A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia: Ibn al-Mujawir's Tarikh al-Mustabsir. Translated and edited by G. Rex Smith.
This is the first English translation of the Tarikh al-Mustabsir, a fascinating account of the western and southern regions of the Arabian Peninsula written early in the thirteenth century CE. Its author, about whom relatively little is known, was probably a businessman from the east of the Islamic world who made the pilgrimage to Mecca and subsequently travelled through Yemen, Aden, and along the Arabian Sea coast before returning home via Iraq. A shrewd observer of all that he encountered, his book provides a rich and extraordinarily detailed account of the peoples of southern Arabia, their history, customs, administration and architecture. Written with a humour and wit unfamiliar to Islamic literature of the period, this important work is a unique source for the social and economic history of thirteenth-century Arabia. The editor's appendices include a substantial bibliography, a list of routes, and a glossary of Arabic words and their meanings. A comprehensive index of people and place names is provided. The text is illustrated with original plans of Mecca and other cities, together with a rare and curious map of the island of Socotra.
This volume is issued freely to members whose subscription covers the year 2007. Non-members who wish to purchase the book, or those who joined the Society in 2008, will find it listed, with full details of how to acquire a copy, in 'Publications in print' in the menu to the left.
Four Travel Journals. The Americas, Antarctica and Africa, 1775-1874. Edited by Herbert K. Beals, R.J. Campbell, Ann Savours, Anita McConnell & Roy Bridges.
This splendid 400-page volume, with its four previously unpublished journals from various parts of the world, should have something for everyone. The book opens with a translation from the Spanish of the journal of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, whose ship, the Sonora, participated in a Spanish expedition sent from Mexico in 1775 to explore the north-west coast of America. The journal describes the hardships and discoveries of the voyage, during which a landing party was attacked and killed, and the Sonora was almost capsized by a massive wave. Next comes the journal of Commander Pringle Stokes who served in command of HMS Beagle under Captain Phillip Parker King during the survey of the Strait of Magellan in 1827. The journal records a detached operation, in very difficult weather in the western part of the strait.
The third text is the journal of Midshipman Joseph Henry Kay, a young officer aboard HMS Chanticleer, commanded by Henry Foster, which was sent out in 1828-31 to make observations in the far South Atlantic, between Cape Horn and Antarctica. Kay's diary describes encounters with Brazilian warships, largely manned by Englishmen, and his struggle against gales and snowstorms to take observations at Deception Island. In distinct contrast, the final journal, published in English for the first time, is that of Jacob Wainwright, the young African freed slave who in 1873-74 was one of those who brought the body of David Livingstone to Zanzibar after the missionary's death at Ilala in what is now northern Zambia.
Each of the four journals is fully annotated and preceded by a very substantial historical and biographical introduction. Copious bibliographies are supplied, and the book is illustrated with fifty plates and eight maps. The Four Travel Journals, delayed due to editorial difficulties until January 2008, is issued freely to members whose subscription covers the year 2006. Non-members who wish to purchase the book, or those members who joined the Society later than 2006, will find it listed, with full details of how to acquire a copy, in 'Publications in print' in the menu to the left.
Four Travel Journals
Annual General Meeting 2007
The one hundred and sixty-first Annual General Meeting of the Hakluyt Society took place at the House of the Royal Geographical Society, London, on Wednesday, 27th June 2007. The chair was taken by Professor Roy Bridges, President of the Society, who welcomed our guest speaker, Dame Anne Salmond, Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland (both pictured alongside).
For further details of the meeting and its proceedings, please click here.
Visit by Sarah Tyacke, CB, Trustee of the Hakluyt Society, to North America
As part of a campaign to promote the Hakluyt Society to potential supporters in North America and elsewhere, the Council of the Hakluyt Society sent one of our trustees, Sarah Tyacke, to meet and speak with our American colleagues.
For details of Sarah's North American tour, please click here.
Awards recently received by members of the Society
We are delighted to report that three members of the Society have recently received prestigious awards.
For his work in recording the life of the indigenous peoples of South America in a series of outstanding books Dr John Hemming CBE has been awarded Peru's highest civil honour - the Gran Cruz de la Orden al Mérito por Servicios Distinguidos.
For his services in navigational matters relating to leisure sailing our Honorary Treasurer, David Darbyshire, becomes a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation.
In 2006 World Hydrography Day was inaugurated in the UN calendar on 21 June. To mark the event in this country, the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office established the Alexander Dalrymple Award, named after the first Hydrographer, to be awarded annually to someone who had made an outstanding contribution to world hydrography. The first recipient, to huge acclaim, was Hakluyt Society member, Rear Admiral Steve Ritchie, Hydrographer of the Navy (1966-1971), President of the Directing Committee of the International Hydrographic Organisation (1972-1982) and distinguished author. In 2007 Captain Mike Barritt RN, who contributed to IHO capacity building work during the period 2003-2007, was especially delighted to be selected to follow in his footsteps.
Recently issued and forthcoming publications
THIRD SERIES 15: Joyce Lorimer: Sir Walter Ralegh's Discoverie of Guiana Distributed to members by spring 2007.
THIRD SERIES 17: Peter Rivière:The Guiana Travels of Robert Schomburgk 1835-1844. Volume II: The Boundary Survey 1840-1844 Distributed to members by spring 2007.
THIRD SERIES 18: Herbert Beals, Roy Bridges, R.J. Campbell, Ann Savours & Anita McConnell (eds):Four Travel Journals: America, Antarctica and Africa 1775-1874 Distributed to members in January 2008.
