Visions from Abroad Mona Khazindar

Home , Alberto Pasini, Ali Bey el Abbassi, Georg August Wallin, Hegra (Mada'in Salih), Henry de Monfreid, Joseph Pitts (author)

Visions from Abroad

Historical and Contemporary Representations of Arabia

Introduction by Philippe Cardinal Contents

Cover We would like to express our deep gratitude Note to Readers 7 Introduction Anonymous to Ithra and, in particular, to Mr Mohammed A modern and simpliﬁed transcription has been Philippe Cardinal Arabie, seventeenth century Khoja, Sponsorships and Partnerships strategist. systematically adopted for Arabic terms, Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale First published in Italy in 2019 by particularly for proper nouns. From one author, de France Skira editore S.p.A. era, and language to the next, transcriptions may 13 The Gates of Arabia Palazzo Casati Stampa vary greatly: the name of the city of Jeddah, Editor via Torino 61 for example, has been spelled Djuddah, Djeddah, Paola Gribaudo 43 The Center of the World 20123 Milano Djedda, Jedda, Gedda, Geddah, Dsjidda, etc. Art Director Italy The same applies for the city of Mecca—spelled Marcello Francone www.skira.net Meccah, Mekke, etc.—and for most names 71 The Flora of the Peninsula transcribed from Arabic. When they appear in Design All rights reserved under international copyright the texts cited in this publication, these different Luigi Fiore conventions. transcriptions have been consistently replaced by 89 The People of the Sands No part of this book may be reproduced or Editorial Coordination the most common forms used in contemporary utilized in any form or by any means, electronic Vincenza Russo English: Jeddah, Mecca, Yanbu, Medina, etc. or mechanical, including photocopying, 107 Ship in the Dunes The text of this work is peppered with a great Editing recording, or any information storage and many citations taken from the books of explorers, Anna Albano retrieval system, without permission in writing Orientalists, geographers, historians, and from the publisher. 125 The Desert of Deserts Layout adventurers who traveled in Arabia and/or wrote Paola Ranzini Pallavicini © 2019 Mona Khazindar for her text about it—in different languages, but mainly © 2019 Skira editore, Milano in Arabic, English or French. Translations of some 141 Cities of Yesterday and Tomorrow Translations © Kader Attia, Charles Fouqueray, of these works are more accessible than the Johanna Kreiner and Sara Heft Raymond Depardon, Jan Peeters, original text and in those cases, citations have for NTL, Firenze 165 Days and Lives Thierry Mauger by SIAE 2019 been retranslated back to their original languages from the aforementioned translations, resulting Printed and bound in Italy. First edition in a version that diverges slightly from the 183 The Arabian Horse ISBN: 978-88-572-3946-0 original text. Distributed in USA, Canada, Central & South 199 Fortune in Fossils America by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 75 Broad Street Suite 630, New York, NY 10004, USA. 213 Past Civilizations Distributed elsewhere in the world by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom. 227 Maps of the Past www.skira.net 237 Biographical notes

A book conceived by 260 Bibliography Introduction

Alongside visual representations from about a hundred Arabia, which over time included the Abbasids of Bagh- different artists, the text of this work seeks to demon- dad; the Fatimids of Cairo; the Ayyubids of Cairo and strate how a whole series of images of the vast territory Damascus; and later, the Ottomans. Overseen by the that is Arabia, long considered one of the most obscurely dominant power of each era, the organisation of the secretive parts of the world, have gradually emerged pilgrimage was extremely complex to carry out: it called in books and travel accounts inspired by the region. It for logistics and resources made all the more substantial should be noted that all of these artists and authors are in the face of the Bedouin tribes of the lands and deserts foreigners to the peninsula. that had to be crossed to reach the holy cities, who Arabia’s reputation for impenetrability, and the continually seemed to make every effort to disrupt the mystery that this has created, might be retraced to an- well-oiled choreography of the caravans. Under those tiquity: in the early second century, during the reign circumstances, it was nevertheless impossible to build a of the Roman emperor Trajan and his successor Had- fortification modelled after the Romans’ Limes Arabicus rian, the Limes Arabicus was established, a strategic to ward off the Bedouins, because they happened to be fortification some 1,500 kilometers long, consisting of on their home turf! forts, fortresses, and watchtowers running from Syria Quite evidently, European curiosity about Arabia through the deserts of northern Arabia. One hundred took time to emerge: Ludovico di Varthema, the first and fifty years earlier, despite their dominant position from the continent to undertake the voyage to Medina in the world, the Romans had failed miserably to take and Mecca, only did so at the dawn of the sixteenth over the caravan trade in southern Arabia, the source century. In other words, his journey took place two of the peninsula’s wealth. centuries after those of Marco Polo, and one century Dismissed from the milestones of knowledge, this after those of Niccolo de’ Conti—other Italians drawn Arabia then ceased to be of any concern for Europeans. to faraway lands. He followed in the wake of the jour- But while Europe was in the midst of the Middle Ages, a neys of the great discovers, Magellan, Vasco de Gama number of Arabic-language authors wrote travel books and Christopher Columbus, at a time when America was and geographical compendia providing accounts of Ara- attracting attention. bian realities. It would take many centuries, however, for It is not exactly clear, however, why Ludovico di the works of Ibn Hawqal, penned in the eleventh century; Varthema, who figures in several chapters of this pub- Ibn Jubayr, from the twelfth century; or of Ibn Battuta lication, one day decided to leave his hometown of Bo- and Abulfeda, from the fourteenth century—to name just logna to travel to the Near East, to Damascus, where he a few—to be translated and printed in European languag- managed to be recruited as a Mameluke officer, joining es. Of Arabia, these authors first recounted the context the escort service of some fifty men tasked with protect- in which the pilgrimage to Mecca and visits to the city ing the caravan bound for the holy cities—and in whose

Anne Blunt of Medina were carried out—a context encompassing a ranks he had to ﬁght Bedouin armies, he asserted. Fol- Melakh great many episodes of the Muhammadan act and the be- lowing stays in Medina, then Mecca, where he cast off Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier after a watercolor by Anne Blunt ginnings of Islam. Consequently, for these authors, Arabia his mercenary attire, Varthema continued his journey From Voyage en Arabie. most often tended to be limited to the expanse of Hijaz, onward to Yemen, then India, which clearly illustrates Pèlerinage au Nedjed, berceau de la race arabe (A Pilgrimage to and the political situation was not necessarily treated. that Hijaz represented but a leg of his journey. Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab race) Hijaz has nevertheless always played a substantial role Following Varthema, it took more than a century Paris, 1882 Courtesy of the British Library in terms of inﬂuence for every Muslim power neighboring and a half for another European to make the journey

7 to Mecca and Medina, cities from which non-Muslims light of the Dhu al-Hijjah moon. Burton subsequently Waclav Seweryn Rzewuski resourceful gentleman, he traveled to Arabia to procure Arab village in the desert of Nejd, were banned—a ban which, depending on the era, could devoted years of his life to a translation of The Arabi- 1817–19 horses for the stud farms of Queen Catharina of Würt- more or less apply to the whole of Hijaz. A few excep- an Nights, still recognised as the best English-language From Impressions d’Orient temberg and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Considered by et d’Arabie. Un cavalier polonais tions applied to this ban: until the eighteenth century, it version of this work. He had himself buried in a tomb chez les bédouins the Bedouins “as the great emir of the Northern tribes, could happen that notables undertook their pilgrimage shaped as a Bedouin tent. José Corti / Muséum national in the kingdom of Skandar”—none other than Alexan- d’histoire naturelle, Paris, 2002 openly accompanied by Christian servants or slaves. To some extent, these nineteenth and twentieth der I, Tsar of Russia and King of Poland—he appears to This was most likely facilitated by the fact that the sta- century European authors unveiled to their readers— have enjoyed great prestige among the tribes, although tus of a slave in Islam was quite similar to that of a practically under a seal of secrecy—this very part of he most likely exaggerated his own merits somewhat: child, in that they were not held responsible for some Arabia, described in the works of the aforementioned “I was compared to the favorite hero of the Arabs, the of their actions. A pilgrimage completed by a child or Muslim geographers and travelers, and which millions celebrated Antarah. My praises were sung in verse by a slave was consequently not considered as valid. This of pilgrims over the course of the centuries were already the tribes, and this is how my name spread across the was the case for the pilgrimage completed towards the familiar with. There were also other authors, and Euro- desert to the very ends of Arabia, as I later learnt, where end of the seventeenth century by a young Englishman pean travelers who directed their curiosity toward other all is novel, and where, under the spell of language, each who fell into slavery, John Pitts, in the company of his themes. The discipline of archaeology was emerging person adorns truth with the marvellous offerings of an North African master; he also features in the pages of at the time in Europe, where old stones had already ardent imagination.” this book, and narrates this episode of his life in a work long been a source of interest. As Arabia was situated The late eighteenth century also saw the famous Still others placed humans at the heart of their devoted to his fifteen years in captivity. in the vicinity of some of the world’s richest territories Danish expedition—the only group scientific expedition intentions, forming yet another distinguished and het- It was necessary to wait until the late eighteenth in terms of ancient civilisations, the quest for such dis- ever bound for Arabia—with archaeology as only one fo- erogeneous assembly that included Laurent d’Arvieux, and early nineteenth centuries for a true interest in the coveries was naturally undertaken there, encompassing cus among many, and from which the cartographer and George Forster Sadleir, Maurice Tamisier, Georg August holy cities of Hijaz to develop—an interest that inevita- an entirely different host of authors, to whom fate was mathematician Carsten Niebuhr alone returned. Upon Wallin, William Gifford Palgrave, Harry St. John Bridger bly clashed with their particular status in the eyes of Is- not always kind: Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Ulrich landing in Jeddah, the scientists set out to avoid going Philby, and a few others. They held a century-span- lam. Nevertheless, while the ban on their presence there Jaspar Seetzen, Charles Montagu Doughty, Charles Hu- into Hijaz and headed south, where they got to work ning dialogue among anthropologists (before the term was perceived by some of these travelers as something of ber, Antonin Jaussen, Raphaël Savignac, and a handful immediately. But their endeavors came to a sudden end. was coined), eminent diplomats, and authorised spies. a challenge to be met, most of them always managed to of others. Niebuhr surprisingly grasped the reason for the demise Among them was the young Laurent d’Arvieux, nephew demonstrate great respect for Islam and the pilgrimage Burckhardt was certainly the one best able to of his comrades, the philologist Frederick Christian von of the French consul in Sidon, in whose home he had rituals. This was already the case for Varthema, who describe the radical prejudice held by the region’s pop- Haven, the doctor Christian Carl Kramer, the natural- been raised, and who, due to his fluency in Arabic and rather remarkably and unexpectedly, for a man of his ulations against all explorers, archaeologists and epig- ist Peter Forsskål and the draughtsman Georg Wilhelm Turkish, had been tasked with a dangerous mission “by era, demonstrated a true sense of moderation in his de- raphers in search of discoveries: “It is very unfortunate Baurenfeind, who died for wanting to continue to “live order of the late French King Louis XIV […] to the Camp scriptions. This was also the case for Pitts, of whom the for European travelers that the idea of treasures being in the European manner” on Arabian soil; and as he had of the Grand Emir Chief of the Arabs, known under the twentieth-century historian Jacqueline Pirenne wrote: hidden in ancient edifices is so strongly rooted in the the opportunity to write upon his return, “We ourselves name of Bedouins”. The title of his later, highly relevant “Believe us in saying that nobody has described with minds of the Arabs and Turks,” wrote the Swiss explorer, were the cause of maladies against which other people work alluded to this, representing the first dissertation such comprehensive objectivity the religious attitude of who discovered the ancient city of Petra. He added that could easily protect themselves.” ever devoted to “the rights, customs, of the Bedouins.” those who made the pilgrimage to Mecca.” this detestation was even more solidly rooted in the Still other visitors conducted their journey under This group also included the highly renowned Finn- As for these later authors who have just been minds of Bedouins, who immediately took any traveler different auspices, such as the members of a more re- ish Orientalist Georg August Wallin, who undertook an mentioned, and who, over the course of the nineteenth curious about ruins or old stones for a magician out to stricted circle including Waclaw Seweryn Rzewuski, Carlo extended sojourn among Bedouins in central Arabia and in the early twentieth centuries, devoted works to steal treasures: “[…] nor are they satisfied with watching Guarmani, Anne and Wilfrid Blunt and a few others, around the mid-nineteenth century, displaying astute their sojourns in the holy cities—including Ali Bey El Ab- all the strangers’ steps; they believe that it is sufficient who set out and faced the tribes, combing the Arabi- understanding and solicitude towards his hosts. bassi, Léon Roches, Richard Burton, John Fryer Keane, for a true magician to have seen and observed the spot an deserts in search of purebred horses. Perhaps it was The captain Forster Sadleir was also among this Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, Jules Gervais-Courtelle- where treasures are hidden (of which he is supposed to unsurprising that the Pole, the Tuscan, and those Brits, group, tasked by the English government with transmit- mont, Étienne Dinet, and a few others—they appear to be already informed by the old books of the infidels who of duly aristocratic descent, got along fine with the Bed- ting a message to Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the troops have all shown extreme deference towards their subject lived on the spot) in order to be able afterwards, at his ouins, so intent on origins. The interest of these visitors sent by Mohammed Ali to Arabia. Sadleir left from Qatif, of observation. Even those who were open about their ease, to command the guardian of the treasure to set for their horses could only be a source of flattery for the a port on the Arabian Gulf, and only reached Ibrahim at lack of concern for religion in general demonstrated the whole before him.” latter; or at any rate, they accepted it more readily than the last minute, after a forced march, in Yanbu on the sincere respect in their writings. This is the case for the One day or another, every traveler with a passion the highly suspicious curiosity that others displayed for Red Sea, as the latter was preparing to sail back to Egypt. spirited British explorer Richard Burton, who, in the for archaeology thus faced animosity elicited by their half-faded inscriptions carved into the stone of some Sadleir was thus the first European to cross the entire presence of the Masjid al-Haram, wrote “Sublime it was, curiosity. They were sometimes imprisoned, often har- ruined edifices. They were thus welcomed without any peninsula from end to end, from coast to coast, and from and expressing by all the eloquence of fancy the gran- assed, continually insulted—circumstances that might problems. At times, even, with open arms. east to west, nearly without realizing it. He even wrote a deur of the One idea which vitalised El Islam, and the seem merely anecdotal in nature, had they not cost the Such was the case for example, for one of these book in which he recounts how he undertook this long strength and steadfastness of its votaries.” It is true that lives of a few, including the German Seetzen and the surprising travelers, Count Waclaw Seweryn Rzewuski. A journey in unfamiliar lands, scrupulously noting the this was noted on the occasion of a night visit under the Frenchman Huber, who were murdered. remarkable horseman and peerless Arabist, reputed as a distances traveled, although this failed to inspire much

8 9 Anne Blunt of anything in him—quite the opposite of D’Arvieux, It is only natural for the author of such a publi- Reception at the emir castle in Ha’il From Voyage en Arabie. Pèlerinage who, after visiting the territory of a single tribe, wrote cation to be Saudi Arabian, and essential that she has a au Nedjed (A Pilgrimage to Nejd) a whole book about Bedouin society. sense of belonging to different cultures, in order to be Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier after a watercolor by Anne Blunt, Paris, 1882 Others, in contrast, gave themselves over to their able to successfully see it to fruition. Born in the United Courtesy of the British Library fertile imaginations: the clever British Jesuit, William States, Mona Khazindar completed her secondary stud- Gifford Palgrave, for example, a likely spy for the French ies in Saudi Arabia, and her university studies in France, emperor Napoleon III, who crossed central Arabia dis- at the Sorbonne. Schooled in three different continents, guised as a Syrian doctor in 1862–63, plotting from the her professional career has been concentrated in a single court of one emir to the next. The rather sensational country, France, and a single international institution, account that Palgrave later provided of his adventures the Institut du Monde Arabe, where she arrived upon in Nejd nevertheless appeared eminently dubious. completing her studies, and only left some twenty-five And lastly, to conclude, there was the tight circle years later, after having served as director general. This of the more recent travelers—Bertram Thomas, Wilfred exceptional path, wholly devoted to the art and culture Thesiger, and a few others—who came to brave the deserts, of the Arab world, made her the ideal candidate to treat or rather, the largest desert of all, the desert of deserts: a subject never before addressed as extensively as it is Rub‘ al Khali, the “empty quarter”. Ultimately not really so in this publication. empty, this expanse—this “grandiose void,” in the words What emerges from the pages of this book, in of Philby—is the ancient womb of Bedouin culture, as the context of its thematic approach to Arabia, is the observed by these last explorers. A true sense of urgency quality of many of its perceptions, in particular, those of drove Thesiger to spend about five years of his life there, d’Arvieux, Niebuhr, Burckhardt, Wallin and a few others. from 1946 to 1950, traveling across it repeatedly from one These perceptions were clearly animated by curiosity, end to the other. Thesiger was aware that he was both one as well as a sense of mystery, undoubtedly religious, but of the first and one of the last observers of a way of life on also anthropological, surrounding an Arab culture that the verge of extinction. “All that is best in the Arabs has scholars such as Jacques Berque and Maxime Rodinson come to them from the desert,” he wrote, fully aware that had extensively researched, without even successfully this immutable world would soon cease to exist. accounting for the “fascination” it held for Europeans. What sets these last authors—including Thomas, As a century-old cycle comes to an end for this region of Thesiger and Philby—apart from those who preceded the world, who will be able to say whether the mystery them is this awareness that they were seeing one world has not been renewed, the fascination still intact? come to an end. All of those who preceded them on Ara- bian soil had believed that this society would endure for Philippe Cardinal a thousand years to come, as it had existed for millennia. But from the early decades of the twentieth century, the intrusion of modernity—particularly of modes of transport: trains, automobiles, and airplanes—very quickly jeopardized Bedouin society, largely rooted in camel transport and the caravan trade, ultimately leading to its demise. Just as this decline was being observed, the discovery of oil and the creation of a petroleum industry allowed for another society to replace the old one, made possible by hydrocarbon revenues—a society that allowed the peninsula’s inhabitants to stand on equal footing with technological progress. For some eighty years, this new society has dominated foreign perceptions of Arabia, despite the fact that it has remained highly diverse. Thus, while Arabia continues to assert this diversity, the present publication has the merit of holding up a mirror to it, in which the array of approaches proposed by artists, travelers and writers are made visible, like so many reflections.

10 11 The Gates of Arabia

ince the beginnings of Islam, the Red Sea city impossible. We had reached the Gulf of Aqaba, all of of Jeddah, on the western coast of Arabia, has which had to be crossed before we could ﬁnd shelter, been the main gateway to the holy cities, the or even an anchorage; we therefore had to go on sailing

Safi ibn Vali Hijaz region, and the peninsula as a whole, de- at night, despite the ever-increasing fury of the waves The Port of Jeddah, c. 1677–80 Sspite the bordering Arabian Gulf to the east and Indian and the roughness of the wind.” Folio 22b from the Anis al-Hujjaj (The Pilgrim’s Companion) Ocean to the south. It was chosen in the 26th year of The ship pursued its tormented course: “At the by Safi ibn Vali Hijrah by the Caliph Uthman to replace the old port impact of each wave, the sambuk made a cracking India, possibly Gujarat Ink, watercolor, and gold city of al-Shu‘ayba as the main access point for those sound as though her timbers were opening, and she on paper 33 5 23.2 cm traveling to Mecca, located less than a day’s walk away. heeled so violently, first on one side and then on the Nasser D. Khalili Collection Jeddah thus took on the eminent role of “Gateway to other, that there seemed no chance she could right of Islamic Art, London Arabia,” which it has held ever since. herself again; I expected from one moment to another This illustration is a map showing some of the landmarks Nevertheless, reaching Jeddah by a maritime to see her capsized bottom uppermost.” The writer’s of Jeddah. Ameen Rihani wrote describing the port of Jeddah, route has never been simple. Red Sea navigation was miseries were far from over: “This mortal extremity in Around the Coasts of Arabia always extremely perilous, at least until the emergence lasted all night, a long winter night, and the breaking (1930): “Jeddah is still the main gateway to the Kaaba—the same of steam-powered vessels in the mid-nineteenth cen- ancient Jeddah that was cursed tury. Prior to that, the voyage was undertaken only in by the pilgrims of Granada for its harbor, which for two miles is large traditional sailing vessels: two-masted sambuks a tangle of reefs and shoals; for its water, which, when found, or smaller dhows, sometimes with a single mast. “This is more precious than ottar of sea is one of the most difficult known to mankind: cut roses; for its trade—people who were more mercenary in those and crossed in all directions by submarine currents, days than the infidels of Aragon bristling with reefs and banks of coral, it lies wide open and Castille; for its motawwifin (guides) who were as rapacious as to violent squalls which the proximity of coast and the Berbers of Africa, and for the Beduin bands, waiting outside mountain makes very frequent and very sudden; thus the Mecca-gate. Exciting times shipwrecks are common occurrences,” wrote Charles they had, those pilgrims of old.” Didier in 1854, after surviving a storm while crossing Safi ibn Vali the Gulf of Aqaba. After boarding a Jeddah-bound sam- Crossing the Sea, c. 1677–80 Folio 3b from the Anis al-Hujjaj buk in Suez, the French writer then headed to Ta’if (The Pilgrim’s Companion) by Safi ibn Vali to meet the Sharif of Mecca, as the title of his work, India, possibly Gujarat Sojourn with the Grand Sharif of Makkah, indicates Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper quite clearly. 33 5 23.2 cm “We were favoured with a very fair wind all day Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London long, and soon rounded Ras Muhammad, the farthest Some pilgrims traveled by cape of the Sinai Peninsula. In the evening the wind, boat crossing the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Arabian though still fair for us, rose to a worrying degree of Sea, or the Indian Ocean. They violence, and the sea was so rough that we were cruelly faced many dangers such as the frequent ocean storms that tossed about in our cockle-shell,” Didier continued. would overtake the pilgrims and Red Sea navigation never occurred at night, when the vessels, as well as attacks by pirates. boats anchor, “but this time,” he explained, “it was

12 13 of the day, far from putting an end to it, did no more near as to be able to throw a stone to them. Some of Van de Z. W. Zyde Vue de la ville de Jambo du côté than extend it, for the weather was even worse and the rocks are much bigger than others, some look like du S.O. (View of the city of Yanbu the storm lasted till nightfall. Only then did we enjoy islands, others just appear above water, and some are to from the southwest) Vue de la ville de Dsjidda du côté a brief respite.” be seen a little under water.” The extent of these dan- de l’O. (View of the city of Jeddah from the west) The account by the pilgrim Ali Bey El Abbassi, a gers was well summarized by the German geographer From Description de l’Arabie Spanish officer known by the name of Domingo Badia Carsten Niebuhr, member and sole survivor of the sci- d’après les observations et recherches faites dans le pays y Leblich, and dubiously claiming to be an Abbassid entific expedition commissioned by King Frederick V même prince, bears a strong resemblance to that of Didier: of Denmark, which reached Jeddah in 1762: “No other Carsten Niebuhr Paris, 1779 “The navigation of the Red Sea is dreadful. We sailed journey in the world is riddled with as many dangers.” Engraving 25 5 34 cm almost continually between banks and rocks, above Concerning the aforementioned travelers, it Nasser D. Khalili Collection and under water; so that we were obliged to have a should be noted that they undertook the ordinary jour- of Islamic Art, London guard of four or five men upon the prow, who ex- ney, from Suez to Jeddah, via coastal navigation—hug- Yanbu shares with Jeddah the title of “Gate of the Holy City,” amined the course attentively, and who cried to the ging the coast over some thirty days, dropping anchor wrote Richard Burton in Personal steersman to steer to the right or left. But should they every night. But over an extended period stretching Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (1855). commit an error, or discover the shoal too late, or too from the mid-tenth century to the mid-thirteenth Yanbu is also spelled Yanbu’a, Iambia, or Jambo and is the port near the ship; or should the steersman, who cannot see century—initially due to political troubles and subse- of Medina, while Jeddah is the them, not keep far enough off; or, in keeping too far, quently due to the Crusades, in particular the seizure port of Mecca. strike the ship upon a neighbouring bank, which had of Aqaba by the Franks in 1115—both caravan travel Jules Gervais-Courtellemont not been observed, and should he misunderstand the overland from Egypt and navigation in the northern Commerçants indiens de Djedda (Indian merchants of Jeddah), cry, as sometimes happens; or should the wind or cur- Red Sea were impossible. 1869 From Mon Voyage à La Mecque rent prevent him from changing his direction, during Consequently, and for nearly three centuries, (My Trip to Mecca) the interval which takes place between the discovery both the transit of pilgrims from Egypt and North Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1897 Engraved after a photograph of the rock and the arrival of the vessel at the place Africa and that of merchandise had to be rerouted, to- by the author of danger; the ship would be dashed to pieces, and all ward the Egyptian port of Aydhab, located nearly across Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris would be lost. What chances to run between life and from Jeddah, on the opposite coast of the Red Sea. This The distance from Suez to death, at every instant, in this hazardous navigation!” route forced pilgrims to travel up the Nile from Cairo to Jeddah is 634 nautical miles (1,174 kilometers). Jules Gervais- Ali Bey concluded: “It is on these accounts that there the city of Qus, or even beyond to Aswan, from where Courtellemont reached Jeddah are so many shipwrecks every year in this sea.” they subsequently crossed the eastern Egyptian desert, three days after departing from Suez. In Mon Voyage à La Ali Bey himself was a victim of one, as he re- and going via Wadi Allaqi, reached the port of Aydhab, Mecque, he wrote that due to the coral reef, boatmen used counted in describing his pilgrimage, carried out in located on today’s Egyptian-Sudanese border. small landing boats to transfer 1805: “Terrible day! About midnight a furious storm This journey was much longer, and also unsafe the passengers to the docks. The captain of his ship cast anchor arose. The wind increased in such a manner that at two due to the fact that this part of the Egyptian desert was several kilometers away from the in the morning it blew with double force, so that in a infested with aggressive tribes and furthermore forced land to avoid the coral reefs that run parallel to the shore few minutes the cables of four anchors were broken. pilgrims to face the open sea during their crossing to and which were a perpetual threat to the ships. The Arab The vessel, being left to itself, and the mercy of the Jeddah. Various celebrated travelers had to take this pilots of the Red Sea are known wind and waves, was driven upon a rock, upon which route, starting with the geographer and chronicler Ibn to be very capable, wrote Gervais-Courtellemont, it struck with dreadful violence.” Panic broke out on Hawqal, who, around the mid-tenth century, found but “God’s intentions are board, leading Ali Bey to leap into a lifeboat to escape only a handful of rows of huts in Aydhab, as he re- inscrutable” said the boatmen who led the passengers to land. and ultimately save his life. counted in The Face of the Earth. A century later, the While not all travelers experienced such storms, poet and scholar Naser Khosrow, hailing from Balkh, they all grasped the dangers of Red Sea navigation. in Khorasan, described the locality as “a small town”. According to the young Englishman Joseph Pitts, who All of this soon changed, according to the Andalusian fell into slavery and undertook the pilgrimage with his writer Ibn Jubayr in 1183, for whom Aydhab was then North African master around 1685: “There is no safe nothing less than “one of the most frequented ports sailing in this sea by night, because of the multitude of the world.” Indeed, alongside the pilgrims, Egyptian of rocks (tho’ I don’t observe that the maps describe cereals bound for Hijaz went through Aydhab, and in those rocks) which are so thick that we were always the Fatimid and Ayyubid eras, the city became the in sight of some or other of them, and sometimes in Egyptian entryway for all spices, where ships sailing the midst of a great many of them, and sometimes so from Yemen and India landed.

14 15 And yet, according to Ibn Jubayr, “The people a ceremonial palanquin established by the Mameluke For Ali Bey El Abassi, in the early nineteenth pilgrimage, in 1888 and 1891, as part of a mission to im- of Aydhab use the pilgrims most wrongly. They load Sultan Baybars in 1266 and intended to lead the pil- century, Jeddah was the center “which may be consid- prove pilgrims’ sanitary conditions, he recounted, “All of the jilab with them until they sit one on top of the grimage. Later on, in 1422, it fell to another Mameluke ered as the mart of the interior commerce of the Red the ships are obliged to anchor at a distance in the sea: other so that they are like chickens crammed in a sovereign, Barsbay, who fulfilled Ibn Jubayr’s wish by Sea.” He specified: “There are, it is said, about a hun- Passengers and merchandise come ashore on small sail- coop. To this they are prompted by avarice, wanting destroying the city of Aydhab to punish its inhabitants dred coasting vessels that trade from Jeddah to Suez, boats. Known as sambuks in the region, these boats are the hire. The owner of the craft will exact its full cost for their wrongdoings. and the same number which go to and from Mokha”; skilfully steered by the natives, zigzagging extensively to from the pilgrims for a single journey, caring not what Just as the traditional Egyptian caravan route adding, “A year never passes without several being lost reach the port. It is impossible to take a straight path, the sea may do with it after that.” He added, with was reopened, navigation in the northern Red Sea also upon the rocks in the Red Sea.” Hardly ten years later, as this harbour, which would be so beautiful at the cost uncharacteristic vehemence in this regard: “This is become possible once again, and the sambuks could the great Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, of a few sacrifices, is strewn with coral reefs and sand the country of Islam most deserving a hisbha, and once again carry pilgrims every year between Suez discoverer of Petra, made a somewhat similar calcu- bars, seaweed, and stony islets.” the scourge employed should be the sword.” While waiting for such retribution to rain down, “a sojourn in that accursed town is the greatest snare on the road of the pilgrims to the Ancient House (the Kaaba),” he wrote, incensed, enumerating all of the vile acts and abominations of which the people of Aydhab were guilty, and declaring, “the best for him who can is not to see it.” But he still had to cross the Red Sea and reach Jeddah. His boat naturally endured a violent storm: “We passed that night in a storm which drove us to despair, seeing one of the famous storms of the Pharaonic Sea.” Ayyubid’s and Mameluke’s victories over the Crusaders allowed the overland caravan to be organized once again, thriving as it never had before, in particular, thanks to the introduction of the mahmal, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II lation: “The number of ships belonging to Jeddah is Travelers could thus delight in the daytime at Jelbas in the harbor of Jedda, 1909 very great. Taking into account all the small vessels the view of dozens and hundreds of sails shimmering Courtesy Mohamed Ali employed in the Red Sea trade, two hundred and fifty on the horizon, and many did, appreciating the con- Foundation and Durham University Library, Dublin perhaps may be calculated as belonging either to mer- stant back-and-forth and intricate arabesques of the and Yanbu—the port of Medina—and Jeddah, by the Piers Secunda The jelbas (also spelled jalbut) chants of the town or to owners who navigate them.” sambuks and dhows on the waves. As noted by French Pearl Divers, 1938 thousands and even tens of thousands. are small passenger-carrying Burckhardt also noted, “The ships are navigated Orientalist painter Étienne Dinet during his 1921 pil- 2017 Dammam No. 7 crafts measuring 7 to 10 meters Ludovico di Varthema—the first European, with crude oil and varnish long. It is believed that the name chiefly by people from Yemen, from the Somali coast, op- grimage, “The sambuks with sails alone are able to on industrial floor paint, “jalbut” is derived from the Royal the exception of the Andalusians, of course—to pro- with cast-paint nuts and bolts Navy’s “jolly boat,” a boat used posite to Aden, and by slaves, of which the latter three or handle this labyrinth of sharp reefs.” When night fell, vide an account of his journey in Arabia, undertaken 49 5 70 5 6 cm to ferry people between shore four are generally found in every ship.” For the desire of the songs and music of sailors and boatmen rang out Courtesy of the artist and a large ship. Jelbas were in 1503, was struck by the intensity of the trafficking employed to shuttle pilgrims materials, “No vessels of any kind are now constructed from the decks of the finally-still sambuks, and could Postcard of merchandise in Jeddah: “From India there comes a between the Red Sea ports of at Jeddah, so scarce has timber become,” he explained, be heard in the heart of the city. Arrival of the pilgrims in Jeddah, Suez, Tor, Kosseir, Suwakin, great many jewels and all sorts of spices, and part comes postmark dated 21/12/09 Moka, Yanbu, and Jeddah. adding, “Suez, Hodeida, and Mokha, are the only har- Alongside the sambuk ballet in the port of Nasser D. Khalili Collection from Ethiopia,” the great traveler from Bologna noted. of Islamic Art, London bours in the Red Sea where ships are built.” Jeddah, another show was presented by the city it- He continued: “So that in this city there is carried on While Burckhardt’s sojourn in Hijaz occurred self. Hence, Maurice Tamisier, a young French Saint- Postcard a very extensive traffic of merchandize, that is, of jew- The Landing place in Jeddah at the same time that Muhammad Ali’s campaign in Simonian enlisted in one of the armies and sent to Nasser D. Khalili Collection els, spices of every kind in abundance, cotton in large of Islamic Art, London Arabia was in full swing, the Swiss explorer nevertheless Arabia by the Egyptian Wali Muhammad Ali, observed quantities, wax, and odoriferous substances in the great- Pilgrims arriving in Jeddah observed some “forty or fifty ships” daily in the port in 1833, upon reaching Jeddah on a boat used to trans- est abundance.” Some two-and-a-half centuries later, would disembark at the of Jeddah, attesting to substantial commercial activity, port pilgrims, that “the pilgrims’ eyes are bathed in Quarantine pier. Niebuhr was struck both by the scope of the trading which appeared not to have been impacted either way tears.” They most certainly experienced great emo- and the pusillanimity of Turkish sailors, who refused by this upheaval. “Being obliged to anchor in the road- tion upon arriving in these places that would see them to face the open sea and came from Suez to Jeddah “to stead,” as Burckhardt explained, “small boats came to commence their pilgrimage rituals, following weeks load coffee brought by the Arabs of Yemen, the cloth, unload the cargo carried by large ships.” A high-rank- of grueling navigation; but it is most likely that this spices, and incense transported there by the Indians and ing Egyptian government official, Saleh Soubhy, made emotion could very well be heightened upon glimpsing the English, hailing from Surat, Madras, and Bengal.” similar observations. Having twice accompanied the the extraordinary city of Jeddah. The lines of a true

16 17 HENRY DE MONFREID Henry de Monfreid had an insatiable wrote to his father that he planned to Henry de Monfreid Henry de Monfreid appetite for adventure and claimed buy a new camera, a Gaumont with a Baby eagles picked up by the Diver’s dhow arriving at anchor seamen in the Farasan island, in the Farasan Islands, 1917 that all he longed for was “the sea, the Zeiss lens. He also wrote to him about 1917 Stereoscopic image wind, the virgin sand of the desert, the his disdain for the colonizers and his Stereoscopic image Courtesy Société de Géographie/ Courtesy Société de Géographie/ Bibliothèque nationale de France infinity of far-off skies in which wheel preference to socialize with the local Bibliothèque nationale de France ©Adagp, 2018 ©Adagp, 2018 the numberless hosts of the skies... population. He learned their language Henry de Monfreid traveled and the dream that I became one with and began incorporating their habits Henry de Monfreid described from Djibouti to Farasan Island in Trilogie de la mer Rouge on board his dhow the Fat them.” into his life. (Trilogy of the Red Sea), the el-Rahman and accompanied Henry de Monfreid was also a prolific In 1912, he bought himself a six-ton Farasan island as being covered by two sambuks: the Sahala with vegetation sufficient and the Rengileh. He hired crew writer, painter, and photographer who dhow called the “Sahala”. He made to nourish many herds of goats and divers and took provisions became recognized for his journeys on adjustments to the boat in order to and wild donkeys. He wrote that for six months: rice, dates, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. flexibly navigate the Red Sea. In 1920 an important oil source emerges butter, doura, sugar, biscuits, at low tide in the southern part etc. Farasan is a mountainous He once ventured across the Suez he acquired a large dhow, named the of the island and that at present island located in the Red Sea Canal, reaching the southernmost tip Altair (“the soaring eagle”). De this source is only exploited for in the south of the Arabian extracting naphtha that is used Peninsula. Its water is very of the Arabian Peninsula on his Monfreid gave his travels priority over to coat boats. transparent to the point, wrote sailboat. De Monfreid aspired to his family, whom he often abandoned Henry de Monfreid in Trilogie de la mer Rouge (Trilogy of the Red explore Africa and he engaged in his for extended periods of time. Sea), that he would sometimes business dealings to fund his travels. De Monfreid mentioned in his writings have the impression that he was hovering over a fantastic He would turn to a life of crime, that he had Muslim women traveling forest of multicolored corals. however, due to the lucrative prospects for the Hajj ride aboard with him. This “Thanks to the calm climate of being a gunrunner and a smuggler. allowed him to travel from Obock to of the archipelago of Farasan, the waters have conserved His unconventional lifestyle led to Jeddah with a boat full of contraband this beautiful transparency, multiple near-encounters with Royal without being stopped by the Aden indispensable to divers,” he wrote. Navy coast-guards, whom he managed Royal Navy. Those sailors would not to evade multiple times. dare search a boat transporting Henry de Monfreid Pearl fishing in the Farasan In 1911, de Monfreid traveled aboard pilgrim women. island, June 1914 controled by the Ottomans. In order to situation. He also succeeded in who was reporting on the slave trade “L’Oxus” to the French colony of Another renowned traveler, Wilfred Stereoscopic image Courtesy Société de Géographie/ explore that region, the French needed keeping the original photos by duping in the Red Sea. Kessel read his Djibouti, where he began to trade in Thesiger, mentioned in his book Bibliothèque nationale de France a reliable captain with a boat as the the governor, who requested that he journals and encouraged him to coffee. He took a camera and glass Arabian Sands that he contemplated ©Adagp, 2018 indigenous people were viewed to be forfeit all photographic evidence, with publish them. Monfreid followed his plates. He also used a stereoscopic buying one of de Monfreid’s dhows in Henry de Monfreid wrote in untrustworthy. Henry de Monfreid a box of unused photo plates. This friend’s advice and his books went camera and regularly sent his photo Djibouti. Thesiger admired de Aventures de mer (Adventures of the Sea) that in 1910 there was proved to be the perfect candidate for mission enabled de Monfreid to gather on to become bestsellers. plates to France. He was passionate Monfreid’s “lawless and free way of much talk about pearl farming, this mission as he had the intrinsic information on the sea, the coasts and At the conclusion of the war, he about photography and would life” and was inspired by reading his which he followed with great interest. Tired of trading in motivation to explore for his personal the conditions of navigation. returned to France, where he retired carefully pack the plates in a box to book Aventures de Mer et Secrets de la leather and passionate about the gains and was equipped to interact In his book Secrets of the Red Sea, de in a small village. He spent the mitigate the risk of them breaking. He Mer Rouge. sea, he decided to find a solitary area in the Red Sea where he with the locals. His connection to the Monfreid wrote that, around the year remainder of his days playing piano, captioned many of his photos with a Prior to World War I, the French were could work in peace and live his indigenous people would allow him to 1914, the pearl oyster banks took him writing, painting, and tending to a great deal of precision using a aware of the importance of way. He chose the Farasan Island, strategically extract information from south of the Red Sea to the Farasan garden, which he transformed into signatory purple ink. An example can consolidating knowledge over the far which at the time was under Turkish control. He wrote that them. The journey would be long and and Duhuluk islands. As part of his an opium poppy plantation. He be seen in the photo of the dhow in south of the Red Sea. At the time, the there on the island, thousands arduous, but Henry de Monfreid never fishing expeditions, he sailed the Red produced about seventy books in the Red Sea reproduced on page 19. southernmost points, which included of indigenous people in boats sought pearls and oysters, known shied away from a challenge. Sea with his dhow and camped on the a span of thirty years. After spending 18 months in Africa, he the Bab el Mandeb Straits, were as bilbil, and each year, about In January 1914, de Monfreid left islands for weeks. This job was both In 1974, de Monfreid passed away at two million pound sterling worth of these items were sold in Aden, Djibouti for Cheikh Said, an challenging and perilous. Henry paid the age of 95, a few days after stating, Bombay, and Massaoua. Henry Ottoman- controled fortress located in for the services of two divers who used “I have lived a rich, restless, de Monfreid used to go hunting for pearl oysters and he also tried the Bab el Mandeb Strait. At the time snorkels to dive dozens of meters deep magnificent life.” to trade in pearls, but unable to the Ottomans were allied with the in search of oysters. He learned of the compete with the brokers, he abandoned that activity. Germans, making this expedition many strategic benefits of the Farasan increasingly risky for de Monfreid. In Islands, especially their location along the city of Moka, he was summoned the Indian road. Henry de Monfreid by the Turkish governor, who revealed knew that the British would take his knowledge of the photographs and interest in this island so he was quick who referred to the Frenchman as to plant a French flag, despite the both his prisoner and his guest. Henry French government’s protest against it. de Monfreid mentions in his journal In 1931, de Monfreid met the that he managed to escape this renowned French writer Joseph Kessel,

18 19 Jean Baptiste Bourguignon Varthema wrote in The Itinerary After this island you can proceed Malin Basil d’Anville of Lodovico di Varthema of in safety. The reason why it From the Arabian Gulf, 1980 Golfe Arabique ou mer Rouge Bologna from 1502 to 1508 is not possible to sail during Acrylic on canvas (Arabian Gulf or Red Sea), 1765 regarding the Red Sea that “this night is that there are many 60 5 90 cm From d’Anville’s Atlas sea is not red, but the water is islands and many rocks, and it Mrs. Lubna Al-Olayan Collection, Copperplate engraved with like that of any other sea. In this is necessary that a man should Riyadh hand coloring sea we sailed one day until the always be stationed on the top of Watchtowers were built as 67 5 48.5 cm setting of the sun, because it is the mast of the ship in order to observation and protection posts Nasser D. Khalili Collection not possible to navigate it during see the route, which cannot be in strategic locations in Arabia. of Islamic Art, London the night-time. And every day done during the night-time, and They were built with circular they proceeded in this manner therefore they can only navigate bases and could accommodate until they arrived at an island during the day.” only a small number of men. called Chamaram (Kamaran).

21 Hergé Charles Dominique Fouqueray Coke en stock (The Red Sea Dhows at El Wadi, 1921 Sharks), 1958 Lithograph From the series The Adventures 12 5 21 cm of Tintin From Escales d’Asie, Claude Published by Casterman Farrère Courtesy Hergé/Moulinsart 2018 Laborey, Paris, 1947 Courtesy Musée national “Hey! Yeah, a sambuk... the pilot de la Marine/A. Fux from the port of Jeddah, perhaps... but no! We are still too far from the coast... a ﬁsherman then? exclaims Captain Haddock Weird!! He’s sending us signals. Let’s stop. We’ll ﬁnd out what he wants”.

Kazuyoshi Nomachi Pilgrim’s ship in Jeddah The introduction of steam navigation during the 1830s and especially its development after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed the nature author allow for appreciation of this discovery: “The of the pilgrimage drastically and built city of Jeddah is stunning in appearance,” wrote revolutionized its economy. Not only did it contract the time the great journalist Albert Londres, in his 1931 novel of the journey but the number of pilgrims increased Pêcheurs de Perles (Pearl Fishermen). He continued: substantially thanks to larger “Fantastic palaces are all the nobler in their dilap- vessels. After reaching Jeddah, the pilgrims had to travel idation. The simplest house looks like a castle built another 90 kilometers by road by lace-makers. Imposing in their structure and five before reaching Mecca. stories, their facades carry the graces of countless loggias small and large, balconies and wooden canopies, Charles Dominique Fouqueray Charles Dominique Fouqueray enchantingly sculpted. You feel that you are strolling in Small dhows in Jeddah, 1921 Dhows at Yanbu al Bahr, 1921 Lithograph Lithograph the most impressive illustration of the One Thousand 11 5 21 cm 13 5 25 cm From Escales d’Asie, Claude Farrère From Escales d’Asie, Claude Farrère and One Nights.” Laborey, Paris, 1947 Laborey, Paris, 1947 This city, which can be seen “rising graciously, Courtesy Musée national Courtesy Musée national de la Marine/A. Fux de la Marine/A. Fux all white, between the greyness of the distant moun- which was completed in six months, due to the dan- Dhow is the English spelling of Yanbu al Bahr, meaning Yanbu of tains and the blueness of the tides beneath a sky radiant gers posed to the city by Portuguese squadrons who the Indian word or more precisely the Sea, was described in Sailing of the word in the Swahili dialect Directions for the Red Sea by with light,” in the words of Saleh Soubhy—this “un- had recently appeared in the Red Sea. The fortification designating “small and medium Robert Moresby and T. Elwon in expected city,” in the words of Albert Londres—thus dissuaded the Portuguese from attacking, but once the boats”. Today, the word dhow is 1841 as being “situated on a low rarely remembered or used by sandy shore, on the northern side faced the sambuks dancing over the waves. Between danger had been removed and some time passed, it was Arabs. Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger of a capacious inlet of the sea. the two, such as a theater curtain before a stage that apparent that the fortification was poorly maintained. wrote in 1959, were once a great Its high houses and mosque can sea-going race, sailing their be seen 13 miles distant, and the might very well lie on either side, was a fortification After his 1762 visit to the city, Carsten Niebuhr wrote: dhows around the coast of India approach to it is not dangerous.” to East India and perhaps farther. that rose and fell from one era to the next. Among the “Jeddah is surrounded by walls which are still standing, Dhows were the last trading Charles Dominique Fouqueray first travelers to have provided accounts of their pas- but are now so ruinous that a person may, in many vessels in the world that made Dhows at Yanbu al Bahr, 1921 long voyages entirely by sail. Lithograph sage through Jeddah were Palestinian geographer Al- places, enter over them on horseback.” 12 5 20 cm Maqdisi, in the late tenth century, and Naser Khosrow, Nevertheless, other troubles—which brought Charles Dominique Fouqueray From Escales d’Asie, Claude Farrère El Wadi, 1921 Laborey, Paris, 1947 in the mid-eleventh century, who found in front of Muhammad Ali’s armies to Hijaz—soon resulted in Lithograph Courtesy Musée national 12.5 5 21 cm de la Marine/A. Fux them a city “surrounded by a strong wall,” in the words the reconstruction of the wall, as observed by Ali Bey From Escales d’Asie, Claude Farrère Escales d’Asie describes a sailing Laborey, Paris, 1947 of the latter. In contrast, Ludovico di Varthema wrote El Abbassi in 1805: “The town is surrounded with a voyage around the coast of Courtesy Musée national Arabia. Starting in Suez, Claude in 1503, with apparent surprise, that “this city is not good wall, which has irregular towers.” This was con- de la Marine/A. Fux Farrère traveled down the Red surrounded by walls”. firmed in 1814 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who Claude Farrère in Escales d’Asie Sea to Aden, then to Muscat and Just a few years later, the traveler from Bologna implied that the towers had increased considerably in wrote that as good sailors, up towards the Arabian Gulf to the crews of the dhows beautify Basra. Claude Farrère wrote that seems to have found Jeddah encircled by an impos- number: “At every interval of forty or fifty paces, the their boats by applying a coat dhows have one mast or two, of coconut oil on the waterline. rarely three. ing wall with six towers. Its erection was ordered by wall is strengthened by watchtowers.” But the situa- The repeated application of the Mameluke Sultan Qansuh Al Ghuri in 1511 and it was tion quickly deteriorated, because in 1833, Maurice oil endues it with a rich reddish- brown color that is apparent said that all residents participated in the construction, Tamisier observed: “In the east, the city wall is protected in Fouqueray’s dhow paintings.

22 23 Charles Dominique Richard Burton wrote in Personal Jaussen and Savignac Jaussen and Savignac Jaussen and Savignac Jaussen and Savignac stamped in their consulates. Fouqueray Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Watch tower located south of the Al Wajh, 1917 Partial view of the port of Yanbu, The maritime wall of Jeddah, John Keane wrote in Six months Pilgrims in Jeddah, 1921 Al-Madinah and Meccah: “The port of Al Wajh, 1917 French Biblical and Archeological 1917 the French consulate and the in the Hijaz, Journeys to Makkah Oil on canvas ships of the Red Sea—infamous French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem French Biblical and Archeological telecommunication center of the and Madinah 1877–1878 that the 200 5 220 cm region of rocks, reefs, and School of Jerusalem School of Jerusalem French military mission, 1917 pilgrims “landing in Jeddah were The city of Al Wajh and its stony Gift of Mr. Garnier, 1985 shoals—cruise along the coast French Biblical and Archeological helpless and gullible and before Rice was imported and arrived at shore viewed from the southeast. Richard Burton wrote, “Yanbu Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques by day, and at night lay-to in School of Jerusalem landing, each one is required the port of Al Wajh from where it In the background can be seen also boasts a ‘Hammam’ or hot Chirac, Paris the first cove they find; they do to pay a Turkish Customhouse was sent to other cities of Arabia. the minarets of its two mosques. bath tenanted by an old Turk, Consulates and other foreign Courtesy R.M.N. – Grand Palais/ not sail when it blows hard, and official one rupee and after Ameen Rihani wrote in 1930 who with his surly Albanian missions were located beside Jean Gilles Berizzi as in winter time the weather is landing, they have to pay duties describing Al Wajh: “Al Wajh assistant, lives by ‘cleaning’ the harbor in order to assist often stormy and the light of day based on the weight of their breathes an air of prosperity.” pilgrims and travelers.” the pilgrims as soon as they does not last long, the voyage is baggage.” disembarked. Pilgrims were intolerably slow.” obliged to have their passports

24 25 Aref El Rayess Ahmad Nawar Untitled, c. 1982 Hijaz: Inspiration from the Holy Mixed media on panel Land (27), 2016 55 5 70 cm Flo-master ink drawing Courtesy Saleh Barakat, Beirut 26.5 5 41.5 cm Courtesy of the artist “It is difﬁcult to speak of routes and Hafez Gallery, Jeddah in Arabia, and to determine their direction: excepting the Ahmad Nawar’s artistic approach great pilgrim-routes there are in this series is very nostalgic. no certain roads followed in He seeks inspiration from the desert; no soil is impassable the past to evoke the present. for the camel; and the daring His Flo-master pen drawings Bedawy, who knows his land resemble the wood engravings and its wells, and is inured to the practiced by the German hardships of hunger and thirst, artists in the beginning chooses his way wherever he of the nineteenth century. likes,” wrote Georg Wallin in Travels in Arabia.

