From our Arieana Notebook: Treasured within the CMK Heritage as a foundation horse for Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt's Crabbet Stud. Ali Pasha Sherif, Cairo, Egypt, had bred his mare Dahmeh Shawanieh to Wazir and then after she was pregnant, presented her as a gift to Mohamed Sadyk Pasha in whose possession *Shahwan was foaled on January 12, 1887. Wilfrid Scawen and Lady Anne Blunt purchased *Shahwan from Mohamed Sadyk Pasha, for the sum of £60, in January of 1892, when *Shahwan was 5 years old. It was noted at that time he had what was called a "broken knee", but his desirability as a stud horse overcame the defect which was not so bad as that he could not be ridden.

After covering several mares at Sheykh Obeyd, *Shahwan was shipped to England in April 1892. In September of 1894,*Shahwan was sold to Mr. J.A.P. Ramsdell for 250 gs. down with 50 more to follow on success at a horse show, and sent to the United States. *Shahwan was then 8 years of age. Of special note and interest to those studying the pedigrees of the North American CMK horses is that *Shahwan and *Ghazala were the only two horses bred by Ali Pasha Sherif ever to be imported to the United States.

*Shahwan was a stallion of extreme quality and type even by today's standards. He was a direct son of Wazir and the only get of Wazir to reach the United States. He was also a direct grandson of Zobeyni. Yet surprisingly he did not reach the popularity at stud in the United States that was expected and hoped for him, and he faded quite rapidly into oblivion. But his blood does live on in our cherished horses of Arieana Arabians through his daughters Yashmak and Nonliker.

Pedigree of *Shahwan AHR #241

 Wazir 
Egypt #213

We regret we were unable to locate a photo or drawing of Wazir, a sire of significance just too important in the pedigrees of Arieana's Arabians for us to overlook in our CMK Heritage Notebook. And so, as the sire of *Shahwan, the above-mentioned stallion, this page seemed to be an appropriate page and place for mention of him and his incredible influence. 

Wazir was one of the most celebrated stallions of Egypt. A direct son of the incomparable Zobeyni, Wazir was a successful race horse, unbeaten except for one race which he lost because he was run off the course. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt saw Wazir for the first time at Ali Pasha Sherif's stud on November 25, 1880, when the stallion was 18 years old, at which time Lady Anne wrote in her Journal that he had "...no appearance of age." She saw him again on December 3, 1881, and wrote: "Vizir is still there looking better than any of the other horses....He is quite white (not flea-bitten)." (Vizir was Lady Anne's spelling for the same horse that comes down to us in our pedigrees as Wazir).

Wazir was noted as a Sire of considerable merit whose get were often of very high quality, and he continued to breed mares until he died in 1890 at the age of 27. Among Wazir's get or grandget used or purchased by the Blunts for their foundation stock at Sheykh Obeyd and in our pedigrees today at Arieana Arabians are: Merzuk, Sobha, *Shahwan (pictured above), and Mahruss I. 

The strains of the Saklawi Jedran of Ibn Sudan and the Saklawi Jedran of Ibn Zobeyni were highly favored by both Abbas Pasha and Ali Pasha Sherif; Wazir combined both these strains. We look to this as "The Golden Cross" and find it purposefully and consistently repeated in our pedigrees; you can readily find it most often as the Zobeyni sireline crossed on the Ghazieh tail female line. The success of the merger of this particular sireline with this tail female line was recognized and perpetuated early on by The Blunts through such horses as Bint Helwa, Mesaoud, and Ghazala; we at Arieana Arabians repeated this same cross when breeding Blitzen of Pico to our foundation mares Haapey Pico and Gleeful Pico. But to us they were not just names on a sheet of paper but an honest effort to replicate those lasting ancestral qualities of beauty, athletic conformation, and heart to excel at whatever task our horses are asked to perform in the same tradition of those who came before.

Sources:
Forbis, Judith. The Classic Arabian Horse. Liveright, New York. 1976.  pp. 163

Mulder, Carol June Woodbridge. "A Brief History of the Founding of Crabbet Stud." The Arabian Horse Journal, August 1, 1983.

Mulder, Carol June Woodbridge. Imported Foundation Stock of North American Arabian Horses Volume 2 (Revised Edition). Borden Publishing Company, Los Angeles, California. 1993.