The Arabs

The British invariably bulk Arabs together and if they are required to describe them they use the phrase "bloody wogs", an expression created and handed down by two generations of wartime soldiers. Broadly speaking, Arabs can be divided into three groups, urban, rural, and Bedu.

Urban Arabs live in large cities, containing big buildings, air conditioned hotels, cars, TV, paved streets, running water, electricity and so on. They are sophisticated, practice the professions and are cultured. In February 1973; I met with some old Arab friends of mine in Paris. Their five children speak four languages fluently, and in accordance with normal Arab hospitality, the whole of their time was given over to me. Their eldest son was my guide and if he was bored taking me to the Louvre, the Emperor's Tomb, Notre Dame and so on, he did not show it. He was polite, attentive and well versed in the arts. Rural Arabs, as the name implies live in the country, page 13 in villages, and small towns. They farm the land and husband it with considerable skill and have the same attachment for it as the Maoris. They do not camp on it as some people think. The Bedu are nomadic and live where they can obtain grazing for their camels and flocks. Some of the soldiers I served with came from the Rawallah, the Beni Sakhir, and the Howeitat Bedu tribes of Jordan. They are a proud people and consider themselves the Noblest of God's creatures. They are devoted to their families, polite, curteous, extremely hospitable and like the majority of Arabs, devout and fatalistic. Everything that happens "is the will of God". Although they are illiterate by our standards many of them are poets and are capable of reciting poetry for hours on end.