This photo was sent by a horse merchant in Syria to one of the Tahawi clan leaders in Egypt, bto probe his interest in purchasing the horse. Here is what figures on the back of the photo:

“Photo of the Saqlawi Jadrani horse, his sire is ‘Ubayyan of the horses of Ibn Samdan and his dam a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of the horses of the Sba’ah”

A couple noteworthy observations:

1. The marbat of Ibn Thamdan (mispelt Samdan on the back of the photo) is one of the most respected and authenticated marabet of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak among the Sba’ah tribe. It survived in asil form in Lebanon until the late 1950s.

2. Notice the resemblance of the horse in the photo with the Blunt mare Basilisk, who was from the same strain and the same tribe.

This hujjah is interesting, because of the place of origin of the horse: unlike most of the Tahawi hujaj I saw, this one comes from the Upper Mesopotamia area (al-Jazirah) while the others came from Western Syria. I hope the horse referenced in this hujjah document left some modern descendants, because his origin is precious. Here’s my translation of the document:

“We testify by God and his Prophet, in truth and righteousness, that the grey horse, brother of the bay horse, which [the grey] has a small star on his face, and which is five years of age, and which was purchased by Abdel Aziz Bek and Husayn al-Hilal from Adham al-Hamid, that he is Saqlawi Jadran, and that his dam is a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, and his sire a Saqlawi Jadran, from the horses of Dari Ibn Mahmud, the Shaykh of the tribe of Shammar al-Zawba’; and the horse is ‘shubuw’ [to be mated] and can be mated, and is protected [from the side of both]  his sire and his dam, and that there is no impurity in his origin; and for this reason we have prepared this testimony, and God is the best of witnesses.

August 31st 1936

The head of the tribes of Tayy

[signature of  Talal al-'Abd al-Rahman, Shaykh of Tayy] [his fingerprint] [two stamp marks of a seal of some sort]

The head of the tribe of al-Raashed

[seal of 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Hesso]

The bottom right of the document contains an additional testimony, which I can only decipher partially at this stage, because of the low resolution of the scanned hujjah.

My own remarks on this precious document:

1. The Saqlawi Jadran strain of the marbat of Dari al-Mahmud is the most established and most highly respected branch of Saqlawi Jadran among the Shammar.

2. The Saqlawiyat marbat of Dari al-Mahmud passed to the tribe of Tayy when Dari al-Mahmud, the Shaykh of the Zawba’ branch of the Shammar,  in Iraq, took refuge with this tribe after he killed Cpt. Leachman, the head of British intelligence in the Iraqi desert, in the late 1920s.

3. The strain is still present among the Tayy today, and has branched out in several equally respected marabet: that of al-Dandah, that of Jadou’ al-Jaz’ah, and a couple others.

4. The horse *King John, imported to the USA at the around the same time, came from the same marbat, that of Dari al-Mahmud.

5. Husayn al-Hilal was a horse merchant from Syria who was doing business with the Tahawis.

6. Talal al-’Abd al-Rahman was the Shaykh of the Tayy in the 1930s; his son Hamid al-Talal had a Saqlawi Jadran marbat too. I think Hamid al-Talal’s marbat came from that of Dari al-Mahmud but I need to revert to my notes to confirm this.

7. The clan of al-Hesso is the leading clan of the section of al-Raashed, which is one of the largest of the Tayy. Some twenty years ago their leader was Ghawwar al-Hesso. They own a really nice marbat of Kuhaylan al-’Armush, and often marry into the leading clan of the Tayy (al-’Assaf).

