An impressive German map of Arabia with a remarkably accurate depiction of the Gulf Region for this period. Dubai and the other Emirates are named, and the Qatar Peninsula is shown.

This fine, large map of Arabia follows the tradition of the early 19th century English maps produced by Thomson, Cary and Pinkerton. As with these earlier English maps, it is based on the regional maps published by Carstern Niebuhr in the 1770s and 1780s but with several important additions. The Gulf has been substantially updated following the survey by the British East India Company under Guy and Brucks between 1819-29. Hence the inclusion of the Qatar Peninsula and a substantially altered Arabian coastline. It also accounts for the introduction of multiple names, including “Abuthubbi” (Abu Dhabi), “Debai” (Dubai) and “Shargah” (Sharja).

In the interior, the map is focused on details of the Kingdom of “Nadsched” or Nejd, the seat of the Second Saudi Kingdom. In the centre of the map is the old fortress of Derayeh, with a very small settlement, “el Ryad” to its south, a very early appearance of the modern capital. The western coast of Arabia was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire at this time, although it was administered from Egypt.

Several caravan routes are marked in the interior, particularly between Basra and the west coast, branching out to Mecha, Medina, Jeddah on the coast and south into the Yemen. In central Arabia, several of these routes also branch south to Derayeh.

Two important insets are present on the upper right and the lower right of the map. The first shows a detailed map of the Sinai Peninsula, most likely to have been based on the accounts of two eminent German naturalists, Eduard Ruppell and L. G. Ehrenberg. The inset on the lower right is of Derayeh and its environs and the caption above states that the map is based upon information relayed to Rousseau by a Sheikh from Emir Saud’s court. Rousseau is most likely to be Jean Baptiste Rousseau, a French diplomat and orientalist who wrote a volume about the Wahabis. Much of the information from central Arabia is also likely to have come from his works as he was based in Basra and Aleppo for a large part of his career.

Along with the map by Heinrich Berghaus, Weiland’s map of Arabia is the finest large scale German map of the Peninsula of that time.
Original colour. [MEAST4707]