Nuri ash-Shaalaan and Colonel Sahara

Abstract

The activities of Nuri ash-Shaalaan, the grand chief of Ruala Bedouin tribe in Syrian Desert, during the 1st world war was vividly described by T. E. Lawrence in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Therefore the life of this old warrior became very popular among the people who are interested in the modern history of the Arab countries. However, the account of the same hero by the late Colonel Keiji Sahara, who explored the Arab lands twice during the time between the 1st and 2nd world wars, has been hitherto quite neglected, or rather forgotten even by his compatriots. I have already made public an article “Arabia and Nejd horses” in the “Saudi Arabia”, the magazine of the Saudi Arabian Society in Japan, No. 21, April 1967, and through it I tried to introduce Mr. Sahara's reports about the thoroughbred horses of Arabia.
This time, I intend to introduce from the standpoint of historical evaluation the idformation of his interview with ash-Shaalaan and his eldest son. I think that, though it is not so colorful as that of T. E. Lawrence, it is still worthy of note because it is probably one of very few pictures in his later days of this friend of Lawrence of Arabia.