PHILBY, H. St. J.B. Arabia of the Wahhabis. London, Constable & Co Ltd., 1928.
8vo. Original cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt (and not the secondary variant lettered in black); pp. xiv, [23], 422, [2], plates after photographs, one large fold-out map of Central Arabia in colour with the author's routes in red; slight wear to binding, a little offsetting from endpapers, else a very good copy with early ownership inscription to front fly-leaf.
First edition. Philby, after having worked as linguist and administrator in Mesopotamia, he managed in November 1917 to be sent 'as head of a mission to Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of the Nejd in central Arabia, whom the British were keen to woo into an attack on the Rashids of Ha'il, allies of the Turks. He travelled with a small party by camel from the coast of the Persian Gulf to Riyadh. There he spent ten days and was deeply impressed by the personality of Ibn Sa'ud. It was the start of an admiration that stayed with him for life' (ODNB).
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