Najd

Riyadh, January 1942

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Photo courtesy of the Facebook Page “The Old Bahrain“. This image is timeless. The buildings, the street, could have looked the same 500, 1000, 2000 years ago. Compare this picture with depictions of ancient Mesopotamian cities based on archaeological evidence.

Goodbye Turf

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MD Turfairan (“Turf”) left for a new home yesterday. Turf was Jessie Heinrick’s gift to me, in return for my gifting her Wadd Al Arab. I regret that Turf did not have any opportunities at stud in my ownership. He would have nicked especially well with the *Nufoud mares. Despite his short height, he has … Read more

Belle’s 2023 foal

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I am so taken with Belle’s new colt by Jamr, born a couple months ago at the farm of their new owner Moira Walker. Moira named him Belisarius. He is a throwback to the USA Arabians of a hundred years ago, those you find in black and white photographs of horse magazines and books. At … Read more

Dosage

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Today, my Barakah was bred to Monologue CF. I love this young mare of mine, and I am looking forward to the outcome of that cross. In general, I find that this particular branch of the *Nufoud damline is a diamond in the rough. It has plenty of desert type, but some defects too. Barakah’s … Read more

Ahmed Mabrouk on the Ubayyan horses at Ibn Jalawi in East Arabia in 1936

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The following are excerpts from the RAS Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk’s book “A Journey to Arabia”, pertaining to his visit to Eastern Arabia in 1936: [King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia] gave me two recommendations, one to H.H. Prince Seoud Ibn Galawi, Ruler of El-Ehsa […]. The well known hospitality of H.M. The King and his … Read more

Belle this afternoon

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This is Jadah BelloftheBall (aka “Belle”, and I am going to change this name with the registry). The background is an eyesore, but she otherwise looks good. She is a 2002 Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, tracing to *Nufoud, a mare from the stables of Ibn Saud. Her sire is Invictus Al Krush and her dam is one … Read more

My Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz

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Last week I saw “Belle” for the first time. Jadah BelloftheBall (I so don’t like that name and I want to change it) is Jeannie Lieb’s gift to me in 2013. I liked the mare, she sent all the right vibes to me. Looking at her, you’d easily forget you are in the woods of … Read more

Muhammad Eid Al-Rawwaf, Consul of Najd and Hijaz in Damascus and the Albert Harris imports: a new find

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This fascinating article (in Arabic) reveals that King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, upon founding the Kingdom of Najd, Hijaz and its dependencies (which in 1932 became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) entrusted the responsibility of representing his Kingdom before other Arab countries to members of the Agheylat corporation (see below about them). This makes a lot of sense … Read more

Welcome, Belle

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I am excited to announce that the Kuhaylat al-Ajuz Jadah BelloftheBall a.ka. “Belle” (Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF by Audobon x LD Rubic by Plantagenet) has joined the Al-Dahdah herd. She is a gift from my friend Jeannie Lieb, who delivered her from Boston to Pennsylvania yesterday! I have been wanting a mare from the … Read more

AAS Najl Enan

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This is the asil Hamdani Simri stallion AAS Najl Enan (AAS Enan x AAS Ardal Rafiqa by Ibn Taamri) bred by Edie Booth of Antique Arabians Stud for Canton, TX. A promising young stallion.  He is very reminiscent of some of Lebanon’s asils of the 1940s and 1950s.  

Jadah Sharuuq, 1995 black Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion

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Jeanne Craver sent me this photo of the black Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion Jadah Sharuuq (Lifes Capade LD x Belladonna CHF by Audobon), a Sharp (no Blunt/Crabbet blood) stallion bred by Randall and Mary Sue Harris of Peoria, IL, from lines from Carol Lyons. This rare and precious stallion is just five generations removed from the … Read more

The Hamdani Simri line of *Samirah through Koweyt in pictures

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What follows are pictures of horses from a little known and much underlooked asil line in the USA, that of the Saud Royal Stud’s Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare *Samirah, through her daughter Koweyt by Alcazar, Koweyt’s daughter Konight by Kaniht (all from Albert Harris’ breeding) and Konight’s 1963 daughter Ameera Moda by Fa-Turf (so lots of desert … Read more

On Sa’dan Tuqan as Kuhaylan

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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 … Read more

Ziba, from the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare line of Dafina, Crabbet and Courthouse lines

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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 … Read more

Her Royal Highness, the Queen of Arabia

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Matthias Oster sent me these two photos of the 2003 mare Wassayef al Thalitha (Nader x al-Barsaa). She won the Saudi desert bred mare class at al-Khalidiyyah show. Her owner is HM King Abdallah ibn Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud. I could not imagine her being owned by anyone else than a king.

Photo of the Day: Hamdani Ibn Bahri, 2001 asil Hamdani Simri stallion in Canada

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Below is a photo of Hamdani Ibn Bahri (Bahri x Qaisumeh by Qaisum who is Bahri’s full brother), a 2001 asil Hamdani Simri stallion from the breeding of Lee Oellerich in British Columbia, Canada.  He has six lines to the stallion *Taamri, DB and carries 50% Taamri blood and three lines to *Rudann, DB and … Read more

Nabeh, desert-bred Ubayyan al-Suyayfi stallion, Saudi Arabia

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This stallion was the favorite of my wife Gabriele and I during our visit at the Najd Stud near Al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia: Nabeh, a fleebitten grey stallion 8 years by Haleem (already featured on this blog earlier), from the Ubayyan al-Sufayfi. Nabeh was the most beautiful desert-bred we saw on our trip, with small … Read more

