Treasure of Ophir. London: Skeffington & Son, Ltd., [1929].
First edition.
Octavo. 288 pp. With photographic frontispiece portrait of Craufurd, 18 plates and 3 text maps. Red publisher’s cloth, some soiling to front cover, spine lightly sunned, otherwise a very good copy. From the library of noted middle-East scholar and Columbia professor of Semitic languages W. Arthur Jeffery, with his bookplate as well as the ownership inscription of his wife, Elsie Gordon Jeffery dated April 1933.
First edition of this work which recounts the author’s lifelong quest to find the Biblical port of Ophir, with details of his travels and adventures. Through practical exploration, Commander Craufurd (b. 1885) attempts to accomplish a literal substantiation of the book of Genesis, in which the port of Ophir is mentioned as the location where King Solomon received shipments of riches. While Craufurd, a former Commander in the British Navy, makes every attempt to prove that he has in fact discovered the fabled port, many critics were not convinced. Despite this, the work is valuable for its rich descriptions of the Arabian landscape and its various people; of special interest are the descriptions of the culture and customs of the Bedouin tribes.
ID:
3434
$
175