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| ARAB CHEST [Sheila Unwin; Foreword by Sir Terence Clark] 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. Since then she has been 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. { 134pp, 200x260mm, November 2006; HB, £25.00, 0954479262:9780954479268 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| ART OF DHOW BUILDING IN KUWAIT [Dr Ya‘qub Yusuf Al-Hijji] Ever since Kuwait emerged in the 18th century as a young maritime state with an extreme dependence on the sea, it has been renowned for the consummate skills of its sailors and dhow-builders. Kuwait's shipwrights became justly famed for the beauty, seaworthiness and practicality of their vessels, and the Kuwaiti boum became a symbol of Kuwait's maritime prowess on all the dhow routes linking Arabia, Iran, India and East Africa. This book describes in detail how Kuwaiti shipwrights built their vessels, in particular the boum. As with dhows everywhere, this was done entirely by hand and eye, without drawings of any kind. There are chapters on celebrated master builders and famous dhows, on sails, rigging and launching, and on tools and timber. There is also an extensive glossary of Kuwaiti nautical terms. REVIEW: "Al-Hijji has produced the most comprehensive description of dhow-building so far published. ...Almost uniquely among books on traditional craft, Al-Hijji includes a chapter that puts names and faces to some of Kuwait’s most famous boat-builders. ...The construction process is the book’s core and its greatest contribution to our understanding of the dhow." -- Eric Kentley, Journal of Maritime Research, September 2002. { 176pp, 240x280mm, April 2002; HB, £39.50, 1900404281:9781900404280 , Arabian Publishing Ltd (The London Centre of Arab Studies) } |
| BIRTH OF THE ISLAMIC REFORM MOVEMENT IN SAUDI ARABIA : Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703/4-1792) & the Beginnings of Unitarian Empire in Arabia [George S Rentz; Edited with an Introduction by William Facey] 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 central Arabia. The Islamic reform movement that gave it its sense of mission, and the life and thought of Shaikh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), the teacher who inspired it, 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, and 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. Closely basing his account on the local Najdi chroniclers who were contemporary with many of the events they describe, Rentz pieces together the life and thought of the thinker who, using as his guide orthodox Hanbalite doctrine, set out to purify Islam as he saw it practised around him, and to direct Muslims back to the original 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. REVIEW: "...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..." -- Professor Michael Cook, The Times Literary Supplement, 7 April 2006. "...This is a major contribution to Arabian studies, made even more valuable by the splendid maps." -- Paul Lunde, Bulletin of the Society of Arabian Studies, 2006. { 320pp, 155x235mm, January 2005; HB, £25.00, 095447922X:9780954479220 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| KUWAIT : The Growth of a Historic Identity [Ben J Slot (ed)] The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 -- 1 placed the questions of Kuwait’s origins and statehood under the spotlight as never before, making them a matter of pressing concern both for the Kuwaitis themselves and for the world at large. During the 1990s a great deal of scholarly effort has been focused on the particular circumstances of Kuwait’s emergence as a state, and as a result much new material has been brought to light. This series of papers, presented at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, on 19 May 1995 by five leading scholars in the field, explores the historical, political and social processes which governed the birth, survival, prosperity and ultimate sovereignty of this unique Arab maritime polity. REVIEW: "This most handsomely produced volume consists of five essays. Each is an authoritative contribution to the history of Kuwait..." -- Asian Affairs, Mar 2004. { 144pp, 155x235mm, October 2002; HB, £30.00, 0954479211:9780954479213 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| MUBARAK AL-SABAH : Founder of Modern Kuwait, 1896-1915 [Ben J Slot; Edited by William Facey] The definitive political biography of Shaikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s most important ruler, based not only on British and Ottoman sources but also on French, German, Russian and other archives. During his reign (1896-1915), Mubarak skilfully played off Britain, the Ottoman Empire and other European powers against each other to guide Kuwait’s emergence as a sovereign state. { 461pp, 160x240mm, December 2005; HB, £30.00, 0954479246:9780954479244 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| PEARLING IN THE ARABIAN GULF : A Kuwaiti Memoir [Saif Marzooq Al-Shamlan; Translated by Peter Clark] Saif Marzooq al-Shamlan was born in Kuwait in 1926 and comes from a distinguished Kuwaiti family of pearl-merchants and seafarers. This is an edited translation of the two-volume work by him that was published in Arabic in the 1970s. It gathers together a vast amount of detailed information about the history of pearling in the Gulf that is nowhere else available in English. Based on documentary and oral evidence and on the author’s memories and private archives, it describes the last generation of the pearling 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. It records the grim conditions of the divers, their food, their work and the tools of their trade, their illnesses and the hazards of life at sea. There are stories of individual divers, ship-masters and pearl-merchants, stories of hardship, courage and adventure. The book puts pearling into the broader context, recounting how Kuwaiti fishermen operated in the Gulf at large and in Sri Lanka, and how merchants travelled as far afield as Bombay and Paris. REVIEW: ‘Pearling in the Arabian Gulf is a fascinating and involving autobiography...' -- The Midwest Book Review, January 2002. "This book is a personal journey ... a fascinating discussion. Al-Shamlan reveals the depth of his uncompromising commitment to Kuwaiti pearling as a noble tradition, and it is this that drives the book." -- Steve Mullins, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 14 No. 1, June 2002. "The felicitous combination of the author’s breezy, rather gossipy style and the fidelity of a translation that allows the pattern of the underlying Arabic to show through, makes this an eminently readable book that will appeal not only to those with special interests, but also to the reader seeking no more than a rattling good yarn." -- James Taylor, Asian Affairs, November 2003. { 190pp, 155x230mm, January 2001; HB, £25.00, 1900404192:9781900404198 , Arabian Publishing Ltd (The London Centre of Arab Studies) } |
| PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA [Lady Evelyn Cobbold; Introduction by William Facey & Miranda Taylor; Footnotes by Professor Ahmad S Turkistani] As the first British woman convert to Islam on record as having made the pilgrimage to Makkah and the visit to the Prophet's Tomb at Madinah, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867-1963) cuts a unique figure in the annals of the Muslim Hajj. Lady Evelyn was in her mid-sixties when she decided to go on the Hajj. Daughter of the distinguished Scottish explorer Lord Dunmore, granddaughter of the Earl of Leicester, and great-niece of the notorious romantic Lady Jane Digby el-Mezrab, the young Evelyn Murray had spent childhood winters in North Africa. There she had been imbued with the Muslim way of life, becoming, as she puts it, 'a little Muslim at heart'. Before and after the First World War she travelled widely in Egypt, Syria and Transjordan. While strongly drawn to the Arab world, she maintained a conventional place in society at home, marrying the wealthy John Cobbold in 1891 and devoting herself to her Suffolk house and Scottish estate, her gardens, and especially deer-stalking in the Highlands, of which she was a renowned exponent. When her husband, by then High Sheriff of Suffolk, died in 1929, Lady Evelyn decided to perform the pilgrimage. Arriving at Jiddah by steamer from Suez in February 1933, she stayed with the Philbys and entered into the life of Jiddah's foreign community while waiting to obtain permission to perform the Haj. In doing so, she had to overcome the considerable suspicion surrounding foreign 'converts' who, Muslims felt, made the pilgrimage and then wrote about it as a dangerous and sensational adventure. While in Jiddah she received visits from various officials of the royal court, notably the King's son the Amir Faysal (later King Faysal). PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA is as much an account of an interior journey of faith as a conventional travelogue. It takes the form of a day-by-day journal, interspersed with digressions on the history and merits of Islam. While awaiting permission to go to Makkah, she was allowed to travel to Madinah, of which she gives an enchanting account. 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 Madinah, Makkah and Muna -- an account remarkable for its sympathy and vividness. Her book was published in 1934 to favourable reviews but has never until now been reprinted. This new edition, with a biographical introduction by William Facey and Lady Evelyn's great-great-niece Miranda Taylor, serves to rescue this unique and intriguing Anglo-Muslim from the neglect that has since befallen her, even among scholars specialising in women travellers. { 336pp, 155x235mm, May 2008; HB, £25.00, 0954479289:9780954479282 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| SABAH AL-SALIM AL-SABAH, AMIR OF KUWAIT 1965-77 : A Political Biography [R L Jarman] This biography of Sabah al-Salim Al-Sabah assesses his contribution to the political history of Kuwait. Relying on recently released 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 as Head of the Town Police in 1939, through his appointment in 1962-3 as the first-ever Crown Prince of Kuwait, to his reign as Amir from 1965 to 1977. His attitudes and opinions on the major issues of the day are extensively chronicled, often in his own words. In domestic affairs, particular attention is paid to Sabah al-Salim’s growing public stature through the 1950s and early 1960s, so that by 1962 his appointment as Crown Prince had become acceptable to all members of the ruling family and to the new National Assembly. 