First edition. Folding map & 47 plates, with numerous illustrations in the text. 8vo. Original cloth,a rather shabby [xix], 485pp. London, Methuen, 1939.
Philby’s account of his journey from Central Arabia to the Indian Ocean. “Mr. Philby was the first European to enter Abha, the capital of Najran, the frontier district which led to war between the Wahhabis and the Yemenites in 1933-4. He was the second European to visit Shabwa, the ancient capital of the Himyarites, described both by Pliny and Strabo, but… the first to make a thorough examination of the city’s ruins…” (jacket).