Voyage en Arabie

In 1833-34 Maurice Tamisier served as a secretary to the chief medical officer in the armies sent by Muhammad Ali to suppress further uprisings in the Hejaz. 'Accompanied by a group of other Europeans, including an amateur conjurer whose tricks astonished the Bedouins... he made his way into the mountainous area of Asir in the south of the Hejaz and took part in a battle in which Egyptian troops were rewarded with 10 shillings for every pair of enemy ears that they brought in. Tamisier obviously enjoyed chatting to the local people and recorded some of their tales' (Bidwell, Travellers in Arabia, 1995, pp.122-123).