Tracing the Saqlawi strain back to the Tai principality in North Arabia

What follows is an account of the origin of the Saqlawi strain from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript, and my analysis of it.

It ties together two distinct series of entries on this blog: a series on dating the beginning of Arabian horse strains, and a series on the history of the medieval tribal emirate of the Tai in Northern Arabia, under Muhanna ibn ‘Issa Aal Fadl (d. 1335 CE) and his descendants from the Aal Fadl clan of the Tai tribe (genealogy below).

This account of the Saqlawiyaat needs to be handled with care, because of how it weaves together myth and reality. Careful analysis can however yield useful information, including a tentative dating for the origin of the strain. First, my translation of the account from Arabic, then my notes and analysis:

A gathering was held in the presence of the prince (amir) of al-Mawali ‘Arif Bek, from the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, […], in the presence of Hammad al-‘Abitah, aged one hundred and twenty years — a caretaker in the household of the descendants of Ibn al-Zarbah, and in the presence of all the Mawali, old and young.

Hammad al-‘Abitah and ‘Arif Bek were queried at the gathering: […] “The Saqlawiyah mare that was with Ibn al-Zarbah, tell me, from where did she pass to him? How did her passing to Ibn al-Zarbah take place? To whom did she pass from him? Was she blessed with him or not? Because you, O Hammad al-‘Abitah, you are one hundred and twenty years old, and ‘Arif Bek is [only] thirty five or forty years old. You must have knowledge and confirmation about this mare, so you must tell me the correct and truthful stories in this gathering, if you honor and good fortune are dear to you.”

Hammad al-‘Abitah reported: “Yes, by God, O ‘Ali Bek, I do have stories. I, O Hammad al-‘Abitah, will tell you stories from four hundred years ago: the Saqlawiyah, the origin of her marbat/stud is to Hatim the prince (amir) of Tai. Hatim died, and the son of his paternal uncle, Muhanna al-Faris, the prince of Tai, inherited her.

At that time, there was no ‘Anazah and no Caliphate, only the prince of Tai and the prince of al-Mawali. There was a battle between the prince of Tai and the prince of al-Mawali. Ibn al-Zarbah, the prince of al-Mawali unhorsed Muhanna al-Faris the prince of Tai, and brought the mare. She was a bay, in foal, and she produced a filly with Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbah […].

These are the tales which I, O Hammad al-‘Abitah of the Mawali, heard from Hasan al-Barakah. Hasan heard [them] from Fayid. Fayid heard [them] from Mushrif al-Hasan. Mushrif heard from ‘Ammar al-Jasim of the old caretakers. ‘Ammar heard [them] from Nayf al-Hasan. Nayf al-Hasan heard [them] from Mubarak al-Diwan the caretaker of Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbah.

Notes:

1/ Caretaker (murabbi), either of the horses of the leader of the Mawali, or of his household. A subaltern social status is implied. The caretaker may have been a descendant of slaves, which composed the bulk of the Mawali tribe.

2/ ‘Arif Bek: the leader of the Mawali around 1850 from the Aal Abu Rishah leading clan.

3/ Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbah: a recent ancestor of ‘Arif Bek, from the Aal Abu Risha leading clan of the Mawali. The Abu Rishah are a branch of the Aal Fadl (see below). See the Aal Fadl genealogy above, and look for the Fayyad who died in 1618 CE.

4/ The son of his paternal uncle: The message this expression intends to convery is that Hatim Prince of Tai (died 578 CE), and Muhanna Prince of Tai were from the same ancestral lineage — just like paternal cousins share the same grandfather. It is not intended to mean that they were from the same generation. Today, Arabs often refer to Jews as the sons of their paternal cousins — both descending from Abraham through his sons Ishmael and Isaac respectively.

