He was a man of many talents. He had mastered the Arabic language and its many dialects. Apart from this, he had mastered the Persian, Urdu, Pushtu, and Baluchi languages too. He mixed easily with people, moving freely in their midst in the bazaars, his keen eyes noting down customs and characteristics, observing to the smallest detail of their speech and habits. He could recall incidents with uncanny accuracy with his extraordinary powers of concentration.

    Harry St. John Bridger Philby, son of a Ceylon tea planter and former head boy and the captain of Westminster School, had a brilliant academic career in Cambridge and in the Indian Civil Service. When the First World War broke out, he was the secretary to the Governor of Bengal in Calcutta. The war gave his great chance of putting his extraordinary abilities that he possessed to test. His superiors had also recognized his abilities and he was called upon to do extraordinary things. New assignments and responsibilities were thrust upon him and he began a series of mysterious disappearances, away on the call of duty.

    Philby’s habit of disappearing from his job for long spells of time grew upon him at that time. He had already won a reputation for himself before the war, his knowledge of people of the eastern countries was unique, and beyond compare. Even as an officer with the Mesopotamian forces in charge of the Intelligence Department he would suddenly vanish on some strange errand that required secrecy, a resolute will, and nerves of steel.

    He traveled through different parts of India, Baghdad, and Tehran. However, the Land of Arabia had won the heart of Philby. As far back as 1918, an Arab who saw him passing through Ta’if declared that it was impossible to distinguish him from the group of Bedouins accompanying him. His command over the Arabic Language, his mastery of the Arab customs and his general bearing, made him pass easily as an Arab. There was only one difference, this man had noted, that set him apart from the rest were his blue eyes and his feet were a little bit cleaner than the usual desert travelers.

    It was his amazing knowledge of the Land of Arabia that brought him into direct contact with Whitehall, Lord Curzon, and the War Cabinet in London. They had summoned him for his view for the political events that were taking place in the Land of Arabia. He had talked to them of one Ibn Saud as the man destined to lead a united Arabia. The policy makers at the Whitehall listened to what he had to say and in the end; they told him that he was mad for coming to them with such an outrageous political forecast.

    Philby had smiled at them. He left with them the address of his hotel. He had told them that they could find him there when they wanted him. He did not have to wait for long. The news wires of Whitehall began to crackle and hum. It told them that Ibn Saud, the Arab Chief, was sweeping across the country with his band of soldiers like a naked flame. A major part of Arabia was now under his control. Philby was immediately summoned to the Foreign Office. Lord Curzon saw him there and at the end of two hours; Philby had packed his bags and left for Arabia.

    In Arabia, Philby sought the audience of Ibn Saud. He was on familiar territory. He knew the land of Arabia and its people better than they knew themselves. However, this time he was a man with a mission. He was here on the direct authority of His Majesty’s Government to represent their interests and he had come here to negotiate with the great leader of the people of Arabia. The Arab Chief was known to be a man of character, vision, and above all a man of principle. In London, he had predicted that Ibn Saud would march one day towards Makkah. The British Government wanted to offer King Ibn Saud an annual subsidy of sixty thousand English Pounds to keep the peace.

He embraced the Religion of Islam and decided to become a trader in Jeddah.
John Philby came to be known as Haji Abdullah.

    The day of meeting with the king proved to be one of the most important in Philby’s life for it would change the course of his life forever. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the Arab King and the Englishman, without which the great journey across Rub al-Khali would have never taken place. On his part, Philby had been greatly impressed by the king. He had already a high opinion of the abilities of Ibn Saud as a leader and the meeting only served to strengthen that impression. It paved the way for a second official meeting with the king, at the end of which Philby would resign from his job to become Haji Abdullah the Arab trader.

    Back home, Philby’s exceptional gifts, and knowledge of the Land of the Middle East did not go unrecognized. Honors came his way. Philby was made advisor to the Ministry of Interior of Mesopotamia in 1921. A year after that he was appointed as Britain’s representative in Transjordania.

    It happened exactly as Philby had predicted during one of his meetings in the Foreign Office in London. Ibn Saud had conquered the holy land of Makkah al-Mukarramah. The Foreign Office was worried. Their desire for peace in Arabia had not been achieved. There was only one thing that had to be done immediately. Philby had to be recalled and his services would have to be used to deal with this new situation.

    Back in Arabia, Philby sought a meeting with the king. It was immediately granted to him. Ibn Saud saw him in his tent and the meeting lasted for several hours. Nobody knew exactly, what had transpired between the two. When Philby emerged out that night from Ibn Saud’s tent, his first act was to cable London his resignation of all the offices he had held, in the process foregoing his ranks, promotions-everything that he had achieved during his lifetime. He embraced the Religion of Islam and decided to become a trader in Jeddah. John Philby came to be known as Haji Abdullah.

    He gave up everything for the sake of his religion, the security of his career, his home, and his religion and became a Muslim. He observed the tenets of his new faith more rigidly than the Arabs themselves did. As a trader, he polished his knowledge of Arabic and its dialects until he could speak them perfectly with the ease of a native of the land of Arabia.

    In the meantime, his friendship with the king brought him additional responsibilities. Abdullah became the finance minister to King Ibn Saud. The king’s palace of Jeddah was placed at his disposal and his friendship with the king was now placed on a permanent basis. The two men had understood each other perfectly, respected each other’s intellect, recognized in one another qualities of greatness, reserve, and tolerance. Both of them were men of few words.

    Ibn Saud was a man of high ideals and strict principles. He sincerely believed in the Holy Qur’an and followed it in both the letter and spirit. Smoking and drinking were abhorrent to him. He set high standards of morality on himself and those around him. The king had mastered the art of self-discipline, a quality that helped him to impose order and discipline on others. He possessed a quality of peace and majesty that made others look towards him for leadership. All these qualities appealed strongly to a man of Abdullah’s character.

    Abdullah as John Philby had for a long time, cherished a deep desire to explore the wild desert land of Southern Arabia known to the Arabs as Rub al-Khali. He wanted to be the first man to cross this wide stretch of ‘dead’ wilderness in the desert, where even the animals living there died of thirst and starvation, and where even the carrion could not penetrate to pick on their bones. He did not know at that time the events that led to his adopting Arabia, as his homeland would have a direct bearing upon the grand journey across Rub al-Khali, which would take place in the year 1932.

    As John Philby, he had established for himself a reputation of sorts as a great traveler when he had crossed Arabia from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea at the end of the First World War. At that time, his journey had helped him map unexplored territories in Arabia, which had been hitherto left as unknown blanks in the map of Arabia. He had made the crossing from the sea to sea across Arabia within forty-four days.

    He had heard people talk about the desert of Rub al-Khali and its strange legends. Stories that reached him told him of a mysterious ruin in the heart of this desert and a great block of iron, as big as a camel that was present there. These stories served as a fuel to his imagination and developed in him a deep yearning, an insatiable desire to explore the ruins of the long forgotten city in the desert- remains of the distant past- that would perhaps tell a story about Arabia’s past, which nobody had yet come across.

    Haji Abdullah had made him home in Jeddah living at the fringe of the great desert, which he hoped to conquer some day. But, he knew this was not going to happen in a day. It required careful study and constant planning. He waited by the green waters of the Red Sea thinking about the expedition across Rub al-Khali. His reversion to Islam, had given him the peace of mind that he had long sought for and had developed in him a better understanding of the land of Arabia and its people along with the determination to see his mission to the very end.

     In the meantime, his friendship with the king of Arabia grew. He would meet him on a daily basis and spoke to him frequently of his ambition to be the first man of modern times to cross the desert of Rub al-Khali. It was not until 1930 that the king Ibn Saud gave his assent to this expedition. Ibn Saud saw in him an instrument to help him map and investigate his great Empire that covered vast tracts of unknown desert lands.

    Abdullah’s joy knew no bounds. The expedition became his sole obsession. There were delays and disappointments. The disappointment came in the form of Bertram Thomas, who had crossed the Rub al-Khali from the other side on March 6, 1931. However, there was still hope, for Thomas had not crossed the terrible gravel plain of Abu Bahr, which was in the very heart of the dead country.

    In the month of December, sitting in the parlor of King Ibn Saud, Abdullah heard the magic words that he had longed to hear for a long time now. The King had given him the permission to travel across the Empty Quarter. Abdullah lost no time; he immediately set forth to Hofuf to make the final preparations for the journey. For a fortnight after that, he stayed in al-Hassa district mapping it and making notes in his dairy, while word was sent out everywhere to summon the necessary people who would accompany Abdullah on this trip.

    The D-day soon arrived. The camels, guides, and a small party of friends had gathered at the wells of Dulaiqiya on January 6 1932 to wish them farewell. It was a dismal farewell, for none among them ever hoped to see him alive again. It was a cold, raw morning and there was a low fog hanging over the landscape. The fog blotted out everything beyond two hundred yards. A few minutes after 9 a.m. Abdullah’s small cavalcade of cars swung out into the desert passing through the Victory Gate by which King Ibn Saud had made his triumphant entry into Hofuf after the surrender of the Turkish Garrison in the year 1913. After a few minutes, Abdullah and his companions had passed out of sight of those who had come to see him off. The great adventure across the Empty Quarter had begun.

(To be continued)