The Saluki, also known as the Persian Greyhound, is a standardised breed developed from sighthounds – dogs that hunt primarily by sight rather than scent – that was once used by nomadic tribes to run down game animals. The dog was originally bred in the Fertile Crescent. The modern breed is typically deep-chested and long-legged, and similar dogs appear in medieval and ancient art. The breed is most closely related to the Afghan hound, a basal breed that predates the emergence of modern breeds in the 19th century, and the Saluki has been purebred both in the Middle East, including by royalty, since at least that era, and in the West (especially in Britain and Germany) since the 1840s (with breed standards established in the West and the Middle East around the 1920s–1930s), though as a free-breeding landrace, similar dogs are common as feral animals in the Middle East. A related standardised breed is the north African Sloughi. Name The origins of the name of the breed are not clear. The Saluki has also been called the gazelle hound, Arabian hound, and the Persian greyhound. One suggested origin of the breed's name is ancient Sumerian translating to 'plunge-earth'. However, there is no evidence a breed existed then or was referred to by the Sumerians with this name, nor is it certain what "plunge [to/into] earth" might have meant in reference to dogs. It is suggestive of digging for burrowing prey animals, but there is also a story of dogs being thrown toward quarry animals by a camel-mounted hunter. The name used for the modern breed could be derived from (Arabic for "Seleucia", a city now in Iraq), appearing in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. However, this is disputed. British diplomat Terence Clark wrote that the Arabic word indicates 'person or thing from a place named Saluq'. Arab tradition states that Saluq was an ancient town in Yemen not far from modern Ta'izz, and the Arabs associate this town with the origin of the breed. However, the word might have been derived from reference to several other places: Saluq in Armenia, and three towns called Saluqiyah. One has become modern Silifke, Turkey; another is near Antioch (modern Antakya), Turkey; and third is located near Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian Empire, which was located some to the southeast. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia, the first capital of