In honor of the current war/peace/electoral hijinks in .the Middle East, the Reading List thought readers puzzled by the elaborate politics of Arab countries might profit from reading some of the great British nonfiction literature about the area:
Travels in Arabia Deserta, by Charles Doughty. We know of no other work like this massive 19th-century first-person account, largely concerned with the haj to Mecca and written in an original and unduplicatable voice that is half Pilgrim’s Progress, half Sir Walter Scott.
Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger. A gorgeous 20th-century description of the Rub al-Khali — the Empty Quarter, the vast patch of desert on the Arabian peninsula.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence. Even if you loved Lawrence of Arabia, based largely on this book, you will be dazzled by this frank, uninhibited memoir, one of the seminal autobiographies of our time. (Pun intended.)
