Thesiger’s first crossing of the Empty Quarter

Wilfred Thesiger · 1946 CE – 1947 CE · Earth

Thesiger’s first crossing of the Empty Quarter — Wilfred Thesiger · 1946 CE – 1947 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Cross the unexplored eastern sands of the Rub‘ al Khali from Dhofar to Liwa, near the Trucial Coast, and come back by the unknown steppes of western Oman, with Bedouin companions and on their terms.

Historical context

Two Europeans had crossed the Rub‘ al Khali before Thesiger: Bertram Thomas in 1930–31, by the central sands from Dhofar to the Qatar peninsula, the route the Bedouin themselves used, and St John Philby in 1932, farther west still, to the wadi Dawasir. Of the eastern sands between Dhofar and Liwa nothing was known, Thesiger wrote, except that the Bedouin believed them waterless and mountainous. The Middle East Anti-Locust Unit paid for his journeys, and he had asked permission only to revisit Mughshin; crossing the eastern sands and the unknown steppes of western Oman was his own plan. He could make it only with the Bait Kathir of Dhofar and the Rashid, the small tribe at home in the sands, travelling on their food, at their pace and under their protection. Raiding was part of that world: the Karab, the Sai‘ar and the Dahm struck far into the southern steppes, and raid and counter-raid between Abu Dhabi and Dubai had flared up again that winter. At the end of his travels in 1947 he wrote that he knew his companions and their way of life were “an anachronism”, but that among them he had found “a freedom of the spirit which may not survive their passing”.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Salalah, 25 October 1946

    25 October 1946

    Thesiger leaves the monsoon coast of Dhofar for the sands on 25 October 1946 with a party chosen by the Wali, paid to hunt locusts.

  2. Shisur well, 6 November 1946

    6 November 1946

    Over the Qara mountains by the Kismim pass to Shisur, where a party of the Rashid is waiting.

  3. The wells of Mughshin

    24 November 1946

    Muhsin is crippled at the well, and on 24 November ten Arabs and Thesiger turn north into the sands.

  4. The Uruq al Shaiba

    December 1946

    At Ramlat al Ghafa most of the Bait Kathir turn back; five men go on over dunes whose peaks rise up to 210 metres above the salt flats.

  5. Water at Khaba, 13 December 1946

    13 December 1946

    On 13 December the five reach Khaba, one of the only two wells of Dhafra whose water men can drink.

  6. Liwa, 16 December 1946

    16 December 1946

    Camped in the dunes at the southern edge of Liwa, Thesiger sends two companions down to the settlements for food.

  7. Khaur Kadri, 3 January 1947

    3 January 1947

    After a feast in the Rashid camp, the party reaches the Duru‘ wells of the wadi al ‘Ain, where Thesiger passes as a Syrian.

  8. Back to Salalah, 23 February 1947

    23 February 1947

    South across the Oman steppes to Bai, then over the Jaddat al Harasis and down the wadi Darbat, the party reaches Salalah on 23 February 1947.

Outcome

Reached the southern edge of Liwa on 16 December 1946 with two Rashid and two Bait Kathir companions and the Rashid sheikh Hamad bin Hanna, and returned to Salalah by the Oman steppes on 23 February 1947: the first crossing of the eastern sands by a European.

Wilfred Thesiger

British traveller who crossed the Empty Quarter twice on camel with Rashid and Bait Kathir Bedouin, and wrote its elegy in Arabian Sands.

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Sources

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