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The Last Nomad: One Man's Forty Year Adventure in the World's Most Remote Deserts, Mountains and Marshes
Recounting his extensive travels throughout Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Thesiger weaves fascinating descriptions of life in the Islamic world and of the people's strange customs, innate loyalty, and fierce tenacity
- GenresTravelNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 1980
43 people want to read
About the author
Wilfred Thesiger
36 books199 followersSir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, KBE, DSO, MA, DLitt, FRAS, FRSL, FRGS, FBA, was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.
Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.
In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.
There is a rare wartime photograph of Thesiger in this period. He appears in a well-known photograph usually used to illustrate the badge of the Greek Sacred Squadron. It is usually captioned 'a Greek officer of the Sacred Band briefing British troops'. The officer is recognisably the famous Tsigantes and one of the crowd is recognisably Thesiger. Thesiger is the tall figure with the distinct nasal profile. Characteristically, he is in Arab headdress. Thesiger was the liaison officer to the Greek Squadron.
In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan, and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken By The Wind — a Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).
Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.
Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.
In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.
There is a rare wartime photograph of Thesiger in this period. He appears in a well-known photograph usually used to illustrate the badge of the Greek Sacred Squadron. It is usually captioned 'a Greek officer of the Sacred Band briefing British troops'. The officer is recognisably the famous Tsigantes and one of the crowd is recognisably Thesiger. Thesiger is the tall figure with the distinct nasal profile. Characteristically, he is in Arab headdress. Thesiger was the liaison officer to the Greek Squadron.
In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan, and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken By The Wind — a Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).
Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 16, 2025
It's striking that despite billing himself as The Last Nomad, Thesiger is more strikingly the last explorer: this book covers his crossings (the first by a European) of the Rub al-Khali, his entry (the first by a European) of the Aussa Sultanate, and his expedition (the first by a European) to the Tibesti Mountains of the southeastern Sahara. Most striking in each case is that Thesiger's telling ends by noting that just a few years after each feat of exploration, people would arrive at Tibesti, or cross Danakil country, or enter Aussa or the Rub al-Khali in cars.
In many ways this book is a chronicle of a lost world right on the precipice of its loss. Most of the book is Thesiger's photographs, taken in that final moment—the forties through early sixties—before decolonisation and globalisation put paid to traditional societies virtually everywhere. Abyssinian knights with swords and shields stare back at us, fresh from a battle between contenders for the throne (fifteen years later Haile Selassie's troops would resist the Italian invaders with machine guns). Bedouin ride camelback below the ramparts and battlements of the emir's castle at Dubai, having guided Thesiger to avoid the territories of desert warlords and the feudal Imam of Oman. Bakhtiari pitch their tents in the Valley of the Assassins below the Alborz.
All of this would, in a historical blink of the eye, be gone. At the time of his writing in 1978 Thesiger notes that it's gone: the Bedouin who could find ways and water across trackless sands were gone. The migrations of the Bakhtiari and the Pashtuns were gone. The dhows and castles of the Trucial Coast were replaced by the skyscrapers and runways of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Virtually no other part of the world persisted so long and ended so quickly; nowhere else in the world could be documented so fully. This is a remarkable book.
In many ways this book is a chronicle of a lost world right on the precipice of its loss. Most of the book is Thesiger's photographs, taken in that final moment—the forties through early sixties—before decolonisation and globalisation put paid to traditional societies virtually everywhere. Abyssinian knights with swords and shields stare back at us, fresh from a battle between contenders for the throne (fifteen years later Haile Selassie's troops would resist the Italian invaders with machine guns). Bedouin ride camelback below the ramparts and battlements of the emir's castle at Dubai, having guided Thesiger to avoid the territories of desert warlords and the feudal Imam of Oman. Bakhtiari pitch their tents in the Valley of the Assassins below the Alborz.
All of this would, in a historical blink of the eye, be gone. At the time of his writing in 1978 Thesiger notes that it's gone: the Bedouin who could find ways and water across trackless sands were gone. The migrations of the Bakhtiari and the Pashtuns were gone. The dhows and castles of the Trucial Coast were replaced by the skyscrapers and runways of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Virtually no other part of the world persisted so long and ended so quickly; nowhere else in the world could be documented so fully. This is a remarkable book.
December 21, 2022
An engaging tale of the author’s explorations in the deserts of Arabia, Persia (Iran), and Kurdistan; his visits to the marshes of southern Iraq; and his travels in the mountains of northern Pakistan. He describes the people he met in the 1940s and 50s, with some of whom he enjoyed close friendship and visited again much later. The ending of the book is rather sad as he mentions the modernization of these places (in the 1970s) and the loss of happiness that came with it.
Lots of black and white photos by the author.
Lots of black and white photos by the author.
January 6, 2024
This is a great book for those who like true adventure. Thesiger's travels start in 1943 traveling in the Sahara by camel. Lots of maps and pictures. Fabulous book.
February 27, 2009
This is a wonderful book about the exploration of the 'Empty quarter', and other Middle Eastern areas by an intrepid explorer, Wilfred Thesiger before the discovery of oil. Amazing view of the world we'll never see again.
October 6, 2010
God, I love this man. Fantastic, superb, enamored, knackered. Did I mention I love him?
April 8, 2017
The pictures and travelogue were worth four and a half stars. The draw back was his untiring zeal to be the first white man, first European,( first Christian?) to trek across deserts others of other races had gone before him. And he did it endangering the lives of others who traveled with him, as well as killing off thirsty and tired camels just so he could be first.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews