Published by London, Allen & Unwin, 1949. 8vo (170 x 236 mm). 664 pp. With frontispiece portrait of HH Sheikh Sir Ahmad al Jabir al Sabah, contemporary Ruler of Kuwait, and numerous plates and text illustrations, as well as a folding maps etc loosely inserted under a cloth tab in the rear of the book. Original publisher's rust cloth. No dust jacket. First edition of this classic work by Lieutenant Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson (1881-1959), British colonial administrator in the Middle East from the 1920s until the 1940s. Rare signed copy.