These two excellent adventure/travel books describe the post-WWII years that Thesiger spent among the Bedu of southern Arabia and the Madan of southern Iraq respectively. The books give a strong sense of place, both the natural landscape and the culture of the people in these harsh environments. Arabian Sands in particular captures the diversity of the land that might seem at first like undifferentiated desert sands.
Thesiger has a talent for finding the telling detail that paints a picture and allows him to make a general point without interrupting the flow of the narrative. He has an obvious respect for the people and their way of life. In the course of his story he shows how the customs of the tribes fit into an ecosystem of mutually supporting cultures; in a later chapter of The Marsh Arabs, he makes a compelling case for the advantages of traditional ways of life over the apparently less burdensome modern life, including the double-edged sword of education.
These two books will forever color my mental picture of that part of the word.
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