Ahmad Nawar Hijaz: Inspiration from the Holy Land (23), 2016 Flo-master ink drawing 26.5 5 41.5 cm Courtesy of the artist and Hafez Gallery, Jeddah

by a rather well-preserved trench; it is, however, ruined Didier, who went on to describe its wide streets, “opening in the south and the north.” When the French pilgrim from time to time on spacious squares.” Maurice Jules Gervais-Courtellemont visited the city in 1896, Tamisier was equally struck: “Jeddah is much better laid things had gotten even worse: “A fortified wall sur- out than Egyptian cities; roads are wide, quite well aligned, rounds the city, once protecting it from the assault of and remarkably clean, especially during Ramadan.” Bedouin tribes in the days of revolt,” he observed in And according to Ali Bey El Abbassi: “Jeddah is a pretty his travel account, deploring that “the wall is breached town. Its streets are regular. The houses are fine, built everywhere and in some places along the southeast side of stone, and are two and three stories high.” only piles of rubble mark where it once stood.” These “beautiful houses, as is the custom in The curtain thus rose, dropped, and rose once Italy” aroused the admiration of Ludovico di Varthema again! The fortifications were demolished once and for and impressed visitors. “The houses of merchants on all in 1946, and with it large swathes of the old city the seaside are mostly made of coral stone, practical disappeared at the same time. Nevertheless, over many in terms of construction and beautiful in appearance,” centuries, pilgrims and travelers landing in Jeddah according to Carsten Niebuhr. They were “high, con- were impressed by the splendors of this unequalled structed wholly of stone, brought for the greater part city, fascinated by its décor, the sophistication of its from the seashore, and consisting of madrepores and architecture and dazzling whiteness of its stone. other marine fossils. Almost every house has two sto- Like an “oasis of stones, lost on this appall- ries, with many small windows and wooden shutters. ingly sterile coast,” as described by Jules Gervais- Some have bow-windows, which exhibit a great display Courtellemont, Jeddah was no less than “a nice city, of joiners’ or carpenters’ work,” noted Johann Ludwig well-built, well-designed, well-populated, lively, ani- Burckhardt with his typical precision. mated, perfectly deserving, from all points of view, its This “display of ‘joiners’ or ‘carpenters’” men- present role of port of Mecca,” in the eyes of Charles tioned by Burckhardt, and these “countless loggias

26 27 Fouad Elkoury Anne de Henning An alley in Jeddah’s downtown, Beit Nassif in Jeddah, 2011 1973 Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist Nassif house, located on Al Alawi street in Jeddah’s downtown and Fouad Elkoury beside the old souk, was once the Jeddah’s traditional architecture, tallest palace in the city with its 1973 five stories. It is also one of the Courtesy of the artist best-preserved houses and was Thanks to its outstanding purchased by the government reflection of the Red Sea and open for visitors. architectural tradition, “Historic Jeddah” was listed in the Anne de Henning UNESCO Heritage World list in Beit Bujunaid in Jeddah’s 2014, becoming the third site downtown, 2011 in Saudi Arabia to be honored Courtesy of the artist by UNESCO. The other sites This house bears the family are the Al-Hijr archeological name of its owners, the Bujunaid site, Mada’in Saleh (2008) and family. It is famous for its Al-Turaif district in Al-Dir‘iyah of Albert Londres, the sight “of these fantastic houses exotic foodstuff: Damascus, Baghdad, Iran, Egypt, and carving, fretwork, lattices, and (2010). verandas. The wood used in the of Jeddah makes one wonder if they emerge from the mainly India are all represented by their natural or houses in Jeddah was imported Jules Gervais-Courtellemont from India, Java, and other ground or from an extravagant dream.” manufactured products.” Over the course of a millen- Djeddah locations. The carvings were From Mon Voyage à La Mecque, nium, in every era, pilgrims and travelers painted such done by Indian craftsmen. 1896 “The city has an appearance of wealth,” wrote Tamisier, flattering portraits. Engraving modeled after the Ronan Olier photograph of the author and as previously mentioned, was “the centre of ex- Burckhardt was certainly the figure who un- Musharabiyas in Jeddah, 2010 Paris, Librairie Hachette Gouache tensive trade,” observed Gervais-Courtellemont. The dertook this exercise with the greatest skill and rigor, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 65 5 50 cm Paris Courtesy of the artist city’s souks were consequently the best proof of its providing such a meticulous description of Jeddah’s Jules Gervais-Courtellemont Jeddah’s downtown houses are continual prosperity, which dated back to the tenth bazaar in the early nineteenth century that his read- arrived at Jeddah three days famous for their latticework after departing the port of Suez. century and the decline of the Abbasids of Baghdad, ers were able to find in his book more information balconies and musharabiya or He described the city in Mon rawashin, as they are commonly and subsequently remained steady. As early as the elev- about Jeddah than they could find elsewhere about Voyage à La Mecque: “The city called in Hijaz. is built by the seaside on a low enth century, Naser Khosrow extolled the quality of almost any other city in Europe, as noted a century and sandy plain; not the smallest hillock, not the least pleat in Jeddah’s souks; in the mid-nineteenth century, Charles and a half later by the historian Jacqueline Pirenne small and large, balconies and wooden canopies, en- as “coral stone” by Londres, “madrepore” by Tamisier, the land, a true burnt and arid Didier found them “well stocked with all sorts of mer- in her work, À la Découverte de l’Arabie (In Search of beach. … Legions of mosquitos chantingly sculpted,” as described by Albert Londres, “madreporite” by Burckhardt, or even “conchylioty- attack you night and day, the chandises, mostly imported, and locally-produced or Arabia). “Concerning trade, the information provided clearly include the sumptuous musharabiyas that poliths” by Didier, “the stones whiten by weathering,” water is bad, the heat humid by Burckhardt is inexhaustible,” she wrote, “starting and oppressive, and not the adorned the facades of homes, as described in detail further specified Tamisier, “and confer to the houses an least greenery enlivens this sad from the most general observations to the examina- by Saleh Soubhy: “The facades of each dwelling fea- air of elegance,” which was widely appreciated. landscape that surrounds it.” tion of the smallest shops: their number, what they ture some sort of wooden kiosks, called musharabi- Despite the administrative hassles that disturbed sell, the exact nationality of the merchants in each yas, with full-sized windows and latticework, and mats the beginning of his stay in Jeddah, the painter Dinet speciality; he notes the prices, their variability, the and cushions inside. Those not exposed to sunlight did not fail to appreciate with his artist’s gaze “the total revenue of large companies, the mechanisms of are occupied more often. These musharabiyas can be city’s appearance, with its tall white houses with grey the increases and decreases of prices.” Awed by such of extremely great value. I have seen several made of musharabiyas.” Indeed, the contrast between the white precision, readers quickly get a sense of the crowd of wood from the Indies, adorned all over with sculptures stone and the dark sculpted wood of the musharabiyas buyers and merchants bustling about in the thirty-odd of unmatched graciousness and delicateness.” Maurice undoubtedly enchanted travelers. In the elegant words pages Burckhardt devoted to the Jeddah bazaar in his Tamisier noted as well: “There are some houses whose Travels in Arabia, which also shed light on their tastes, musharabiyas and doors are sculptured with the most customs, and practices. delicate taste; these ornaments embody a grace and an In this way, Burckhardt focused alternately on elegance encountered nowhere else in Arabia.” “thirty-one tobacco-shops,” “twenty-five coffee-shops,” “Built with madrepores extracted from the sea,” “twenty-one butter-sellers,” “eight date-sellers,” “five in the words of Tamisier, or, in those of Charles Didier, bean-sellers,” “ten or twelve stands where bread is “of conchyliotypoliths, stones encrusted with shells, sold,” “eighteen vegetable or fruit-stands,” and more. which are very common along the shores of the Red For each of these trades, the Swiss traveler described Sea,” these houses seduced travelers, even dazzled them, the conditions of its operation and the customers to quite literally: “when the sun is shining, the dazzling which it catered. Those of the café business, composed whiteness of the walls can be harmful to the eyes,” mainly of shopkeepers “of the third class” and “sea-far- lamented Carsten Niebuhr in this respect. Referred to ing people, [who] make it their constant resort,” we

28 29 thus learned, made immoderate use of the dark brew Ronan Olier Postcard Ronan Olier The Souks in Jeddah Textile and Gold souk Textile Souk in Jeddah (see Cities of Yesterday and Tomorrow) and tobacco. Gouache Nasser D. Khalili Collection Gouache Burckhardt describes the different types of pipes used 50 5 56 cm of Islamic Art, London 60 5 70 cm Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist in these establishments; provides their names and For centuries, Jeddah was Saudi John Keane wrote in describing Arabia’s commercial center and Traditional souks are still very those of their various parts; indicates the materials the souks in Arabia, “The shops its window to the world. Philby, popular today, not only in the used; tells how the tobacco should be prepared; notes are of the ordinary Eastern who lived in Jeddah around the small towns but in the major description. A low platform same time the photo featured cities as well. John Keane refers the different varieties of tobacco and where they come facing the street, on which on this postcard was taken, to Jeddah as being polyglot. samples of the wares are described its souk in The Heart Natives of every country may be from; and more. Then comes the information on fruits, exposed.” of Arabia. A record of Travel and seen in its crowded bazaars, their varieties, their origin, their quality; the lemons, Exploration as being vast and and the products of the same busy and reminded him of the can be bought in its shops. for example, are “of the smallest size,” pomegranates business quarters of the great “of middling quality,” grapes “of the best kind,” water- cities of India. melons “small but of good flavour,” quinces “have not the harsh taste of those in Europe, and may be eaten raw”. One had to be leery of fruit hailing from Ta’if—so delicious when eaten there—due to the fact that “for having been packed up at Ta’if in an unripe state, it acquires a factitious maturity by fermentation during the journey.” As for plants: “the usual kinds are me- loukhye, bamye, portulaca, eggplants, or badingans, cucumbers, and very small turnips, of which the leaves are eaten, and the root is thrown away as useless.” Burckhardt continued: “Three shops where water-skins are sold and repaired,” “five sellers of sweet- meats, sugar-plums, and different sorts of confection- ary,” “four pancake makers,” “eleven large shops of corn-dealers,” “eleven clothes shops,” “four barbers’ shop,” and more. We thus learn that the best water skins were those from the port of Sowakin, “in great request, being very light, and sewed with much neatness. A Sowakin waterskin will last, in daily use, about three to four months.” In the chapter devoted to barbers, we learn that “the mustachios are always cut closely, and never allowed to hang over the lips; in this they differ from the northern Turks, who seldom touch their thick bushy mustachios with scissors.” The list goes on: “one watchmaker,” “eighteen druggists,” “eleven shops where small articles of Indian manufacture are sold,” “six large shops of Indian piece- goods,” “five makers of nâl, or sandals,” “three sellers of sweet-oils or essences,” “seven money-dealers, or sarrafs,” and more. Burckhardt mentioned that the watchmaker was Turkish. He also recounted, “All the Jeddah merchants wear watches, many of which are of good English manufacture; they are brought either from India, or by the Hadjys from Constantinople.” Burckhardt notes that the latter often need “money in the Hijaz; they are sometimes compelled to dispose of their most valuable articles; the watch is always the first, then the pistols and sabre, and lastly the fine pipe,

30 31 Malin Basil The Gold Souk, 1980 Acrylic on canvas 100 5 75 cm Private collection Gold souks are very popular and are found in almost all the cities and towns in Saudi Arabia. Philby in The Heart of Arabia. A record of Travel and Exploration described souks writing: “At the first sound of the call to the prayer, the shops are closed down, the crowd vanishes to perform its ablutions … the shops reopen when the prayer finishes and once again the souk is filled with the clamor of men. And so they alternate between noise and silence the livelong day.”

32 33 and the best copy of the Koran.” All of these things, he Charles Fouqueray Ursula Schulz-Dornburg The Tomb of Eve, 1921 From Medina to Jordan Border, concluded, end up “in the auction-markets of Jeddah.” Lithograph 2002–03 On the subject of changers, or sarrafs, Burckhardt 14 5 20 cm Courtesy of the artist From Escales d’Asie, Claude Several attempts were made writes: “The value of money changes here more rapidly Farrère in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s Laborey, Paris, 1947 to reconstruct the Hijaz railway. than in any part of the East with which I am acquaint- Courtesy Musée national The project was ruled out due de la Marine/A. Fux ed. The price of dollars and sequins fluctuates almost to the excessive cost of its daily, and the sarrafs are always sure to be gainers.” The name “Jeddah” means reconstruction as well as the grandmother in Arabic. It is development and expansion of He also reported, “The para, or smallest Turkish coin said that the city was named the road network and air travel. (here called diwany), is current all over the Hijaz, and Jeddah due to the fact that Eve was buried there. Many authors Ursula Schulz-Dornburg in great request,” going on to note that “forty paras who visited Jeddah mentioned From Medina to Jordan Border, the existence of the tomb of Eve. 2002–03 make a piastre; but in the time of the Hajj, when small As early as the twelfth century, Courtesy of the artist Al-Idrisi wrote in his Geography: change is necessary for the immense daily traffic of The Hijaz railway continued to “It is said that Eve went there maintain service throughout the pilgrims, the sarrafs gave twenty-five paras only after the exit from Eden, and it World War I despite frequent is there that her mortal remains in change for the piastre.” raids due to the Turks’ capacity are buried.” With notations, remarks, and comments, to repair the damages quickly. Postcard Ursula Schulz-Dornburg Burckhardt listed more than forty different activities, Eve’s tomb in Jeddah From Medina to Jordan Border, Publisher kh/m professions, and trades; and if we count the many shops, 2002–03 Nasser D. Khalili Collection Courtesy of the artist workshops, boutiques, and dispensaries mentioned, this of Islamic Art, London The city of Medina and its number increases to more than 300! A few decades later, The first documented mention railway station remained under of the existence of Eve’s tomb in Ottoman control after the Charles Didier, during his brief stay there, had a simi- Jeddah was made by Hamadani signature of the armistice of (tenth century) who wrote, “It lar impression of the city, albeit one that was inevitably Mudros in October 1918. It was has been related that Adam was only on January 10, 1919, when much more superficial: “The only business of Jeddah’s in- in Mina when he felt a yearning a group of officers mutinied to see Eve… that Eve had come habitants is commerce that is carried out on a cash-only Fakhri Pasha, that the city from Juddah, and that he knew surrendered and the Hijaz railway basis and on which they generally become rich.” her on Arafat.” Ameen Rihani was brought to an end. wrote that the tomb is in an But who really are these inhabitants of Jeddah, enclosure, outside the city wall, Burckhardt seemed to wonder. In the same manner containing other tombs. The women of Jeddah visit it every that he perceived that “three Koreysh families only, de- Thursday. scendants of the ancient tribe of that name, are found in Mecca,” Burckhardt inferred from his extensive observations that “the inhabitants of Jeddah, like those of Mecca and Medina, are almost exclusively foreigners,” and, “those who can be truly called native are only a few families of sherifs, who are all learned men, and attached to the mosques or the courts of justice.” Some twenty years later, Maurice Tamisier reached the same conclusion: “Today in Jeddah, there are only around twenty Arab families that have been there for many generations.” The historic population of Jeddah was replaced by another, as Burckhardt noted, due to the fact that “the descendants of the ancient Arabs who once peopled the town have perished by the hands of the governors, or have retired to other countries.” Excepting the handful of families of sherifs that made up the intellectual and religious elite, “all the other Jeddawys (people of Jeddah) are foreigners or their descendants.” It may be tempting to wonder where they came from— and Burckhardt responds: “The most numerous are those from Hadramaut and Yemen; and to these may be

34 35 Bernhard Moritz Anonymous Al-‘Ula valley located 1 km south The Hijaz railroad probably of the train station, 1916 around Mada’in Saleh Plate 60a from the Bilder aus Photograph from an ofﬁcial Palästina, Nord Arabien und dem album of photos on the Hijaz Sinai railway Dietrich Reimen, Berlin, 1916 Nasser D. Khalili Collection Library of Congress Prints of Islamic Art, London and Photographs Division, The railway station complex at Washington, D.C. Mada’in Saleh has been rebuilt. The ‘Ula station was inaugurated Today, there is a restored 1906 on September 1, 1907. German train at the station.

Bernhard Moritz Ballasting the rail tracks during the construction of the Hijaz railroad, 1906 Plate 55 from the Bilder aus Palästina, Nord Arabien und dem Sinai Dietrich Riemen, Berlin, 1916 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. A 1,320-kilometer project, the Hijaz railway was designed to provide pilgrims with cheap and fast transport as far as Medina. The construction started on September 1, 1900, the fourth anniversary of Sultan Abdulhamid II’s accession to the throne, and ﬁnished in 1908.

Bernhard Moritz Construction of the Hijaz railroad: laying the rails near Tabuk, 1906 added some Malays, people of Maskat, Indians,” as well necessary, as in both towns the number of deaths is Plate 56 from the Bilder aus as “the settlers from Egypt, Syria, Barbary, European far greater than that of births.” The newcomers all Palästina, Nord Arabien und dem Sinai Turkey, and Anatolia,” and others still, “of Persian maintain links with their countries of origins, bonds Dietrich Riemen, Berlin, 1916 origin, Tatars, Bokhars, Kurds, Afghans; in short, of that will form the basis of their future ventures. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, almost every Mohammedan country in the world.” This significant change was nevertheless none Washington, D.C. However, “there are no Christians living in Jeddah”; too apparent, due to the fact that “in the Hijaz, most of In 1909, quarantine facilities for the railroad were established and as for Jews, who until recently were still active the foreign visitors change their native costume for that at Tabuk. The center was in Jeddah’s money trade, exercising the profession of of the people of the country”; and Burckhardt went on capable of processing up to 4,000 pilgrims at a time. sarraf, “they were driven out, about thirty or forty to note that “the Indians offer an exception to this gen- years since, by the predecessor of the current sherif, eral rule ; they form a distinct colony, and retain their and they all retired to Yemen or to Sanaa.” native language, which the children of other strangers How did such a change come about? Quite usually forget, their mothers being in many instances gradually, as the consequence of the fact that “in Arabs, natives of Mecca.” every Hajj, some of the pilgrims remain behind,” as Burckhardt also specified that “the trade of Burckhardt noted. He continued: “The mixture of races Jeddah and Mecca are closely linked,” and went on in Jeddah is an effect of the pilgrimage, during which to provide details of the colossal fortunes of certain rich merchants visit the Hijaz with large amounts of merchants, observing that “every town-inhabitant, not goods: some of these, not being able immediately to excepting even the olemas, or learned men, endeavours settle their accounts, wait till another year; during to employ whatever capital he possesses in some ad- this period, they cohabit, according to the custom of vantageous traffic, that he may live without much bod- the country, with some Abyssinian slaves, whom they ily exertion.” From bulk to retail, on land or sea, trade soon marry; finding themselves at last with a family, in all of its forms existed in Jeddah, whose prosperity they are induced to settle in the country. Thus every was based on various factors. The first of these, an pilgrimage adds fresh numbers to the population not endlessly replenished inherent advantage, clearly lay only of Jeddah, but of Mecca also, which is indeed very in the holding of the pilgrimage. Every year, the city’s

36 37 traffic peculiarly attractive to the smaller capitals, as, Postcard A German-made locomotive the prices being very variable, it is a lottery by which Hartmann 2-8-0 on the Hijaz money may sometimes be doubled in a short time.” railway, 1912 Postcard printed by Verlag But the major business lay in international V. Rich Liebold, Germany trade, as “Jeddah derives its opulence not only from Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London being the port of Mecca, but it may be considered as Constructed in 1907, this that of Egypt, of India, and of Arabia; all the exports locomotive is the same model as the one currently standing of those countries destined for Egypt first pass through derelict at Buwair station, the hands of the Jeddah merchants.” Burckhardt first 90 kilometers north of Medina. analyzed the workings of the coffee trade, in which Bernhard Moritz Jeddah held a central, pivotal position, with shipments Freight rail and garages at Medina station, 1916 arriving from Yemen partially intended to supply Hijaz, Plate 66 from the Bilder aus Palästina, Nord Arabien und dem while the rest was sold to Egypt and Turkey. However, Sinai coffee prices fluctuated so widely that this trade was Dietrich Riemen, Berlin, 1916 Library of Congress Prints limited to those “who have large capital at their com- and Photographs Division, mand, and who can bear occasionally great losses.” Washington, D.C. In the years preceding World “Much safer” but “equally profitable” was “the War I, the number of pilgrims trade in India goods” that major Jeddah merchants traveling to Medina by train was more than double than that set out to resell, particularly to Egypt. This trade was of the old caravan route. furthermore carried out with unsettling simplicity and “with less intrigue and fraud, than anywhere I have seen in the Levant,” Burckhardt observed, noting: “In Syria and Egypt it is the work of several days, and the business of three or four brokers, to conclude a bargain between two merchants to the amount of a population increased considerably, tripling or quadru- thousand dollars. At Jeddah, sales and purchases are pling due to the constant passage of pilgrims during a made of entire ships’ cargoes in the course of half an period stretching from the month of Shawwal to the hour […] and the next day the money is paid down.” month of Dhu al-Hijjah; that is to say, at least sixty No sooner had the Indian ships time to enter the port Olivier Couppey days or so. In this respect, it is clear that “to provide of Jeddah, “charged with spices, rice, sugar, tea, grains, An abandoned locomotive Courtesy of the artist food, during their stay, for an influx of population and precious stones,” than “the goods when sold in There are currently four amounting to sixty thousand human beings, and for Mecca, during the Hajj, yielding a clear gain of twenty locomotives abandoned on the deserted Saudi stretch of railway. twenty thousand camels, together with provisions for to thirty per cent, of fifty per cent when sold in retail.” their return homewards, is a matter of no small mo- All of this sheds light on the breadth of the prof- Postcard Map showing the Hijaz railway ment,” as the Swiss traveler wrote in understated terms. its that were made in Jeddah. “Of all the Red Sea ports, line with the different stations on the route In this context, he went on to explain, whoever possesses this is where people come to purchase merchandise Printed in Tunis and captioned “a few dollars, lays them out in the purchase of some first-hand,” noted Burckhardt, who accurately sur- in Arabic and French Nasser D. Khalili Collection kind of provision, which, when the Hajj approaches, he mised that “this city is probably richer than any town of Islamic Art, London transports upon his ass from Jeddah to Mecca.” of the same size in the Turkish dominions.” An ethnol- Autographed postcard inscribed What would be a fortune in any other city in the ogist ahead of the discipline’s time, the Swiss explorer in French addressed to Madame Rollin. The postcard reads, world, given the heavy taxes paid by pilgrims and the strove to describe Jeddah in such a way that—in the “When you recover, we shall travel to Mecca, with the Arabs, expenses integral to their stay, was but one source of words of Jacqueline Pirenne—”is as far as possible from barefoot on the sand of the wealth among others in Jeddah. “During the interval an anecdotal, superficial account that anyone passing desert.” of the Hajj,” resources could be used in different ways, through could have provided,” far surpassing those Burckhardt observed, as “there is considerable trade that many other travelers had already left. He painted with the Bedouins, and especially with the inhabitants a portrait that provides a detailed perception of this of the towns of Nejd, who want India goods, drugs, and highly singular city, unique in its kind, as it may have articles of dress”—not to mention grain speculation, been slightly over two centuries ago—thus allowing a of course. On this subject, he somberly noted: “It is a better insight into the city as it stands today.

38 39 The Center of the World

or Muslims the world over, Mecca has always course, but it ultimately joined the Syrian caravan in represented the center of the world—it was Damascus. Likewise, a small Palestinian caravan joined simply a matter of being able to reach it. the Egyptian caravan around Aqaba. For those pilgrims It was only quite recently, thanks to who did not reach Jeddah and Hijaz by sea route, it was Fmodern modes of transport—steamboats, trains, cars, imperative that one of these three caravans arrived in planes—that what was once an extremely long journey Mecca. Organized and overseen by the large Muslim fraught with dangers has become a trip that one can now countries—Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Ottoman Empire— take knowing that in all likelihood the return home is these caravans were headed by a major dignitary, pro- guaranteed. vincial governor, or high-ranking military official, the For most pilgrims, hailing from countries from Amir al-Hajj; escorted by soldiers; and consisted of con- which access to the ports of the Red Sea’s western coast— voys carrying tens of thousands of camels, and just as principally Jeddah, but Yanbu as well—was impossible, many pilgrims, in each one. the only option for reaching Hijaz was traveling overland by caravan. This is why, over the thirteen centuries Ali ibn Ahmad ibn from the establishment of the Islamic pilgrimage until Mohammed al-Sharafi al-Safaqusi the emergence of the aforementioned modern modes of Nautical atlas, 1571–72 transport, many tens or even hundreds of thousands of Drawing on paper 26.8 5 20.7 cm pilgrims made the choice, year in and year out, to face Bodleian Library, Oxford any number of equally dreadful dangers. To name just The Ka‘ba is placed in the center of this map, which shows a series a few, these included getting lost in the desert; dying of of cities in a ring around it. The thirst; falling victim to a sandstorm; being swept away Maqam Ibrahim, which is the stone Ibrahim used for climbing in a sudden torrent; being attacked by bandits; or suc- when building the Ka‘ba, Hijr cumbing to an epidemic, which was a frequent event Ismail, and the well of Zamzam, appear on the map as well. The until the early twentieth century. text above the map reads: “A circle for ascertaining the right Despite this frightening catalogue, these dangers, direction towards Mecca for each while well-known, were never enough to dissuade pil- country and a guide for facing Mecca.” grims from undertaking a journey that was also so costly that they sometimes had to sacrifice a fair portion of Safi ibn Vali The camp of the caravan their wealth or their life savings. In the eighteenth cen- of the pilgrims from the Maghreb, c. 1677–80 tury, the cost of this journey, from Damascus to Mecca Folio 15a from the Anis al-Hujjaj and back, was estimated at four hundred piastres—the (The Pilgrim’s Companion) India, probably Gujarat cost of a house in that city at the time. Over the course Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper of these thirteenth centuries, the conditions surround- 33 5 23.2 cm Nasser D. Khalili Collection ing the pilgrimage caravans remained constant. That is, of Islamic Art, London discounting those departing from a point on the Arabian The camps at the Hajj are composed, as much as possible, Peninsula, the caravans always left from the same of pilgrims speaking the same three starting points of Cairo, Damascus, or Baghdad. language or coming from the same country. There was also a caravan that left from Istanbul, of

43 Ali Cherri Mahmud Husayn Malik Mekkah Al-Shu‘ara' From the series Trembling A view of the Ka‘ba and Landscapes, 2016 surrounding buildings in Mecca, Lithographic print with ink stamp 1876–77 Courtesy of the artist and the Watercolors on paper Imane Farès Gallery, Paris 49.2 5 59.2 cm Museum of Islamic Art, Doha Trembling Landscapes is an ongoing project in which Ali This painting was commissioned Cherri investigates the effects by the Qajar prince Farhad Mirza of catastrophes, both manmade to celebrate his return from the and geological, on cities situated Hajj in 1876–77. on active fault lines. The text in Arabic reads: “Then the earth Ziad Antar will shake a second time, and Mecca Tower the dead shall come forth.” From the series Expired, 2005 Gelatin silver print Courtesy of the artist In 2000, using a 1948 Kodak SLR camera and black-and- white medium-format ﬁlms that had expired in 1976, Ziad Antar began photographing contemporary buildings that reﬂected futuristic architectural gestures such as Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Clock Tower of Mecca featured in this photograph.

The Bolognese Ludovico di Varthema, who was and mounted on the magnificent camels of Syria.” the construction of ribats to house poor pilgrims—and the first European to provide an account of such a trip, This was about the same number as in 1876, when an- maristans to care for them in the holy cities. For cen- undertaken in 1503, recounted that the caravan he was other British traveler, Charles M. Doughty, joined the turies, Egyptian rulers also had a major portion of the accompanying as part of the Mameluke escort numbered Damascus caravan to Mada'in Saleh: “The hajjàj were wheat crop from Upper Egypt sent to Hijaz in order to 40,000 pilgrims and 35,000 camels upon departure from this year 6,000 persons; of these more than half are provide for the subsistence of pilgrims. Damascus. Upon arrival in Mecca, he wrote: “We found serving men on foot; and 10,000 of all kinds of cattle.” Despite these sustained efforts, and despite the the caravan from Cairo, which had arrived eight days In 1814, due to political troubles afflicting Hijaz, nearly “funds” (surra) that served to remunerate the Bedouin before us. […] In the said caravan there were sixty-four all of the Egyptian pilgrims chose to reach the penin- chiefs of the territories through which the caravans thousand camels and one hundred Mamelukes.” sula through the port of Jeddah. For the same reasons, traveled to buy the protection of tribes, the pilgrimage Later, during the final decades of the eighteenth there was no caravan leaving from Baghdad that same routes remained consistently dangerous until the early century and as illustrated by Turkish fiscal documents, year. Consequently, of the three major caravans, only twentieth century. the number of travelers joining the Damascus cara- the one leaving from Damascus was somewhat substan- The Egyptian caravan took a little over one van each year fluctuated between 70,000 and 100,000. tial. According to Swiss explorer and orientalist Johann month to proceed from its Cairo departure point to Circumstances further in the past had dictated even Ludwig Burckhardt in his Travels in Arabia, it “consisted Mecca, traveling more than 1,600 kilometers with thir- larger caravans. In 1253, for example, during the pil- of four or five thousand persons, including soldiers and ty-one stopover points. The journey was slightly longer grimage undertaken by the mother of the last Abbasid servants, [and] it had fifteen thousand camels.” from Damascus: it took twenty-seven days to Medina caliph, al-Musta`sim bi-llah, her caravan, which set off The great Egyptian historian Maqrizi recounted and ten more to reach Mecca. More precisely, “Reaching from Baghdad, included no fewer than 120,000 camels. that the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi spent some thirty mil- Mecca from Damascus, in Syria, takes 490 hours by Some years, the caravans gathered much smaller lion dirhams during his 776 pilgrimage, developing and foot,” estimated Turkish pilgrim Mehmet Edib Mehmet, numbers of pilgrims, as English traveler Richard Burton marking out the route from Baghdad to Mecca, having author of the 1682 Journey from Constantinople to observed in 1853, after disembarking at Yanbu and join- caravansaries built at each stop and equipping them Mecca. Long segments of these two routes, like the ing the Mecca-bound Damascus caravan in Medina. He lavishly. Over the centuries, a great many caliphs, sul- one between Baghdad and Mecca, were completely de- wrote: “From what we could see, it amounted to about tans, and princes allocated substantial subsidies for the void of water supplies, taxing the needs represented by seven thousand souls, on foot and horseback, in carriages protection of caravans, the development of routes, and such a great number of people and animals. It is thus

44 45 According to this same author, “The fatigue Léon Belly Anonymous Pilgrims Going to Mecca, 1861 The March of the Grand Caravan would be bearable, were it not for the ongoing wor- Wash drawing and ink mounted from Cairo to Mecca ries inspired by the Bedouin Arabs.” This constant fear on canvas From A New and Complete 88 5 92 cm System of Geography: containing of bandits coming to rob or kill him equaled and per- Musée Quai Branly – Jacques a full, accurate, authentic haps even surpassed that of thirst, and appears to have Chirac, Paris and interesting account and © R.M.N.– Grand Palais description of Europe, Asia, plagued the pilgrims. Of all the inconveniences of the Africa, and America, as Léon Belly consisting of continents, islands, journey, this climate of permanent insecurity seems to Pilgrims Going to Mecca, 1861 oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, have been the most difficult to tolerate. In his Journey, Oil on canvas promontories, capes, bays, 161 5 242 cm peninsulas, isthmuses, gulphs &c. for example, in speaking of one stopover or another, Musée d’Orsay, Paris with their strange ceremonies, Mehmet Edib Mehmet often mentions that “this route, © R.M.N.–Grand Palais customs, amusements, &c. &c. Charles Theodore Middleton This painting was exhibited at too, is infested with thieves.” During another stopover, London, 1777 the Paris Salon of 1861 and was Engraving awarded the “First class” medal. three days to the south of the city of Maan, he refers to Nasser D. Khalili Collection In Pilgrims Going to Mecca, of Islamic Art, London an event from a few years prior, laconically writing that Léon Belly superbly depicts “this is where the caravan was plundered.” the furnace heat of the desert The pilgrimage caravans were and its sun-bleached sky. highly organized and were “We could not cross the desert without a strong described and functioned as escort,” Abd al-Karim continues in his account, “and “small moving cities”. They were led by the Amir al-hajj, who even when the caravan is best guarded, and there are a was responsible for the security of the pilgrims. He had officers, understandable that the issue of water so preoccupied great many pilgrims, anyone who strays a bit is inevita- soldiers, medics, cooks, Bedouin pilgrims without exception, even becoming an obses- bly plundered by the Bedouin Arabs, who harass them guides, judges, imams, muezzins, and pilgrims under his authority. sion. This is why the problem raised by the “scarcity incessantly. Despite the presence of the group, despite Due to the insecurity of the “all of the precautions taken by the Amir al-Hajj—the roads and frequent attacks by of water”—in Mehmet Edib Mehmet’s specific terms— bandits, caravans traveled in long recurs with astonishing regularity in the writings of all commander of the caravan—these wretches could not processions. pilgrims, from the Andalusian Ibn Jubayr to the North be stopped from robbing and assassinating three of Anonymous African Ibn Battuta, and with even more prevalence in our travel companions with three pistol shots,” the Pilgrims en route to Mecca From The Illustrated London the accounts of European travelers. Kashmiri wrote, extremely distressed by the Bedouins’ News, Nov. 1, 1879 wrongdoings. He devoted about five pages of his short Nasser D. Khalili Collection When the direct route from Baghdad to Mecca of Islamic Art, London was impassable, as happened frequently, pilgrims were volume to recounting “some of their most common At the rear of the caravan forced to go through Damascus, which meant a journey tricks” in minute detail—notably, how one of his procession were camels equipped with litters that were provided of “seven hundred and eighteen hours by foot,” as ex- friends was robbed of a belt containing 300 gold pieces for richer pilgrims to protect perienced by the Kashmiri nobleman Abd al-Karim in as he prayed. “Another day,” he continued, “the Bey them from the sun and the heat. Some poor pilgrims ran short of 1741, who went so far as to specify, in his Journey from of Shiraz was performing his ablutions, when an Arab supplies during the travel and were obliged to interrupt their India to Mecca, that “equipped with a European watch, journey to work. They resumed I verified this count myself.” their journey afterwards. The pilgrims leaving from Constantinople faced Charles Cousen an even longer journey. “The number of days between The Mecca Caravan, c. 1849 Tinted steel engraving their departure from Constantinople to their arrival in From Forty Days in the Desert William Henry Bartlett this capital comes to two hundred and sixty,” accord- A. Hall & Co., London, 1856 ing to Mehmet Edib Mehmet. Of course, this duration Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London included the stays in Mecca and Medina, as well as the The Amir al-Hajj of the caravan long stopover in the city of Damascus both on the way stops at every town he passes through so that the persons and on the return. who wish to go to the pilgrimage It is not difficult to grasp the exhaustion of can join the caravan. many pilgrims, who were often of an advanced age, commented numerous authors: “The trek through the desert is extremely tiring, especially given the great distance between stops,” wrote the Kashmiri Abd al-Karim. He went on to note somberly that “one of our travel companions perished of consumption in the Khaybar desert, and we buried him in the sand.”

46 47 IN THE CENTER OF Hailing from Balkh, in Khorasan, Naser Khosrow observed. Ali Bey El Abbassi the renowned scholar, poet, and Nevertheless, the ground, walls, and Main façade of the little house THE CENTER where the Zamzam well is located traveler, Naser Khosrow, provided an ceiling were decorated according to and view of the Zamzam well account of the four pilgrimages that the orders of various Abbasid caliphs Plate n° 57 in Atlas: Illustrations de Voyages d’Ali Bey el Abbassi he made to Mecca in the first half of of Baghdad, one of whom had sent en Afrique et en Asie pendant the eleventh century, in a celebrated one hundred blocks of white marble les années 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 et 1807 work entitled Safarnama (Book of which were sawed on site by artisans Didot, Paris, 1816 Travels). In these pages, he provided from Iraq in order to redo the floor Bibliothèque nationale de France a highly detailed description of the slabs; another caliph had the walls At the time of Ali Bey El Abbassi’s voyage to Mecca, the interior of the Ka‘ba. covered “to the ceiling with slabs of Zamzam well had a building over The door of the Ka‘ba “is toward the coloured marble adorned with it, roofed by a large cupola and a east,” Khosrow wrote, and is arabesques”; and another one had small dome. Men were employed without pay to draw the water. positioned “higher than the affixed to the wall “on the western The men roped leather buckets to courtyard,” so that “a man of side, six silver mihrabs, each of a small wheel; one would come up full while the other went Ali Bey El Abbassi Ibn Jubayr, who completed the time. And the visit to the interior of one day was reserved for men, the which is as tall as a man.” Profile of the temple of Mecca, average height, when standing on down empty. Richard Burton, pilgrimage in 1183–84, and was in the Ka‘ba, which the vast majority of second for women, and the third was tiptoe, can reach the threshold.” Two Here also could be found “two who took the pilgrimage in 1853, 1814 described the taste of Zamzam Plate n° 54 in Atlas : Illustrations Mecca about a century and half after pilgrims, in the past, had the right to “appropriated to washing and planks affixed to the wall with silver large silver rings are attached to the water as being nauseously de Voyages d’Ali Bey el Abbassi Naser Khosrow, observed that the claim, became a privilege. This is purifying the house of God.” door “too high for anyone to reach,” nails, which are said to come from bitter, while John Keane, whose en Afrique et en Asie pendant pilgrimage occurred in 1877, les années 1803, 1804, 1805, door of the Ka‘ba was open every how at the end of the seventeenth “I was carried to the temple on those and “two other silver rings, smaller Noah’s ark,” Naser Khosrow noted, wrote that he performed his 1806 et 1807 Tuesday and Friday, and every day century, the Turkish pilgrim Mehmet days,” Ali Bey recounts, “and as than the first two, are attached much further explaining to his readers, “In ablutions with the water of Paris, Imprimerie de P. Didot Bibliothèque nationale de France during the month of Rajab. Some Edib Mehmet counted the edifice’s there was an immense crowd, they lower so that anyone could reach the northern section of the Kaaba Zamzam. He also drank from it and described it as tasting like a The Ka‘ba, positioned in the 140 years later, when the North opening days: “The temple opens at made me sit down in a kind of bower there is an elongated slab of red them.” In these “lower rings is fitted weak solution of Epson salts and center of the Holy Mosque African geographer Ibn Battuta various times of the year: on the belonging to the guard, which is marble on the floor: it is said that having medicinal value. of Mecca, is called Bayt Allah a large silver lock,” in such a way completed his first of many Ashura (the tenth day of the month composed of black eunuchs.” Then, that “the doors cannot be opened the Prophet used to pray here, and (House of God). According to the Koran, it is the first temple pilgrimages, he wrote, “The noble of Muharram), from morning till “The crowd being a little diminished, all who have learned about this without removing it”. To enter the erected for mankind. It is door is open every Friday following noon; on the twentieth day of the my guide and some guards conveyed edifice, therefore, “a wooden feature strive to conduct their enclosed within four arched colonnades or arcades. The prayers; it is also open on the day of same month, for the sweeping of the me to the Ka‘ba. They took great prayers on this same spot.” staircase wide enough for ten men arcades feature a row of little the Prophet’s birthday.” temple; the Ka‘ba is also open on the care to make me put my right foot abreast has been constructed so that What Naser Khosrow failed to specify domes, thirty-six on the long side and twenty-four on the Ibn Battuta then narrated the day of the Prophet’s birth; on the upon the first step in ascending.” in his work were the days of opening, one can get inside the house of God.” short side. sequence of the visit, after the day of the commemoration of the Having accomplished his devotions when pilgrims and visitors could The edifice is empty, as we know, positioning in front of the door of “a Prophet’s Night Journey and within the edifice, Ali Bey continued gain access to the inside of the entirely empty. It contains only platform similar to a pulpit, with Ascension; on the first Friday of the his account: “I kissed the silver key Ka‘ba. This absence of information is “three pillars positioned within, steps and wooden legs, where four month of Rajab and on the first of the Ka‘ba, which one of the most likely due to the fact that at the which support the ceiling and are pulleys are adjusted to help the Friday of the month of Ramadan.” Scherif’s children, who was seated in time, the edifice was open quite made of teak. They are all square, platform roll.” As the custodianship A century later, Carsten Niebuhr, the an armchair, held for that purpose. frequently. The Andalusian traveler except for one, which is round,” of the Ka‘ba was entrusted to the sole survivor of the famous Danish After this I withdrew, escorted by the Bani Sheyba family, of the Quraysh expedition to Arabia, wrote: “Save eunuchs, who made their way Ali Bey El Abbassi tribe, it was thus the head of this extraordinary circumstances, the through the crowd, by striking Front page with a portrait of Ali family who opened the door, door of the Ka‘ba opens only twice a people with their fists.” Bey El Abbassi from Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, “holding the illustrious key in his year; and even then, only eminent Between this first visit—during Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, hand”. Ibn Battuta continued: “He figures are allowed to enter, and which he was treated with a certain between the years 1803 and 1807, London, 1816 afterwards kissed the illustrious those in their entourage.” It was thus consideration, in particular, with Nasser D. Khalili Collection threshold, and entered the sanctuary quite natural that the pilgrim Ali Bey guards who ensured that his path of Islamic Art, London alone,” where he performed prayers El Abbassi subsequently took pride was clear—and the second, Ali Bey Ali Bey El Abbassi started his travels from Gibraltar to and prostrations, the interior of the in having been invited to visit the was received by the Sherif of Mecca, Tangiers, and from there he Ka‘ba being the only place in the interior of the Ka‘ba twice in the which allowed him to be invited to reached Tripoli, Alexandria, space of a few days, although these the inside of the temple once again, and then Cairo. He left Suez on world where these could be December 23, 1806 on a dhow performed in all directions. He was respects were due to a princely title and to participate in the purification and arrived in Jeddah on January then joined by the other members of that was in all likelihood usurped. rituals held there. Ali Bey indeed 13, 1807, after a terrible crossing. the Bani Sheyba family present He wrote: “Saturday the 24th of participated alongside the sherif in there, who in turn performed their January 1807, the 15th of the month the operation that first consisted in devotions. Next, “the door was Doulkaada, in the year 1221 of the washing the floor, with water mixed opened, and people rushed to enter.” Hegira, they opened the door of the with rosewater, small brushes in As could be observed, opening days Ka‘ba, which is shut the whole year, each hand: “I began my duty by gradually grew less frequent over except three days.” He explained that sweeping with both hands, with an

48 49 Kader Attia with their hands, threw it in Ahmad Nawar Black Cube II, 2005 quantities over them”. Similarly, the Hijaz: Inspiration from the Holy Oil on canvas Land (5), 2016 200 5 200 cm small brushes that had been used to Flo-master ink drawing Courtesy of the artist and of clean the floor were broken into a 26.5 5 41.5 cm Nagel Draxler Gallery, Berlin Courtesy of the artist thousand pieces that were thrown to and of Hafez Gallery, Jeddah This painting is one of a series that Kader Attia created, the pilgrims, who then preserved This drawing represents the inspired by the form of the these bits as sacred relics. ceremony of the changing of the Ka‘ba, considered the center of kiswa of the Ka‘ba, which takes all things. The tenth-century The Italian Giovanni Finati, who place every year on the ninth day historian Al-Mas‘udi wrote: came to Arabia with Muhammad of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah “The Ka‘ba with respect to the (the last month of the Arab inhabited parts of the world Ali’s army and wound up in Mecca calendar), the day pilgrims leave is like the center of a circle hardly ten years after Ali Bey, for the plains of Mount Arafat. with respect to the circle itself. provided a whole new story of the All regions face the Ka‘ba, Kazuyoshi Nomachi surrounding it as a circle same circumstances. In his account, The Ka‘ba surrounds its center, and each no more crowds of pilgrims jostled to Courtesy of the artist region faces a particular part The Ka‘ba is covered with a of the Ka‘ba.” penetrate the temple’s interior. heavy black cloth, named the “Once in the year, and once only, kiswa. According to Ibn Jubayr, this holy of holies is opened, and as the kiswa is usually made up of thirty-four pieces. The black there is then nothing to prevent ground is damasked with shiny admission, it appears surprising at black chevron designs and again handling fire with one’s recommendation made to him, that he respected the order, and Koranic verses. first to see so few who are willing to fingers, never again telling lies.” before he entered, to never look up: refrained from doing so: “All that go into the interior, and especially In his book, entitled Six months in “Nobody is supposed to look up could be see were the hangings of since this act is supposed to have the Hijaz in which he recounts his while in this chamber,” he wrote. the walls and ceiling embroidered in great efficacy in the remission of all stay in the city in 1877–78, another “You are told that the only man who gold,” he assured, “and the three past sins,” Finati noted. For him, Brit, John Fryer Keane, also ever did so was struck blind.” pillars supporting the flat roof.” He this lack of haste was explained by addresses this subject of the interior It is unknown whether the intrepid also stated that “the place was very the implicit conditions binding those of the Ka‘ba , and seems to have traveler attempted to peer into the dark”. who entered the house of God, until been strongly impressed by the upper part of the chamber. It seems the end of their days. Such a person, he wrote, would “exercise no gainful trade or pursuit, nor to work for his livelihood in any way whatever; and next he must submit patiently to all offences and injuries, and must never again touch anything that is impure or unholy.” “Since it is not easy to find in the same person sufficient competence, ardent faith, although the floor was large piece of aloe wood, which I with sufficient forbearance at the quite clean, and polished like glass.” burned in a large chafing-dish, to same time, and self-denial to fulfill He was then handed a small carafe perfume the hall.” Once this these conditions,” Finati continued, of this water used for washing, undertaking was completed, the “the number who enter the Ka‘ba is which he was careful to drink and sherif proclaimed Ali Bey very limited.” On this subject, other sprinkle on himself, “for although “Khaddem-Beit Allah el Haram, or arguments were provided by British this water is very dirty, it is a Servant of the blessed House of explorer Richard Burton, who benediction of God.” God,” and Ali Bey concluded, “and I completed the pilgrimage in 1853. The cleaning efforts continued: received the congratulations of all Burton also observed that “there is “They gave me afterwards a silver the assistants”. no lack of pilgrims who refuse to cup, filled with a paste made of the All the while, the crowd of pilgrims, penetrate within the house of God.” sawdust of sandalwood, kneaded amassed before the edifice, piously But Burton attributed this abstention with essence of roses that I spread collected the water that had been to much more pragmatic motives: upon the lower part of the wall, used for washing the floor, “which, for him, pilgrims did not enter the which was encrusted with marble, flowing out at a hole under the Ka‘ba “because, among other under the tapestry which covered door,” they sprinkled on themselves, obligations, this entails those of the walls and the roof; and also a while the guards, “with cups, and never again walking barefoot, never

50 51 came up behind him, seized his ewer and vanished!” All of the pilgrims who traveled with these Jan Peeters View of Mecca, 1665 Abd al-Karim concluded this enlightening passage by at- caravans were struck by the strict scheduling and Pen and brown ink, with brush testing to the fact that “Bedouins run with great speed!” rigorous order that was characteristic of them. The and gray wash, over traces of black chalk, on cream-laid paper, Like an ever-shifting city, the substantial size of young Englishman Joseph Pitts—who fell into slavery laid down on board 20 5 41.3 cm the caravan was both its strength and its weakness. It and accompanied his North African master on the The Leonora Hall Gurley was so immense that it was difﬁcult to capture, although pilgrimage in about 1685—was able to observe the Memorial Collection The Art Institute of Chicago/Art it could be entirely devastated, as the Turkish pilgrim Egyptian caravan’s orderly progress following the ﬁrst Resource New York recounts. While strictly organized, with its sections, its day, when the pilgrims seemed to have trouble un- Jules Gervais-Courtellemont armed guards, and its hierarchy, it was impossible to ful- derstanding where they should stay and what was ex- wrote in Mon Voyage à La Mecque: “Beyond the East ly protect every part, every minute of the day. It was thus pected of them. “After everyone hath taken his place known to Europeans, there, far into the heart of Arabia, within frequently subjected to raids and attacks. On various oc- in the Caravan, they orderly and peaceably keep the the mystery of the deep deserts casions, Ludovico di Varthema had to face different at- same place. They travel four camels in breast, and that surround it, the Holy City of Islam, Makkah, hides at the tacks from Bedouin hordes, which he was able to dispel the camels are all tied one after the other, like as bottom of a wild valley hemmed with the other Mameluke escorts (cf. chapter The Flora in Teams. The whole Company is called a caravan, in by two steep and barren mountain ranges. It seems that of the Peninsula). These violent incursions consistently which is divided into several cottors, each cottor hath nature itself wanted to be an accomplice to the Muslim Faith left a few victims in their wake among the pilgrims, and its name, and consists, it may be, of several thousand in hiding from the profane these it was necessary to conduct a makeshift burial in the camels, and they move one cottor after another like jealously guarded secrets.” middle of the desert before setting off again. distinct troops. In the head of each cottor is some

Alberto Pasini great gentleman or officer, who is carried on a thing different parties of hadjis, distinguished by their prov- Caravan alongside the Red Sea, like an horse-litter, born by two camels. If the said inces or towns, keep close together; and each knows 1864 Oil on canvas gentleman or officer hath a wife with him, she is its never-varying station in the caravan, which is de- 37 5 64 cm carried in another of the same.” termined by the geographical proximity of the place Courtesy of Palazzo Pitti, Galleria d’Arte moderna, Florence The Kashmiri Abd al-Karim made similar ob- from whence it comes. When they encamp, the same In this painting, Pasini depicts servations: “Everyone must keep to their assigned order is constantly observed; thus the people from the long and monotonous procession of a caravan of camels position in the caravan and not stray from this dur- Aleppo always encamp close by those of Homs, &c. with its drivers. The oppressive ing the whole journey.” Burckhardt in turn provided This regulation is very necessary to prevent disorder sun is blazing in this immense and perfectly mastered scene. a similar description of the Syrian caravan in 1814: in night-marches.” The man who is walking ahead of the caravan is weakened; his “On the route, a troop of horsemen ride in front, and These are more or less the same words used by back is bent and his head bowed. another in the rear, to bring up the stragglers. The Pitts: “Were it not for such organisation, one could The camels are unbridled so that they can eat whatever they can find on their route in this sterile Gaspar Bouttats land. Mecha in Arabia, 1672 From a collection of fourteen Khedive Abbas Hilmi II etchings (Views from Arabia, Caravan of Pilgrims, 1909 Judea, Chaldea, Syria, Jerusalem, Courtesy of Durham University, Antiochia, Aleppo, Mecca, etc.) Durham Etching after Jan Peeters 11.8 5 26.3 cm Traditionally the caravans Published by Jacobus Peeters, departed on a Friday after the Antwerp noon prayer. Poorer pilgrims Nasser D. Khalili Collection could not afford to rent a camel of Islamic Art, London and were obliged to make the trip by foot. This is an imagined scene of a caravan arriving in Mecca with the principal sites marked in Dutch in the bottom of the image. Joseph Pitts, in A true and faithful account of the religion & manners of the Mohametans in which is a particular relation of their pilgrimage to Mecca, described Mecca in the late seventeenth century as a town in a valley surrounded by many little hills with no walls or gates.

