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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Rub' al Khali, which translates as Empty Quarter in English, is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres, more than the combined land areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide, and is neither inhabited nor traversed by the Bedouins. After Pedro Páez's presence in the late Sixteenth Century, the first documented journeys by Westerners were made by Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St. John Philby in 1932. Between 1946 and 1950 Wilfred Thesiger crossed the area several times and mapped large parts including the mountains of Oman. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Governorate of Sa'dah (also Saada) is a province located in the north of Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia. As of February 2004, the province had a population of 695,033 inhabitants, around 3.67% of the total population of Yemen and have an area of 11375 square kilometers.. It is one of the most inaccessible areas of Yemen and ranks among the poorest in the country. The provincial capital is Sa'dah, the largest city in the province. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Bridge of the Horns is a proposed construction project to build a bridge between the coasts of Djibouti and Yemen across the Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It will be constructed by Noor City Development Corporation. The notice-to-proceed was issued by Middle East Development LLC, which is headed by Tarek bin Laden, a half brother of Osama bin Laden. The length of the bridge is estimated at 29 km (18 mi), with a total cost of around US$20 billion. It has been proposed by a Dubai-based firm headed by Tarek bin Laden. Opening date is expected to be in the year 2020. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Zabidis a town with an urban population of around 23,000 personson Yemen's western coastal plain. The town, named after Wadi Zabid, the wadi (or valley) to its south, is one of the oldest towns in Yemen. It was the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century and a center of the Arab and Muslim world due in large part to its famed University of Zabid and being a center of Islamic education. It was the capital of the Ziyadid dynasty from 819?1018 and the Najahid dynasty from 1022?1158. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!Water supply and sanitation in Yemen is characterized by poor service quality and low levels of access, the latter being almost as low as in Sub-Saharan Africa for sanitation. Yemen is both the poorest country and the most water-scarce country in the Arab world. In addition, the capacity of sector institutions to plan, build, operate and maintain infrastructure remains somewhat limited. The combination of these factors renders it difficult to significantly improve access and service quality, despite recent reforms, capacity building efforts, as well as substantial financial support and technical assistance from external donors. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. It occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers (900,000 mi²). At its center is the Rub'al-Khali, one of the largest continuous bodies of sand in the world. Gazelles, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are just some of the desert-adapted species that survive in this extreme environment, which features everything from red dunes to deadly quicksand. The climate is extremely dry, and temperatures oscillate between extreme heat and seasonal night time freezes. It is part of the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome and the Palearctic ecozone. This ecoregion holds little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow here. Many species, such as the striped hyena, jackal and honey badger have become extinct in this area due to hunting, human encroachment and habitat destruction. Other species have been successfully re-introduced, such as the sand gazelle, and are protected at a number of reserves. Overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, human destruction of habitat are the main threats to this desert ecoregion. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Safia, Yemen is a village in western central Yemen. It is located in the San'a' Governorate. Yemen is just under 530,000 km2 (204,634 sq mi) in land area. Its territory includes over 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 415 km (258 mi) to the south of mainland Yemen, off the coast of Somalia. Yemen is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government. Its capital is Sana'a. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), (in Arabic: الجمهوريّة العربية اليمنية [al-Jamhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Yamanīyah] ) also known as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaa), was a country from 1962 to 1990 in the northern part of what is now Yemen. Its capital was at Sanaa. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, northern Yemen became an independent state as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. On 27 September 1962, revolutionaries inspired by the Arab nationalist ideology of United Arab Republic (Egyptian) President Gamal Abdul Nasser deposed the newly-crowned King Muhammad al-Badr, took control of Sanaa, and established the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR). This coup d'état marked the beginning of the North Yemen Civil War that pitted YAR troops assisted by the United Arab Republic (Egypt) while Saudi Arabia and Jordan supported Badr's royalist forces opposing the newly formed republic. Conflict continued periodically until 1967 when Egyptian troops were withdrawn. By 1968, following a final royalist siege of Sanaa, most of the opposing leaders reached a reconciliation; Saudi Arabia recognized the Republic in 1970. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Raju, Yemen is a village in western central Yemen. It is located in the San'a' Governorate. Ṣan'ā' is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is the national capital of San'a'. It covers an area of 13,850 km². As of 2004 the population was 918,379. Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen al-Jumhuuriyya al-Yamaniyya) is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the south, and Oman to the east. ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Socotra, Sana'a, Zabīd, Shibam. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Socotra -Map of the Socotra archipelagoThere was initially an Oldoway (or Oldowan) culture in Socotra. Oldoway stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008. Socotra appears as Dioskouridou ("of the Dioscurides") in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st century A.D. Greek navigation aid. In the notes to his translation of the Periplus, G.W.B. Huntingford remarks that the name Socotra is not Greek in origin, but derives from the Sanskrit dvipa sukhadhara ("island of bliss"). A local tradition holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas in AD 52. In the 10th century, the Arab geographer Abu Mohammed Al-Hassan Al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants were Christians. Socotra is also mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo according to which "the inhabitants are baptised Christians and have an "archbishop"" who, it is further explained, "has nothing to do with the Pope in Rome, but is subject to an archbishop who lives at Baghdad". They were Nestorians but they also practiced ancient magic rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop. In 1507, a fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with Afonso de Albuquerque landed an occupying force at the then capital of Suq, their objective was a Portuguese base to stop Arab commerce from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians from Islamic rule. Here they started to build a fortress. However, they were not welcomed as enthusiastically as they had expected and abandoned the island four years later. The island was also come across by Somali sailors. The islands passed under the control of the ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=489570 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!Sah, Yemen is a village in eastern Yemen. It is located in the Hadhramaut Governorate. Hadhramaut or Hadramawtis a governorate of Yemen lying within the large historical region of Hadhramaut. It is Yemen's largest governorate. The capital of Hadhramut is the city of Al Mukalla. Other cities in Hadhramaut include the historical towns of Shibam, Sena, Seiyun, Tarim, and Alshiher. It was also badly hit by rainfall during the 2008 Yemen floods, which left thousands homeless and many buildings shattered. The Socotra archipelago has been part of Hadhramaut Governorate since 2004, when it was moved from 'Adan Governorate. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Le Yémen, officiellement la République du Yémen, est un pays arabe situé à la pointe sud-ouest de la péninsule d'Arabie. Sa capitale est Sanaa. Elle possède des façades maritimes sur le golfe d'Aden et sur la mer Rouge. Les pays frontaliers du Yémen sont le royaume d'Arabie saoudite au Nord et Oman à l'Est. Le Yémen couvre une superficie totale de 527 970 km²(France métropolitaine : 551 500 km²). Plusieurs îles font partie du territoire yéménite : l'île de Kamaran en mer Rouge, l'îlot de Perim qui commande l'accès à la mer Rouge par le détroit de Bab-el-Mandeb, et l'île de Socotra (la plus grande des îles) dans l'océan Indien. Dans le monde antique, le Yémen était connu sous le nom d'« Arabie heureuse ». L'actuel Yémen est né en 1990 de la réunion de la République démocratique et populaire du Yémen (Yémen du Sud) et de la République arabe du Yémen (Yémen du Nord). ... Read more

