For a time, the Sloughi (pronounced Sloo-ghee) was a breed with confused origins. It’s been known as the Arabian Sighthound, but this is inaccurate because it was the indigenous, nomadic Berbers who developed the breed long before the invasion of the Arabs. It was also once considered to be a French breed because France controlled Algeria from 1830 to 1962, and the first official breed standard was published in France by the French Sight Hound Association in 1925. This remained the case until Algeria gained its independence in 1962. In reality, while its ancestors may have come from the Middle East, this is a North African breed closely tied to nomadic Bedouins of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, the last being the country that represents the breed within the FCI. The Moroccan writer, Al Mansur, mentioned the Sloughi in a book he wrote in the 13th century.

Image of a Sloughi via Wikicommons under the GNU Free Documentation License