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 bin Haji Barak al Rahman” of the Muntefiq. She was lost during World War II and never found again. She may or may not have been of the strain of Kuhaylat al-Ajuz al-Shaykhah, Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah for short, or Szeikha (Shaykhah) may just be her name. She is the quintessential war mare, and I am a strong advocate of breeding back to this type of Arabian mares – the upright neck aside.
I am starting a series on the desert-bred Arabians imported to Poland and Hungary in the twentieth century. The first I will highlight is Kuhailan Zaid. This stallion came to Europe in 1931 at the same time as Kuhailan Haifi and Kuhailan Afas. He was purchased by Bogdan Zietarski and Carl Raswan for the Hungarian stud of Babolna. He was bred by the Ruwalah Bedouin tribe, by a Kuhailan Abu Junub out of a Kuhaylat al-Zyadah. Here’s Zietarski’s account of his purchase: “At last they bring a stallion of Kuhailan Zaid strain; bay, stripe, black legs over the knees, a splendid line of the trunk, a long strongly expressive neck, a dry head, legs somewhat worn out, hoofs in awful condition, but on the whole with much type, a first class sire, as created for Babolna… We buy him without any bargain.” Kuhailan Zaid was a herd sire at Babolna between 1931 and 1946, and 26 of his daughters were used for breeding, but only a handful of his sons (none in Hungary, only in Poland). Of these Kuhailan Abu Urkub (b. 1935) out of 22 Kemir, and of Kuhailan Said (b. 1934) out of 204 Kemir were perhaps the most influential. Both of them are asil.
Western Arabian horse breeders are relatively familiar with the Arabian horse strain of Kuhaylan al-Krush (also known as Kuhaylan Krushan) through a variety of sources. A specific branch of this strain, Krush al-Baida (“the white Krush”) will be the subject of the sixth part of the “Strain of the Week” series (which, by the way, is starting to look like a “Strain of the Month” in disguise). For now, I’ll start the discussion with a brief resfresher of the encounters between Arabian horse breeders and the more general Krush family (beyond Krush al-Baida). Feel free to pitch in with feedback in the comments section of this blog post if you noticed that I omitted a reference or more, or visit this site, which also offers an overview (with pictures) of the main Krush lines around the world. The early fame of Kuhaylan al-Krush was certainly associated with the quest of the Egyptian Viceroy Abbas Pasha I for Asil horses from this strain. Several sources (or perhaps one source that was quoted several times, will look that up later) tell us that Abbas’s quest eventually failed, and that Bedouin owners of Krush mares refused to sell them, or give them…