Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics) | 
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Product Description
Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger’s record of his extraordinary journey through the parched “Empty Quarter” of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life—“the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.” In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East.
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Customer Reviews:
• The Magnificent Obsession 21 July, 2008
The Rub Al Khali, the Empty Quarter, or as the Arabs called it, The Sands, is one of the most inhospitable places on earth, and one of the least populated as a result. Like Mt. Everest, or the South Pole, each of which became the obsession of some men, sometimes costing them their lives, the Empty Quarter became an obsession of Wilfred Thesiger. He was not the first Westerner to cross it, Bertrand Thomas was, in the `30's, and then Harry (Abdullah) St. John Philby after him, but Thesiger is deservedly the most famous, due to this wonderful account that is difficult to put down. His birth and childhood in Abyssinia, in 1910, the son of the first British Ambassador, seems to have marked him for the "path less traveled." To fully appreciate "Arabian Sands,' it helps to have read "The Life of My Choice," his autobiography.
The first part of "Arabian Sands" covers his youth in Africa, and his initial desert trips in Dhaufar, and in the Danakil country. The end of the book involves his travels in then "forbidden" Oman. The heart of his story though, is his two epic crossing of The Sands. Unlike other Westerner explorers, he was unsupported in his efforts, by other Westerners, save for the financial support of the British Anti-Locust Board. He had to live by his wits, establishing firm and trusting relationships with his beloved Bedouin (Bedu) who were the essential element in his success. In so doing, he developed an understanding of the conditions of their very harsh life, and enthusiastically emulated them. In addition to coming to terms with the "ship of the desert," the camel, and adapting to the rhythms of desert travel with such transport, he also had to stay one step ahead of central authorities, and deal with the tribal politics, which invariably meant that some tribes would be hostile to both him, and his traveling companions solely for tribal reasons. Furthermore, since he was not a Muslim, he had to deal with those individuals and tribes who were hostile due solely to his non-adherence to their religion and beliefs, but Thesiger was wise enough to realize that much of the hostility resulted from the fact that all the other Westerners who were exploring were looking for oil, and the natives feared a loss of their land - it was hard for them, or even most Westerners to understand his motives of doing it solely "because it was there." After his second crossing he was arrested in the town of Sulaiyil by adherents of the Ikhwan, the fundamentalist brotherhood that very well may have made an "example" of him, "to encourage the others", and executed him. It was only the direct intervention of his friend, Philby, with the Saudi king, Abdul Aziz, which secured his release.
The book contains numerous excellent maps, which outline his trips, as well as the tribal areas. It also includes some excellent black and white photographs, many of them of his traveling companions. On a personal note, he inspired a passion to visit Yabrin, on the northern edge of the Empty Quarter, and I was able to see it develop into a significant town, over a 23 year period, a far cry from the absolute absence of people at this oasis when he passed through in 1948.
I couldn't give the book a 5-star however. As one other reviewer indicated, it would help if we looked a bit at the man himself, and his reference frame. The book was written around 12 years after the events, and he admits to not maintaining accurate notes, so how much was changed in his memory? Certainly he experienced "comradeship," like men do in war, but does that mean we should have wars for this experience? It seemed that he unduly romanticized the hardship, and bemoaned that the bedu would loose their remarkable way of life with the coming impact of the modern world. And there is no question that there are only a few real bedu left on the Arabian peninsula, as they have enthusiastically embraced the conveniences of the modern world in the subsequent 60 years. It should be noted that Thesiger carefully picked the timings of his travels, to do so only in the winter. If he had spent a couple of summers with the bedu, I strongly suspect that much of his romanticism would have evaporated, and the hum of an air-conditioner would be much appreciated. Also, there may have been more than an aversion to the modern material world behind his passion for the remote areas of yore - throughout his life, including his days in Kenya at the end, there was always a youthful companion with him.
Setting aside these caveats, and realizing that the prism may be distorted, his achievements are remarkable, and we are fortunate to have an enthralling narrative of this vanished way of life.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2YXRT2XIJIO57
• Get The Last Nomad !!!! Instead Of Arabian Sands 14 April, 2008
While waiting for my inter-library loan of Arabian Sands to show up I pulled THE LAST NOMAD (same author) off my librarys shelf. Turns out they are the same book! Same tho only in text. The Last Nomad is a big 20" x 20" book filled with BIG beautiful black and white photos Some full page and a few even two page spreads. Tho they do suffer from being black and white imho, Wilfred Thesiger is an excellent photographer. The "portraits" of the people are wonderful.
