Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm's
Storyfest Review of Travel & Pilgrimage Books - # 10
Arabian Sands
by Wilfred Thesiger
Arabian Sands. Wilfred Thesiger. Penguin Books. 1964. Longmans, Green. 1959.
Reviewed by Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm, Ph.D. August, 2000
His first name is so English. Wilfred. The name of Saxon saints and kings in Northumbria over a millennium ago. Never in my life would I have met such a man. And even if I had met him in some pub in Wales or some lodge in Scotland, never would I have managed to engage him in conversation to the extent that he would tell me about his travels to The Empty Quarter of Saudia Arabia in the late 40’s. This man was as alien to me as the land to which he travelled. I am glad he wrote this book.
The Iman of Oman did not want Thesiger to come. The Arabs fought the arrival of the Christians, the oil seekers. Wilfred Thesiger was a threat to the Arabs and the Bedu whom he loved, for he made maps which would open up their land. Thesiger wrote, “While I was with the Arabs, I wished only to live as they lived, and now that I have left them, I would gladly think that nothing in their lives was altered by my coming. Regretfully, however, I realized that the maps I made helped others, with more material aims, to visit and corrupt a people whose spirit once lit the desert like a flame.”
There were at the time between six to seven million Arabs in Arabia and a quarter of these were Bedu. The Bedu were camel breeding, nomadic tribes who lived in the deserts that cover most of Arabia. The pattern of their lives changed very little over enormous spans of time. Semitic nomads had herded flocks here before the Pyramids were built.
Yet, in less than 40 years, all was changed and their life disintegrated. The First World War, with cars, aeroplanes and wireless gave the government greater mobility than the Bedu for the first time in history. The discovery of oil on the Persian Gulf brought enormous wealth into Arabia. Prices in the towns soared. The Bedu could no longer afford their few requirements and townspeople no longer needed the camels the Bedu produced.
Thesiger said that the life of the Bedu was at all times desparately hard. The tribesmen were accustomed since birth to the physical hardships of the desert. They drank bitter water, ate gritty unleavened bread, and endured the irritation of the sand, as well as intense cold, heat and blinding glare in a land without shade or cloud. Bedu were either wildly generous or unbelievably mean, very patient or hysterically excitable, brave or panicked. Probably no other people, either as a race or an individuals, combined so many conflicting qualities in such an extreme degree.
The heart of this book described Wilfred’s adventures in the Empty Quarter, the vast sands which covered the Southern part of Saudia Arabia, the place where even today the maps read, “Border Undefined.” The first crossing was 1946-47. Wilfred Thesiger persuaded Doctor Uvarov of the Locust Research Center in London to allow him to return to Oman and the Empty Quarter in order to map the area.
Bertram Thomas had been there before Wilfred Thesiger. Thomas, a European, had won the Bedu's respect by his good nature, generosity, and determination. When Wilfred came sixteen years after, he was welcomed because he belonged to the same tribe as Thomas.
Thesiger left from Salala on the Indian Ocean and travelled northeast to Mughshin on the edge of the Sands. He intended to cross the Eastern edge of the Empty Quarter. Thomas had turned back from Mughshin. Thesiger was ready to go. Thesiger saw the Sands stretching out before him, a shimmering rose-coloured wall. Wilfred looked in silence upon that long-awaited vision, as excited as a mountaineer who sees the challenge of the Himalayas.
Thesiger traveled with five companions, each mounted on good camels. Everyone had rifles and ammunition. Wilfred was happy in the company of these men, five companions, especially his two friends, bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha. They called him Umbarak. The easy equality of the relationship satisifed him. But he was neither Bedu nor Muslim. The hardest test was to live in harmony with them and not let impatience master him. He knew he could be worn down and could become provoked. If this happened, it would be his fault, not theirs.
The journey ahead seemed formidable. Muhammad al Auf was the guide who knew the way across the sands. As al Auf walked, he held his hands, palms upwards and recited verses from the Koran. As they sat to eat, the men muttered, “In the name of God” and dipped bread in melted butter. To Bedu, God was a reality, and the conviction of his presence gave them the courage to endure.
On December 12, fourteen days after they had left Mughshin, they reached their destination. They arrived at the Dhafara and the Khaba Well. For years, the sands of the Empty Quarter had represented to Thesiger the final, unattainable challenge which the desert offered. He remembered the doubts, fears, frustrations, and moments of despair. Now he had crossed The Empty Quarter. He thought, " To others, my journey would have little importance. It would produce nothing except a rather inaccurate map. It was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of clean water. I was content with that."
