Adventures In Arabia. Among the Bedouins, Druses, Whirling Dervishes, and Yezidee Devil Worshipers.

London, Harrap, [192?]. 8vo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in red, front cover illustrated in green and red; pp. 312, [2], plates after photographs, illustrations in the text after drawings by Miss A. G. Peck; light marking to cloth, a little offsetting from endpapers and frontispiece (resulting in light spotting to title-page; a very good copy. Scarce first UK edition. In 1924 Seabrook travelled to Arabia and enjoyed the hospitality of various tribes of Bedouin, Druze and the Kurdish Yezidi. In the first part of the book, Seabrook seeks out Mithqal Al-Fayez and lives with him and his tribe for several months. When the topic of religion came to them in conversation, Seabrook admitted to Mithqal that he didn't believe in the Trinity, but rather in the oneness of god, and that god sent many prophets including Muhammad; on hearing this, Mithqal asked if William would like to enter Islam and William agreed, with him repeating the Shahada after Mithqal shortly after. In this slightly overlooked book - due to its rarity and Seabrook's overshadowing reputation as occultist, alcoholic, friend of some Surrealists and his countercultural credentials - is much about the Druze community and their leaders, with good illustrations. In the Acknowledgements Seabrook mentions gratefully 'Ali Bey Obeyid, civil judge of Souieda, in the Mountain of the Druses, Sitt Nazira el Jumblatt, the Veiled Lady of Mukhtara, Suleiman Bey Izzedin, the Druse historian, and Daoud Izzedin, his son' (p. 7).