Severine Vesco and Amelie Blackwell, wearing their treasure hunter hats, found this gem of a mare somewhere in rural Southern France. Lannilis, the mare, is a 20 year old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, of Tunisian, Algerian, and old, pure French bloodlines. She had a career as a trail riding horse, and is now being used to produce endurance Arabians and Araloosas. This mare traces to one of the lesser known Algerian (Tiaret) tail females, that of the mare Mzeirib, a 1891 desert-bred Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah from the Shammar. The French imported Mzeirib to Algeria in 1898. The line went to the state stud of Tunisia at some point in the 1920s, then to private hands in France in the 1970s. In France it bred on with crosses to pure Arabian stallions of old Tunisian lines, including some of Robert Mauvy’s breeding. It is the same female line as that of the Tunisian stallion Omran that went to that zoo in Germany. The short back, the deep girth, the high withers, the long hip on this mare are somehow reminiscent of early Crabbet Blunt horses.
This is Nawakiat ‘Akkar, a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, and yet another Achhal daughter, born in 1976. She was the most valuable mare my father owned, and had established a dynasty of (part-bred) race winners of her own. She was a gift from Henri Pharaon at three years old, and was sold in 1992 to Henri’s cousin, Pierre Pharaon, along with Zenobia and a third mare (part-bred). This was when my father was transitioning to “purebred Arab” horses of international lines, which he then felt were equally “asil”, and had just acquired two mares of predominantly Crabbet lines from Jordan, Ziba (Dancing Magic x Shazla) and Shela (El Batal x Siva).
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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,…
Arnault Decroix sent me the following account of the first endurance race (13 miles) of the Syrian stallion Hussam al-Shamal: “Hussam a fait sa course avec Nicolas aux Andelys en Normandie. Epreuve élevage 20 kms pour 6ans. Il l’a fait en 14,84 kms/heure, le meilleurs temps de l’épreuve de vitesse imposée entre 12 et 15 kms/heure. Ayant été gêné par d’autres concurrents pendant la course, il a terminé sur l’hippodrome à 40 kms/heure, parfaitement sec avec une récupération à 40 de pulsation. Pendant la course il était tout à son affaire, restant trés froid, ce qui n’était pas le cas au vet gate où il avait tendance à s’enerver à la vue des autres chevaux…A la remise des prix, le jury à souligné ses origines syriennes et son cachet et le public de cavaliers et d’éleveurs, semble t’y avoir été sensible de par leurs applaudissements. Il fera une autre course de 40 km le 9 Juillet à Vatteville la rue toujours en Normandie et si tout va bien une 60 km par la suite.” Here are some pictures of this race from Arnault:
Adrien Deblaise also sent me this recent photo of another Syrian stallion now in France, Hussam al-Shamal (Ra’ad x Rouba al-Shamal by Al-Abjar), a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq bred by Saed and Raed Yakan in al-Bab near Aleppo, Syria. Hussam is owned by Damacus breeder Naji al-Chaoui, who has him stationed in France with Arnault Decroix. Adrien has a very nice filly from Hussam that will be featured here next, out a mare from an old asil Algerian line.
Arnault Decroix send me this picture of his very promising 2005 stallion Dahess Hassaka (al-Ameer Dahess x Oghareet by Marzouk out of Hanadi by Krush Juhayyim), which was bought from Radwan Shabareq and imported to France in 2009. An asil Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the very old marbat of the Naqashbandi sufi mystics of the Middle Euphrates valley, Dahess Hassaka is the paternal grandson of my Dahess and is now being used as a stallion by Arnault. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
This horse should have been mine, years ago. Actually, he was about to be mine, and he somehow slipped between my fingers by going to greener pastures. I first encountered him on a hot summer afternoon in 1996, while on a visit to the Aleppo Equestrian Center, with friends Radwan Shabareq, Kamal Abdul-Khaliq, and my father, Salim al-Dahdah. We had come to see a famous Arabian mare, owned by a man of the leading clan of the Shammar, the Jarba clan, with the intention of buying her. She was a celebrated mare in the desert, and I have featured her several times on this blog. The Aleppo Equestrian Center is located inside a gated compound; a paved road takes you from the main entrance to the stables and the administration offices uphill. Paddocks and jumping competition arenas are in the middle of the compound. As the four of us were walking up the paved road to the stables, the afternoon sunrays pounding on our heads, I was faced with this un-real image of a light grey Arabian stallion, tethered to the paddock fences, with a majestuous yet very gentle attitude, one that welcomes and inspires awe at the same time. I thought to myself: “I didn’t know they had…
This stallion, from the area of Hims and Hama in Syria, was offered for the sale to one the Tahawi leaders in Egypt; the back of the photo reads as follows: “His dam is the Nawwaqiyah and his sire a Nawwaq from the horses of ‘Arsan al-Nawwaq of the Arabs of [illegible, stain on the reverse of the photo, probably the tribe which is Sba’ah], golden chestnut, 5 years old
Jackson Hensley, of Bedouin Arabians Farm, in New Mexico, just sent me pictures of the latest addition to his stud; Sabella Al Krush, an asil Kuhaylat al-Krush filly, tracing in tail female to the mare *Werdi imported from Syria to USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. *Werdi hails from the Krush marbat of the Fad’aan Bedouins. As an aside, the famous stallion Krush Halba, the foundation sire for the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program, hailed from the same Fad’aan marbat as *Werdi. Krush Halba was one of the most prepotent sires of racehorses of his time. He was active in the northern Lebanese town of Halba in the 1920s and 30s, and was purchased in 1933 by a Turkish Government Commission and exported to Turkey where he was known as Baba Kurus. Check out his hujjah here (scroll down to Appendix B). One of Krush Halba’s sons, the grey stallion Kroush (actually a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq by strain) was bought from the Beirut racetrack in 1936 by Dr. Mabrouk of the Egyptian Royal Agricultural Society (RAS), and was used by the RAS for breeding . Kroush appears in the Egyptian “RAS History” studbook (EAO Vol 1) on page 48. He had three registered offspring in Egypt: the stallion Tamie (1937) out of Nagiya; the mare Bushra…
