Charles Huber
France's Greatest Arabian Explorer
Published on 12. May 2022
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-911487-67-8 (ISBN)
Description
The French-Alsatian geographer, Charles Huber (1847-84) achieved fame as one of the 19th century's great Arabian explorers. During his two heroic journeys between 1880 and 1884, he pioneered the scientific mapping of inland Arabia and made some of the earliest records of ancient North Arabian inscriptions and rock art. His tragic murder in 1884 meant that he published little and the only connected narrative that he managed to write was of his first journey in 1880-81.
This highly significant document of Arabian exploration has not been published since 1885 and is presented here for the first time in English translation. Despite Huber's great posthumous reputation, almost nothing has been written about him. William Facey's biographical introduction fills this void, revealing much that was hitherto unknown about Huber's complex and risk-taking personality and his colourful life as a fervent French patriot coming of age in Strasbourg during a time of Franco-German conflict.
New light is shed on the dates and itinerary of Huber's first Arabian journey, an epic quest of some 5,000 kilometres on camelback requiring immense fortitude. He used Ha'il as a base before travelling with the pilgrim caravan to Iraq and then to Syria. The focus then shifts to his return to Arabia in 1883 with Julius Euting, the eminent German Semitist and the twists and turns of their unsuccessful collaboration.
Having parted company with Euting at the great Nabataean site of Mada'in Salih in the northern Hijaz, Huber returned to central Arabia before making a dangerous journey to Jeddah. He was murdered shortly after on 29 July 1884 by his guides on the Red Sea coast. Finally, the affair of the Tayma Stele-the celebrated Aramaic inscription now in the Musee du Louvre- comes under the spotlight. In a new analysis of this notorious Franco-German imbroglio, the prevailing idea that Huber first saw it in 1880 is held up to scrutiny and Euting at last given his due for its discovery in 1884.
This highly significant document of Arabian exploration has not been published since 1885 and is presented here for the first time in English translation. Despite Huber's great posthumous reputation, almost nothing has been written about him. William Facey's biographical introduction fills this void, revealing much that was hitherto unknown about Huber's complex and risk-taking personality and his colourful life as a fervent French patriot coming of age in Strasbourg during a time of Franco-German conflict.
New light is shed on the dates and itinerary of Huber's first Arabian journey, an epic quest of some 5,000 kilometres on camelback requiring immense fortitude. He used Ha'il as a base before travelling with the pilgrim caravan to Iraq and then to Syria. The focus then shifts to his return to Arabia in 1883 with Julius Euting, the eminent German Semitist and the twists and turns of their unsuccessful collaboration.
Having parted company with Euting at the great Nabataean site of Mada'in Salih in the northern Hijaz, Huber returned to central Arabia before making a dangerous journey to Jeddah. He was murdered shortly after on 29 July 1884 by his guides on the Red Sea coast. Finally, the affair of the Tayma Stele-the celebrated Aramaic inscription now in the Musee du Louvre- comes under the spotlight. In a new analysis of this notorious Franco-German imbroglio, the prevailing idea that Huber first saw it in 1880 is held up to scrutiny and Euting at last given his due for its discovery in 1884.
More details
Edition
First Edition, Hardcover
Language
English
Place of publication
Surbiton
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Medina Publishing Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
32 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 166 mm
Thickness: 55 mm
Weight
1056 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911487-67-8 (9781911487678)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2024
1st Edition
Medina Publishing
from
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Person
William Facey is a historian and museum planner. He was born in Northern Rhodesia in 1948 and studied classics, philosophy and art history at Wadham College, Oxford from 1967 to 1972. His career in Arabia began in 1974 and since then, he has been involved in many museum projects throughout the region, particularly in Saudi Arabia. His books, introductions and articles explore the history, architecture and early photography of the Arabian Peninsula, along with Arab maritime history, Islam among the British and Western travellers in Arabia, with a focus on those visiting Islam's holy cities. He founded Arabian Publishing Ltd in London in 2002 and ran it until 2015, when it was acquired by Medina Publishing Ltd. In 2006, he became a founding trustee of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA), now the International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA; www.theiasa.com) and served as the book review editor of its Bulletin from 2006 till 2019.
Content
Illustrations xi | Foreword by Christian Julien Robin xiii | Preface and Acknowledgements xvii | INTRODUCTION Charles Huber: France's Greatest Arabian Explorer French patriot and geographer 1 |Huber's first journey in Arabia, 1880-81 7 | A deniable partnership with Julius Euting, 1882-83 13 | The 1883-84 joint Arabian itinerary 39 | Huber and Euting: a fraught relationship 44 | Huber's final Arabian travels and death in the ?igaz, 1884 54 The Tayma? Stele imbroglio 64 | Publication history 83 | THE TRANSLATION Charles Huber's First Journey in Central Arabia, 1880-1881 85 | Part I Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie 7eme serie, no. 5, 1884, pp. 304-63 87 | ?Uqdah 137 | Gabal Sarra? 140 | Part II Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie 7eme serie, no. 5, 1884, pp. 468-530 147 | Gabal Aga 147 | Al-Qa?im 152 | Gabal Gildiyyah 179 | The ?igaz 181 | Part III Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie 7eme serie, no. 6, 1885, pp. 92-148 213 | From ?a?il to Baghdad 225 | From Baghdad to Damascus via the ?amad 249 | The geography of the Shammar Emirate 263 | APPENDICES 1. Inscriptions collected in Central Arabia (1878-1882) Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie 7eme serie, no. 5, 1884, pp. 289-303 277 | 2. Concordance of the inscriptions recorded by Huber on his first Arabian journey. By Michael C.A. Macdonald 293 | 3. Correspondence with the Ministry of Public Education and Societe de Geographie, 1878-83 305 | 4. Twenty-five letters from Huber to Maunoir and Weisgerber, 1882-84 349 | 5. Letters from Huber to the Emir Mu?ammad Ibn Rashid and others in Arabia, April 1883 407 | 6. Letters from Huber and Maunoir to the Ministry of Public Education, 1883 417 | 7. Letter from Huber to Renan, 8 April 1883 427 | 8. Letter from Huber to Noeldeke, 3 September 1883 431 | 9. Letters from Felix de Lostalot Bachoue, August 1884-November 1885 433 | 10. Letters from Julius Euting, 1884-86 453 | 11. Correspondence between Ernest Renan, Julius Euting and Philippe Berger, 1885-91 463 | 12. Charles Huber by two of his friends 471 | 13. Concordance of Arabic place names, personal names and words as used by Huber 479 | Sources and References 507 Index 531