Already his mind was busy with the new problems which the return journey presented. For to return to Salala, the only possible route was through Oman, a distance of 800 miles. Al Auf, the guide, said the biggest difficulty was Umbarak himself. Al Auf said, "If the Arabs find out there is a Christian in the group, Ibn Saud’s tax collectors will arrest and imprison the whole group. Umbarak, keep quiet.” said al Auf. “And ride all the time. Any Arab who came across your monstrous footprints would want to know who you are.”
When they finally crossed Oman and reached Salala, his companions insisted on a triumphal entry, so they rode into the camp firing off their rifles. Others danced and sang, brandishing their daggers. Thesiger stayed at Salala for a week. He had crossed the Empty Quarter. The Locust Research Center would find his return journey through Oman far more important than crossing the sands. Coming from the north into Oman, no one expected him to be European and Christian. This crossing enabled him to enter Oman and map it.
Wilfred enjoyed the civilization of Salala but looked forward to going back to the desert. He planned to map the country from Salala to Mukalla. Their travel this time was leisurely, with plenty of food and water. They arrived at Mukalla on May 1. Wilfred wrote, “This was the Journey’s End that I had no desire to reach.” And with the assumption of the European dress and shaving his beard, he became estranged from his Bedu friends and rued this strangeness.
From Mukallah he went to Hajaz for three months and then returned to London. He was homesick for Arabia. He wanted to cross the Western Sands but King Ibn Saud had emphatically refused permission. Wilfred decided to defy the Saudi King.
Wilfred called for his old companions, telling them to meet in Hadhramaut in November of 1947. His special friends were bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha. These two young men dressed in long robes and wore cartridges of shells for belts. Under their airms they carried each a rifle. One of Thesiger's photographs depicted them, standing, barefooted, upon rocks. They wore their hair long and unruly, and they stood with ease and pride, as they gazed out upon the land of Oman.
Wilfred convinced bin Daiksan to act as guide across the Western Sands of the Empty Quarter. This was four hundred waterless miles. It was sixteen days of high and difficult dunes and constant threat from the Yam tribe. In retrospect, he said, “I hopelessly underestimated the danger.” He had hoped the king would admire his achievement, even if he were angry.
They set off from Manwaki Well, saying together, “I commit myself to God.” For two days, they crossed the hard, flat sands. Six more days along dunes, with the water dripping out of the poor quality goatskins. Then six more days. Then they went to Bani Maradh - the mountainous dunes. Now the real difficulty was beginning. The dunes were a lovely golden-red but the sense of danger increased and they were constantly alert and aware.
They crossed the Empty Quarter from the South to the North along its Western edge from Manwaki to the Hassi Well and Sulaiyil. They had little food, no guide for he had left, and the camels were tired. At the Hassi Well, they were arrested and treated poorly.
Wilfred was placed with the Amir. The Amir, when he heard of their journey, told them, “By God, you were lucky. The sands you came through were filled with Arabs. Ibn Saud had given the tribes permission to raid and kill. They would have killed you out of hand.” Wilfred realized how badly he had misjudged their chances.
Ibn Saud sent order by wireless to detain the Englishman and to imprison his companions. Wilfred was so distressed that he could hardly speak. His companions had trusted him and now would suffer for it. Bin Kabina put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, Umbarak; if God wills, all will be well.”
The Amir told Thesiger that he must go to the castle in Dam. When Thesiger and bin Kabina arrived, they were given tea, coffee, a fire and a quilt. The Amir said, “Don’t worry. I am sure that all will be well.”
They were in a small bare room at the top of the castle. Thesiger did not sleep, haunted by fears. The banging of a shutter startled him time and again. Then, in the morning, the door opened, and the Amir came in smiling. “I told you everything would be all right. Abdullah Philby, the Englishman, spoke to Ibn Saud on your behalf and Ibn Saud has ordered you to be freed.” When Thesiger asked, "Where can I go?" He was told, “Laila and from there to the Trucial coast.”
They left on January 29, bound for Laila - 160 miles to the east. There Wilfred met Philby, his rescuer. But the hatred for Thesiger in this fanatical Muslim town was palpable 7. Wilfred and his companions left Laila for Abu Dhabi on the Trucial coast. They left February, without a guide, only a compass and notes from Philby. The Arabs shouted at them as they left the town, “Don’t come back here.”
