AP Catalogue 2013.pdf - Oxbow Books

ARABIA CATALOGUE
Arabian Publishing Ltd
4 BLOOMSBURY PLACE, LONDON WC1A 2QA
TEL. 020 7580 8456 • EMAIL: arabian.publishing@arabia.uk.com

Trade distribution
Arabian Publishing Ltd
4 Bloomsbury Place, London WC1A 2QA
Tel. 020 7580 8456
Email: arabian.publishing@arabia.uk.com
• Middle East representation
Oxbow Books
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EW, UK
www.oxbowbooks.com
Email: trade@oxbowbooks.com
Tel. 01865 241249
Fax 01865 794449
• United States and North America
Order from:
The David Brown Book Company
PO Box 511 (28 Main Street), Oakville, CT 06779, USA
www.oxbowbooks.com/home.cfm/Location/DBBC
Email: queries@dbbconline.com
Toll-free: 800 791 9354
Tel. (860) 945-9329
Fax (860) 945-9468
• UK, Europe and Rest of the World
Order from:
Oxbow Books
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EW, UK
Email: trade@oxbowbooks.com
Tel. 01865 241249
Fax 01865 794449
About Arabian Publishing
Arabian Publishing Ltd is a niche publisher based in central London,
focusing on the Arabian Peninsula countries and related regions and topics.
AP books are researched, edited, designed and produced to the highest
standards, to appeal to both scholars and general readers.
AP also carries out research programmes into documentary and
photographic sources relating to Arabian history and culture.
For further information, email William Facey
at arabian.publishing@arabia.uk.com
The Principles of
Arab Navigation
Edited by
Anthony R. Constable and William Facey
ISBN: 978-0-9571060-1-7
Hardback, jacket
160 pages; 258 x 200 mm
Colour throughout; 11 maps
Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, Index
Publication: February 2013
Price: £35.00
Subject areas:
Sailing ships; Dhows; Maritime history; Navigation;
Astronomy; Arabian Peninsula; Arab World; Arab seafaring;
Indian Ocean; Red Sea
THROUGHOUT HISTORY, the Indian Ocean
has been a zone of interaction between farflung
civilizations, connected with the Mediterranean
by the Gulf and Red Sea. The dhows
that were the vehicles of commercial and
cultural exchange over this vast expanse of
ocean ranged from small craft rarely venturing
out of sight of land, to cargo vessels carrying
navigators skilled in the art of deep-sea sailing.
These Arab, Persian and Indian seamen used
the seasonal monsoon winds, and applied
navigational techniques that relied on their
ability to read the stars in the night sky – skills
that had developed down the generations from
time immemorial.
This stellar navigation, based on measuring
the altitude of the Pole Star to establish latitude
and on the risings and settings of certain stars to
find direction, grew into a complex art, belying
the simplicity of the instruments used. Bringing
together six scholars specializing in the
maritime history and culture of the Arabs, this
book makes a new and vital contribution to
the study of a nautical culture that has hitherto
not received its due share of attention, and
which is vital to an understanding of Indian
Ocean history.
Drawing on source material such as the
guides written by the renowned southern
Arabian navigators Ahmad ibn Majid and
Sulayman al-Mahri in the 15th and 16th centuries
AD, as well as surviving logbooks of dhow
captains in the early 20th, the authors cover the
principal ideas, techniques, instruments and
calculations used, deploying astronomy, geometry
and mathematics to explain their
methods. It includes an account of a practical
attempt in 2010 to apply these methods on an
adventurous voyage from Muscat to Singapore
in a reconstructed early medieval dhow, and
concludes with an analysis of sailing conditions
in the Red Sea.

Sea of Pearls
Seven Thousand Years of the Industry
that Shaped the Gulf
by Robert A. Carter
ISBN: 978-0-9571060-0-0
330 x 245 mm, hardback, jacketed
xx + 364 pages
338 colour and b/w photographs
26 maps, 32 tables and charts
Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, Index
Publication: August 2012
Retail price: £95.00
Subject areas:
Arabian/Persian Gulf; Gulf States; Arabian Peninsula; Arab
world; Arab and Persian maritime history; Iran; Middle
Eastern history; Middle Eastern archaeology; Pearls;
Gemstones; Jewellery
SINCE ANTIQUITY the natural pearls of the
Gulf have been famed as the finest, most
lustrous and most plentiful in the world. From
the beginnings of trade till the 1930s, they were
a major product of the Gulf’s coastal peoples.
From the 17th to the early 20th centuries, rising
demand turned pearling into their economic
mainstay. By this time pearls were fished in their
millions, and the industry dominated the lives,
health and expectations of entire shaikhdoms.
The influx of people and wealth to the coast
permanently transformed the Gulf, providing
the manpower and capital to nurture the citystates
– Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi,
Dubai, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah – which
endure there today.
Despite its formative role, there has till now
been no book dealing with the pearl industry’s
entire history. This ground-breaking work traces
its evolution on the Arabian and Persian sides of
the Gulf, and explores the role it played in
shaping the political, social and urban configuration
of the region today. It shows the extent
to which the Gulf economy became dependent
on a single commodity, and thus how pearling
resembled the oil industry to come.
Lavishly illustrated, it covers in unprecedented
detail the history, development, conduct,
florescence and catastrophic collapse of the
industry in the early 20th century. It will
fascinate not only those wishing to understand
the growth and conduct of the pearl fishery, but
also those interested in the history of the region
and the origins of the Gulf states, and in the
colourful story of the global taste for one of
mankind’s most highly prized precious stones.

