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[Navigation - Red Sea - Navy Pilot].
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot Comprising the Suez Canal, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the South-East Coast of Arabia from Ras Baghashwa to Ras Al Hadd, the Coast of Africa from Ras Asir to Ras Hafun, Socotra and its Adjacent Islands. London, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, 1967.
Large 8vo. 2 parts in one vol. (4), XV, (1 blank), 599, (1); (2), 60, (2 blank) pp. With 3 maps (of which 2 folding) and 82 views of coastal profiles on 52 plates. Blue cloth with title information in yellow on front cover and spine, the supplement has been separately inserted (loose at the end of the vol.). - With: [Navigation - Red Sea - Navy Pilot]. Supplement No. 7 - 1977 to Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot (11th edition, 1967) corrected to 4th March, 1977. Whenever reference is made to the pilot this supplement must be consulted. London, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, 1977. With 2 folding maps (double-sided on the same leaf) and 4 views of coastal profiles on 3 pages. Grey/blue back wrapper; the two quires, map and back wrapper are held together by two metal staples. The essential standard sailing directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, corresponding with zone NP64 on the official Admiralty charts. These nautical works - the pilots and the charts - are published by the United Kingdom's Hydrographic Office, which provides necessary hydrographic and marine geospatial data to all kinds of maritime organisations across the world. The publications are not only used by the British Royal Navy, but can also be found on board the majority of international merchant ships. The data provided in the pilots and other publications are compliant with SOLAS (the Safety of Life at Sea treaty) guidelines and are updated constantly in weekly "Notices to Mariners", and in supplements to and new editions of the pilots whenever necessary. - The present copy is the 11th edition (1967) of the pilot with sailing directions and other information on the weather, currents, radar ranges etc. relating to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including the supplement issued in 1977. It includes a foreword by the Hydrographer of the Navy, Rear-Admiral George Stephen Ritchie (1914-2012), who served most of his Naval career in the Surveying Service providing the raw data for the Hydrographic Office. The introduction clearly states that with the publication of this volume the previous edition and its supplements are cancelled, since the most up-to-date information has been compiled in the new edition and the weekly "Notices to Mariners" that appear after the publication of the 11th edition. The 11th edition of 1967 and its 1977 supplement were made redundant with the publication of the 12th edition in 1980. Each subsequent edition of the pilot supersedes the last, which have appeared infrequently depending on newly available information since the mid-19th century until the present day. - Binding slightly rubbed and faded, first two pages are printed on red/pink paper, edges of the volume are very slightly soiled. Fore-edge of the supplement is slightly frayed. Overall in good condition.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Description de l'Arabie, d'après les observations et recherches faites dans le pays même. Nouvelle édition, revue & corrigée. Paris, Brunet, 1779.
Large 4to (205 x 262 mm). 2 volumes. (6), 56, 252 pp. (4), 315, (5) pp. With 1 folding genealogical table and 25 engraved plates (many folding), including maps, plans, costumes, and views, 2 showing Arabic text with vowel points, as well as 2 engraved headpieces. Contemporary full marbled calf with giltstamped spines and red spine labels. Blue coloured endpapers. All edges red. Third French edition (first published in German in Copenhagen, 1772). "Édition revue par de Guignes" (Gay). "Niebuhr (1713-1815) participated as astronomer and naturalist to the royal Danish expedition to Arabia in 1763-1767. Together with the naturalist Forskal, the philologist Van Haven and two others, he travelled up the Nile to Suez and Mount Sinai, and from there to Jeddah and Mocha. By the end of their stay in Mocha, all the memebers of the expedition but Niebuhr had died, and Niebuhr travelled on alone to India, returning via Persia, Syria, Cyprus, and Constantinople. The only surviving member of the hazardous expedition, he returned to an indifferent reception in Copenhagen [...] Niebuhr's comprehensive description, particularly of the Yemen region, was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Noticeable worming to gutter, sometimes touching text but loss to legibility (more extensive in vol. I), much of which professionally repaired. A few handwritten pencil annotations in the margin. Bindings professionally restored. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Brunet IV, 74 (note). Cf. Atabey 873. Macro 1699. Not in Blackmer.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Description de l'Arabie, faite sur des observations propres et des avis recueillis dans les lieux mêmes. Amsterdam & Utrecht, S. J. Baalde / J. van Schoonhoven & Co., 1774.
4to. XLII, 372 pp. With engraved title (in counted prelims.), 25 engraved plates (8 folding, including large engraved map of the Yemen, in partial colour) and a folding table. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped red morocco label over marbled green boards. Marbled endpapers. Second French edition, translated from the German ("Beschreibung von Arabien") by F. L. Mourier. Includes Niebuhr's famous map of the Yemen and Arabic specimens from the Qur'an, with added hand colouring to indicate vowel sounds. "L'on voit [...] sur la IV et V planche, une feuille copiée d'un Korân, qui est écrit sur du parchemin et conservé comme un grand thresor dans la collection de livres faites par l'Académie Dsjamea el ashar à Kahira, parce qu'on croit, que le Calife Omar l'a écrit de sa propre main. Mais quand Omar ne l'auroit pas écrit, cette feuille est toujours très ancienne et par là-même remarquable" (Chauvin). - This is the famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. "Niebuhr's comprehensive description [...] was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Binding a little rubbed, spine professionally repaired. A good, wide-margined copy in a contemporary binding from the library of the French historian, archaeologist, numismatist, and orientalist Victor Langlois (1829-69) with his cancelled ownership handwritten to the flyleaf. Chauvin X, p. 57, no. 128; XII, p. 288, no. 1206. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 548. Gay 3589. Nyon 21017. Grenoble 25621. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1699. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern. Copenhagen, Nicolaus Möller, 1774-1778.
4to. 2 vols. XVI, (6), 505, (1) pp. With 72 plates and folding map. (16), 479, (1) pp. With 52 plates and maps. Contemporary vellum with title to spine. First edition. - Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - An unsophisticated, exceptionally fine copy. Macro 1700. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752).
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins. Tome premier (-second). Traduit de l'Allemand. Amsterdam & Utrecht, S. J. Baalde & Barthelemy Wild, 1775-1780.
4to. 2 vols. VIII, (6), 409, (1) pp. VI, (10), 389, (1) pp. With 2 engraved titles (in counted prelims.), 124 engraved plates (many folding), and folding map of Yemen (in partial colour). Contemp. full calf with gilt cover borders and giltstamped labels in red and green to fully gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First French edition, translated from the German ("Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern", 1774) by F. L. Mourier. Title pages are dated 1776-80; colophones dated 1775-79. The famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - Old stamps erased from title pages (leaving insignificant waterstain), otherwise a perfect set in immaculate original French bindings. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 549. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 66. Gay 3589. Van Hulthem 15024. Nyon 21018. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1700. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
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Niebuhr, [Carsten] / Al-'Umari, Su'ad Hadi (transl.).
Rihla Nibuwr ila Baghdad fi al-qarn al-thamin 'ashr. [Niebuhr's Journey to Baghdad in the Eighteenth Century]. Baghdad, Dar al-Marifa Press, 1954 CE = 1374 H.
8vo. 71, (1) pp. With a map frontispiece and four black and white plates. Original printed wrappers. First edition. An Arabic translation of Carsten Niebuhr's description of Baghdad, originally published in his "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern" (Copenhagen, 1774-78), a remarkable travel account famed for its groundbreaking description of Yemen in the mid-18th century. - Niebuhr, by then the sole survivor of a party of five, visited Baghdad on his return journey to Europe after spending nearly a year in the Arabian Peninsula. He arrived back in Copenhagen in November 1767, where he presented his report and the workings of his departed co-travellers - a mass of writings, plans and sketches which proved to be of the most remarkable and lasting worth. - Two small stains to upper wrapper, edges a little worn, a few gatherings roughly opened, otherwise very good. A few pages unopened. Ink translator's presentation inscription to title-page. Extremely rare; not in OCLC.
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Niebuhr, Carsten, et al. (Johan Louis Gerlagh, compiler and draftsman).
Aanteekeningen uit de Reise naar Arabie, en andere omliggende landen, van Carsten Niebuhr, geteekent en geschreeven door Joh. Louis Gerlagh. [Hoeven (near Breda)?], 1785.
