Sons of Sindbad: The Photographs Hardcover – Abridged, December 31, 2006

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.

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.

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.

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.

Beautiful book and packaged with care. Thank you!

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.

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.

This in a first rate book for those interested in dhow culture and the livelihood of Indian Ocean sailors in the recent past. JJ

Nothing special. Really