4 075 résultats
600 x 460 mm. Folding coloured map, scale 1:6,000,000, cloth-backed. Folded into the original red cloth case. A rare and attractive map focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, but also including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Asiatic Turkey. It shows boundaries and occupied territories as they were after World War I, physical features, principal cities, road networks, communication lines, and maritime navigation distance. The inset map at the top right shows the Aden Protectorate and part of South-Western Yemen (scale 1:1,825,000). - Rare. Library Hub locates just one copy, at the University of Manchester. OCLC adds two further holdings, at the University of Minnesota and the Library of Congress. In excellent condition.
Hand-coloured engraved map (355 x 263 mm). Gorgeous full color example of Tallis's map of Arabia. Includes decorative vignettes showing Mount Sinai, Arabs, Camel and Arab Women. Engraved for R. Montgomery Martin's Illustrated Atlas. Tallis was one of the last great decorative map makers. His maps are prized for the wonderful vignettes of indigenous scenes, people, etc. Al-Qasimi 261. Not in Tibbets and Al Ankary.
Colour-printed map (51 x 48 cm). Al-Qasimi 285.
8vo. (6), 437, (1 blank) pp. With a cut-out picture of a Bedouin woman on the verso of the half-title-page, a picture of "a typical Arab of Yemen" as the frontispiece, 15 plates, a floor plan of a mosque, 2 maps and numerous small illustrations in the text. Yellow cloth. An account of the history, geography, religion, and political and social situation of the Middle East, and especially of the Arabian Peninsula, from a Christian missionary point of view. This information is presented alongside accounts of the author's experiences, and it is illustrated with images of local peoples, landscapes and examples of Arabic script and music. According to the preface, this second edition of Zwemer's first work, first published in 1899/1900, was published in order to correct some minor errors that had made their way into the first edition because of the physical distance between the author and the publishers. At the time of publication, Zwemer was doing missionary work in Arabia, while his work was being published in the U.S. The present copy was published in Edinburgh and London, but apparently (according to the verso of the title-page) printed by the Caxton Press in New York. - Reverend Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952), sometimes nicknamed "the Apostle to Islam", was an American missionary, traveller and scholar. He was a part of the Reformed Church of America, meaning that his beliefs and later missionary work were rooted in Calvinistic traditions, and he was ordained within that church in 1890. Together with James Cantine and John G. Lansing, Zwemer founded the Arabian Mission, which was active from 1889 until 1913. During that time, Zwemer was active in Iraq, Bahrein, and several locations in Arabia. He also worked in Egypt and travelled extensively throughout Asia Minor. From 1929 until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1937 he taught at the Princeton Theological Seminary, as a professor of missions and as a professor of the history of religion. - Binding rubbed, soiled and slightly damaged around the corners, edges foxed, water stain in the top margin of the first leaves (until p. 14), hinges weak. With an inscription in German on the first flyleaf dated 17 January 1904; cut-out picture of a Bedouin woman pasted on the verso of the half-title. List of works in the NYPL relating to Arabia and the Arabs (1911), p. 174. Cf. Macro 2371; Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 511.
4to. (12), 282 pp. Title printed in red and black with large engraving. - (Bound with) II: Sennert, Andreas. Arabismus, h. e. praecepta arabicae linguae [...]. Wittenberg, Fincelius, 1666. (8), 166 pp. - (Bound with) III: The same. [Mi'a Matal]. Centuria proverbiorum arabicorum. Ibid., 1658. (24) pp. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. I: Third, most encompassing edition of the first scientific Arabic grammar written by a European scholar. Erpenius had published his "Grammatica Arabica" in 1613, having completed it four years earlier while staying in Paris with Casaubon. A second edition appeared in 1636 - edited by Anton Deusing, a pupil of Golius - adding the fables of Lokman and Arabic proverbs earlier edited by Erpenius. The present edition was edited by Golius himself, Erpenius's successor to the chair of Arabic. Repeating Deusing's 1636 edition, it now adds a modest Arabic chresthomathy previously edited by Golius's pupil Fabricius. This copy includes the cancel-slip for two lines of text and a catchword on f. *2v. Interleaved between pp. 200 and 201 with five ms. pages by a Swedish scholar (c. 1915). - II: Second edition of Sennert's Arabic grammar, followed by a concise Arabic dictionary. - III: Only edition of this rare collection of Arabic proverbs with their Latin translations, also prepared by the German scholar Sennert (1606-89), himself a pupil of Golius and in 1640 Jakob Weller's successor as professor of oriental languages in Wittenberg. - Somewhat browned due to paper, but well-preserved altogether. Several old ownerships on flyleaf, including a note of acquisition dated Wittenberg, 1619, and the ownership of Ernst Friedrich Tobias (dated Feb. 1725). I: Smitskamp, BO 72. Schnurrer 81. Juynboll 148f. - II: Schnurrer 82 (note). VD 17, 12:130977S. OCLC 836692815. - III: VD 17, 3:313989Z. OCLC 633598572.
