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Iraq.
Kirkuk. World 1404. 427B. 3-GSGS. [London], War Office, 1962.
760 x 625 mm. Scale 1:500,000. With some notes in pencil. In excellent condition.
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[Jeddah].
Bridge construction. [Jeddah and Mecca, 1960s].
Oblong small folio (258 x 355 mm). Photo album with 56 original silver gelatin prints, 10 picture postcards in colour, and 2 folding greeting cards. 4 photos captioned in Arabic, the remainder in English. Contemporary full calf. Private photo album of a Western engineer involved in bridge construction near Jeddah. The collection includes images of the workers' camp, construction machines, Saudi workers and supervisors, the rising bridge piers, and inspection rounds, as well as pictures of the engineer chatting with Saudi friends or repairing his SC truck. In addition, the set comprises views of Mecca, pilgrim buses and tents, as well as souvenir cards and postcards, suggesting a friend of the collector participated in the Hajj. - One postcard, showing a street view of Mecca, is dated Jeddah, 3 July 1964 (addressed to Silvia Pirani in Bologna). - The 4 photographs with Arabic captions, dated 1375/1955, show a family, including a small boy in formal uniform, before a mosque. - A very well-preserved album documenting the advance of infrastructure in the Saudi Arabian desert.
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[Mecca].
Mecca. Asia North F-37. [London], War Office, 1941.
808:640 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. First edition. Map of the western coast of Saudi Arabia from Abu Shaibana in the north to Rakah in the south, and from Rabigh and Jeddah in the west to Turbah in the interior. Including parts of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Egypt. Compiled by W.O. 1939, drawn and heliographed by O.S. 1940. With 2 printed straight lines giving degrees of longitude dated December 1943. - In excellent condition.
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[Mecca].
Mecca. Asia North F-37. [London], War Office, 1944/1945.
825:620 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. First edition, with air information. Map of the western coast of Saudi Arabia from Abu Shaytanah in the north to Lith in the south, and from the Sudanese coast in the west to Turubah in the Arabian interior. Reproduced in 1944 and reprinted in 1945 "from W. O. Pulls 1st Edition 1941". - In excellent condition.
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Oman.
Salala. GSGS 2555. Asia. North E-40. [London], War Office, 1950.
915:625 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. Second edition. Map of the coast of Oman from Salala in the West to Duqm in the North. - In excellent condition.
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[Petroleum facilities - Suez and Fedala].
2 picture postcards. Suez and Fedala, ca. 1920.
Oblong 8vo. Captioned in English, French and Arabic. Rare, early black and white photographic views of two important petroleum refineries in Africa: Suez and Fedala. The latter is featured in a photograph by the French military photographer Marcel Flandrin (1889-1957), a pioneer of aerial photography in Morocco. Taken from an aeroplane and published by the Syndicat d'Inititative, the image shows the bonding warehouses at Fedala refinery amidst a rough Atlantic. - The second postcard, published by Vitta & Cie., shows a general view of the Suez refinery against the backdrop of the Ataka Mountains. - In addition to the printed captions, the postcard of Suez bears handwritten captions in German and English on recto and verso in ink and pencil. - The postcard of Suez pierced in two places. A very well preserved set.
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[Petroleum Press Bureau].
Petroleum Press Service. London, [Petroleum Press Bureau], March 1965.
4to. 40 pp. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Arabic edition of the leading English newspaper on oil matters. Founded in 1934, the Petroleum Press Service was one of the first reliable sources of information on all aspects of the petroleum industry and trade. The Arabic version, first issued in 1953, was published up to the 1970s. - Front cover slightly dampstained.
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[Ras Tanura - Protestant Fellowship].
4 typed programmes. Ras Tanura, 1957-1961.
Small 4to. Together 15 pp. In stapled wrappers with handdrawn cover designs showing two angels, a shepherd with a lamb, and Bethlehem's star. Programmes of the Ras Tanura Protestant Fellowship, an organisation frequented by Aramco employees. The set includes schedules of the Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and Christmas service. - Occasional small marginal flaws to wrappers.
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[Ras Tanura - Thomas, Velma].
5 membership cards for country clubs and women's groups, one golf score card, and a programme of the Aramco Golf Banquet. Ras Tanura and Abqaiq, 1949-1962.
(Oblong) 12mo to small 4to. Together 14 pp. on 6 bifolia and 2 single sheets. The programme of the golf banquet stapled. Small archive of Velma Thomas, a golf enthusiast and wife of the Aramco engineer Orlin Orace Thomas, based at Ras Tanura. The programme of the 1953 golf banquet lists the members of the Aramco golf team of Ras Tanura, including team captain and Aramco administrator Karl Deloian. The other items document Velma Thomas's membership in the Rahimah Hollow Country Club of the Ras Tanura Golf Association, the Ras Tanura Women's Group of the Federation of American Women's Clubs overseas, and the Ain Nakhl country club in Abqaiq. - Small marginal flaws; occasional light brownstaining. Interesting collection documenting the thriving expat golf scene of Saudi Arabia.
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Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.
The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (N. V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij). 1890 / 16 June / 1950. Diamond Jubilee Book. The Hague, (Nijgh & Van Ditmar), 1950.
4to. 204, (4) pp. With numerous black-and-white photographic illustrations and a folding rear-pocket world map labelling the company's spheres of operation. Contemporary full cloth with giltstamped title to cover and spine. Only edition. Anniversary publication of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company celebrating sixty years in the business. It discusses the company's history and activities illustrated with high-quality images of refineries in Texas, California and the Netherlands, as well as of oil tanks, gas stations, working personnel, and corporate office buildings. - Cancelled stamp of the Geological Paleontological Institute of the University of Basel to flyleaf and title-page. OCLC 186670326.
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Saudi Arabia.
Jabrin. GSGS 2555. Asia. North F-39. [London], War Office, 1950.
865 x 635 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. First edition, sales copy.
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[Saudi Arabia].
Qizan. North E-38. First edition. Sales copy. [London], War Office, 1946.
870 x 630 mm. Scale 1:1,000,000. First edition, showing Dharan, Abha, Chamis Mushait, a part of the desert Rub al-Chali, a part of Yemen, etc. - In excellent condition.
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[Saudi Arabia - Freemasonry].
Arabian Shrine Club. [Saudi Arabia, 1960s/1970s].
13 original colour photographs (87 x 109 mm) and 6 original black-and-white photographs (75 x 104 mm), the latter captioned in English on verso. The bulk mounted on cardboard carriers. Inserted in protective sleeves in a green synthetic folder. Rare images of a Masonic society: private collection of photographs from a meeting of the Arabian Shriners in Saudi Arabia. The Shriners are seen in group pictures, alone or alongside their wives. Other pictures show the premises of the venue as well as the celebratory banquet. - In addition, the set comprises 6 black-and-white photographs, including group pictures of Westerners wearing Arabian attire, an image of the walls of the royal palace in Riyadh, a picture of the outskirts of Jeddah, and a view of the desert. - A unique survival.
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Saudi Arabian Airlines.
Ahlan Wasahlan. King Fahd's Project for the Two Holy Mosques. Jeddah, Public Relations Division, Saudi Arabian Airlines, June 1991.
Folio (229 x 297 mm).108 pp. Original printed wrappers. Monthly magazine of the Saudi Arabian Airlines. The present issue covers King Fahd's expansion project for the two Holy Mosques, a development to increase the capacity of the mosques of Mecca and Medina to more than 730,000 and 650,000 worshippers respectively - numbers that could be increased to 2 million on peak days. Other topics of the issue include reports on Saudi Airlines catering, northern Spain, hovercrafts, and the benefit of glass houses to cultivate exotic plants in the northern hemisphere. In addition, the magazine provides two maps of domestic and international routes served by Saudi Airlines.
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[Soviet General Staff Maps] - Al-`Ula.
General'nyí shtab. Medina. G-37. (And:) Al-Wajh. G-37-A. (And:) Madain-Salih. G-37-VIII. Al-Ula. G-37-XIV. [Moscow, General Staff], 1982, 1972, 1978-1979.
