Arabian Sands

Before I start, I have to declare I was pretty apprehensive about this book, and it sat on my shelves for a long time. I am a big Thesiger fan, and his books are excellent, and I find myself limiting my reading of them to one a year. I was concerned I wouldn't like this one, for a couple of reasons - I read a Penguin Great Journeys excerpt book with parts carved from Arabian Sands (Across the Empty Quarter) and didn't like it much - I found it an awkward selection of excerpts without much explanation or flow. At the time I had hoped it was just the excerpt, not the original text.

It seems odd in overview that some hopping about in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Sudan, then two trips across The Empty Quarter (the big empty bit in the middle of the Arabian Peninsular), and then some trips around the edge through Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen would make a long interesting narrative. Throw in the fact Thesiger travels not with a small core of companions, but with a larger entourage which changed up a bit more, and did I mention sand at all, and a lack of water - this could have been a snore-fest.

Thankfully, neither of these were an issue in Arabian Sands. Somehow Thesiger successfully transmits his own very real passion for The Empty Quarter, and for the Bedu (Bedouin to us uninformed people) shines through his writing. His respect for the Bedu way of life, and his foreseeing that the (newly arrived) oil company explorers and negotiators will have a negative effect on their culture is an interesting aspect to his story. The timeframe (1945-1950) is particularly interesting - Saudi Arabia and the Trucial Coast (a pre-cursor to the United Arab Emirates) had not verified oil reserves, and were not the wealthy counties they are now - Dubai is described as a village! Even motor vehicles were limited in these places - and again Thesiger predicted a future of the deserts being crossed with automobiles, and what limited animals (oryx in particular) would be decimated.

Thesiger's interactions with the many different tribes, many at war or with blood feuds, or just a mutual dislike - are a lesson in planning and diplomacy. The whole way of life of the Bedu is so different to Thesiger's England, and yet he was so enamored by it. He mentioned a couple of times while practically starving, surviving on a quart of water per day for weeks on end (bitter, brackish water at that), walking for 10 hours a day - that he simply considered whether he would rather be back in England or he with the Bedu - and each time he remained satisfied.

The other thing that occurs while reading this book is how a successful explorer / adventurer makes his own luck. Some of the circumstances that occur, had Thesiger been a week, or even a day earlier or later, then he would have been caught up in an altercation he would be unlikely to survive. The multiple times that Bedu / Arab parties were sent out after him with the task of ‘killing the Christian', it is incredible that through that combination of luck, clever diplomacy, and even his ability to bond with people who will go out on a limb to help and protect him (also the Bedu etiquette / obligation to guests), got him through again and again. So despite coming across as a crotchety man, he must also have been incredibly likeable, because many people in this book, from his young companions to sheiks and leaders were able to bond with him, respect his wishes to undertake unusual and dangerous travel, and assist him in any way they could.

I feel I am rambling now, so will wrap this up, and without hesitation, bang 5 stars on this.

There are heaps of excellent quotes, here are a few:

“I had learnt the satisfaction which comes from hardship and the pleasure which derives from abstinence; the contentment of a full belly; the richness of meat; the taste of clean water; the ecstasy of surrender when the craving of sleep becomes a torment; the warmth of a fire in the chill of dawn.”

“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 realize 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.”

“I pondered on this desert hospitality and, compared it with our own. I remembered other encampments where I had slept, small tents on which I had happened in the Syrian desert and where I had spent the night. Gaunt men in rags and hungry-looking children had greeted me, and bade me welcome with the sonorous phrases of the desert. Later they had set a great dish before me, rice heaped round a sheep which they had slaughtered, over which my host poured liquid golden butter until it flowed down on to the sand; and when I protested, saying ‘Enough! Enough!', had answered that I was a hundred times welcome. Their lavish hospitality had always made me uncomfortable, for I had known that as a result of it they would go hungry for days. Yet when I left them they had almost convinced me that I had done them a kindness by staying with them”

“In the desert I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a life unhampered by possessions, since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance.”

And finally after spending five years on the Arabian Peninsular:
“One evening the Political Officer who had taken over from Noel Jackson came to dinner. He led me aside and said, ‘I am afraid, Thesiger, that I have a rather embarrassing duty to perform. The Sultan of Muscat, His Highness Sayid Saiyad Bin Taimur, has demanded that we should cancel your Muscat visa. I have been instructed to do so by our Political Resident. I am afraid I must therefore have your passport.' I replied ‘All right, I'll get it; but you realize I've never had a Muscat visa.'

There is no doubt in my mind that this is top of the shelf travel/adventure narrative. Thesiger could arguably be one of the last great explorers that this ever smaller world has seen. His journeys into the unmapped areas of the Empty Quarters of the Arabian peninsula are told in this well written book that must surely be a must for anyone that is attracted to any kind of travel writing. The writing is sparse but descriptive as he tells a tale of hardship by both himself and his Bedu (Bedouin) companions. Hardship comes in all shapes and forms, be it hunger and thirst or his struggles to make it known to hostile tribes that he was there to explore and not proselytise.

It took a recent trip to visit the edge of Australian desert country for me to understand that there is a deep beauty in these so called desolate lands and with that trip in my recent memories Thesiger's descriptions of the various landscape he crossed and personally explored made his writings compelling. Add to that his deep respect for and descriptions of his travelling companions and their lifestyle along with some history this is a must read for anyone that likes travel readings.


Thesiger's travels took place in the late 1940's, pre oil boom. Places such as Abu Dhabi are but small towns of a couple of thousand people. He does notice and comment on the change of life that is beginning to take place and is not impressed.
“I marvelled that Arabs should wish to ape our ways”
“.....I was averse to all oil companies, dreading the changes and disintegration of society which they inevitably caused”
“I realised even then that speed and ease of mechanical transport must rob the world of all diversity”

A big thanks to my great friend Gordon who gifted me this book on my recent visit to his wonderful part of the world. You know me well mate. 


Highly recommended to any one who has an interest in travel and exploration.