Uniquely *Ibn Hafiza

 

*Ibn Hafiza (Sameh x Hafiza) 

"By breeding Sameh to Hafiza, a Hamdan/inbred mare of the Obayan-Om-Greis female line, the E.A.O. was squarely aiming at obtaining an outcross, and a Nazeer-free stallion." - world famous author and celebrated Egyptian Arabian horse breeder, Philippe Paraskevas, The Egyptian Alternative Vol. II

*Ibn Hafiza, a 1959 bay stallion, was very uniquely bred, the significance of which is revealed by studying the genetic heritage of both parents and therefore,  the unique story that I would like to share with you. *Ibn Hafiza was a son of Hafiza, who will forever be regarded as the dam of the extraordinary stallion, El Araby.  

Judith Forbis photo of Hafiza (Hamdan x Mahfouza)

Hafiza was sired by Hamdan, out of Mahfouza, who, just like her daughter, was also a Hamdan daughter. By virtue of the horses who make up her genetic heritage, she is as authentic to Egypt, as any Arabian horse bred in Egypt can be.  Unlike the majority of the EAO horses who bred forward, carrying the genetic influence of the Crabbet horses purchased by the RAS in the 20's (for example, the stallions: Kazmeen & Sotamm and mares: Bint Rissala & Bint Riyala); Hafiza does not carry any lines to the desert horses purchased by the Blunts. Hafiza's "Blunt" lines reflect the efforts of Lady Anne Blunt, while in Egypt, at Sheykh Obeyd. This does not make Hafiza better than the horses who do carry the Blunt desert blood, this makes her different and presents outcross opportunities. Her ancestors were horses bred by Prince Kemal al Dine, Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal, Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, Khedive Abbas II, the RAS and Ali Pasha Sherif, as preserved by Lady Anne Blunt. While Hafiza is technically considered 87.5% Egypt I; if you study the tail female line which reflects the 12.5% that is Inshass, you will notice that Hafiza's granddam,  El Mahrousa, is sired by El Zafir, a horse bred by Prince Kemal al Dine and out of a mare named El Shahbaa, an Abeyyah Om Grees, purchased in 1931 by King Fouad from Muhammad Ibrahim al-Hajj of Cairo. Although we don't know much about the mare El Shahbaa, we need to consider that at the time of her purchase, the transaction was made between two people from Egypt. In my opinion, even with the limited ancestral information for El Shahbaa, Hafiza could not have been any more Egyptian, than she already was.

Judith Forbis photo of Sameh (El Moez x Samira)

"Sameh was a great favorite with visitors at the E.A.O. and always made a striking appearance. He was a well-balanced horse who had a certain Arabian flair for showing off his grace and beauty. Unlike many of the horses in Egypt, he always managed to keep his weight, and so appeared more handsome than many of his contemporaries." - D. Christy Gibson, from her article, The Sameh Influence, published by Arabian Horse World

*Ibn Hafiza's sire, Sameh, like Hafiza, does not carry any lines to the Blunt desert horses. Additionally, Sameh has no recorded Muniqi lines in his pedigree, as confirmed in The Blue Arabian Horse Catalog.  He was sired by the Inshass bred El Moez, who was a son of horses bred by Prince Kemal al Dine and purchased by King Fouad. El Moez's sire, Ibn Fayda, was a son of Ibn Rabdan out of the mare, Feyda, who while bred by Lady Ann Blunt, was a daughter of two Ali Pasha Sherif-bred horses: the stallion, Jamil (Aziz x Bint Jamila) and the mare, Ghazieh (Ibn Nura x Bint Horra).

Ibn Rabdan, painted by Mrs. Colmore, from the book written by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, Breeding of Pure Bred Arab Horses 

It's interesting to consider that through El Moez, a third line to the RAS-bred Ibn Rabdan is introduced into *Ibn Hafiza's pedigree, boosting the percentage of Ibn Rabdan's genetic influence to approximately 25%. The above photo of *Ibn Hafiza appeared within an article written by Ramzy Hegazy and  published in the May 1970 issue of  Arabian Horse World. It was recently posted to a Gleannloch Farms Facebook group. It's a great photo, as visually, you can see in *Ibn Hafiza many of the qualities attributed to Ibn Rabdan, that is, a horse who is very close-coupled and comprised of harmonious, rounded lines. Carl Raswan called horses who were conformed like *Ibn Hafiza 3-circle horses, meaning their bodies could be divided equally into 3 circles: from the point of chest to the wither, from the wither to the hip and from the hip to the point of buttock. However, we can't ignore the impact that Sameh also made, for example, a deeper and sloping shoulder, well-sprung rib cage, a smoother top line and a powerfully muscled hind end. 

