Arabian Sands
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Arabian Sands
''Arabian Sands'' is a 1959 book by explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger. The book focuses on the author's travels across the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula between 1945 and 1950. It attempted to capture the lives of the Bedu people and other inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula. It is considered a classic of travel literature. The book largely reflects on the changes and large scale development that took place after the Second World War and the subsequent gradual erosion of traditional Bedouin ways of life that had previously existed unaltered for thousands of years. Context Wilfred Thesiger was born into a privileged English background, the son of a diplomat, educated at Eton and Oxford. As soon as he could, on his first summer holiday at university, he travelled to Istanbul, going out by tramp steamer, back by train: the first of many adventurous journeys. At age 23 he went on his first exploration, of the Awash River in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). He became a ...
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Wilfred Thesiger
Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan ( ar, مُبَارَك بِن لَنْدَن, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's travel books include ''Arabian Sands'' (1959), on his foot and camel crossing of the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, and ''The Marsh Arabs'' (1964), on his time living with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq. Early life Thesiger was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was the son of Wilfred Gilbert Thesiger, who was British Consul-General in Ethiopia from 1909 to 1919, and his wife Kathleen Mary Vigors. Thesiger's grandfather was Frederic Augustus Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford. Another Frederic Thesiger, a future Viceroy of India and the first Viscount Chelmsford, was an uncle, and the actor Ernest Thesiger was a cousin. Wilfred Thesiger and his younger brother were the only European children for most of his early years in Addis Ababa. He l ...
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Dhofar
The Dhofar Governorate ( ar, مُحَافَظَة ظُفَار, Muḥāfaẓat Ẓufār) is the largest of the 11 Governorates in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of area. It lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen's Al Mahrah Governorate. It is a rather mountainous area that covers and has a population of 416,458 as of the 2020 census. The largest city, as well as capital of the Governorate, is Salalah. Historically, the region was a source of frankincense. The local variety of Arabic is Dhofari Arabic, which is quite distinct from that of the rest of Oman and from Yemen. History Archaeology At ''Aybut Al-Auwal'' ("First Aybut") in Wadi Aybut (west-central Nejd), a site was discovered in 2011 containing more than 100 surface scatters of stone tools belonging to a regionally specific lithic industry, the late Nubian Complex, known previously only from Northeast Africa. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates place the Arabian Nubian Complex at 10 ...
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Ibn Saud
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted as 1875, although a few sources give it as 1880. According to British author Robert Lacey's book ''The Kingdom'', a leading Saudi historian found records that show Ibn Saud in 1891 greeting an important tribal delegation. The historian reasoned that a 10 or 11-year-old child (as given by the 1880 birth date) would have been too young to be allowed to greet such a delegation, while an adolescent of 15 or 16 (as given by the 1875 date) would likely have been allowed. When Lacey interviewed one of Ibn Saud's sons prior to writing the book, the son recalled that his father often laughed at records showing his birth date to be 1880. Ibn Saud's response to such records was reportedly that "I swallowed four years of my life." p. 561" – 9 Novembe ...
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Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. It is the largest city on the Arabian Peninsula, and is situated in the center of the an-Nafud desert, on the eastern part of the Najd plateau. The city sits at an average of above sea level, and receives around 5 million tourists each year, making it the forty-ninth most visited city in the world and the 6th in the Middle East. Riyadh had a population of 7.6 million people in 2019, making it the most-populous city in Saudi Arabia, 3rd most populous in the Middle East, and 38th most populous in Asia. The first mentioning of the city by the name ''Riyadh'' was in 1590, by an early Arab chronicler. In 1737, Deham Ibn Dawwas, who was from the neighboring Manfuha, settled in and took control of the city. Deham ...
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Jebel Tuwaiq
Jabal Tuwaiq ( ar, جَبَل طُوَيْق, Tuwaiq Mountain) is a narrow escarpment that cuts through the plateau of Najd in central Arabia, running approximately from the southern border of Al-Qasim in the north, to the northern edge of the Empty Quarter desert near Wadi ad-Dawasir in the south. It is high and also has a Middle Jurassic stratigraphic section. The eastern side slopes downwards gradually, while the western side ends in an abrupt manner. The escarpment can be thought of as a narrow plateau, though the locals refer to it as a ''jebel'' ("mount"). Marshall Cavendish used the name "Tuwayr Mountains" to describe mountains of central Arabia, distinct from the Shammar in the north, the Dhofar in the south, and the Hajar to the east. Many narrow valleys (''wadis'') run along its sides, such as Wadi Hanifa, and a group of towns lie on its central section, including the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Many settlements have historically existed on either side of it as well, ...
