Mohammed Jhilila 1

Mohammed Jhilila

Colonial Postcolonial Discourse

-Travel Texts-

An Essay on multiplicity in Doughty’s Travels in Arabia

Deserta

One can hardy speak about Arabia Deserta without tackling the multi-disciplinary

feature that marks the book; a long the peregrinations of Doughty within the Arab land, many

things are echoed in a dexterous stylistic craft. by echo, I mean the resounding of Doughty’s

personal intentions, biblical affiliation and stylistic enterprise. Having said this, I deem, the

illustration requires a deep insight in Doughty’s career. The following paper concerns itself

with the aforementioned field works hoping to come at a conclusion that linchpins of the

tapestry of the whole enterprise make of Doughty a cosmopoet par excellence.

Before elaborating on the ideas included within Doughty’s “Arabia”, I need to state and define

what I mean by being a cosmopoet and to what extent Doughty can be affiliated in this school

and philosophy. To be a cosmopoet for Kenneth Whites mirrors the capacity of the mind to

think the previously unquestionable conceptions, it enables the mind to bring together items

which were conceived of as having no relationships nor ties that link them. Doughty, being an

outgoing figure, has, excellently, described, studied and reflected Arabia. Gypsying in the

land, Doughty provided the western mind with another vantage through which it can perceive

the Orient and the oriental alike. Of course as he says in the preface to the third edition:”the

book is not milk for babes;” it is in fact a de facto. Before speaking about Arabia Deserta as

literary work, I need to speak Doughty as learner and a literary man.

 Mohammed Jhilila 2

As student he was known for his adamant character. He was known as a digger and reader;

digging reflects, his scientific stand towards the areas he visited, reading, exclusively Spenser

and Chaucer, epitomizes his malcontent with the Victorian decadent language as well as his

curiosity to revive his country through the resurrection, if one can say so, of the language.

Journeying in Arabia, Doughty in his voyage, along with the Hajj caravan, meticulously and

in details represent to us everything related to Arabian lands, animals, cultures, and religions.

In the Introduction to about the book T. E. Lawrence says:

We agreed that you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the
lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals1.

From the quote we figure out that in the book Doughty provides what is geographical, the

hills and plains, what is geological, the lava fields, what is anthropological, the tents and the

men, and finally what is biological which is referred to by animals. The book is then a

thoroughgoing the entire information concerned with Arabia are provided.

Doughty could have dug the whole land if he had the adequate means to do so; during

the two years journey, he attributed his time, mind and capacities to transcribe the

inscriptions as well as to report the sediments that compose the geography of the land. The

geographical stand of Doughty, yet, is not that scientific proper. I say this because it is merely

occasionally that he describes the land without an aura of meditation. The description seems

both bible-oriented and scientific proper. I will probe this point later on in the line of the

discussion. Doughty’s intention was to provide a map of the area that’s why he visited the

National Geographical Centre for financial subsidy but could get none. Along the Journey

with the Doughty the reader is informed by the height of the areas the caravaners stop at. It

hardly that he stops in a region without speaking about its height and the distance that

separates it from the neighbouring villages. On page 72 for example Doughty provides his

1
T. E. Lawrence. Introduction. Charles Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta ( New York : Random House
Publishers, 1959) p : 17.
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reader with a map of Maân he also refers to some rivers and cliffs whenever he finds them

worth mentioning. Reading Doughty’s ‘Arabia’ one can fish out of it any information he is

thirsty for. For a Geologically oriented reader the geological features are provided.

Peregrinating in the land Doughty was deeply concerned with the composition of

Arabia. The basalt, lava fields, limestone and sandstones are part of his concern. What is

noteworthy is that his stand towards this field work is more nihilistic and more natural;

Doughty was influenced by the New-geology of Charles Lleyl. For this latter the hand of

God does not exist in the formation of the land. Rather, it is shaped by the continuous

movement of natural forces and natural evolutions. Doughty, in this respect, does not take it

for granted that the land was formed because of the catastrophes and disasters that were

punishments of God a given people.

