
one? 
It has been stated provigil that the Arabs entered the country 
with the conquest of Islam in 640 A.D. Long before this date there 
7 i re o 
a 
Bat for the purposes of the present argument this date is selected as. 
the right one on the following grounds. ‘The Arabs of the conquest 
were the nomad camel-owning Arabs. It was their establishment in 
the Nile Valley that ee aa the camel to make with safety another 
stage in its advance to the w 
The camel is a peculiar pone It is very valuable and it cannot 
pro must range in safety over a vast area. It is at once 
the safety and the Achilles tendon of the tribe who own it. While 
peace reigns it both feeds and transports its owner to fresh pastures. 
But in war a handful of men may remove the entire herd. Thus, so 
long as in the Nile Valley the Arabs were accounted * the accursed 
Shasu " so long was the camel restrained within the limits of Palestine 
and Ara esi True, Pe camel was os. in the time of Ptolemy Phila- 
deiphu bring merchandise across the Kina-Kosair road. But a . 
small hee. of ds could Posi Ws the Indian trade of those times. 
The journey takes four days. Ten camels making one complete journey 
each fortni 
optos Berenice r ite perhaps half this amount. This seems an 
excessive estimate for the weight of the Indian trade considering the 
small bulk of such articles as could pay for the long transport from 
n Compare the lists pompously inscribed on stone of the articles 
obtained by a Pharaoh in his most Lais camp: or were camels 
alone employed ; the ass long mai ed his Mim as the chea i 
on this trade rou 
The camel master who should approach the Nile Mei a freight of 
valuable goods could at least obtain a safe retreat. ‘The merchant who 
eould not ensure him this could hire no camels. Since X 640 the 
wealthy camel owners are seated on ile. Their camels graze in: 
security over the now impoverished dedit But before that time they 
could not spread over the country at will. They could find no long 
iod of security. It seems probable that for purposes of transport a. 
few old camels were brought over by hardy mer willing to fight in their 
defence, but the stud camels remained always in Arabia 
The researches of Ritter on the gradual spread of the camel from its: 
A pe 
eamel and his Arab (and this sider’ is used idrisedi y) brings one hee the 
same conclusion as a study of the vie of the Egyptian monume 
the Gree d Roman biographer and of Josephus has b psc the 
learned* pebitahs whose verdict is sila up by Ritter in the following 
general terms :-— 
"The camel was not arene into Eeypt so as to breed until a 
iod which may post-muhammadan. 
absence from the "monuments * Pii that the Egyptians saver 
, bred it in Pharaonic tim 

5 * Itis ER than important that the Arab rd of command 
a Te Saar the same as the hieroglyphic EL to kneel el befor 