52 53 Georg Emanuel Opitz Prosper Marilhat The arrival of the mahmal The departure of the sacred at an oasis en route to Mecca, carpet to Mecca, first half c. 1805–25 of the nineteenth century Oil on canvas Oil on paper mounted on canvas 165.5 5 253 cm 46.5 5 35.2 cm Orientalist Museum, Doha Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon Image courtesy of Sotheby’s In A Photographer on the Hajj: This spectacular painting The Travels of Muhammad ‘Ali reproduces with minute details Effendi Sa‘udi, Farid Kioumgi the life and composition of and Robert Graham reported the caravan accompanying the that Muhammad Sa‘udi, who mahmal. The scene features a in 1904 accompanied the Amir meeting between an ottoman al-Hajj, General Ibrahim Rif‘at official and a religious leader. On Pasha, and acted as assistant to the right side of the painting are the treasurer of the mahmal, Ottoman dignitaries and soldiers wrote that the treasury chest carrying banners. In the center of then contained 23,000 Egyptian the painting, a lavishly decorated pounds, a sum equivalent to US camel carries the mahmal. On $5 million today. The caravan the top left side of the painting, included around 1,800 pilgrims a muezzin is calling for the and more than 500 soldiers. The prayer while some pilgrims are plan was to spend about sixty performing the ablutions and days in Arabia, where they had women are dismounting their to hire camels, acquire camp camels. followers, pay bribes, and retain a war chest to pay off hostile tribes. Émile Prisse d’Avennes Return of the caravan conveying the sacred carpet of Mecca, 1858 Watercolor on paper 29 5 39 cm Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des manuscrits The mahmal was brought back by the returning caravan. The imagine the confusion that would reign among a mul- Most of the journey took place at night, as oldest surviving mahmal is yellow and is conserved in the titude such as that.” The young Englishman continues: Burckhardt also specifies: “At night, torches are light- museum of the Topkapi Palace “They have lamps to give light by night belonging to each ed, and the daily distance is usually performed between in Istanbul. It was made for the mameluke sultan Qansuh al- cottor, which are carried on the tops of long poles to direct three o’clock in the afternoon, and an hour or two after Ghouri (d. 1516). the hagges their march. These lamps are differently fig- sunrise on the following day.” The caravan thus moved Osama Esid ured and numbered, so that every one knows by the lamps forward, day after day, night after night, along its long The mahmal in procession, 2017 Silver gelatine print, which cottor he belongs to. These lamps are also carried path, as described by Joseph Pitts: “In the head of every hand-colored black-and-white by day, not lighted, but yet, by the figure and number of cottor, the camel hath two bells hanging one on each photograph with Chinese transparent pigments them the hagges are directed to what cottor they belong, side, the sound of which may be heard a great way off. Courtesy of the artist and Hafez as soldiers are by their colours where to rendez-vous. And Some other of the camels have bells about their neck, Gallery, Jeddah without such directions it would be impossible to avoid some about their legs, which make a pleasant noise, and For centuries, the Egyptian caravan carried with it every year confusion in such a vast number of people.” makes the journey pass away delightfully.” the new kiswa (the brocade cloth covering the Ka‘ba). Caravans from Damascus and Cairo continued to convey mahmals to Mecca until after World War I.

54 55 Postcard Abu Subhi Al-Tinawi The arrival in Mecca of the The mahmal, second half caravan carrying the “suré” of the twentieth century Autograph postcard inscribed in Reverse glass painting French, dated March 14, 1911 60 5 70 cm Nasser D. Khalili Collection Private collection, Damascus of Islamic Art, London The technique of reverse glass painting was developed 600 years ago in Europe. In the foreground of this painting, a dromedary carrying the mahmal is followed by a second dromedary transporting the standard bearer. The medallion in the upper left side of the painting features the bust of the governor of Damascus. The caravan arriving from Damascus conveyed with its mahmal the new kiswa, required for the tomb of the Prophet.

Mohamed Naghi The mahmal in procession, ﬁrst half of the twentieth century Oil on canvas 65 5 92 cm Ramzi Dalloul Collection, Beirut From the thirteenth century onward, the Egyptian caravan was accompanied by a mahmal, a wooden litter sumptuously decorated, about four feet high, and covered with red or green cloth. It had lots of bells hanging on its front side, which made a great jangling at every step of the camel.

56 57 Like Joseph Pitts, Abd al-Karim appreciated these little inconvenience; but of those whom poverty induces Hamra Abbas Walid Siti Kaaba picture as a misprint 1, From the series The White Cube, songs and lights: “The journey is also pleasant, with to follow the caravan on foot, or to hire themselves as 2014 2012 the great many lights spread throughout the caravan servants, many die on the road from fatigue.” Archival pigment print mounted Charcoal and crayon on paper on Dibond 71 5 100 cm forming a wandering illumination. Each camel carries With the clear exception of the desolate stretches 137 5 110 cm Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the Lawrie Shabibi Walid Siti wrote: “The White a lamp; the song of their drivers delights the pilgrims of the route, the caravans were celebrated everywhere Gallery and the artist Cube is a transparent open and enlivens the animals.” they went, as seen in Burckhardt’s description of the Kaaba picture as a misprint space. It reflects the spatial In these conditions, pilgrims could simply drift caravan leaving Istanbul for Damascus: “In its pas- is a series that explores how and emotional life of spiritual reorienting objects distorts how and physical formation. along. According to Burckhardt: “The hadjis usually sage through Anatolia and Syria, it collects pilgrims they are read. In this print, the Inspired by images of the contract for the journey with a mekowem, one who spec- of Northern Asia, until it reaches Damascus, where it artist breaks down the iconic pilgrimage to the Holy Place, image of the Ka‘ba into its it creates an arrangement that ulates in the furnishing of camels and provisions to the remains for several weeks. Every care is taken for the simplest, yet still recognizable offers individual devotees the form—two rectangles, one placed opportunity to feel a direct and Hajj. From twenty to thirty pilgrims are under the care safety and convenience of the caravan; at every station atop the other. personal closeness with a sacred of the same mekowem, who has his tents and servants, caravansaries and public fountains have been construct- site.” Hamra Abbas and save the hadjis from all fatigue and trouble on the ed by former Sultans, to accommodate it on its passage, Kaaba picture as a misprint 2, Walid Siti road: their tent, coffee, water, breakfast, and dinner are which is attended so far with continual festivities and 2014 From the series The White Cube, Archival pigment print mounted 2012 prepared for them, and they need not take the slightest rejoicings.” Fireworks were frequently lit, and musi- on Dibond Charcoal on paper 137 5 110 cm 71 5 100 cm trouble about packing and loading. However great may cians sometimes joined the caravan for the duration Courtesy of the Lawrie Shabibi Courtesy of the artist Gallery and the artist be the want of provisions on the road, he must furnish of a stopover. The White Cube evokes the his passengers with their daily meals.” Of course, this It is undoubtedly difficult to take full measure This series, wrote Hamra perpetual motion of the pilgrims Abbas, deals with the different around the Ka‘ba. convenience was only available to some of the pilgrims, of the inconveniences and dangers that pilgrims could ways in which religion may be as Burckhardt clarifies once again: “Those pilgrims who face over the course of the exceptional undertaking rep- understood and experienced— Walid Siti how even when undergoing the From the series The White Cube, can travel with a litter, or on commodious camel-sad- resented by the caravan pilgrimage, and the joys that same series of events, people may 2012 mentally process events Charcoal on paper dles, may sleep at night, and perform the journey with they could encounter in this act. It is certain that in the in a plethora of ways. 71 5 100 cm Courtesy of the artist Walid Siti wrote: “Based on the principle of the relationship between the center and the periphery, The White Cube shows the center as the metaphysical source of values, binding the peripheries to it by stringent physical and moral codes.”

58 59 MUHAMMAD SADIC BEY “No one before me has ever taken grave of the Prophet Muhammad, and Muhammad Sadic Bey such photographs,” noted Muhammad I took a point from where I had a view Mecca, the arrival of the Egyptian mahmal, c. 1880–81 Sadic Bey in his diary. over Medina from the roof of the Albumen print The first known photographs of the arsenal (Tupkhana), as I considered to 17.6 5 21.4 cm Qatar National Museum, Doha holy sites are dated January 1861. be suitable as it allowed me (to take) Sadic Bey was the first They were taken by Colonel Sadic Bey. part of the residential part (al- photographer to photograph Hijaz Muhammad Sadic was a man of Manakha) also. I took the noble cupola and the pilgrimage. The camel carrying the mahmal containing numerous significant titles: a general, from inside the mosque, also with the the kiswa of the Ka‘ba was an author, and a photographer. said instrument. No one had done this always chosen among the finest thoroughbreds. Joseph Pitts wrote: An Egyptian army engineer, he made before me at all,” wrote Sadic Bey in “The kiswa is carried upon two three journeys to the holy cities of Summary of the Exploration of the Wajh- camels and those two camels do Mecca and Medina between 1861 and Madinah Hijaz Route and its Military not do other work at all the year long it is sent out of Egypt.” In 1881, writing his observations and Cadastral Map. other sources it was reported that taking photographs. His first trip was Sadic returned to Hijaz in 1880 as the the camels that carry the kiswa are dispensed from doing any in January 1861. He was directed to treasurer of the caravan of the work for the rest of their lives. explore the area between the Red Sea Egyptian mahmal and once again in Muhammad Sadic Bey port of al-Wajh and the holy city of 1884. During his second trip, Sadic Panoramic view overlooking Medina, and report back on the wrote that he took many photographs the sacred Haram of Mecca and its surroundings, c. 1881 routes, climate, and overall of Mecca, Medina, Mina, the cemetery Muhammad Sadic Bey Albumen print From Mash‘al al-Mahmal, circumstances of the region. During of al-Baki‘ in Medina as well as that of King Abdulaziz Public Library, Risalah fi sir al-Hajj bira min this trip, Sadic picked up the camera al-Ma‘ala in Mecca. Sadic created a Riyadh Muhammad Sadic Bey collodion camera that he brought Furthermore, Sadic’s official status as John Keane’s journey to Hijaz, yaum Khurujah min misr …sana During the day, pilgrims sit under for the first time when he laid eyes on panoramic image of the holy mosque Medina and the place 1297 (The Torch of the mahmal. the shade of the arcades reading along with him on his journey, in the treasurer of the caravan included two engravings of Mecca and of the Pilgrims, 1880 A letter on the journey of the the walls of the city of Medina. That at Mecca by joining two photographs the Koran and waiting for the call mahmal from the day it departed Albumen print addition to his measuring instruments. accompanying the mahmal gave him Medina, each captioned “from the first moment marked the first photograph together, giving the impression of one to prayer. from Egypt, 1297), 1880–81 King Abdulaziz Public Library, This camera mounted with humid great freedom of movement. photograph ever taken.” Henceforth 24 5 26 cm taken of the holy mosque. On full image. Riyadh Printed in Cairo collodion plates used glass plate Sadic published several books that photographs provided a visual photographing Medina, he wrote: Photography was invented in France This photo, taken during Sadic Nasser D. Khalili Collection Bey’s second visit to Medina, negatives which proved more robust brought him exceptional recognition. illustration of the literary accounts of of Islamic Art, London “I took a picture of al-Madina and Great Britain in 1839–40, and features al-Masjid al-Nabawi than paper negatives and also resistant In 1877, he wrote Summary of the the holy cities. Later publications on Folding map illustrating the route al-Munawwarra with the light-rays very soon it spread and began to be (the Prophet’s mosque) and tomb to the harsh climate of the desert. The Exploration of the Wajh-Madinah Hijaz the holy cities often used Sadic’s taken by the mahmal from Cairo instrument which is called used in the Arab countries. Sadic with its prominent dome in the to Mecca, to Medina and back background. Outside the walls, photographs could be reproduced on Route and its Military Cadastral Map. photographs, including Muhammad photography, with the cupola over the owned a device known as a wet-plate to Cairo. on the right, are the camels and albumen-coated paper. Sadic was fully In 1881, he published Mash‘al Labib al-Batanuni’s The Journey tents of pilgrims. aware of the historical moment he was al-Mahmal (The Torch of the to Hijaz, Saleh Soubhy’s Pèlerinage à living in. Mahmal), which contains his La Mecque et à Médine, and Christiaan He meticulously documented his collection of photographs, the history S. Hurgronge’s Mekka in the latter surroundings by drawing and of the mahmal and the kiswa. After Part of the 19th Century. interviewing. It is believed that his his third trip to the holy cities, in 1885 writings, maps, and photographs Sadic published Kawkab al-Hajj fi fulfilled military and strategic goals. safar al-mahmal bahran wa sayrih The title of his first book contains the barrani (The Apogee of the Pilgrimage wording “military map”. He also took in the travel of the Mahmal by sea and interest in the documentation of by land), in which he described the buildings and fortifications. He celebrations following the arrival of photographed landscapes such as the mahmal to Jeddah, Mina, and mountains and valleys, specifying the Arafat. His most famous book distances, the location of the tents of was Dalil al-Hajj (The Guide to the soldiers, the water wells, etc. The Hajj for Its Universal Arriving Visitors) Arabian Peninsula was one of the published in 1895. The volume is a Egyptian authorities’ primary military detailed documentation of the concerns. They recruited European pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, officers who occupied commanding from the first step to the last. Sadic positions in the Egyptian army. The explains the difficult traveling military maps of Hijaz and Nejd conditions and the dangers of the produced by these officers were not pilgrimage. precise. Sadic was therefore In March 1882, an anonymous article commissioned to produce them. in The Graphic magazine, recording

60 61 Hajj certiﬁcate Hajj map of Mecca and Medina, 1808 Ink and gouache on paper South India 56.3 5 78.8 cm Museum of Islamic Art, Doha This painting might be a Hajj certiﬁcate commissioned by Hajj Yahya (whose name is inscribed in the middle) from the Indian painter Ibrahim. The painting depicts the holy mosque of Mecca and the Ka‘ba (on the right-hand portion of the image) and the mosque of Medina with its green dome on the left side. Burton wrote in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah that there is a popular proverb that says: “He who patiently endures the cold of Al- Madinah and the heat of Meccah merits a reward in Paradise.”

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont Frontispice de Mon Voyage à La Mecque, 1896 Photograph of the Holy Ka‘ba by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont with decorative borders Paris, Librairie Hachette et Cie Bibliothèque nationale de France Jules Gervais-Courtellemont wrote that, he traveled to Mecca in 1896 driven by the desire to penetrate the mystery of the holy city and to enrich his knowledge of the Muslim Orient. He was equipped with his camera and recounted his trip in Mon Voyage à La Mecque, which he illustrated with the photographs he took during his journey.

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont The Black Stone, 1896 From Mon Voyage à La Mecque Paris, Librairie Hachette et Cie Bibliothèque nationale de France The Hajar el Aswad, or Black Stone, is ﬁxed in the southeastern corner of the Ka‘ba, four to ﬁve feet off the ground. Pilgrims performing the circumambulation attempt to kiss the Black Stone or at least touch it if they are impeded by the crowd. It is said that the stone was originally white, but has become black as a result of man’s sins.

62 63 view of many, the difficulties of the journey tended to Next came the highly anticipated moment Anne Blunt Hajj camp at Birkeh Jemasneh, heighten its merit, as illustrated by the resistance that when the traveler performed the pilgrimage rituals February 20, 1879 sometimes met the development of new modes of trans- with fervor, for days at a time, surrounded by vast Watercolor Courtesy of the British Library port in the service of the pilgrimage, which ultimately and dense crowds: “I have entered into a sort of hyp- Birkehs were created to provide led to the caravans disappearing. nosis that makes me insensitive to fatigue, hunger water for the pilgrims. Basically, they were tanks or reservoirs When pilgrims had survived all of the dangers and thirst alike,” wrote the Frenchman Jules Gervais- for collecting rainwater. Water represented by the caravan, upon reaching Mecca they Courtellemont upon completing his pilgrimage, under- was channeled into these tanks and stored there until the time fell prey to all of the pilgrimage professionals—residents taken in 1896. Pilgrims had to take a few days to re- of the Hajj, when the pilgrims could make use of it. Many of of the holy city whose first and foremost livelihood de- gather their strength before facing the return journey. the old pilgrimage caravanserais pended on profits earned from pilgrims: guides, lodg- Sometimes they chose to stay in the holy city for a few (khans) and forts were built in places where the winter ing-house keepers, merchants, brokers, and intermedi- weeks, or even to reside there for a few months, be- rain was collected in large aries of all types. In Mecca, pilgrims’ lives were not in coming a “mujawir” and leading an existence of ascetic birkehs (cisterns). These walled cisterns could hold considerable danger, but their resources were. and religious contemplation in Mecca. quantities of water.

Nevertheless, these worries, and all of the rest, For all of these pilgrims, it is clear that the cara- Postcard were overshadowed by the fact of having reached the van journey represented an experience outside of time. Zamzam Colored postcard “Navel of the world”—Mecca and its Masjid al-Haram. Beyond the faith driving them, these highly particular Nasser D. Khalili Collection “It was as if the poetical legends of the Arab spoke truth. circumstances reveal another reason for which, over of Islamic Art, London […] I have seen the religious ceremonies of many lands, many centuries, and despite the dangers faced, so many The original location of the well of Zamzam was east-northeast but never—nowhere—aught so solemn, so impressive as people were willing to face such perils. All the more so, of the Black Stone. Ameen Rihani recounted in Around the Coasts of this spectacle,” wrote the Englishman Richard Burton, the sojourn in Mecca was viewed as a special experience Arabia how some of the pilgrims, recalling the moment when he contemplated the temple in many ways. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt perceptively “in an ecstasy of devotion, would throw themselves sometimes in for the ﬁrst time. observed: “Except those of a very high rank, the pilgrims the well of Zamzam, believing it to be the quickest and safest way to eternal bliss—a short-cut Lionel Marty to Paradise”. It was then decided From Captain Sir Richard Burton to cover the well with an iron – Le voyage à La Mecque, 2013 net. Afterwards and before the Scenario by Christian Clot expansion of the sacred mosque, and Alex Nicolavitch the well of Zamzam was enclosed Published by Glénat, Paris with a parapet wall within a When Richard Burton traveled to large building. After the 1979 Arabia, he took with him a diary expansion of the mosque, this made for him by a Cairene: “It building was removed. Instead, a was a long thin volume ﬁtting large underground hall was built into a breast-pocket, where it to house the well and drinking could be carried without being fountains were provided for the seen.” He wrote that he began to pilgrims, allowing more space write notes in Arabic characters, for the circumambulation but his journal was afterwards around the Ka‘ba. kept in English. The traveler, he wrote, “must, beware of Richard Burton sketching before the Badawin, The Pilgrim who would certainly proceed to From a Personal narrative extreme measures, suspecting of a pilgrimage to El Medinah him to be a spy or a sorcerer.” and Meccah, 1855–56 Lithograph by C. F. Kell Royal Geographical Society, London

64 65 Newsha Tavakolian Newsha Tavakolian An aerial view of the tents used Pilgrims leave their tents, often to shelter pilgrims on the sides depending upon the season, of the highway at Arafat, 2008 following a chilly night on the Courtesy of the artist rocks and move towards mount Arafat at the crack of dawn, 2008 Newsha Tavakolian Courtesy of the artist Aerial view of the pilgrims Evliya Çelebi, who performed the gathering at mount Arafat, 2008 Hajj in 1672, wrote in his Book of Courtesy of the artist Travels: “To put on the pilgrim’s Arafat is a large plain surrounded robe is to separate oneself from by mountains, located 22 all but God.” kilometers southeast of Mecca. In 1807, Ali Bey described the standing at Arafat, writing: “No, there is not any religion that presents a spectacle more simple, affecting and majestic.”

Newsha Tavakolian Newsha Tavakolian The new multi-leveled Jamarat Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), building, 2008 2008 Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist In response to the pressure of The final ritual, on the Eid rising numbers of pilgrims in al-Adha, the tenth day of the recent years, the Jamarat has pilgrimage, is the shaving of been expanded from its original men’s heads, after the sacrifice. single level to a large multi- For women, it is proscribed level structure. Each level of that the length of a fingertip be this structure can serve north, trimmed. This act symbolizes south, east, and west with twelve the end of the consecrated state entrances. The building contains and frees the pilgrim from some the Jamarat pillars where the of the commitments inherent in pilgrims perform the ritual of wearing the Ihram. stoning the pillars—symbolically thrown at the devil.

66 67 Ahmad Nawar Hijaz: Inspiration from the Holy Land (6), 2016 Ink drawing 46 5 61 cm Courtesy of the artist and of Hafez Gallery, Jeddah In The Sacred Journey, Ahmad Kamal described Arafat: “Here by the mountain, the pilgrim will pass what should be, spiritually and intellectually, the noblest hours of his life. The tents of the faithful will cover the undulating valley as far as the eye can see. This immense congregation with the sacred mountain at its center is the heart of Islam. This is the day of true brotherhood.”

Ziad Antar Hajj Tents From the Expired series, 2005 Gelatin silver print Courtesy of the artist Ziad Antar’s approach to photography is far from being classical or documentary. Instead of embracing the technological advances in photography, the artist chooses to experiment with obsolete and expired material. The result is pictures that recall an indistinct memory.

Kazuyoshi Nomachi live together in a state of freedom and equality. They time spent on the caravan journey, represented “a Aerial view of Medina, 1990s Courtesy of the artist keep but few servants: many, indeed, have none, period of enjoyment; and the same kind of happiness Medina is known in Arabic as and divide among themselves the various duties of results from their residence at Mecca, where reading Al-Madina al-Munawwarra house-keeping, such as bringing the provisions from the Koran, smoking in the streets or coffee-houses, (The Illuminated City). It is the second holiest site in Islam market and cooking them, although accustomed at praying or conversing in the mosque, are added to and the city where the Prophet immigrated with his disciples home to the services of an attendant.” According to the indulgence of their pride in being near the holy in the year 622 (the ﬁrst year him, for pilgrims, these moments of sharing, like the house.” of the Islamic calendar). He was buried in Medina ten years later. The Masjid Al-Nabawi, or the Prophet’s mosque, is one of the Haramayn—the “two sanctuaries” of Islam. The ﬁrst one is the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. Unlike the pilgrimage to Mecca, the visit to Medina is not a mandatory stop during the Hajj, but many pilgrims visit it to pay homage to the Prophet.

68 69 Yann Gayet Roger Grasas From the series Lisières, 2013–14 A road in Arabia crossing Courtesy of the artist the desert From the series Min Turab, 2007–2016 Courtesy of the artist

40 41 The Center of the World

68 69 The Flora of the Peninsula

o say that the ﬁrst authors to leave us an a series of palm gardens and a bubbling spring with a account of their travels in Arabia were not stream ﬂowing from it,” he noted of the small locality terribly interested in the surrounding land- of Badr, situated on the route from Medina to Mecca— scapes and vegetation would be a falsity. here, and whenever the opportunity arose preferring TReaching their goal after a trying journey on camel- to dwell on the epic scope of this famous site of the back, they were struck by the aridity and barrenness Mohammedan tale. of the surroundings—left, in the wake of this long trip, Nevertheless, the specifications and details with the desert as a backdrop day in and day out, week that Ibn Battuta chose to share with his readers in and week out, leg after leg, with a strong sense of regarding the surrounding natural environment monotony. were often quite brief. During one last stopover in Day after day, when the caravan came to a rest, Batn Marra the day before finally reaching the city the eternal question was that of water, to quench the of Mecca, Ibn Battuta expressed gratitude for this thirst of many tens of thousands of pilgrims and near- “blessed valley” whose fruits, vegetables, and other ly as many camels—although the latter could at times assorted herbs are intended to supply the holy city’s

Sheila Hicks refrain from drinking. The writings of Ibn Jubayr, markets, we are told. Palm Tree, 1984–85 and subsequently, Ibn Battuta, provided details of As will be seen later on, Ibn Battuta was not alone Tapestry Wool, cotton, rayon, silk, the presence or absence of wells and springs at each in delighting in these fruits—hailing from valleys near and linen stopover of their long journeys. It is clear to readers Mecca and especially from the region of Ta’if—which he 365 5 274.5 cm Manufactured by Atelier Philippe that the question of water was rightfully at the heart savored over the course of his stay in Mecca: “Here, I ate Hecquet Aubusson Courtesy of the Metropolitan of their concerns. fruits, grapes, figs, peaches, and dates, the likes of which Museum and Art Resource Center At times, however, the Damascus caravan left these are found nowhere else in the world. The same can be This tapestry was handwoven by desert settings behind to pass through a less arid valley said of the melons brought here: no other variety can the artist using the traditional weaving methods established at and set up camp near a village, some of which are con- rival their aroma and sweetness.” With similar rapture, the Aubusson workshops in the early sixteenth century. It is the cisely described by Ibn Battuta. “It is a village containing and undoubtedly a bit of exaggeration, he goes on to prototype for a larger hanging note that “every novel and good item is sent to Mecca, made for King Saud University in Riyadh. and fruits of all varieties are brought in here”. His enthusiasm for the center of Islam deprived Pieter van der Aa Plantes d’Arabie (Plants of Arabia) him of his better judgment at times. He could not heap From La galérie agréable du monde, où l’on voit en un grand enough praise on the city of Mecca and its inhabitants, nombre de cartes très exactes who seemed to him to represent the best of humankind, et de belles tailles douces, les principaux empires, roïaumes, “by their beneficence to the humble and weak, and by républiques, provinces, villes, their kindness to strangers”. Regarding the latter, Ibn bourgs et forteresses… les îles, côtes rivières, ports de mer… Jubayr had proven much more severe in his judgments les antiquitez, les abbayes, églises, académies… comme some 150 years earlier. aussi les maisons de campagne, les habillemens et moeurs des peuples… dans les quatre parties Similarly, the first European travelers were interest- de l’univers, 172 9 ed only in the central and sole reason for their jour- Divided in LXVI volumes, Leiden Bibliothèque nationale de France ney—the pilgrimage. Given their concern for providing

71 Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz sense of moderation—rather remarkably, and unex- comprehensive objectivity the religious attitude of Jasminum Sambac / Jasmin d’Arabie pectedly, for an early sixteenth-century man—in his those who made the pilgrimage to Mecca.” From Histoire Universelle descriptions of the cities of Medina and Mecca, and His account of the pilgrimage—several decades de végétaux, 1771–74 Bibliothèque nationale de France the pilgrimage rites. It is as though the adventurer after the fact, once he had regained his freedom—is the

Anne Blunt that he truly was felt the weight of the responsibility first to have been written in the English language. And Bouquet d’ithels of being the first man to provide Renaissance Europe yet, a search for descriptions of the nature and flora of From Voyage en Arabie. Pèlerinage au Nedjed, berceau with the details of a ritual essential to the understand- Arabia is in vain. He merely notes, at the end of the de la race arabe (A Pilgrimage ing of Islam. This same sensibility is apparent in the long return journey, that he subsequently undertook to Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab race) writings of another traveler, one who did not choose from Mecca to Cairo a “fourty days journey. And in all Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier after a watercolor by Anne Blunt to perform the pilgrimage of his own free will. That this way there is scarcely any green thing to be seen; Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1882 young Englishman, Joseph Pitts, captured by privateers nothing but sand & stones.” Courtesy of the British Library from Algiers in 1678, when he was still a teenager, and Ithel or Tamarix aphylla is a species of pine which is found resold several times as a slave, had been converted to It was undoubtedly necessary to wait for the century of mainly in the northern regions Islam by one of his masters who subsequently brought the Enlightenment and the Encyclopaedists for Europe of Arabia near Tabuk and Mada’in Saleh. It is frequently him along to Mecca. These unfortunate circumstances to develop a more rational, comprehensive curiosity cultivated by the inhabitants of Nejd for its timber, used did not hinder Pitts from demonstrating true empa- regarding Arabia. In the entourage of a pacifist and ed- in building. Street doors were thy for his newfound coreligionists—to the extent that ucated ruler, King Frederick V of Denmark, an ambi- generally made of a single ithel. Its trunk was also used for the historian Jacqueline Pirenne wrote of him: “Believe tious project was born, later known as the Royal Danish wooden plates. us in saying that nobody has described with such Arabia Expedition, which gathered five men versed in

Samuel Thornton Red Sea, 1702–07 A hand-colored nautical chart of the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and Moha, incorporated in a sea atlas containing hydrographical description of most of the seacoasts of the world. Courtesy of the New York Public accounts that were as detailed as possible, their obser- given by God. They began to fight with us, saying that Library vations generally proved exact, and more often than we had taken their water. […] The caravan counted Richard Burton wrote in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to not, devoid of the contempt that might be expected 300 armed men and us Mamelukes overseeing them, Al-Madinah and Meccah: “Trade was carried mainly in Jeddah in the writings of Europeans addressing the topic of numbering 60. We soon began to fight. One man and where cargos exported goods Islam in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This one lady were killed by bows on our side, and they did to Suez. The exports consisted mainly of coffee and gum-arabic is what notably emerges in The Travels of Ludovico di us no further harm. We killed of them 1,600 persons. which came from Al-Yaman Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Nor is it to be wondered at that we killed as many of and Hijaz, mother-of-pearl from the Red Sea, cloves brought Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopa, A.D. 1503 to 1508, them: the cause was that they were all naked and on by Moslem pilgrims from Java, Borneo and Singapore. Other the work left to posterity by the Bolognese Ludovico di horseback, without saddles.” articles include ginger, Varthema, who, as a Mameluke soldier, was part of the There is certainly a fair amount of exaggeration cardamoms, Eastern perfumes, such as aloes-wood, attar of rose, armed guard tasked with escorting and protecting the in Varthema’s accounts of the skirmishes of this sort, attar of pink; senna leaves from Damascus caravan in 1503. Even more than Ibn Jubayr at various points of his journey, when the “armies” of Al-Yaman and Hijaz.” or Ibn Battuta, Varthema constantly expressed his worry Bedouins, in his words, opposed him. Even if, as he concerning the water supply for his caravan, which believed, “the Mamelukes’ bravery is unmatched,” it “counted 35,000 camels and around 40,000 persons.” is difficult to believe his claim of having put to flight But what worried him above all, in a wholly profes- a column of some 24,000 Bedouins with the help of sional manner, were the attacks by Bedouins seeking his 60 peers alone on the outskirts of the village of to rob and plunder the pilgrims: “Afterwards we found Badr; he furthermore seemed unaware that this very a little mountain, near which was a well, whereat we spot was the theater of a different battle—a founding were well pleased. We halted upon the said mountain. one, at that! The next day, early in the morning, there came 24,000 While Varthema gave free rein to his imagina- Arabs, who said that we must pay for their water. We tion in turning mere skirmishes into military feats, answered that we could not pay, for the water was he also demonstrated true curiosity and an assured

72 73 idea of a part of the world of which almost nothing Malin Basil Claire Rivier habit in hot lands,” wrote Niebuhr. He continued: “We Sandscape, 1983 Acacia, 2006 was known at the time. Acrylic on canvas Ink on paper found the evening coolness so pleasant after the heat Before arriving in Arabia, a stay in Constantinople 100 5 75 cm 20.5 5 22 cm of day that we overexposed ourselves.” He lamentingly Private collection Courtesy of the artist was planned in order to allow them to grow familiar added, “I, too, wanting to live like my comrades, in John Keane wrote that Acacia provides food to camels with Muslim society, and in Egypt, to improve their “the desert is never completely and shelter from the sun to men. European manner, in their time, endured a number of language skills, where they stayed for nearly two years bare. In some areas there are Its timber is used by severe illnesses.” broom-like growths that are woodworkers, wrote Charles in all. It is clear that nothing was left to chance. good grazing for camels.” M. Doughty, to make saddle In this analysis, Carsten Niebuhr demonstrated trees, for the burden camels. Finally, one day in October 1762, the small group remarkable perceptiveness in admitting how they were of six people—they were accompanied by a Swedish Claire Rivier the cause of their own misfortunes. As he wrote, “Our Acacia, 2006 servant, Lars Berggren—embarked from Suez on a Pastel on paper company was too numerous to allow of our accommo- 34.5 5 17.5 cm ship that brought them to Jeddah, after a brief stopover Courtesy of the artist dating ourselves at first to the mode of life of the coun- in Yanbu. Worried about how they would be received Charles Doughty wrote that try.” Left on his own, “surrounded only by orientals,” by the natives, its members were pleasantly surprised “acacias give up to the air a he fully embraced the lifestyle of the natives, which hardly sensible wholesome to be warmly welcomed. As Taylor Bayard described sweetness; its little yellowish allowed him to remain in good health for the full three in his Travels in Arabia, “The inhabitants, it seemed, flower-tufts are seen in all the years left of his remarkable journey. midsummer months. […] Its were already accustomed to the sight of Christian mer- leaves are pleasant for the taste In the name of traveling across Arabia and Yemen and a little gelatinous, it will chants in their town, and took no particular notice of refresh the parched mouth; the without too many inconveniences, Niebuhr pinpointed the strangers, who went freely to the coffee-houses and gum, say the Arabs, is very good another error committed by his comrades and himself and cooling to eat.” markets, and felt themselves safe so long as they did during the first part of the journey: that of seeking “the not attempt to pass through the gate leading to Mecca.” diseases, because they were carried off so quickly one acquaintance and protection of the governors of the After spending six weeks in a house provided to them by after the other. Rather I believe that we ourselves were provinces” and other important figures. But far from the Turkish pasha of the city, the group was reassured, the cause of maladies against which other people could ensuring their safety, this keeping of the company of and decided to leave Jeddah and head south. easily protect themselves.” people in high places represented a dual disadvantage, Traveling along the Arabian coast in short stag- No tragedy caused the demise of his comrades; as it drew the attention of all to themselves, due to the the arts and sciences, hand-picked from the most pres- es, sometimes overland by donkey, sometimes aboard Niebuhr’s great merit was that he understood that one fact that “the inhabitants fancied that we were persons tigious universities of the time: a mathematician and worn boats, they reached Tihama and the Yemeni port ought not attribute the causes of their deaths to the na- of quality and wealth” and required the expenses that geographer, Carsten Niebuhr; a doctor, Christian Carl of Hodeida. The members of the sole group scientific ex- ture of the country. If a reason must be found to explain went along with such practices. “On my return I scarcely Cramer; a philologist, Frederik Christian von Haven; a pedition that had ever set out for the Arabian Peninsula their deaths, for him, it lay in the haste with which they ever presented myself to people in high places and fared draughtsman, Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind; and a bot- got to work enthusiastically from day one, collecting set out to discover the land; the oppressive heat and very well,” he concluded in this regard. anist, Pehr Forsskål, whose presence would seem to in- plants, minerals, and insects; taking notes and measure- excessive fatigue; and the European habits they pre- Niebuhr also highlighted the importance of dicate that soon, more light would be shed on the flora ments; haggling over the purchase of manuscripts; and served, including eating too much meat—“an unhealthy speaking the language, noting that “they have that of the peninsula. crossing the country while making an effort not to draw The scope of the project was such that prior too much attention. The activity was strenuous—per- to departure, its members devoted some eighteen haps too strenuous: after ten months on the peninsula, months wholly to the preparation of their trip, the they hastily, even urgently, made the decision to board fine-tuning of their knowledge, and the acquisition the “last vessel sailing that year from Mokha to India,” of new insights into the fields and sciences that could in this part of the world dogged by monsoons. But it help them better carry out their mission. Leaving was too late: two of them, von Haven and Forsskål, had from Copenhagen in early 1761, they brought with died a few days apart, in the previous weeks. And on them a long list of questions relating to Arabia and the boat, Baurenfeind died off the coast of the island of Yemen that had been submitted by the most eminent Socotra, followed by Berggren. Shortly after their arrival figures from the universities and academies of the era. in Bombay, it was Cramer’s turn to depart this world. These encompassed subjects ranging from religion to What exactly happened? Nothing, it might climate, and natural history to habits and customs, seem—or at least nothing major, judging by the ac- and represented very nearly every existing discipline, count of the expedition’s sole survivor: “Although death from astronomy to zoology, grammar, cartography, almost destroyed our association, no one need to be and more. The five men were tasked with finding frightened on that account, nor fear to undertake the answers to all of these questions, insofar as possible, voyage to Arabia.” Niebuhr added: “It would be a mis- in order to allow Europeans to gain a more accurate take to suppose that my companions died of contagious

74 75 DATES French writer Charles Didier’s first began. Nothing lovelier to the eye Ilo Battigelli encounter with Arabia came during a than the rich green waving crop and A date picker, c. 1950 Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers brief stopover in Yanbu in 1854, on his the cold shade. A perfumed breeze, Museum, University of Oxford way to Ta’if to meet the Sherif of nothing more delightful to the ear The date palm is grown primarily Mecca, at the latter’s invitation. If than the warbling of the small birds.” for its fruit and the date harvest is a time of celebration in the “you overlook the whole of the town, The quality of dates from Medina had lives of the people of the desert. there is nothing much to write home already been noted by Turkish pilgrim Other products supplied by the date palm include wood for about. Several hundred houses, of Mehmet Edib Mehmet, around building and fibers that are used which many are half in ruins, are 1680: “The fruits of the palm tree here for local crafts. thrown down pell-mell around a offer a great variety […] of which the square. At one end of the square following are unique to the Medina stands a rectangular fortress, flanked area: the yerni, sultani, ajwa, halwah, with towers,” he observed sternly in sihani.” This richness and diversity his journal. But he delighted in “dates were certainly at the root of their of superior quality” from Medina, renown: “The date trees of Al-Madinah “reputed the best in the world”. merit their celebrity,” wrote Burton, These same dates had been savored by continuing: “Their stately columnar the great British traveler Richard stems, here, seem higher than in other Burton one year earlier, during his lands, and their lower fronds are stay in Medina. “I cannot say that the allowed to tremble in the breeze dates of Al-Madinah are finer than without mutilation,” contrary to the those of Mecca, although it is highly extremely common and widespread heretical to hold such tenet,” he wrote practice of cutting the lower fronds. following his visit to a palm grove “These enormous palms were loaded located at the gates of the city, which with ripening fruits; and the clusters, caused him to wax lyrical: “Presently carefully tied up, must often have the Nakhil, or palm plantations, weighed upwards of eighty pounds,”

Piers Secunda A date picker, 1938–2017 Dammam well n° 7 Crude oil and varnish on industrial ﬂoor paint with cast paint nuts and bolts 49.5 5 45 5 6 cm Courtesy of the artist Charles Doughty wrote in Travels in Arabia Deserta: “The Arabians inhabit a land of dearth and hunger, and there is no worse food than the date, which they must eat in their few irrigated valleys. The fruit is overheating and inwardly fretting under the Englishman further observed, the price.” Burton then turned his then listed varieties including the a sultry climate; too much of drawing from scholarly works attentions to “another variety, the birni, mentioning its reputation for cloying sweet, not ministering enough of brawn and bone.” enumerating “a hundred and thirty- ajwa,” which, as he noted, should not curing illness, the wahshi, the sayhani nine varieties; of these between sixty be mistaken “for date paste,” and the khuzayriyah, which, he noted, and seventy are well known, and each commonly known as adjoue (see stayed green even when ripe: “the is distinguished, as usual among below): “The ajwa date is eaten, but jabali is the common fruit; the poorest Arabs, by its peculiar name. The best not sold, because a tradition of the kinds are the laun and the hilayah.” kind is the shalabi.” The shalabi used Prophet declares, that who so breaketh He also stated that “the date is also to be wrapped in palm fronds or small his fast every day with six or seven of left upon the tree to dry, and then woven baskets, “and sent as presents these fruits need fear neither poison called ‘balah’”. Lastly, the English to the remotest parts of the Moslem nor magic.” explorer observed that: “the Arabs world. The fruit is about two inches Burton continued: “The third kind, the delight in speaking of dates as an long, with a small stone, and has a hilwa, also a large date, derives its Irishman does of potatoes. They eat peculiar aromatic ﬂavour and smell; it name from its exceeding sweetness” them for medicine as well as for food.” is seldom eaten locally on account of (halw, in Arabic, means sweet). Burton Undoubtedly because the date was a

76 77 fruit unfamiliar in their home wrote Wallin. For him, this parsimony the pound. This adjoue forms a part of Caroline Havers explained the extreme quality of the the daily food among all classes of Dates #3 (Harvest) climates, it particularly appealed to From the series Sand European visitors. After a tasting in dates produced there—in particular, people. In traveling, it is dissolved in & Serendipity, 2014 the gardens of Al-Jawf, where he the celebrated “helwet Al-Jawf” that water, and thus affords a sweet and Mixed media on canvas 150 5 180 cm stayed in 1845, the eminent Finnish Anne Blunt wrote about in 1878: “At refreshing drink. There are as many as Courtesy of the artist Orientalist Georg August Wallin wrote, all houses we were fed and twelve different sorts of adjoue,” and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh “I noted no less than fifteen varieties, entertained, having to drink endless Burckhardt wrote with his typical which are regarded as of superior cups of coffee flavored with cloves precision, even specifying that the best flavour.” Over the year (1862–63) that (heyl), and eat innumerable dates, the adjoue was produced in the city of he spent in Najd, English adventurer ‘helwet Al-Jawf’, which they say here Taraba, east of Ta’if. William Gifford Palgrave, meanwhile, are the best in Arabia; they are of Dates could thus be consumed counted a “dozen kinds of dates, each excellent flavour, but too sweet and year-round. And “of all eatables used perfectly distinct from the other,” and too sticky for general use.” by the Arabs, dates are the most added, “I doubt not that a longer It may also happen, infrequently, that favourite,” Burckhardt affirmed. acquaintance might have enabled me palm trees grew on their own, with no Didier echoed his observation: “The to reckon a dozen more.” need to be watered. This was observed date is the preferred food of the For Wallin, the best were incontestably by Charles Huber in 1880 in Bedouins, who feed their horses on those from Al-Jawf and Tayma. Khaybar: “The old Arabic proverb, ‘to it”; as did Englishwoman Anne Blunt, Charles Huber shared his opinion, bring dates to Khaybar’, which is who wrote: “The people of Al-Jawf live writing: “The dates from Tayma are equivalent to the French proverb ‘to almost entirely on dates; not, however, the best in all of northern Arabia, with bring sand to the beach’, still holds on the ‘helwet’, which are not, by any the exception of two or three varieties true. The palm trees of Khaybar are means, the common sort. There are as that exist in small quantities in almost countless, and you can see how many varieties here of dates as of Al-Jawf and Ha’il.” For Palgrave, no they are able to multiply, given that apples in our orchards, and quite as dates were superior to those from the they need no care and that water is different from each other.” Al-Hasa oasis, of which “the khala is overly abundant. But as is often the Nevertheless, it seemed that the perfection of the date.” But “the case when nature is generous, humans immoderate consumption of this fruit manasif” was not to be omitted, take advantage of this. Having very did not always have positive effects, according to British explorer Charles little to do, the people of Khaybar have according to Doughty: in 1877, he Doughty, who noted, “one side of the preferred to cease all activity, and due observed the tooth decay of some poor fruit is ripe while the other side is to negligence, their palm trees have populations of the Nejd forced to adopt half-ripe”. Indeed, the fruit has two declined to such an extent that they a diet consisting only of dates and colors—dark brown on one side, dense only give the smallest and most lukewarm groundwater and having yellow on the other—and two mediocre of fruits most likely found in access to nothing else. Very textures, at once firm and tender. all of Arabia.” fortunately, this only concerned an The quality of the fruit, of course In his description of Jeddah’s souk, the extremely marginal population of the depended on how the plantations were Swiss Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (see most disadvantaged individuals, irrigated and how the palm trees were chapter The Gates of Arabia) observed, among those who were courageous watered. Burton observed that “the in 1814, that no fewer than eight shops enough to live in a land of such great date-tree can live in dry and barren exclusively devoted to the date business scarcity. spots; but it loves the beds of streams were located there: “The importation of Every year, however, the whole and places where moisture is dates is uninterrupted during the whole population rejoiced when it came time procurable. One of the reasons for the year. At the end of June, the new fruit to harvest the fruits. Doughty noted excellence of Medina dates is the comes in; this lasts for two months, once again that “the date harvest is a quantity of water they obtain.” But after which, for the remainder of the time of excitement in the lives of the what held true for Hijaz and in Nejd year, the date-paste, called adjoue, is people of the desert,” the time for could not be the case in Al- sold.” This paste is obtained “by paying homage to this extraordinary Jawf: “While the inhabitants of Nejd pressing the dates, when fully ripe, into plant, whose absence would make life act upon the principle that the more large baskets so forcibly as to reduce in the region impossible. Its stalk, the palms are watered, the more sugar them to a hard solid paste or cake, each which can reach a peak of twenty-five the dates will contain, and basket weighing generally about two or thirty meters, used to be used for consequently put them under every hundred pounds; this is how the construction and heating, and its day, the people of Al-Jawf only irrigate Bedouins bring it to the market, where fibers to produce various basketry theirs once in three or four days,” it is cut out of the basket and sold by items needed in daily life.

