57
58
57 POPOV, G., & W. Zeller. Ecological Survey Report on the 1962 Survey in the Arabian Peninsula. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1963 Scarce internal United Nations document, describing the ground- breaking 19,000 km expedition that left Jeddah in January 1962, and took in Tihama, Hejaz, Rub al-Khali, Yemen and Aden, disrupted in September by the Yemen Revolution. We have traced it to four institutional locations only: Durham University, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, University of Wisconsin, University of California at Berkeley. The survey was facilitated by the Saudi government, the United States Geological Survey, and Aramco, who were at this time completing the first major mapping project of the Kingdom ( c .1956–63). Popov and Zeller, accompanied by local liaison officers, examined physical geography, climate, vegetation, and locusts, building on work by the British Middle East Anti-Locust Unit and East African Desert Locust Survey as part of a ten-year FAO survey covering Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, and Iran, to lay the foundations for locust monitoring and control. The Anglo-Russian entomologist George Basil Popov (1922–1998) was born in Iran, where his father was engaged by the Imperial Bank of Persia. In 1943 he was appointed to the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit by Sir Basil Uvarov, known as “the father of acridology”. From 1958 to 1964 he served as team leader of a UN-sponsored survey of desert locust breeding grounds in Socotra, Eritrea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia. His knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula led to his receiving the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal (1995) from the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Square quarto. Original pale grey printed wrappers, wire-stitched as issued. With numerous maps, diagrams and illustrations from photographs. Old pale stain at left edge of front cover, not affecting text, light bump to bottom corner with concomitant rumpling of leaves, yet this remains an excellent copy. £2,000 [159423]
58 PROTHERO, George Walter (ed.) Mohammedan History. 1) The Rise of Islam and the Pan-Islamic Movement 2) The Rise of the Turks and Pan-Turanian Movement 3) Islam in India and Africa. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1920 western fears of pan-islamism in the aftermath of the first world war First edition thus, combining three thematically linked Paris Peace Conference handbooks which had been issued confidentially to the delegates in the previous year. These texts clearly reflect Western fears over the rekindling of Islam. The first named provides “a measure of official understanding within Whitehall” on the central issues (Oliver-Dee, p. 99), and includes a brief history of Islam and chapters on “Islam in Africa”, “Muhamaddan Law”, Sufism, “Separate Caliphates and Schisms”, and “The Ottoman Sultan and the Caliphates”. The subsequent handbooks expanding on the central theme of pan-Islamism within the Turkish, African and Indian contexts. With shrewd foresight, in the spring of 1917, the Foreign Office established a dedicated historical section under the direction of Prothero (1848–1922), a former president of the Royal Historical Society. Its intention was to compile handbooks for British delegates attending post-war peace conferences. Some 160 studies were eventually prepared for internal circulation – subsequently published by HMSO in green wrappers for general distribution – each providing information on the history, geography, economy, culture, and present situation of participating countries and their colonies. Fragile and of limited public appeal, these handbooks are uncommon, the present volume showing less than 10 locations on Library Hub, no copies traced at auction. Octavo. Original wire-stitched light olive printed thin card wrappers. Wrappers tanned at spine and edges, some light creases, a small patch on the back panel lightly skinned, staples rusted, clean and sound, a very good copy. £3,250 [158559]
sharjah international book fair
46
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker