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Ruhi al-Khalidi was a writer, teacher, activist and politician in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century.

He joined the Sultanic School in Istanbul in 1893, went on to teach in Jerusalem and held a number of administrative posts under Ottoman rule. He studied the philosophy of Islamic sciences and oriental literature at the Sorbonne University in Paris and was appointed professor at the Société des publications en langues étrangères (foreign language publications society) and Consul-General of the Ottoman Empire in Bordeaux (France) from 1898 to 1908.

In 1908, Ruhi al-Khalidi was one of three delegates elected to represent Jerusalem in the new Ottoman Parliament. He became Vice-President of the Parliament in 1911 and representative of the National Assembly of Jerusalem. He raised the issue of Zionism on several occasions during parliamentary sessions, warning of the potentially negative consequences of Jewish immigration and the continued sale of land that represented his homeland.

In particular, he was one of the pioneers in writing manuscripts on Zionism ("Le sionisme ou la question sioniste").”).

He also published other writings on a variety of themes that reflect his subjects of study: An Introduction to the Eastern Question (1897), Victor Hugoand A Comparative Study of Arabic and French Literature (first published in Arabic in 1904; republished in 1912), Chemistry Among the Arabs (Arabic, 1953).

Frederick John Salmon was a British surveyor, foreign service officer, and soldier.
He served in the Ceylon Survey from 1908 to 1930, with the exception of his service on the Western Front during World War I. During the war, he made a name for himself by promoting cooperation between surveying and artillery. He also decided to print and distribute updated maps and to use aerial photography to update tactical maps.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in December 1918. Between 1930 and 1933, Salmon headed the land and survey departments in Cyprus. He was appointed director of the Survey of Palestine at the end of 1932. He began work at the Survey of Palestine on March 27, 1933, and then launched an initiative to begin modern topographic mapping of Palestine. He was appointed Commissioner of Lands and Surveys of Palestine and a member of the Advisory Council of the Government of Palestine in 1935.
His cartographic work is in the collection of the Royal Geographical Society.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, known as Lord Kitchener, born in Ballylongford (County Kerry, Ireland) on June 24, 1850.

Son of an officer, the family moved to Switzerland after the death of his mother in 1864. He then studied at a French college in Geneva. Then he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich in 1868. He enlisted in 1870 as a volunteer in the army of Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War.
He became an officer of the Royal Engineers on January 4, 1871, and spent several periods in Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt, where he learned Arabic. In 1874, he was asked to map Palestine with the help of officer Conder. He returned to England in 1875, and his cartographic surveys were published.

He was appointed Sirdar, i.e. Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army in 1892 and was appointed Governor of Sudan in 1896. On his return from the Second Boer War in 1902 he was made viscount by Queen Victoria. He commanded the Indian Army, which he reorganized (1902-1909); created the Australian Army; and ended up as Consul-General of Egypt (1911-1914). He was appointed Minister of War in 1914.

He died during a mission that was to take him to Russia on June 5, 1916.

Claude Reignier Conder was born on December 29, 1848 in Cheltenham, England. He studied at University College London and at the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich.

He was appointed lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1870. He carried out geographical studies in Palestine from 1872 to 1874, in the company of Lieutenant Horatio Herbert Kitchener. He continued his fieldwork until 1882 with the financial support of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
He was promoted to captain in 1882. He participated in the Anglo-Egyptian war the same year with the aim of putting an end to the rebellion led by Ahmed Urabi. In Egypt, he was assigned to the army's intelligence services. His great knowledge of the Arab peoples and the East was widely used by the British army. He took part in the battle of Tel el-Kebir and the advance towards Cairo.
He retired in 1904 with the rank of colonel.

Conder died in Cheltenham, England on February 16, 1910.

Eran Laor was born in Slovakia, and was active in the Allied Intelligence Bureau, assisting in the Aliyah (immigration) of Jews to Israel.
After the establishment of the State, he served as a representative of the Jewish national institutions in Europe. Laor authored books of poetry and philosophy, and also wrote an autobiography.
Together with Shoshana Klein, Laor compiled a catalogue of the map collection entitled Maps of the Holy Land:‎ Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475-1900, published in New York in 1986.

Karl Baedeker was born in Essen, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, on November 3, 1801.