El Moez was out of the Prince Kemal al Dine mare, Bint Zareefa, who was by the Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik-bred stallion, Hadban.  This stallion, Hadban, was produced by breeding  Rabdan Al Azrak  with Tarfa, both horses bred by Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal. It's also interesting to point out that Hadban was a maternal brother to Mabrouk Manial (think of horses like Baiyad, Mahroussa & Bint Radia), as both horses were out of Tarfa (Dahman el Azrak x Bint Freiha). The "Zareefa" in "Bint Zareefa" was a mare bred in Egypt by Lady Anne Blunt, using Ali Pasha Sherif bred horses.

Sameh's dam, the mare, Samira, was a 1934 grey mare bred by the Inshass Stud. Her sire, El Deree and her dam, El Samraa are interesting, from the perspective that both were Bedouin-bred horses, bred elsewhere, outside of Egypt, as compared to the majority of the ancestors in *Ibn Hafiza's pedigree, who were bred by Egyptians, in Egypt. Also, like El Shahbaa in Hafiza's pedigree, we don't know very much about their genetic history. The Syrian-bred El Deree,  foaled in 1920, was a successful racehorse in Egypt, his racing career beginning circa 1924. He was purchased by King Fouad from Hussayn al-Dayri, a Bedouin from the al-Jubur tribe. By the end of the 1926 - 1927 racing season, King Fouad was considered to be one of the leading race horse owners in Egypt, with a large number of winning racehorses in his stable, including El Deree.  Given King Fouad's interest in racing, I better understand his interest in El Deree, who became a top sire for the King's Inshass Stud and then in 1934, the King presented El Deree to the RAS (think of Sid Abouhom).

Like El Deree, the interesting thing about  El Samraa, a 1924 grey mare, is that we really don't know a lot about her. While her strain is not recorded within the Inshass herdbook, 

"...in some few cases, the Inshass Original Herdbook does not list strains." - Judith Forbis, Strains and Families in the INSHASS STUD, published within Authentic Arabian Bloodstock

her sire is recorded as Hab El Reah (breath of wind) and her dam as Bint El Sheik (pride of her owner), however, both of these names may have resulted from a misunderstanding of Arabic expression, commonly used when speaking about a mare and not necessarily, the real name of her sire and dam.  Within the heritage section of Volume XII of The Pyramid Society Reference Handbook of Straight Egyptian Horses, well-respected author and consummate historian, Joe Ferriss wrote of El Samraa, 

"Her exact strain has been uncertain since her descendants were first listed in the Saklawi section of the E.A.O. Stud Book and later listed in the Kuhaylan section, which most now follow."

Dr. William Hudson, within the second volume of his significant research publication, The Matrilines of the Egyptian Arabian Horse also wrote of El Samraa, 

"Edouard al-Dahdah, an expert on Arabic documents, wrote of El Samraa that all that was known about her was her color, her date of birth, the year she was acquired by Inshass, the name of the man from whom she was bought, and her sale in 1941 to Mostafa Bey Khalifah. This makes her one of the least well-documented mares  to form an important matriline at Inshass."

With all that said, El Samraa remains a royal mare, having captured the interest of King Fouad, who purchased her in 1931 in Cairo, from Shaikh Umar Abd al-Hafiz, a member of the Shammar Bedouin tribe. I find the common ground shared by both Sameh and Hafiza interesting, as the majority of their pedigrees  reflect the breeding programs of the previously mentioned Prince Kemal al Dine, Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal, Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, Khedive Abbas II, the RAS and Ali Pasha Sherif, as preserved by Lady Anne Blunt; however, it's the tail female line of both horses which traces back to horses possessing very limited ancestral information. We don't know much about these horses, other than from whom King Fouad purchased the horses. While neither Sameh and Hafiza carry the blood of the Blunt's desert purchases, they do carry other blood, presumably  from undocumented Bedouin sources.  I am reminded of a talk that  Cynthia Culbertson once gave at a Pyramid Society event. She reminded us of how close-up the desert sources appear in an Egyptian horse's pedigree, as compared to other Arabian horse bloodlines and really, the only way to get desert breeding closer than it exists, would be to import a horse directly from the desert. 

