Page 42 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 6
P. 42
T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 2
We should better think of them as different Sloughi that has existed for centuries or
types, known as ‘landraces’. Eveline millennia, or it has yet to be proven.
Zahradnik also writes of a Sighthound type
that occurs next to the Tesems, with a On the contrary, hunting dogs, including
straight or twisted tail (41). Sighthounds, were exported from North
Africa to the Mediterranean, i.e. from
However, all these representations describe Egypt and Libya.
(Sight)hound types with smooth hair, but in
no way with feathering or long hair; there is The older Tesem of the two is excluded
in antiquity no other type of dog in Africa from this analysis. However, it must be
than with smooth hair. noted that the early representations are
similar to those in the Levant. The older
SUMMARY Tesem is similar with its curled tail
carriage above the back, but also to the
There is no evidence of the Sloughi’s Mediterranean type, as represented by
relationship with Saluki, neither genetic nor the Kritikos Lagonikos. The Basenji, as an
historical; nor are they ‘cousins’. The genetic African dog and as a prototype also
line of female mitochondrial DNA and Y- corresponds to the older Tesem type.
chromosome DNA clearly distinguishes the
separation between Sloughi and Saluki over THE SLOUGHI AND ITS CULTURE
millennia (42).
The oldest rock art of the Tadrart Acacus
Sloughi-type (Sight)hounds were found to shows hunting groups of humans and
be imported into Egypt via the dogs – whether these are Sloughis or
Kushites/Nubians from “Central Africa”. their precursors cannot be said. It is
important that they are seen travelling
There is no historical evidence of any kind together in the area, in the process of
of imports from what are today’s Iran, Iraq, hunting together - coursing.
Syria, Israel or the Arab Peninsula earlier
than late 19th century (43). In the meantime, we can get a more
specific vision of the Sighthound in the
Occasionally, Sighthounds from other New Kingdom, 1400 BC in Egypt: it was
sources may have been brought with them smooth-haired, sand-coloured, had a
at times from Roman (Vertragus, 44), Vandal typical Sloughi head, but its body was
or Bedouin origin, but this does not appear more in line with the long type (45),
to have had a deeper impact on the type of
