Hawks of the Hadhramaut

In these pages P.S. Allfree recounts a year and a half spent as a political officer among the Bedouin of the south-eastern Rub' al-Khali, the 'Empty Quarter', where the many fascinating characters in this ancient land spring happily to life.

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Readers of P.S. Allfree's previous book of Arabian memoirs, Warlords of Oman, will recall his closing words 'I was going to see more of Arabia.' In these pages he recounts a year and a half spent as a political officer among the Bedouin of the south-eastern Rub' al-Khali, the 'Empty Quarter'. The many fascinating characters in this ancient land spring happily to life: the wise Judge of the Saar who chewed tobacco and whose name was 'Son of the jerboa'; Sulayim, the serpent-subtle eminence grise of the desert, whom the author employs as a secret key to unlock the doors of the Mahra, a wild and inhospitable race; 'Aunty' Hussein, the motherly Secretary of State in the Sultanate of Sayun, and many others. Notable amongst a crowded chronicle of incidents are the Case of the Hamstringed Camel, which nearly leads to a tribal war; the author's embroilment with a terrifying tribe of what he calls 'nightmare Teddy-boys, armed to the eyebrows'; and the final exciting expedition, which is the climax of this work, the coup de main which brings the government to the wild and anarchic Mahra.