PHILBY, Harry St John Bridger, & Alec Horace Edward Litton Holt.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A collection of magic lantern slides. Twenty-three magic lantern slides, illustrating a passage from Amman to Karbala and Holt's earlier surveys of air and automobile routes between Amman and Baghdad. Philby's main objective was to investigate the political situation at Al-Jawf, "which was exceedingly obscure", while Holt investigated the opportunity of a trans-desert railway (Philby, p. 243).Holt and Philby travelled 600 miles in 1922 via the Al-Jawf Province in Saudi Arabia, at the height of increasing tensions between Ibn Sa'ud and the Hashemites: "Within a month of our sojourn at Jauf, we heard of the downfall of the house of Sha'lan at the hands of Ibn Sa'ud" (Philby, p. 247). Holt joined the expedition to study the railway possibilities of the depression of Wadi Sirhan, considering an alignment via Al-Jawf instead of the more direct route through Hit.The first attempt in March 1922 failed. A second attempt was made in May, initially reaching Kaf and then Al-Jawf 18 days later. After visiting Sakaka, the group arrived in Karbala in June, and Philby returned to Amman by air. Philby and Holt presented papers about the journey before the Royal Geographical Society on 12 February 1923. Philby provides a narrative of the entire expedition, incorporating the area's history and volatile political situation. He concludes: "What the future has in store for us at the borders of Trans-Jordan remains to be seen, but Ibn Sa'ud is not likely to slacken his grip on Jauf or abandon his

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