PURE-STRAIN BREEDING is not a "Raswan theory" (as it has been called). As much as I would like to have discovered it for the benefit of producing better Arabians, I must admit that I am only building on a very old foundation and I have to give credit to greater authorities than myself whose evidence I shall site in support of this most important subject.

I CANNOT QUOTE a higher authority on the pure-strain breeding of Arabian horses than Amir Faysul Sha'lan, an Arabian Desert chief, who was born in the beginning of the last century, and ruled over the Ruala-Anaza and their allied tribes.

Arabian stallion Raseyn and mare Mahroussa, representing the highest type of the classic (antique) strain, the Kuhaylan, demonstrated in these two head pictures are the large eyes, bulging forehead, dish face, diagonal cut of the nostrils, great width between jowls, pyramidical shape of head, eyes set down into the face.

Two historical Arabian horses which appear in most pedigrees of Arabians in America and England.

1 -- Mesaoud, in 1887 classic (antique) type of the kuhaylan (strength) and Saqlawi (beauty) strains.

2 -- Naomi, the Muniqi (race or speed) type of angular and long lines with 13-day-old colt Khaled, in 1877. Randolph Huntington bred these race type Arabians of the Muniqi-Hadruj strain pure.

PRINCE FAYSUL'S notes were always written down in public within the circle and council of other horse breeders. Bedouins from all parts of Arabia journeyed to Faysul's tent, solely for the purpose of submitting testimony and witnessing the truth of certain pedigrees. Horses from all over the desert were brought into his council to be discussed and their ancestors to be faithfully recorded and to be sealed by the testimony of at least two witnesses. Enemies with their retainers, slaves and horses were guaranteed inviolability on their journey to reach Faysul Sha'lan's tent. Faysul is known to have sent special wrought shepard coats as "cloaks of protection" to enemies with whom he had blood-feuds to guarantee their life and safe return to their own people, solely to hear their "side" of an historical record concerning the pedigree and descent of a certain horse.

PRINCE FAYSUL'S records are so unique and so obviously true, that they are in absolute contrast to the legends and fabulous tales we read in so-called "historical" books of Islamic literature on horse breeding. Faysul's notes are conscientiously recorded documents of lasting historical value.

FROM MY own translations of Prince Faysul's manuscript I quote:

(1) Certain Saqlawiyah-Marighiyah mares are considered mediocre, because their sires belong to different strains, while the sires of a previous category (they were mentioned in the preceding pages of Prince Faysul's book) were all Saqlawis by Saqlawi sires.

(2) Murshid Al-Nauwak testifies that we in Nejd allow the Saqlawiyat to be mated only to the sires of the Saqlawi, Kuhaylan and Shuwayman strains (that is, either pure in the strain, or related in the strain, but no Mu'niqi to the Antique strains!).

(3) The Kuhaylan Al-Khurs belonged to the Ramah of the Saba'. Those of Al-Husayn wee kept pure in the strain while those of Al-Zanwah were mixed. It happened while they were found to be at Al-Madhar, that the mares of this family were covered by a Jilfan stallion who belonged to Ju'ayfan of the Fid'an -- previously, however, to Zabid of Shaways Al-Shatt. After this the Ramah disposed of their Kuhaylan-Zanwah mares. (An outstanding example which shows that a Bedouin breeder who had raised pure in the strain horses, gave up in disgust his whole stud of animals, because they had been mated with the wrong strain. How many such discarded mares and foals may have been sold to Europeans!)

(4) Dabbi Ibn Shutaywi of the Khamsa (Saba') testified that his Saqlawiyah mares of Ibn Sudan once had been "mixed" (the Arabian word in this case definitely expresses an illegitimate action) with a Rabdan-Khushaymi stallion (a confession that mixed breeding is considered the inferior to the pure strain breeding).

(5) 'Iwad Al-Nazahi (Inzihi) of the Ruala was asked in the council of Faysul's guests to bring proof that a certain Hadban-Inzihi (Nazahi) mare and her filly were his property (he had been unhorsed from his mare in a raid against the Saba' and the new owner with a stallion of "Iwad's former "partner" raised four fillies from her). 'Iwad called upon his old "partner"of the mare,, a man by the name of Murabit of the Masadiyah (Saba'tribe), who bred Hadban Al-Ferd mares and testified that the mare and her foals in question were of Hadban-Inzihi strain. (This case proves that to retain the purity of a certain strain a Bedouin will take his mare to a distant tribe if necessary and make the owner of the chosen stallion (who is of the same strain as the mare) his "partner." Thus the owners of the two horses, though they may be enemies, can perpetuate the pure strain. So-called partnerships are not made so much for reasons of personal advantage, but rather for the honorable cause to save a certain pure strain from extinction, as in this case to save the Hadban strain when "Iwad of the Ruala tribe bred his mare to a stallion of his enemies, the Saba' tribe. In a raid -- or soon after -- any pure-bred mare, recognized as such, is returned to the former owner. In 'Iwad's case, for reasons unknown, it took at least five years.

FROM PRINCE Muhammad Ali's translation of Prince Faysul's book I quote (Bulletin No. 35 of the Royal Agricultural Society, Cairo, Egypt, 1936):

(Page 83) Al-Hudayri was asked about the stallion of Basitah and he offered the information that it was a Saqlawi-'Ubayri which mated with the Saqlawiyah- Marighiyah and that the stallion was not allowed to mate with foreign mares and its strain was considered by the Ruala as their best strain.

