The Bylaws of the Society, Article 1, Section 2, provide the following definition of Country of Origin for the Saluki, as accepted by AKC, under which the Society operates.

“The Society defines a Desert Bred Saluki as any Saluki imported directly from the Middle East (to include Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, Yemen or any other country so designated by the Board of Directors), or descendants of such imported Salukis.”

Should science, whether through genetic studies or archeological finds, expand definitively this range, The Society has the ability to include more countries.  The world we operate in today is one of territorial borders and hard political lines.  This was not the case for most of the history of our sighthound.  The Saluki’s history is one of regions and trade. Genetic dispersion has always been intrinsic to the timeline of this canine treasure, the wellspring for so many breeds, no strain more important than another, all equally prized.

A Persian miniature from the Safavid Dynasty