I gleaned off this awesome photo of a Bedouin palanquin in the area of Tadmor/Palmyra in 1937, for what looks like a marriage or a ceremony of some sort. As is usually the case for these photos from “nostalgia influencer” social media accounts, there is no source for the photo ..read more

I had been telling you about the strain of Ubayyan al-Khudr of the Bani Sakhr in earlier posts. I stumbled upon a reference to this strain, as I was doing a new translation of the hujjah (certificate of authenticity) of the Arabian stallion Marhum. This was a desert-bred horse born in 1890 and imported from the Middle East by Hernan Ayerza of Argentina in 1898. Until now I had been laboring under the assumption that the signatories of the hujjah of Marhum were all ‘Anazah tribesmen. This assumption was based on an earlier translation I had done for Al Khamsa Arabians III (2008). Upon taking a ..read more

I ordered this book on the epic of the migration of the Bani Hilal, in one of its Tunisian versions. The author interviewed one of the last oral reciters of this grand epic, an old Tunisian herder, and translated it into French. I The epic of the Bani Hilal is the Arabs’ equivalent to Homer’s Iliad. It is based off a historical event: the mass migration of the Bedouin tribe of Bani Hilal out of Arabia and into North Africa over the course of the eleventh century CE. Of course, like any epic, it consists of several cycles, each one with its heroes, vilains, love stories, betrayals, feats of cou ..read more

A very nice photo of Moira Walker’s Landrace Bellara (Pulcher Ibn Reshan x Jadah BelloftheBall), the youngest Kuhaylat al-Ajuz from the line of the Saudi royal mare *Nufoud ..read more

Yemen has been on my mind a lot lately. صورة لسوق المراشي مركز مديرية خراب المراشي – الجوف (1973 – 1975 ..read more

I was happy to find a mention of this important manuscript in Major Roger Upton’s “Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia” (London, 1881). It is a short manuscript by a member of the Jabiri family of Aleppo who lived in 19th century and listed many strains of Arabian horses known to him. Here is Upton’s mention of it: Let me repeat, moreover, that some incline to the opinion—among them Djabery Zadah Mohammed Ali (Effendi) — that all the families and strains given in the foregoing race are descended from Keheilet Ajuz and I must state that Djabery Zadah Mohammed Ali, who published in Arabia a shor ..read more

I confess being terribly late in acquainting myself with some of foundational Arabian horse literature in English. Roger Upton’s “Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia” is one of those books I had not read, save for passages here and there. I am happy I found a searchable version of it online, and I am having fun searching for specific words in it. Below are Upton’s quotes on the “Manakhi” strain (his spelling). On the Ma’naqi strain (page 328-9): Of the Manakhi. The Manakhi appeared to us a favourite strain, for both horses and mares of this family are to be found in most tribes of Badaween; an ..read more

Kate and I are have serious doubts about the Darley Arabian being from the Fad’aan tribe, as modern lore has it. There were no Fad’aan Anazah Bedouins in the area between Aleppo and Palmyra around 1700 CE, where the Darley Arabian is said to have come from. It was not until the 1800s — at least a century later — that the Fad’aan left the vicinity of the oasis of Khaibar in the Hijaz (Central Arabia) and moved north to the Syrian desert, the area between Aleppo and Palmyra. Kate tells me that the only primary source about the Darley Arabian is a letter by Thomas Darley to his brother, printed o ..read more

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Saudi historian of the ‘Anazah tribe ‘Abdallah ibn Duhaymish Ibn ‘Abbar al-Fad’aani, whose work I generally value, found a mention of the date of the mass migration of several ‘Anazah tribes from Central Arabia to the Syrian desert (North Arabia, which covers part of Syria and Iraq and Jordan today), in a contemporary Lebanese chronicle, Tarikh al-Amir Haydar al-Shihabi, which was published in Beirut in 1933. I could not find the relevant passage in my edition of this chronicle, so I am taking Ibn ‘Abbar to his word. Says Ibn ‘Abbar, with my rough translation: The book “Lebanon in the era of ..read more