In theory Saudi Arabia should not exist - its survival defies the laws of logic and history. Look at its princely rulers, dressed in funny clothes; trusting in God rather than man, and running their oil-rich country on principles that most of the world has abandoned with relief. Shops are closed for prayer five times a day, executions take place in the street - and let us not even get started on the status of women. Saudi Arabia is one of the planet's enduring - and, for some, quite offensive - enigmas: which is why, three decades ago, I went to live there for a bit."
I could've written this, except that I went to live there four decades ago for quite a bit. However, this is how Robert Lacey begins his book "Inside the Kingdom" which was published in 2009, twenty-eight years after his first book, "The Kingdom", which was banned for distribution in Saudi Arabia and is now out of print. This second book was written after 11 September 2001. As Robert Lacey writes, "... the horrors of 9/11 would never have been inflicted on the United States, since Osama Bin Laden's poisonous hostility towards the West was a brew that only Saudi Arabia could have concocted. His attack on the Twin Towers was a manoeuvre in an essentially Saudi quarrel - played out with American victims."
Since my time in Saudi Arabia, we have had to learn many new words: wahhabi, jihadi, Arab-Afghan, Desert Storm, fatwa, Al-Qaeda, and while my time in the Kingdom came at a great personal cost to me, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It made me what I am today and shaped my views on the world as much as my time in Papua New Guinea and Burma, two countries which greatly influenced and changed my life.
"Inside the Kingdom" is a second-hand book which I bought on ebay from worldofbooks. Inside it was an old bookmark in the form of an admission ticket to a performamce of Don Quixote at the Garrick Theatre at 2 Charing Cross Road in London on Thursday, 27 December 2018. The then reader of this book, who had paid £59.50 for his ticket, left it between pages 174 and 175, at the beginning of the chapter "Change of Heart".
I love those old traces of former readers who left boarding passes, cash register receipts, even personal notes and photographs, inside second-hand books. They add to a book's provenance - if such a big word (look it up, Des!) can be used for something as insignificant as a bookmark.
Not that I will have a change of heart and stop reading the book at that chapter. As I wrote, Saudi Arabia has had far too much influence on my later life to stop at page 174. There are at least another 150 pages for me to figure out why I ever went to live and work in such a place.
P.S. According to a study I've just made up, those who read my posts are happier, more intelligent, and better-looking than those who don't. One such reader who's definitely more intelligent and better-looking but seemingly not happy with my post is Thamer Mofarrij, the son of one of my Saudi employers who was still a babe-in-arms at the time when I was there. He's just emailed me from Saudi Arabia: "Hi Peter, I went through your post, I am positive sure Saudi Arabia is totally different from your time when you were here. Pay a visit, we will be happy to see you again. It makes me laugh when I read such opinions, nothing is perfect my friend as long as development takes place." "Inside the Kingdom" was published in 2009, Thamer; I am sure everything is very much different now, especially with all the bid'ah Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has brought in. As I wrote, I wouldn't have missed Saudi Arabia for the world. As for visiting the Kingdom again: my travelling days are over. I live 100 km from Canberra and 280 km from Sydney, and hardly visit even them anymore. I hope you and your family are keeping well! 👍