In so far as the biblical affiliation is concerned, I suppose that Doughty is ambivalent;

I say ambivalent because he refers to many fields as divine-oriented for a while then as being

naturalistic in other occasions. Doughty was brought up in a Christian family; he is a son and

grandson of a reverend. His journey within Arabia and among the Arabs helped him as he

best words it to be:” better able to read the bulk of the Old Testament” 2. For Doughty the

Arabs epitomize the people spoken about in the bible and they are necessary to better

understand its verses since for him they concretise the abstractions conveyed by the book.

Steadfastly, Doughty refuses to change or even deceive the Beduins about his religious

beliefs. He keeps being a Nassrani and preferred to risk his live than convert into Islam or

even pretend that he is a Muslim. Before reaching Petra which he endeavoured to stop at,

Doughty had only learnt about the noun of Prophet Salîh and his Naga- camel- but in his

journey with the Hajj caravan he is informed with the location of the cities of Salîh as well as

the place where the Prophet’s camel was killed. From Al-Eswad’s- Doughty’s Dalil- guide-

answer to Doughty’s inquisition we read:

2
Charles Doughty. Preface. Travels in Arabia Deserta ( New York : Random House Publishers, 1959) p : 35.
* All quotes I use are from the same book.
 Mohammed Jhilila 4

And where are the cities of Salîh? It was answered” in none of

these precipices about, but in yonder Jebel (ethlib)3.

The religious aspects in Arabia Deserta is divine in the rigid and traditional sense; by this I

mean that Doughty’s touch in the narrative can not be said to be really Christian. During his

trips in the area Doughty was, though meticulously maintaining his Nasranity, more

intellectual as figure than a religious one. Along his peregrinations he conceives of the

Islamic rituals as being nature-related. In other words the hostility of the Arabs is dictated by

the natural surrounding rather than by the religious affiliation. Else where, as we can read

from the subsequent quote, his stand is more scientific as he best expresses it:

How great was is this yearly suffering and sacrifice of human

flesh, and all lost labour, for a vain opinion, a little salt of
science would dissolve all their religion!4

The hostility and low regard of the Arab religion and cultures are not directly related

Doughty’s Christian religion it is noteworthy to mention the contribution of the natural

sphere in the traveller’s attitude, needless to mention that his position is not always for nor

always against. Ambivalence is a linchpin of his idiosyncrasy as we will see in the following

lines.

Along the narrative, Doughty is characterized by his twofold description of the Arabs’

religions and cultures. For him, the Arab living in the desert is both a savage, acultured,

intolerable and backward. This is, yet, not the only image the Arab is depicted; elsewhere,

Doughty favourable speaks to and about the oriental as being hospitable and patient. Unlike

the other orientalists, Doughty speaking about the Arab oriental says:

The Arabs are too poor so to lose cattle; but these and the like,
are tales rather of the European Orientalism than with much
resemblance to the common experience5

3
(Page : 123).
4
(Page : 92).
5
(Page : 96).
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Doughty before and during his stay in Arabia did not rely on any traveller’s descriptions.

Instead, he went on taking the risks and the adventure as it came. As it is mentioned in the

introduction he even had some native friends who visited him in England. Doughty by

ignoring other orientalists saved his book from being rubbed in the mud of the systematic

Orientalism. Thus, as he says in the preface, the book unveils its bare land with “a smell[ing]

of Sâmn and Camel”. The use of Sâmn image reflects Doughty’s craftsmanship and dexterity;

the use of the term Sâmn, besides other Arabic sentences, conveys the cultural distant other.

Language, being a vehicle that carries the essence of its speaker if one can say so, helps

Doughty not only to describe the Oriental but also to make his reader experience the other as

he is and as this latter speaks and behaves himself. Doughty could live the whole two years

among the Beduins of the area this helped him know their landscape and mindscape as well.

For him the journey and the writing process are supposed to "add something to the common

fund of Western knowledge"6. The linguistic features and stylistic enterprise remain a

cornerstone that deserves not only readable response but also responsible reading.