In 1874 and again in 1875, Captain Roger Upton traveled to the Syrian desert and purchased a number of Arabian horses from the Bedouin tribe of Sba’ah, which he imported to Great Britain. One of the mares he bought for a Mr. Sandeman, was the Ma’naghiyah Sbailiyah Haidee. Another was the mare Kesia (I), which he bough for a certain Mr. Henry Chaplin. Kesia (I) was a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, sired by a Kuhaylan Nawwaq, bred by the Qumusah section of the Saba’ah Bedouin tribe, which owns the marbat. The head of the Qumusah, Shaykh Sulayman Ibn Mirshid put his seal on the mare’s hujjah, which makes this mare very precious. Kesia (I) came to Great Britain in foal to a desert-bred Saqlawi al-‘Abd stallion, and produced a filly Kesia (II). The dam and the filly are two of the few mares of the Nawwaq strain to have been imported to a Western country – another one is *Malouma. The tail female of Kesia II no longer exists in asil breeding anywhere. However, her great-grandson Segario (Nimr x Shabaka, out of Kesia II) is still represented in asil pedigrees in the USA, where his dam was imported from Great Britian by Colonel Spencer Borden. Today, the blood of Kesia survives in…
This striking bay stallion who recently came to France from Syria has already been featured here before. Hussam Al-Shimal is a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the old-established Stud of Saed Aghan Yakan in al-Bab, Syria. His sire is a desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Mussin called Raad who has also received a lot of visibility on this website. Hussam traces to some of the best desert-bred horses that were sent to the Beirut racetrack for racing: Ghuzayil, Mawj al-Atheer, and al-Malkhoukh. More on all three later. You can view Hussam’s near-full pedigree here. Joe Achcar of Lebanon has arranged for Hussam to come to France to be training for endurance racing with Arnault Decroix in Normandy, where these photos were taken by a professional.
This morning I woke up to find these two pictures of horses from snowed-in France in my inbox.. the first one is from Clothilde Nollet of Maarena Arabians, and features her new acquisition Bint Fay Amy (Mahrouf x Fay Amy by Ibn Fa-Serr), a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah born in 1995 at the Babson Farm. The second features the stallion Hussam al-Shimal (Raad x Rouba Al-Shimal by Al Abjar), a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq bred in Syria at the Yakan Stud near Aleppo, Syria, and now on lease from Al Fadi Stud of Damascus, Syria, to Arnault Decroix in Normandy. By the way, Hussam’s ears are a direct legacy of his maternal grandfather, the old stallion Al-Abjar, a Saqlawi Jadran of the marbat of Ibn Zubayni, who was famous for this pricked ears, and whose dam Malakah was featured here. If you have more pictures of horses under the snow from Europe or the USA, feel free to send them to me.
Above is a distant photo of another son of the desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Musinn stallion Raad. This is Hussam al-Shimal, a Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq stallion from the marbat of Sa’ed Ameen Yakan, in al-Bad, north of Aleppo. Hussam is going to be sent to France where he will stand at stud with Arnault Decroix. I am no fan of the show-ring. I firmly believe that an asil Arabian horse was not born to be paraded around like a puppet, and that among all asil Arabians, the Syrian asil horses deserve this ridiculous treatment the least (these were war and endurance machines, remember), but I thought it was worth noting that Hussam, this son of a desert-bred, was twice Syria’s National Reserve Champion.
Now that’s my Zahrah (Dinar x Hanadi by Krush Juhayyim), a Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq from the marbat of Shaykh Abdul Jalil al-Naqabashbandi, a sufi leader from the area of Der al-Zor, in the Middle Euphrates region of Syria. My father and I picked Zahra from Kamal Abdul Khaliq’s herd when she was 10 days old, in 1994 I think, and we eventually sold her when I came to the USA in 2000. She is pictured here with her filly foal by Saad al-Thani, a Kuhaylan al-Khdili, and another favorite of mine, who is also a son of al-Aawar (and so Dinar’s half brother). The little, un-named filly was thus double al-Aawar. She died a few days after the picture was taken. I will talk about the origins of all these horses in more detail later. For now, I just wanted to feature four generations of Al-Aawar breeding (Al-Aawar, his son Dinar, Dinar’s daughter Zahra, and Zahra’s filly foal who was double al-Aawar).
In the entry below, I wrote about how I liked arabian mares that have long eyelashes, which magnifies the human-like expression many of these mares have anyway. Below is a picture of of such mare. Bint Mawj al-Athir was an asil (heck, she is the mother of all asil) Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq (that’s the right spelling, other spellings include Nowag, Nuwwag, Nawag, Nawaq, etc), or Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, from Lebanon. I never saw that mare in person, but my father, who took this picture of her in the 1970s when she was in her late twenties and in very poor condition, holds her and her particular lineage in the highest regard. I will no doubt come back to Bint Mawj al-Athir to introduce you to her pedigree, which by the way contains the blood of many horses now represented in the USA. For now, I just wanted you to look at the expression in the eyes of this beautiful, classic, regal Arabian mare. If you have more pictures of arabian mares with long eyelashes and a “human eye”, feel free to send them to me.