His final port on this journey was reached over water by dhow as he went to Bahrain. Becalmed for four days, he had time for reflection. “I took this trip to find peace in the hardship of desert travel and the company of desert people. It is not the goal, but the way there that matters and the harder the way the more worthwhile the journey.” The breeze freshened. He arrived at Bahrain May 28.
This is a journey, not only into a strange and foreign land but into the foreign psyche of an adventurer who seeks the most difficult, the most remote and the most unknown place to explore. This man has the gift of description, attention to details, to conversations, to nuances of beauty.
Read this book to learn of further adventures: Hawking for bustards with Zayed; going through quicksand with camels, an attempt to map Jabal al Akhadar, the Green Mountain. Wilfred told stories about a boy possessed by an evil spirit, a zar; blood feuds; circumcision practices; the place of homosexuality; of a beheading; of an unmarried woman with three children. Thesiger described the fears in the night, the dreams of water, the 700 foot dunes above salt flats, and the petty fights.
There are eight maps and sixteen plates in the paperback edition, as well as a list of Arabic and botanical Names of Plants, a List of the Chief Characters on the Various Journeys; and an Index. Now there is a new hardcover edition available in which the maps will undoubtedly be more readable and the photographs more numerous. I look forward to finding it.
The book is dedicated to bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha, his trusted companions.
Arabian Sands. Wilfred Thesiger. Penguin Books. 1964. Longmans, Green. 1959.
Reviewed by Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm, Ph.D. August, 2000
Copyright©2000 Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Thesiger's Arabian Sands Today!
Special Notice
Thesiger's photograph's are now printed with the written text in a new hardcover book entitled Wilfrid Thesiger: Crossing the Sands.
-- Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Wilfrid Thesiger: Crossing the Sands Today!
Perhaps the finest collection of Arab Folktales is Iner Bushnaq's book, Arab Folktales. It has a special section of Bedu tales under the section title of "Tales Told in Houses Made of (Camel) Hair." I highly recommend it as a companion piece to Arabian Sands.
-- Robert Béla Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Bushnaq's Arab Folktales Today!
Index to Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm's Reviews of Travel & Pilgrimage Books
Kelly with her nephews Emmett and Brendan
Kelly Wilhelm Welcomes Your Comments on this Review of Arabian Sands.
Come Back Next Month for Kelly's Next Review
Storyfest Review of Travel & Pilgrimage Books - # 10
by Wilfred Thesiger
Arabian Sands. Wilfred Thesiger. Penguin Books. 1964. Longmans, Green. 1959.
Reviewed by Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm, Ph.D. August, 2000
His first name is so English. Wilfred. The name of Saxon saints and kings in Northumbria over a millennium ago. Never in my life would I have met such a man. And even if I had met him in some pub in Wales or some lodge in Scotland, never would I have managed to engage him in conversation to the extent that he would tell me about his travels to The Empty Quarter of Saudia Arabia in the late 40’s. This man was as alien to me as the land to which he travelled. I am glad he wrote this book.
The Iman of Oman did not want Thesiger to come. The Arabs fought the arrival of the Christians, the oil seekers. Wilfred Thesiger was a threat to the Arabs and the Bedu whom he loved, for he made maps which would open up their land. Thesiger wrote, “While I was with the Arabs, I wished only to live as they lived, and now that I have left them, I would gladly think that nothing in their lives was altered by my coming. Regretfully, however, I realized that the maps I made helped others, with more material aims, to visit and corrupt a people whose spirit once lit the desert like a flame.”
There were at the time between six to seven million Arabs in Arabia and a quarter of these were Bedu. The Bedu were camel breeding, nomadic tribes who lived in the deserts that cover most of Arabia. The pattern of their lives changed very little over enormous spans of time. Semitic nomads had herded flocks here before the Pyramids were built.
Yet, in less than 40 years, all was changed and their life disintegrated. The First World War, with cars, aeroplanes and wireless gave the government greater mobility than the Bedu for the first time in history. The discovery of oil on the Persian Gulf brought enormous wealth into Arabia. Prices in the towns soared. The Bedu could no longer afford their few requirements and townspeople no longer needed the camels the Bedu produced.
Thesiger said that the life of the Bedu was at all times desparately hard. The tribesmen were accustomed since birth to the physical hardships of the desert. They drank bitter water, ate gritty unleavened bread, and endured the irritation of the sand, as well as intense cold, heat and blinding glare in a land without shade or cloud. Bedu were either wildly generous or unbelievably mean, very patient or hysterically excitable, brave or panicked. Probably no other people, either as a race or an individuals, combined so many conflicting qualities in such an extreme degree.