“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

When in the 1850s, the Tahawi began to settle in the province of al-Sharkiyah, in the areas of Bilbeis, Abu Hammad, Geziret Saoud, Kfar Saqr, al-Ismailia, and Abu Sultan, they owned horses which they used for transportation and nomadizing; then they settled down and acquired agricultural land, and gave up their pastoral and war-like lifestyle; their Sheykhs then went on to constitute their own horse studs (marabet); around this time, the Syrian region of Hims and Hama was the homeland of the Arab horse, and was known as al-Sham, since it was home to some of the Bedouin tribes like ‘Anazah, Shammar, al-Fad’aan, and al-Sba’ah, which specialized in the breeding of Arab horse and the tracing of its bloodlines;

The Tahawi Arabs owned some land and maintained social ties with their relatives living in this area, as well as some close friends, so they started bringing brood-mares and stallions to Egypt. Some of them would travel there [to the area of Hims and Hama in Syria] and buy horses, then return [to Egypt] and wait for their horses to arrive; others would buy horses through an agent. Each horse came with a pedigree document, which included a description of the horse, its color, age, complete bloodline of its sire and dam, and the signature of the seller. The document was testified upon by the owners of the nearby studs (marabet), and the Shaykhs of the tribes in the area of Hims.

Among the horse bloodlines which the Tahawis brought and which constituted the foundations for their studs (marabet) are: al-Dahmah, al-Saqlawiyah, al-Tamriyah, al-Khallawiyah, al-Sh’aifiyah, al-Nawwaqiyah, al-Shuwaymah, al-Ma’naqiyah, al-Kharsaa, and al-Kuhaylah, and each of the lines has many sub-lines; when the Tahawi Arabs strove to buy broodmares and bring them from al-Sham (Syria), each Shaykh (of the Tahawi) took it upon himself to acquire different bloodlines/strains from those which another Shaykh had acquired, so they could use stallions of different bloodlines on each others’ mares.

Through their social and family networks in Syria, the Tahawi Shaykhs apparently received photographs and information about horses for sale. The annotated photo below is one such example, and a translation of the legend on the back of the photo reads as follows:

“Dahman, which was in Hims, and we offered his owner 300 guineas, but he refused to sell, then the horse died of a seizure; his owner was Rashid Mu’ayneh; the horse is the brother of the horse of Shaykh Bashari through the dam, and his sire is Kuhaylan al-Kharas”

My notes on the legend:

1. the architectural pattern of the door in the backgruond of the photo is typical of the city of Hims in Syria

2. the Mu’ayneh family is an old family of horse merchants in Syria; their heyday was in the 1920s, 30s and 40s; Rashid was one of the family’s most noted scions; he may even be the man in the picture;

3. Shaykh Bashari al-Tahawi was one of the tribe’s leaders;

“The stallion Barakat is the son of the old Dahman,  the stallion of ‘Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi which was bought from the ‘Anazah Arabs in 1322H (1898 AD), and the origin of this Dahman stallion is from the Dahmat ‘Amer mare of Jar Allah ibn Tuwayrish, and his sire is a Saqlawi Jadran [Note from Edouard: This is the same horse whose hujjah was reproduced and translated in an entry below]. As to the dam of the stallion Barakat, she is the mare of Mnazi’  ‘Amer al-Tahawi, and she is Dahmat Shahwan“.

Further above on the website there is the mention that “the Dahman horses of Mnazi’ ‘Amer al-Tahawi are from the horses of Ibn Maajil of Syria.”

The information on Barakat’s dam is extremely interesting. Not only because it allows us to go one generation back in the pedigrees of the three Hamdan stables foundation mares: Folla, Futna, and Bint Barakat. It’s also interesting because it reveals additional linkages between the Tahawi tribe and the clan of Ibn Maajil. The Bedouin clan of Ibn Maajil is the leading clan of the al-Ashaji’ah tribe, which was absorbed by the Ruwalah in the late nineteenth century as the latter tribe was becoming the largest and most powerful of the Bedouin tribes of the Northern Arabian desert. Those of you who read Arabic, can read a detailed interview of the current leader of the Ashaji’ah tribe, Muhammad ibn Farhan ibn Qasim al-Mi’jil (or Maajil). The tribe is now settled in the Northern Province of Saudi Arabia. The interview is on one of the main ‘Anazah tribal websites.

The linkages between the Tahawi tribe and the Ibn Maajil clan were already known: the Ibn Maajil clan actually appears as the breeder and the original owner of the desert-bred Ma’naqiyah mare which Prince Ahmed Pasha Kamal of Egypt acquired, apparently through the Tahawis. She is the dam of the stallion Sabbah (b. 1895), present in virtually every single Egyptian pedigree today.

