Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth

by Jonathan Raban

ARABIA is the story of Jonathan Raban's magic carpet ride through Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. Not only does it reveal the Arabs and their culture, it also introduces us to a series of memorable individuals. Much of the book's strength is the author's gift for friendships. He brings us into markets and hotels to glamorous parties and seedy rooms, to a sheikh's fortress and the home of a Bedu family. He opens up the world of the rich and the poor and gives us the feel, the smells, the sounds, the very texture of Arabia. "Beautifully written, poignant, funny, ARABIA is more than travel book, it is a tale of the collision of cultures, observed at an historically crucial time." (Publisher's Source)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Middle East, British Literature, Writing, Memoir, History

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

British travel writer, critic and novelist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan...

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the oil boom of the 1970's Arabs lefts the security of their homelands and started to become more visible in the Western capitals. Seeing them around London made Raban think it would be good to travel to their home countries and see what life was like there. It was a journey that would take him from Bahrain to Qatar, Yemen to Jordon and finally to Egypt and he wanted to go there before the vast wealth from oil changed these places irreparably. He was a little late as wealth had flowed into the communities over there, sons had headed to Europe and America to learn medicine and engineering, The temperamental Range Rover had replaced the grumpy camel and the tents that had been the homes for the Bedouin for hundreds of years were stopping being used as they moved into homemade from brick and mortar.

However, the old way of life is still there if you want to go and look for it. Raban is gregarious nature means that he easily forges friendships with the people that he meets as he travels through each of the countries. Mixing with the expat community who are trying to recreate a little bit of England over there he finds interesting, but what he is there for is to walk the streets, absorbing the smells of the souks,  chew the qat sip strong coffee with men and get lost in the maze of street away from the tourist area. He speaks to fishermen on quaysides that have been almost untouched by the economic change, apart from making fish traps from wire and changing the sails on their dhows to engines. Walking through the night he hears the call of the muezzins before the first rays of dawn erupt across the sky.

This is the first Raban book that I have read, it won't be the last either as I have been kindly sent a small pile from Eland of their republications and have bought a couple of others. He reminds me of Patrick Leigh Fermor in some ways with the way that he can engage with people from all walks of life from diplomats to the man squatting in the market with a few things to sell.  His prose is very eloquent, making it a readable travel book, but most importantly he is prepared to ask searching questions of those that he interacts with to get a better insight to the places he visits. Thoroughly enjoyable and looking forward to his next, Old Glory.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read my first ever Jonathan Raban book, Coasting, and thought that was one of the best books I've read, Arabia has just blown that book out of the water.

Arabia is nothing short of a masterpiece, incredible writing, powerful, funny and historically in-depth. Raban decides on travelling around the Arabian countries due to the number of Arabs moving in near where he lives, he tries to communicate with them but struggles to find a way in. Instead he decides to visit their homelands to learn more about their history and culture.

He fully immerses himself to experience all levels of each country, from the rich to the poor. When he decides to try qat for the first time, a narcotic plant you chew and gets you high, the writing becomes a lot like Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the back and forth between his sober self and the him that is going crazy on qat was pure brilliance.

One thing that stands out is his honesty, by the time he reaches the last country on his tour he is feeling homesick and isn't afraid to say that he has had enough, the noise and madness, the bizarre censorship rules and the lack of art all start to get to him.

He gets to travel around countries at a time when they are just starting to evolve into the modern world, to see these changes happen must have been an incredible experience. If you don't read this book then you will be missing out on something truly special.

Blog post is here> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2018...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Arabia by Raban almost as soon as I arrived there in 1981. It was a very useful review of most of what I had already known and of my previous nearly 6 months there just prior to the 1967 war between Israel and several other Arab countries.

I did not read it for pleasure. I needed as much information as soon as possible since I had somehow thrust my wife and two little sons--one 9 and the other 3, into a very foreign desert land surrounded by the comings and goings of fully covered women in mainly black hijabs and men clad in white attire with head garb of mainly red and white checkered material.

