Western Women in the Islamic World

Mabel Bent travelled through Southern Arabia between 1893 and 1897 together with her husband. Although it is usually Theodore who is thought of as the author, he died shortly after their return to England and it was Mabel who really wrote up the account of their journeys. She describes Muscat, the Hadramout, Sokotra and southern Sudan amongst other places. The work provided a valuable addition to western knowledge of Arabia at that time.

Lady Evelyn Cobbold, one of the explorers featured in the RGS exhibition, was a convert to Islam and was the first British woman to make the Hajj. In 1911 she travelled with her friend Frances Alexander on a journey from Cairo through the Libyan Desert and back. They kept a diary of their travel together which was published as Wayfarers in the Libyan Desert, 1912. It was in North Africa that her interest in Islam developed, and it was shortly after this journey that she formally converted, taking the name Zainab.

Gertrude Bell was one of the most significant travellers in the Middle East. Fluent in Arabic and Farsi she was able to speak directly with the people she met. Bell is now probably best remembered as a major player in the political events unfolding with the collapse of Ottoman rule and the rise of Arab nationalism, however in her early years in the East she travelled widely with an observant eye. Her travels in Eastern Turkey along the Euphrates provided the material for one of her most perceptive books, Amurath to Amurath.  Originally published in 1911 in what is now a very scarce edition, we offer the second edition of 1924.