On to the sand? On to the sand…Easy, except that the accomplices on camels had had to ride across hundreds of miles of desert to find the unmarked spot…
-The Mamur Zapt and the Mouth of the Crocodile, Michael Pearce
Accomplices. That is a strange thing to call Rabih, Masood, Ibrahim and the others. To me they were Zumalā’, Travelling Companions, or according to Lane, Those Who Follow One Behind Another or Ride One Beside Another on Camels, or Men Engaged in Work on Camels, cf. Rufaqā’, Men Not Engaged in Work on Camels, which Rabih, Masood, Ibrahim and the others were most certainly Not, the Darb being all Work and no Play, except for the Khawajas. Just ask KhairAllah. And it is also strange that Wehr gives Rufaqā’ the variant meanings of Comrades (in Marxist terminology), Partners…and Accomplices.
