In Search of Nomads
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
From time immemorial settled peoples have contemplated nomads with a mixture of fascination, envy, disdain and fear. This book looks at four regions that are rich in nomadic culture: the Arabian peninsular; the Sahara; the mountains of Southern Iran; and the steppes of Central Asia; and the eccentric Britons and Americans who chose to seek out and travel with nomads.
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This is a book that covers a lot of ground, tells of the authors travel and interaction with nomads, but for the larger part, reports on other travellers and their interactions and travel with nomads.
Divided into four books, it covers:
1 The migratory tribes of southern Persia - the Bakhtiari & the Qashqui, and with travellers such as Sir Henry Layard, Isabella Bird, Gertrude Bell, Vita Sackville-West & Bruce Chatwin.
2 The Bedouin of Arabia - featuring travellers Lady Hester Stanhope, Jane Digby, Sir Richard Burton, Charles Doughty, Wilfred and Lady Anne Blunt, TE Lawrence, Carl Raswan, St John Philby & Wilfred Thesiger.
3 The Mongol Horsemen in Mongolia and Afghanistan - with Miss Cable & Miss French, William Moorcroft, Freya Stark, Bruce Chatwin & Peter Levi.
4 The Tuareg and the Moors of Northern Africa - with Hugh Clapperton, Gordon Laing, Sir Harry Maclean, Geoffrey Moorhouse, Michael Asher & Quentin Crewe.
It is an enjoyable read, simple to dip in and out of, as the short sections on each person break up well. The only real criticism is that it offer a short summary of each adventurer, which of course cannot compare to full coverage.
Of course, this book focuses on the nomads, where not every traveller does, so John Ure does well to pick the relevant parts about nomads from the longer texts.
For me, having read many of the featured authors it was a light recap, and perhaps helped me to put them into choronological sense. There were a few I have not read or heard of which is also good.
An enjoyable 4 stars.
