Camel riding saddle (North Arabian saddle)
Silla de montar sobre el camello (silla norárabe)
- Date
- c. century I a.C. · confidence low
- Place
- Hegra (Mada'in Salih), Medina, Saudi Arabia
- Credited to
- Nomadic peoples of northern Arabia (including the Nabataeans)
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden frame placed over the hump, with the rider seated high and legs free, that let riders fight and steer the camel with their bodies. It made the camel a war animal and fast transport.
According to Bulliet, the South Arabian pack saddle appears c. 500 BC and the North Arabian riding saddle between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD. This chronology rests on iconography and is very tentative. The place is symbolic.
What it led to
- the camel cavalry of the Arab tribes and its role in the 7th-century conquests
- faster caravans between Arabia and the Levant
- a link to the trade routes joining the Red Sea and the Mediterranean