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The Marsh Arabs

Wilfred Thesiger,

Jon Lee Anderson (Introduction)

4.22 · Rating details · 1,068 ratings · 81 reviews

During the years he spent among the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq-long before they were almost completely wiped out by Saddam Hussein-Wilfred Thesiger came to understand, admire, and share a way of life that had endured for many centuries. Traveling from village to village by canoe, he won acceptance by dispensing medicine and treating the sick. In this account of a nearly ...more

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Paperback, 234 pages

Published October 25th 2007 by Penguin Classics (first published 1964)

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Jul 25, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, middle-east, travel

I wonder if despite the draining of the marshes it might be easier for the way of life described here to return than that of the Bedouin in Arabian Sands?

Thesiger spent a number of years in the early 1950s travelling around the marshes of southern Iraq. He wasn't as taken with the Marsh Arabs as he had been by the Bedouin (his travels with them are described in Arabian Sands). The way of life in the Iraqi marshes was too settled and lacked the extreme hardship of the Empty Quarter, and Thesiger ...more

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Apr 25, 2020 Chrissie rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, iraq, 2020-read, audible-uk, anthropology, travel

I have given three stars to the two books I have read by Wilfred Thesiger, The Marsh Arabs and Arabian Sands, and yet I do prefer the former over the latter. There is more moving about from place to place in the latter. The Arabic names of places are hard to keep straight, particularly if there are many. In the former the focus is less on places and more on people, which I prefer.

The Marsh Arabs is about the Arab tribes living in the marshlands of southern Iraq at the conjunction of the Euphrate ...more

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Dec 09, 2015 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-east, travel-classics

While I was reading this book, it felt as if it were written some 75 or 100 years ago instead of 1964. Wilfred Thesiger was writing about a way of life that vanished rather abruptly after Saddam Hussein decided to drain much of the marshland in which the Madans and other marsh Arabs lived. Their way of life was ancient, perhaps going back to the days of ancient Sumer -- but then so much of what was ancient has been wiped off the face of the Earth in the last few decades.

Thesiger found himself we ...more

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Feb 01, 2020 Jacob Overmark rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, read-owned, travel

There is a place between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris where the mythical Garden of Eden is supposed to have been.
This is probably not it, as the marshlands here takes a lot of adaption to live in and the famous Adam and Eve would not have been that quick adaptors.
But, it has been inhabited for centuries if not more by the tribes Wilfred Thesiger collectively calls the Marsh Arabs.
During the 50-ties Wilfred Thesiger spent 8 years on/off in this area, exploring and doctoring and getting famil ...more

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Oct 15, 2018 Czarny Pies rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Readers will to tolerate a blow-hard author.

Shelves: asian-history

"The Marsh Arabs" is a travel book first published in 1964 that describes the 8 years during the 1950s that Wilfred Thesiger spent travelling in Iraqi marshs where the Maʻdān or shroog tribesmen lived. The author's intent is to write a lyrical tribute to a people whose style of life "had not changed for 5000 years". He makes their blood feuds, high rate of infant mortality and crushing poverty seem both charming and bucolic.
It should not be ignored that Thesiger spouts a great deal of nonsense. ...more

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May 15, 2018 Tamara Agha-Jaffar rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-ve-reviewed, non-fiction, 2018-reading-challenge, middle-east-and-africa

In The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger describes his intermittent eight-year stay with the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq during the 1950s. The marshlands consist of a 6,000 square area of wetlands where the Tigris and Euphrates close in on each other and eventually meet before flowing into the Shatt Al-Arab waterway, pass the city of Basra, and merge into the Arabian Gulf. Regarded by many historians as the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden and Great Flood, the area is known as the cradle of In The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger describes his intermittent eight-year stay with the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq during the 1950s. The marshlands consist of a 6,000 square area of wetlands where the Tigris and Euphrates close in on each other and eventually meet before flowing into the Shatt Al-Arab waterway, pass the city of Basra, and merge into the Arabian Gulf. Regarded by many historians as the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden and Great Flood, the area is known as the cradle of civilization. The Sumerians established a thriving civilization in the area, establishing an elaborate irrigation system that allowed the culture to flourish. Their descendants are the modern-day marsh dwellers.

