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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 [‎8v] (16/42)

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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294 Palgrave's Arabia,
cultivated. One of these, Rass el Kora, Burckliardt describes
as 'more picturesque and delightful than any place I had seen
since my departure from Lebanon in Syria. He adds
' Many of the fruit-trees of Europe are found here—figs, apricots,
peaches, apples, the Egyptian sycamore, _ almonds pomegranates, hut
particularly vines, the produce of which is of the best quality. . . . .
The fields produce wheat, barley, and onions. . ... Vvery Med, as
they here call their fields, is enclosed by a low wall, and is the pro-
perty of a Hodheyl Bedouin.
He tells us also that—
£ According to tlie statements of tlie Arabs, many spots towards the
south where Bedouin tribes like the Hodheyl cultivate the soil m
detached parts of the mountain, are equally fertile and beautilul as
that which we saw in the chain above mentioned.
These same Hodheyl Bedouins,
6 Famous in the ancient history of Arabia, were nominally subject
to the Sherif of Mekka, in whose territory they live ; but they were
in fact quite independent and often at war with him.
Such, indeed, is life in Arabia, even in its most attractive
forms—in the town or the tent, the mountains, or the desert
—constantly recurring strife, wherever the stifling grasp of power
is relaxed or can be eluded.
Yemen is generally known to have been and to be a com
paratively populous and well-cultivated part of Arabia, wdience
its designation of Felix.
From Wellsted's account of the interior of Oman, we know
that it contains many picturesque and cultivated mountain valleys
watered by copious streams, and that on the plains to the north
of the range there are towns and villages whose inhabitants have
with great labour reclaimed considerable tracts from the desert,
creating, as it were, artificial oases which are highly cultivated
and productive.
A very little knowledge of what his predecessors in the
same field of inquiry had done would have saved Mr. Pal-
grave from the misapprehension under which he commenced
his journey, and which he seems to imagine that he has been the
first to dispel. It would be unjust to the men who really did
dispel it not to warn the numerous readers of Mr. Palgraves
attractive book against falling into a similar error. ^
But let us resume the journey. After several days, in the
course of which the travellers narrowly escaped destruction
by the simoom, the poison-breath of the desert, they arrived
at the district of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sirhan, in which they found water
and encampments of the Sherarat Arabs, described by Wallin
as one of the poorest, and, though numerous, one of the most
despised of the tribes of Arabia. The travellers, however, were
hospitably

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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 [‎8v] (16/42), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/68, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023318133.0x000011> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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