As begun in a previous post, here are several vintage photographs from Philip J. Baldensperger’s The Immovable East, published in 1913, and available for free as a pdf at archive.org
Category Archives: camels
Camel Jumping in Yemen
Yes, that’s camel jumping, not humping, although I suspect more camels get humped by other camels than get jumped over by young men. There is a beautiful montage of photographs by Ed Ou, who recently visited Bayt al-Faqih in the Yemeni Tihama; for details and the full selection of 14 photographs, check out the New York Times LENS blog for May 9.
A Swede and a camel in Yemen
by Iona Craig, The National, January 9, 2012
A Swedish adventurer crossing Yemen by camel hopes his journey will encourage tourists to see beyond the political turmoil and violence that has engulfed the country for nearly a year.
Mikael Strandberg set out on December 7 on a 380-kilometre trek across the treacherous highlands, the first leg of his Yemen venture, to disprove the purveyors of pessimism.
“I don’t know what they [the tourists] are waiting for … it is such a wonderful country with great potential,” he said, after arriving in Sanaa after a two-week march through the toughest terrain in the Arabian Peninsula.
Along with two Yemeni companions, Mr Strandberg is in the initial phase of a journey that will cross the country from the western coastal plains of Hodeida to the edge of the world’s largest sand desert, the Rub’ Al Khali, or Empty Quarter, and beyond to Oman.
The explorer, 48, who fell in love with both the country and his wife Pamela, an American, during a visit to
Yemen three years ago, holds fond memories of Sanaa and the Yemeni people.
“We decided to go and try to make a difference and give a different perspective from the one portrayed by the media,” said Mr Strandberg. Continue reading A Swede and a camel in Yemen
Cool as a Camel
How the camel kept its cool: Dromedary in the desert finds shade under rare tree that does the job of a parasol
By Chris Parsons, Daily Mail, January 4. 2012
When the temperature soars around the sweltering 40C mark, you’ll take anywhere as respite from the scorching rays no matter how unusual it looks.
This camel sought refuge in the baking heat on the Island of Soqotra in Yemen by sheltering in the shade under an unusual tree which looks like a giant mushroom. Continue reading Cool as a Camel
On camels
In a previous post I published photographs from a book by Samuel Zwemer, an American missionary who spent several years in Yemen and other parts of Arabia. His Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Country, written with his daughter Amy, is an entertaining read. Not surprisingly they dwell at length on camels…
Tabsir Redux: A Sailor and his Camel Ride
[Illustration: Arabian Camel from George Shaw, Zoology (1801)]
[Tabsir Redux is a reposting of earlier posts on the blog, since memories are fickle and some things deserve a second viewing.]
[Joseph Osgood was a Black American sailor who visited the Yemeni port of Mocha about a dozen years before the start of the American Civil War. He offers a rich, descriptive account of his visit to the Yemeni coast, including a sailor’s view of the ship of the desert.]
No wheel carriages are used here, the most general mode of transportation being by camels, for which the males along are serviceable. The flesh of the camel forms a staple article of food, the head and neck being excepted, because one of the race unwittingly rendered these parts unholy by obtrusively poking his head and neck into Mahomet’s tomb. Wellsted says that a camel is welcomed at its birth, by the Arab, with “another child is born unto us.” Continue reading Tabsir Redux: A Sailor and his Camel Ride
Aesop’s Fabulous Camels (and an Ass) #2
Aesop’s Fables, 1888, p. 132
One of the joys of returning home to where I was born is going through the books that my grandmother once owned. In a previous post I mentioned an 1888 edition of Aesop’s Fables, translated by George Fyler Townsend. In leafing through the fables I found several that talk about camels and one that refers to an “Arab.”
In this post I provide three of the fables, Continue reading Aesop’s Fabulous Camels (and an Ass) #2
Camels in Vienna
Today I am leaving for Vienna and the forthcoming “Camels in Asia and North Africa
Interdisciplinary workshop” to be held Tuesday & Wednesday 5-6 October, 2010 at the
Austrian Academy of Sciences, AAS, Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna. If you have an interest in any aspect of camels and are near Vienna, Austria, you might want to join in.
Here are the details, also available in pdf from the website.
This workshop aims at a comprehensive discussion on Old World camels (Dromedary and Bactrian camel) including the following topics:
• Origin and domestication
• Conservation of the wild Bactrian camel
• Veterinary folk medicine
• Socio-economic significance: Breeding, caring, trading
• Art: Petroglyphs, poetry and music
• History and Symbolism of camels in Asia and Austria
These issues will be addressed by scholars from the natural sciences as well as from the social sciences and humanities Continue reading Camels in Vienna