Arabian American Oil Company. Handbooks for American Employees. Vol. II.

€ 600.00

Second edition. The well-known handbook series prepared by the Arabian American Oil Company for the benefit of their staff, as operations began to expand after WWII. First published as a set of five booklets in 1950.

Although intended for the instruction of Aramco's own employees, the series "attracted widespread interest outside the company, and the demand of copies was so great that two years later, in January 1952, a revised hardbound edition was published" (Nawwab). The present spiral-bound second edition was apparently produced simultaneously; subsequent editions in a single volume appeared in 1960 and 1968.

The present volume provides some background on Arabia and the Middle East, including information on the Saudi government, as well as on Arabian culture and customs. Apart from mosques, city views and scenes of the Hajj, pearl divers, local farmers and fishermen, as well as Arabian hospitality and wildlife, the photographs show King Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdur Rahman Al Faisal Al Saud with his family, King Ibn Saud meeting with President Roosevelt aboard an American war ship after the Yalta conference in 1945, or President Truman congratulating Crown Prince Saud after decorating him with the Legion of Merit in 1947 for his aid to the war effort of the Allied Nations.