The Camel and its military role in the Arabian Peninsula Between Herodotus and archaeological evidences

Author

Lecturer, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University (EGYPT)

Abstract

The Economic role which the camel played in the daily life of the Arabs life before Islam is well known and has been subjected to many scientific studies. Another military role, of great importance no less than that of the economic role, has been played. Camel was one of the equipment of war and fighting; transporting supplies, or mounted on their backs by warriors.
This article discusses the military role of the camel in the light of Herodotus' writings and the archaeological evidences from the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia, to highlight the role of the Arabian camel on the battlefields and to show the true or false information reported by the Greek historian

Keywords

Main Subjects


References:
Arabic references:
The Holy Quran.
Old Testament.
-  Ibn Ṣirāī, Ḥamad Muḥammad, al-Ibil fī bilād al-šarq al-adnā al-qadīm wa šibh al-ǧazīra al-ʿarabīya, Riyad: al-Ǧamʿīya al-tārīẖīya al-Suʿūdīya, 1999.
-  Ibn Manẓūr, Ǧamāl al-Dīn, Lisān al-ʿarab, Reviewed by: ʿAbdullah ʿAī al-Kabīr& Others, Cairo: Dār al-maʿārif, d.t.
-  Bāʿalaīyān, Muḥammad ʿAwaḍ Manṣūr, «Ḥayawānāt al-naql waʾl-ḥarb fī al-Yaman al-qadīm dirāsa fī ḍūʾ al-nuqūš waʾl-aṯār», Ph.D Thesis, Faculty of Arts/ Aden University, 2012.
-  Ǧād, al-Sayīd, «Bilād al-ʿarab bayīn hīrūdūtus wūa aryānūs», Maǧallat buū kullīyat al-adāb 50, al-Manoufia University, 2002.
-  …………, «Maʿāhid Qambīẓ wa malik al-ʿarab ʿā 252B.C», imn kitāb: al-Ǧazīra al-ʿArabīya waʾl-Yūnān wa Bīzana: al-Tawāul al- aārī ʿabr al-ʿuūr al-qadīma waʾl-wasīa, vol.1, Riyad: King Saud University, 2012.
-  al-Ǧabrīn, Fayṣal, «al-Rusūm al-ṣaẖrīya fī ǧabal al-kawkab bimanṭiqat Naǧrān, Dirāsa taḥlīlīya muqārana», Master Thesis, Facultyv of Tourism and Archeology/ King Saud University, 2012.
-  H̱afāǧa, Muḥammad Ṣaqr, Hirudūt yataaddaʿan Mir, Cairo: Dār al-qalam, 1966.
-  al-Dusarī, Sāra bint Fāliḥ, «al-Funūn al-ṣaẖrīya biǧabal ʾum sanmān bimanṭiqat Ḥāʾil», Master Thesis, Facultyv of Tourism and Archeology/ King Saud University, 1430.
-  Salāma, ʿAwāṭif bint Adīb, Ahl Madyan: Dirāsa liʾl-aāʾi waʾl-ʿilāqāt 1350- 110B.C, Riyad, 2001.
-  ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ, Maḥmūd, «al-Ibil fī al-kitābāt waʾl-funūn al-ṣaẖrīya bimanṭiqat Ḥāʾil», Maǧallat al-ǧamʿīya al-Suʿūdīya lidirāsāt al-ibil 1, 2019.
-  al-ʿAbd al-Ǧabbār, ʿAbdullah bin ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Ǧazīra al-ʿarabīya fī al-maādir al-kilāsīkīya(1) Hīrūdūtūs waʾl-Ǧazīra al-ʿArabīya, Translated by: Ibrāhīm al-Sāīḥ, Commented on :Raḥma al-Sinānī, Riyad: King Abdulaziz Foundation, 2017.
-  ............... , al-Ǧazīra al-ʿarabīya fī al-maādir al-kilāsīkīya (5) Diyūdūrūs al-iqillī waʾl-Ǧazīra al-ʿArabīya, Translated by: Aḥmad Ġānim, Commented on: Raḥma al-Sinānī, Riyad: King Abdulaziz Foundation, 2017
-  ............... al-Ǧazīra al-ʿarabīya fī al-maādir al-kilāsīkīya (7) Pīlīnūs waʾl-Ǧazīra al-ʿArabīya, Translated by: Aḥmad Ġānim, Commented on: ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Ǧaīd,, Riyad: King Abdulaziz Foundation, 2017
-  ʿAbd al-Naʿīm, Muḥammad, Aār mā qabl al-tārī wa faǧruh fī al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabīya al-Suʿūdīya, Translated by: ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Muḥammad H̱ubīr, Riyadh, 1995.
-  ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Luṭfī, al-ʿArab fī al-ʿuūr al-qadīma, Alexandria: Dār al-maʿrifa al-ǧāmiʿīya, 1979.
-  al-ʿAbbūdī, Aḥmad, ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ, Maḥmūd, ʿAmmār, Ḥusnī & al-ʿAmir, Fuʾād, "al-Ibil fī al-funūn al-ṣaẖrīya biǧibāl ṯalīṯwāt šamāl šarq muḥāfaẓat al-ʿUlā", The Gulf Journal For History and Archeology 15, Riyadh, 2020.
-  al-ʿItībī, Fahd Miṭliq, Hīrūdūt wa bidāyat takwīn al-waʿī al-tārīī al-ġarbī biʾl-Ǧazīra al-ʿArabīya, Riyadh, 2013.