So FORGET ARABIAN SANDS. Arabian Sands is a small 7.8 x 5.1 book with small dark pictures. And not all the pictures to boot.
My favorite part was the Iraq Marshes (1950-'58). The stunning "buildings" the Marsh Arabs made solely from the TWENTY foot tall reeds that grew there. WOW.
This is the area where the rivers Tigris and Euphrates join, and is thought by some to be the original site of the Garden of Eden.
"The 5,000-year-old way of life of the Marsh Arabs, celebrated by Wilfred Thesiger among others, has long been under threat. Its final disappearance is documented in The Iraqi Marshlands edited by Emma Nicholson and Peter Clark. Saddam Hussein's aggressive drainage programme in the 1990s, in pursute of rebels hiding in the waterways, turned much of the marshland into desert, depopulating the area. Some 200,000 of the inhabitants fled, many of them to refugee camps in Iran. The damage is probably irretrievable."
Dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran have further reduce the amount of water flowing down the Tigris and Euphrates. All the bird and wildlife is lost. Latest satellite images show that less than 7% of the Mesopotamian marshes now remain intact.
What confuses me is the contrast between the various "modern" tribes and the stunningly huge, beautiful and complex brick buildings built thousands of years ago by their ancestors. I can't seem to connect the two. What happened to them? How is it possible to regress so?
- Reviewed by customer ID: ABCNNP742AV30
• Thesiger's Arabian Sands 02 May, 2008
I had heard this was the definitive work on the desert country but never had gotten around to reading it. I now have and it is terrific - every thing it's cracked up to be. I had read Michael Asher's biography; I had been in Ethiopia, Oman and Yemen; I traveled in the Hadhramaut -- all of this over fifty years later but still there is the flavor of Thesiger's days. His writing of crossing the Empty Quarter was a precursor of Asher's more recent writings about desert travels. He writes well and keeps the reader completely caught up with his trek. There is a sadness, on Thesiger's part (and mine), that as progress has affected the Bedu life, the stability of the old days is no more. But for a loving report on life as it used to be with the Bedu tribes, I whole heartedly recommend Arabian Sands. (I should not Rory Stewart's introduction was worth the price of the book)
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1GFNQP5C1QWJB
• Outstanding Chronicle Of Exploring The Empty Quarter 20 August, 2008
After you read this, you'll never think the same of the "Empty Quarter" which encompasses much of the south of the Arabian Peninsula. First of all, you'll find it's not so empty, with the nomadic Bedu plying the dunes and oases of the region as they have for centuries. In fact, this story is primarily about the Bedu who are incredibly tough but also incredibly principled. Their moral code could teach us a lot. Their love for their camels, who literally enable them to live in their hostile geography, and for their fellow man is humbling. The author, an intrepid explorer of these desert sands, does an outstanding job of bringing the Bedu culture to us. If you want to more fully understand the nomadic Arab mind, you could do much worse than to read this outstanding book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3QS5UYAGHF4IU
• Archetypal Saga Of Exploration And Adventure 27 August, 2008
Not only a magnificent travelogue chronicling travels in in a harsh, surreal landscape, here we see the age-old yearning of the explorer to discover the things which cannot be found among the comforts and conveniences of civilization,chief of which is a knowledge of what kind of man he will prove to be when tested to his utmost. Though Thesiger never promotes his undertakings as spiritual experiences,it becomes evident that surely they have as much right to be called so as any other avowedly represented accounts. His fascination with the ascetic lives of his Bedu companions with their fierce nobility and many customs of traditional Arab culture shows the desire of a searcher for meaning transcending the materialism of the modern West. It is a tribute to his integrity that, despite his admiration, he also realizes he is bound to his own heritage and could never be truly one of them. His descriptive powers are outstanding,both of people and places. This is the best adventure/travel book I have read to date.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AXVTZXJI0MS99
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