1875, Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah of Ibn al-Dirri mare. According to Al Khamsa, Basilisk was of the Qumusah section of the Saba’ah foaled in the possession of ‘Abd al-Qadir of Deyr, purchased by Mr. J.H. Skene, H.M.’s Consul at Aleppo, for Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt and imported in 1879 to England by the Blunts.
general stud book
Basilisk is listed in the GSB, Volume 14: “A White Mare, foaled in 1875, a Seglwieh Obeyran of Ibn Ed Derri, her dam stolen from the Ibn Ed Derri family by Faris Assaat, who sold her to Abd el Jadir, of Deyr, in whose possession she was foaled. She was purchased of Abd el Jadir in 1878 for Mr. Blunt.”*
crabbet stud books
“Foaled in 1876, a Seglawieh Jedranieh of Ibn ed Derri of the Resallin tribe of Sebaa Anazeh.
14 hands 1 inch. A white mare with black hoofs, a few flea-bitten marks also some patches of pink which show when the coat is changing, the rest of the skin being black. Great power, up to any weight, wiry legs though not large below the knee, very fine shoulder, drooping quarters but tail carried like a feather in the air, good head and small muzzle. Basilisk has something of the compact wiriness of a wild animal.
Purchased for Mr Blunt by Mr Skene in February 1878 of Abd el Jadir of Deyr. Imported 1878.
Basilisk’s dam was a white Seglawieh Oberyan stolen by Faris Assaat from the desert. Neddi ibn ed Derri had sold the mare on shares to an Abadat (Sebaa Anazeh) and it was from him that she was stolen. Sire said to be a bay Seglawi of the same strain. Faris Assaat sold the dam to Abd el Jadir of Deyr on the Euphrates in whose possession Basilisk was foaled. Basilisk is fast and a good fencer.
Basilisk was sold in August 1884 to the Duke of Westminster and left Crabbet Park, after the foal (Bustard) had been weaned, on the 1st of September.Ӡ
lady anne blunt journals
Lady Anne Blunt’s journals from 1881 describe her discussion with Neddi Ibn ed Derri: “April 7th We have enquired about Basilisk. Neddi says that eight years ago a white mare, of his Seglawyehs, was stolen by people from Aleppo, from a Sebaa one of the Abadat to whom Neddi had sold her in shares, and there seems no doubt that Basilisk is her daughter.”§
additional references
Lady Anne Blunt also described the general process of authentication of Bedouin provenance concerning Basilisk this way: “Generally speaking the process was to escape from all Ottoman company or surveillance, contrary to the usual custom of Europeans in search of horses, one is much more welcome to the Nomads in that case. In some rare instances a mare which had been got hold of by officials was purchased after the origin had been investigated. In one instance, that of Basilisk whose dam had been stolen from Ibn ed Derri by one of the Abadat tribe, authentication was not obtained for three years not until we visited Ibn ed Derri in the desert – if we had not succeeded her descendants would not have counted as pure-bred, and no stallion of her or of her posterity could have been used as a sire.”‡
Further information on some of Basilisk’s tail female descendants is available here and here.
There is further information forthcoming (post 2020) based on research done by Edouard Al-Dahdah concerning the strain of Basilisk.
PEdigree
Click on the image below for the Al Khamsa pedigree for Basilisk.
- *Margaret Greely, Arabian Exodus, (London: JA Allen, 1990), 56.
- †Rosemary Archer et al, The Crabbet Arabian Stud Its History & Influence, (Gloucestershire: Alexander Heriot, 1994), 95.
- ‡Rosemary Archer et al, The Crabbet Arabian Stud Its History & Influence, 94.
- §Rosemary Archer ed, Lady Anne Blunt Journals and Correspondence 1878-1917, (Gloucestershire: Alexander Heriot, 1986), 132.
