Favorite Passages from Wilfred Thesiger

One of the books I've read in the last couple of years (which is to say, it took me the better part of a year to finish it) is Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger. Arabian Sands is his most famous work, followed by The Marsh Arabs. Someday, I may read The Marsh Arabs, but it'll be a few years. I took special interest in Arabian Sands after my 2012 trip to Oman, and used it extensively in one section of my postgraduate dissertation. I don't have page numbers for my two favorite quotes, which are probably hold the most enduring meaning for me.

"The desert had already claimed me, though I did not know it yet."

[...]

"No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of the desert, the brand which marks the nomad; and he will have within him the yearning to return, weak or insistent according to his nature. For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperate clime can match."

I wouldn't have guessed before 2006 that I'd fall in love with the desert, but there's something addicting about a really good one. Aside from that, while writing my dissertation I used a number of quotes to illustrate the situation in Oman generally...

"Oman is largely inhabited by the Ibadhis, a sect of the Kharijites who separated themselves from the rest of Islam at the time of Ali, the fourth Caliph, and have been noted ever since for their condemnation of others. The Ibadhis have always maintained that their Imam or religious leader should be elected. The Al bu Said dynasty which ruled Oman from 1744, and to which the present Sultan of Muscat belongs, succeeded, however, in establishing an hereditary succession, but its neglect of the elective principle had always been resented by its subjects. The growth of Omani sea power between 1784 and 1856, overseas conquests, of which Zanzibar was the most important, and especially the removal of the capital from Rustaq to Muscat on the coast, weakened the hold of the Al bu Said rulers over the interior of the country, while foreign treaties and outside interference added to the fanatical resentment of the tribesmen. In 1913 the tribes, both Ghafari and Hanawi, rebelled and elected Salim bin Rashid al Kharusi as their Imam. The Sultan of Muscat rapidly lost all control over the interior and by 1915 the Imam was threatening Muscat. His forces, however, suffered a serious defeat when they attacked a British force outside Matrah. The Imam was murdered in 1920, and Muhammad bin Abdullah al Khalili was then elected. In the same year the Treaty of Sib was signed between the Sultan and the Omani sheikhs, not between the Sultan and the Imam. By this treaty the Sultan agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of Oman."
- Arabian Sands, page 273

"The present Imam, Muhammad bin Abdullah, was now an old man, a fanatical reactionary and bitterly hostile to the Sultan and to all Europeans. The interior of Oman was consequently more difficult for a European to penetrate in 1948 than it had been when Wellsted went there more than a hundred years before; for both Wellsted and his three successors had travelled under the protection of the Sultans of Muscat who were recognized by the tribes in the interior."
- Arabian Sands, page 273-274

"Zayid, as Shakhbut's representative, controlled six of the villages in Buraimi. The other two acknowledged the Sultan of Muscat as their nominal overlord, as did the tribes who lived in and around the mountains northward from Ibri to the Musandam Peninsula, although in fact this area was independent tribal territory. Ibri itself and the interior of Oman was ruled by the Imam. His authority was strong in the mountains and in all the towns, but was weak among the large and powerful Bedu tribes of the Duru and Wahiba who live on the steppes bordering on the Sands."
- Arabian Sands, page 271

"Each of the Trucial Sheikhs had a band of armed retainers recruited from the tribes, but only Shakhbut had any authority among the tribes themselves, and he maintained this authority by diplomacy, not by force. There was no regular force anywhere on the Trucial Coast nor in Buraimi which could be used to support the authority of the Sheikhs. The Trucial Oman Scouts had not yet been raised, and although the R.A.F. had an aerodrome at Sharja it was only a staging post on the route to India."
- Arabian Sands, page 272

... and Dhofar specifically...

"Dhaufar belonged to the Sultan of Muscat, and he had insisted, when he allowed the R.A.F. to establish themselves there, that none of them should visit the town or travel anywhere outside the perimeter of the camp unless accompanied by one of his guards, and that none of them should speak to the local inhabitants."
- Arabian Sands, page 43

"About 1877 Dhaufar had been occupied, after centuries of tribal anarchy, by a force belonging to the Sultan of Muscat, but in 1896 the tribes rebelled, surprised the fort that had been built at Salala, and murdered the garrison. It was several months before the Sultan was able to reassert his authority, which, however, has since remained largely nominal except on the plain surrounding the town."
- Arabian Sands, page 43

"Salala is a small town, little more than a village... When I arrived fishermen were netting sardines, and piles of these fish were drying in the sun. The whole town reeked of their decay. The Sultan's palace, white and dazzling in the strong sunlight, was the most conspicuous building, and clustered around it was the small suq or market, a number of flat-roofed mud-houses, and a labyrinth of mat shelters, fences, and narrow lanes."
- Arabian Sands, page 44

"It was obvious that, although the Qarra lived only a few miles from Salala, the Sultan of Muscat had little control over them. Arabs rule but do not administer. Their government is intensely individualistic, and is successful or unsuccessful according to the degree of fear and respect which the ruler commands, and his skill in dealing with individual men. Founded on an individual life, their government is impermanent and liable to end in chaos at any moment. To Arab tribesmen this system is comprehensible and acceptable, and its success or failure should not be measured in terms of efficiency and justice as judged by Western standards. To these tribesmen security can be bought to dearly by loss of individual freedom."
- Arabian Sands, page 46-47

... after World War II. I found Arabian Sands both fascinating, and quite useful. Despite seeing himself as laconic, Thesiger had a way with words. His descriptions are vivid, and you really feel as if you're there in the Rub al Khali with Thesiger and his Bedouin guides. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who shares my fascination with the romance of Arabia.

Next up, the US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual.