The desert, like deep blue ocean, has always been an enigma to humanity since the time travel begun. Those who ventured into its mysteries were confronted with uncertainties, leading them to pointless wanderings, insanity and almost always to death. Nevertheless, this did not stop them. History is full of stories of people crossing sand dunes and barren mountains, braving adverse climate and unforeseeable hazards. In a way, Semitic religions survived not only the wrath of unsympathetic kings and gods of their times, but also these hostile terrains and weathers.
Muzafer Ahamed’s book Camels in the Sky is a modern take on travels across the deserts of Saudi Arabia, where the author lived for nearly a decade and a half as a journalist. It is a translation of the Kerala Sahitya Academy award-winning collection of essays in Malayalam, more poetically titled Autobiography of the Desert. The English translation includes a few additional essays.
No easy journey
Given modern…