Weeks Edwin Lord Arrival of a Caravan Outside The City of Morocco

A caravan (from Persian ) or cafila (from

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

) is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

, where traveling in groups aided in defense against bandits as well as helped to improve

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

in trade. Some of the first caravans on the Silk Road were sent out by

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign last ...

in the 2nd century BCE when this vast network of roads was 'born', and as China began exporting large quantities of silk and other goods west, particularly destined for the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

Description

In historical times, caravans connecting

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

often carried luxurious and lucrative goods, such as silks or jewelry. Caravans could therefore require considerable investment and were a lucrative target for bandits. The profits from a successfully undertaken journey could be enormous, comparable to the later European spice trade. The luxurious goods brought by caravans attracted many rulers along important trade routes to construct

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...

s. These were roadside stations which supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of

trade routes A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a sing ...

covering Asia, North Africa, and

southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...

, especially along the

. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing, and ritual ablutions. Sometimes they had elaborate baths. They kept

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals (includ ...

for animals and had shops for travelers where they could acquire new supplies. Some shops bought goods from the traveling merchants.Ciolek, T. Matthew. 2004-present
Catalogue of Georeferenced Caravansaras/Khans
. Old World Trade Routes (OWTRAD) Project. Canberra: www.ciolek.com - Asia Pacific Research Online. However, the volume a caravan could transport was limited even by Classical or Medieval standards. For example, a caravan of 500 camels could only transport as much as a third or half of the goods carried by a regular

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

merchant sailing ship. Present-day caravans in less-developed areas of the world often still transport important goods through badly passable areas, such as seeds required for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

in arid regions. An example are the

camel train A camel train or caravan is a series of camels carrying passengers and goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. Despite rarely travelling faster than human walking speed, for centuries camels' ability to withstand harsh condi ...

s traversing the southern edges of the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

References

*Kevin Shillington (ed)
"Tuareg: Takedda and trans-Saharan trade"
in: ''Encyclopaedia of African History'', Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004, *T. Lewicki, "The Role of the Sahara and Saharians in Relationships between North and South", in: ''UNESCO General History of Africa: Volume 3'', University of California Press, 1994, *

Fernand Braudel Fernand Braudel (; 24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian and leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects: ''The Mediterranean'' (1923–49, then 1949–66), ''Civilization and Capitalism'' ...

, ''The Perspective of the World,'' vol III of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' 1984 (translated from the French) ;Antiquity and Middle Ages
The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade 7th-14th Century
Metropolitan Museum of Art *René Mouterde, André Poidebard, « La voie antique des caravanes entre Palmyre et Hît, au IIe siècle après Jésus-Christ, d'après une inscription retrouvée au Sud-Est de Palmyre (1930) », ''Syria'', vol. 12, No. 12-22, 1931, pp. 101–115 (available online at
Persee.fr
*Ernest Will, « Marchands et chefs de caravanes à Palmyre », ''Syria'', vol.34, No. 34-3-4, 1957, pp. 262–277 (available online at
Persee.fr
;17th century *

René Caillié Auguste René Caillié (; 19 November 1799 – 17 May 1838) was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu. Caillié had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, who was murdere ...

''Journal d'un voyage à Temboctou et à Jenné, dans l'Afrique centrale, précédé d'observations faites chez les Maures Braknas, les Nalous et autres peuples ; pendant les années 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828: par René Caillié. Avec une carte itinéraire, et des remarques géographiques, par M. Jomard, membre de l'institut.'' Imprimé à

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

en mars 1830, par l'imprimerie royale, en trois tomes et un atlas. Une réédition en fac-similé a été réalisée par les éditions Anthropos en 1965
downloadable version
** modern edition: ''Voyage à Tombouctou''. 2 vols. Paris: La Découverte, 1996 ;20th century * Lattimore, Owen (1928/9) ''The Desert Road to Turkestan''. London, Methuen and Co; & various later editions. Caravan logistics and organization is discussed in Chap. VIII, "Camel-Men All" * Tuladhar, Kamal Ratna (2011). ''

Caravan to Lhasa ''Caravan to Lhasa'' is a travel book and an account of the lives of expatriate Nepalese merchants in Lhasa from the 1920s to the 1960s. Written by Kamal Ratna Tuladhar, the book describes the caravan journey from Kathmandu across the Himalaya ...

: A Merchant of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet.'' Kathmandu: Lijala & Tisa. . ;Contemporary caravans *Julien Brachet, « Le négoce caravanier au Sahara central: histoire, évolution des pratiques et enjeux chez les Touaregs Kel Aïr (Niger) », ''Les Cahiers d'outre-mer'', No. 226-227, 2004, pp. 117–136 (available online at
Com.revues
) *Michel Museur, « Un exemple spécifique d'économie caravanière : l'échange sel-mil », ''Journal des africanistes'', vol.47, No. 2, 1977, pp. 49–80 (available online at
Persee.fr
*M'hammad Sabour and Knut S. Vikør (eds),

', Bergen, 1997

Google Cache Last Retrieved Jan. 2005.

External links

* * Trade routes {{DEFAULTSORT:Caravan_(travelers)

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links