Sons of Sindbad: The Photographs
Product ID: 25688131
Alan Villiers (1903–82) was a renowned sailor, writer and photographer. Originally published in 1940, Sons of Sindbad is his account of sailing with the Arabs in their dhows in southern Arabia, along the East African coast and in the Arabian Gulf, to record a nautical and cultural tradition that even then was disappearing. Arabian Publishing, in association with the National Maritime Museum, has now republished this sailing and adventure classic in an abridged form and a large format, and with many more photographs, previously unpublished, from the Museum’s Villiers Collection. The book establishes Villiers’s reputation as a photographer to compare with Wilfred Thesiger. Villiers’s lifelong fascination for traditional sailing techniques led to him to embark on his remarkable voyage in 1938. Joining the crew of a large Kuwaiti boom, the Triumph of Righteousness, he sailed with them on the monsoon winds from Aden, down the East African coast, to Mombasa, Zanzibar and the Rufiji Delta. He then made the homeward voyage to Oman, Bahrain and finally Kuwait. Here he spent four months in the summer of 1939, including a month among the pearl divers of the northern Gulf. This book depicts the experiences of the sailors and divers and the hardships they faced in their perilous environment. Villiers’ powerful photographs and words form a fine tribute to the skills and endurance of the Arab sailors, and a fitting valediction to the age of sail before the onset of oil and modernization. Review: A Vanished World in Pictures, a world treasure - Hard to believe this book waa used. As good as new, with magnificent photos and tales of a the vanished world of dhows in the Indian Ocean. The seller was very reliable, I got my money's worth @185.00 CDN and it waa delivered on time. Thank you! Review: A superb complement to two other books by Captain Villiers - This is a large-format book containing magnificent, high-quality reproductions of photographs by the Australian captain Alan Villiers from his voyages on Arab dhows in the Indian Ocean. This book complements two other books by Villiers about ancient trade in the Indian Ocean, "Sons of Sindbad" and "Monsoon Seas: The Story of the Indian Ocean". Villiers was a talented, self-taught author and photographer, and his photographic skill is showcased in this book. His photographs document the look and feel of open-deck dhows, of the work of sailors on those ships, and of shore-side Arab towns from the Red sea to the southern coast of East Africa. All of these photographs document a lost age, before oil and modernity changed these ships and places forever. Especially astounding are the photographs of sailors climbing the masts of dhows and working those ships' sails without assistance from ratlines or other rigging. We are fortunate that these photographs have been archivally preserved and printed in this book.
| Best Sellers Rank | #6,836,310 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,876 in Ship History (Books) #14,029 in Travel Writing Reference #19,632 in Middle East History |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 13 Reviews |
L**A
A Vanished World in Pictures, a world treasure
Hard to believe this book waa used. As good as new, with magnificent photos and tales of a the vanished world of dhows in the Indian Ocean. The seller was very reliable, I got my money's worth @185.00 CDN and it waa delivered on time. Thank you!
F**S
A superb complement to two other books by Captain Villiers
This is a large-format book containing magnificent, high-quality reproductions of photographs by the Australian captain Alan Villiers from his voyages on Arab dhows in the Indian Ocean. This book complements two other books by Villiers about ancient trade in the Indian Ocean, "Sons of Sindbad" and "Monsoon Seas: The Story of the Indian Ocean". Villiers was a talented, self-taught author and photographer, and his photographic skill is showcased in this book. His photographs document the look and feel of open-deck dhows, of the work of sailors on those ships, and of shore-side Arab towns from the Red sea to the southern coast of East Africa. All of these photographs document a lost age, before oil and modernity changed these ships and places forever. Especially astounding are the photographs of sailors climbing the masts of dhows and working those ships' sails without assistance from ratlines or other rigging. We are fortunate that these photographs have been archivally preserved and printed in this book.
C**Y
Pictures from the Maritime Past
Author and scholar Grace Pundyk was researching for her masters thesis at Exeter University when she found these previously uncatalogued Alan Villiers photographs at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Her academic work eventually resulted in this wonderful publication, a large heavy volume which opens a window on the past era of Arab sail trading (Facey, Al-Hijji and Pundyk, Sons of Sindbad the photographs of Alan Villiers, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 2006). In 1938, Villiers lifelong fascination with traditional sailing techniques led to him embarking on a remarkable journey by dhow down the East African coast and back to the Arabian Gulf. Joining the Kuwaiti crew of the Triumph of Righteousness at Aden, he sailed to Mombasa, Zanzibar and the Rufiji Delta, and from there back to Oman and Bahrain, ending in Kuwait in 1939. Alan Villiers' photographs of his voyages aboard the Arabian dhows record what he saw as the 'last days of sail' in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the coasts of Arabia and north-east Africa.
H**I
Sons of sinbad - The photographs.
It is a good book and I like the photographs. It ,however, reflects the experience of a person(s) who is not part of the culture and limited to part of the whole process. It gives me the feeling that the big things still need to be covered. The book is a good one to keep. I purchased several copies as gifts to friends.
C**L
This is indeed a beautiful book in both the product itself and its contents
This is indeed a beautiful book in both the product itself and its contents. It makes good reading, even after having read "Sons of Sinbad" itself, and adds the detail of the boats, the voyage and the ports it visited. Some current issues with the the Middle East echo today the history going back to the crusades. Simply brilliant.
J**R
Five Stars
Beautiful book and packaged with care. Thank you!
D**R
Great photographs!
In 1939 Alan Villiers made a number of coasting trip around Arabia and East Africa in a traditional Arab sailing ship, a type of dhow called a boom. This coffee table books contains copious quotes from the original text Sons of Sinbad / An Account of Sailing with the Arabs in their Dhows, in the Red Sea, Around the Coasts of Arabia, and to Zanzibar and Tanganyika : Pearling in the Persian Gulf: And the Life of the Shipmasters, The Mariners and Merchants of Kuwait and many photographs taken on the voyages, beautifully printed in large format. This is one of a very few works on this topic, showing a now vanished world.
A**S
But why will the holders of Villiers' films and/or his ...
But why will the holders of Villiers' films and/or his estate (family?) not also release his movies of this voyages on DVD for purchase? They are anthropology, maritime history and social history.
J**J
This in a first rate book for those interested in ...
This in a first rate book for those interested in dhow culture and the livelihood of Indian Ocean sailors in the recent past. JJ
E**.
Two Stars
Nothing special. Really
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