By A.I MAKKI
The Arabian Peninsula has always attracted travelers from different parts of the world since ancient times. In modern times, the British have been the foremost among Europeans in exploring the land of Arabia. There is no race on earth today that can compare with them in the spirit of adventure that took them to faraway distant lands in their travels and the magnificent travel books, which they have written. Kinglake’s Eothen; Morier’s Hajji Baba; Burton’s Travels; Doughty’s Arabia Deserta; T.E Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom: and W.Theisger’s The Marsh Arabs are some of the books that have been left as a legacy to those who share their spirit of adventure in the modern world.

The land of Arabia is a peninsula with an area of about 1,000,000 square miles. It is approximately the size of the Indian Peninsula. The Arabian Peninsula may be described roughly as a plateau falling gently eastwards from a mountain range, averaging 5000 feet in height. The mountains run along its western side at about ten to fifteen miles from the Red Sea. This chain of highlands begins in the north with coastal granites. As one travels inland, he encounters Harra (volcanic matter) in the areas of Northern Hejaz. From there they continue as limestone gradually rising to 9000 feet in the regions of Asir and Yemen at its southern end. Extending round the southern shore of Hadramaut, the mountain range sinks and is eventually lost in the sands. However, as the coast turns inward into the Arabian Gulf, a traveler again comes across highlands in Oman. These highlands shield the Arabian hinterland from the sea in the west, south, and southeast.  

Most of the Arabian Peninsula is arid. However, Oman receives sufficient rainfall. Yemen in the south receives moisture from the heavy mists rising from the plains and is the first country to catch the southwest rain bearing monsoon winds before they penetrate into the interior mainland. Arabia, therefore, is almost a waterless land. It has no perennial rivers. There are wadis (valleys), the beds of torrent that flow irregularly and run dry for long periods. There are no forests, and only three groups of spring-fed pools are found in the regions of al-Hassa, al-Kharj, and Laila Aflaj. And, there are a few wells and springs in the desert that supports vegetation and villages known as oases.

Arabia is a hot country because of its latitude. The highlands of Arabia and Yemen, however, have a pleasant climate. Yemen is also considered as the cradle of the earliest civilization in Arabia. The main geologic formations here are the limestone and the sandstone. The southern desert of Rub al-Khali-the dreaded empty quarter of the travelers-had remained unexplored until the beginning of the last century. The northern desert is known as Nafud. It has extraordinarily long ridges of sand, divided by valleys, and deep pits in the sand. The valleys are ten to twelve miles wide, and sometimes reveal the underlying rock. The Empty Quarter, 300,000 square miles in area posed a tremendous challenge to travelers until recently. Bertram Thomas, St. John Philby, and Thesiger created history by traversing through the desert on camel back in modern times.

Dates, fruits, wheat, millet, barley are the chief crops of Arabia. Samn (clarified butter), indigo, leather-works, mantles, woven tents, and goat’s hair are also produced here. Camels, horses, and cattle are bred in farms. Trading is done in gum, frankincense, and myrrh. From the highlands of Yemen comes the most ancient kind of coffee known as Mocha. Exports from Arabia barely cover the cost of importing foodstuff. Today, the oil revenue brings in much needed capital for the region. In this wide territory, live the Bedouins. Travelers like Glubb, Bruckhardt and others have described them as the noblest of human beings despite their other shortcomings. Other travelers like Palgrave viewed Bedouins with detestation. On the other hand, Doughty tries to be evenhanded in his writings and describes the Bedouin people with the good and the negative shades in their character. Today, the life of the Bedouins is changing fast. Oil wealth, industries, urban life, and the trappings of a modern life have forced many among them into the cities searching for their livelihood and a city life.

The Egyptians were the earliest travelers to the region. In the reign of Alexander, travel and trade were well established. During the Roman invasions, foreign traders journeyed regularly through the land mostly by caravans. The ancient geographers record that they gathered information about the Arab lands from merchants and soldiers like Gallus. Strabo, a Greek geographer writes that he based his account from such sources. His account of the life in the Arabian Peninsula is both lively and informative. He writes of people who have “houses built of salt.” The houses would break off constantly by the burning heat of the sun. They would be sprinkled by water constantly to bind the blocks firmly together. He also writes of a Sabaean country, a fertile, and a populous place that produced myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon. He writes of balsamum and other herbs found on the coastal areas. There were sweet-smelling palms. Snakes found here were dark in color, and a span in length. They could spring as high as a man’s waist and their bite was incurable. Life of the people was lazy and indolent because of abundant agricultural produce. The lower classes lived on roots and slept on trees. Strabo also gives an account of the Bedouin nomads, who rode and fought on camels, and lived on the animal’s milk and flesh.

