SHAHM

A.K. Shahm (Gassir x Shahbaa) as photographed by the late Johnny Johnston

Shahm, sired by Gassir (Kheir x  Badia) and out of Shahbaa (Hamdan x Shahd) was bred by the EAO. Shahm is an Arabic name meaning "rational", for example, a sensible individual who relies on his intelligence to make decisions, rather than by emotion. One would call him astute or even, sagacious. He was imported by the late Jarrell McCracken in 1973, who initially registered the horse as Ibn Shahbaa, in honor of his most beautiful dam. However, sometime after his importation, Jarrell McCracken had second thoughts and reverted to his original Egyptian-given name, adding the prefix, "A.K.", which stands for Al Karim, the straight Egyptian breeding program he established in Waco, Texas at Bentwood Farm. 

Through his matriline, he traces back to El Kahila, a dark bay mare, given by King Ibn Sa’ud to his friend, King Fouad of Egypt, who had developed an interest in racing Arabian horses. Enamored with the quality of Bedouin-bred horses, King Fouad's interest soon crossed over to passion and the King was desirous of creating a purebred breeding program, like many of his relatives enjoyed. 

While Shahm does not carry any lines to Nazeer, he does carry a concentrated source of Ibn Rabdan blood, through the mare, Badia and the stallions, Hamdan and Ibn Fayda. As a Gassir son, he is a paternal sibling to the stallions, *Zaghloul, Sabeel and Mourad (x Mabrouka). His full sibling, the stallion, Sabeel, sired *Lancers Sahm, while his full sister, Bint Shahbaa I, produced Aziza Samira by Nazim Pasha (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Nasra), who in turn, produced Aziza Princess by TheEgyptianPrince, whose daughter, BintAzizaPrincess, by Abenhetep, became a pivotal mare in the Rancho Bulakenyo breeding program. Gassir's matriline, traces  through Zareefa to Bint el Bahreyn. It's interesting to consider that El Kahila's daughter, El Zabia, was bred to El Zafir, a stallion whose great granddam  was Bint el Bahreyn herself! So like we find Ibn Rabdan, we also have a concentrated source of Bint el Bahreyn blood. For many years, we have believed that the strain of Bint el Bahreyn was Dahman, however, I recently read in Daughters of the Wind, that Judith Forbis, circa 1974, had transcribed  a note from Lady Anne Blunt's journals, revealing  the strain may in fact be Kuhaylan Rabdan. It will be something to look forward to, when the mtDNA study is done on both strains, to reveal a haplotype which points to common ancestry or not.

When I saw the above photo of Shahm in the Pyramid Society Reference Handbook, Volume II, I marveled over his close-coupled body, smooth, strong and deep through the heart girth. A proven sire, with 45 registered purebred get in America (he also sired get in Egypt), Al Khamsa recognizes 16 of those horses, who in turn have furthered his influence to include 387 descendants through the present day.