Thanks to all the readeers who kept checking on this blog and reading earlier entries, and a big thank you to Ambar who held the fort during my absence.

Same photographer (Anita Enander), same equipment, taken within a minute of each other. But see how a tiny change in the viewing angle stretches out the middle of the body, narrows the neck and shortens the hip? The effect can be even more exaggerated with the wide-angle lens in consumer cameras.

This is not to say that we should not discuss or judge horses from photographs, but a healthy awareness of the limitations of the medium helps. How else can we reconcile *Wadduda’s reputation as a great beauty with the rather indifferent images we have of her?

From left to right: Persephone CF (Hamdani Simri), Tapestry CF (Kuhaylan Haifi), Chiffon CF (Hamdani Simri). Photo c1986 in Las Vegas, NV.

Chiffon was at one time the mascot for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She carried the flag and was ridden around the track at football games, and in parades.

Persephone has founded a family in her own right. Chiffon breeds on only through one son, Ibn Don Carlos, but her presence makes herself felt two and three generations down. (See the photos from the 2007 Al Khamsa Fantasia for many of her descendants.)

Thanks to Jeanne Craver for providing the photo! (There are more of Chiffon at the DAHC photo archive.)

Here is my rough translation, with a more refined translation to follow, as well a transliteration of the Arabic in latin script so that readers of Arabic can double-check the translation:

We testify by God and by his Prophet that the metallic grey horse which is five years of age, and which was bought by Sheykh Abdallah Abu Seoud al-Tahawi al-Hindawi is Dahman ‘Amer; his dam is the Dahmah ‘Amer from the horses of Jarallah Ibn Tuwayrish of the Arabs of Gomussah, and his sire is the Saqlawi Jadran from the horses of Ibn Zubaynah of the Sba’ah; and that the aforementioned horse, the Dahman, is well authenticated [mathbut], and well known [mashhur], to be mated [hadudah] with all the asil mares, there is not the shade of a doubt about him [ma fihi laww qat'iyah abadan], and he is protected [muhaffadh] at Muhammad Na’san Agha ibn Ahmad Agha al-Barazi, and for the sake of proof, this testimony was made by all the people of the marabet of the horses who were willing to do so.

28 Jumada al-Awwal 1322

Witnesses

Shaykh Beteyen Ibn Mirshid [but no seal]

[Nashwan] Ibn Sulayman Ibn Mirshid [his seal]

Hazza’ Ibn Sulayman Ibn Mirshid [his seal]

Owner: Muhammad Na’san Agha al-Barazi [his seal]

and two more currently illegible signatures and a seal

This is the first time I see the signature of Beteyen Ibn Mirshid on a hujjah: he is head of the Gomussah section of the Sba’ah tribe… and the breeder of the Blunt’s famous Queen of Sheba.. Muhammad Na’san Agha al-Barazi was the most prominent landlord in Hama, Syria, and a prime breeder of asil horses in his time.. Al-Hindawi means from the Hanadi tribe, the reference to Ibn Zubaynah as being from the Sba’ah tribe as opposed to the Fad’aan is interesting… More later on the implications of this fantastic document.

In the Name of God the Most Merciful and Compassionate

To his Excelleny the Honorable Sheykh Faysal Bek al-Abdallah al-Saud [al-Tahawi]

I testify by God and his Prophet that the two grey horses, the first of which is aged two and a half years, and which is with Husayn Hilal, are [both] Duhm [plural of Dahman] al-’Amiri, of the horses of Jarallah Ibn al-Tuwayreesh from the Arabs of Sba’ah from the tribal section of Saheem, and the sire of one of them is Kuhaylan al-Kharas, and the sire of the other one is Kuhaylan al-Tamri of the horses of the Sba’ah; and I testify by God and by Muhammad the Prophet of God that they are protected [muhaffadhat] and free of impurities;

And concerning the bay ‘Ubayyah mare, which has a foal by a her side, a colt, she is ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah, the mare of Farran ibn Hamud al-Samdan, from the Arabs of Sba’ah, from the tribal section of Saheem; and I know her, she is the mare of Farran al-Samdan, then she passed to the Shaykh Salih al-Misrib, then she was purchased by Husayn Hilal, and he took her to you, with the Dahman stallions. And we also witness by God and by Muhammad the Prophet of God, that the three horses [i.e. the two Dahman stallions and the 'Ubayyah mare] which are with Husayn Hilal are protected [muhaffadhat], and from the lineages of the Sba’ah.

