Translated to Arabic, 'Arabian Sands'(1959) by Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003), the British explorer and travel writer. Arabian Sands is a record of his extraordinary journey through the parched 'Empty Quarter'. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life, 'the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets.' In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia.