It’s Boxing Day, so you get a bonus Davenport. (Actually, I ran across a series of comparisons between historic and modern Davenports that some Davenport people did in email in 2006, and I’ll try to share the ones I can illustrate.) Sotamm, 1919 brown mare (*Hamrah x *Farha) ADA Recapitulation, 2003 chestnut mare (Memoir UF x Capucine), age 2. When I first saw the Sotamm picture, I was initially shocked by the resemblance, then gratified to realize that we really are doing more than just preserving names in pedigrees.
There is this photo of the beautiful asil stallion Sumeyr (Bango d.b. x Jamnia by the Algerian asil Oukrif out of Taflia by the Egyptian Ibn Fayda) on allbreedigree here. He was bred at a private stud in Tunisia, then exported to France where he stood at the government stud of Pau, in the South West. His sire Bango was a Ma’naqi Sbaili from the Shammar, was imported to Algeria in the 1920s, and this makes Sumeyr very close to the desert. Photo from the Deblaise collection on their site Lozanne Publications. Now this one is of the very desert looking Tabriz (Oukrif x Hama by Agege out of Taflia by Ibn Fayda), a close relative of Sumeyr who had all this sallion career in Tunisia. He is also very close to the desert blood, his grandsire being the stallion El Managhi, imported from Hama, Syria, at the same time as Bango.
Nimr Shabareq (photo below, by Zaarour al-Barary out of Yamhad by al-A’war) is one of the desert bred stallions that were recently imported to France. He is now standing at stud with Louis Bauduin, who took this picture and gave it to Arnault Decroix, who sent it to me (Merci, Arnault). This is not your usual Arabian horse. This is a horse from hell. This is fire made horse. Both Jean-Claude Rajot and Arnault Decroix told me about their first encounter with this horse in 2008, when he was just a weanling at the stud of his breeder Radwan Shabareq: three grooms were needed to handle him as he was being shown to the stunned visitors. This is probably why Radwan called him Nimr — tiger. He hails from one of the most prestigious desert bloodlines: the Ma’naqi Sbayli marbat of Shawwakh al-Bu-Rasan, Shaykh of the Wuldah tribes of the Euphrates valley. Shawwakh had obtained the line from his neighbor and friend ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, a Fad’aan Bedouin who owns the strain now. ‘Atiyah’s great-grandfather had stolen the original mare from the Sba’ah (click here to read how), the fountain-spring of the Ma’naqi Sbayli strain. The clan of al-Bu-Rasan is…
Robin Weeks is spoiling me with photos of horses she owned, which happen to be horses I like a lot, and I am on a roll. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya by Julyan) in old age. She was bred by Jeanne Craver, and later owned by Robin Weeks. A favorite mare of mine, as you can tell from the several blog entries about this family. By now I think it’s time I shared with you the news that I am working with Kathy Busch of Kansas City, MO, on leasing a 25 year old chestnut daughter of Soiree which she owns. Her name is Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), she was also bred by Jeanne Craver, and she is all I am thinking about these days. She’s been treated at the vet clinic recently for a minor uterus infection, and she’ll be ready to be bred over the next couple weeks via artificial insemination. I am still looking for the right stallion for her, with ‘right’ in this case including ‘ready to collect from and ship’ in addition to the other meaning it has for me. By the way,…
If you haven’t already done so, check out the overview article by the late Carol Lyons, on “Drissula, One of a Kind”. Born in 1941, Drissula (Sultan x Ydrissa by Antez) is the only asil progenitor for the Ma’naghi Sbayli line of *Haidee, who was bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins and was imported to the UK in 1874. I already mentioned my soft spot for this strain. Some thirty five years ago, when my father asked the late Moussa de Freije, one of the foremost Lebanese authorities on Arabian horses, about why he held a particular M’anaqiyah Sbayliyah mare in such high esteem, the response of the French-educated Mr. de Freije was: “She is a Bourbon-Parma”, in reference to one of Europe’s most noble and blue-blooded dynasties. While all Ma’naqi Sbayli horses eventually go back to one marbat (Bedouin stud), that of Ibn Sbayyil of the ‘Ajlan clan from the Rasalin section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, who acquired the orginal Ma’naqiyah Hudrujiyah and, in time, gave her his name, not all Ma’naqi Sbaili marabet which subsequently branched out of his marbat were held in equal esteem. Even within the same tribe, levels of prestige and reputation associated with each marbat varied over time, and the fortunes of each marbat…
My research project about Syrian horse-racer Ahmad Ibish is progressing well, but I am not ready to share the results on this blog yet. Ibish, of Damascus, Syria, was on the top of my list of influential urban Middle Eastern horsemen of the twentieth century, along with Henri Pharaon of Beirut, Lebanon, Iskandar Qassis of Aleppo, Syria, and a few others. However, I can say a couple things about the horses he was associated with, at different times. I could find four of these, all stallions. The first, and perhaps most famous here in the US, was Aiglon. Aiglon was a Saqlawi Jadran imported by Ibish to Egypt for racing, around 1920, according to the export document for his daughter, *Exochorda, attested to by Dr. Branch, the Director of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt. *Exochorda, named after the ship that brought her to the USA, is of course best known as the dam of Sirecho. The second was El Sbaa. El Sbaa, a chestnut, was bought from Ahmad Ibish by a French government mission led by Madron and Denis at the Cairo Heliopolis racetrack in 1925, and sent to the French Stud of Pompadour where he was used as…
The 1987 black mare Cealie (Haziz Halim x Bint Alliette, by *Adhem out of Alliette, by Hallanny Mistanny out of *Lebnaniah) is the last asil descendent of the mare *Lebnaniah, a grey Ma’naghiyah imported from Lebanon by W.R. Hearst to the USA in 1947. The Arab Horse Association Datasource shows Cealie as being last owned by John and Sharon Campbell Bower of 8042 Rivergreen Dr. Everta, California 95626, who have since moved elsewhere. Cealie produced a gelding with a Polish “Arabian” in 1998, and might still be alive. If so, she would be 23. She was bred by Dr. Richard J. or Arlene Kuhn 26969 Ladera St. Redlands, CA 92373, who also bred and owned the 1987 stallion Aliziz (by Haziz Halim out a full sister of Bint Alliette). Below is a photo of Haziz Halim (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Serenity Shahrabi, by Serenity Osiris), the sire of both Cealie and Aliziz, Haziz Halim, was bred by Dr. Gradin, or Corvallis, Oregon. If anyone knows how to locate these two couples of breeders as well as Cealie and Aliziz, please get in touch with me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com. There is an ongoing effort to submit *Lebnaniah for inclusion in the Al Khamsa…
This pretty little girl, born on May 5th, at Royal Blue Arabians in New Jersey, is the latest addition to Terri Somers’ asil Ma’naqi program. She is by RB Bellagio out of CSA Jerusha (Mahtar x Dan El-Hosanna by RG Joshua, a mare of predominantly Egyptian lines, except for the Ma’naqi tail female to Drissula). This new filly, yet to be named, already has an older full sister, GTS Al Mas Hura.
I am a big fan of the breeding program of Terri Somers at Royal Blue Arabians in New Jersey. Terri is the owner of the striking grey Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion RB Bellagio (photo below, in harness, by Arabi Fadh Onyx x Sirrunade by Faaryan), and has been breeding classic and athletic horses of this Ma’naghi Sbayli strain for some years now (check out her story here). Her horses trace all the way back to Haidee, the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare of Sulayman Ibn Mirshid, the leader of the Bedouin tribe of Qumusah – no less. Haidee was bought by Major R. Upton and taken to the UK in 1874; her daughter Naomi was then exported to the USA in 1887 where the line bred on. The young stallion [okay, Terri tells me he is a gelding not a stallion. Tood bad] pictured below is one of the most promising yet bred by Terri. His name is GTS Hawa El Adhar (RB Bellagio x SS Fajulya by PRI Saqlawi Suud) and his pedigree is a tapestry weaving together several 1960s American Arabian breeding programs the likes of Jane Ott’s, Charles Krausnick’s and Joseph Zoran (note the four crosses to Julyan and hence Gulastra, and the multiple crosses…
Recently, I have been re-reading a lot of the old articles RJ wrote for Arabian Visions magazine, to refresh my memory as I start working on an Al Khamsa project on rare lines (more on this later). One of my favorite RJ articles is “The Blunts and Crabbet Stud: An Abbreviated History and Description of the Breeding Program“, from the time Crabbet Stud was founded in 1878 to Lady Anne Blunt death in 1917, including the dam lines that were represented at Crabbet across 40 years of breeding: In 1917, “the desert mares still represented at Crabbet at the end of Lady Anne’s life were Basilisk, Jerboa, Dajania, Queen of Sheba, Meshura, Rodania, and Ferida. However, the Jerboa line had died out in tail-female.” So, six of the Blunt’s desert damlines were still represented in 1917. Also, “of the Ali Pasha mares, the 1917 catalog details that […] the blood of the families of Sobha, Bint Helwa, Bint Nura, Makbula and her daughter Kasida, ran strong in the herd, with all but the latter having provided sires to the stud.” Four damlines from the Ali Pasha Sharif mares were still there in 1917, for a total of ten damlines. It would be…
I love this old photo of the stallion *Houran, a Kuhaylan Tamri, imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. The horse is standing so proudly, his neck beutifully arched, and his gaze fixing a far-reaching point on the horizon. Tood bad *Houran only left one daugher in asil USA breeding (the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare Bint Nimnaarah). *Houran was sired by a Hadban Enzahi stallion of the ‘Anazah tribes, some branches of which were home to many Hadban Enzahi marabit, such as Hadban Mushaytib, the most respected. By the way, have you seen the updated site of the Davenport Conservancy? It has a series of seminal articles by Charles Craver, which I am never tired of re-reading.
Lebanese-American Amin Rihani (1976-1940) was a man of many talents. He is best remembered as the man who introduced free verse into Arabic poetry. He was also one of the early figures of the Arab literary movement known as “kuttab al-mahjar” or “writers of the diaspora” to which Khalil Gibran and other Arab-American intellectuals also belonged. He was one of the first intellectuals to support Arab nationalism. He was also a close friend of Saudi Arabia’s king Abdul al-Aziz al-Saud, and wrote a number of accounts of his travels in Arabia such as “Muluk al-Arab” (Kings of the Arabs), which won critical acclaim, and “Tarikh Najd al-Hadith” (the Modern History of Najd). The historians of oil discovery in the Middle East will also remember him as one of the first brokers of the enduring relationship between the House of Saud and the American businesses in general and oil business in particular. It was perhaps through this latter role that he became acquainted with Arabian horses. Rihani was influential in the importation of four Arabian mares bred by the House of Saud and imported to the USA by Albert Harris of Chicago in the early 1930s. He was also a key…
These have been quite busy days for me, and I have not been able to write as often as I wanted to. That said, I wanted to quick highlight the fact that two new proposals to add new horses to the Al Khamsa Roster have been sent to the Al Khamsa Board of Directors. The first was sent by Joe Ferriss, and concerns the three Tahawi (an Egyptian peasant tribe of Arab stock) mares that are the foudation of Egypt’s Hamdan Stables: Fulla (a Shuwaymah Sabbah), Futna (a Kuhaylah Khallawiyah), and Bint Barakat (a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah). The second proposal (click here if you interested in reading it) was submitted by yours truly and concerns the mare *Lebnaniah, a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah imported by W.R. Hearst to the USA in 1947. The AK Board is currently discussing both proposals.
Below is one of the first photos I took, at age 12 in 1990 or 1991, with my father’s Nikon. The mare in the picture is Tahirah, then a 25 year old ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of the Saffaf family of Hama. Hama is an ancient city in central Syria, just west of the Syrian desert, and as such was the main marketplace for the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, which was famed for its many marabet of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak (‘Ubayyan al-‘Awbali, ‘Ubayyan al-Usayli’, Ubayyan Ibn ‘Alyan which by the way is Queen of Sheba’s marbat, ‘Ubayyan Ibn Thamdan,’Ubayyan Ibn Duwayhiss, ‘Ubayyan Labdah, etc). The Saffaf family were in close business contact with the Sba’ah Bedouins, from whom they obtained a number of desert-bred mares. One of these mares was Tahirah’s maternal grand-dam, a chestnut ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah, bred by Ku’ayran al-Amsa’, a Bedouin of the Rasalin section of the Sba’ah tribe. She was by a famous Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion, then the herd sire for the Rasalin section. Tahirah’s sire was a Kuhaylan al-Krush, also from the Saffaf family, who owned a Krush marbat as well. Her dam’s sire was a Hamdani Simri, also from Hama. Tahirah has many of the features…
Jeanne Craver sent me this photo a few days ago, in reference to the discussion on this entry.
This beautiful mare with big, black, femine eyes is Kokhle, the daughter of two desert-bred horses imported from the Syrian desert to the USA in 1906. Her sire, Hamrah is a Saqlawi al-‘Abd, and her dam, Farha, is a Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah. I know I sound like a broken record, but who said Ma’naghis did not look like classical Arabian horses? Unfortunately, Kokhle’s tail female no longer survives in asil Arabian horse breeding, but she does have a line in modern pedigrees through her son Kokhleson (by Ashmar), whose son Ralk (x Halloul) sired Ibn Ralf and Bint Ralf.
He was by Prince Hal x Sirrulya. Photo from Jeanne Craver
Some time last year, this blog featured the precious asil Kuhaylan al-Mimrah line to the mare Baraka (Ibn Manial x Gamalat) which has been flourishing in South Africa. The series of postings on Baraka and her descendents attracted a lot of attention from South Africa and Namibia, and is by far the most popular thread on this blog. Now is the time to feature another asil line that has survived in South Africa, and which carries crosses to desert-bred lines that are extinct almost everywhere else around the globe. That’s the line of the mare Rosina (Saoud x Ruth II by Bendigo), a 1950 Kuhaylat al-Rodan exported by H. V. Musgrave Clark to South Africa in 1953. The line is a tail female to Rodania, an 1869 desert-bred Kuhaylat Rodan imported by Lady Anne Blunt in 1881, and one of the most influential mares in Arabian (and asil) horse breeding. What’s so special about this line, will you ask? Kuhaylan al-Rodan asil horses are all over the place. Well, first of all, the absolute majority of Rodania tail female horses are within what is known as “Straight Egyptian” breeding, a sub-set of asil breeding which has branched out into a category – and…
Since I am back talking about Ma’naghi Sbayli stallions (see yesterday’s short post on RB Bellagio), I thought I’d bring up a picture of the stallion Dakhala Sabiq (Prince Hal x Sirrulya by Julyan), a 1975 stallion bred by Jeanne Hussong, when she was just about to become Jeanne Craver. A coouple of years ago, I was seriously considering to buy a daughter of Sabiq’s sister Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya): Dakhala Sahra is a lovely 1985 chestnut mare by Plantagentet out of Soiree, and is owned by Crista Couch. Perhaps I should have made a move. Dakhla Sabiq and RB Bellagio who was featured below, are closely related, since their respective dams Sirrulya and Sirrunade are sisters, both out of Jane Ott’s broodmatron Sirrulla (Sirecho x Drissula). Unfortunately, Sabiq never had the opportunity to be used as a stallion I have always had a soft spot for Ma’anaghi Sbayli stallions. It dates back to the time I read a story by Ali al-Barazi, an old-time Syrian horse breeder, about one of the last ghazus (Bedouin raids), in the early 1940s. That was just before the French, who were ruling over Syria at the time, put an end to all raiding activity and imposed peace…
One of my favorite stallions on the US East Coast is RB Bellagio (Arabi Fad Onyx x Sirrunade by Faaryan), an asil Ma’naghii Sbayli tracing to the desert-bred mare Haidee, bred by the Sba’ah tribe and imported to the UK in 1874. His maternal grand-dam is Miss Jane Ott’s famous Sirrulla (Sirecho x Drissula by Sultan). The back of his pedigree is really interesting which one of the very few crosses to the stallion Sultan (Ibn Nafa x Exochorda, and hence Sirecho’s half brother), another cross to Antez, and plenty of linebreeding and inbreeding to Haidee. RB Bellagio is owned by Terri Somers of New Jersey, who also owns a number of Ma’naghi mares that trace to Haidee, but also to the Blunt’s Ferida, another desert bred from the Shammar tribe. Terri has a nice website that has all sorts of information about RB Bellagio and his harm of Ma’naghiyat. By the way, don’t you think there is a similarity with the picture of the desert-bred stallion *Mirage, below?