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The islands of Socotra lie some 190 nautical miles off the southern coast of Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden. Their relative isolation merely hints at their extraordinary foreignness. Like a lesser Galapagos, these islands boast flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. Moreover, the Socotran people have their own language (which lacks a script) and distinctive culture, cuisine and architecture: neither Arabian nor African, yet strongly and distinctively Socotran.

Richard Boggs spent many months in this remote and other-worldly archipelago, mixing with the Socotran peoples and capturing in world class photographs the uniqueness of the land and its life. The Lost World of Socotra brings this remarkable location to a new audience and is, truly, a journey through lands like no other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great introduction to Socotra
Socotra is the truly one of the more unique and "alien" places on earth. Almost halfway between Yemen and Somalia, it's home of a people who are neither Arab or African. The Island itself is a UNESCO Heritage Site and has a non-written language. To call the biodiversity in Socotra "wild" is an understatement. The island itself is home to many unique birds, trees and plants - the most famous tree is the Dragon's Blood tree.

The book itself is pretty good, with a good background on the history of Socotra, which has changed hands a few times, was a Christian enclave who reported to an archbishop in Baghdad instead of Rome, and was mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo. There's more than enough pictures to keep this as a coffee table book. However, the book is more about the people and the history of Socotra than the wildlife. Still, when most places in the world seem a relatively short plane-ride away, Socotra is one of the few relatively untouched places in the world - truly at the ends of the earth.

Overall, it's a 4.5 out of 5. It could have used more maps, but it's a good gateway to learning and perhaps dreaming of traveling to one of the more unusual and unspoiled places in the world. ... Read more

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This introductory text is the first new study of economic development in the Arab World since the Gulf War of 1991. It evaluates the means by which states as different as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco and Jordan have sought to achieve economic advances in relation to the cultural contexts from which they emerged. The book also highlights the continuing distinctions between Arab and Western interpretations of what ``development'' means. Allan M. Findlay demonstrates that external involvement in the region has been responsible for many of the development dilemmas faced by Arabs today. He argues that Arab states must identify clear development objectives which satisfy both their rising economic aspirations and their strong attachment to Arab identity and Islamic values. ... Read more

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Chapters: Palestinian Territories, Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, Assyrian Homeland, Greek East and Latin West, Greater Yemen. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 38. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Palestinian territories comprise two discontiguous areas: the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The territories were part of the British Mandate for Palestine, formed in 1923. In March 1946, under the Treaty of London, the lands east of the Jordan River became the independent kingdom of Transjordan, which on 25 May 1946, was formally recognized as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. The Palestinian territories were captured and occupied by Transjordan and by Egypt in the late 1940s, and captured and occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. 'Palestinian territories' is one of a number of designations for these areas. In 1980 Israel annexed East Jerusalem from the West Bank, but United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared it null and required that it be rescinded, stating that it was a violation of international law. Following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, portions of the territories have been governed in varying degrees by the Palestinian Authority. Israel does not consider East Jerusalem nor the former IsraeliJordanian no man's land (the former was annexed in 1980, and the latter was annexed in 1967) to be parts of the West Bank. Israel says that both fall under full Israeli law and jurisdiction as opposed to the approximately 58% of the Israeli-defined West Bank that is ruled by the Israeli Judea and Samaria Civil Administration. This claim has not been recognized by any other country, based on unilateral annexation of territory being prohibited by customary and conventional international law. There are disagreements over what the Palestinian territories should be cal...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=96665 ... Read more

