MS 433 06 03 01

MS 433 06 03 01

Wilfred P. Thesiger's Rub’al Khali notebook

Item

1945-1946

1 notebook

A lined notebook where Thesiger has added handwritten day by day entries between 21 April 1945 and 8 March 1946. There is a gap between July and August 1945, when he returned to London. The entries cover his time travelling in the Rub’al Khali (or the Empty Quarter) with the Bait Kathir tribesmen in preparation for his first crossing in 1946. It includes details of his route from Jidda, through Kuwait, Bahrein and Assir, and after a brief return to London, his route through Aden to Salalah. Some of the later entries are accompanied by maps of particular areas, sketched by Thesiger.

While the right-hand side of the page would contain the diary entries, the left-hand side would contain additional notes on the climate, expenses, the names of those he travelled with, and other general observations about the places and the cultures he experienced. The diary is particularly technical in nature providing geological and geographical information.