Iraq in War Time.

Basrah, Government Press, [c.1919] . Second edition. Small Folio, (25.7 x 34.4 cm); unpaginated, with more 200 photographic illustrations, captioned in English and Arabic; publisher's brown cloth gilt, neatly rebacked, a little discolouration to covers, a very good copy. Scarce photo publication of both Iraq and Central Arabia during the Great War, brought out by St John Philby at the end of 1918. Philby had served with the British administration in Baghdad from 1915 to 1917 and then travelled through the interior of the Arabian peninsula as head of a mission to Ibn Saud. This is probably the first publication concerning Philby's mission to Ibn Saud in Riyadh in 1917. He completed a great tour of the Nejd in nine months, covering some 4000 kilometres. He divided the book into four sections of photographs: Groups and Portraits, Local Events, Views and A Tour through Central Arabia. He included a photograph of himself surrounded by Bedouins. Badr El-Hage, pp86-115.