78 79 Yann Gayet as Niebuhr, but we would like to believe that they did, Adenum Obesum From the series Ruwaydan, 2010 and imagine the great work that they could very well Courtesy of the artist have completed had their sojourn not been cut short— Caroline Havers had they returned home and had the opportunity to Cistanche Tubulosa #1 From the series Sand use the material collected together to produce such a & Serendipity, 2014 publication. Mixed media on panel 60 5 120 cm Carsten Niebuhr’s account remains, of course, Courtesy of the artist the subtlety of which comes across in the few sentences and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh cited here, not strictly limited to the chronicle of an Caroline Havers became fascinated by the exotic beauty unfortunate team. These few volumes have long been of the desert plants that she discovered during her sojourn considered a classic not only of the geography, but the in Riyadh. The flora of Arabia ethnology and archaeology (although these sciences did became one of the recurrent themes in her artwork. not exist as such at that time) of the places where he spent time in Arabia and beyond. Indeed, after more than a year in India, Niebuhr carried on his journey, traveling extensively in Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine; ultimately, his stay in Arabia was but one episode of an extremely long voyage. He reached Constantinople, finally returning to Denmark from there in late 1767, seven years after his departure. His book, Travels through Arabia, and Other Countries in the East, was published five years later in Copenhagen, in German. It contains a host of new information on the peninsula—its climate, social and excellent habit, which assuredly does not exist among as greedy and unpolished because he had been badly political organization, tribes, customs, clothing, food, all the nations of Europe, of trying to assist a stranger received by some of them.” universities, Koranic schools, etc. Niebuhr strove to who endeavours to speak their language, and never Thus, prior to making judgments and growing provide answers to the multitude of questions that had laugh at him if he expresses himself badly.” He also offended, Niebuhr sought to understand the people he been submitted by academies, sometimes using the noted that the good graces of the locals could be won “by encountered. He displayed the same respect for the King notes left by his comrades, and always stating when speaking to them of science, as Arabs, unlike Turks, are of Yemen as he would for his own sovereign. Even the this was the case; he had made every effort, despite unashamed to learn things from Europeans.” However, it highwaymen, because “certainly there are to be found the obstacles in doing so, to repatriate these notes to was necessary to demonstrate tact, as “no more should in Arabia, especially in the desert, thieves” who were Denmark, alongside the collections amassed by each he try to gain the Arabs by flattery: they like sincerity able to find grace in his eyes, due to the fact that “they member of the group. He also published the works and are aware they have faults, but they like as little as rarely killed those they plundered”. Contrary to common of the expedition’s botanist, his friend Pehr Forsskål, other nations to be rallied about them.” practice in Europe, “they are even hospitable towards gathered in a book entitled Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica, While over the course of their travels, he and those they have robbed; they leave them with some published in Latin in 1775. his comrades may well have had grounds for complaint supplies and some old clothes; they even go so far as That publication contained the lists of plants about the natives, as he wrote, Niebuhr nevertheless to accompany them on their journey, for fear that they studied by Forsskål—classified according to the prin- constantly sought understanding, and soon objected: “In will perish in the desert.” ciples of the great naturalist Carl von Linné, his in- our ignorance of the country and its dwellers, we often Given such wisdom, it is lamentable that this structor—and places where they had been observed, thought ourselves justified in complaining, forgetting undertaking was cut short, and that the ambitious pro- in Anatolia, Egypt, Arabia, and Yemen. Unfortunately, that even in Europe one does not always travel agreea- ject in the making, to give the world a “Description ordinary readers will not gain insight into the pen- bly.” This is why he judged that “if an Arab were to travel of Arabia,” was brutally interrupted. The work would insula’s landscapes in the pages of this scholarly and in Europe he would often have squabbles with the inn- undoubtedly have been less rich and extensive than the austere opus. But over the course of the nineteenth keepers, posting masters, postilions, and custom-house one later produced by a brigade of French scholars in century, other travelers went to Arabia, showing inter- officers: he might even have as many causes to be of- Egypt, but it was carried out in a similar spirit—the est for regions that had never before been the object fended at the greed of Europeans as Europeans have at spirit at the heart of eighteenth-century European hu- of substantial description—Shammar, Nejd, Qasim, the outrages of Arabs. But he would be mistaken if he manism. We do not know whether von Haven, Forsskål, Al-Hasa, Asir and more—and determined to reveal were to paint all Europeans to his fellow countrymen Baurenfeind, and Cramer shared the same lofty ideas their great diversity. Only in the twentieth century

80 81 Caroline Havers Caroline Havers Calotropis Procera Mary’s Palm / Kaff Maryam #3 From the series Sand From the series Sand & Serendipity, 2014 & Serendipity, 2014 Mixed media on panel Mixed media on panel 30 5 30 cm 4 pieces of 45 5 45 cm each Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh Calotropis Procera (Uthar in Kaff Maryam (Selaginella Arabic) is a perennial evergreen pilifera) is also called a Jericho desert shrub found in sandy Rose. It’s a small gray annual soils. Its height ranges from two herb. Kaff Maryam literally to ﬁve meters. The branches means “palm of Maryam” of the plant secrete a milk that because its leaves are shaped like is used in traditional medicine a clutched hand that resembles for the treatment of arthritis. the hand of the Virgin Mary during childbirth, according Caroline Havers to Arabian folklore. Acacia #4 From the series Sand & Serendipity, 2014 Mixed media on panel 45 5 45 cm Courtesy of the artist and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh Acacia with its various types is the most commonly found tree in the desert regions. It is a principal source of resins and incenses that were traded via the ancient trade routes. Camels pasture on the thorns and leaves of the acacia tree.

82 83 have only known the dreary and scorching sands of Caroline Havers Tarthuth #2 the lower country of the Hijaz, this scene is as surpris- From the series Sand ing, as the keen air which blows here is refreshing,” & Serendipity, 2014 Mixed media on panel wrote Burckhardt on the subject of this “unrivalled” 60 5 60 cm Courtesy of the artist place, where it snows “every five years or so”. Indeed, and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh “this delicious city, so extolled by the Arabs,” in the A burgundy parasitic plant with words of Maurice Tamisier, a young French Saint- nail-like seed heads, Tarthuth (Cyanomorium coccineum) Simonian recruited in Cairo as medical secretary for appears in Arabia during the one of Muhammad Ali’s armies sent to Arabia, lies at an spring. It has been harvested in the desert for thousands of years, altitude of some 1,600 meters. Seduced by the “magnif- it is very appreciated by camels, and it is also used in Bedouin icence” of Ta’if, he went on: “Travellers who have been medicine. burnt by the ardent sun, those whose eyes have grown Olivier Couppey used to contemplating the parched mountain streams, Pomegranates in Ta’if sandy plains, and stony mountains of this land, will de- Courtesy of the artist John Keane wrote in Six months light in the appearance of the many gardens surround- in the Hijaz, Journeys to Makkah ing the city and their body, released from scorching and Madinah 1877-1878 that “the pomegranates of Arabia are temperatures, will sweetly savour the delicious sensa- perhaps the best in the world. tions of a cooler environment.” One kind of pomegranate has the seeds so soft that they may “The whole world has heard of Ta’if, the gar- be eaten with pleasure. A much-worn green dye is den of Mecca, whose fruits enjoy a widespread and procured by a simple process well-deserved reputation,” attested Saleh Soubhy, an from the skin of pomegranate.” Both Ta’if and Medina are Egyptian public health official twice tasked by his gov- famous for their “Rubb ernment with accompanying the pilgrimage caravan Rumman,” a thick pomegranate syrup drunk with water during to Arabia in the late nineteenth century. Burckhardt the hot weather and considered cooling and wholesome, wrote did a few daring Europeans—Bertram Thomas, in added, “The gardens of Ta’if are renowned also for Richard Burton. 1930, St. John Philby, in 1932, and Wilfred Thesiger, the abundance of their roses, which are transported to Colbert Held in 1946—travel the peninsula from end to end, re- all parts of the Hijaz.” Upon approaching, this “plain Proud of their produce, 1963 vealing to the world the last of these territories, the planted with mimosas, whose green and vigorous tone Courtesy the Middle East Institute / Colbert Held Archive, foreboding Rub‘ al-Khali. appears to announce that Ta’if, which the Arabs call Washington, D.C. the garden of Arabia, is near,” in the words of Tamisier, Two farm laborers proudly show off onions and cabbages The first travelers to have undertaken the journey to “the air becomes light, refreshing,” according to the harvested from an irrigated field Arabia were first struck by its extreme aridness and bar- in Hofuf, the largest Saudi oasis. renness. Subsequently, some were nevertheless able to observe that within Hijaz, there were verdant landscapes and lush nature, in particular around the city of Ta’if. The encounter with Ta’if happened, we might say, well before travelers even got there. Upon arrival in Arabia—indeed, upon disembarking in the port of Jeddah—they could taste grapes and watermelon, apricots and peaches, figs and pomegranates from there. Simply enough, “all the fruits come from Ta’if,” as the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted in a description of utmost precision that he gave of the souks of Jeddah and the eighteen fruit and vegetable merchants that he counted there (cf. chapter The Gates of Arabia). In the event that visitors decided to go there, the trip took two days from Mecca, on steep paths easier to climb on donkey than on camelback. “To those who

84 85 Italian adventurer Giovanni Finati, deserter of both gardens which “at the foot of dry mountains, surround- Carsten Niebuhr Description de l’Arabie, d’après the Napoleonic and Turkish armies, also enrolled in ed the barren plain where the city stands, forming a cir- les observations et recherches Muhammad Ali’s army as a simple infantryman. He cle of delightful sanctuaries,” as the historian Jacqueline faites dans le pays même, 1773-1776 added that “from a distance, you can smell the fra- Pirenne described this “precious setting”. Vol. II, Paris, Librairie Brunet grant plants from the gardens of the city.” Burckhardt, She continued: “Behind the earthen walls that Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic art, London meanwhile, observed: “Every leaf and blade of grass blocked indiscreet gazes, an abundance of trees and Among the five members was covered with a balmy dew, and every tree and greenery, where irrigation waters flowed, sheltered of Carsten Niebuhr’s Danish-sponsored expedition shrub diffused a fragrance as delicious to the smell as homes and arbours where the master of the house and to Arabia in 1762–63 was was the landscape to the eye.” his wives came to enjoy the coolness of this favoured Swedish botanist Pehr Forsskål, a physician with extensive This idyllic place, which one would hardly ex- spot. Each estate contained a farm, and the owners were knowledge of botany. He was fluent in Arabic and during the pect to find so close to Mecca, was already a summer always sheriffs or doctors from Mecca, officials serving trip he collected seeds and took destination for wealthy Quraysh merchants at the time the Kaaba or wealthy merchants.” botanical specimens. Pehr Forsskål was stricken with of the Prophet of Islam. Some twelve centuries later, Each one of these small spots of paradise had malarial fever to the extent that Tamisier could observe that “in the beginning of June, a name and, so it was said, possessed a specificity he had to be tied to his camel so he would not fall off. He died wealthy proprietors from Mecca leave their city to come and a character that made it distinctive, among all in Yarim and his notes and specimens were sent to enjoy the coolness of Ta’if,” and more specifically, the the others. Copenhagen by Niebuhr, the sole survivor of the expedition, who in 1775 published Forsskål’s research as Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica.

Edith Ortoli Edith Ortoli La terre est grande L’orgueil des arbres From Esprit du désert, 2017 From Esprit du désert, 2017 Artist book, single copy Artist book, single copy Mixed media Mixed media 26 5 32 cm 26 5 32 cm Text by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Poem by Eugène Guillevic Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist John Keane wrote in Six months The poem reads: “The role of the in the Hijaz, Journeys to Makkah sentinel is entrusted to the trees.” and Madinah 1877-1878: “Though the general appearance of the country is bare rock or sandy desert, there is no part absolutely without a little vegetation. In some places there are large savannahs of coarse grass like long stubble, and in others small jungles of gorse and broom-like growths.”

86 87 The People of the Sands

ntil the first half of the twentieth centu- been such continuity as in the Arabian desert. Many ry the Bedouins posed a paradox to the civilizations rose and fell around the Arabian desert; European travelers. They personified and they lasted a few hundred years and vanished, new races adhered to some of the highest universal were born and then disappeared, religions rose and fell, Uvalues—generosity towards the destitute, a sense of but the nomad bedouins in the desert lived on with the hospitality towards all beings and an aspiration for same pattern of life over an enormous span of time. liberty and courage. However, they simultaneously However, in forty years, less than a man’s lifetime, all engaged in conflicting behaviors—brigandage, pil- was changed.” Thesiger also expressly identified the cul- laging and all forms of theft that would appear to be pable factor: “The most terrible change for the desert radically contradictory with their values.This para- dwellers occurred with the introduction of mechanical dox, however, together with the men who incarnated transport.” it, has disappeared today. This does not mean that the Bedouins were overcome by force. In this regard, the Before this fatal disappearance could take effect—dur- prediction announced by Carsten Niebuhr at the end of ing the course of the twentieth century—the Bedouins the eighteenth century would prove to be as true as the were there in force, populating all the desert spaces motto set forth in these terms: “Bedouins cannot be of the Arabian peninsula: “Like the simple but vigor- completely dominated by foreigners and never will be.” ous plants that fill the most sterile of the cracks in the Neither the restless sands, nor the desert wind rocks,” wrote Maurice Tamisier on the matter, “they are (the terrible simoom), with which they came to terms satisfied in this desolated land and have multiplied over throughout the centuries, led them to disappear. No, if the centuries in those places where we would inevitably these “free men, who accept no yoke,” as Jules Gervais- perish from hunger if we were guided by our destiny Courtellemont defined them, are no longer there today, alone.” Allowing his frank admiration to transpire, the the reason is that the very conditions of their existence young follower of Saint-Simon added: ”One can hardly have surreptitiously disappeared, undermined by tech- believe that beings organised as we are can live in such nological progress. Technological progress has reduced a harsh natural environment and yet these men are to zero, or close to zero, the tremendous dimensions more attached than we to the earth of their homeland of the desert vastness within which they had always and they suffer more than we do in exile.” evolved. Technological progress has reduced the camel’s It may also seem that the natural environment of unchanging pace, which until then had been the unity his homeland—where the Bedouin is, in a certain sense, Caroline Havers Tents #2 of measure that ticked off the beads of their lifetime, confined—is also the origin of his unique temperament: From the series Sands to the level of a simple recollection. Technological pro- “The nomad of the Arabian interior is the hardest of & Serendipity, 2014 Mixed media on panel gress, which made their way of life unfeasible, signed those known among the peoples consolidated by custom 45 5 45 cm their death warrant. and religion. The more his isolation impoverishes him Courtesy of the artist and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh It is to the abruptness of this evolution, to this by external friction, the more he relies on his origi- Black tents are named Bayt deplorable end, that Wilfred Thesiger, the last of our nality,” exclaimed the French writer Léopold Derôme. al sha’r, which translates to “house or booth of hair”. great explorers and one of the few to have completed the Wilfred Thesiger made the same observations in Arabian In Arabic, the word bayt crossing of Rub‘ al-Khali (the Empty Quarter), referred Sands: ”Shut off from the outside world by the desert designates a tent as well as a house. when he observed that “nowhere in the world has there and the sea, the inhabitants of Arabia have kept their

88 89 racial purity. The neighbouring countries, Egypt, Syria Caroline Havers Caroline Havers Tents (Umrgaiba) #1 Elements of tents and Iraq, have been highways for invading armies and From the series Sands From the series In Flux, 2016 migrations, but there is no record of any migration into & Serendipity, 2014 Acrylics, charcoal, sand Mixed media on panel on wood panel the Arabian Peninsula. Abyssinians, Persians, Egyptians 31 5 45 cm 60 5 80 cm Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist and Turks imposed their uneasy rule at intervals on the and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh and of Naila Gallery, Riyadh Yemen, Oman, the Hijaz, and even on the Nejd. […] In the traditions of the desert, Bedouin tents are made Their mercenaries spawned in the garrison towns, but tents should be open every from woven goat’s hair evening for travelers and guests. and not camel’s hair. they never mixed their blood with that of the tribesmen. No race in the world prizes lineage so highly as the Arabs and none has kept its blood so pure.” Who exactly, is this man, who has fascinated all the travelers who have taken the trouble to approach him and to attempt to get to know him? Let us begin by seeing how Wilfrid S. Blunt, a British diplomat who had lived in Baghdad for twenty years and traveled throughout Arabia, painted his portrait: “The Bedouin Arab of pure blood is seldom more than five feet six inches high; but he is long-limbed for his size; and the drapery in which he clothes himself gives him full advantage of his height. In figure he is generally light and graceful.” Blunt added: “Actual fatness is unknown among the pure Bedouins; and when they see it in others, they look upon it with contemptuous pity as a deformity.” The English traveler continued: “As young men, the Bedouins are often good-looking, with bright eyes, a pleasant smile, and very white teeth; but after the age of thirty the habit of constantly frowning, to protect the eyes from the glare of the sun, gives their faces a fierce expression, often quite at variance with their real character. Hard training, too, and insufficient food, have generally by that time pinched and withered their cheeks.” He also added: “and the sun has turned their skin to an almost Indian blackness.” That is what another French traveler, Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, commented in other terms: “They are literally burnt by the sun.” Then comes the painful conclusion, penned by the British diplomat: “At forty their beards turn gray, and at fifty they are old men. I doubt if more than a very few of them reach the age of sixty.” So much for the physical appearance of these men—“always on the alert, slender and sturdy, accustomed to an incredible endurance,” according to Thesiger—endowed with a very sound constitution. Regarding their behavior, their attitudes, and their moral characteristics, to begin we will rely on the major study written by the Frenchman, Laurent d’Arvieux, with the lengthy title, Voyage dans la Palestine, Vers le Grand Émir, Chef des Princes Arabes du Désert, Connus sous le Nom de Bédouins, which relates the mission

90 91 he conducted “by order of King Louis XIV,” in about Humberto da Silveira Humberto da Silveira From the series Bedu, 1994 From the series Bedu, 1994 1660 to a Bedouin chief who had temporarily left the Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist Arabian territory and established himself with some Bedouins believe, wrote Doughty, In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, tribes in Sinai. This emir “had been recognised by that because of the “little T. E. Lawrence wrote: “The desert camel-milk they drink, their Arab found no joy like the joy the Great Lord of Constantinople,” as attested by the bodies are made nimble and of voluntarily holding back. light, and hardened to a long He found luxury in abnegation, historian, Jacqueline Pirenne, and had been granted patience of fatigue and hunger.” renunciation, self-restraint.” “the title and privileges of a pasha of one horsetail.” This is not the place to examine the details of the events leading up to this mission, nor will we evoke the circumstances of how it was carried out or the consequences it may have had. We will just stop for a moment to comment on the personality of the young negotiator who was the nephew of the French consul at Sidon, had grown up in the Orient, and spoke Arabic, Persian, and Turkish fluently. Thus, “dressed as a Turk of high rank and mounting a pure-bred horse, our gentleman set off to enter the domain of the dreaded Bedouins,” continued Jacqueline Pirenne. He was received and accommodated during several months as will find in this and the following chapters,” he wrote Kazuyashi Nomachi A Bedouin camp in Al-Ula a respected guest and came back with “a very accu- pointedly on this subject. “The Arabs,” he went on, “are Courtesy of the artist rate and entertaining account of the religion, rights, naturally grave, serious and moderate; they affect so Ilo Battigelli customs, of the Bedouins,” which he drafted after an much wisdom in their actions and their countenance Bedouin, c. 1950 entire lifetime as ambassador and consul in Tunis, that what would make other folks split their sides with Courtesy Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford Constantinople, Algiers, and Aleppo. It was published laughing can scarce move a smile in them when once Thesiger wrote in Across in 1717, fifteen years after his death. they are come to an age of being marry’d, and have the Empty Quarter: “It is characteristic of Bedouins to do He was the first European to propose a better im- beard enough to look no longer like boys.” things by extremes, to be either age of the Bedouins than the reputation already general- Laurent d’Arvieux provided more details about wildly generous or unbelievably mean, very patient or almost ly attributed to them in that period: “Those that think to Bedouin behavior in society: “They see with pleasure hysterically excitable, to be give in one word the picture of a wild, cruel, and brutish persons that talk quick, in a soft, even, and unprec- incredibly brave or to panic for no apparent reason. […] fellow, by calling him an Arab, would be pretty well ipitated tone, that express themselves easily, that say Probably no other people, either as a race or as individual, undeceiv’d did they but see themselves the truths they abundance in a few words, that offend no body by any combine so many conflicting satirical flirts, that use no raillery, no ridicule, no detrac- qualities in such an extreme degree.” tion in the subject of their discourse. They give mighty attention to what one’s saying to em; and when any one in the company is speaking, they never interrupt him, nor answer till a long time after he has concluded what he had to say.” When it is their turn, they speak with restraint and compunction, according to the French diplomat: “Their conversations are full of civilities, one never hears anything there that they think rude and unbecoming. […] Scandal never reigns amongst them. They naturally speak well of all the world […] They have even the genteelness not to contradict those that would disguise the truth before ‘em, or make use of too violent an exaggeration in the telling of some story that may appear to them a little unlikely or incredible.” This description, although undoubtedly too ideal- istic, has the merit of thwarting the opinions commonly received about the Bedouins. D’Arvieux is evidently

92 93 SAADI AL-KAABI Among the artists who lived and department of visual arts at Riyadh’s Saadi Al-Kaabi Saadi Al-Kaabi method, which was far from being the 1960s. They attained recognition Riyadh, Al Yamama Palace Hotel. The worked in Saudi Arabia and took Institute of Fine Arts. Al-Kaabi soon Desert, 1967 Desert, 1966 contrary to the traditions and beliefs and are considered among the leading late King Abdallah, who was at that Mixed media Mixed media interest in its landscapes and painted discovered that art education in Saudi 50 5 65 cm 70 5 80 cm of the country, but he was reluctant to artists of the country. time president of the Saudi Arabian its desert is Iraqi artist Saadi Al-Kaabi. Arabia was random and did not follow Private collection Private collection disrupt the prevalent system. Al-Kaabi initiated another revolution National Guard, visited the exhibition Alongside Iraqi artists Shakir Hassan an academic pedagogy, as is the case This painting was displayed in This painting was among those Thanks to his perseverance and during his stay in Saudi Arabia when and acquired one of his paintings. The the artist’s solo exhibition that showcased at the artist’s solo Al-Said, Salman Said Aldeleimy, and in other faculties and institutes took place in 1968 in a mud exhibition in Riyadh in 1968. ingenuity, Al-Kaabi was able to he organized an exhibition of his paintings Al-Kaabi produced during Mohammed Al Azzawi, he worked as worldwide. Students were only house in the Al Soweilem Charles Doughty wrote that introduce drawing live models in his paintings. At that time, there was no his stay in the Kingdom depicted its neighborhood in Riyadh. “in Nejd there is always an art professor in Saudi Arabia in the preoccupied with obtaining a diploma This exhibition was probably a woman’s apartment in the art courses. In Saudi Arabia, museum, gallery, or exhibition space desert and its people. They were 1960s. They instructed and trained the regardless of acquiring any artistic the first-ever exhibition nomad’s tent. A screen of worsted educational institutions are and no art exhibition had been characterized by the use of quasi- to be organized in Riyadh. usually divided the tent in two first generation of Saudi visual artists, skills or practice. It took Al-Kaabi a apartments.” segregated, so he was able to ask his presented in Riyadh. Al-Kaabi chose monochromatic transparent earth thus contributing to the emergence of great deal of dedication to convince male students to take turns sitting as an alluring mud house in the Al colors, thus conveying the bareness Saudi contemporary art. both the students and the Institute’s live models during the class. One day, Suweilem neighborhood to showcase and the silence of the desert. When he arrived in Saudi Arabia in supervisors of the importance of recalls Al-Kaabi, the Saudi and Qatari his first exhibition in 1968. To avoid 1966, Saadi Al-Kaabi first worked as training. Furthermore, he succeeded ministers of education were visiting shocking the neighbors, the door of an art teacher in a high school in in establishing the practice of drawing the Institute and were astonished and the mud house remained closed and Tabuk. During that first year, an from live models, which was impressed to discover a fellow student there was no sign indicating the exhibition of his paintings was held in inconceivable at that time in Saudi posing for his classmates. They gave existence of the exhibition except a Gallery One in Beirut. The exhibition Arabia. Similarly, he introduced the Al-Kaabi their full support and panel on the door reading, “Please received enthusiastic reviews, which study of anatomy and perspective in approval. knock the door”. His second exhibition contributed, noted Al-Kaabi, to the art curriculum. Al-Kaabi Abdallah Hamas, Nayel Al-Mulla, and occurred under the patronage of the propelling his transfer to Riyadh and recounted that the Institute’s Al-Rezeiza are some of the Saudi minister of education and was staged his promotion to director of the supervisor was in agreement with his artists who studied under Al-Kaabi in in 1970 in the first modern hotel of

94 95 Humberto da Silveira Humberto da Silveira Humberto da Silveira Humberto da Silveira From the series Bedu, 1994 From the series Bedu, 1994 From the series Bedu, 1994 From the series Bedu, 1994 Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist Doughty wrote that the “Bedouin Thesiger wrote that he was G. A. Wallin wrote: “There are Wallin wrote that “nowhere in body is as a light-timbered ship “humbled by those illiterate two ways of getting on with the the world have I seen children which may lie stranded till the herdsmen, who possessed, in so Bedouins; either give them sugar more sensitive, good-natured and spring-tide, when with one great much greater measure than [he], and sweet words, or treat them obedient as the Bedouin children eating, he may replenish his generosity and courage, with severity and manly towards their parents.” fainting nature.” endurance, patience and seriousness; I have found the light-hearted gallantry.” second method the better one.”

96 97 Humberto da Silveira concerned to outshine “those who have never seen the to pain, he observed: “The fortitude with which Charles M. Doughty expense; his servants and his equipage are treated with his host in domestic matters, fetching water, milking the From the series Bedu, 1994 Encampment of Billi Aarab Courtesy of the artist Arabs but upon the high-ways, and know ‘em only by Bedouins endure evils of every kind is exemplary” (under the harra) the same care, without costing him any thing more for camel, feeding the horse, &c. Should he even decline Sketch by Doughty from Travels Anne Blunt noted that it was their robberies”. while revealing a sharp sense of self-irony: “In that acknowledgment than a God-restore-it-you when he is this, he may remain, but will be censured by all the in Arabia Deserta “customary in Arabia that This reserve, which the Bedouins always con- respect they are as much superior to us as we exceed Volume 1, Dover Publications, taking his leave to be going.” Arabs of the camp: he may, however, go to some other the sheykh should receive Inc., New York, 1979 illustrious strangers in a special serve, as Laurent d’Arvieux maintained, may depend them in our eager search after pleasing sensations and Burckhardt’s comments strike a very similar tent of the nezel (camp), and declare himself there a tent set up for the purpose.” Doughty noted that “the on the fact that “during the fatigue of traveling in the refined enjoyments!” Bedouins of the same tribe camp chord. “The guest who enters an encampment of the guest. Thus every third or fourth day he may change heat of summer, much talking excites thirst, and parches This force of character is due to what “the their tents together and their Nejd Bedouins usually alights at the first tent on the hosts, until his business is finished, or he has reached tents are pitched in length.” up the palate,” as Johann Ludwig Burckhardt comment- Bedouin learns at an early period of life, to abstain and right side of the spot where he entered the dowar, or his place of destination.” ed. However, the latter observed, that in intimacy, the to suffer, and to know from experience the healing pow- circle of tents. If he should pass that tent and go to an- In a word: “To be a Bedouin is to be hospi- Bedouin “is free, sprightly, jocose, and decent, in his er of pity and consolation,” wrote the Swiss traveler, who other, the owner of the slighted tent would think himself table,” Burckhardt summarized and then developed added: “He pities and supports the wretched, and never affronted.” Even if the latter is absent, the stranger will this assertion: “The condition of the Bedouin is so forgets the generosity shown to him even by an enemy.” be received with the same regard, because “it is a re- intimately connected with hospitality that no circum- While always ready to help others, on the other hand, ceived custom in every part of the Arabian Desert, that stances, however urgent or embarrassing, can ever “a Bedouin is always too proud to show discontent, or a woman may entertain strangers in the absence of her palliate his neglect of that social virtue.” Nonetheless, much less to complain,” and above all, “he never begs husband. Some male relation then does the honours, the life of a Bedouin is such that he often may have assistance, but strives with all his might, either as a representing the absent owner of the tent.” nothing, or almost nothing to offer. It is in these camel-driver, a shepherd, or a robber, to retrieve his The hospitality enjoyed by the stranger is gov- circumstances that he can show the authenticity of lost property.” erned by ancestral rules that are very precisely codified, his generous nature: “No stronger proof of hospitality A strong feeling of pride makes him “fully con- so that “if the stranger’s business requires a protracted can be given than to state that, with very few excep- scious that his own condition is far preferable to any stay, for instance, if he wishes to cross the desert under tions, a hungry Bedouin will always divide his scanty other that can be his lot,” Burckhardt noted, because protection of the tribe, the host, after a lapse of three meal with a still more hungry stranger, although he “the Bedouin exults in the advantages he enjoys; and it days and four hours from the time of his arrival, asks may not himself have the means of procuring supply; may be said, without any exaggeration, that the poorest him whether he means to honour him any longer with nor will he ever let the stranger know how much he Bedouin of an independent tribe smiles at the pomp of his company. If the stranger declares his intention of has sacrificed to his necessities,” continued the Swiss a Turkish Pasha; and, without any philosophical prin- prolonging his visit, it is expected that he should assist traveler. ciples, but guided merely by the general feelings of his nation, infinitely prefers his miserable tent to the palace of the despot.” What can be the origin of this feeling of superior- ity? Laurent d’Arvieux proposes an explanation for this question. The Bedouins, he says, have a strong sense of tradition that describes them as the descendants of Abraham’s eldest son, Ishmael. Arabia was thus eligible familiar conversation,” adding that “when they assem- for a legacy that was much greater than the small land ble under their tents, a very animated conversation is of Canaan that was assigned to the descendants of Isaac. kept up among them.” He remarked that above all, “they Consequently, their entire existence would depend on have certainly more wit and sagacity than the people the consciousness of their Ishmaelite ascendancy. “This who live in the towns; their heads are always clear, their illustrious descent, which they extremely glory in, does spirit unimpaired by debauchery.” Burckhardt conclud- not suffer ‘em to exercise the mechanic arts, or take ed: “The Bedouins are as much distinguished from other upon ‘em the toils of husbandry; they never work at Arabs by the purity of their language, as they are by that all; their employment is riding, feeding their flocks, and of their manners.” going upon the high-ways,” d’Arvieux wrote. Burckhardt traced the profile of a man whose Whatever the thefts for which they were other- “social character is truly amiable. His cheerfulness, wit, wise guilty, the Bedouins would never offer hospitality softness of temper, good-nature, and sagacity, which that was less than scrupulous, the French diplomat ob- enables him to make shrewd remarks on all subjects, served: “A stranger is no sooner come to their camp render him a pleasing and often a valuable compan- than he is receiv’d into a tent; an Arab can only give ion. His equality of temper is never ruffled or affect- him a mat to sit and lie on […] but there’s nothing wanted by fatigue or suffering.” He is also very resistant ing for his good entertainment. He is at no manner of

98 99 Richard Francis Burton The Village of El Suwayrkiyah, 1853–54 From A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah Nasser D. Khalili collection of Islamic Art, London On his way from Medina to Mecca, Richard Burton spent the night in the little village of El Suwayrkiyah. He wrote: “For the most part it is a haggard land, a country of wild beast and wilder men, a region whose very fountains murmur the warning words, ‘Drink and Away’, instead of ‘Rest and be thankful’”.

Gerald de Gaury Classic Arab literature, just as many travelers’ “to help them get lost in the dangerous passages of the Bedouin encampment outside Anne Blunt Riyadh, c. 1934–35 accounts, love to tell the tale of a Bedouin reduced to Red Sea, when they are not offered something with good Une danse au Djôf (A dance Courtesy Royal Geographic a dreadful plight, obliged to sacriﬁce the last drome- will,” wrote Jacqueline Pirenne. But, for them, she em- in Al-Jawf) Society, London Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier dary he still owns, which is still crucial for transport- phasizes, there was no war there: “they don’t attack ‘em after a watercolor by Anne Blunt From Voyage en Arabie. ing his family, or his beloved mare, in order to receive when they see ‘em in a condition making a defence.” Pèlerinage au Nejed, berceau an unexpected visitor with dignity. As exaggerated as When they were not at it, “they retire into the deserts, de la race arabe (A Pilgrimage to Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab they often appear to be, these stories do illustrate the [where] it is impossible to overcome ‘em,” Laurent Race) great importance of hospitality and the impossibility d’Arvieux pointed out. Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1882 Courtesy of the British Library of abandoning these principles. At a secondary level, In all these undertakings, the Bedouins never The national dance in Arabia they also illustrate the exceptional hardship of life in seek to kill. Rather, they offer hospitality even to their called the ‘Ardah is compared to a war dance. Anne Blunt the desert, about which T. E. Lawrence would write, in victims and are undoubtedly, according to the German, wrote: “It is a sword dance with Seven Pillars of Wisdom: “Bedouin ways were hard, even Carsten Niebuhr, “the most civilised thieves in the a performer beating on a drum made of palm wood and horse for those brought up in them and for strangers terrible: world,” as readers discovered in chapter The Flora of the hide. The rest hold their swords over their shoulders and chant a death in life.” Peninsula: “A European, belonging to a caravan which in solemn measure, dancing The Bedouin, according to d’Arvieux, used this was plundered, had been infected with the plague upon as solemnly.” hardship as an excuse for the others, for all the others: his journey. The Arabs, seeing him too weak to follow “the Bedouin Arabs think themselves ill dealt with, and his companions, took him with themselves, lodged him make themselves amends as much as they can upon the without their camp, attended him till he was cured, and posterity of Issac and all the rest of the world in general.” then sent him to Basra.” For d’Arvieux, “It be no crime So well, he continued, that “their robberies make all na- amongst them to rob and strip passengers, no more than tions their enemies.” The Bedouins ransom and pillage it is for Europeans to go a hunting”; this is a matter of the caravans, hold up “passers-by who venture into the their own vocation, what was due to the descendants of desert without a safe-conduct,” carry off the cargoes of Ishmael. A century later, the French diplomat Niebuhr ships run aground off their coasts, and do not hesitate used another comparison: “Every grand sheikh justly

100 101 Bob Landry considers himself an absolute lord of his whole territo- Pilgrimage to Nedjed. For Derôme, “The brigandage ex- Preparing Arab coffee, c. 1940 ries; and accordingly exacts the same duties upon goods ercised in the Orient, the war among tribes, has nothing Courtesy Saudi Aramco carried through his dominions as are levied by other to do with what these words mean in the West.” More The custom of preparing princes. The Europeans are wrong in supposing the sums precisely, “This brigandage should rather be apprehend- and serving coffee to a guest is characteristic of the values paid by travellers to the grand sheikhs to be merely a ed under the principles of the old law regulating a private and hospitality of the Bedouins. ransom to redeem them from pillage.” war” in bygone times in Europe, and “the right of tribal Yann Gayet For his part, the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burckhardt warfare should then be seen as of the same nature as From the series Ruwaydan Courtesy of the artist stated: “It may be almost said that the Bedouins are that existing among peoples.” Consequently, Derôme Edward Abbey wrote in Desert obliged to rob and pillage,” because “they know, from dares to suggest “that the ghazu is an expedition such Solitaire (1968) that “only falcons, vultures and eagles stay experience, that to continue long in a state of peace di- as that of Bonaparte to Egypt or the Crimean War. The active during the hottest days minishes the wealth of an individual; war and plunder right to strip foreigners of their belongings is the right and hours of the desert. I saw them turn in circles therefore become necessary.” Consequently, “It would of nations to be serene in their own territories. When he and ﬂy in the sky at mid-day, be a mistake to call a band of robbers troops which are strips a stranger, the nomad is exercising a prerogative their dark wings standing out over the blue, above commanded by great sheikhs, who are undoubtedly the that custom grants him.” the heat.” lords of the desert and are entitled to oppose those who Menaced by the societies that surround him, want to open a passage through their territory by force.” according to Derôme, the nomad “defends himself or This is also the opinion expressed by Léopold avenges himself by perpetrating ambushes and ghazus. Derôme in a very pertinent text published in 1882 as an He invokes the rights of peoples who came before those introduction to the translation into French of the book of today, which he would not know how to deﬁne but by the great traveler and English dame, Anne Blunt, A that is within his custom, his ordinary compass. He

102 103 feels the right he possesses to remain the sole master of love of liberty and hospitality remain at the forefront. Yann Gayet From the series Contresens the solitude he inherited from his ancestors, where the These three virtues, in fact, form a single virtue, the love Courtesy of the artist custom reigns, where he makes it be respected.” The of independence. That is the foundation of the nomad’s Yann Gayet French writer continued his line of reasoning: “The fact temperament,” wrote Derôme, “he rejects the yoke. He From the series Contresens of crossing the desert, in terms of the custom, involves prefers misery and hunger, when in need, to obedience.” Courtesy of the artist Thesiger wrote in Arabian Sands: the legitimate confiscation of the stranger’s possessions. Custom emanates this independence, this full and “I was told that in England it The stranger is violating the territory. He had only to encompassing liberty, so complete and immense that takes fifty days to train a wild falcon while in Arabia, it takes provide himself with a safe-conduct, which the tribal the Bedouin holds it above everything, and that he can- them a week to three to train one. chiefs do not refuse to those who pay or have earned not enjoy, he senses confusedly, anywhere else but in the This is due to the fact that the Arabs never separate from their their confidence.” desert, and certainly not in cities. “All that has resulted falcons. The man who trains a falcon carries it almost This manner of proceeding, which “gave the to the Bedouins from their intercourse with towns is an everywhere with him. […] nomads such a bad reputation among travellers and increase of wants and a decrease of virtues,” Burckhardt He constantly strokes it, speaks to it, hoods and unhoods it.” tradesmen,” is customary, in his analysis. However, this commented in that regard. Whatever the difficulties and “is not a fantasy, the effect of a chief’s whim or of the the hardships of his life, the Bedouin is proud of the life Humberto da Silveira From the series Bedu, 1994 greed of those who obey him.” The countries of Europe he leads, which he would not wish to change for any- Courtesy of the artist did not act any differently, as Derôme observed, when thing in the world, paying much more attention to his Thesiger wrote in Arabian Sands that he was glad for having during a war they took action to seize, in their own ter- liberty than to all the riches here on earth. hawked in the traditional way ritory, the property of the states with whom they were as opposed to hunting from cars as is the case nowadays in Nejd. in conflict or that of their citizens. “This custom,” he continued, “is much more effective than a law. The latter change[s] constantly, with the result that they have little authority.” But, asked Derôme: “Where does the custom come from? It is older than written history and memory,” he responded, “it is an oral tradition in the land of the oral tradition.” Custom regulated the pastoralist way of life of shepherding in Arabia—“it is both the legacy of a long history from the past and the natural way in the desert,” he supposed again. To this custom and the code of honor that descends from it, the Bedouins are profoundly attached because they guarantee their independence, their liberty, which they value above all else: “The pure nomad has conserved the patriarchal traditions of his people among which a carefree attitude,

104 105 Ship in the Dunes

s it possible to imagine Arabia without the cam- heart,” according to an Arab saying that the Finnish els—or rather, the dromedaries—that populate, Orientalist, Georg August Wallin, invoked on this inhabit, and embody it in the same way as the topic. Of all the European travelers who dedicated Bedouins? Certainly not, ascertained Elian-Joseph themselves to the discovery of Arabia, according to IFinbert, an animal writer who was a camel driver him- the historian Jacqueline Pirenne, Wallin is undoubt- self at one stage of his life and is also the author of La edly the one who best understood the relation that Vie du chameau (Life of a Camel). “If the Bedouins were binds a Bedouin to his camel: “he admires the way able to resist and survive in the arid steppes of Arabia,” the master uses a special language to speak to the he wrote, “if they were able to create there a human camel, caresses it, or scolds it,” she stated. Pirenne community, it was thanks to the camel, the sole creature also mentioned this comment by Wallin: “In general, capable of thriving there and traversing those steppes. one has to encounter the man as well as the animal in Without this animal, they would have lived only in their their own country and with their own entourage to be oases, as in a jail.” The camel’s role was essential and central. Without the camel, there would be no culture, let alone a civilization in the desert. The relations of the Bedouins with this difﬁcult world, “could not have been established if it was not through the camel,” wrote Finbert. The Bedouin is proud of his horse, this magnif- Ezio Gribaudo icent steed which surpasses all others, the possession Terra Santa, 1995 Mixed media and collage of which is his pride and his prestige (see chapter The on paper Arabian Horse). Nonetheless, the camel offers them 70 5 100 cm Private collection greater advantages: “the sense of their existence and Maurice Tamisier wrote in his their Arab consciousness,” Finbert wrote. Voyage en Arabie: séjour dans le Hedjaz, campagne d’Assir (1840): The camel guarantees the subsistence of the “A traveler without a camel in Bedouin. From the camel the Bedouin gets his food and the large desert is like a sailor whose ship sinks in the middle his garments. The camel gives him freedom, transporta- of the sea.” tion, and above all else, the tools to exist. Owning a herd Al-Hasan ibn Mohammad of dromedaries “is not only a sign of fortune,” added al-Wazzan, known as Leo the African Finbert, “it is also a rank of honour and a sign of power.” Arab riding a dromedary From A Geographical Historie of Africa, 1556 This praise of the camel that Finbert knowingly elab- Engraving orated on has the ring of truth. To man, the camel 6.7 5 5 cm Paris, C. Plantin, offers everything: its wool and its hide, which the Bibliothèque nationale de France Bedouin uses to clothe himself; its milk and its blood, Man’s companion in the Arabian Peninsula for four thousand which he consumes sometimes; and its meat, which years, the camel is used for provide his nourishment. The Bedouin, in return, of- battle, for transport, and as a source of milk, hair, and meat. fers it his love, because “the camel is part of a man’s

107 Ezio Gribaudo Terra Santa XIII, 1995 Mixed media 76 5 58 cm Private collection Philby wrote in The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration (London, 1922) that “the normal age of a camel is around ﬁfteen to twenty-ﬁve years. A young camel that is offered to a man as his bride’s dowry is expected to be still under his ownership on the occasion of his son’s marriage.”

Anne Blunt The French pilgrim, Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, understand that without the camel, their country Effet de mirage (Mirage effect) Woodcut by Gaston Vuillier used roughly the same terms in 1896 when he offered would be uninhabitable; only the camel is responsible after a watercolor the following portrait of the camel, full of tender affec- for carrying the fortune and the family of its master by Anne Blunt From Voyage en Arabie, tion: “an ultimate mount, in these desolate and arid to their destination. The camel accompanies him to Pèlerinage au Nedjed, berceau regions, the silly camel, the recalcitrant camel, whose the battlefield and often saves them from an almost de la race arabe (A Pilgrimage to Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab attitudes are grotesque but whose heart is good, the certain death.” In other words, and as also confirmed race) Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1882 camel that is always complaining, when it is loaded, by Thesiger: “The Bedu’s existence depends upon the Courtesy of the British Library, when it is unloaded, when rising or settling down, but welfare of his camel.” Thanks to “its tireless activity, it London always walking without eating or drinking, a providen- supports an infinity of families and maintains them in Malin Basil tial animal, made for the desert.” abundance, families who regard the camel as a second Camel heads, detail of the Waterhole, 1971 father because it is by dint of its work and sobriety that Acrylic on canvas “The Arabs consider the camel as one of the greatest they owe their well-being,” observed Tamisier. “The 65 5 100 cm able to love them,” which he considered to be “one of to the commanding medical officer of the army, who Private collection gifts of heaven,” remarked Tamisier, as “they perfectly grateful Arab does not consider the camel as an enslaved the golden rules for the comprehension among men.” was preparing to depart for Arabia. That is how Tamisier A camel can lose up to forty percent of its body water and still found himself, on a camel, engaged in the Asir cam- survive. It can drink ten to twenty liters of water a minute This very great closeness of the Bedouin with his campaign. This is why he had plenty of time to discover the and often consumes more than el certainly stems from the particularly arid nature of country, and to observe this mount, which was utterly 100 liters at one time. the climate as well as that of the land, that they both new to him, and noticed that “Arabia is one of the coun- Wilfred Thesiger inhabit: “Accordingly, the Arab consoles himself with tries of the world where the relations between men and View of Wilfred Thesiger’s travelling party trekking in the his camels for the sterility of his native land, and the animals are most intimate: they have both understood Bani Ma’arid sands of the Empty Quarter (Rub‘ al-Khali), January camels, who seem to comprehend the isolation of their that they must love and assist each other because the 1948 masters, give them back this love as much as their or- dry, burnt earth rejects their embraces.” Film negative 35mm Courtesy Pitt Rivers Museum, ganization can allow,” wrote the Frenchman and young University of Oxford Saint-Simonian, Maurice Tamisier. Bedouins themselves are aware of the important position Thesiger reported in Arabian Sands, the camels that the that camels occupy among them: “God had not made bedouins rode were females In his dream for the Orient, Tamisier first joined the the camel; Nejd, they say, had been without inhabit- while, in Sudan and other parts of the Sahara, they always rode theoretician and leader of the Saint-Simon ideology, ant,” reported the British writer, Charles M. Doughty. on bulls because the females Prosper Enfantin, in Cairo in 1833, who was then at- Ali Bey El Abbassi added that “the camel is the proper were kept for milk and never ridden. The bulls in Arabia are tempting to accomplish ambitious projects in Egypt, beast for the desert: it is the great gift of God to its used as pack animals for tribes including dams on the Nile and a canal connecting the inhabitants, and to travellers.” Confirming its value that carry goods for hire. Mediterranean to the Red Sea. While there, Enfantin in- was Wilfred Thesiger, who wrote, “The Bedu know the troduced Tamisier to another Frenchman, Joseph Seve, camel’s worth ‘Ata Allah’, or ‘God’s Gift’, they call her.” alias Soliman Pacha, the highest-ranking general in the Thesiger crossed the most daunting of all deserts, the Egyptian army. The latter recruited him as a secretary Rub‘ al-Khali, on its back.

108 109 Wilfred Thesiger Harold Corsini Wilfred Thesiger’s party Camels and side of a sand dune at the Khawr bin Atarit well, in Al-Kharj (Nejd region), 1947 north of Mughshin in the Ghanim Gelatine silver print sands, November 1946 32.4 5 26.4 cm Film negative 35mm Gift of Standard Oil Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Courtesy of the Art Institute of Museum, University of Oxford Chicago / Art Resource Center, New York Thesiger wrote that most of the riding camels were heavily laden Philby wrote in The heart when traveling long distances of Arabia, a record of travel and between wells with goatskins exploration (1922): “The freshness ﬁlled with water. or not of the tracks can further serve to date the passage of the animals which made them. The Al-Murra tribe of the Empty Quarter are capable of telling the color of the camel by its tracks.”

Ilo Battigelli Samer Mohdad Dromedary rider, late 1940s Bedouin camp at Mada’in Saleh, Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers 2002 Museum, University of Oxford From Assaoudia, Actes Sud, 2005 Courtesy of the artist Carlo Guarmani wrote in 1866, in Northern Najd, A Journey from Philby wrote that “as he rides Jerusalem to Anaiza in Qasim, the Bedouin has his eyes that “a dromedary must be constantly on the ground, of pure breed and sufﬁciently seeking fodder for his mount, advanced in age; this last and at sight of a clump or tuft condition is indispensable for of any favorite herb, he is happy a long and dangerous journey, that the camel he rides has food for a well-bred dromedary of full though he be without himself.” age never lets his voice be heard and, therefore, does not show the enemy the resting-place by night.”

