If anyone deserves the title of “Legendary Explorer” in our modern times it has to be this man, Ahmed Hassanein Pasha. At the very least he would have to be on the top of a very short list.

In his lifetime he had been many things, a writer, diplomat, Chamberlain and the very reason he’s on this list, an explorer. Just like his predecessors from the golden age of exploration, he was a man of many talents, and these talents and insatiable curiosity to discover the unknown is what led him to leave civilisation behind and embark on a journey that would take him across the unforgiving Sahara, not once, but twice, and with none of the modern day comforts of SUV’s.

The Armed Men of the Caravan: Hassanein Pasha is mounted upon his Arab horse Baraka. Courtesy of SaharaSafaris.org.

Born to a Turco-Circassian family in 1889 CE, Ahmed Mohammad Makhluf Hasanein Al-Bulaki had a more privileged upbringing than most. His father, a distinguished Sheikh and Scholar at Al-Azhar Mosque and University, and his grandfather was Admiral Ahmed Mazhar Hassanein Pasha, the last admiral of the Egyptian navy before the British occupation in 1882. All of which led to the young Ahmed Hassanein to the best education available, and a university degree from Oxford where he graduated at the onset of WWI. While at Oxford he picked up fencing, excelled at it, and represented Egypt in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics.

He was a career politician and diplomat, whose positions took him from the Ministry of Interior to the office of Sir John Maxwell, Commander in Chief of British forces in Egypt, and later to the Egyptian embassies in Washington and London. Not unlike Ahmad Ibn Fadlan! Ultimately, he landed in the Royal court of King Fouad I serving as First Chamberlain and later becoming a mentor to the young Prince Farouk. When the young prince was raised to the throne Ahmed Hassanein Pasha was by his side appointed as governor of the Royal Household, by which he became responsible for the upbringing and education of the king. [Source: Michael Haag]

A friend in need… Befriending a robin that had fallen exhausted on its way from Equatorial Africa to Europe to spend the summer. In his right hand, Ahmed Hassanein Pasha is holding a glass of water from which the bird has just drunk. Courtesy of Michael Haag.

The Lost Oases

At his heart a Bedouin, he set out on an unprecedented journey across one of the most hostile terrains on earth, the great Sahara Desert. Undaunted, his voyage would lead him into previously uncharted territory, a 2,200 mile adventure traversing the Great Sand Sea, culminating in the discovery of the rock drawings at Uweinat, and ending in El-Obeid in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The importance of the rock art discovery was not lost on later archaeologists and anthropologists, it gave rise to the theory that Ancient Egyptian civilisation might have had a much earlier start, and not by the banks of the river Nile.

A member of Hassanein’s expedition examines rock carvings at Uweinat depicting giraffes, lions, ostriches and possibly cows, indicating that the Sahara was once grassland and home to a sophisticated pastoral culture. Courtesy of Michael Haag.

Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, at the time a Bey, started his expedition in Salloum in the far north west of Egypt on the border with Libya on the 21^st of December, 1922. Nine days later, his first port-of-call was Siwa “one of the oldest oases of the Libyan Desert, and the most prosperous because of its date trees and its numerous springs. Its geographical position has made it a centre for Bedouins trading between Egypt and the interior of Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya).”

A sketch of the map showing the route of Hasanein Bey through the Libyan Desert. Courtesy of SaharaSafaris.org.

From Siwa it was onto the next stop, Jaghbub, the centre of Senoussi learning and were the founder of the sect is buried. Five weeks later, after securing a Zawya caravan heading west, where they reached Jalo two days later. For the next six months they travelled ever southward, and discovering two lost oases along the way, Arkenu and Uweinat at the extreme south-west corner of Egypt.

The caravan approaching Arkenu early in the morning. Sunlight piercing a gap in the mountain wall throws a white streak across the sands resembling water. Courtesy of SaharaSafaris.org.

Like explorers who came before him, and the traditions he embraced, he diligently recorded every aspect of his journey and left behind a narrative that is considered one of the great classics of desert exploration. His work proving an inspiration to the likes of Ralph Bagnold, creator of the LRDG, and none other than Count Almásy of The English Patient fame.

And as our friends at Sahara Safaris put it best “His adventure is inspirational for all who like to explore the Sahara”. But it was more than that, it was a testimony to the human spirit and what it is capable of. His remarkable story, which I believe, not a lot of Egyptians know of, should be explored to its full extent and presented with the most positive light for a generation that has lost sight of what makes a role model.

‘I sit next to him for most meals and his reminiscences of Oxford are a delight to me. He has a quick wit, great courtesy, an interest in all subjects and is a quite unusual type of Egyptian. Slim, sharply featured, with a sallow colour and grey hair brushed straight back from his high forehead, he has an unmistakable Bedouin look. … He has keen penetrating eyes, never looks sleepy and has an air of refinement that the coarse looking Egyptian type entirely lacks. He has never had political inclinations, and, though he is a firm believer in Egypt’s right to govern herself and a fervid Moslem, he is quite without that aggressive conceit which marks other ambitious men in this country. Although his culture and his intellect are occidental, his mentality and nature are from the east. He has an eastern courtesy, and, in conversation, an eastern way of leading you off the path you have selected by a sympathetic evasiveness’. Edward Ford, King Farouk’s English tutor. [Source: Michael Haag].

