I was determined to travel as an equal of the Bedu,’ says Thesiger. ‘So I travelled in their dress, without shoes and with a dagger and a cooking pot.
The Bedu for example, as I first knew them, were a laughing happy community.
The Bedu for their part see themselves as guardians of Arab virtues (muruwa, or manliness), like loyalty, physical courage, and, above all, generosity.
The only native Emirian artistic traditions are those passed down from the Bedu nomads.
Even the formerly nomadic Bedu now live in air-conditioned houses built by the government.
The five most memorable years of his life were among the Bedu in Arabia's southern desert - the half-million square miles of the Empty Quarter.
The best-known folk art in Kuwait is that of the Bedu, particularly weavings done with brightly colored wool on a loom called a sadu.