The Ali Pasha Sharif Memoranda of Lady Anne Blunt

Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals entry for December 31, 1907 (page 327) contains this interesting mention (in relation to the Ali Pasha Sharif stallion Harkan):

 “I must go through the Ali Pasha Sherif Memoranda that I have with Mutlak, hhe will be able to clear up several points.”

An excerpt of a much earlier Journal entry, made on March 5th, 1891, gives one example of these memoranda (in bold, below), about the stallion Amir (Aziz x Horra) the purchasing of which Lady Anne was then considering:

“I copy out the memorandum Mr Flemotomo enclosed to us from the Pasha on the following day. 

“Grey horse Seglawi Jedran of Ibn Sudan, son of Horra, sister of Wazir, sire chestnut horse (Aziz) Dahman Shahwan son of the daughter of the daughter of the mare of Makadan. Foaled the — 1297. Price 200 (). His name Amir.” 

“N.B. I have inserted the name of Aziz as in other memorandum it is put in, see below. I hope we may be able to buy this horse.”

Another memorandum follows in the same Journal entry, with less details:

“The second shown us was a chestnut colt 5–6 years old […] he is described by Ali Pasha Sherif as follows:

“Son of bay mare (Nurah) Doheym Nejib. Sire, Aziz. Foaled 5th Rabia el avval 1303.”

From these entries it can be gathered that the Ali Pasha Sharif memoranda are short informative documents, not unlike hujaj, where Ali Pasha mentioned information on color, strain, marbat, dam, sire, date of birth, name and sometimes price. The one for Amir contains extra information on his sire Aziz being “ibn bint bint faras Nakadan” (not Makadan).

The purpose of this entry will make more sense when the next entry comes up.