The Camel- Its urine brings a drunk man back to the state of sobriety.
-Al-Mustatraf, The Quest for Attainment in Each Fine Art, Mansour al-Ibshīhī (1388-1448)
The heavy scent of urea in the night air was overpowering when after a fast march all one hundred and fifty head in the Dabouka unloaded themselves at once, thick enough to dry out the entire nightclub district of Tawfikiya, if Egyptian native son Al-Ibshīhī’s folk medicine was to be swallowed in one big slug.