The choice is not between the camel and the wagon…there is a more important contender: the donkey. If, as I believe the evidence shows, the cart was never a large part of Egyptian land transport, did the camel instead oust the humble ass?
-The Camel, the Wagon, and the Donkey, Roger Bagnall, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, 1985
What was happening according to Professor Bagnall in Later Roman Egypt, technological competition between the Camel and the Wheel (with the Donkey coming up strong from behind), had still not been resolved in Later Nimeiry Sudan, circa 1984, when lorry drivers began successfully to encroach on desert trade routes previously dominated by Khabeers al-Ibl, Masters of the Camels. I arrived in Nahud on the back of Gaby the Syrian’s lorry from El Obeid and I departed for Egypt on the back of Hajj Bashir Abu Jaib’s camel, and in between I rode all over town on the back of Hussein al-Hamadabi’s donkey. Forty years later I still cannot decide which gave me the smoothest ride, but I can say whose back bore me the farthest.
Gaby the Lorry Driver © David Melody