Besides the Arabian Nights, another one of John Singer Sargent’s favorite books included Charles Doughty’s Arabia Deserta, written in 1888 (Kilmurray and Ormond 18); the two books in combination, no doubt, shaped Sargent’s expectations of Arabia. Whereas the Arabian Nights offers a fantastical portrayal of Arabia, painting, with its language, an illuminated image of an exotic land, Arabia Deserta presents a realistic, although subjective, view of the land. His words added substance to a world painted in swirls of colors, making it more tangible. T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier more popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia, said that Doughty’s account reveals the “true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom” (Lawrence 11). Arabia Deserta is an all-encompassing panorama of Arabia and Doughty does not forgo the full, exact truth for a sentimental, picturesque account. Indeed, scholars have even used Arabia Deserta to determine Arabia’s geography, as a source for Nabataean archaeology, as a historical source for nineteenth-century Arabia, and most importantly, to examine the life of the Arabs in the late nineteenth-century.
Unlike so many other writers and travelers to Arabia, Doughty never tried to lead a life of romance and determined to scrutinize every aspect of the Arab’s life. He shows the Arab’s hospitality, their delight in a rest in the shade, but he also reveals the harshness and difficulty of their life (Bidwell 93). Doughty comments on the pleasure of listening to cheerful Arab talk as well as the “stern and horrid sounds” of their music (Bidwell 18). While some scholars, such as Janice Deledalle-Rhodes, believe that these conflicting portrayals of the Bedouins results in a ambiguous image of the Arabs (Tabachnick 117), it is perhaps because of these varied observations that make Arabia Deserta a realistic depiction of nineteenth-century Arab life. Doughty has captured the nuances of the Arab society, such as their “mixture of greed and generosity…reckless courage and cowardice…courtesy and churlishness” (Bidwell 94). Rather than generalizing a society, he responded to individual Arabs, choosing to humanize each character; while some Arabs were described as possessing “constant fortitude” (qtd. Doughty 359) others were “easily discouraged” (qtd. Doughty 54) whose “most strength is ever in their tongues” (qtd. Doughty 54). From this combination of praise and criticism, it is apparent that Doughty treated and saw the Arabs as equals; he does not overly romanticize them, nor does he over-fault them. He merely represents them as they are.
With a realistic depiction of Arabia, it is no surprise then that Arabia Deserta is dubbed by T. E. Lawrence as the staple book for any venturing into Arabia. It is to him, a “classic…the first and indispensable work upon the Arabs of the desert…Every student of Arabia wants a copy” (Lawrence 11). The influence of Arabia Deserta on subsequent travelers must have then been significant. Doughty presented not just an account of his travels, but an adventure, full of vivid multi-dimensional characters, and revealed a land and a people beyond its exotic façade. Arabia Deserta is a testimony of Arabia’s humanity, of its reality.
Image of Charles Doughty: Charles Doughty. Royal Geographical Society, London. Arabia DesertaBy Charles Doughty. London: Bloomsbury, 1989. Frontispiece.