8vo. xviii, [1], 606 pp., photogravure frontispiece portrait of the author with facsimile autograph signature, half title, 1 large colour folding map at rear, 15 plates, errata slip, original red cloth gilt, extremities slightly rubbed, contemporary gilt cloth, bookplate of Signet Library, appendices, index, Trubner & Co., London, first edition, 1878.

Synopsis

Charles Tilstone Beke 1800-1874 was an explorer, he published several papers in the Imperial Magazine and other periodicals concerning Biblical and archaeological research. His first work of importance entitled, “ Origines Biblicae, Or researches in Primival History” was published in 1834. His object was to establish the theory of the fundamental tripartite division of the languages of mankind, from which have arisen all existing languages and dialects.
The present work contains the narrative of an expedition to north-western Arabia, undertaken at the commencement of 1874, by Dr. Charles Beke . Beke’s journey lasted three months and eleven days. He returned to England announcing his discovery of the capital of Midian at the same time as Richard Burton had gone to make further explorations in the area.
Beke undertook the journey when he was 73 years old. He believed that the true Mount Sinai was in Saudi Arabia (Mt. Barghir). He was an archaeologist, biblical historian and traveller who explored Abyssinia, 1840-43, and Syria and Palestine in 1861 and 62. Mrs Beke who edited this work had previously written summary of the late Dr. Beke’s published works, 1876. [Hilmy I, p. 58; Blackmer 109.]