Seeking to lose himself in a place untrammeled by the trappings of modern civilization, a place where people live as they have lived for many thousand years, Thesiger found what he was looking for in the marshlands. He lived among the Marsh Arabs for the better part of eight years, traveled from one village to the next in his tarada (canoe) with his skilled canoe boys; stayed at the village mudhif (guest house); enjoyed legendary Arab hospitality; ate meals and drank endless cups of coffee and tea with his hosts; hunted alongside them for game, pigs, boars, and other wildlife; witnessed the hardships of drought and flooding on their crops; participated in a mourning ceremony; and observed them building their incredible structures made of tightly bound reeds. In short, Thesiger experienced life with the Marsh Arabs as it had been lived for centuries. During that time, he made many friends and provided rudimentary medical assistance to the indigenous population who lined up to meet him with their ailing relatives when they learned his tarada was coming to their village.

Thesiger provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Marsh Arabs. In addition to the detailed descriptions, he includes several pages of invaluable black and white photographs which help the reader visualize the people, structures, activities, and environment. His immersion in the culture is all the more impressive because he does not exhibit the prejudices of a technologically advanced culture against a people living under very primitive conditions. Nor does he idealize the Marsh Arabs as “noble savages.” He provides a balanced perspective, admiring many of their qualities while recognizing their failings.

The Marsh Arabs live under a brand of justice that can be harsh and frequently cause bloody family feuds since the aggrieved party has the right to demand blood money or kill the killer. Justice is usually dispensed by the tribal leader who settles disputes and metes out compensation and a punishment that is frequently violent and lacks compassion. But these are also a caring people, coming to the aid of one another in times of difficulty; caring for their disabled; and affording great respect to the mustarjil—a man born in the body of a woman. The mustarjil is accepted on equal terms as any male and is treated accordingly with no hint of stigmatization or marginalization.

With the 1958 revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy, Iraq descended into a period of chaos and lawlessness. The rise to power of Saddam Hussein presaged a reign of terror. Saddam drained much of the marshland, destroying a culture and an ecosystem that had remained virtually unchanged for many thousand years. Attempts are currently being made to restore the marshlands, but the way of life that thrived in this environment is probably lost forever.

Thesiger concludes his book with the words, “. . . another chapter in my life had closed.” But what has been closed is more than a chapter in the life of one man. What has been lost is the remnants of an ancient civilization—a devastating loss from which we can never fully recover. ...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Terri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-non-fiction, adventure-travel, middle-east-non-fiction

There is no-one who does this kind of book better. No-one who can take you inside a vanishing Arab culture better than Wilfred Thesiger. He did it in the wonderful book Arabian Sands and he has done it here again with The Marsh Arabs.
If you are familiar with Thesiger's books you will know that he has a passion for photography and he includes many photos in his books, more photos than you get in any non fiction published these days. The Marsh Arab was no exception. It had plentiful photos (all bl ...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Tasha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: travel-adventure

I enjoyed Thesiger's book Arabian Sands better and debated about giving this one 4 stars. Once I finished this book though, I realized it deserved no less than 5 stars. Although I didn't find myself as absorbed in the stories of the Marsh Arabs as compared to the desert Arabians, I was nonetheless so impressed with Thesiger's ability to integrate himself fully into the lives of whatever culture he was living with, in this case the Marsh Arabs. He seemed to fully respect whichever culture he was ...more

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Apr 27, 2017 Mohamedridha Alaskari محمد رضا العسكري rated it liked it

Shelves: history

It could be unfair to rate three stars, but I born and grew in the Marshes of Dhi Qar, so I guess I know more facts the the author knows.

from one side this book looks like a novel in the way of his writing about the protagonists,

overally I like this book and I guess this is the better book wrote about Iraqi Marshes.

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Jul 27, 2018 Betawolf rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, biography

I was initially quite impressed with this. It has been a while since I read _Arabian Sands_, and I had forgotten how powerful Thesiger's imagery can be. The first chapter in particular is very poetic, and scattered throughout the rest of the book you can find occasional scenes of startling beauty, as Thesiger describes the life of the Madan, pieces of touching drama, or the otherworldly scenery of the marshes. For its communication of a 'sense of place', this is very worthwhile.