Ma’anaqi Zudghum is one of the most respected marabet of Sbayli, owned by a Bedouin of the Sba’ah tribe called Zudghum. Dinar’s sire, the Hamdani Simri al-Aawar, was pictured in an earlier entry. This photo was taken by my father at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud in Aleppo, where Dinar, then a growthy two and a half years old colt, was on loan from his owner Zafir Abdul Khaliq. Back then (early 1990s, judging by the shirt I am wearing in the picture), Dinar was thought to have a ‘prettier’ head than your average Arabian horse from Syria, so breeders rushed to breed him to their mares even though he was still too young. It may have stifled his growth process. Again desert-bred horses in general and al-Aawar’s sons and daughters in particular take a longer time to mature, and in a hindsight, I think this one would have matured into a much better proportioned horse had he not been used so heavily at such a young age.
I recently shared with you my plan to propose the mare *Lebnaniah for inclusion in the Roster of Al-Khamsa horses as of 2010. The process is very thorough, usually involving several individuals putting their research skills together. It typically takes several years to complete. As part of this process, I will be sending the Al Khamsa Board original information about *Lebnaniah’s ancestors – information that was not available before. Much of this information is actually included in “Al-Dahdah Index” (don’t laugh), an annotated catalog of noteworthy asil and non-asil horses that were bred in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, the northern Arabian desert, etc) throughout the twentieth century. I have already shared with you the entries on the stallion Shaykh al-Arab and Kayane. The “Al-Dahdah Index” is a living document, which I have been patiently working on for the past twelve years, and I update as often as I can. The information is based on oral and written primary sources from the Middle East — i.e., it is not extracted from books written by Western travelers, horse buyers, and other occasional visitors. I would like to see the “Al-Dahdah Index” published some day, but not before I add a couple thousand more entries. I think I’ll give it another…
These four rare photos of Mohalhil are courtesy of the late Billy Sheets. No idea where he got them from. Mohalhil was a grey Ma’naghi Sbayli bred by the Shammar tribe in 1922 and imported to Egypt in 1925, by Fawzan al-Sabik, who raced him there before presenting him Charles Crane in 1929. Crane imported him to the USA, where Mohalhil still has a very thin line. Notice the striking physical resemblance between Mohalhil and another stallion that was featured on this blog, Bango. But the similarities in their backgrounds is even more striking. Like Mohalhil Bango was a grey, desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli; like him he was bred by the Shammar tribe, at around the same time (Bango in 1923 and Mohalhil in 1922); like him he raced in Egypt.
I don’t know where to start from.. the story of Kuhaylan al-Wati is so long and so rich, and begins way before the strain acquired its current name.. It also encompasses a number of other related, albeit better known strains. While I mull this over, let me leave you with this picture of Falat, a Kuhaylat al-Wati (by a Ma’naghi Hadraji from Ibn Ufaytan) from the sons of Hakem Hsaini al-Ghishm of the Shammar Bedouins. This family is the owner of the strain.. Falat was later sold to Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo, Syria.
In my opinion, *Abeyah was the best mare of the Davenport importation, and perhaps one of the best mares to come out of Arabia. She was certainly the best authenticated one. Look at my translation of her hujjah (also published in Al Khamsa Arabians III): I, o Faris al-Jarba, witness that the bay mare which on her face has a blaze and on her two back legs has a stocking, [i.e.] she has two stockings on her hindlegs, that she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of Mit’ab al-Hadb, [that she] is to be mated in the dark night, [that she] is purer than milk, and we only witness to what we know and do not keep [information] about the unknown. Faris al-Jarba bore witness to this [Faris al-Jarba’s seal] A hujjah couldn’t get any better than this. Concise, to the point, and written and sealed by the supreme leader of the preeminent Bedouin horse-breeding tribe of Arabia Deserta: the Shammar al-Jazirah. In comparison, how many horses otherwise known to have been berd by the Aal Saud have Ibn Saud’s own seal on their hujjah? How many other imported mares have Faris al-Jarba’s seal? [I know of only another one: the…
Think of this new “Lost asil tail females” series as an obituary section in a newspaper.. I know there is no point in grieving over what is lost, but it’s a good reminder of how lucky we are to have what we still have. The series starts with *Nedjme, just because “she was given the position of the first registration in the stud book of the Arabian Horse Club of America, […] an indication of the regard in which she was held by Arabian horse breeders in this country of her day” (Craver and Craver, Horses of the White City). *Nedjme was one of the horses the Ottoman Hamidie Society exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. She is registered as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz by a Saqlawi Jadran. However, evidence from a letter J.R. Dolbony (who was involved with the Hamidie Society, perhaps as an performer in the Ottoman exhibition) to Homer Davenport, mentions that her dam was of the Sa’dat al-Tuqan strain, from the Wuld Ali Bedouins and her sire of the Nkhayshi strain, from the Hssinah tribe, which is certainly more interesting. Whatever the case, *Nedjme was the pick of the Hamidie Society horses, and fetched the highest price when the…
Jean-Claude Rajot just sent me this rare photo of the important desert bred stallion El Managhi, bought in 1923 in Hama (central Syria) by veterinary Dr. Bardot for the Algerian stud of Tiaret. The stallion Bango, bought in Alexandria was part of the same importation. There is another picture of him in F. Klynstra’s book “Nobility of the desert”. Note that according to R. Mauvy, there is no indication that his strain was Ma’naghi, as his name may suggest. Most Tunisian Arabians now include his blood yet El Managhi’s most important product was perhaps the Asil Jilfat Dhawi mare Saponnaire, dam of Bassala which was acquired by the Pompadour stud in France. Here is an incomplete list of El Managhi’s progeny.