For more information about this legendary explorer you can visit:

Ahmed Hassanein: Writer, Diplomat and Desert Explorer by Michael Haag

The World of Ahmed Hassanein Bey by Mohamed Mabrouk

The Lost Oases

Featured photo: all rights reserved by helen_romberg

A week ago–and 823 years in the past– the father of the travelogue genre set out on a two year trip that saw him and a friend travel thousands of miles from Granada and back again, this is a glimpse into that journey and the character of the man from whom countless travellers after him based their writings upon his own. There are thousands of travel blogs and modern travellers on the internet today, many of which – including myself – owe him a debt of gratitude, even if some of us have never heard of him before. Personally, I have done some travelling in the past, while the inclination to write about them never occurred to me at the time, the experience it left me with was — and still is — priceless. The genre of travel writing or the travelogue was born on board a ship in the year 1183 CE, Friday 25 February 1183 CE to be precise (30 Shawwal, 578 AH), at the hands of Ibn Jubayr, on his way on a trip that would take him two years around the same time as one of the most dangerous times in history, the build up to Third Crusade.Abul-Hassan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Jubayr Al-Kinanei the Anadalusian was born in Valencia in the year 540 AH (1145 CE), his great grandfather Abdul-Salaam Ibn Jubayr was part of the vanguard that entered Granada in the year 123 AH (740/741 CE), from there the family settled in Valencia. In his chronicles of Granada, al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata (The Complete Source on the History of Granada), Ibn al-Khatib describes him with great reverence and admiration:

كان أديباً بارعاً، شاعراً مجيداً، سنياً فاضلاً، نزيه المهمة، سري النفس، كريم الأخلاق، أنيق الطريقة في الخط. كتب بسبتة عن أبي سعيد عثمان ابن عبد المؤمن، وبغرناطة عن غيره من ذوي قرابته، وله فيهم أمداح كثيرة. ثم نزع عن ذلك، وتوجه إلى المشرق، وجرت بينه وبين طايفة من أدباء عصره، مخاطبات ظهرت فيها براعته وإجادته. ونظمه فايق، ونثره بديع. وكلامه المرسل، سهل حسن، وأغراضه جليلة، ومحاسنه ضخمة، وذكره شهير، ورحلته نسيجة وحدها، طارت كل مطار، رحمه الله.

 “He was a brilliant man of letters, a glorious poet, a virtuous Sunni, honest of work, of excellent character and gracious manners, with elegant handwriting. He studied in Ceuta under the tutelage of Abu Said Uthman Ibn Abdul-Mo’men, and in Granada under many others from his relatives, for whom he wrote many poems in their extollment. He then went to the Orient, and along the way many debates and correspondences took place between him and a few authors of his time, correspondences which featured his proficiency and fluency. His composition is superior and his prose is exquisite. His flowing words are pleasing and easy to understand; his exigencies are grand,  his qualities are prodigious, famed around the world; and his And his sender, plain good, and purposes of the great, huge advantages, and mentioned a famous, and his journey took on a life of its own and reached far and wide, may Allah have mercy on him.”

Couldn’t have said it better!

The Travels of Ibn Jubayr

Every good story has a beginning, and here’s how this one begins: Ibn Jubayr worked as a secretary at the court of of the Granada’s governor, Abu Said Osman, he was coerced into drinking seven cups of wine, a drink that is forbidden in Islam. The governors way of redeeming himself was to offer him seven gold dinars, our traveller took the dinars as his cue to leave life at the courts of princes, and to expiate himself set out to perform pilgrimage to Mecca citing the Hajj and its rituals as “something of the sublime” for Muslims; setting the undertone for his observations and writings that will come in later. Faith.

From Granada and back again: Ibn Jubayr’s first travels from 1183-1185CE. Adapted from the HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD with the route itself corrected as per Ibn Jubayr’s own accounts and more than a nod to the Ibn Jubayr project: http://ibnjubayr.lib.virginia.edu/

He set out from his home in Granada, along with his friend and travel companion Ahmad Ibn Hassan, in the first hour of Thursday the 8^th of Shawwal, 578 AH (February 3, 1183 CE). Their first stop was at Jaén, where they stayed for about 11 days conducting some business, leaving again on the 14^th of February, passing through the forts and towns of Cabra and Écija, moving south through Osuna, Arcos and Medina-Sidonia, reaching the island of Tarifa on the 26^th of Shawwal, and from there to Ceuta and the open sea beyond.