Hand-coloured engraved map (380 x 320 mm). Striking map of the Arabian Peninusla featuring the geographical features known to the ancients. Decorated with a vignette and 9 medallions depicting camels in the upper right corner. An interesting and highly decorative map. Al Ankary 293. Al-Qasimi 129. Not in Tibbetts.
8vo. (2), V, (1), 18, (6) pp. Original printed wrappers. Rare information booklet for Aramco workers, outlining the dental care expense benefits extended to the company's full-time salaried or retired employees and their dependents under Aramco's dental insurance plan. - Well preserved.
8vo. XVI, 336 pp. With a portrait of the author as a frontispiece and 24 double-sided plates. Blue cloth. First edition, second impression. The autobiography of the noted British Arabist, explorer, writer, officer and adviser to Ibn Saud, Harry St John Bridger Philby (1885-1960). In the preface Philby states that he mainly describes the essential and most notable features and events of his public life. He began writing this work in 1934, but the next decade was filled with activity and adventure, both in Britain and abroad, which kept him from writing and publishing the work until after the Second World War. During this time, he was asked by King Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia to map the border between his newly formed kingdom and the Yemen. This gave Philby the opportunity to explore Southern Arabia, where he also made archaeological discoveries. - Philby undertook his first journey to Arabia in 1917 in order to complete a mission to Ibn Sa'ud; once there he formed a lifelong acquaintanceship with the future king of Saudi Arabia. In 1930 Philby officially converted to Islam. - The present copy is the second impression of the first edition which were published mere months apart in the same year. Philby's descriptions of his many experiences in Britain, India and the Middle East are accompanied by numerous images of him, his family, King Ibn Sa'ud, government officials, and buildings and landscapes he encountered. - Binding shows very slight signs of wear, small inscription in blue ink to the verso of the first flyleaf, very slight browning throughout. Howgego IV, P 31. Macro 1776. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 394. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
VII, 169, (1) pp. Profusely illustrated throughout with 104 photo plates. Contemporary green cloth with giltstamped cover title. Second edition. Amin Sahid Zaher (b. 1908) served as Arabian horse breeder in the stud of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt and head of lifestock breeding programmes in Egypt. - A good copy. Cf. Boyd/P. 144.
8vo. XIV, 280 pp. With a portrait of King 'Abdul-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ud as the frontispiece, 1 map of Arabia in 1950, and 16 double-sided plates. Black cloth. First edition of this biography of Saudi Arabian King HRH Abdul-Aziz bin Abdul Rahman al Sa'ud by his adviser Harry St John Bridger Philby. Ibn Sa'ud was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, when after a conquest spanning 30 years he united most of the Arabian Peninsula under his rule. He reigned from 1932 until his death in 1953, but had previously (since 1902) ruled parts of what was to become Saudi Arabia as Emir, Sultan, King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz. The present work is not a complete and final biography: at the time of writing and publication the king was still alive, and Philby states in the preface that "it is rather a pageant of his [Ibn Sa'ud's] achievement, set forth in a series of tableaux illustrating characteristic phases of his career". The descriptions of these phases contain not only information relating to the king, but also inform the reader about the country as a whole and are enlivened by accounts and other small details of court life and Islamic customs, including a pilgrimage to Mecca. The work is illustrated with numerous images of the king and his family, and important landmarks in Saudi Arabia. - Binding shows slight signs of wear, spine is slightly discoloured, slight foxing to edges, very slight browning throughout, several newspaper clippings in a small paper pocket on the lower pastedown. Overall in good condition. Howgego IV, P 31. Cf. (other ed.) Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 395; Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
