Deep in the desert, some 120 km to the north-east of the modern metropolis that is Jeddah, several scattered dilapidated tents provide shelter for a handful of families living a life as primitive as might be found in today's Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The inhabitants of these primitive dwellings have never been to school or hospital. They earn their living by gathering firewood and raising sheep. The journey to the area is fraught with risks and requires extra supplies of food, water, and spare tires, plus a guide. Once beyond the road to Al-Jumoom, a deserted wasteland stretches out and after a while a few, scarce dilapidated tents with a few sheep dotted around, emerge. Here lives Obeid Bin Musai'eed, a senior member of one of the families still living a life as primitive as may be found in the peninsula. Obeid, his wife, and their eight children, all live in one tent. All illiterate, they have inherited the ways and land of their forefathers. “My father and grandfathers lived here and we cannot leave,” Obeid says. “We earn our living by gathering firewood and raising sheep in the valleys. I have a 37-year-old daughter who is unmarried, and a son, four years younger, who works for a company for a low salary, most of which he spends on transportation. The rest of my sons sell firewood and scrap iron to some people who come to us. With the income, we buy things like tea, rice, sugar and oil.” Obeid begins his day with a cup of coffee and then goes out to tend to his sheep. He stays up during the moonlit nights. As his family sleeps, Obeid keeps guard, watching out for beasts of prey that occasionally roam in from the desert. “Our biggest worry is getting enough potable water. We have to fill the water tank every 20 days. Our tents have also been torn up by the wind and they don't give us very good shelter anymore.” During the summer the hot desert sun scorches everything in sight, and the winters are bitterly cold. “We also worry a lot about fires,” says Saqr, one of Obeid's four sons. “Despite our kitchen being basic, it is full of cartons, wooden planks and firewood we use for cooking and making coffee. If a fire broke out, we'd have nowhere to go except there.” At this point Saqr waves his hand towards a neighboring tent assigned for guests, and another containing a suitcase full of clothes and personal belongings. Saqr says he wants to learn how to read and write, own a house to shelter the family, and marry and have children of his own. The life of Obeid and his family may seem removed and primitive to anyone coming from the big city, but there is a man who lives even further away from civilization. Ibn Shelaiweeh is “the most famous bachelor in the area”. He lives over the sand dunes and beyond the mountain peaks in a rundown tent containing nothing but a piece of old carpet. Abdullah Ibn Shelaiweeh is over 60 years old and still lives at Al-Selaikiah, the very site of his birth. He has never had enough money to marry and suffers from, among numerous other ailments by all accounts, high blood pressure and diabetes. “I spend most of my time with my livestock,” Abdullah says. His old transistor radio helps him keep track of the outside world as he gazes over the barren landscape into the distance. Beyond the horizon there is only nothingness for hundreds of miles. – Okaz/SG __
