The Penetration of Arabia. A Record of the Development of Western Knowledge concerning the Arabian Peninsula.

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. (22.5 x 14.5 cm). pp.xv+359. Publisher's original green cloth decorated in gilt with an astrolabe to upper cover, gilt lettering to spine, edges uncut. 52 plates including photographic frontispiece of Medina and numerous maps and plans, including two folding maps to rear. Some light spotting to spine and trivial light shelfwear, generally a very good copy, clean and square in the original cloth. Unlike standard travel memoirs, this book is not a first-hand account of exploration. Hogarth did not actually travel to the interior of Arabia until 1916. Instead, the work serves as a comprehensive historiographical summary and literature review in which Hogarth synthesises centuries of Western travel literature, maps, and exploratory records to chart how European understanding of the geographically isolated and politically sensitive Arabian Peninsula evolved over time. David George Hogarth (1862-1927), was one of the most notable archaeologists and travellers in the Levant and the Middle-East in the latter part of the nineteen and early twentieth century. An early supporter of Charles Doughty and in turn praised by T.E. Lawrence, his archaeological career stretched through Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Syria, Melos, and Ephesus.…