Camel cavalry, or camelry (French: méharistes, pronounced [meaʁist]), is a generic designation for armed forces using camels as a means of transportation. Sometimes warriors or soldiers of this type also fought from camel-back with spears, bows, or firearms.
Camel cavalry was a common element in desert warfare throughout history in the Middle East, due in part to the animals' high level of adaptability. They were better suited to working and surviving in arid environments than the horses of conventional cavalry. The smell of the camel, according to Herodotus, alarmed and disoriented horses, making camels an effective anti-cavalry weapon of the Achaemenid Persians in the Battle of Thymbra.[1][2]
- ^ Herodotus (440 BC). The History of Herodotus. Rawlinson, George (trans.). Retrieved 4 December 2012.
He collected together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse; behind them were to follow the foot soldiers and, last of all, the cavalry. When his arrangements were complete, he gave his troops orders to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without mercy but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if he should be seized and offer resistance. Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy's horse because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal. By this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's horse useless to him, the horse being what he chiefly depended on for victory. The two armies then joined battle, and immediately, the Lydian war-horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off, and so it came to pass that all Croesus' hopes withered away.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Cameliers and camels at war". New Zealand History online. History Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 30 August 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2012.