Page 147 - Arabian Studies (II)

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Hunting Techniques and Practices in the Arabian Peninsula 139
20. Arabic aghdaf, plur. ghudf. The latter is used, particularly in poetry, to
mean salukis; cf. Mu'allaqah of LabTd, al-Mu‘allaqat al-'Ashr (ed. Ahmad b.
Amin al-Shinqf{I), Cairo, 1331 H., 86, line 49; cf. also below Appearance and
Conformation - it is stressed in a number of sources that a good saluki must be
aghdaf al-udhunayn.
21. The speed of 43 m.p.h. attributed to the saluki by E. C. Ash,A?£s: their
History and Development, London, 1927, I, 195, is clearly excessive. A number
of salukis have been timed on a sand track in Britain and over 400 yards
manage an average speed of about 30 m.p.h., though this is too short a distance
to do justice to the saluki’s stamina. Greyhounds on the same track averaged
2-3 m.p.h. faster.
22. E.g. al-Muzarrid, YazTd b. pixar, in DTwan al-MufaddalTyat (ed. C. J.
Lyall), Beirut, 1920, 61, who talks of hounds as being the bandt saluqTyayn, the
offspring of two salukis.
23. C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Leiden, 1943, I.
59.
24. The poetry appears in the tollowing geographical and lexicographical
works: Abu ‘Ubayd ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abd al-‘Az7z al-Bakri Mu*jam ma 'sta'jam min
Asma’ al-Bilad wa’l-Mawadi' (ed. Mustafa al-Saqqa), Cairo, 1947, II, 751; Yaqut
b. ‘Abdallah, Mu'jam al-Buldan (ed. F. Wustenfeld), Leipzig, 1868, III.l, 125;
Zakariya’ b. Muhammad b. Mahmud al-Qazwfnl, Athdr al-Bilad wa-Akhbar
al-'Ibad (ed. F. Wustenfeld), Gottingen, 1848, 29; Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-'Arab,
Bulaq, 1302 H., XII, 29. Paul Brock in a popular article on the saluki,
‘al-Hurr — the noble one’, Aramco World Magazine, March/April, 1973, 4,
quotes the following verse which we are unable to find in the Arabic sources:
‘Oh, my hound, brought by kings from Saluk’.
25. Geographical sources: Abu Muhammad al-Hasan b. Ahmad b. Ya‘qub
al-Hamdan7, Sifat JazTrat al-'Arab (ed. D. H. Muller), Leiden, 1884,1, 78; BakrT,
Mu'jam, II, 751, though the Yemeni Saluq comes at the foot of his list; Nashwan
b. Sa‘7d al-Himyan, Shams al-'Ulum wa-Dawa’Kalam al-'Arab min al-Kulum (ed.
‘Az7m al-D7n Ahmad), Gibb Memorial Series, Leiden, 1916, 51; Yaqut t Mu'jam,
125 and Marasid al-Ittila* 'ala Asma" al-Amkinah wa'l-Biqa (ed. T. G. J.
Juynboll), Leiden, 1853, II, 47; QazwlnT, Athdr, 29. Lexicographical sources:
Ibn Manzur, Lisan, XII, 29; Majd al-D7n al-Fayruzabad7, al-Qamus al-Muhit,
Cairo, 1938, III, 246. Other sources: Kushajim, Masayid, 131; Bayzarah, 140;
Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz, Kitab al-Hayawan (ed. ‘Abd al-Salam
Muhammad Harun), Cairo, 1938,1, 312. Cf. also A. Grohmann, ‘Saluk’, El1, IV,
118-19.
26. Hamdarn, Sifat, I, 78; Hab71 al-R y bah - vocalisation uncertain.
27. Sifat, I, 76.
28. Sifat, I, 77.
29. Sifat, 1,99.
30. Husayn b. ‘AI7 al-Ways7, al-Yaman al-Kubrd, Cairo, 1962, 39; it is a great
pity that Ways7 does not vocalise his place names more. Enquiries have been
made in the Yemen about these places by one of the present writers, though
with negative results.

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