by Joe Ferriss

Passings: A Salute to Three Resolute Women

It has long been a challenge for women in the Arab world to achieve great things among their male peers. However, women of great strength of character had often played an important role in preserving the heritage of the Arabian horse in the Arab World.

We in the western world have long been familiar with the remarkable contribution of the renowned Lady Anne Blunt and her copious journal entries documenting her life with the Arabian horse, which has served well both scholars and enthusiasts of the Arabian horse for many years. Her contribution is immeasurable and worthy of a separate story.

But this short piece is to briefly reflect on the passing of three strong women who we have had to say goodbye to over the past few years.

Mary Gharagozlou - Iran

Mary Gharagozlou on her black Obayan Sharrak stallion, Arras. Courtesy of WAHO Archive.

Twenty years have now passed since Mary Gharagozlou has passed away, and her name may not be familiar with many Al Khamsa supporters. However, she was a symbol of strength and perseverance in the quest for preserving the Arabian horses of Iran. Her tribute is best summed up in a memoriam on the WAHO website as follows:

“On 14th September 2001, after a short illness bravely borne, Mary Gharagozlou passed away. Mary had been a member of WAHO since the early 1970s, and many of you will have met her at WAHO Conferences.

“Mary led a complex, fascinating, but at times difficult life. Her father, Naqi Khan, was a doctor who came from a long line of Persian landlords and statesmen descended from the Gharagozlou tribe, brought from Central Asia to northwest Persia by Tamerlane in the late 14th century. Her mother was Katherine Ladd, an American librarian at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Mary grew up to become Iran’s foremost expert on dry farming and a tireless worker for the benefit of the nomadic tribes of Iran, especially in times of famine and earthquakes, earning the greatest of respect from all who knew and worked with her.

“In due course Mary married Majid Khan Bakhtiar, the chief of the Bakhtiari tribe, who introduced her to the Asil horses of Khuzestan that were to become her passion. For many happy years, they enjoyed life to the full. After his death in a flying accident, and for various other reasons, Mary’s circumstances changed greatly but she never gave up her work against all odds to bring the Arabian horses of Iran to the attention of WAHO and the world.

“Untiring in her dedication to the Arabian horses of Iran, Mary became the driving force behind the acceptance of their horses by WAHO. What one may not know is that in order to prepare the stud books, especially in the early days, she herself travelled by jeep, by horse and even by camel the length and breadth of Iran, in all weathers and often over difficult terrain, interviewing owners and breeders, recording pedigrees, taking markings, arranging for blood-typing and freeze-marking, and taking every opportunity to learn the history of the horses that had become her life’s work.”

Madam Wegdan (Dani) El Barbary - Egypt

In January of 2018 “Dani” as her friends called her, passed away. She was a unique woman in Egypt, of noble confidence born out of a love for the Arabian horse and its performance qualities. She had

Dani El Barbary, with SEAE Sukkar Maaoud. Gigi Grasso photo.

learned horsemanship in several stables in Europe and on returning to Egypt she was the only woman member of a show jumping team in Egypt in her era. Competing in local jumping competitions, Dani joined an international competition team comprised of Egyptian Army officers, she being the only woman on the team at that time. Being particularly enthusiastic of the performance qualities of the Arabian horse, she had acquired some Tahawi bred horses and also utilized the Sharkasi blood in the early years from her mare Basboosa (Ibn Ghorra — not Al Khamsa — x Mahmouda).

Afterward, Dani’s Arabian breeding program, named Shams El Asil, began small but expanded in 1969 with the acquisition of the stallion Bilal I (*Morafic x Mona) a three-quarter brother to the famous mare Hanan. Dani received important advice from the EAO managers General Tibor Pettko-Szandtner and Dr. Mohammed Marsafi. She was also interested in the breeding program of Hamdan Stables and the outcross qualities of the stock of the former Royal Inshass Stud. One of her early mares was the mare Mahmouda of all Inshass breeding. Mahmouda produced the stallion *Hedarr (x Amrulla) for Dani. He was later exported to the US where he became a successful race horse and sire of race horses. In an interview, Dani said that one of her regrets was selling *Hedarr but it later proved a good decision for the racing community in the US. In addition, she added the mares Fanar (Nasralla x Bint Bukra), Taysir (Amrulla x Mohga), Dawlat (*Morafic x Bint Mabrouka Inshass), Hanzada (Ibn Shahrzada x Abla), Yosra (Mourad x Alifa) and Katr El Nada (*Farazdac x Sara), as well as the stallion Misk (Wahag x Nazeema).

For many decades, Dani’s Shams El Asil stud has produced internationally renowned Arabians. One of the most winning Straight Egyptian performance horses in North America, Dal-Apollo is sired by the Shams El Asil bred stallion SEA Ben Ben Bilal (Misk x SEA Mashaallah by Bilal I) [imported from Egypt to Canada].

Dani’s life-long passion for the Arabian horse is best summed up in one of her quotes: “If you want a courageous friend to ride and enjoy, then you should have an Arabian.”

Danah Al-Khalifa in 1973 with two of her original Saluqis.

Danah Al-Khalifa - Bahrain

On July 6, 2021 the world said goodbye to the foremost emissary for the original Arabian horses of Bahrain. Danah’s lifelong efforts helped create global notoriety of the original Asil Arabian horses of Bahrain, and has helped preserve these living treasures. Her legacy is especially important to Al Khamsa, which over the past two decades has added some Bahrain foundation bloodlines to its roster.

As a young foreign student from Sweden attending school in Southern California, Danah met another foreign student, Isa Bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa, a member of the Ruling family of Bahrain, who she married. The marriage was not met with enthusiasm by either of their parents, causing them to live in various places in the Middle East until finally settling in Bahrain. The story of the early part of Danah’s life is best told in her own words she wrote for Arabiana in 1974 in an article called “A Voice in the Desert”.