Folio (29 x 22 cm). 63, (10) ff. Manuscript in Dutch, written in ink on paper, with two loosely inserted supplements (2 bifolia), with a calligraphic title-page (in script lettering with an interior white line giving an incised effect) and 39 pages of (mostly) ink and grey ink wash drawings of inscriptions, musical instruments, buildings, etc., including 3 pages of Kufic inscriptions in black ink with vowel points in red and decorations in red, yellow and green, and a few other written inscriptions showing the styles of script, plus a small drawing of an inscription and a few written examples in the text. Contemporary half canvas, sides covered with printed pattern paper (a matrix of 4-petalled rosettes on a background of horizontal and vertical lines, and dots, in red, blue and yellow, sewn on 3 vellum tapes and tacketted to the canvas spine through a vellum liner. A Dutch illustrated manuscript devoted to the Arabian Peninsula and neighbouring regions, compiled in 1785 by (and the illustrations drawn by) Johan Louis Gerlagh (1735-98), a director of the Dutch West India Company and East India Company (WIC and VOC). He takes a special interest in the various and styles of script, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and at least six styles of Arabic script (kufic, naskh, ta'liq, thuluth, ruq'ah and maghribi), but he also discusses and illustrates bas-reliefs, buildings (including the Great Mosques at Mecca and Medina), musical instruments, footware, a scarab, etc., and provides tables of data concerning tides, compass corrections and temperatures, and accounts of the Islamic calendar, precious stones, weights and measures and coins. The title describes the manuscript as notes from Carsten Niebuhr's "Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen", a Dutch translation (Amsterdam & Utrecht 1776-78) of the German "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien" (Copenhagen 1774-78), but Gerlagh apparently treats Niebuhr's complementary "Beschryving van Arabie" (1774, first published in German in 1772) as an additional volume of the Reize. All the illustrations and most of the text are copied from these two publications. Gerlagh does make use of other sources, however, quoting from Bernhard von Breidenbach's "Peregrinatio in Terra Sanctum" (1486); Heinrich Buenting's "Itinerarium scripturae" (1581); Fredrik Hasselquist's "Travels in the Levant" (1766); J. F. Martinet's "Historie der waereld" (1780-87), and Joseph de la Porte's "Nieuwe reisiger, beschryving van de oude en nieuwe weereldt" (1766-91). - Gerlagh came from a patrician family that had ties with the WIC by at least 1720 (including a director by 1730) and the VOC by at least 1735. He himself was a director of both by 1764. Although he is recorded moving from Tholen to Oosterhout (northeast of Breda) in 1779, this may have been a second residence, for he had already set up in Hoeven (west of Breda) where he served as "schout" (head of the municipality) from 1771 to 1794, his wife died there in 1786 and he died there in 1798, so he probably produced the present manuscript there. His amateur drawings and sketchbooks, most of them in Museum Gouda, have been exhibited. - The manuscript collates: [A]14 (- A9) [B]10 (B1 + [chi]2; - B7, 9, 10) [C]2 [D]4 [E]2 [F]4 [G]6 (± G1, 2, 3, 6) [H]4 [I]2 [K]-[N]4 2[chi]1 [O]-[P]4 [Q]2 = 73 ff., with E2 and H4 blank except for the leaf numbers (ff. 30 & 34). The main paper stock (including the endpapers at the front and probably also at the back) is watermarked: crowned GR in laurel branches, in a circle = Dutch garden (with "Pro Patria" above toward the centre of the sheet) above "H K P" (the main mark can appear in the left or right half sheet). We have not found or identified the initials HKP. After the last numbered leaf (2[chi]) a new part of the text begins with a different paper stock to the end of the manuscript (quires O-Q), similar but with no initials below the Dutch garden, in the general style of Heawood 3700 (1747) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 140 (1790). The cancel leaf G6± may come from the same stock, while the cancel leaves G1±, G2± and G3± show a different stock or stocks: G3± with a lion with 7 arrows, lance and freedom hat (pedestal with "VRYHEYT") in a crowned ring (double lines inside and out) containing (in mirror image) "Pro patria eiusque libertate"), in the general style of Heawood 3148 (1745) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 104-111 (1713-49); and G1± and G2± with the countermark "J[an] H[onig] & zoon", that form shown with a different main mark in Voorn, Noord-Holland 133 (1741). The firm name in the present form, with the present "zoon" (son), is recorded from 1735 to at least 1764 (probably at least 1768), changing to "zonen" (sons) probably by 1774 and certainly by 1793. So the paper used for these three cancel leaves may be several years older than the manuscript itself. - The manuscript is internally in good condition, with most deckles preserved. Binding worn but professionally restored. A good example of the fascination of leading figures in the VOC and WIC with the Arabian Peninsula and vicinity and with Islamic culture. For Niebuhr and his accounts of Arabia: Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world 48; Howgego, to 1800, N24; for Gerlagh: Katalogus ... tekenwerk-schilderwerk van Johann Louis Gerlagh (1987); A. Romeijn, De stadsregering van Tholen (1577-1795) (2001), pp. 229f.
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Norden, Frederik Ludvig.
Travels in Egypt and Nubia. London, Davis, 1757.
Large folio (295 x 479 mm). 2 vols. (12), XXXIV, 124 pp. (4), VIII, 155, (1) pp. With engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait, 19 engraved vignettes, 10 engraved initials, and 162 engravings on 161 plates. Modern half cloth. First English edition of one "of the earliest modern studies of Egypt" (Howgego). - "The first map of the Nile between Cairo and Derr based on autopsy, indicating all locales on the river banks" (cf. Henze). The engravings show views, landscapes, ruins, antiquities, plans, and maps. Plates numbered I through CLIX; plates XVI, XXII and XVII are followed by an unnumbered plate; illustrations CXL/CXLI and CXLII/CXLIII are printed from a single plate; no. CVIII is printed from two separate plates and is not joined to form a single illustration (thus counted as two plates). - Some edge repairs near beginning and end; several plates trimmed closely. All plates stamped "Birmingham Library". Endpapers show traces of a removed bookplate, as well as a later bookplate (apparently "Fritz Machac") in hieroglyphs. Howgego I, N38. Weber II, 520. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 74. Cox I, 382. Brunet IV, 101. Graesse IV, 687. OCLC 5716565. Cf. Gay 2169. Henze III, 622. Paulitschke 746. Blackmer 1212 (2 volumes in one).
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Nunes, Pedro.
Salacie[n]sis, de crepusculis liber unus, nu[n]c rece[n]s & natus et editus. [Including:] Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Mu'Adh [title-page: Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham)]. De causis crepusculorum liber unus, à Gerardo Cremonensi iam olim Latinita te donatus, nunc vero omniu[m] primum in lucem editus. Lisbon, Ludovicus Rodericus, (January 1542).
4to. (73), (1 blank) ff. With woodcut allegorical and architectural title-page with putti and mythological women holding drapes hanging from an arch and the Royal Portuguese coat of arms at the foot, 40 woodcut (geometrical and optical) figures in text, Rodericus's large full-page emblematic woodcut printer's device (a dragon with the motto "Salus vitae" on a banderole) and many woodcut initials. Bound in a period-style Italian calf binding, gold-tooled spine, blind-tooled frames on front and back boards and gold-tooled centerpieces on the front and back board with "Petri Nonii" on the front board and "MDXLII" on the back board. First edition of two of the most important and rarest scientific works on twilight and optics. The first is written by the greatest Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunez (1492-1577), who served as cosmographer royal to the court of João III. His "De crepusculis" discusses new solutions for problems concerning twilight (such as the shortest twilight period) and the refraction of light, and announces his new instrument for measuring exceedingly small angles, now called a “nonius”. - The second work, also entitled "De crepusculis", was written (according to the title-page) by the greatest Islamic physicist Ibn Al-Haytham (965-1039), from living in the Arabian Peninsula, whose seminal work on optics broke with ancient Greek theories. In fact, the work is now attributed to the great Andalusian father of spherical trigonometry, the 11th-century mathematician and astronomer Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Mu’adh, who was described by Averroës as "advanced and high-ranking" (Sabra, p. 85), but about whom very little is known. His work discusses the density of the atmosphere and establishes a relationship between atmospheric pressure and altitude. It also notes that twilight only ceases or begins when the sun reaches 19 degrees below the horizon. It was translated from Arabic into Latin by Gerard de Cremona (1114-87), who brought Arabic science to the West. This work is one of the artifacts through which Islamic civilisation made significant and crucial contributions to scientific knowledge in the pre-modern age during their golden age of Arabic science, although the Latin translations in this field only provide "a dim reflection of the true splendour of achievements" (Gerli, p. 804). - With an owner's inscription at the head of the title-page and a handwritten impressum on the title-page in the same hand, three faint library stamps (two of a library in Douai) and with marks of an erased bookplate on the front pastedown. Binding very slightly worn around the spine, some small stains on the endpapers, but otherwise a beautiful copy in very good condition. Adams N 375. DSB X, 160f. Honeyman 2353. Houzeau/Lancaster 1188 & 2473. King Manuel 48. Palau 196.748. Poggendorff II, 305. Sabra, "The authorship of the Liber de crepusculis", in: Isis 58.1 (1967), pp. 77-85. Stilwell 781 & 863. Cf. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation; Gerli, Medieval Iberia (2003), p. 804. Not in Vagnetti.
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[Oil Industry in the Middle East].
Mapah ha-neft ba-mizrah ha-tikhon (Map of the Oil Industry in the Middle East). Jerusalem, Yediot Achronot, 1963.
494 x 324 mm. Chromolithographic map. Scale 1:5,900,000. A medium-sized wall map showing the Middle East between the Suez Crisis and the Six-Day War, covering the area from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran including most of Turkey as well as Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Northern Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as far south as Qatar. Oil production capacities are shown in barrels, with oilfields, refineries, pipelines, and associated infrastructure indicated on the map. The massive 'tapline' is seen crossing the northern Saudi desert from the Gulf coast to Sidon, while double pipelines run from Kirkuk to Tripoli and to Haifa. From the atlas of Yediot Achronot. - After the Suez Crisis and its associated geopolitical shifts, Britain and France were forced by the USA to abandon their post-imperial plans, and Israel now counted in both U.S. and Soviet plans for their control of Middle Eastern politics. Britain was forced to anchor its Middle Eastern influence in Cyprus, Aden and Iraq, while the increased American influence is evident in the vast Aramco oilfields at Ras Tanura. - Well preserved.
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[Oman - Hunter, Frederick Fraser].
Arabia and the Persian Gulf. S.E. Section. [Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf with additions and corrections to 1916]. Dehra Dun, Survey of India Offices, published under the direction of Colonel Sir S. G. Burrard, Surveyor General of India, 1916.
Large folding heliozincographed colour map, 1 sheet (of 4), measuring 940 x 700 mm. Original printed covers. Separate section of Hunter's large and extremely detailed map of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf, showing southern Oman with the eastern tip of Yemen. - The Canadian-born Hunter later became a major figure in British India's Intelligence Service. He initially compiled the map between 1905 and 1908, to accompany J. G. Lorimer's "Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf". As the author recalls in his 1919 "Reminiscences", "a great deal of the information on the map was from sources considered secret at the time" (p. 357). Special surveys of the country's interior areas were carried out to achieve a hitherto unprecedented degree of accuracy: "The map was a distinct advance on anything which existed, as in 1908 no general map of Arabia on such a large scale existed" (p. 360). The "Hunter" map was used (and praised) by St John Philby during his journey across Arabia. - Such was the detail of Hunter's map that the Survey of India reissued it, with corrections, several times during the First World War and interwar period. As the maps were issued in parts and used on active service it is not unusual for sections to be missing. Many of the surviving copies show signs of official use; this issue bears a flight route, sketched out in red ink, from Ghaidhah (Al Ghaydah) in southeast Yemen toward Muscat. - Some light browning, several small tears to folds, otherwise very good. Ownership inscription in red ink to cover, "H. R. Tidd. F/O", by Flight Officer Herbert Richard Tidd (1912-42), proving that the maps were still issued to RAF personnel in the early 1930s. - Scarce. OCLC locates complete copies at the Library of Congress, University of Wisconsin, National Library of Israel and the BNF. Cf. Macro 1228.
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Oppenheim, Max von.
Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Hauran, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien. Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1899-1900.
Large 8vo. 2 vols. XV, (1), 334 pp. XIII, (3), 434 pp. With 2 (instead of 3) folding maps in rear-cover pockets and numerous illustrations in the text and on photo plates. Original illustrated green cloth. First edition of this rare travel account by the diplomat, archaeologist and orientalist Max Oppenheim (1860-1946), a work that made his name as an expert on the orient. With numerous, mainly photographic illustrations. - Bindings professionally restored; wants the large general map. Some slight browning; one map in vol. 2 loose with frayed edges. Henze III, 650ff. OCLC 13166400.
