‎Oriente medio‎

‎Eberhardt, Isabelle.‎

‎Contes et Paysages. Textes originaux. Paris, La Conaissance, 1925.‎

‎8vo (175 x 252 mm). (4), IV, (2), 150, (8) pp. With a portrait frontispiece of the author. Original printed wrappers bound within private gilt full brown morocco. First and only edition, limited to 138 copies. A posthumous collection of stories by the Franco-Swiss explorer and writer Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904), famous for her intrepid lifestyle and exploits undertaken in male costume throughout the Sahara Desert and Northern Africa. She converted to Islam, disregarding many of its commandments, and adopted the name of Si Mahmoud Saadi. Her works and colourful persona were rediscovered by the women's movement of the early 1970s, and she is today regarded as an early feminist icon. - Inscribed by the editor, René-Louis Doyon, to the French writer Jacques-Napoléon Faure-Biguet (1893-1954). Traces of worming to lower endpapers, otherwise an excellent copy of a rare work. OCLC 550675807.‎

‎Hergé [i.e., Georges Prosper Remi].‎

‎Tintin au Pays de l'Or Noir. Paris, Casterman, 1963.‎

‎Small folio (ca. 230 x 304 mm). (2), 62 pp. Original printed boards. Blue and white illustrated flyleaves. Signed, illustrated (with a portrait of Tintin and Milou/Snowy) and inscribed by the artist on the verso of the front flyleaf to Denis Jamin for his birthday, dated 3 September 1971. The recipient was the grandson of the Belgian caricaturist Paul Jamin (1911-95), an old friend of Hergé's. - An early Tintin adventure, set in the Middle East, where the young reporter attempts to uncover a militant group responsible for sabotaging oil supplies. First published in album form in 1950. The story was originally set in Palestine under the British Mandate, but Hergé's publisher requested several alterations, and the setting was transferred to the fictional state of Khemed. - Extremeties a little bumped and chipped, internally an excellent copy.‎

‎Ibn Sina (Avicenna).‎

‎Al-Ilahiyat min al-Shifa' [The Metaphysics from the Book of Healing]. Mashhad, Persia, [1642/43 CE =] 1052 H.‎

‎Tall 8vo (136 x 258 mm). Arabic manuscript on unsophisticated oriental paper. 206 leaves. 20 lines, black and occasional red ink with underlinings in red. Restored red morocco oriental binding with blind-tooled medaillons to both covers, using oder material from a shorter binding. The fourth and final part of Ibn Sina's famous "Kitab Al-Shifa'" ("The Book of Healing"), a great scientific and philosophical encyclopedia that covers logic, natural sciences, mathematics including astronomy, and, as here, metaphysics and religion. - Browned throughout with occasional waterstaining. Early waqf stamp near the colophon. In all a good manuscript, copied in Safavid Persia by Shafi' Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Qayni. GAL I, 454, 18.‎

‎[Ibn Sina (Avicenna)]. Jaghmini al-Khwarizmi, Mahmud bin Muhammad bin Omar al- / Abd al-Fattah bin Syed Ismail al-Husaini al-Lahuri.‎

‎Sharh al-qanunchah al-Jaghmini [Commentary on the Small Canon]. Likhi, Gujarat, India, [Sept./Oct. 1784 CE =] Dhu'l-Qa'dah 1198 H.‎