Encountering Islam
Joseph Pitts: An English Slave
in 17th-century Algiers and Mecca
Seen in the Yemen
Travelling with Freya Stark and Others
by Paul Auchterlonie
A critical edition, with biographical introduction and
notes, of Joseph Pitts of Exeter’s A Faithful Account of
the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans, 1731
by Hugh Leach
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-5-5
320 pages; 244 x 180 mm
Hardback, jacketed
148 duotone photographs; 2 maps
Glossary, Bibliography, Index
Publication: 2011
Price: £45.00
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-9-3
234 x 156 mm, hardback, jacketed
368 pages
2 maps; 17 engravings and line illustrations
Notes, Bibliography, Index
Publication: Feb. 2012
Price: £48.00
Subject areas:
Algiers; Mecca; North Africa; Islam; Hajj; Pilgrimage;
Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Middle East; Captivity;
Slavery; Travel and exploration
Subject areas:
Yemen; Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Middle East;
Jews; Travel and exploration; Freya Stark; Photography;
Leica cameras
FOR THREE CENTURIES after 1500, Britain
was brought face to face with Islam through
the activities of the Barbary corsairs. Muslim
ships based in North African ports terrorized
European shipping, enslaving hundreds of
thousands of Christians. Encountering Islam is the
fascinating story of one Englishman’s experience
of life within a Muslim society, as both
Christian slave and Muslim soldier.
Born in Exeter around 1662, Joseph Pitts was
captured by Algerian pirates on his first voyage
in 1678. Sold as a slave in Algiers, he underwent
forced conversion to Islam. Sold again, he accompanied
his kindly third master on pilgrimage
to Mecca, so becoming the first Englishman
known to have visited the Muslim holy places.
Granted his freedom, he became a soldier,
before venturing on a daring escape. Crossing
much of Italy and Germany on foot, he finally
reached Exeter seventeen years after he had left.
Pitts’s book, first published in 1704, is a
unique combination of captivity narrative, travel
account and description of Islam. It describes
his life in Algiers, his conversion, his pilgrimage
to Mecca (the first such detailed description in
English), Muslim ritual and practice, and his
escape. A Christian for most of his life, Pitts also
had the advantage of living as a Muslim within
a Muslim society. Encountering Islam contains a
faithful rendering of the definitive 1731 edition
of Pitts’s book. The introduction tells what is
known of Pitts’s life, and places his work against
its historical background of captivity narratives
and Anglo-Muslim relations of the period.
“Pitts … now lives and breathes before us. … As close to
definitive as the nature of scholarship permits. … Another
example of Arabian Publishing’s notably high production
standards.”
Studies in Travel Writing
“An exemplary edition of an important work.”
The Historian
“This book will remain the best edition of Pitts’s narrative
for many years to come.”
International Journal of Maritime History
“The production, as we have come to expect from Arabian
Publishing, is faultless.”
The Middle East in London
“Pitts was the first Englishman to give a reliable account of
the hajj to Mecca. It is now republished with a fascinating
introduction by Paul Auchterlonie.”
The Daily Telegraph
YEMEN IS JUSTLY famed as one of the world’s
most dramatically beautiful countries. Seen
in the Yemen brings the people, architecture and
landscapes of this ancient culture alive to the
reader through the medium of the author’s
remarkable black-and-white photographs, taken
in the 1970s, and here reproduced in duotone.
His book is also a tribute to one of the most
famous of all Arab and Asian travellers, the late
Dame Freya Stark (1893–1993). In the mid-
1970s, at the age of eighty-three, she made two
visits to the author, who was then serving in
Sana‘a. Their travels together through north
Yemen marked the start of a long friendship.
The volume is also designed to emulate Freya
Stark’s earlier classic, Seen in the Hadhramaut,
published by John Murray in 1938. Beginning
with reminiscences of Dame Freya, the author
recalls the time they spent together in Yemen,
her musings on the past, and their mutual
devotion to Leica cameras. He goes on to give a
brief account of Yemen’s history and geography,
and describes his adventurous rediscovery of the
remaining ancient Jewish community around
Sa‘dah in the far north. All this is brought alive
in his extraordinary images, taken on his own
wanderings and also on journeys with Dame
Freya and other noted Arabian travellers such as
Wilfred Thesiger and Dame Violet Dickson. The
prints are introduced by a short description of
those notable 1930s screw-thread Leica cameras
used by so many early explorer-photographers.
Yemen today, like the rest of Arabia, is
undergoing rapid and inevitable change. This
book records a time when town and country
had only recently embarked on the decades of
upheaval, and much was visually unchanged.
The author’s artistic eye imparts an unforgettable
aura of romance and nostalgia to his
pictures which, like Freya Stark’s, will cast their
spell over readers present and future.
“The lost world the photographs evoke is indeed
remarkable. … Taken little more than 30 years ago, they are
… jarringly at odds with the frenzy of the political upheaval
coming out of Yemen today.”
The Spectator
“Magnificently produced …. Anyone with even the briefest
acquaintance with the people and landscape will love it.”
Asian Affairs
“The photographs have a strange way of transfixing you.
Spend some time with them and you, too, will feel yourself
succumbing to the spell of far Arabia.”
British-Yemeni Society Journal

Dubai High
A Culture Trip
by Michael Schindhelm
With photographs by Aurore Belkin
Bedouin Weaving
of Saudi Arabia and Its Neighbours
by Joy Totah Hilden
BEDOUIN
WEAVING
of
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-7-9
240 pages; 228 x 155 mm
Hardback, jacketed
43 black-and-white photographs
Publication: 2011
Price: £25.00
Subject areas:
Dubai; United Arab Emirates; Arabian Peninsula; Gulf States;
Arab world; Culture studies; Arts funding; International
culture; Globalization; Tourism
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-8-6
288 pages; 258 x 200 mm
Paperback
Full colour throughout; maps and drawings
Appendices; Glossary; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2011
Price: £35.00
Subject areas:
Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Middle East;
Islamic Art; Crafts; Textiles; Weaving
SAUDI
ARABIA
AND ITS NEIGHBOURS
JOY TOTAH HILDEN
IN EARLY 2007, writer and theatre director
Michael Schindhelm was appointed by the
Dubai authorities as consultant on a projected
opera house, and in early 2008 found himself
with a broader remit as director of the newly
founded Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. His
diary of 2008 is a partly fictionalized account of
his first twelve months of both working and
living in Dubai. It is a meditation, from a
cultural perspective, on the nature of this
extraordinary city and its project to reinvent
itself according to new rules of its own devising.
From the outset there were profound cultural
issues to be faced. Can essentially alien art forms
be transplanted effectively? Can they be
imposed top-down by the authorities? Can
high culture ever be financially self-supporting?