-  al-ʿArīqī, Munīr ʿAbd al-Ǧalīl, «Makānat al-ǧumal fī al-ḥaḍāra al-yamanīya al-qadīma», Maǧallat al-qalam, Yemen: Al-Qalam University for Humanities and Applied Sciences - Ibb, 2015.
-  ʿAlī, Ǧawād, al-Mufaṣṣal fī tārīal-ʿarab qabl al-islām, vol.1, 2nded., Baghdad University, 1993.
-  ʿAmmār, Ḥusnī, "Aḍwāʾ ǧadīda ʿan al-ǧumal fī al-fan al-miṣrī al-qadīm", journal of General Union of Arab Archeologist & Federation of Arab University 13, 2012.
-  Kāmil, Wahīb, Hīrūdūt fī Mir: al-Qarn al-āmis qabl al-mīlād, Cairo: Dār al-maʿārif, 1946.
-  al-Māwardī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī bin Muḥammad bin Ḥabīb, Min rawāʾiʿ al-tafāsīr, al-Nukat waʾl-ʿuyūn, Tafsīr al-māwardī, Reviewed by: ʿAbd al-Raḥīm& al-Sayīd ʿAbd al-Maqṣūd, vol.6, 3th ed., Beirut: Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmīya, 2012.
-  al-Mallāḥ, ʿAbd al-Ilāh, Tārī Hīrūdūt, Reviewed by: D.Aḥmad al-Saqqāf& D.Ḥamad bin Ṣirāī, Abu Dhabi: al-Muǧammaʿ al-ṯaqāfī, 2001.
-  al-Hāšimī, Riḍā Ǧawād, «Tārīẖ al-ibil fī ḍūʾ al-muẖllafāt al-aṯārīya waʾl-kitābāt al-qadīma», Maǧallat kullīyat al-adāb 23, Baghdad University, 1978.
-  Muʿṭī, ʿAlī Muḥammad, Tārī al-ʿarab al-iqtiādī qabl al-islām, Beirut: Dār al-manhal al-libnānī- Maktabat raʾs al-nabʿ, 2003.
foreign references:
-  Abdul Nayeem, M., The rock art of Arabia (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, The Emirates & Yemen), Hyderabad, 2000.
Beeston, A., al-Ghūl, M., Müller, W. and Ryckmans, J., Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic), Dictionnaire Sabéen (anglais-français-arabe), Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions Peeters / Beirut: Libraire du Liban, 1982.
-  Barnett, R., Sculptures from the north palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668-627 B.C.), London, 1976.
-  Byrne, R., «Early Assyrian Contacts with Arabs and the Impact on Levantine Vassal Tribute», BASOR 331, 2003.
-  Gilbert, A.: «The Native Fauna of the Ancient Near East», In A history of the animal world in the ancient Near East, edited by: Collins, B.J., Brill; Leiden; Boston; Koln, 2002.
-  Godley, A. D., Herodotus in four volumes, Vol. 2, books III- IV, London, 1950.
-  Godley, A. D., Herodotus in four volumes, Vol. 1, Books I- II, London, 1975.
-  Godley, A. D., Herodotus in four volumes, Vol. 3, books V- VII, London, 1982.
-  Grigson, C. & Others.: «The Camel in Arabia: A Direct Radiocarbon Date, Calibrated to about 7000 BC», Journal of Archaeological Science 16, 1989.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus; The Histories; An account of great and marvelous deeds through the 1920 translation of: Godley A. D., Pax librorum, 2010.
-  Horsfield, A.: «Journey to Kilwa, Transjordan», The Geographical Journal 102, No. 2, Aug. 1943.
-  Hoyland, R., Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze age to the coming of Islam, London, 2001.
-  Jamme, A., Sabaean Inscriptions from Maram Bilqîs (Mârib), (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1962.
-  Khan, M., Jubbah the land of golden sands and the lost civilization of Arabia, Riyadh, 2011.
-  Köhler-Rollefson, I.: «Camels and Camel Pastoralism in Arabia», The Biblical Archaeologist 56, No. 4, Nomadic Pastoralism: Past and Present, Dec., 1993.
-  Luckenbill, D., Ancient records of Assyria and Babylonia, Vol. 1, New York, 1926.
-  Mitchell, T.: «Camels in the Assyrian Bas-Reliefs», Iraq 62, 2000.
-  Retso, J., The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads, Routledge Curzon, New York, 2003.
-  Ripinsky, M.: «The Camel in Dynastic Egypt», The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 71, 1985, 134-141.
-  Spassov, N. & Stoytchev, T.: «The dromedary domestication problem: 3000 BC rock art evidence for the existence of wild One-humped camel in Central Arabia», Historia naturalis bulgarica 16, 2004, 151-158.
-  Vogt. B.: «Death, Resurrection and the Camel», In: Arabia Felix, Festschrift, edited by: Muller, W., Geburtstag, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1994.
websites:
https://cutt.us/gHnHw, in 14-4- 2022.