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In the beginning, God gave Ishmael, son of Abraham, a gift, made of mist and dust, as a reward for Ishmael's faith and dedication to the GOD of his father. Out of the mist and dust came the first Asil Arabian mare, who was at the time in foal, and produced a son. From these two - gifts from God - came the beginning of the Asil (pure) Arabian horse. With such a beginning it is no wonder that the Bedouin bred Arabian was and is, today, reputed to have remained pure of outside blood, to a degree that border on fanaticism. Whether the legend is true, or vivid imagination, the ancient Bedouins believed it, and bred their horses for purity, with a religious conviction.

As with any group of faithful, some were more faithful than others, so in time, another "legend" tells us, an outcross breeding of Asil Muniqi mares to Turcoman stallions did take place in the desert area near Syria. The fanatic purist Bedouin breeders considered this outcross breeding to be "Kadish" (common, NOT asil). So great was that belief, that an Asil mare which was accidentally bred to a Kadish stallion, was never again bred to produce Asil, the belief that she had been permanently contaminated and that all future foals would exhibit the Kadish influence.

In time, civilization and the oil industry arrived in Saudi Arabia, and the nomadic Bedouin tribes decreased in numbers. While some of them do maintain Asil horses, to this day, the numbers are fewer. Modern transportation and communication have made it more difficult to assure authenticity of pedigree, which in turn, has limited the exchange of horses, or bloodlines, and encouraged a more cautious, even defeated, attitude in the modern day Bedouin horse breeder.

Elsewhere in the world, the Bedouin inspired Arabian horse continues to live on and flourish, in breeding programs specifically designed to preserve them in their pure forms. Bedouin Source horses are those defined as being descended in all lines, from the Bedouin bred horses of the desert. This group is then divided into two sub-groups, generally referred to a s BLUE STAR and Blue List, as defined in Jane Llewellyn Ott's "Blue Arabian Horse Catalog" which was published in 1961. The background of both of these groups is the same, except that the BLUE STAR Arabians have no RECORDED Muniqi strain blood, in their extended pedigrees, while the Blue List animals may have it in any amount, varying from full Muniqi in a few of the early imports, to a fraction of a percent in our modern day horses.

In ancient times the Muniqi strain was considered as classic as the other strains in Saudi Arabia. but later European travelers wrote of a less classic and appealing Muniqi strain which was developed when the Salqa Bedouins bred Muniqiyat mares to Turcoman stallions, about three hundred years ago. Carl Raswan wrote most extensively of this, and according to him, this cross produced a taller, more angular animal, lacking much of the type of the original antique Arabian, but with greater speed. There is little doubt that this particular "legend" is at least partially true. Equally true is the very strong possibility that somewhere in the interior of Saudi were FANATIC PURISTS who would have never bred their Asil Muniqiyat horses to one which contained the Turcoman influence. Carl Raswan advocated the breeding of the less classic Muniqiyat to the more classic strains, stating that the recapturing of original classic type would then be accomplished. Today, several such programs exist, especially in the United States, and the individuals in those programs are as classic in beauty as anyone could ask. Most of them appear to be a high percentage Saqlawi in appearance, and yet they retain a certain "look" which is distinctive to their group, and unlike any of the other modern day strain bred groups. The problem for the purist non-Muniqi breeder has become not whether or not all Muniqi (or the related Julfan, Abu 'Urqub, Kabayshan, Mukhallad, Rabdan, Sa'dan, and Samham strains) were actually infiltred with Turcoman, but how to know which ones were, and which were not. From the purists' point of view, when in doubt, err in favor of purity.

In the United States, both the BLUE STAR* and Blue List* groups came very close to extintion; in 1956, only 10 Blue List foals were born. Fortunately, due to the increased popularity of Straight Egyptians, both old and new, the Blue List "Egyptian" horses have flourished in great numbers, and it is unlikely that they will ever again be in danger or extinction. This is not to say that certain BLOODLINES within the Blue List group are well preserved. Some bloodlines have been ignored, in favor of more popular bloodlines, so that they, too, are in danger of extinction, even today.