In a society run like a business by a tiny, unaccountable
elite, in which freedom of speech is
limited and 90 percent of the inhabitants are
transient, expendable expatriates, can the arts
realistically be nurtured as a form of social
expression and self-examination?
The author’s efforts to create projects were
undermined by misunderstandings over the
nature and purpose of the arts – in his
employers’ conception, little more than a
marketing tool to boost Dubai’s brand as a
premier global tourist resort. His woes were
compounded by the lack of clear distinction
between government and private enterprise,
and by the very Arabian custom of bringing in
privileged outsiders to advise on, and occasionally
to compete with, schemes supposedly under
his direction. Ultimately, his projects were undone
by the global financial crash of late 2008.
Despite such travails, the author is able to see
the funny side and retains some sympathy for
the Dubai project, seeing in Dubai and other
Gulf States a glimmer of hope for cultural
dialogue between the Arab world and the West.
“Cultural Klondike exposed. … A very funny book by an
outrageously talented man.”
The Art Newspaper
“Dubai High is the story of why the cynics, unfortunately,
were right. … The cast of characters is familiar: scheming
interlopers; arrogant shyster consultants; money-hungry,
ignorant developers; useless individuals trying to make
careers in the Gulf because they’ve failed elsewhere. … The
book captures the strange, elegiac sense of lost opportunity
that Dubai represents.”
ICON Magazine
PORTABLE AND PRACTICAL, tough and
colourful, Bedouin textiles played a vital
and functional part in the life of the Arab
nomads. Bedouin women were expected to
master the art of making entire tents as well as a
wide range of rugs, saddlebags and other
equipment able to withstand the rigours of the
desert. They took a fierce pride in their work
and produced, on the simplest ground looms,
textiles that were at once hard-wearing and of
vibrant aesthetic appeal. The true craftspeople of
the desert, Bedouin women wove to provide
the very fabric of day-to-day living.
Joy Hilden, a leading authority, describes the
weaving techniques in the context of the
Bedouin’s transitional mode of life, as they adapt
from their centuries-old nomadic existence to
being semi- and fully settled. She gathered her
information on dyeing, spinning and weaving
while living and travelling in Saudi Arabia,
extending her scope with trips to other parts of
the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent Arab
countries. She describes visits to Bedouin
families, desert markets and urban centres where
Bedouin gathered. Her work comes at a time
when many tribal peoples are losing their
cultural traditions and, with them, their crafts
and the material of everyday life in the desert.
This is the most exhaustive study to date of
the weaving methods practised by the Bedouin
of Saudi Arabia. Profusely illustrated, and giving
thorough instruction in techniques, Bedouin
Weaving is an essential companion for collectors
and connoisseurs of flat-weave textiles.
“This handsome book makes a significant contribution to
textile history, is an important text for the collector, curator,
or craftsman, and captures the essence of Bedouin weaving
as it was in the past.”
HALI Magazine
“A comprehensive textile and cultural study …. Weavers of
indigenous-style textiles or anyone interested in textile
history will find this impressive work to be a thorough labor
of love.”
Handwoven
“[No other book] describes the research process in such a
charming and illuminating way, nor covers the weaving
techniques in such instructive detail. … Textile lovers will
appreciate the wealth of coloured illustrations of a wide
variety of woven pieces with their stunning geometric
patterns … and the detailed descriptions of techniques and
motifs.”
The Middle East in London
“A completely compulsive read.”
Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

Kuwait and the Sea
A Brief Social and Economic History
by Yacoub Yusuf Al-Hijji
Roads to Nowhere
A South Arabian Odyssey, 1960–1965
by John Harding
John Harding
roads
to nowhere
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-4-8
228 x 155 mm
228 pages
Hardback, jacketed
3 maps; 43 black-and-white photographs and illustrations
Footnotes, Appendices, Glossary, Bibliography, Index
Publication: 2010
Price: £30.00
A Brief Social
and Economic omic
History
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-2-4
336 pages; 228 x 155 mm
Hardback, jacket
61 black-and-white photographs, 1 map
Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2009
Price: £30.00
A South Arabian Odyssey, 1960–1965
Subject areas:
Kuwait, Arabian Gulf; Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Middle
East; Arab maritime history; Traditional society; Traditional
economy; Dhow building; Dhow trade; Navigation;
Indian Ocean
Subject areas:
Aden; Hadhramaut; Yemen; Arabian Peninsula; Arab world;
Middle East history post-World War II; British Empire;
Decolonization
Y YACOUB O B
YUSUF U UF AL-HIJJI
L JI
THOUGH INHABITED for millennia, Kuwait
began to emerge as an Arab shaikhdom
relatively late. Entering the historical record
during the early 18th century as a junction of
caravan and sea routes, it quickly grew to be a
commercial rival to Basra at the head of the Gulf.
As its prosperity increased, it had to negotiate
a precarious autonomy amongst its larger
neighbours. By the end of the 19th century,
despite their complete lack of natural resources
of any kind, even water, Kuwait’s people had
managed to exploit their geopolitical position
to turn their town into the busiest dhow port
on the Gulf.
Without the sea, Kuwait’s rise would have
been impossible. Its society was formed by the
trade in Iraqi dates and by its dhow-building
and pearling industries, which attracted both
Arabs and Persians to the town. Focusing chiefly
on the first decades of the 20th century, Yacoub
Al-Hijji paints a vivid portrait of the merchants,
captains, navigators, dhow builders, sailors, pearl
divers and fishermen of this remarkable
shaikhdom. In explaining their techniques, and
analysing how they organized themselves
according to the customary law and traditions
of a tribal, pre-bureaucratic era, he conveys a
compelling picture of the bustle and hardships
of a way of life which, during the 1940s and
1950s, was to be erased by prosperity from oil.
“Al-Hijji has rendered a service in recording the experiences
and socio-economic contexts of past mariners in a
country whose headlong economic development has rapidly
expunged much of their material and cultural traces.”
Journal of Arabian Studies
“Undoubtedly useful for those interested in Kuwaiti or Gulf
maritime history.”
International Journal of Maritime History
“Kuwait and the Sea takes up an important position on the
shelf of both Middle Eastern and Indian Ocean
historiography … [and] makes great strides in resurrecting
that largely forgotten but critically important past.”
The Middle East in London
“A distillation of the vast body of knowledge this renowned
maritime historian has acquired over several decades of
research, travel and study. … Both scholarly and highly
readable … [and] fills a gap in the economic history of the
Gulf before oil.”
Arab Times
TODAY PART OF THE Republic of Yemen,
Aden was for 128 years a vital British
strategic base and commercial staging post. In
the immediate aftermath of World War II,
Britain was still the predominant foreign power
in the Middle East. But in 1967, overwhelmed
by crises, the Labour government abandoned
Aden. This precipitate withdrawal left the newly
formed Federation of South Arabia to the
mercies of rival national socialist revolutionaries
who, after a period of bloody civil war,
established the Arab world’s only Marxist-
Leninist tyranny, and left a 27-year legacy of
impoverishment and repression.
Roads to Nowhere is a candid account of the
author’s experiences as a young British colonial
officer, describing a bizarre world of outsize
colonial characters and desert adventure during
Aden’s moment of glory as the “Hong Kong of
the Middle East”. It focuses on the flawed
Federal constitution unequal to its avowed
purpose of bringing Aden and its hinterland to
orderly independence, and the fatal mismatch
between Aden’s politicians and the traditional
tribal rulers. Along the way, we are treated to
tales of tribal feuds and dissident skirmishes,
feudal rule, intelligence and internal security
failings, frustrated reconstruction schemes, and
the valiant efforts of the British armed forces to
hold the ring. Written with a sharp eye for the
tragicomic, and ranging deftly between the
political and the personal, this is above all a
book about individuals, both British and Arab,
and how they interacted as they tried to make
the best of their impossible predicament.
“A riveting book which carries the reader along page after
page.”
Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies
“Picaresque, funny, tragic, Harding’s narrative fairly bowls
along. … [He] has done a superb job of throwing the
complexities of the region into sharp relief.”
Bookdealer
“John Harding’s remarkable book …[is] both fascinating and
amazingly detailed … a frank account of the day-by-day
experiences of a young Colonial Service Officer in a unique
territory in a bygone era. I recommend it.”
The Overseas Pensioner

Ihlal al-salam fi Hadhramaut
Dirasah tarikhiyyah li-tajribat Hadhramaut
fi al-qada’ ‘ala al-tha’r al-qabali
[Establishing Peace in Hadhramaut]
by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz bin ‘Ali bin Salah
Al-Qu‘aiti
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-1-7
Hardback, jacket
432 pages; 258 x 200 mm
40 b/w photos, 170 documents, 2 maps
Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2009
Price: £50.00
Subject areas:
South Arabia; Hadhramaut; Tribes; Middle East history in
20th century; British Empire; Peace-making
Pilgrimage to Mecca
by Lady Evelyn Cobbold
Biographical introduction by
William Facey and Miranda Taylor
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-3-1
Paperback
352 pages; 228 x 155 mm
50 b/w photographs; 1 map
Footnotes; Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2009
Price: £20.00
Subject areas:
Islam; Hajj; Pilgrimage; Women travellers; Middle East;
Arab world; Saudi Arabia; British Muslims; Female converts
to Islam; Muslim Holy Cities; Mecca; Medina;
Jiddah; Scotland
Lady Evelyn Cobbold
P ILGRIMAGE
to
MECCA
Introduction by
William Facey and Miranda Taylor
Notes by Ahmad S.Turkistani
THIS BOOK, IN ARABIC, describes a crucial
episode in Yemeni history, during which
tribal feuding was brought to an end. The
Hadhramaut region, by the 1930s under British
tutelage as part of the Eastern Aden
Protectorate, comprised a patchwork of tribal
groups forming the Qu‘aiti and Kathiri
Sultanates, and was riven by tribal rivalries and
infighting.
In the mid-1930s, the British in Aden were
interested in pacifying the area in order to
strengthen it against outside claims. Taking
advantage of the desire among local leaders to
establish political stability, they appointed
Harold Ingrams as Resident Adviser, based in
the main town and port, Mukalla, capital of the
Qu‘aiti Sultanate. Between 1936 and 1939, in
collaboration with Sultan Ali bin Salah Al-
Qu‘aiti, Sultan Ali bin Mansur Al-Kathiri and
Sayyid Abu Bakr Shaikh Al-Kaf, Ingrams and
his wife, Doreen, travelled on camel and donkey
to all parts of the region, negotiating with local
leaders and helping them to resolve their
disputes. In all, about 1,400 treaties were signed
by local leaders, obliging them to put an end to
feuding amongst themselves.
Focusing on the enlightened peace-making
efforts of local leaders, supported by the tireless
efforts of a representative of an outside power,
the author aims to show that the remorseless
cycle of revenge need not be as unstoppable as
it may seem to those caught up in it. The book
includes 40 photographs and 170 historic documents,
most reproduced here for the first time.
“The author deserves to be congratulated on making such a
wealth of original material accessible [and] for his readable
and balanced presentation of the historical background. … A
production of exceptional quality.”
Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies
AS THE FIRST BRITISH WOMAN CONVERT TO
Islam on record as making the pilgrimage
to Mecca and visiting Medina, Lady Evelyn
Cobbold (1867–1963) cuts a unique figure in
the annals of the Hajj.
Anglo-Scottish aristocrat and landowner,
Evelyn Murray had spent childhood winters in
North Africa. There she was imbued with the
Muslim way of life, becoming, as she puts it, “a
little Muslim at heart”. While travelling widely
as an adult in the Arab world, she also
maintained a conventional place in society at
home, marrying the wealthy John Cobbold in
1891 and devoting herself to her Suffolk and
London houses and her Scottish estate, where
she became a renowned deer-stalker.
Deciding to perform the pilgrimage in 1933,
at the age of 65, she stayed with the Philbys in
Jeddah while awaiting permission to go to
Mecca, and received visits from various dignitaries,
notably the King’s son the Amir Faysal
(later King Faysal).
Pilgrimage to Mecca, as much an account of
an interior journey of faith as a conventional
travelogue, takes the form of a day-by-day
journal interspersed with digressions on the
history and merits of Islam. She is the first
English writer to give a first-hand description
of the life of the women’s quarters of the
households in which she stayed in Medina,
Mecca and Muna – an account remarkable for
its sympathy and vividness. This paperback
edition, with a substantial biographical introduction,
serves to rescue this unique and
intriguing Anglo-Muslim from the obscurity
that has since befallen her.
“In the current atmosphere, when there is much debate
and controversy regarding what it means to be a Muslim,
Pilgrimage to Mecca offers a timely opening for new reflection.”
Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies
“A well-produced, well-documented, and fascinating book.
… A deeply moving account of a lady who was fundamentally
changed by the Hajj.”
Muslim World Book Review
“One of the most fascinating of women travellers of
the early 20th century. … Required reading for anyone
interested in the history of women travellers, early 20thcentury
travel in the Middle East, or simply Islamic affairs.”
Geographical Magazine

The Sanusi’s Little War
The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in
the Western Desert, 1915–17
The Arab Chest
by Sheila Unwin
Foreword by Sir Terence Clark
by Russell McGuirk
ISBN: 978-0-9544792-7-5
Hardback, jacket
352 pages; 234 x 156 mm
50 b/w photographs; 3 maps; 7 line illustrations
Footnotes; Appendices; Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2007
Price: £25.00
Subject areas:
Military history; First World War; North Africa; Egypt;
Libya; Sanusi movement; Islam; Western Desert;
Arab history; Middle East; T. E. Lawrence;
Model T Fords; Rolls Royce
ISBN: 978-0-9544792-6-8
Hardback, jacket
144 pages; 258 x 200 mm
Full colour throughout; 3 maps
Appendices, Glossary, Bibliography, Index
Publication: 2006
Price: £25.00
Subject areas:
Antiques; Furniture; Islamic Art; Arabian Peninsula; Arab
world; Maritime history; Gulf studies; India; Indian Ocean;
East Africa; Indonesia
THIS IS THE EXCITING STORY of a forgotten
war, fought out on the fringe of the great
First World War campaigns. At its centre stands
Sayyid Ahmad al-Sharif, the Grand Sanusi, a
charismatic Arab leader caught between the
rival war aims of the Turco-German alliance and
the British Empire.
In November 1915 HMS Tara, a requisitioned
ferryboat, is torpedoed by a German
U-boat off Sollum on the north-west coast of
Egypt. The 92 survivors, nearly all Welshmen,
are handed over to Turkish and Sanusi soldiers
across the border and sent as prisoners of war
deep into the Libyan Desert. The Turco-Sanusi
Army then overruns Sollum and pushes into
Egypt. The British occupiers are caught off
guard and forced to launch a military campaign
to expel the invaders. Over the next few
months, four battles are fought before Sollum is
retaken and the threat contained. Finally, the
Duke of Westminster leads a column of Rolls
Royce armoured cars and Model T Fords into
Libya to rescue the Welshmen.
Based on original source material, The
Sanusi’s Little War tells for the first time the full
story of the Turco-Sanusi invasion and the
subsequent military campaign. The author
describes secret German missions and Turkish
efforts to win over the Grand Sanusi. He reveals
the fascinating role played in the campaign by
British officers, particularly Leo Royle. Most
unexpected of all is his discovery that T. E.
Lawrence played a role in these events.
“[A] masterly study of the Sanusi campaign. The author
provides … the details of personalities, places and events, and
the sympathetic understanding that this extraordinary but
hitherto disregarded historical episode fully deserves.”
The Maghreb Review
“McGuirk provides a new level of detail, based on thorough
research of the available sources. … [He] tells a grand story
well. … A much welcome addition to the literature of the
First World War and its aftermath in the Middle East.”
Libyan Studies
“The author draws skilfully upon a wealth of primary
sources both archival and oral in Arabic, English and
German. … The excellence of this history … lies in its
intricate tapestry of detail concerning the setting and
background to the conflict. … A well-told war story.”
Sudan Studies Association Bulletin
THIS IS THE FIRST EXHAUSTIVE STUDY of a
piece of furniture that has been used in the
Arab world for centuries, and on the East
African coast since the early 1800s. The Arab
chest caught the attention of expatriates and
travellers throughout these regions, and by the
mid-20th century it had become a collector’s
item in the West.
The author, Sheila Unwin, first came across
the chests in East Africa in the early l950s, and
became determined to discover their provenance
and unravel their stylistic origins. This
journey of detection is reflected in her historical
overviews, which cover the early Arab trading
networks, Arabs and Persians in East Africa, the
Gulf and Oman, the Mughals in India, and the
early explorations and trading expeditions of
the Portuguese, Dutch and British from East
Africa to the Far East. Her study of these
enables her to trace the cultural influences that
have combined to produce the chests, and to
chart their complex origins.
More than a historical survey, the book is also
a guide to the classification, care and cleaning of
chests. It is lavishly illustrated with archive and
contemporary photographs and maps, while
line drawings demonstrate the differences in
classification and type of chests and fittings.
Owners of these fine pieces will find this an
invaluable companion and resource. Sheila
Unwin greatly enriches our appreciation of an
artefact which can now be seen, in the light of
her research, as a fascinating embodiment of the
old Indian Ocean trading network.
“Essential [for] anyone interested in furniture and in the
material culture of the Indian Ocean world.”
Asian Affairs
“This book is a treasure. … The fruit of a lifetime of
research and travel. … [it] is an invaluable guide, but much
more than a collector’s guidebook.”
British-Yemeni Society Journal
“This enchanting book is required reading for anyone lucky
enough to possess one of these chests.”
The Overseas Pensioner

Sons of Sindbad
by Alan Villiers
With a new Introduction by William Facey,
Yacoub Al-Hijji and Grace Pundyk
Sons of Sindbad
THE PHOTOGRAPHS
by Alan Villiers
Selected and introduced by William Facey,
Yacoub Al-Hijji and Grace Pundyk
ISBN: 978-0-9558894-6-2
Paperback
448 + 32 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
50 b/w photographs, 1 map
Notes, Bibliography, Appendices, Index
Publication: 2010
Price: £20.00
Subject areas:
Sailing ships; Dhows; Maritime history; Navigation; Yachting;
Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Arab seafaring; Gulf studies;
Indian Ocean; Kuwait; Pearls.
