To avoid the heat of the midday sun, caravans typically set off at dawn to the call of horns and kettledrums, then rested in the shade of tents during the middle of the day, and moved on again in the late afternoon, continuing until well after dark. Cartwright, Mark. Camel Caravan, Moroccoby Fred Dunn (CC BY-NC-SA). In his Desert Road to Turkestan he describes mostly camel caravans run by Han Chinese and Hui firms from eastern China (Hohhot, Baotou) or Xinjiang (Qitai (then called Gucheng), Barkol), plying the routes connecting those two regions through the Gobi Desert by way of Inner (or, before Mongolia's independence, Outer) Mongolia.

Trans-Saharan Camel Caravanby Holger Reineccius (CC BY-SA). A sheep would be bought from the Mongols and slaughtered every now and then, and tea was the usual daily drink; as fresh vegetables were scarce, scurvy was a danger. Some of the Muslim pilgrim caravans continue, for example, because it is regarded as more meritorious to travel the hard traditional route. Either way, it would be possible for the caravan people and their best camels to make a full round trip within a year. Because such long trade routes often passed through inhospitable desert regions, journeys would be impossible to complete successfully and profitably without caravanserai to provide necessary supplies and assistance to merchants and travelers. Herodotus described caravans stopping every 10 days at a known oasis, the lifelines of the desert. Western Sahara, Catalan Atlasby Gallica Digital Library (Public Domain). Three or four strings might travel abreast, as was usual with nomad drivers, or the whole caravan might travel in one long line, as in some Chinese caravans. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History has the following summary regarding the advantages of camels as transport: The value of the camel is not only confined to its high adaptation to severe desert conditions and its regulation of heat and water via its sweat glands: its ability for long-distance travel of about 48 km per day and its high carrying capacity (240 kg) make it a “ship of the desert,” in comparison with the load capacity of horses, donkeys, and mules at roughly 60 kg. [15] Such a camel train is described in the accounts of the journey made by Peter Fleming and Ella Maillart in the Gobi Desert in the mid-1930s. [4], Camels were used from 1862 to 1863 in British Columbia, Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Abd al-Rahman, the governor of Maghrib (r. 747-755 CE), ordered a series of wells to be dug on a route from southern Morocco to the Sudan region. As many of my readers are aware, the camel is physically adapted for traversing the sandy plains of Asia, where they are found in the greatest numbers. However, the rise of the Songhai Empire (1460 - c. 1591 CE) ensured that there was still a huge market and supply of goods for Saharan traders to exploit in the savannah region. Here there were date palms, lemon trees, and fig trees, as well as wheat and vines cultivated using irrigation canals.

The caravans, albeit on a much smaller scale than in their heyday, are still going today. Besides salt, the caravans transported southwards glazed pottery (luxury vases, cups, oil lamps, and incense burners), precious and semi-precious stones (especially garnet and amazonite), cowrie shells and copper wire to be used as currencies, copper ingots, horses, manufactured goods, fine cloth, beads, coral, dates, raisins, and glassware (cups, goblets, and perfume bottles). If possible, it was arranged to stop at a caravansary, which usually consisted of a courtyard, surrounded on all sides by a number of small rooms on an elevation, with stables or storerooms underneath.

Goods were gathered up from across the entire West African region and channelled along the Niger and Senegal Rivers to trading ‘ports’ like Timbuktu. In the next century, with the rise of the Almohads in North Africa, Walata would replace Awdaghost at the southern end of the route. Further east, there were also camel caravans linking Darfur in northwest Sudan to Assiut on the Nile at least from the 1st century CE. Mosques and Islamic town planning began to be seen in Sudan towns. According to Owen Lattimore, who spent five months in 1926 crossing the northern edge of China (from Hohhot to Gucheng, via Inner Mongolia) with a camel caravan, demand for caravan trade was only increased by the arrival of foreign steamships into Chinese ports and the construction of the first railways in eastern China, as they improved access to the world market for such products of western China as wool. It was necessary for camels to spend at least two months between long journeys to recuperate, and the best time for that recuperation was in June–July, when camels shed their hair and the grazing is best. These goods could be consumed to enhance the prestige of the ruling class or traded on or taxed which made ruling elites even richer than before and, through the payment of armies, left them in an even more dominant position over subjugated tribes and smaller states. The major and most immediate consequence of the trans-Saharan trade was that it gave states tremendous power in their respective regions as they came to possess goods which were highly valued by their own populations and those of competitor states. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. From 1471 CE, these ships were accessing the aptly-named Gold Coast in the south of West Africa. Ancient History Encyclopedia. [2], Camel-pullers' salary was quite low (around 2 silver taels a month in 1926, which would not be enough even for shoes and clothing he wore out while walking with his camels), although they were also fed and provided with tent space at the caravan owner's expense. The stomach is supplied with bladders which enable the animal to carry a store of fresh water, and in like manner the humps are furnished with a store of food in the shape of fatty matter which may be absorbed in case of need. We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. [2], Caravans originating from both ends of the Hohhot-Gucheng route were composed of two-humped Bactrian camels, suitable for the climate on the area, although very occasionally one could see single-humped Dromedaries brought to this route by Uighur ("Turki", in Lattimore's parlance) caravan people from Hami[7] A caravan would be normally composed of a number of files (Chinese: 连, lian), of up to 18 camels each. Besides the camel-pullers the caravan would also include a xiansheng (先生, literally, "Sir", "Mister") (typically, an older man with a long experience as a camel-puller, now playing the role of a general manager), one or two cooks, and the caravan master, whose authority over the caravan and its people was as absolute as that of a captain on a ship. put no more on this beast! These great caravans usually travelled in the best season for travel, winter. As the Sudan region saw new and richer empires rise like the Mali Empire  (1240-1645 CE) and Songhai Empire, so a wealthy elite sought evermore exotic and expensive goods from North Africa and the wider Mediterranean. So, too, better kilns capable of higher firing temperatures have been revealed by archaeology in the north but were not adopted in the Sudan. On the march, the camel-puller's job was to lead the first camel of his file by a rope tied to a peg attached to its nose, each of the other camels of the file being led by means of similar rope by the camel in front of it. The adoption of precise scales using accurate glass weights was adopted in some Sudan cultures, almost certainly in response to the need to accurately measure gold dust. Cartwright, Mark. [12], According to Lattimore's diary, caravan travel in Inner Mongolia did not always follow a regular schedule. The caravan could carry a number of paying passengers as well, who would alternate between riding on top of a camel load and walking. [5], While organization of camel caravans varied over time and the territory traversed, Owen Lattimore's account of caravan life in northern China in the 1920s gives a good idea of what camel transport is like. Passengers were carried in panniers slung one on each side of the camel. Although they rarely travelled faster than the walking speed of a person, camels' ability to withstand harsh conditions made them ideal for communication and trade in the desert areas of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for centuries.


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