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First and sole edition of this important study, written by the first European woman to live and travel extensively in the region. A fluent Arabic speaker, Ingrams gained vital access to the homes of rich and poor residents and therefore contributed significant new and important information about social and economic conditions. Although reasonably well represented institutionally this is scarce in commerce. "The aim of this survey … is to present in one report as much material as can be gathered from books, pamphlets, files, reports, and the observations of those with experience of the country. The survey does not deal with the conditions in the colony of Aden but only with those in the Protectorate" (page 5). Remarkably comprehensive in scope, Ingrams's study covers geography, climate, history, government, population, social and class structures, language, religion, security and justice, education, health, living conditions, economics, agriculture, irrigation, industries and crafts, communication and transport, commerce, currency, weights and measures, finance, nutrition, wages and cost of living; the appendices includes a "list of Protectorate Treaty Chiefs" (and gun salutes accorded to each), and transcriptions of treaties with Kuwaiti chiefs and the Emirate of Beihan. At 18 the "energetic, resourceful, adventurous, curious, capable, and charming" Doreen Ingrams (1906-1997) joined the company of the actor-manager Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (ODNB). In 1930 her life changed completely when she married the colonial official W. H. Ingrams and followed him to Mauritius. "However, she disliked colonial life and started to learn Arabic. In 1934 she accompanied her husband to Aden (where she disapproved of the Anglo-Indian influence), then on his visit to the Hadhramaut, and was the first European woman to visit Seiyun and Tarim. She helped him with his research, visiting harems and investigating women's lives. While Ingrams was resident in the Hadhramaut she helped him with confidential office work, including coding and decoding … She travelled, by donkey and camel, sometimes in areas where no European woman had been seen … Doreen founded the first Bedouin girls' school and a school for the blind. In the famine of 1943 4 she established and worked in a hospital at Mukalla and set up a children's village for orphans" (ibid.). For her pioneering work in southern Arabia, Ingrams shared with her husband the Lawrence of Arabia Medal of the Royal Central Asian Society (1939) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1940). In 1993 she was awarded the Sir Richard Burton Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Quarto. With 22 half-tone plates, folding temperature graph, large folding colour map of Aden compiled by the author and drawn by Mr. Mackay at the Royal Geographical Society, tables and plans in text. Original strong orange yellow cloth, front cover lettered in black. Library stamp on front free endpaper of the London office of Irag Petroleum Ltd., with manuscript lettering on spine. Light wear to spine ends and corners, covers a little soiled, a few marks to back cover, internally clean; this remains a very good copy.
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