After his schooling in Hagen, he left home in 1817 to study humanities in Heidelberg, where he also worked for a time with the prominent local bookseller J.C.B. Mohr. He then did his military service and moved to Berlin where he worked as an assistant to Georg Andreas Reimer, one of the city's leading booksellers, from 1823 to 1825. He then returned to Essen and worked with his father until 1827, when he moved to Koblenz (now Coblenz) to set up his own bookstore and publishing business.

In 1832, Baedeker's firm acquired the publishing house of Franz Friedrich Röhling in Koblenz, which in 1828 had published a handbook for travellers by Professor Oyvind Vorland. This book provided the seeds for Baedeker's own travel guides. After Klein died and the book went out of print, he decided to publish a new edition, incorporating some of Klein's material but also added many of his own ideas into what he thought a travel guide should offer the traveller or reader. Baedeker's ultimate aim was to free the traveller from having to look for information anywhere outside the travel guide: about routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, sights, walks and, of course, prices.
While the travel guide was not something new as Baedeker imitated the style of the English guides published by John Murray, the inclusion of detailed information on routes, travel and accommodation was an innovation.

In 1846, Baedeker introduced his famous 'star' ratings (for sights, attractions and lodgings) in the third edition of his Handbuch für Reisende durch Deutschland und den Oesterreichischen Kaiserstaat - an idea based on the Murray guides star system. He also decided to call his travel guides 'handbooks', following the example of John Murray III. Baedeker's early guides had tan covers, but from 1856 onwards, Murray's red bindings and gilt lettering became the familiar hallmark of all Baedeker guides as well.

He died in Coblence on October 4, 1859.

Born December 1884, son of J.H. Luke (formerly Lukacs).Educated Eton College; Trinity College, Oxford.

Private Sec. and ADC to the Governor of Sierra Leone, 1908-11, and to the Governor of Barbados, 1911.
Attached to Colonial Office, 1911.
Private sec. To high Commissioner of Cyprus, 1911-12.
Asst. Sec. to Govt. of Cyprus, 1912.
Served European War (Commander, RNVR) on the Syrian coast, 1914-15, on Staff of Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, Dardanelles, and as Government Sec., Mudros, Feb. 1915-June 1916.
Comr of Famagusta, Cyprus, 1918.
Political Officer to Admiral of the Fleet Sir J. de Robeck, Constantinople and Black Sea, 1919-20.
British Chief Commissioner in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, April-Sept. 1920.
Assistant Gov. of Jerusalem, 1920-24.
Commissioner to inquire into the Jaffa Riots of 1921, and into the affairs of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 1921.
Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone, 1924-28.
CMG 1926; Chief Secretary of Palestine, 1928-30.
Lieut.-Gov. of Malta, 1930-38; Kt 1933.
Gov. and C-inC of Fiji, and High Comm. for the Western Pacific, 1938-42.
KCMG 1939.
Chief Rep of the British Council for the Caribbean, 1943-46.
Member of Foreign Relations Council of Ch. of England.
President, Malta League, 1955-65.

Died 11 May 1969.

Marilyn Silverstone graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, then worked as an associate editor for Art News, Industrial Design and Interiors during the 1950s. She also served as an associate producer and historical researcher for an Academy Award-winning series of films on painters.

In 1955 she began to photograph professionally as a freelancer (with the Nancy Palmer Agency, New York), working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Central America and the Soviet Union. In 1959 she was sent on a three-month assignment to India, but ended up moving to New Delhi and was based there until 1973. During that time she produced the books Bala Child of India (1962) and Ghurkas and Ghosts (1964), and later The Black Hat Dances (1987), and Ocean of Life (1985). Kashmir in Winter, a film made from her photographs, won an award at the London Film Festival in 1971.

Silverstone became an associate member of Magnum in 1964, a full member in 1967, and a contributor in 1975. The agency had only five women members at the time. Silverstone's work for Magnum includes coverage of a wide variety of subjects.

Seared in many major magazines, including Newswilverstone, whose photographs have appeek, LIFE, Look, Vogue and National Geographic, became an ordained Buddhist nun in 1977. She lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she practiced Buddhism and researched the vanishing customs of the Rajasthani and Himalayan kingdoms. She died in October 1999 at the Shechen monastery, near Kathmandu, which she had helped to finance.