<DIV><p>Arabia's life before the oil boom years is probably best known to international audiences through the works of Wilfred Thesiger, the remarkable British explorer famous for his narrative and photography of the Empty Quarter. But the account from the perspective of his Arab traveling companions, Bin Kabina, Bin Kabisha, and others, has never been told. Now in their eighties, these old timers are interviewed in this important new work, and the material is set down so future generations need not lose sight of their bedouin roots.</p><p>Surprising and enchanting by turns, these anecdotes of life growing up in tents where now the giant skyscrapers stand paint a picture of a beautiful and vastly different vanished Arabia.</p><BR></DIV>