Dromedary was first domesticated in central or southern Arabia, thought to be around 4000 years ago, and became popular in the Near East in the 9th or 10th century BCE. The Persian invasion of Egypt in 525 BC introduced domesticated camels to the area, but they became common after the Islamic conquest of North Africa. While the invasion was accomplished largely on horseback, the new links to the Middle East allowed camels to be imported en masse. They were well-suited to long desert journeys and could carry a great deal of cargo. Aristotle was the first to describe it, but the animal was given its binomial name, Camelus dromedarius, by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Today, almost 13 million domesticated dromedaries exist, found mainly from western India via Pakistan through Iran to north Africa.
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