Arabian Peninsula – Aramco, 1952
€3.250
RARE SAUDI WALL MAP OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
“Jazirat al-‘Arab wa-al-sawahil al-mutakhima laha: kharita tafsiliyya” (جزيرة العرب والسواحل المتاخمة لها خريطة تفصيلية) [Arabian Peninsula and the Adjacent Coasts, a Detailed Map], offset print issued by the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in Dhahran, 1952. Size (sheet): 84 × 119 cm.
This rare wall map of the Arabian Peninsula was produced at a time when the region was emerging as a কেন্দ্র of the global oil industry. The map was prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey, under the auspices of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources) and the U.S. Department of State.
The map covers the entire Arabian Peninsula, from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and includes the adjacent coastal regions. The interior, particularly the vast desert expanses such as the Rub’ al Khali (the “Empty Quarter”), is depicted through a combination of topographical indications, routes, and scattered settlements. At the same time, large parts of the region were still only fragmentarily mapped in this period. A note on the map explicitly states that the place names are based on the best available information, partly derived from a 1942 survey and supplemented with data from travel accounts, meaning that the positioning of many locations should be regarded as approximate. It is further indicated that boundaries in the southeast, southwest, the Empty Quarter, and the northwest had not yet been definitively established.
Notably, the map employs the designation “al-Khalij al-Farsi” [the Persian Gulf], reflecting the standard terminology in the Arab world in the early 1950s, prior to the later politicization of the name.
The wall map, featuring two hemispherical inset maps that situate the Arabian Peninsula within a global context, combines a functional, quasi-scientific character with a representational quality. This closely corresponds to the role of ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company), which in this period developed into a central actor in the economic and infrastructural transformation of Saudi Arabia.
Price: Euro 3.250,-
