A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
The late Danah Al Khalifa sure knew how to pick stallions for her Sitah-linebred mares. Georgous Rabdaan Muttaawi (Musannaan Al Meemar x Rabda Shaawieh by Burkaan D3) is just one example. He is the sire of the two full sisters Danika and Dhahabiah, bred by Danah. Dhahabiah is the one that died last week, sadly. … Read more
The stallion Dahman (b. 1900) was one of the most admired horses ever imported by the French government from the Middle East. Robert Mauvy, who knew him well, wrote beautiful pages about Dahman and his influence on both the Arabian and Anglo-Arabian breed in his book Le Cheval Arabe. Mauvy held Dahman as the archetype … Read more
حدثنا محمد معصوم العاقوب من شيوخ حرب طي قال الربدا كحيلة عجوز والربداء من أسماء النعامة وتميّزت بهذا الاسم لأنها طَرحتْ ذَكر النعام والنعامة معروفة بسرعته في عام 1810-1815 للميلاد غزتْ قبيلة اعنزا باشات الاكراد مرتين في منطقة قورانشار شمالي بلدة رأس العين السورية في المرّة الأولى استطاع الباشا صد اعنزا وكان اسمه عَبْدي الكَلَشْ … Read more
This Rabdan stallion’s name is Jurnass. He is the most noteworthy Syrian stallion of the last couple years. His current owner is Dham al-Ahmad al-Daham al-Hadi al-Farhan al-Jarba, Sheikh of the Shammar. A few years ago, some Syrian Bedouins started started mating Rabdan stallions from Tai marbats, probably because they are so handsome. It was … Read more
The desert-bred Arabian stallion Dahman, born in 1900, imported from Syria to France’s Pompadour stud in 1909 by Quinchez, remains one of the prototypes of the authentic Arabian stallion. He was bred by the Shammar, by a stallion of the Dahman strain, out of a mare of the Rabdan strain. This photo is in a … Read more
Rabdaan Sary Al Leil 1090, dark bay stallion, born 1998, by Ma´anaghy 148 out of Rabda Al Wannaan 815
This is my favorite Bahraini horse outside Bahrain. He is standing at stand at Jenny Lees’ but unfortunately not available to public stud. More photos on Jenny’s website. I love the bone structure on the face.
This is an old photo from the collection of French breeder Pierre-Henri Beillard. It shows the 1916 asil mare Noble Reine (by Dahman d.b. out of Nacre by Achmet out of Naeleh d.b.), a mare bred at the French government stud of Pompadour. Noble Reine is a daughter of the magnificent desert-bred stallion Dahman (by … Read more
This is another photo of the magnificient Dahman (a Dahman x a Rabda). He is to France what *Haleb, who was bred about the same time, is to the USA. Dahman, a Rabdan by strain, is by the far the best desert horse horse ever imported to France, in my opinion. He was a herd stallion with … Read more
This document recently appeared on one of the discussion threads below. For those of you who know the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its English edition, this is just the first page in one of the original Arabic editions.. This is a quick and dirty translation (writing from work, gotta go home soon), without the Quran … Read more
In 2000, while I was still living in Lebanon, I recall taking a trip to the area of Byblos, north of the capital Beirut, with my father, General Salim al-Dahdah, to see two young stallions that had recently been imported from Bahrain to Lebanon. The stallions were a gift from HH Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salman … Read more
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. … Read more
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 … Read more
This is one of my favorite old pictures. The horse pictured is Dahman, a dark chestnut stallion bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe in 1905, and sold to a French horse-buying commission led by Inspecteur Quinchez in 1909. Dahman was a herd sire for the Shammar prior to his importation to France. He was by a … Read more