Published in 1975, 'The Camel and The Wheel' won the Dexter Prize of the Society of the History of Technology and has been widely acclaimed and quoted by people as diverse as biologist Stephen Jay Gould and historian W.H. McNeill. It covers the technological history of the camel (poetically named in the Koran the 'Ship of the Desert'), and its place in society from 3000BC to the present.
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The domestication of the one-humped camel is traced to 3000-2500BC in southern Arabia as a milk herd and caravan pack animal for the incense trade. It spread to Somalia and Socotra about 2000BC. The separate domestication of the two-humped camel is traced to 3000-2500BC in Turkmenistan/Iran. Its spread from Morocco to China and its place in those societies is considered, where it was used for milk, meat, wool, pack and draught work, and for riding. Every type of camel saddle is considered in exhaustive detail. For centuries the camel's relative efficiency as a pack and riding animal displaced the pre-existing wheeled technologies over a range from Morocco to Afghanistan. Its various and extraordinary use in warfare is also covered, including having light cannon and machine-guns mounted on it in the nineteenth century. The book has dated very slightly since 1990 as a lost city of the people of Ubar and 'Ad have been found (in south Arabia) and they are no longer quite so 'legendary'.
Richard W. Bulliet is a medieval Islamic historian by training and is Professor of History, Director of the Middle East Institute, and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University.
The review of this Book prepared by Michael JR Jose