“Excellent horse, but his grey color makes him unusable”. So the French government, prompted by the cavalry’s dislike of the color grey, sold the stallion Burgas to Poland in 1923, without using him. Burgas, a Saqlawi Jadran by a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak, born in 1907, was one of 20 Arabian stallions imported to France in 1914, just before World World One. Of these, ‘Adwan, Ghoumar, Madfah, Nazim, Taleb, and Burgas went to the stallion depot of Pau, in southern France. Below are pictures of the last two. The sale of Burgas was a obviously a mistake, since he went on to sire Federacja for the Poles. She was the dam of Witez II. Taleb, a Ma’naghi Sbayli, sired the stallion Rabat, who is the represented in the pedigree of the handsome stallion Nichem.
I thought I’d share this photo of Nawal with you, after the mention of the strain of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss in a previous post of mine. ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss is a branch of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak owned by the Sba’ah tribe. Nawal was bred by Khairi Ajil al-Dibs, of the Aqaydat semi-nomadic sheep herding tribe, on the Euphrates valley not from the border between Syria and Iraq (lately a hotspost of military activity). Her sire was al-Ma’naqi al-Najrissi, a famous Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion, known throughout the Syrian desert for producing extremely typey and good-moving broodmares. The Aqaydat obtained the two strains of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss and Ma’naqi Sbayli directly from the Sba’ah tribe, whose seosonal migration routes spanned Aqaydat territory. Nawal was later acquired by Mustapha al-Jabri of Aleppo, for whom she went on to produce several good broodmares. Mustapha once told me a couple of nice stories about the pride in which Sba’ah Bedouins took in the particular strain of ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, in the contexts of their wars against the Ruwalah tribe, but I am afraid I don’t recall any of these stories in enough detail to relate it here. Will ask him next time we speak over the phone. I took this photo at Mustapha’s in the spring of…
The dark chestnut stallion Shaykh al-‘Arab is one of the foundation stallions of the (now defunct) Lebanese Asil Arabian horse breeding. Born in the desert somewhere between Hims and Palmyra, he was bred by Rakan ibn Mirshid, Shaykh of the Gomussah section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe in the 1930s, then sold to Beirut for racing. His sire was a desert-bred Ma’naghi Sbayli, the stallion of ‘Awdah al-Mis’ir of Sba’ah, and his dam a ‘Ubayyat al-Usayli’, one of the best marabit (pl. of marbat, i.e., desert stud) of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. [Other equally good marabit of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak with the Sba’ah tribe ainclude ‘Ubayyan ibn Duwayhiss, ‘Ubayyan al-‘Awbali, ‘Ubayyan ibn Thamdan, and ‘Ubayyan ibn ‘Alyan, the latter being the strain of the Blunt import Queen of Sheba, then owned by Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, Rakan’s ancestor.] In Beirut, the horse was successfully raced by Henri Pharaon under the name of Shaykh al-‘Arab (a reference to his prestigious breeder), and then given to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture as a breeding stallion. Shaykh al-‘Arab’s sons and daughters became good race horses, so much so that veteran Syrian racehorse owner Ali al-Barazi recalled attending race in Beirut where the top…
Musette (b. 1932), a Saqlawiyah by strain, is a good specimen of the Asil Arabians bred by the French government stud of Pompadour in the first half of the twentieth century. She reminds me of some of the first and second generation offspring of the horses imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. She was by the desert import El Sbaa (strain: Ju’aitni) out of Musotte, who was by the famous Dahman (strain: Rabdan, sire: a Dahman) out of Mysterieuse. Mysterieuse was by yet another desert bred stallion, Enwer – a Ma’naghi, bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe like Dahman, and like him imported to France in 1909 – out of Mysie. Mysie was by the desert-bred Beni Kaled, a chestnut Hamdani, out of the imported desert-bred mare Meleke. Meleke was imported to Pompadour in 1891, a Saqlawiyah by a Ma’naghi, himself by a Hamdani Simri (or by a Hamdani Simri by a Ma’naghi, the French importation records are ambiguous). This precious line has unfortunately completely died out by the 1940s, and only survives in the middle of the pedigrees, through the Asil stallions Matuvu, and Minos. Matuvu (by El Sbaa out of Manon, by Dahman out of Mysterieuse), stood at…
In 1909, a French government commission led by Inspector Quinchez bought 24 desert-bred stallions from the Egyptian racetrack of Sidi Gaber in Alexandria. Of these, 17 went to Algeria (then a part of France), and the remaining 7 were distributed in government studs across mainland France. The seven were: Dahman, Meenak, Farid, Aslani, Hamdany El Samry, Latif and Maarouf. The magnificent Dahman, to which this blog paid a tribute some time ago, was no doubt the star of this importation. Dahman’s hujja – which I will translate for you soon – tells us that he was bred by the Shammar tribe, from a Dahman sire and a Rabda dam. He stood at Pompadour for twenty-some years, leaving behind many pretty Asil mares like Ninon (picture below), Melinite, Musotte, and Noble Reine, and some excellent stallions, one of which, Minos (x Melisse) was sent to the King of Morocco. Today Minos appears in many modern Moroccan pedigrees. If Dahman was the most striking, Aslani was the French breeders’ favorite. He originally came from the tribe of Bani Sakhr, by a Ubayyan and a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz. Quinchez had to pay the hefty sum of 8,000 Francs to snatch him away from Alexandrian trainer and racehorse owner Michaelides – the same individual who…
