Salim bin Ghabaisha (Arabic: سالم بن غبيشة) (1930 – 2 January 2016) was a Bedouin of the Rashid tribe, notable for being a key member of the travelling party commissioned by Sir Wilfred Thesiger during his two crossings of the Rub' al Khali undertaken between 1946 and 1948.
[2] Bin Ghabaisha was 17 years old when he first crossed the Rub' al Khali desert and became one of the closest companions to Thesiger.
[4][5] Thesiger described Salim bin Ghabaisha in Arabian Sands as one of the most competent of his companions: 'the others tended to rely on his judgment, as I did myself.
He had a quick smile and a gentle manner, but I already suspected that he could be both reckless and ruthless, and I was not surprised when within two years he had become one of the most daring outlaws on the Trucial Coast with half a dozen blood-feuds on his hands' (1960: 208–9).
[6] Bin Ghabaisha became one of the icons of the pre-oil era in the United Arab Emirates and was subjected to various interviews and Emirati documentaries in his late years to depict his experience as a traveler.