4 topographic maps, colour-printed. 70 x 58 cm (1:1,000,000), 66 x 55.5 cm (1:500,000), ca. 54 x 45 cm (1:200,000). Constant ratio linear horizontal scale. In Russian (Cyrillic). The Soviet Union's 1:1,000,000, 1:500,000, and 1:200,000 General Staff map quadrangles showing Al-`Ula: from the Russian series of military maps produced during the Cold War, based on high-quality satellite imagery, but usually also ground reconnaissance. The information was compiled during the years 1982, 1967-70, and 1972-75; the editors were V. R. Iost, Ju. V. Chekusov, and N. D. Yarema, respectively. The smaller-scale maps cover the northwestern coastal portion of the Arabian Peninsula, the large-scale maps provides an astonishing degree of detail. The oasis town Al-`Ula, on the historical Incense Road, is depicted in the Wadi Al-'Ula; nearby landmarks include the Jabal al Mijdar, Khuraybah, and Bi'r 'Udhayb. - Products of a massive, clandestine cartographic project begun under Stalin and ultimately encompassing the entire globe, the Soviet General Staff maps are today noted for their extreme precision. Indeed, even in post-Soviet times they provide the most reliable mapping for many remoter parts of the world: "Soviet-era military maps were so good that when the United States first invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, American pilots relied on old Russian maps of Afghanistan. For almost a month after the United States began a bombing campaign to help oust the Taliban government, American pilots were guided by Russian maps dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s" (Davies/Kent, p. xi). - Although the details of the cartographic programme evolved over the decades, its overall system and plan remained remarkably constant. "The basic quadrangle is the 1:1,000,000 sheet spanning 4° latitude by 6° longitude. The quadrangles are identified by lettered bands north from the equator and by numbered zones east from longitude 180° [...] Each 1:1,000,000 sheet is subdivided into four 1:500,000 sheets (from northwest to southeast), labeled [by] the first four letters of the Russian alphabet [...] Each 1:1,000,000 sheet is [also] subdivided into 36 1:200,000 sheets in a six-by-six grid [... They] normally contain on the reverse side a detailed written description of the districts (towns, communications, topography, geology, hydrology, vegetation, and climate) together with a geological sketch map" (ibid., p. 19-21). "Printing such large-format plans in so many colors with near-perfect print registration itself testifies to the skill of the printers in the military map printing factories across the former Soviet Union. The quality of printing reflects the level of training and the reliability of humidity-control equipment and the electricity supply at the time" (ibid., p. 6f.). The 1:200,000-scale maps are specifically labelled "For Offical Use". Although the general terrain evaluation maps and operational maps produced at the smaller scales of 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000 were not separately marked as classified, all General Staff maps de facto constituted closely guarded military material, none of which became available in the West before the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. - Light traces of folds; some very insignificant wrinkling in places, but altogether in excellent condition. Cf. J. Davies / A. J. Kent, The Red Atlas (Chicago/London, 2017).
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Standard Oil Company.
Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 1964 Annual Report. New York, [Standard Oil Company], 1964.
4to. 28 pp. With several photographic illustrations in colour. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Illustrated annual report of the Standard Oil Company. With handwritten inscription: "Herzliche Grüsse Henry". - The photographs display oil refineries and gas stations, but also illustrate the multi-purpose character of "Jersey" products, including gasoline used for outboard motors in Bangkok, liquefied petroleum for the operation of greenhouses in Belgium, and Esso asphalt laid in France - "a universal answer to building better highways". With a group portrait of three former and acting company presidents: M. J. Rathbone, Michael L. Haider and J. K. Jamieson.
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Standard Oil Company.
The Lamp. Vol. 35, No. 4. New York, Standard Oil Company, 1953.
Folio (231 x 308 mm). 24 pp. With numerous illustrations in colour and black-and-white. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Illustrated corporate magazine of Standard Oil, celebrating the company's international activities. It includes reports on trade with European countries, the recently established Antwerp refinery, the kerosene-powered Seguin lighthouse in Maine, advancing infrastructure in North Africa, and the recycling of oil barrels as musical instruments in the Caribbean. The final three pages display sketched impressions of the Jersey Standard headquarters in New York by the artist Bettina Steinke. OCLC 1755500.
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Swanson, Glenn.
Oil and Water. A Look at the Middle East. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Inc., (1981).
4to. (4), 44 pp. Contemporary full cloth with silver title stamped to spine. With the original dust jacket. Only edition. - Inscribed copy signed by the author: "To Larry and Marion / With best wishes, Glenn W. Swanson". - Scholarly account of the age-old struggle of the Middle East to find a balance between the abundance of oil and the scarcity of water. "In this overview of an important geographical area, the author shows the various ways in which Middle Eastern societies have coped with their water shortage, as well as the methods they use to develop their vast oil reserves and to move the oil from under the ground to overseas destinations [...]". OCLC 859002451.
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The American Magazine / Gaskill, Gordon.
Our Partner in Oil. [New York], October 1947.
4to. 4 pp. on bifolium. With 3 black-and-white photographic illustrations, including a portrait of King Ibn Saud. Interesting account of the close Saudi-American ties forged after the 1933 Concession Agreement. It describes the friendly relationship between King 'Abd al-'Aziz and Aramco, which involved the frequent exchange of valuable gifts. The King presented "his Aramco friends [with] noble Arabian horses, gold-mounted swords, daggers, watches, and Oriental rugs", a courtesy that the Americans recipocrated with exquisite boxes of gold and a golden coffee service, as well as "a complete American cowboy's outfit, with chaps, sombrero, and a gorgeous saddle mounted in gold and silver" - the latter perhaps constituting one of the more peculiar presents. - Further, the article describes friendly interactions between Arabs and Americans and discusses the company's plans to advance Arabian infrastructure and to foster education and housing. - Small marginal flaws. Somewhat toned.
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The Ras Tanura players & Ras Tanura Fellowhip Choir.
2 programmes. Ras Tanura, 1957 and no date.
8vo. Together 7 pp. on two bifolia. Interesting samples of the Aramco expats' buoyant cultural life in Ras Tanura: programmes for performances by the Ras Tanura Fellowship Choir and the theatre group Ras Tanura Players. The former performed "The Seven Last Words of Christ", composed by Theodore Dubois in 1867, under the direction of Lyle R. Danielson. The programme lists all members of the chorus as well as the organist. - The Ras Tanura Players presented the 1944 play "Guest in the House" by Hagar Wilde and Dale Eunson, directed by Don Ertel. Also in 1944, the play was turned into a popular film noir starring Anne Baxter and Ralph Bellamy. The programme features an ink sketch showing Evelyn Heath approaching the Proctor house. - The theatre programme with small marginal flaws.
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Trans-Arabian Oil Pipe Line Company.
Tapline... The Story of the World's Biggest Oil Pipe Line. New York, January 1951.
4to. (6), 40 pp., final blank leaf. With numerous black-and-white photographic illustrations and a map of the Tapline. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Illustrated history of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline - the "greatest of all long range engineering projects". The account celebrates the Tapline's completion in 1950, describing the arduous construction, with rare photographs of the work involved, including pictures of the Sidon terminal and the Badanah pump station as well as portraits of the executive management personnel of the Tapline company. - Wrappers slightly creased; margins a little rubbed. OCLC 6162918.
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[Yemen].
Bahr as Safi. Asia North E-39. [London], War Office, 1949.
890 x 620 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. First edition. Map of the western part of Yemen, including parts of Oman. - Stamped "Sales copy".
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[Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn al Ahnaf].
[Kitab fi al-'inayah bi-al-khayl wa-sa'ir dawab al-rukub]. Kitab al-Furusiyah [The Book of Equestrianism]. [Morocco, December 1714 CE = early Dhu'l-Hijja 1126 H].