Ibn Jubayr described Mount Etna as they saw it from their ship passing close to Sicily. “Mt Etna and Catania” by BenAveling – Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mt_Etna_and_Catania1.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mt_Etna_and_Catania1.jpg

All in all, Ibn Jubayr’s journey took two years and two months, him and his friend returned safely to Granada on the 22^nd of Muharram, 581 AH (April 25, 1185 CE), and not too long after that, he sat down and gave us the very first travelogue in the history of travel writing. A book that “made a considerable impact on literary history. His account of his travels and tribulations in the East—which makes no mention of the wine incident—served as the foundational work of a new genre of writing, the rihla, or the creative travelogue: a mix of personal narrative, description, opinion and anecdote. In following centuries, countless people emulated and even plagiarized him.” [Source: Saudi Aramco]

He didn’t just write a clinical geographical book about the places he visited, he recorded his own personal experiences and observations of the people he met, the places he visited or passed through, the politics of the time, even the details of the different weather phenomenon and storms that seemed to have plagued them throughout the sea voyage, spiced with his anecdotes, poetry and Quranic verses here and there. It provides a first hand account of what the Mediterranean region was at the time, something that still sheds light on our current affairs, many of which seem to eerily mirror some of the events of a very muddled part of human history.

Ibn Jubayr performed two more pilgrimages, his second came upon hearing the news of Salah El-Din’s reconquest of Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the third after the death of his beloved wife. He ended up back in Alexandria where he stayed until his death on the 30^th of Shaaban, 614 AH (November 30, 1217 CE), (رحمه الله). He never recorded his last voyages.

Fore more about Ibn Jubayr you can visit:

The outstanding and thorough interactive exibition by the Library of the University of Virginia: The Ibn Jubayr Exhibition

The Travel Writer Ibn Jubayr by Daniel Grammatico, Louis Werner with art by Belén Esturla; Saudi Aramco

The travels of Ibn Jubayr in E-book format (Arabic) at e-Shamela

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Idrisi, also known as AsShareef Al-Idrisi, was one of the greatest geographers and cartographers in the 12^th century CE, if not the top geographer of his time, one whose capacity at visualising and putting into words what the world looked like was not matched by any contemporary mind in Europe where he resided at the court of King Roger II of Sicily. His book, Nuzhat al-Mushtaq, would live on inspiring countless future explorers from Ibn Battuta to Marco Polo.

And yet his life was not chronicled in depth by any Muslim historians, for reasons that can be debated, for which this is not the platform. One author, Muhammad Abdul-Ghani Hassan, broke the trend, and, in 1971 published a book about the life and times of Al-Idrisi in his book AsShareef Al-Idrisi: The most famous of Muslim and Arab Explorers. A lot of this post will be based on that book insha’Allah.

Al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta in Morocco — occupied by Spain since 1415 CE — in 493 AH (1100 CE), and while not much is known about his early childhood, nor about who he studied under, this much is known, much of his early life was spent travelling through North Africa and Andalucía and seems to have acquired detailed information on both regions. There’s also some evidence that he visited Anatolia when he was barely 16. He is known to have studied in Córdoba, one of the greatest centres of cultural and Islamic learning at the time.

The roster of places he visited is as impressive as his body of literature; Egypt was one of his stops in the Islamic Orient, and in the west it included Portugal, The Pyrenees, the French Atlantic coast, Hungary, and Jórvík also known as York, in England. [Source: Wikipedia]

In 1138 CE he received an invitation to the court of King Roger II of Sicily, by none other than the king himself. There he would be treated to a hospitality rarely seen at a royal court, where the king venerated him to extents never before heard of. It is said that he allowed him to ride his mule all the way into the palace in Palermo and when he arrived he would seat him to his side in the throne room or counsel.

It’s worth mentioning that the Norman kings of Sicily were an anomaly within European Christian Kingdoms, in that they followed in the footsteps of the Muslim rulers, to the extent that at one point Roger II himself was accused of converting to Islam!

Tabula Rogeriana

Al-Idrisi was commissioned by Roger II — who was no stranger to philosophy, mathematics, and forays into unusual inventions — to construct a  map of the known world. Using 400,000 Drachmas worth of silver (the equivalent of 1,720 kg of silver!) he then created multiple spheres, mounting and amalgamating one on the other, then sculpting and engraving it into a three dimensional map of the world. The map only used a third of the amount of silver, ultimately weighing in around 450 lb, the rest were given to Al-Idrisi as  a gift.

Al-Idrisi’s world map, presented upside down in his book with South on top. Wikipedia Commons

Over a period of 15 years, Al-Idrisi would incorporate knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Far East gathered by Islamic Merchants and explorers along with Islamic records and maps, and interviews of Norman sailors and voyagers conducted both by him and by the King. They dispatched draftsmen, and travellers to the corners of the known world to gather first hand information and relay it in detail to be copied in to the great tome on geography. In 1154, just a few weeks before the king died, al-Idrisi’s book was finally complete. Written in Arabic and Latin and accompanied by maps, it presented the world as a sphere. It calculated the circumference to be 37,000 kilometers (22,900 mi)—an error of less than 10 percent. It followed the classical Greek tradition, dividing the world into seven climate zones supported by 70 longitudinal section maps which, when put together, made a rectangular map of the known world. [Source: Saudi Aramco]

Sadly, the silver map appears to have been destroyed during civil unrest shortly afterwards, in 1160.

A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far-Off Places.

In his book, The History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, Samuel Parsons Scott (8 July 1846 – 30 May 1929), known as S.P. Scott, an American attorney, banker, and scholar, wrote about the immensity of the undertaking of Al-Idrisi and its consequence, legacy, and bearing on cartography and geography:

“The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.”