THIRD SERIES 19: G. Rex Smith (trans. & ed.):A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia: Ibn al-Mujawir's Tarikh al-Mustabsir Distribution of this volume began in mid-April 2008 and should be with most members by the end of the month.
THIRD SERIES 20: C. Ian Jackson (ed.): Arctic Journals of William Scoresby the Younger (1789-1857). Volume II It is hoped that this volume will be distributed in 2008.
For a list of titles in preparation, for which no firm issue dates can be announced at present, please click here.
Forthcoming meetings and events
Spring & Summer 2008
15-17 May 2008
Richard Hakluyt (c.1552-1616): Life, Times, Legacy: a three-day international interdisciplinary conference to be held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, from Thursday 15 May to Saturday 17 May 2008. Jointly organized by the National Maritime Museum, The Centre for Travel Writing Studies, Nottingham Trent University and the National University of Ireland, Galway, this conference will gather together an interdisciplinary group of Hakluyt scholars and experts on Renaissance travel writing from around the world to discuss Hakluyt’s work and legacy in context. It will also establish a consortium interested in preparing a new scholarly edition of Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations for the twenty-first century. For further details, including a call for papers, please go to http://www.nmm.ac.uk/hakluyt Members of the Hakluyt Society are entitled to a very attractive 40% reduction in the registration fee for this conference.
7 June 2008
Anson's Voyage round the World of 1740 to 1744 and its Aftermath. This one-day conference, presented by The 1805 Club, will take place at The Medical Society of London, 11 Chandos Street, London, on Saturday 7 June 2008. The conference will cover the political background to the Anson voyage, the events that occurred during the voyage, including the wreck of HMS Wager and its consequences, the capture of the Spanish galleon, the Spanish involvement and the medical and administrative reforms introduced after Anson was appointed as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1757. The conference will be accompanied by a small exhibition of books maps, charts and artefacts relating to the Anson voyage. The guest speakers are Professor Richard Harding, Rear Admiral Christopher Layman, Professor Glyn Williams, Surgeon Vice-Admiral Sir Godfrey Milton-Thompson, Professor Julian de Zulueta and Surgeon Vice Admiral Sir James Watt. Fulls details, together with a booking form, will be found on the website of The 1805 Club at http://www.1805club.org/anson08_01
2 July 2008
Hakluyt Society Annual General Meeting 2008. The Society's next AGM and reception, to which all members of the Society will be warmly welcomed, will take place on Wednesday, 2nd July 2008. The annual lecture is to be delivered by Dr Daniel Carey of the National University of Ireland, Galway. His topic will be 'Continental Travel and Journeys beyond Europe in the Early Modern Period: an Overlooked Connection'. Further details to follow.
New books relating to the life and times of Richard Hakluyt
Members of the Hakluyt Society will no doubt be interested in the recently published book-length biography of Richard Hakluyt by society member Peter Mancall, professor of history at the University of Southern California. His book, widely acclaimed in the press and titled Hakluyt's Promise: an Elizabethan's Obsession for an English America, provides a vivid insight into the life and historical background of this extraordinary scholar and how he rose to become his country's most eloquent impresario of travel, trade and colonization. The book is published by Yale University Press and is available from YUP in New Haven or from their office in London.
The role of Richard Hakluyt and his contemporaries in the promotion of English intervention in the Americas is the major theme of a new book by society member Francisco J. Borge, assistant professor of English at the University of Oviedo. In his book, titled A New World for a New Nation: The Promotion of America in Early Modern England, Professor Borge discusses the efforts made to persuade Englishmen of the desirability for intervention in the Americas, not only for the national economy but also as essential to England's survival as a new and powerful Protestant nation-state. He explores the metaphors that dominated England's discourse on the New World in her attempt to conceptualize it and make it ready for immediate consumption. Professor Borge's book is published by Peter Lang and is available via their website.
Society members will also be interested in an important new collection of narratives relating to the foundation of the Virginia colony. Edited by James Horn, Director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the book brings together under the same cover the narratives of Captain John Smith and many others associated with the colony, and includes Smith's Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, A Description of New England, and his The Generall Historie. Titled Capt. John Smith: Writings, with Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of America, the collection is published by The Library of America. Further details may be found on their website.
The Journal of the Hakluyt Society
The online Journal of the Hakluyt Society, a new and unique development in the history of the Society, was launched in January 2007. A number of articles are in the course of preparation and will appear shortly. For further information, together with advice for prospective authors, please click on the link at the side of this page.
Hakluyt Society Discussion Group
The discussion group now has around eighty subscribers but for most of the time remains fairly quiet. Please feel free to post queries or questions to the group on any matter relating to exploration and travel. Click here for more details.
The President's Medal
With the approval of Council, the President has decided that the Society should be empowered to provide a means of giving formal recognition to anyone who has shown outstanding scholarship in respect of one or more of its volumes, or to one who has given outstanding service in furthering the objects of the Society. Hence, an occasional award to be known as The President’s Medal has been instituted.
The medal takes the form of a sterling silver medallion incorporating the Society’s logo, a quotation from Hakluyt, the date of foundation and the name of the recipient. The first holder was announced in June 2006 as Lt Cdr Andrew David, both for his service to the Society and for his editorial work on the Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook’s Voyages and the recent Malaspina volumes. Andrew David received the medal itself at a brief ceremony in October.
Updated: 3 May 2008
Please send news of forthcoming events which might be of interest to members of the Society to
;)
;)
;)