4to (165 x 227 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 44 pp. (22 ff.) with 5 full-page colour illustrations (one double-page-sized), all illustrated leaves consisting of two folios pasted together for reinforcement. 17 lines of text, per extensum, within green and double red rules, written in Maghribi style (with diacritic under the letter 'fa') in black, red and green ink; introductory first page written in a different hand in brown ink. 19th century Levantine binding in full red morocco with fore-edge flap, stamped in blind with rules, fleurons and ornamental oval medallions to both covers. Pioneering Abbasid-era study of horsemanship and horse care: the work's only known manuscript in Europe, constituting the long-lost first volume of the set now in the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco. - Titled "Kitab al-Furusiyah" (the "Book of Riding" or "Book of Horses", often referred to as the "Book of Farriery") or, in full, "Kitab fi al-'inayahbi al-khayl wa-sa'ir dawab al-rukub" ("On the care of horses and all other riding animals"), this encyclopedia of horse care was completed ca. 1200 CE. Ahmad ibn al-Ahnaf is known also to have composed a "Kitab al-Baytara" (Book of Veterinary Science) - possibly simply the same work by a different title, although some Arabic sources mention the titles separately. Ahmad was one of the earliest authors to write on the care of horses and possibly the first ever to include illustrations. - The present manuscript comprises the beginning of the work from chapter 1 to the first half of chapter 4. The introduction announces a total of 30 chapters, but no complete copy is known: the most extensive manuscript extant has 29 chapters, while specimens with 26 chapters are more common. As the later chapters are very short, these first four chapters make up more than a quarter of the entire work. They discuss, individually: 1) the study of milk teeth and permanent teeth; 2) the physical appearance and general characteristics of the horse, donkey, and mule; 3) the functions of the external parts of the body; 4) equestrianism and the various ways of mounting a horse. - The present volume completes the incomplete three-volume set in Rabat's National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco, which begins with the fifth chapter and fully agrees with the present manuscript in script, page layout, spelling and size (MS 6126, described in the "Chevaux et cavaliers arabes" exhibition catalogue, see reference below). The illustrations in the manuscript in the Royal Library, showing the identical almond-shaped horse eyes and characteristically rounded hooves, are clearly by the same artist, as well. The Rabat MS is dated Dhu'l-Hijja 1126 H (December 1714 CE) and thus provides the date for the volume at hand, although the style of penmanship would easily agree with a 17th century dating. - Upper corners of the first two leaves professionally restored with very little text loss. Some fingerstains and dust-soiling throughout, more pronounced in first and last page, suggesting that the manuscript probably had no binding before the 19th century. Frequent edge tears, confined to margins. Pigments somewhat chipped in the final, double-page-spread illustration. Altogether a beautiful specimen of an Arabic manuscript on equestrianism, and like all such manuscripts of the greatest rarity. Cf. Digard, Chevaux et cavaliers arabes dans les arts d'Orient et d'Occident: exposition présentée à l'Institut du monde arabe (Paris, 2002), pp. 79, 83 & 126 (no. 68).
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Birjandi, Abd Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn al-.
Sharh al-tadhkirah. No place, [ca. 1585/1591 CE =] 999 or 994 H.
Large 8vo (146 x 238 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. 865 pp. (paginated in a later hand), 25 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red underlinings and emphases. With numerous diagrams in the text. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A rare, complete, and well-preserved late 16th century manuscript of Al-Birjandi's "Sharh al-Tadhkirah", a commentary on the "Tadhkira", the memoir of the Persian polymath at-Tusi (1201-74). As consistent with the Islamic tradition of commentary, Al-Birjandi provides explanations for the reader and provides alternative views while assessing the viewpoints of predecessors. - Abd Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Husayn Birjandi (d. 1528) was a prominent Persian astronomer, mathematician and physicist from Birjand. A pupil of Mansur ibn Muin al-Din al-Kashi, of the Ulugh Beg Observatory, he anticipated notions later developed by Galileo Galilei in the West. - Copied by the scribe Abd al-Wahhab bin Mawlana Baha al-Din. Somewhat browned throughout; some waterstaining to lower half, more pronounced near the end of the volume. The text illustrations show sections, celestial spheres and other astronomical and mathematical diagrams. Old waqf stamp to first leaf. Restored binding uses original cover material.
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Arabian Peninsula. - [Brown, Glen Francis].
[United States Geological Survey of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]. Arabian Peninsula. Map I-270 B-2. Washington, D.C., The Survey (U.S. Geological Society), 1967.
Large chromolithographed map (122 x 139 cm). Scale 1:2,000,000. Second edition. A highly detailed map of the complete Peninsula, the first modern map in 1:2,000,000 scale. Based on the groundbreaking series prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arabian American Oil Company under the joint sponsorship of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. State Department, "a unique experiment in geological cooperation among several governments, petroleum companies, and individuals" (Seager/Johnston). Also includes the territories of today's Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. "The plan for a cooperative mapping project was originally conceived in July 1953 [... By 1955] there was established a cooperative agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Department of State, and the Arabian-American Oil Co. to make available the basic areal geology as mapped by Aramco and the U.S. Geological Survey" (ibid.). The plan provided for 21 maps on a 1:500,000 scale in both geologic and geographic versions; "a peninsular geologic map on a scale of 1:2,000,000 was to conclude the project [...] The first geographic quadrangle was published in July 1956 and the last in September 1962. While preparation of the geographic sheets was in progress, a need arose for early publication of a 1:2,000,000-scale peninsular geographic map. Consequently, a preliminary edition was compiled and published in both English and Arabic in 1958" (ibid.). This revised, final version ("I-270 B-2") that first appeared in 1963 incorporated additional photographic, topographic and cultural data. The present map, printed in 1967, is a re-issue of the 1963 edition, merely differing in the date. Includes a key with symbols for water pipelines, desert watering points, oil fields, pumping stations, refineries, and a glossary of Arabic names. - "Although the search for oil, gas and minerals was ultimately to drive geological survey work across the region [...], in its early years it was the need for water that was the catalyst for Saudi Arabia's resource exploration. In 1944 King 'Abd al-'Aziz approached the United States for a technical expert who could assist with the identification and plotting of the kingdom's natural resources, particularly its groundwater reserves. The individual who arrived, Glen F. Brown, was one of the pioneers of a partnership between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the government of Saudi Arabia that was to span the next five decades and play an important role in the development of the kingdom [...] By 1954 the Saudi Ministry of Finance, USGS and Aramco were working together to produce the first full series of geographic and geologic maps of the country. The first of their type in the Peninsula, these were published [...] in both Arabic and English versions, and the information they contained formed the basis of subsequent Saudi national development plans. To this day, all modern maps of the kingdom trace their roots back to these first publications" (Parry). - Several small tears and paper loss to right and upper margin; occasional small holes. James V. Parry, "Mapping Arabia", in: Saudi Aramco World 2004/1, p. 20ff. OCLC 6681002. O. A. Seager/W. D. Johnston, Foreword to the Geology of the Arabian Peninsula series (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 560-A-D, 1966).
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[Costume drawings].
An album of eight fine watercolour drawings depicting the costumes of Constantinople and the Ottoman World. Constantinople, ca. 1575 / later 16th century.
4to (168 x 212 mm). 8 watercolour drawings, some heightened with white or gold, captioned in German in a late 16th-c. hand, on 8 leaves and a further 24 blank leaves (for the watermark cf. Briquet 917: Nuremberg 1554 or 1565-82). Contemporary limp vellum without ties. An album of eight splendid costume paintings, by a talented, unidentified artist who may have been a member of the entourage of a German ambassador to the Porte. The subjects in this collection are captioned: "Der Kriechen Patriarch" (the Greek Patriarch); "Der Türckisch Keiser" (the Turkish Sultan); "Der Türckisch Babst" (the Grand Mufti); "Türckische weiber wie sie pflegen auf der gaßen zu gehen" (Turkish women, as it is their wont to dress in the street); "Also sizen die Türckischen weiber" (Thus sit the Turkish women); "Ein Epirotische frau wie sie in Iren Heusern zu Galata pflegen zu gehen" (a woman of Epirus, as they walk about in their houses in Galata); "Ein Kriegische fraw" (a Greek woman); and "Ein Armenerin" (an Armenian woman). - Great attention to both accuracy and details is shown: indeed, the suite may be related to another set of similar drawings in the Gennadius Library (A896 B), dated to about 1573 (cf. Blackmer Cat.). There is also some resemblance in style and presentation to certain of the costume illustrations in Nicolas de Nicolay's Navigations (1568, and later editions). Although Nicolay travelled in the Levant in the 1550s and was long thought to have drawn his costume subjects from life, doubt has been cast on this view, and it is now generally considered that he drew his subjects from the work of other artists and illustrators. - A little light dust-soiling, binding with minor wear, soiling and wormholes. Provenance: from the collection of Ferdinand Sigismund Kress von Kressenstein (1641-1704), councilman of Nuremberg whose father signed the Peace of Westphalia treaty (his armorial bookplate on the front pastedown). Later in the library of Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein (1906-89), with his armorial bookplate on the flyleaf. Latterly in the collection of Henry Myron Blackmer II (1923-88), with his bookplate to the pastedown, sold at Sotheby's in 1989 (Blackmer sale, lot 80) and purchased by Herry W. Schaefer (1934-2016). Blackmer 1887 (with two illustrations: p. 42 and frontispiece facing p. 1). Cf. Haydn Williams, "Additional printed sources for Ligozzi's series of figures of the Ottoman Empire", in: Master Drawings, vol. 51, no. 2 [Summer 2013], pp. 195-220; Metin And, Istanbul in the 16th century: the city, the palace, daily life (Istanbul, 1994).
