An Arab friend of mine told me that the camel saved generations of people in the world’s driest ecosystems for centuries. The camel pastoralists were used to walk with their camels, drinking their milk with the dried dates.
What Ibne Khaldun Says?
Ibne Khaldun says “before Islam, the tribe of Mudar used to eat a portion of food made from the grounded wool (crushed with stone) of camels cooked in the blood named as IHLIZ اهلز”
In times of extreme drought or famine, it’s possible rules that religion may normally ban may be relaxed to ensure survival. In parts of east Africa in drought time people used to have to cut up, grind up and boil the camel and cattle skins they used as sleeping mats in order to survive.
Dr. Piers Simpkin, the honorable member of the camel4life advocacy group
Camel Skin and Hair are Sometimes Edible
A colleague of our camel advocacy group “Tumal from Oronto of Gabbara Pastoralists” told that; Around the year 1936, there was a serious drought in Northern Kenya, locally known as “Olla Qolaji” Olla- is drought Qolaji- dry poor cowhide. Hence Pastoralists Herders roasted cowhides from collapsed animals due to severe drought. My dad moved from Maikona in Marsabit County to Magado currently (350Kms) in Isiolo County- those days called Northern Frontier Districts by the Colonial government. Camels’ hides are roasted during food shortages in those days because it retains oil layers.
In some cultures, the camel pastoralists eat raw hump. Some communities even open the hump of the living camel, cut the hump, and sew the skin again. They eat the hump fats as raw food to subside their hunger. Drinking the camel’s blood from a living camel is still quite common in some camel pastoralists’ communities, especially in Africa.