I've written before in past reviews of how when one finds himself in such a land they immediately are stunned through all their senses that they have been able to take for granted all their lives. They are suddenly challenged on every front and all at once: the eyes by the people from every country they see and by the strange and beautiful architecture of the numerous mosques and home compounds for families; the nose by the smells in the souk and restaurants and the occasional whiff of oil and gas being pulled out of the ground and the spices and meals being prepared in the homes they pass, the ears by the muezzin's call to prayer five times a day and the music on the radio--so different but yet somehow familiar, the tongue by the taste of spices such as cardamom and hot peppers, and finally the pores of the skin oozing sweat even in the evening.

You also sense the presence of others differently and interpret their intentions in their body movements with different assumptions.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Jonathan Raban’s Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth starts off, the author, while living in London, begins noticing immigrants in his neighborhood. Increasingly he sees more and more Arabs, particularly from the Gulf states of the Arabian Peninsula on the streets, opening up stores and restaurants, and moving into homes nearby. Not only are they more visible because of the traditional clothing they wear, but their insularity also sets them apart, speaking Arabic and little English. They also have seemingly endless amounts of cash. The Londoners are not happy about their presence, but are often too reserved to openly express their contempt so the Arabian people go about their business never knowing how derisive the English people are towards them. Jonathan Raban wanted to know more about these people so at the end of the 1970s, he goes on a prolonged sojourn around the outer edges of Arabia to learn whatever he can.

The travelogue does not get off to a strong start. Raban begins on the tiny island nation of Bahrain, a place like the other Gulf states where foreigners outnumber the native inhabitants. He barely has any contact with Bahraini people and spends most of his time socializing with expats, mostly contract workers and businessmen, who are there for the sake of making money, not out of appreciation for the culture. This is the least exciting chapter until he gets to Egypt.

Things pick up when Raban visits Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He speaks with more of the local Arabic population, but mostly limits the discourses to government officials, bureaucrats, and businessmen. Other people he speaks with are nationals from the poorer Middle Eastern countries and the Indian subcontinent, all who are there because they are ambitions and tired of living in impoverished countries where their professional skills are going to waste. He also meets a group of Qatari artists employed by the Ministry of Fine Arts to help recreate an imaginary traditional past through the medium of fake folk art. One playwright suffers from severe writer’s block because everything he puts down on paper gets rejected by the ministry cesnors, saying his works are potentially offensive to government officials. It is a good example of how authoritarianism kills creativity.

While skirting around the eastern edge of Arabia, the influence of the oil boom and the expanding economy is transforming the region. Skyscrapers are being built and foreigners are flooding these small emerging nations. The lifestyles, the technology, and the banking systems are changing. Saudis are everywhere with their oversize wads of cash and their indulgence in vices that are forbidden in their home country. Anomie and social dislocation are rampant as menial workers, local citizens, and Bedu tribes-people sink deeper into the pits of poverty while money gets funneled by the ton into the hands of the well-connected. Raban captures the atmosphere and scenery of desert kingdoms with rapidly expanding economies effectively. He arrives and writes at the right time to capture a transitional moment in the Middle East when traditions are fading away and hyper-modernity is rushing in.

And then we get a completely different picture of the Arabian Peninsula when he flies to Sana’a, Yemen, then travels on to Egypt and Jordan. The chapter on Yemen was the best in the book, partly because it is the only country I did not visit when traveling in the Gulf states, but also because he gets so up close and personal with the local people in ways he doesn’t in the previous three countries. While the oil industry is fast-tracking the center and eastern countries of Arabia into the modern age, Yemen is mired in poverty. Yemen is, however, experiencing an economic boom of its own since so many Yemenis go to the richer Gulf states as guest workers and send remittences back home to their families, something that is raising the standards of living for the poorest of all the Middle Eastern countries while not being sufficient to take the country to the next level. Sana’a is described as dirty, noisy, disorienting, and often surreal. The kyat-chewing locals are hospitable and rude in equal measures. Raban experiences some of the best times with impoverished but ambitious young men who go out of their way to explain their isolated country to him. Then he comes close to witnessing a public execution with a carnivalesque atmosphere, feeling confused as whole families eat snacks and take photos, cheering and singing as if they are at a circus while political revolutionaries are blown to pieces by machine gun fire in a public market. For interesting travel stories, this is one that can’t be beat, even if Raba does leave the scene befor the real action begins.