‎Large 8vo (170 x 274 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished Indian laid paper. 328 leaves, 19 lines per extensum. Naskh script in black and occasional red ink; a few leaves of commentary loosely inserted. Contemporary full leather, spine rebacked, with oriental medaillon stamps to both covers. Expansive Arabic commentary on the "Qanunchah" ("Qanunceh", "Small Canon") of Mahmud al-Jaghmini, the important Persian medical compendium based on Ibn Sina's famous Arabic "Qanun". Al-Jaghmini's handbook of medicine was widely used at Eastern Persian schools as an introductory medical instruction manual for at least three centuries, but also found favour in India early. "One of the first works of medicine compiled in the Indian subcontinent was 'Sharh ul Qanunchah'. It was authored by Syed Abul Fath bin Syed Ismail al-Husaini al-Lahori during the sixteenth century and was a commentary of the well-known 'Qanunchah' of Chaghmini" (Alam, p. 369). The present manuscript was copied by Muhammad Kayyal (?) in Dhul-Qidah 1198 H. - Frequent, early remarginings to edges; some brownstaining and a few waterstains. Binding rubbed and rather bumped at extremeties. 19th century waqf stamps. A prettily written 18th century manuscript specimen of this important 16th century Indian commentary on a principal medical text. Cf. Mumtaz Alam, "Shift to Arabic? Medical Literature and Writing During Medieval India", in: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 71 (2010/11), pp. 365-376.‎

‎Lokman.‎

‎Amthal Luqman al-Hakim [The Fables of Luqman, ed. Jean Jacques Antoine Caussin de Perceval]. [Paris, Molé for Eberhardt, 1818/1819].‎

‎Large 4to (210 x 263 mm). 23, (1) pp. Contemporary unsophisticated wrappers. Early edition of the text of Lokman's Fables, never released in the regular book trade. Edited by Caussin de Perceval père (1759-1835), professor of Arabic at the Collège de France sice 1784. Includes four additional Fables not previously edited. "Ce livre n'a pas été mis dans le commerce. Il y a des exemplaires en grand papier. Caussin utilise le manuscrit de Paris et, aux 37 fables connues, ajoute le texte des quatre nouvelles, qui Marcel avait traduites en 1803" (Chauvin). - Wrappers frayed; wrinkled and browned with edge flaws throughout. Stamps of the Paris Jesuit Seminary. Chauvin III, 13. OCLC 978526580.‎

‎[Palestine - American Colony].‎

‎Album with 66 photographs of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and environs. Palestine, 1946-1947.‎

‎Oblong 8vo (190 x 130 mm) 57 albumen prints (mostly 90 x 65 mm) mounted on 15 black sheets, 9 more loosely inserted. Wooden boards with a coloured view of Rachel's tomb, captioned in Hebrew and English. Charming souvenir album, privately assembled by a British soldier and captioned by him throughout with his ownership entry "Jerusalem. E. Stacey. 9.9.46" to inner front board and a photo ("Boys of the Shack 147") showing him among his comrades in front of their baracks. The majority of the photos bear the ink stamp of the Matson Photo Service on the reverse. The Matsons were handed the management of the American Colony photo service in 1934. The American Colony was a utopian Christian sect formed by religious pilgrims who emigrated to Jerusalem from the United States and Sweden.‎

‎[Qur'an Juz'].‎

‎An illuminated Qur'an, Juz' XIX. China, [April 1546 CE =] Safar 953 H.‎

‎4to (188 x 254 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 51 ff. Script in bold black sini, 5 lines within red rules, vowel markers in black and corrections in red, surah headers in red, illuminated double-page frontispiece 'Unwan decorated with geometrical and floral designs in gold and colours in a typical Yunnan style of mainly gold on a red ground highlighted with green and blue. 16th century full brown leather with fore-edge flap, prettily ruled and stamped in blind with Islamic and Chinese-influenced designs. Very early Qur'an Juz (one of thirty parts of varying lengths into which the Qur'an is divided) written in 16th century China. - Arab presence in China dates back as far as the first Caliphate: the Prophet's companion Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas is traditionally credited with introducing Islam to China as ambassador in 650. Indeed, many major cities in China, such as Xi'an (or Chang'an, as it was known during the height of the Silk Road) and Beijing, boast a long and rich Muslim history. Qur'an sections written by Chinese Muslims show Chinese influence clearly in both the decoration and the script, which is derived from naskh. Juz' 19 begins with surah 25, al-Furqan (The Criterion), contains in full surah 26, ash-Shu'ara (The Poets), and closes with the beginning of surah 27, an-Naml (The Ant). - The colophon in red script on the recto of the last leaf states that the manuscript was "copied by Shams al-Din ibn Musa al-Sini in the month of Safar of the year 953 AH in the city of Yunnan, one of the Chinese cities which has been honoured and blessed by Islam". - Binding rebacked and spine and endpapers professionally replaced; subtle paper repairs. An excellent example of the Islamic Chinese style of Qur'anic calligraphy and illumination. Provenance: Private UK collection formed in the 1960s and 1970s.‎

‎Thomas, Bertram.‎

‎The Arabs. London, Thornton Butterworth, 1937.‎

‎8vo. 372 pp. With frontispiece portrait, 4 maps (1 folding) & 17 plates. Publisher's gilt cloth with chipped and spotted dustjacket. First edition of this overview of Arab history and culture work that draws upon the author's own experience in the region and includes some of T. E. Lawrence's exploits. - Inscribed on the front free endpaper in the year of publication: "To the Rt Hon and Mrs L.S. Amery, With respects, Bertram Thomas, May 1937". - Bertram Thomas's (1892-1950) "first crossing of the Empty Quarter, albeit by the shortest and easiest route, assured him a permanent place in the history of European exploration of Arabia. He was admired by T. E. Lawrence (who wrote a preface to one of his books) and by his successor Wilfred Thesiger, who found twenty years later that Thomas was remembered by the Bedouin as an honourable, brave, and tolerant man" (ODNB). Leopold Amery (1873-1955) served a Colonial Secretary as well as Secretary of State for India and Burma in Churchill's war ministry. - A few minor spots, but still a very good copy. Macro 2186.‎

‎Aaronsohn, Aaron / Oppenheimer, Hillel.‎

‎Tsemah 'Ever Ha-Yarden: mifkad bikoret li-tsemahim asher ne'esfu u-miktsatam hugderu 'al yede Aharon Aharonson be-meshekh mas'otav (1904-1908) be-'Ever ha-Yarden uva-'Aravah. Zichron Yaakov, Ma'sav (privately published), 1934.‎

‎8vo. (8), 384 pp. Cloth-backed red boards with title inked on spine, likely privately bound. Very rare privately published botanical text on the famous expedition of the Jewish agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn (1876-1919) through the Anti-Lebanon mountain range and his subsequent discovery of what was claimed to be the oldest wild wheat, ancestor of all farmed wheat today. - While the exact line of descent of modern wheat is contested and complex, Aaronsohn's wheat - wild emmer - was indeed ancient, and its discovery remains a landmark moment in historical botany and the study of the history of human civilization. Like much of Aaronsohn's work, his detailed notes on the wild wheat distribution and other botanical notes on the landscapes he surveyed were published posthumously by Aaronsohn's family. The text includes numerous scientific names and an index, plus 13 botanical designs and 38 photoplates documenting the expedition. A folding map at the rear is titled "Aaronsohn's travels in Jordan and the distribution of wild wheat in the land of Israel". Largely in Hebrew, supplemented with scientific Latin, this Hebrew version is very uncommon, as Aaronsohn's work was originally published in French as "Florula transiordanica: révision critique des plantes récoltées et partiellement determinées", also by his family, in 1931. - Binding bumped at extremeties; a few library stamps to title-page, along with some minor paper repairs. Altogether in good condition. OCLC 42945306.‎

‎[Arabian American Oil Company].‎

‎Report No. ZD-340:006. Detail Type Specification for Consolidated Vultee Model 340 Airplane for Arabian American Oil Company. San Diego, CA, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, 1952.‎

