karwan

Updated: June 14, 2025

The kafila-bashi is the head man of the kafila, or company of merchants, who travel in a body for mutual safety, and compose what is commonly called a caravan, properly a karwan; the richest and most respectable merchant of the party is generally elected bashi; all the rest obey his orders, and he directs the movements, &c., of the whole company, and moreover, acts, in all cases of dispute, as judge and magistrate.

Mīr Amman Dihlavī - Bagh O Bahar, or Tales of the Four Darweshes

Smith, however, had a vague recollection of their having been taught a salutary lesson by the Karwan expedition, and no doubt the presence of British war vessels in the Gulf had done something to correct their turbulence.

Herbert Strang - Round the World in Seven Days