1882 The Arabs

“The Arabs themselves, who are its inhabitants, cannot be considered but temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it.”

Source: Felix Bovet, EGYPT, PALESTINE, PHOENECIA: A VISIT TO SACRED LANDS (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1882).