The Bible and the Bedouins

THE SISTERS OF SINAI interested me as a book because of two things I encountered years ago.

John Singer Sargent paintings the Bedouins, the nomads that live on the edge of the desert. Those pictures are exotic and wonderful to me.

The other reason I picked up this book is that some 35 years ago I purchased a page of the Koran that dates back to the 14th century. The thought of holding something that old with all the humanity that has seen it and all the mystery of the person that transcribed it and the people that treasured it for six centuries, I like to pander all those thoughts.

THE SISTERS OF SINAI is an adventure tale of two Scottish women, Agnes and Margaret Smith, that were biblical treasure hunters. But at the core of the story are the new discoveries that they made concerning the bible. Spirited, gifted with languages skills unparalleled and fortified by the belief that their death date was already set and there was nothing to fear, they traveled and continued their search.

It is written like a novel. Many insights into the writing of the old and new testament, all religious documents for that nature. The shifting importance of political power after the of the opening of the Suez Canal and the historical importance of St. Catherine's monastery at Mount Sinai are detailed in this book. Their ability to grow intellectually though out their life as new materials coming to them is remarkable in a time when degrees were not granted to women from universities.

On all the crossing of the desert to St. Catherine's the Bedouins were the guides and the camel drivers. The relationship between the Bedouins and the monks over centuries is explored in the book and I saw Sargent's paintings as I read these pages of the book.

Since I have know so little about this part of the world and have only briefly travel there, I totally found this book gripping.