I am also sending you the photo of the black horse, the Saqlawi Jadran, which is three and a half years old, he is the horse of ‘Ajeel ibn Ajadban ibn [currently illegible name] from the Fad’aan, from the tribal section of al-Shumaylat, and his sire is the bay Kuhaylan al-Khdili, the one which was sent by the Shaykh Miqhim ibn Mhayd to His Highness King Ibn Saud, and that aforementioned black horse, is the brother of the chestnut Saqlawi stallion which was bought by Hayyan ibn [currently illefible name] ibn Sha’ban from Ajeel ibn Ajadban for our uncle [a mark of respect, not his actual uncle] al-Hajj Nasr.

Signed: The horse merchant of Hims, Rashid Issa

21 October 1937

I have a gazillion comments and annotation to make, but will keep these for later because I have to run. Bedtime for the kids.

I first saw *Ta’an in 1990 as a yearling, at Mustafa al-Jabri’s stud outside of Aleppo. I took pictures which I will scan and share with you. I then saw him again in 1991 and 1992. In 1993, Mustafa gifted *Ta’an to Gerald and Debra Dirks who took him to the USA, then to Jordan in 1996. At that time, the Arab Horse Association studbook did not recognize the Syrian Studbook, so *Ta’an never got registered, even though Al Khamsa, Inc accepted him on the basis of his being a Bedouin-bred horse from Syria. The two pictures below were taken at the Dirks’ farm, and are courtesy of Marie Arthur.

*Ta’an’s sire was Awaad, a grey Kuhaylan al-Krush bred by ‘Iyadah Talab al-Khalaf, of the Shammar Bedouins, from the prestigious Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar. Awaad sired many good mares and stallions in Syria, among them the closely-bred black Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Mokhtar, who was exported to France and who was Ta’an’s paternal half brother.

*Ta’an’s dam Efrieh, which Mustafa al-Jabri acquied from her breeder with her son at her side, was also bred by the Tai Bedouins, but traced back to the ‘Amarat Bedouin tribe (part of the ‘Anazah), whose al-’Ifri clan, owned the marbat called after them. Hamdani al-’Ifri was originally Hamdani Simri of the marbat of al-’Ifri, and was widely acknowledged to be one of the most authenticaed (mazbut) marabet of all the ‘Anazah.  *Ta’an’s dam Efrieh was sired by the Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion of Diab al-Sbeih of the Shammar, a dark grey desert-bred stallion born in the mid to late 1970s, and by the al-Ghishm clan of the Shammar. This Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion was also the sire of Mustafa’s head stallion Mahrous (Kuhaylan al-Wati x ‘Adlah by the Saqlawi Marzaqani known as Abu Ketf). Mahrous and *Ta’an shared the same straight profile and large protruding black eyes, and both features most likely came from that Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion.

*Ta’an left some progeny in Syria, many of which were exported to the Gulf countries. He only left one colt in the USA, DDA Baraq (out of the Hadbat Inzihi mare DDA Latifah by Grand Pass), and this colt’s whereabouts are unknown, although Randall Harris might have some leads. Not sure whether *Ta’an himself is still alive today.

[July 31 upate: the additional photo of *Ta'an below was taken by Joe Achcar in 1992. Thanks Joe for sending it]

I was wrong. My hypothesis was based on the common ownership of these two horses by Ahmad Ibish, but the dates don’t match, so the two horses cannot possibly be one and the same. Kuru was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, so that Saqlawi Sh’aifi must have bred his dam in 1920, in the desert too, as the analysis of the hujjah suggest. Meanwhile, in 1920/21, the stallion Aiglon was in Egypt, where he sired the mare Exchorda who was born in 1922.

