The Arab peoples have kept greyhound-type dogs for several thousand years. The Saluki, which almost certainly shares with the greyhound a common ancestor, is still used as a hunting dog by some Arabs today. Arabian Bedouin for centuries have been devout Muslims, and so follow ritual restrictions against contact with dogs. But they don't consider their Salukis to be dogs and so don't believe that contact with them is unclean. The Quran permits the eating of game killed by hawks or Salukis (but not by other dogs). The Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan make the same distinction between Saluki and dog, so this probably goes back long before the birth of Islam in the seventh century. Bedouin so admired the physical attributes and speed of the Saluki that it was the only dog permitted to share their tents and ride atop their camels. In early Arabic culture, the birth of a Saluki ranked in importance just behind the birth of a son. The Bedouin use Salukis to hunt gazelle, hare, bustard (a type of bird), jackal, fox, and wild ass. They consider Salukis the Gift of Allah to his children.