Just came across an interesting article from 2005 in the New Scientist: Irish researchers analyzing Y-chromosome sequences in the DNA of a sample representative of the 500,000 or so English Thoroughbred racehorses alive today found that 95% of these horses traced to a single horse in the tail male: the Darley Arabian, born in 1700 (who by the way, was a Ma’naghi from the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe, which makes this strain one of the oldest recorded). I wonder how many different sire lines a similar study could identify within the Arabian horse population…
Clue: bred at Craver Farms.. Photo taken by Majestic Lineage (nice nickname!) Mare’s strain is Ma’naghiyah Hudrujiyah of Ibn Sbayyil, or Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah.
WARNING: DON’T READ ON UNLESS YOU ARE A PEDIGREE FREAK OR INTEND TO BECOME ONE. Of the Arabian horses bred in the three North African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, the latter is the only one that did not develop its own “brand” of Arabians. Rather, Morocco relied on importations from its two North African neighbors as well as France and Egypt. Lets look at the pedigree of a typical modern Moroccan-bred Arabian horse: Fata, a chestnut stallion of the Jilfan Dhawi strain imported in utero from Morocco to France in 1976. Fata’s dam Tobiha was actually sold by the Moroccan Government stud of Meknes to French breeder jean Deleau, the founder of Haras de la Lizonne, in Western France. Fata is by El Sud El Aaly (Nazeer x Lateefa), an Asil stallion born in Egypt and gifted to the King Mohamed V of Morocco (a full brother to SF Ibn Nazeer, by the way). Fata’s dam Tobiha is by Burhan (Morafic x Mona by Sid Abouhoum x Moniet el Nefous), another Egyptian Asil, and also a present from Egypt to the Moroccan King. Fata’s maternal granddam, Mousson is by Murols, a stallion bred at the French stud of Pompadour and imported from France…
Since it’s easier to share photos than write long articles, I thought I’d post this picture of one of my favorite Asil stallions from Syria. Shaddad (Marzouq x Asila), a Ma’naghi Zudghum (a prestigious branch of Ma’naghi Sbayli), is here pictured as a colt, with a groom and myself standing nearbyThe photo was taken at Zafir Abdul Khaliq’s stables, outside Aleppo, some fiften years ago.. Time flies.
I visited Yemen for the time in 2002 – for work. I was a panelist in a conference that brought together government officials, academics, representative of the private sector, and traditional leaders. Among the latter, I recall seeing a man surrounded by a large retinue of armed bodyguards and followers. People stepped aside when he passed by, and everyone seemed to treat him with much awe and respect. I was told his name was Naji ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Shayif, and that he was the Supreme Shaykh (tribal leader) of Bakil. Bakil is one of the two largest Yemeni tribes, with several million members (the other tribe being Hashed, to which the President of the Republic of Yemen, H.E. Ali Abdallah al-Saleh, belongs). Later in the evening, I asked whether there still were Arabian horses in Yemen, and was told that the same Naji al-Shayif owned about 20 to 30 of them, and that he’d recently given one of them to a Western ambassador as a gift. I was also told that the shaykh of the tribe of Juhannam, on the Red Sea coast of Yemen, owned some 40 to 50 Arabian horses too. That was all the information I could gather on the horses of a country that is believed…
[This is the third in a series of four posts on the Ma’anaghi Hadraji marbat of Ibn ‘Ufaytan. Click here and here to access the first and second posts.] We reached the village of Ibn ‘Ufaytan [update July 17 2008: the village is Buthat al-Taqch] in the early afternoon, after having taken a dirt road that cut through the steppe. Faddan al-‘Ufaytan and his son, whose name I unfortuantely don’t recall, were waiting for us at the entrance of their house. Faddan, a Shammar Bedouin in his fifities, was the nephew and heir of Dahir al-‘Ufaytan, who owned the most famous and best authenticated marbat of Ma’naghi Hadraji in recent memory. Any Ma’naghi stallion coming from Dahir al-‘Ufaytan could be used as a stallion in the darkest of nights, as Bedouins would put it. Ibn ‘Ufaytan would only mate his mares to his own stallions, or to the stallions of his close relative and neighbour, Ibn Jlaidan, the owner of a famous Shammari marbat of Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, and the subject of earlier post. Back in the nineteen fourties and fifties, the horses of Ibn ‘Ufaytan made a name for themselves at Beirut racetrack as good racehorses of Asil stock, and it was said they were favorites of famous racehorse…
This picture of Hakem, the young stallion that is the subject of a previous blog entry, is long overdue. He is pictured at the growthy age of two years old, and in racing condition, so don’t expect to see a show horse, but rather look at the features that make for a good desert-bred arabian horse: big eyes, fine midbah (throat), tiny muzzle, triangular shape of the head, sculpted, inward-turning ears, well sloped shoulder, long neck, high withers, shiny skin, deep girth, short, straight back, etc. There is also the flowing action, and electrifying presence, which the picture does not render. In short, I think this horse has it all. Give him time to mature and you’ll see. These creatures are not complete before they are six or even seven years old. They mature very slowly. He reminds me a bit of the pictures of the desert bred stallions *Hamrah, imported as a young stallion to the USA in 1906 by Homer Davenport. It seems that, shorly after the visit during which I took this picture, some people from Damascus came and bought the horse. He is now being used as a stallion. Is a good horse ever going to be left in the desert?
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.
This pretty bay mare, heavy in foal is a desert-bred Ma’naghiyah Hadrajiyah from the Shammar tribe. The strain originally came from the ‘Anazah tribe by way of tribal raiding.
It was already two in the afternoon when our van stopped at the house of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan, the owner of the marbat of Ma’naghi Hadraji I had heard so much about. We had spent the entire morning looking at the horses of the Sherabiyin, in the villages of Tall al-‘Arab al-Gharbi and Tall al-‘Arab al-Sharqi, formerly Kurdish villages of North-Eastern Syria, now settled by a majority of Arab sheep-herders turned farmers. The modern-day Sherabiyin constitute a loose tribal grouping of Bedouins of humble descent and disparate origins, with a solid reputation as cattle thieves and petty robbers. Bedouins from more noble tribes do not typically hold them in high esteem as a group, and jokes about the Sharabiyin’s dubious sense of truth abound. Our host, Dahir al-Salih was a Sharabi from Tall al-‘Arab al-Gharbi, which everyone called by its more common Kurdish name: Garhok. Dahir’s sons and his extended family made a living by training horses for long distance racing. The traditional sport was quickly transforming into a profitable industry, fueled by rising demand for endurance horses from Damascus and the Gulf countries. Dahir was making good money, and his horses were fat. Our party included two friends from Aleppo, both horsebreeders, Radwan Shabareq and Kamal Abd al-Khaliq, in addition to Hazaim and I. Radwan and Kamal boarded their horses at Dahir’s, and visited…
My fourth feature in the “Strain of the Week” series is late. This time, I will be telling you about the Ma’anaghi Hadraji strain, and in particular about the marbat (Bedouin stud) of Ibn ‘Ufaytan of Shammar. Meanwhile, here is a picture of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan (left), the Shammar Bedouin who owns the strain, which we took at his house in North-Eastern Syria, in October 2005.
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 Arabs) surrendered to French troops. Horses were a major factor in the conquest and stabilization of Algeria. In 1877, the French Ministry of War (the equivalent of a Department of Defense), established a breeding stud near the town of Tiaret, in the mountains of central Algeria. The objective of the “Jumenterie de Tiaret”, which later became the “Haras de Tiaret-Chaouchaoua“, was to produce Arabian stallions, which were sent to local stallion depots, where they were used on Barb mares. The result was a sturdy Arab-Barb cavalry horse. Hundreds of Arabian stallions and dozens of mares were imported to Tiaret (and its equivalent in neighboring Tunisia, Sidi-Thabet) from the deserts of Arabia and the racetracks of Egypt and Lebanon. Depending on the expertise of the horse-buying commission and its budget, imports ranged from the outstanding to the mediocre. Overall, Algeria received much better quality desert-bred imports than Tunisia or even France. Outstanding genitors included: Bango, a grey Ma’anaghi…
Look at the picture of the magnificent El Sbaa below: a French government commission led by M. Rieu de Madron purchased this Asil Ma’anaghi Sbayli stallion straight from the desert [correction: from Cairo, Egypt] in 1925. El Sbaa stood at the Stud of Pompadour, France, but he was ill suited for its humid climate, so he developed a form of asthma and died a few years later. He left too few offspring behind, including the stallions Nemer (out of Ninon), Khartoum (out of Kioumi), the full borthers Medard and Meat (out of Medea), and the dark brown stallion Matuvu (out of Manon). Nemer was exported to Poland, and Khartoum to Romania, where they both started famous racing lines that endure to this day (although not in Asil form). Meat was retained for the Stud of Pompadour, where he took over from his sire, and Matuvu was sent to the stallion depot of Blois, where only a handful Arabian horse breeders used him. Two Asil lines to El Sbaa survived well into the 1970s: one old French dam-line at Pompadour, and another Algerian dam-line with the French breeder Robert Mauvy. At Pompadour, the last Asil to carry a line to El Sbaa was the very typey mare Ablette (by…
A previous post gave me the occasion to mention Zanoubia, which is something I have been looking forward to for some time now. Zanoubia was my first mare. Rather she was the first mare from my father’s horses in Lebanon that I considered mine. She did not make it in my recent top ten of the best Asil mares ever bred; she would have ten years ago, before I become acquainted with the wonderful Asil Arabians bred in the USA. Dad had bought her as a yearling in 1977 0r 78. At that time, he owned some 15 mares and a couple stallions, not all of them Asil. There were few Asil Arabians left in Lebanon, and Zanoubia was one of the them. She was a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the horses of the Dandashi landowners of Western Syria, who were famed for the beauty and purity of their horses. The strain came from the Sba’ah tribe. A couple of the Dandashi horses made their way to Europe and the USA. The Dandashi were the owners of the 1880 black Babolna stallion O-Bajan, who’s left such an imprint on Asil breeding in Europe. They were also the breeders of the Saqlawi Jadran, sire of the Asil mare *Muha, imported by Ameen al-Rihani to the USA. That Saqlawi Jadran was a gift from…
