Book: Nomads of the Nomads: the Al Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter (by Donald P. Cole)

The Bedouin tribe of Al Murrah has been immortalized by Wilfred Thesiger‘s gripping classic “Arabian Sands” (1959). If you want to have a less romanticized account of the life of this South Arabian Bedouin tribe, then you ought to read this book, by Donald Powell Cole of the American University in Cairo. Yet Cole’s book was written in the early 1970s, and the nomadism it describes is now gone.

By the way, Al Murrah was the tribe of Ibn Jallab, founder of the marbat of Kuhaylan Jallabi, now extinct in Asil form (sorry, but can’t help but rubbing it in, in light of mtDNA evidence)..  [correction: the Jallabi line still exits in Asil form in Bahrain, of course]

3 Replies to “Book: Nomads of the Nomads: the Al Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter (by Donald P. Cole)”

  1. Great info Edouard. I missed out on getting the Thesiger book on eBay. It was a bargain but sold before I could get to it. However, I will have to get a copy of “Nomads of the Nomads.”

    As for Kuhaylan Jallabi, you don’t mean to say there is no KJ in any Asil breeding do you? KJ may not be a tail female in Egyptian lines anymore, but it still exists elsewhere in Egyptian via the Blunts bay Yamama, female line of Feysul (sire of Ibn Yashmak and Radia) and Kazmeyn (sire of Bint Samiha, Bint Sabah and others). Also, is there a tail female Jallabiah line in Bahrain today or is it lost?

  2. Hi Joe, you’re right. Of course it does exist in Bahrain, in tail female, and that fact had escaped me. It also exist in the male line through the horses you mention. I meant to say that the tail female acknowledged as such is not Kuhaylan Jallabi. Cole’s book is for sale on Amazon for as little as 1 cent (!).

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