The aging Muhammad Ali, "Pasha of Egypt," had gradually weakened physically and mentally. His glorious stud and the breeding of his celebrated Arabian horses were neglected.

Abbas, grandson of the insane "dictator," Muhammad Ali, taking advantage of the situation, had begun to acquire the rarest and most perfect specimens of his grandfather's "collection of classic-type Arabian steeds.

Under the failing Muhammad Ali these beautiful creatures were mistreated by their caretakers and the Asil (noble, pure-strain) breeding fell into degeneration; no attention was paid to the strains and their characteristics. Almost uncared for, these priceless animals were left to themselves in filthy, but luxurious, stables and paddocks, lacking proper feed, attention, and exercise. Completely ignored when disease broke out among the starved, fly- and vermin-ridden horses, the poor creatures wasted away and died one after the other. Their decaying bodies often lay for days in boxstalls and in other enclosures upon dung piles. Living horses staggered about among the dead an dying, miserable remnants of those once priceless animals, now condemned to desolation and death and to undescribable abomination.

Abbas Pasha, for years a witness to the slow and heartbreaking deterioration of this once incomparable Arabian stud, took matters in his own hands to save the breeding. Watching very carefully the pedigrees and products of certain stallions and brood mares, he acquired from time to time some of these illustrious parents or their foals. He kept careful records of the origins and breeding history of his animals and spared neither money nor his own security and freedom of life to acquire (if necessary through bribery) the flower of Muhammad Ali's horses.

Famous artists from France, Germany, and Poland asked for the privileges of painting these "prodigious" creatures, these "incomparable examples" of "enormous beauty and marvellous qualities." Abbas Pasha's horses were compared by one enthusiast of his time to the most precious porcelain ever fashioned by a Divine hand out of equine clay. Their ethereal beauty and the startled expression of their gazelle-like eyes, the flag-like carriage of their silken tails has been retained in some of the celebrated paintings of that period.

Abbas Pasha loved Arabian horses with a passion that can only be compared with that of his grandfather, Muhammad Ali--but the affection which Abbas Pasha felt rose from a tender and understanding heart, a different passion than that which sprang from the self-gratifying, vain-glorious cruelly obsessive mind of the manical Muhammad Ali.

***

Abbas Pasha (as readers of previous articles will remember) helped Faisal, Prince of Arabia, escape from the citadel of Cairo, where the young prince had been held prisoner for years by Muhammad Ali.

As soon as Prince Faisal returned to Riadh, his capital in Arabia, he invited Feysul (Ibn Dauwish, chieftain of the Mutayr tribe) to his place. These two "Feysuls" had been deadly enemies, but by the good graces of Abbas Pasha of Egypt, a true friend of both, reconciliation had been arranged with the help of Srur, Feysul's slave. Twenty-six years previously Srur had been attendant to one of the most celebrated mares in Arabia and Egypt, the so-called "Jallabiyah of Feysul," who had sent her as a gift to Prince Abdullah (grandfather of Prince Faisal of Arabia).

Abdullah, in turn, had sent the "Jallabiyah of Feysul" to Tusssun (Abbas Pasha's father). As a three-year-old child, Abbas had ridden this Jallabiyah mare in Cairo, when she was shot and killed under him by the superstitious "Master-of-Horses" of his father. (Readers of the previous articles will recall these incidents concerning the "Jallabiyah" and the infant, Abbas, and the old slave who loved "little Abbas" almost as much sa his own son...all this happened in 1816--and now we are writing 1842: "Little Abbas" has become a great Pasha of Egypt, though his insane grandfather is still alive and the ruler of the land of the Nile...and Feysul, the Bedouin chieftain is still roaming the wilderness of inner-Arabia with his camel and horsebreeding tribe, and Faisal, the Prince of Arabia, after his escape from Cairo with the help of his friend Abbas Pasha of Egypt, once more reigns in the Holy Land of Arabia and the Inner Provinces of the great peninsula.

