8vo. xix, 485 pp., frontispiece, 47 b/w plates, folding map at rear, original cloth, faded, soiled and worn at spine, hinges weak, appendix on rock inscriptions by A. F. L. Beeston, index, occasional foxing, mainly to margins, otherwise copy in good condition, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, first edition, 1939.

Synopsis

The account of a journey made by the author, Ibn Saud’s official adviser, from the King’s camp on the Mecca to Riyadh road to the Indian Ocean. Philby was the first European to enter Abha, the capital of Najran, the frontier district between the Wahhabis and the Yemenites, and the second to visit Shabwa, although he was the first to explore the ruins where he discovered the great temple of Astarte.