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[Du Bois-Ayme, Jean Marie Joseph].
Mémoire sur les tribus Arabes des déserts de l'Égypte et les tribus Israélites qui ont occupé autrefois les mêmes déserts. [Foligno, Feliciano Campitelli], 1810.
8vo. 126 pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and blue morocco spine label. All edges marbled. Early account on the tribes of Egypt. A rare offprint from the "Déscription de l'Égypte", a compilation of the scientific results of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition published in 1809. The present work describes the main Bedouin tribes living in Egypt, including Tarabin, Néfahat, Ayaidi, Hannadi, Mahazi and Beni-Wassel. Also, it makes some observations on the noble Arabian horse, which is considered "more scarce in the deserts of Egypt than in those of the Hejaz and Syria". Prepared by Du Bois-Aymé (1779-1846), one of the leading scientists accompanying the expedition. - Rare variant edition (probably the first) with a slightly different title, also omitting the author's as well as the publisher's name from the title-page. Corners slightly bumped. Paper occasionally browned; light brownstaining near the end. Still a good copy. OCLC 742830325. Cf. Gay 2011; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 194.
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Euclid / [Al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad (transl.)].
Kitab tahrir usul li-Uqlidus. [Elements]. [Central Asia, 1653 CE =] 1063 H.
4to (160 x 244 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. (252) pp., 21 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red underlinings and emphases. With numerous red ink diagrams in the text and margins. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A fine mid-17th century Arabic manuscript of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation is by the great Persian polymath Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named. Written in Central Asia, this manuscript comprises fifteen books rather than the usual thirteen. Some of the marginal diagrams may have been added later. - Paper browned and somewhat mottled throughout, less so near the end of the volume. The restored binding uses the stamped original cover material. Cf. GAL I, 510, 23.
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Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi.
Kitab Minhaj al-talib li-ta'dil al-kawakib. Northern Africa, [ca. 1490 / 15th century CE].
4to (160 x 202 mm). Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 27 pp. plus 57 pp. of tables, 22 lines per extensum, written in black Maghribi script, emphases and section titles in red; extensive tables at the end. - (Bound with) II: Nour al-Din 'Ali bin Abd al-Qadir al-Fardi al-Hasani. Kitab al-Fawa'id al-jalilah fi fi hall majhulat al-wasila. Near East, 18th century CE. Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 98 pp., 19 lines per extensum, black naskh with emphases in red. - (Bound with) III: Brain manuscript. Near East, 18th century CE. Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 25 pp., 19 lines per extensum, written in black naskh with emphases in red. - All bound together in oriental brown leather with fore-edge flap, a central oval medallion and stamped borders. A collection of three different Arabic treatises bound in one volume, dealing with astronomy, keeping time and mathematics, as well as psychology, written in Northern Africa and Near East. - Bound first is the "Kitab Minhaj al-talib li-ta'dil al-kawakib" by the Marrakesh-born mathematician, astronomer, and Sufi scholar Ibn al-Banna' (also known as Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi, 1251-1321). A long treatise about astronomy, the movements of the planets, and calculating the times of prayer according to location, it was published by Juan Vernet Ginés in 1952. - The "Kitab al-Fawa'id" by the mathematician Nouraddin ‘Ali al-Faradi (d. 870 H / 1465/66 CE) is a commentary on the "Kitab al-wasila fi 'ilm al-hisab" by the Egyptian mathematician Ibn al-Ha'im al-Misri (d. 1412). A copy is stored in the Al-Azhar Library, Cairo (shelfmark 4374). - At the end is a shorter text containing two sections (fasl 4 and fasl 5) excerpted from a treatise on the power of the human brain and how to exercise it. - The treatise of Ibn al-Banna' shows some edge damage from worming and old repairs, otherwise internally quite sound. Binding professionally restored; modern spine and flap hinge. Provenance: from the private collection of the English art dealer Oliver Hoare (1945-2018), who launched the Islamic Art Department at Christie's. I: GAL II, 331, 5. - II: Cf. GAL S II, 1024, 77.
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Kammerer, Albert.
La Mer Rouge, l'Abyssinie et l'Arabie. Tome 2: Les guerres du poivre. Les Portugais dans l'Océan Indien et la Mer Rouge au XVIe siècle. Histoire de la cartographie orientale. Cairo, Société royale de géographie d'Égypte, 1935.
Folio (280 x 360 mm). 2 parts in 2 vols. (4), XVI, 262 pp. (2), 263-555, (1) pp. With 168 (instead of 169) numbered plates, including 14 (instead of 15) in colour, of which 10 large portolan facsimiles, and one folding colour printed map of Abyssinia and Yemen. The black-and-white plates include another 3 large portolan facsimiles. Also 95 numbered text illustrations. Contemporary half cloth with original printed covers and spines. Important study of Near-Eastern travel routes, also including Mecca and oriental cartography. Commissioned by King Fouad I of Egypt, and prepared by Albert Kammerer, scholar and French Ambassador to Turkey (1933-1936) as a three-volume series published 1929-52. - The present set comprises volume II in two parts, dedicated to Portuguese seafaring exploits in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea up to the 16th century. It is particularly remarkable for its large portolan facsimiles, all of which are fine specimens of both Western and oriental historical cartography. - Lacks plate CL (a facsimile of the 1543 world map of Battista Agnesi); pencil note in Arabic regarding the missing plate on flyleaf of part II. Upper hinges of part II broken, spine loosened. Covers a little stained. Interior very well preserved with only occasional light waterstaining. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1339. Henze II, 315 (s. v. Estevâo da Gama). OCLC 2891592.
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[Medicea Press].
Alphabetum Arabicum [and three other publications from the Medici Oriental Press]. Rome, Typographia Medicea, 1592.
4to (170 x 232 mm). 64 pp. With woodcut device on title-page. - (Bound with) II: [I'tiqad alamarah ...]. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio, quae ex praescripto Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae ab Orientalibus ad Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae unitatem venientibus facienda proponitur. Ibid., 1595. (28) pp., 2 bl. ff. With 2 half-page woodcuts and woodcut device at the end. - (Bound with) III: Ibn Ajurrum, Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Sinhaji. [Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah]. [Ibid., 1592]. (24) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. - (Bound with) IV: Ibn al-Hajib, 'Uthman ibn-'Umar. [Kafiya li-Ibn al-Hajib]. [Ibid., 1592]. (96) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. Contemporary full vellum with traces of a handwritten spine title. A fine sammelband containing no fewer than four extremely rare publications from the Medicea Oriental Press, the first printing press in Europe dedicated to printing Arabic typeface. It was founded in Rome in 1584 under the direction of Giabattista Raimondi (1536-1614) and the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII. For the Arabic types, Raimondi commissioned the famous typefounder Robert Granjon. Cutting the Arabic typefaces took a long time, and the first book to bear its imprint did not appear until 1591. Until 1610 Raimondi printed only eight works with Granjon's types. - Contains individually: - I. Alphabetum Arabicum (1592). A prospectus of the Medicea's Arabic typefaces - "a masterpiece of design which not only displays Granjon's beautiful types, but contains a careful Latin Essay on the Arabic writing system" (Lunde, Arabic and the art of printing, in "Aramco World" 1981). - II. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio (1595). Maronite confession of faith, intended for Eastern Christians who claimed to be united with the Catholic Church. Arabic and Latin parallel text on opposite pages. The woodcuts in the text are after Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). - III. Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah (1592). Editio princeps of a short Arabic grammar by the 14th c. scholar Muhammad al-Sanhaji from Fez (Morocco). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica Arabica in compendium redacta, quae vocatur Giarrumia". - IV. Kafiya (1592). "Editio princeps of this popular short syntax of the Arabic language, written in the 13th century by the Arabian grammarian Uthman Ibn Umar, known as Ibn al-Hajib (1175-1249). Two centuries later an Oriental printed edition was published in Istanbul (1786), but in the meantime this edition, printed in Arabic (30 point) throughout, could well have passed for a manuscript" (Smitskamp). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica arabica dicta Caphiah, auctore filio Alhagiabi". - Binding a little stained; wants ties. Later pastedowns. Occasional slight toning and some minor marginal soiling. "Kafiya" shows some dampstaining to upper edge of a1 and a4, with light offsetting of red Arabic print in the lower margin of d1v. In general, excellent, wide-margined copies throughout. Provenance: Christiaan Druve (d. 1616), abbot of the Sint-Niklaas Abbey in Veurne, with his contemporary ownership entry "Christianus Druvaeus Abb. S. Nicol. Fur. Recogita" on the title-page of the Alphabetum. I. Edit 16, CNCE 1227. Schnurrer 41. Adams A 780. BM-STC Italian 36. OCLC 47816774. Lunde, Paul, "Arabic and the Art of Printing", in: Aramco World 32/2 (1981) (mit Abb.). J. Balagna, L'imprimerie arabe en occident (Paris 1984), p. 135. Cat. Le Livre et le Liban (mentioned p. 190; no copy in the catalogue). Not in Smitskamp (PO) or Fück. - II. Edit 16, CNCE 7571. Zenker 1571. Not in Adams. - III. Edit 16, CNCE 65819. Schnurrer 43. Adams M 1891. GAL S II, p. 332. - IV. Edit 16, CNCE 44392. Schnurrer 42 Adams U 102. GAL I, p. 303. Smitskamp (PO) 30.
