Caravan-Serai Tours

Reading List

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia • David E. Long HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 192 PAGES A comprehensive look at modern Saudi Arabia and the complex issues facing the nation. Drawing from extensive research and Long's personal experiences as a Foreign Services officer, this book surveys the land, politics, religion and people of the region. It includes chapters on the Hadj, oil and the Saudi economy. (ARB29, $19.95)
Arabian Sands • Wilfred Thesiger EXPLORATION • 1991 • PAPER • 334 PAGES • FAVORITE The last of the great British traveler-explorers, Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of Southern Arabia in the late 1940s, falling in love with the desert and ways of life of the Bedouin. This eloquent book, a Longitude favorite, is his tribute to vanished traditions. (ARB15, $14.95)
One Thousand Roads to Mecca, Ten Centuries of Writing about the Pilgrimage to Mecca • Michael Wolfe TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1999 • PAPER • 620 PAGES An American convert to Islam, Wolfe combed the large volume of literature of the Hadj to compile this diverse and fascinating anthology of writings over the centuries. The result is an excellent introduction to the culture, religion, people and philosophy of Islam. Wolfe also wrote an account of his own journey entitled "The Hadj, an American's Pilgrimage to Mecca." (ARB02, $17.50)
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Mecca • Richard Francis Burton TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1993 • PAPER • 436 PAGES Disguised as a Muslim, Burton enters Islam's holiest sites, participating in all the rituals of the Hadj in Mecca. A fascinating tale of adventure, Burton was an astute observer and resourceful traveling companion. This book provides insight into the mind of the famous Victorian explorer as well as Arabian society near the turn of the century. Volume one of the 1893 memorial edition with a preface by Isabel Burton. (ARB37, $14.95)
Arabia Map • Geoprojects MAP A map of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula at a scale of 1:3,500,000. (ARB39, $16.95)

A History of the Arab Peoples • Albert Hourani • HISTORY • A grand history of the Arab world by the distinguished Oxford historian Albert Hourani, this is a readable and much acclaimed survey that ranges over 13 centuries, chronicling the political, spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Arab peoples in 26 lucidly written chapters. (MDE11, $16.99)

Al-Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation • Ali Jamale Ahmed • RELIGION • A handsome bilingual edition of the Holy Book of Islam as elegantly translated by the Pakistani novelist, critic and diplomat Ahmed Ali. (ISL02, $19.95)

In the Shadow of the Prophet, The Struggle for the Soul of Islam • Milton Viorst • HISTORY • A wideranging analysis based on interviews with key figures in Iran and the Arab world. (ISL18, $17.50)

Islam and the West • Bernard Lewis • RELIGION • In this illuminating collection of essays, one of the great authorities on the Middle East explores the common ground shared by Islam and the West. (ARB12, $16.95)

Islam, A Short History • Karen Armstrong • RELIGION • Armstrong brings authority and experience to this clear-headed, vivid survey of the history and impact of Islam from the birth of Muhammad to present day challenges. A Modern Library Chronicles book. (ISL15, $14.95)

Islam, The Straight Path • John L. Esposito • RELIGION • A well-written survey of the faith, practice and beliefs of Islam. It's a balanced tome intended for an undergraduate audience, yet it also functions as an excellent overview for the general reader. (MDE22, $36.95)

Nine Parts of Desire, The Hidden World of Islamic Women • Geraldine Brooks • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • A highly readable overview of the role of women in Islamic society, drawn from the author's many interviews with women throughout the Arab World. (ARB06, $14.95)

Politics in an Arabian Oasis: The Rashidis of Saudi Arabia • Madawi Al Rasheed • HISTORY • A study of the Rashidi rulers of 19th-century Central Asia. (ARB30, $22.50)

Princess: A True of Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia • Jean P. Sasson • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • A somewhat sensational account of everyday life in a Saudi royal family as told to an American friend and writer. It's a powerful indictment of a society where women are chattel and the threat of violence is real. (ARB31, $12.95)

Saudi Arabia, Guarding the Desert Kingdom • Anthony Cordesman • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • Saudi Arabia and its national security since the Gulf War. (ARB04, $31.00)

The Arab World: Forty Years of Change • Elizabeth Warnock and Rob Fernea • Thomas Hartwell • HISTORY • An award-winning look at life in the Middle East, updated in the 1990s. The authors revisit towns and cities, paying close attention to how rchanges such as the Gulf War and Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, have impacted daily life. (ARB33, $16.95)

The Arab World: Society, Culture and State • Halim Barakat • HISTORY • A scholarly study of Arab culture, thought and literature. (ARB32, $21.95)

The Hajj Today, A Survey of the Contemporary Makkah Pilgrimage • David E. Long • HISTORY • (ARB57, $29.50)

The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? • John L. Esposito • RELIGION • An insightful survey of Islam, its history and contemporary politics. (ISL03, $17.95)

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power • Daniel Yergin • HISTORY • Master storyteller Yergin conjures a large and fascinating cast of tycoons, sheiks and politicians in this monumental and thoroughly researched history examining the story of petroleum and the West's dependence on the oil-rich Middle East. (ARB36, $22.00)

Understanding Islam: An Introduction to the Muslim World • Thomas W. Lippman • RELIGION • A concise introduction to the Muslim world and Islamic faith. (ISL04, $14.00)

Sandstorms, Days and Nights in Arabia • Peter Theroux • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • As a journalist in Saudi Arabia, Peter Theroux (Paul's brother) learned the language and immersed himself in the realities of day-to-day life. This book is a memoir of his experiences, both a revealing collection of anecdotes and a humorous portrait of a place. (ARB08, $13.95)

