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24th January 2003 - the anniversary of Captain Shakespear's death and the day of our visit to the battlefield at Jarab, 150 miles north of Riyadh. Accompanied by the two Abdullah's and Ibrahim the cameraman, our route took us through numerous old towns - stopping at one, Jalajil, we explored the palm groves and wonderful mud brick buildings, including one that was Ibrahim's family home when he was a child. Judging by the state of the buildings, you would think the town had been deserted for centuries - but in fact the last people had left only twenty years before. Close to the town of Jarab we were met by soldiers sent out by the Governor and were taken to his residence. We were greeted by 40 men from the town - a small gathering, apparently - and after coffee, tea, dates and an interview with a local reporter we were taken through to a room where an enormous traditional lunch had been laid out on the floor - whole sheep lying on beds of rice; salads, vegetables, hommous, foul (pronounced fool), tabouleh and delicious but nameless puddings. I love Middle Eastern food - but my stomach lurched when I saw that not only were the sheep's heads included with lunch (the eye staring up at me was a bit disconcerting), the livers were stuck in the jaws. I am sure I am not alone in my dread of liver and kidneys - I blame school food - and today was no exception. It is traditional for the host to tear off the best bits of meat and put them on their guest's plates - this time I could not avoid the liver... that aside, it was a fantastic lunch and a classic example of Arab hospitality.
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Visiting the battlefield was not only a chance to see where Shakespear died but a way of gathering more information regarding the battle and his death. Some accounts describe the battlefield as being covered in soft sand - as you can see from the photograph below, this may not have been the case - although the sand could have been blown away over the years. We have a romantic idea of a desert battle being fought on rolling dunes - in reality this would be the last place you would choose to fight as both men and horses would find moving around in the sand difficult and tiring. We had always wondered who had shot Shakespear - and this piece of the puzzle was solved by two men at the lunch whose relatives had fought in the battle. Captain Shakespear did not go to the battle to fight - although he may have ended up directing the fire of the Al-Saud field gun because he would have been the only man there with the expertise to do this. His presence on the battlefield was due to his desire to observe and photograph a desert battle - at the time, one of very few westerners to have the opportunity to do so. He would not listen to Ibn Saud's pleas that he should stay away from the battle, nor did he follow the advice that he should swap his British Army uniform for Arab clothes. I imagine that the sight of a western army officer - proof that Ibn Saud was collaberating with the 'infidels' - would have been too great a temptation for the men of Rashid's army. With Captain Shakespear's death, the British Government lost a talented army officer, a great explorer and a man who had the respect of the Bedu and had earned the friendship of the King of Saudi Arabia.
At the time of the battle, Jarab would have been nothing more than a collection of wells - part of Wadi Jarab that stretches down from the Dahana Sandbelt in the east. In 1957 a town was established at Jarab, during King Saud's reign but continuing King Abdul Aziz's drive to encourage the Bedu to settle - now the old mud brick buildings lie abandoned and crumbling and a new, concrete town is springing up close by. |
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