The Hejaz Railway Hardcover – July 15, 2005

Clearly, this excellent and beautifully crafted book is the ultimate 'advanced' layman's guide to the ambitious Ottoman Empire's plan to implement a railway system running down along the Red Sea Coast's 'Hejaz Region', back in the early 1900s. There have certainly been a few excellent academic treatises published on the railway but those are intended for more serious students of history and academicians, whereas this book is aimed at a far more general audience...one might say, at the enthusiastic steam-era railroad buff with a keen, inquiring mind for detail and backstory.The Hejaz Railway project was intended to provide the Ottomans several strategic socio-political objectives, not least among them the ability to further solidify the Turkish Ottoman Empire's possession and control of the Arabian peninsula. It was also ostensibly intended to provide a rail route for the Islamic faithful that reached from the Caliphate's Damascus all the way to the Islamic Holy Cities of Medina and Makkah, since theretofore the only means of reaching them had been a slow and arduous journey via camelback caravan through the harsh and sere desert 'Tihama' (coastal desert bordering the Red Sea). Given the fact that ambient temperatures on the Tihama desert can often soar in excess of 50 degree C., a 'through-railway' would markedly improve access and comfort for the faithful, en route (not to mention speeding up the journey by an order of magnitude) on Haj.Unfortunately, the local Bedu tribes in that area fiercely resisted the idea and therein lies much of the fascinating history of this remarkable project. This book provides not only a wealth of salient observations, backstory and detail about the Hejaz Railway, it is also profusely illustrated with many excellent period photographs that contribute substantially to the book's achievement in portraying the remarkable history of this railway. I found the book so worthwhile that I purchased two copies, despite its not-insignificant cost on today's book market. It was money well-spent for me, as someone who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for a number of years, and who also had the opportunity to actually the site of T.E. Lawrence's famed desert guerilla raids on the Hejaz Railway to see some of the results of his famed WWI exploits, leading Hashemite Prince Faisal's forces against the Ottomans.If you are any kind of railroad history fan, whether 'buff' or historian, you will find this excellent book to be one of the very best published on the subject of the early 1900 Ottoman Empire's colonial history. I've no doubt whatsoever that in future, this book shall become somewhat rare and even more costly than it is now, but few surpass it for scope and detail of that fabulously interesting period in Arabian history and it is well worth the cost.

A brilliant, breath-taking book, coffee-table format: evocative pictures from a time long gone when the aim was to drive a railway through the inhospitable and dangerous Arabian desert to Mecca in order to shorten the journey for Moslem pilgrims undertaking the hajj.The enterprise became caught up in the politics of the First World War and was never completed. The sections in the Hejaz Desert - lines and rolling stock - were destroyed during that war by irregular Arab troops under the command of brave, adventurous and idiosyncratic British officers: T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) being the best-known but by no means the most important of these men.The photos of the railway are superb, presented in large format with excellent maps, and the book will appeal both to railway buffs and readers of military history.I found I couldn't put the book down, and I have to say, it was well-packaged by the seller for the long trip to Australia, so that it arrived here unscathed.One of those books that are a rare delight.

Book was as described...speedy shipping...properly packaged...Was exactly what I had hoped for...

I was excited about the subject and the book. I have others on the subject. This book appears to have been published for a specific audience and written with the audience in mind. I noted a book about a railroad that runs partly through modern day Israel and yet did not mention Israel was odd. Then, when I noted that it mentioned modern day Palestine (see page 7) I stopped reading. I looked on a map and did not see Palestine. Did I miss the creation of a country and the destruction of a modern day nation with several million people living in it? Where did they go Mr. Nicholson? So, I am returning the book. If Mr. Nicholson can change the facts on the gound as I know them to be, how can I trust the other facts he sets out. I vote keep away. Also, shame on the corporate sponsors who backed the book.

Without T.E. Lawrence, few in the West would ever have heard of the Hejaz Railway. But as the author notes, without the railway, there might never have been a "Lawrence of Arabia."The saga of the rail line from Damascus to Madinah - built by the Ottoman Turks to carry pilgrims to the Holy Places and targeted by Arab raiders during the First World War - is well told in this attractive and informative coffee-table opus.The photographs, old and new, are wonderful, and by themselves justify the book. It's easy to get lost in the images of massive locomotives and other rolling stock set amid the wadis, flats and mountains of northwest Arabia.Nicholson goes far beyond by telling a riveting story about how the railway was built, how it served the needs of pilgrims and other travelers from the Levant, and how it became a strategic target of Arab forces and their British allies, helping to hasten the fall of the Ottomans in the Great War. Each of the major attacks on the railroad is described in compelling detail.Interestingly, the administration of the Hejaz Railway was virtually corruption-free (quite an accomplishment in late Ottoman times), chiefly because the line had a serious religious purpose.The book answers just about any question that might come to mind about this remarkable old transportation system. Why wasn't the rail line extended to Makkah as had originally been planned? Did the railway continue to operate after the War? What about efforts to start it up again? The answers are there.You'll also learn about British explorer Harry St. John (Abdullah) Philby's surprise connection with the Hejaz Railway.An appendix describes the recent renovation of the Madinah station and the plans to restore other major stations on the line. Hopefully, this book will add to the momentum to complete these projects, and preserve what remains for posterity.[A version of this review appeared in Saudi Aramco World, Mar/Apr 2006.]

A lot of pictures of the construction time and nowadays!! Very interesting, especially when you knoe waht is left now !!

Good gift idea.

This is a detailed account of the building, use and decline of the railway. After the monumental effort of construction it seems a great pity that it's not all still working. Many good photographs and well written.

The story of an incredibly ambitious engineering project in some of the most hostile terrain on the planet. Beautifully illustrated.

Bought for my railway buff husband's birthday, this is not a book I'd instinctively choose to read, but he read it cover to cover and was delighted with it.