Nomad of the Nomads
The Al Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter

by Donald Powell Cole
The American University in Cairo

Front Cover:

This is an interesting book about a unique culture. The book was published in 1975 by Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago. The soft cover book measures 5 ¼ inches by 8 ½ inches and contains 179 pages. The cover shows minor signs of wear and is securely attached. The pages show no signs of rips. Exceptions noted, the overall condition of this book is good.


Top Left: Merzuq, a skilled hunter, sits with his rifle to which he has attached a shoulder padding made of the skins of the faces of gazelles he has killed. The cartridge belt he wears is made by Yemeni craftsmen.

Bottom Left: Characteristic physical features of the Rub’al Khali. The bush in the foreground is called abal and stays green for four yeas after a single rain. Clumps of tall grass grown in the sandy areas between sand dunes.

Top Right: An Old man recites a poem about camels before departing from a coffee session in the men’s section of the tent.

Bottom Right: A man practices his shooting while mounted on an Omani thoroughbred riding camel.


Top Left: A youth departs in the morning from his parents tent to go to his herd and where he will spend the day. He carries a rifle and wears a cartridge belt for protection, although no raids have occurred for decades. His younger brother poses with another rifle and looks forward to when he will be old enough to start herding.

Bottom Left: Men, old and young, sit and drink coffee in the afternoon and discuss the state of pasturage while they are migrating during the winter in northeastern Arabia…

Top Right: Typical landscapes in the Rub’al Khali, a 200,000 square mile expanse of desert in southeastern Arabia…

Bottom Right: Two old men and two boys sit on the top of a sand dune…


Top Left: A thoroughbred milk camel, from the ask-shuruf breed…
Bottom Left: Al-Kurbi, the authors guide, pours freshly brewed coffee to his mother’s bro9ther’s son and his half brother… Top Right: In late fall camels begin to migrate to pastures in the north where rains have fallen.

Bottom Right: The authors riding camel, a thoroughbred…

Excerpt:
Here is an area so desolate that it is know as the Empty Quarter-though it is by no means empty; a place inhabited by a people so thoroughly devoted to their pastoral pursuits that they are referred to as the nomads of the nomads. To the Al Murrah and other camel keeping pastoralists it provides a rich and rewarding life, for the milk is the sweetest, the air is pure and all men are brothers…
End excerpt

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