An Arabian Journey: One Man’s Quest Through the Heart of the Middle East

2019·5.95 MB·English

by  Levison Wood

Also by Levison Wood
Walking the Nile
Walking the Himalayas
Walking the Americas
Eastern Horizons
An Arabian Journey
One Man’s Quest Through the
Heart of the Middle East
Levison Wood
Copyright © 2018 by Levison Wood Cover design by Cindy Hernandez and Gretchen
Mergenthaler
Cover artwork; map: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.;
Universal Images Group North America LLC/alamy;
photograph of camels ” Levison Wood Map copyright © 2018 by Neil Gower
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First published in Great Britain as Arabia in 2018 by Hodder
& Stoughton An Hachette UK company Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in Canada
First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: February 2019
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.
ISBN 978-0-8021-4732-5
eISBN 978-0-8021-4733-2
Atlantic Monthly Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
groveatlantic.com
19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of Alex Coutselos
Contents
Cover
Also by Levison Wood
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction
Map
1. The Edge of Arabia
2. The Call to Prayer
3. Yalla
4. Kurdistan
5. Jihad: This Is War
6. Holy Destruction
7. The Land Between the Two Rivers
8. Searching for Treasure
9. Cities of Gold
10. Ghosts and Echoes
11. Rub‘ al-Khali
12. The Mountains of Dhofar
13. Into the Forgotten Land
14. Pirate Waters
15. Footsteps in East Africa
16. The Secret Kingdom
17. Pillars of Wisdom: The Hejaz
18. A Paradise of Sand
19. The Holy Land
20. The Road North
21. Running the Gauntlet
22. The Final Battle
23. Land of Milk and Honey
24. Where It All Began
Acknowledgements
Photo Insert
Picture Acknowledgements
Index
Back Cover
For me, exploration was a personal venture. I did not go to the
Arabian desert to collect plants nor to make a map; such things
were incidental … I went there to find peace in the hardship of
desert travel and the company of desert peoples … To others my
journey would have little importance. It would produce nothing
except a rather inaccurate map which no one was ever likely to use.
It was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of
clean, nearly tasteless water. I was content with that.
Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands
Introduction
The so-called Arab Spring of 2011 had brought about a hope of change
in a troubled region. Dictatorships had been toppled and, in some places,
democracy flourished. Social media had evoked a new-found love of
freedom of expression and for the first time in decades, there appeared
to be a shift in the collective consciousness of what it meant to be an
Arab. The stereotypes no longer applied, and the young rose up to show
the bearded and gold-clad autocrats who really mattered.
But, just a few years later, the dream lay in tatters. Where there had
been dictators, there were now terrorists or foreign armies. Wars were
still raging at either end of the peninsula in Syria, Yemen and Iraq,
raising an infinite number of questions.
Had the initial optimism from the revolutions brought about any
change at all? What did the conflict between Sunni and Shi’a Islam mean
for the prospects of peace in the region. Did Saudi Arabia, backed by the
West, hold the key to stability in this notorious land, and was Iran really
to blame for the volatility in places like Lebanon and Yemen? How is it
that seventy years after the creation of a Jewish state in Israel, there is
still daily conflict?
More broadly, in times of technological advancement, how has
development and rapid change arrived in a place with so much history
and tradition. Many people suspect that it was oil that caused the
American invasion of Iraq, but with fluctuating economies and a new
desire to move away from fossil fuels – what does this mean for the
future of the Gulf? And indeed, what on earth does being a Bedouin
nomad mean in the modern era?
I was interested in discovering more about these and many other
topics, and I hope my travels might offer at least some insight to those
curious about Arabia and the Arabs, even if they can’t provide any
definitive answers.
This is a journey through a land steeped in history. It is also mired in
controversy, jealousy and tarnished by seemingly endless war. This