CARAVAN

Persian Kārwān , Arabic Qāfil ah . As the roads in the East are often unsafe and lead through dreary wastes, merchants and travellers a ociate together for mutual defence and comfort. These companies are called both kārwān and qāfil ah . The party is always under the direction of a paid director, who is called Kārwān - or Qāfil ah- Bāshī . If a caravan is attacked on the road, the Muḥammadan law allows the punishment of crucifixion for the offence. ( Hidāyah , vol. ii. 131.) But it is a curious provision of the Muslim law that if some of the travellers in a caravan commit a robbery upon others of the same caravan, punishment ( i.e . of amputation) is not incurred by them. (Vol. ii. 137.) CARRION (Arabic Maitah ) is forbidden in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 80 . “ That which dieth of itself , and blood, and swine’s flesh, and that over which any other name than that of God hath been invoked, is forbidden. But he who shall partake of them by constraint, without lust or wilfulne , no sin shall be upon him.”