Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Wilfred Thesiger
Creator: Rory Stewart
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 16097
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0141442077
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780141442075
ASIN: 0141442077
Publication Date: January 2, 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesigers 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 lifethe 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: Read 31 more reviews...
 The magnificent obsession July 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 Thesiger's Arabian Sands May 2, 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)
 Get THE LAST NOMAD !!!! instead of Arabian Sands April 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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?
The Arab Mind February 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent travel adventure through the Arabian deserts in the early part of the 20th century. For anyone who wants to understand the Arab mind/viewpoint or who just loves tales of far away places and exotic locales this book will make an excellent read.
A well of information, but none too deep. September 16, 2007
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Agreed, this is a top notch book if you want to know what "the "Bedu" life was like sixty years ago in what is now Saudi Arabia. In that respect, I'm in complete concurrence with the other glowing reviews. But, as another reviewer has brought up, there's something missing here: Thesiger. Having read this book, I feel I know much more about camels, Bedu culture and desert travel. I even feel I know and like Thesiger's Bedu companions very well. But Thesiger himself? A bit of a mystery.
Yes, Thesiger mentions his dislike of machines and modern society. But, I don't really get a "feel" for what he's all about here. I suppose his perspective as presented here could best be denominated Stoic (although another reviewer speculates masochism may play a part). But, even then, Thesiger is no Marcus Aurelius, and any meditations or introspection are scant as the desert brush. -Can any reader imagine Thesiger meditating like M.A. on such questions as, "What is life but a warfare and a stranger's sojourn?" -Reflections, or at least the disclosing of them, are simply not his gulp of brackish well water.
Others are obviously quite content with a narrator about whose inner life they know next to nothing. But I was left after reading this book with a listless, arid feeling, with any sense of "INNER cosmography" (to borrow from Thoreau) remaining unmapped.
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