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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 [‎10v] (20/42)

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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198
Pal graves Arabia,
the unavowed objects of the enterprise are shrouded was unneces-
sarj, and that it is introduced and maintained rather to enhance
the interest ol the story and the dignity of the author than from
its intrinsic importance; at all events, it appears to have been
only a reconnoissance, the result of which we presume could
not have been very encouraging. The author's account, how
ever, of his residence at Ha'yel is interesting and curious. In
Older to arrive at that city he had to pass over a portion of
the Nefood, or sand desert, and considering that he set out from
Ma'an a few weeks before with the notion that the peninsula of
Arabia was almost exclusively a territory of nomades, the fol
lowing truthful passage will show how his knowledge of that
country had improved in a few weeks :—
' T* 16 general type of Arabia is that of a central table-land, sur-
rounded by a desert ring, sandy to the south, west, and east, and
stony to the north. This outlying circle is in its turn girt by a line
ot mountains, low and sterile for the most, but attaining in Yemen
and Oman considerable height, breadth, and fertility, while beyond
these a narrow rim of coast is bordered by the sea. The surface of
tne midmost table-land equals somewhat less than one-half of the
entire Peninsula, and its special demarcations are much affected, nay,
olten absolutely fixed, by the windings and in-runnings of the Nefood!
it to these central high-lands, or Nejed, taking that word in its wider
sense, we add the Djowf, the Ta'yif, Djebel 'Aaseer, Yemen, 'Oman
and Hasa,—m short, whatever spots of fertility belong to the outer
circles, we shall find that Arabia contains about two-thirds of culti-
vated, or at least of cultivable land, with a remaining third of irre
claimable desert, chiefly to the south. In most other directions the
great blank spaces often left in maps of this country are quite as
irequently indications of non-information as of real non-inhabitation
However, we have just now a strip, though fortunately only a strip of
pure unmitigated desert before us, after which better lands await us •
and m this hope kt us take courage with the old poet, who has kindly
turmshed me with a very appropriate heading to this chapter, and
boldly enter the Nefood.'
The fidelity of his description of the sand desert will be
recognised by every one who has traversed it; but as on the
watery ocean the uninitiated estimate the height of the waves at
much more than their real altitude, so we suspect it may have
happened to Mr. Palgrave in the sandy ocean
' We were now traversing an immense ocean of loose reddish sand
unlimited to the eye, and heaped up in enormous ridges running
parallel to each other from north to south, undulation after undulation
each swell two or three hundred feet in average height, with slant
sides and rounded crests furrowed in every direction by the capricious
gales of the desert. In the depths between the traveller finds himself

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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 [‎10v] (20/42), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/68, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023318133.0x000015> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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