However, there is I was initially quite impressed with this. It has been a while since I read _Arabian Sands_, and I had forgotten how powerful Thesiger's imagery can be. The first chapter in particular is very poetic, and scattered throughout the rest of the book you can find occasional scenes of startling beauty, as Thesiger describes the life of the Madan, pieces of touching drama, or the otherworldly scenery of the marshes. For its communication of a 'sense of place', this is very worthwhile.

However, there is a major flaw to the book. Where _Arabian Sands_ could sometimes be unclear, _The Marsh Arabs_ is just hopelessly confused as a narrative. The story features a vast array of sheiks and Sayids whom Thesiger is constantly meeting and describing, very few of which are distinctive characters. There are quite a few different tribes, which all have different relationships with each other and live in different regions, some of which are in the marshes and some of which are not, and the geographical relationship of which is extremely hard to follow. Thesiger proceeds vaguely chronologically, but in a very loose sense, often darting his story off into the future or the past as and when some connection arises -- another story about a character just mentioned, for example, or a different pig-hunt to the one the narrative just broke off from. This doesn't negate the positives of Thesiger's writing, but it does limit my enjoyment of them.

The book is strange in that it manages to communicate Thesiger's enjoyment of the Madan lifestyle whilst simultaneously making clear how abjectly terrible I would find the whole experience. The dirty, dank living space. The constant lack of privacy. The demanding, ungrateful locals. The long, tedious ceremonies full of insincere insistences. The complete lack of respect for stated preferences. The wasteful exhibitions. Somehow Thesiger enjoyed or tolerated all of this far more easily than he tolerated life in the West, and actively sought out what I would consider a trial of patience and endurance.

A decent enough read for anyone with a subject interest, but a decidedly uneven composition. Light nonfiction with plenty of interesting tidbits (like the Madan acceptance of transexuality), and occasional bits of stirring poetry. ...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Todd rated it really liked it

An account of the author’s extensive travels through the marshes at the confluence of Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The author boats where fancy takes him, no over-arching quest to guide him, just the spirit of exploration and the desire to experience a culture largely untouched by the modern world. Along the way he describes his environment and its wildlife; the people he meets; their stories, customs, rituals and rivalries; their architecture and material culture. With some loyal indigen ...more

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Mar 21, 2014 fourtriplezed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, asia, travel

An excellent read on a world that no longer exists.

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Jul 26, 2018 ALLEN rated it it was amazing

Some say it was the true "Garden of Eden" -- and now it's nearly gone. Renowned British explorer/traveler Wilfred Thesiger gave us this fantastically readable 1964 book about the marshlands of Iraq and the Arabs who inhabited them. They got around by skiffs and operated a water-based economy such as growing and weaving reeds, quite unlike the arid lands/desert lifestyle usually associated with Middle Eastern Arabs. Thesiger lived among them -- observing their ways, interviewing them, sometimes d ...more

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Nov 01, 2017 Jim Puskas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: our-world, place-and-time

This book is a sort of time capsule, having captured and saved for posterity an intimate, detailed, clear-eyed and very personal description of an environment and an entire way of life that no longer exists. Regrettably, world politics, oil and despotism totally destroyed this unique world shortly after Thesiger's sojourn. A brutal dictatorship culminating in Saddam Hussein's folly saw to it that the iconic wetlands that had sustained life for thousands of years were drained, destroying not just ...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Kobe Bryant rated it really liked it

The author hangs out with the Marsh Arabs

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Nov 02, 2018 Mohamedridha Alaskari محمد رضا العسكري rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: social-psychology

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Dec 18, 2009 Joe rated it really liked it

Curiously Thesiger made his reputation amongst the Marsh Arabs as an accomplished circumciser of local youths. The ability to do this without the accompanying hideous infections of badly performed procedures, or those undertaken with dirty instruments, was warmly welcomed. An elementary knowledge of medicine combined with a suitcase full of drugs etc enabled him to provide considerable assistance to the population in the marshes of southern Iraq in the 1950s. He seemed to cure everything from gu ...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: ecology-landscape-design-nature, non-fiction

Thesiger is so comfortable among the Marsh Arabs that his narrative has none of the wonder of a travel or adventure story, but all of the candor and naturalism of a social study, focused on the fading culture of the Madan and the compromised environment of the marshes themselves.