I am sorry it took me so long to correct this, but I confess I had completely forgotten about this issue, until I recently fell upon some documents Miss Ott had sent me about Exochorda and her sire. Still, I thought I’d mark this correction down for the record.

Photo from Jeanne Craver.

People who defend horses such as Flipper will tell you that French Arabians were bred with a focus on speed, not on classic Arabian type, over a ten to fifteen generations, which is why they look the way they do.  It’s true, and there was no shortage of ‘untypey’ French Arabians since the 1910s; yet, as far from classical type as they may have been, they were of authentic Arab blood. Flipper belongs to a different league: he has non-Arabian blood in his veins — and more than a trickle.

So do his sons Dunixi and Tidjani (photos below), both of whom are major progenitor of French racing lines. The status of Flipper’s line as ’purebred’ Arabian is safely guaranteed by the presence by a senior staff of the French National Haras on WAHO’s Board of Directors.

One of the two mares, DB Kalila, (AAS El Hezzez x Desert Kalila by *Furtha  Dhellal), a 2002 ‘Ubayyah tracing to the mare *Mahraa of Prince Saudi Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi, Governor of Hasa, was leased by Jenny.  Her photo is below. I like the long ears and the croup.

“Kuhaylat al-Musinnah is originally a Kuhaylah Khdiliyah, in reference to the clan of al-Khdilaat of the Fad’aan tribe of ‘Anazah; some clan members were once safely sitting in their tents, when suddenly one of their mares broke loose and started running around, knocking the ground with her foreleg; then she leaned down and put her ear on the ground, then she rose and ran up to a nearby hill; then she came down and went on to repeat the same actions all over again; the mare’s owner realized something unusual was going on across the hill, and upon checking, he and his fellow tribesmen saw enemies trying to make their way to the came and take its people by surprise; they prepared themselves for a fight and were eventually able to repell the attack thanks to the mare. The mare was henceforth known as “al-Musinnah”, because in the Bedouin dialect of Arabic the verb ‘sanna’ means ‘to listen’, and al-Musinnah means ‘she who pays attention and listens eagerly’.”

Now here’s what Charles Craver (“And Noah Begat…” in the Arabian Horse Journal, 1981) wrote about Muson (picture above, with groom Said Abdallah up), the Kuhaylan al-Musinn stallion imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906:

Of the horses in the Davenport importation, *MUSON was probably the most striking individual in that he was a “listening” horse. Davenport considered this a strain characteristic rather than an individual trait. He writes a charming story about it to the effect that a certain mare in an Arab encampment was observed by the Bedouins to be “listening” to some unknown sound. That night the camp was attacked by enemy raiders. Thereafter the mare’s decendants were called “listening horses” after her behavior.

How nice to see that the same a story that was told to Homer Davenport in 1906 would resurface more than a 100 later, almost word for word..

Over the past decades, Mustafa spent extensive amounts of time with Bedouins and those familiar with them, and collected a large compendium of stories, some in verse, some in prose about Arabian horse strains, Bedouin feats and deeds, and the relationship of Bedouins with their horses.

Mustafa’s family is now working on putting these stories in writing in Arabic, for education and awareness raising purposes. Below is one of these story from Mustafa, which I translated from the original Arabic, and which Mustafa and his family graciously agreed to share:

One day Dham al-Hadi al-Jarba the Shaykh of the Shammar tribe went hunting with one of the men from his tribe, a Bedouin known as Wati al-Ghishm (as an aside: Wati means lowly and vile, and it was a Bedouin habit to give their children rough or negatively connotated first names to draw the evil eye away from them ; they would keep positively connotated first names to their slaves, for example Mas’ud or Marzuq). Wati was riding a pretty mare of the Kuhaylan strain; Dham liked the mare so much that he asked for her; when Wati politely turned his request down, Dham was so irritated that he resolved to acquire the mare at any cost, even if he had to resort to  force.

