The American Desert

The three wore beards and donned Arab dress to avoid appearing conspicuous to the townspeople, few of whom had ever seen a Westerner.

Ahlan Wasahlan. Jeddah: Saudia Airlines, 1978

Arabic personal names and place names are spelled according to a system used by Aramco, which closely follows a generally accepted system of transliteration from Arabic to English. The system does not always represent the spelling or pronunciation of the Arabic original with complete accuracy, as Arabic contains letters and sounds for which no equivalents exist in English. Furthermore, pronunciation of Arabic varies from region to region.

A Pocket Guide to the Middle East. Washington D.C: Armed Forces Information Service, Department of Defense, 1969

The relationship between states and companies was, in general, one of uneasily starched blackmail. The Arabs, for the time being, wanted Western technical help anyway; the companies, it need hardly be said, wanted the oil.

Islam Inflamed. James Morris. New York: Pantheon, 1957