Page 91 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 9 1

Early Arabian calligraphy in Tunisia, Bardo Museum © Th. Liedtke

Through Arabisation, i.e. the adoption of the Muslim faith, the Arabic language and the
associated acceptance into the Ummah, the community of believers of the Muslim faith,

which was also a system of dependencies, tribute and other political and fiscal realities, in
the consciousness of many of the inhabitants of North Africa an Arab descent is
warranted, even if they are and were originally Berbers. This is the state of affairs today,
but it was obviously also worth discussing in the times of Daumas and Abd El-Kader
whether the people of North Africa were and are of Arab origin or Berbers.

Abd El-Kader is referring to an Arabic tradition, which we now know to be false. The
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Sanhaja (Berber languages: Aznag, pl. Iznagen, and also Aznaj, pl. Iznajen; Arabic: ﺔﺟﺎﻬﻨﺻ,
Sanhaja or ﺔﮔﺎﻧز Znaga) were once one of the largest Berber tribal confederations, along
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with the Zanata and Masmuda confederations. Berber tribes such as the Sanhadja or
Kutama are often referred to as Himyarites by Arab historians (which the Sanhadja
themselves probably adopted for reasons of political legitimacy), but other genealogical
sources and modern genetic tests show that this alleged origin is probably a myth, since

the predominant Berber Y-haplogroup is E and the predominant Arab Y-haplogroup is J
[63] [64].

The description of the distances in “Lieue” seems unbelievable: The “Slougui” runs up to
12 km and more before it reaches the gazelle. A Dorkas gazelle, however, reaches up to 80
km/h in flight, and there even the sighthound with 50 to 60 km/h in the terrain will have

to make up this difference with some endurance. So this does not seem improbable.
However, Daumas also mentions other types of gazelle that are hunted with the Sloughi,
the Sine, the el Ademi and the el Remi. These may not be as fast as the Dorkas gazelle.