The Omani Sultan's gift to Colin Maxwell

Glubb, John Bagot. The Story of the Arab Legion.

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1948.

8vo. 371 pp. With black & white illustrations and plates throughout. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt lettering to upper cover and spine. Original dust jacket (slight defects).

 6,500.00

First edition. The personal copy of HH Said bin Taimur (1910-72), the 13th Sultan of Muscat and Oman from 1932 until 1970, with his handwritten ownership in black ink to the front pastedown, and subsequently inscribed by him in blue ink to Captain (later Brigadier) Colin Maxwell on the half-title: "To Captain C. C. Maxwell / Said / 29.1.53". The gift would have been partly in recognition of Maxwell's key role in raising the first standing army of Oman, in preparation for ejecting Saudi Arabian forces from the Buraimi Oasis.

The Arab Legion was the army of the Emirate of Transjordan and of Jordan after the country's independence in 1946. When Glubb became the Legion's commander in 1939, he they transformed it into the best-trained military force in the Arab world.

Binding rubbed and stained, spine chipped and ends and professionally rebacked. Paper somewhat browned as common. Dust jacket shows light chipping to edges with a larger portion torn from the lower jacket cover without loss to blurb; protected under cellophane sleeve.