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 the reminiscences of participants as well reports by foreign diplomats. In external affairs, Sabah al-Salim’s attitude towards the Palestinian issue and his contribution to the stabilisation of relations with Iraq are extensively documented. He masterminded the secret negotiations in 1962-3 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, the al-Samta incident. 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. This biography will be the definitive reference work on Sabah al-Salim’s life and reign for many years to come. REVIEW: "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. And much of the analysis remains highly relevant to the Gulf today. ...The overall effect, highly unusual in a book of this genre, is a warts and all portrait of a low-profile, but often underrated, player in Kuwaiti and regional politics over a crucial 40-year period up to his death in 1977." -- Richard Muir, Asian Affairs, July 2004. { 348pp, 155x235mm, May 2002; HB, £29.50, 1900404214:9781900404211 , Arabian Publishing Ltd (The London Centre of Arab Studies) } |
| SANUSI'S LITTLE WAR : The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915-17 [Russell McGuirk] 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 the tragic figure of 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 ninety-two survivors, nearly all Welshmen from Holyhead, 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, who occupy that country, are caught off guard by the suddenness of these events and are forced to launch a military campaign to expel the invaders. Thousands of British and Colonial soldiers are rushed into the Western Desert, where, over the next few months, four battles are fought before Sollum is retaken and the threat is contained. Finally, the Duke of Westminster leads a large column of Rolls Royce armoured cars and Model T Fords into Libya and the Welshmen are rescued. 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 in detail secret missions by the Germans and, separately, by the Turks to win the Grand Sanusi over to their cause and get him to launch an invasion of Egypt. He reveals the fascinating role played in the campaign by certain British officers, particularly Leo Royle, formerly of the Egyptian Coastguard, and links them to the Military Intelligence Office in Cairo. And, most unexpected of all, is his discovery that T E Lawrence played a role in these events and even went to Sollum just days before the invasion, to meet the Coastguard officers who are the story's principal characters. { 332pp, 155x235mm, March 2007; HB, £25.00, 0954479270:9780954479275 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| SHEBA REVEALED : A Posting to Bayhan in the Yemen [Nigel Groom] During the late 1940s British governance of the Western Aden Protectorate was being tentatively extended, with a good deal of courage and optimism, 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 among the people of what was once a part of biblical Sheba. The Bayhanis and their neighbours, whose ancient lineage was evident all around in the imposing remains of pre-Islamic 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 these people of Sheba, many of whom lived in areas still uncontrolled and unadministered. The book recounts, in frequently comic but sometimes tragic detail, a young official’s 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. This book depicts the people, customs and antiquities of this remote part of Arabia with engaging verve and candour. Its close, sympathetic and skilful observation of a single locality places it in an unusual niche among accounts of Arabian travel. It is essential reading for all those with an interest in pre-Islamic archaeology, colonial history, and Yemen’s transition to the world of today. REVIEW: ""Unlike so many books on Arabia, Sheba Revealed fully measures up both to the publisher's blurb in terms which this reviewer can only endorse and to the author's objective of providing a picture which would guide, teach, interest, entertain and, not least, remove "some fraction of the current misconceptions about 'colonialism'"." -- Asian Affairs, Mar 2004. "This is an enthralling snapshot by a young political officer of the State for which he was responsible, at a time when British policy was moving hesitantly from neglect to parsimonious involvement. ... For those interested in the first stirrings of economic and political development that finally culminated in the Federation of South Arabia ... this eloquently written and handsomely printed book is required reading." -- Bill Heber Percy, British-Yemeni Society Journal, July 2002. "A well-told, almost poignant, story with a trove of descriptive detail about an area and time little recorded in English (or even in Arabic). The book offers a good deal of information to students of Yemeni history, geography, and culture not available elsewhere." -- Sheila Carapico, The International History Review XXVI, June 2004. { 304pp, 155x235mm, May 2002; HB, £24.95, 1900404311:9781900404310 , Arabian Publishing Ltd (The London Centre of Arab Studies) } |
| SOLDIER'S STORY : From Ottoman Rule to Independent Iraq -- The Memoirs of Jafar Pasha Al-Askari [Jafar Pasha Al-Askari] Born in 1885, Jafar Pasha Al-Askari played a colourful part in the events that led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and in the foundation of modern Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s. Physically large and courageous, with a sharp intellect, a talent for languages, and a jovial and commanding personality, he was sent for military training in Germany before the 1914-18 War, and was rapidly recognised by the Young Turks as a gifted military commander. He was however also strongly drawn to the Arab nationalist ideas then current, and the consistent theme in a career of sensational twists and turns was his intense Arab patriotism. As one of the youngest generals in the Ottoman Army, he led the Sanusi regular forces in Cyrenaica in 1915-16. His capture by the British and incarceration in Cairo led to an abortive – and comical – escape attempt, and also to cordial relations with various British officers, among them T. E. Lawrence. In Cairo he realised the Arab cause might best be served by Sharif Hussain of Makkah’s revolt against Ottoman rule, then getting under way with British support. He was released in March 1917 to take command of the Arab regular forces fighting under the Amir Faisal bin Hussain (later King Faisal I of Iraq) in the Hijaz. Jafar describes his leading role in the Arab Revolt at length. At its end, in 1919, Faisal appointed him Military Governor of Aleppo. He became one of the first members of the new Iraqi government under the British Mandate, and spent the remainder of his life serving his King and country as Prime Minister (twice), Minister of Defence (five times), and Iraqi Minister in London, even finding time to be called to the Bar (at Gray’s Inn). In 1936 he was assassinated outside Baghdad, on a doomed quest to forestall Iraq’s first military coup. These memoirs, published here in English for the first time, shed a vivid light on the early days of Arab nationalism and on the creation of modern Iraq, as experienced by one of the prime movers of Iraqi independence. They provide a timely reminder of the all but insuperable obstacles to be overcome in building an open Iraqi state, and add much fuel to the ongoing debate about the Arabs’ quest to shape their own political destiny. REVIEW: "There are glimpses of a sensitive and humane observer... The production is meticulous, with clear and helpful maps. The book is illustrated by a superb collection of carefully selected photographs... altogether an admirable monument to an engaging man." -- Asian Affairs, Mar 2004. "One of the most interesting books on Iraq's early national history...is eloquent in its brevity and is prescient in addressing the problems of Iraq in 1932 and 2003." Judith Yaphe in Middle East Journal, Spring 2004. "The Ottoman background to the modern Arab world is brilliantly delineated in A Soldier’s Story. ... Fifty wonderful photographs show Jafar Pasha’s many lives. The footnotes are a treasure-trove of information about Arab leaders of the first half of the twentieth century." -- Dr Philip Mansel, Beirut Daily Star, 10 April 2004. { 352pp, 155x235mm, September 2003; HB, £25.00, 0954479203:9780954479206 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| SONS OF SINDBAD : Sailing with the Arabs in their Dhows, in the Red Sea, Round the Coasts of Arabia, & to Zanzibar & Tanganyika; Pearling in the Persian Gulf; & the Life of the Shipmasters & the Mariners of Kuwait [Alan Villiers; Edited by William Facey, Yacoub Al-Hijji & Grace Pundyk] Reprint of Alan Villiers’ classic account, first published in 1940, of his voyage as a crew-member in a Kuwaiti dhow from Aden to Zanzibar and Rufiji, and then back to the Gulf and Kuwait with the monsoon winds. Villiers also spent some weeks with the Kuwaiti pearling fleet in the Gulf. Vivid and highly readable, Sons of Sindbad is not only a classic of maritime writing but also one of the finest books of Arabian travel. REVIEW: "...a book that is at once a real pleasure to read but also, on account of its very useful and informative introduction, one that can be placed in the 'serious books' category." -- Erik Gilbert, International Journal of Maritime History, 2007. { 416pp, 156x234mm, July 2006; HB, £25.00, 0954479238:9780954479237 , Arabian Publishing Ltd } |
| YES, (SAUDI) MINISTER : A Life in Administration [Ghazi A Algosaibi] Born into a leading merchant family in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Dr Algosaibi not only experienced but, as Minister for Industry and Electricity and Minister of Health, 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 and, latterly, ambassador, is 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. REVIEW: "...proves conclusively how anyone with outstanding brainpower allied to drive and determination will rise almost inevitably to the top. ... It is a book that should be read by all who seek to gain an understanding of the workings of the highly complex country that is Saudi Arabia today." -- Peter Sincock, RUSI Journal (Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies), December 1999. "...a sparkling account spiced with humour and verve. Those readers who know the reticence of Arab society will be struck by the book’s frankness. ...and his comparison of the diplomatic services of the West with those of the Arab states [is] full of meat and controversy." -- Sir James Craig, Asian Affairs, February 2000. { 259pp, 155x235mm, January 1999; HB, £20.00, 1900404176:9781900404174 , Arabian Publishing Ltd (The London Centre of Arab Studies) } |