(Page 54) The variation in the shape and size of this strain (Saqlawiyah-Marighihyah) is due to the different stallions with which the mares have been mated, all of which were from outside the family ... when horses of the same strain are mated together they produce uniform size.

(Page 79) Faysul was asked about the Saqlawiyah-Marighiyah mares and he replied that they were of three categories: excellent, medium, and poor, although they originally came from one and the same mare (after naming the best mares, others are mentioned and called "medium.") These are medium because their fathers vary, whereas the fathers of the former category are all Saqlawis from Saqlawis.

THESE QUOTATIONS and the registered pedigrees of imported Arabian horses to Europe and America prove beyond doubt the supreme excellency of the pure-strain breeding and has yielded the finest type of desert horses.

THE FOLLOWING sentence from Lady Anne Blunt's book, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates (London, 1881), page 440, should be an additional proof that the pure-in-the-strain breeding is not a new theory:

"Of the minor breeds, none are kept absolutely pure except the Maneghi Hedruj of Ibn Sbeyel."

A PARAGRAPH in the same work, page 437, is not less enlightening about pure-strain breeding:

"An Abeyah Sherrak mare belonging to Beteyen Ibn Mershid was the most perfect mare we saw; but her sire was a Kehilan Ajuz. The pure Abeyan Sherrak strain is only found in the family of Abu Jereys of the Mesekha, and in a single family of the Jelaas."

ORTHODOX BEDOUINS always bred Arabians pure in the strain!

CERTAIN STRAINS were considered permissible to be mated together (breeding of "related" strains), producing also outstanding horses as in the case above -- breeding an "Abayyah to another classic type, the Kuhaylan.

ALREADY IN Lady Anne Blunt's time Bedouins had become indifferent and careless about the breeding of their horses and consequently only a very few owners raised animals of quality. In reference to this I quote again from Lady Anne Blunt's book, page 437:

"The four strains, Jedraan, Obeyran, Arjebi, and El Abd, are identical in origin, being descended from four Seglawi mares, sisters -- but only the best has been kept absolutely pure. Even the Seglawi Jedran is to be found pure in the families of Ibn Nederi and Ibn Sbeni only. The Seglawi Obeyran has been crossed with the Kehilans and other strains; and the El Abd, though purer than the Obeyran, is yet not absolutely so even in the family of Ibn Shaalan."

WRITERS AND TRAVELERS from the seventeenth century onward to our time mention the pure-strain breeding, too. I only mention a few.

Arvieux (page 66) wrote that brood mares of the first (or choicest, most noble) category were bred to sires of the same class among the Bedouins.

d'Alton (page 11) mentions incest-breeding in Arabia and that horses of pure strains (to retain their nobility) were never mixed with other strains, though such other strains may have been considered of noble birth, too.

THE GREAT writer on horse breeding, Justinus, in his book on the fundamental laws of horse breeding (page 40) remarks that pure-breeding is not a question of continuous arriving at further improvements, but of retaining the original (hereditary) strength of transmitting certain qualities and characteristics which make up a type or certain strain. Such a fixed type must transmit these qualities through a sire and a dam of its own strain (one parent alone cannot communicate it). Only from such a union a colt may be produced which can (as a sire) improve with satisfaction ordinary breeds. Such a sire has intensified qualities, but of the same characteristics from both parents.

COUNT RZEWUSZKI wrote that there seems to be a limit of desirable qualities each strain of Arabian horses has reached at the hands of the Bedouins. This happened in ages past (of which we have no records) but the Bedouins were satisfied with their achievement and did not try to attempt any more improvements, as the furthest possible development had been reached. From that moment on the principles of pure breeding were adopted as nature by its own eternal laws would have meant it to be. Through such pure breeding well balanced types or strains were retained through centuries.

PERSONALLY, I differ from the late Rzewuszki's viewpoint (foremost authority on Arabian horses which Poland produced) only in that: I believe the Bedouins did not develop purposely the strains, but simply retained the original wild horse of Arabia as they had found it in its two related classic type: the Kuhaylan (strength) and the Saqlawi (beauty, refinement) by pure-strain breeding. Any new (slightly different) variations that developed from the Kuhaylat and Saqlawiyat were provided with new strain names and they were bred pure-in-the-strain, too (often incest-bred to retain a fixed new type. See my previous articles for further details).

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From same issue, p. 50 OLD RECORDS (Submitted by Tex Ewell.)

In Wallace's Monthly for February, 1882, was the following item:

"Saieda, the gray mare foaled about 1848, an Arabian imported by the late William McDonald of Baltimore, died recently from old age, the property of John W. Garrett, Bultimore, Maryland."

This Arabian mare, Saieda, was bred to the intensely Morgan-bred horse Bashaw Jr. 51 and the produce was Saieda Bashaw, a mare that was bred to the Clay stallion, Crittenden 433, the gray filly Arab Girl resulting. Arab Girl was bred to Empire Wilkes 3798 (son of George Wilkes and Jane Mosely by Mambrino Patchen) and produced Bessie Bonehill 2:05 3/4, who, when mated with Joe Patchen 2:01 1/4 produced the sensational pacer Joe Patchen 2nd 2:03 1/4, owned by Mr. R.J.McKenzie, proprietor of the Pleasanton Training Park. -- Submitted by Tex Ewell.

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