Far Arabia - Explorers of the Myth

`Arabia'. Is there in the world a more evocative name? At the mere sound of it, images drift into the mind; deserts stretching to sharp horizons, camels passing in grave procession across blazing dawns, palm trees lifting above clear wells, nomad warriors intent on rendezvous with a heroic death. We see to see the domes and minarets of Islam's secret cities, safe behind the barriers of an ancient prohibition; or, among the mountains of the Yemen, tall, many-windowed buildings rising in bizarre dignity... Brent has exmamined the genesis of this Arabia of our dreams, tracing its development in the successive stories of the explorers who helped to create it. For, from Lucovico di Varthema in the 16th century to Wilfred Thesiger in our own, dedicated travellers have brought back from the Arabian peninsular the accounts that now forms a part of our intellectual and artistic traditions...