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[Oriental album - Bahrein, Oman, Basra and other places].
A collection of 847 original photographs documenting a British gentleman's oriental tour, assembled chronologically in five massive albums and captioned by hand throughout. Various places, 1900-1901.
Five oblong albums (445 x 315 mm), consecutively numbered with 847 vintage albumen prints (various formats, 115 x 85 to 280 x 205 mm) laid down and captioned on thick cream card. Contemporary red half sheepskin, title and year stamped in gilt lettering to front covers of each volume. Spine and edges ruled in gilt, silk-watered endpapers, album sheets edged in gilt. An exceptional trove of early exploration and travel photographs, documenting a two-year tour around the coast of Africa and Yemen, through the Gulf from Muscat to Bahrein, then on by the Arabian Sea to Karachi and finally back to Syria and Jerusalem. The collection is preserved in its original massive oblong albums with each of the partly large-format photographs meticulously captioned in the traveller's own hand. Numerous photographs of himself are included within the albums and witness the transformation of a well-groomed English gentleman at the beginning of the tour in East Africa, in early 1900 ("being carried to small boat at Majunga"), into a bearded explorer camping with the Bedouins in 1901(showing him in front of "My camp at El Bagdadi on the Euphrates"). - The unidentified traveller was hosted by local dignitaries and had an obvious special interest in architecture and archeological excavations. His photographs provide extraordinary insights into the social and cultural life of the British protectorates he visited. Indeed, his journey to the Gulf, documented here, pre-dates Hermann Burchardt's 1903/04 expedition, famed for providing the first visual records of many places in the region, and the numerous previously unrecorded photographs of Muscat, Bahrein and other places in the Gulf contained in the present albums are therefore a particularly important find. - Apart from the views of Muscat castle and port there are highly unusual snapshots of street life both outside and within Muscat's city walls, a stunning double portrait of "Men with Hawks belonging to the son of the Sheikh of Bahrein", a view of Bahrein harbour, captioned the "Head Quarters of Pearl Fishing", the Bahrein Post Office, the market in Bandar Abbas, the Quarantine Station at Basra, as well as photos of horse dealers, women selling salt or just date palms. The 1901 photograph of the Arch of Ctesiphon is captioned "Left wing fell in April 1887 the rest will probably soon follow", also recording height and length of the remaining structure, as well as the width of the entrance. A photo of the "British Residents Wife's Bay Arabian" documents the rare occasion of a "Ladies' nomination Race", also recording the names of the winners of this race held in Bagdad. "Dr. Robert Koldewey from the German expedition" is met and photographed in Babylon at the Temple of the Venus. Visits to several ships at sea are documented in photos of the vessels themselves, as well as by group portraits of their captains and crews on board. A remarkable photograph shows the warship Persepolis returning from its campaign under Daria Begi against the shores of the Trucial States. - Bindings a little rubbed, boards partly stained, some of the album leaves affected by minor waterstaining and some foxing. Photographs mostly unfaded with good, strong contrast and in excellent condition throughout. An extraordinary record and a unique collection.
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[Ottoman cartography].
Map of the Ottoman Boundaries. Paris/Istanbul, ca. 1770.
Engraved map with original outline colour and manuscript calligraphy in red ink. With a fine inset plan of the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi in the upper right corner, as well as an ovoid title cartouche, both bordered by Neo-Classical Ottoman-inspired designs. On thick laid, watermarked paper. 60 x 140 cm. Exceedingly rare engraved wall map comissioned by the Sublime Porte, brilliantly labelled and hand-coloured in Istanbul by court calligraphers. A masterpiece of cartography and Islamic calligraphy, the map presents the theatre of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 in its earliest stages. Focussed on the southern Ukraine, it extends from the Mouths of the Danube, in the west, to the Caspian Sea, in the east, rendering the region as it was common before the Russian surveys of the 1770s. The Russo-Ottoman boundary, as it existed between 1739 and 1774, is clearly delineated, with the Ottoman lands outlined in green and Russian territories in yellow, whilst the Polish territories, in the northwest, are outlined in pink. Until the war, the Ottomans controlled Crimea and the southern Ukraine in their entirety, along with most of the Caucasus. - As the Ottoman Empire lacked publishing capabilities, the Porte often relied upon their ancient ally, France, to supply them with custom-printed material, conveyed to the Topkapi Palace via the French Embassy in Istanbul's Pera neighbourhood. The skeleton of the map, engraved in Paris, depicts topographic features and the locations of key cities and fortifications, but omits all text: all names of regions and major settlements were added in Turkey in luxurious red ink. The masterly penmanship would have been executed by a specialized imperial calligrapher: the rich, expensive red ink was reserved for sacred and high-level legal documents under the Sultan's patronage and was only very seldom applied to cartography, indicating that the present map would have been held in particular esteem by the Imperial Court. - A single other example of the map with the Topkapi calligrapher's manuscript work, executed in a similar fashion, survives in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (MR/42/415), very likely once a high-level diplomatic gift to Madrid from Sultan Mustafa III, anxious to improve his diplomatic and trading links with the Bourbons. In addition, a single blank example of the engraved map template is held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (CPL GE DD-2987, 3089 B), formerly in the collection of the famous cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, who is known to have had privileged access to maps created for the French diplomatic corps. - Resplendent original calligraphy, several old tears professionally repaired without loss. An extremely rare survival in fine condition. Biblioteca Nacional de España, MR/42/415. Elena Santiago Páez, La Historia en los mapas manuscritos de la Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional, 1984), no. 336 (p. 266). Not in Özdemir, Ottoman Cartography (2008).
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Ottoman manuscript.
[Book on Astronomy and Signs]. No place, probably later 19th century.
8vo (120 x 170 mm). (52) pp., 2 blank ff., (5), 48, (2), (2 blank), (80) pp. Black and red ink on polished paper. With numerous full-page colour diagrams (both in coloured ink and coloured pencil), one including a sketch of the Kaaba in Mekkah, and an inserted volvelle on cardboard. Bound in boards (ca. 1900) covered with waste paper printed in Arabic and Armenian. A manuscript on astronomy and its symbolism in Ottoman Turkish. - Various signs of damp- and waterstaining; a few leaves stuck together, damaged or illegible. Binding noticeably stained; spine chipped and frayed.
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Oxenstierna, Bengt / Laurelius, Olof.
Lijkpredican, öfwer then ädle och högwälborne herre, Herr Bengt Oxenstierna, frijherre til Ekebyholm och Söderboo, Sweriges rijkes råd, rijksstalmästare, och general gubernator öfwer Lifland. Hwars saliga lekamen, medh tilbörlig ähreproces och christeliga ceremonier, bleff ledsagat til sin hwijlocammar, vthi Riddarholms Kyrckian, den 6. augusti åår 1643. Så och en kort relation, om then salige herrens stora förfarenheet, och widt kring om werlden giorda reesor. Stockholm, Henrich Keyser, 1644.
4to. (56) pp, retaining blank leaf D4. With woodcut coat-of-arms on leaf E1 verso. Modern marbled boards. First edition; the first travelogue printed in Swedish. The report of the travels of the Swedish diplomat Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna (1591-1643) is couched as his funeral sermon (by the Stockholm theologian Olof Laurelius), followed by a detailed biographical account with separate title-page (pp. 33-55). Since many of Oxenstierna's manuscripts are lost, this rare imprint is the only source for some of his journeys. Oxenstierna visited the Levant twice, first in 1613 and most importantly in 1616-20. After being employed in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the war against the Barbary corsairs, with ports of call on the Mediterranean islands and in North Africa, he travelled to Constantinople, where he resided during the winter of 1616/17. From Constantinople he continued to Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, restlessly travelling back and forth throughout the following years. His returning journey to Europe took him on foot through Arabia to Egypt and Cairo. Oxenstierna so strongly inspired the explorer Sven Hedin that he wrote a biography of him (Resare-Bengt, 1921). - Some browning and dampstaining, with a small repaired hole to title-page. Extremely rare: not in the usual bibliographies of travel; OCLC records a single copy in library catalogues (Swedish Royal Library), to which KVK adds copies in Lund, Norrköping, Örebro, and Skokloster Castle. Hacklin, Olavus Laurelius (1896), p. 161f., no. 6. OCLC 937092162. Not in Weber, Henze, or Howgego.
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Paget, William Henry / Mason, A. H. / et al. (eds.).
Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. Compiled in the Intelligence Branch of the Divisions of the Chief of the Staff Army Head Quarters India. In six volumes. For official use only. Simla, Government Monotype Press, 1907-1911.
