The Arabs • 23stubbornness and spitefulness is ill deserved. Our jokes and songs about
camels reveal our ignorance, not their character.
The people who tamed the camel, probably first for food and only later
for transportation, were Arabs. No one is sure where the Arabs came from.
Popular legends identify them as descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son by
his Egyptian maid, Hagar. Scholars think that the Arabs are kin to the an¬
cestors of other peoples who speak Semitic languages, such as the Hebrews,
the Assyrians, and the Arameans. The difference is that these peoples set¬
tled in the Fertile Crescent (Syria and Mesopotamia). In ancient times, as
some groups of people became sedentarized, others would leave the settled
areas. When population outstripped the means of subsistence in such well-
endowed areas as the Fertile Crescent, some groups would take to herding
sheep and goats in lands where no crops could grow. A few ventured farther
away and migrated from one desert oasis to another (just as others moved
up and down mountains) to find seasonal water and vegetation for their
flocks. Those who had mastered the camel could move even farther away
from the lands of the peasant, the shepherd, and the tax collector.
Conditions in Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula was just such a place: desolate, bereft of rivers and
lakes, cut off by land and sea from all but the bravest invader. (The sole
exception is the mountainous southern region, the Yemen, which I will
discuss later.) The prevailing west winds from the Mediterranean, which
carry winter rain to Syria and Anatolia, rarely bring moisture as far south
as Arabia. What rain does come is usually blocked by the hills of the Hijaz,
the western part, leaving central and eastern Arabia bone dry. Now and
then a freak storm can send floods coursing down the dry valleys, but
most of the water runs off because the ground is too hard to absorb it.
Fortunately, underground water does reach the surface in springs, water
holes, and oases, where date palms flourish. The Arabs learned to move
around constantly, following the seasonal availability of groundwater and
forage for their animals. Milk and dates—occasionally meat and bread—
made up their staple diet.
It would have been hard for an individual or even a small band of
people to survive in such a harsh environment. Great military empires or
mercantile city-states would not have arisen there. The Arabs were orga¬
nized into clans and tribes, extended families that migrated together and(
held their property in common. Significantly, the tribes protected their
members against other nomads and the settled peoples. The Arabs were