Is there any way he can sit on a camel in Egypt? I’m dying for him to be on a camel.
-A criminally charged US Senator’s wife, writing to an Egyptian spy, New York Times, June 25, 2024
Of course there is a chance for that! replied the spy. Of course, replied Hajj Bashir when I asked if I might join his drovers on the Darb al-’Arba’īn. But let this be known, Sitting on a camel, Being on a camel, is very different from Riding on a camel. Lane gives Rakiba as, To Mount, to Ride an Animal, and in a metaphor with Raml, Sand, as, He Went upon, or Trod, or Travelled the Desert. Wehr further gives Rakiba’s secondary meaning as, To Commit a Crime.