8vo. 8 vols. (6 volumes & 2 supplements): v. 1. Tribes north of the Kabul River. 1907. (4), IV, XIX, (1), 591, (1) pp. With 8 plans and 2 separate maps in both cover pockets. - v. 1, suppl. A. Operations against the Mohmands (including operations in the Khaiber, 1st-7th May) 1908. 1910. (4), II, (2), 60, LVIII pp. With 2 maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 2. North-west frontier tribes between the Kabul and Gumal Rivers. 1908. (4), III, (1), 461, (1) pp. With 6 folding plans and 1 separate map in lower cover pocket. - v. 2, suppl. A. Operations against the Zakka Khel Afridis 1908. 1908. (8), 49, (1) pp. With 3 maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 3. Baluchistan and the First Afghan War. (6), VII, (3), 466 pp. With 2 folding tables, 2 plans (1 folding), and 4 separate folding maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 4. North and north-eastern frontier tribes. 1907. (4), IV, 249, (1) pp. With 7 maps and plans and 1 separate folding map in lower cover pocket. - v. 5. Burma. 1907. X, (6), 468 pp. With a folding map in lower cover pocket. - v. 6. Expeditions overseas. 1911. (4), X, (2), 515, (1) pp. With 14 maps (many folding) and 5 separate folding maps in lower cover pocket. Uniformly bound in contemporary quarter calf over green cloth covers with giltstamped spine labels. An excessively rare counterpart to Lorimer's simultaneously published Gazetteer of the Gulf: like it, classified at the time of its issuing as a confidential British government document and still well-nigh unobtainable in the original printing, this third and last issue of Paget's and Mason's "Frontier and Overseas Expeditions" remains the most important single source on Raj-based military frontier operations carried out up to the First World War. The work was first compiled in 1873 by Colonel W. H. Paget as "A Record of Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes", with the intention of providing a "valuable guide" to such British commanders and policymakers as "might have future dealings with these turbulent neighbours". It was revised in 1884 by A. H. Mason of the Royal Engineers. Three decades later, the frontiers of British influence had vastly expanded: they now reached to the borders of Afghanistan and Persia, and a newly compiled record of expeditions was urgently required. Under the editorship of Lieutenant C. F. Aspinall and Major R. G. Burton, the work known as "Paget & Mason" was thoroughly overhauled and expanded to six volumes, replete with maps and each dealing with a distinct geographical division, with two supplements. Only a few hundred copies would have been printed for circulation to British government departments, regimental libraries, and agencies. The present set, issued to the 7th Division Military Society in 1908 (later the Bareilly Brigade Military Library), bears the giltstamped copy numbers 217, 220, 221, 222, 258, 262, and 1134 (supplement). - The sixth volume deals in depth with "The Arabian Peninsula and the Islands of Perim and Socotra". It includes a sketch of the geographical situation before discussing in more detail the First Expedition to Ras-al-Khaimah in 1809 ("political causes - composition of the force - arrival at Masqat - arrival at Ras-al-Khaimah - description of Ras-al-Khaimah - landing of main body - capture of Ras-al-Khaimah - bravery of enemy - burning of pirate vessels - losses - Lingeh - repulse of the troops - re-embarkation - daring action by Lt. Hall, IN - attack on Shanas - desperate resistance"). It is noteworthy that the British officers here felt compelled to record the military gallantry of the al-Qasimi in their resistance to the British forces. Similarly, the Second Expedition to Ras-al-Khaimah in 1819 is treated, as is the Bani-Bu-Ali Expedition of 1810 (mentioning the results of "bad diplomacy" and "bad tactics", and citing the bravery of an Imam who displayed "great personal courage" while endeavouring to save an artilleryman). Further sections are given over to the islands of Perim (occupied in 1799 and again in 1856) and Sokotra, of which British infantry took possession in 1834 after "the Sultan would not come to terms". Additional chapters treat the Persian side of the Gulf and military expeditions to the same. - Corners somewhat bumped, but altogether a tightly bound, handsome and well-preserved set. 1910 and 1911 stamps of the Bareilly Brigade Military Library to most volumes (but stamp of W. B. Salmon to the supplement to vol. 2). Warning "For Official Use Only" stamped in gilt to spine labels throughout, with most title-pages being correspondingly imprinted (in red ink up to vol. 2). As the publisher's original inserted slip advises, the General Map of Afghanistan called for in the list of maps to volume 3 was not, in fact, completed and therefore was never issued with the set. Of the utmost rarity: not reproduced within the Cambridge Archive Editions series, although incomplete reprints appeared in Quetta in 1979 and in Delhi in 1983. - Provenance: 1) 7th Division Military Society, 1908; 2) Bareilly Brigade Military Library, 1910/11; 3) U.S. private collection. OCLC 821799.
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[Palestine - Mandate Reports to the League of Nations].
Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom [...] on the Administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan. London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921-1939.
Large 8vo (245 x 178 mm). 29 volumes bound in 5. Includes 33 folding maps and 5 folding diagrams, a number of which colour-printed. Modern half calf with marbled boards and giltstamped titles to spines. A near-complete run of mandate reports on Palestine and Trans-Jordan from 1921 onwards, mostly published under Britain's mandate from the League of Nations, comprising both the relevant Colonial series and the Command Papers series as presented to parliament. - As early as 1920, when the joint British, French and Arab military administration over the formerly Ottoman Levantine provinces was transformed into a civil authority, Britain's High Commissioner of Palestine was required to file regular reports to the Colonial Office on the operations of this new administration. From 1922 onwards, when Britain was granted the Mandate for Palestine and Trans-Jordan, these reports were adapted for the Council of the League of Nations. They cover the finances and taxation, customs and trade, law and legislation, education, public health, public transport and immigration in Mandatory Palestine, also detailing the various security problems and sectarian strife in the territory and covering the establishment of the Palestine Gendarmerie, its transformation into the Palestine Police Force, the introduction of military units and sources and causes of violence. The reports were discontinued with the advent of the Second World War. - The present set includes: An interim report on the civil administration of Palestine during the period 1st July 1920 - 30th June 1921 [Cmd. 1499]. Palestine. Disturbances in May, 1921. Reports of the Commission of Inquiry ... [Cmd. 1540]. Miscellaneuous No. 4 (1922) [Cmd. 1708]. Correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organisation [Cmd. 1700]. Mandate for Palestine ... [Cmd. 1785]. Papers relating to the elections [Cmd. 1889]. Proposed formation of an Arab Agency [Cmd. 1989]. Appendices to the Report ... for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 17]. Report ... on the Administration Under Mandate of Palestine and Transjordan for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 12]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1925 [Colonial No. 20]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1926 [Colonial No. 26]. 1927 [Colonial No. 31]. 1928 [Colonial No. 40]. 1929 [Colonial No. 47]. 1930 [Colonial No. 59]. Palestine. Statement of Policy by his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom [Cmd. 3692]. Palestine. Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development [Cmd. 3687]. 1931 [Colonial No. 75]. 1932 [Colonial No. 82]. 1933 [Colonial No. 94]. 1934 [Colonial No. 104]. 1935 [Colonial No. 112]. 1936 [Colonial No. 129]. Statistical Abstract of Palestine 1936, Palestine Royal Commission 1937 [Cmd. 5479]. 1937 [Colonial No. 146]. Palestine Partition Commission Report 1938 [Cmd. 5854]. 1938 [Colonial No. 166]. Miscellaneous No. 3 (1939). Correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon […] and the Sherif Hussein of Mecca July 1915-March 1916. [Cmd. 5957]. Palestine Statement of Policy [Cmd. 6019]. - Extensive sets as ours are extremely rare in the trade; the last set sold at auction did not contain a single volume of the Command Papers series (Christie's 2016, sale 12051, lot 366), as present here. Cf. Khalidi/Khadduri, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. An annotated bibliography, nos. 1569, 1633, 1641-3 & 1647.
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Peake, F[rederick] G[erard].
A History of Trans-Jordan and its Tribes. By El Fariq F. G. Peake Pasha. Amman, no publisher, June 1934.
Folio (ca. 210 x 330 mm). (8), 245 ff. (1), 246-481 ff. With numerous genealogical plates printed in red and green (of which 2 folding) in the 2nd volume. Original printed flexible boards with cloth-reinforced spine (vol. 2); vol. 1 bound in modern half calf with cloth covers, preserving original printed upper wrapper within. Rare history of the Emirate of Transjordan (today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), then a British protectorate. Presentation copy from the author to Ahmed Salem el Sakrun of the Arab Legion and inscribed by him to "my friend Ahmed Effendi Hsein El Amawi as a remembrance, Amman 23.12.35" on inside of upper wrapper. - The second volume contains not only the first volume's index, but also an annotated directory of the tribes of the various districts of Transjordan, comprising extensive tables, genealogies, and introductory essays on each tribe. With a separate index to the tribes and a bibliography at the end of the volume. Major-General F. G. Peake (1886-1970), known to the Jordanians as "Peake Pasha", served under Lawrence of Arabia and formed the "Arab Legion", the territory's regular army, in the early 1920s. He was later appointed Major-General in the army of the Emirate of Transjordan. Upon his retirement in 1939 he was succeeded in his command by John Bagot Glubb. - Title of vol. 1 trimmed and mounted on blank leaf; some light spotting or soiling; final leaf a little stained, slight fraying to edges at beginning and end, original printed upper wrapper rubbed and stained, lacking lower outer corner. Spine of vol. 2 a little chipped, else fine. - Mimeographed typescript, printed on one side throughout. No copy in British Library. OCLC 29109691.
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Pelly, (Lewis).
A Visit to the Wahabee Capital, Central Arabia. In: The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 35. London, Royal Geographical Society, 1865.
8vo. pp. 169-191 with a folding colour map (entire volume: CLXXXVII, [1], 319, [1] pp. with 10 other folding colour maps and a photographic plate). General title mounted on stub. Modern red cloth with giltstamped black spine label. Only edition of Pelly's account of his visit to Riyadh and the interior of the Nejd. Pelly's journey took him from Kuwait to Sadus, and from there to Al Uyaynah, the birthplace of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, onward through Wadi Hanifa to Ad Diriyah ("picturesquely situated in a depression of the plateau leading down into the Wadi", with a discussion of the location's history as well as geography) and ultimately to Riyadh, where he met the ruler of the Nejd, Imam Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud (1785-1865). Pelly would return via El Hofuf, Bahrein and Bushire. His report is full of topographical detail on the interior of the Nejd, but also discusses subjects so diverse as the Bedouin traditions of breeding Arabian horses, the genealogy of the House of Sa'ud, and the local use of coffee (consumed in immoderate quantities) and tobacco (considered a mortal offence for a Wahhabi). - The remainder of the volume includes Sir Richard Francis Burton's article "On Lake Tanganyika" as well as features on Chinese Tartary, Cambodia, Kurdistan, Greenland, the North Pole, and north-west Australia. Very well preserved in a modern library binding. Rare. Macro 1754.
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[Persia].
Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. (Philips' Authentic Imperial Maps for Tourists & Travellers). Liverpool, George Philip & Son, Ltd., [1920s].
Ca. 66 x 54 cms. Printed outline colour. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:4,200,000 (1 inch = 66 miles). Folded and bound in original yellow cloth boards. 8vo. Includes Afghanistan and the Balochistan province of Pakistan, as well as the Arabian Gulf with the coastline of the Gulf Emirates to Oman. - Ownership stamps of the German botanist Prof. Dr. Arnold Scheibe (1901-89; cf. NDB XXII, 619f.). OCLC 37732501.
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[Persia and Iraq Force - Paiforce].
Baghdad to Beirut 1944. [Possibly Baghdad], Printing and Stationery Services, Paiforce, [1944].