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Mehmed Sâlim Efendi.
[Mehmed Sâlim Efendi Rûznamçesi]. Rûznâmçe-i Hazret-i Sâlim Mehmed Efendi ibn-i Seyhülislâm Merhum ve Magfurun-leh Mirza Mustafa Efendi Rahimehullah. [Constantinople, 1731 CE =] 1143 H.
Tall folio (150 x 372 mm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript on polished cream paper. 56 leaves (including some blank separators), ca. 31 lines, written in a mixed script of Naskh and Taliq. First part composed in free form with notes in black ink, second part in regular black ink captioned in red. Contemporary full calf binding decorated in gilt and red (professionally restored). A rare document of Ottoman state administration during the early Modern period: the official chronological record-book kept by the Kazasker (chief judge) of Anatolia, Mehmed Sâlim, during the year 1731. - Within the Ottoman administrational structure, the Kazasker (or Qadi'asker) had jurisdiction over all judicial and educational officials such as Kadi (judge) and Müderris (Madrasa professor), suggested candidates for these offices to the Grand Vizier, to whom he was directly responsible, and handled appeals to lower-court decisions. Since the late 15th century, the enormous size of the Ottoman Empire had necessitated the appointment of two Kazaskers, usually for the period of one year: the Kazasker of Rumelia, with jurisdiction over the European part of the Empire, and the Kazasker of Anatolia, responsible for the Asian part, comprising Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula. - The Kasazker would record all business in a book of original entry such as this one, known as the "Kazasker Ruznamçesi" (Kazasker daybook register). The present Ruznamçe concerns an impressively wide and diverse geography, from Anatolia to the Caucasus, the Arabian lands, the Nile and Northern Africa. Places in Anatolia include Üsküdar (Scutari), Marzvan (Merzifon), Bergama (Pergamon), and Antakya (Antioch); in the South Caucasus the book mentions Tblisi, Ganja, Igdir, Yerevan, and Javanshir. Places covered in the Levant, Arabia and Mesopotamia include Safed, Idlib, Jericho, Beirut, Homs, Hama, Baalbek, Latakia, Kirkuk, Basra, and Jeddah. From the Mediterranean to the regions south of the Nile, the book records matters pertaining to Cairo, Gharbia, Dakahlia, Alexandria, Damietta, Qalyubiyya, Faiyum, Minya (Hermopolis), Beni Suef, Monufia, Asyut, and Beheira; also the Kazasker's counselor for Egypt is mentioned. In Northern Africa, the book covers Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, and Djerba. Further, even Tirhala (Thessaly) is included, which normally would fall within the remit of the Kazasker of Rumelia. - Among these records, the high volume of official missions back and forth within the vast borders of the empire is hard to miss. Every year, hundreds of posts are filled throughout the country: in 1731, for example, one Sayyid Nureddin from Seferihisar (Izmir) was appointed to fill a position in Basra, 2500 kilometres away. There is also a steady stream of civil servants between Istanbul and Jeddah, more than 3000 kilometres distant. Entries in the daybook include a record for a Mevlana Ahmed, who, after having studied at the Molla Gürani Madrasah in Constantinople, is appointed Kadi (Judge) at Jeddah, salaried at 150 coins per day (cf. p. 828f.). Soon after, Ahmed is in turn replaced by Suleyman: "Ahmed, serving as the Kadi of Jeddah, relinquished his post, which he would have held until the first day of Rabi ath-Thani next year. In Ahmed's place, Mevlana Suleyman, who studied with forty akces per day at the Tuti Latif Madrasah in Istanbul and passed the exam successfully by completing the waiting period, was appointed as a Kadi to Jeddah with one hundred and fifty akces per day" (p. 835, transl.). This continuity gives evidence of the close relationship between the capital Istanbul and the Hejaz. Civil servants who were successful at the leading madrasahs of Istanbul could be appointed as Kadi in Jeddah, with a salary almost four times the pocket money they received in Istanbul - circumstances which also reveal the sensitivity of this region for the Ottoman Empire. - Of particular interest is also the appointment of a Kadi for Yerevan, as the Causacus region was long contested throughout the Ottoman-Safavid wars and the city changed hands frequently. In 1731 Yerevan came under Ottoman rule, and the Porte immediately appointed a Kadi there to ensure administrative and legal sovereignty at a time of ongoing political and military instability. Since Yerevan was mostly under Safavid-Persian rule throughout these centuries, appointments concerning Yerevan are very rare in Ottoman records. - Mirzâzâde Mehmed Sâlim Efendi (1688-1743), the Kazasker of Anatolia for 1730/31, was a noted scholar, poet and writer; he took the pen name "Sâlim" in the Tulip Era and was also a master calligrapher. Highly educated and remembered as a versatile and colourful personality, he served in various senior civil service positions. He was a connoisseur of science, law and art, and composed numerous works; also a talented linguist, he knew Turkish, Arabic and Persian well enough to compile a dictionary. - Binding restored to style with original covers laid down, 20th century bookbinder stamp of Rafet Güngör, Istanbul, to lower flyleaf. Occasional light edge flaws; upper part of last 4 leaves torn away with substantial loss, otherwise complete. Several old waqf stamps. At the end of the volume are numerous elaborate seals of Mehmed Sâlim, certified by a civil servant named as Abdurrahman. Their official character is underlined by having been prepared separately and pasted into the completed daybook, with a crescent-shaped cut in the paper creating a flap that conceals the stamped seal. Cf. Abdurrahman Atcil, "The Route to the Top in the Ottoman Ilmiye Hierarchy of the Sixteenth Century", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72.3 (2009), 489-512.
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Muret, Charles.
Plan-relief de Jérusalem et de ses environs [...]. Paris, Victor Poupin, [ca. 1885].
400 x 460 mm. Plaster relief plan of the city in original hand colour. Scale: 1:5,000 (millimetre to metre) for distances and 1:2,500 for height. Contained in the original wooden and cardboard box, imitating a book. Half cloth over marbled boards with spine-labels. All edges covered in marbled paper coating. With an index mounted to the inside of the cover. Exceptional three-dimensional model of Jerusalem: the fifth edition of this rare relief plan showing the principal landmarks of the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Via Dolorosa, and the Mount of Olives, as well as other places of worship, cemeteries, hospitals, hammams, schools, grottos, and the Pasha's palais. Heightened in blue, green, orange, yellow and brown. With a total of 215 labeled places of interest that are further detailed in the mounted index. - The plan was prepared by the French mathematician and surveyor Charles Muret, who made one of the first representations of a projected canal across the Isthmus of Panama around 1881, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful French venture to build the Panama canal. Muret's plaster cast of the topography of Panama was shown at the 1885 World Exhibition in Antwerp and was awarded a gold medal. In addition to the relief plan of Jerusalem, Muret created similar plans of Paris, Athens and the English Channel. - Small pieces of plaster chipped in a few places. Upper cover somewhat soiled, hinges cracked. Paper coating and cloth starting to peel off in places; fragments of spine-labels lacking. An uncommon specimen of French mapmaking, offering a glimpse of the Holy City and its topology towards the end of the 19th century. OCLC 659770835.