Bob Landry Herds of camels quenching their thirst, early 1940s Courtesy of Saudi Aramco

110 111 Ezio Gribaudo LITTERS AND PALANQUINS The very ﬁrst European to mention travelled in a machine made of sticks, American Colony (Jerusalem) Terra Santa, 1995 these little “wooden houses” as he and covered with cushions, of the Camel caravan of pilgrims Mixed media and collage en route to Mecca, c. 1910 on paper called them was, once again, form of a sopha or cabriolet, roofed Print from glass dry plate 70 5 100 cm Ludovico di Varthema. In 1503, this with boughs upon arches, which they negative Private collection Matson Photograph Collection Mameluke born in Bologna placed upon the back of a camel,” Library of Congress Prints accompanied a caravan from he wrote. It cannot be said that his and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Damascus to the holy cities. Needless description of this “machine made Caravans required tens to say, he made the journey on of sticks” was absolutely clear. But at of thousands of camels, which horseback. However, he observed that least he had learned its name: “This were gathered outside Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad. Ropes among the pilgrims “men ride on machine called schevria was very were tied to link the lines of the camels in certain wooden boxes, convenient, as [it] enabled to sit up or camels in the procession. in which they sleep and eat.” lie down in it; but the motion of the After disembarking in Jeddah camel, which I felt for the ﬁrst time exhausted, having suffered through in my life, completely exhausted me, a tempest, Ali Bey El Abbassi found in the feeble state that I was in.” himself a place inside one of these On this occasion, Ali Bey discovered little “wooden boxes” to complete the that one suffers from seasickness short distance that remained to reach while traveling, seated or lying down Mecca: “I set out for Mecca on in such a device, on the back of a Wednesday the 21st of January, camel. John Fryer Keane, aged at three o’clock in the afternoon. I twenty-two when he disembarked in

112 113 Arabia one day in 1877, who had spent was certainly the case for Saleh vehicle is principally used for the Richard Francis Burton ten years of his life on ships, also Soubhy, a senior civil servant, who conveyance of women.” The Grandee’s Litter, 1853–54 From Personal Narrative discovered to his great surprise the performed the pilgrimage twice at the Finally, he mentioned the existence of of a Pilgrimage to El-Madinah first time he was perched on the hump end of the nineteenth century and another type of palanquin: “Different and Meccah London, 1855–56 of a camel that “the pitching of the who noted: “If the camel must from that is the taht roan: a litter Royal Geographical Society, desert-ship could not find its equal transport pilgrims, they place two carried by two camels, one before, and London afloat; so that I, old sailor as I was, chouqdoufs (one on each side), which the other behind. In this kind of On his journey from Yanbu to Medina, Sir Richard Burton hired became exceedingly sick, a thing are large baskets of palm leaves vehicle the great pilgrims travel.” camels for which he paid after which had not happened to me for covered by a cloth that will give Burckhardt went on to say that “it is “abundant bargaining” three more frequently used by the Turks dollars each—half in ready many years while at sea.” travellers relief from the heat of the money and the rest to be paid Just as Ali Bey suffered from sun and humidity of the night.” than by the Arabians.” Burton after arrival. He also bought a exhaustion when he disembarked at Nonetheless, reading these different produced a sketch of this strange Shugduf or litter, used by richer pilgrims and carrying two Jeddah, the British explorer Richard authors, or certain others, one cannot vehicle that shows two dromedaries passengers. He wrote in Personal Burton was hardly more spry when he be quite sure of the name of this decked out in their best, with this Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah that arrived in Yanbu. The humid “machine made of sticks” as Ali Bey caption: “The Grandee’s Litter”. Joseph “it is a vehicle appropriated atmosphere of the boat in which he called it, or this “wooden box,” as Pitts, a young Englishman who was to women and children, fathers of families, married men and had made the crossing had Varthema did, and what shape it had. reduced to slavery and performed the to those who are too effeminate reawakened the injury in his foot that As is often the case, it was the Swiss pilgrimage with his Maghribi master to ride. My reason for choosing in about 1685, saw similar devices a litter was that notes are more he had been dragging along since the traveler, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, easily taken in it than on a start of his voyage and he could hardly with his customary precision, who used for overlords, notables, and their dromedary’s back.” Shugdufs walk. Although Burton had also opted resolved the predicament. Thanks to wives in the caravan that took them are also used by travelers to sleep within them. for one of these very practical, little him, we learn that indeed there was from Mecca to Cairo (see chapter “wooden boxes,” to travel to Medina, not only one type of these vehicles, The Center of the World). it did not inspire his confidence: “My but several. He began by explaining These different palanquins all had shugduf, perched upon the back of a that “the name of shebrye is given to a different characteristics, as we have tall strong animal, nodded and swayed kind of palanquin, having a seat made noticed. The Andalusian writer, Ibn about with his every motion, of twisted straw, about five feet in Jubayr, crossed the Egyptian desert in impressing me with the idea that the length, which is placed across the the direction of the port of ‘Aydhab at first step would throw it over the saddle of the camel, with ropes the end of the twelfth century and had shoulders or the crupper,” he wrote, fastened to it. On its four sides are the opportunity to experience the without concealing his apprehension. slender poles, joined above by cross comfort of the shuqduf (plural: The main difficulty was getting in: bars, over which either mats or shaqadif): “Across this desert no one “The camel-man told me,” he carpets are placed, to shade the will journey save on camel, by reason relieve the spirit,” wrote Ibn Jubayr, was led away, and “when they had explained, that “I must first climb up traveller from the sun.” To this of their endurance of thirst. The best before concluding, “To be short, it gotten the stolen camel, with his rider the animal’s neck, and so creep into satisfactory and clear description, and most comfortable camel litters eases the hardship of travel.” at a convenient distance from the the vehicle.” But Burton could not Burckhardt added this note: “This used on them are the shaqadif,” he Such comfort can become dangerous caravan, and think themselves out of decide whether to do so, “my foot among the natives of Hijaz is the noted before specifying that “they are at times. This is what Joseph Pitts danger,” Pitts continued: “they awake disabling me from such exertion,” he favourite vehicle for travelling, like the travelling seats. Two of them recounted on the occasion of his the hagge, and sometimes destroy claimed. Despite the risks inherent in because it admits of their stretching are bound together by stout ropes and return from Mecca to Cairo after his him immediately, and at some other such an operation, he demanded that themselves at full length, and sleeping put across the camel. They have pilgrimage. The caravan was under times, being a little more inclin’d to they “bring the beast to squat, which at pleasure.” supports at each corner, and on these constant surveillance by brigands and mercy, they strip him naked, and let they did grumblingly because it often The explanation became slightly more rests a canopy. The traveller and his it happened that during the night, him return to the caravan.” strains the camel to rise with a full complicated when Burckhardt added companion in counterpoise will thus “When they see a hagge fall asleep shugduf on his back, besides which the description of a variant: “Similar be veiled from the blaze of the midday (for it is usual for them to sleep on the motion is certain to destroy the machines of the palanquin kind, but heat.” the road) they loose a camel before vehicle in a few days.” on a shorter and narrower scale, are Here, then, is the description of the and behind, and one of the thieves Burton eventually grew accustomed to placed lengthways on both sides of the object, and how one could live and leads away the camel with the hagge and appreciated this “vehicle,” camel’s saddle, and then called organize himself inside this device. upon his back asleep and another of particularly because it allowed him to shekdef. One person sits in each of “With his companion he may partake the thieves, meanwhile, pulls on the draft the notes in his diary in perfect them, but they do not allow of his of what he needs of food and the like, next camel to tie it to the camel from solitude. Many travelers before and stretching out at full length. Both of or read, when he wishes, the Koran or whence the halter of other was cut.” after him have appreciated the true these shekdefs are covered, likewise, a book; and who so deems it lawful to The camel on which the unfortunate value of the comfort this strange with carpets thrown across.” Then, play chess may, if he wish, play his pilgrim was still sleeping, with his “machine” could provide them. This Burckhardt added a final word: “This companion, for diversion and to baggage forming his counterweight,

114 115 George Steinmetz Anne Blunt indirect confirmation of the attachment that binds El Abbassi, in this little scene that he described: “It Mirage alongside a circular field, Birkeh of Abdallah, Wadi Al-Ghiran, 2002 14 February 1879 man to his camel. Palgrave mentions several times that appeared interesting to me to see the camels eat. The Courtesy of the artist Watercolor “every man held a short crooked stick for camel-driving driver placed a mat of a circular form, about six feet Courtesy of the British Library, Claire Rivier London in his hands,” also observing that in the formal and sol- diameter, upon the ground, upon which he laid a pile of Dromadaires, 2003 After their stay in Ha’il, the emn context of a reception at the palace of an emir and brambles and herbs, cut very small: he then permitted 40 5 30.5 cm Blunts traveled to Baghdad with Dry pastel on paper in the presence of the emir himself (see chapter Cities of the camels to approach, when they immediately squat- the returning Persian pilgrim Courtesy of the artist caravan. They followed the Yesterday and Tomorrow), all the men were, in any case, ted themselves upon the ground all round it, at regular “Bedus can recognize camels Zubeida route, named after the much farther off than they celebrated wife of caliph Harun holding “the riding stick or wand.” About its use, he distances, and began to eat with a sort of politeness can distinguish human beings,” al-Rashid, who is said to have wrote, “The inseparable companion of every true Arab, and order which gave me pleasure. They each eat the wrote Thesiger in Arabian Sands. built caravanserais and wells along this road. This birkeh whether Bedouin or townsman, rich or poor, gentle or herbs that were before them by a little at a time; and if (pool), wrote Anne Blunt, “is simple, is to be retained in the hand, and will serve for either of them left his place, his companion at his side located in the route of the hajj caravan. The inside descends in playing with during the pauses of conversation.” appeared to scold him in a friendly manner, which made steps for the convenience of those who come for water.” the other feel his fault, and return to it again. In a word, Palgrave had undoubtedly understood that the presence the camels’ table is a faithful copy of their masters’.” of this staff, in all circumstances, reveals the nature This amiable picture demonstrates the even tem- of the bond that unites man to the animal. It is as if per that camels reveal most of the time. Tamisier, who this staff, whenever the Bedouin is separated from his turned out to be a real connoisseur, stated: “This an- mount, becomes the symbol of its presence beside him, imal is gifted with extremely sweet manners; it easily an homage rendered to the merits and the inexhaustible becomes quite attached to its master.” He also treated abnegation of the creature that the Bedouin considers it with great regard. “The Bedu are very considerate his twin in the animal world. of their camels, always ready to suffer hardship themselves in order to spare their animals,” Thesiger assured, This intimacy, this resemblance, so intense, did some- adding that “a Bedu never strikes or ill-treats a cam- times amuse some travelers, as was the case of Ali Bey el” arbitrarily. With a fragile constitution despite its animal which he can use or abuse as he wishes.” He it, he only wishes it to be taken by the enemy,” noted went on to say that “he considers the camel as a friend the archaeologists Jaussen and Savignac, in 1914. that he loves and venerates.” Nearly all travelers describe this special understanding “It is no surprise,” therefore, “that they often fondle that binds a Bedouin to his camel. All…? The one ap- and kiss them whilst they murmur endearments,” parent exception was this malicious debasement of the reported Thesiger. Details of these effusions are also camel: “He is from first to last an undomesticated and to be found in the words of Tamisier: “The Bedouin savage animal, rendered serviceable by stupidity alone. assures his camel that it will be the first among all his One passion alone he possesses, mainly revenge.” Those camels, that he will see to its marriage, that he will were the beliefs of the British adventurer, William G. provide it a fate worthy of envy, that he will neglect Palgrave—too hastily, no doubt. However, it is by the nothing that will yield it happiness and, during the pen of the same author who curiously also offers an conversation, he never forgets to call the camel his friend, his brother, and other names of great endear- ment. During such moments of gaiety, the Arab sings his camel songs of love or war which the camel listens to attentively; and to demonstrate the pleasure it feels, the camel will clamp its jaws, gnash its teeth, and turn its head toward the person singing to it, in order to confer him the greatest attention. In that moment, absorbed by this savage harmony, the camel seems to forget the load it is carrying and crosses incredible spaces of which the masters transmit the memory to their descendants.” On the other hand, the Bedouin “does not insult his camel. When he is irritated with

116 117 Olivier Couppey Dromedaries in Arabia Courtesy of the artist

Olivier Couppey Camel’s Bleat Courtesy of the artist “Bedouins derive great pleasure from looking at a good camel as some Englishmen get from looking at a good horse,” wrote Thesiger in Arabian Sands.

Olivier Couppey Camel at Rest Courtesy of the artist Camels play an important role in the Bedouin’s life. They also occupy an important place in the poetry of the desert.

Olivier Couppey Proud Cameleer Courtesy of the artist Bedouins refer to the camels as ‘Ata Allah or “God’s Gift”.

118 119 extraordinary endurance, the camel “does not like to be beaten unjustly. If you hit it on the head, that may kill it; on the shoulders, will ruin it: this part of its body is extremely sensitive, so that the simple rubbing of the rider’s foot is enough to punish any small errors it may have committed,” noted Tamisier. In any case, “the dromedary is usually willing to march according to the will of its master,” he goes on. “If it is pressed too hard, it will double its speed and take all the flight it is capable of. If beaten in this moment, the camel will make a new effort and continue its run until it succumbs to exhaustion.” It is a pact for life and for death that unites the man and his camel: “It is not hunger nor is it thirst that frightens the Bedu; they maintain that they can survive riding in cold weather for seven days without food or water. It is the possible collapse of their camels which haunts them. If this happens, death is certain,” wrote Thesiger. forced march,” explained Tamisier; “while travelling,” Anne de Henning Camel market in Jeddah, 2011 The nomad takes all necessary precautions to avoid he added, the dromedary can remain “at times up to Courtesy of the artist such a dramatic outcome. “Let us take the example of forty-eight hours without eating and four days without At the time of Wallin’s sojourn a Bedouin who is setting out for a long and dangerous drinking” without affecting its speed. in Arabia, the average price of camels ranged from 10 trip through a region with no water” and let’s follow According to Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, “The to 40 Spanish dollars, whereas him, with Tamisier, as he makes his preparations. “He richest region for camels is without a doubt Nejd.” The horses varied from 20 to 3,000. will saddle his dromedary himself; he will attach a Swiss explorer also noted that “the ordinary load of an Édith Ortoli Les Chameaux blancs ghirba—a large leather goatskin—to the flank of the Arabian camel is four to five hundred kilos for a short (The white camels) camel, in which he can store water sufficient for ten or trip, and only three to four hundred kilos for a longer From Esprit du désert, 2017 Artist book, single copy fifteen days; a small flask, called zemzémié (named after voyage.” He also reported that “among the Bedouins, Text by René Caillé the Haram source in Mecca), attached to the pommel female camels are more highly valued and more ex- Mixed media Courtesy of the artist by a hook, containing the provision for one day so that pensive than the males,” because “they support thirst According to Orientalist Joseph he can detach it and drink at ease without having to better than the males.” Van Hammer, there are 5,744 names and epithets that refer to stop his course at all.” Our author continued: “Khourdj In addition to their sobriety, Maurice Tamisier the camel in the Arabic language. or bags with beautiful falling tassels are placed on the also admired the ease with which camels walked on the saddle; they contain flour, butter, dried dates, a small steepest terrain: “They pass the most abrupt of slopes, packet full of coffee, some rice, and a casserole to make the highest peaks and along the edge of precipices, the pilaf; so much for the nourishment of the Bedouin, challenging the surefootedness of the flocks of goats while his bed consists of a carpet and a woollen cover; and sheep. The first time I saw them perched in this a rifle in a bandolier hangs from the rear pommel, the way, I could hardly believe my eyes, and I could not sabre hangs from the one at the front; his spear is always imagine how they could manage to disengage without in his hand and also serves to catch hold of the halter mishap.” The French adventurer describes the Bedouin rope if he lets it drop.” as being well-settled into his saddle, as if he was com- With a touch of mischief, Tamisier finishes this fortably installed in a bed. Separated from the horizon, picture: ”A dromedary equipped in this way is not over- the Bedouin is directed only by the reassuring pendu- loaded, however it is carrying everything a man might lum formed by the head and neck of his camel. To his need during a fortnight: his divan, his buffet, and his camel, the Bedouin speaks, telling him stories, making arsenal!” Thus, the nomad is ready to depart, to take promises, and singing songs. on bad weather and the blows of destiny. The “fine On the neck that is swinging regularly in front dromedary,” for its part, is ready to “cover nine miles of him, the Bedouin himself hangs several objects. in forty-five minutes and ninety miles in ten hours by At first, “to protect their camels from the evil eye,

120 121 Édith Ortoli the Arabs purchase amulets that they hung on their Arabian languages, including Himyaritic, Thamudic, Graphisme Ocre 2 (Ocher Graphism 2), 2007 necks.” In addition, “while travelling, the Arabs always and Lihyanic. Later, in 1952, the American anthropolo- Mixed media have a little bag that they attach to the neck of their gist, Henry Field, drafted a very complete catalogue of 21 5 16 cm Courtesy of the artist camel, where they collect the wool that the camels those brands. Anne Blunt wrote that “The lose while marching, and when they return to their It was well-settled in their saddles and peering pilgrims do not care for the group, they give it to their wives, who use it to make over the head of a dromedary, that travelers discovered welfare of their camels and will not let them graze as they go, the tents or other textiles they need,” reports Tamisier. Arabia. They were able to affirm that undertaking the because riding a camel which eats as it goes is rather tiresome. This small pouch is certainly another indication of the voyage on the back of a camel was not disagreeable Then in the evening the tents respectful care and attention that the nomad devotes nor even uncomfortable, and certainly much less tiring have to be pitched in some spot where a large camp can stand to his mount. than on horseback. This was the opinion, in any case, of altogether, irrespective of The long neck also carries something else: a French writer Charles Didier, who stated: “Of the variety considerations of pasture.” red-hot iron brand marked on the animal’s hide which of ways of travelling that I have tried on land and at sea, Yann Gayet From the series Contresens allows its identification in case of wandering or theft. I know of none that is pleasanter...” Courtesy of the artist This wasm is that of the tribe, the clan, or the sub-clan. Camels are anatomically adapted In 1884, the French epigrapher Charles Huber, who, it to the desert climate. Their eyelids are translucent, enabling seems, was very likely the first to have shown an interest them to see with closed eyes in a sandstorm. in this detail, noticed that such a mark “was generally composed of several different signs, which are therefore true coats of arms that can be read.” Establishing the first list of these signs, Huber noticed that many of them were based on the alphabets of the ancient South

122 123 The Desert of Deserts

ven today, it is possible to view the ruins His troops were harshly defeated by Adil, the Ayyubid of a series of small Roman forts all along a governor of Cairo and brother of Saladin. Later tak- line that runs from the north of Syria to the en prisoner during the battle of Hattin, Raynald of south of Palestine for a total of approximate- Châtillon was beheaded by order of the latter. At the Ely 1,500 kilometers. Most often they are perched atop beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese natural mounds and were built by Rome at the start of whose ships had entered the Red Sea attempted to the second century A.D. This line, marked off in equal lay siege to Jeddah, but eventually retreated and were increments by military boundary stones with Latin in- finally driven out by the Ottomans beyond the straits scriptions, constituted the borderline between Roman of Bab el-Mandeb. possessions on one side and Arabia on the other. This The desert nature of the peninsula was undoubt- borderline, or rather this limes (“limit” in Latin), faced edly a major factor in making it difficult to conquer. the desert. However, Arabia does not consist solely of deserts. The strategic shield constituted by the presence There are a great variety of landscapes. In many plac- of these fortifications would have been perfectly use- es there are fields of barley and wheat, even in Nejd. less if the desert on the edge of which they were erect- Also, in Hijaz, there are various areas that have long ed had been uninhabited. However, wrote historian been suitable for the cultivation of fruits and vegeta- Jacqueline Pirenne, “That was not the case: there were bles. This is especially the case for Wadi Fatima, near men living in these stretches that were so apparently Jeddah, where melons, legumes, and vegetables are cul- inclement; they were Bedouins, that is, inhabitants, tivated. Other such localities include Badr and Khulays, of the steppe (badiat in Arabic, origin of the adjective near Medina, and Batn Marra, near Mecca, known for bedouy).” It was obviously for this reason that these their orchards; and the city of Ta’if, the gardens, fruits, Bedouins were used to making incursions outside the and roses of which have been famous throughout all spaces that were supposed to contain them, some- Arabia for more than a thousand years. Other regions times so massive that the Romans chose to protect of Arabia, such as the Asir region, have had an agri- Édith Ortoli La porte du désert themselves from them. cultural tradition for centuries. All of this is true even (Gate of the desert), 2007 Over the centuries, this immense territory of without considering the cultivation of coffee, practiced Mixed media 25 5 25 cm steppe and desert did not offer any hold to conquer- in many places in the southern and southwestern areas Courtesy of the artist ors. Throughout the course of history, excluding the of the peninsula. Richard Burton wrote in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to conflicts that arose within the Middle East itself, there These few examples can certainly be expanded. Al-Madinah and Meccah: “In the are very few examples to be found of attempts to con- They help to reveal that Arabia is made of contrasts and desert the wildness and sublimity of the senses around you stir up quer, and they all ended in bitter defeats. One of the a great diversity of soils and landscapes. Nonetheless, it all the energies of your soul— first was certainly the expedition sent from Egypt, or- is useful to know that less than two percent of the ter- whether for exertion, danger, or strife. Your morale improves; dered by the Roman emperor Augustus, which invad- ritory, of its two-and-a-half-million square kilometers, you become frank and cordial, hospitable and single-minded: ed southern Arabia to take command of the caravan are effectively farmable. This number shows the exact the hypocritical politeness and trade: it failed miserably in 24 B.C. Twelve centuries measure of what Arabia really is: a land mainly com- the slavery of civilization are left behind you in the city. Your later, in 1182, Raynald of Châtillon, the unruly lieu- posed of rocky landscapes, plains of gravel or gypsum, senses are quickened: they tenant of Baldwin IV, the Latin king of Jerusalem, crystalline plateaus, lava fields, stretches covered with require no stimulants but air and exercise.” menaced Medina and Mecca, and attacked pilgrims. flint as far as the eye can see, and basalt rocks.

124 125 Caroline Havers such an expedition in their true measure. This is what Escarpment in dust storm, 2014 From the series Sand & Serendipity stands out in reading his report of the trip when, on the Mixed media on paper way from Medina to Mecca he faced, for the first time, 180 5 150 cm Courtesy of the artist and Naila the desert territories: a few days that seemed infinitely Gallery, Riyadh longer to him. John Keane wrote in Six months in the Hijaz, Journeys to Makkah Burton was abruptly shocked by the nature of and Madinah 1877-1878, the landscape: “We travelled through a country fan- describing sandstorms: “Of all the many other interesting tastic in its desolation—a mass of huge hills, barren workings of Nature on an plains, and desert vales.” Gradually, as he proceeded unusual scale in this country, I have seen a sandstorm, by in the midst of a group of pilgrims, the surroundings forming drifts, alter a landscape in a few hours.” struck him as being more and more grandiose and terrifying: “Vast clefts seamed like scars the hideous Postcard In the foreground, the telegraph face of earth; here they widened into dark caves, there line between Damascus and they were choked with glistening drift sands. Above, a Medina in Al-Ula (Dedan). The huge stone monoliths in the sky like polished blue steel, with a tremendous blaze of background are part of the Mabarak al Naga escarpment. yellow light, glared upon us without the thinnest veil From the official album of of mist cloud.” Later, he continued: “For most part it photographs of the Hijaz railroad Nasser D. Khalili collection is a haggard land, a country of wild beast[s] and wild- of Islamic Art, London er men, a region whose very fountains murmur the The oasis of Al-Ula is located about twenty kilometers south warning words, ‘Drink and Away’, instead of ‘Rest and of Mada’in Saleh (Hegra). be thankful’.” And also: “It was a desert peopled only with echoes—a place of death for what little there is to All of these areas are either entirely or predomi- die in it.” It was there that he had a close brush with nantly desert. However, the desert, properly speaking— death when the group of pilgrims with whom he was the true desert of sand—the absolute desert, is mainly advancing was attacked by a horde of brigands. At the limited to three areas on the map of Arabia. The first very last moment, they would be saved, if not by the area, the whole south of the peninsula, is occupied by cavalry, at least by a detachment of Wahhabis anxious the terrible Rub‘ al-Khali with its 650,000 square kilo- to restore order and send off the Bedouins in rout. meters, it is the equivalent of the combined areas of This adventure undoubtedly contributed to Burton’s Germany and Italy. It was not until the 1930s that trav- decision to abort his project to cross the great desert. elers from outside this part of the world would succeed His words do seem to reveal a lasting regret: “In the in crossing it in the same conditions as the natives. Next, desert, the wildness and sublimity of the scenes around in the north, there is the no less awesome Nafud—or you stir up all the energies of your soul—whether for the Great Nafud—an oval area with a decidedly smaller exertion, danger, or strife.” area, about 70,000 square kilometers, about the size of Ireland. Finally, the third of these great spaces is situ- During the course of the second and final thirds of the ated between the first two and consists of the ad-Dahna nineteenth century, a few intrepid travelers did none- desert. This corridor of sand, more than 1,200 kilome- theless make the choice to take on Arabia by crossing, if ters in length, with width varying from twenty-five to not the Rub‘ al-Khali, as Burton had planned to do for one-hundred kilometers, links the Rub‘ al-Khali to the some time, at least the Great Nafud desert. There was a Great Nafud. Its northernmost segment is sometimes handful who resolved to undertake the crossing along called the small Nafud. its north-south axis, and for the entire distance from Al- Not many voyagers were drawn to Arabia solely Jawf, in the north, to Jobba and then Ha’il, in the south, for its desert. The British explorer, Richard Burton, ex- they were conscious that this would allow their journey plained that the pilgrimage was his primary intention to acquire a powerful symbolic charge from the outset. for visiting Arabia in 1853. He also planned to claim the They are listed here in chronological order: beginning title of the first foreigner to have crossed the great Rub‘ with the Finnish Orientalist, Georg August Wallin (1845); al-Khali desert from north to south. Most likely, Burton the British adventurer, William Gifford Palgrave (1862); had hardly considered the difficulties and the dangers of the Tuscan horseman, Carlo Guarmani (1864); the

126 127 Wilfred Thesiger Otto Pilny Landscape in the Uruq Towards Mecca, not dated ash Shaybah sands in the Empty Oil on canvas Quarter (Rub‘ al-Khali), 82.5 5 130.5 cm December 1946 The Shaﬁk Gabr Collection, Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers London Museum, University of Oxford Religion was one of the favored Thesiger described in Across themes among Orientalist the Empty Quarter the crossing painters. Many Orientalist of the Uruq ash Shaybah sands, painters produced genre scenes some of the highest dunes in the depicting the interiors Empty Quarter, writing: “The of mosques, prayers, calls to peaks were steeper and more prayers, or caravans heading pronounced, rising in many cases to Mecca. to great pinnacles, down which the ﬂowing ridges swept like draperies. The sands were very soft, cascading round our feet as the camels struggled up the slopes. […] I wondered how much more these camels would stand, for they were trembling violently whenever they halted.”

Wilfred Thesiger View of Wilfred Thesiger’s party travelling from Khawr bin ’Atarit well in the Ghanim sands to the Ramlat al Ghafah in the Empty Quarter, November/December 1946 Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford The Empty Quarter, covering an area larger than France, lies in the southeast of Arabia. It is the largest continuous aristocratic British couple, Anne and Wilfrid Blunt taken for an effect of mirage, but on coming nearer we sand desert on earth, with dunes stretching for hundreds (1878), also horse breeders; and the French epigraphist, found it broken into billows, and but for its red colour of kilometers. Charles Huber (1880). not unlike a stormy sea seen from shore, for it rose up,

Wilfred Thesiger They narrated the memorable experience of as the sea seems to rise, when the waves are high, above The Empty Quarter (Rub‘ crossing the Nafud desert in the many texts they pro- the level of the land. Somebody called out ‘the Nafud’,” al- Khali) in the Riyadh Province, January 1948 duced. For Anne and Wilfrid Blunt, the Nafud seems to wrote Anne Blunt. Here, they had really reached “the Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford have represented a sort of graal: “The Nafud has been object of [their] dreams,” this Nafud which “we hear Thesiger wrote that “each dune the object of our dreams all through this journey, as wonderful accounts of it here, and of the people who was three to four hundred feet the nec plus ultra of desert,” wrote Lady Blunt in her have been lost in it.” in height, and the highest peaks were built up round deep account of their trip, which began in Damascus. She By mentioning these “wonderful accounts,” Anne crescent-shaped hollows. It took describes their approach to the Nafud, after departing Blunt implicitly evoked the account of Palgrave’s adven- us an hour or more to cross each range. […] Now for the first time from Al-Jawf: “These sand dunes are not really the tures and his book Personal Narrative of a Year’s Journey the dunes were a lovely golden-red and, although I was Nafud and are much like what may be seen elsewhere Through Central and Eastern Arabia, in which he narrat- tired, hungry, and thirsty, their in the desert, in the Sahara for instance, or in certain ed the details of the many episodes of his quite eventful, shapes gave me great pleasure.” parts of the peninsula of Sinai. They are very pictur- dramatic, and risky crossing of the Great Nafud. The esque, being of pure white sand, from fifty to a hundred works of Wallin and Guarmani had also been published; feet high, with intervening spaces of harder ground, they both referred to the crossing of the Nafud, and the and are covered with vegetation.” Blunts had read them too. Nonetheless, familiarity with Eventually Anne and Wilfrid Blunt left the last these two last books had remained limited to the small village behind before facing the unknown spaces they world of Orientalists and travel enthusiasts. Palgrave’s had come to seek there, crossing “a flat black expanse work, on the other hand, had been widely discussed. It of gravelly soil covered with small round pebbles, ex- benefited from huge publicity because of its sensational tending southwards to the horizon.” Then, “we saw a character and the numerous dangers that the author, on red streak on the horizon before us, which rose and each page of his book, claimed to have escaped. Thus, gathered as we approached it, stretching out east and on several occasions, the Blunts made corrections to west in an unbroken line. It might at first have been that trait of Palgrave’s book, rectifying an assertion,

128 129 Harry St John Bridger Philby Adobe fort and camp scene in Wadi Dawasir, 1930 Courtesy of the Royal Geographic Society, London In Heart of Arabia, Philby wrote that he was the ﬁrst European to ever set eyes on the “great mysterious valley of Dawasir”. He and his men sojourned as guests, for seven days, in Barzan, the palace of the governor of Wadi Dawasir.

Jaussen and Savignac The fortress and the wall of the oasis of Al-Ula (Dedan), viewed from south-west, March 1909 Courtesy of the French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem

Joseph Elmer Yoakum Sand Dunes in Arabian Desert, Saudi Arabia, 1962–65 Blue ballpoint pen, watercolor, and colored chalks on tan wove paper 22.7 5 30.4 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource New York “It is this blending of two colours which gives such depth and richness to the Sands: gold with silver, orange with cream, brick red with white, burnt brown with pink, yellow with grey—they have an inﬁnite variety of shades and colours,” wrote Thesiger.

George Steinmetz Across the star-shaped dune- chains of Uruq al-Mutaridah, 2002 Courtesy of the artist The Rub‘ al-Khali has always been described as resembling the sea with its wave-like lines of dunes (uruq). Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed it in the late 1940s, described in Arabian Sands its void beauty: “I was exhilarated by the sense of space, the silence, and the crisp cleanness of the sand.”

130 131 in the morning when it is wet with the dew.” And, remarking at the start that “the felqs follow each other elsewhere: “Yet the Nafud it was, the great red desert in strings, not always in straight line, winding gently of central Arabia.” And, again: “Nothing can be more about,” then adding: “these, though varying in size from bright and sparkling than the winter’s sun reflected an acre to a couple of hundred acres, are all precisely from these red sands.” alike in shape and direction.” What the Blunts quickly learned was that the These sorts of coombs (narrow valleys), some of Nafud “is better wooded and richer in pasture than which are extremely vast and can have some very high any part of the desert we have passed.” Actually, “It is slopes, are practically immutable; although they con- tufted all over with ghada bushes, and bushes of an- sist of loose sands, neither the winds nor bad weather other kind called yerta […]. There are, besides, several modify them significantly, as the Bedouins who ac- kinds of camel pasture, especially one new to us called company travelers attest. “Some of these felqs,” Huber adr, on which they say sheep can feed for a month also reported, “are crowned on one of their slopes by without wanting water, and more than one kind of a hillock of sand, itself crowned by a high crest of grass.” Charles Huber explained this profusion: “In white-coloured sand.” This red sand crowned by white winter, a few hours of rain are sufficient to germinate sand was certainly very striking: the key to its fascina- the seeds that the sands of Nafud are full of; fifteen tion “was its colour, that of rhubarb and magnesia,” days later the ground will be covered like a green tap- commented Anne Blunt tersely, who had never seen estry of different types of plants, all with thick leaves anything of the sort before! full of sap.” From then, he says the Nafud “is provided Traveling among these dunes that cover the with a relatively dense and vigorous vegetation that entire surface of the Nafud is exhausting because pro- provides the camels with fodder for almost the entire gression proceeds extremely slowly, which is precisely journey.” And he concluded: “The Nafud is the camels’ what Carlo Guarmani deplored: “It is necessary to paradise.” For his part, as reported by his wife, Wilfrid make dozens of detours in all directions and to stray Blunt remarked that “Nafud has solved for him at last from a straight course very often; later, it is very dif- the mystery of horse-breeding in Central Arabia. In ficult to return to the principle direction.” As Huber the hard desert there is nothing a horse can eat, but pointed out, this was a difficult exercise even for the here there is plenty.” All this meant that “Instead of nomads themselves “because the many detours they being the terrible place it has been described by the were forced to make to follow the outlines of the felqs, few travellers who have seen it,” continued Lady Blunt, or of the crests, made them lose their orientation, tempering or toning down another, as many other trav- developed friendships with many members of the famous Yann Gayet the Nafud “is in reality the home of Bedouins during set them on false tracks, thus causing loss of time Somewhere between Dhouba elers would do after them, irritated by the exaggerations Bedouin tribe, the Ruwallah, and had traveled extensively and Tabuk, 2017 a great part of the year.” The great lady traveler also and much fatigue.” And Huber added: “One is always and the vanity of the adventurer. with them in these regions. His view, when he “had his Courtesy of the artist issued a quick reserve: “The want of water alone lim- turning around the felqs: some are aligned in zig-zag, For his part, this is how Palgrave approached the first sight of the Nafud,” revealed a more subdued real- its the pastoral value.” Charles Huber formulated all rising and falling.” Carl Raswan also described in sim- Nafud: “We were now traversing an immense ocean of ism, without suppressing spontaneous amazement: “And these things more or less in the same terms: “It has so ilar terms, “the tortuous slopes” of the Nafud, “which loose reddish sand, unlimited to the eye, and heaped what a sight! The waves of the red desert, rising and fall- many qualities that I don’t believe there exists a single led from trough to crest and, past deep chasms, to the up in enormous ridges running parallel to each other ing evenly, seemed to extend to infinity. Crescent-shaped Bedouin who does not prefer the Nafud to any other next slope. Impossible to steer a straight course as in from north to south, undulation after undulation, each crests and twisted cones; a contrast of light and shade; desert,” although “the lack of water is the only disad- the Hamad or Harra,” he wrote, thereby demonstrat- swell two or three hundred feet in average height, with dark red levels which rose to banks against flanks aflame vantage of the Nafud, but this one drawback makes ing his knowledge and familiarity with other desert slant sides and rounded crests furrowed in every direc- with the sun. In gorges between the red walls, sixty to the crossing very tough.” territories of Arabia, “in endless spirals and twists we tion by the capricious gales of the desert. In the depths a hundred and sixty feet deep, a shimmer of silver and This very astonishing desert has another dis- wound our way, up hill and down dale. […] Sometimes between, the traveler finds himself as if imprisoned in green; scattered low bushes and small trees with straight tinguishing and quite specific characteristic that the we took more than half an hour to get from one dune a suffocating sand-pit, hemmed in by burning walls on milk-white trunks and supple drooping branches, bear- Frenchman Huber described as follows: “The charac- to the next.” every side; while at other times, while labouring up the ing feathery twigs and greyish green needles. I held my teristic of the Nafud, beyond being a desert of absolutely Charles Huber made countless peregrinations slope, he overlooks what seems a vast sea of fire, swelling breath, overwhelmed with amazement and admiration.” pure sand, without any traces of earth, gravel, or other in the Nafud. During a second journey to Arabia— under a heavy monsoon wind, and ruffled by a cross- extraneous materials, consists of its felq (pl. fulûq). In which he made in 1883–84, the journal of which would blast into little red-hot waves.” It is as if we were in the For Anne Blunt, “The thing that strikes one first about the the Nafud, the felq is an excavation in the form of a be published only after his death—Huber arrived at real Gehenna! Nafud is its colour. It is not white like the sand dunes we semi-oval, much deeper in the sand at the centre of the conclusion that in the Nafud each crease or earth At the start of the twentieth century, the German passed yesterday, nor yellow as the sand is in parts of the the curve, it resembles the print that the hoof of a gi- movement, each slope or mound, was designated by a Carl Raswan, a great enthusiast of Arabian horses, had Egyptian desert, but a really bright red, almost crimson gantic horse would leave.” Anne Blunt painted them, generic name, which varied according to type and size.

132 133 the desert, which may seem at first view to be, more than Robert Wilhelm Ekman Portrait of Georg August Wallin anything else, uniform and unequivocal, instead offers as Abd Al-Wali, 1853 evidence of a proliferation of meanings and an abundance Photo by Matti Ruotsalainem Courtesy of the Helsinki of appearances. Thanks to him, we are perhaps able to University Museum better comprehend another, even more subtle universe, A Finnish Orientalist, Wallin traveled to Arabia. He died young that of the oldest poem of this land, certain verses of and was unable to record which provide the better part of these same toponyms: the whole body of his travels. The account of his journeys “Let us stop and pause to weep over the remem- is in the Proceedings of the Royal brance of my beloved, here was her abode on the edge Geographical Society. of the sands, between Dakhul and Hawmal, Édith Ortoli Sables rouges 3 (Red sands 3), Tudith and Miqrat, where winds from South and 2007 North, interweaving their breaths, have not remove her Mixed media 26 5 56 cm trace.” Courtesy of the artist In the creases of the Nafud, the prince-poet Édith Ortoli would have immobilized his mount... On the scar- Dunes bleues (Blue dunes), 2006 Mixed media let sands, he would have bent down... Imru al-Qays 50 5 70 cm would later have left, riding his mare from felq to Courtesy of the artist felq, in search of his beloved… Or perhaps, vowing The Finnish writer Georg August Wallin, whose first trip to Arabia inevitable revenge … was in 1845, wrote: “The monotony of the desert engenders And these same traces would have quickly disap- patience. A desert journey is like peared, as Carl Raswan corroborated: “But where were a sea voyage.” the tents and the herds that at midnight had covered the whole neighbourhood? Far and wide, no other tent. Silently, the Bedouins had broken camp and they—their Even more, each of the felqs of the Nafud has a name women, their children, and their animals—had melted of its own that belongs to no other. Huber made the away like a mirage. Beside them was a heap of dead acquaintance of a Bedouin of the Shammar tribe who ashes and the three soot-blackened stones on which last had such a detailed knowledge of the desert that he night the cook-pits had stood.” served as the guide for the emir of Ha’il when launching a ghazu that would have to cross through the Nafud. It Here are the dramatic terms that Palgrave used to de- was this man who explained to him that “from Al-Jawf scribe his entry into the desert: “Much had we heard to Jobba, there are one hundred ninety felqs, which he of them from Bedouins and countrymen, so that we knew all by their proper names,” reported the French had made up our minds to something very terrible author in amazement. During his first voyage and his and very impracticable. But the reality, especially in first crossing of the Nafud, Huber had already taken these dog-days, proved worse than aught heard or note, during the passage, of the names of many of these imagined.” A crescendo of frightful episodes would felqs that might refer to a peculiar form or an event of follow throughout his crossing: “We muffled our faces, the past, or in another case because it was “still linked and now with blows and kicks we forced the stagger- to a love story of a thousand years earlier” as his guide ing animals onwards,” he began, as he described be- at the time had confided to him. ing overtaken by a sandstorm. “The gusts grew hotter This meticulous comprehension of the desert in- and more violent, and it was only by repeated efforts culcated exclusively through usage, and the profusion of that we could urge our beasts forward. The horizon the toponyms that accompanied it, seems to have fasci- rapidly darkened to a deep violet hue, while at the nated Huber, who devoted himself to the task of writing same time a stifling blast, as though from some enor- lexicons and glossaries in the evening, while camping. mous oven opening right on our path, blew steadily Ironically enough, it would also be a guide, a few months under the gloom; our camels too began, in spite of all later, who would be responsible for the death of the young we could do, to turn round and round and bend their epigraphist during his thirty-seventh year. His notebooks knees preparing to lie down,” he wrote. The ordeal have given us a better comprehension of how the world of would last for hours, practically a whole day: “each

134 135 Aref Al Rayess Aref Al Rayess Untitled, 1982 Untitled, 1982 Pastel on paper Oil on canvas 55 5 70 cm 56 5 71 cm Courtesy of Saleh Barakat, Beirut Courtesy of Saleh Barakat, Beirut Charles Doughty wrote: “This Carlo Guarmani wrote in 1866 high droughty country is plain in Northern Najd, A Journey from for some days’ journeys; mostly Jerusalem to Anaiza in Qasim: sand soil and sand-stone gravel, “In the desert the most dangerous without furrows of seyls or foe is man; on hearing or seeing wadies.” him one takes to ﬂight until in a safe enough place to ascertain if he is alone or in company, in order to reckon whether meeting with him would be risky or not.”

one of us without more words, threw themselves flat bones” that mark the Nafud. Nonetheless, the end of The small group completed its crossing without other The second, Harry St John Bridger Philby, was born in on the ground.” Men endured the suffering—“it was the crossing would be quite tough: “A terrible day for impediments but Huber still regretted, before pulling Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and would pass away in Beirut. better not to breath than to receive these gusts of fire camels and men,” she noted when Jobba was no more through those who would seek to tarnish the reputa- The third, Wilfred Thesiger, was born in Addis Ababa in the chest”—but the animals were suffering just as than two days away. Many camels were exhausted and tion of the Nafud, by casting it as a place of all hazards: in Abyssinia (now northern Ethiopia) and would die much—“while our camels lay without moving, like could no longer carry their loads, “being too thirsty to “I was pleasantly surprised to see that all that had been in the United Kingdom. These were three exceptional dead, their long necks stretched out on the sand.” eat,” and “the whole pace of the caravan has been little greatly exaggerated,” he concluded. He preferred, at lives packed with extraordinary adventures, too many It seemed that the whirlwind surrounding them over a mile an hour.” The men were hardly doing better, the time when he reached Jobba and its palm groves, to to summarize in words. would never end: “a still heat like that of red-hot iron exhausted, beyond fatigue. Finally, the small troupe, at celebrate the splendor the site had offered him: “When, However, they were also three men who came slowly passing over us was alone to be felt.” To make the limit of its energies, struggled into Jobba. after having had the uniform pink tint of the Nafud too late. All three of them realized this. And wrote matters worse, darkness suddenly overtook them, “so The end of the route would be difficult for before your eyes, all of a sudden you dominate this about it. All three of them regretted it. There were that I hardly know how to account for its singular obscu- Charles Huber too after his first crossing through the immense basin of opaque silver where the beautiful a few months between the crossings of Thomas and rity.” They had to resist this furnace-like heat. Finally, Nafud. Two days before reaching Jobba, the young man green of the palm groves stands out, all illuminated Philby of the Rub‘ al-Khali in 1930–31 and 1932, re- “the semoom had gone by.” It was thus that Palgrave and the few Bedouins accompanying him reached the by the afternoon sun, you are completely dazzled by spectively. The competitiveness between them was so commented on his own misadventure: “Many have thus last watering place, which was almost dry and gave such a magical scene.” powerful that they say that when Philby learned of perished; even whole caravans have been known to dis- off “an unbearable stench of sulphuric acid,” he wrote Thomas’ exploit, he stayed closed in his room for a appear without a vestige!” before commenting that “even the camels winced.” The One would have to wait five decades after this episode week without ever coming out. For his part, Thesiger The Blunts also experienced a storm during their goatskins were empty. Thus, the men had to decide before some travelers would undertake the crossing of explained in Visions of a Nomad, that when he, in turn, crossing. In the evening at the camp, Anne Blunt asked to drink that water too. Huber fell ill immediately, the fearsome Rub‘ al-Khali. undertook the same crossing, it was because “much of their guide if such circumstances could lead to death. “even though I had boiled it with charcoal and mixed Three men, hardened to evil as only the British it was unexplored. It was one of the very few places She was assured that no fatality had ever occurred before. it with tea,” wrote the young Frenchman. His traveling can be. Three men with very different profiles, but in left where I could satisfy an urge to go where others She also quoted him remarking that “the sand never bur- companions, “who had suddenly fallen silent,” must the end quite similar. The first, Bertram Thomas, was had not been. [Reaching] the Empty Quarter would be ies any object deeply, as we can judge by the sticks and have been suffering the same illness, he observed. born in the United Kingdom, but would die in Cairo. to answer a challenge, and to remain there for long

136 137 would be to test myself to the limit,” wrote Thesiger, truly believed that this world would still exist for a thou- Malin Basil Windswept Desert, 1979 who spent four years of his life there from 1946 to sand years, just as it had been there for a thousand years Acrylic on canvas 1950. A spirit of competition undeniably motivated before. As for Thomas, Philby, and Thesiger, when they 50 5 70 cm Private collection these men, although it did not alter in them the desire crossed the Rub‘ al-Khali, they sensed that they were Charles Doughty wrote: to understand the “precise nature of this great void,” both the first and the last witnesses of a way of life on “Commonly the Arabian desert is an extreme desolation where as Philby elegantly put it. the verge of disappearing. the herb is not apparent for the Above all else, it was evidently the quest that It was to bid farewell that these men trave- sufficiency of any creature.” motivated them. In the words of Thesiger: “In the desert led there, undertaking without actually knowing it, I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a the most difficult of all expeditions. All the same, life unhampered by possessions, since everything that it was a farewell, and the motive for the grave tone was not a necessity was an encumbrance. I had found, that Wilfred Thesiger adopted to salute the desert too, a comradeship inherent in the circumstances, and for the last time in this passage: “All that is best in the belief that tranquility was to be found there.” He the Arabs has come to them from the desert: their went on to say: “No man can live this life and emerge deep religious instinct, which has found expression unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of in Islam, their sense of fellowship; which binds them the desert, the brand which marks the nomad, and he as members of one faith; their pride of race; their will have within him the yearning to return, weak or generosity and sense of hospitality; their dignity and insistent according to his nature.” the regard which they have for the dignity of others Such a return would become impossible. Soon as fellow human beings; their humour, their courage this immutable world would no longer exist. When, half and patience, the language which they speak and their a century earlier, Georg A. Wallin, Carlo Guarmani, passionate love of poetry.” William G. Palgrave, Anne and Wilfrid Blunt, and Charles Huber crossed the Great Nafud, they probably

Malin Basil Desert debris, 1979 Acrylic on canvas 75 5 100 cm Private collection Arabia, wrote Philby, is “rich in desolate places”.

138 139 Fortune in Fossils

he oil story was very different: a veri- Ameen Rihani, in fact, described the sovereign table romance, surpassing the most as a man who was constantly concerned for the future improbable tales of the Arabian Nights of his nation and all of its people. The Bedouins, toward in its astonishing evolution from the whom he felt particularly close, were also a real chal- “Tfirst laborious steps of the American geologists in the lenge for him when it came to creating a unified nation. desert to the discovery and exploitation of a liquid Eldo- “The Bedu robbed Ibn Saoud of many a night’s sleep,” rado, far down in the bowels of the earth,” wrote Harry wrote the Lebanese essayist, describing a ruler for whom St. John Bridger Philby, who, as a British advisor to the one of the major concerns was that the tribes were re- Saudi monarch Abdulaziz ibn Abderrahman Al Saoud, sistant to settling in one spot. experienced this evolution first-hand. Oil would offer the country the financial means The beginning of this venture can be traced back required to undertake the considerable and important to 1922 and to the Conference of ‘Uqayr, which took its changes that, otherwise, would not have even been con- name from the small port of Al-‘Uqayr in the Arabian sidered. It was in 1937 that oil deposits were finally dis- Gulf close to where the conference was held. This confer- covered in the province of Al-Hasa, near the Arabian ence allowed the Arab sovereign, who at the time held Gulf—exactly where Major Holmes had suggested, fif- the title of Sultan of Nejd since he had not yet fully com- teen years earlier, that oil would be found. The drilling pleted the reunification of his country, to meet with rep- that began in 1938 would soon transform the country. resentatives of the British Crown and to discuss various “The discovery of oil has brought enormous issues pertaining to regional policy. Among the attendees wealth into Arabia,” wrote Wilfred Thesiger, a British of the conference was a strange character who was not a national who is considered the “last” traveler, or rather member of any official delegation: Major Frank Holmes overseas explorer, to set out to discover Arabia. Having from New Zealand, mining engineer and former officer in lived with the nomads for more than four years, from Stuart Franklin the British Army. The major was convinced that Arabia, and 1946 to 1950, and having crossed the most formidable Pipeline in Shaybah, 2000 Courtesy of Stuart Franklin particularly the region of the oasis of Al-Hasa, near the of all deserts, the Rub‘ al-Khali, several times, Thesiger and Magnum Photos shores of the Arabian Gulf, contained oil. developed a fascination for the Bedouin people and their Shaybah’s oil field lies at a distant of about 400 kilometers Here, we will not recount all the twists and turns world. He committed himself to the substantial task of from the closest highway. The that finally led to the discovery of oil in huge quantities, paying homage to the culture of these people, with even construction of its oil installation required enormous logistics. All precisely where the major said it was to be found. Suffice greater urgency given that he saw that it was at risk, in the materials used and needed for its construction were to say that Holmes was able to stir the interest of the the context of the transformations Saudi Arabia was transported from Dhahran, sovereign, who allowed him to conduct research, even experiencing. “In Arabia,” wrote Thesiger, “the changes including the sand because the sand of the Rub‘ al-Khali is not though Major Holmes himself found no oil. The Saudis which occurred in the space of a decade or two were as suitable for cement. In a period nevertheless continue to remember him with the affec- great as those which occurred in Britain between the of three years, Saudi Aramco was able to construct 400 kilometers tionate nickname of “Father of Petroleum” (Abu an- early Middle Ages and the present day.” of asphalted road, drill hundreds of wells, construct a pipeline of Naft). Apart from the anecdote, this episode is also re- However, Thesiger realized that he was mistaken about 650 kilometers reaching called in the reflections and remarks of the sovereign’s in blaming oil for the inevitable end of the Bedouin the coastal oilfield of Abqaiq, and build a private airport, housing interpreter at the Conference of ‘Uqayr, the Lebanese lifestyle. Oil was not to blame for this unavoidable dis- facilities, and administrative writer Ameen Rihani, who later dedicated various works appearance: it was the advancement of science and tech- offices for exclusive use of Saudi Aramco. to Saudi Arabia and its monarch. nology. Steamboats, railways, cars, and planes had made

198 199 Geological Survey Arabian Peninsula, 1958 121 5 133 cm Published in Washington, D.C., under the joint sponsorship of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Finance and National Economy and the US Department of State. Courtesy of Sotheby’s This color-printed geological map of the Arabian Peninsula shows oilﬁelds, pipelines, and terminals. In the 1950s, the Saudi Ministry of Finance, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and Aramco worked together to produce a series of geographic and geologic maps of the country. In addition to mapping, the USGS launched, over a period of nearly ﬁfty years, technical surveys for the purpose of developing the Saudi mineral sector.

the Bedouin’s fragile economy, that is exclusively based Philby continued: “One of the most rugged hu- International Map shade and guarding a dump, or by doing work which Life in the desert, which Thesiger would later Company Inc. on the breeding of camels, completely obsolete. Oil and man adventures is coming to an end on the oil rigs.” Oil map of the Near and was certainly easier than watering thirsty camels on a idealize in his many books, could be incredibly diffi- its revenues, if anything, arrived just in time to offer a Without a doubt. Oil wells were appearing in Arabia the Middle East, July 1938 nearly dry well in the middle of summer. There was cult. Nassir Ajmi confirms this in his book, Legacy of Chromolithographed map real alternative to a people whose livelihoods—which just when the Bedouin lifestyle was already con- 57 5 75.5 cm plenty of good food, abundant sweet water, and long a Lifetime, published in 1995, three years after he left had assured their survival for thousands of years—were demned. And these wells, whose numbers continued New York International Map hours for sleep. They seldom had these things before, his duties as vice-president of the national Saudi hy- Company now completely obsolete. to increase, appeared on the horizon like beacons of Courtesy of Sotheby’s and now they were being paid into the bargain.” It seems drocarbons company, Saudi Aramco: “For Bedouins, Hence Philby was able to quickly make the fol- salvation that would allow these men to soon become This map shows the principal ironic—when we read the above—that Thesiger also life could be brutally harsh. This was especially true companies operating in the Near lowing observation: “Since hydrocarbons have been masters of this same modern world that had caused and Middle East, plus agreed to be paid by an oil company. Before he wrote during drought years, when livestock perished and mined in the country, a great many Bedouins have been the loss of their traditional lifestyle. All it took was international boundaries, his books—the first of them in particular, Arabian some members of the tribes, weakened by continuous concession boundaries, railways, absorbed into the oil industry.” Certainly, he would have one or two generations. prospecting oilfields, producing Sands, would go on to be a real best seller—he had none hunger, fell prey to disease.” It should be noted that oilfields, refineries, pipelines, of the royalties that the stories of his wanderings would the author of this statement, a Bedouin himself, was to wait a long time before the Bedouins, or rather their Thesiger was wrong to see things only through and tanker routes. sons, and then their grandchildren, were able to hold the small end of the telescope and to sympathize with later bring him and so he made do with being paid by born in 1935, in a tent of a nomadic camp which was positions of responsibility within the oil industry. Ini- disdainful pity, as he did, about the fate of the Bedouins one of these companies on the pretext that he had to situated at the time in the western end of what would tially, these roles were filled, for the most part, by for- who would sell themselves to the oil industry: “On the finance his expeditions in some way. In exchange, he later become the Ghawar oil field—in other words, eigners. But the evolution was certainly faster than it oil fields the Bedu could find the money of which they offered the oil company the exclusive information he the largest terrestrial oil deposit in the world. Fur- had first been thought. dreamt. They could earn large sums by sitting in the had gleaned during his journeys in the desert! thermore, Nassir Ajmi’s role as vice-president of the

200 201 PIERS SECUNDA Piers Secunda’s work can be briefly made to behave like paint, but which Piers Secunda Piers Secunda summarized by the superposition of would bring the noise and activity of Dammam N° 7 blowing in, 1938 Aramco’s first office, 1939 2017 Dammam well No. 7 2017 Dammam well N° 7 two lines of inquiry, one visual and the daily life in the twenty-first century Crude oil and varnish on Crude oil and varnish on other symbolic. His visual research is into my abstract studio practice.” industrial floor paint, with industrial floor paint, with cast-paint nuts and bolts cast-paint nuts and bolts an inquiry into form, sculpture, and These lines of thought on practice led 69 5 51 5 6 cm 51 5 73 5 6 cm medium. Piers Secunda has always him, in 2009, to use crude oil as an Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist tried to research new mediums or find artistic medium. He considered it to be Discovered in 1938, “Dammam Established in 1933, CASOC’s n° 7” produced oil for several (California Arabian Standard Oil innovative processes to shape common the perfect melding of process and decades. Company’s) first office was mediums. His symbolic research, tied meaning into one medium, and a way housed in Jeddah’s “Beit Baghdadi” featured in this photo. to the visual inquiry, is about to ground his artworks in the current Today Saudi Aramco, officially representing, through form and century. In his words, “Crude oil is the the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, texture, the political and geopolitical primary material of our time. Not the world’s largest petroleum company, is based in Dhahran. borders and dynamics, as well as the unlike bronze in the Bronze Age, forces exerted by history, that define or iron in the Iron Age. The mankind in present times. Therefore, Petrochemical Age will inevitably be it was essential to fuse the two acknowledged in a similar way. This separate lines of inquiry into a single means that, in my opinion, crude oil set of processes and techniques. He may be a contender as the ultimate has said: “A great deal of my studio artist’s material today.” Crude oil has and research time was dedicated to the advantage of acting like paint, finding a material which could be which makes it a perfect candidate for Secunda’s textural research. In addition, he found another way of integrating history in the process, by finding and procuring crude oil from historically significant wells, as opposed to any crude oil. Thus, his first work with this process was made from a sample of crude oil from Drake’s Well in Pennsylvania, which was the first commercial oil well, a historical moment, a narrative, geopolitical observation on the impact drilled in 1859, and the beginning and its contemporary consequences that oil has had on the past and of what Secunda calls the onto a single plane. current century. By recording these “Petrochemical Age.” Despite the numerous political different times and places that were In the artworks featured in this book, messages which could be ascribed to relevant to the history of crude oil Secunda uses oil from Well n° 7, the his work, Secunda is steadfast in exploitation, Secunda depicts the first commercially successful oil well describing his crude oil works as shifts in the balance of power and the in Saudi Arabia that blew in—which is apolitical: “Crude oil plays a rhythm of human progress. That he the moment at which oil first spews fundamental role in every aspect of was able to master the use of crude oil out of a well—in the spring of 1937. 21st century living, from energy and as the medium to record this evolution Given Saudi Arabia’s importance in transport to agriculture and medicine, is a testament to this resources’ global oil commerce, it is no stretch to and is the main component of the importance in all aspects of life. say that this moment was of utmost world’s most frequently used Leaving the conclusion to Piers importance in geopolitics to this day material—plastic. The incredible thing Secunda, we can undoubtedly affirm: and it also drastically transformed the about crude oil is that it’s absolutely “If crude oil is the world’s ultimate kingdom and its inhabitants’ lifestyles. and totally inseparable from facilitator, it must therefore be In Dammam N° 7 blowing in, Piers everything we do. It facilitates a contender as the ultimate artist’s Secunda found an archive photo of the everything—if you remove it, you’d material.” well and used it to produce the have mayhem.” Secunda does not silkscreen. It then took him two years refute the fact that crude oil in itself to finally find a sample of the well’s has a political dimension, but claims it crude oil, which he used to achieve the is not his aim, with this series, to silkscreen transfer and printing. With comment on this aspect. His artworks such a piece, Secunda was able to fold function more as a historical and

202 203 Harold Corsini Harold Corsini Marc Riboud Raymond Depardon An oil derrick amid the sand Drilling floor crew slipping elevators Praying in the Rub‘ Al-Khali, Ghawar oil well located dunes of the desert north of over drill pipe during a pipe change 1974 in Al-Hasa governorate, 1968 Abqaiq in eastern Saudi Arabia, on an Aramco drilling rig in the Courtesy of the Centre Courtesy of Raymond Depardon summer 1947 Abqaiq field in eastern Arabia, Pompidou-MNAMM-CCI/RMN, and Magnum Photos Courtesy of the Library of summer 1947 Paris The Ghawar field, discovered Congress Prints and Photographs Courtesy of the Library The search for oil began after the in the mid-1950s, is the world’s Division of Congress Photographs signature of the 60-year largest onshore field. and Prints Division Abqaiq oil wells are located concession agreement between halfway between Dhahran Drilling in Abqaiq started before Saudi Arabia and Standard Oil and Hofuf. World War II, but the pace of California on May 29, 1933. of construction and production At that time no one imagined increased substantially after that Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves the war. would produce more oil than any other country on earth.