Prince Faisal of Arabia asked his guests to assemble their horses in the "Paradise-Pastures" (as they were called) of Sulaymiyah, in the Al-Kharj, a few leagues south of the capital of Riyadh.

Among the illustrious visitors none was greater than Srur, Feysul's former slave. The venerable old Negro was considered one of the real great men of Arabia. Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt had freed him in Cairo in 1816, on the day when the Jallabiyah mare had been killed under "little Abbas." After that tragic incident Srur had served as commander of Ibrahim Pasha's cavalry in Arabia, and as stud manager and Master-of-Horses in Hejaz (the coastal province, the Holy Land of Arabia). At the end of 1819, when Ibrahim Pasha returned from Arabia to Egypt, he offered Srur an even higher position in Cairo and a palace on the Nile, but the faithful old Negro asked only to be returned to his master in the desert and became a slave once more.

Thus we find Feysul's old slave in the 1842 at the "riders and horse-thieves" festival in the "heavenly pastures" of Al Kharj, once more playing a part in the history of Desert Arabia and in the affairs of horsebreeding in Egypt (and thus indirectly in England and America, too).

As the days of rejoicing went on and the Prince of Arabia and the supreme-chief of the Mutayr Bedouins became friends, they decided to seal their "mutual benevolence" by forming a sacred brotherhood. In the absence of their third "brother," Abbas pasha of Egypt, "The-two-Feysuls" asked Srur (now a white haired Negro well over ninety years old) to enact the ritual blood-sacrifice of their brotherhood by cutting the throat of a young lamb while it was placed across the withers of a very aged white mare. This old horse was one of the original Jallabiyah mares of Feysul (the Bedouin chieftain). She was barren for years, eating "the bread of memory and honour" and "drank the milk of love" in the "house" (tent) of Feysul Ibn Dauwis". In easy stages of journeying she had been brought ot the place of festival "to save her from the solitude of the depleted grazing grounds in her home pastures."

After the gruesome, but significant ceremony of the blood-brotherhood had been performed before thousands of witnesses, the old slave asked to be dispatched to the Rai (ruler) Ibn Khalifa on the Island of Bahreyn (in the Persian Gulf, off the east coast of Arabia) to bring back his master's (Feysul's) stud of Jallabiyah horses, which he (Feysul, the Bedouin chieftain) eight years previously had dispatched to Ibn Khalifa in Bahreyn to save them from falling into the hands of the very man with whom he had now formed an "inviolable and forever hallowed" friendship....

Alsa, who could describe the grief of "The-two-Feysuls," when a few months later they met again to celebrate the return of the old slave from the Islands of Bahreyn.

Srur had brought the sad news that Ibn Khalifa "preferred" to keep Feysul's war-mares and their issue and would never part with more than one of the animals at one time, and then hen only at the price of five thousand goldpieces.

The two blood-brothers looked at each other without saying a word, but their thoughts were known to each other. Then both men at the same time turned to their scribes and asked them to count the available gold in their "treasure chests." Prince Faisal of Arabia contributed four thousand and five hundred goldpieces to redeem one of the Jallabiyah mares, and by that time Feysul (Ibn Dauwish, the Bedouin chieftain) added three thousand and one hundred and twenty pieces of his own gold--all that was available in the "coffers" of his own and his brothers' harem.

Faisal argued with Feysul that only five hundred coins had to be added to complete the five thousand "ransom money" demanded by Ibn Khalifa of Bahreyn.

Feysul (the Bedouin) answered that he had in his mind one particular mare of his former stud of Jallabiyat, who, (as the old slave had informed him), was now in foal to one of the original Jallabi-stallions, which Ibn Khalifa had acquired from his friend Shaykh Ibn Hithlayn of the Ajman tribe. Nothing could be more distinguished of pure-strain descent, or of greater promise as far as classic-type was concerned, than this foal (to be born of such noble parents!) The offspring would not only be of the same strain (Kuhaylan) on Dam's and Sire's side, but of the same family (sub-stain), as the Jallabiyah.