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[Oman navigation logbook]. McKinnell, Thomas, Assistant Master.
Log of the proceedings. HMS "Cyclops". W. J. S. Pullen Esq. Captain. Commencing Monday 7th February 1859, ending Wednesday 22nd of May, 1861. Kept by Thos. McKinnell, Mast. Asst. HMS Cyclops: Oman, Khuriya Muriya Islands, Yemen, Egypt, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places, 1857-1861.
Folio (ca. 200 x 315 mm). Over 360 pp. with manuscript entries and 16 blank leaves. Brown ink on blueish watermarked laid paper. With 13 ink-drawn charts and sketches (8 on the logbook pages and 5 on separate thick album leaves). Period-style black half calf with original brown cloth boards; spine with gilt-lettered title "Log H.M.S. Cyclops". Overall an important, finely illustrated logbook, written in a legible hand. Historically significant manuscript logbook, containing a detailed record of the first attempt at laying a submarine telegraph cable to connect London with British India. The expedition took place from May 1859 (the Red Sea leg from Suez to Aden) to February 1860 (from Aden to the Khuriya-Muriya Islands, Muscat and Karachi). The two specially designed cable ships, Imperador and Imperatrix, were supported by HMS Cyclops, which surveyed the coastlines and reported on the depth and structure of the ocean floor. - The entries from February 1859 to May 1860, documenting the ship's Red Sea and Arabian Sea mission, span over 200 pages. We first find the Cyclops near Cape Ras al Hadd on the eastern coast of Oman, at the entrance to the Gulf of Oman: "Cape Ras al Hadd ... terminates in a low sandy spit at the head of which is a village and mud fort. There is an inlet about 4 miles to the northward of the cape, but inaccessible to large vessels. There is a heavy surf on the beach during northerly winds" (9 February 1859). The ship then plied in the Red and Arabian Seas between Egypt, Yemen and Oman, eventually finishing in Bombay. - During its expedition, the Cyclops visited and moored in Quseer and Zabardag Island (Egypt), Suakin (Sudan), Perim Island (Strait Bab-el-Mandeb, Yemen), the Hanish Islands (Yemen), Palinurus Shoal and Cape Fartak (Yemen), Al-Hallaniyah and Al-Qibliyah (Khuriya Muriya Islands, Oman), Ras Madrakah and Ras Al Hadd (Oman), Charna Island and Karachi (Pakistan). The logbook entries record the conducting of soundings and the laying of cable, along with quotidian ship activity. Brief entries touch on the death of crew members; discharging coal; punishing men for wrongdoings; maintenance of the ship; making notes of other ships in company; visits on board by local notables, etc. Six larger entries, occupying up to two pages of text, describe the topography, landmarks, soundings and economy of Karachi, Zabargad Island, and Muscat Cove, which latter harbour is said to be "formed by Muscat Island on the east and Ras Muscat on the West, it is one mile deep by half a mile wide with 12 fms at entrance, decreasing to 3 fathoms ahead of the town. It is defended by two ... batteries on the island, one on the height to the seat of town and two on Ras Muscat. They are all in a stay of decay. The entrance to the cove is difficult to make out when coming from the eastward ... The exports of Muscat are wheat, dried fish, dates and cattle, the imports being European and Indian manufactured goods, sugar, etc. The revenue is about £100,000. The Imaum's Palace faces the water, his army generally consists of from 10 to 12,000 men, and the fleet of 2 frigates, 2 corvettes, a transport and brig, the greater part of the Navy having been removed to Zanzibar, the Captains of these vessels being educated at Bombay or Calcutta. Supplies of all kind are cheap and plentiful. Boats may be hired thro' the medium of the Agent of the Indian Government for the shipment of coals" (26 November 1859). - Illustrated with eight well-executed ink-drawn charts, showing the tracks of Cyclops in the Red and Arabian Seas, as well as the harbours of Muscat Cove and other places. Five beautiful ink sketches show the city of Muscat, "Hallani Bluff from Addington Cove" (Al-Hallaniyah, the largest of the Khuriya Muriya Islands, Oman), Ras Fartak (Yemen), Karachi harbour, and Colombo. - Lightly armoured and laid with too little slack, the cable soon failed: indeed, the 1859 section had already broken down by the time the route was completed in 1860. Messages were passed over individual sections, but the entire cable never worked as a unit. Communication to India would not be established until the 1864 Persian Gulf cable was laid. The captain of the Cyclops, William Pullen (1813-87), was a noted British navigator and Arctic explorer who took part in John Franklin's search and in 1849 became the first European to sail along the north coast of Alaska from the Bering Strait to the Mackenzie River in Canada. - A final part of log, comprising some additional ca. 150 pp. (May 1860-May 1861), covers the Cyclops's survey of the south-eastern coast of Ceylon and her return voyage to England. Overall, an important content-rich source on the early history of the submarine telegraph cable around the Arabian Peninsula to British India.
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[Ottoman costumes].
Hand-painted muraqqa' Ottoman costume album. Probably Constantinople, ca. 1660.
4to (150 x 208 mm). 70 ff. (numbered 3-71 and 74) of hand-drawn costumes. India ink and gouache heightened in silver and gilt on laid, watermarked paper, polished in the oriental style. Bound in full modern fawn calf signed by J. E. Baudrillart, covers ruled in blind, spine sparsely gilt with title. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. A beautifully crafted album comprising seventy portraits painted by a Turkish artist in colours, gold and silver, illustrating the various offices at the Ottoman court, people of various occupations, different ethnic groups, and their traditional costumes. Most of the portraits are accompanied by captions inscribed in Osmanli at the bottom of the page. One of them, representing Sultan Mehmet IV (1642-93, ruled 1648-87) on his throne, has in the lower part an inscription in French, "Mehemet Grand Seigneur / 1660" (no. 67). Among the further subjects depicted are Janissaries, a porter (hamal), a davul player, messengers of the court, the bearer of the Sultan's sword, women adorned in various costumes, and foreigners. - Albums of this kind were known as muraqqa': compiled from various sources, they were often created to order, by or for Europeans, as gifts to members of Western embassies or as travel souvenirs. European courts appreciated them as valuable sources of diplomatic information. Several similar examples from the second half of the 17th century have survived, among which one of the most famous is the so-called Rålamb Dräktboken (Raland Book of Costumes), acquired in 1657/58 by Claes Ralamb, the Swedish ambassador to the Sublime Porte, and now kept at the Royal Library of Sweden. - A magnificent survival, handsomely bound by Jean-Eudes Baudrillart of Paris. F. Hitzel (ed.), Turkophilia révélée. L'art ottoman dans les collections privées. Catalogue d’exposition publié à l’occasion du 14e congrès international d’art Turc, Collège de France (Galerie Charpentier), 19-23 Sept. 2011, pp. 72f.
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[Palestine - Jewish insurgency].
(Restricted). Palestine Pamphlet. Terrorist Methods With Mines and Booby Traps. [Jerusalem], Headquarters, Chief Engineer, Palestine & Transjordan, December 1946.
4to (170 x 215 mm). 38 pp. With frontispiece, 6 plates, and 16 full-page illustrations in the text. Original printed, illustrated buff wrappers. Very rare restricted British Army manual, dealing with the terrorist explosive devices and methods employed by the Zionist insurgents during their paramilitary campaign carried out against British rule in Mandatory Palestine. Includes instructions how to detonate various types of mines and booby traps, as well as a history of terrorist activity in 1946 undertaken by Jewish groups. Plates of various attacks are included, such as the partially destroyed King David Hotel in July 1946, and the demolished building in the David Quarter, Jerusalem, bombed in November 1946. Of that attack the booklet reads, "This incident is included for its illustration of the extreme methods which Jewish Terrorists may employ when planning deliberate murder". - Wrappers slightly soiled; interior shows occasional brownstaining. An extraordinarily rare survival; only three copies in libraries internationally: National Library of Israel; Johns Hopkins University; University of Toronto Fisher Rare Book Collection. OCLC 233992872.
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Powell, E[dward] Alexander.
The Last Home of Mystery. Adventures in Nepal together with accounts of Ceylon, British India, the Native States, the Persian Gulf, the Overland Desert Mail and the Baghdad Railway. Garden City, New York, Garden City Publishing Co. (Star Books), (1929).