ISBN: 978-0-9544792-5-1
Hardback, jacket
224 pp.; 330 x 245 mm
164 b/w photographs reproduced in duotone; 11 maps
Notes, bibliography, index
Publication: 2006
Price: £30.00
Subject areas:
Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Arab seafaring; Maritime
history; Navigation; Sailing ships; Yachting; Dhows; Gulf
studies; Indian Ocean; East Africa; Kuwait; Pearls.
ALAN VILLIERS
(1903–82), the Australian
sailor and maritime historian, first made a
name for himself as an adventurer in the 1920s
and 1930s by combining his seafaring skills with
his talent as a pioneering photojournalist. He
visited Arabia in 1938 because he was certain
that he was living through the last days of sail,
and was determined to record as much of them
as he was able.
At Aden, Villiers found an Arab dhow master
prepared to take on a lone Westerner as a
crewman. Ali bin Nasr el-Nejdi and his Kuwaiti
crew were making the age-old voyage from the
Gulf to East Africa, coasting on the north-east
monsoon winds, with a cargo of dates from
Basra. The return voyage would be made in the
early summer of 1939, on the first breezes of the
south-west monsoon, from East Africa to
Kuwait.
From this voyage Villiers fashioned Sons of
Sindbad. First published in 1940, it is the sole
work of Arabian travel to have at its centre the
seafaring Arabs. In a real sense the Thesiger of
the Arabian Sea, Villiers voyaged with his
companions as an equal, while deferring to their
toughness and fortitude, and to their superior
knowledge of their trade.
This great classic of Arabian travel and
maritime adventure is reprinted for the first
time since 1969, with a new introduction by
William Facey, Yacoub Al-Hijji and Grace
Pundyk. As in the original 1940 edition, 50 of
Villiers’ many photographs are published here –
images that complement the text with strikingly
vivid depictions of the life and skills of the Arab
dhow sailors, of the ports along the route, of
Kuwait itself, and of the pearl divers of the
Arabian Gulf.
“Arabian Publishing are to be congratulated on producing a
book of such excellent quality. [The] Introduction combines
a biographical account of Villiers’ remarkable life with a
thoughtful assessment of the place of Sons of Sindbad in the
travel literature on Arabia.”
The British-Yemeni Society Journal
“A fascinating and vivid study of a vanished way of life.”
WoodenBoat Review
ALAN VILLIERS (1903–82) WAS a renowned
Australian sailor, writer and photographer.
Originally published in 1940, Sons of Sindbad is
his account of sailing with the Arabs in their
dhows in southern Arabia, along the East
African coast and in the Arabian Gulf, to record
a nautical and cultural tradition that even then
was disappearing. Arabian Publishing, in
association with the National Maritime
Museum in Greenwich, has now republished
this sailing and adventure classic in an abridged
form and a large format, and with many more
photographs, previously unpublished, from the
Museum’s Villiers Collection. The book establishes
Villiers’s reputation as a photographer to
compare with Wilfred Thesiger.
His lifelong fascination for traditional sailing
techniques led him to embark on his remarkable
voyage in 1938. Joining the crew of a large
Kuwaiti boom, the Triumph of Righteousness, he
sailed with them on the monsoon winds from
Aden, down the East African coast, to
Mombasa, Zanzibar and the Rufiji Delta. He
then made the homeward voyage to Oman,
Bahrain and finally Kuwait. Here he spent four
months in the summer of 1939, including a
month among the pearl divers of the northern
Gulf.
This book depicts the experiences of the
sailors and divers and the hardships they faced in
their perilous environment. Villiers’s powerful
photographs and words form a fine tribute to
the skills and endurance of the Arab sailors, and
a fitting valediction to the age of sail before the
onset of oil and modernization.
“A travel classic on the level of Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian
Sands, with marvellously evocative images and a revealing
and perceptive text.”
The Sunday Times
“A splendid book.”
The Sunday Telegraph
“Remarkable … A fascinating glimpse into another world”
The Guardian
NOTE
This edition available in North America only

The Birth of the Islamic
Reform Movement in
Saudi Arabia
Mubarak Al-Sabah
Founder of Modern Kuwait, 1896–1915
by B. J. Slot
Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703/4–1792)
and the Beginnings of Unitarian Empire in Arabia
by George S. Rentz
Edited with an Introduction by William Facey
ISBN: 978-0-9544792-2-0
Hardback; jacket
320 pages; 234 x 156 mm; 10 maps and tables
Footnotes; Bibliography; Index.
Publication: 2005
£25.00
Subject areas:
Saudi Arabia; Arab world; Middle East; Political Islam;
Wahhabism; Hanbalism; 18th-century Arabian history;
Al Saud; al-Dir‘iyah
ISBN: 978-0-9544792-4-4
Hardback, jacket
480 pp. + 32 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
40 b/w photographs; 2 maps
Footnotes, bibliography, index
Publication: 2005
Price: £30.00
Subject areas:
Kuwait; Gulf studies; Arabian Peninsula; Arab world; Middle
East; Iraq and Kuwait; Ruling families; Al-Sabah; Political
biography; History; State formation; International status and
sovereignty; International relations
CURRENT TROUBLES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
have focused much international attention
on Saudi Arabia. However, little has been
published in English on the background to its
culture and its roots in the First Saudi State that
arose in 18th-century Najd (central Arabia). The
Islamic reform movement that imbued it with
its sense of mission, and the life and thought of
its proponent Shaikh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-
Wahhab (1703/4–1792), have been similarly
neglected.
Often referred to outside Arabia as
Wahhabism, the Shaikh’s teachings have been a
fundamental influence on the lives of Saudi
Arabians and their government ever since his
death in 1792. His ideas continue to inspire his
many followers, both inside the Kingdom and
abroad. A knowledge of his life and thought is
vital to a proper understanding of both Saudi
Arabia and the Arab world of today.
Students of Saudi Arabian history have long
recognized George S. Rentz’s thesis on the
Shaikh’s life and the origins of the First Saudi
State as a work of pioneering scholarship.