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Mukalla
Mukalla ( ar, ٱلْمُكَلَّا, ') is a seaport and the capital city of Yemen's largest governorate, Hadhramaut. The city is in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of Aden, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, about east of Aden. It is the most important port in the Hadhramaut and the fifth-largest city in Yemen, with a population of approximately 500,000. The city is served by the nearby Riyan International Airport. History Mukalla is not far from Cane or Qana, the ancient principal Hadrami trading post between India and Africa, with incense producing areas in its hinterland. Mukalla was founded in 1035 as a fishing settlement. This area was part of Oman until the middle of the 11th century, and later this area became part of Yemen. After witnessing a struggle for control by the Kathiri and Qu'aiti Sultanates in the 19th and 20th centuries, it became the capital of the Qu'aiti State of Hadhramaut, and then in 1967, it became a part of South Yemen. ...
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Liwa Oasis
The Liwa Oasis ( ar, وَاحَـة لِـيْـوَا, Wāḥḥat Līwā) is a large oasis area in the Western Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. Geography Liwa Oasis is about south of the Persian Gulf coast and southwest of the city of Abu Dhabi, on the northern edge of Rub' al Khali desert. It is centered around and stretches about east-west, along an arch curved to the north. It consists of some 50 villages. The geographic and economic center of the oasis is Muzayri`, where the highway from Abu Dhabi enters the oasis and then divides to the east ( to the easternmost village, Mahdar Bin `Usayyan) and west ( to the westernmost village, `Aradah). According to the census of population of 2005, the population was 20,196. Earlier estimates judging from satellite images which gauged the population at 50,000 to 150,000, were too high. The villages of Liwa Oasis are the southernmost settlements of Abu Dhabi and of the United Arab Emirates. The sou ...
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Khaba
Khaba (also read as Hor-Khaba) was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, active during the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom period. The exact time during which Khaba ruled is unknown but may have been around 2670 BC,Thomas Schneider: ''Lexikon der Pharaonen''. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, , p. 97. and almost definitely towards the end of the dynasty. King Khaba is considered to be difficult to assess as a figure of ancient Egypt. His name is archaeologically well-attested by stone bowls and mud seal impressions. Khaba's reign is securely dated to the Third Dynasty. Because of the contradictions within Ramesside king lists and the lack of contemporary, festive inscriptions, his exact chronological position within the dynasty remains disputed. These problems originate in part from contradictory king lists, which were all compiled long after Khaba's death, especially during the Ramesside era (which is separated from the Third Dynasty by 1,400 years). It is also a matter of debate as to ...
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Salalah
Salalah ( ar, صَلَالَة, Ṣalālah) is the capital and largest city of the southern Omani governorate of Dhofar. Its population in 2009 was about 197,169. Salalah is the third-largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, and the largest city in the Dhofar Province. Salalah is the birthplace of the former sultan, Qaboos bin Said. Salalah attracts many people from other parts of Oman and the Persian Gulf region during the monsoon/''khareef'' season, which spans from June to September. The climate of the region and the monsoon allows the city to grow some vegetables and fruits like coconut and bananas. There are many gardens within the city where these vegetables and fruits grow. History Salalah was the traditional capital of Dhofar, which reached the peak of prosperity in the 13th century thanks to the incense trade. Later it decayed, and in the 19th century it was absorbed by the Sultanate of Muscat. Between 1932 and 1970, Salalah was the residence of Said bin Taimur, the Sul ...
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Hadhramaut
Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saudi Arabia. The name is of ancient origin, and is retained in the name of the Yemeni Governorate of Hadhramaut. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhrami. They formerly spoke Hadramautic, an old South Arabian language, but they now predominantly speak Hadhrami Arabic, which has much influence from Hadramautic. Etymology The origin of the name of ''Ḥaḍramawt'' is not exactly known, and there are numerous competing hypotheses about its meaning. The most common folk etymology is that the region's name means "death has come," from ar, حَضَر, ḥaḍara, lit=he came and ar, مَوْت, mawt, lit=death, though there are multiple explanations for how it came to be known as such. One explanation is that this is a nickname of 'A ...
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Ghanim
Ghanim is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Antoine Ghanim, Lebanese politician and an MP in the Lebanese Parliament * Ghanim Abdulrahman al-Harbi, Saudi detainee at Guantanamo Bay * Ghanim Al-Jumaily (born 1950), the ambassador of Iraq to Saudi Arabia * Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad (born 1964), Arab businessman * Ghanim Oraibi (born 1961), Iraqi football defender *Ibrahim Al-Ghanim (born 1983), Qatari footballer *Khalil Ghanim (born 1964), footballer from UAE * Marzouq Al-Ghanim, member and the current speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly * Mohammed Ghanim, former Qatari football player * Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim, Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay *Mubarak Ghanim, (born 1963), footballer from UAE *Nassir Al-Ghanim (born 1961), Kuwaiti football midfielder * Nasser Ghanim Al Khulaifi (born 1973), Qatari sports businessman, former professional tennis player * Shukri Ghanim (1942–2012), Libyan politician, General Secretary of the General People's Committee of L ...
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