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3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
4.0 von 5 Sternen
No try to fill the Empty Quarter, 1. März 2009
What a challenge! Living for years among the Arabs of old. Thesiger was one of the few westerners who made the experience. And he seems to be the last one who can claim to have lived as an Arabian nomadic tribesman. In our days it is difficult to find an opportunity to repeat such a feat as there are hardly any nomads left who give you the unspoiled experience. What kind of difficulties the author must have faced when travelling through the ever hot endless sand dunes of the Empty Quarter, can be very well suspected by anybody who travel on a camels back for just a few days through a sand desert and got exhausted by it.
The narrative is much more than just a travel report. It contains many anecdotes of a real nomad`s life in the deserts. But much more than this it is an ode about and to the Arabs, it is indeed all about the Arabs, the Sand is nothing more than a staffage.
No doubt the author is an adventurer par excellence but I have a problem with him which other readers might share. He is just relating what he lives for, he is an observer, interesting enough, but where are the more sophisticated observations? It is not fair to claim from all great voyagers to be an Alexander von Humboldt who puts travel in and gets a depiction of cosmos out. But going through an "Empty Quarter" of southern Arabian sand deserts without emptying to a remarkable extent the never filling quarters of the human mind, is -sometimes - tiring on the long run.
No, Thesiger is not a philosopher, he has no "wisdom" to offer, except to let the peoples live their traditional lives, whether they include killing out of revenge or insult or treating women in the Allah`s angel given method or whatever.
Thesiger is not very critical with the Arabs; he admired them. "I knew the essential decency which was the bed-rock of their character, their humour, stubbornness, and self-reliance. I knew that if called upon they could adapt themselves to any kind of life, in the desert, in the jungle, in mountains, or on the sea, and that in many respects no race in the world was equal." Which is true for any race. So Thesiger was a racist? No, he is not constantly over-stressing romanticism. He is of the kind, I presume, who would have emphasised the preferences of any human tribe.
Thesiger seemed to have himself such qualities he praised of his chosen customers, no wonder that he got along with the Arabs. He was just lucky not to fall victim of any representative of Arabs who assault, kill and forget to ask afterwards for the merits. Of course Thesiger is not blind to this: "Always reserved in front of strangers and accustomed on formal occasions to sit for hours motionless and in silence, they are a garrulous. Light hearted race. But at the instigation of religious zealots, they can become uncompromisingly puritanical, quick to frown on all amusement, regarding song and music as a sin and laughter as unseemly. Probably no other people, either as a race or as individuals, combine so many conflicting qualities in such an extreme degree."
Everybody who wants to get acquainted with the real Arabs, as we would like to have them, should read this book. And sweep the sand away with an iced drink!
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6 von 7 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
5.0 von 5 Sternen
The best desert travel book ever, 23. November 2000
Von Ein Kunde
Wilfred Thesiger described himself once as " the last explorer in the old fashion " . This is actually true. Only by the help of aims which were the same a thosand years ago did he accomplish to cross the so called " Empty Quarter " the great sand desert of South Arabia. His book concentrates on an exhaustive description of the natural landscape as well as on his deep sympathy and admiration for the natives- the Bedus. The prose of the account is as plain as the surroundings but nevertheless overwhelming. He allows the reader to get an insight into a world, which was with the oil-boom uncontrovertibly lost. For everybody who dreams of, or is even planning to visit Arabia or the desert, this book offers first-hand information on the "true " character of the desert. Thesiger is not too much known but he is certainly to judge among the most important explorers of the 20th century. Read it !!!!
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3 von 7 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
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Best travelbook I have read, 1. September 1998
Von Ein Kunde
Wilfred Thesiger spends 5 years in the desert of Arabia in the company of the Bedu. This book is very well written and gives us a glance into a life that doesn't exist anymore. The Marsh Arabs is equally interesting, A life of my choice a little bit less. If you like Thesiger try also The lost world of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post.
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