I just wanted to follow up with a few photos of some horses I mentioned in my previous comments on this blog that were of the Maanagi strain. These three I saw on my trip in 1996 through Jordan, Syria, and the Gulf region. I have other photos of representatives of this strain on that tript but these three just happened to be quickly available on my computer. The first is the grey Maanagi Sbaili stallion Atiyah, a son of the mare Wadeehah which Edouard posted. Atiyah was presented at Basil Jadaan’s place in Syria. As you can see he is a splendid horse. His balance and harmony were impressive, forming an ideal silhouette of an Arabian, and you can see the exceptional overall leg and conformation quality he has. the second picture is the grey Maanagi Hadruj stallion owned by Shaikh Mohamed Abdul Razak Al-Taiee. He was another magnificent horse and although our photo opportunity was more limited here, this horse left a very favorable impression on all of his for his quality, character, and noble appearance. The third picture is of a bay Maanigieh filly owned by the Emir of Bahrain and a part of the WAHO presentation…
Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan is the third strain featured in the “Strain of the Week” series. You will almost certainly not find a representative of this strain outside of Arabia today. A few of you may have heard of it in the context of their trips to Syria. The strain is emblematic of the Shammar tribe, as opposed to the two other strains featured previously, Kuhaylan al-Hayf and Kuhaylan al-Mimrah, both of which were owned by the ‘Anazah group. Kuhaylan Ibn Jlaidan is very simply, Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz of the marbat of Ibn Jlaidan, a Bedouin from the Hdibah clan of the Shammar. Many Shammar Bedouins still refer to the strain as Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz. Some time in 2006, my friend Hazaim and I spoke to ‘Abdallah Ibn Jlaidan over the phone, as part of our project to collect as much information as possible strainght from Bedouin sources. ‘Abdallah told us that his “fifth grandfather” (i.e., the grandfather of his grandfather) Muhammad al-Jlaidan once visited the Sharif of Mecca, and that the latter gave him a Kuhayla al-‘Ajuz mare as a gift. He could not tell us the exact day when this occured, but said that it was more than a hundred years ago…
I am never tired of showing this picture of the lovely mare Wadeehah, a 1970 desert-bred Asil Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah from the marbat of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn. The strain is also known as Ma’naghiyat Abu Sayfayn. I took this picture of Wadeehah in 1992 in Aleppo, Syria, where she spent the latter part of her life in the ownership of my friend Kamal ‘Abdul Khaliq. It is a shame Kamal never managed to get a filly out of her, only colts. She did produce the mare Sayfia, however, which is the subject of an earlier post. Sayfia is now in her early twenties and is still in the desert with ‘Abdallah Abu Sayfayn, ‘Atiyah’s son. Sayfiah has now a filly by a Saglawi Jadran of from the tribe of al-Baqqarah. So the line goes on. Kamal had bought Wadeehah in 1982 from ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn himself. She had a young colt by her side. The colt, named Marzuq, was accidentally hit by a truck soon after arriving at Kamal’s, but he survived his hinquarter injury and went on to become a leading stallion for Kamal, leaving plenty of splendid colts and fillies, before dying a few months ago. The most striking thing about Marzuq was his kindness. You…
When in March of 2007, I called Abdallah ibn ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn on his mobile, I knew I had a date with history. Abdallah, 55, lives in the desert in north-eastern Syria, and is the owner [sahib] of a marbat of the strain of Maanaghi Sbayli known as Maanaghi Abu Sayfayn, after his family. He is the son of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, a Bedouin who reportedly lived to the age of one hundred, and was an authority on Arabian horses. ‘Atiyah was a master breeder, too and you can see for yourselves: he bred the gorgeous mare Sayfia, which is pictured here. The Abu Sayfayn are a clan of the Shumaylat, which is one of the main branches of the Fad’aan tribe. Other closely related Shumaylat clans include Ibn Hubayqan’s, who owns the main marbat of Kuhaylan Hayfi, and Ibn ‘Amayir’s, who owns Kuhaylan al-Musinn (more on these guys later). If you take out the flurry of unfamiliar names of people, places, and horses that clutter the interview and may seem off-putting, you will find this conservation helpful in shedding light on a number of Bedouin practices: inbreeding, stealing horses, exchanging horses from brides, transfers of ownership, and so on. Read the full text of the conversation here, and let me know what you think.