Other ancient geographers like Ibn Khurdadhbih describe the coast routes from the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf to the Yellow Sea. His record gives a useful list of Arabian ports, caravan stages and routes, and distances between towns and cities in the Peninsula, and other information useful for the commercial traveler. He records that the Jews were the chief intermediaries of the caravan routes between Asia and Europe because of their mastery over different languages. Istakhri (d: 950 C.E) journeyed extensively in the Muslim world and wrote a Book of Climates beginning with Arabia. Among others, Ibn Haykal and Masudi were the other geographers who provided useful information about the Arabian Peninsula in their books.

Ibn Batuta another great traveler of the medieval period, born in Tangiers in 1300 set out at the age of twenty-five on travels, which were destined to carry him to different parts in the Arabian Peninsula. With an object of performing his pilgrimage he first went to Cairo and then to Alexandria. He reaches his destination traveling through Damascus, Gaza, Syria, and Palestine. After reaching Makkah, he performs his pilgrimage. He leaves for posterity an account of the people of Makkah.

“The inhabitants of Makkah are distinguished by many excellent and noble qualities, by their beneficence to the…weak and kindness to strangers. When any of them makes a feast he begins by giving food to the…poor…Even if he has a single loaf, he gives away a third or half of it, cheerfully and without grudging…The Makkans are very elegant in their dress, and most of them wear white garments…They use Kohl and make free use of toothbrushes of green arak wood. The Makkan women are…very pious and modest. They visit the mosque wearing their finest apparel.”

At the end of the fifteenth century, Pedro da Covilham was among the first Europeans to be commissioned to travel across the Mediterranean into Muslim territory to explore the possibilities of trade in spices. Covilham was among the first Europeans to visit Arabia. While no detailed account of his travel survives, it is definitely known that he visited Aden thrice in search of gold for himself and his country. Shortly after Covilham, another Italian adventurer Ludovico di Varathema traveled throughout the length and breadth of Arabia, entering the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah. His book, which was widely read in the sixteenth century records that he resolved to see for himself, “…personally, with his own eyes,…to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of people, the diversities of animals, the varieties of fruit-bearing and odoriferous trees…remembering well that the testimony of one eyewitness is worth more than ten thousand hearsays.” Niebuhr and Bruckhardt who traveled to Arabia after him declared the account of his travels truthful and completely reliable. His travels, which began in 1503, took him through Alexandria and Cairo to Aleppo, Beirut, and Damascus. It appears that he feigned Islam to further his own ends. He joined a Mameluke force in Damascus under the name Yunus. Varathema then proceeds to Hajj and gives detailed account of utterly barren stretches of land, sandy deserts, hills, and thorny bushes.

Varathema describes Makkah as a city full of different types of men. Among others, Indians, Persians, Syrians, and Ethiopians had come to the city seeking trade or for “the pardoning” as the Hajj Pilgrimage is supposed to wash of the sins of the pilgrims, and render them as innocent as newborn babes. His description of the rites of Hajj is exact and may be compared with that of the later accounts of Bruckhardt and Burton. After the end of the Pilgrimage, the time comes for him to return to Syria. He deserts the Mameluke army and reaches Yemen, and describes it as a land full of-“…good grapes, peaches, quinces, pomegranates, very strong garlic, tolerable onions, excellent nuts, melons, roses, flowers, nectarines, figs, gourds, citrons, lemons, and sour oranges…so that it is a paradise…abundance of grain, barley, and white millet which…makes good bread…” Varathema’s book was printed in Italian several times in the sixteenth century. The first English translation appeared in 1576-77. The Hakluyt Society published it again in 1863. Varathema’s account made a great advance about the knowledge of Arabia to the Europeans. Bruckhardt and Burton give him a notable place for his records of travels in Arabia.

Among the other travelers to the Peninsula the name of Afonso d’ Albuquerque, from Portugal is worth mentioning. In the “Commentaries of the Great Afonso d’ Albuquerque” published by son in 1557 and republished in 1774, he describes Aden as a town of “lofty and beautiful houses, fortified with a wall, with an inland bastion, and with walled hills containing forts behind the town. The story of how Albuquerque stormed the walls of the town, fought bravely, was repulsed and then retired to perform other notable tasks for his country inspired other people to venture on Arabian soil.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
The first Englishmen in Arabia were Sharpeigh, and later Pitts, left memoirs of their travels that were of great value to the later day travelers journeying to Arabia. The story of Johann Ludwig Bruckhardt travels in Arabia deserves a full account. Born in Lausanne in 1784, and after studying in Leipzig and Gottingen, he found employment by the African Association in London to explore Africa. In Cambridge, he mastered the Arabic Language. His knowledge of the Qur’an and Arabic were such that he could easily pass as a learned doctor of law among Muslims. He left England in 1803, traveled widely in Syria, visited Palmyra, Damascus, and Lebanon. He discovered the Lost City of Petra, which brought his name to the notice of leading archeologists in different parts of the world.

