History
Origins
Sculptures of dogs bearing some resemblance to the Kangals of modern-day Turkey, are seen accompanying the hunting parties of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal.
A large, powerful breed described as "Indian Hound" is mentioned in the writings of Herodotus as being kept by the Babylonians.
The Kangal in Turkey
A contemporary national treasure in Turkey, the Kangal dog is one of over 30 livestock guardian breeds from various countries in Europe and Asia. Each is
considered an important part of the culture and history of its region. To protect and conserve the genetic purity of the Kangal Dog, the government of Turkey
has established several state-sponsored breeding centers.
Although Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced many measures to replace Turkey's Islamic law with a secular system, many of the religious traditions still remain,
one being the belief that the dog is an unclean animal that should not be allowed to enter a household. Dogs are however tolerated around human
habitations and Kangal dogs are a common sight wi
About 5000-2500 years ago there were three different types of Mastiff breeds found in and around the area of Persia to India. Theses breeds were: Assyrian mastiff, Indian mastiff and the Alaunt.
One of the best known dogs at that times was the "Assyrian dog" which were used as hunting and guardian dogs. When the Assyrian empire crumbled the Medes and the Persians (the first rulers of ancient Iran) and all the hunts-men kings of the orient, gave huge payments for these magnificent dogs, whose role seems to have been as important as that of the greyhound in the history of the canine race. At "Shush Fortress" in south western Iran there is a form of these dogs (with black colour) that gallops for hunting with some riders.
The Persian Army used Indian dogs (mastiffs) but just for guarding and not for suicide jobs. Herodotus (Greek author born ca. 484 B.C.) writes in his book that heavy powerful dogs "Indian mastiffs" were introduced into Greece by Xerxes the First when he marched toward this country (486-465 B.C.). Alexander the Great on his return from India, brought back a very similar type of dog. Even in this time one of the largest "Satraps" of Persia in Babylon paid all of its taxes for the expenses of breeding and to take care of these dogs (Herodotus, 1.192) that guarded the soldiers camps and captured enemies prisoners.
These Indian Mastiffs originated in and around the desert area of Kutch, the Rajasthan area and Bhawalpur area of Punjab. A part of the Kutch area in Rajasthan was under the Sindh District and hence the other name of this breed is Sindh Mastiff. At present a part of the Sindh area now fall under Pakistan and so does the Bhawalpur area.
This breed is not to be confused with the Hyrcanian Breed which was also prevalent in the Indian zone. The Hyrcanians were basically wild dogs which were cattle killers. Later they were used as war dogs by the armies of Alexander the Great. These hyrcanians came down to more deeper inside India, inside the Kumaon district to become the Kumaon Mastiff, also known as the Cypro Kukur.
楼主: 如云烟
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发表于 2010-8-18 23:39:49
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