Page 11 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XII*

The period of discovery of Arabia after 1850 has quite a
variety of motives behind it. Scientific “curiosity” no
longer dominates the foreground. This second phase of Eu­
ropean exploratory expeditions in Arabia and especially in
the southeast of the peninsula was instigated by S. B. Miles
who visited Inner Oman from Sohar in 1875, from Barka in
1876 and from Matrah in 1885. The results if his research
are in addition to several reports1, recorded in the extensive
and systematically developed work “The Countries and
Tribes of the Persian Gulf,” which was published in London
in 1919. In 1894—95, J. Th. Bent and H. Bent visited the
south of what is now Oman. Their book “Southern Arabia”
(London 1900) contains the first detailed descriptions of
Dhofar and the Qara mountain range. The expeditions
and publications of S. M. Zwemer (1902)2, Sir Percy
Cox (1925)3, G. M. Lees (1928)4, B. Thomas (1926,
1928—29)5 and W. Thesiger (several times during
1946—50)6, followed.

1 MILES, S. B. (1877): On the route between Sohar and el-Bereymi
in Oman, with a note on the Zatt, or Gypsies in Arabia. In: Journal
of the Asiatic Society, XLVI, pp. 4—40.
MILES, S. B. (1901): Across the Green Mountains. In: Journal
of the Roy. Geogr. Soc. Vol. XVIII, Nr. 5.
MILES, S. B. (1910): On the border of the Great Desert. A Jour­
ney in Oman. In: Geogr. Journ., 36, pp. 159—178, and 405—425.
2 ZWEMER, S.M. (1900): Arabia. The cradle of Islam. London
1900.
ZWEMER, S. M. (1902): Three journeys in northern Oman.
In: Geogr. Journ. XIX (Jan.—June) pp. 54—64.
3 COX, P. (1925): Some Excursions in Oman. In: Geogr. Journ.
LXVI,pp. 193-227.
4 LEES, G. M. (1928): The physical geography of South-Eastern
Arabia. In: Geogr. Journ. LXXI, Nr. 5, pp. 441—470.
5 THOMAS, B. (1929): The South-Eastern borderlands of Rub al
Khali. In: Geogr. Journ. 73, pp. 193—215.
THOMAS, B. (1929): Among some unknown tribes of South
Arabia. In: Journ. of the Roy. Anthropol. Soc. Vol. 59.