8vo. (2), 17 pp., final blank page. With 2 half-tone photographs in the text and a folding map of the area between Baghdad and Beirut. Staple-bound. In original printed wrappers. Exceedingly rare pocket-booklet of leave instructions issued to members of the Persia and Iraq Force during the Second World War, "in the hope that it will help [them] to understand the type of country and the places [they] will see on [their] journey" (first page). Subdivided into three sections, the first part of the booklet describes the route taken by the leave convoy from Baghdad via Fallujah, Habbaniyah, Ar-Rutba, Mafraq and Damascus to Beirut, deeming the last portion from Damascus "by far the most picturesque part of the route" (p. 4), and finishing off with a photograph of people relaxing on the beach. The second section comprises a history of Damascus and the Syrian desert by Seton Lloyd (1902-96), who had been appointed archaeology adviser to the Directorate of Antiquities, Baghdad, in 1939, and during the war "was able to conduct some notable research, principally the excavation of the painted temple at Uqair and later of Tell Hassuna, where he identified a new culture - and the earliest known - in Iraq" (obituary, Independent, 13 Jan. 1996). The third and last section discusses the construction of the Baghdad to Haifa road by the British between 1938 and 1943. - General Edward Quinan's Iraq Command (originally Iraq Force) was renamed Persia and Iraq Force (Paiforce) shortly after the successful Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia in August 1941. The main responsibilities of Paiforce were to protect the Iraqi and South Persian oil fields and to maintain the lines of communication from British-controlled ports on the Persian Gulf to the Soviet ports on the Caspian. A dedicated Persia and Iraq Command was established under Sir Maitland Wilson in August 1942, though victory in the Western Desert Campaign combined with series of Soviet victories in southern Russia meant that Paiforce activities began to be wound down from mid-1943. The folding map to the rear of this booklet provides a detailed overview of the vital infrastructure roads and oil pipelines which they were tasked with defending. - Mended tear to upper cover; traces of folds and a little soiled. Handwritten numbers in orange crayon to lower cover. The interior with traces of a vertical fold throughout, resulting from the pages resting on the rim of the folding map; margins slightly creased. Map somewhat foxed. An uncommon survival, with only the Imperial War Museum copy traceable in institutions. Not in OCLC.
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[Persia and Iraq Force - Paiforce].
Services Guide to Iraq. No place or date [but Iraq, likely Baghdad , Paiforce G.H.Q. Welfare Committee, ca. 1942].
12mo. 46, (2) pp. (ads). With full-page maps of Iraq and Baghdad and map of Baghdad amenities area on back cover. Original illustrated wrappers, stapled. First edition. An extremely rare guide to Iraq, produced for members of Paiforce (Persia and Iraq Force). It covers the expected subjects of health, hostels, clubs, sports and tours but also aims to instill a degree of cultural and historical awareness, principally with Seton Lloyd's short history of the country. Lloyd was the curator of the Baghdad Museum at the time, an institution mentioned in the guide as home to "astonishingly beautiful specimens of early Sumerian art, and the whole of Iraq's history ... within well laid out rooms" (p. 23). - Less routine sections highlight Trunk Call (the Paiforce paper) and list Christian churches in Iraq and Bahrain. The advertisements, acting as front and rear endpapers, give a sense of the establishments catering to the troops, including an advert for a shopping centre belonging to the Hasso Brothers, who issued many fascinating photographic postcards of Iraq. - A few small stains to wrappers, a little dusty, otherwise very good. Rare, with no copies in Copac/Jisc or OCLC. We have only been able to trace one example, located at the Imperial War Museum.
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[Persian miniatures].
A series of miniatures showing Persian scribes. Persia, mid-Qajar period (1850s).
Folio (322 x 212 mm). 50 watercolour miniatures on paper, ca. 9 x 14 cm, pasted on coloured cardboard within multiple gilt and pen-ruled frames, bound as a fan-fold book with cloth hinges. Near-contemporary black leather covers, stored in blind-stamped black slipcase with top flap. An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures, compiled and painted by an anonymous artist. 41 of the delicate watercolours represent famous calligraphers, 5 (1 in grisaille) presumably represent sufis, and one more (not coloured) shows a seated prince, while 3 miniatures (2 in grisaille) depict flowers. - The main series of calligraphers begins with Yaqut al-Musta'simi, who lived in Baghdad under the Abbasid dynasty in the 13th century, and reaches so far as to include artists from the first half of the 19th century (the most recent date of death being that of Aqa Fath-'Ali Sirazi, 1852/53). Their names are captioned under the image, all in the same hand in nasta'liq script (with a single exception in sikasta). Most calligraphers are shown kneeling, with one knee raised on which they rest their paper - the typical posture of a scribe. One is shown writing at a desk, another seated on a low stool; yet another is busy sharpening his pen. The poet Wisal Sirazi is seen writing on his knee, but has a small table with an inkwell and paper in front of him. Nearly all are depicted holding their reed pen in hand, with various writing implements next to or in front of them, such as inkwells, pen cases, extra pens and paper, pen-knife, and sometimes a hookah (indeed, two scribes are shown smoking). Others have in front of them a candle and teapot, flowers or a bowl of fruit. They are shown wearing different kinds of turbans or a black astrakhan "kulah", the Qajar headdress. All the miniatures bear numbers between 1 and 50 on the reverse of the mounting boards, though they are not bound in order. - Provenance: apparently from the collection of Paul Manteau, a French (or Belgian?) official in Iran, with a press-copied salary receipt loosely inserted: "Je reconnais avoir reçu de Son Altesse Impériale Djellal-e-Daulet la somme de Soixante Tomans représentant le montant de mes appointements du mois de Châval année 1310. Téhéran le 11 avril 1893. Paul Manteau". As Shawwal 1310 began on 18 April 1893 AD, Manteau would have received his salary in advance, proving that the capacity in which he served could not have been altogether minor. Sultan Husayn Mirza Jalal al-Dawlih (b. 1868/69), his employer, was the eldest son of prince Mas'ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918) and grandson of the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96). In the later 19th century, numerous French and particularly Belgian officials worked in Iran: especially from 1898 onwards, Belgium posted to Persia a large number of officials whose task was to organize or reorganize various administrative departments. However, Manteau does not appear in Annette Destrée's standard account of "Les fonctionnaires belges au service de la Perse, 1898-1915" (Téhéran/Liège 1976): he clearly arrived before the great Belgian influx and may have left the country before 1898. - Some of the cloth concertina hinges professionally repaired, but finely preserved altogether.
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[Philby, Harry St John Bridger].
Iraq in War Time. Al-Iraq fi zaman al-harb. Basrah, Government Press, [1918].
Folio (257 x 344 mm). (104) pp. More than 200 photo prints. Original giltstamped green cloth. Intriguing photo publication of both Iraq and Central Arabia during the Great War, brought out by St John Philby at the end of the year 1918, after he had served with the British administration in Baghdad from 1915 to 1917 and then travelled through the interior of the Arabian Peninsula as head of a mission to Ibn Saud. Philby completed a great tour of the Nejd in nine months, covering some 4000 kilometres. "Over 600 photographs were taken, some of which were later published in 1918 in 'Iraq in War Time', the first photographic book to appear on Najd" (Badr El-Hage, p. 95f.). The book, captioned throughout in English and Arabic (in which Philby was fluent), is divided into four sections: "Groups and Portraits" (43 illustrations); "Local Events" (55 illustrations); "Views" (112 illustrations, including "In Basrah City", "Amarah", "Nasiriyah", "Baghdad", "Najaf", "Mosul", "Suq al Shuyukh", "In Persia"), and "A Tour through Central Arabia" (24 illustrations). Among these are numerous equestrian images ("The best Arab horse 'Winchester' owned by Fahud el Nasar", "Well-known Basrah Race Horses", "Arabs competing for a prize offered for the best Arab mare", "Judging the Arab mares", "Winner of the Prize for Arab Mares" etc.), and the portrait section contains a veritable gallery of the sheikhs and political officers of the Arabian scene during the Great War. - The tour of the Nejd shows fascinating images of Jeddah, Nafudh, Sakha, Madhiq, Riyadh, Al-Hafar, Saqtah Gorge, the Shamsiyah Garden, etc., as well as Arab chiefs and a group portrait with the anonymous tourist Philby himself, surrounded by his Bedouin escort. "Although Philby was an amateur photographer, and the quality of his photographs fails at times to be up to standard, his achievements were remarkable, and his photographs documented many towns and villages for the first time" (Badr El-Hage, p. 114). - Near-indecipherable ownership inscription of Sheikh Abdulkareem bin Khaz’al, or possibly of the Sheikh of Muhammerah, Khaz’al bin Jabir bin Merdaw al-Ka’bi (1863-1936), to the verso of the rear free endpaper. A photograph of the Sheikh of Muhammerah appears in Part II. A few small scuffs and stains, corners bumped. A good copy of this rare and important work usually encountered only in poor condition. Badr El-Hage, Saudi Arabia: Caught in Time, 1861-1939, p. 95. Imperial War Museum 29(567)/3-5. OCLC 757755425. Not in Macro or Wilson.
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Philby, Harry St John Bridger.
The Empty Quarter, being a description of the Great South Desert of Arabia known as Rub' al Khali. London, Constable, 1933.
8vo. XXIV, 433, (1) pp. With 3 folding maps an 47 illustrations on 32 plates. Publisher's original giltstamped green cloth. First edition. St. John Philby (1885-1960), also known by his Arabian name "Sheikh Abdullah", was an Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence officer. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied oriental languages and was a friend and classmate of Jawaharlal Nehru, later prime Minister of India. Philby settled in Jeddah and became famous as an international writer and explorer. He personally mapped on camelback what is now the Saudi-Yemeni border on the Rub' al Khali; in 1932, while searching for the lost city of Ubar, he was the first Westerner to visit and describe the Wabar craters. At this time, Philby also became Ibn Saud's chief adviser in dealing with the British Empire and Western powers. He converted to Islam in 1930. The personal contacts between the United States and Saudi Arabia were largely channeled through the person of Philby. - An excellent copy, with very insignificant foxing to first and last few pages. Macro 1781. Ghani 302.
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[Algeria - Tunisia - Photography].
Algerie - Tunisie. [Tunis, Photographie Garrigues, late 19th century].
Oblong album (320 x 410 mm). Album with 50 photographic prints of various sizes (135 x 95 to 290 x 215 mm), each pasted on thick paperboard. Half black leather with title in gold lettering on front board. Album with 50 albumen prints of scenes in Algeria and Tunisia, made by an unknown photographer. Most of the photographs have a caption naming the place photographed, but only 5 indicate place of production or publication of the photos. These were all produced in Tunis, at least some by the French photographer J. Garrigues, printed and published at his studio. Notable photographs in this album are the first, showing a veiled woman, a barber at work in the streets, riders on their horses, camels with riders and luggage, the Notre Dame d’Afrique in Algiers. Other subjects include city views, (fairly) candid photos of people in the streets, landscapes and the exterior and interior of a mosque. - The most remarkable print in this album actually does not fit in with the other images of places in North Africa. It is a photograph of pilgrims before the Great Mosque and Kaaba in Mecca, modern day Saudi Arabia with a caption in Arabic. This photograph was taken by the first Arab photographer Al-Sayyid ‘Abd al-Gaffar ca. 1887, making it one of the first photographs of Mecca. The present album contains this picture in its original form, including the Arabic caption. An edited version of the photograph (in which remnants of the Arabic caption are visible) can be found in Hurgronje’s "Bilder aus Mekka". - With a small Antwerp bookseller’s ticket on the front paste-down. The binding shows some signs of wear, slight foxing/browning of the outer edges of the paper boards (not affecting the photographic prints), some prints have slightly faded edges, which does not interfere with the actual image. Overall in good condition.