‎4to. 106, 22 ff. (as numbered; some leaves numbered with 'a' numbers according to preceding leaf, per standard industry practice). Published as a mimeographed typescript with inset illustrations, many folding. Bound in original wrappers with metal split pin fasteners. Second revised edition. A very extensive report supplied to Aramco regarding the Convair CV-340, a passenger jet designed largely for airlines like United, but quite popular in Saudi Arabia during the first decades of Saudi passenger air service. - The early 1950s saw the dawn of what would become Saudi Arabian Airlines, precipitated in part by the gift of a Douglas DC-3 passenger jet from U.S. President Roosevelt to King Ibn Saud in 1945. It would be the DC-3 and the CV-340 which would comprise the first fleets of passenger planes in Saudi Arabia. That Aramco, a large regional employer, might be interested in the CV-340 is thus understandable; in fact, both planes are remembered by Aramco employees from the 1950s and 1960s - and especially by their children, who were often sent to prep schools in cities like Rome, but flew home on DC-3s and CV-340s to Aramco installations like Dhahran with their peers for holidays. - The CV-340 was developed by Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) from the earlier CV-240, but was newer and larger; the first flight test took place on 5 October 1951. The CV-340 seated at total of 44 passengers. In all, 209 aircraft of this type were sold to airlines but 37 went to private operators, potentially including those interested in purchase at Aramco and more generally in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf. In extensive text and diagrams, every aspect of the engineering and design of the plane is presented, from the new layout of the tailfin to the shocks in the landing gear to the fire extinguishing system. - A touch of wear, otherwise a well-preserved example of a rare publication produced in a very limited number of copies for promotional and reference use only.‎

‎Burnes, Alexander.‎

‎Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore [...]. London, John Murray, 1839.‎

‎8vo. 3 vols. XXIV, (2), 328 pp. XII, 304 pp. XII, 384 pp. With 8 plates, 4 of which are folding, and one folding map. 19th century cloth-backed brown boards, paper spine labels. Second edition. "Acclaimed by critics as one of the most valuable books on travel that had ever appeared, it was the first comprehensive account of the whole of Central Asia" (Howgego, p. 83). - The best-known work of Alexander Burnes (1805-41), a Scottish diplomat, military officer, spy, and explorer who was once nicknamed "Bukhara Burnes" for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara, a historical stop along the Silk Road and today the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan. Burnes began his career serving in the army of the East India Company and swiftly became enmeshed in what the British called The Great Game: a series of disputes between the British and Russian empires as each sought to acquire Afghanistan and surrounding areas under imperial rule. This had large ramifications in West Asia and the subcontinent, and Burnes was familiar with many of the local political actors who rose to become major players in the Game, such as Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) and especially Mohan Lal Zutshi (1812-77), an Indian fellow explorer and diplomat who guided Burnes on his trip to Bukhara. Zutshi and Burnes remain at the heart of Burnes's narrative. The folding map at the rear of vol. 1 illustrates the path Mohan Lal Zutshi and Burnes took through West Asia. - Light exterior wear, front cover of vol. 3 detached, otherwise in good condition. OCLC 3813162. Cf. Wilson 35 (1835 ed.). Howgego, 1800-1850, B77.‎

‎Gauer, Bernhard (illustrator).‎

‎Guide-Map of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Boulos Afif / Syrian Orphanage Press, ca. 1935.‎

‎565 x 441 mm chromolithograph map, folding down to a 240 x 120 mm pamphlet. Original pink wrappers. A rare map of Jerusalem during the British Mandate Period, printed especially for British and allied forces stationed in the area. The map is a chromolithograph by the Düsseldorf-born artist Bernhard Gauer (1882-1955), with outer districts pleasantly hand-coloured in yellow and pale green and selected buildings depicted pictorially. On the reverse is a brief guide to everything a serviceman was expected to need in Jerusalem: churches of various denominations (Church of England, Methodist, Greek Orthodox, etc.), four Masonic lodges, officer's clubs for the well-to-do and YMCAs and hostels for the less affluent, and, naturally, bookshops. A map of Palestine and southern Syria is printed on the rear wrapper. An uncommon and thorough guide to the city, from the minutiae of taxi service rates to the locations of holy sites and Europeans' preferred neighborhoods. - Light wear, otherwise in excellent condition. OCLC 1100427555.‎