204 205 Abbas Colbert Held Oil Pump in Dhahran, 1990 Aerial view looking north Courtesy of Abbas and Magnum to gasoil separation plant no. 4 Photos (GOSP 4), at Ain Dar, 1958 Courtesy of the Middle East Thesiger wrote in Arabian Sands Institute and Colbert Held that as a result of the discovery Archive, Washington, D.C. of oil in Saudi Arabia, the life described in his book disappeared Feeder lines from several forever. The changes which producing wells bring crude to occurred in the space of a decade this GOSP for separation of gas or two were as great as those and oil, and the gas (surplus and which occurred in Britain unusable at this stage) is ﬂared in between the early Middle Ages the burners shown at the bottom and the present day. of the photo.

Colbert Held Mid-oblique aerial view looking up the natural sand spit on which Aramco has established its Ras Tanura oil loading terminal. On the right are two loading piers, 1958 Courtesy of the Middle East Institute and Colbert Held Archive, Washington, D.C. Aramco started the construction of the Ras Tanura reﬁnery in 1943.

206 207 Rayyane Tabet Steel Rings From the series The Shortest Distance Between Two Points, 2013 Rolled engraved steel with unique location details 80 cm diameter, 10 cm deep, 0.6 cm thick Courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/ Hamburg Steel Rings replicates, in the same diameter and thickness, the pipeline belonging to the Trans-Arabian Pipe Line Company, constructed after World War II to transport oil from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea over land. The pipeline was abandoned and its infrastructure left in the sand due to the sociopolitical transformations in the region in 1983.

Rayyane Tabet Steel Rings From the series The Shortest Distance Between Two Points, 2013 Rolled engraved steel with unique location details 80 cm diameter, 10 cm deep, 0.6 cm thick Courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/ Hamburg Detailed view of the rolled engraved steel with kilometer, longitude, latitude, and elevation markings of a specific location on the Trans-Arabian Pipe Line, known as Tapline. Initially Tapline ran north and west across Saudi Arabia and then through Transjordan and Palestine to the port of Haifa. After 1948, Aramco redirected national company proved that the Bedouins were not freedom of movement.” Obviously, the other alterna- René Burri the pipeline through Transjordan, doomed, as Thesiger implied, to hold minor positions tives were not as thrilling: “Fishing and pearl diving Refinery, 1974 Syria, and to the port of Sidon Courtesy of René Burri in Lebanon. in this industry. were similarly despised, for the nomads disliked and and Magnum Photos Rayyane Tabet If this was indeed the case during the first years, feared the sea, to the point of actually starving before As early as 1947, Wilfred Thesiger wrote in Arabian Sands about the Steel Rings the situation rapidly changed afterwards. Thus, less than eating fish,” noted Nassir Ajmi. enormous wealth that was From the series The Shortest Distance Between Two Points, twenty years after oil of the famous “Well Seven,” in As previously mentioned, the widespread use of pouring into Saudi Arabia from the American Oil Company. 2013 Dammam, began to be exploited in 1938, 70 percent of modern means of transport had dealt an irreversible In October 1992, Saudi Arabia Rolled engraved steel with became the world’s top unique location details the employees in the national hydrocarbon company blow to the nomads’ economy, which was based on cam- oil-producing nation, eclipsing 80 cm diameter, 10 cm deep, 0.6 mm thick were Saudi. Ten years later, in 1967, 57 percent of the els. While Bedouins’s revenues were in free fall, those of Russia. Saudi Aramco is also the world’s number-one exporter of Courtesy of the artist and 1,373 employees occupying positions of responsibility or the pearl fishermen were also hard hit, first by the 1929 crude oil and natural gas liquids. Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut/ Hamburg management were Saudis. crash and then by the world economic crisis—the Great Steel Rings is composed of forty Nassir Ajmi makes it clear in his book why this Depression—that ensued and that affected the number steel rings that run in a straight line, corresponding to the new industry attracted these men: “Nomadic life was a of pearls sold considerably. More importantly, the ap- 40 kilometers of pipeline that continuous struggle,” he wrote, “but the alternatives pearance on the market of cultured pearls was the final cut through Lebanon. were few—limited to subsistence farming, fishing and blow to a sector which would never completely recover. pearl diving—and just as arduous. Animal rearing was Here again, oil had appeared in a timely and providential the most lucrative, but nomads looked down on farming way allowing those who were left to fend for themselves because it would force them to settle and restrict their to find new jobs in the oil business, leaving behind the

208 209 George Steinmetz George Steinmetz ancestral pearl fishing which had been practiced in the tribal heritage, and lovers of freedom. Their integrity, Out of order petrol pumps Flare from the gasoil separation in Al-Fau, 2002 plant (GOSP) in Shaybah in the Arabian Gulf for many centuries. courage, friendship, and hospitality were beyond re- Courtesy of George Steinmetz Rub‘ al-Khali desert, 2002 These men—divers, sailors, merchants, and bro- proach.” The senior officer of the hydrocarbon company Courtesy of George Steinmetz kers—would form the core of a strictly local work force concluded: “And it was among the Bedouin that the Located in a remote zone in the northern edge of the Rub‘ that would contribute to the rapid development of the poets, tellers of epic stories, sportsmen, and hunters al-Khali, the oil field of Shaybah was not considered profitable oil industry from the very beginning. And this is how were to be found.” when it was discovered in 1968. the son of a pearl diver, a native of Al-Khobar on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, Abdallah S. Jum’ah, went on to become the CEO of the Saudi national oil company, from 1995 to 2008. Born in the Bedouin world, as we have already stated, Nassir Ajmi evokes the life of his ancestors with tenderness and nostalgia: “Despite constant hardships, the simple nomadic life was full of joy and laughter. The Bedouin considered themselves superior to farmers and townsmen because of their perceived genealogical and linguistic purity, their courage, resourcefulness, hospitality, and generosity. Their distinctive way of life made them self-reliant, proud, extremely loyal to the

210 211 Past Civilizations

hortly after entering Hijaz, pilgrims journeying Mecca” and highlights the dreadful fate of the Thamud with a caravan from Damascus to the holy cit- people. The Kashmiri pilgrim Abdul-Kerym, on the ies of Arabia passed through Al-Hijr. This was occasion of his stopover in Al-Hijr in 1741, recalls the little more than a small village, a caravan stop same destructive circumstances: “In the vicinity of this Swhere they could catch sight—as you can still do to- town are the ruins of another, once very important, day—of the extraordinary façades of the ancient rock but destroyed from the inside out by order of God, who monuments hewn in the mountains by the Nabataeans. wanted to punish the tribe for its disobedience.” In this These were described by Ibn Battuta, at the beginning regard, another pilgrim, the Turk Mehmet Edib Meh- of the fourteenth century, as the homes of the Thamud met, in his Route from Constantinople to Mecca, writ- people: “They are cut in the hills of red rock and have ten in about 1680, explained that this punishment took carved thresholds. Anyone seeing them would take them place “879 years after the flood of Noah” and that the to be of recent construction. Their decayed bones are to monuments of the city, “partly formed by sculpted be seen inside these houses.” stones, are now uninhabited.” This ancient city, on the southern edge of the For traveler Ludovico di Varthema—a Mameluke Nabatea, was once well known to the Greeks and Ro- officer, hailing from Bologna and who was part of the mans by the name of “Haegra” or “Egra,” derived from escort accompanying the caravan in the year 1503—a the Nabataean “Hijra”. The Arabic name Al-Hijr “is the terrible punishment of this sort, inflicted on the entire exact equivalent of the Nabataean toponym, the prefixed population of a city, was obviously reminiscent of the Arabic article al- being the translation of the suffixed punishment exacted upon the inhabitants of Sodom and Nabataean article -a that ends the word ‘Hijra’,” wrote Gomorrah, as recorded in the Bible. We can perceive Laïla Nehmé, Daifallah Al-Talhi, and Jacques Villeneuve, therefore how he mistook Al-Hijr for the two cursed in the chapter entitled Hegra of Arabia Felix, in the cities, located near the Dead Sea. He thus wrote when collective publication Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and he was passing through Al-Hijr: “We found the valley of Jaussen and Savignac History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, published in Sodom and Gomorrah. Verily the Scriptures do not lie, The banquet hall “Al-Diwan” at the entry of Jebel Ethlib 2010, in Paris, on the occasion of the eponymous exhi- for one sees how they were destroyed by a miracle of in Mada’in Saleh (Hegra), 1907 bition at the Louvre. God.” The Bolognese adventurer continued: “Of a truth, Courtesy of the French Biblical and Archaeological School Al-Hijr is mentioned repeatedly in the Koran, I believe, upon what I have seen, that they were wicked of Jerusalem which reports how a prophet named Saleh was sent to the people, for all around the entire country is desert and Situated in a passage in Mount Ethlib, the Al-Diwan “hall or polytheistic residents of the Thamud city in order to con- barren. The earth produces no one thing, nor water; and council chamber” is the only vert them to the worship of the one God, and how their they lived upon manna.” non-sepulchral monument at Hegra. The Diwan, wrote Doughty refusal led to their sudden extermination. It is in reference Varthema clearly mixed his own recollections of in Travels in Arabia Deserta, is to this episode that Al-Hijr gained the name of Mada’in the Bible with the Koranic knowledge of his traveling “an open chamber: the front is of excellent simplicity, a pair of Saleh (literally “The Cities of Saleh”), a name which ap- companions, when, referring to the ancient city and pilasters to the width of the hewn chamber, open as a nomad tent. parently appeared only later, in the Ottoman era. its inhabitants, he wrote: “for not acknowledging the […] In the passage, which is fifty In his Sketch of the Countries, and in a note benefits they received; and by a miracle everything is paces long, the sun never shines, a wind breathes there continually, dedicated to Al-Hijr, the renowned Syrian geographer still seen in ruin.” Therefore Varthema passed through even in summer: this was a cool Abu Al-Fida, a contemporary of Ibn Battuta, writes Al-Hijr, “believing that what he saw was Sodom and site to be chosen in a sultry country.” that “the pilgrims of Syria stop there on their way to Gomorrah, but not suspecting that there was an ancient

212 213 Edith Ortoli All this would change over the course of the nine- The animosity of the inhabitants, nomadic or Graffiti From Esprit du désert, 2017 teenth century, during which archaeology and epigraphy sedentary, living near ancient sites was not to be taken Artist book became sciences. Between the end of the Middle Ages lightly. Many intrepid explorers lost their lives in these Mixed media Single copy and the early Renaissance period, an interest in art and expeditions. This was the case with Ulrich Jaspar Seet- 26 5 32 cm Courtesy of the artist ancient works had begun to take hold in Europe. Thus zen, a Geman pioneer of South Arabian epigraphy. He Epigraphic documents on stone the palaces of kings and princes were gradually adorned was the first to record Himyaritic inscriptions, but was or bronze prove that many with botanical gardens, libraries, studioli, and cabinets poisoned in Taiz in 1811 on suspicion of having stolen languages and scripts existed in Ancient Arabia. Among them of curiosities, which were drawn up with inventories, treasure. Similarly, in 1884, the Frenchman Charles Hu- is this famous inscription of the catalogues, and other thesauri. However, it would take ber, who was among the first, after Doughty, to record Himyarite king Abîkarib Asʿad à al-Ma’sa, found 200 kilometers the spirit of the eighteenth century, that of the Enlight- the inscriptions on the site of ancient Hegra, was shot west of Riyadh. It commemorates the annexation of Central Arabia enment and Encyclopedism, to transform what had be- to death by his guides near Jeddah. by Himyar around 430 or 440. fore been a simple curiosity of the mind to be organized Going back to Seetzen, he had become convinced, into various human sciences, such as anthropology, after a long stay in Damascus, that he could find the archaeology, and epigraphy. ancient city and capital of the Nabataean Kingdom, This is how European travelers, this time aware which had been lost to the world—in other words, Pet- of the historical significance that could be found in ra. In 1806, and in the company of a trusted guide, he ruined buildings of ancient civilizations, traveled east was traveling through the region located between the from the beginning of the nineteenth century with a Dead Sea and the far reaches of Arabia when he came real appetite for discovery. In addition to the practical face-to-face with locals who, as always, tried to turn him civilization there to be discovered,” that of the Naba- either side. But it no longer retains the water which Charles Huber difficulties they would encounter during their quests, away. He passed very close to Petra but never reached Inscription found on a stone they were often confronted with hostile natives, who it, and ended up abandoning his search. This prize was taeans, as historian Jacqueline Pirenne wrote in her flows at once into the plain.” Displeased, Niebuhr con- in Tabuk book, Discovering Arabia. cluded, “So the great reservoir near Marib was nothing From Journal d’un voyage perceived them as treasure hunters coming to rob to become that of the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig en Arabie (1883–84) Other foreign travelers, after Varthema, commit- marvellous.” Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1891 them. Burckhardt just a few years later, in 1812. ted—or replicated—this same error and showed rela- The disappointment of the traveler can be ex- During his two expeditions in tively little interest in Al-Hijr, which is nevertheless one plained thus: the building is completely ruined. There Arabia, Huber copied many inscriptions, thus contributing to of the most exceptional ancient sites in northern Ara- are also no inscriptions! “Here Niebuhr, who had lav- elucidating the languages spoken in pre-Islamic northern Arabia. bia. In this regard, one must be careful not to attribute ished his interest on so many things, passed by an ex- to these men interests that could not have been theirs, citing discovery without noticing its importance,” Charles Huber An Aramaic inscription given both the historical period and cultural context Pirenne noted correctly, before going on to give the From Journal d’un voyage in which they lived. In this manner, and although he reason: “It is true that spotting a datum of fact is of no en Arabie (1883–84) Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1891 had passed through Cairo many times during his nu- help, if you do not understand the interest it presents Christian Robin noted in Roads merous travels, and notwithstanding his inquiring and the knowledge that can be drawn from it. But it is of Arabia (2010) that “Aramaic script was used in northern Hijaz mind, Ibn Battuta never mentioned the pyramids— not only Niebuhr but his entire century that had not yet from the 6th century BC.” known in the Islamic tradition as the “granaries of realized that you could discover, simply by analyzing Julius Euting Joseph”—and it is very likely that he did not bother to the ancient stones of the ruined monuments, informa- The Tayma stele From Charles Huber, Journal visit them. In the same vein, the English explorer tion about their history. Archaeology had not yet been d’un voyage en Arabie (1883–84) Charles M. Doughty—who, as we will see later, would conceived. So they only paid attention to the inscrip- Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1891 be the first surveyor of the site of ancient Hegra—was tions, because they could treat their text like a written An important artefact, the “Tayma Stele” was found by surprised by “the astonishing indifference” of the pil- document they strove to read. This is why ruins without Charles Huber and Julius Euting grims whose caravan stopped a stone’s throw from the inscriptions, a dam that no longer even retains water, in the 1880s. Doughty had gone to Tayma and found inscriptions, great Nabataean tombs. Not one of them attempted to were the most insignificant things for Niebuhr.” among them—but he did not copy them—the old Aramaic get close enough to inspect these monuments despite Thus Niebuhr reached Marib and saw with his text known as the “Tayma Stele”. their repeated mention in the Koran. own eyes, without understanding its importance, the It was his report that brought Huber to this spot two years later. Let us also follow the German geographer Carsten famous dam, historically important for the entire Ara- The “Tayma Stele” is exhibited Niebuhr who, in 1763, during his trip to the south of the bian peninsula. Similarly, over the centuries millions of in the Louvre museum. peninsula, made a considerable effort to find the ancient men, traveling with the caravan from Damascus to Mec- dam of the Sabeans and finally reached the site: “The ca, passed by the rock façades of the Nabataean tombs wall was 40 to 50 feet in height, was built of very large of ancient Hegra without understanding what they rep- blocks of cut stone, and the ruins of it still remain on resented from a historical point of view.

214 215 At this starting point, Burckhardt believed that Charles Montagu Doughty superscriptions. The French Charles Montagu Doughty Jaussen and Savignac Jaussen and Savignac Beyt Akhreymat philologist Ernest Renan depicted Frontispieces Rock-cut Minaean tomb “A 1” An eagle atop an obelisk, south Petra was located in the rocky cliffs of the Wadi Moussa Sketch from Arabia Deserta, 1888 the Nabataean inscriptions, Sketch from Arabia Deserta, 1888 featuring beasts in the form of Ethlib mountain in Mada’in valley, situated in the west of modern-day Jordan. He Volume 1, New York, Dover in 1884, using Doughty’s Volume 1, New York, Dover of lions carved into the rock Saleh (Hegra), 1907 Publications Inc., 1979 transcriptions. Publications Inc., 1979 to protect the tomb—myth Courtesy of the French Biblical of “The Genie, Protector of and Archaeological School also knew that on Mount Hor, one of the mountains Intending to study its Doughty wrote describing these the Dead”—in Al-Ula (Dedan), of Jerusalem inscriptions, Doughty decided to frontispieces that they overlooking the Wadi Moussa Valley, there was a mon- March 1909 stay in Mada’in Saleh, which he “represented four-footed beasts, Courtesy of the French Biblical ument which was said to be the grave of the brother of reached with the Syrian pilgrim’s seen nowhere else. The ornaments and Archaeological School caravan. He remained there for on the side pedestals are also Moses (Moussa), Aaron, and was the subject of frequent of Jerusalem a period of two months during singular. As for the tablets he religious visits by believers who went there to offer sac- which he visited its monuments, wrote, they are adorned with recorded his observations, and a fretwork flower (perhaps rifices. After several days of hiking, Burckhardt did in- carefully impressed their pomegranate) of six petals.” deed come close to the wadi, intentionally from the side opposite the grave. He then went into a nearby village to buy a goat and, above all, to find a guide who would lead him to the tomb of Aaron, to which he claimed he was bound because of a promise and where he wanted to sacrifice the animal. “With this ploy, I thought that it would be possible to see the site,” hoped Burckhardt, persuading himself that the Bedouin who had agreed to lead him “would have nothing against this for fear of attracting the wrath of Aaron.” The two men set off. After long hours of walking on particularly steep terrain, they reached a place from which the dome of the tomb of Aaron could actually be seen in the distance. Burckhardt’s Bedouin guide insist- ed then that he proceed to sacrifice the animal there, pointing out that this place was littered with a small pile of rocks as proof of previous sacrifices. Burckhardt coun- tered, saying that his promise was to sacrifice the animal on the tomb itself, and not only from where it could be seen. However, he was deeply worried: “I knew well the character of the people around me; I was without protection in the midst of a desert where no traveller had ever before been seen.” The guide, carrying the goat, agreed to continue. Burckhardt followed, bearing a goatskin filled with water, along the dry Wadi. And soon, the incredible discovery, that of the amazing defile—the only one in the world to carry its own name, the Siq—and the Treasure, hundreds of tombs, the theatre, Qasr al-Bint... “It was there,” wrote Burckhardt soberly, “that the ancient site was located,” this inaccessible place, forgotten by the world. Petra! The extraordinary capital of the Nabataeans. We can imagine the irony of the scene. Burck- hardt was overwhelmed, fascinated. However, he could not show his turmoil, his delight, in the presence of his guide, for whom all this was the work of infidels and who pressed him to move forward, claiming that there were jinns in the area. Burckhardt knew that “a close examination of these works of the infidels, as they are called, would have excited suspicions that I was a magician

216 217 Ronan Olier in search of treasures; I should have at least been de- that it is sufficient for a true magician to have seen and Djebel Al-Khuraymat in Mada’in Saleh, 2010 tained and prevented from continuing my journey, if observed the spot where treasures are hidden (of which Oil on canvas not stripped of the little money I had—as well as my he is supposed to be already informed by the old books 50 5 65 cm Courtesy of the artist journal, which was infinitely more valuable to me.” So of the infidels who lived on the spot) in order to be able Inhabited by the Nabataeans he continued along his way, but could not help but go afterwards, at his ease, to command the guardian of the about 2,000 years ago, Mada’in Saleh was a crossroad for the into a tomb or two, claiming mere curiosity. treasure to set the whole before him. It was of no avail people of other ancient Burckhardt moved ahead, suffering all the while, to tell them to follow me and see whether I searched for civilizations who passed through it on their incense route and left the result of parting from where he wanted to be. Then, money. Their reply was, of course you will not dare to vestiges of their own. The when he once again stopped to contemplate the site, he take it out before us, but we know that if you are a Nabataeans themselves traded in incense and spice. Later, incurred the wrath of his guide: “I see now clearly that skillful magician you will order it to follow you through Mada’in Saleh became a stopover for pilgrims going to Medina. you are an infidel, who has some particular business the air to whatever place you please. If the traveller takes amongst the ruins of the city of your forefathers; but the dimensions of a building or a column, they are per- Charles Montagu Doughty Western Rocks depend upon it that we shall not suffer you to take out suaded that it is a magical proceeding.” Sketch from Arabia Deserta, 1888 a single para of all the treasures hidden therein, for they It was not until almost sixty years after the dis- Volume 1, New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1979 are in our territory, and belong to us.” covery of Petra by Burckhardt that the other great city Charles Doughty, the first Burckhardt, however, managed to convince his of the ancient Nabataeans, Hegra, was identified. The Westerner to describe the site of Hegra in 1876, recorded guide of his innocence and calm his fury. Once again he merit for this went to the English explorer and writer and sketched its hewn tombs set off, following his guide and, sick at heart, left Petra Charles M. Doughty. In 1876, having heard about the and landscapes. behind him. The two men went to slay the goat. existence of façades and monuments hewn in the rocks Yann Gayet Two policemen throwing stones Later, reflecting upon these almost insurmount- only a few days’ walk to the south of Maan, and close to in the water near Mada’in Saleh able difficulties, the Swiss explorer explained: “It is very the caravan station of Al-Hijr, or rather Mada’in Saleh From the series Contresens, 2010 Courtesy of the artist unfortunate for European travellers that the idea of as it was more often called then, he decided to go there. treasures being hidden in ancient edifices is so strongly Doughty joined the departing pilgrims’ caravan rooted in the minds of the Arabs and Turks; nor are they from Damascus to Mada’in Saleh, where he stayed be- satisfied with watching all the strangers’ steps; they believe hind while the caravan continued on to Medina and

218 219 Ronan Olier Kazuyoshi Nomachi Qasr Al-Farid (The solitary tomb) Nabataean tomb of Hegra, 1996 in Mada’in Saleh, 2010 Courtesy of the artist Gouache Doughty was the ﬁrst to describe 65 5 50 cm and draw the monuments of the Courtesy of the artist ancient Hegra. Later, in the early Before the Nabataeans, twentieth century, the Dominican Mada’in Saleh was occupied fathers Antonin Jaussen and by the Lihyanites. Raphaël Savignac made three trips to Hegra, inventorying Yann Gayet and recording transcriptions Qasr Al-Farid in Mada’in Saleh and classifying the tombs. From the series Contresens, 2010 Courtesy of the artist A Nabataean tomb with symmetrical merlons in Mada’in Saleh.

220 221 Charles Montagu Doughty monuments were systematically described and classi- The first monument entered in Mada’in Saleh fied, and the inscriptions—in Nabataean, but also in Sketch from Arabia Deserta, 1888 Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and various forms of Volume 1, New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1979 South Arabian languages (Thamudean, Lihyanite, and Doughty, who has the distinction Minaean)—were deciphered. of being the first to discover the stones and script in Mada’in The two men were the first to take photographs Saleh, wrote that he “heard, of the site. The transport and handling of the bulky when he was at Maan, that there were other Petra-like sculptured technical rooms and heavy glass negative stores in the cliff-monument, bearing many desert was an impressive feat and resulted in some very inscriptions, at Mada’in Saleh (which was a water station of the valuable images of places and objects, some of which Damascus yearly pilgrims’ caravan, in their long desert way have since disappeared. to Medina and Mecca). It was While Doughty had to join the caravan of pilgrims difficult to reach, he was told, because of the wild Beduins.” to reach the site, the two men used the Hijaz railway, which had just then been inaugurated. It is quite ironic—given the progress that would result from the arrival of the train there, and in spite of the fact that the station was named Mada’in Saleh, that the site was still so little known. However, Jaussen and Savignac carried out their survey in a climate of extreme political unrest preceding the outbreak of World War I. This occasioned incessant attacks and sabotage on the Hijaz railway and an increase in Bedouin skirmishes. During these expeditions, the two archaeolo-

Mecca. There he quickly acquired the confirmation of from the fourth to the first century BC. There also, Antonin Jaussen gists focused in turn on the ancient city of Dedan, and Tombs “B 6” of the year 1 BC therefore also went to Al-Ula. While they managed to what he had predicted: “During these two months Doughty was able to identify more than two hundred and “B 7” of the year 35 AD that remained till the returning of the pilgrims,” he rock-hewn sepulchers, which, unlike Hegra, did not in Mada’in Saleh (Hegra), 1907 get there safely, they faced hostility from the locals, Stereoscopic glass plate wrote in Travels in Arabia Deserta, “I visited the mon- have monumental façades. However, working near Courtesy of the French Biblical who suspected them of being foreign spies as well as uments and carefully impressed their formal super- the village was difficult. Doughty endured many in- and Archaeological School Ottoman officials. With increased precautions, the two of Jerusalem scriptions, which proved to be sepulchral and Nabataean sults, stones being thrown at him and death threats, companions nevertheless started working. With ut- Unlike Petra, where only one from a little earlier and a little later than the beginning which increased with the duration of his stay. tomb has a dated inscription, most discretion, they tried to take rubbings and pho- one-third of the tomb façades at tographs. But a few days later, noticing that the sites of our era.” “His book,” wrote Laïla Nehmé, Daifallah Al-Tal- Mada’in Saleh have them, and all So, thanks to Doughty, Hegra could regain its place hi, and Jacques Villeneuve, “contains information ap- range from the year 1 BC to the and inscriptions in which they had shown interest had year 75 of our era. Raphaël in history. “Having now entered many,” he continued, “I pearing nowhere else, in particular on the discovery, in Savignac appears in the photo been vandalized, and, with the situation deteriorating, perceived that all the chamber monuments were sepul- the tombs, of incense and traces of spices and of strips on top of the ladder, measuring they decided to break camp. the cornice. chral.” Inside the tombs, he found, sometimes in large probably from leather shrouds.” While their work on Dedan remained unfinished, numbers, different types of tombs, chambers, niches, and “The site was left almost unexplored for a long Jaussen and Savignac were able to provide a complete ditches, sometimes overflowing with “men’s bones,” time after it was rediscovered,” continued the authors, study of ancient Hegra, making Petra’s sister city and wrote Doughty, “strewed upon the sanded floors”—just who added: “The other nineteenth-century travellers second-largest center of ancient Nabatea known to the as Ibn Battuta had said half a millennium earlier. concentrated more on epigraphs. It was in the early world. Thanks to their contribution, we have a more Doughty managed to list “about 130 tombs and twentieth century that the site’s first major exploration complete view of this cosmopolitan civilization, located monuments.” If the local people in the village of was undertaken by Antonin Jaussen and Raphaël Savi- at the crossroads of the incense and spice routes, and a Al-Hijr were rather friendly when he arrived, “so [as] gnac, the Dominican Fathers of the Biblical and Archae- miniature prefiguration of the future Umayyad Islamic these few peaceable days ended, I saw the people’s ological School of Jerusalem.” empire. countenances less friendly,” he noted. “If children The scientific approach of French Dominican Fa- cried after the heathen man, their elders were now thers Antonin Jaussen and Raphaël Savignac, teachers less ready to correct them,” added Doughty. He also at the Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem, traveled twenty kilometers south of Al-Hijr, to the prompted them to undertake three expeditions, in 1907, small village of Al-Ula, site of ancient Dedan, once 1909, and 1910, which led to the publication of the five the capital of the small kingdom of the Lihyanites, volumes of their Mission archéologique en Arabie. The

222 223 Jaussen and Savignac The discovery of quarries near Statue “1” of a Lihyanite Mada’in Saleh proves, noted Laïla temple in Al-Ula (Dedan) Nehmé, a member of the French in Al-Khereibeh, March 1909 team of archaeologists in Saudi Courtesy of the French Biblical Arabia, in an article published and Archaeological School in Saudi Aramco (“New Pieces of Jerusalem of Mada’in Salih’s puzzle”), that in addition to being renowned as carvers of rock-hewn necropolises, Nabataeans were also builders. This life-size stone statue of a man was discovered by Jaussen and Savignac. It is typical of the art of Lihyanite sculpture and reﬂects inﬂuences of ancient Egypt.

Edith Ortoli Rochers From Esprit du désert, 2017 Artist book Mixed media Single copy 26 5 32 cm Courtesy of the artist The earliest examples of rock art discovered in the Arabian Peninsula date from the early Neolithic, around 12,000 BC.

224 225 Les cartes du passé

ans le chapitre qu’il consacre à la mer Rouge et célèbres aromates de l’Arabie : encens, myrrhe, casse, aux difficultés qu’offre celle-ci, le premier de cinnamone, laudanum... tous les voyageurs européens à avoir laissé trace « Un siècle plus tard, c’est Théophraste, élève du périple qu’il accomplit en Arabie en 1503, le d’Aristote, philosophe mais incluant dans la philoso- Dmamelouk Ludovico di Varthema, originaire de Bologne en phie une observation scientifique de toutes choses, qui, Italie, écrit : « Il faut entendre que la mer n’est pas rouge et écrivant une Histoire des Plantes, traite des fameux aro- que l’eau est tout ainsi que l’autre eau de la mer ». mates d’Arabie », relève l’historienne française Jacque- D’où vient donc, que cette mer ait été ainsi dési- line Pirenne dans son livre, À la découverte de l’Arabie, gnée depuis des temps immémoriaux ? À l’origine, les paru en 1958. Dans son ouvrage, Théophraste s’étend sur anciens Grecs auraient d’abord désigné sous le nom le commerce et la culture desdits aromates. Il entretient d’Erythra Thalassa (mer Rouge) l’ensemble des mers aussi son lecteur des mœurs des habitants de l’Arabie du bordant la péninsule (y compris le golfe Arabique, à Sud, les Sabéens, les décrivant comme guerriers, agri- l’est, et la mer Rouge, à l’ouest), puis que cette appella- culteurs ou commerçants. À ce dernier égard, il indique tion n’ait plus concerné ensuite que la seule mer Rouge, que « leur plus lucrative activité consiste à transporter telle que nous la connaissons aujourd’hui et depuis de vers les pays voisins la plante larimna (l’aloès), “qui a longs siècles. Si Erythra veut bien dire « rouge » en grec, le parfum le plus puissant de tous les aromates” », ainsi Al Marrakshi ibn al-Wardi Kitab Kharida Al-‘Aja’ib wa il semble que – d’après un historien et géographe grec que le note aussi Pirenne. Farida Al-Ghara’ib (Perle des du IIe siècle avant J.-C., Agatharcides, dont les travaux D’autres auteurs grecs, dans le courant du Ier siècle merveilles et joyau des raretés), 1575 consacrés à cette partie du monde ont été perdus – ce avant J.-C., tels Diodore de Sicile ou Strabon, originaire Encre et aquarelle opaque sur papier qualificatif ait été choisi en référence à un monarque du Pont, se sont étendus longuement sur la prospérité des 28,5 5 19 cm perse de légende nommé Erythras. Il reste que cette habitants de l’Arabie du Sud. Ainsi pour Diodore, le peuple Avec l’aimable autorisation du Musée d’Art Islamique, Doha confusion – si c’en est une – a perduré jusqu’à nos jours. des Sabéens « surpasse par ses richesses non seulement L’auteur de cet ouvrage, copié par L’explication d’Agatharcides paraît toutefois assez les peuples du voisinage, mais également tous les autres Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Al-Sururur Ghamadi – probablement un peu satisfaisante et il semble, en fait, que l’on ait là un peuples ». « Leur éloignement leur a valu de ne pas être pil- pèlerin indien ou malais – est exemple d’une très ancienne vision du monde – ou plu- lés depuis longtemps », indique-t-il encore, avant d’ajouter appelé « al-Marrakshi ibn al-Wardi ». Mounia Chekhab- tôt, de ses points cardinaux –, qui serait reprise plus tard qu’« ils ont des quantités importantes d’or et d’argent », et Abudaya et Cécile Bresc écrivent par les Turcs, laquelle faisait usage d’un « code couleurs » que « leur mobilier est d’un luxe incroyable ». dans Hajj - Le Voyage à travers l’Art (2013) : « Dans la tradition traditionnel : Nord-noir, Sud-rouge, Est-jaune (ou or), Semblablement, « selon Strabon », et ainsi que de la “géographie sacrée”, de nombreuses légendes se sont Ouest-blanc. D’où les noms de la mer Méditerranée (en le relate Jacqueline Pirenne, « les Sabéens, en faisant construites autour de l’histoire arabe, la mer Blanche, bahr al-Abyad), de la mer Noire… le commerce de leurs aromates, ont amassé de grands de la création du monde. Parmi elles, on trouve des textes tels que et de la mer Rouge, donc. trésors. Ils ont des ustensiles d’or et d’argent, des vases, le Mu‘jam al-Buldan (Dictionnaire Si, bien évidemment, les mers bordant l’Arabie des trépieds et de grandes coupes à couvercles. Le luxe et des Pays) de Yaqut al-Rumi, qui dit que la terre repose sur les ont, les premières, fait l’objet de descriptions de la part la magnificence règnent dans leurs appartements dont cornes d’un taureau, lui-même soutenu par une pierre sur le dos des géographes grecs, on trouve aussi, chez les histo- les portes, les murailles et les plafonds sont garnis de d’une baleine. Sur cette carte, la riens de l’antiquité, des données diverses concernant la mosaïques d’or, d’argent et d’ivoire, ornées de pierres partie brune représente les mers, e et l’“océan encerclant” forme le péninsule. Ainsi, au V siècle avant l’ère chrétienne, le précieuses ». Il paraît assez naturel que ces richesses bord de la carte. La Mecque est au célèbre Hérodote avait-il recueilli, lors de son passage extraordinaires aient excité la convoitise, aussi Strabon centre, à l’intérieur d’une forme où se distingue une baleine. » en Égypte, différents renseignements relatifs aux déjà rapporte-t-il que l’expédition, lancée sur l’Arabie depuis

227 Abu Abdallah Muhammad Al-Idrîssî Carte du monde, XIIe siècle 52 5 50 cm Avec l’aimable autorisation de la Bibliothèque nationale de France Al-Idrîssî est l’auteur du Livre du divertissement de celui qui désire parcourir le monde (Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq ﬁ ikhtirâq al-âfâq), ouvrage considéré comme une œuvre majeure de la géographie médiévale, dont la matière provenait essentiellement des travaux des géographes arabes et grecs et se fondait sur les récits rapportés par les observateurs qu’Al-Idrîssî et le roi Roger II de Sicile avaient envoyés dans différentes régions du monde. Al-Idrîssî fut aussi le créateur d’un planisphère en argent, malheureusement disparu.

Nicolaus Germanus Anonyme Fra Mauro Sixième carte de l’Asie (Péninsule Planisphère de King-Hamy, Carte de Fra Mauro, vers 1450 Arabe), vers 1477 vers 1502 Pigments sur parchemin D’après Ptolémée Encre sur parchemin 240 5 240 cm Avec l’aimable autorisation 53 5 77,2 cm Avec l’aimable autorisation de la New York Public Library Avec l’aimable autorisation de la du Museo Correr, Venise Huntington Library, Californie Plusieurs éditions de la Le moine italien Fra Mauro Géographie de Ptolémée ont e Dit le planisphère de King-Hamy, dirigeait un atelier de été publiées en Europe, au XV et attribué à Amerigo Vespucci, il cartographie à Venise. La siècle. Ses atlas comprennent a probablement été créé en Italie « Carte de Fra Mauro » est à la fois 12 cartes de l’Asie, et la Sixième d’après un prototype portugais. détaillée et précise, et fait partie carte de l’Asie couvre la péninsule Le planisphère de King-Hamy des œuvres essentielles de la Arabique. L’Arabie de Ptolémée se base en partie sur les travaux cartographie médiévale. La carte est étirée en largeur au Sud, de Ptolémée et sur les portulans. reproduit l’Asie, l’océan Indien, étroite au Nord et le golfe Cependant, il inclut une partie du l’Afrique, l’Europe et l’océan Arabique adopte une forme Brésil et du Venezuela, des Antilles Atlantique. La partie asiatique rectangulaire. Notons également et de Terre-Neuve. En plaçant montre la péninsule arabique, qu’il n’y est pas fait mention l’océan Indien au centre de la la Perse, le sous-continent indien, d’Arabia Petraea ni d’Arabia carte, le cartographe a élaboré les îles de Java et Sumatra ainsi Deserta. Seul le terme d’Arabia une représentation du monde que la Birmanie, la Chine Felix apparaît, appliqué à englobant toute l’Europe, l’Asie, et la Corée. L’inﬂuence d’Al-Idrîssî l’ensemble de la péninsule. l’Afrique et les Amériques. La se traduit par le positionnement carte représente beaucoup plus de du Sud en haut de la carte et, rivières qu’il n’en existe réellement partant, de l’Arabie. Elle fut en Europe et en Afrique du Nord. conçue pour les dirigeants Le planisphère de King-Hamy tire de Venise et du Portugal, deux son nom de celui qui l’a découvert des plus grandes nations et édité, le nom de son créateur maritimes de l’époque. demeurant inconnu.

228 229 l’Égypte, sur ordre de l’empereur romain Auguste, avait de la péninsule qui va en s’approfondissant. Ainsi, l’histo- Lopo Homem John Speed Car si l’on avait bien jusque-là, et ainsi qu’on notamment les cartes dont aucune n’a jamais été retrou- er Atlas nautique du monde, connu L’Empire turc, 1627 pour but de se rendre maître du commerce caravanier. rien et naturaliste romain du I siècle, Pline peut-il faire comme l’Atlas Miller, 1519 Carte gravée sur plaque de cuivre vient de le voir, quelques notions, pour le moins som- vée. Cependant, le texte grec avait été traduit en arabe, On le sait (cf. chapitre Le désert des déserts), l’armée état de listes de villes et de villages, de noms de tribus, 42 5 59 cm colorée à la main, extraite maires, relativement à la nature du pays, en revanche, au début du IXe siècle, à la demande du calife abbas- Avec l’aimable autorisation de la de Theater of the World (Théâtre romaine, épuisée, malade, souffrant de la soif, avait établissant que la population de l’Arabie est constituée de Bibliothèque nationale de France du monde) de John Speed et faute de cartes dignes de ce nom, on ignorait tout de side Al-Ma’mûn, par le grand philosophe Al-Kindî. Une Londres, John Humble été contrainte à la retraite et l’entreprise avait échoué nomades et de sédentaires. À la même époque, l’auteur Cet atlas portugais est le travail la forme physique qui pouvait être celle de la péninsule. seconde traduction de ce même texte avait même été Avec l’aimable autorisation commun des cartographes lamentablement, en 24 avant J.-C. anonyme – très vraisemblablement un Grec d’Alexandrie de Nasser D. Khalili, collection Le grand œuvre de Ptolémée, sa Géographie, était réalisée, à peine quelques décennies plus tard, par l’as- Lopo Homem, Pedro Reinel d’Art Islamique, Londres Cependant, une importante découverte, inter- – du Périple de la mer Erythrée, décrit, lui également, la et Jorge Reinel, illustré par le constitué d’un ensemble comprenant un texte et vingt-sept tronome et mathématicien, Thâbit ibn Qurra, ce qui e e miniaturiste Antonio de Holanda. Produite au XVII siècle, venue dans le courant du II siècle avant J.-C., allait multiplicité des tribus d’Arabie, et cite les routes cara- Le bibliothécaire Bénigne c’est la première carte de cartes en lequel l’Européen de la Renaissance, lorsqu’il prit montre bien l’importance attachée à cette œuvre. permettre que soient mieux connues les côtes de vanières reliant le royaume des Nabatéens à celui des Emmanuel Clément Miller de la cette partie du monde à être connaissance de ce travail « reconnut avec enthousiasme Le texte de Ptolémée servirait par la suite de Bibliothèque nationale de France, publiée en Angleterre. Les l’Arabie et, partant, la péninsule elle-même. Il s’agit, Sabéens, et ce dernier à l’Hadramaout et à l’Oman. en fit l’acquisition en 1879, d’où marges latérales abritent dix en cet ouvrage un recueil de connaissances, mais encore y fondement aux travaux de nombreux géographes en l’occurrence du régime des moussons (de l’arabe Ce sera – et cette fois-ci en toute certitude – un son nom d’Atlas Miller. Cette personnages costumés, dont admira l’invention scientifique qui permettait de situer sur arabes, notamment à ceux d’un des plus célèbres partie de la carte montre la Corne un couple d’Arabes. À des fins mawsim, saison), dont un marin grec du nom de Hip- autre Grec d’Alexandrie, Claude Ptolémée qui fera faire de l’Afrique et une partie de la commerciales, les cartographes le papier la position des divers lieux connus ». d’entre eux, Al-Idrîssî, originaire de Cordoue. Géo- mer Rouge, l’Arabie, la Perse, du XVIIe siècle faisaient figurer palos avait été, semble-t-il, le premier à comprendre à la science un bond qualitatif quant à la connaissance l’Inde (y compris le Sri Lanka/ sur leurs cartes, des vignettes Les cartes de Ptolémée sont au nombre des pre- graphe et explorateur, mais aussi botaniste et médecin, le principe. Dès lors, des marins grecs firent couram- de l’Arabie et de maintes autres parties du monde connu Ceylan). Sinus Arabicus est utilisé représentant les coutumes locales miers documents que cet homme de la Renaissance Al-Idrîssî conçut au XIIe siècle, pour le roi normand pour désigner le golfe d’Aden et exotiques. e ment le voyage jusqu’à l’Inde, longeant régulièrement à son époque, d’abord en tenant compte, de manière Rubrum Mare pour la mer Rouge. prit soin d’imprimer, dès la fin du XV siècle, dans le de Sicile, Roger II, la première carte géographique et les côtes arabes. systématique, de toutes les données recueillies avant lui La Mecque figure sur l’Atlas courant des années qui suivirent immédiatement l’in- planisphère du monde. Miller, représentée par un temple. Différents textes, ensuite, au début de l’ère chré- (IIe siècle), ensuite et surtout, en faisant figurer celles-ci vention de l’imprimerie. Toutefois, l’œuvre de Ptolémée La version arabe du texte de Ptolémée allait être tienne, font montre d’une connaissance de la géographie au sein d’un véritable atlas. avait d’abord été longuement perdue pour l’Europe, et retraduite de l’arabe en grec, au XIIIe siècle, puis en

230 231 Philippe de La Rue Herman Moll Ancienne Assyrie, divisée L’Arabie des temps modernes, 1715 en Syrie, Mésopotamie, 23 5 18 cm Babylone et Assyrie, 1651 Thomas Bowles et John Bowles, Jan Somer, graveur Londres Coloré à la main Avec l’aimable autorisation 38 5 52 cm de la British Library Pierre Mariette, Paris Cette carte détaillée représente Avec l’aimable autorisation la mer Rouge, une partie de de la British Library l’Afrique de l’Est, la péninsule Cette carte, qui présente les Arabique, le golfe Arabique anciens royaumes du Moyen- (désigné comme golfe de Bassora) Orient, est un complément et, au nord, l’actuelle Syrie, à l’atlas que Philippe de la Rue l’Irak et l’Iran. Elle indique publia en 1651, La Terre sainte les caractéristiques physiques en six cartes géographiques. des différents territoires, les peuplements, les routes Anonyme caravanières et les appartenances Arabie, XVIIe siècle tribales. 37 5 44 cm Avec l’aimable autorisation de la Pieter van der Aa Bibliothèque nationale de France L’Arabie, 1729 Extrait de Galerie agréable du Cette carte anonyme de l’Arabie monde, où l’on voit en un grand comporte un encart qui présente nombre de cartes très exactes le « Temple de La Mecque », et de belles tailles douces, les repris d’un dessin de la Bodleian principaux empires, roïaumes, Library d’Oxford. républiques, provinces, villes, bourgs et forteresses… les îles, côtes rivières, ports de mer… les antiquitez, les abbayes, églises, académies… comme aussi les maisons de campagne, les habillements et mœurs des peuples… dans les quatre parties de l’univers. Avec des estampes de Luyken, Mulder, Goerée, Baptist, Stopendaal et d’autres maîtres de renom Peter Boudewyn, graveur et éditeur, Leyden Avec l’aimable autorisation de la Bibliothèque nationale de France

232 233 e latin, au tout début du XV siècle, enfin en diverses lan- Si le tracé des côtes de l’Arabie va en s’amélio- Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon John Cary d’Anville Nouvelle carte de l’Arabie, gues européennes. Dès lors, en se fondant sur les indica- rant, au gré des informations glanées par les marins, Première partie de la carte d’Asie incluant l’Égypte, l’Abyssinie, tions de distance contenues dans le texte, ainsi que sur l’intérieur du pays reste peu connu. Les premières contenant la Turquie, l’Arabie, la mer Rouge &c. &c. selon la Perse, l’Inde en deçà du Gange les dernières Autorités, 1819 les quelque huit mille toponymes qui s’y trouvent, il fut cartes ne donnent, à cet égard, que très peu de ren- et la Tartarie, 1751 Coloré à la main possible de reconstituer les cartes de Ptolémée. seignements, souvent fantaisistes, comme ces chaînes Paris, gravé par 47 5 52 cm Guillaume-Nicolas Delahaye Nasser D. Khalili collection d’Art La première édition imprimée du texte de Ptolé- de montagnes, ces lacs ou ces fleuves, arbitrairement Une carte sur deux feuilles Islamique, Londres 79 5 82 cm Publiée dans le nouvel atlas mée a été réalisée en 1475 à Vicence, et la première à disséminés dans l’intérieur des terres. Cependant Avec l’aimable autorisation de la universel de John Cary, Bibliothèque nationale de France comporter des cartes, en 1477, à Bologne. La péninsule, quelques voyageurs, parmi ceux-là qui font l’objet présentant les principaux États et telle qu’elle figure sur ces cartes, est très largement étirée du présent ouvrage, commencent à parcourir le pays La carte couvre, au nord, royaumes du monde entier, cette la Turquie – avec la mer Noire et carte est centrée sur la péninsule en largeur vers le bas, et le golfe Arabique est doté de et rédigent ensuite des ouvrages qui font avancer la la mer Caspienne – jusqu’au Tibet Arabique et la mer Rouge. Elle dimensions rectangulaires aberrantes, comme c’est le cas, connaissance, jusque-là fort limitée, que les Euro- et, au sud, la péninsule Arabique montre les routes des caravanes, jusqu’à l’Inde orientale et les dont plusieurs mènent à La par exemple, sur la carte de Nicolaus Germanus. Et, lors- péens ont de l’Arabie. C’est au Français Jean-Baptiste Maldives. Le très grand cartouche Mecque, les puits du désert, les ornemental qui occupe toute oasis et les routes maritimes. qu’il s’agit de faire figurer l’Arabie sur les premières cartes Bourguignon d’Anville, géographe et cartographe la mer d’Arabie présente le titre universelles – ou planisphères –, comme celle du moine du roi Louis XV que « revient le mérite d’avoir fait et quatre figures asiatiques. Abdullah Syed Cartographie des investissements – vénitien Fra Mauro, c’est encore une fois en se fondant sur paraître, en 1755, la première carte approximative- Arabie saoudite, 2017 les travaux et les indications de Ptolémée qu’il fut procédé. ment exacte de l’Arabie », écrit Jacqueline Pirenne, qui Planches de billets de 2 dollars US coupées à la main et collage de billets à l’acrylique sur du papier encré d’or à la main (wasli) Diptyque 20,25 5 50,25 cm (5 2) Avec l’aimable autorisation de l’Aicon Gallery, New York Dans cette série, Abdullah Syed superpose les cartes de différents pays du Moyen-Orient et d’Asie du Sud sur des modèles géométriques islamiques. Le motif est d’abord dessiné à la main sur du papier fait main encré d’or, puis superposé sur une planche intacte de billets de 2 dollars américains. Le motif est alors découpé à la main et les rebuts sont déposés sur le papier encré, tel un voile. Le résultat, selon l’artiste, est un maillage de « géo-design » qui évoque les moucharabiehs.

ajoute, au sujet de ladite carte, qu’elle est « la première en laquelle nous reconnaissons dès l’abord une facture moderne ». C’est de cette carte que s’étaient munis les membres de la fameuse expédition danoise, dont on sait qu’elle fut préparée avec le plus grand soin. Et c’est à cette carte que rend hommage Carsten Niebuhr, le seul survivant de ladite expédition : « Parmi les cartes d’Arabie connues jusqu’ici il n’y en a point qui mérite plus d’attention que celle que M. d’Anville a fait graver ». Même s’il y subsiste maintes lacunes et inexactitudes, elle vient à donner de ce pays une image qui ne changera plus guère ensuite, celle en laquelle nous reconnaissons immédiatement l’Arabie.