The Hadj, An American's Journey to Mecca • Michael Wolfe • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • Wolfe's mesmerizing account of his journey from Morocco to Mecca. (ARB01, $14.00)

The Arabian Nights • Husain Haddawy • LITERATURE • Translator Husain Haddawy grew up hearing his grandmothers' friends re-tell these tales on winter nights in Baghdad, and he has put his love of them into this Norton edition, which he translated from the Arabic text by Muhsin Mahdi. (ARB10, $16.95)

The Girls of Riyadh • Rajaa Al Sanea • LITERATURE • COMING IN JULY • The tale of four young women at a university in Riyadh, striving to live according to the traditions of Saudi society. This first novel by 24-year-old Al Sanea created a stir upon publication in Arabic. (ARB88, $24.95)

Black Tents of Arabia: My life Among the Bedouins.
Carl R. Raswan. 2003, Xlibris, ISBN 1-4010-5797-7
This is an expanded edition of the book first published in 1935,in which the author recounts his desert experiences in pursuit of knowledge of the Arabian horse. He later used what he learned to become a principal agent in building up the breed in the United States and Europe in the 20th century. Traveling in the Arabian Peninsula shortly before the founding of Saudi Arabia in 1932, Raswan was renowned among the tribes for his deep respect of Bedouin ways, especially horsemanship and horse breeding. Born in Dresden in 1893, he emigrated to the United States in 1921,where he assisted in the historic Davenport importation and with the establishment of the country 's earliest Arabian stud farms. This edition contains 100 pages of photographs.

The Desert Caves of Saudi Arabia.
John Pint, Saudi Geological Survey. 2003, Stacey International, ISBN 1-900988-48-8
This book introduces us to a truly unexpected natural wonder: the cool, dark, mysterious caves that underlie the deserts of east-central Saudi Arabia. Our guide is John Pint of the Saudi Geological Survey's Cave Exploration Unit (www.saudicaves.com). This large-format book showcases the dramatic photography collected over two decades during the exploration of limestone caves, caverns, sink holes and tunnels in the Umm-er-Radhuma formation, many located at the edge of the Dahna Desert, on the Summan Plateau. Pint tips his hat to a long line of explorers who preceded him, including Aramco 's Max Steineke and Tom Barger, but he deserves credit for pioneering the systematic exploration of these caves, and for promoting their protection for future generations of Saudis and foreigners. He chronicles with lush photographs and spare English and Arabic text more than 20 years of cave exploration in Saudi Arabia and covers 11 major caves,including Ain Hit near al-Kharj, a sink-hole that leads to a vast aquifer, where divers have encountered what may be the clearest water anywhere in the world. Pint also highlights the joint cave exploration project of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.-ROBERT W.LEBLING,JR.

South Arabia, The "Palinurus' Journals of Jessop Hulton
W.A. Hulton, ed. 2003, Oleander Press.
Dr. Jessop Hulton left London in 1832 at age 22,bound for military service in India. He became a ship's doctor, serving in the Arabian Gulf and on vessels surveying the strategic South Arabian and Socotran coasts. This book reprints his journals, which highlight in often fascinating detail his own explorations on stops from Muscat to Mocha. His section on Socotra, then being investigated as a coaling station for British ships steaming around the Cape of Good Hope to India, is particularly interesting. Most notable among Hulton 's discoveries on the South Arabian mainland were inscriptions that ultimately helped decipher the script used by the Sabaeans, a pre-Islamic people whose capital was Marib and whose monuments dot the region. Indeed, Hulton was attempting to reach Marib when he fell ill in 1836;he died at sea aboard Palinurus, cutting short a remarkable career.

Ancient South Arabia:From the Queen of Sheba to the Advent of Islam.
Klaus Schippmann; Allison Brown, tr.2001, Markus
Wiener,1-55876-235-3,$39.95 hb, $18.95 pb., ISBN 1-55876-235-3
Scholars interested in the region of Yemen, Dhofar in Oman and far southwestern Saudi Arabia, as well as lay readers willing to navigate the often academic prose, will be rewarded with detailed insights into the area. Schippmann, a German archeologist w ho has worked in Yemen, calls his book "an attempt to offer a consolidated overview "of a period covering the roughly 1400 years from the purported reign of the Queen of Sheba to the revelation of Islam in the seventh century. It sketches the relatively brief history of archeological exploration in the area, and addresses topics such as South Arabia's kingdoms, its land and sea trade routes, and its architectural and engineering heritage. The author calls South Arabian architecture, as understood from the remains of temples, city walls and irrigation systems, especially at Marib, "unique in the entire ancient Middle East" and predicts that "pleasant surprises" about ancient South Arabia await future archeological expeditions.

Four Hundred and One Arabian Sights
Wendy Cocker

Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia
Thomas Lippman
ISBN 0-8133-4052-7

Travellers in Arabia
Edited by Eid Al Yahya
This book includes an a large collection of works by Gertrude Bell and T.E. Lawrence
ISBN 1-905299-01-X

Six Months in the Hijaz
Journeys to Makkah and Madinah
Six Months in Mecca amd My Journey to Medinahin which he recounts his journeys when he joined a caravan-disguised as a pilgrim- Keane 1881 works
ISBN 0-954970-1X

Traditional Crafts of Saudi Arabia
Photograhic book that gathers information re the Bediouns of Saudi Arabia
ISBN 1-900988-72-0

The Beauty of Makkah and Madinah
By Mohomad Amin
Talks about the architecture of the two cities
ISBN 1-87-4041-53-9

The Tree
By Abdallah Al Nasser
Short stories
ISBN 1 -56656-498-0

Tales of Juba
Classic Arab Folk Humor
ISBN 1-56656-641-X

See our Children's Reading List, and our general Reading List for Islam and the Middle East.