Only ten manuscript copies of the Book of Roger currently survive, five of which have complete text and eight of which have maps. Two are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, including the oldest, dated to about 1325. Another copy, made in Cairo in 1553, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, acquired in 1692. The most complete manuscript, which includes the world map and all seventy sectional maps, is kept in Istanbul. [Source: Wikipedia]

Statue of Al-Idrisi, under the stronghold of the Majorcan in Ceuta. Wikimedia Commons.

Although he excelled in geography, Al-Idrisi, this Muslim scholar, was also a botanist who dabbled in pharmacology and medicine, he left behind a compendium about plants with a detailed explanation of their Syriac, Greek, Latin, Berber, and Arabic names and characteristics; with two other books credited to him, one in pharmacology and another in medicine.

His legacy in the world of geography and exploration remain to this day, one could even say that explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama wouldn’t have accomplished much of their discoveries had they not had a solid foundation in the works of Al-Idrisi (رحمه الله).

For more about Al-Idrisi you can visit:

Mapping Arabia, an article published by Saudi Aramco.

There are times in one’s life when the official rhetoric no longer satisfies your quest for truth. The overwhelming feeling that you are being duped, tricked, and lied to becomes too insistent to register as merely your day to day paranoia.

As a study of this phenomenon lets take a closer look at the recent “Clashes” between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The word “clashes” in and of itself is misleading. It would give you the impression that these are two armies of equal or near-equal strength deciding to go head to head in a ‘fair’ fight that eventually one of which will emerge as the victor.

Except the Palestinians we are talking about have been under siege in their little 25 mile strip of land by the Israeli government with no Aid, no port, no airport and no permission to go to and from the other part of Palestine, the West Bank.

7 million against 2 million, the 4th most powerful army on earth (that’s what they say… apparently they are a little lower on the totem pole than previously assessed) against a district with no army and the bare skeleton of a police force.

The Official rhetoric says that these sanctions against the 2 million people of Ghaza (that’s actually the proper pronunciation of its name) is because the organization called HAMAS is currently controlling the district, therefore to oust them from Ghaza they will pressure them through the sanctions.  Except that Hamas (which was helped along in its inception by the US and Israel so as to split the Palestinian Liberation Front now known as Fatah into two factions, therefore making it weaker) was democratically elected into power by the people of Ghaza. Their rivals Fatah attempted to incite a revolution and ended up getting kicked out of Ghaza altogether.

Smoke and flames are seen following what police said was an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip July 8. Israel bombarded dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on, stepping up what it said might become a long-term offensive against Islamist Hamas after a surge in Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters). Courtesy of The Big Picture.

With Fatah out of Ghaza the Israelis and Americans no longer had any control on Ghaza (the overwhelming word on the Palestinian street is that Fatah are traitors and pretty much lint deep in the pockets of the US and Israel). Which brings us back to this fair toe to toe war that is taking place in Ghaza.  According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in an Oct. 3, 2003 report titled “Israel: U.S. Foreign Assistance“:

“Israel is not economically self-sufficient, and relies on foreign assistance and borrowing to maintain its economy. In addition to U.S. assistance, it is estimated that Israel receives about $1 billion annually through philanthropy, an equal amount through short- and long- term commercial loans, and around $1 billion in Israel Bonds proceeds. Since 1985, the United States has provided $3 billion in grants annually to Israel. Since 1976, Israel has been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, and is the largest cumulative recipient since World War II.

One of those special relationship perks that Israel gets from the US is the use of U.S. military assistance for research and development in the United States, the use of U.S. military assistance for military purchases in Israel, or receiving all its assistance in the first 30 days of the fiscal year rather than in 3 or 4 instalments as other countries do. 

In addition to the foreign assistance, the United States has provided Israel with $625 million to develop and deploy the Arrow antimissile missile (an ongoing project), $1.3 billion to develop the Lavi aircraft (cancelled), $200 million to develop the Merkava tank (operational), $130 million to develop the high energy laser anti-missile system (ongoing), and other military projects. In FY2000 the United States provided Israel an additional $1.2 billion to fund the Wye agreement, and in FY2002 the United States provided an additional $200 million in anti-terror assistance. For FY2003, the Administration requested $600 million in economic, $2.1 billion in military, and $60 million in migration resettlement assistance. For FY2004, the Administration requested $480 million in economic, $2.16 billion in military, and $50 million in migration resettlement assistance.”

A girl cries as Palestinians flee their homes in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, after Israel had airdropped leaflets warning people to leave the area, July 16. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press). Courtesy of The Big Picture.

So suffice it to say that the Largest Military power on earth has adopted the Israeli army as its kid brother and in so doing has also given it the benefits of its latest military technology. A technology that Israel has not been shy about using on the people of Ghaza, starting with operation Hot Winter in 2008, then Returning Echo in 2012, then Pillar of Defence (also known as Cast Lead) in 2008/2009 and then of course Protective Edge in 2014.
In each one of these except the maybe the last, Israel has pretty much dealing with the Palestinians as one would fish in a barrel, in other words, as easy pickings.

sraeli armored personnel carriers manoeuvre outside the northern Gaza Strip Israel intensified its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and warned it could ‘significantly widen’ an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civiliansPicture: REUTERS. Courtesy of The Telegraph.

