Also 6 caffylen, 7 caffalo, caphille, & caffilla, -la, 9 kafila. [Arab. qāfilah caravan, marching company.] A company of travellers, a caravan, in Arabia, Persia or India.
1594. trans. Linschoten’s Voy., in Arb., Garner, III. 188. From thence, twice every year, there travelleth two caffylen.
1630. Lord, Banians, 81 (Y.). Some of the Raiahs … making outroades, prey on the Caffaloes passing by the way.
1671. Charente, Let. Customs Tafiletta, 14. They sent yearly … Caphilles or Caravans to Tombotum.
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 52. From the bells of a Cafila passing over the rocks.
1811. H. Martyn, in Mem., III. (1825), 339. At ten o’clock on the 20th our cafila began to move.
1867. Q. Rev., Jan., 102 (Y.). A carriage … followed by a large convoy of armed and mounted travellers, a kind of Kafila.
