The bedouins, on the other hand, live separate from the community. They are alone in the country. They have no walls nor gates…They take hurried naps only when they are in company or when in the saddle. They pay attention to every faint barking or noise. They go alone in the desert guided by their fortitude…
-Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), Muqaddima, Chapter 2.5
Ibn Khaldun sounds like he was writing a scary movie about the bedouin…alone in the desert, taking hurried naps, hearing faint noises. But what I remember most from the Darb was the comedy. Adam Hamid laughing when Muhammad inadvertently set his clothes on fire, Abdullah laughing at a slapstick camel story, KhairAllah imitating a friend who awoke one morning to find that all his camels had been stolen, asking, Wha-Wha-Wha-What happened last night?, Ibrahim the boy cook brewing tea and calling out to his aged kinsman Bilal the Khabīr known for his love of millet beer, O Uncle! Come drink your wine! They and the others were guided less by fortitude than by humor, Damm Khafīf, Light Blood on the Forty Day Trail .