12mo. 4 vols. (12), 320 pp. 314, (2) pp. 301, (3) pp. 312 pp. Contemporary full mottled calf, spine, covers and leading edges gilt. A rare, early English edition based on Galland's liberal but highly influential French translation. Adapted to Parisian tastes, it had been first published in 12 volumes between 1704 and 1717. "Even before the last of Galland's volumes had been published in France, some of his stories had been translated into English and were circulating as cheap chap-books on the popular market" (R. Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, p. 19). "Galland's translation [...] was quickly translated into English and German. It enjoyed a most remarkable success throughout Europe, perceptible even in children's literature, and contributed significantly to the new image which enlightened Europeans entertained of the Islamic East: after Galland, this was no longer the home of the Antichrist and of accursed heresy, but rather the ever-constant Orient beneath an eternally fair sky, boasting splendid colours and unheard-of wealth, Caliphs, Viziers, and Kadis, harems, fairy-tale princes, fairies and genies, sorcerers and sages, a world of fantastic adventure and outrageous incidents" (cf. Fück, p. 101). - Hinges and spines professionally repaired in places. Light browning and reading marks; old auction lot ticket on vol. 2; clean cuts into the side of three leaves of vol. 4 (no loss to text). A well-preserved set with the blocks intact, all the same edition and uniformly bound. Only three copies listed via COPAC (British Library; Trinity College, Connecticut; Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania). ESTC N15877. OCLC 504545353. Cf. Chauvin IV, 185 D (1713: 4th ed.), 185 G (1769); 185 L (1778: 14th ed.).
Standard issue, 710 x 1,236 mm. Scale 1:2,730,000. Nautical chart of the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea including the west coast of India, prepared by the British Admiralty. The chart details the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, the Gulf of Aden, Socotra Island and the open sea as well as the Somali coast and the Horn of Africa. Among the major labeled cities are Mokka, Aden, Masira, and Ras al Hadd in Arabia, as well as Bombay and Surat in India. The chart shows the boundary between the British and Italian spheres of interest in Africa and warns the mariner of approaching the eastern point of Socotra during the south-west monsoon. - The British Admiralty has produced nautical charts since 1795 under the auspices of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (HO). Its main task was to provide the Royal Navy with navigational products and service, but since 1821 it has also sold charts to the public. The present chart was composed after surveys by the East India Government between 1828 and 1863, as well as Indian navy surveys between 1836 and 1849; it was first published in 1899 and saw several corrections up to 1935. - With two folds; a few manuscript notes. With a stamp "Increase 50%" near lower right corner. Captioned in print and in a former collector's hand on verso. Larger and smaller tear in lower margin along the folds; small hole near lower margin; small dampstain near lower right corner.
13 original colour photographs (87 x 109 mm) and 6 original black-and-white photographs (75 x 104 mm), the latter captioned in English on verso. The bulk mounted on cardboard carriers. Inserted in protective sleeves in a green synthetic folder. Rare images of a Masonic society: private collection of photographs from a meeting of the Arabian Shriners in Saudi Arabia. The Shriners are seen in group pictures, alone or alongside their wives. Other pictures show the premises of the venue as well as the celebratory banquet. - In addition, the set comprises 6 black-and-white photographs, including group pictures of Westerners wearing Arabian attire, an image of the walls of the royal palace in Riyadh, a picture of the outskirts of Jeddah, and a view of the desert. - A unique survival.
