) Straight Egpytian Tahawi horses from the three Hamdan lines. Mayssa is not registered but is very asil. Forgive the quality of the photo please, and try to look at the mare itself.
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.
RJ Cadranell just circulated this picture of the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Capulet (Lysander x Silvia by Sir) from the Arabian Horse World magazine.
The Kuhaylat al-Hayf mare Enchante CF (Zacharia x Velveteen by Sir) was bred at Craver Farms, and then sold to Shirley Jacobsen who then gave her to Pamela Klein.. She is now at Craver Farms, where this photo was taken last week by Nancy Becker. I saw this mare three times, and she never looked as good as in this picture.. Darlene Summers has the only foal of hers, a daughter by Triermain called Elegance, and everyone in the Davenport breeders community agrees that this grand and precious mare should have more foals.
Jeanne Craver sent me these fresh pictures of my little Wadd (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF), which Nancy Becker photographed last week. I like the broad, muscled chest. The white around the eyes seems characteristic of Wisteria’s progeny (see Tantris CF as a foal, here, scroll down to the end).
I am thrilled! At 1.00 am this morning, Wisteria foaled a handsome colt, by her own sire Triermain. Jeanne Craver, who brought him to the world, with Charles, wrote: At 11 she was starting to think about it; at 1 she had a nose and one leg out and was lying on her back up against the wall. The hardest part was rolling her down off the wall, and then the other front foot was bent back at the pastern, and once I straightened that out, out he came with Wisteria doing most of the work. At one hour, he is up and walking on his own, he has had a bottle of mom’s best, and the mare has almost finished cleaning, I took a few iPhone photos in the dark. He is a handsome boy, withers at about my waist, legs straight, close coupling, nice neck…. everything looking good! Oh, and he’s grey. Surprise! In keeping with the W pattern of his dam, his granddam HB Wadduda, and his two sisters Walladah and Wadhah, he shall be named Wadd, the name of the ancient (before Islam) Arab god of love, whose sanctuary was located in the oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal…
In a few days, Al Khamsa will be in a position to announce a very good news concerning the last remaining asil horses of Tahawi bloodlines. In the meantime, I am sharing with you this 30 year old photo, which Yehia al-Tahawi, a member of Cairo’s Jockey Club and otherwise a breeder of Straight Egyptian Arabians of modern Tahawi lines (Fulla, Futna, and Bint Barakat), sent me of his father Sheykh Abd al-Sattar ‘Eliwa al-Tahawi with his asil Kuhaylah Tamriyah Ammoura (‘Darling’ in Arabic). Ammoura traces to a desert bred K. Tamriyah mare imported to Egypt by Sheykh Quwayti’ Smayda al-Tahawi from the ‘Anazah Bedouins in the Syrian desert. Her sire is a Hamdani Simri horse called “Ibn Damas” bred by Mohammed Fergani El-Tahawy, and tracing back to a Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare imported from the Sba’ah Bedouins. Yasir Ghanim who supplied all this information from his cousin Yehia also tells me Ammoura has an asil granddaughter that is still alive today. This news is a great ray of hope for the Arabian horse in general and for the Kuhaylan Tamri strain in particular, of which this mare would be the single remaining representative, as far as I know.
Black Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion at Mustafa Jabri in 1990. Sire: Mahrous; dam: a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah from the Shammar Bedouins. I don’t remember her name.
Read this entry in the stud book of Faysal ‘Abd Allah Sa’ud al-Tahawi, excerpted from the tribe’s website: “Then, in the year 1356 H, we bought the bay ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from Ibn Samdan, when she was in foal, and she gave birth, while in our ownership, to a chestnut colt whose sire is the [Kuhaylan] Nawwaqi who was [standing at stud] with the Arabs of Sba’ah, and whose owner was Fanghash, on the first day of Rabi’ al-Awwal 1356 H [equivalent to the 12th of May, 1937]. And we solt that colt to Cairo.” And further down: “And on July 27, 1949, Faran Ibn Samdan came to us, and we each took our shares [in horses], and he gave up his shares in al-‘Ubayyah and received from us 172 pounds. This was the bay ‘Ubayyah which came from Salih al-Misrab at the hand of Husayn Abu Hilal in 1356 H.” Now please tell me, how many people in 1950, just over sixty years ago, had the luxury of receiving Ibn Samdan, the breeder of the best and most authenticated marbat of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah, in his own house, to pay him his share of the ‘Ubayyat Ibn Samdan,…
This is the first time I see a photo of Nusi (Gulastra x Nusara by Abu Zeyd), a 1928 Kuhaylan Da’jani stallion bred by W.R. Brown in Berlin, New Hamsphire, USA.
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.
El Alamein (Dhareb out of Antarah by Antez), a 1943 Kuhaylan Haifi, and one of four full siblings, who were at the heart of the rebirth of Davenport breeding. Shown here in old age, and blind from an infection (hence the swollen eye). Charles Craver handling.
Grace Note CF (Pericles x Most Fair CF by Fair Sir) was bred by Craver Farms and later owned by Randy Abler of Georgia. Photos Shirin Samiljan. Note the long, tipped ears, the prominent facial bones, the delicate nostrils, and the placement and expression of the eyes. Faras ‘atiq like we say back home.
Bred by Charles Craver, by El Alamein out of Saranah by Salan. I saw him in extreme old age in 2000 shortly before his death. He produced more than 50 get, inclucing his son Regency CF, who is still alive at 30, and who in turn produced 65 offspring for Craver Farms.