Lifestyle

Eighty years after Wilfred Thesiger made his first crossing of the Empty Quarter on foot, a new volume gathering his photographs and the reflections of those who have studied his work has launched in the UAE capital, offering readers a rare, image-led account of a region in the midst of dramatic change. Wilfred Thesiger in Arabia was unveiled by His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on the morning of Thursday, 17 September, an occasion made more significant by the fact that His Excellency also wrote the book’s foreword, in which he described the volume as a substantial contribution to the literature surrounding Arabia’s history and its cultural inheritance, pointing in particular to the breadth of photographs, documents and personal accounts brought together within its pages.

Published by Motivate Media Group and on display at the publisher’s stand throughout the book fair, the volume pairs Thesiger’s own images, taken during his years travelling among the Bedouin and across the deserts of Arabia, with a set of essays written by figures who have engaged closely with his legacy over the decades since. Edited by Ian Fairservice and Alexander Maitland, the book draws contributions from Sir David Attenborough, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the BBC’s Frank Gardner, Benedict Allen, Elizabeth Edwards and Dr Peter Clark, each approaching Thesiger’s photographic record from a different angle, whether that is its documentary value, its place within the broader history of exploration writing, or what it reveals about a way of life that was already beginning to shift by the time his camera captured it.

Fairservice, who knew Thesiger personally and worked alongside him in his later years, spoke to how the book came together, noting that Thesiger left behind one of the most significant visual and literary records of Arabia ever produced, and that this volume was conceived as a way of bringing his photographs into conversation with writers, explorers and scholars who have continued to return to his work. He added that launching the book in Abu Dhabi, alongside His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, carried particular weight for him personally, and that his hope for the publication is that it keeps Thesiger’s record of Arabia in front of new generations of readers.

For anyone hoping to bring home a piece of the region’s history, Wilfred Thesiger in Arabia remains available at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair through 18 September, after which it will be stocked in leading regional bookstores and can also be ordered online through booksarabia.com.

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Images: Supplied