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Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny the Elder).
Naturae historiarum libri XXXVII. E castigationibus Hermolai Barbari quam emendatissime editi. Venice, Bernardinus Benalius, 1497 (but not before 13 Feb. 1498).
Folio. 268 ff. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. Fine incunabular edition of Pliny's famous encylopedic work, covering the entire field of ancient knowledge. With his "Natural History", Pliny gives a mathematical and physical description of the world, discusses geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, sculpture and painting. As "a purveyor of information both scientific and nonscientific, Pliny holds a place of exceptional importance in the tradition and diffusion of culture" (DSB). Through the present work Pliny "gives us by far the most detailed account of the coast of the United Arab Emirates that has come down to us. Chapter 32 of Book 6 (§ 149-152), beginning near the Qatar peninsula, proceeds to describe the Emirates islands, tribes, and coast right up to the Musandam peninsula, before continuing on south along the coast of Oman. As such, it is a mine of invaluable information on the UAE in the late pre-Islamic era" (UAE History, online). Pliny "completed his 'Natural History' in 77 AD and, to judge from his account of the peoples and places of south-eastern Arabia [...], the area of the UAE was full of settlements, tribes, and physical features, the names of which he recorded for posterity" (Ghareeb/Al Abed 54). - "This appears to be the first edition of Barbarus' recension, the note of a 1496 edition by the same printer being probably due to a confusion (Hain 13099)" (BMC). Dated 1497 in the colophon, but the dedication is dated the Ides of February in the twelfth year of the Doge Augustinus Barbadicus (30 Aug. 1497 to 29 Aug. 1498). - Numerous contemporary marginalia. Slight worming to gutter and some waterstaining near end; spine restored. Late 19th-c. bookplate of Dr. J. Klauber on front pastedown. HC 13101*. Goff P-799. GW M34321. Klebs 786.14. Proctor 4893A. BMC V 377. ISTC ip00799000.
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Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny the Elder).
Naturalis historiae opus. (Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1524).
Folio. (16), 311, (60) ff. Title-page and sub-title to index with ornamental woodcut border. Woodcut initials, head and tail pieces. Calf, gold-tooled ribbed spine with title-label. Sprinkled edges. First edition of the "Natural history" edited by Johannes Caesarius (1468-1550), a humanist and close friend of Erasmus. The original text was by Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 - August 25, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. The text in the present edition is decorated with woodcut borders and many woodcut initials. - The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20,000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy , geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. ''We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia'' (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Not only is it virtually the only work which describes the work of artists of the time, and has it become an important reference work for the history of art, due to the wide range of topics, the referencing system and index it became a model for later encyclopaedias. - With manuscript notes of multiple owners on pastedown (including written ex-libris by Antonii Mauritii Seguin 1713 and Mathon de la cour 1744). Some underling in text, and notes in the margins (partly lost due to trimmed edges). A very good copy with bookplate of De Ponsainpierre on pastedown. VD 16, P 3531. Adams P 1556. BM-STC German 704. Durling 3689 (imperfect copy). Hunt 23. USTC (11 copies).
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Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny the Elder).
The Historie of the World, commonly called the Naturall Historie. London, Adam Islip, 1634.
Folio (235 x 320 mm). 2 vols. in one. (58), 614, (42) pp. (12), 632, (86) pp. Elaborate woodcut device on title-page; woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, spine in six compartments, tooled and lettered in gilt. Pliny's renowned Natural History in its second publication in English (repeating, with corrections, the 1601 first publication), translated by Philemon Holland, the greatest translator of the Elizabethan age. The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to the author. Pliny claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20.000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. "We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia" (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Binding rubbed; front hinge splitting. Includes the final printed leaf in vol. 2, containing the publisher's advertisement to the reader that all errors have been corrected in the present edition and the errata leaf (included in the same position in 1601) has become unnecessary rather than having been mistakenly omitted. Some slight browning and brownstaining, but an excellent copy removed in 1973 from the Royal Meteorological Society (Symons Bequest, 1900) with their bookplate on the front pastedown. STC 20030. Cf. Pforzheimer 496 (1601 ed.).
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Pococke, Richard.
Beschryving van het Oosten, en van eenige andere landen [...]. Including: Schutte, Rutger. Verhandelingen over de reize der Israëlieten in de woestijne, en eenige bijzonderheden van Jerusalem en deszelfs omtrek. - Bladwijzer der schriftuur-plaatsen [...]. Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Gijsbert Tieme and Abraham van Paddenburg; Jacobus Bosch and Reinier Arrenberg; Martinus de Bruyn, 1776-1786.
4to. 3 vols. (in 6 parts) bound as 6. XXXVI, 219, (1), (11), 224-491, (1) pp. (12), 262 pp., (1 blank f.), VIII, (3), 268-376, 397-519, (1) pp. VIII, 262 pp., (1 blank f.), VIII, (3), 268-403, (1) pp. (4), 115, (1), 124 pp. With 205 engraved folding plates (irregularly numbered I-CIII), including maps, plans, views and other illustrations, depicting temples, antiquities, plants, animals, etc. Contemporary half calf, gold fillets and two title-labels on spines, sprinkled paper sides. First edition of the Dutch translation of Pococke's celebrated monograph on the Near and Middle East, praised by Gibbon as a work of "superior learning and dignity" (Decline and Fall, ch. 11, n. 69). This Dutch edition was augmented with 27 plates, an essay by the minister Rutger Schutte on the travels of the Israelites, and a index to Biblical locations found in the main work. - "Pococke travelled extensively in Europe from 1733 to 1736 and continued on to the Levant, reaching Alexandria in September 1737. He remained three years in the Eastern Mediterranean, visiting Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece. His book describes these journeys but not necessarily in chronological order. The plates of antiquities are after drawings by Pococke himself ... Pococke achieved a great reputation with this publication; the work was very popular during his lifetime and was praised by Gibbon" (Blackmer). "The quality and particularly the earliness of his observations and their record in prose, maps, and diagrams make him one of the most important near eastern travellers, ranking with Frederik Ludvig Norden and Carsten Niebuhr, in stimulating an Egyptian revival in European art and architecture, and recording much that has subsequently been lost" (ODNB). - A couple of plates in the last volume slightly browned and a few spots on the first few leaves of the first volume, otherwise a very good copy, with the leaves nearly untrimmed. The bindings somewhat rubbed along the extremities (primarily the spines), but otherwise good. Cox I, 224. Tiele, Bibl. 869. Cf. Blackmer 1323 (English ed.); for the author: Baigent, "Pococke, Richard (1704-1765"; in: ODNB (online ed.).
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Prisse d'Avennes, Achille Constant Théodore Émile.
L'Art Arabe d'après les monuments du Kaire depuis le VIIe siècle jusqu'la fin du XVIIIe. Paris, Morel, [1869-]1877.
1 volume of text (4to) and 3 vols. of plates (large folio). Text: 1 bl. f., title leaf, viii, 296 pp., 1 bl. f. With 34 lithogr. plates (all with tissue guards) and 73 text illustrations. Half morocco with giltstamped title to gilt spine. Spine rebacked. Plate volumes all with half title, title, list of contents and a total of 200 engraved plates (130 of which are chromolithographs and 48 tinted lithographs). Plate volumes bound uniformly with text volume in giltstamped half morocco with cloth covers. Very scarce first edition of this splendid, unsurpassed standard work on Islamic art. Prisse d'Avennes spent many years in Egypt after 1826, first as an engineer in the service of Mehmet Ali. After 1836 he explored Egypt disguised as an Arab and using the name Edris Effendi; during this period he carried out archaeological excavations in the valley of the Nile. In 1860, Prisse d'Avennes returned to France with a wealth of documentation and drawings, which he subsequently had reproduced by specially trained draughtsmen and published in this monumental set. "'Arab Art', however, is more than a monument to the author's tenacity, skill, and devotion. For the historian of architecture, it is a precise source, a unique documentary record [...] On an entirely different level, Prisse d'Avennes has provided today's architects, designers, artists, and illustrators with some of the finest examples of measured drawings, pattern details, and illustrations of selected aspects of the built environment of a medieval Islamic city. But 'Arab Art' is not merely an exercise in architectural description. Prisse d'Avennes writes about and records in the plates art forms ranging from elaborately decorated tiles to carpets and fabrics, to Korans and illuminated manuscripts. His text examines how these objects were made and the way they were used, and describes the value placed on them by contemporary society. The result is that his book offers invaluable glimpses of aspects of Arab life as they were viewed by a sympathetic West European" (preface to the 1963 London edition). - Beautiful, complete set (the last copy sold at auction was incomplete). Text and plates uncommonly clean and in an excellent state of preservation throughout, in contrast to the known copies in libraries and in institutional possession. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 138-140.
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Prisse d'Avennes, Achille Constant Théodore Émile.
Oriental Album. Characters, Costumes, and Modes of life, in the valley of the Nile. London, James Madden, 1848.
