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Aug. 26th, 2003 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutJust heard that Wilfred Thesiger died. Well, one can't say that he didn't have a good run. He was 93.
Wilfred Thesiger is perhaps best-known these days for chronicling the lives of the Marsh Arabs -- the Shiite tribes that lived at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, until Saddam Hussein drained the marshes and forced them to relocate -- although his best-selling book was Arabian Sands, an account of crossing the Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula.
As a side note, I believe that I still own a copy of every book written in English on the Marsh Arabs (three). It's part of my Sumerian fixation; some scholars believe that in terms of physical culture, the Marsh Arabs lived quite similarly to rural Sumerians of oh so very long ago.
I am also fixated on the Empty Quarter. (Who wouldn't be? It's empty and forbidding and treacherous, and people have filled its emptiness with a variety of legends and mystical portents.) He thus holds a prominent place on my bookshelves. In fact, I just packed his books today.
Wilfred Thesiger is perhaps best-known these days for chronicling the lives of the Marsh Arabs -- the Shiite tribes that lived at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, until Saddam Hussein drained the marshes and forced them to relocate -- although his best-selling book was Arabian Sands, an account of crossing the Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula.
As a side note, I believe that I still own a copy of every book written in English on the Marsh Arabs (three). It's part of my Sumerian fixation; some scholars believe that in terms of physical culture, the Marsh Arabs lived quite similarly to rural Sumerians of oh so very long ago.
I am also fixated on the Empty Quarter. (Who wouldn't be? It's empty and forbidding and treacherous, and people have filled its emptiness with a variety of legends and mystical portents.) He thus holds a prominent place on my bookshelves. In fact, I just packed his books today.
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Date: 2003-08-27 05:22 am (UTC)So, I have Thesiger, Maxwell and Gavin Young.
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Date: 2003-08-27 05:49 pm (UTC)I'd forgotten about Maxwell. I'd probably over-identified him with otters. Well, as soon as we've moved...a quick search on ABE Books seems to imply that I may have to order a copy from the UK.
I do also seem to remember tat I had the damnedest time finding either Young or Thesiger with the proper illustrations; for some reason, the American edition had decided to cut out all the photos.