réf. 121944London Archive Editions 1992. . 4 vols 8vo 25 x 16.5 cm; includes maps and tables; publisher's original green cloth gilt lettering pieces to spines top edges gilt a fine set. Extensive collection of international and governmental treaties of the Gulf states of Iraq Kuwait Bahrain Qatar the United Arab Emirates Oman Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Improves on the previous work of Aitchison by including inter-regional and inter-state treaties rather than ones specifically related to Britain. London, Archive Editions, 1992. hardcover
Tall 4to (183 x 305 mm). 61 unnumbered ff. Complete Arabic manuscript with two intercalated sections (ff. 18v-23r, 53r-57r) in Ottoman Turkish. Page layout carefully organized; writing luxuriantly penned in an elegant hybrid style mixing tulut and tawqi, associated with manuscripts of highly dignified content or commissioned by a wealthy patron. Black ink, 9 lines per extensum within a gilt "gadwal" border. With a brightly coloured "sarlawh" headpiece (f. 3v) of illuminated bulb-shaped forms in gold, pink and light green, with vegetal twists unfolding on a bright blue background veined with green stems and dotted by reddish and golden buds. Contemporary giltstamped calf binding with fore-edge flap (repaired). A finely preserved manuscript comprising "'arqam" (official notes) related to the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey, occasioned by the successful completion of major restoration work on the building begun in AD 1639 under the appointed local governor Hüseyn Pasha. The manuscript's opening pages contain a summary of "the estates depending on the complex of the mosque", followed by a catalogue of places, buildings or factories belonging to or administrated by it, such as a "masbaga" (dye-works), a "mamlaha" (saltern), a "madbaga" (tannery, here given with the Turkish translation of the term, "bi't-Turki debag-hana"), etc. Leaf 2r lists both the Great Mosque's officials and contractors or stipendiaries, along with their respective wages ("li'l-mudarris asarat darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the principal of the madrasa: ten dirhams a day"; "li-'l waiz saba darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the (official) preacher of the Mosque: six dirhams a day"; to the first Imam of the Mosque four dirhams a day, etc.). The remainder of the text sets out detailed accounts for the summarized information, but also includes liturgical exaltations of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, praised in Koran- and Sunan-derived eulogies. - Dated separately twice: first in Arabic, in the final three text lines of the Turkish section of f. 23r ("the first days [i.e. 1st/10th] of the month of Du'l-Higga of the Islamic year 1058", i.e., between 17 and 26 December 1648 AD); then at the end, last four lines of f. 60r, stating that the manuscript was completed on "the first days of the sacred month of Muharram of the year 1060"AH (i.e., between 4 and 13 January 1650 AD). - A well-preserved, complete 17th-century manuscript drawn up for the recently restored Erzurum Mosque and its extensive appurtenances, likely also in recognition of their status of inalienability, i.e. the establishment of an Islamic waqf, or mortmain regime. Thus, the manuscript records the mosque's administration in both legal and religious terms, in accordance with the Sunni law of the Ottoman Empire.
8vo. 144 pp. Original printed wrappers. Pocket dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, providing "all sentences, phrases and a vocabulary of words that are in common use throughout Egypt, the Sudan and part of Palestine; and which are needed mostly by military men and tourists". - When the Lebanese-born Alec Cury sought the assistance of a British authority for the 1915 first edition of his work, "General Sir John Maxwell, GOC of British troops in Egypt, allowed his name to be put on the cover to give his solemn imprimatur to a work which was to go into no less than 34 editions by 1965" (McLoughlin). The present 32nd edition still proudly bears the phrase "officially approved by the late General Sir John Maxwell" on the front cover and title-page. - Aiming to enable English native speakers to learn Arabic without the help of a teacher, the manual includes useful terms and phrases for interactions at a restaurant, at the post office, with a taxi driver, or a "donkey boy", as well as terms of the oil industry, aviation and military. It provides brief observations on grammar and pronunciation as well as a table with the Arabic alphabet. - Wrappers and title-page somewhat brownstained. Otherwise well preserved. McLoughlin, In a Sea of Knowledge, 65. Cf. OCLC 487444386 (1950 ed.).
Hand-coloured engraved map (365 x 260 mm). Detailed map of Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, etc. Rigobert Bonne was the Official Hydrographer to the French Depot De La Marine. - In good condition. Not in Tibbetts, Al Ankary and Al-Qasimi.
8vo. (2), XVI, 512 pp. With engraved title vignette, folding engr. map, and 4 engr. plates. Contemporary half calf with remains of spine labels. First edition, conceived as a continuation of Bergk's volume on Egypt. This copy includes the frequently lacking half-title "Aegypten. Erste Fortsezzung, enthaltend Arabien und Syrien [...]". - The map shows Syria; the plates depict Arabic costumes, household tools, and views of Haleb and Palmyra. The title vignette shows Mt. Sinai. Also discusses the history , topography, climate, illnesses etc. of the Arabian Peninsula (with chapters on the Nejd, Arabia Felix and Yemen, etc.) - Extremeties rubbed and bumped; some spine defects. Interior somewhat browned as usual. Contemp. ms. ownership "Ernst Hanns Dönig" on front flyleaf. Kayser I, 32. Holzmann/B. I, 2892. Hamberger/Meusel XXII/1, 216. OCLC 257668994. Not in Macro, Atabey or Blackmer.