‎Hunter, F[rederick] F[raser].‎

‎Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Calcutta, Survey of India Offices, 1908/1910.‎

‎Folding map of Arabia (180 x 135 cm), coloured in outline, dissected and mounted on cloth (24 sections). The exceptionally rare first independently issued edition of this famous, meticulously prepared map of Arabia and the Gulf. The "Hunter map" is an enormous, wall-size chart showing an astounding degree of detail. The "Gulf portion being largely based on actual surveys can be considered fairly accurate. [...] Kuwait (except that portion based upon actual surveys) Hasa, Jabal Shammar, Qasim, 'Aridh, Oman, Hadhramaut are the result of exhaustive use of detail supplied by travellers supplemented by months and months of enquiry by local Political Officers. The map of these portions can certainly claim superiority over any previous work of the kind" (Notes on the Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf [...] compiled by Capt. F. Fraser-Hunter 1905-1908 [Calcutta, 1910], p. 1). - The Canadian-born Hunter later became a major figure in British India's Intelligence Service. As the author recalled 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). - Hunter's map was first issued in a very limited press-run to accompany John G. Lorimer's "Gazetteer of the Gulf" (1908); at that time it still bore the title, "Map of the Persian Gulf, 'Oman, and Central Arabia". It was subsequently used (and praised) by St John Philby during his journey across Arabia. Indeed, reliable topographical information was an invaluable asset not least to the local Sheikhdoms in their territorial disputes during this politically volatile age: Hunter recounts that on one occasion, the Sheikh of Umm-al-Qaiwan went so far as to torture his relative, the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, into signing away his right to strategically important islands in the Arabian Gulf, a stratagem foiled only by the happy intervention of the British Political Resident. - Stamp of the University Library of Nijmegen on the cloth backing. A very few minute traces of worming, otherwise in fine, spotless condition. Never seen in the trade: the only two copies of this map in auction records were both of the 1914 issue (Christie's, 2012, and Sotheby's, 2013). Not in Al Ankary or Al-Qasimi.‎

‎[Iraq - Photo Album].‎

‎[Photo album of politicians and soldiers in the Kurdistan Region]. Iraq, 1955-1967.‎

‎Oblong folio (240 x 166 mm). 20 ff. 25 silver gelatin photographs, one of which is laid in at the rear; each is roughly 90 x 140 mm. Contemporary textured brown cloth, saddle-stitched with tassel. A rare collection of photographs of the political actors of 1950s and 1960s Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, each set having been taken only a year before the revolutions of 1958 and 1968, respectively. The photographs have been collected here with handwritten captions in German, possibly by one of the German engineering technicians featured in one snapshot. The earlier photographs feature the royal family, including the crowds of spectators awaiting King Faisal in 1957, the banquet for the guests of King Faisal in Sulaymaniyah, and the visit of the Regent and Crown Prince of Iraq, Abd al-Ilah, to Sulaymaniyah in the wake of the flooding in Autumn of 1957. - The laid in photographic print is dated 1955 and titled "im Garten v. Naji Khedairy", featuring a nighttime snapshot, presumably of Khedairy, staring down the camera with a glass in hand. - The later photographs are from September of 1967, several months after the Six Days' War, and feature the political landscape once again on the brink of change: two photos of Iraqi Prime Minister Tahir Yahya in a pinstripe suit walking with leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Mustafa Barzani, another photo of Barzani walking alone; several shots Abdul Razzak, Mustafa Barzani, and Tahir Yahya seated together with refreshments, including one of Barzani and Yahya laughing together, another photograph of Barzani captioned "Der kurdische Führer im Gespräch mit einem irakischen Militär", several casual snapshots of the "Kurdische Delegation" relaxing between meetings, one of which features one woman in Western dress, and a snapshot of the Kurdish military headquarters in Quaradagh. - Altogether, a photographic record of the political leaders of the region during two tumultuous decades, and their meetings amid conflict. Well preserved.‎

