The camel was the animal of choice in caravans that crossed the vast deserts that surrounded the Islamic Empire. The main benefit of the camel was its ability to go many days without both food and water, even in the hot season. During the cool season a camel can go a maximum of 90 days without, while cattle can only go 3 days without water. Then during the hot season a camel can go a maximum of 5-7 days without water, while cattle can only go 2 days without water. A camel also surpasses the rest of the animals in the distance it is able to travel per day : 80 kilometers, while cattle can only do 20 kilometers.
The camel saddles allowed people to actually utilize the camel. Without the camel saddle a camel is a fairly difficult animal to actually ride on the back of, because of the very distinct hump on its back – this hump makes it awkward to rest yourself, or trade goods on the back of the camel, but the saddle fixed this issue. The camel saddle made it easier for someone to ride or transport goods by flattening out the camel's hump. The saddle would flatten the hump with padding, and then there were rigid arched supports (armature) along the side to give structure around the hump of the camel's back. This gave riders a location to seat themselves, or a location to place and hang trading goods. This camel saddle allowed people to load much larger amounts of of goods onto the camel than they would be able to without a saddle. And with this new saddle people were able to lead large caravans across the deserts. These caravans were the heart of trade in the region of the Islamic Empire, spreading out in all directions from the Islamic Empire. The ability to cross the desert allowed for all new trade routes across the region, and as new routes opened many more goods became available in the region; cities were connected that had never before been connected through trade, and through trade they were able to exchange their cultures. The camel saddle was on innovation that revolutionized trade in desert regions, it finally allowed people to trade across large desert expanses, greatly increasing the rate of trade and making the Islamic Empire even more prosperous.