Our first objective after the industrial port where I made landfall in Arabia: Al Balad, the historic Old City of Jeddah. Our first obstacle: morning rush hour. Historian Sami Nawar wades into the torrent of trucks and cars, talking intensely, absorbed in Jeddah’s past. He holds up his arms like Moses parting the Red Sea. Screeching brakes. Angry honks. Furious gestures. “Craaaazy,” Banounah says. Banounah says this word a lot.