Notes:

Thesiger is unique in his simple, unadulterated curiosity about the lives of the Marsh Arabs. Thesiger's treatment of Iraqi geography and history is important reading for Americans, the new conquerors, to understan ...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Kay rated it it was amazing

i love reading thesinger, this one and 'arabian sands'. he was such an interesting person and had such fantastic approaches to the people he met and places he went. the photos in this one, like arabian sands, are amazing. what an incredible way of life the marsh arabs had in iraq, now of course gone for ever. i highly recommend this book if you are at all interested in explorers or learning about ways of life you never knew existed.

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Aug 08, 2012 Aysha rated it it was amazing

One of the greatest and most interesting books I have ever read. What I love about Thesiger is that he draws you into a whole new world, and introduces every character so well that you remember them throughout the novel.
I wish his works were more well known and read. This man is a truly underrated author.

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Sep 06, 2012 Chrisl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1960s, travel, asia

Don't see that anyone has tagged this classic. It's Thesiger's other classic for me.

Wilfred Thesiger ...more

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Jan 22, 2008 Bob Peru rated it it was amazing

i love me some wifred thesiger. the dude hated cars.

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Jan 24, 2018 Christian Olsson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In order to truly appreciate Thesiger’s “The Marsh Arabs” it is imperative for the reader to take distance from the current preconceptions of race, gender, and cultural customs. Although not that old in body, the ideas and traditions of the Madan culture have been around for millennia, with little changes until Saddam Hussein drained the marshes. Having an open mind about how life existed and how cultural values and gender roles had a bigger impression of how a person should be and act as a part In order to truly appreciate Thesiger’s “The Marsh Arabs” it is imperative for the reader to take distance from the current preconceptions of race, gender, and cultural customs. Although not that old in body, the ideas and traditions of the Madan culture have been around for millennia, with little changes until Saddam Hussein drained the marshes. Having an open mind about how life existed and how cultural values and gender roles had a bigger impression of how a person should be and act as a part of a collective, rather than having individual ideas about how life should be lived, is therefore important when reading Thesiger’s work.

The Marsh Arabs is a historic and cultural document more so than a travel journal. It is one of the few books that records the life and customs of the Madan people. Thesiger’s ability to blend into their culture forms an essential part in the authenticity of the record of how these people lived. One can argue – with good reason - that he reflects the last grasp of British Colonialism in the region; however, one can equally argue that Thesiger had an adventurous spirit and was fortunate enough in life to really act on that. As Thesiger was born in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) he had a very untraditional upbringing. A sense of cultural understanding – in modern terms, street knowledge - is very difficult to learn and act on if not having lived under similar circumstances before. Thesiger grew up within tribe culture and many times referenced previous experiences and drew parallels between peoples in the Marsh Arabs and other cultures he’s encountered throughout his travels.

The excellence of the Marsh Arabs is therefore twofold. It is a cultural and historic document of a people whose customs and way of life is now essentially extinct, but it is written for the Western audience by a writer who is well versed in the culture and is – literally in this work – immersed in the culture. In the Marsh Arabs Thesiger discusses conflicts, traditions, rituals, architecture, cuisine, relationships, marriages, funerals, justice system, and art as well as provides a non-chronological travel narrative. He also talks about his own contributions to the Madan peoples’ daily life such as performing simple surgeries in the form of countless circumcisions, shooting wild boar, and participating in their ceremonies. One may have opinions regarding his right of performing the medical procedures without any medical training, however fact remains that these acts earned him respect and a reputation, and thus also the trust of the Madan, which in turn makes this book as a historic record very valuable.