Folio (382 x 522 mm). (6), 60 pp. With mounted chromolithographed additional decorative title heightened with gold, tinted lithographed portrait, and 30 hand-coloured lithographs. Numerous wood-engraved illustrations in the text. Contemp. red half morocco with giltstamped cover and spine title. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Modern calf-backed marbled boards, spine gilt with morocco label. First edition. Only a small portion of the press run - as the present copy - was coloured by hand, providing the utmost detail and atmosphere to the splendid plates showing bedouins, horses, local life and costumes. One of the most sought-after and earliest publications by Prisse d'Avennes, who spent many years in Egypt after 1826, first as an engineer in the service of Mehmet Ali. After 1836 he explored Egypt disguised as an Arab, using the name Edris Effendi; during this period he carried out archaeological excavations in the valley of the Nile. In 1848 he first published his "Oriental Album". This unusual visual collection of "characters, costumes and modes of life in the valley of the Nile" is augmented by a commentary by the renowned orientalist and Egyptologist James Augustus St. John. - The frontispiece portrait depicts the artist's friend George Lloyd in the robes of a sheikh reclining with a hookah, and camels in the background. Lloyd, a botanist accompanying the expedition, accidentally shot himself whilst cleaning a rifle. - Final plate with a few minor repairs to margins; final leaf creased and with marginal repairs. One or two other minor marginal defects. - While normal copies of the first edition regularly appear in the trade or at auctions, the present coloured de luxe issue with all the plates is quite rare. The Atabey copy fetched £36,000 (Sotheby's, May 29, 2002, lot 975); the Longleat copy commanded $59,200 (Christie's, June 13, lot 110) that same year. Atabey 1001. Blackmer 1357. Lipperheide Ma 30. Colas 2427. Hiler 772. Brunet IV, 885. Graesse V, 449. Cf. Heritage Library, Islamic Treasures, s. v. "Art" (illustration). Not in Cook (Egyptological Libr.), Fumagalli (Bibliogr. Etiopica), Gay, Abbey.
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Prisse d'Avennes, Achille Constant Théodore Émile.
Oriental Album. Characters, Costumes, and Modes of Life, in the Valley of the Nile. London, James Madden, 1851.
Folio. 31 tinted lithographed plates, all with partial hand-colouring. Contemporary red half morocco gilt. Second edition of one of the most sought-after and earliest publications by Prisse d'Avennes, who spent many years in Egypt after 1826, first as an engineer in the service of Mehmet Ali. After 1836 he explored Egypt disguised as an Arab, using the name Edris Effendi; during this period he carried out archaeological excavations in the valley of the Nile. In 1848 he first published his "Oriental Album". This unusual visual collection of "characters, costumes and modes of life in the valley of the Nile" is augmented by a commentary by the renowned orientalist and Egyptologist James Augustus St. John. - The frontispiece portrait depicts the artist's friend George Lloyd in the robes of a sheikh reclining with a hookah, and camels in the background. Lloyd, a botanist accompanying the expedition, accidentally shot himself whilst cleaning a rifle. - Light foxing, affecting some plates, with 2 plates trimmed at foot and laid down. Atabey 1001. Blackmer 1357. Colas 2427. OCLC 4423031. Cf. Brunet IV, 885 (1st ed. only). Heritage Library, Islamic Treasures, s. v. "Art" (illustration). Not in Abbey. Lipperheide Ma 30 (1st ed.).
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(Prothero, G. W. [ed.]).
Persian Gulf: French and Portuguese Possessions. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1920.
8vo. (8), 83, (1) pp. (8), 57, (1) pp. (8), 74 pp. (8), 52 pp. (4), 26 pp., final blank f. (4), 26 pp. 38 pp. (index). Publisher's printed green cloth. A manual of "geographical, economic, historical, social, religious and political" information compiled for the British delegates to the Peace Conference that took place in Versailles in 1919, here issued "for public use" for the first time. The extensive section on the Arabian coastal regions includes not only detailed statistics (giving the population of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah at 6,000, 20,000, and 15,000 inhabitants, respectively), but also, in a separate appendix, the full text of the treaties signed between the United Kingdom and the Sheikhs and rulers of the "Trucial Coast" in 1820 and 1853, including the names of all signatories: Sh. Hassan bin Rahmah for Ras al-Khaimah, Sh. Shakbout for Abu Dhabi, Sh. Zayed bin Syf for Dubai, Sh. Sultan bin Suggur for Sharjah, Sh. Rashid bin Hamid for Ajman, Sh. Abdullah bin Rashid for Umm al-Quwayn, etc. - Issued as vol. XIII of the "Peace Handbooks" by the Historical Section of the Foreign Office. Comprises in all: nos. 76 (Persian Gulf), 77 (French India), 78 (French Indo-China), 79 (Portuguese India), 80 (Portuguese Timor), and 81 (Macao). - Binding slightly stained. Withdrawn from the University Library of Manchester (their ownership, bookplate, and deaccession stamp to endpapers). - Rare. OCLC 28122772.
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Ptolemaeus.
Sexta Asiae Tabula. [Rome, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Buckinck for Domitius Calderinus, 1478].
Engraved map of the Arabian peninsula, printed (as usual) on two joined folio leaves (together 563 x 396 mm). Framed (79:63 cm). Highly important early map of the Arabian Peninsula and adjoining regions, from the extraordinary 1478 Rome edition of Ptolemy's "Geography", created under the direction of Conrad Swenheym (who apprenticed with Gutenberg). The second map of the Peninsula ever published, in its first state, this is the earliest obtainable printed map of Arabia, preceded only by the less detailed and crudely engraved specimen in the Bologna edition of Ptolemy, which is generally regarded as unobtainable. - The present map is an excellent example of Swenheym's finely engraved map of Arabia, based upon Ptolemy. Among the towns shown are Medina (Lathrippa) and the archaeological sites of Zubarah (Catara) and Al-Dur (Domana). The association of Macoraba with Mecca is disputed. Shirley notes that "[t]he new copper plates engraved at Rome for the 1478 edition of Ptolemy's 'Geography' are much superior in clarity and craftsmanship to those of the Bologna edition. There is evidence that work on the Rome edition had been started in 1473 or 1474, and several of the plates may well have been engraved before those printed [by Taddeo Crivelli] at Bologna in 1477. The printing was carried out by two skilled printers of German origin: Conrad Sweynheym and his successor Arnold Buckinck; the publisher was Domitius Calderinus. Many consider the Rome plates to be the finest Ptolemaic plates produced until Gerard Mercator engraved his classical world atlas of 1578" (p. 3). - Until the 1477 edition was definitively dated, the 1478 edition was believed to be the first printed atlas. Buckinck completed the work started by Sweynheym, whose method of using a printing press for the copperplate maps, together with the fine engraving, produced excellent results. Christopher Colombus owned a copy of this edition, which he annotated. The plates for the 1478 Rome Ptolemy were later purchased by Petrus de Turre in 1490, who published the second, unchanged edition of the map; it was again reprinted in 1507. The editions are identical, although there are different watermarks in the paper (though there is some debate as to whether the watermarks are in fact completely reliable in determining the editions). - Some faint stains along the edges of the paper and in the gutter. In very good condition. Al Ankary 3. Nordenskiöld 201.21. Tibbetts 4. Campbell, Letter Punches: a Little-Known Feature of Early Engraved Maps. Print Quarterly, Volume IV, No. 2, June 1987, pp. 151-154. For the atlas: Shirley, Mapping of the world 4.
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Ptolemaeus, Claudius.
Sexta Asie Tabula. Ulm, Lienhart Holle, 1482.
Double-page woodcut map, fine original hand-colour, with near-contemporary manuscript vignette illustrations of an Ababeel bird, Makkah and Kaaba in pen and wash heightened in gold. 414 x 572 mm. Framed (78 x 56 cm). The first-ever printed woodcut map of the Arabian peninsula, here in original hand colour and adorned with unique, hand-drawn illumination added by a contemporary artist. The map was published in the first atlas printed outside Italy; it was the first atlas to be illustrated with woodcut maps. Remarkably, the hand-drawn vignette illustrations include a depiction of the relief of Makkah, besieged by Abrahah, through the Ababeel birds, who pelted the attacking army of war elephants with burning stones from the pits of the fires of hell. The image shows a gigantic blue-and-gilt Ababeel bird above the city, engulfed in flames - not only one of the earliest depictions of Makkah but also an amazing example of cross-cultural exchange of narratives during the early Renaissance, proving a Western illustrator's familiarity with a Middle Eastern tradition famously referenced in the Qur'an (sura 105, known as al-Fil, The Elephant): "Wa 'arsala 'Aalayhim tayran 'Ababeel, Tarmeehim bihijaratin min sijjeel" ("And He sent against them birds in flocks, Striking them with stones of burning clay"). No other example with these illustrations of Makkah is known, nor are they contained in any printed edition of Ptolemy. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, p. 179-210. Schreiber 5032. Tibbetts 8 (p. 37). The Heritage Library, Islamic Treasures, s. v. "Maps". Cf. Heritage Library, Qatar, p. 8f (illustration). Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 21.
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[Qur'an].
Al-Coranus s. lex islamitica Muhammedis, filii Abdallae pseudoprophetae [...]. Hamburg, Gottfried Schultze & Benjamin Schiller, 1694.
4to. (90), 560 [but p. 255f. repeated], (10) pp. Latin title printed in red and black; one Latin and two Arabic (woodcut) half-titles. Preface in Latin, text in vocalized Arabic throughout. Contemporary half calf with marbled covers and giltstamped label to sparsely gilt spine. The famous "Hamburg Koran": while not actually (as it was long considered) the first printed Qur'an ever, the first accessible printed edition of the Arabic text. Only in 1987 was a unique copy of Paganino de Paganinis's Venetian edition (c. 1538) rediscovered, a work whose press run either was destroyed immediately or was limited to the sole surviving specimen, apparently a proof copy (cf. A. Nuovo, "Il Corano arabo ritrovato", in: Bibliofilia LXXX, IX, 1987). Four years after the present edition, in 1698, Lodovico Marracci produced his own Qur'an, but its two big tomes were anything but easy to consult - hence, the Hamburg Koran remained "the only available and handleable" (Smitskamp) edition until the early 19th century. - Abraham Hinckelmann (1652-95), a Hamburg theologian, studied at Wittenberg and collected many Oriental manuscripts. He compiled a Quranic lexicon in manuscript and planned a Latin translation of the Koran, but this was never realised. - Some browning throughout, as common due to paper; slight waterstaining near end. Ms. ownership of Joseph Venturi in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin ("emit Romae An. 1789") on Latin title (his quotation from Brunet on first Arabic title), with early 19th c. ownership of Blasius Milani. This is the uncommon variant with two different woodcut Arabic titles. Schnurrer 376. Smitskamp, PO 360. Fück 94. Le Livre et le Liban 135f. Woolworth 279. Hamilton, Europe and the Arab World 33. Brunet III, 1306. H. Bobzin, From Venice to Cairo, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (2002), p. 151-176, at p.160f., with 2 illustrations (figs. VI and 74). The Heritage Library: Treasures of Islamic and Arabic Heritage (Qatar 2006), s. v. "Religion", with illustration.
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[Qur'an]. Beck, Matthias Friedrich.
Specimen arabicum, hoc est, Bina capitula Alcorani XXX de Roma & XLIIX de Victoria [...]. Augsburg, Jakob Koppmayer for Lorenz Kroniger & Gottlieb Goebel's heirs, 1688.
