The Arabian Highlands

by Harry St. John Philby

Until the 1930's, the highlands of the south-west corner of Arabia were among the world's few remaining lands not fully explored or charted. Into this region H. St. J. B. Philby, author and explorer, made two journeys, the first in 1932 and the second in 1936 and 1937. ARABIAN HIGHLANDS is his travel record of what he saw and what his everyday experiences were. The author worked in the British foreign service, but later resigned and became an advisor to King Ibn Sa'ud.From John Philby (also known as Shaikh Abdullah By King Abdulaziz has documented his journey crossing from Riyadh to Jeddah by the "backdoor" route, writing on Al Baha district of Arabia in his famous book 'Arabian Highlands'. Later he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society Founders Gold Medal for his written journey.

771 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Harry St John Bridger Philby Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) (3 April 1885, Badulla, British Ceylon – 30 September 1960, Beirut, Lebanon), also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah (الشيخ عبدالله), was a British Arabist, adviser, explorer, writer, and colonial office intelligence officer.
As he states in his autobiography, he "became something of a fanatic" and in 1908[1] "the first Socialist to join the Indian Civil Service". After studying oriental languages at the University of Cambridge, he was posted to Lahore in the Punjab in 1908, acquiring fluency in Urdu, Punjabi, Baluchi, Persian, and eventually Arabic. He converted to Islam in 1930, and later became an adviser to Ibn Saud, urging him to become King of the whole of Arabia,[2] and helping him to negotiate with the United Kingdom and the United States when petroleum was discovered in 1938; in addition he married for the second time, to a Saudi Arabian.[3]
His only son, Kim Philby, became infamous as a double agent for the Soviet Union in 1963.[4]