“My introduction to the Arabian horse was through my Russianborn (Tzarist Ukrania) mother’s stories during early childhood.

However, the physical introduction that caused the awareness that the Arabians are different came in Saudi Arabia in 1962.

“I was watching some mares running loose with their tails curled over their backs – how odd I thought they looked – like dogs of Finland or Alaska! While in Saudi Arabia, all I was truly interested in was a horse to ride. But my husband was too proud to let me borrow anyone’s horse and insisted that we acquire one of our own. (Easier said than done!) After a futile horse-buying trip to Riyadh, on our way back to Dhahran, we discovered a small band of horses in the desert, belonging to Emir Abdulla bin Saud. We went to see them and found that three mares were going to be disposed of. (This being at the time the Emir Feisul was cutting down on the prince’s allowances, so some of the mares had to go.)

“Three mares were pointed out to us, a Kuheilah, Obeyah, and a Hamdanieh. I wanted the snow white five year old Obeyah that was ready to be ridden, but my husband and daughter wanted the then roan two year old filly, Hamdanieh. My husband wanted her as she reminded him of a filly his grandfather gave him as a child, and my six year old daughter liked her because she was small, 14.2 h.h.! Of all the strange reasons to choose a horse! Hamdanieh it was, and we named her “SITAH” (a common name the bedu give to mares, “RENOWN”.) The Obeyah is 14.3 h.h. but looks bigger. (Sidi was just 15 h.h.)

“Two weeks later, we took some Americans from Abquek to pick up the other two mares. As an afterthought, we asked the Bedu in charge about the breeding of the mares and were pleasantly surprised. Hamdanieh (Hamdanieh Ghiam) was bred by Emir Feisal in Taif, out of mares of the house of Al-Saud by a stallion Saqlawy Njemy of the house of Al-Rasheed. Obeyah was bred by then King Saud out of his mares and the stud stallion at the time, HAMDANY.

“In any event, very shortly in 1964, I and my children and Sitah went to Egypt to live. (I should mention perhaps, that it was forbidden to import horses to Egypt at that time, but the Egyptian Government very kindly “lifted the ban” so we could get our mare in.)

“In Egypt, again, I was not too interested in anything but to continue to ride my little mare until we both, the mare and I, fell in love with a very handsome stallion stabled next to her, IBN SID ABOUHOM [Namic] (Sid Abouhom x Om El Saad). (The story of “Sidi” as we called him, is fascinating but too long to relate here.)

“As Sitah turned out to be a bit too hot blooded for any dressage work, and not fast enough for the races, the logical thing to do was to breed her – to “Sidi” of course. To be perfectly frank, at the time I was only curious to see the result of this combination of my true desert war mare with the very sophisticated stallion of Egyptian breeding, yet so strong in desert blood through El Deree, his grandsire.

“In 1965 I was able to purchase Sidi, not that I really wanted two horses to ride, but the circumstances in my private life were such that I needed some distraction – so to speak. Anyhow, later in 1966 I was invited to go to Bahrain to live, and after two short visits and being taken to see H.H. Emir Isa’s (Shaikh Isa bin Sulman Al-Khalifa, the Ruler of Bahrain), horses and completely falling over them in amazement (that anything so antique still existed) I began to prepare to eventually move to Bahrain and start seriously breeding and working with horses. (As Emir Isa so generously put it after our first meeting; “If you stay with us, all these horses are yours” as a gesture to let me know how welcome I was in Bahrain.)”

And that is the story in Danah’s own words how she ended up in Bahrain. We know afterwards about her exhaustive efforts to document the remaining Asil treasures of Arabian bloodlines, first photographically in the book The Living Treasures of Bahrain [1971] (with some photographic and illustrative contributions from Judith Forbis from her early visits to Bahrain). Later several illustrated studbooks appeared as a consequence of Danah’s work in Bahrain. This was a very significant achievement since Asil horse breeding among the Ruling family was not at all a commercial enterprise but a private and personal one. Horses rarely left the island except as special gifts. While (in classic Bedouin tradition) the horses lineage and strains was held in memory, it became necessary to document that knowledge for later consumption by the western world and also for the horses to be able to be registered in studbooks for WAHO recognition.

Danah Al-Khalifa was not only a cornerstone of preservation of the Asil horses of Bahrain but she was also a breeding of original Saluqis, coursing hounds of the Arab world. Danah became internationally renowned for many reasons and will always be appreciated for her unending work on behalf of preserving the “living treasures of Bahrain.” She will be forever remembered and missed. ~ Joe Ferriss

Danah must have been in her early nineties as she was 40 when I was 20 in Bahrain in the late 1960’s. I am now 72. I saw her for the last time in 2018 by then she was very confused it was sad to see. She taught me so much about Bahrain’s horses and we had such fun putting together the ‘Living Treasures’ booklet. I would shake her tambourine to get the horses to stand nicely while she took the photo! Danah could be so generous but she wasn’t always easy to get along with. Anyone who upset her knew about it! She was always my first port of call when I returned to Bahrain. I remember when she was given ‘Danah Farm’ she was so excited. She called me and said, “come I want to show you my farm.” We bumped across a piece of waste ground/desert. I said, “ where is it?” Danah walked to a large boulder, then pointed to another in the distance and then two more. “That’s it, that’s my farm.” She was overjoyed with her gift and set about making ‘Danah Farm’ out of the desert. There was a diesel pump sucking sweet water out of the ground, three stables went up and within a few years Danah created an oasis. Happy days. ~ Jenny Lees

Rest in Peace, noble lady of the horses. ~ Edouard Al Dahdah.