Saudi Arabia by the First Photographers (Hardcover)

Photographers represented include Muhammad Sadiq and Snouck Hurgronje ('Abd al-Ghafar) in the last decades of the 1800s; Ibrahim Rifa'at, Clemow and Hallajian at the turn of the century; Gertrude Bell, Shakespear, T.E. Lawrence and Philby in the first quarter; and so to de Gaury, Rendel and Thesiger in the 1930s and 1940s, with Battigelli, Steineke and other Aramco photographers documenting the coming of oil in the 1930s and after. Some magnificent photographs from Bell and Thesiger appear here in published form for the first time.

These remarkable photographs are accompanied by a text setting them in their historical context, by William Facey, one of today's outstanding historians of the Arabian peninsula, and a detailed coverage of the aims, styles and photographic equipment of those who took the pictures, by Gillian Grant, formerly archevist of the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford.

This is the first work of its kind, and an unparalleled resource for the historian.

Synopsis
This work comprises an assembly of early photographs, some never previously published, covering the period between the 1860s and 1950s. These 80 years saw the creation by Ibn Saud, out of the fragmented regions here portrayed, of the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Here is a visual record of the time before the old way of life was swept away. It draws on all known photographers in the 1860s into the second quarter of the 20th century. Photographers represented include Muhammad Saiq and Snouck Hurgronje ('Abd al-Ghafar) in the last decades of the 1800s; Ibrahim Rifa'at, Clemow and Hallajian at the turn of the 20th century; Gertrude Bell, Shakespeare, T.E. Lawrence and Philby in the first quarter; and so to de Gaury, Rendel and Thesiger in the 1930s and 1940s, with Battigelli, Steineke and other Aramco photographers documenting the coming of oil in the 1930s and after. Photographs from Bell and Thesiger appear here in published form for the first time. These photographs are accompanied by a text setting them in their historical context and a detailed coverage of the aims, styles and photographic equipment of those who took the pictures.

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