Saudirelated highlights from the Abu Dhabi Book Fair

Selections from London-based rare-book dealer Peter Harrington’s offering at the UAE fair

‘The Heart of Arabia’

Written in 1922 by Harry St

John Bridger Philby, chief representative in the British protectorate of Transjordan and a man whose tombstone declares him the ‘Greatest of Arabian explorers,’ this is an account of his fascinating mission to Imam Mohammed ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, which began in late 1917.

“Philby started in Al-Uqayr, then travelled with a small party by camel via Hufuf to Riyadh, to meet Ibn Sa’ud,” the catalogue explains. “From there he went on to complete his crossing of Arabia, with camels and an escort provided by Ibn Sa’ud. The journey of almost 900 kilometers (560 miles) destined for Jeddah ‘was not without its problems. Philby’s escort resented having to guard an infidel, refusing to even eat with him, while villagers on the way proved similarly unwelcoming ... However Philby’s crossing of the Arabian Peninsula, only the third of the century, had now brought him firmly into the public eye.’ In Jeddah, he met the Hashemite ruler of Hejaz, the Sharif Husain, leader of the Arab Revolt, the preferred choice as future Arab leader of both T. E. Lawrence and the British authorities.” Husain was not Philby’s preferred choice however. He had been “greatly impressed” by Ibn Saud, and always backed him as the man who could unite the area’s tribes and lead them forward. As the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says: “In the central judgments of his life — that Ibn Sa’ud was the man to back in Arabia and that the Arabs had to have their independence — (Philby) was right and almost everyone else was wrong.”