23 August, 2020

Farid El Asil

While searching for a particular photo of Ansata Abbas Pasha, I stumbled upon the photo of this striking 2008 stallion named Farid El Asil. Bred by Christian Moschini of Italy; he is now owned by Sheikh Mohammed Al Ali Alsobah of AlHaddar Stud, Kuwait. This very charming straight Egyptian stallion is a son of Al Whaid El Dine (Salaa el Dine x Gioia APS) and out of the mare, Farida El Asil (Coaltown x Abbas Pasha I-6), hence, the source of the name, Farid El Asil. Although, if I can just direct your attention to the tail female line of his maternal great grandsire, Abbas Pasha I, who traces to the celebrated mare, Farida (Saklawi II x Nadra el Saghira), so one can argue that the source of the "Farid" and also, the "Farida" in his dam's name, may actually pay tribute to one of the greatest Dahmah mares of all time, Farida.

Farid El Asil is Kuhaylan Rodan in strain, as he traces in his tail female line to Rodania, a Kuhaylah Rodaniyah, bred by the Ruala tribe of the Anazeh Bedouins. Rodania was captured by Tais Ibn Sharban of the Saba'ah tribe, from Sheikh Sattam Ibn Shalan in 1880. Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt eventually purchased the mare from Tais Ibn Sharban and imported Rodania to their Crabbet Park Stud in England, circa 1881. Rodania is present in Egyptian breeding primarily through the family that her daughter Rose of Sharon founded. Rose of Sharon was a daughter of the desert-bred stallion, Hadban. She in turn, was bred to the Ali Pasha Sherif stallion, Merzuk and produced the mare Ridaa. When Ridaa was bred to the Ali Pasha Sherif stallion named Mesaoud, she produced the mare Risala. Risala's daughter by Ibn Yashmak, Bint Risala (a great-great granddaughter of Rodania) is one of the two Rodania descendants incorporated into the RAS breeding program and the source of the Rodania line in Farid El Asil's pedigree.

If belonging to one of the most vibrant and enduring female lines is not a powerful story in of itself, we find the influence of the EAO chestnut mare, Hanadi (Alaa el Din x Rahma), who is also known as "11 Hanadi",  one of the Egyptian horses selected, purchased and imported to The Babolna Stud in Hungary by Dr. Hans Nagel, Dr. Robert Burgert and Dr. Ameen Zaher, circa 1968 - 1970. Bred to another of the imported horses, the stallion, Ibn Galal (Galal x Mohga), Hanadi produced Ibn Galal I,  the sire of Bahila, the dam of Coaltown, who is the sire of Farida el Asil. Coaltown, you will remember is a full brother of The Minstril. However, this breeding combination of Ibn Galal with Hanadi appears a second time, in the tail female line, producing the mare, 201 Ibn Galal, the maternal granddam of Farida El Asil. It's a very clever breeding strategy to double up on specific horses, who when combined genetically, resulted in one of the most beloved and widely used horses, in all of straight Egyptian breeding.

On the sire side of Farid El Asil's pedigree, through the pedigree of the paternal great granddam, the pedigree becomes even more interesting than it already is. It is in this part of the pedigree that you will discover an ancestor, who like Rodania, reveals another, fresh source of desert blood. BSA Nadiaa is out of a mare named Diaa, a daughter of the 1974 chestnut mare, Cedardell Tiffany (Serenity Mankure x *SerenityBintNadia) by Dalul (*Morafic x *Dawlat). In a past Pyramid Society  Breeder's Conference, I remember something that Cynthia Culbertson said, which really impressed me at the time. She said, “what we can say about the Straight Egyptian Arabian, very reliably, is that they are so close to that desert source, the only way one could get closer is with a desert bred that stayed in the homeland.” And it is through *SerenityBintNadia's granddam, Nafaa, that the power in Cynthia's words come alive. You see, Nafaa, recorded simply as a Kuhaylah sired by an Abeyyan stallion, was gifted to King Farouk of Egypt by King Ibn Sa'ud in 1945,  also breeders of other desert-bred mares like El Kahila, the source of the Kuhaylan Kurush strain in Egypt, the mare Hind (the granddam of the Gleannloch *Bint Hanaa), the Inshass mare, Mabrouka (*Orashan's great granddam), as well as *Turfa, a mare of great quality and significance in American breeding.

While Farid El Asil's pedigree is representative of today's modern Egyptian horse, through horses like Hanan, Ruminaja Ali  and Ansata Halim Shah; I think it is the more unique ancestral elements that we discussed above, which make him a little different from horses who are similarly influenced and possibly, offer a mare owner the distinct opportunity to incorporate an alternative or outcross bloodline source into their program.

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