This is one of a long line of books — academic, popular and fictional — attempting to identify Ophir, the Biblical site that was the source of King Solomon’s riches. Throughout the age of European exploration and colonization, scholars, explorers and adventurers argued over the source of the gold, ivory, spices, exotic animals, jewels, etc., that were imported regularly by Solomon from ‘Ophir’. Possibilities included India, Indonesia, Peru, Ceylon, Oman, Mozambique, and ... well ... just about any exotic place one could think of. Books like Haggard’s ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ put it in southern Africa; others tried to put it wherever gold was discovered.
The author’s thesis was based on his reading of recent archeological discoveries, comparative philology (the study of historic languages), and analysis of the biblical evidence. It led him to the conclusion that the fabled ‘Ophir’ was not the source of the wealth as most scholars presumed, but rather that it was a port on the southern coast of Arabia that served as a gathering and trans-shipment point for rich goods from Africa, Arabia, and other locales. His conclusions are tainted by the idea that ‘superior’ peoples set up trading colonies amid, and influenced the cultures, of ‘inferior’ ones.