Page 45 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 7
P. 45
T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 5
Along the way the good Sloughi hounds are In northern Tunisia there are, in their
mated with the females; if it is Berber time, next to sand colored ones some
nomads or Bedouin, it is beside the point. beautiful gray brindle Sloughis, as was in
However, only smooth sighthounds occur in the 1970s Sarah, a sister of the Champion
the descendants of the North African Bedui. In the south there are also red-
Sloughis. This is further proof that the Asian sand colored, but also white Sloughis
types, if they should actually have come to occur there. Occasionally one sees
North Africa with the Bedouins in large Sloughis with black mantle in Tunisia.
numbers - for which there is no evidence - However, these assignments to our
left no traces behind. Because all North modern states can only be imperfect,
African Sloughis are smooth and should be since the nomads migrate across borders
according to the standard! in these areas. But our imagination must
not succumb to the mistake that these
However, it must be questioned whether it migrations continually covered distances
is sufficient to define a distinction merely by from Morocco to the Caspian Sea.
means of the phenotype. As mentioned
above, Sir Terence Clark also writes that It is astonishing how uniform the Sloughi
these different types also exist because they is, if one assumes it is found in all of
have experienced different requirements North Africa. A distinction is made
and uses. The breed selection must between the mountain type and the
therefore have been different and produced desert type, but Raouf Ochi, Sloughi
these different types. This, however, mainly breeder in Tunisia, says it is always the
affects the Saluki, instead the Sloughi seems same Sloughi and this distinction
quite uniform in its use in North Africa. between mountain type and desert type
can not be made [25].
The different types of Saluki also correspond
to the locations that individual tribes use. As Our modern dog exhibition culture
Elizabeth Dawsari writes, La'aban was a generates new types: let us take for
tricolor Saluki. This essentially black Saluki example the modern English Greyhound,
is not typical for the Arabian Peninsula. The which depending on its use, is either an
cream and gold colored Salukis predominate exhibition type or a racing type, that are
on the Arabian peninsula. even genetically distinguishable. An
original coursing Greyhound would look
But also with the Sloughis, the Bergmanns different again.
reported of predominantly occurring colors
in certain areas.
