Official map

[Hejaz Railway]. [Map and Profile of the Hijaz Railway Route].

Constantinople, Matba a-i Bahriye, [1904 CE =] 1320 Rumi.

Colour lithograph map, 765 x 495 mm, trimmed to neat line.

 22,000.00

A rare separately issued official map, with text in Ottoman Turkish throughout, depicting the route of the Hejaz Railway. Following a route proposed by the eminent Turkish engineer Mukhtar Bey and surveyed by the cavalry officers Umar Zaki and Hasan Mu'ayyin, the epic project, funded by subscriptions from the global Islamic faithful, completed a rail link from Damascus to Medina by 1908. Intended to continue to Mecca but never completed, it nevertheless briefly allowed many thousands of pilgrims to make the Hajj in relative comfort.

Old folds and creases, some short closed tears, tiny chips to neat line, some light staining. Some remnants of tape and old private collector's stamps to verso. Still in good condition but for partial loss of lower left corner, subsequently collaged with a contemporary Ottoman colour lithographed map of the Arabian Peninsula.