HOOG, P.H. van der. (Mohammed Abdul Ali) — Pelgrims naar Mekka.

's Gravenhage, H.P. Leopold, 1935. L-8vo. viii,251 pp. With 21 photographs on plates. Original gilt cloth, with reproduction of kiswah cloth on front cover. (spine slightly chafed; a few pages stained; a few pencil markings; library stamps of the Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart (Marine Academy) in Amsterdam) ¶ Pieter Henricus van der Hoog (1888-1957) was a Dutch medical man and pharmaceutical entrepeneur. He converted to Islam. On orders of Ibn Saud he installed a bacterological laboratory in the city hospital of Djeddah. He gives a very critical account of the sanitary conditions in Djeddah and Meccaka at the time. He struck friendship with John Philby, and the then emir Feisal. Van der Hoog gives an extensive description of the reception by king Abdul Asiz ibn Saud in Mecca, and an almost verbatim report on the speech of the king on that occasion. The illustrations after photographs of the author show a.o. the desert sand route from Djeddah to Mecca, pilgrims on the Arafah plain, the old fortress of Mecca, the El Haram mosque with the Kaaba, the Muna mosque, Djebel el Rahmah etc. Rare account by this Dutch convert, never translated, of a crucial period in the establishment of the Saudi kingdom.