Page 68 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Issue 15

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 6 8

WERE THERE MIXES OF MIDDLE EASTERN SALUKIS AND NORTH AFRICAN
SLOUGHIS IN FRANCE IN THE 1930S?

The import of Salukis from Beirut to Marseille from around 1930 to 1945 mentioned by

Zwahlen / Maerki can be taken as certain. France was a colonial power in what is now
Lebanon, Syria and Iraq after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. These are also the
areas where conflicts with the Kurds, among others, are taking place today.

As we read above, these Salukis were brought to Marseille "to replenish the dwindling

imports of Sloughis from North Africa". After a 1st Sloughi standard of 1904, drawn up by
Count de Bylandt and published in Laeken, a 2nd standard version of the French Sloughi
Club was published in 1925.

The French "Club du Sloughi" was the originator of the 3rd standard of 1938, which is the
version of the standard that was published by the FCI in 1964 with the same wording

under no. 188 b.

Rakka de la Croix de Bures - born in 1934
and owned by Mme Wasserzug, France.
What we see here is the evidence, that
Persian Saluki types were (perhaps) bred in
North Africa by the French. In the Saluki
Archive it is written that they were born in
France. Comment of Valerie Bellenoue in
Facebook on April 30. 2025: „Hung Pham À
la différence du Royaume -Uni , le Saluki en
France n’a rencontré que peu d’adeptes en
ces années d’avant -guerre . Quelques
soldats ont ramené d’Algérie des spécimens
qui n’ont pas eu de descendance… », in
English : Hung Pham, Unlike in the United
Kingdom, the Saluki did not attract many
enthusiasts in France in the pre-war years.
A few soldiers brought back specimens from
Algeria, but they did not produce any
offspring... – We remember Przezdziecki’s
first Saluki, when he was in Syria …