What is it about Arabia and her people that has exercised such a powerful allure on generations of English travellers and explorers? "A land whose name could evoke haunting echoes of the unconscious ... a country of the mind more real than any place on a map" had, by the Victorian era, become a deep and lasting obsession for some of the greatest writers and explorers of the time. Here are the stories of some of those men, iconic figures like T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, whose extraordinary relationships with and explorations of Arabia changed the way we now perceive the Arab world and formed the basis of the West’s understanding of the region. Riveting and beautifully-portrayed, Heart Beguiling Araby reveals how these ultimately lonely figures pushed themselves to the limits of physical and mental endurance, surviving and prevailing in a land that had captivated them, thus binding their legends to its sweeping deserts and ancient tribes for generations to come.

What is it about Arabia and her people that has exercised such a powerful allure on generations of English travellers and explorers? "A land whose name could evoke haunting echoes of the unconscious ... a country of the mind more real than any place on a map" had, by the Victorian era, become a deep and lasting obsession for some of the greatest writers and explorers of the time. Here are the stories of some of those men, iconic figures like T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, whose extraordinary relationships with and explorations of Arabia changed the way we now perceive the Arab world and formed the basis of the West’s understanding of the region. Riveting and beautifully-portrayed, Heart Beguiling Araby reveals how these ultimately lonely figures pushed themselves to the limits of physical and mental endurance, surviving and prevailing in a land that had captivated them, thus binding their legends to its sweeping deserts and ancient tribes for generations to come.