Kuwait in 1912
RAUNKIÆR, Barclay. Gennem Wahhabiternes land paa kamelryg. Beretning om den af Det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab planlagte og bekostede forskningsrejse I Öst- og Centralarabien 1912. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 1913.
8vo. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt, illustrated in black; pp. [iv], 304, highly illustrated throughout after photographs and drawings, large folding lithographic map (80 x 78 cm) in rear pocket, printed in four colours in rear pocket; head and tail of spine a little rubbed, a little spotting to endpapers, very light toning internally, map with a few minor repairs; a very good and clean copy with contemporary ownershiop inscription to initial blank.
First edition. This very rare work in Danish is a fascinating first-hand account of Eastern Arabia, Basrah and Kuwait, where the author was guest to the ruler Sheikh Mubarak al-Sabah. A first English edition, without illustrations, was printed during WWI, in 1916 in Cairo by the Arab Bureau with a print run of only 100 copies and is virtually unobtainable. It was published again in English in 1969, omitting many illustrations, and this edition is becoming rare as well. Gerald de Gaury, who re-translated the book into English in 1968 states in the preface that the original Danish edition is "now becoming rare" (p. vii). Barclay Raunkiaer travelled in Eastern Arabia on behalf of the Royal Danish Geographical Society prior to a proposed Danish expedition into the Southern desert. Various parts of Raunkiaer's route (Kuwait-Buraida-Riyadh-al-Hufuf-'Ujair) coincided with parts of the journeys of Palgrave (1862), Guarmani (1864), Pelly (1865), Doughty (1878) and Shakespear. Raunkiaer's scientific intentions were largely thwarted by practical problems, but his account of Kuwait in 1912 was praised by T.E. Lawrence, and he was the first European to visit Riyadh for fifty years. In Riyadh he was received by 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Sa'ud father of Abd al-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ud.
Anders Christian Barclay Raunkiær (1889-1915) was a Danish explorer and author, who died very young. On behalf of the Royal Danish Geographical Society, he made a journey in 1912 in eastern Arabia. His travelogue is still a valuable source. Barclay Raunkiær was born in Copenhagen as the only child of the plant ecologist Christen C. Raunkiær and the author Ingeborg Raunkiær. Has finished high school 1908 and started studying geography at the University of Copenhagen. He accompanied his father to Tunisia and other Mediterranean countries 1909-1910. Here, he studied the cultural geography of Tunisian agriculture, especially irrigation. When the Royal Danish Geographical Society made plans for an expedition to the Arabian Peninsula, he was a made the leader. He left Copenhagen in November 1911 for Kuwait via Istanbul and Baghdad. From Kuwait, he went with a caravan to Riyadh and back to the coast of the Persian Gulf via Hofuf to Bahrain. He returned via Mumbai and Trieste to Copenhagen, arriving in June 1912. He left the university and took employment with the East Asiatic Company. The journey, however, had cost him his health and life. He died in Copenhagen from tuberculosis he had caught in Kuwait, aged twenty-five.
SKU: 2124797