With big brother American there vetoing and sending Aid whenever required the operations were usually no more than “suppressing the natives” in fact they even came up with a term for their regular destruction of Ghaza and its infrastructure, they call it “Mowing the Lawn”.

On the 12th of June 2014 three Israeli teenagers went missing while hitchhiking in the West Bank. This event initiated the Israel Defence Forces operation Brother’s Keeper, over a period of 20 days they arrested hundreds of Palestinians in dozens of towns, ransacked and confiscated computers and accused HAMAS of masterminding the kidnapping and killing the teens. HAMAS has never been shy of confirming, what it sees as acts of resistance denied kidnapping the teens. The Israeli Prime Minister along with the Israeli media flamed the fire of racial hate that already burns hot in Israel against Arabs and on the 20th day of the search a Palestinian teenager was kidnapped from in front of his home in the west bank and tortured then burnt to death. It would later on become clear that HAMAS had nothing to do with the kidnapping and that the Israeli PM and his Government had found the teens’ bodies a week earlier but kept the news under wraps so as to increase tensions and legitimize the initiation of what will later on be called Operation Protective Edge.

Smoke trails are seen as rockets are launched towards Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Amir Cohen/REUTERS. Courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

At the killing of the Palestinian teen HAMAS did the only thing it could to protest the unjust death of the Palestinian teen and launched their home made rockets at Israel. A purely symbolic move since Israel’s 8 billion dollars Iron Dome defence system would shoot the rockets down before they even had a chance to hit any targets. The fact is that earlier in 2014 HAMAS and FATAH the two Palestinian political faction currently in existence decided to form a unity government. This was a massive blow to the Israeli political narrative as this would give legitimacy to HAMAS and de-boogify them to the world.

Of course that was what Israel was waiting for and on June 29th 2014 Israel started the month long bombardment of Ghaza. To date nearly 1870+ Palestinian civilians have been killed (at the time of writing) because of the seemingly random bombardment of Ghaza. Of that number nearly 400 have been children. The rest are women and the elderly with as little as 15% being actual freedom fighters that belong to the Al-Qassam Brigade.

#ChildrenOfGaza. By Jihad Abdul Haq, on Behance.

To make things worse the Israeli backed Coup government of Abdul Fatah El-Sisi which was placed in power after the forced arrest and detainment of democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi in Egypt closed the Rafah crossing as per Israeli and American orders and have not allowed any medical or humanitarian aid to be let through to Ghaza. Aid groups from several dozen countries as well as refugee Ghazans were not allowed to go back into Ghaza and another humanitarian crisis all of its own.

Continued on page 2.

It’s about time Halal Tourism got the focus it deserves.

PRESS RELEASE:

Europe is hosting the first-ever international conference on halal tourism to look at how the industry can capitalise on one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. The Halal Tourism Conference, which is being held on 22 and 23 September 2014, will bring together the global travel industry to discuss ways of tapping into this niche market.

The event, which is being hosted in Andalucía, Spain, aims to equip delegates with market intelligence, industry forecasts and trends to understand how to market to the lucrative Muslim consumer and benefit commercially. According to the latest figures, the halal tourism sector was worth $140 billion in 2013 representing around 13% of global travel expenditures. This figure is expected to reach $192 billion by 2020.

Organiser Tasneem Mahmood, from CMM, said the conference hopes to have attendance and representation from every region of the world and presents great opportunities for countries in the Gulf. She said: “This is a groundbreaking event for halal tourism which is directly reacting to current market trends and addressing the needs of the industry. It is the first time such a global event is being staged looking at halal tourism in detail. For countries in the Gulf, with a deep Islamic heritage and so much to offer, it presents a real opportunity to attract visitors.

“Every country and business needs to look at Halal tourism because it is growing so rapidly and the Muslim consumer is increasing spend on leisure holidays.

“Our research has shown there are so many countries and travel operators who can benefit from halal tourism but are currently missing out. This conference will show the opportunities that are present and show you exactly how to grab them.

“It will be an excellent knowledge forum and an ideal platform for exchange of experience between experts in the industry and countries who are actively engaged in halal tourism.

“This conference will also be a great way to network with leisure and travel businesses from around the world to develop new partnerships.”

The two day event hopes to attract tourism boards, tour agencies, tour operators, restaurants, media, hotels, airlines and suppliers to the travel sector. The event will also feature seminars from industry experts, workshops, networking sessions and an exhibition.

A series of workshops will provide with information on what the industry needs to prepare to make the destination attractive to the Muslim market by understanding its needs and expectations.

Guest speakers at the event include tourism ministers, halal institutions, marketing experts and academics. Partners for the event include Andalucian Tourism Board, The Spanish Tourism Board, Turkish Airlines, Granada Tourism Board, El Legado Andalusi and the Halal Institute.