The amount which Ibn Khalifa demanded was exorbitant, but both Feysuls admitted that they would spend their last goldpieces to regain at least one of these "incomparably-bred" mares. If only bahreyn had not been an island across the waters of uqayr, the two Feysuls would have gathered their camel and horsemen and raided the "ungrateful" Ibn Khalifa and deprived him of his whole stud of Arabian horses. But Feysul (the Bedouin, and former owner of the Jallabiyat) felt otherwise not so unfriendly against Ibn Khalifa, as one might expect. He looked upon the conduct of Ibn Khalifa as a Bedouin raider views another marauder of the desert, that is: "with deep understanding of the time honoured circumstances," and not as we "civilized" people of the west are accustomed to regard such behavior. In Arabia other reasons than the "obvious" ones had to be considered (as for example): the ruler of Bahreyn (Ibn Khalifa) held Feysul's Jallabiyat horses only "in trust" to protect their future, life and safety, and to guarantee the proper continuation of their pure-in-the-strain breeding. These Jallabiyat were "Horses of God," and hence men were only "stewards" of their Creator on earth, entrusted these Divine animals for a little while. Ibn Khalifa was a fanatic breeder like Feysul (the Bedouin), and like Faisal (the Prince of Arabia). These men were "Purists," who believed in the preservation of the pure-stain of their horses. Ibn Khalifa of Bahreyn had actually gone to much expense and great trouble to keep Feysul's (the Bedouin chieftain's) Jallabiyat mares by acquiring the corresponding Jallabi stallions which were in the hands of that other great Bedouin chief, Ibn hithlayn of the Ajman tribe.

Five thousand pounds (pieces of gold) was not considered too much under such circumstances to ask for one of the mares. Ibn Khalifa's reluctance to let the whole stud of Jallabiyat horses go was also understandable. Ibn Khalifa had actually saved these Jallabiyat from extinction, while on the mainland of Arabia (only a dozen miles from the Bahreyn Islands) the Egyptian army and its allies (certain tribes, including Feysul's own Mutayr Bedouins) was devastating Arabia, shooting wantonly their enemies' horses and sacrificing their own warmares by the thousands in raids and battles against the Prince of Arabia and his allies (also certain Bedouin tribes). What would become of these 'relics," the Jallabiyat, if they were to be returned now into the hands of the belligerent people of Feysul's Mutayr Bedouins? Or into the stables of Faisal, the Prince of Arabia, whose future and fortune were most insecure as long as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and his warrior son Ibrahim were still alive, and the Egyptian army one of the "intrepid horsemen of Arabia," to help his father bring back one of the Jallabiyah mares.

Five months later in Bahreyn seven thousand goldpieces changed hands between the scribe of Ibn Khalifa, and the slave of Feysul. When Srur made ready to leave Bahreyn in a sailing "Dau" of a pearl-diver, he had bargained Ibn Khalifa out of two Jallabiyah mares, each with a new-born filly by her side, each one sired by a different, but original jallabi stallion of Ibn Hithlayn of the Ajman tribe. Srur had stayed on Bahreyn for almost half a year, waiting patiently until both mares were bred back to another pure-in-the-strain stallion of Ibn Hithlayn's original Jallabi. The acquisition of the two mares by the old slave had not been such an easy matter as it may seem. The "deal" had required more than just friendly words and a large bag of gold. Ibn Khalifa, the master of Bahreyn, was immensely rich. The main source of his wealth, amounting to many millions of goldpieces, came from his control of the pearl-trade in the Persian Gulf (the present day Ibn Khalifa has added millions more in gold from one of the richest oil resources in the world today, discovered and exploited by American companies on his islands).

