by Robert J. Cadranell

Scholar’s Corner

Lady Anne’s Hunt for Abbas Pasha Pedigrees

by Robert J. Cadranell, ©2021

The horses of Ali Pasha Sherif’s breeding that Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt (mostly Lady Anne) bought as foundation stock for their Crabbet Stud in England and Sheykh Obeyd stud in Egypt became integral to Crabbet pedigrees. From Crabbet, their lines spread to Arabian horse breeding around the world. This spread includes all modern Egyptian Arabian horse pedigrees.

Lady Anne commented that she considered Ali Pasha’s horses to be “mazbut of mazbut,” (Lady Anne Blunt Journals and Correspondence (1986), or “J&C,” March 5, 1891) yet I have often wondered why Lady Anne did not have complete pedigree information for certain of her APS purchases. She first met the Pasha in 1880 and he lived until 1897. Did she not attempt to obtain more complete pedigrees from him? On looking again at Lady Anne’s published Journals & Correspondence, it turns out that references to her efforts to get pedigree information are scattered throughout the years when she was acquiring horses of APS breeding. It seems that she did try to get more information from Ali Pasha during his lifetime, but she was not always successful.

Detailed pedigree information for many of the Ali Pasha Sherif horses owned by the Blunts was first published in Volume 2 (1922) of the British Arab Horse Society’s stud books. Some people would also have seen the hand-lettered, large format pedigrees created by the Blunts’ daughter, Lady Wentworth, for horses she sold from Crabbet starting in the 1920s. Later published compendiums, such as the Travelers Rest catalogs of the 1930s and 40s, The Raswan Index (seven volumes, 1957 to 1967), and the Blue Arabian Horse Catalog (1961) also included pedigree details for the APS horses. Most of this information seems to be drawn, either directly or at second or third hand, from the records and notes of Lady Anne Blunt. Although the Blunts first met Ali Pasha Sherif in Cairo in 1880,

it was to be nearly ten years before they acquired any of his horses. Published sources available in the 1970s were sometimes contradictory and confusing as to the APS pedigrees. It seemed to me that Lady Anne Blunt’s original records would be the gold standard for extending the pedigrees. This source became available to Al Khamsa through Michael Bowling’s transcripts of the handwritten entries for the Ali PaMesaoud (APS) sha Sherif horses found in Lady Anne Blunt’s Traveling Copy of the Crabbet Herd Book; Michael had the opportunity to study this volume during the 1970s when it was in possession of Lady Anne Blunt’s namesake granddaughter, Lady Anne Lytton, at her home Newbuildings Place near Horsham in Sussex, England. (Contrary to what you might read on the Internet, Newbuildings is not another name for Caxtons, which was located on the south side of Crabbet Park, near Crawley.) The pedigrees Lady Anne recorded turn out to have gaps that are not found in works by Carl Raswan, whose sources are not listed. For example: 1. Carl Raswan describes Yemama as a daughter of Aziz and El Argaa (Raswan Index entry #11071). Lady Anne records Yemama as a bay Kuhaylah Jallabiyah she owned at Sheykh Obeyd, without further pedigree. 2. Carl Raswan gives the dam of Merzuk as Aziza III (Raswan Index entry #6294), a mare he says was also called El Argaa (Raswan Index entry #1047). Lady Anne records the dam of her stallion Merzuk simply as a chestnut Kehileh Jellabieh mare of Ali Pasha Sherif, without further pedigree. 3. Lady Anne records the dam of her stallion Mesaoud as a grey mare of the Seglawieh Sudanieh strain named Yemama, without further pedigree, except for a single reference to this

mare in her journals describing her as “sister to Wazir.” Lady

Wentworth and Carl Raswan both name this mare’s parents as Shueyman and Bint Ghazieh which, if true, would make

Yemama a niece and not a sister to Wazir. 4. Lady Anne records no sire for El Argaa, the dam of her stallion Feysul. Carl Raswan gives El Argaa’s sire as Waziri al-

Auwal (Raswan Index entry #2350).

The Blunts bought their first APS horses, Merzuk, Khatila, and Mesaoud, directly from APS in early 1889. Ali Pasha supplied handwritten hujjas, in Arabic, for these three. Two of these hujjas survive in apparently full transcript in Lady Anne’s journals, but the third appears there only as a partial transcript. The hujja for Merzuk does not name his dam or give pedigree information for her, describing her only as a chestnut Kehileh Jellabieh mare.

After the purchase of these first three horses, it would be seven years before the Blunts bought another horse directly from Ali Pasha Sherif. However, in the intervening years, they did acquire in Egypt a few additional horses of Ali Pasha Sherif’s bloodlines.

The first of these were the mare Sobha (by Ali Pasha Sherif’s stallion Wazir) and her 1885 daughter Safra (by Ali Pasha Sherif’s stallion Shueyman). The Blunts bought these two mares on March 5, 1891, along with their 1890 colts by Ali Pasha Sherif’s stallion Aziz. The Blunts bought these horses not from Ali Pasha Sherif but from Mahmud Bey.

According to Sobha’s entry in the General Stud Book, she had been bred by Mahmud Bey, who purchased her dam “at the sale of Abbas Pacha’s Stud.” Crabbet Stud records as published in Archer, Pearson, and Covey, The Crabbet Arabian Stud, Its History and Influence (1978) (“A,P&C”) give more detail, stating that Sobha’s dam was a mare named Selma, a Hamdanieh Simrieh “in Abbas Pasha’s stud, purchased by Mahmud Bey with his brother Suleyman Bey at Ismail Pasha’s sale of the mares collected by Abbas Pasha. This sale took place about 1868. Mahmud and Suleyman Beys being ‘Mamluks’ of Ali Pasha Sherif, their horses were kept with his. Mahmud survived Suleyman being still (in 1891) with Ali Pasha Sherif.”

Although Lady Anne bought the horses from Mahmud Bey, she expected to get the pedigree information from Ali Pasha Sherif, writing, “we were to pay on receiving the particulars of their pedigrees from the hand of Ali Pasha Sherif.” (J&C March 5, 1891). This indicates a strong interest in getting the pedigrees; apparently the agreement was that payment for the horses would not be due until Ali Pasha supplied the pedigree information.

In January 1892, the Blunts bought *Shahwan, not from Ali Pasha Sherif, but from Mohammed Sadyk Pasha.

In March 1892, they bought Yemama (bay Jellabieh mare), not from Ali Pasha Sherif, but from Moharrem Pasha through Ali Bey.

Sherif was purchased in December 1895 from Mahmud Bey Akif.

In January of 1896, they bought Mahruss, the first purchase directly from APS since the original three in 1889. Lady Anne’s journal entry describing the purchase of Mahruss (Jan. 7, 1896) states, “Mutlak said the Pasha promises to write the hojja of the pedigree.” Again, Lady Anne records an interest in receiving the hujja, along with a promise that it would be provided.

The next purchases were in December, 1896. This was a package of Abu Khasheb and mares including Bint Helwa with her foal *Ghazala, Fulana, Makbula, and Bint Fereyha. On December 14, 1896, Lady Anne said she “wrote the list in Arabic, and enclosed a cheque for £350, requesting to have the hojja with each with breed of sire and dam from H.E. the Pasha.”

In January, 1897 Lady Anne bought Badia, Ibn Nura, and Bint Bint Jamila.

A son of Ali Pasha’s called at Sheykh Obeyd on January 20, 1897: “We took him to see the horses from the stud of his father that we have got. He told me his father would be glad to see me if I would call to ask for hojjas of the ones bought direct from H.E.” This indicates that Lady Anne was still wanting hojjas as of this date. Apparently this son was Abd el Hamid Bey Sherif, who sold Fasiha to Lady Anne on January 20, 1897.

But Ali Pasha Sherif died just 37 days later on February 26, 1897. The published Journals do not include mention of Lady Anne having received the hojjas from Ali Pasha before he died.

After Ali Pasha’s death, Lady Anne acquired additional horses of his breeding:

At a March 26, 1897 auction she bought Bint Nura and Bint Horra with foal Ghazieh.

On March 31, 1897, she bought Manokta from Mohammed Bey Khuddr Ibn Khuddr Agha.

On April 19, 1897, she bought Johara from Ibrahim Bey Sherif.

On Dec. 10, 1897, she bought Jellabieh from Ayub Bey.

On March, 2, 1898, she bought Kasida from Leon Clery.

On March 27, 1898, Lady Anne wrote, “A very interesting visitor came to see me: it was Mohammed Salame late Syce Basha (roughly translated as head groom or master of horses) to Ali Pasha Sherif. He told me most of what I wanted to know about the horses’ pedigrees.” (emphasis added). This entry is key. It shows that despite Lady Anne’s earlier expectations of receiving pedigree information from Ali Pasha Sherif, during his lifetime she had received either no information or incomplete information. It also reveals that a major source of information was not Ali Pasha himself but this Mohammed Salame. However, even he could tell her only “most” of what she wanted to know, not all. The index to the J&C includes only this one reference to Mohammed Salame. (There is one final note about the Syce Basha. When Peter Upton presented the pedigree of Lady Anne’s mare Makbula in his book Desert Heritage (1980), he gave her dam as “Makbula—a chestnut? (Mohd. Salame says white) Kehilet Ajuz of the Jellabi strain.” I submit that the name Peter Upton transcribed as Mohammed Salame in Desert Heritage refers to the same individual that Rosemary Archer transcribed from Lady Anne’s journals (apparently incorrectly, per Edouard al-Dahdah) as Mohammed Sarame.)

What can we conclude? That Lady Anne was not apathetic and consistently wanted, tried, and expected to receive complete pedigree information from Ali Pasha Sherif, but that she never did. Information was either not received or, when it was, came incomplete. An example of this is Ali Pasha’s simple description of Merzuk’s dam as a chestnut Kehileh Jellabieh. It is also clear that an important source of information for Lady Anne was Ali Pasha’s head groom. There were others purchased after the March 27, 1898 visit of Mohammed Salame (or Salame), like Azz, Sahab, Feysul, and Jamil, but I decided to end my tale with his visit.