Apart from the reasons stated above, The Marsh Arabs proves to be a fast pacing and engaging read. Thesiger’s photographs are marvelous and are works of art in their own right. The chapters are concentrated and concise, and Thesiger’s “matter-of-fact” approach - where he separates fact from his own values - helps for the reader to gain an understanding of how everyday life is lived in the old marshlands of southern Iraq. More importantly, Thesiger makes the reader care and awakens a thought about the consequences of human interaction on nature. In his very last chapter he discusses the transition many children of the Madan are making from the life in the marshes to life in the city. Although modern urbanized life would eventually have caught up with the Madan and that way diminishing their way of life it would’ve been their choice to make. Had Thesiger written this book a decade later this book would certainly not have been the same as it then would’ve been influenced by a sense of sentimentality on his part for the draining of the marshes. As it stands now, the Marsh Arabs is an excellent time capsule written by a well-informed traveler. Although it lives somewhat in the shadow of Thesiger’s Arabian Sands the Marsh Arabs is a very well written and engaging read.
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Jan 10, 2020 Peter Ellwood rated it really liked it

I picked up this book as a kind of double homage. My travels round the world have occasionally thrown up the occasional obscure name, with the relevant conversation typically beginning with a haughty “good lord, you mean you haven’t heard of Gertrude Bell/Mary Kingsley/Freya Stark/whomever?”. When I lived in the Middle East, Thesiger’s was one of those names: to read him was somehow to join a select club.

And second, I was lucky enough to visit those very Iraqi marshes in the early eighties, bef I picked up this book as a kind of double homage. My travels round the world have occasionally thrown up the occasional obscure name, with the relevant conversation typically beginning with a haughty “good lord, you mean you haven’t heard of Gertrude Bell/Mary Kingsley/Freya Stark/whomever?”. When I lived in the Middle East, Thesiger’s was one of those names: to read him was somehow to join a select club.

And second, I was lucky enough to visit those very Iraqi marshes in the early eighties, before Saddam drained them. Electricity had just been piped into some of the villages and I still cherish the memory of a family sitting in their mudhif, fixedly watching the TV screen, the only item of furniture, long after the programming had stopped, still transfixed by the dancing pixels of the signal. I couldn’t not read this book.

I have always thought of that visit as marking the moment that the marsh Arabs were polluted by modernity, so I don’t know what Wilfred Thesiger would have made of electricity in the first place. The introduction to this absorbing book mentions that he wished he had been able to see them a generation before his own stays there (in the fifties), as he was conscious of major change even then.

Either way, Saddam Hussein took a wrecking ball to whatever was still there of their way of life: for which reason, Thesiger’s account is therefore a truly precious record of what it was once like.

In some ways it’s not exactly immortal prose. His writing style is relatively unimaginative and low-key, and the book is little more than an anecdotal diary record of his years in the marshlands, with little real structure apart from the passage of time. The account opens with: “All day we had ridden across a flat plain, and the dust rose from under the horses’ hooves and choked us” and slithers to a halt at the end with “…another chapter in my life had closed”. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that in between, pretty much any of the chapters could be interchanged without damaging his narrative.

But still, in other ways, it all works amazingly well. As the book progresses, a unique and fascinating social grouping begins to emerge. Inch by inch, the kaleidoscope of anecdotes of the life of the marsh people brings out the warp and the weft of a world that has vanished (there are efforts, post-Saddam, to recreate the marshes and their way of life: but it remains to be seen whether the people will go back). It’s riveting.

I’m not sure how much I lean towards this book for the pathetic reason that I spent one whole day there; but I recommend it anyway. If lost civilisations and social practices are of interest, however tiny the sliver of civilisation, then you really won’t be disappointed. This is a classic account.
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Sep 05, 2020 Peter rated it liked it

Initially this was a useful aid in mapping out rural locations in Southern Mesopotamia. It proved interesting enough to read all the way through.

The Marsh Arabs is a piece of travel writing describing Wilfred Thesiger's seven years living among the Marshmen of southern Iraq. It takes place during the 1950's, but feels much older. Thesiger was one of the last great British adventurers, and the world he recorded in this book has mostly vanished. While the Marsh Arabs still exist as a people, their Initially this was a useful aid in mapping out rural locations in Southern Mesopotamia. It proved interesting enough to read all the way through.