Photo of the Day: Dahman Al Bahrain, asil Dahman stallion in Canada

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This photo is of my stallion Dahman Al Bahrain (now deceased) a chestnut  Dahman Shahwan, born in 1977, by Mirath out of Hadriya DB. Dahman was a Flat Racing, Endurance and CTR veteran and a winner of numerous Match races. His dam Hadriya lived to be 36 years old and produced to age 28.  His sire Mirath … Read more

AAS Sawannah, an asil Arabian back to her homeland

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Below is a photo of a USA bred Arabian mare, which we saw at the stables of Prince Turki bin Fahd Bin Jiluwi Aal Saud, a scion of the Jiluwi family who were the Eastern al-Ihsaa (Hasa) province governor. The mare is a Dahmat Shahwan, AAS Sawannah, by AAS Hezzez out of DB Jasidah by Desert Jalam. Prince … Read more

Glorious Bahri, 1983 asil Hamdani Simri stallion in Canada

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The glorious asil Hamdani Simri stallion Bahri (Ruta-Am x Taamhal by Taamri out of Halwaaji), a four-times grandson of the desert, since all his grandparents were imported by Sam Roach from the stables of King Ibn Saud in al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Bahri was bred by Lee Oellerich in Canada, and is still doing great at 28 … Read more

Photo of the Day: Szeikha, desert-bred Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, Poland

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This is a raelly unique photo, by Carl Raswan, from the Craver photo collection. It shows the mare Szeikha, a chestnut Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz purchased in the Arabian desert in 1931 by Bogdan Zientarski and Carl Raswan on the behalf of Prince Roman Sanguszko for the Gumniska Stud. She was bred i n 1923 by “Sheikh Farhan … Read more

Desert Horses’ Dispersal

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Joe Ferriss sent me this announcement about a herd dispersal in Arkansas. There are 8 asil Arabians involved, all of BLUE STAR bloodlines. Five of these are ‘Straight Desert’, meaning that they entirely to horses imported from Saudi Arabia in the 1950s and 1960s. All need homes and quickly. Normally, Joe does not like to … Read more

Preservation across the USA

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Jenny Krieg, of Maryland has partnered with Rodger Davis of Illinois to send two of Rodger Davis’ mares to the stallion from Bahrain, *Mlolshaan Hager Solomon (Rabdaan Alwasmy M19 x Mlolesh Asila M105 by Sharid), who is up in Michigan with Bill Biel. All of us have five pairs of fingers crossed for what should be … Read more

Why do Arabian horse imports from Saudi Arabia don’t have ‘substrains’?

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Blog reader Mathias, from Germany, asked a pertinent question a few weeks ago: How come, he observed, “the horses from Saudi sources […] mostly have one strain name and no substrain, like Turfa and […] the mare Ghazala imported to Germany from Saudi Arabia”? I had never noticed before, but Mathias is correct. Check out the available, recorded … Read more

Wordsmithing and the issue of *Turfa’s strain

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The beautiful chestnut mare Bint Turfara (Sirecho x Turfara by *Fadl), a Kuhaylah, is pictured below. By the way, and just to set the record straight, the strain of “‘Ubayyan al-Hurmah” , which Carl Raswan ascribes to *Turfa (and her sire) simply does not exist.  There are about four dozens different strains of ‘Ubayyan, which I will list on … Read more

The story of Kuhaylat al-Musinn of Ibn Saud

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[Edouard’s note: the story below was sent to me to Pure Man in Arabic, and is posted here under his name. Translation mine. It was first published a year ago, almost day for day and is being republished now]

These horses, al-Musinnat [plural form of Kuhaylat al-Musinn or al-Musinnah] are very ancient. They are from the horses of ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Faysal ibn Turki Aal Saud, the brother of King ‘Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud.

Prince Abd Allah, the brother of the king, had kept his horses in a private, separate farm. Upon his death, the horses went to his son, Prince Abd al-Rahman, and then to his grandson, Prince Faysal. And Prince Faysal is now aged. Then the horses went to Prince Turki Ibn Fahd Ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Faysal ibn Turki, who is now preserving what remains from the asil horses, per God’s will.

Some of the Musinnat horses of Prince Abdallah, the brother of King Abd al-Aziz, participated in the Hedjaz campaign [i.e., the takover of the Hedjaz region from the Sharif of Mecca by the army of Ibn Saud in 1924].  Two men from Ibn Saud’s army fought particularly well in some episodes of this campaign: the first was Badi ibn Dhubyan from the tribe of Subay’, and he was riding a Musannan stallion that belonged to Prince Abdallah, the king’s brother. The second was Ibn Wareek, a Qahtan Bedouin from an ancient horsebreeding family.

Both fought pitched battles on horseback against one of the Sharif’s toughest warriors: Kharbush al-Dhuwaybi of the Harb tribe, who was riding a black stallion. Badi killed Kharbush in one of the battles, and the Sharif’s troops and Bedouin auxiliaries were defeated.

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Photo of the Day: Zairafan, Ubayyan stallion in the USA

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I wish to thank Troy Patterson for sharing with me this rare picture of the asil stallion Zairafan (Alwal Bahet x Maarah by Taamrud), from Mrs. J. E. Ott’s breeding. Zairafan is a Ubayyan whose tail female goes back to the mare *Mahraa, bred by Prince Saud ibn Abdallah ibn Jiluwi, governor of the Eastern Province of … Read more

Hujjah: Gazala, a desert-bred mare from Hail, Saudi Arabia, 1971

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In 1971, H.R.H. Prince Salman b. Abd al-Aziz Aal Saoud, brother of the present king of Saudi Arabia, and then and now governor of the Province of Riyadh (which more or less corresponds to the historical region of Najd), presented the bay Hamdaniyah mare Gazala to a Dr. Klaus Simons of Germany. The latter imported … Read more

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