The heart of this book described Wilfred’s adventures in the Empty Quarter, the vast sands which covered the Southern part of Saudia Arabia, the place where even today the maps read, “Border Undefined.” The first crossing was 1946-47. Wilfred Thesiger persuaded Doctor Uvarov of the Locust Research Center in London to allow him to return to Oman and the Empty Quarter in order to map the area.
Bertram Thomas had been there before Wilfred Thesiger. Thomas, a European, had won the Bedu's respect by his good nature, generosity, and determination. When Wilfred came sixteen years after, he was welcomed because he belonged to the same tribe as Thomas.
Thesiger left from Salala on the Indian Ocean and travelled northeast to Mughshin on the edge of the Sands. He intended to cross the Eastern edge of the Empty Quarter. Thomas had turned back from Mughshin. Thesiger was ready to go. Thesiger saw the Sands stretching out before him, a shimmering rose-coloured wall. Wilfred looked in silence upon that long-awaited vision, as excited as a mountaineer who sees the challenge of the Himalayas.
Thesiger traveled with five companions, each mounted on good camels. Everyone had rifles and ammunition. Wilfred was happy in the company of these men, five companions, especially his two friends, bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha. They called him Umbarak. The easy equality of the relationship satisifed him. But he was neither Bedu nor Muslim. The hardest test was to live in harmony with them and not let impatience master him. He knew he could be worn down and could become provoked. If this happened, it would be his fault, not theirs.
The journey ahead seemed formidable. Muhammad al Auf was the guide who knew the way across the sands. As al Auf walked, he held his hands, palms upwards and recited verses from the Koran. As they sat to eat, the men muttered, “In the name of God” and dipped bread in melted butter. To Bedu, God was a reality, and the conviction of his presence gave them the courage to endure.
On December 12, fourteen days after they had left Mughshin, they reached their destination. They arrived at the Dhafara and the Khaba Well. For years, the sands of the Empty Quarter had represented to Thesiger the final, unattainable challenge which the desert offered. He remembered the doubts, fears, frustrations, and moments of despair. Now he had crossed The Empty Quarter. He thought, " To others, my journey would have little importance. It would produce nothing except a rather inaccurate map. It was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of clean water. I was content with that."
Already his mind was busy with the new problems which the return journey presented. For to return to Salala, the only possible route was through Oman, a distance of 800 miles. Al Auf, the guide, said the biggest difficulty was Umbarak himself. Al Auf said, "If the Arabs find out there is a Christian in the group, Ibn Saud’s tax collectors will arrest and imprison the whole group. Umbarak, keep quiet.” said al Auf. “And ride all the time. Any Arab who came across your monstrous footprints would want to know who you are.”
When they finally crossed Oman and reached Salala, his companions insisted on a triumphal entry, so they rode into the camp firing off their rifles. Others danced and sang, brandishing their daggers. Thesiger stayed at Salala for a week. He had crossed the Empty Quarter. The Locust Research Center would find his return journey through Oman far more important than crossing the sands. Coming from the north into Oman, no one expected him to be European and Christian. This crossing enabled him to enter Oman and map it.
Wilfred enjoyed the civilization of Salala but looked forward to going back to the desert. He planned to map the country from Salala to Mukalla. Their travel this time was leisurely, with plenty of food and water. They arrived at Mukalla on May 1. Wilfred wrote, “This was the Journey’s End that I had no desire to reach.” And with the assumption of the European dress and shaving his beard, he became estranged from his Bedu friends and rued this strangeness.
From Mukallah he went to Hajaz for three months and then returned to London. He was homesick for Arabia. He wanted to cross the Western Sands but King Ibn Saud had emphatically refused permission. Wilfred decided to defy the Saudi King.
Wilfred called for his old companions, telling them to meet in Hadhramaut in November of 1947. His special friends were bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha. These two young men dressed in long robes and wore cartridges of shells for belts. Under their airms they carried each a rifle. One of Thesiger's photographs depicted them, standing, barefooted, upon rocks. They wore their hair long and unruly, and they stood with ease and pride, as they gazed out upon the land of Oman.
Wilfred convinced bin Daiksan to act as guide across the Western Sands of the Empty Quarter. This was four hundred waterless miles. It was sixteen days of high and difficult dunes and constant threat from the Yam tribe. In retrospect, he said, “I hopelessly underestimated the danger.” He had hoped the king would admire his achievement, even if he were angry.