The Marsh Arabs is a piece of travel writing describing Wilfred Thesiger's seven years living among the Marshmen of southern Iraq. It takes place during the 1950's, but feels much older. Thesiger was one of the last great British adventurers, and the world he recorded in this book has mostly vanished. While the Marsh Arabs still exist as a people, their traditional way of life was destroyed when Saddam Hussein drained the Mesopotamian Marshes. Thesiger's book is somewhat too unfocused for my taste, although the rambling narrative befits the nature of his journeys. To his credit Thesiger's prose is wonderful and at times it reads like poetry. A Quote:

"That evening, back at Sadam's mudhif, I stood watching the sun go down behind reedbeds that stretched to the world's end. High overhead, banks of cirrus cloud, blown to tattered streams, ranged from ebony to flaming gold and the colour of old ivory, against a background of vermilion and orange, violet, mauve, and palest green. From all around, as if the Marshes breathed, came the massed voices of frogs, an all-pervading pulse of sound, so sustained that the mind ceased to take note of it. More than any other, even the crying of geese in winter, this was the sound of the Marshes. A dog barked; a buffalo grunted with a noise surprisingly like a camel's; a man called out a long, and to me, unintelligible message; a pause, and someone answered. More buffaloes swam across the open water towards the village, only their heads showing and each leaving a wake. Among the houses columns of dense smoke spread upwards from small fires, lit to keep the mosquitoes away from the herds. A boy, late back from the reedbeds, paddled down a waterway, a path of shining gold leading from the setting sun. He sang softly as he came towards me, the notes lingering in the air. Sadam called and I went inside." ...more

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Jul 29, 2017 Julie rated it liked it

Again, the things you find in thrift-stores.

To be perfectly fair, this one was chosen by my partner - I ended up reading it because I had finished the books I had chosen. He probably enjoyed more than I did.

The interesting thing about travel memoirs is that, invariably, they're seen through the eyes of the beholder (duh). And Thesiger makes for an entertaining narrator. On the one hand, his admiration for the Marsh Arabs, their customs and rituals and their lifestyles becomes quickly apparent. O ...more

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Jun 18, 2016 Ellis Knox rated it really liked it

Shelves: literature

Thesiger was one of that odd breed of Englishmen, from Sir Richard Burton to T.E. Lawrence to ... well, to this fellow ... who would take it into their heads to go out into a primitive culture and just live there. Thesiger had previously lived for five years among the Berbers; in this book he relates his long visits to the marshlands of the lower Tigris-Euphrates valley in Iraq.

The writing is workmanlike, not at all poetic. He recounts incidents without a blink and only cursory personal reactio ...more

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Feb 15, 2018 Rozlyn rated it really liked it

An excellent read; the writing style is both descriptive and engaging, and the story itself fascinating. The book includes over a hundred photographic plates which augment the story tremendously, especially for the amazing reed mudhifs which are frequently the setting. (The photos and more can be found in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection).

I have not yet read Arabian Sands but reviews of that earlier work complained about Thesiger's primitivism and romanticization of the Bedouin - I didn't see m ...more

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May 26, 2018 Mark Baines rated it liked it

A matter of fact account, almost memoir, of the period the author lived in the Iraqi marshes. Travelling widely within the marshes the author provides an anthropological record of life and customs within the tribes that occupy these areas. Their habits, customs, feuds, animals, tragedies and joys as he experienced them are set down. the flies, boredom, illness, hard labour are mentioned but not dwelled upon. The magnificence of a properly made mudhif is well explained and the plates do them part ...more

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Apr 27, 2018 Oumaya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018

Great inspiration infered when in context of writing my thesis on nomadic tribes in the region.
The story holds an anthropological, ethnological and philosophical degree of investment from the standpoint of a modern (wo)man. Satisfies the cravings of the adventurous soul who wished to roam the world in quests of natural and human discoveries. Romanesque, engaging and truly mind changing when understanding one's own conjecture as a descendant of the Marsh Arabs.
Pictures are added in the old editi ...more

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About Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger

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Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, KBE, DSO, MA, DLitt, FRAS, FRSL, FRGS, FBA, was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.

In 1930, Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, KBE, DSO, MA, DLitt, FRAS, FRSL, FRGS, FBA, was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.

In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.

Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.

In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.
There is a rare wartime photograph of Thesiger in this period. He appears in a well-known photograph usually used to illustrate the badge of the Greek Sacred Squadron. It is usually captioned 'a Greek officer of the Sacred Band briefing British troops'. The officer is recognisably the famous Tsigantes and one of the crowd is recognisably Thesiger. Thesiger is the tall figure with the distinct nasal profile. Characteristically, he is in Arab headdress. Thesiger was the liaison officer to the Greek Squadron.

In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan, and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken By The Wind — a Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).

Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. ...more