As I have already mentioned before, Doughty’s Arabia Deserta is an echo of its author’s

intentions; it is an echo of his personal intention to revive the country through the

resurrection of the Chaucerian and Spenserian Language. The patriotic ambition has travelled

with Doughty along the journey and after it. As it is stated by his biographer Tabatchnic he

stood steadfast towards any editorial amendments to Arabia Deserta. For Doughty the

institutionalization of his work to fit the Victorian’s mind is a prostitution of his work. That is

why he praisingly speaks about it saying it is not milk for babes. For T. E. Lawrence the book

is “a bible of its kind; it is so because of the stylistic mixtures and semantic extension

brought by Doughty. The mixture of Arabic words and sometimes even sentences without

harming the meaning makes of Doughty one special of his kind. At the very beginning of the

travel Doughty uses only fragments of Arabic but as we deepen our travel with him he turns

to using Arabic sentences and sometimes with English inflections. For instance, referring to
6
(Page : 33).
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the Hajj Pasha, he says Emir al-Hajj but as the reader becomes familiar with the terms he

uses them as if they were English ones. Elsewhere, in an unusual metaphorical description of

the Bedouin, Doughty describes the latter as a ship of the desert. In fact, the reader is well

acquainted with the camel being described as such but this time doughty attributes the image

to the Arab man not the animal. The dexterity in Doughty’s style is also read from his sea

metaphor for him, “The beduin body is as a light-timbered ship which may lie stranded till

the spring-tide.”7

The botanic and the animalistic composition of Arabia are also tackled by Doughty.

As far as the botanic is concerned, from the very beginning Doughty’s description of Arabia

included the exposition of ingredients. While Doughty is still waiting for the hajj caravan

season to come he tarries in Muzeyrîb and speaks about the fig trees. He speaks also about

the fresh vegetables like lemons, dates, tomatoes and pomegranates when he arrived at El-

Humeydât villages. While journeying in Arabia it could have been strange not to mention the

camel being the ship of the Sahara; Doughty refers bountifully to the camel as the companion

of the Arab man. It is the most frequently seen animal in the desert. Doughty also refers the

importance of the sheep for the Arab being a source of milk and meat. Doughty was scarcely

received without having a sheep sacrificed for him. During one of his speculations, Doughty

refers to hyenas which for is behind the scatterings of the dead bodies’ bones.

For Doughty the bare plain land of Arabia allows one two live at ease with himself.

Despite the hardships Doughty had to go through, the area provided him with an unrestricted

sightedness instead it made the natural sphere welcomed and lived with in a totally cherished

harmony. This can be read throughout the narrative but the following quote best expresses the

idea:

No sweet chittering of birds greets the coming of the desert

light, besides man there is no voice in the waste drought8

7
(Page : 520).
8
(Page : 286).
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The smoothness of the voices of the birds is genuinely describe when it is put in a rough

environment; in other words the opportunity to taste the benign voice of the birds is better

appreciated when one is in a hard entourage and not within the facilities provided in the

western countries. The openness of the land with no high buildings granted Doughty to

fathom the orient with better insight it also helped him widen the scope of his mind. As I

have insinuated to beforehand, Doughty’s intention was to add something to the common

fund of Western knowledge. In Arabia Doughty is more a cosmopoet than an archaeologist or

a geologist or even a politician. Along his trips the communion with nature and natural

elements is described in the meditative mind of Doughty. The lava fields or the geological

sediments are scarcely described in a scientific proper style. Instead of the materialistic and

utilitarian mind the meditative and contemplative mind accrued. For him:

Beduins complain in their long hours of the wretchedness of

their lives; and they seem then wonderfully pensive.9

Having the whole season marked by its heat and drought Doughty better receives the spring

time as could beautifully esteem of the green scenery as he says "beautiful is the green

pageant of the oasis, after the burning barren dust of the desert"10

The out figure and the outgoing and lone character of Doughty has seized the whole Arabia

within its pages it flaws easily into small details with a great endeavour to resurrect English

from its decadence. Through Arabia Deserta, Doughty has booked a special position in the

English literature.

9
( Page : 355).
10
(Page : 555).