8vo. XVI, 512 pp. With engraved title vignette, folding engraved map, and 4 engraved plates. Contemporary marbled boards. All edges red. First edition, conceived as a continuation of Bergk's volume on Egypt. The map shows Syria; the plates depict Arabic costumes, household tools, and views of Haleb, Mecca, and Medina. The title vignette shows Mt. Sinai. Also discusses the history , topography, climate, illnesses etc. of the Arabian Peninsula (with chapters on the Nejd, Arabia Felix and Yemen, etc.). - Some browning. From the library of the Kalksburg Jesuit college with their shelfmark label on pastedown. Kayser I, 32. Holzmann/B. I, 2892. Hamberger/Meusel XXII/1, 216. OCLC 257668994. Not in Macro, Atabey or Blackmer.
8vo. 31, (1) pp. With 4 black-and-white photographic illustrations and a double-page map of the Arabian Peninsula. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Rare Arabian-themed issue of the popular "Lesebogen" series. It provides a brief introduction to Saudi Arabia and its history, focusing on the ascent of Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. With a portrait of Ibn Saud as well as images of the Ka'aba, an oil refinery, and a group of watchmen in the desert. The map shows international boundaries, pipelines and railroads, as well as several major cities including Riyadh, Medina, Mecca, Dhahran, Damaskus, Kuwait and Tehran. - Founded by the German publisher Sebastian Lux in 1946 as a series for young readers, the "Lesebogen" booklets quickly proved a sought-after collectible, reaching 4 million copies in the first 3 years of publication alone. When the final issue appeared in 1964, the Lux publishing house had sold a total of 25 million copies. The immense success of the series is considered the result of a demand for well-edited material on complex matters of the world after the intellectual vacuum of World War II among the German public. The writer Otto Zierer (1909-83) was the author of no fewer than 50 such booklets. - Extremities slightly rubbed. Interior in excellent condition. OCLC 804813770.
8vo. (2), 8, (III)-CXII, 136 (Arabic), 256 pp. Contemporary marbled limp boards with ms. title to spine. The final edition of the venerable Arabic grammar first published by Erpenius in 1613, the work that dominated Western instruction in the Arabic language for two centuries. After re-issues (with various amendments) by Deusing (1636), Golius (1656), and Schultens (1748 and 1767), the Göttingen Biblical scholar Michaelis produced a German translation in 1771. "In the long preface [...] Erpenius's grammar is characterised as still the best one in existence for Hebrew and Arabic, and as regards any Oriental language second only to the author's father's Syriac grammar" (Smitskamp, p. 278). This second edition, published a decade later, omits the name of Erpenius: "owing to the many additions (for the greater part unneccessary according to Schnurrer) the work may now be called Michaelis' own" (Smitskamp). It was not until 1810 that Silvestre de Sacy's "Grammaire Arabe" would produce an actual advance in the field. - Binding rubbed; occasional brownstaining to interior; several old ownerships and acquisition notes to insides of covers. A good, untrimmed copy. Schnurrer p. 83f., no. 120. Smitskamp, PO 283. Fück p. 65 & cf. 119f.