5/ Prince (amir) of the Mawali: the Ottomans, like the Mamluks before them, bestowed the title of amir al-arab (prince/commander of the Bedouin) upon leading members of the Aal Fadl clan of the Tai. The Ottomans picked a loyal member of the Aal Fadl as amir al-arab, and custom-built a tribe around him, the Mawali, cobbled up from former slaves and outcasts. This pro-Ottoman amir of the Mawali waged war against his own cousins and his former fellow tribesmen from the Aal Fadl, and drove them out of the Syrian desert towards the Golan heights and the Biqaa’ valley. Here is an informative excerpt from the Wikipedia page on Aal Fadl on this episode:

The Ottomans conquered Syria in 1516. They preserved the office of amir al-‘arab as a hereditary post of the Al Fadl, via the Salamiyah-based descendants of Hayar, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The descendants of Hayar came to be known as Al Abu Risha, which means “[house of] the father of the plume”. They acquired this name in 1574 when their emir was officially recognized by the Ottomans as the hereditary amir al-‘arab and adorned with a plume-crowned turban to consecrate his official status. The Al Abu Risha took over leadership of the Mawali tribal confederation, whose member tribes, many of whom were descended from non-Arab slaves, were not necessarily related to each other through blood ties. Under the leadership of the Abu Risha emirs, the Mawali drove out rival Al Fadl sheikhs and their families from northern Syria. The latter consequently migrated to the Beqaa Valley. The Fadl tribesmen who remained became part of the Mawali confederation like their Abu Risha kinsmen. The Mawali were the dominant tribe of northern Syria until the invasions of Anazzah tribesmen throughout the 18th century.

6/ Hatim prince of Tai: the leader of the Tai tribe at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. He died in 578 CE. An historical figure, but his generosity made him the stuff of legend within his tribe and the entire Arab world. A thousand years or more separate him from Ibn al-Zarbah.

7/ Muhanna, prince of Tai. This is Muhanna ibn ‘Issa Aal Fadl, leader of the Aal Fadl ruling clan of the Tai, who died in 1335 CE.

My analysis:

This account from the Abbas Pasha Manuscript on the origin of the Saqlawiyat is obviously anachronistic. It places a semi-legendary character from the sixth century CE (Hatim, prince of Tai), an historical character from the fourteenth century (Muhanna, prince of Tai) and a character from the seventeenth century (Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbah, prince of the Mawali) within the span of a single human generation. It should not be read literally but rather as an allegory of the conflict between the leaders of the newly formed Mawali and their brethren of the Aal Fadl of the Tai. That said, the following information can be safely extracted from it:

1/ The Saqlawi strain finds its origin with the House of Muhanna, leaders of the Aal Fadl clan of the Tai tribe. They were the historical rulers of Bedouin North Arabia (amir al-arab) under the Mamluks, up until the death of the last Aal Fadl amir al-arab in 1538 CE. A junior branch of these Aal Muhanna reemerged as the leaders of the pro-Ottoman Mawali tribe starting from 1574 CE, under the name of the Abu Rishah.

2/ The birth of the strain is associated with the conflict between the Aal Fadl leaders of the Tai, and their rivals and brethren the Abu Rishah who ruled the newly formed tribe of the Mawali. The conflict ended with the victory of the Mawali and the displacement of the Aal Fadl. That conflict had not yet started in 1538, when Mudlij, the last amir al-arab of the Aal Fadl under the Mamluks died. The Mawali tribe had not formed just yet. Dating the creation of the Mawali tribe and the beginning of its conflict with the Aal Fadl/Tai from existing historical sources should be straightforward and would resulting in dating the beginning of the Saqlawi strain. More research is needed here, perhaps based on Adnan Bakhit’s 1982 book “The Ottoman Province of Damascus in the Sixteenth Century”.

3/ A subsequent episode in the birth of the strain is associated with Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbah, one of the early leaders of the Mawali. The above generalogy of the Aal Fadl and Mawali features a Fayyad who died in 1618. Adnan Bakhit, in his book “The Ottoman Province of Damascus in the Sixteenth Century” (1982, page 202) wrote of the emirate (imara) of the Mawali:

Mudlij (II) did not inherit the imara, but his uncle Fayyad assumed the position and retained it until his death in 1029/1618.

It is likely that this was Fayyad Ibn al-Zarbeh. If that was the case, it would be safe to date the birth of the Saqlawi strain to the period before 1618 CE.

4/ Based on the above, a tentative bracket for the creation of the Saqlawi strain can be pinned between 1538 CE and 1618 CE. The first date marks a time when there was no conflict yet between the Mawali and Aal Fadl. The second date marks the date when a Fayyad prince of the Mawali died. I will narrow down this interval further over the next few days.

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