8vo. xi, 286 pp., 38 b/w plates including a frontispiece, 1 large folding map of Arabia based on the author’s own survey, yellow cloth soiled, copy in very good condition otherwise, appendix, index, Ernest Benn Ltd, London, first edition, 1957.

Synopsis

This covers Philby’s first Midian journey in 1950. He wanted to prove his worth as a historian of Pre-Islamic Arabia, an area known to be full of traces of ancient sites. For decades, the British researcher and diplomat Harry St. John Bridger Philby (1885-1960) was an advisor and friend of the Saudi King ‘Abdul’Aziz ibn Sa’ud.
This is an account of his three thousand mile journey from Riyadh through Madina, Khaibar, Taima and Tabuk, Tabuk Oasis, then to Sharaura and Quraiya, the Hisma Plateau, the Midian Valley, the seaboard of Midian and the Hijaz railway.