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Disruption following the Gulf War, and the need to satisfy both rising economic aspirations and the Islamic values of the region's peoples, demands fresh examination of development issues in the Arab world. This introductory text assesses how agricultural, industrial and urban development has evolved in the Arab region. Contrasting Arab and Western interpretations of 'development', it draws on case studies covering states as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco and Jordan. The author suggests that until the Arabs define their own identity, there will continue to be 'change' but not necessarily 'progress' in the region. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

1970s travels in Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Arabia
Initially I thought that this thick book regarding the Fernea family's travels through Arab countries would be informative, somehow.I agree with another reviewer's observation that while this book contains lots and lots of "personal encounters" with mainly Muslim Arabs, it is primarilly ofa lot of `pleasentary commentary' between the Ferneas and their Arab hoats -- no real substantive socio-economic `insight' regarding the Muslim families is illustrated.Although the wife, Elizabeth, produced films regarding women's issues throughout Arabia, they are not really discussed in this book: no `lessons learned' are revealed.This book does reinforce the 1970s stereotype of the rural, poor `backwardness' of the generic Arab - and the hassles of dealing with government `red tape' in getting permission to travel to remote `restricted areas'; it is not very hopeful.I found a couple of tidbits to download into my computer regarding a handful of Arabic phrases, but then dumped the book into my trashcan - just not really worth keeping for sharing with anyone else - just no long-term `substantive knowledge' worth being retained.

The Arab World is a Great Intro. to Middle Eastern Studies
I should know - this book is the reason why I studied Lebanon in college. No, its not the most in-depth "analysis" on Middle Eastern culture and politics, but it provides an excellent personal experience for the reader, with a dash of scholarly insight from the authors. I would highly recommend this book to someone who is really interested in learning about the Arab world from those who have lived and studied the culture. My only hope is that they have an updated edition post-911.

Retrospective Collection
This book is a collection of personal essays by Elizabeth and Robert Fernea concerning aspects of daily life in the several corners of the Arab world where they lived and conducted their anthropological research.The areas covered include Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan), Marrakech (Morocco),Cairo and Nubia (Egypt), Hail (Saudi Arabia), the West Bank, and Baghdad and Al-Nahra (Iraq).The Ferneas began their acquaintance with Arabia in 1956, when in their first year of marriage, Robert Fernea chose to do his doctoral research in Al-Nahra Iraq, and Elizabeth accompanied him there. After Robert was awarded his doctorate, the Ferneas went to Egypt, where Robert took a teaching post at the American University in Cairo.While in Egypt, Elizabeth wrote her now-classic description of women's life in Iraq, Guests of the Sheikh.Later research projects took the Ferneas, together with their three children, to Nubia and Marrakech.In each location, the Ferneas observed local cultures for their formal academic publications.But they also kept journals of their daily experiences in dealing with the culture and trying to learn the answers to anthropological questions as Westerners, and it is excerpts from these journals that appear here.Interspersed with these descriptions of their personal experiences are short background or follow-up essays that provide further information about some of the associated topics.

For readers who are not familiar with the Ferneas' previous work, especially Elizabeth Fernea's, the title of the book, The Arab World, may be a bit misleading.It is not the goal of this book to provide a comprehensive historical or political analysis of the region.Instead, the book provides mainly a collection of personal experiences of a family who lived and conducted research in the region off and on for over 40 years.In each country covered in this book, the Ferneas have made multiple visits over time, allowing them to compare the changes brought about development.The book also provides an epilogue of sorts for readers of the Ferneas' other books, such as Guests of the Sheikh or A View of the Nile.As they return to their various "hometowns", the Ferneas look up old friends and bring us up to date on how life has treated them.

Very Disappointing
I bought this book thinking I would get a good overview of each of the countries the authors lived in.Instead the book consists of lengthy conversations between them and their friends, intersperesed with really trivial and banal comments.Given that both authors are academics, I expected some depth--but there was none. A real waste of money.

Too PC, but still worth reading
The Arab World - Forty Years Of Change had a tendency of praising most things that are in some ways connected to arab culture. Everything is "wonderful" or "interesting" and so on. This tendencyis enhanced by the fact that the authors seems to have more interest inachieving insight in Arab culture than Western culture, and thus have apretty narrow and onedimensional view on issues that concerns Westernpolitics and behaviour. Issues that are far more complex than the authorsseems to believe. Anyway, The Arab World is also a book written by twopeople who seems to be genuinely interested in the matters that they aredealing with, and the analytical approach that the end of every chaptercontains is a delight to read. In the next update of The Arab World, Iwould like a more balanced and critical view. It would double the qualityof the book. ... Read more