8vo. 2 parts in one volume. CXII, 256, (2), 136 (Arabic) pp. (2nd part interleaved). Contemporary papered boards with giltstamped spine label (chipped). All edges red. A Göttingen student's hand-annotated copy: the final edition of the venerable Arabic grammar first published by Erpenius in 1613, the work that dominated Western instruction in the Arabic language for two centuries. This copy was owned by the poet and pastor Hermann Bredenkamp (1760-1808), a native of Bremen, who had taken up his studies of theology and oriental languages at Göttingen in 1780. Among his teachers was not only Michaelis himself, but also the great Swedish orientalist Matthias Norberg (1747-1826), who in 1781 passed through Göttingen on his return journey from Constantinople, visiting Michaelis. Bredenkamp's annotations in the book's margins frequently refer to Norberg's personal comments on the grammatical matter and especially on the pronunciation of modern vernacular Arabic of Morocco. On the interleaves of the Arabic chrestomathy, Bredenkamp has occasionally noted vocabulary and word references, but this part does not appear to have been worked through in detail, and it is the grammar in which the most extensive annotations occur, all written in ink in Bredenkamp's meticulous and minute hand. - By the 18th century, Erpenius's grammar had seen several re-issues (with various amendments) by Deusing (1636), Golius (1656), and Schultens (1748 and 1767), before the Biblical scholar Michaelis produced a German translation in 1771. The present second edition, published a decade later, entirely omits the name of Erpenius: "owing to the many additions (for the greater part unneccessary according to Schnurrer) the work may now be called Michaelis' own" (Smitskamp, p. 278). This, of course, was the grammar of choice at the University of Göttingen under Michaelis' tutelage. It was not until 1810 that Silvestre de Sacy's "Grammaire Arabe" would produce an actual advance in the field. - Binding rubbed, extremeties severely bumped. Bredenkamp's handwritten ownership (dated 1781) to front flyleaf; title-page has early 19th century stamped ownership of G. J. Lorent. Schnurrer p. 83f., no. 120. Smitskamp, PO 283. Fück p. 65 & cf. 119f. For Norberg's stay in Göttingen cf. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister, p. 80.
Large 8vo (172 x 240 mm). Scrapbook containing clippings of the newspaper series "Arabische Reise" and other articles on Arabia, along with various illustrations and music. 80 pp., each sheet covered on one side with coloured paper or cloth. Contemporary green library cloth with cover label. Original clippings of Muhammad Asad's "Arabian Journey", serialized in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" in 1927, and including other early newspaper articles by Asad (as well as an essay by Hermann Hesse). The handsome album, apparently assembled by a German or Swiss traveller, Georg Hartmann (whose ownership is inscribed on the pastedown and initialled to the upper cover), is decorated with numerous illustrations cut from contemporary magazines, including several showing camel-mounted bedouins in the desert, a view of Mecca, portraits of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the muezzin's call to prayer (arranged in musical notes), and the original business wrapping paper of the Istanbul confectioner Hajji Bekir, whom Hartmann seems to have visited during a 1928 visit to Turkey. On the pastedown, Hartmann has entered a table of contents (with a - possibly slightly later - portrait of Ibn Saud as King). - Muhammad Asad (previously, Leopold Weiss) was a leading traveller and journalist of the 20th century who, in 1926, converted to Islam from Judaism, eventually becoming a diplomat for Pakistan and a best-selling author. His enthusiasm for Wahhabism is evident from these early travel reports from the Arabian Peninsula, where Ibn Saud had just captured Mecca and proclaimed independence in the Hejaz and Nejd, but had not yet united his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Indeed, Asad's feature on Ibn Saud (also included here) constitutes nothing less than a hagiographic portrait of the ideal ruler, and his incisive writings on Islam aim to familiarize western audiences with what he perceived as the purest and truest form of the religion he had come to embrace, criticizing occidental images of the Muslim faith gleaned from the Ottoman or Persian tradition, which he viewed as corruptions.
Engraving. 285 x 357 mm. Matted. An Arabian horse led by a bedouin, engraved by the young Martin Elias Ridinger after a drawing by his famous father.
53 min. Colour and black-and-white. NTSC VHS cassette. In original case. Promotional video celebrating Aramco's first 50 years in the oil business. The 53-minute film traces the development of the Arabian American Oil Company from the first team of engineers and researchers that braved the Saudi desert in search of oil in the mid-1930s to a company of 60,000 employees controlling a large share of the earth's reserves. Most valuable are early photos of exploration camps, regional topography, and the Arabian Peninsula before its development. The tape makes for a heroic tale, but as one might expect, fails to place American efforts in the larger context of oil exploration in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Iraq that began with the British in the 1890s and was joined by the Dutch, French and Americans in the next century. Briefly addressing the economics of oil and its effects on Saudi Arabia, the film prefers to concentrate on the good fortune and technological advances the oil boom brought to the kingdom. - The film premiered on Channel 3 on 29 May 1984, the anniversary of the Concession Agreement. - Very well preserved. OCLC 12825212.
