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Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:07 am
  #1  
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Question Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Arab boy was secret love of Thesiger's life

Novelist tells of explorer's platonic passion for the young men who helped him to explore the Arabian desert

David Smith, arts and media correspondent
Sunday August 31, 2003
The Observer


Sir Wilfred Thesiger, hailed after his death a week ago as the last of the great imperial explorers, held a secret passion for an Arab boy who became 'the love of his life'. Salim bin Kabina, now married with children in Saudi Arabia, was the object of Thesiger's doting adoration, according to James Maw, a novelist and broadcaster who befriended the British adventurer in his final years and conducted his final interview last year.


However, despite strong evidence of homosexual longings, Thesiger maintained his private life was nobody's business but his own and always refused to discuss the matter, according to Maw.

Often dubbed a latter-day Lawrence of Arabia, Thesiger spent five decades as an explorer, writer, war hero and chronicler of some of the world's least-known corners. In the Forties, the former SAS soldier travelled with Bedouins across the Empty Quarter, a vast, unmapped desert covering the south of the Arabian peninsula, and came close to death from thirst and starvation.

It was during that time, when Thesiger was in his thirties, that he met the boy he would come to love. 'Bin Kabina was 16 when he met him at a well,' Maw said. 'Bin Kabina declared he was going to travel with him, and asked could he bring his friend, Salim bin Ghabaisha, as well. The company of those two Arab boys over the next four years gave meaning to the journey.



'Wilfred was absolutely in love with bin Kabina, no doubt about it. The closest he came to saying it was: "He was like my son." Bin Kabina was the love of his life, but I do believe it was platonic. Wilfred was always a loner and he liked the purity and cleanness of the desert, paring life down to the simplest form. Can you imagine the chaos it would have caused if something had happened? Sex was too untidy for him. I asked him about it once and he said: "That sort of thing was entirely out of the question." I reckon he died a virgin, but there was no sadness about it for him.'



A passage from Thesiger's 1959 classic, Arabian Sands, suggests the Oxford graduate's affections embraced not only bin Kabina, but also his friend bin Ghabaisha: 'Bin Kabina was accompanied by the boy I had noticed the night before. They were about the same age. This boy was dressed only in a length of blue cloth, which he wore wrapped round his waist with one tasselled end thrown over his right shoulder, and his dark hair fell like a mane about his shoulders. He had a face of classic beauty, pensive and rather sad in repose, but which lit up when he smiled, like a pool touched by the sun. Antinous must have looked like this, I thought, when Hadrian first saw him in the Phrygian woods.



Unable to resist 'the lure of the unknown', Thesiger went on to many more adventures, writing The Marsh Arabs about southern Iraq. But he never forgot his two faithful companions, saying that when he wrote about them he 'felt their presence so intensely they could have been with him in the room'.

Then three years ago, to celebrate Thesiger's ninetieth birthday, the pair flew over from Saudi Arabia to be reunited with him at Woodcot, the retirement home in Surrey where he spent his twilight years.

Maw, who interviewed him over several days for the BBC, recalled: 'He was so delighted about that visit. When I met him we sat down and he immediately said: "This is where I took bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha!"'


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print...102285,00.html
 
Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:12 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

"He had a face of classic beauty, pensive and rather sad in repose, but which lit up when he smiled, like a pool touched by the sun. Antinous must have looked like this, I thought, when Hadrian first saw him in the Phrygian woods. "


OMG! What a way to express!!!!


"Wilfred was always a loner and he liked the purity and cleanness of the desert, paring life down to the simplest form. Can you imagine the chaos it would have caused if something had happened? Sex was too untidy for him. I asked him about it once and he said: "That sort of thing was entirely out of the question." I reckon he died a virgin, but there was no sadness about it for him.' "
 
Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:36 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy

Sex was too untidy for him.
Hmmm..that's an interesting perspective on sex.
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Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:42 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Cherrypie
Hmmm..that's an interesting perspective on sex.

Even the nights are too bright here to veil the secrets in the Sands.
 
Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:48 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy
Even the nights are too bright here to veil the secrets in the Sands.
I didn't realise that you were an aspiring poet.
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Old Oct 14th 2004, 8:59 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Cherrypie
I didn't realise that you were an aspiring poet.

This is the aspiration of these 1001 nights that I long to live over and over.
 