234 235 Biographical Notes

Pieter van der Aa Vietnam, South Africa, and the Hamra Abbas (Mechelen, Belgium, 1659 – Leiden, Middle Eastern wars. He became (Kuwait, 1976) The Netherlands, 1733) a member of the French news photo Hamra Abbas shuttles between Boston agencies SIPA and Gamma. He covered A son of a stonecutter and a native and Pakistan, where she is an advisor for the latter the Iranian revolution. of Holstein, Pieter van der Aa settled to postgraduate students at the In 1981, Abbas joined Magnum in 1682 in Leiden, where he National College of Arts in Lahore. She Photos. established a printing house in which has frequently exhibited in Germany, From 1987 to 1994, Abbas he worked with his two brothers. He Turkey, Azerbaijan, China, and South photographed the resurgence of Islam, started his business by printing books Korea. She has been awarded several from social and political perspectives, on botany as well as Latin texts prizes, including the Sharjah Jury from China to Morocco. His book in medicine and science. He later Prize (2009) and the Abraaj Group Art Allah O Akbar, a journey through specialized in producing maps Prize (2011), and she was nominated militant Islam is the result of his and geography publications, and for the Jameel Prize (2009). journeys in twenty-nine Muslim printed a compilation on the history Hamra Abbas works in a variety societies, torn between the past and of Italy and Sicily that was met with of media, including paper, plastic, the desire for modernization. Abbas great success. In 1694, he was made and stained glass. In her artwork is known for his photographic work printer to Leiden University and in Kaaba Picture as a Misprint, on religions. 1715, he was appointed the official she conveys the notions of diversity He has also published Faces of printer to the town of Leiden. and difference. She explains that Christianity, Les Enfants du lotus: His seminal publication was an “difference in religion can and is often voyage chez les bouddhistes (Children innovative sixty-six volume illustrated treated as a form of error”. It is thus of the lotus: journey among the atlas of the world, titled Galerie interesting to note that the Kaaba Buddhists) and Gods I’ve Seen: Travels Agréable du monde. Published is depicted always in black. “Black among Hindus. in 1728, it was then the largest book is the composition of all colors, of prints ever published. Only and a slight shift in our sense of sight 100 copies were printed and it featured Khedive Abbas Hilmi II can create an ‘error’ or ‘misprint’ 3,000 plates of native peoples, (Alexandria, 1874 – Geneva, 1944) to reveal the presence of colors that architecture, and history from constitute black.” The great-great-grandson around the world. of Mohammed Ali, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II ruled from 1892 to 1914, Ali Bey El Abbassi Abbas and attempted to lessen the influence (Spain, 1766 – Syria, 1818) (Kash, Iran, 1944 – Paris, 2018) of British control in Egypt. He devoted The origins of Ali Bey El Abbassi much attention to agrarian and Abbas’ family left Iran and settled are obscure. He probably came from irrigation projects. In 1914, the British in Algeria when Abbas Attar, his birth a Spanish family carrying the name deposed him due to his support name, was then a child. It is there Badia y Leblich, and his first name of the nationalist movement. Abbas that, during the Algerian war was Domingo. However, other Hilmi II led the Hajj in 1909–10 of independence, he taught himself ancestries were attributed to him. and took photographs during the the art of photography. He chose From 1801, he was known only under pilgrimage. self-exile in Paris, where he published the name of Ali Bey El Abbassi, his first photographs on Biafra, a distant descendant of the Abbasid

237 princes and caliphs. It is unclear how not mind sleeping in tents, it was easy. Olivia Arthur and private institutions, including the book, Saudi Arabia-Past and Present, of Fine Arts’ gold medal for his he gathered his considerable wealth. I replied that I had often slept (London, 1980) MoMa, the Tate Modern, the Musée was published. During the 1980s and engraving work. He was appointed He published an account of his travels in camps without tents at all and d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1990s, she staged several solo drawing master of its academy Olivia Arthur has mostly focused in the Arab world in a three-volume accepted right away.” and the Centre Pompidou (Paris). exhibitions in the United States, in 1760. in her photographic works on the book series published in English in Two years later, Princess Alice’s He participated in the 57th Venice Sweden, and London, until she opened The same year, under the aegis representation of women in 1816, titled Travels of Ali Bey, Morocco, three-week journey through Saudi Biennale (2017) and in documenta K13 her own gallery in the English of King Frederick V of Denmark was relationship to the divide between East Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria Arabia took place. She was (2012) in Kassel and received many countryside. Her work is held in the assembled a team of northern Europe’s and West. She studied mathematics at and Turkey between the years 1803 accompanied by her husband, the Earl awards, including the Leica Special collection of the King of Sweden, best scholars to set out on an Oxford University but changed course and 1807. The book included the of Athlone. Princess Alice was the first Prize (Paris, 1997), the Prize of the as well as in several private collections expedition to Arabia. This expedition, and entered a program in account of his pilgrimage to Mecca member of the British royal family Cairo Biennial (Cairo, 2008), the in Saudi Arabia. known as the “Danish Arabia photojournalism at the London College as well as the first circumstantial to meet King Abdulaziz. During her Abraaj Capital Prize (Dubai, 2010), Expedition,” included German of Printing. She started working as description of the city, from which voyage, Princess Alice took 322 the Marcel Duchamp Prize (Centre mathematician, cartographer, and a photographer in 2003, when she Ilo Battigelli he was able to determine its position photographs. These photos, which Georges Pompidou, 2016), the Joan explorer Carsten Niebuhr; Swedish moved to Delhi. In 2006, she moved (San Daniele del Friuli, Italy, by astronomical observations and document Saudi Arabia’s architecture Miró Prize (Barcelona, 2017), and the natural scientist Pehr Forsskål, to Italy for a one-year residence at 1922–2009) by establishing various plans. and way of life before the oil boom, Yanghyun Art Prize (Seoul, 2017). a student of Linné; philologist Fabrica. There, she started working The book enjoyed great success. are held at the King Abdulaziz Italian photographer Ilo Battigelli and linguist Frederick Christian on her series about women, which led He returned to Europe to live for National Library in Riyadh. was among the workers recruited by von Haven; physician Christian Carl her to travel to India, Saudi Arabia, Malin Basil a time in Andalusia as governor Aramco after the end of World War II Kramer; and orderly Lars Berggren. Iran, and Turkey. (Sweden, 1944) of Cordova and then of Sevilla, then to help build the Ras Tanura refinery. Baurenfeind’s task was to depict the Ziad Antar Olivia Arthur has published two books under French administration. When Swedish self-taught visual artist Malin He arrived from the former Italian findings of the members of the (Sidon, Lebanon, 1978) to date. Jeddah Diary, published in the French administration came Basil is a graduate of the University colony of Eritrea with a large group expedition in drawings. All members 2012, depicts the lives of young women to an end, he settled in France. The year after Ziad Antar received of Stockholm, with degrees in Russian of Italians who had been interned of the expedition except for Carsten of Jeddah. Stranger, published in 2015, He returned later to the Middle East, a bachelor’s degree from the American and political science. She lived in by the British during the War. Niebuhr died during this difficult views Dubai through the eyes of the where he died near Aleppo, in University of Beirut in Agricultural the United States for a few years and Battigelli was hired in 1946 to voyage. However, Baurenfeind’s survivor of a shipwreck. Olivia Arthur circumstances that remain mysterious. Engineering in 2000, he participated married Rodney Basil, an American document the building of Aramco’s drawings and sketches were included has been a full member of Magnum in a workshop run by Lebanese who had a career waiting for him refinery construction. He set up a in the expedition reports by Niebuhr Photos since 2013. Her work has been filmmakers Mahmoud Hojeiji and in Riyadh, where the couple relocated studio on the beach near his tent, and Forsskål in the seminal Travels Princess Alice exhibited internationally and included Akram Zaatari. Henceforth, he focused and lived for many years. In Saudi learned Arabic, and with his Rolleiflex through Arabia and other Countries (Windsor Castle, England, in institutional collections in the UK, entirely on his artistic career. Antar’s Arabia, Malin Basil witnessed 3.5 camera, he photographed people in the East, and Forsskål’s posthumous 1883 – London, 1981) USA, Germany, and Switzerland. interests revolve mainly around the continuous progressive changes, which and local scenes, making a name for Descriptiones animalium, When Princess Alice, the youngest relationships between mythology and impacted the entire society. The himself as “Ilo the Pirate”. He also Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica. granddaughter of Queen Victoria (her history, as well as problems linked to Kader Attia couple lived in the heart of the city, photographed King Abdulaziz’s official father, Leopold, duke of Albany, was geography and borders. He questions (Dugny, France, 1970) allowing the artist to interact with visit to Ras Tanura. Gertrude Bell the fourth son of the queen), visited the notion of photography and the the local population on a daily basis. He left Aramco in 1954 and moved to Kader Attia was raised in Algeria and (County Durham, England, Saudi Arabia in 1938, she was not only camera as a medium and developed Malin Basil’s husband worked at a Rhodesia, where he opened a studio. in France, where he studied at the 1868 – Baghdad, 1926) the first British royal to visit the an original aesthetic derived from company that was maintaining water He retired in 2000, returning to Italy. École Supérieure des arts appliqués country, but also the first European rejecting the strict standards of fine wells across the country, and she Battigelli’s photographs were exhibited The first woman to earn first-degree Duperré and at the École nationale royal to travel to Saudi Arabia. photography. Antar’s main exhibitions would often venture off with him in the USA, England, Saudi Arabia, honors in Modern History at Oxford supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. Although her visit was not political, resulted in published books, including through the deserts while he worked, Italy, and Rhodesia. After his death, University, Gertrude Bell was an He has lived in Congo and in South it contributed to consolidating Beirut Bereft: The Architecture of the giving her an extra lens to view the his family donated his important explorer, diplomat, and archaeology America, and currently lives and the diplomatic relations between Forsaken and Map of the Derelict (with country through. Her curiosity and photo collection to the Pitt Rivers specialist in Mesopotamia. Bell’s works in Berlin and Algiers. the two countries. Rasha Salti), published by the Sharjah love of exploring helped her form Museum at the University of Oxford. fascination with the Middle East began An artist working in different The visit was planned after Princess Art Foundation (2009); Portrait a broad view of the county. when she visited her uncle, who mediums—painting, photography, Alice met Prince Saud at Ascot of a Territory (Actes Sud, 2012); Basil’s artistic career began in Saudi was the British ambassador to Iran sculpture, and video—as well as Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind racecourse. George V, who fell sick, Expired, published by the éditions Arabia with her first solo exhibition at that time. She studied Persian installations, Kader Attia’s practice (Nuremberg, 1728 – at sea near asked his cousin, Princess Alice, to des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2014); in 1972 at the Al-Yamama hotel lobby and later learned Arabic. is inspired by and deals with history Bombay, 1763) replace him at the racecourse. She was and After Images.Stories from the in Riyadh. For the next ten years, she From 1900 until the Great War, Bell and sociology; memory, colonialism, seated next to the young Prince Saud, Mountains of Asir (Kaph Books, 2016). regularly exhibited in Riyadh and in Son of a calligrapher, German was a member of the Arab Bureau violence, repair, and multiethnic the crown prince and eldest son of His work is also part of prominent Al-Khobar, a city located on the east draftsman, and engraver, Georg of the British Intelligence Division societies are recurrent themes King Abdulaziz. In her memoirs, public collections, including coast of the country. The artist Wilhelm Baurenfeind took an in Cairo. During the war she applied in his work. Princess Alice wrote: “Out of politeness the British Museum in London showcased her work in London in apprenticeship with a copper engraver her knowledge in the service of the Kader Attia’s artwork has been I said how sorry I was that I had never and the Centre Georges Pompidou 1977, the same year she published her in Nuremberg and later followed him British government. In the 1920s she exhibited worldwide at major art visited Arabia. He at once asked: ‘Why in Paris. first book, Saudi Arabia Through the to Copenhagen, where he received, was nominated to serve as the Oriental institutions and is held in many public not come to Arabia?’ He said if I did Eyes of An Artist. In 1979, her second in 1759, the Royal Danish Academy secretary to the British high

238 239 commissioner in Baghdad. player and learned drawing from John Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz Stern, Paris-Match, Réalités, Epoca, Trieste—he led the life of an In 1913, accompanied by five local Ruskin. Later, on the occasion of her d’Anville (Metz, France, 1731 – Paris, 1807) and The New York Times. His portraits adventurer, an explorer, a writer, guides and twenty camels, Bell travels, she produced remarkable (Paris, 1697–1782) of Picasso and Che Guevara became and a translator, which made him After completing classical studies traveled to Ha’il, a town in northern sketches and beautiful drawings. iconic, contributing to his significant quite famous. Among the places he A geographer and cartographer, in Metz, Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz settled Arabia. When she reached Ha’il, the She visited Arabia, accompanied by renown. It was in 1974 that he explored were the interior of Somalia; Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville in Pont-à-Mousson, where he went Rashids, who were governing the her husband Wilfrid Blunt, in search undertook his reportage on Saudi the discovery of the city of Harar, started drawing maps inspired by the to study law before becoming a lawyer town, were suspicious and put her of thoroughbred Arabian horses. Lady Arabia. which he was the first Westerner descriptions of Latin authors at the there in the beginning of the 1750s. under house arrest in the royal Anne Blunt and her husband, after His photographs were exhibited to visit; the discovery of Lake age of twelve. His first map was He abandoned his legal career to study complex. For about a week, Bell was crossing the Nafud desert, stayed with in the most prestigious institutions Tanganyika; and the discovery published when he was fifteen. medicine and showed a special interest entertained by the women in the the Emir of Ha’iI, whose stables were worldwide, including the Art Institute of the secret sources of the Nile. D’Anville contributed to the reform in natural history. One of his first palace and was able to take the most celebrated in Arabia. (Chicago), the Kunsthaus Zürich, Burton also performed the pilgrimage of French cartography initiated by books was Histoire des plantes de photographs of the palace and the city Anne Blunt delivered an interesting the Musée des arts décoratifs to Mecca and wrote an account of his Guillaume Delisle. Instead of copying la Lorraine (History of the Plants with her 4x4 Kodak and her account of that stay in her book, (Lausanne), the International Center voyage, Personal Narrative of a older maps, he deliberately left of Lorraine), which was published panoramic camera. She wrote several A Pilgrimage to Nejd. of Photography (New York), the Palais Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca, unknown areas blank. He thus in 1762. He later published Histoire books, including accounts of her In 1878, Anne Blunt and Wilfrid Blunt de Tokyo (Paris), and the Fotografie which was published near the corrected numerous maps, including naturelle de la France (Natural History travels in the desert. In 2000, private created in Sussex, on the family’s Forum International (Frankfurt). beginning of his renown. To illustrate a map of Arabia. of France) in fourteen volumes before dairies containing details of her trip estate, “England’s Crabett Arabian In 2004, the Maison Européenne the extent of his curiosity, knowledge, In 1754, d’Anville became a member undertaking Histoire universelle to Ha’il were published under the title Stud”. Devoted to the conservation de la photographie in Paris organized and accomplishments, suffice it to of the French Académie des du règne vegetal (Universal History The Arabian Diaries, 1913–1914. of the Arabian horse, the stud a retrospective of fifty years of his note that he authored around forty Inscriptions et belles-lettres and in of the Vegetal Reign), according to the encountered immense international work. This retrospective later traveled books in addition to hundreds 1773 he was appointed first geographer nomenclature of Linné. Although the success, which continued after they to Lausanne, Basel, Milan, and Zurich. of articles. Among the books he wrote Léon Belly to the king of France and was elected first volumes were published in 1773, both passed away. were Goa and the Blue Mountains (Saint-Omer, France, 1827 – Paris, to the Académie des Sciences. he was unable to complete this (1851), Sindh and the Races That 1877) publication. He authored many books Richard Francis Burton Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (1853), Philip Bouchard on botany and also studied zoology. (Torquay, Devon, 1821 – Trieste, 1890) Belly studied painting and joined the Gaspar Bouttats A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise (Cairo, 1952) His interest extended to birds and artists of the School of Barbizon. From (Antwerp, c. 1640 – c. 1695) Born to a well-to-do family from (1853), The Lake Regions of Central minerals. As a demonstrator at the 1850–51, he accompanied a scientific Self-taught artist Philip Bouchard lived the west of England, in his childhood, Africa (1860), The City of the Saints, Born into a family of famous Collège Royal des Médecins (Royal expedition led by the archaeologist during his childhood in the Middle Richard Francis Burton accompanied Among the Mormons and Across the engravers, Gaspar Bouttats trained College of Physicians) of Nancy, L. F. J. Caignart de Saucly, with a mission East, where his father was a diplomat. his parents wherever they settled Rocky Mountains to California (1861), with his father Frederick. Later, in Pierre-Joseph Buc’hoz also published to study the historic geography of the He returned to the Middle East in the in France or Italy. The young Burton The Nile Basin (1864), Explorations of turn, Gaspar trained his son Pieter books on medicine and Mémoire sur Dead Sea basin. On the occasion 1970s and had the occasion to live for learned and spoke fluent French the Highlands of Brazil (1869), Letters Balthazar. Gaspar Bouttats mainly la manière de guérir la mélancolie of this journey, he visited Lebanon two years in Saudi Arabia, where he and several Italian dialects, proving From the Battlefields of Paraguay etched, using burin. In 1668, following par la musique (Thesis on how to use and Egypt and produced paintings accompanied a group of archaeologists that he was particularly talented (1870), Zanzibar (1872), Ultima Thule the footsteps of his father, he became music as a therapy for treating representing Baalbek and the Dead Sea. to the deserts and mountains in languages. Later, during his studies or a Summer in Iceland (1872), a member of the famed Guild of Saint melancholy). As a polygraph, Buch’oz Belly returned to Egypt twice, from of southwest Arabia. During his at the Trinity College in Oxford, he Etruscan Bologna (1876), Two Trips Luke, an association of painters, published more than three hundred October 1855 to November 1856, in the three-month stay, he sketched the learned Arabic. At the age of twenty, to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts engravers, sculptors, and printers books during his long and fruitful company of the painter Jean-Léon landscapes which inspired him to write he joined the English army and was of the Congo (1876), To the Gold Coast active since the fourteenth century, lifetime. Gérôme and the sculptor Auguste the following comment: “Up until then, stationed in East India, where he for Gold (1883), and The Book of the in Italy, France, Holland, and Bartholdi, and the second time from most of my work had been totally from started his career as an officer Sword (1884). To this list we can add Rhineland. He even became its dean October 1857 to May 1858 with the my imagination. Now, however, I was René Burri in Bombay. He overcame the boredom several remarkable translations Burton from 1690 until his death. Bouttats Orientalist painter Narcisse Berchère. discovering a kind of surrealism in the (Zurich, 1933 – Paris, 2014) of life in a garrison by quickly completed, including The Kama Sutra worked for prominent publishers During this second trip, he visited the stillness of the vast desert […]. All I had mastering Hindustani, and later of Vatsyayana (1883) and The Book who commissioned him to print Graduated from the Zurich University Sinai and the Nile valley. In the 1861 to do was to copy what I saw.” His book Gujarati and Marathi, while also of the Thousand Nights and a Night designs by famous artists such of the Arts, René Burri quickly became Salon, Léon Belly presented four Oriental From Surrealism to Orientalism pursuing his studies of Arabic (1885). Burton’s translation of the as Jan Peeters, his contemporary one of the most well-known paintings, including his imposing Pèlerins (London: Immel Publishing, 1985) and Persian. During his life, Burton latter is the first not to be expurgated and also a native of Antwerp, whose photojournalists of his time. A allant à La Mecque, which was awarded is a testimony of his fascination with learned to speak thirty languages and remains, until today, the best drawings he used for a volume of city member since the 1950s of the photo the “First Class” medal. Saudi Arabia’s landscapes and deserts. and acquired a rich knowledge of the translation in English. views of Jerusalem and its agency Magnum, he covered the Korea Bouchard’s artwork has been exhibited cultures where they were spoken. Awarded Knighthood by the queen, surroundings entitled Views of and Vietnam wars, as well as the regularly since 1974, his Arabian Aside from his military career, Sir Richard Francis Burton lived the Lady Anne Blunt Jerusalem, and the surrounding Cuban Missile Crisis. His striking paintings were presented in 2003 which lasted around ten years, prodigious life of one of the most (United Kingdom, 1837 – Cairo, 1917) Country (1674). wartime photos, although very in England, and in 2016, his Orientalist and then his diplomatic career—when accomplished great travelers riveting, show no casualties. They Anne Blunt, the granddaughter of paintings were exhibited at the he held the post of consul in Fernando of the end of the nineteenth century, were featured in the most prestigious Lord Byron, also known as “the noble Arab-British Chamber of Commerce Po (Equatorial Guinea), Santos in addition to being a prolific publications, such as Life, Look, lady of the horses,” was an avid violin in London. (Brazil), Damascus (Syria), and finally and talented writer.

240 241 John Cary in 2012. He is also the author of across the Kingdom. In addition photographs have been presented graduated in 1836, he was granted (2002), Moving Out (2003), Welcome (Corsley, England, 1754 – London, stories such as Ultima Cordillera to this work, his personal interest in two large-scale retrospectives: a traveling scholarship which allowed to Beirut (2005), Civil war (2012), 1835) (Arthaud, 2007) and children’s books in a multifaceted culture allowed him, at the Maison Européenne de la him to work in the Netherlands, and Re: Visiting Tarab (2013). His such as Moi, Explorateur (Glénat 2017). during the twenty-three years he lived photographie, Paris, in 2000, and later France, and Italy from 1837 to 1844. photographs have been presented in John Cary started his career as an in Saudi Arabia, to deeply discover at the Mucem, Marseille, in 2014. He then returned to Sweden, where numerous exhibitions worldwide and engraver in London and established the country and its people. Since his he became a member of the Academy his work is found in various museums his own business on the Strand in Harold Corsini return to France and still today, of Arts and was nominated for in Europe and the Middle East. 1783. In 1787, he published The New (New York City, 1919 – Pittsburgh, Charles Montagu Doughty he pursues his passion for images, “court painter”. and Correct English Atlas, which 2008) (Saxmundham, England, be it in the nature field or others. In 1854, Ekman returned to Finland, quickly become a standard point 1843 – Sissinghurst, England, 1926) Isabelle Eshraghi Harold Corsini’s professional career where he was commissioned to paint of reference and brought him fame for (Isphahan, Iran, 1964) began in the early 1940s, when Poet, writer, and traveler Charles the frescos of the Cathedral of Turku, the quality of his maps and globes. Charles Cousen he worked briefly for Life magazine. M. Doughty is mostly known for his located in the southwest, on the Baltic Isabelle Eshraghi was born to a French (Yorkshire, England, 1819–1889) He was hired as a photographer for two-volume account of his travels, Sea. He also painted some thirty mother and Iranian father. Her family Ali Cherri Standard Oil in 1943 and was able to Charles Cousen served an important Travels in Arabia Deserta. Written frescos and altarpieces in different left her native country when she was (Beirut, 1976) document the oil company’s function as a printmaker during the in a very mannered and flamboyant churches in Finland. In 1846, a school three years old. She later discovered operations worldwide, including second half of the nineteenth century English, the book records the of drawing was established in Turku, her passion for photography while Ali Cherri received a Bachelor of Arts the Pacific and Saudi Arabia. in England. He is mainly known discoveries of Doughty in the deserts and Ekman was appointed its director travelling in the Algerian desert in graphic design from the American Corsini later became the official for illustrating books focusing on the of Arabia and demonstrates his deep until his death in 1873. His artwork, at 17 with a small Kodak Instamatic University in Beirut and a Master photographer for US Steel. Much later, Middle East, such as The Christians knowledge of geology, a discipline representative of Finnish romanticism, and has since then made this passion of Arts in performing arts from he retired from commercial in Palestine, by Henry Stebbing; The Doughty had studied, as well as is held in several museums. her career. DasArts in Amsterdam. photography and joined Carnegie Beauties of the Bosphorus, by Julia archaeology and anthropology. Her recent work is mostly focused on Cherri’s artworks focus on current Mellon University (Pittsburgh), where Pardoe; and The Nile Boat or Glimpses After setting out from Damascus with the depiction of women in the Arab affairs as well as ancient history Fouad Elkoury he taught photography and design. of the land of Egypt, by W. H. Bartlett. the pilgrims’ caravan, Doughty left and Muslim world. Her projects and archaeology. (Paris, 1952) Corsini’s photographs were displayed them midway to become the first Women in the Arab World and Women Trembling Landscapes (2014–16) in museums worldwide and are Westerner to visit the Nabatean tombs Photographer and filmmaker Fouad on the Move had her travelling is an ongoing series in which Ali Cherri Raymond Depardon currently held in various prestigious of the antique site of Hegra, near Elkoury lives in both Paris and Beirut. to Saudi Arabia several times. pursues—through film, video, drawing, (Villefranche-sur-Saône, France, 1942) collections, including the George Mada’in Saleh, where for two months After earning a degree in architecture Eshraghi’s photos have appeared printmaking, and performance—an Eastman Museum in Rochester, Raymond Depardon took photographs he was able to record its inscriptions in London in 1979, Elkoury turned regularly in prestigious newspapers investigation into the effects New York, and the Carnegie of the family farm at the age of and produce many drawings. Doughty to photography, documenting daily life and magazines worldwide. Her work of catastrophe, both man-made Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. 12 with a 6x6 medium-format camera. would send from there his drawings, during the civil war in Lebanon. has also been included in group and and geological, on his native Lebanon Upon completing his primary created with a brush and a sponge He photographed many cities in the solo exhibits worldwide and she has and neighboring territories. education, he started an on absorbent paper to copy the Middle East, including Jeddah, where won prestigious awards including Ali Cherri’s artwork was shown in Olivier Couppey apprenticeship at a photography shop inscriptions, to Ernest Renan and to he was able to capture images of its the Kodak Critics’ Photographic Prize the Jeu de Paume in Paris (2017), (Cherbourg, France, 1968) in Villefranche-sur-Saône. He moved the Marquis de Vogüé in Paris, which authentic architecture. for her work on Women of Isfahan the Guggenheim in New York (2016), From a very early age, Olivier Couppey to Paris in the early 1960s, where earned him great fame with all In 1989, Elkoury joined the Rapho in 1997, the Villa Médicis Hors les the Tate Modern in London (2013), the was interested in nature and especially he joined the Dalmas Agency reporting Semitic scholars. Doughty also visited photo agency, and after winning Murs/AFAA award for her Museum of Modern Art in New York birds, which he observed and painted. on conflict zones such as Algeria, Tayma, Ha’il, Khaybar, and Boreyda the Prix Medicis Hors les Murs, photographic work titled Being twenty (2012), and the Centre Georges He discovered photography and Vietnam, and Biafra. In 1966, he before reaching Jeddah. When he he spent a year in Egypt retracing in Tehran in 1999, and the FIACRE Pompidou in Paris (2011). familiarized himself with the specialties cofounded his own photojournalism returned to England, he wrote his the steps of Gustave Flaubert Program award for her photographic of black-and-white prints and the agency, Gamma, and became its one-thousand-page account, which and Maxime Du Camp. work on Iranian men in 2001. Christian Clot audiovisual arts. He started his career director in 1973. In 1977, he received he published in 1888. In that book, In 1997, Elkoury cofounded the Arab (1972) as the director of video production a Pulitzer Prize for his reports on Doughty painted Arabia and the life Image Foundation, whose mission Osama Esid for a company outside Paris and Chad. Raymond Depardon left Gamma of its Bedouins with great sincerity. is to archive and preserve photographs Christian Clot has, for the last twenty (Damascus, 1970) as freelance video editor in Paris. and joined Magnum Photos in 1978. of Lebanon as well as other countries years, been leading scientific In 1995, he seized the occasion to During that time, Depardon pursued in the Middle East. Osama Esid studied photography at explorations to the most extreme Robert Wilhelm Ekman begin work for an organization whose a concurrent career as a documentary Elkoury authored many books, the Technical Institute of Damascus environments of our planet: very high (Uusikaupunki, Finland, mission was the conservation filmmaker, starting with short including Beyrouth aller-retour (1984), while working in his father’s tailor mountains, jungles, deserts, seas, and 1808 – Helsinki, Finland, 1873) of nature in Saudi Arabia. Responsible documentaries in the 1960s Palestine, l’envers du miroir (1996), shop. In 1994, he decided to leave underwater. He has carried out around for the production of multimedia tools and advancing to feature-length A painter and teacher, Robert Wilhelm Liban Provisoire (1996), Suite Syria and traveled to Paris. In 1996, thirty expeditions without motorized for education and information, his documentaries in the 1980s. Ekman first studied in Finland before Égyptienne (1999), Sombres (2002), he moved to the United States, where transport, alone or with others. With a activities were diverse: production His photographs have been featured pursuing his studies at the Royal and La Sagesse du photographe (2004). he lived and worked in Minneapolis, life-long passion for comics, in 2010 he of documentary films, reportage, in many publications and he received Swedish Academy of Arts in He also produced several videos, Minnesota. Esid gained recognition created a series on the Great Explorers and graphic creation. Video filming numerous awards for both his photos Stockholm. He specialized and excelled including Jours tranquilles en for his mastery of hand-coloring for Éditions Glénat. These then and photography led him to travel and his documentaries. His in the art of portraits, and when he Palestine (1998), Lettres à Francine black-and-white prints. This became part of the Explora collection

242 243 technique, introduced and practiced in including Le Monde illustré, Stadium disaster, the Beirut bombing published several books on Saudi Nicolaus Germanus Roger Grasas the Middle East in the early twentieth L’illustration, The Sphere, The of the French and American bases, the Arabia, among them Arabian Phoenix: (c. 1420 – c. 1490) (Barcelona, 1970) century by Armenian photographers, Graphic, and The Illustrated London civil wars in Lebanon and Sri Lanka, An Account of a visit to Ibn Saud Cartographer Nicolaus Germanus was After studying photography and is disappearing today. News. In addition, he illustrated many the conflict in Northern Ireland, and (1946), Arabian Journeys and Other a monk from Reichenback Priory, philosophy, Roger Grasas produced Esid’s photographs focus mainly novels and literary works, mainly the finally, the 1984–85 famine in Sudan. Desert Travels (1950), The Ruler Germany, where he lived in the photo documentaries for several NGOs on the themes of “Orientalism” and books of the novelist Claude Farrère, He was invited to become a Magnum of Mecca (1954), and Faisal, King fifteenth century. Nicolas Germanus as well as UNESCO. He taught the “exotic” while questioning issues an officer in the navy and a member associate member in 1985 and became of Saudi Arabia (1965). participated, with other cartographers, photography and cofounded the pertaining to identity and the of the Académie française, including a full-fledged member in 1989. He Gerald de Gaury was a talented in revising the famous Cosmographia, Phototroupe Studio photography otherness. His body of photographs the Album historique de l’Armée et de would go on to being elected president photographer, watercolorist, produced in the second century AD, agency. includes his iconic series on imagined la Marine (Historic Album of the Army of Magnum from 2006 to 2009. and sketch artist, and his depictions by the Roman geographer Claudius Roger Grasas’ photographic work Parisian brothels, “Workers of Cairo” and the Navy). Enthralled by the In 1989, while in China, he captured of the kingdom’s life and landscapes Ptolemy. In 1467, he re-created focuses on the contradictions and and “Orientalism and Nostalgia”. maritime life, his paintings are largely the iconic photo, Tank Man, of a man on various media form a rare a version of Ptolemy’s atlas, covering transformations in our environment In 2017, Esid traveled to Turkey, where inspired by this theme. After several standing in the middle of an avenue outsider’s vision of Saudi Arabia the total known areas from Greenland caused by modernity and technology. he photographed the Syrian Refugee requests, he finally obtained the title blocking the path of a tank column at its beginnings. to India. Beginning in 2005, he developed Camp in Adana. This series of of Official Artist to the Navy, which during the Tiananmen Square a passion for societies in the Gulf photographs, titled STILL/ LIFE/ allowed him to embark on the most protests. In 1990, Franklin started Yann Jules Gayet and created two important projects SYRIA, was presented during the beautiful ships of the French Navy working for National Geographic Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (Paris, 1981) on these societies, to which he gave Northern Spark Festival in and paint faraway horizons. This and contributed to more than twenty (Seine-et-Marne, France, the Arabic names Min Turab (From Minneapolis. tradition still prevails today. reports for the publication, with Yann Gayet began studying Arabic 1863 – Coutevroult, France, 1931) the Earth) and Inshallah. These Fouqueray studied in the École des wide-ranging subjects. It is in this language and literature in Paris, A journalist, writer, and photographer, photography projects focused on Beaux-arts from 1887 to 1893. Later capacity that he traveled to Arabia then in Damascus, and later in Julius Euting Gervais-Courtellemont grew up in changes in the desert and the broader he worked with Pierre Puvis de in 2000, to the Rub‘ al-Khali desert. Aix-en-Provence. He undertook (Stuttgart, 1839 – Strasbourg, 1913) Algeria, where he developed a passion landscape in the Gulf countries. Grasas Chavannes to produce decorative To further his understanding research on the French translations for the Orient and converted to Islam. also showed in his photo reportages After studying theology and Semitic paintings. He was also appointed on the subjects he aimed to capture, of the old Arabic poetry when he was In 1894, he performed the pilgrimage the consequences of changes to languages, the philosopher and Artist to the Army and Artist to the he resumed his studies at the offered a post at the French Consulate in the company of an Algerian societies which, less than two or three Orientalist Julius Euting was appointed Air Force. University of Oxford, where he in Jeddah. He went to Saudi Arabia merchant named Haji Akl, who had generations ago, were governed by the professor at the University of Charles Fouqueray traveled three times received a doctorate in geography in in the autumn of 2007. previously performed the Hajj twenty very austere lifestyle nomadic life. Strasbourg as well as director of its to Saudi Arabia, in 1917–18, 1921, 2000. He has been a professor of It is in Jeddah that he met a fellow times. “What I am interested in”, says Grasas, Library. He traveled to Arabia in and 1924. He was thus able to paint documentary photography since 2016. Frenchman, Olivier Couppey, who On that occasion, Gervais-Courtellemont “is the ability of photography to 1883–84. Funded by King Charles and sketch the ports, the inhabitants, had been working for the NWRC took numerous photos in Arabia convert the ordinary into of Württemberg, his expedition was the architecture, and the dhows of (National Wildlife Research Centre) Gerald de Gaury which he used to illustrate his book extraordinary.” motivated by archaeology and Al-Wejh, Yanbu, and Jeddah. He also for fifteen years and who guided him (London, 1897–1984) Mon Voyage à La Mecque (1896). The photographic work of Roger epigraphy. He studied and copied produced several paintings showing on his first hike on Djebel Shada, Gervais-Courtellemont returned Grasas has been exhibited in various the inscriptions of its pre-Islamic pilgrims disembarking in Jeddah Arabist, explorer, historian, diplomat, a mountain in the Al-Baha region. to Hijaz in 1908, when he was invited countries around the world, including monuments. and the French Navy commissioned and officer, Lt. Col. Gerald de Gaury Two weeks later, Yann Gayet returned by Sultan Abdulhamid II to attend Spain, France, Mexico, and Saudi The accounts of Professor Euting’s him to produce three murals served in World War I, notably in the to explore the mountain alone. the inauguration of the Hijaz railway Arabia. travels were translated into English representing Arabia. These paintings Gallipoli campaign, and was wounded The few days that he spent walking station. in Diary of a Journey to Inner Arabia are hung inside the Cercle Naval in several times. During times of and meeting the locals made him Gervais-Courtellemont took (1896); the second volume was printed Toulon. Today, Fouqueray’s artworks convalescence, he taught himself how decide to resume photography, which Ezio Gribaudo color autochromes of his travels in 1914. are found in national museums in to speak Arabic. he had abandoned after a period (Turin, 1929) to Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, France and abroad. His command of the Arabic language, of intense practice in adolescence. Spain, India, Morocco, and China. Ezio Gribaudo trained at the as well as his knowledge of Muslim From then until May 2010, he traveled Charles Fouqueray He covered World War I, and after Accademia di Brera as an architect. culture and religious lore, put him at tens of thousands of kilometers, many (Le Mans, France, 1869 – Paris, 1956) Stuart Franklin the war, worked for National Chromatic precision and historical the forefront of the British diplomatic of which were off-road. (London, 1956) Geographic. Between 1923 and 1925, determination pervade his work as a Son of a Le Mans baker, Charles relationship with the nascent Kingdom In 2013 and 2014, he participated he published La Civilisation-histoire painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. Fouqueray was admitted in 1887 After studying photography at the of Saudi Arabia. During this time, in the Franco-Saudi archaeological sociale de l’humanité, a three-volume His artwork has been recognized with to the École des Beaux-Arts of Paris, West Surrey College of Art and Design, he formed a personal relationship missions in Mada’in Saleh and Dumat book illustrated with his photographs. various international prizes, among where he was the student of Alexandre Stuart Franklin first worked for The with Ibn Saud, thanks to their al-Jandal, allowing him to extend them the IX Rome Quadrennial Cabanel and Fernand Cormon. Sunday Times and the Sunday common fondness for hunting. his photographic research. And in in 1965, the XXXIII Venice Biennale Fouqueray was unable to enter Telegraph Magazine in London before In 1935, he was tasked with presenting 2017, he returned to carry out Prize (for graphic arts) in 1966, the naval school due to weak joining the Sygma Press Agency in Ibn Saud with the robes and insignia technical photographic surveys on and the São Paulo Biennale in 1967. mathematics. Instead, from 1890 Paris from 1980 to 1985. During that of the Order of the Bath and with historical buildings along the north Gribaudo’s prolific production and onward, he collaborated with a variety time, he covered for Sygma the 1983 reading in Arabic an address from coast of the Red Sea. diverse activities made him a highly of newspapers and magazines, Nigerian military coup, the Heysel King George to the royal court. He

244 245 significant figure in contemporary completed an exchange program at the environment and the colors of Arabia. photojournalist based in Hong Kong, He was hired later by the conservative distinguished dexterity and great Italian art. He has worked with Lucio School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In her series Sands & Serendipity she traveled around Southeast Asia Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième sensibility to colours, was presented Fontana, Francis Bacon, Giorgio She then earned an MSc with Merit (2014), Havers worked on a traditional and photographed in the Philippines Siècle, in which its youth supplement and is held in the world’s most de Chirico, Peggy Guggenheim, and from the London School of Economics tent canvas, purchased from a tent the nomads of the sea in Sulu included the first comic strips prestigious collections, including the the Cobra Group’s Pierre Alechinsky and Political Science. souk, on which she applied sand and Archipelago. In Sarawak, she stayed of Tintin. Metropolitan Museum of Art and the and Jean Dubuffet, to mention only Aya Haidar has always been involved other organic materials such as dried with the Dayaks of Borneo. The launching in 1946 of Tintin Museum of Modern Art (New York a few artists and personalities with with humanitarian, education, and bits of palm tree to create a coarse, Her photographs and articles were magazine, where he served as artistic City); the Museum of Fine Arts whom he crossed paths. Through his social issues, and has worked with uneven texture evoking the desert’s published frequently in the most director, was a success. By the (Boston); the Art Institute of Chicago; committed activity as an art publisher, NGOs. Her multimedia practices temperament. illustrious newspapers and magazines mid-1960s, Tintin’s sales reached the Victoria & Albert Museum he has mentored and promoted many include crafts such as knitting worldwide and were often presented 600,000 per week. The Adventures (London); the Stedelijk Museum artists since the 1950s. and embroidering. in exhibitions. of Tintin have been translated to more (Amsterdam); the Centre Pompidou Colbert Held Gribaudo’s experimentations with Subsequent to her discovery of the In 2005, while working on a story than seventy languages and sold more (Paris); the Museum of Modern Art (Stamford, Texas, 1917 – Waco, materials, paper, and print allowed architecture of Jeddah’s downtown, about women in the French army, than 250 million copies since 1929. (Tokyo); and the Museo de Bellas Texas, 2016) him to develop a new approach by Aya Haidar produced in 2012 Al Balad, which took her to Djibouti after In 1986, following Hergé’s death, Artes (Santiago). representing archeological remnants a body of work combining printed A foreign service officer and a passing through the Suez Canal the Hergé Foundation was created, in the context of intense chromatic digital photography on linen with professor of political and cultural and the Red Sea, Anne de Henning and in 2009, the Hergé Museum Lopo Homem studies. His use of a manual press hand-stitched craft. In this series, geography, Colbert Held photographed reached the Arabian Peninsula. She opened in Louvain-la-Neuve. In (1497-1572) renews the function of an old and the artist chose details of the facades the Middle East between 1957 and decided then to photograph the 2016–17, an important exhibition noble instrument, now incorporated of the buildings in her photographs 2005. In 2014, he donated about diversity of the countries in that on Hergé was organized in the Portuguese cartographer and with craft and ability in his daily and embroidered them using brightly 20,000 of his color slides to the Middle region (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Grand Palais in Paris. cosmographer Lopo Homem joined practice. colored thread, hence merging East Institute in Washington, D.C. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Hergé’s cartoons, notable for forces, around the year 1526, with a the practice of the modern media The collection comprises photographs Emirates), aiming to show their the clarity of the drawings, the team of cartographers, Pedro (father) of digital photography with the of topography, landscape, portraits, traditions and modernity, while also well-researched plots, and the and Jorge (son) Reines, considered Maïmouna Guerresi traditional practice of hand-stitching. and cityscapes that demonstrate the capturing the relationship that the universal themes, contributed to the the best cartographers of their time. (Pove del Grappa, Italy, 1951) Aya Haidar’s artwork has been enormous changes the Middle East inhabitants maintain within the success of Franco-Belgian cartoons. Together they produced the Lopo A multimedia artist working with exhibited worldwide and she has underwent in the second half of the framework of urban life and their They are the subject of numerous Homem-Reines Atlas, also known photography, sculpture, video, and participated in various international twentieth century. Held also took natural environment. Her artwork has essays and university research papers as the Atlas Miller. The illustrations installation, Maïmouna Guerresi art fairs. numerous aerial photographs, been exhibited in galleries in Paris and were adapted for radio, television, of Arabia and the Indian Ocean converted to Islam after living in including some of offshore oil and Munich, as well as in the National cinema, and computer games. are very intricate and detailed, Senegal. She presents in her work a very infrastructures. Navy Museum in France as part of a Hergé’s characters became iconic and although there is a clear lack Caroline Havers personal perspective on the spirituality Colbert Held joined the Army Air joint exhibition on Henry de Monfreid. and appeared in every conceivable of accuracy, their charts of this (The Netherlands, 1959) of human beings and their relation to Corps in 1942, where he attended the Her two photographic projects on marketing material. region are considered to be the most their inner mystical dimensions. After studying museology at the Air Photographic School. He later Yemen were awarded the “Aga Khan beautiful in the atlas. Maïmouna’s work is a hybrid embrace Reinwardt Academy of Amsterdam, taught at the University of Nebraska Prize for Architecture”. Sheila Hicks of her spirituality and her mixed Caroline Havers worked as a fair-trade before serving mainly in Lebanon, (Hastings, Nebraska, USA, 1934) Charles Huber African, Asian, and European heritage. importer of quality handicrafts from Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Hergé (Strasbourg, 1847 – near Jeddah, 1884) Her work has been exhibited in solo and Third World countries. His book, Middle East Patterns: Places, It seems that Sheila Hicks has (Etterbeek, Belgium, 1907 – group shows in Europe, Africa, the Havers trained in painting, drawing, Peoples, and Patterns, coauthored traveled for most of her life. After Charles Huber studied chemistry and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium, United States, Asia, and the Middle East. etching, photography, and with John Thomas Cummings and finishing her studies at Yale medicine before embarking on a trip 1983) She participated in the Italian pavilion printmaking. In the early 1990s, published in 1989, is now in its fifth University, she received a Fulbright to North Africa in 1874. He traveled at the Venice Biennale in 1982, 1986, she started working as a freelance reprint. Accompanied by more than Known by the pen name Hergé, scholarship and went to Chile, where afterward to Damascus to study both and 2011, as well as in documenta K18 illustrator and since then has pursued one hundred photos and sixty maps, Georges Remi was without doubt one she studied Pre-Inca textiles, the the classical and the dialectal Arabic (1987) in Kassel, Germany. Her work a career as a full-time professional Held’s book remains an important of the most popular European subject of her PhD thesis. She later language. In 1880, having earned a is included in private and public artist. reference for the geography of the cartoonists of the twentieth century— traveled, worked, and lived sponsorship from the French Ministry collections worldwide. Caroline Havers lived in many cities region. to the extent that he was often referred extensively in Mexico, France, of Education, he crossed the Syrian Maïmouna Guerresi visited Saudi worldwide: Manila, Washington, D.C., to as “the Father of the European Morocco, India, Chile, Sweden, Japan, desert, then the Nafud, and visited Arabia (Jeddah and Mecca) in 2017. Prague, Brussels, London, Riyadh, Comic Strip”. He was mainly famous South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. In all the cities of Al-Jawf and Ha’il. His Anne de Henning She lives in Italy and Senegal. and Cairo. In each of the countries for The Adventures of Tintin, which he of these countries, Hicks led extensive diary revealed the variety of his (Paris, 1946) where she has lived, local culture, created in 1929. Long before the advent studies on indigenous weaving interests: geodesic determination, nature, and her experiences have been Anne de Henning started her of the television, it succeeded in techniques and investigated local hypsometric observations, and Aya Haidar a source of inspiration for her. photography career in 1969, at the age introducing readers to new countries, craft practices. In most, she also meteorological statements in addition (Houston, 1985) During her stay in Riyadh from 2012 of 23, when she crossed the USSR on landscapes, and cultures. organized workshops dedicated to to geological, ethnographical, After graduating from the Slade School to 2016, Havers produced an important the Trans-Siberian Railway on her way Hergé started his career as an transformative textile. Her work, archaeological, and linguistic studies. of Fine Art in London, Aya Haidar collection of paintings depicting the to Vietnam. A Vietnam War illustrator for a boy scouts magazine. which is characterized by her In March 1881, he reached Baghdad,