The BLUE STAR recovery program, which began at the same time, did not mark the birth of it's first two replacement foals until 1958. Those two foals were BLUE STAR, a *AL HAMDANIAH daughter by IBN FADL, and DHAHRAN, by SIRECHO out of TURFARA. Today, DHAHRAN is represented by only one BLUE STAR "eligible" produce. All BLUE STAR "eligible" descendants are through the stallion, ASF GERSOM. At that time, only seven animals had been secured for preservation breedings, so 1959 also marked the birth of only two BLUE STAR foals; BINT SIRECHO by SIRECHO, out of *AL HAMDANIAH, and BINT TURFARA, a full sister to DHAHRAN. All of these mares have proven to be extremely prolific, and the vast majority of today's surviving BLUE STAR "eligible" horses are descended from them.  

Since that time, new foundation animals have been added to the original list, as they were imported and their pedigrees were researched and confirmed to be without recorded Muniqi strain. A total of 89 BLUE STARS have been imported to the United States, since President U.S. Grant was given the stallion, LEOPARD, in 1879. However, most of those horses did not produce BLUE STAR progeny. In the BLUE STAR "eligible" breeding programs of today, ALL horses are descended from some combination of the following horses:

*AL HAMDANIAH, *MAHRAA, *AL OBAYYAH, *MUHAIRA, *AMIRAA, *MUNIFAN, *MUNIFEH, *EXOCHORDA, *FADL, *NASR, *FURTHA DHELALL, *RUDANN, *HADRIYA, *SAWANNAH, *HALWAAJI, *SINDIDAH, *JALAM AL UBAYAN, *TAAMRI, *JAMALAH EL JEDRANI, *TURFA 

Of these, *MAHRAA is represented only by *MUHAIRA, *SAWANNAH is represented only through her imported daughter *HADRIYA, by *JALAM AL UBAYAN, *NASR and *EXOCHORDA are represented only through their joint produce, SIRECHO, *MUNIFAN is represented only by FANIFEH, out of *MUNIFEH, and *JAMALAH EL JEDRANI is represented only through SINDALAH by SINDIDAN. Obviously, these single representations of those horses has limited our genetic potential in the group, as a whole, as well as placing several of the bloodlines at risk of extinction.

It is interesting to note that while all of these horses are descended from the desert, *FADL, *EXOCHORDA, and *NASR are also recognized as Straight Egyptians, as defined by the Pyramid Society. 

                          *EXOCHORDA               *FADL                 *NASR                                                 

These individuals are especially well known, across the entire Arabian horse community, since they are major contributors to BLUE STAR, Blue List, Straight Egyptian, and American bred programs, both here and in Europe; likely to be seen in almost any breeding programs, except those which are based on Pure Polish, Russian, Spanish, pure 'Blunt', or Crabbet. Their descendents within the BLUE STAR program, today, often exhibit the very pretty "Egyptian look", and one of the best organized efforts at preservation, today, is the FADL-TURFA-SIRECHO-MUHAIRA group, which incorporates these three foundation horses, plus the desert mares, *TURFA and *MUHAIRA, exclusively. 

In 1985, an effort was made to unite the remaining F-T-S horses in a preservation effort. At that time, there were seven mares and three stallions. Within months, and before the effort could really get off the ground, two of the stallions had died of old age induced natural causes. Only three horses were produced through this particular effort; a filly and two colts, and due to circumstances, one of the colts, the one that offered as much of an outcross as was possible in this group, had to be gelded. The remaining two F-T-S youngsters are full siblings, and both are currently in other programs. It is interesting to note that this particular preservation movement, begun approximately 50 years after the importation of the most of these animals, would have had potential for success if only it had begun in 1980 instead of 1985. This fact, alone, underscores both the need and the difficulties of preservation breeding. Fortunately, the descendants of FADL-TURFA and of SIRECHO do exist in many other programs, today, both in combination and separately.

One other import from Egypt, *Ibn Hafiza, was reported to be a probable BLUE STAR. Pedigree research did not show any recorded Muniqi strain, but one ancestress, was recorded in the Inshass Stud Books as Saqlawiyah Jidraniyah, while her descendants were recorded as both Saqlawi and Khuaylan - neither one being Muniqi related strains. Carl Raswan believed and professed the mare to be a Saqlawiyah, and the Inshass Stud book were noted for the absence of recorded strain on many of it's entries; however, without definite proof and verification that mare was, in fact, Saqlawiyah, Miss Jane Ott would not give official BLUE STAR status to *Ibn Hafiza. As with some of Homer Davenport's imports, *Ibn Hafiza would, if he were listed in the "Blue Arabian Horse Catalog", be listed as "either BLUE STAR or Blue List". This "either/or" status allows for the individual breeder to make his/her own decisions, and many have done exactly that. There exists, today, a preservation program in New England, which is exclusively based on *Ibn Hafiza in combination with FADL-TURFA-SIRECHO-MUHAIRA. It is one of the few programs where the original source (three mares by *Ibn Hafiza) ended up in the same program with a stallion who was out of one of the mares, and sired by a stallion (now missing) who was out of a full sister, sired by an F-T-S-M stallion. To say that observation of this program is an "education" would be an understatement.                         

Preservation of the BLUE STAR Arabian has continued to offer severe challenges, since the mares have proven to be welcome additions to almost every type of breeding program. Indeed, many of today's great show horses, and excellent producers are descendants of BLUE STAR or Blue List mares, who otherwise left no produce within their own program. One well know mare who exemplifies this is Bint Sahara, a Blue List mare, and the dam of Fadjur. Bint Sahara, is but one example; there have been many others, over the years.

The second challenge of preserving the BLUE STAR is that in many cases, foundation animals are available only in connection to other of the foundation animals. Examples of this are *FADL and *TURFA; the only access to either of them in the BLUE STAR program is through their breedings to each other. They produced three stallions and three mares, but FATURF and TURFADA did not produce within the BLUE STAR program, at all, and TARFF had only two produce from a BLUE STAR mare. BINT TURFA died as a yearling, without produce. As a result, almost all lines to those two foundation horses are through either TURFARA or her full brother, IBN FADL, and in some cases. through the two , combined, since they were also bred to each other. SIRECHO is the only contributor from his parents, *NASR and *EXCHORDA, even though he had full siblings, twin colts, from a later breeding. Neither of those two reproduced in any program. Both of SIRECHO's parents did produce BLUE STAR produced by other mates, but NONE of them bred on in the BLUE STAR program. Research shows us that this situation has been repeated with several of the foundation animals; hindsight shows us that this exclusive type of breeding has narrowed the genetic base from which we now try to work.

When I first started doing the research in the 1985 AHRA stud books, there were only 320 living BLUE STARS, in spite of an effort that has gone on for almost thirty years. Twelve years later, the 1996 AHRA CD ROM Bookshelf indicates that there are 317 BLUE STAR "eligible" mares of "production age", and of those, 217 of them are NOT in production. Some of them are, perhaps, still too young, and those we can account for through breeder communication. However, the vast majority are either in production in other types of programs (about 10%) or are not in production, are missing, or are presumed dead but not recorded as such with AHRA. As a result of natural and unnatural tragedies, the preservation of these horses is no further ahead in the new century than it was when I began researching seventeen years ago. 

Fortunately, most of today's breeders have a better knowledge and understanding not only of the pedigrees involved, but also are better horsemen and care takers.  While it is true that many of our more specific breeding groups within the program have been wiped out completely, never to be recovered, or are cored down to a few individuals which may or may not be the best that group had to offer, it is equally true that breeders have focused on not only preserving the bloodlines within their own specific groups, but with an eye to better quality individuals, as well.  Even so, it has become extremely important to urge those breeders of other types of programs to preserve the BLUE STAR mares they are using. While I agree that their use adds that definite "something special" to those other programs, let it be noted that those "special qualities" will die out, completely, if a concentrated effort is not made to preserve them for the future.

* The terms BLUE STAR and Blue List are copyrighted, exactly as spelled, and are the property of Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott. Only horses which are actually listed in the BLUE ARABIAN HORSE CATALOG are BLUE STAR or BLUE LIST. All descendants are, in actual fact, BLUE STAR or Blue List "eligible". Miss Ott allows the use of those terms to describe horses provided that the actual definitions and meanings of those terms are not "altered" by such use. All of the horses so listed, or "eligible", are BEDOUIN SOURCE horses.