Old Oct 14th 2004, 9:10 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy
This is the aspiration of these 1001 nights that I long to live over and over.
Enough of all that! Ramadan is upon us...better get your prayer hat on.
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Old Oct 14th 2004, 9:18 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Cherrypie
Enough of all that! Ramadan is upon us...better get your prayer hat on.

Ramadan Kareem Cp!

Are you Fasting tomorrow? You know girls in this country look so cute when they are fasting...!

no make-up, no lipsticks! We need Ramadan 12 months a year. That would be awesome.
 
Old Oct 14th 2004, 1:35 pm
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy
Ramadan Kareem Cp!

Are you Fasting tomorrow? You know girls in this country look so cute when they are fasting...!

no make-up, no lipsticks! We need Ramadan 12 months a year. That would be awesome.
Of course...inshallah.

Girls look cute when fasting???...think you've missed the point of the holy month if you're eyeing girls up whilst fasting, lol!

Ramadan... 12 months a year? :scared:
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Old Oct 14th 2004, 9:13 pm
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy
Even the nights are too bright here to veil the secrets in the Sands.
Balushi! I missed you! Changed my name i'm Devon really! How ya been?
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Old Oct 15th 2004, 2:20 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Wilfred Thesiger was one of the greatest travellers and writers around. I read Arabian Sands whilst in the desert and the language he uses and the experiences he had are inspiring.
Reading the book, and many of his others, it was fairly obvious that he had homosexual tendencies, but not necassarily in the clear cut way we see it in the west. In fact he broaches the subject in Arabian Sands when he talks of the relationship between men when travelling great distances over long periods. It comes across as more of a way to quell urges and pass time, if there were women there then they would have quelled with them, but in their absence............
The story of his homosexuality mirrors that of Sir Laurence Olivier in that most people knew he was gay, and he had no problem with people knowing, it just wasn't discussed as both were private men who kept their personal affairs just that.
As with Sir Laurence the full details of his sexual persuasion are only coming out post mortem and it will hopefully not sully his image and take away from the great work he did.
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Old Oct 15th 2004, 9:05 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Desert Dweller
Wilfred Thesiger was one of the greatest travellers and writers around. I read Arabian Sands whilst in the desert and the language he uses and the experiences he had are inspiring.
Reading the book, and many of his others, it was fairly obvious that he had homosexual tendencies, but not necassarily in the clear cut way we see it in the west. In fact he broaches the subject in Arabian Sands when he talks of the relationship between men when travelling great distances over long periods. It comes across as more of a way to quell urges and pass time, if there were women there then they would have quelled with them, but in their absence............
The story of his homosexuality mirrors that of Sir Laurence Olivier in that most people knew he was gay, and he had no problem with people knowing, it just wasn't discussed as both were private men who kept their personal affairs just that.
As with Sir Laurence the full details of his sexual persuasion are only coming out post mortem and it will hopefully not sully his image and take away from the great work he did.

DD, You must also read his book about Aserian Arabs and his journey into the Marsh Arab land in Iraq... that was a very good book. Yes if anyone reads this books only sees arab boys pictures! which made it obvious.


In is books he was more dozens of pictures of Kabina... It only showed how much he loved that young men. as a father as a companion! we never know.


It is also believed that the fortune of Wilfred was left to beduoins and the tribe of Bin Kabina and ghabisah.
 
Old Oct 15th 2004, 9:12 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by creamT
Balushi! I missed you! Changed my name i'm Devon really! How ya been?

Hey I am doing great! except my heads spinning without a fag since dusk! I forgot to save yours e-mail id, i know its something with devon

Tell me how are the little ones doing? How is your hubby?

I think I will only stay in ME forum, instead of getting myself worked out with leslie.
 
Old Oct 15th 2004, 9:15 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Cherrypie
Of course...inshallah.

Girls look cute when fasting???...think you've missed the point of the holy month if you're eyeing girls up whilst fasting, lol!

Ramadan... 12 months a year? :scared:

Cute i see them with good faith, clear mind and intention. plus i can't keep my eyes closed while walking or out.
 
Old Oct 16th 2004, 6:12 am
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Default Re: Arab Boy was The Secret Love. An Article On British Papers! - This is NOT nice.

Originally Posted by Beduoin_Boy
Cute i see them with good faith, clear mind and intention. plus i can't keep my eyes closed while walking or out.
Of course...silly me
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