Many Arabian camels were domesticated thousands of years ago in areas other than their original locations. Some experts say domestication occurred around 4000 BC, while others believe it occurred around 1400 BC and spread to the Middle East between 930 BC and 1000 BC.
There are currently approximately 13 million domesticated Arabian camels living in the world, spread across western India, through Pakistan, to Iran, and even to North Africa. No Arabian camels currently live in a natural wild state in their original habitat. Although the Australian feral population is estimated at at least 300,000 heads, they are not considered wild because their ancestors, who were brought to Australia, were domesticated The same applies to the beauty that Bedouins unleash in the desert in the Middle East after they became unable to bear the hard work and serve their owners.
In the second century BC, Arabian camels were introduced to Egypt and North Africa, and were also introduced to the Canary Islands as domestic animals, while the Arabian camel and the two-humped camel are considered the only true camels still alive. The two-humped camel was domesticated in Asia before 2500 BC, and is found in the region extending from Iran to Tibet.
Camels spread throughout the Sahara Desert by the second millennium BC, but they disappeared for a while before being introduced by the Persians when they invaded Egypt. Camels were used across North Africa when the Romans appointed platoons of camel-riding warriors to roam the edges of the desert. Arab camel breeds are considered stronger and more tolerant than Persian ones.
Many people benefit from Arabian camels as a source of milk and meat, as they are considered fit for heavy loads and bend to load goods and passengers, unlike horses. They are also patient, docile, and intelligent. If a camel feels displeased, it will show this by hitting the ground with its legs and the enemy.
Arabian camels were first introduced to Australia during the 19th century for use in exploring the desert heart of the continent. After a development in transportation during the last quarter of that century, trains and then the first cars gradually replaced animals. Many camel owners released them into the wild, where they formed large herds that took the Australian desert as their home Humans brought many domesticated breeds to Australia from all over the world, but most of them were from India.
Breeds arriving in Australia between 1840 and 1907 include the Bishari camel from North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the Pekanri war camel from Rajasthan, India, and the Indian lowland camel, which can carry enormous loads weighing approximately 800 kilograms. While the Australian wild camel is a mixture of all these breeds, two basic types or forms can still be distinguished: the slender riding form and the massive porter form.
In addition, studies conducted on these camels have shown that their impact on the Australian environment is very limited, as they are not as harmful as other introduced species, as they prefer to feed on types of plants and trees that local animals do not like; Herbs constitute only 2% of their food; Since they do not have hooves, they do not cause soil erosion as other ungulates do.
Camel and camel racing are competitions that reflect authenticity
A specific type of Arabian camel is used in camel racing, after the camels are selectively married to produce breeds suitable for participating in various races, with specific specifications such as light weight and speed of movement.
Camel racing is a well-known and very popular sport in the Kingdom of Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, Jordan, Australia, and Mongolia. The hybrid can run at speeds of up to 65 kilometers per hour, and can maintain a speed of 40 kilometers per hour for about an hour, while the hybrid either drives a child or recently robots.
While it is used in beauty contests, especially in the Arabian Gulf, these festivals are called Mazayen, and the prizes there reach millions of riyals, as the prizes for one round exceeded about 10 million riyals. These competitions show the beauty of camels according to criteria that are that their beauty is natural and not artificial, especially with regard to the large size of the head, the height and length of the neck, the length, size and shape of the eyelashes, provided that the nose is thin and wide, and the lips are drooping and long to cover the teeth, in addition to the shape of the ears and hump, as well as Curly hair that complements the beauty specifications.
Dozens of camels were excluded from the “Miss Camel” competition in Saudi Arabia because they were injected with Botox to reduce wrinkles and make them look more beautiful, while this competition is considered one of the prominent events in the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, and the main features of the camels participating in the competition include: long, drooping lips, a large nose, and a graceful hump.
The judges in the competition used advanced technology to detect cosmetic improvements in camels on an unprecedented scale, as all camels were taken to a hall to have their external appearance and movements examined by specialists. Tests were also conducted on their heads, necks and torsos using X-rays and 3D ultrasound devices, and samples were taken for genetic analysis and other tests. The organizers of the Miss Camel pageant said they were keen to stop all beautification and deception in camel beautification and promised to “impose strict penalties on the manipulators.”
The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is considered the largest of its kind in the world, with the participation of about 33,000 camel owners, some of whom are from the United States, Russia and France. In its second edition, the festival witnessed the registration of the tallest camel in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records, with a length of three metres, breaking the previous record of 190 centimetres. The winning camel in the “Tuareg Camels” group, the smallest camel, and the camel Abu Sanamin, which is a milestone in the “Camel Rarities” event.
Camel festivals and decorations have begun to attract thousands of audiences, as the King Abdulaziz Festival has become a landmark visited by the people of the Arabian Gulf, in which camel owners compete fiercely to obtain first places. It was named after the King Abdulaziz Camel Show Festival. It includes a large market that provides all the needs of park-goers and visitors to the festival. The camps of the participating camel owners appear dazzlingly deep in the desert, decorated with light arches, celebrations, and poetic dialogues between poets.
The King Abdulaziz Camel Designation Competition classifies participating camels into five colors: Al-Wadh, singular: Wadha, which is white, Al-Shaal, which is close to yellow, Al-Safar, which is golden, Al-Majahim, which is black, and Al-Hamr, which is close to red to brown. Each of these colors has beautiful qualities that differ from the other color.
In the Emirates, there is the Al Dhafra Festival, which includes a competition for wild camels and camels, which are racing camels, and although these camels usually compete in the race, the festival committee allocated rounds for the beauty of this type of camel, and its beauty qualities differ greatly from other types.
It is believed that if those in charge of these festivals are able to correct some of their shortcomings and pay attention to and care for them, they will be the new Okaz Market in the Arabian Peninsula, where the people of the desert and the city, poets, sheikhs and the general public gather every year.
Brutal camels are endangered
Feral camels are classified as endangered, as only 1,400 remain, most of which live in a nature reserve in China (800 camels), and some in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia (600 camels). They spread in ancient times from the Yellow River to central Kazakhstan, but by the mid-nineteenth century, due to hunting, their numbers had decreased in all regions. By 1920, Only in the present-day regions of Mongolia and China remain of it.
The wild camel is distinguished by its ability to eat snow to supply itself with water, and this is a feature that makes it one of the few animals in nature that eats snow. While people used to confuse the feral camel (Camelus ferus) with the two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus), recent studies have indicated that there are two separate species, and that the feral camel is a different land animal from the two-humped camel domesticated in Central Asia, and that it evolved separately from the other species 1.1 million years ago.
Brutal beauty is characterized by the fact that it has long and narrow nostrils, two rows of thick eyelashes, and ears filled with lint, which makes it protected from sandstorms. The wild camels have a soft, undivided sole that helps them walk on hot stones and sand. Their fur grows more in the winter, and they shed it in the summer.
Feral camels may look similar to two-humped camels, but the most important difference between them is genetic, as studies indicate that the two species descended from two ancestors, i.e. each evolved separately. There are several differences between the two species in terms of size and shape, as the feral camel is slightly smaller than the two-humped camel, and has a smaller, thin tail and a short body. It also has two short, small humps that are usually half the size of the hump of its domesticated relative And a flat skull.
Feral camels usually move in a herd of 30 camels, which are migratory animals, and in scattered groups, which makes their density of spread small, at a rate of five heads per 100 square kilometers, as these camels move behind a main male camel in the front, and gather close to water sites where many of their herds can be seen.
Feral camels live up to the age of 40, and mate during the winter and early fall, like Arabian camels, while feral camels can give birth at the age of five, after which they carry an embryo once every two years. At a time when feral camels spread in barren plains and plateaus with little water and pasture, they live on small shrubs. The temperature in its environments varies greatly. In the summer, the temperature ranges between 40°-50° degrees Celsius, and in the winter, the temperature drops to minus -30° degrees Celsius. Feral camels travel long distances in search of water and pasture near mountains that contain natural springs or snow in the winter.
The two-humped camel lives in cold regions such as Kalmykia in Russia and others. It is also distinguished by a gap between the two humps called the hoe, as the humps help it store the largest amount of fat and food to withstand the cold. Its head and body are about 3 meters long, its shoulders are two meters high, it weighs about 700 kilograms, and its feet are wide. It has a beard-like appearance on its throat.
The two-humped camel lives in groups of between 6 and 20 camels, led by the oldest male in the group, who can tolerate low temperatures. The female gives birth to a single camel after a gestation period of 13 months. After three years, the camel becomes an adult, completing its growth at the age of five. This species of camel lives in Central Asia, including China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and several other countries. It is believed to have completely disappeared in Tajikistan.
Names and characteristics of camels among Bedouins
The Bedouins call the camel by many names and give it many characteristics. They call it the ship of the desert, as it is the primitive means of transportation that the Arabs relied on to travel and travel from one country to another. Camels have many names among the Arabs that differ according to the stage of growth and characteristics of the camels.
The Bedouins say that the male camel has a camel and the female a she-camel, while the female camel is the birth that separates her from her mother. The Arabs called it Hawar because its mother is unable to roam or travel, and without it she is confused about it, especially since the camel’s movement is very slow at birth.
The young camel that came down from its mother’s womb and refused to breastfeed is called (Makhlul), while the Faseel is the camel that is separated from its mother, but after a full year of breastfeeding, and the Mafroud or Mafroud is the one that is separated from its mother in searching for food. It is also called the Hashi, whether the species is male or female.
