F.D.R. Meets Ibn Saud
by William A. Eddy

48 pages plus 4 glossy B&W inserts

 

As the first American diplomat accredited to Saudi Arabia, Colonel Eddy accompanied H.M. Abdul Aziz ibn Saud on his journey aboard the naval destroyer, the USS Murphy, to meet with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Suez Canal, February 14th, 1945. Originally published as a limited edition in 1954, this book is a fascinating read about the voyage to Egypt and the conference, perhaps the last great diplomatic initiative by Roosevelt prior to his death months later, that established the foundation for the US-Saudi relationship.

Written by the only translator present during their discussions, this slim book speaks volumes about the reasons why the King choose to make an alliance with America.

The Venus of Jawan - approximately 20 centimeters or 8 inches tall

The Jawan Chamber Tomb

Discovered in March 1952, The Jawan Chamber Tomb offers a rare and fascinating glimpse of life on the shores of the Persian Gulf in the first century A.D.. Located at the head of Tarut Bay, about six kilometers north of present day Safwa, the tomb was excavated by Aramco at the direction of His Highness Emir Saud Ibn Jiluwi. F.S. Vidal was in charge of the project and his final report of December 1953 details the excavation and the skeletons and artifacts that were uncovered.

Although the tomb had been looted long ago, probably within the first decade of its completion, it was subsequently used as an ossuary by later generations. The inital excavation found about 80 skeletons in the central chamber, as well as a few fragments of glass and pottery, several glass and carnelian beads and one thin, small bronze spatula.

It was only after completing the survey of the central tomb that Mr.Vidal discovered the four sealed burial chambers, or cists, that are visible around the tomb's perimeter in the above photograph. It was these undisturbed cists that were to provide a fuller picture of this Jawan culture.

Perhaps the most striking discovery was the body of a six year old girl found in the Northeast cist, seen to the right of the damaged tomb entrance in the foreground. Apparently she had been ritually sacrificed and then buried with her possessions and her jewelry including gold and pearl earrings and a necklace made of a variety of stones, garnets, carnelian, amethyst, onyx, pearls and gold beads. Also found in the grave of the Jawan Girl was this alabaster statuette of the Venus type common in the Greek and Hellenistic worlds.

The Arab War
Gertrude Bell



Single Sided, 35 pages PDF File 140 kb

Double Sided, 18 pages PDF File 150 kb

 

Although she may be condemned, with some justification, as a spy and an Imperialist, there is no denying that Miss Bell was an astute outside observer of Arab politics as practiced in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab War, written between 1916 and 1917, offers the reader a fascinating and vivid portrait of the complexity of the social and political traditions that would constitute post World War One Mesopotamia and Arabia. A complexity that thrives to this moment and belies the simple-minded cant that emanates from our nation’s capital on a daily basis.

As she wrote in The Arab Bulletin, October 5th, 1916,
"In our own history, from the Moot court through Magna Charta to the Imperial Parliament was the work of centuries, yet the first contained the germ of all that came after. The tribes of the Iraq have advanced but little beyond the Moot court, and should the shaping of their destinies become our care in the future, we shall be wise to eschew any experiments tending to rush them into highly specialized institutions—a policy which could commend itself only to those who are never wearied by words that signify nothing."

The complete work is available as a free download as a PDF document.