Visions from Abroad: Historical and Contemporary Representations of Arabia

Arabia, with its holy cities in Hejaz and its Bedouin-populated deserts, holds a special place in the Western imaginary. Visions from Abroad explores this fantasy, presenting Saudi Arabia as it was seen by visitors born outside the peninsula. These visitors were often idiosyncratic adventurers as well as artists, and this book tells their stories too—like that of the British naval officer Richard Burton, who passed himself off as an Afghan physician and magician in order to enter Arabia in ...