The Halal Tourism Conference 2014, hosted in partnership with tour operator Andalucian Routes, will take place from the 22nd to 23^rd September 2014 at the Granada Conference and Exhibition Centre, Andalucía, Spain. It will be followed by a two day tour of the region of Andalucía to provide businesses with a live case study of a region that is becoming more Muslim friendly and is actively working to meet the needs of Muslim travellers.

For more information on the event including how to attend as a delegate please visit the website www.htc2014.com or email info@cmmedia.co.uk

For further information including interviews, please contact:

PR enquiries:

Anas Kasak,McCann Birmingham
Tel: 0121 713 3786
Mob: 07971 735090
Email: Anas.Kasak@Mccann.com

Bilal Domah,CM Media
Tel – (+44) 7428 191 776
Email: bilal@cmmedia.co.uk

Tasneem Mahmood, CM Media
Tel – (+44) 7947 599 937
Email: tasneem@cmmedia.co.uk

Editor’s Notes:

• The Halal Tourism Conference 2014 will take place from the 22nd to 23^rd September 2014 at the Granada Conference and Exhibition Centre, Andalucía, Spain.
• More information about the event can be found on by visiting www.htc2014.com
• The Muslim Travel market segment was estimated to be worth US $140B in 2013, representing almost 13% of global travel expenditures according to a report by ratings agency Crescent Rating.
• A study by Crescent Rating projects that until at least 2020 Muslim international tourism will increase at a faster rate than the average rate for international tourism — 4.79 percent versus 3.8 percent.
• At that point, the study says, overall annual spending for international Muslim tourism is expected to reach US $192 billion.
• Creative Minds Media specialise in international conferences and exhibitions. The founders of CM Media have between them over 10 years’ experience in events management and sales. Their events portfolio includes working within the defence and forensics industry, youth work, as well as within the health sector.

But they are also magnificently serene, and it is hard to beat a desert’s night sky for its glory.

In his first night under the glittering sky of the Giza desert, Pierre Loti wonderfully described the dreamlike nature of the desert and it’s luminous night sky. Here’s an excerpt, as promised in the last post, from his book The Death of Philae published in 1909:

CHAPTER I: A WINTER MIDNIGHT BEFORE THE GREAT SPHINX
A night wondrously clear and of a colour unknown to our climate; a place of dreamlike aspect, fraught with mystery. The moon of a bright silver, which dazzles by its shining, illumines a world which surely is no longer ours; for it resembles in nothing what may be seen in other lands. A world in which everything is suffused with rosy colour beneath the stars of midnight, and where granite symbols rise up, ghostlike and motionless.

Is that a hill of sand that rises yonder? One can scarcely tell, for it has as it were no shape, no outline; rather it seems like a great rosy cloud, or some huge, trembling billow, which once perhaps raised itself there, forthwith to become motionless for ever. . . . And from out this kind of mummified wave a colossal human effigy emerges, rose-coloured too, a nameless, elusive rose; emerges, and stares with fixed eyes and smiles. It is so huge it seems unreal, as if it were a reflection cast by some mirror hidden in the moon. . . . And behind this monster face, far away in the rear, on the top of those undefined and gently undulating sandhills, three apocalyptic signs rise up against the sky, those rose-coloured triangles, regular as the figures of geometry, but so vast in the distance that they inspire you with fear. They seem to be luminous of themselves, so vividly do they stand out in their clear rose against the deep blue of the star-spangled vault. And this apparent radiation from within, by its lack of likelihood, makes them seem more awful.

And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand. Nothing else is to be seen anywhere save those three awful things that stand there upright and still—the human likeness magnified beyond all measurement, and the three geometric mountains; things at first sight like exhalations, visionary things, with nevertheless here and there, and most of all in the features of the vast mute face, subtleties of shadow which show that it at least exists, rigid and immovable, fashioned out of imperishable stone.

Even had we not known, we must soon have guessed, for these things are unique in the world, and pictures of every age have made the knowledge of them commonplace: the Sphinx and the Pyramids! But what is strange is that they should be so disquieting. . . . Pierre Loti, Egypt (La Mort De Philae)

Egypt: Sakkara, Tomb of Nefer-Seshem-Ptah. Sakkara. 6th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sakkara, a reconstruction of the Egyptian Old Kingdom Step Pyramid and Chapels, 3rd Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sakkara, Egyptian Old Kingdom Step Pyramid, 3rd Dynasty west colonnade. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sakkara, a reconstruction of the Egyptian Old Kingdom Step Pyramid and Chapels, 3rd Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sakkara, Egyptian Old Kingdom Step Pyramid and enclosure, 3rd Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sakkara, the Burial Chamber within the Pyramid of Unas, 5th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

As humans love a good challenge, for some of us, the more extreme the challenge the better. We have rallies (more like endurance off-road races) across deserts, like the famous Rallye des Pharaons and the more established Dakar Rally, we also have the 4 Deserts Race Series, an annual series of four 250 km (155 miles) races across desert conditions in various parts of the world over a period of 7 days, each contestant completely self supported. And for the less adventurous there are desert safaris, dune bashing, and sand boarding! There’s something to be said about a night under the stars in the vastness of the desert, with a proper cup of tea steeped slow over a small fire.

