(Afghan Hound Database and Breed Information Exchange)
BEG TUTE AFGHAN HOUNDS USA Page 2 by Steve Tillotson July 2012 updated 2014, 2017
Stephanie Hunt Crowley wrote the following a few years ago - "Sirdar (of Ghazni) was recorded as bred by Afghan Shikari Paghman - and Lawrence Peters found his female Saki of Paghman in the village of .... Paghman! Rani of Ghazni was recorded at bred by Afghan Shikari Beg-Toot - and Lawrence Peters male import was Tazi of Beg-Tute". As mentioned before, Paghman is on the outskirts of Kabul, where the Ghazni Afghan hounds were also based. This may imply a closer link between the Ghaznis and the Peters hounds. We don't know of course, but it is a new dimension to consider, especially when noting that establishing origins of the breed beyond this point is exceedingly difficult. The color "blue" is known to have been passed down by Khan Of Ghazni. This color was also passed down by Peters imports, yet another common link between Ghazni and Peter's imports. 3. Article by Donald A Smith (Past President AHCA) Mr. Smith was quite a breed history buff. In the late 1960's he wrote the following article entitled "Tazi and Saki" - One of the few really unique genetic features of American breeding as opposed to British and European has been the presence here of Tazi of Beg Tute and Saki Of Paghman. As a result, when a trait appears "only in America" or even much more commonly in Western U.S. (than in Eastern) it's logical to look first for Tazi and Saki as the possible source. One such trait is the "blue" factor in coat coloring, which for a long time was never seen outside the U.S. and relatively seldom found East of the Rockies. From the color given n the registrations, only two of the early imports could have been blues. One was the dog, Kush de Flandre, listed as "blue gray", but on his breeding more likely to have been a brindle and, in any case, not widely used here. The other was the bitch Saki Of Paghman listed as "gray" and definitely not a brindle. Tazi of Beg Tute and Saki of Paghman were registered in 1936, breeder and breeding unknown, birth dates estimated as November 1932 for Tazi and August 1932 for Saki. From other pictures it is clear that Tazi and Saki were of a type quite different from either the Bell-Murray or Ghazni hounds, but similar to one another. Quite probably they were of the same local strain in the Kabul area, if not more closely related. There were at least three litters by Tazi out of Saki, whelped in 1935, 1936 and 1937 (one puppy from the first litter being owned by the novelist Vicki Baum). The most important names are those of Simba Too, Nadir Khan and Blue Mist Of Egypt. Ch Jac-A-Leen's Shab was also the same breeding, perhaps from a still later litter. Tazi also sired at least one other litter, from the unrelated bitch Sari-i-mat (see also "Dr Beck's Dogs"). These two combinations appear over and over again in the pedigrees of Felt and early Crown Crest breedings. (Ed Note. Ch Jac-A-Leen's Shab was a littermate to Blue Mist Of Egypt, the third litter born on 08/13/1937. There was a fourth and final litter by Tazi x Saki which whelped on 07/18/1939 which included four blacks and two gray's. Perhaps the most important offspring in the final Tazi x Saki breeding was the gray bitch Far Away Tazi-Saki who went to Marjorie Walker of Far Away kennels.) The question of Tazi and Saki as the source or sole source of blue coloration is somewhat baffling. Saki, as I said, was a "smooth" blue or gray. Tazi's color is given as "light fawn, red saddle" - in other words, a red with a contrastingly light outercoat such as is often found in conjunction with blues. Of 14 Tazi-Saki puppies the registered colors were: five black, four gray, three fawn, one "fawn, red saddle" and one "fawn black mask". The blue dilution factor or factors are generally conceded to be recessive, Assuming that blacks stayed black, the color ratios in the Tazi-Saki puppies are about right if Saki were homozygous for the factor and Tazi heterozygous. But in other later breedings we have colors considered blue coming through in breedings which show Tazi and/or Saki on only one side of the pedigree - something that should not happen with a simple recessive if they were the sole source of it. (Ed Note - Mr. Smith uses a very pertinent phrase "if they were the sole source of it" (blue, gray). Well the answer is that they were not the sole source of it. Firstly the Ghazni lines are known to have carried blue, gray, and the blue, gray also comes from the Fatima's of Caroline Hall Richmond who's 1929 import from India/Afghanistan ("Fatima") produced "chinchilla" which is an early description for the color/pattern blue. So in answer to Mr. Smith's questions, Tazi and Saki on one side of the pedigree only could produce blue offspring if Fatima or her descendents were on the other side of the pedigree.) Apropos of colors. I have an undated fragment of a letter by Laurance Peters in which he writes "No one has ever bred Afghans to any one color so that we have gotten all colors. Creamy fawn-white, black, gray (they are the most attractive), fawns and fawn gray (gray feet and fact shading to fawn on the back). The blacks have the longest coats, the gray fawns next and the pure fawn average... Sari (presumably Sari-i-mat) had a better coat than our imported bitch and her pups have been longer coated on the average but individually we have gotten some remarkable coats from Saki and Tazi" In the same letter Peters speaks of a "magnificent grey male from Saki and Tazi" and notes that he "stands about 27 inches at 9 months, is gray on the back and light gray on the sides, black nose and gray muzzle". This letter was followed by another, offering the gray male and Sari-i-mat at a sacrifice price since "the pressure of other business has necessitated my giving up the raising of Afghan hound puppies as a commercial venture." Actually, located as they were at Port Blakely in the Pugot Sound area of Washington, the Peters were probably too remote from the Afghan activity centers of the era for much in the way of commercial success. Over the long term, however, their imports and breedings played an important part in the creating of some of the most successful Afghan hounds and kennels. Donald A Smith (1969) Previous Page Whats New Page |
