Page 46 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 7
P. 46
T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 6
So we can speak of its own "breed" in North We should put an end to this linguistic
Africa since ancient times. The ancestors of confusion and establish clear
today's Sloughi breed were smooth-coated geographical assignments of origin to the
and had smooth offspring, as can be seen in eastern sighthound breeds under the
the dog mummy of 1,400 BC. Also, they have collective name "Saluki" in the various
had the same use since then, namely languages. A breed association purely by
hunting the hare, fox, jackal, and gazelle, and the general name "Windhund",
the Sloughis were used as guardians of the "greyhound" or "Saluki" to make, is for
flocks and homes. professionals insufficient and leads to
ambiguities that one would not have with
To provide a clearer differentiation of racial definite terms in the language. It is not
types in the various cultural spheres, it is in about purity of breeding in a western
my opinion necessary to better define the sense, but about distinguishability, which
appropriate name and the countries than it has arisen from a long succession of
is at the moment. It is not enough to use an generations on the African continent and
empty phrase "Saluki" as a description of the in the Middle East and whose special
breed for all types that occur in different characteristics should be preserved for
ways, if one wants to make a more precise the future.
assignment. So the English should be able to
say that this "greyhound" is a "North African The profound changes in the Saluki types
Sloughi" or an "Asian Saluki", or the French began at the beginning of the 20th
say of a "lévrier" that it is a "Sloughi century and since the 1970s, it has also
d'Afrique du Nord ou un Saluki d'Asie." become terrible for the Sloughi through
Among the Arabic-speaking people there is crossbreeding of traditionally non-
already the distinctions of origin type occurring sighthound types and their
(Slughi Shami, Moghrebi, Tazi, Parsi etc.). mixed breeds.
In English we could generally make the The Sloughi and its ancestors have been
distinction between "greyhound" as the kind traceable in surprisingly clear and
of dog, and "Greyhound" as the breed. But to unambiguous form since the ancient
use the term "sighthound" or "gazehound" Egyptians. The Greek and Roman
would be a clear reference to a type of dog. understanding of "Libya" ("Libyans" =
"Berbers") describes all of North Africa,
including Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula.