Magnitude… Two people on top of the tallest dune above Merzouga on Erg Chebbi in Morocco during windy/sand-hazy conditions. “Merzouga Large Dune 2011” by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen – Own work by uploader, http://bjornfree.com/galleries.html. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

 Whatever the case may be, before heading off on your next desert adventure you should ask yourself this question: am I physically and mentally prepared to survive in the desert in case of an accident or an emergency? The survival mindset is the same in any environment around the world, but it is especially more delicate in the desert as Derek Markham puts it in his Discovery News article Desert Survival: 8 Simple Tips That Could Save Your Life, it is the balance “between staying out of the heat of the day and staying warm during the cold nights, between conserving the water you have and drinking enough of it to stay alive, and between stifling your feelings of hunger and seeking out any source of food which will you keep you alive.”

1. Be Prepared

Know you’re terrain before you head out, it will help you better plan what kit to take with you. Make sure you are fit enough for the activity you’re about to undertake. Always let someone know where you’re heading, when you expect to be back, and when they should be worried! Have a contingency plan.

2. The essentials

If you are travelling with a group on a desert safari or are involved in an organized event that will cross the desert then your guides will probably be equipped with the necessary tools for an emergency. If you are travelling alone then here are some things that you (depending on how long you’re trip will be):

1. Water (one gallon/day/person)
2. A map and compass
3. Waterproof matches or a flint and steel
4. Pocket survival guide
5. Sunscreen, hat and sunglasses
6. Pocket knife
7. Signalling mirror
8. Water purification tablets
9. Pencil and notepad
10. Whistle
11. First aid kit

3. Keep your shirt on

Clothing helps reduce fluid loss, protect against sunburns, and keeps you warm at night. In the desert, the looser the garments the better. A hat with an extra piece of cloth to cover the back of your neck will also go a long way in protecting against sun strokes. Never wear sandals that expose the top of your feet, and don’t walk barefoot; a boot will do nicely.

4. Don’t panic

Panic should not be confused with fear, Panic immobilizes and robs you of your ability to think rationally and make the right decisions. Fear, on the other hand, is a natural response to danger and can be a valuable survival resource.

5. Know your priorities

You can survive for 3 hours without shelter in a harsh environment (unless in icy water), you can survive for 3 days without water (if sheltered from a harsh environment), you can survive for 3 Weeks without food (if you have water and shelter). Water is of the utmost importance, and finding it is vital. Ration the water that you already have and resist the temptation to guzzle, the rule of thumb is that you can survive for 3 days without water. Next should be shelter and fire, you need shade from the sun to minimize the risk of heat exhaustion, and the fire will come in handy for warmth at night and for making food. Food comes next, with heat comes loss of appetite, so don’t force yourself to eat. Steer away from protein foods as they require precious liquids for their digestion.

6. Be nocturnal

If you make the decision to leave your location and shelter in an attempt to reach civilisation, then your best option is to rest during the day and walk at night. Walking at night, even with rationing meagre water supplies, you can cover between 40 to 50 some kilometres. Compared to attempting the same during the day, your chances are very slim.

Sand storm… A wall of sand hitting a camp site in Iraq. By Tobin on Flikr.

7. Sand storms

There’s only one thing yo can do in a sand storm and that is to stop and sit it out. Bear Grylls put it best: “A sandstorm is the most dreaded situation a desert traveller can face, and the last thing you want to do is fight against it. Sandstorms can last for hours, even days, and you’ll only end up lost, exhausted and broken if you try to walk through it. Stop. Don’t panic. Take shelter if you can — a nearby tuft of grass, for example. And be sure to shield your eyes, nose and mouth from the stinging sand particles. [Bear Grylls: Escape From Hell]

These are just some tips that can hopefully help you plan better, but there are many resources online and offline that can really help keep you safe on your next adventure. Most of the tips here have been collected from these sources. Here are some recommendations:

Guides:

The Survival Book a 1980’s illustrated handbook of survival techniques and first aid for natural and man-made disasters and emergencies, while some techniques might greatly advanced since then, it still offers some very valuable tips and information.

SAS Survival Handbook, Revised Edition: For Any Climate, in Any Situation by John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman, considered to be one of the best survival guides around, also available as an app.

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook an illustrated survival how-to guide for some crazy situations, from wrestling an alligator to landing a plane!

Online Resources:

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/survival

http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wilderness-survival-rules-of-3/

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/chp13.php

Here’s what Herodotus had to say about the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and his theory on how the Pyramids were built:

