A. The development of land transport In the past, before the invention of the wheel (before 3000 BC), the sick and wounded were normally transported on the shoulder between two men or on the backs of friends or animals (MacDonald and Miller, 1989). Forced transports were used for mentally ill people in ancient times, however, one of the first uses of the wheel for transporting patients was built (around 900 AD) by the Anglo-Saxons, they l were therefore called the Anglo-Saxon wagon hammock (Bell, 2009). This hammock was placed between two posts raised on a four-wheeled platform (MacDonald and Miller, 1989). War casualties were probably the main stimuli for the development of ambulance systems. The English word ambulance comes from the French word “l'ambulance” which referred to a military “field hospital” that transported, received, and treated wounded soldiers (MacDonald & Miller, 1989). In the 7th century, during the Muslim conquests, the Muslim armies would have been followed by a mobile dispensary to treat soldiers wounded on the battlefield. In particular, one of the youngest Muslim women, aged seventeen, called Amin bint Qais, was trained to lead a medical team in one of these early battles (Ingrams, 1983). Additionally, in the 10th century, Iraqi doctors were often assigned to mobile medical teams to treat patients outside of the hospital, whether Muslim or non-Muslim (Crone, 2005). In the 11th century, during the Crusades, the kings of Saint John established various hospitals which played an important role in accommodating poor and sick pilgrims upon their arrival in the Holy Land (Nicholson, 2001). Later in the 11th century, the Norman horse litter was an improvement over the Anglo-Saxon wagon hammock, ...... middle of paper ......The Awakened: Women in Iraq. London: Third World Centre. Kater, N. M. (1952). Helicopter evacuation in Korea. The Medical Journal Of Australia, 2(11), 373-374. MacDonald, MG and Miller, MK (1989). Emergency transport of the perinatal patient. Boston: Little, Brown. Martin, T. (2006). Aeromedical transport: a clinical guide. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate. Martin, T.E. (2001). Patient Transport Manual. London; San Francisco: Greenwich Medical Media. Nicholson, H. J. (2001). The Knights Hospitaller. Woodbridge [au: Boydell Press. Parsons, C.J. and Bobechko, W.P. (1982). Aeromedical transport: its hidden problems. Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, 126(3), 237-243. Tsai, S.-H., Chen, W.-L. and Chiu, W.-T. (2007). International aeromedical evacuation. The New England Journal of Medicine, 356(16), 1685; author's response 1686-1687.