Samarkand and Beyond: A History Of Desert Caravans

With the title Samarkand and Beyond, this wasn't the book I expected. I expected it to be a lengthy description of the authors travels by camel through central Asia.
Although we do share a short expedition to the Libyan province of Fezzan, to visit the Dawada people. This story occupies the first, short chapter (and is very interesting).

What follows however, is a masterclass in all things related to camel caravans in the desert. The author presents individual chapters on the caravan, the oasis, the road describing all aspects of these thoroughly, followed by detailed chapters on The Incense Road (southern Arabia), The Silk Road, and chapters on the African Caravans - Gold, Salt and Slaves. These chapters were followed by a chapter on Timbuctoo (the centre of African caravans), then chapters on Pilgrimage Caravans, and Military Caravans, before a final chapter on Camel Caravans in the USA and Australia. An Epilogue provides a sweeping summary.

For a short book (less than 200 pages) what is impressive is the level of detail included. The chapters on the Incense Road, Silk Road and African Caravans in particular are excellent, and include not only careful descriptions of the routes, the people and their customs, but include many carefully chosen and relevant quotations from those early explorers and travellers who described them so well. None of the obvious explorers are missing, and a number of more obscure are included. There is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book. It was written in 1977.

The USA / Australia chapter is a mixed bag. The explanation of the failure of camels in the USA, if accurate - and there is no reason to think it is not, is a sad indictment of those people who mistreated and showed a lack of empathy for the camels and their arduous journeys to even reach the States. Whereas the Australians made a much better adaptation of the camel.

To add a short personal anecdote, I worked on a cattle station in the remote north west for a handful of months, and one of the remote windmills (which pump water into troughs from bores) was called ‘the camel'. It was thus named because there was a wild camel who hung about here, mixing with the cattle who was regularly rounded up in the annual muster and set loose. I guess he was pretty lonely old fellow. This was the only camel known of on the station.

But back to the book.
An excellent 5 stars.