Raban’s visit to Egypt is a real letdown. He treats the city of Cairo as if it is little more than a big red light district full of clueless, airheaded western tourists. Spending almost no time with ordinary Egyptians, he prefers to frequent casinos, go-go bars, and brothels which are almost exclusively packed with men from Saudi Arabia. From what he sees, Raban concludes that Saudis aren’t much fun, even when they are spending all their money on poker, prostitutes, and liquor. It is an interesting insight, but considering how much Egypt has to offer for travelers, this passage falls far short of expectations. If I were Egyptian, I would not be happy with this representation of the country.

Jordan is a different matter as Raban is surprised to see how comfortably the people live despite their miniscule GDP. He hooks up with members at all socio-economic levels of society, encounters its semi-thriving but kitschy art scene, and is shocked when he visits a Palestinian refugee camp to see how comfortably the people are living there.

Jonathan Raban never visits Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, or any other Arabic country in the Middle East, nor does he visit South Yemen which is dominated by a communist government at the time of writing.

While there are a lot of interesting passages in this book, and some great descriptions as well, alongside some often sarcastic and snarky humor, there are some parts of the book that just don’t work. He sometimes lapses into confused abstractions that make him sound like a drunk muttering to himself in a bar. The chapter on Bahrain was nearly pointless in terms of what Raban set out to accomplish. I will admit though that his impression of Manama was no different than my own in the dozen or so times I visited that country. I even visited the same British social club he writes about. It is still there on the outskirts of Manama to this day. The chapter on Egypt is embarrassing. It is hard to believe he thought it was fit to be included. The other chapters were well-done though and really capture a moment in history that is now past. I really do wish he had visited Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Arabia is an interesting, if erratic and uneven, portrait of the social atmosphere of the Gulf states while the oil boom is beginning to transform the whole region and the whole world along with it. Raban wrote this at the beginning of the Lebanese civil war, before Iraq invaded Iran and Kuwait, before the Burj al-Arab and the Burj Khalifa were built in Dubai, before 9/11, before the Arab Spring, and before glitzy high-end shopping malls began competing with the mosques as centers of Arabian culture. It portrays a world that is no longer with us, but is not too distant as to be incomprehensible. As for the conversations Jonathan Raban had with the people he met, I can tell you after having lived in Saudi Arabia myself that if he were to revisit his journey at this current time, he would find that nothing much has changed in terms of what people would say to him. My biggest complaint about this book is that Jonathan Raban provides a superficial understanding of the Arabian Peninsula; if he had spent more time there, getting to know people on a more intimate level, his perceptions would be different, in some ways more positive and in other ways not so much.

[Sarah Burrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written and published in the 1970s but is still completely relevant today. I highly recommend it to those with an interest in the Middle East, particularly those with an emotional connection. The book is a series of Raban's conversations and interactions with various colourful characters he meets on his travels, sprinkled with his own descriptions of the Arabia around him. Raban's writing style is that of a world-weary traveller who writes intelligently and honestly. I found myself chuckling at several points throughout the book at his dry sense of humor and I folded several pages down to re-read again in the future as they'd been so well written. The descriptions of Major Barza in the Abu Dhabi chapter were particularly entertaining as were his writings of trying qat in Yemen for the first time. The Yemen chapter was so wonderfully detailed and the one I enjoyed the most. The descriptions of the sights and smells in Sana'a brought it to life in my mind. I felt that the Jordan chapter was added as an afterthought to try and beef up the book considering the author wasn't able to obtain a visit visa for Saudi Arabia but it doesn't take away from the book. Raban's assessment of the social hierarchy of Arabs is so sadly true and I found myself nodding in agreement with his observations. A book that I would come back to again in the future.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful snapshot of non-Saudi Arabia at the beginning of its explosive growth. Written in the late 70's and published in 1980, it gives an English writer's point of view of the several countries he visited, and contrasts them with the Arab experience in London at the time. Each country had one chapter, and I learned a lot about them through the author's eyes.

