Page 40 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 7
P. 40
T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 0
Harold Dickson, who worked in the In 1887 they gave their Greyhound bitch
diplomatic service in the Middle East and Manjustine to Prince Kamal Ahmed, who
the Persian Gulf, received an inquiry in 1934 mated her to one of his Salukis. In 1903
from a "lover and well-known breeder of they met Abdallah Ibn Majelli from the
Saluqis in London" whether the Arabs had Hannadi tribe near Tell el-Kebir, who
separate lines of Salukis, as happened with hunted there with descendants of this
the horses. Dickson researched this Greyhound-Saluki mating [20].
question in Kuwait and only confirmed
certain preferences among the tribes for However, it is unlikely that the smooth-
smooth-coated or feathered Salukis. He coated "Slughis" photographed by the
couldn't find any evidence of different Saluki Tahawi were descendants of the
breeds other than hearsay [19]. Greyhound female from Blunts. The
Hannadi Sheikh Ibn Majelli was jealous of
As we saw with the photo documents from the Tahawi Sheikh Saud of Al Salhiyah and
the beginning of the 20th century, the so he would rather have tried to have
Tahawi had feathered Salukis of the Shami better hounds than he had. Brian Duggan
type as well as smooth-coated sighthounds writes with a twinkle in his eye that
that certainly could be North African Amherst's first two imports, La'aman and
Sloughis, and even probably are. Finally Ayesha, may have had some Greyhound
Yasser Ghanim writes, that the Tahawi in genetic material from the Blunts' bitch,
the 19th century brought their dogs from Manjustine.
North Africa. It is by no means certain that
Asian Salukis had occurred for centuries in When the English "Saluki or Gazelle
North Africa, nor even in Egypt, where, due Hound Club" was founded, we saw that
to the proximity to the described areas from the two main protagonists, Florence
Mesopotamia via Palestine to the Arabian Amherst and Brig. Gen. Frederick F.
Peninsula, such sighthounds could have Lance, pursued very different concepts of
most likely been established. selection and breeding.
At this point one must note that in Florence As Brian Duggan writes, Brigadier Lance
Amherst’s research the records of Lady was the more successful of the two in the
Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfrid have show ring and in breeding. His concept of
played a role. They were an important mixing the different types, the main thing
source of Florence Amherst's interest in the being that it results in capable hunting
Salukis. After their travel in Arabia, the dogs, was also the approach used by the
Blunts bought a house and property in the Arabs.
vicinity of Cairo, where they kept horses and
a couple of English Greyhounds.