8vo. XI, (1), 332 pp. With 16 photographic illustrations on 8 plates, all in black-and-white halftone, one as a frontispiece. Publisher's illustrated orange cloth. First Garden City edition in the year of the Century Co. first issue. Includes mentions of the "Pirate Coast", Bahrein and the Gulf. The American author E. Alexander Powell (1879-1957) had worked war correspondent during World War I and was commissioned as a captain in military intelligence in 1917. He subsequently took up journalism before switching to a successful career as an adventure and travel writer. - Upper corner a little buckled; a few pencil annotations. From the collection of the Austrian civil servant Dr. Alfred Brandner, with his ownership stamp and inscribed to him (Vienna, 1941) on the flyleaf. OCLC 408932.
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[Red Sea Algae Specimen Album]. Husson, Anne Henry, French naturalist (1814-1855).
Algae from the Red Sea. [Red Sea, ca. 1844-1845].
Album of 18 well-preserved algal specimens carefully mounted on individual sheets of white wove paper, each approximately 330 x 155 mm. Loosely laid in to folding portfolio, housed in a marble clamshell box. A rare and early ensemble of algae specimens collected from the Red Sea, from different areas between Suez and Yemen, including one specimen from Alexandria. All items identified with the Latin name and details of the location around the Red Sea and date of collection written in French on the mounts, e.g., "Caulerpa prolifera: très commune dans toute la mèr rouge á la prodondeur de 1½ mètre à 2 [...] Avril 1844", or "Mer rouge dans le Golfe de l'Acaba, Juillet 1844". - The French botanist A. H. Husson, a native of Nancy, was also a pioneer of early photography. He lived in Egypt, where he worked as the director of the botanical garden and conservator for the Museum of Natural History for the Qasr Al-Ainy, the Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine. - "The Red sea has been a region of natural history exploration by European scientists from about 240 years. The first record of marine algae in the Red Sea was by Strand (a pupil of Linnaeus's), who in his thesis on the flora of Palestine listed three species. The first person to collect marine algae from the Saudi Arabian Red Sea Coast was the Danish botanist and explorer Forsskal in the 18th century who, in the month of November 1762, made a collection of seaweeds from the Sea of Jeddah [...] In the early years of the 19th century a British admiral Viscount Valentia made collections of algae from the Red Sea [...] Several other workers, including medical doctors and amateurs, collected marine algae from the Red Sea during the rest of the 19th century" (Beni-Suef Univ. Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Vol. 3/4 [Dec. 2014], pp. 278-285). - Includes the offprint of a short biography of Husson: Christian Debize, "L'album photographique d'Anne-Henry Husson. Regards d'un colon nancéien dur l'Egypte moderne", Annales de l'Est (1985), no. 4, pp. 261-299. Stab-sewn in wrappers. - A most exceptional and scarce collection of preserved algal specimens from the Red Sea. Provenance: from the property of the botanist Dr. Eugene L. Vigil (b. 1941), of Lynden, Washington, USA.
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[Saudi Arabia].
Mahd ahd Dhahab Gold Mine Saudi-Arabia. Mahd adh Dhahab, ca. 1940s-1950s.
Oblong 4to (240 x 168 mm). Photo album with 9 original black-and-white silver gelatin prints, mostly 125 x 180 mm. With English captions mounted on verso of the photographs as well as on the opposite pages. 8 blank ff. Contemporary half cloth over cardboard with title label mounted to front cover. Notable collection of historic images of the Mahd Al Thahab gold mine in the province of Al-Madinah, in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. Photographs show the mining complex including the crushing plants, mills and storage tanks, as well as the camp with warehouses, shops, schools, hospital buildings, a mosque, and the living quarters of the Emir of Mahad. The last picture depicts the staff and office buildings at Jeddah. - Mining activities in the area date back to 961 BC, and the Mahd adh Dhahab deposit was rediscovered in 1932 by K. S. Twitchell. The Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate (SAMS), a joint venture between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the American Smelting and Refining Company, started production in 1939, treating at first mainly the ancient tailings. SAMS produced 22 tonnes of gold and 28 tonnes of silver up to 1954. - Extremities slightly rubbed.
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Sibt al-Maridini (Badr al-Din Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Misri al-Dimashqi).
A manuscript collection of three treatises on astronomy and mathematics. Safavid Persia; copied in al-Jauhariyya School, Isfahan, each treatise dated [1619/20 CE =] 1029 H.
8vo (194 x 130 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 90 leaves, 15 lines per page written in more than one hand in cursive script with several words in red; numerous diagrams and tables. Contemporary limp red morocco. The three works comprise: - 1. "Al-Durr al-manthur fi'l-'amal bi-rub' al-dustur". A treatise on calculating time with the aid of the sine quadrant, for any region (GAL II, p. 218, 1, attributed by Brockelmann to Sibt al-Maridini's grandfather, the astronomer Abdallah ibn Khalil ibn Yusuf Jamaladdin al-Maridini al-Qahiri, d. 1406). - 2. "Raqa'iq al-haqa'iq fi hisab al-daraj wa'l daq'iq" ("Subtleties of Truths on Arithmetic of Degrees and Minutes"). Instructions for the calculation of celestial motions with the aid of minute proportions (GAL II, p. 217, 11). A commentary on a work by his teacher, the Egyptian mathematician and astronomer Shihab al-din Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn Rajab ibn Tibugha 'Ibn al-Majdi' (1365-1447), entitled "Kashf al-haqa'iq fi hisab al-daraj wa'l-daq'iq" ("Opening Truths on Arithmetic of Degrees and Minutes"). - 3. A commentary, "Risalah [al-Fathiyya (al-Shihabiyya)] fi'l-'amal al-jaybiyya" ("Treatise on [Fath al-Din (Shihab al-Din)]". Operations with the sine quadrant (GAL II, p. 216f., 7). - Sibt (Ibn Bint) al-Maridini (the Elder, 1423-1506) lived in Cairo and Damascus. He served as the muwaqqit (time-keeper) of the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, and was a pupil of Ibn al-Majdi. His works are often conflated with those of his grandfather, and with those of his like-named son, who died in 1527 (GAL II, p. 468). - A few old repairs occasionally affecting letters; altogether very well preserved. Provenance: from the property of Dr. Eugene L. Vigil (b. 1941), of Lynden, Washington, USA. For Sibt al-Maridini see B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Ihsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers & Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works, Istanbul 2003, pp. 276f., no. 815, and pp. 293-298, no. 873.
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Al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad.
Kitab ad-darb wa'l-qisma fi 'ilm al-jabr wa al-hisab [On multiplication and division]. [Probably Persia, 14th/15th century CE].
Large 4to (187 x 274 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. (18) pp., 31 lines per extensum. Written in clear, neat black naskh, emphases picked out or underlined in red; catchwords. Modern brown leather binding with blind rules and stamped central medallions to both covers. A late 14th or early 15th century mathematical manuscript, probably written in Iran or possibly the Eastern Mediterranean. The Persian scholar Nasir al-Din Muhamad ibn Muhamad ibn al-Hasan at-Tusi (1201-74) was known for his extensive work on science, physics, mathematics and theology. He is often credited with the invention and identification of trigonometry as an independent division of mathematics (cf. GAL I, 509), and the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named after him. As well as compiling many important works in these fields, he is also known for translating the definitive Arabic editions of Euclid, Ptolemy and Archimedes' works, among others. The only other copy of his present work, treating multiplication and division in algebra and arithmetic, survives in the Topkapi Seray in Istanbul (MS 3327: a more extensive version in 3 books and 11 sections, 51 ff.). - Light dampstaining throughout, mostly confined to lower borders; edges frayed. GAL S I, p. 930, no. 36a. B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Thsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers and other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works (Istanbul 2003), pp. 211-219, M18. Krause, Stambuler Handschriften Islamischer Mathematiker, p. 497, no. 12.
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Varthema, Lodovico di.
Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig reiß [...] Sagend von den landen, Egypto, Syria, von beiden Arabia Persia, India und Ethiopia, von den gestalten, sitten, und dero menschen leben und glauben. Strasbourg, Johann Knobloch, 1516.
