'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎686] (785/905)

686
MERCANTILE CARAVANS.
[CHAP. XXV.
A caravan in
Arabia
generally
conducted by
a sheikh.
ciations have always been called caravans, whose lines of route
extend into the interior of Africa on one side, and the distant
Four kinds of steppes of Central Asia and China on the other. These
caravans. caravans ar e of four kinds; in one kind, called a heavy
caravan, the merchandise and persons are conveyed on ele
phants, camels, dromedaries, and horses. Another and lighter
description has very few elephants; in the ordinary caravan
camels alone are employed; and the fourth kind, which is
chiefly confined to Tartary and the bordering countries, is one
in which the goods and persons are carried by horses. The
term ship-caravan is applied to a number of ships which sail
together on a trading voyage.
In the case of the third kind of caravan, which is the most
usual in Arabia, some well-known and influential sheikh
engages, from different tribes, a certain number of refecks or
associate^, who join him in furnishing the merchants with the
means of conveying their goods from one place to another,
under the protection of a necessary proportion of armed men
as guards, the whole being under the chief himself, who then
becomes the caravan bashi. This individual, with the assist
ance of some of his immediate followers and the refecks, regu
lates the hour of the movement, the direction of, and the
duration of the march, the disposition of the look-out parties in
front, and on the flanks ; likewise the place of encampment,
and the arrangements for each night. In short, an Arab
chief, in such circumstances, considers himself responsible for
the well-being of the whole ; and, if attacked, he defends his
charge to the utmost; he is generally able, however, by nego
tiation, through the refecks, to avoid coming to extremities
when threatened. The Aggiel Arabs are the most general
carriers through the desert, and they are on the whole prefer
able to the others, being to a certain extent on friendly terms
with the two great tribes the Anizeh and the Shammar; and if
the regulated contribution be previously paid at Aleppo or
Damascus, safety is secured in case of meeting with either of
those tribes, some one person being sent from each city with
the caravan as a guarantee. It is, however, more usual for a
caravan to take chance, in the hope that the extent of the
The Aggiel
Arabs pre
ferred as
protectors.