volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

196 Bir al-Kahdkib.
we were arguing this matter we heard suddenly the
sound made by the pads of camels' feet, and very soon
after a large body of Arabs armed with spears and
" gas-pipe guns " rode up. Before I
alarmed I saw Muhammad and his
had time to be
friend .with the
caravan embracing some of the new-comers, and then I
learned that they all were members of the "Agel tribe,
and we all squatted down and ate together. But the
Turkish officers fared less well than I, for some of the
'Agel went to them whilst we were eating and demanded
" way money " from them. As they had none to give,
or said they had not, the Arabs " went through " their
baggage and took what they liked, whilst the officers
watched their property being taken and said nothing.
The 'Agel shekh exchanged dates with me for tobacco,
and then he and his men departed, and we tried to
sleep, but with little success. At 11.30 p.m. Muhammad
said, " Kum," i.e., " get up," and in about half
an hour we were on our way again. We found that the
Turkish officers had already set off, and we did not see
them again. A little before sunrise Muhammad's friend
and his caravan left us, I think to go to 'Anah.
We rode all night and only stopped for a few
minutes a little before daybreak that the men might
say the dawn prayer. The air was cool, and as darkness
covered that terrible desert all the depression which it
had caused in me vanished. We arrived at Bir al-Kabakib
at 9.15 a.m., November loth, and decided to stay there
for the day. We found a large caravan there, and its
shekh showed me much kindness for the sake of Muhammad,
who was an old friend of his. Bir al-Kabakib
and the district of Kabakib itself
Muhammadan writers, and in the
are well known to
eighth century the
Arabs built a reservoir and maintained a garrison
there. ^
Yakut mentions the river Kab^ib which flowed
into the Euphrates, and the water station of Kabikib,
which belonged to the Banu Ta'lab,^ and it is probable
that scores of generations of men have camped by the
' Biladhuri, p. 187. '^ Vol. iv, p. 26.