Saddle of camel: North Arabian model

By about 1000 B.C.E. the camel caravan was a common sight throughout the deserts of southwest Asia, regularly ferrying passengers and goods through the oven at the world's crossroads. But saddle designs adequate for carrying loads couldn't support a rider at full tilt. Until camels could be ridden well enough to be used in battle, the caravans were at the mercy of brigands on horseback operating from isolated oases deep in the desert. Between bribes to pass safely and the cost of an armed escort, camel herders were unable to reap the full benefits of the lucrative trade they carried and remained socially unimportant.

A new saddle design completely changed the course of Middle Eastern history. The North Arabian saddle, invented around 300-500 C.E., straddled the hump with a sturdy frame. Cargo could be loaded on and behind the hump and a rider could perch before it, his stability assured and within easy reach of the reins. Furthermore, seated atop the two-meter high withers of the camel, a rider could effectively wield a lance.

Camel herders quickly seized control of the caravan trade from the bandits and city merchants, and soon desert kingdoms emerged across much of Arabia. The most important of these was Mecca, which before 500 C.E. was little more than an oasis. Growing rich off the incense trade, by the time of Mohammed's birth in 570 C.E. it was a regional capital. With economic, military, and religious power in their hands, the camel herders of the Hedjaz were clearly in the ascendant.

Desert wording

I have had a long standing debate with a considerably more erudite friend over the origins of the term desert. He argues from his extensive knowledge of linguistics and Latin that the term is derived from the verb to desert, which is predictably descended from the term de-serere, to unjoin. This is, of course, a logical and most likely correct explanation.

I, however, tenaciously hold onto an interesting anecdote related during a 9AM Egyptian Archaeology course. In ancient Egyptian (which, like its modern day cousins Hebrew and Arabic, and descendant Coptic, uses combinations of consonants to express core ideas), the term d-s-r-t described the uninhabitable 'red land' that stood in contrast to the k-m-t 'black land' of the Nile Valley.

I can find no credible explanation of how the Egyptian may have made its way into English, but it is a fun coincidence.

Saddle of camel: on hump designs

Riding was never a priority for the first camel owners. When necessary, people and belongings were haphazardly and inefficiently perched around the animal's swaying hump. But early saddling techniques prevented the camel from competing as beast of burden. Besides, there was no need for it in littoral camel-herding communities.

But money makes the world go round, and the high profits to be had from trade with the emerging civilizations of the Mediterranean drove the development of a new saddle. The prevailing winds of the Red Sea make northward journeys inefficient (even the Pharoahs tried to get around this problem), and most pack animals can't handle the distances and temperatures of the Arabian desert.

By arranging blankets and ropes around the hump of the camel, it was possible to stabilize the load enough for profitable quantities of goods to be carried the 2000 miles from Aden to the Levant. It is in just these caravans that camels first appeared in Western literature, with the arrival of the Queen of Sheba bearing gifts for Solomon (I Kings 10:2) and as Rebekah's mount (Genesis 24:61). Soon, camel caravans had taken over trade routes throughout southwest Asia, ferrying goods from the Gulf, Turkey, Persia, and beyond.

History of camel: domestication

Every person who has argued over the relative merits of dogs versus cats as house pets has engaged the fundamental question of domestication: how do you get an animal to acknowledge your superiority? For some species, like sheep and goats, a herd mentality makes domestication the simple process of acclimatization. For others, like dogs, a hierarchical social structure means that establishing control is more of a play for dominance. And for some, like cats, the process is never fully complete, instead constituting a regular exchange of services.

Camels, despite their tendency to herd, are quite socially shrewd, so domestication involves the establishment of dominance and control. The first domesticators were probably fishermen on the coast of Yemen and Oman, who turned to the camel for milk around 2000BCE. They had no need to ride the animals, their semi-sedentary communities simply serving as a base for fishing expeditions, nor did they require the meat. Corralling a few females would have been easy-- getting one to let you touch its udder would have been the tough part.

As described earlier, the practice of keeping camels for milk is today only prevalent in Somalia and East Africa. The Arabian fishermen slowly turned their seafaring chops to trade, spreading the camel across the Red Sea. There, in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth, the camel could provide milk from land that was previously useless. The custom stuck, and even today Somalia is the home to the most camels of any country.

History of camel: evolution and speciation

The mammals emerged during the Triassic, around 225 million years ago. For 160 million years they were the dung beetles of the reptile world, relying on their small size to stay out of the way of T. Rex. But things changed when earth's collision with a massive asteroid 65 million years ago made life tough for large cold-blooded animals. Diversity of form and function that had been lurking under the saurischian-dominated surface was let loose, and within fifteen million years after the advent of the Age of Mammals the world was populated by a whole new array of exotic and quixotic animals.

