Arenas de Arabia

Wilfred Thesiger spent five years wandering the deserts of Arabia to write this book, "a monument to a vanished past, a tribute to a people in magnificent times". Repelled by the softness and rigidity of Western life, he set out to explore the vast and parched Empty Territory of Arabia, visiting villages where they had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. Traveling among the Bedouins, he experienced the daily challenges of hunger and thirst, long marches under the relentless sun, cold nights, and the constant danger of death if he was found to be an "infidel". He was the first European to visit most of the region, and just before leaving, he had begun the process that would change it forever: the discovery of oil. Thesiger reflects on the large-scale changes and development that occurred after World War II and the subsequent gradual erosion of traditional Bedouin ways of life, which had existed undisturbed for thousands of years. His story is invaluable for understanding the modern Middle East.