Travels in Arabia
One of the books I picked up over the years was a summary of early travelers to Arabia by Bayard Taylor, a noted traveler and poet. The 1892…
Tag: travel
Who Owns the Holy Land?
As another year draws to a close, it is hard not to think in larger terms of the course of the last century. The world has seen two…
Loti on Palestine
First English translation of ‘La Galilée’, an account of Pierre Loti’s travels in the Holy Land from Jerusalem to Beirut, via Damascus and many other interesting places, in…
With Pierre Loti in Persia
My friend, the historian G. Rex Smith, has recently translated into English a marvelous travel diary by the French military official and traveller Pierre Loti (1850-1923). It is…
Tim MacIntosh Smith
Read the article about Tim, whose writing on Yemen is terrific.
Rethinking Egyptian Cosmology and the Grand Canyon
Desert View of the Grand Canyon (©el-Sayed el-Aswad, October, 2021) This article relates to a previous paper entitled “Egyptian Cosmology and the Grand Canyon” published by Tabsir on…
Water and Summer Heat in Alexandria
Stanley Bridge, Alexandria (© el-Sayed el-Aswad) After one year of being forced to stay indoors (April ?2020 to May 2021) due to the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic,…
Yemen Military in the early 19th century
The Library of Congress has an online print of an engraving by Andrea Bernieri. It does not appear to be based on an actual observation by the artist.…
Egypt in 1876
The British diplomat Sir Valentine Chirol (1852-1929) wrote a memoir entitled Fifty Years in a Changing World (New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1928). Among the areas in the…
A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing, #3
Dervish; photograph by Sevryugin Anton (1830 – 1933), the official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant…
A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing, #2
In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant missionary interest in saving Muslim, Jewish and other kinds of Christian souls in the Middle East. This…
King Tut’s Tomb in Color
Nice site with photos of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922.
Baghdad and Iraq in 1901
The British traveler Sir Edgar Collins Boehm was one of many travelers up the Persian Gulf and elsewhere more than a century ago. His narrative is rather meager,…
Traditional Seafaring in the Gulf
The online event “Under the Sails – Maritime Conversation on Trade and Seafaring. Perspectives from Iran and Kuwait” held on May 26, 2021 is now available to view…
The Shrine of Nabi Hud
One of the most impressive architectural sites in Yemen is off the beaten track in the Hadramawt, about 90 miles north of al-Mukalla. This is the shrine of…
Damascus Heritage
For an impressive website devoted to the heritage of Damascus, check out “Damascus Heritage.” There are several Youtube videos accessible from the website. I especially like the im…
Handbook of Yemen (1917)
In 1917 the British government issued a handbook on Yemen with details on the geography. local tribes and important individuals. It is especially useful for discussion of travel…
Parading with the Pharaohs
Yesterday there was an extravaganza parade in Cairo parading the embalmed remains of 22 ancient Egyptian pharaohs to their new “eternal” resting place in the National Museum of…
Googling Ibn Majid
One of the most famous Arab navigators is the Omani Ahmad b. Majid, who flourished in the latter half of the 15th century. If you google his name…
Mucus Passports: Mobility in the Time of COVID-19
[no-caption] Bim/Getty Images GUARANTEE “Have you gotten your COVID-19 test result already?” Vijay (a pseudonym) asks me while ringing up my bill at his salon. “Yes,” I answer.…
Joseph Osgood in Aden: 2
Joseph Osgood was a Black American sailor who visited the Yemeni port of Aden about a dozen years before the start of the American Civil War. He offers…
Joseph Osgood in Aden: 1
Joseph Osgood was a Black American sailor who visited the Yemeni port of Aden about a dozen years before the start of the American Civil War. He offers…
Thesiger of Arabia
Anyone who knows anything about Arabia has no doubt heard of Lawrence of Arabia, even if only via Peter O’toole’s dazzling Hollywood version. But there is also Thesiger…
Views of al-Shihr on the Hadrami Coast
In 1991 while on a World Bank consultancy in Aden, I had an opportunity to visit al-Shihr on the Hadrami coast. Here are some scenes from that trip.…