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caravan
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caravan
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
caravan group of travelers or merchants banded together and organized for mutual assistance and defense while traveling through unsettled or hostile country. Caravan trade is associated with the history of the Middle East as far back as the records of ancient civilizations extend and seems to have been well developed before sea commerce began. It is evident that all trade from one fertile area to another in this region had to be organized from the first, since long distances of desert trail separated settled parts and since local governments could not guarantee protection against tribes eager for loot and pillage. Such wares as jewels, spices, perfumes, dyes, metals, rare woods, ivory, oils, and textiles (chiefly silk) are associated with the trade. Camels were the main carriers from Egypt to Mesopotamia and throughout the Arabian peninsula. They were introduced into N Africa and the Sahara region in the 3d cent. AD Donkeys were used in Asia Minor. Trade naturally prospered in the period of the great empires, when the caravan routes could be controlled and protected; and it was to secure control of such routes that many wars were fought and conquests made in ancient times. An empire provided for the establishment of inns, or caravansaries, for the accommodation of travelers along the way. Such improvements facilitated the movement of troops to protect the routes. Cities rose and fell in ancient times in proportion to the rise and fall in the trade of the caravan routes upon which they were located. Basically the caravan system underwent little change until challenged in modern times by the motor truck and the airplane. Travelers having occasion to cross desert spaces usually joined merchant caravans. After the advent of Islam, the pilgrimage of the devout to Mecca gave rise to long pilgrim caravans that were a feature of the pilgrimage season each year. The closest approach to caravan trade in the New World was the wagon train commerce that developed over the Sante Fe Trail.
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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
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Desert sands yield ancient trading center.
; ...recently -- to locate ancient, largely obscured tracks of caravan routes leading to the oasis city. Image analysis, as well as second...served as an important trading center linked by a network of caravan routes to Mesopotamia (in modern-day Iraq) and the Mediterranean...
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The perfumes of Arabia
; ...monopoly on the perfume and incense trade and a vast network of caravan routes grew up, known as the Incense Road. It was the oldest and perhaps the most intriguing ff the caravan routes. At first the perfume trade had been largely transported...
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The perfumes of Arabia.(the role of perfumes in the history of the Middle East)
; ...monopoly on the perfume and incense trade and a vast network of caravan routes grew up, known as the Incense Road. It was the oldest and perhaps the most intriguing of the caravan routes. At first the perfume trade had been largely transported...
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Travel: From here to Timbuktu Amid an almost unendurably romantic landscape, Jo Knowsley sets off on an adventure to trace the caravan routes that criss-crossed the Draa Valley and brought vast riches to its sultans
; ...and the hill-top kasbah at Ait Benhaddou provided the setting for much of Gladiator. Our venture was to trace some of the caravan routes that had criss-crossed the Draa Valley and brought vast riches to the spoiled sultans of Morocco, before their worst excesses...
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The conservation and use of the walled city of Tripoli. (Tripoli, Libya)
; ...the historic and socio-economic structure of the traditional caravan trade to the Madina of Tripoli and other parts of Africa (Cachia...load and unload goods all year round. With the decline of the caravan trade, the volume of goods
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Peten travels.(Hit the Road)(Silk Road)(The Seljuks)(Brief Article)
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History of economic relations between Russia & China; from modernization to Maoism. (reprint, 1966).(Brief Article)(Book Review)
; ...relations, starting with Russia's discovery of China as a potential political and economic force as the two evolved from caravan trade to treaties and formal commercial relations. He analyzes their mutual dependence on technology transfer as well as development...
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Israeli, Jordanian disabledto meet in jeep rally
; ...between the two countries with a four-day jeep rally that will test their navigational skills, as they travel over ancient caravan routes from the Negev into Jordan. More than 75 jeeps are expected to take part in the Peace Rally, which begins on September 29...
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