When Wati felt that Dham was up to something, he rode his Kuhaylah mare, and went off to the Sba’ah tribe, seeking protection with them ; but Dham wanted to show Wati that he could reach him and the mare wherever they went, so he sent two men to the Sba’ah encampments to steal the mare. Wati woke up one morning and saw that the mare was missing, so he went to the Shaykh of the Sba’ah and told him : « I left my tribe and my people and came all the way to you so you protect the mare, and look what happened »; the Shaykh of the Sba’ah told him : «Hope for the best ; lets perform the morning prayer first, and then we’ll examine the situation» ; upon hearing these words, Wati realized that the mare was lost and gave up on ever getting her back.

When the morning prayer was over, the five sons of the Sba’ah Shaykh came to check on their father; the latter stood before his chidlren and looked at each one for a long time, then he asked the eldest son to follow him. The Shaykh of the Sba’ah owned four mares and a stallion, all of them of the ‘Ubayyan Sharrak strain ; he went to his horses, sat in front of them, and started mumbling as he counted the beads in his hand ; then he asked his eldest son to jump on the stallion’s back, follow the thieves, and come back with the Kuhaylah mare.

And so it was. By the time of the evening prayer, the son was back with the Kuhaylah. Wati could not hide his amazement ; after thanking the Shaykh, he asked him for the reason why he stared at his children for such a long time before selecting the eldest for the mission of retrieving the mare. The Shaykh’s answer was : « all my sons are strong, but the maternal uncles of the eldest are from my kin »; by this the Shaykh meant that he was aware of his eldest son’s origins from his mother’s side, and hence he was certain of his performance. Wati then asked him about his mumbling as he was playing with the string of beads, and the Shaykh replied : « I was counting the paternal ancestors of the horses, and I found out that the fifth paternal ancestor of the stallion (that is, the sire of the stallion’s maternal great-great-great-granddam) was better than those of the mares, and that’s why I selected him».

When Dham learned the details of what had happened, he came to Wati to seek peace with him and asked him to return to the tribe, telling him he had no interest in the Kuhaylah mare anymore. Dham added : « Kuhaylat al-Wati may be strong, but the ‘Ubayyan Sharrak is much stronger, therefore the Kuhaylah does not deserve to be taken by force».

The mare in the photo above, Nawal, was owned by Mustafa al-Jabri, and is a ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah tracing to the marbat of Ibn Duwayhiss of the Sba’ah tribe. The story above was probably related to Mustafa in the context of his purchasing Nawal in the mid 1980s and researching her origins. I wrote about Nawal some time ago, here.

By now I think it’s time I shared with you the news that I am working with Kathy Busch of Kansas City, MO, on leasing a 25 year old chestnut daughter of Soiree which she owns. Her name is Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), she was also bred by Jeanne Craver, and she is all I am thinking about these days. She’s been treated at the vet clinic recently for a minor uterus infection, and she’ll be ready to be bred over the next couple weeks via artificial insemination. I am still looking for the right stallion for her, with ‘right’ in this case including ‘ready to collect from and ship’ in addition to the other meaning it has for me.

By the way, both the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Soiree, and the Saqlawiyat al-’Abd mare Dahriefa which was featured today, are both from Mrs. Ott’s Blue List program, which along with Charles Craver’s Davenport program, spearheaded the revival of asil Arabian horse breeding in the USA back in the 1950s and 1960s.

The young grey one below is Sugar Hill Sassy (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), by a Sirecho son out of a mare by another Sirecho son.

This is Dahmira (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), a full sister of the above

and this is Dahmira’s daughter SH Hamira (Abay-Hami x Dahmira by Joramir), with her grand-dam Dahriefa in the background..

The last photo features SH Hamira on the left and her grand-dam Dahriefa, on the right. She looks so special even in old age, and strongly reminds me of the some of the old desert bred mares at Basil Jadaan’s in Damascus.

Here’s a short movie from YouTube, which shows the Marshalls at the Egyptian Agricultural Organization ‘s El Zahraa Stud, then in USA. I believe the white horse in the video is *Morafic (Nazeer x Mabrouka by Sid Abouhom), the star of the first Gleannlock importation.