As for the camel, it is the camel that can be ridden and moved around two years after its birth, while the name Qalous is given to the female that can be ridden two years after its birth, and the Haq or Haqqa is the camel that has reached the age of three years. The second or second camel is the one who has reached the age of four years, the fourth and fourth camel is the camel that has reached the age of four years, the stallion is the elderly camel and is also called the mare, the stallion camel or the stallion camel is the one that has entered its ninth year, and the canine comes out after the cleft occurs.
Among the characteristics that the Bedouins give to camels are Al-Baraka, which is a small camel, and Khalafah, which is given to a camel after birth and which is followed by its newborn, Al-Ashra, which has completed a year after a year of birth, and has entered into a new pregnancy where its milk becomes sour, Al-Jamal Al-Fatir, who is old, and Al-Dhulul, which is a fast-running camel, which has many other characteristics, and Al-Zaml, which is a group of camels, which is also called a caravan Khaluj is that camel whose dialogue died or was slaughtered, and for a period of time it continues to yearn for the place where it lost its dialogue.
There are other characteristics, such as: Al-Masouh, which is a camel that was born, but its young were hidden, and it is milked for a long time without its young, Al-Jafal, which is a camel that is surprised by something, and continues running until it calms down completely, Al-Kharish, which is a camel that was injured by Al-Jafal, but it has not calmed down yet, and no one can approach it Likewise, the Mardufah, on whose back there are two people, the Maghatir, which are light-colored camels, and the Majahim, which are black camels Al-hamal is the camel that grazes without a shepherd, Al-Rahul is the camel that moves from one place to another, and finally Al-Saniya is the camel through which water comes out from inside the well.
Camel sounds vary depending on the situation. Roaring is an expression of fear by camels, slaughtering is the sound of air being released when frightened without roaring, and nostalgia is a sound made by camels when they lose their offspring or the moment they lose some of them, and many other sounds.
Evidence of the greatness of God’s creation of camels
Contemplating God’s creation is a great value, with which God Almighty directed His servants, and among creation are camels, as He directed thinking about His creatures, and called on them that their consideration and contemplation of all of these verses be a reason for belief in the power of God Almighty, and that He is worthy of worship, as God Almighty said in His perfect revelation: (Do they not look at camels, how they were created* and at the sky, how they were raised* and at the mountains, how they were erected* and at the earth, how it was flattened).
God created camels for people by enabling them to carry their burdens on their backs, in order to move them from one place to another. He – may God Almighty be pleased with him – also permitted people to eat their meat and benefit from their milk. He even gave them benefits in their den, as they used them to light fires, and He gave great benefits to their skins.
Scientists believe that camels are the best and most beneficial animals of the Arabs. They are extremely strong and tough, yet they are led by weak children, who breed them to place heavy loads on them that humans cannot carry other animals. They also endure hunger and thirst for days, travel long distances, and graze every plant in the wilderness, so their creation is amazing.
Some scholars consider combining camels, the sky, mountains, and the earth to be one sign of harmony between them. Camels are among His living creatures, and looking at how they were created takes precedence over contemplating how the heavens were raised, mountains were erected, and the earth was flattened. They call for looking and contemplating these creatures to be an introduction to pure faith in the Creator’s power and the wonders of His creation.
In another place, camels were mentioned in Surat Al-An’am, as God Almighty said: (And among the camels are two, and among the cows are two). The she-camel was also mentioned in seven places, as God Almighty said in Surat Al-A’raf: (This is the she-camel of God. For you is a sign, so leave her to eat in the land of God), and (So hamstring the she-camel and turn away from the command of their Lord), and in Surat Ash-Shams (Then the Messenger of God said to them, “The she-camel of God,” and gave her water to drink In Surat Al-Qamar (Indeed, We sent the she-camel as a trial for them, so wait for them and be patient), and in Surat Ash-Shu’ara (He said, “This is a she-camel; she has no drink, but you will have the drink of a known Day),” and in Surat Al-Isra (And We gave the she-camel firm mountains to see, but they did wrong by them), and in Surat Hud (O my people, this is the she-camel of Allah, for you is a sign, so leave her to eat in the land of Allah).
Many people resort to camel urine therapy, believing that it treats organic diseases in the human body. Many people believe in this treatment, although there is controversy about its lack of effectiveness. While a scientific study published on the NCBI website says that camel urine contains anti-cancer substances, the World Health Organization has advised avoiding it, as it has been linked to Middle East respiratory syndrome. It is believed that camels have a relationship with the transmission of the disease to humans. Camel urine from the desert is often used as medicine in various ways, as Bedouins mix it with milk and drink it.