They set off from Manwaki Well, saying together, “I commit myself to God.” For two days, they crossed the hard, flat sands. Six more days along dunes, with the water dripping out of the poor quality goatskins. Then six more days. Then they went to Bani Maradh - the mountainous dunes. Now the real difficulty was beginning. The dunes were a lovely golden-red but the sense of danger increased and they were constantly alert and aware.
They crossed the Empty Quarter from the South to the North along its Western edge from Manwaki to the Hassi Well and Sulaiyil. They had little food, no guide for he had left, and the camels were tired. At the Hassi Well, they were arrested and treated poorly.
Wilfred was placed with the Amir. The Amir, when he heard of their journey, told them, “By God, you were lucky. The sands you came through were filled with Arabs. Ibn Saud had given the tribes permission to raid and kill. They would have killed you out of hand.” Wilfred realized how badly he had misjudged their chances.
Ibn Saud sent order by wireless to detain the Englishman and to imprison his companions. Wilfred was so distressed that he could hardly speak. His companions had trusted him and now would suffer for it. Bin Kabina put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, Umbarak; if God wills, all will be well.”
The Amir told Thesiger that he must go to the castle in Dam. When Thesiger and bin Kabina arrived, they were given tea, coffee, a fire and a quilt. The Amir said, “Don’t worry. I am sure that all will be well.”
They were in a small bare room at the top of the castle. Thesiger did not sleep, haunted by fears. The banging of a shutter startled him time and again. Then, in the morning, the door opened, and the Amir came in smiling. “I told you everything would be all right. Abdullah Philby, the Englishman, spoke to Ibn Saud on your behalf and Ibn Saud has ordered you to be freed.” When Thesiger asked, "Where can I go?" He was told, “Laila and from there to the Trucial coast.”
They left on January 29, bound for Laila - 160 miles to the east. There Wilfred met Philby, his rescuer. But the hatred for Thesiger in this fanatical Muslim town was palpable 7. Wilfred and his companions left Laila for Abu Dhabi on the Trucial coast. They left February, without a guide, only a compass and notes from Philby. The Arabs shouted at them as they left the town, “Don’t come back here.”
His final port on this journey was reached over water by dhow as he went to Bahrain. Becalmed for four days, he had time for reflection. “I took this trip to find peace in the hardship of desert travel and the company of desert people. It is not the goal, but the way there that matters and the harder the way the more worthwhile the journey.” The breeze freshened. He arrived at Bahrain May 28.
This is a journey, not only into a strange and foreign land but into the foreign psyche of an adventurer who seeks the most difficult, the most remote and the most unknown place to explore. This man has the gift of description, attention to details, to conversations, to nuances of beauty.
Read this book to learn of further adventures: Hawking for bustards with Zayed; going through quicksand with camels, an attempt to map Jabal al Akhadar, the Green Mountain. Wilfred told stories about a boy possessed by an evil spirit, a zar; blood feuds; circumcision practices; the place of homosexuality; of a beheading; of an unmarried woman with three children. Thesiger described the fears in the night, the dreams of water, the 700 foot dunes above salt flats, and the petty fights.
There are eight maps and sixteen plates in the paperback edition, as well as a list of Arabic and botanical Names of Plants, a List of the Chief Characters on the Various Journeys; and an Index. Now there is a new hardcover edition available in which the maps will undoubtedly be more readable and the photographs more numerous. I look forward to finding it.
The book is dedicated to bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha, his trusted companions.
Arabian Sands. Wilfred Thesiger. Penguin Books. 1964. Longmans, Green. 1959.
Reviewed by Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm, Ph.D. August, 2000
Copyright©2000 Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Thesiger's Arabian Sands Today!
Special Notice
Thesiger's photograph's are now printed with the written text in a new hardcover book entitled Wilfrid Thesiger: Crossing the Sands.
-- Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Wilfrid Thesiger: Crossing the Sands Today!
Perhaps the finest collection of Arab Folktales is Iner Bushnaq's book, Arab Folktales. It has a special section of Bedu tales under the section title of "Tales Told in Houses Made of (Camel) Hair." I highly recommend it as a companion piece to Arabian Sands.
-- Robert Béla Wilhelm
ORDER INFORMATION
Order Bushnaq's Arab Folktales Today!
Index to Mary Jo Kelly Wilhelm's Reviews of Travel & Pilgrimage Books
Kelly with her nephews Emmett and Brendan
Kelly Wilhelm Welcomes Your Comments on this Review of Arabian Sands.
Come Back Next Month for Kelly's Next Review