Despite this, since its acceptance in 1947 by the
University of California, it has never before now
been published. Rentz (1912–87) went on to
become head of Aramco’s research department.
Closely basing his account on the local Najdi
chronicles which were contemporary with
many of the events they describe, Rentz pieces
together the life and thought of the thinker
who set out to purify Islam as he saw it
practised around him, and to direct Muslims
back to the fountainhead of their faith. In the
process Rentz tells the colourful story of the
creation of the First Saudi State (1745–1818)
with its capital at al-Dir‘iyah, near present-day
Riyadh.
“Rentz’s dissertation was in its day the only genuine
scholarly, adequately footnoted, source-critical account of
the early Saudi state. Amazingly, it still is.”
The Times Literary Supplement
“Anyone interested in the rise of Islam, Islamic state
formation, the complex relationships between tribes and
towns and, above all, the unifying power in an Islamic
context of a simple message of “return” … should find
much to ponder in this book. … This is a major
contribution to Arabian studies.”
Bulletin of the Society of Arabian Studies
IN THIS POLITICAL LIFE of Mubarak Al-Sabah,
ruler of Kuwait from 1896 to 1915, B. J. Slot
examines his career in unsurpassed detail,
analysing its significance and presenting a
balanced assessment of the man and his
achievement. In doing so, he draws on a much
wider range of sources than any previous
biography.
Mubarak Al-Sabah took control of his tiny
state in 1896, just as the Ottoman Empire
seemed on the point of swallowing it up. He
then played for time, kindling a hesitant British
interest in Kuwait by deftly exploiting the
rivalry among European powers interested in
Kuwait’s strategic possibilities as the terminus of
a railway – conceived as the vital link in rapid
communication between Europe and India.
By the Agreement of 1899, concluded
secretly, Mubarak contrived to make Kuwait a
British protectorate, but in the vaguest and most
deniable way. The Agreement’s very secrecy
afforded him wide freedom of action, especially
in tribal conflicts in the Arabian hinterland. He
could be confident that well-timed overtures to
Turks, Russians, Germans, French or even
Persians would serve to keep Britain engaged in
Kuwait’s protecion.
Only with the outbreak of the First World
War did Britain dare publicly to declare Kuwait
a protectorate, by which time its autonomy had
become an accepted fact. Mubarak’s reign was
thus pivotal in establishing Kuwait as a separate
and sovereign entity under international law.
“The portrait sketched by B. J. Slot is that of a small
shaykhdom at the mercy of complex international
machinations involving the British, the Ottomans, the
Germans, the Russians, the French, the Al Sa‘ud, and the Al
Rashid. … The book includes a very useful guide to archival
sources, and it is a relief to be able to read a book with
actual footnotes.”
International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
“A meticulously researched political biography of Shaikh
Mubarak Al-Sabah that also serves as a first-class history of
Kuwait at the turn of the last century and during the buildup
to the First World War.”
Asian Affairs
“A useful addition to the historical literature on the political
development of Kuwait.”
MESA Bulletin

Sabah al-Salim
Al-Sabah
Amir of Kuwait 1965–77
A Political Biography
by Robert L. Jarman
Pearling in the
Arabian Gulf
A Kuwaiti Memoir
by Saif Marzooq Al-Shamlan
Translated by Peter Clark
ISBN: 978-1-900404-21-1
Hardback with jacket
368 pp. + 20 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
Frontispiece and 28 b/w photographs
Notes; Bibliography; Genealogical Tables; Index
Publication: 2002
Price: £29.50
Subject areas:
Kuwait; Arab world; Middle East; Iraq; Gulf history;
Al-Sabah; Arab history/international relations
THIS BIOGRAPHY OF Sabah al-Salim Al-
Sabah assesses his contribution to the
political history of Kuwait. Relying on
documents from the British and US archives, as
well as frank reminiscences of former colleagues
within Kuwait, it covers his entire career, from
his entry into public life in 1939, to his reign as
Amir from 1965 to 1977.
In domestic affairs, particular attention is paid
to his growing public stature through the 1950s
and early 1960s, leading to his appointment in
1962 as Kuwait’s first-ever Crown Prince. His
handling of the “131” constitutional crisis of
1964–5, when the National Assembly
challenged the ruling family for the first time, is
described in detail, drawing on participants’
reminiscences as well as reports by foreign
diplomats.
In external affairs, Sabah al-Salim’s attitude
towards the Palestinian issue and his contribution
to the stabilization of relations with Iraq
are extensively documented. He masterminded
the secret negotiations in 1962–63 which
resulted in Iraq’s acceptance of the independence
and borders of Kuwait. The full story of
these is told here for the first time in English, as
is his handling of the subsequent 1973 crisis in
Kuwait–Iraq relations. Britain’s withdrawal from
the Gulf in 1968–71 necessitated a fundamental
rethink of Kuwait’s foreign policy, and Sabah al-
Salim’s leading role in Kuwait’s realignment
towards the USA is documented in full.
“At first sight this is a book for the specialist. … But Robert
Jarman has produced a thoroughly good read, which is well
worth the time of anyone interested in the governance and
power politics of the Gulf during the 1960s and 1970s.”
Asian Affairs
ISBN: 978-1-900404-19-8
Hardback, jacket
190 pp. + 16 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
19 black-and-white photographs; 1 map
Glossary; Index
Publication: 2000
Price: £25.00
Subject areas:
Kuwait; Arab world; Middle East; Arab seafaring;
Maritime history and traditions; Pearls; Dhows
BORN IN KUWAIT IN 1926, into a distinguished
Kuwaiti family of pearl merchants
and seafarers, Saif Marzooq al-Shamlan
describes the final generation of the pearling
Kuwait
The Growth of a Historic Identity
Edited by B. J. Slot
ISBN: 978-1-900404-32-7
Hardback, jacket
144 pp. + 16 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
Colour frontispiece; 24 b/w photographs; 1 map
Notes, Bibliography, Index
Publication: 2002
Price: £30.00
Subject areas:
Kuwait; Arab world; Middle East; Iraq–Kuwait relations; Gulf
history; Al-Sabah; Arab history/international relations
FIVE EXPERTS IN THE FIELD – Dr B. J. Slot, Dr
Ulrich W. Haarmann, Prof. G. Bondarevsky,
Dr Richard Schofield and Dr Suhail Shuhaiber
– explore the historical, political and social
industry from 1900 to the slump of the 1930s,
when the development of the Japanese cultured
pearl led to economic disaster for the people of
the Gulf.
processes governing the birth, survival,
prosperity and ultimate sovereignty of this
unique Arab maritime polity.

