Two years in Arabia Deserta

Charles Doughty · 1876 CE – 1878 CE · Earth

Copy the inscribed Nabataean tombs of Mada’in Salih and see the interior of Arabia as an open Christian traveller.

Historical context

In 1876 the interior of Arabia was closed country: the Ottoman writ stopped at the Hajj road, the Rashid emirs of Ha’il ruled the north, and a European caught inland without a disguise had no protection but hospitality. Doughty went in with no disguise at all, announcing himself a Christian at every camp, and lived two years on the charity of people who were told it was a sin to shelter him. What he brought back was not a map but a portrait of Bedouin society in the last generation before motor cars and oil.

The voyage, step by step

1. Damascus, 10 November 1876

   10 November 1876

   Doughty leaves with the annual pilgrim caravan, riding openly as a Christian.

2. Down the pilgrim road

   1876 CE

   The caravan moves from fort to fort along the old Roman line of wells.

3. The tombs of al-Hijr

   1877 CE

   He is set down at Mada’in Salih and spends months copying Nabataean inscriptions.

4. Tayma and the great well

   1877 CE

   An oasis of palm gardens fed by a well so wide that twenty camels draw from it at once.

5. The court of Ha’il

   1877 CE

   The Rashid emir receives him in the Barzan palace and then orders him out of the country.

6. Held at Khaybar

   1878 CE

   In the lava country he is kept for months under the eye of an Ottoman governor.

7. The merchants of al-Qasim

   1878 CE

   Buraydah drives him out; Unayzah takes him in, then sends him away for his own safety.

8. Ta’if, July 1878

   July 1878

   Robbed and beaten on the road, he is rescued by an officer of the Sharif of Mecca.

Outcome

Reached Jeddah in August 1878 with his squeezes intact, having been expelled from Ha’il, detained at Khaybar and robbed near Ta’if.

Charles Doughty

English geologist and poet who spent two years wandering northern Arabia with the Bedouin, refusing to disguise his Christianity, and wrote the strangest masterpiece in English travel literature.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Charles Montagu Doughty — Wikipedia
• Travels in Arabia DesertaCharles Montagu Doughty · Cambridge University Press · 1888

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