Page 38 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Issue 15

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 3 8

Quaritsch also mentions the disadvantaged litter sister of Laba'ans II, Thabya II, the only

longhair among the seven puppies, as an example. "... who phenotypically represents a
Saluki and could certainly have a positive influence on the Saluki breed with pure bred
Salukis in supervised Saluki pure breeding." It is not entirely clear whether he meant
Thabya or whether he was talking about Loofah, who was also examined in Switzerland.

The current FCI standard in English No. 269 for Saluki of 29 November 2000/EN lists a
smooth variety in addition to the feathering. Thus the different varieties from the
Arabian Peninsula also correspond to the standard for Salukis!

In this respect, the proven areas of origin of smooth Oriental sighthounds must serve
as the basis for a classification, whether they can now be categorised as Sloughis or

regarded as Salukis. Such classification of a breed, a "landrace" to a landscape has
existed since time immemorial, as we have already seen above.

Of course, this is all the easier as Przezdziecki described the North African Sloughis as
"calves", which Oechslin credibly reports. With this clear classification, no "improvement"
of the Sloughis with the help of the Salukis is necessary. So we see that despite all
assurances by international experts in the Western World, Sloughis must be different

from Salukis and can also be "easily" recognised as such.

But let's take a quick look at Burchard's letter.
"2. ... Now the Arabs, and above all the Saudis, are probably the most relentless advocates of
purity that have ever lived. They demand pure lineage from themselves, from their horses

and camels and from their sighthounds. Nevertheless, no Saudi would ever think that the
long-haired and the short-haired Saluqi are different breeds." - In comparison to the
Salukis bred according to the standard, there is no difference at first, but the Western
idea of "purity of the breed" is of a different nature if we follow Prof. Dr. Quaritsch.

We have already learnt from Elizabeth Dawsari about "pure breeding", and that about
every third generation has included a foreign mating. This was also true of the Arabs
themselves. Her husband's mother came from another tribe (see Tohuwabohu, Sloughi
Review 7), "because they naturally wanted to avoid the consequences of inbreeding" (E.
Dawsari).