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Arabian Sands (Travel Library) (Paperback)

by Wilfred Thesiger (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 Nov 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140095144
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140095142
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #38 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Middle East
    #77 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > Middle East > Arabian Peninsula

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Product Description

Product Description

The author recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950, and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins.
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Arabian Sands (Travel Library)
74% buy the item featured on this page:
Arabian Sands (Travel Library) 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
The Marsh Arabs (Penguin Classics)
10% buy
The Marsh Arabs (Penguin Classics) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£6.97
Across the Empty Quarter (Penguin Great Journeys)
7% buy
Across the Empty Quarter (Penguin Great Journeys) 3.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£3.74
The Life of My Choice
5% buy
The Life of My Choice 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
£8.74
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97 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on desert exploration ever written, 23 Oct 1998
By A Customer
This book features in my top ten favourites of all time. Thesiger, a quintiessential eccentric English explorer describes in this book five years spent with the Bedu of the southern Arabian Peninsula. Thesiger lived as a Bedu, he adopted their dress, walked barefoot and learned to settle into their rigid, almost ritualistic patterns. Thesiger developed a very deep respect for the Bedu as he believes that the harder the life led the purer the man, and there are not many lives that come harder than those of the Bedu. After all T.E. Lawrence described their daily struggle as 'a death in life'. During his time with the Bedu Thesiger twice crossed the Empty Quarter (Rub 'al Khali) with camels by a longer and more dangerous route than that taken by Philby and Thomas previously. Thesiger and his companions were lucky to have survived as they found themselves without food and water and a long way from a well that none of the Bedu had been to before and that only appeared on Thesiger's notoriously inaccurate map of the region. Equally fortunate was Thesiger managing to avoid the search parties of Omani tribesmen intent on driving him out of their territory, perhaps even to kill him, because he was a Christian. This is an incredible book, describing unimaginable hardships as if they were mere inconveniences, and giving a fascinating insight to a way of life that has all but disappeared as the Bedu trade in their camels for 4 wheel drives. Read this book, it is brilliant.
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sands of another time, 7 Dec 2004
By A Customer
This is a difficult book to read if one is looking for excitement, but an absolute gem for anyone who wants to get inside the world of the Bedouin of over half a century ago. Thesiger's prose is spare and discerning and flows through the book like sand through an hourglass. He describes a world that no longer exists; indeed, was on the cusp of change as he made his travels in Arabia. The people he travels with are continuing a way of life that has remained unchanged for millenia but would not survive the following decades.
The life Thesiger describes is hard, unforgiving existence tempered by the bond he forms with his Bedu hosts. His descriptions of his Bedu friends are sympathetic without being effusive and his admiration of and love for them shines from every page.
Forget Lawrence and his silly posturing, if you only ever read one book about Arabia of old, this should be it. It left me inspired but, I must confess, somewhat ashamed that the god of oil and mammon should have destroyed a beautiful and unspoilt way of life.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, 5 Jul 2007
By Traveller (Europe) - See all my reviews
As the reviewer above points out, anyone reading this book will not find excitement leaping from the pages but this is not the objective of the book. People reading it particularly from western countries should reflect on their own lives and how it is in such stark contrast to a way of life which has all but disappeared, for this is Thesiger's message. The book retells the authors' crossing of an inhospitable region of desert in southern arabia known as the empty quarter and his travels around the surrounding area. Full of small anecdotes which illustrate the points Thesiger makes perfectly, the way in which it was written should be commended. A truly magnificent book which has certainly made me think a little deeper.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare trip back into the past...
...I read this book some years ago, & bought it recently for a gift to a family member. I thoroughly enjoyed being transported back to the time that this most interesting chap... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Beancooper

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
Before visiting relatives in Dubai I thought I'd select some holiday reading with an Arabian flavour and so happenend across Wilfred Thesiger's 'Arabian Sands'... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. H. F. Murden

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