Summary
This map sheet displays three views of the central Arabian Peninsula. It was created by the legendary Harry Saint John Bridger Philby (1885-1960), a British adventurer, political counsellor, author, spy, and the most celebrated early modern traveler in Arabia, about which he published several books. The map focuses on the topographic features along the routes of Philby's travels. The central map shows the route across the Arabian Peninsula from Riyadh to Jeddah (Jiddah) taken in 1917 in connection with a diplomatic mission to Ibn Saʻud, the future king of Saudi Arabia. The larger of the two inserts shows the extension of this journey from the Persian Gulf to Riyadh, while the other shows the entire central peninsula but on a smaller scale. This smaller inset shows routes surveyed in 1917-18. Explanatory notes provide a glossary of Arabic topographic terms and an explanation of Philby's geodetic methods.

Mentioned in the latter are Colonel Lewis Pelly (1825-92), a British East India Company officer and political resident in Persia, and Captain William Shakespear (1878-1915), an explorer and cartographer. Relief is marked by shading and by spot elevations in meters, and distance scales are given in kilometers and miles for the main map. As a government official, Philby was a leading negotiator with Arab tribal chieftains during World War I. After the war, he had a hand in drafting the constitution of the new Kingdom of Iraq. Following government service, he began a long-term association with Ibn Saʻud and promoted his cause in diplomatic and oil negotiations as well as in public writings. Philby may also be remembered for being the father of Kim Philby (1912-88), a spy for the Soviet Union working within British intelligence. The map was published by the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was a Fellow, in the Geographical Journal in December 1920.

Names
Philby, H. St. J. B. (Harry St. John Bridger), 1885-1960 Contributor.
Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain) Associated Name.

Created / Published
London : Royal Geographical Society, 1920.

Headings
- Bahrain
- Saudi Arabia
- 1917
- Arabian Peninsula
- Expeditions and surveys
- Ibn Saʻūd, King of Saudi Arabia, 1880-1953
- Philby, H. St. J. B. (Harry St. John Bridger), 1885-1960

Notes
- Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
- "Scale 1:2,000,000"--Note extracted from World Digital Library.
- Original resource extent: 1 map : color ; 21 x 50 centimeters.
- Reference extracted from World Digital Library: J.B. Kelly, Arabia, the Gulf and the West (New York: Basic Books, 1980). "Philby, Harry St John Bridger (1885-1960)" in the catalogue of the Natural History Museum, London. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/library/archives/catalogue/dserve.exe?dsqServer=placid&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=Code==%27PX8469%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl. External
- Original resource at: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries.
- Content in English.
- Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
Medium
1 online resource.

Source Collection
American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection

Digital Id
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.wdl/wdl.15049

Library of Congress Control Number
2021668623

Online Format
compressed data
image

LCCN Permalink
https://lccn.loc.gov/2021668623

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