8vo. ix, 270 pp., 5 photographs, cloth in lightly faded d/w, index, glossary, light foxing to endpapers, otherwise copy in very good condition, John Murray, London, first edition, 1957.

Synopsis

A presentation copy signed and dated by the author.
Dutch diplomatist, administrator, traveller, explorer of the Hadhramaut, Mr van der Meulen (who has been described as ‘The Dutchman who added a province to the British Empire’) writes in his latest book of his life, both official and unofficial, in the Holy Land of Islam, the Hejaz, and in the adjacent land of Nejd where Ibn Sa’ud carves out for himself the kingdom of Sa’udi Arabia. The story that this book relates, is superficially or materially a success story. But spiritually, as the author views it, it has a bitter aspect, as the King began to realise before he died. [Jacket].