I understand and appreciate the interest that Gleannloch had in acquiring *Ibn Hafiza, given the breathtaking beauty of El Araby. It was their intention of crossing *Ibn Hafiza onto their *Morafic daughters, in the hope of producing horses like El Araby. It was to be Gleannloch's version of "the Golden Cross", in the days before that term was coined.  Eventually, Gleannloch would focus on using their *Morafic sons exclusively, over horses like *Ibn Hafiza and the much loved stallion made his way to a new home at Green Mountain Arabians, owned by Fred and Judy Gunzner, who remarked on his people-loving and easy-going disposition. By the time he reached his senior years, he was owned by Burt and Sherri Melton of Rinconada Arabians. 

"He seems to have a certain intangible quality; a combination of intelligence, kindness and spirit." - Sherri Melton in a 1984 article, The Sameh Influence by D.Christy Gibson of Arabian Horse World

Beloved as he was, it was *Ibn Hafiza's unique genetic history, which also captured the interest of influential purists like Mrs. John Ekern Ott and her daughter, Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott, the publisher of the amazing resource, The Blue Arabian Horse Catalog. Although *Ibn Hafiza does not appear in The Blue Catalog, the Otts had a high regard for him (many of his ancestors including his dam, Hafiza, are listed in the appendices within the foreign section) and encouraged Robert Cowling, a straight Egyptian breeder (he bred the US National Champion Mare, Fa Halima), to purchase Blue Star mares (for example, the Ibn Fadl daughters: Fa-Dlara, out of Bint Turfara and Fabaira, out of Bint Muhaira) for the sole purpose of breeding them to *Ibn Hafiza. I knew of Robert "Bob" Cowling and admired his horses. At the time, many considered Bob Cowling to be the best small breeder of Egyptian Arabians in America. I felt that breeding *Ibn Hafiza to the Blue Star mares was a very strong endorsement of *Ibn Hafiza and the esteem that I already had for *Ibn Hafiza intensified. The results of this Blue Star breeding "experiment", although not straight Egyptian, have thankfully, been saved and preserved by George Hooper of Maine, through his breeding program named "Hisani". However,  I lament the missed opportunity to have preserved *Ibn Hafiza in his very unique form,  exclusively within straight Egyptian breeding and free of the Blunt desert-bred  ancestral elements like Kars, Queen of Sheba, Rodania, Dajania, Azrek and others. For example, I shudder to think of the horses that we would have available today, had *Ibn Hafiza been crossed with mares line bred to Blunt-free horses like  *Fadl, *Maaroufa, *Bint Saada and Hallany Mistanny.  Again, there is nothing wrong with the Blunt desert blood horses, that's not the point that I am trying to make but rather,  *Ibn Hafiza represented an opportunity for straight Egyptian breeders to strategically create a significantly different source of outcross blood, to balance the overuse of the Nazeer bloodline, within our smaller gene pool. 

***Without the following people, this story would not be possible to tell. Many thanks to Judith Forbis for the photos of Hafiza and Sameh, as well as for her article on the Inshass Stud which appears in Authentic Arabian Bloodstock, Dr. William Hudson, for his monumental work, The Matrilines of the Egyptian Arabian Horse, George Hooper for your emails and photos, Marilyn Lang, for your many years of friendship and guidance, the late Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott, publisher of the Blue Arabian Horse Catalog, Edie Booth, for your words of clarity regarding The Blue Catalog, Philippe Paraskevas, The Egyptian Alternative, In Search of the Identity of the Egyptian Arabian Bloodlines Volume II, Joe Ferriss for his Arabian Breeders Magazine article, The Last Kingdom in Egypt, the Story of the Royal Inshass Stud and for his summary on the Straight Egyptian Dam lines, which was published within Volume 12 of The Pyramid Society's Reference Handbooks , Peg Davis Johnson's Sameh article published by The Arabians and D.Christy Gibson's article, The Sameh Influence, published by Arabian Horse World and finally, Diane Wilson for your insight regarding the uncertainty of the strain for Sameh. I have corrected the paragraph for El Samraa.***