Yes, (Saudi) Minister!
A Life in Administration
Sheba Revealed
A Posting to Bayhan in the Yemen
by Dr Ghazi Algosaibi
by Nigel Groom
ISBN: 978-1-900404-17-4
Hardback; jacket
272 pp.; 234 x 156 mm
Index
Publication: 1999
Price: £20.00
ISBN: 978-1-900404-31-0
Hardback, jacket
312 pp. + 32 pp. of photographs; 234 x 156 mm
37 black-and-white photographs ; 3 maps
Appendix; Glossary, Bibliography; Index
Publication: 2002
Price: £24.95
Subject areas:
Saudi Arabia; Arab world; Middle East; Public
administration; Arab government; Al Saud; Humour
Subject areas:
Yemen; Arab world; Middle East; Sheba; Qataban; Arabian
archaeology; Arab tribes; British colonial history
BORN INTO A LEADING MERCHANT FAMILY in
Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Dr
Algosaibi not only experienced but, as a
government minister, played a leading part in
the Kingdom’s rapid modernisation during the
1970s and 1980s.
In this administrative autobiography, we are
treated to the wit and wisdom of one of Saudi
Arabia’s leading technocrats who, as poet,
writer, broadcaster, ambassador and minister
once again, was also one of its most prominent
intellectuals and gifted communicators. In
recounting his career, he provides us with a
series of profound and penetrating insights into
the relationship between the political
leadership, the executive and the administrative
machine. Along the way we are given an
insider’s view of the personalities of successive
monarchs, the whirlwind transformation of the
Kingdom’s infrastructure, the tensions between
conservatives and modernisers, and Saudi
Arabia’s relations with its neighbours.
In Dr Algosaibi’s view of the human
condition, we are all victims of administration
from the day we are born, and inevitably grow
up to be perpetrators of it too. Illustrating his
story with vivid and occasionally hilarious
incident, he reflects on what he calls his own
“aggressive” style of administration in contrast
to the “defensive” style, the pitfalls of popularity
and media stardom, the requirements of
education and development, the relative merits
of state ownership and privatisation, the
challenges of national healthcare, and the claims
of family life. The book is packed with judicious
tips for budding administrators and diplomats.
All those interested in the workings of
government in this most conservative of
modern Islamic states will find in Dr Algosaibi’s
life in administration an essential and entertaining
companion.
“This excellent and entertaining book … should be read by
all who seek to gain an understanding of the workings of
the highly complex country that is Saudi Arabia today.”
RUSI Journal
“A sparkling account spiced with humour and verve.
Readers … will be struck by the book’s frankness. … His
views on the ambassador’s role and his comparison of the
diplomatic services of the West with those of the Arab states
are full of meat and controversy.”
Asian Affairs
DURING THE LATE 1940S, British governance
of the Western Aden Protectorate was
being tentatively extended by a handful of hardy
officials whose reputation for incorruptibility
and even-handedness went before them.
Of these the young Nigel Groom was one.
Posted to the almost inaccessible Wadi Bayhan
in 1948, he was to spend nearly two years
amongst the people of what in antiquity had
been Qataban, once part of biblical Sheba. The
Bayhanis and their neighbours, whose ancient,
pre-Islamic lineage was evident all around in the
imposing remains of cities, irrigation works and
formal inscriptions, exerted a powerful
fascination on the young Political Officer which
has never since waned.
As representative of a distant government,
Groom naturally met with an ambivalent
reception from the local people, many of whom
lived in areas that were still uncontrolled and
unadministered. His book recounts a young
official’s brave efforts to influence obstinate
rulers and to demonstrate, to clans and tribes
who for centuries had settled disputes by
violence, the benefits of the rule of law. His
doubts and moral dilemmas, his personal
relationships, and the pitfalls of inexperience
amongst the intricacies of a tribal society, are
honestly described, and add depth, dramatic
tension and occasional hilarity to the tale.
Sheba Revealed depicts the people, customs
and antiquities of this remote part of Arabia
with compelling verve and candour. Its close,
sympathetic and skilful observation of a single
locality places it in a special niche among
accounts of Arabian travel. And it will engage all
those with an interest in pre-Islamic archaeology,
colonial history, Arabian society and
Yemen’s transition to the world of today.
“[His] assignment to a remote corner of the Aden
Protectorate enabled Mr Groom to discover ancient ruins
and epigraphy. His account of his life and finds is personable
and highly readable.”
Antiquity
“Later generations will be grateful to the author for
preserving … this compelling portrait of an antique land on
the threshold of change and, ultimately, of upheaval.”
Asian Affairs
“This is a wonderful book.”
The Overseas Pensioner

Tarikh al-Imarat al-‘Arabiyyah
al-Muttahidah: Mukhtarat min
ahamm al-watha’iq al-Britaniyyah,
1797–1965
[History of the United Arab Emirates:
Selections from the Most Important British
Documents, 1797–1965]
Ed. Mohamed Morsy Abdullah
and Leslie McLoughlin
4 volumes, in Arabic
ISBN: 978-1-900404-04-4
Vol. 1: Britain and the Emirates, 1797–1960.
ISBN: 978-1-900404-05-1
Vol. 2: The Emirates at the Beginning of Modernization,
1945–1965.
ISBN: 978-1-900404-06-8
Vol. 3: Britain and the Emirates’ Rulers, 1945–1965.
ISBN: 978-1-900404-06-8
Vol. 4: The Internal Situation, 1600–1966.
ISBN: 978-1-900404-08-2
Hardback
626 + 556 + 510 + 664 pages; 248 x 157 mm
Publication: 1996
Price: £995.00
Arabian Publishing Ltd