Something else than gold had tempted Ibn Khalifa to part with the two Jallabiyah mares and their fillies: the old slave had paid Ibn Khalifa with his own son, Hamud! Hamud had become the ransom which had persuaded Ibn Khalifa to let the second Jallabiyah mare and her filly to to the old slave's master.

Let this be remembered in the annals of Arabian horsebreeding, and whenever you behold an Arabian with Jallabiyat bloodlines, think of the strange history back of their ancestors, and recall the suffering and sacrifices brought by those who served and loved "Feysul's Jallabiyat."

After the old Negro had delivered the two Jallabiyah mares and their fillies to Feysul, Srur asked one favor of his master ("uncle" as the slave will call him), clothing his request in words, which recalled the memories of the past, the time when Feysul sent his "first" Jallabiyah mare as a gift to his enemy, Prince Abdullah of Arabia, to ransom Abdullah's Hamdaniyat horses from the hands of Tussun and his father, Muhammad Ali of Egypt. That same day, too, when Feysul dispatched Srur to go with his Jallaabiyah mare and deliver her to Egypt. Not mentioning his request yet, Srur went on and reminded his "uncle" that it was there, in Egypt, "by the designs of God," that he had become attached to Abbas (three-year-old son of Tussun), when the Jallabiyah mare, with the child mounted upon her, was killed before his eyes.

No "amends" had ever been made to the "child," who had loved Feysul's Jallabiyah so much. Since then twenty-six years had gone by and Abbas had become a great man, one of the Pashas of Egypt, and the amulet which Srur had placed upon the neck of the little child on that fateful day of the death from her sacred forelock wrapped into the charm against all evil), had brought the blessing which Srur had promised to the infant Abbas: Abbas had become renown as a "Master of the Steeds of Ishmael," and a "brother to the children of the Desert"...and thus to "the-two-Feysuls" himself.

Now only, after this long speech, Srur made his request known: He asked his "uncle" to return him to Egypt, to Abbas Pasha, with the true gift of brotherhood of Arabia, that is, with one of the "redeemed Jallabiyah mares and her filly to "appease" the longing in the "child's" heart for the "first" Jallabiyah that had been killed under him, and as a token of love of "the-two-Feysuls."

Feysul Ibn Dauwish, chieftain of the Mutayr tribe, agreed to his old slave's request and sent him once more on the long (his last) journey to Egypt by way of the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina, to receive the blessings of Faisal, the Prince of Arabia, for the Jallabiyah mare and her filly.

Faisal named her Wazira.

By this name she was spoken of among all the people of Arabia and Egypt and as Wazira she is registered, too, in the Arabian studbooks of Egypt, England, Poland, Russia, Germany, France, and America.

Without letting anything be known to his bloodbrother, Feysul (the Bedouin chieftain), Prince Faisal of Arabia started political negotiations with his friend and ally Ibn Khalifa in Behreyn, to return all the original Jallabiyah broodmares to their former owner (Feysul).

Faisal, as Prince of Arabia, wielded sufficient authority to demand of Ibn Khalifa the surrender of these mares, but the ruler of the islands, though he had never gave up another of Feysul's Jallabiyah horses. In one point only Ibn Khalifa yielded: he returned Hamud, the young slave, after Prince Faisal had made "a contribution" of three thousand pieces of gold.

Thus, returning to Egypt, we find Abbas Pasha not only united again with Srur, friend and servant of his earliest childhood, but we also see Abbas Pasha in the possession of another Jallabiyah mare and her filly.

Hamud, redeemed son of old Srur, joined his father in Egypt. Hamud became "Master-of-Horses" to Abbas Pasha. The "intrepid young horseman" was often painted by visiting European artists in Egypt. We may see him leading or riding the steeds of Abbas Pasha's beautiful Bedouin mares: Wazira, Prince Feysul's Jallabiyah, the most distinguished mare in the studbooks and pedigrees of Arabian horses in Egypt, Europe, and America.

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