It often has a broader skull, shorter muzzle, shorter and more compact body, broader chest, less angulations, and shorter tail than the western equivalent. The desert Saluki does not have influence of western lines and it tends to have a more primitive appearance. In Israel the type is known as the 'Negev Saluki'. It exists in the entire Middle Eastern region. There is a type called 'desert Saluki', which descends from bloodlines brought directly from the original region of the breed. Salukis bred in the Middle East most commonly have short hair. The fur on both types is silky and is low-shedding when compared to other breeds. The latter variety has light fluffing on the back of the legs, thighs, ears, and sometimes the throat. Two coat types – smooth and 'feathered' – are evident in the breed's gene pool. The overall appearance of the Saluki is grace and symmetry. The coat comes in a variety of colors including white, cream, fawn, red, grizzle/tan, black/tan, and tri-color (white, black and tan). It has the typical deep-chested, long-legged body of sighthounds. The tail of the breed is long and curved. The head is long and narrow with large eyes and drop ears. Female Salukis are slightly smaller than males. The normal size range for the modern breed is 58–71 centimetres (23–28 in) high at the withers and 16–32 kilograms (35–70 lb) in weight. Salukis are sighthounds – hunting by sight more than scent or sound – and run their quarry down to kill or retrieve it. Regardless, the adjective saluqi may have been derived by the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula from the similar-sounding word for Seleucid used in the Aramaic and Syriac languages spoken there by the various peoples of that part of Mesopotamia, but there is no irrefutable evidence. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia, the first capital of the Seleucid Empire (312 BC – 65 AD). Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian Empire, which was located some 30 km (20 mi) to the southeast. One has become modern Silifke, Turkey another is near Antioch (modern Antakya), Turkey and third is located near Baghdad, Iraq.

However, the word saluqi might have been derived from reference to several other places: Saluq in Armenia, and three towns called Saluqiyah. 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. : 56 British diplomat Terence Clark wrote that the Arabic word saluqi indicates 'person or thing from a place named Saluq'. The name used for the modern breed could be derived from Saluqiyyah (Arabic for ' Seleucia', a city now in Iraq), appearing in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. It is suggestive of digging for burrowing prey animals, but there is also a story ( see below) of dogs being thrown toward quarry animals by a camel-mounted hunter. 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 earth' might have meant in reference to dogs. One suggested origin of the breed's name is ancient Sumerian salu-ki translating to 'plunge-earth'. The Saluki has also been called the gazelle hound, Arabian hound, and the Persian greyhound. The origins of the name of the breed are not clear. A related standardised breed is the north African Sloughi. 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. The modern breed is typically deep-chested and long-legged, and similar dogs appear in medieval and ancient art. The dog was originally bred in the Fertile Crescent. 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. White, cream, fawn, red, grizzle/tan, black/tan, and tri-color (white, black and tan)

Dog breeds with webbed feet