"He helped me understand the human roots of the Arab world's political
violence. He had seen that world before it was changed forever by the
discovery of oil, and he conveyed the pitilessness of the Arab
tribesmen he traveled with, their fierce familial pride, their wild
generosity. Above all, Thesiger made me see more in Iraq than a blasted
slaughterhouse."--Robert F. Worth, the New York Times correspondent in Baghdad, writing of Wilfred Thesiger's work, particularly Arabian Sands (Penguin, $14.95, 0140095144), in yesterday's New York Times Book Review.