As long as Rhampsinit was king, as they told me, there was nothing but orderly rule in Egypt, and the land prospered greatly. But after him Kheops became king over them and brought them to every kind of suffering: He closed all the temples; after this he kept the priests from sacrificing there and then he forced all the Egyptians to work for him. So some were ordered to draw stones from the stone quarries in the Arabian mountains to the Nile, and others he forced to receive the stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those called the Libyan mountains. And they worked by 100.000 men at a time, for each three months continually. Of this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid. For the length of it is 5 furlongs and the breadth 10 fathoms and the height, where it is highest, 8 fathoms, and it is made of polished stone and with figures carved upon it. For this, they said, 10 years were spent, and for the underground chambers on the hill upon which the pyramids stand, which he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile. For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of 20 years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring 800 feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones being less than 30 feet in length. This pyramid was made after the manner of steps, which some call ‘rows’ and others ‘bases’: When they had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones with devices made of short pieces of timber, lifting them first from the ground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried, to each stage successively, in order that they might take up the stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it is reported. However that may be, the highest parts of it were finished first, and afterwards they proceeded to finish that which came next to them, and lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and the lowest ranges. On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I remember correctly what the interpreter said while reading this inscription for me, a sum of 1600 silver talents was spent. Kheops moreover came to such a pitch of evilness, that being in want of money he sent his own daughter to a brothel and ordered her to obtain from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they did not tell me). But she not only obtained the sum that was appointed by her father, but she also formed a design for herself privately to leave behind her a memorial: She requested each man who came in to her to give her one stone for her building project. And of these stones, they told me, the pyramid was built which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of the three, each side being 150 feet in length.

After Kheops was dead his brother Khephren succeeded to the royal throne. This king followed the same manner as the other … and ruled for 56 years. Here they reckon altogether 106 years, during which they say that there was nothing but evil for the Egyptians, and the temples were kept closed and not opened during all that time”.

These kings the Egyptians -because of their hate against them- are not very willing to say their names. What’s more, they even call the pyramids after the name of Philítîs the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in those regions. The Histories

While a lot of modern Egyptologists don’t take Herodotus’ accounts as fact, it is still a fascinating account. Next instalment, we’ll see what Pierre Loti had to say bout the Pyramids of Giza. For now enjoy.

Egypt: Three dragmans or guards posing at the Granite Temple near Pyramid of Khephren in Gizeh, 4th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Granite Temple near Pyramid of Khephren. Gizeh, 4th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: The burial chamber inside the Pyramid of Kheops, Gizeh, 4th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Step Pyramid of Meidum, believed to have been originally built for Huni, the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. Beni Sueif. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900

Egypt: the Mena House in Gizeh overlooking the Pyramids. By Brooklyn Museum, taken some time in 1891.

Skills we learned and developed over thousands of years—turning them into instincts to live by, have now become skills that, we hope, our kids might learn in summer camps, only for some of them to forget after the first stint in front of the television.

Take knots for example, a long time ago most people knew how to tie the most common knots and hitches as they were crucial in their daily lives, and the more their profession relied on them the more advanced their skills and their knots were. Sailors were at the top of the food chain in this territory, and they probably still are. Nowadays, only the most avid of outdoors enthusiasts would bother learning the different knots and hitches there are. That’s just one example among many.

I am not a survival expert, but on January 28, 2011, my family and myself went to bed to the tunes of gunfire. It was the third day of the Jan25 revolution in Egypt, and things had taken a turn to the worst. Not only did we have to contend with anarchy, and jails that were deliberately opened by the authorities to let the most hardened criminals out – the idea was for them to terrorize the streets and make the people forget about rebellion – but we were also cut off from the world, since the authorities shut down all internet and mobile communications.

That’s when we turned to survival tactics, and once the internet came back online, the first thing we searched for was information on what to do in emergencies. Believe it or not, TV shows like Survivorman and Man Vs. Wild aided in that information as well. Since then we’ve been collecting survival and preparedness material.

In this series, we will attempt to collect and gather as much of the best survival information and tactics, so that perhaps whenever you are caught in one of these situation, you would know the right thing to do and when to do it, and in the process help save a life… Deserts, mountains, oceans and rivers, forests, urban environments, extreme cold, anarchy, and natural disasters, anything can happen at any time, the question is, will we be ready.

In 1867 One of the greatest literary minds in American history along with a group of Americans toured Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land (Palestine). The writer is non other than Mark Twain, and the trip was aboard a retired Civil War ship called Quaker City, the trip lasted for five months and his humerus chronicles would eventually be published in 1869.

The innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrims’ Progress would become the best-selling of Twain’s works during his lifetime, as well as being one of the best-selling travel books of all time [Source: Wikipedia]. Mark Twain beheld the mighty sight of the desert, and took in its alien surreal witchery in the blaze of the noon sun (from the beautifully designed book: The Book of Marvels: An Explorer’s Miscellany). Here’s how he described the view:

At the distance of a few miles the Pyramids rising above the palms, looked very clean-cut, very grand and imposing, and very soft and filmy, as well. They swam in a rich haze that took from them all suggestions of unfeeling stone, and made them seem only the airy nothings of a dream—structures which might blossom into tiers of vague arches, or ornate colonnades, may be, and change and change again, into all graceful forms of architecture, while we looked, and then melt deliciously away and blend with the tremulous atmosphere. The Innocents Abroad

Egypt: view of the Pyramid of Chephren, Gizeh. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Sphinx and Pyramids by Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: time to pray, Pyramids and Sphinx. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: Old Kingdom. Plan of Temple of Khephren. Gizeh, 4th Dynasty. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.

Egypt: postcards from the edge! A photo session at the Pyramids and Sphinx. By Brooklyn Museum, taken sometime in 1900.