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Telafar
Whenever I was in the vicinity of Mosul I would try to pay a visit to a passionate hunter called
Subhi, whom I chanced to meet one day when I was with some archaeologists near the largely Turkoman town of Telafar. Subhi
had a farm nearby, where he kept a line of Saluqis that he had inherited though his father and grandfather. They were
all smooths as he regarded feathering as a sign of crossbreeding. He hunted on horseback in the surrounding countryside
principally hare but also fox for the fur and even occasionally wolf. On
my first visit I could scarecely believe my eyes when he opened the gates to the courtyard of his house where in a spacious
pen were at least half a dozen hounds of various ages and colours, including a remarkable brindle, one of a litter of 8 that
he had bred from a red dog and a tricolour bitch, which he thought had some connection with Turkey. We went out with his pack
and my two hounds for a couple of hours' sport so that I could see how well they worked in the local terrain. On another occasion I found that he had kept two puppies for me from a beautiful black and silver
bitch and a cream dog. He had even left the ears intact, although he customarily cropped his hounds' ears. The female
was very nicely built but the male looked underdeveloped and as I was looking for a male at the time I had to decline the
gift. The dam was in season again and was wearing a coat that came down to the ground across her hindquarters to prevent any
accidental mating.
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| Chastity cloak |
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| Some of Subhi's pack |
Rutba
When exploring the western frontier town of Rutba for vestiges of the old British Nairn Bus
Company I was introduced to a famed local hunter with falcons and Salukis called 'Dalli'. He was a real character
and spent most of the winter months hunting gazelle alive to help stock a reservation not far from the town. He would
use his Saluqis to run the gazelle to the point of exhaustion when he could collect them and put them in the back of his pickup.
His Saluqis were mainly of the robust feathered type that are commonly found in Rutba,
which is quite high and gets very cold in winter.
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| Dalli's hound |
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| Rutba hound guarding sheep |
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| Dalli's hound |
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| Typical Rutba hound |
On later visits I discovered that Dalli's feathered hounds had been replaced
by smooths, one was wearing a coat and making the most of the winter sunshine. Another was still a puppy, which I was
very tempted to acquire, but Dalli was away from the house and his wife could not take the responsibility for handing it over.
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| Dalli's new hound |
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| Dalli's puppy |
Kubaisa One of my favourite hunting grounds was along the Euphrates to the west of Baghdad, especially around
the small town of Kubaisa. There were always lots of Saluqis in among the palm plantations.
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| Typical Saluqi of Kubaisa |
The Saluqis here were mainly feathered and would go out on a daily basis with the children
shepherding the flocks to pasture in the surrounding gravelly desert.
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| Shepherd boys and their Saluqis |
It was in Kubaisa that I met my first 'Luqi'. A nice Saluqi bitch had been
mated with a Saluqi but it seems one of the guard dogs had slipped in and mated her a second time. The result was a litter
of pups some of which developed into normal Saluqis but others develped the coarser traits of the guard dog. Over time I watched
the puppies grow and when they were old enough to hunt the crossbreds came with us as they had a better nose for prey in the
scrub and would even dig out prey from holes.
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| The dam and her two Saluqi puppies |
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| Luqi from the same dam |
On the edge of Kubaisa was a settlement of Turkomans displaced from the Kirkuk area
and among them were some keen hunters with two fine Saluqis. When we went hunting, my Tayra impressed them so much that they
wanted to use on her a powerfully built black dog called Howa (Wind), but the timing was never right. I was in any case more
in favour of their other very fast dog called Bora (Storm).
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| Walking up near Kubaisa |
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| Hawa |
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| Bora |
In between these populations of Saluqis there were many other small settlements where
I would come across a surprising range of Saluqis belonging to the various communities of which Iraq is made up. One such community was a Shebek village by the Tepe Gawra archaeological site, not far from
Mosul. Here I came across another brindle, a crop-eared puppy, the only one in a litter from a beautiful tricolour bitch.
I found another brindle in a small community of displaced Kurds in Chamchemal, when I happened to be there to monitor the
local elections.
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| Shebek brindle |
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| Brindle at Chamchemal |
Sometimes I would just happen to be driving by the pet market in Baghdad, which was always
full of exotic creatures, and would spot a Saluqi. Once I found a puppy there which matched exactly what an archaeologist
was looking for to take back with her to the USA. I bought her and took her home only to find the poor creature's pads
were torn, probably from being dragged over the hot tarmac by the little boy who owned her. However Ataliya, as she was called
by her new owner, flourished and eventually made her way to the USA.
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| Ataliya |
Then I discovered one day as I walked my hounds along the road in which I lived
in Baghdad that an Iraqi airlines pilot with several Saluqis also lived there. He had a particularly nice young grizzle bitch,
which he had bred himself, but his busy schedule left him no time to exercise his hounds properly.
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| Grizzle bitch in Baghdad |
I had so many unusual encounters with Saluqis in Iraq that I could include
many more examples but I mention one more as it had an echo many years later. One day we were invited to a lunch party in
a garden in Baghdad by an Iraqi married to a German. We took our Saluqis along to run in the garden, where they were introduced
to the hostess' young white Saluqi from Sulaimaniya in Kurdistan. Recently, some 20 years later, I was asked by a
German correspondent if I had any pictures of a white Saluqi that she had heard I had seen in Baghdad before it was imported
to Germany. Here is the picture I sent her.
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| White Saluqi from Sulaimaniya |
Iraq in other articles
1.Salukis in Iraq - The Saluki, Summer/ Autumn 1987
2.Iraqi Salukis
in their natural habitat - then and now - Saluki Heritage, Issue 15 Autumn 1988
3.Hunting with Hawk and Saluki in Iraq
- The Saluki,Summer/Autumn 1989
4. Puppy tales from Iraq - SPDBS Newsletter, Vol.8, No.1, 1998; and in Saluki Heritage,
Issue 19 Autumn 1990
5. Coursing in Iraq - the real thing - ASA Newsletter, Spring 1990
6. The Salukis of Kalar
- The Windhound, Summer 1992
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