On the plains of North America, the rabbit-sized ancestors (the Poëbrotheriinae) of the camel family gradually increased in size in the Eocene, grazing on grasses and forming into herds for protection. By the Middle Oligocene (around 30 million years ago) the family had diversified and spread across the New World and Asia, most of its members of a size and shape similar to modern camels.

The Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene (20m-12tya), the great age of apes, was a time of consolidation and expansion for the camel. Most genii died out in the face of new environmental conditions, but two-- Lama and Camellus-- specialized and thrived. The former moved into the isolated mountains of South America, where it today survives as the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna. Camellus, on the other hand, was a little more adventurous. Crossing the Bering sea land bridge in the early Pleistocene, it emerged onto the arid steppes of Asia and thrived. As Camellus conquered the Old World, it surely must have encountered the other ascendant genus spreading across the world's plains: Homo.

Source: Wilson RT. 1984. The Camel. Essex: Longman Group.

Womens

I have now been living at Vinayak guest house for more than six weeks-- and I have yet to learn the name of Jitu's wife.

This is conservative Bikaner's modern interpretation of the timeless Rajasthani (and Mughal) custom of purdah. The Maharajas of the Rajput states would acquire vast harems, and after marriage the young wives moved into a separate wing of the palace where, guarded by eunuchs and served by girls, they spent the rest of their lives until ritually burning themselves on the funeral pyre of their husband (sati). Less prominent members of the community would merely keep their women housebound, and completely covered in the case of male visitors.

Today, the gender egalitarianism of urbanized nomads catalyses trends towards westernization and liberalization, and the lives of women are rapidly improving. Tight jeans and western tees are a rare but unsurprising sight, and among youth female literacy approaches male. But the most resilient customs have nothing to do with outward signs and everything to do with male attitudes.

These are most evident with respect towards western women. There is absolutely no reason for Indian men to think western women are anything but complete whores: movies and TV depict easy flirtation and open sex (see a related observation by my friend Sloan, in Rwanda); most tourists make little effort to conform to public morality (for example, anything but the most fleeting embrace is considered part of sex, and wearing short sleeves is like wearing a short skirt); and I have yet to find an internet cafe whose computers weren't clogged with the nastiest kinds of porn. Next to Indian women, who like the men must stay chaste (and repressed) until marriage at 20-30, 'phoren' ladies are slatterns who will give it up if you just grab 'em in the right way.

So, despite changes, men still like their wives and sisters well-esconsed, even while 'Eve-teasing' any westerner they can and shamelessly exploiting unionized prostitutes.

Khyber: Aryans

The first invaders to pass through the Khyber pass into the Indian subcontinent were Aryans, a Central Asian tribe speaking an Indo-European language related to Latin and Greek. According to one interpretation, their mastery of ironworking, horses, and the chariot allowed them to quickly conquer the advanced Harappan culture of the Indus valley around 1500-1000 B.C.E. The Harappans, who since 3300 B.C.E. had developed a large civilization complete with standardized measures, an indigenous writing system, and indoor plumbing, were forced into the Indian peninsula where they are linguistically and genetically represented by the Dravidian peoples who make up today's southern states.

The Aryans didn't bring just destruction and collapse, however. Their rich literary tradition, well known from the famous Vedas (ie, the Rg Veda and the Upanishads), gave rise to a three-millennia-old poetic tradition that includes the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Their sophisticated philosophy forms the core of what we call Hinduism, along with many of their gods and myths. Most importantly, their strict approach to social hierarchy solidified into the caste system.

As European scholars gained familiarity with Indian culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, they began to see similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek and correctly inferred the existence of a common mother-tongue, Indo-European (which also gave rise to Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Celtic, and many other language families). Later researchers began to find shared aspects of mythology, ritual, and culture (for example: the god of thunder, Indra/Thor; creation myths invoking giants; and a fascination with cows- 1, 2, 3). It was the perception that these 'Aryans' gave rise to the great civilizations of the west that led to the term's adoption by racial supremacists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Thar: Traditional dry farming

Rajasthan is neatly divided in two by the Aravalli hills, to whose east the Thar extends to the Indus in Pakistan. This 'Great Indian' desert has long been the most densely populated arid area of the world, a distinction that represents a fundamentally sustainable approach towards land use and, in recent years, an ecological disaster as the population has exploded over the region's carrying capacity.

Until the advent of large-scale irrigation, the internal combustion engine, and modern health care the residents of the Thar desert had worked out a very stable economic system whose roles and rules were prescribed by a very strict social code. Nomadic castes (such as the oft-mentioned raikas) herded camels, cattle, goats, or sheep across carefully maintained rangelands whose use was carefully regulated by religious authorities. Small farmers relied on rainfall (averaging about 5-10 inches a year) for their small harvest of millet, pulses, and sorghum; the large variation in yield meant that land consolidation was by and large impossible and small villages remained economically independent. In the cities, the ruling and merchant castes found wealth in the taxation of trade, regulating both overland caravans and the access of the small farmers to larger markets.