Bruckhardt emerged from Arabia with a detailed account of the Ka’bah, the religious ceremonies of the Hajj, the trade and the inhabitants of Makkah. He was the first European to disguise himself as a Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. His main interest was in commerce, social life, habits, religion, and the character of the people. During his stay of nine months, he gathered material for an unrivaled account of his travels, which has been treated with respect by the subsequent travelers to the Peninsula. He has also described the City of Jeddah, its trade, with accuracy and in detail. His statements about Indian trade are most significant. He says:

“The trade in Indian goods…is safer and…profitable. The fleets…from Calcutta, Surat, Bombay reach Jiddah…in May…the merchants are prepared for them…and…effect bargains wholesale at the first arrival of the ships. Large sums are sent by Cairo merchants to purchase goods on their accounts…but the greater parts are brought by the merchants in Jeddah, who afterwards send them to Cairo to be sold to their advantage…The merchants…keep their goods in warehouses for…five months…to wait until January…and calculate a gain of thirty to forty percent. And, if they transport a part of their goods to Makkah to be sold in the Hajj their profits are still greater…”

Bruckhardt described the Bedouins as one of the noblest people that he had come across in his experience and travels. With all their faults, they were in many ways superior to the Turks and the Europeans. They loved the independence of the desert life, preferring their tents to settled comfort. Despite tribal differences, there was an attachment and a sense of national honor among different tribes. They resisted all attempts to subjugate them by superior force. According to Bruckhardt, the finest trait in the Bedouins character apart from his faith was his kindness, benevolence, and charity. The demeanor of a Bedouin was peaceful so long as his fighting spirit and wounded honor did not call him to arms. The Bedouin never used foul language in any of their quarrels, which according to them showed only a debauched imagination. Bruckhardt died in 1817. He was buried in Cairo. His book of travels in Arabia remained unrivalled until the first half of the nineteenth century.

The next traveler to show up in Arabia was Richard Francis Burton. Born in England, he spent a major part of his youth in France and Italy. As a boy, he had developed a craving for adventure and a love for wandering. He disliked convention and had a passion for learning new languages. Burton had all the traits of an adventurer and cut out by nature to be an explorer. He wanted to join the army. However, his father sent him to Oxford to acquire an education. Burton hated university life and lessened his boredom by learning Arabic. Rusticated from Oxford, he obtained a commissioned rank in the East India Company’s forces and sailed for India. During his seven years in India, he mastered many Indian languages and improved upon his Arabic. He learnt a quarter of the Holy Qur’an by heart. His adventurous personality and his interest in languages, habits, and outlook of the people around him made it easy for him to understand the oriental character to a remarkable extent.

In 1852, he approached the Royal Geographical Society for a grant to make a journey across Arabia from Muscat to the Kingdom of Hejaz. In 1853, he left for Alexandria on a journey that was to make him immortal. On his return, he wrote A Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Makkah and published his book in the year 1855. His powers of description made his book extremely popular. Performing his pilgrimage in the fashion of a true Muslim, he describes his feelings on sighting the Ka’bah: “I may truly say that of all the worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain (covering) or who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the Hajji   from the far north. It was as if the poetical legends of the Arab spoke the truth, and that the waving wings of the angels, and not the sweet breeze of the morning, were agitating and swelling the black covering of the shrine. But, to confess humble truth, theirs was the feeling of religious enthusiasm; mine was the ecstasy of gratified pride.” Burton’s book created a sensation and he is often credited in popular tradition as the first European to accomplish this journey, although, Ali Bey al-Abbassi, and Bruckhardt had covered the same ground before him. Burton also translated the Arabian Nights and published it privately in 1885 and again in 1888.

Other travelers like Palgrave and Lawrence journeyed to Arabia. However, the outstanding among the travelers was Charles Montagu Doughty (1843-1926). He studied Geology in Cambridge. After graduation in 1865, he spent another ten years in Oxford, Leyden, Copenhagen, and Louvain. He traveled on foot in Southern Europe, Egypt, Palestine, and Sinai. In an Arab coffee house, he heard of the inscriptions on the cliffs of Midain Saleh and resolved firmly to visit them. Unlike Burton and Palgrave, he traveled as an avowed Christian, which brought him many difficulties during his journey. His notes, numerous and detailed, dealt with people, geology, vegetation, and the fauna of the areas he visited and brought out the greatest book on travel on Arabia, Travels in Arabia Deserta. It was the finest book written by any European on Arabian travels.

Later travelers such as T.E Lawrence, St. John Philby, Bertram Thomas, Freya Stark, and William Thesiger traveled to the Arabian Peninsula. Some of them traveled for adventure. Others explored the unmapped territories of Arabia. Many of them wrote accounts of their travels that greatly enhnaced knowledge about Arabia to the outside world. A few travelers stayed back and made it their home. The accounts of their travels helped people improve their understanding of the Middle East and inspired enthusiasm and adventure in others. Their adventures and stories need to be retold. However, that will be a separate narrative altogether.