Ana Kabeer wa Inta Kabeer, Meen Yasooq al-Jamal?…Me a Big Shot and You a Big Shot, Who will Drive the Camel?
-A Collection of Modern Egyptian Proverbs, Joseph Hanki, 1897, Cairo
Kabeer, Big Shot, and Khabeer, Expert, or, in this context, Trail Boss, both have broken plurals, Kubaar and Khubaraa’, but I have never seen a broken Khabeer. The Khubaraa’ I knew were all self-possessed men who had earned their way to the front of the dabouka, in the so-called Maddagha seat (meaning, the cud-chewing part of a camel’s mouth, from the quadriliteral verb Daghdagha, to Munch), taking their place on the right because a moving herd drifts in that direction, thus putting the Maddagha in position to steer simply by widening or tightening the gap between the lead camels and him. So to answer the proverb’s question, the Maddagha will.