Book dossier

The Arab of the desert

by Harold Richard Patrick Dickson

The author was born in Beiru. He began collecting material for this book in 1929 and finished research for it in 1936. He was interested in providing information about the customs and people of Kuwait. Dickson describes nomadic life, the tent, the tent's furnishings, valuables, and gendered spaces within the tent, the Bedouin social system, storytelling (and several stories), proverbs, dream interpretation, warfare, domesticated and wild animals, disease, crime, slavery, boat building, pearl diving, and dancing.