Arabian Sands chronicles Wilfred Thesiger’s five years of exploration in the waterless desert ‘ Empty Quarter’ of Arabia, amongst the Bedu people. Thesiger’s 1945 visit was the first by a European to the region, & just before he left the process that would change it forever was beginning
- the discovery of oil. Travelling amongst the Bedu people, Thesiger experienced their everyday challenges of hunger & thirst, long marches beneath the blistering, relentless sun, the bitterly cold nights, & the constant danger of death if it was discovered he was a Christian ‘infidel’. An introduction by Rory Stewart discusses Thesiger’s travels, the dangers he put himself in, his unconventional personality & his insights into the vanished culture of the Bedu people.