Photochrome, Vintage, 22,5 cm x 16,5 cm, Collection Privée.
In 1806, François-René de Chateaubriand, a precursor of Romanticism for the Orient, made a trip from which he draws a book. His work, Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, amplified thus the interest of the public on this land which is then rediscovered and source of a fantasized East: Palestine. He described the camel drivers in Palestine below, “Most Arabs wear a tied tunic around the waist by a belt. Sometimes they remove an arm from the sleeve of the tunic, and they drape the tunic over their body in an ancient style, sometimes wrap themselves in a blanket of white wool, which serves them as toga, coat or veil, as they roll it around them, hang it on their shoulders or throw it on their heads. They walk barefoot. They armed themselves with a dagger, a spear or a long rifle. The tribes travel by caravan. The camels go in single file. The camel drivers tied up a leader camel by a string of palm to the neck of a donkey which was a guide of the troop. Among rich tribes, they adorned camels with fringes, streamers, and feathers.”
