Close up portrait of a ... Tibet

Close up portrait of a ... TibetClose up portrait of a tribesman of the Awamir Bedouin in the Al Khatam sands near Al Ain. A man with a dense curly beard faces directly forward, looking into the sun with his mouth open. He wears a plain thobe (long shirt) and a patterned ghutra (headscarf) wrapped around his head and hanging across one of his shoulders. This image was taken between December 20, 1948, and January 27, 1949, during which time Wilfred Thesiger stayed with Sheikh Zayed

The bride (dressed in leopard skin) and retainers at wedding ceremony witnessed by British Association members

Seated portrait of Sheikh Mubarak bin Mohammed Al Nahyan kneeling in the sand next to one of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's retainers

walk along the crest of a dune with their camels

View of one of Wilfred Thesiger's guides atop Jebel Hafeet [Jabal Hafit] mountain

They are armed with guns and daggers

View of Sultan bin Ahmad

and further behind a tree grows in the distance

Cutter Greyhound

View of members of Wilfred Thesiger's travelling party descending a sand dune in the desert of the Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali)

squatting on a rock

View of Wilfred Thesiger's Nuer porters

On the left 'arish huts sit inside a high fenced enclosure made of palm fronds (locally called saaf)