Neil deGrasse Tyson - Mankind: The Story of All of Us TV - Lord Kitchener - The First World War TV - Jeremy Paxman TV - Moshe Dayan - Tom Holland TV - Network 1976 - John Pilger - Black September TV - T E Lawrence - Mystery Files TV - Wild Arabia TV - Ben and James versus the Arabian Desert - Christopher Hitchens - Muammar al-Gaddafi - George Galloway - Mohammed Morsi - Dan Snow TV - Selwyn Lloyd - Noam Chomsky - Deadline 1988 - Robert Fisk - Control Room 2004 - Letters from Baghdad TV - Lawrence of Arabia: Britain’s Great Adventurer TV - Bettany Hughes TV -
Arabic astronomy was so influential that we still call most of the bright stars by their Arabic names ... Arabic was the language of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey V: Hiding in the Light, Fox 2014
In twenty years Islam unites the warring tribes of Arabia. Mankind: The Story of All of Us IV, History Channel 2012
The Arabs leapt forward in astronomy, engineering, medicine. They create algebra and simply mathematics. ibid.
If the Arab nation assist England in this war that has been forced upon us by Turkey, England will guarantee that no international intervention will take place in Arabia, and we will give Arabs every assistance against foreign aggression. Lord Kitchener
T E Lawrence took up the cause of Arab nationalism. The First World War: Revolution, Channel 4 2003
The Arabs would find they had won not self-rule but new masters. ibid.
Lawrence was just the man to inspire the Arabs into a desert revolt ... Lawrence promised his Arab fighters freedom from foreign rule. Jeremy Paxman, Empire I BBC 2012
The Arabs were having to give up their land to the Jews. ibid.
We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country we bought lands from the Arabs. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gevat – in the place of Jibta, Sarid – in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua – in the place of Tell Shaman. There is no one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population. Moshe Dayan
What we don’t know is how the Arabs became Muslim. Tom Holland, Islam: The Untold Story, Channel 4 2012
I will tell you what they are buying CCA for – they are buying it for the Saudi Arabian investment corporation. They are buying it for the Arabs ... We all know that the Arabs control $16 billion in this country. They own a chunk of Fifth Avenue, twenty downtown pieces of Boston, a part of the port of New Orleans, an industrial park in Salt Lake City, they own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton, the Arizona Land & Cattle Company, the Security National Bank in California, the Bank of the Commonwealth in Detroit ... And that’s only what we know about ... The Arabs are simply buying us. There’s only one thing can stop them – you. You. Network 1976 starring Faye Dunaway & Peter Finch & William Holden & Robert Duvall & Wesley Addy & Ned Beaty & Beatrice Staight & Jordan Charney & William Prince & Lane Smith et al, director Sidney Lumet, Howard Beale
The revolt in the Arab world is against not merely a resident dictator, but a worldwide economic tyranny, designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and the World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries such as Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with 40 per cent of the population earning less than $2 a day. The people’s triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism. John Pilger
The silent threat of a vast unknown desert. T E Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Arabs saw in me a free agent of the British government and demanded from me an endorsement of its written promises. So I had to join the conspiracy. And assured the men of their reward. T E Lawrence
He is perhaps one of the first great celebrities of the twentieth century. A romantic wartime figure. The very embodiment of the classical hero. But his reputation is in doubt. With some calling him a charlatan, a self-promoting fake. To others however he is one of the most significant strategists of modern military history. Mystery Files: Lawrence of Arabia, National Geographic 2011
The events in question formed part of the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. ibid.
The theory is to use the Arab mobility in the desert to mount attacks on the Railway all across Arabia. ibid.
Now physical proof of Lawrence’s war is being discovered on the ground in southern Jordan. ibid.
The taking of Aqaba [Jordan] is a great turning point in the Great Arab Revolt. ibid.
After the war Lawrence is thought to have suffered a mental breakdown caused in part by guilt over the betrayal of the Arabs. ibid.
He was the most extraordinary man I ever knew. Lawrence of Arabia 1962 starring Peter O’Toole & Alec Guinness & Anthony Quinn & Jack Hawkins & Jose Ferrer & Anthony Quayle & Claude Rains & Arthur Kennedy & Omar Sharif et al, director David Lean, Quayle opening scene
The Arabs – what tribe is that? ibid. Quinn to Lawrence
Quayle: We can’t just do nothing.
General: Why not? It’s usually best. ibid.
For centuries an exotic but forbidden land has captured our imagination. Now for the first time we can explore this place of myth and legend. What we discover are extremes and surprises. This is a place where the ancient past is colliding with the future. This land is also home to extraordinary wildlife. Wild Arabia I: Sand, Wind and Stars BBC 2013
The largest sand desert in the world smothers the land. ibid.
The animal that inspired the myth of the unicorn – the Arabian oryx. ibid.
The camel is almost as well adapted to the desert as the oryx. ibid.
Under the clear desert sky the temperature plummets. ibid.
Ten thousand years ago Arabia was green but she’s been gradually drying out ever since. ibid.
When burned the resin produces a intoxicating aroma – the swell smell of Frankincense. The smoke has strong anti-depressant properties. ibid.
This is a landscape entirely sculpted by wind. ibid.
Individual dunes can be one hundred miles long. ibid.
The air temperatures here can reach fifty-two degrees Centigrade. And the surface of the sand can reach seventy degrees. ibid.
The pure white coat of the oryx reflects heat. ibid.
A fruit so valuable that expert pickers risk twenty-metre climbs: dates. ibid.
After a long desert journey the camel will drink up to two hundred litres of waters. ibid.
For centuries we have known Arabia as a desolate and forbidding land. Wild Arabia II: The Jewel of Arabia
The Dhofar coast ... Here beside the Indian Ocean a range of mountains rises 1,000 metres from the shore ... home to an amazing variety of wildlife. ibid.
An Arabian humpback whale. There are less than 100 left on the planet. ibid.
Arabia is so dry that not a single river flows permanently on this entire sub-continent. ibid.
A female green sea turtle. ibid.
The humpbacks never leave. ibid.
The monsoon builds into one of the biggest weather systems on Earth. ibid.
A striped hyena. ibid.
Oil and the wealth it has brought has transformed this land bringing the twenty-first century to the desert. Wild Arabia III: Shifting Sands
Today close to a third of the world’s oil is supplied by the countries of the Gulf. ibid.
The rigs are home to dozens of beautiful species. ibid.