[Laurence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writing and I read it while travelling to, and working in, Saudi Arabia. JR did not visit KSA in his book (they were a lot less open in the 1970s), but he gives a good account of UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt and JOrdan.

It made me sad that I am unlikely to visit Yemen - buy the time the never-ending war has finished, I will be too old to travel.

Great writing (a lovely voice and an ability to winkle out nuggets like Bill Bryson did after him), and a delight.

[Dominic Neesam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book was written in 1979 it is an education and an insight into the mindset, aspirations, and roots of Gulf states, the Bedu, and the surrounding neighbours of Yemen, Egypt, and Palestine. Some of Raban's quotes are hilarious, and he gives the oft misunderstood Arab peoples both respect and a voice.

[Ron Benzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arabia by Jonathan Raban

The author .writing in the 70s,shares his thoughts on the transitions taking place in the Middle East. He also sheds a new light on the Western prejudiced views of Arab nations. These biases still sadly exist.

[Kijani Mlima · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. I found it tedious.

[Derek Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written and observed. Funny too.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book from Raban

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me want to travel

[Daniel McAllister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book, which was incredibly close to getting a 5 star

[Andrew Imrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jonathan Raban. I actually read this book many years ago (while living in Japan), well before I moved with my family to the region for work. One of the first things I did upon arriving in Qatar was to track down the hotel where Raban had stayed in Doha and where he had met the traveling businessman Mr Moon. I walked from my accommodation along the corniche in the late afternoon on a hot summer’s day with some sense of excitement. I saw it as a kind of pilgrimage to Raban. It was therefore with some disappointment that I discovered that the hotel had, in fact, been demolished the year before. And all I could look upon was an empty space and some ground floor ruins. I guess, in a way, this episode brought home to me just how much Qatar has been completely transformed in the 50 years since Raban visited Qatar. I often think that if he had ever come back to Doha, he simply wouldn’t believe what he was seeing. Anyway, the book is interesting (as all Raban books are) and gives a late 1970s view of the region from the perspective of an intellectually curious Englishman. Not his best book, but well worth a look.

[René · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outdated book which is more about the author's encounters with expats living around Saudi Arabia (despite the title, he does not set foot in Arabia) than anything else. We can get a glimpse of how the Saudi cancer (the financing, thanks to Petro-Dollars, of a return to before the Middle Ages) is beginning to set hold in the region, but there is no real attempt to understand the life of the populations residing in what he calls "the labyrinth".

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was familiar with the countries visited, then I might have found his book more interesting. The most interesting place he visited was Yemen, in 1979, a much less Arab country in Arabia, small & mighty. The middle East has not changed much since 1979, and is less interesting than ever for women.

[Barbara Ab · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really personal travelling notebook of Raban’s stayings in different Arabic countries and cities in the seventies. A bit out of date but interesting as for the comparison with nowadays. I find the writing style of Raban extremely slow and boring most of the time and it is not not an easy reading for a no-English native speaker.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arabia is Jonathan Raban's travel book documenting his 14 week journey through the 70s Middle East. A gaudy personnel of earnest souls populate this exciting touristic sketch, and Raban's insight is at once quirky and levelheaded, a unique blend of learned hilarity and sober empathy. This is fiery and illuminating travel writing.

[Caitlin]

$4 find in a bookshop, loved old glory, great travel writer, hope it's good...

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Memoir of a guy's travels that, unexpectedly, featured the father of my friend Catharine Platt.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like reading a modern Richard Burton. Wonderful.

[Lynne King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did have this book but I cannot find it. So I've ordered a hardback and will review this later.

It's bizarre but I purchased it because of the title and it covered all of Arabia except Saudi!

[Michael Harris]

One of his first of the "travel" stories was both enjoyable and interesting based on what we know in 2013.

[Margaret Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Raban is, in my view, one of the most talented travel writers of our time. I have read Arabia three times already, and would happily read it again.

[Alex Tilley · Rating 2 out of 5]

All I remember of this book is a focus on anecdotes of expats living in the middle east, and their fascination with always talking about home and the 'Youkay' as he puts it.