Aramco Handbook: Oil Industry, and Cultural Understanding in Saudi Arabia, 1960

Aramco

First Edition

Roy Lebkicher, George Rentz, and Max Steineke, with contributions by other Aramco employees. Aramco Handbook. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: Arabian American Oil Company, 1960. Printed in the Netherlands. 324 pp. Profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs, maps (some in color), and diagrams. Original tan cloth lettered in black and brown with Aramco logo. The first major edition of Aramco’s internally authored corporate reference work, issued at the dawn of the 1960s when the Arabian American Oil Company—then a consortium of U.S. oil majors—controlled the majority of Saudi petroleum production. Designed for company personnel, government contacts, and industry allies, this lavishly illustrated volume positioned Aramco not merely as a commercial entity, but as a key transmitter of informatoin between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the industrialized West. Organized into five sections—“Background of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East,” “The Oil Industry and Its Place in Modern Industry,” “The Aramco Venture,” “Saudi Arabia: The Government, the People and the Land,” and “The Culture and Customs of the Arabs”—the text merges corporate history, historical narrative, and anthropological overview.

Visuals and captions play a critical role in crafting the company’s image. In Part I, a full-page photograph of the Kaaba in Mecca’s Great Mosque accompanies a color-coded map of the 7th–8th century Arab conquests, framing Islam’s rise as “one of the most amazing episodes in the experience of mankind.” The oil industry sections offer stark industrial panoramas, including an aerial view of the Ras Tanura refinery overlaid with labeled units—“Catalytic Desulfurizer,” “Bulk Plant,” “Crude Stabilizers”—and an inset image of its long piers “capable of berthing ten tankers at a time.” Descriptions of manufacturing processes emphasize technical mastery: “Crude oil… is found in a complex mixture of individual substances known as hydrocarbons… separated, purified, and changed in form to liquid and gaseous fuels.” Cultural chapters illustrate Aramco’s portrayal of Saudi society as both traditional and compatibly modern. A double-page spread on the pilgrimage to Mecca shows the Station of Abraham, the Well of Zamzam, and pilgrims at ritual sites, the captions interpreting their significance for a Western audience. The final section on social customs offers transliterations of Arabic greetings—is-salaam ‘alaykum, kayf haalak?—and advice on etiquette, noting that “Arabs are good-humored, kind and informal, as every guest soon finds them to be.” Throughout, the text blends anthropological detail with industry commentary. Light toning and faint soiling to cloth, gentle bump to one corner; interior clean, binding sound. Overall very good.

Item #22550

Price: $225.00