As this system anticipated aridity, it was much more resistant to temporary environmental change than, say, a riparian culture completely unprepared for the failure of a flood. The entire success of the system, however, depended on the marginal prosperity of farmers, who in turn relied upon scant and erratic rain. The devastation wrought by drought in Bikaner is legendary in city lore.

Here, a typical dry millet farm:

War and peace in Bikaner

War has come often to Bikaner, long famous for its ruthless cavalry whose skills were sharpened by the constant infighting of the Rajput kingdoms. The district holds the distinction of being the only city in India never to have been conquered, a fact that seems odd when its simple Junagarh fort is compared to the imposing castles of nearby Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Jaipur.

While many would like to attribute this independence to the ferocity of its warriors (who were the elite of Mughal army) or the blessings of Karni Mata, several more practical factors come to mind. Foremost among these is the city's aridity and isolation, hindering all but the most determined invaders. Even more telling is that Bikaner never faced the Mughals or British in battle. Shrewd political leadership led to defensive pacts with these powers as their influence was waxing, and skilled courtiers kept the state in favor. Indeed, I have even heard Bikaneris refer to their district's opportunistic past with a touch of shame.

Today, Bikaner is home to large detachments of the Indian military. War with Pakistan would entail nuclear exchange, rendering impassable the main road connection between the countries (Delhi-Amritsar-Lahore-Islamabad). The empty Thar provides an easy highway into the heart of Pakistan, and so it is here that Indian offensive might is concentrated.

Khyber: Introduction

The Indian subcontinent is completely isolated by land save a small gap in the Hindu Kush mountains of the northwest, the famous Khyber Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. South Asia's history can be seen in terms of who pased through these gates at what time, invaders sweeping and receding across the region like waves, leaving behind traces of their stock, culture, and religion.

There have only been three migrations in Indian history that did not pass through the Khyber Pass. One (sensu latu) was the periodic arrival of the latest model of hominids, from Homo erectus to modern Homo sapiens' coastal spread eastward 70,000 years ago. The most famous was the influx of the colonial powers, from early Arab trade links to Vasco de Gama to the eventual dominance of the British East India Company. Recently, the South Asian diaspora has led to the emergence of East Indian communities around the world, from centuries-old families of East Africa to half-Indian Guyana to the famous New Jersey suburbs, particularly Edison.

History of camel: use for draught

In his fascinating book The Camel and the Wheel (1975), Richard Bulliet of Columbia-Ahmadinejad fame musters an impressive body of camel-knowledge to argue that the efficiency of the camel as a pack animal is largely what drove the disappearance of the wheel from Middle Eastern cultures since Roman times. By coordinating economic, political, social, and, interestingly, camel saddling aspects of Middle Eastern societies, he convincingly shows that the invention of the North Arabian saddle allowed nomadic camel-herders to begin to dominate overland trade routes. This dominance in turn triggered the abandonment of the less-efficient cart. The expansion of Islam reintroduced or solidified the role of the camel across North Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia, and these societies, by and large, discarded the wheel in favor of the more efficient pack camel.

In India, however, cultural familiarity with the wheel was stronger, and even in the most arid, camel-friendly reaches of the Thar desert the cart survived, in all of its oxen-, donkey-, and camel-powered varieties. The camel cart is commonplace on the streets of Bikaner, still used alongside tractors and trucks. The most important selection criteria in the NRCC's complicated method for evaluating the suitability and value of male camels are those related to draught ability. Pack camels, once the lifeline of this desert city, are now only used to transport that most agreeable and easily-loaded commodity: tourists.

Here, a typical camel cart after transporting feed to the main corral. Note the saddle, an Indian pakkra. I took the photo during a sandstorm:

Saddle of camel: early stages

In this day and age many people have had the opportunity to sit atop a camel for a few minutes or days, as tourist operators the world over have realized the appeal these strange animals hold to the Westerner intent on experiencing the Orient. What we don't realize as our thighs chafe, backs ache, and butts get sore is that the piece of wood and cloth separating us from the ugly brute tells us everything we need to know about the history of the camel in that area.

Most of the time, you'll be perched behind the camel's hump, sitting atop the sacrum or pelvic juncture. This method is the easiest to learn and the most comfortable for those without the right callouses, and as such is preferred for first-time riders like tourists or the earliest domesticators.

These were fishermen of coastal Oman who turned to the camel for its milk. When the animal was ridden, it was with a simple mat tied behind the hump. Later, this padding was refined into a full-fledged saddle. Both of these designs are dominant in Somalia and East Africa, where camels were introduced at an early date and are still kept primarily for milk. In Arabia, however, there was to come a more efficient design that would change the role of the camel forever.

Source: Bulliet, R. 1975. The Camel and the Wheel. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.