4to. (12), 66, 41, (1) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With a coin engraving in the text. 19th c. wrappers. Only edition thus: the 30th and the 48th sura (Ar-Rum and Al-Fath) in the original Arabic and with Latin parallel translation. An early and scholarly specimen of Qur'an translation in the West, with extensive commentary. The Arabic text is rendered in Hebrew letters, as Arabic types were unavailable to the printer. M. F. Beck (1649-1701) had studied history and oriental literature at Jena. In 1677 he settled in Ausgburg as a preacher, but kept his focus on the oriental languages. His linguistic proficiency ultimately earned him a pension from the King of Prussia (cf. ADB II, 218). - Some browning; title insignificantly dust- and waterstained, but altogether well preserved. VD 17, 12:128711C. Schnurrer 374. OCLC 13610797.
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[Qur'an - English].
The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mahomet. First American edition. Springfield, MA, Henry Brewer for Isaiah Thomas, Jun., October 1806.
8vo. VIII, 524 pp. Contemporary full sheepskin with giltstamped spine title. First American edition of the Qur'an, produced by Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society and the largest and most important Massachusetts publishing house during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Thomas adapted a translation of the French orientalist André Du Ryer for the American market, with occasional notes, including Turkish traditions. Du Ryer had been the envoy of the French king at Alexandria and Constantinople in the 17th century. His translation was the best available, and was frequently reprinted and translated into other European languages throughout the 18th century. - Some browning and light foxing throughout. Small hole slightly affecting text to leaf Aa6; quires Ff and Gg transposed; a tear in leaf O4 professionally repaired. Provenance: From the collection of the Massachusetts businessman Henry E. Call (fl. 1860s) with his ink ownership to title-page and oval stamps to flyleaf; front pastedown has mid-19th century note of acquisition for $2.00 from E. P. Dutton's Boston bookshop, founded in 1852. Shaw & Shoemaker 10684. Europe and the Arab World 32. OCLC 3548445. Not in Chauvin.
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[Qur'an - Latin].
Mohammedia filii Abdallae pseudo-prophetae Fides Islamitica, i.e. Al-Coranus. Ex idiomate Arabico, quo primum a Mohammede conscriptus est, latine versus per Ludovicum Marraccium [...]. Cura et opera M. Christiani Reineccii. Leipzig, Lanckisch, 1721.
8vo. (12), 114, (2), 558, (34) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary full vellum with ms. title to spine. First printing thus. - The edition of Christian Reineccius (1668-1752) contains the Latin text of Luigi Marracci (1612-1700), to which are added a history of the Qur'an and an account of the Muslim faith. Marracci's text, published in 1698, constituted the first accurate Latin translation, the first scholarly printed Qur'an (including a much more accurate Arabic text than any previously printed). "It was a considerable progress that the Qur'an, much maligned by so many in the West possessing no familiarity at all with its content, now was made generally available" (cf. Fück). - Some browning throughout, as common; old ownership "Steph. Manno" stamped to title page. Altogether very well-preserved in an immaculate contemporary full vellum binding. Schnurrer p. 413f. Fück 95, n. 251. BM Arabic I, 896. Enay 164. Zenker I, 1396. Woolworth p. 286.
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[Qur'an]. Lydis, Mariette.
42 Miniaturen zum Koran. Berlin, Brandussche Verlagsbuchhandlung, (1924).
Oblong 8vo. (4), 42 mounted colour printed plates, some of which heightened in gold, (4) pp. Each plate matted with the corresponding letterpress Qur'an verse with red border to versos opposite. Title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary green full calf with giltstamped title to cover and spine. Top edge gilt. Original stapled plain card slipcase. Only edition. A collection of 42 exquisite illustrations for selected suras from the Qur'an inspired by Persian miniatures. One of the earliest works by the Austrian-born painter and illustrator Lydis (1887-1970), a self-taught artist influenced by Islamic art as well as by the Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita. Lydis settled in Paris in 1926 and escaped the Nazis during the occupation, living briefly in England before emigrating to Buenos Aires. Today she is best known for her illustrations in de luxe editions of Boccaccio, Louÿs, Baudelaire, Mirbeau and Valéry. - The plates, in colours and gold, were printed by Ganymed in Berlin, the text by Proeschel & Trepte in Leipzig. - Extremities slightly rubbed. Interior in mint condition. Vollmer III, 278. OCLC 187048571.
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[Qur'an - Swedish].
Koran öfversatt från arabiska originalet, jemte en historisk inledning af Fredrik Crusenstolpe, konsulat-sekreterare vid kongl. konsulatet i Marocko. Stockholm, P. A. Norstedt & söner, 1843.
8vo. V, (1), 158, 783, (1), 26, (2) pp. Near contemporary green half calf over marbled boards, flat spine elaborately gilt. First Swedish edition: the pioneering, first complete version of the Holy Qur'an in any Scandinavian language. The translator Fredrik Crusenstolpe (1801-82) was secretary to the Swedish consul in Tanger and a philhellene who had fought against the Ottomans in the Greek War of Independence. - The publication was privately funded by the translator himself: Crusenstolpe, who detected in the Swedish mentality an ignorance and tendency toward superstition which he resented, "felt personally compelled to furnish the Swedish audience with material to rectify some of the misconceptions about the Prophet Muhammad in Swedish popular imagination [...] He described the Prophet as a rational 'Arabic founder of law' (p. iii), in compliance with a common imagery of the Prophet which emerged in the European Enlightenment" (N. S. Eggen, "On the Periphery: Translations of the Our'an in Sweden, Denmark and Norway", in: The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Translation, ed. Sameh Hanna et al.). - Covers a little rubbed, corners slightly bumped. Some browning and occasional foxing throughout. From the library of Swedish linguist Hans Hultqvist (1943-2019) with his discrete shelf mark in pencil to title-page. Very rare: OCLC lists only four holding libraries (NY Public Library, Library of Congress, Cleveland Public Library, Ohio State University). Chauvin X, 238. OCLC 2011410.
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Quran.
A fine illuminated Qur'an manuscript. [Ottoman Empire], [1862 CE].
8vo. 307 ff. Naskh calligraphy, 15 lines. Black ink on polished paper; borders in red and gold; sura headings in white ink on gilt; gilt discs for verse divisions. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation; colophon shows floral ornamentation in green and gilt. Coloured floral decoration to margins. Later cloth. Colophon in Arabic: "Finished Thursday afternoon 3 o'clock. The scribe is the son of Mehmed Halil Ibrahim, what is done is determined by Allah". - Provenance: acquired in Istanbul, Turkey, in the 1960s.
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[Qur'an].
A fine illuminated Qur'an manuscript. Probably modern Afghanistan or Pakistan, ca. 1830s (first half of the 19th century CE).
8vo (ca. 110 x 160 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 260 ff. with 3 double-page 'Unwan headpieces in colours and gilt. 17 lines in meticulous black ink Naskhi, text within black, blue and gilt rules, verse divisions marked by black-bordered gold discs, red orthoepic markers and diacritics, sura beginnings in red on gilt background, line separators in black and gilt, marginal medallions (Juz' and Hizb markers) in colours and gilt, marginalia in red. Contemporary lacquer binding, covers elaborately painted with floral designs on outsides and insides. Later black morocco spine with stamped title. Stored in contemporary giltstamped leather slipcase with flap. An exceptionally pretty early 19th century Qur'an manuscript probably written in the Pashtunistan or Balochistan region of British India. Occasional insignificant edge flaws or various instances of light browning, but generally a very clean and well-preserved example in a pretty floral lacquer binding (corners bumped, spine repaired in more recent times). Slipcase a little rubbed and worn along extremeties.
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[Qur'an].
An Ottoman Qur'an manuscript. [Ottoman Empire, [1810 CE =] 1225 H.
8vo (105 x 149 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished paper. 306 ff., 2 flyleaves, 15 lines to the page. Written in fine Naskh script in black ink, verses separated by small gold roundels pointed in red, illuminated floral marginal devices throughout surah headings written in white thuluth script within gold-ground floral panels. Double-page illuminated 'unwan frontispiece elaborately decorated with interlacing polychrome flowers against a punched gold ground. Contemporary full gilt leather with fore-edge flap and gilt floral designs to covers. Endpapers covered with cornflower-blue, relief-stamped floral paper. Edges mottled in red. Stored in matching leather slipcase with flap and bellows-style cloth sides. A beautiful Qur'an manuscript from the early years of the era of Sultan Mahmud II, written in modern-day Turkey by Omar Al-Shawqi, student of Ismael Shawqi. - A small hole in the text of the second leaf, sewing a little loosened in places, otherwise a very attractively preserved example of a pocket-sized Qur'an.
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[Qur'an].
Illuminated, complete Qur'an manuscript. [Ottoman Empire], ca. 1770 / 18th century.
8vo (208 x 150 mm). Contemporary blind- and goldstamped calf with fore-edge flap, decorated with corner stamps. Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 305 ff., single 15-line column, Naskh script on polished paper. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt and coloured ornamentation. Text framed by three parallel golden and black lines. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold.
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Quran.
Illuminated, complete Qur'an manuscript. [Kashmir], ca. 1770 / 18th century.
8vo (149 x 94 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 211 ff., 20 lines, Naskh script. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt and coloured ornamentation. Framed by strings of three gold and black lines. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold. Original lacquer binding decorated with flowers. Traces of use, otherwise in good condition. Binding restored.
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Quran.
Illuminated Qur'an manuscript. [Ottoman area], [1848 CE] = 1265 H.
8vo (129 x 83 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on paper, 303 ff., 15 lines, Naskh script. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation; colophon shows coloured ornamentation. Text framed by three parallel golden, black and red wires. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in gold. Contemporary blind- and giltstamped binding with fore-edge flap, decorated with borders and corner stamps. Some slight restoration to first leaves, otherwise in very good condition.
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Quran.
Illuminated Qur'an manuscript. [Ottoman Empire], [1852 CE] = 1269 H.
8vo (124 x 180 mm). Illuminated Arabic ms. on polished paper. 301 ff., final blank. 15 lines, Naskh script. Black ink on polished paper. Double-page 'unwan on first two pages shows elaborate gilt ornamentation. Borders in red, black and gold. Gold discs between verses, sura headings written in red. Contemporary blindstamped gilt calf. Complete Quran ms. with occasional coloured floral decoration to the margins. First leaf remargined; some fingerstaining and occasional browning; a very few ink smudges. Spine rebacked in different leather. Altogether a good example.
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