Bedouins continue to wander with their herds of sheep and goats in the "al Badieh", the empty land forming the central part of the old "Fertile Crescent", as they had been doing for many generations before, since the beginning of human kind. During the spring time, when the land wakes up, enriched by the winter rains, and life surfaces in form of tender grass and shrubs, the nomadic arabs move through the country in search of good pastures for their cattle. Usually, every tribe or family has specific areas on which year after year, generation after generation, they settle for a few weeks before moving to the next one.

The family Sherfaldine, originated from the Lubnan ash Sharqi (anti-Lebanon) mountain range, used to bring their sheep to gaze at the easternmost limits of another mountain system, the Palmyrides, from which the extensive gravel plains of the "Al Badieh", or Syrian Desert , starts. They would always move around the Jebel Kahwla and the Jebel R'mah, two formidable mountains raising some 300 metres above the surrounding plains. Some 10 years ago, the younger members of the family decided to set-up their tents, in a more permanent basis, between Jebel Kahwla and Jebel R'mah. They would use that spot as their main base from which to move with their herds though the neighbouring pastures. As such, they thought to reduce the length of their stay away from "home". Their tent was located close to an incipient road connecting the capital, Damascus , with the interior settlements, primarily Palmyra , and leading to the banks of the Al Furat river.

A result of that location was that some of the few travellers passing-by along that road would stop to have a break next to the inhabited location. The Sherfaldine family, in the best of the arab tradition and hospitality would always offer shelter, shade and tea to the visitors. As time went on, the Sherfaldine felt more at ease with the new situation, combination of their traditional life of shepherding and that newly found of hosting visitors to their land. Therefore, they decided to construct a small stone building to offer a larger and more comfortable shelter to their visitors. This, obviously, implied a more permanent settlement to manage the premises and, hence, another small building followed to accommodate the family members in charge of the outfit. In the following years the original set of tents have developed into a well distributed set of small, one-floor, buildings accommodating not only most of the Sherfaldine family members but also the stables for their sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, etc.

Not only that, travellers often asked for a place to spend the night. One of the old Bedouin tents was installed again and an attractive group of small rooms was built, following the classical bee-heave shape of the old traditional buildings of the Syrian antique rural towns. The latter has now become the best recognised mark of the settlement.

Obviously, a name had to be given to that new settlement. The Sherfaldines didn't think too much about it, the place is located close to one of the main passages from the Mediterranean coast to Bagdad, in Central Mesopotamia ; therefore they named it the Bagdad Café.