246 247 where he participated in the Abu Abdallah Muhammad theology studies there, was ordained up the daring composition of colors Bob Landry photographic processes, photo collage archaeological excavations al-Idrîssî priest, and stayed there until 1928, from Morocco, and Greece taught her (Pennsylvania,1913–1960) and photo silkscreen. of Babylonia. He traveled later to (Ceuta, Morocco, 1100 – c. 1165) when he joined a new institute created how to add gold to a canvas. So Jackie Leger arrived in Saudi Arabia The photojournalist Bob Landry was Damascus and from there returned in Cairo. His research activity was naturally, upon her arrival in Saudi for the first time in 1999. She has been A geographer and cartographer, on a cruiser in the Pacific when the to France. intense: he was an ethnologist, Arabia, the artist investigated the local teaching photography, graphic arts, Al-Idrîssî studied in Cordoba before Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. His Awarded the Gold Medal by the explorer, epigraphist, and visual heritage and was introduced by and Saudi heritage in Riyadh for the traveling extensively in Europe, Africa, photos were the first to show the Geographical Society of Paris, Huber photographer. He taught Arabic, Thierry Mauger’s book to Al-Qatt last fifteen years. Fascinated by Lady and Central Asia. aftermath of the event in Life and was assigned another time by the Nabatean, and Sabaean. Raphaël Al-Asiri, a geometrical abstract art Anne Blunt and Gertrude Bell, two He settled later in Palermo, where Time magazines. From then on, he Commission of the Missions of the Savignac arrived at the school in 1893, originating from the region of Asir. female travelers and adventurers who the court of Roger II of Sicily covered World War II for Life in several Ministry of Education to undertake when he was 18, and settled in The artist was instantly attracted to visited Saudi Arabia in the end of the commissioned him to produce a book theaters of battle, from the Egyptian a new trip to Arabia in May 1883. Jerusalem after his ordination. He Al-Qatt’s colorful aesthetics and was nineteenth century and beginning on geography. After more than fifteen desert to the Normandy landing. In July he was in Damascus, which taught biblical geography and inspired to paint in the same style. of the twentieth century, Jackie Leger years of research, Al-Idrîssî’s Kitab Bob Landry’s photograph of King he left to travel once again to Al-Jawf Aramaic. At the beginning of the The difficulties she faced with the followed and photographed their nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq Abdulaziz was published on the cover and Al-Ula. He arrived in Jeddah twentieth century, Father Jaussen was design encouraged her to deconstruct respective paths in the Kingdom. (The Pleasure Excursion of One who of the March 5, 1945 edition of Life, in May 1884 and left that city the director of the school; he was also and further develop. What drives She published in 2012 a small book is eager to traverse the regions of the on the occasion of the King’s meeting at the end of July 1884. He was the director of the expeditions that Jeantelot’s fascination is both the destined for tourists visiting the World), known as The Book of Roger, with Franklin Roosevelt. Other assassinated by his guides a couple the school organised, in Palestine practice of this art form and the region: Riyadh Point of View. She held was completed in 1154. Written in photographs by Landry featured the of days later near Rabigh. Ernest and beyond, to visit the Bedouin theory behind it, which in her opinion several exhibitions of her Saudi- Arabic and Latin and accompanied by royal palace in Riyadh, camel Renan, with the support of the and Christian Arab tribes of the compliment and clarify one another. inspired artwork inside the Kingdom maps, it presented the world as caravans, cemeteries in Riyadh and Geographical Society and the Moab country (1905), to Petra ( 1906), Jeantelot’s work was published in and abroad, including one at the a sphere and divided the world into Jeddah, Prince Faisal’s tent in Arafat, Asian Society, published his notes around the Dead Sea (1908–09), Thierry Mauger’s book Rijal au fil Brunei Gallery of London, entitled: seven climatic zones. Considered one and pilgrims in Jeddah. in 1891 under the title Journal and to the desert fortresses in the east du pinceau. History Lessons, Mada’in Saleh. of the most important scientific d’un voyage en Arabie (Diary of Amman (1912). Fathers Jaussen works of that period, Al-Idrîssî’s book of a travel in Arabia). and Savignac went on three missions Philippe de La Rue was destroyed during the civil unrest Saadi Al-Kaabi Prosper Marilhat to Arabia (1907, 1909, and 1910), (seventeenth century) before the end of the twelfth century. (Najaf, Iraq, 1934) (Vertaizon, France, 1811 – Paris, 1847) mainly to Mada’in Saleh, Khereibeh, Mahmud Husayn Malik The abbreviated version of his second Active during the seventeenth century, and Al-Ula, taking the Hijaz Railroad Saadi Al-Kaabi graduated from Prosper Marilhat, a banker’s son, left Al-Shu‘ara’ book, “Little Idrîssî” is all that little is known of cartographer several times on their voyages. It is Baghdad’s Institute of Fine Arts in his native province to study painting in (Tehran, 1813 – 1893/94) remains of Al-Idrîssî ’s cartography. Philippe de La Rue excepting the in the context of these expeditions 1960. Six years later, he accepted a job Paris, in the ateliers of Pierre-Luc-Charles It was printed in Vicence in Arabic in fifteen maps or so he produced. A Qajar painter who belonged to the that Father Savignac developed his offer as an art teacher in Saudi Arabia, Cicéri and later with Camille 1475 and in Latin a few decades later. We know, however, that he worked Kashan school of painting, Mahmud remarkable photographic talent. where during four years he taught in Roqueplan. In 1831, Baron Karl von Muhammad Al-Idrîssî was the first with another cartographer, Nicolas Husayn was known for his These expeditions resulted in the different institutions. His influence, as Hügel, an Austrian aristocrat, noticed to claim that the earth was round Sanson, with whom he produced meticulously drawn landscapes. publication of important publications, well as that of other Iraqi artists, would his outstanding talent as a and surrounded by a blanket in 1651 a series of maps of the Holy An intellectual as well, he studied mainly the five volumes of Mission be significant on several representatives draughtsman and invited him to join of air. Land, La Terre sainte en six cartes literature, religious law, prosody, archéologique en Arabie, published of the first generation of Saudi artists. a scientific expedition he was leading géographiques (The Holy Land in six rhyming, poetry, history, from 1909 to 1919, and reissued Upon his return to Baghdad, he was in the Middle East and India. maps). By organizing these maps in mathematics, and philosophy. He was Fathers Jaussen and Savignac by the French Institute for Oriental appointed director of the Department Fascinated with the architecture chronological order, La Rue’s intention given the post of malik al-shu‘ara’, Antonin Jaussen Archaeology of Cairo in 1997. of Planning at the Iraqi Ministry of Cairo and Alexandria, Marilhat was to trace the history of the world or poet laureate, and also held the (Sanilhac, France, 1871 – Jonquière- of Culture and Information. Later, he decided not to pursue the trip with his from its origin. posts of chief financial officer of the Saint-Vincent, France, 1962) occupied several important posts in the companions to India and instead Magali Jeantelot government newspaper and the administration of culture in his country stayed in Egypt for two years. He had Raphaël Savignac (Paris, 1958) national printing house. Mahmud while establishing himself as an Jackie Leger the opportunity during his stay (Cajarc, France, 1874 – Bethlehem, Husayn was also a talented After graduating in sociology important artist in the art scene. (Boston, 1947) to produce portraits of Mohammed Ali 1951) calligrapher and he took a series and anthropology, Magali Jeantelot A member of the modernist movement, and Prisse d’Avennes, and also After graduating from the of photographs of royal palaces Founded in 1890 in the Saint-Étienne specialized in African studies. She first Saadi Al-Kaabi was among the artists to create many drawings that he Massachusetts College of Art and and gardens. A skilled painter, he convent, the École pratique d’études visited Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in 2011 who sought to forge an authentic Iraqi showcased after his return to France Design, Jackie Leger obtained an MFA mastered both the old and new style bibliques, which became in 1920 and lived there for three years. In 2017 artistic identity by borrowing elements in 1834, and which earned him the from Yale University School of Art. She of painting. He is known for his the École française archéologique she moved to Riyadh. from the heritage and the history of the respect of painters, such as Corot works primarily with black-and-white architectural paintings, including two et biblique de Jérusalem, was the first During her various travels, Jeantelot country. Numerous exhibitions of his and Fromentin. He was also lauded by traditional photography documenting that are held in the Gulistan Palace permanent institute dedicated searched for ways to connect with the artwork were organized in Baghdad writers, such as Théophile Gautier vernacular architecture, historic ruins, Museum in Tehran. to archaeological and biblical research different cultures she encountered. and in the Arab world, as well as in and Fromentin. Later, Marilhat heritage and landscapes. Using her in the Holy Land. Antonin Jaussen, Jeantelot painted her whole life, Rome, New York, Moscow, Stockholm, traveled to Italy, and afterwards, background in photography, she then aged 19, joined the school the and on every trip during her travels, Berlin, Prague, Beijing, and Ankara. to Provence. However, Egypt continued makes uses of mixed media techniques year it was created. He undertook she gained a technical skill. She picked to dominate his work. In France, in her artwork to include alternate

248 249 he created paintings such as La Place Lionel Marty year at the “Rencontres d’Arles in with an espionage mission. He later Mohamed Naghi Real Academia de Bellas Artes de l’Esbekieh and Souvenir de la (1971) Black” in France. Samer Mohdad’s published his first novel in 1931, (Alexandria, 1888–1956) de San Fernando in Madrid, where campagne de Rosette, and also Ruines photographs have been exhibited Les secrets de la mer Rouge (Secrets he received a degree in mural painting First he published Mort Linden, Mohamed Naghi studied law in Lyon de la mosquée du Khalife Hakem, at the FotoFest Biennial in Houston, of the Red Sea). He also worked as a in 1974. a science fiction series, then Le Rêve from 1906 to 1910. He was the first which collectively resulted in his being Texas (2014), the Blue Sky Center correspondent covering the wars in In the 1980s, Nawar founded, with de Jérusalem. Even though he does Egyptian to study visual arts in considered one of the pioneers of for Photographic Art in Portland, Yemen (1934) and Ethiopia (1936). three other Egyptian artists, the not have a particular style or genre, Florence, from 1910 to 1914. Naghi Orientalism. Marilhat had always Oregon (2015), and the Sol Mednick After the outbreak of World War II, de “Mihwar” (Axis) group. In 1982, he admits his love for science fiction continued his studies at the School suffered from physical ailments and Gallery in the University of Arts in Monfreid refused to leave Ethiopia and he was commissioned to create the films as well as his admiration of Fine Arts in Cairo, where he was as his health deteriorated, he became Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2016). consequently was accused of espionage Faculty of Fine Arts at Minia for great artists, such as Frazetta, later appointed its first Egyptian incapable of undertaking new trips, for the enemy, arrested by the British, University, where he served as dean Mignola, and Wendling. director. to his dismay. His paintings, though and deported in Kenya, where he and chair of its graphics department. Herman Moll As a diplomat, he traveled extensively very scarce, continued to circulate, was placed under house arrest. From 1988 to 2006, Nawar held the (Bremen, c. 1654 – c. 1732) during his life and lived in Brazil thanks to lithography by around Fra Mauro Henry de Monfreid returned to France position of director of the Fine Arts and in different European countries. forty printers. He died at the age (Venice, c. 1385 – c. 1459) Born in Germany, Herman Moll after the end of World War II, where Sector in the Ministry of Culture, In 1918, he spent several months of thirty-six without being able emigrated very early in his life to he pursued writing and painting. and also headed the Museums Sector Fra Mauro delivered a unique piece in Giverny in the company of Claude to return to the Orient. England and should therefore be He wrote more than seventy books. of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of history, a world map that reflected Monet, whom he admired. considered a London cartographer. in Egypt from 1994 to 1999. geographical knowledge of his time. In 1932, Naghi founded the Atelier, He opened his own book and map In the series Hijaz, Inspiration Thierry Mauger In 1450, Mauro composed the great Bernhard Moritz an artist collective in Alexandria, enterprise in London and was from the Holy Land, Nawar depicts (Nice, 1947 – France, 2017) Mappa Mundi—world map. The map (Guben, Germany, 1859 – Berlin, 1939) and three years later he participated considered one of the most influential scenes that fluctuate between the past at that time was extremely accurate in the creation of the Cairo Atelier, Writer, photographer, and ethno- individuals in the English map trade. After finishing his studies in and the present. The composition and a result of extensive research. which included artists and writers. photographer Thierry Mauger Moll studied the work of other Protestant Theology and Oriental of his drawings is theatrical. The artist It took several years to complete. He was appointed director of the graduated from the École des Hautes cartographers, whom he used as languages at the University of Berlin, produces with brio a multitude The thorough mapmaker assembled Museum of Modern Art in Cairo from Études en Science Sociales (EHESS) sources for creating his own maps. where he received a doctorate in 1882, of layers of shadow and light a copious amount of knowledge and 1939 to 1947 and was director of the of Paris. He was a member of the He worked as an engraver for several Bernhard Moritz received a grant from reminiscent of the chiaroscuro produced it in text and illustrations, Egyptian Academy in Rome from 1947 Royal Geographical Society, map publishers in London, which the German Archaeological Institute, technique. all included with the map. The map is to 1950. In 1952, he established the as well as an active member of the allowed him to gain his own clientele, enabling him to travel to Syria and today known as the “Fra Mauro map” Cairo atelier. International Cooperation for the propelling his individual work. Mesopotamia, between 1883 and 1885. and it featured tales by travelers A painter, a poet, a thinker, Mohamed Carsten Niebuhr Preservation and Protection of In 1709, he published an engraved After his return to Germany, Moritz and explorers gathered by Mauro Naghi was a free artist in all his (Lüdingworth, Germany, Traditional Architectural Heritage map of Arabia that was colored by worked as a research assistant at the from around the globe. expressions. He was familiar with all 1733 – Meldorf, Germany, 1815) (CICAT). His doctoral dissertation in hand. The title of the map was Arabia Egyptian Department of the Royal the artistic movements. He succeeded, social anthropology and ethnology Agreeable to Modern History. It was Museums in Berlin, as well as a After completing his studies in however, in elaborating on a perfectly focused on the vernacular architecture Samer Mohdad published in Atlas Manuale – A New librarian and Arabic teacher at the mathematics and cartography, Carsten personal and original style. In 1962, of Asir (EHESS, 1995). Having lived in (Bzebdine, Lebanon, 1964) Set of Maps of All Parts of the Earth, University of Berlin. During that Niebuhr, then 28, was asked to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture Saudi Arabia for more than ten years, one of the first small-format atlases period, he continued to travel participate in an expedition to Arabia After finishing his studies in the art converted his studio in Cairo into he devoted himself, on one hand, to created by Moll. His atlases were frequently to the Middle East, where organized by the Danish government. of photography in 1988 at the École a museum. preserving the architectural treasures popular for their affordability and he took numerous photographs. Commissioned by King Frederick V supérieure des arts Saint-Luc in Liège of the region using the honest medium their revisions in follow-up editions. From 1896 to 1911, Moritz headed the of Denmark, the mission included, in Belgium, Samer Mohdad worked for of photography—which according Despite its small size, Arabia Agreeable Egyptian National Library in Cairo. Ahmad Nawar in addition to Niebuhr, Pehr Forsskål, the photo agency Vu in Paris until to Mauger, “shows rather than to Modern History is rich in details, During that period, he undertook several (Gharabiya, Egypt, 1945) a botanist and former student 2002. In 1997, he cofounded with describes”—and on the other hand, including physical attributes of the research trips to the Sinai and to Hijaz. of Linné; Christian Karl Cramer, Fouad Elkoury the Beirut-based Arab Nawar is a dry-point artist, master to providing a survey on this area, caravan trails, and tribal Upon his return to Berlin, he pursued a physician and zoologist; Friedrich Image Foundation, an organization etcher, painter, and draftsman. threatened and non-accessible terrain, alliances and settlements. his university career and published Christian von Haven, a philologist that seeks to archive and preserve Following his graduation from the shedding light on the danger of losing several books on the Middle East, and linguist; and Georg Wilhelm photography from the Middle East and Helwan Faculty of Fine Arts in 1967, a rich culture. He dedicated several among them Bilder aus Palästina, Baurenfeind, an artist and engraver. North Africa. Mohdad authored five Henry de Monfreid Nawar was called for service in the publications to this subject: Nord-Arabien und dem Sinai (Pictures The mission came to be remembered photography books: War Children, (Franqui, France, 1879 – Paris, 1974) Egyptian army and was deployed In the Shadow of the Black Tents from Palestine, North Arabia and the as the “Danish Arabia expedition”; Lebanon 1985-1992 (1993), Return to Suez during the October 1973 War. (Tihama, 1986), Bedouins of Arabia Henry de Monfreid’s writings, Sinai), which includes numerous Niebuhr was its only survivor. to Gaza (1996), Mes Arabies (1999), His sculptures produced from objects (Souffles, 1988), Flowered Men and paintings, and photographs document photographs Moritz took of Mecca, During the expedition, Niebuhr Assaoudia (2005), and Beirut from the battlefields and his etchings Green Slopes of Arabia (Souffles, 1988), his thirty-five years of wanderings Medina, Jeddah, Meda’in Saleh, produced important maps that were Mutations (2013). A retrospective of his that showed dismembered figures The Ark of the Desert (Souffles, 1991), in the Red Sea. A tireless adventurer, and Yanbu, as well as the construction used for more than one hundred work was shown in 2013 at the on dark backgrounds reflect this Undiscovered Asir (Stacey, 1993), and he undertook all trades and dealings: of the Hijaz Railroad. years, in addition to charts and plans Submarine Base in Bordeaux in its experience, which deeply affected him. Impressions of Arabia: Architecture coffee, leather, pearls, arms… for towns. Upon his return, he “Photographers for the History” cycle Ahmed Nawar was granted and Frescoes of the Asir Region (1996). During World War I, he was entrusted published the narrative of his travels, and during the summer of the same a scholarship to study at the

250 251 Travels through Arabia, and other titled Mecca the Blessed, Medina the becoming a skilled miniaturist, where he joined the School of He sojourned in Riyadh on three in Chalons, France, where he acquired countries in the East, as well Radiant. Nomachi’s photographs have watercolorist, and engraver. Barbizon. In 1853, he was admitted occasions and was the first European skills in drafting and engineering. as Forsskål’s work, the naturalist been published worldwide and he has Beginning in 1807, he specialized to the Salon de Paris and to the in 1917 to visit the southern provinces From an early age he dreamt of of the expedition, under the title won numerous awards, including the in everyday life and satirical genre workshop of Théodore Chassériau. of Nejd. He converted to Islam in exploring the Orient, and at the age Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica. Annual Award of the Photographic scenes. He traveled to Paris after the In 1855, the French diplomat Prosper 1930, adopted an Arab identity as of nineteen he traveled to Greece Society of Japan in 1990 and 1997, fall of Napoleon, where he produced Bourée invited him on an official Shaykh Abdullah, and became adviser to participate in the war for and the Medal of Honor with Purple one of his major artworks, Scènes mission to Nasser-al-Din’s court in to King Abdulaziz, helping him to independence from the Ottoman Alex Nikolavitch Ribbon in 2009. de caractère de la vie Parisienne, Persia. He spent eighteen months negotiate with the United Kingdom Empire. Afterward, he traveled to (1971) and composed twenty-four aquatint in Persia, where he made many trips and the United States after petroleum India, Palestine, and then Egypt, Alex Nikolavitch has dedicated his prints. He later traveled extensively in the company of the Shah, who was discovered in 1938. He later where he settled and worked at first Ronan Olier entire career to comic books. in Europe, Russia, England, commissioned him a number of settled in Jeddah. on civil and hydrological projects. (Douarnenez, France, 1949) A translator of American comics since and Turkey. In the 1980s, he settled paintings. In subsequent trips, Pasini In 1932, Philby was the second He developed a great interest in the late 1990s, he has written the He studied at the École des Beaux-arts in Leipzig where he became visited Egypt, the Red Sea, and Arabia. European, a year after Bertram Egyptology, embraced Islam, took the French versions of more than 350 in Quimper and then at the École a professor in its Academy of Arts. In 1865, he spent some time in Thomas, to cross the Rub‘ al- Khali. name Edris-Effendi, and decided to comic books, including stories by nationale supérieure des arts His paintings are held in numerous Cannes, where he painted landscapes He mapped on camelback what is now abandon his career as a lecturer in Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, décoratifs in Paris. In 2001 he was museums, including the Carnavalet of the Riviera. He visited Istanbul the Saudi-Yemeni border on the Rub‘ fortifications at the School of Infantry and Warren Ellis. As a comic book appointed “Official Painter of the Museum in Paris, the Wien Museum in 1868–69 and traveled to Syria al-Khali; his road tracing is still valid at Damietta to dedicate himself to story writer, he has a clear preference Fleet”. This allowed him to sail to in Vienna, and the Royal Collection and Lebanon in 1873. today. Philby is the author of several archeological research. for historical subjects. We owe thanks distant seas on board French navy Trust in England. Opiz wrote novels Pasini was enthralled by the light books on Saudi Arabia including He settled in Luxor and from there, to him for La Dernière Cigarette vessels. published under the pseudonym of the East, which he reproduced in The Heart of Arabia (1922), Arabia during a seven-year period, he (Vertige Graphic), Spawn Simony, and In 2008, en route to Djibouti, he “Bohemus”. landscapes bathed in shadow and sun. of the Wahhabis (1928), The Empty embarked on numerous journeys, more recently, Tengu-Do and Crusades stayed for four days in Jeddah and His quasi-hyperrealistic style sets him Quarter (1933), A Pilgrim in Arabia including travels to Nubia, Abyssinia, (Les Humanoïdes Associés). He also produced several paintings of the Red apart from the exotic paintings of the (1943), Arabian Highlands (1952), Syria, Palestine, Persia, Turkey, and Edith Ortoli wrote the essay Mythe & Super-Héros Sea. In 2010, he was invited to Jeddah early Orientalists. and Saudi Arabia (1955). Arabia. Émile Prisse d’Avennes spoke (Mayenne, France, 1949) ((Les Moutons électriques). For Glénat, for a residency. There he organized Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Coptic, he collaborated with Christian Clot painting workshops as well as an Edith Ortoli graduated from the École Amharic, Latin, English, Italian, and Jan Peeters Otto Pilny on the scenario of the two Burton exhibition of his paintings inspired des beaux-arts in Paris. Her artistic Spanish, and had a marked ability to (Antwerp, 1624–1678) (Budweis, Bohemia, 1866 – comics in the Explora collection. by his stay in Arabia. production includes works in acrylic, decipher hieroglyphics. He sketched Zürich, 1936) During this residency, he traveled mixed media, collages, and drawings, Born in Antwerp in 1624, Jan Peeters many inscriptions and bas-reliefs 3000 kilometers around the western and she has won several prizes at studied painting with his two elder Otto Pilny studied art in Prague. on temples, palaces, and tombs Kazuyoshi Nomachi region of Arabia and visited and exhibitions in France. brothers, Gilles and Bonaventura. In His first trip to Egypt was in 1875, in Karnak. (Kochi prefecture, Japan, 1946) painted the cities of Ta’if, Al-Baha, Edith Ortoli lived in Riyadh from 2005 1645, he became, like them, a member where he spent two years. On the He published Les Monuments Nomachi began studying and Dhee Ayn, Al-Ula, Meda’in Saleh, to 2008 and brought back to France of Antwerp’s Guild of St. Luke. He occasion of that trip he followed the égyptiens in 1847 and Oriental album practicing photography when he was and Yanbu. a wealth of visual impressions and specialized in seascape paintings and caravan road between Cairo and in 1848. Both publications included a teenager,. He began his career as a The works of this painter and traveler a rich palette of pastels and ochres. especially in paintings depicting, Tripoli, with his dog as his sole chromolithographs and woodcuts freelance advertising photographer. have been featured in many Her artistic vision of Arabia is under dark skies, ships during storms. companion. It was during his second of his Egyptian drawings. From 1869 When he made his first trip to the exhibitions in France and abroad, represented in paintings, drawings, Peeters traveled a great deal trip, from 1889 to 1892, that the to 1877, he published L’Art arabe, Sahara, at twenty-five, he discovered and he has illustrated several books, photographs, and, above all, in her throughout Europe, especially in khedive Abbas Hilmi II discovered and which contained two hundred plates. the strength of its people, who lived in including À la poursuite du rayon vert, artist’s book Esprit de désert (Spirit France, to paint its cities and ports. admired his work and decorated him Finally, in 1877, Émile Prisse difficult conditions, and decided to which received the Cercle de la Mer of the Desert), in which architectural His drawings were later copied and with the Order of the Medjidie. Pilny d’Avennes published L’Histoire de l’art devote his career to photojournalism. prize. Ronan Olier lives and works motifs, calligraphy, and Neolithic commercialized as prints. It seems was a prolific artist who produced égyptien, containing one-hundred Since then and for the last forty years, in Brittany. graffiti remind us of the continued that his travels led him as far as Libya, many paintings featuring the desert, sixty plates. Nomachi has been photographing human presence in these deserts Egypt, and Palestine, which he also its landscapes, and people. He often various populations living in harsh for thousands of years. depicted in his drawings. traveled to the desert with the Bedouins Georg Emanuel Opiz Aref El Rayess areas, highlighting their strength. He and depicted their entertainment (Prague, 1775 – Leipzig, 1841) (Aley, Lebanon, 1928 – Beirut, 2005) has photographed the Nile, the as well as their prayers. Alberto Pasini Harry St John Bridger Philby Ganges, Uganda, Ethiopia, China, Opiz studied law for a short period Self-taught painter and sculptor Aref (Busseto, Italy, 1826 – Cavoretto, (Ceylon, 1885 – Beirut, 1960) Peru, and Bolivia. before finding his calling at the El Rayess started painting at the age Italy, 1899) Émile Prisse d’Avennes From 1995 to 2000, Nomachi traveled Academy of Arts in Dresden. He later British Arabist, explorer, and colonial of eleven using his mother’s paints and (Avesnes-sur-Helpe, France, to Saudi Arabia, photographing its moved to Vienna, where it seems that One of the most famous Italian office intelligence officer Harry St John brushes. His first exhibition took place 1807–1879) annual pilgrimage. He was the first he was a pupil of Francesco Giuseppe Orientalists, Alberto Pasini enrolled in Philby studied oriental languages at in 1948 in the West Hall of the Japanese to extensively document the Casanova, a painter of battle pieces. the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma, the University of Cambridge. In 1917 Artist, writer, scholar, engineer American University of Beirut. That pilgrimage. His photographs of Mecca In the beginning of his practice, Opiz where he studied landscape painting and 1918, he headed the British and linguist, Émile Prisse d’Avennes same year, the artist moved to Paris, and Medina were published in a book concentrated on portraiture, later and drawing. He next traveled to Paris, political mission to Central Arabia. studied at the École des arts et métiers where he studied painting in the

252 253 studios of Fernard Léger and André most iconic photo, Flower Child, of Oriental manuscripts and weapons. of as artistic mediums. One such to 1915, Shakespear undertook seven Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Mohammed Lhote, etching with Friedlander and depicting a protester holding a flower He then wrote an 800-page, exquisitely process is working from casts he took expeditions into the Arabian al-Sharafi al-Safaqusi sculpting with Ossip Zadkine while in front of the bayonets of National illustrated account of his travels. Titled of bullet holes and bombing damage Peninsula. On his return to Kuwait (sixteenth century) studying at the famous Académie Guardsmen. On Oriental Horses and Those in Kabul, Afghanistan; in gang- from his second expedition in 1910, Al-Safaqusi belonged to a family de la Grande Chaumière. Two large-scale retrospectives of his Descended from Eastern Breeds, it was controlled neighborhoods of Kingston, he met Ibn Saud, then the Emir of the of cartographers living in the city In the 1980s, Aref Rayess traveled work were organized in Paris, at the published in its original form only Jamaica; and in Iraqi Kurdistan after Nejd. They were both then in their of Sfax, Tunisia. He wrote in 1571 regularly to Saudi Arabia, where he musée de la Vie Romantique in 2014, in 2002. fights between ISIS and the mid-thirties and quickly became The Mediterranean Sea atlas, held lived during the years of the civil war and at the musée Guimet in 2010. Count Rzewuski was killed in in 1831 Peshmerga. Piers Secunda also worked close friends. in the Bodleian Library and published in Lebanon. He was appointed art in the battle of Daszow during the with crude oil to create arresting In each of these expeditions, in Manchester in 2003 by W. C. Brice. consultant for the city of Jeddah and Polish Uprising. works of art, such as his Dammam Shakespear took with him the Claire Rivier was commissioned to produce a No 7 series, which spark reflections necessary photographic equipment. (Lyon, 1948) number of public sculptures for the and debates on the intersecting It was Shakespear who in 1911, Humberto da Silveira Muhammad Sadic Bey country, the most ambitious of which Claire Rivier works today in France narratives of geopolitics and at Thaj, took the first-ever (Poxoréo, Brazil, 1954) (Cairo, 1822–1902) is a twenty-seven-meter-tall aluminum after residing in many countries environmental politics. photographs of Ibn Saud, who had Humberto da Silveira studied sculpture representing the name in the Arab world, in particular in Muhammad Sadic Bey was one of the never seen a camera before. photography with Roberto Maia of “Allah”. It stands in an important Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, United Arab first Egyptians educated in France, The account of that meeting, which Ursula Schulz-Dornburg in Rio de Janeiro and later at Parson’s square in Jeddah. Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. She where he studied at the École Shakespear recorded in his diary, (Berlin, 1938) School of Art and Design in New York. A prolific artist, during his stay in participated in several exhibitions, Polytechnique in Paris and learned is believed to be the earliest He worked as a professional Saudi Arabia, Aref Al Rayess produced, especially during her stays in Riyadh photography and drawing. When Born in 1938, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg description of King Abdulaziz with photographer in Brazil, the USA, using bold colors in his almost abstract from 1993 to 1999 and 2005 to 2009. he returned to Cairo, Sadic worked lives and works in Düsseldorf. After European eyes. “Ibn Saud was and France. style, many paintings representing She set up and led a wood-painting as an engineer in the army. He was studying journalism in the early a fair, handsome man, considerably In 1985, an invitation to attend the country’s landscapes. workshop in Riyadh. commissioned to take journeys to 1960s, she started a career in above-average Arab height and of very the opening of the Islamic Art Gallery El Rayess exhibited internationally Mecca and Medina, where he took journalism focusing immediately on courteous manner,” he wrote. of the King Faisal Foundation in and received numerous awards for his photos that were displayed in the dwellings as fundamentally human In March 1914, Shakespear began Waclaw Seweryn Rzewuski Riyadh allowed him to discover the work. The Aref El Rayess Foundation Egyptian pavilion at the Universal elements. She traveled from the secret a 2,900-kilometer journey from (Lwów, Poland, 1784 – 1831) Kingdom. Since then, da Silveira has was created in 2015. Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. city of Kurchatovia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait to Riyadh and on to Aqabah been spending much of his time Count Waclaw Rzewuski, Polish He also showed his images of the to Kroonstad, Russia; from the border via the Nafud Desert, which he in Saudi Arabia where, for the last nobleman, officer in the Australian two holy cities of Mecca and Medina that separates Georgia and Azerbaijan mapped. The data he collected was Marc Riboud thirty-five years, he has been army, and writer, developed a twin at the Third International to Iraq and Syria; and from Armenia destined for the geographical (Saint-Genis-Laval, France, documenting the country’s people passion for horses and Orientalism. Geographical Congress in Venice to the Hijaz railway in Saudi Arabia, department of Britain’s War Office. 1923 – Paris, 2016) and heritage. As a child, he rode horses on the in 1881, where he was rewarded with to photograph the strong ties between In 1914, Sir Percy Cox, the British In 1992, Humberto da Silveira Marc Riboud was given his first family stud ranch. He was initiated a gold medal for the exhibition. industrial and architectural structures, political agent in Kuwait, sent William published Najd, a photographic study camera, a Kodak Vest Pocket, for his to Oriental languages by his uncle, Muhammad Sadic was later elected the landscape, and the people who Henry Shakespear to protect Ibn Saud, on the central region of Saudi Arabia. fourteenth birthday in 1937, and took Jan Potocki, a great traveler, learned president of the Khedival Geographic inhabit them. Schulz-Dornburg’s whose army was attacked by Ibn In 1994, he published Bedu, in which his first photos at that year’s World’s Orientalist and famous writer Society in Cairo. He was conferred the artwork is a critical exploration Rashid. During the Battle of Jarrab he documented the nomadic way Fair in Paris. After the war, he studied who influenced him greatly and who title of “bey” and published several of the construction of power and its in January 1915, Ibn Saud asked of life in Saudi Arabia. In 2013, engineering at the École Centrale later authored a world-renowned books on the pilgrimage. impermanent character. Since 1975, Shakespear to retreat to a safe location he published Hegra, a comprehensive de Lyon. He embarked on a career book, The Manuscript found in her work has been featured in more before the fighting began. He declined photographic album on the Nabatean in engineering but abandoned it after Saragossa. than forty exhibitions—including to do so and was struck by a bullet Piers Secunda civilization in Arabia including the three years to devote himself to In 1817, Rzewuski succeeded in recently in the Tate Modern in London and killed. Shakespear was buried (London, 1976) Dedanite and Lihyanite cultures. photography. convincing the Tsar Alexander I and in the Giorgio Mastinu Gallery in Kuwait. In 2017, he published Madinah in His first published photo appeared in and Queen Catherine of Württemberg A British visual artist residing in in Venice. Captain Shakespear owned two which he documented the holy city’s Life magazine in 1953. The same year, to finance an expedition to Arabia. London, Piers Secunda studied cameras: a small Ensignette, a foldable architectural heritage. In addition he became a member of the Magnum He traveled to Aleppo and from there painting at the Chelsea College of Arts camera introduced in 1909 by William Henry Irvine Shakespear to his books devoted to Arabia, Photo agency on the invitation of to Damascus before finally reaching in London. Among his main lines the British company Houghton, (Mumbai, 1880 – Al Majma’ah, Humberto da Silveira published Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert the Arabian desert. After many of artistic inquiry is the way materials and a Kodak panoramic camera, Saudi Arabia, 1915) in 2013 a photographic study on Capa. From then on, his numerous adventures, Rzewuski purchased one and textures can express the lines, a wooden device with a spring- Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. assignments cemented his reputation hundred thirty-seven horses, mares, divides, and dynamics that arise from William Henry Irvine Shakespear mounted lens. Shakespear carried for arresting war photography. and stallions for his stables as well politics, geopolitics, and the urgency joined the British Foreign Office with him tanks of chemicals, In the 1960s, he covered the struggle as for his patrons. of climate change. He started by using in 1904, becoming the youngest developing his negatives in a Walid Siti of the Algerian people for He returned to Poland where he lived paint as a sculptural material and then vice-consul in British India. A blacked-out corner of his tent. (Duhok, Iraqi-Kurdistan, 1954) independence. In 1967, during a in his family’s estate, dressed developed other innovative mediums remarkable linguist, he spoke fluent Walid Siti graduated in 1976 from protest against the Vietnam War in Bedouin robes among his Arabian for his work, stemming from a will to Urdu, Pashto, Persian, and Arabic. the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad outside the Pentagon, he captured his horses and his rich collection use materials not usually thought While in his post in Kuwait from 1909

254 255 and pursued his studies in Ljubljana, A second portfolio, Bilder aus Englishman. Known for his very sculpture, video installations, of the few photographers permitted Tanganyika. He continued traveling Slovenia. Fleeing the turmoil in his Mekka, was published in 1889. colorful and decorative maps, often drawing, and performance. In his to photograph during that year’s Hajj. until the age of 70. His numerous home country, he settled in the United Snouck’s book provided a valuable including inserts with costumed series Mapping Investment, he Her photographs were published books, illustrated with his own Kingdom and was granted political description of Mecca’s society, its daily figures and panoramas of their examines the relationships among in The Fifth Pillar, Hajj Pilgrimage outstanding photographs, asylum in 1984, where he still resides. life, and its customs, guilds, cities, Speed’s maps were very much art, economy, and politics using (Gilgamesh Publishing House, 2012). are a testament to his great talent Siti trained in printmaking, but works and festivals. sought after. drawing, hand-cut bank notes, In 2009, she was one of the four and his travels. extensively in a variety of mediums The publishing of the book in 1888 and collages. photographers who created the female including installation, 3-D works, granted him impressive renown. He collective “Rawiya” whose main aim George Steinmetz Samuel Thornton work on paper, and painting. was offered a professorial chair by Rayyane Tabet was to produce endogenous visions (Beverly Hills, California, 1957) (1670–1715) He is strongly influenced by his Leiden University as well as by (Achkout, Lebanon, 1983) that contribute to breaking down experience of war, exile, memory, Cambridge. He declined both positions George Steinmetz graduated from Western stereotypes and clichés about After the death of his father— Rayyane Tabet received a bachelor’s in and loss. His works often question as he preferred pursuing his research, Stanford University with a degree the Orient. chart-maker, engraver, publisher, architecture from The Cooper Union the notions of collective identity this time in Indonesia, where he in geophysics. He then started his Her work ranges from reportage and English sea captain John in New York and a master’s in fine arts and interdependence and the way sojourned for a long period. career as a professional photographer of political events and socially Thornton—in 1708, Samuel Thornton from the University of California in they are shaped by culture, tradition, Henceforth, he advised the Dutch by hitchhiking through Africa for engaging topics to portraits and art continued his father’s work by San Diego. His art practice focuses borders, and nations. Siti’s work government on issues pertaining eighteen months, then received photography. Her photographs and reprinting it and producing new mainly on the use of objects which he is held in prestigious collections to Islam. It was in the framework his first assignment for National projects have been published in charts. His Sea Atlas contained 172 treats as sculptures and archaeological such as The British Museum, of this advisory function that his role Geographic in 1987. For this newspapers and magazines worldwide, hand-colored charts, making it one artifacts that explore memory and The Imperial War Museum, and the was largely controversial. In this same publication, he has examined and she has exhibited in international of the most comprehensive collections history. His artwork The Shortest Victoria & Albert Museum in London; manner, and upon his return, he subjects ranging from global oil institutions such as the Victoria of printed charts of the era. Distance between Two Points is a The Metropolitan Museum, advised several European governments exploration to the innermost & Albert Museum, the Los Angeles conceptual and aesthetic investigation in New York; and the World Bank on questions relating to Muslim stretches of the Sahara and Irian County Museum of Art (LACMA), of the history of the Trans-Arabian Abu Subhi Al-Tinawi in Washington, DC. colonies. In 1906, he joined Leiden Jaya, Indonesia. the British Museum, and the Boston Pipe Line (TAP Line), initiated in 1946 (Damascus, 1888–1973) University, where he provided George Steinmetz has also worked Museum of Fine Art. Newsha by the companies Caltex, Esso, and instruction in the field of Arabic, for the French and German editions Tavakolian became a Magnum Abu Subhi Al-Tinawi came from Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje Mobil to transport Saudi oil to the port Indonesian, and Islamic studies, of GEO, producing reports on the Associate in 2017. a family of glass painting and tapestry. (Oosterhout, Holland, 1857 – Leiden, of Haifa and afterwards to Sidon and regularly published, until his Great Salt Desert of Iran and the He had a small housewares shop Holland, 1936) in Lebanon. The Shortest Distance death in 1936, scholarly books Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. in Damascus, where he produced between Two Points explores the Wilfred Thesiger The Dutch Christiaan Snouck in various fields. His first book, African Air, presents tapestries and paintings depicting folk interrelation between geopolitics, (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Hurgronje was sometimes considered, ten years of his aerial photography tales, legends, and heroes. Hung history and oil circulation in the 1910 – London, 2003) alongside the Hungarian Ignac in Africa, much of it done with in coffee shops, the stories of these John Speed Middle East. Golziher and the German Theodor a motorized paraglider. His second His birth in Abyssinia, Ethiopia, where tapestries were narrated by (Cheshire, England, c. 1551 – London, Important exhibitions presenting Nöldeke, as one of the founders book, The Empty Quarter, his father was serving as the head professional storytellers. Al-Tinawi 1629) Rayyane Tabet’s artworks were of modern Orientalism. After documents three expeditions into of the British legation, gave Wilfred also painted in reverse on the back organized in Sharjah (2011), completing his doctoral thesis A cartographer and a historian, John the heart of Saudi Arabia, where Thesiger a taste for the elsewhere. of glass panels, a technique known Amsterdam (2014), Florence (2016), at Leiden University in 1880, on the Speed started his career working in his he traversed the world’s largest As soon as he finished his education as reverse painting, which first Rotterdam (2017), Hamburg (2017), history of the Hajj and its customs, father’s tailor’s business. He received sand sea. at Eton and Oxford, he accepted a job developed in Europe before spreading and Berlin (2017). he was granted a scholarship which an allowance from patrons, enabling as a colonial administrator in Darfur to Turkey and then to the Middle East. allowed him to travel to Arabia, him to dedicate time to research. (west of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), After the Azem Palace Museum Abdullah Syed starting with Jeddah, where he At about the end of the 1580s, he Newsha Tavakolian and throughout the rest of his life, in Damascus commissioned Al-Tinawi (Karachi, 1974) converted to Islam, and afterwards worked on publishing A Concent (Tehran, 1981) he sought the most remote missions. to paint some glass paintings for its to Mecca, where during six months of Scripture, a study on the chronology Artist and designer Abdullah Syed Hence, he readily accepted a proposal museum, he gained fame in Syria A self-taught photographer, Newsha he pursued his Koranic studies of the Bible, which included several grew up and lived several years in from the Food and Agriculture and abroad. Subsequently, Tavakolian began taking photos at the and observed the habits and customs maps. Queen Elizabeth granted him Saudi Arabia, where his father worked Organization (FAO) of the United and to satisfy the large number age of sixteen, and covered the 1999 of all the classes of the society. the use of a room in the Custom for Saudi Arabian Airlines. He studied Nations to travel to the Empty Quarter of commissions he received from student uprising in Teheran. On his return, Snouck published his House where he could undertake his painting in Pakistan and afterwards of Arabia to collect information dealers in Beirut and galleries abroad, In 2002, she started working two-volume work Mekka, research. In 1595, John Speed he completed a PhD in Art, Design, on locust movements. Thesiger crossed he produced numerous glass paintings. internationally, covering the war accompanied by a volume of plates, published a map of biblical Canaan. and Media from the University several times the terrible desert He even held an exhibition of his in Iraq and natural disasters, and Bilder Atlas zu Mekka. It contained His atlas, Theatre of the Empire of New South Wales in Sydney. of the Rub‘ al-Khali, where he spent reverse paintings in Paris. filming social documentary films in 75 loose photographs of the of Great Britaine, was published He currently splits his time among five years with the Bedouins. He Al-Tinawi was known for the vivid Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, inhabitants of Mecca and Jeddah— in 1611–12. In 1627, Speed Karachi, New York, and Sydney. traveled later to Kurdistan, to the and bright colors of his paintings. Pakistan, and Yemen. Mecca’s important families and published Prospect of the Most Abdullah Syed uses various marshes of Iraq, to the Hindu Kush, He prepared his own colors using In 2008, Newsha Tavakolian received pilgrims from Java, Sumatra, and Famous Parts of the World, the first techniques and mediums in his to the Karakorams, to Morocco, colored earths, plant dyes, ground a press visa for the Hajj and was one other islands in the Dutch East Indies. world atlas produced by an artworks, including print screening, to Abyssinia, to Kenya and malachite, and lapis lazuli mixed in

256 257 egg white or Arabic gum. After his in Marseille. From 1878 onward, conquered by Isabella of Castile marked by very dreamy and colorful death, his sons and daughters he worked as an illustrator for the two and Ferdinand of Aragon. He studied drawings that nonetheless resembled continued to paint on glass using their most illustrious Parisian illustrated theology in several madrasas and anatomical or biological cross-section father’s name. In Damascus and in magazines at that time: the Magasin trained to be a diplomat. His travels, drawings. It was only in 1967, at the the Middle East, the “school” pittoresque and Le Tour du Monde, which he undertook at a young age, age of 77, that his work started being of Al-Tinawi is renowned; his reverse published by Hachette. led him to explore the entirety of acknowledged by the public, and only paintings are very much sought after, Gaston Vuillier loved traveling, Morocco, as well as all regions of the in 1972 that he was given his first solo and several researchers and filmmakers especially to Mediterranean countries. Maghreb, the Arabian Peninsula, exhibition at the Whitney Museum have documented his artwork. He published books on Sicily, Tunisia, Saharan Africa, Egypt, and of American Art in New York City, Corsica, Sardinia, and Tripoli. He also Constantinople. In 1518, as he just one month before his death. produced woodcut prints, drawings, returned from the pilgrimage, he was Peter Upton sketches, and watercolors from works captured by Sicilian sailors who (England, 1937) Kazimierz Żwan by other artists. In A Pilgrimage delivered him to a knight from (Mikitycze, Poland, 1792 – Warsaw, Peter Upton, a leading expert on to Nejd (1882), Vuillier produced sixty the Order of Saint-John, who in turn 1858) Arabian horses, authored several prints from Anne Blunt’s watercolors. delivered him to Pope Leo X. books on the subject, among which Towards the end of his life, Vuillier The Pope forced him to convert and A Polish colonel and painter, · were The Arab Horse, republished gave up traveling, devoting himself gave him a new Christian surname, Kazimierz Zwan was, by his mother, numerous times; Royal Heritage, to illustrating books, including Prosper his own name, John-Leo. He then the grandson of Polish King Stanislaw The Story of Jordan’s Arab Horses Mérimée’s novellas, Carmen (1911) became John-Leo Medici, known August Poniatowski. He joined the (with Princess Alia Al Hussein); and and Colomba (1913), as well as as “Leo the African”. army in 1809, but left it in 1831 after Out of the Desert. Upton visited Saudi Chateaubriand’s The Last of the In Bologna, where he was then the defeat of the Polish uprising Arabia and Jordan several times with Abencerrajes (1912). residing, he wrote, at the behest of the against invading Russian forces. He the aim of perfecting his knowledge Pope, his famous Description of Africa. had already shown an interest in of Arabian horses. In addition to the This book was the only source on the paintings during his military service Al-Marrakshi ibn al-Wardi books he authored, he has specialized culture and customs of Africa at the and trained himself by copying Dutch (c. 1400–1457) in representing Arabian horses time. Its maps and illustrations made painters. When he left the army, he in paintings. His paintings of horses A historian, Ibn al-Wardi authored it the only reference book for explorers chose to focus solely on his art, mainly are sought after by horse lovers a geographical treatise, Kitab Kharida set to travel to Africa and the Arabian painting landscapes and military and were showcased several times al-’adjaïb wa farida al-ghara’ib Peninsula. scenes, but also portraits of diplomats in the Mathaf Gallery in London. (The Pearl of wonders and the and members of Polish high society. Uniqueness of strange things), that Joseph Elmer Yoakum included sections on natural history. Safi ibn Vali (Missouri, 1889 – Chicago, 1972) Ibn al-Wardi compiled, in this book, (Gujarat, India, seventeenth century) not only the known geographical The young Joseph Elmer Yoakum, Probably a native of the region facts of the Arab world of his time, of African-American and Cherokee of Gujarat, Safi ibn Vali was a scholar but also information on climates; descent, left his family at the age who authored a commentary on the topography; fauna and flora; and of nine and worked as a stable boy Koran which he dedicated to people and their way of living. for several circuses, all over the United Zebunnisa, daughter of the Mughal His book included a world map States. His early life was quite emperor, who sponsored his and a map of Mecca which, it was nomadic, and he eventually traveled to pilgrimage trip of 1676–77. During written, was copied from Yaqut Europe with the circuses. He returned the pilgrimage he wrote, in Persian, al-Rumi’s Mu’jam al-Buldan to Missouri and married in 1908, but a Hajj guidebook titled Anis al-Hujjaj (Dictionary of Countries). In the latter was later drafted and sent to France (Pilgrims’ Companion) in which he map, as in that of Ibn al-Wardi, for the last year of World War I. The proffered to future pilgrims plentiful the earth is represented as being record of his life afterwards is quite advice pertaining to different aspects supported by the horns of a bull. incomplete but marked by his of the pilgrimage. remarriage in Chicago in the 1940s. He started drawing, in Chicago, first to Al-Hasan ibn Mohammad preserve the memory of the places and Gaston Vuillier al-Wazzan, known as Leo the African landscapes he visited in his life, but (Perpignan, France, 1845 – Gimel, (Grenada, 1494 – Tunis, 1554) later he started illustrating locations France, 1915) An Andalusian explorer and diplomat, he would dream, hear, or read about. Gaston Vuillier studied drawing Leo the African’s family sought refuge Having little, if any formal training, he at the École des Beaux-Arts in the city of Fes after Andalusia was quickly found his one-of-a-kind style,

258 259 Bibliography

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