# Quote — Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands

> At first glance they [his Bedu companions] seemed to be little better than savages, as primitive as the Danakil, but I was soon disconcerted to discover that, while they were prepared to tolerate me as a source of very welcome revenue, they never doubted my inferiority. They were Muslims and Bedu and I was neither. They had never heard of the English, for all Europeans were known to them simply as Christians, or more probably infidels, and nationality had no meaning to them.  They had heard vaguely of the war as a war between the Christians, and of the Aden government as a Christian government.  Their world was the desert and they had little if any interest in events that happened outside it.

- Author: [Wilfred Thesiger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger.md)
- Book: [Arabian Sands](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands.md)
- Page: 36
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger#Arabian_Sands_(1959)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/at-first-glance

## More from this book

> Strike a Bedu and he will kill you either then or later.  It is easy for strangers to give offence without meaning to do so.  I once put my hand on the back of bin Kabina’s neck and he turned on me and asked furiously if I took him for a slave.  I had no idea that I had done anything wrong.

p. 148 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/strike-a-bedu.md)

> In the deserts, however arid, I have never felt homesick for green fields and woods in spring, but now that I was in England I longed with an ache that was almost physical to be back in Arabia.

p. 187 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/in-the-deserts.md)

> Now I had crossed it [the Empty Quarter].  To others my journey would have little importance.  It would produce nothing except a rather inaccurate map which no one was ever likely to use.  It was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of clean, nearly tasteless water.  I was content with that.

p. 138 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/now-i-had.md)