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Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎6v] (12/42)

The record is made up of 1 file (21 folios). It was created in 1865. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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190
Palgrave s Arabia.
without accident or molestation. It was under the charge of Abd-ur-
Eahman, a relation of Ibn Eashid ; I frequently saw him during
his short residence at Hillah, and he urged me to return with him to
Jebel Shammar
£ Sheikh Abd-ur-Eahman described Gebel Shammar as abounding
in fertile valleys, where the Arabs had villages and cultivated lands.
The inhabitants are of the same great tribe of Shammar who wander
over the plains of Mesopotamia.
4 Ibn Eeshid was described to me &s a powerful and, for an Arab,
an enlightened chief, who had restored security to the country, and
who desired to encourage trade and the passage of caravans through
his territory.'
Such were the accounts of Nejd which had been laid before
the European public previous to 1860, and although much
attention had not been recently directed to the affairs of a region
so remote, yet the truth is, that, of all the provinces of Arabia,
Nejd,—instead of being, as Mr. Palgrave represents it, and as it
was at first taken (by ourselves among others) upon his authority
to be, a blank to be filled up in the map of Asia, an unknown
and virgin soil,—was undoubtedly the province regarding which
there existed, previous to his journey, the most extensive, various,
and minute information in relation both to the country and its
inhabitants. But no one from reading Mr. Palgrave's book could
discover that the country had ever been explored before he
penetrated into it.
4 Once for all,'he says,'let us attempt to acquire a fairly correct and
comprehensive knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula. With its coasts
we are already in great measure acquainted; several of its maritime
provinces have been, if not thoroughly, at least sufficiently, explored;
Yemen and Hejaz, Mecca and Medinah, are no longer mysteries to us
nor are we wholly without information on the districts of Hadramaut
and 'Oman. But of the interior of the vast region, of its plains and
mountains, its tribes and cities, of its governments and institutions, of
its inhabitants, their ways and customs, of their social condition, how
far advanced in civilisation or sunk in barbarism, what do we as yet
really know, save from accounts necessarily wanting in fulness and
precision ? It is time to fill up this blank in the map of Asia, and
this, at whatever risks, we will now endeavour; either the land before
us shall be our tomb, or we will traverse it in its fullest breadth, and
know what it contains from shore to shore. Vestigia nulla retrorsum'
Was he really ignorant, when he set out on his journey to
Nejd, that it was a country comparatively well known and
described, years before he resolved to visit it? Was the un-
avowed purpose of his journey the real motive for undertaking
it, and the ostensible object only a pretext ? In whatever manner
we attempt to account for it, such a view of his undertaking as
is

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Content

Three published reviews of Palgrave's Arabia , one from a journal and two from newspapers:

  • Pages 182-215 from the Quarterly Review which contained a review of Palgrave's Arabia (ff. 2v-19). The review is undated but is believed to be c.1865.
  • Press cutting from the Friend of India of their review of 'Mr Palgrave's journey through Arabia'. The Press Cutting is undated but is believed be c.1865.
  • Press cutting from the Times of India , 4 November 1865 of an article entitled 'Central and Eastern Arabia' which reviews Palgrave's book.

The publication which the reviews relate to:

William Gifford Palgrave, A Narrative of a year's journey through Central and Eastern Arabia 1862-1863 (London, 1865)

Extent and format
1 file (21 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: This file has been foliated in the top right hand corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio with a pencil number enclosed in a circle.

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English in Latin script
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Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎6v] (12/42), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/68, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023318133.0x00000d> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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