4to. 226 pp., final blank f. With title woodcut and 47 woodcuts in the text (including 1 full-page illustration). Blindstamped dark blue morocco by Riviere & Son with giltstamped spine title. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. The first illustrated edition (in its second issue) of one of the most famous early travel reports and the first western encounter with the Arab world. Of the utmost rarity; not a single copy could be traced on the market for the past sixty years; not a single copy in the USA (cf. OCLC). Lodovico de Varthema’s “Itinerario” contains the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates: on his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s “Itinerario” are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). This - the first illustrated one - is certainly the rarest of them all: international auction records list not a single copy. The 1510 editio princeps was offered for US$ 1 million at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2011. - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a very documented stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - A few contemporary underlinings and marginalie. Some slight browning and staining as usual; stamp of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen on the reverse of the title. VD 16, ZV 15157. BM-STC 66. IA 113.543 (includes copies in BSB Munich and Wolfenbüttel). Benzing (Strasbourg) 100. Schmidt (Knobloch) 132. Ritter (IV) 932 & 2000. Muller 132, 170. Kristeller 383. Paulitschke 296. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 305. Röhricht 574. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239 (other editions only).
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[Alf layla wa-layla]. Galland, Antoine.
Les onze journées. Contes arabes. Traduction posthume de Galand, revue et corrigée par C***. Paris, Carteret et Brosson, an VI de la Républicque francaise [1797].
8vo. (4), XII, 265 (but: 255), (1) pp. With an engraved frontispiece. Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped label to florally gilt spine. Only edition thus of this collection of Arabic tales in the manner of the 1001 Nights. Anonymously edited by Jean-Baptiste Decourdemanche; attributed by Chauvin to the abbé Marie Nicholas Silvestre Guillon. - Slight traces of worming to upper cover; a very light waterstain near the end, otherwise fine. From the collection of the Swedish goldsmith Christian Hammer (1818-1905) with his wood-engraved bookplate on the front pastedown over an earlier engraved armorial bookplate, monogrammed "H.U.D.G." in ink. Chauvin IV, 96. OCLC 47704430.
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Arabian American Oil Company.
Safety poster for bus drivers. Saudi Arabia, Aramco Transportation, Graphic Arts, no date.
280 x 330 mm. Graphic poster. In English and Arabic. Rare poster with safety instructions for Aramco bus drivers. Prepared by the Transportation Department, it reminds the drivers that "one bus should never pass another", as well as to "keep plenty of space between buses": "The lives of your passengers are in your hands". Apart from the safety rules in English and Arabic, the poster shows sketches of six fully occupied coaches. - Very well preserved.
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Colom, Jacob Aertsz.
[Description de la mer méditerranée]. [Amsterdam, ca. 1670].
Folio (290 x 450 mm). 9 double-page engraved charts only, each sheet approx. 440 x 550 mm, each mounted on stiff paper with maps back-to-back, with thick red and black ink borderlines. Of the 9 maps, 8 are by Colom, numbered in the plates from "2" to "9"; plate 1 replaced with Johannes de Ram's map of the Mediterranean, "Paskaart vande Middelandsche Zee In twee deelen vertoont". Contemporary stiff paper covers (worn with losses); manuscript label to lower cover pasted upside down: "Carta Marinaresca del Mar Mediterraneo". Unusual working copy of Colom's rare pilot, owned by an Ottoman Turkish mariner with his Osmanli inscriptions transliterating the location names throughout. Colom's charts cover the Straits of Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast, Mallorca, the coastline around Barcelona, Nice, Corsica, Sardinia, Southern Italy, Sicily, and Croatia. Koeman highlights the rarity of all of Colom's pilot books and notes that despite "thousands of copies [having been] circulated [...], only a score have survived". - Significant spotting and browning throughout, some cockling and losses to sheets, old repaired tears, creases and signs of heavy use. A highly uncommon survival. Cf. Phillips III, 53 ff. Koeman IV, 120.
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Cury, Alec R.
Arabic Without a Teacher. Cairo, World-Wide Publications, (1959).
8vo. 144 pp. Original printed wrappers. Pocket dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, providing "all sentences, phrases and a vocabulary of words that are in common use throughout Egypt, the Sudan and part of Palestine; and which are needed mostly by military men and tourists". - When the Lebanese-born Alec Cury sought the assistance of a British authority for the 1915 first edition of his work, "General Sir John Maxwell, GOC of British troops in Egypt, allowed his name to be put on the cover to give his solemn imprimatur to a work which was to go into no less than 34 editions by 1965" (McLoughlin). The present 32nd edition still proudly bears the phrase "officially approved by the late General Sir John Maxwell" on the front cover and title-page. - Aiming to enable English native speakers to learn Arabic without the help of a teacher, the manual includes useful terms and phrases for interactions at a restaurant, at the post office, with a taxi driver, or a "donkey boy", as well as terms of the oil industry, aviation and military. It provides brief observations on grammar and pronunciation as well as a table with the Arabic alphabet. - Wrappers and title-page somewhat brownstained. Otherwise well preserved. McLoughlin, In a Sea of Knowledge, 65. Cf. OCLC 487444386 (1950 ed.).
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Gleadowe-Newcomen, A[rthur] H[ills].
Report on the British Indian Commercial Mission to South-Eastern Persia During 1904-1905. Calcutta, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1906.
Small folio (215 x 336 mm). (8), 156 pp. With a folding map in lower-cover pouch. Contemporary printed boards; spine reinforced with later black leather. Official report by Colonel A. H. Gleadowe-Newcomen (1853-1928), President of the Commercial Mission to Persia, of the mission's results regarding the state of British Indian trade in South-Eastern Persia and the consideration of measures which might bring about an expansion of Indo-Persian trade. Assistance to the mission was rendered by Major Percy Molesworth Sykes, then Consul at Kerman, as well as by Percy Cox, the British resident in the Gulf. - Paper brittle; some worming; a few edge flaws near the beginning. Upper cover trimmed at the head and somewhat crudely repaired. Rare. OCLC 69210748.
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Gross, Alexander.
Arabia. London, Geographia Ltd., [ca. 1920].
600 x 460 mm. Folding coloured map, scale 1:6,000,000, cloth-backed. Folded into the original red cloth case. A rare and attractive map focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, but also including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Asiatic Turkey. It shows boundaries and occupied territories as they were after World War I, physical features, principal cities, road networks, communication lines, and maritime navigation distance. The inset map at the top right shows the Aden Protectorate and part of South-Western Yemen (scale 1:1,825,000). - Rare. Library Hub locates just one copy, at the University of Manchester. OCLC adds two further holdings, at the University of Minnesota and the Library of Congress. In excellent condition.
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[Iraq].
Collection of photographs. Iraq, 1920s-1940s.
44 albumen prints and 1 picture postcard. Various sizes (58 x 85 mm - 160 x 212 mm). Inserted in protective sleeves. Stored in a black calf binder. A substantial collection of rare images of Kings Faisal I and Faisal II of Iraq, showing the monarchs greeting international delegations, attending banquets and meetings, or inspecting the troops. Includes a photograph of the Arab delegation in the Blue House Hotel during a finance conference in 1944. - In addition, the set includes a portrait of Iraqi president Abdul Salam Arif. The postcard shows a group picture including the Ottoman Pasha and Mohamed Al Sheheri around 1925, after the Arab Revolt. - Finally, three small photographs of a group of white-dressed girls dancing also form part of this collection. - Many photos with stamps of the corresponding studio on verso; the bulk prepared by Elias Jamoua, several other photos produced by A. Abbosh and Arshak in Baghdad. - Some pictures with Arabic or English captions. Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. Very well preserved.
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[Iraq - King Saud meets King Faisal II].
Photographs of a state visit. Baghdad, 1957.
Oblong 4to (333 x 230) mm. Photo album with 12 baryte paper prints (125 x 110 mm) and 1 press photo (225 x 191 mm), the latter captioned, stamped and dated. Blue full percaline with gilt cover ornaments. Cord binding. A fine ensemble of photographs documenting the historic state visit to Iraq by King Saud of Saudi Arabia in May 1957, apparently photographed and assembled by a member of the Iraqi entourage closely involved throughout the visit. King Faisal II of Iraq and his Prime Minister Nuri As-Said met with King Saud to discuss the Pan-Arab movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, involving anti-monarchist efforts in Jordan. Eventually, talks in Baghdad were wound up "with a pledge to coordinate resistance to communism and a warning that no Arab state should meddle in the affairs of its neighbors" (caption of the press photograph). - The collection includes previously unseen pictures of the monarchs' arrival by car and carriage respectively, their mutual exchange of greetings, and the state dinner, as well as the subsequent talks held in the palace garden. - Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. In excellent condition.
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