‎[Iraq - Royal Air Force].‎

‎[R.A.F. photograph album]. Iraq, 1926.‎

‎Oblong folio (387 x 265 mm). 16 ff. 20 silver gelatin photographs mounted in photo corners with handwritten captions; photographs range between 150 x 207 mm and 120 x 185 mm. Contemporary saddle-stitched faux leather boards with tassel. Twenty R.A.F. photographs of Iraq in the interwar period and associated with the No. 45 Squadron, many of them aerial views and mid-flight snapshots of contemporary aircraft. Most are labelled and numbered in the plate, possibly as official R.A.F. photographs. Aerial photographs of R.A.F. aircraft include the Vicker Victoria Troop Carrier, a "Formation of Vickers Vernous" (that is, Vickers Vernons), and several shots of a pilot referred to simply as "Henry" testing out the newly arrived Airco DH.9A over the mountains and hills of Iraq. Further aerial shots show the Ctesiphon Arch from "200 feet" (61 meters) as noted in-plate, the R.A.F. British Hospital, the Al-Askari Shrine of Samarra surrounded by the old city, and the Maude Bridge in Baghdad. The remainder of the photographs are dedicated to scenes around Baghdad, from British military headquarters to a crowd outside a post office. The first photograph of the album shows what is presumably the No. 45 Squadron (who were in Baghdad in 1926, and are the only squadron in Baghdad known to have flown both the Vickers Vernon and the Airco DH.9A ca. 1926), captioned "All the 'Boys' and me". The No. 45 Squadron famously nicknamed themselves "The Flying Camels" after their squadron badge, which featured a winged camel. - Quite well preserved.‎

‎[Museum of Ancient Iran]. Bahrami, Mehdi / Bayani, Mahdi.‎

‎Rahnama-yi ganjinah-'i Quran dar Muzih-'i Iran-i Bastan. Tehran, Chapkhanah-i Bank-i Milli-i Iran, [1949 CE =] 1328 H.‎

‎8vo. (10), 70, (6), (43 plates), (2), 106, (1) pp. With folding map frontispiece. Red leather-backed blue cloth. A guide to the treasury of Qur'ans in the Museum of Ancient Iran in Tehran, printed in Persian and illustrated with over forty black and white plates from photographs. The plates illustrate the range of time periods, decoration practices, and calligraphic styles represented in the museum's mid-century Qur'an collection. A folding map frontispiece shows a floor plan of the relevant gallery, with arrows helpfully indicating to an interested visitor which way to best take in the exhibits. - The Iran Bastan Museum, also called the Museum of Ancient Iran, falls under the umbrella of the Iran National Museum. However, it is housed in its own specially designed building in Tehran, and was in fact the first structure in Iran purpose-built to act as a museum: its large arched entryway and brickwork are representative of the famous arch of Taq-e Kasra of Ctesiphon and the ancient traditions of Persian brick construction. Today, the Iran Bastan Museum largely houses much earlier relics of Iran's past, such as Neolithic spear points and Sassanian artifacts, with other sites of the Iran National Museum taking up the focus on Muslim-era manuscripts. A scarce piece of literature on Qur'ans in 1940s Iranian museum collections. - Exterior lightly worn, but in good condition. Uncommon. OCLC 61120487.‎

‎[Palestine - Photo Album].‎

‎[Zionist photograph album]. Palestine, 1937.‎

‎Oblong folio (305 x 220 mm). 12 ff. 40 silver gelatin photographs mounted on leaves; sizes range from 177 x 120 mm to 85 x 65 mm. Contemporary plaid cloth with a small brass label on front cover, saddle-stitched binding. Unique photograph album of early Zionist military presence in British Mandatory Palestine, focussing on the Hapoel companies: a sports movement that in the early 1930s was developed into an organizational labour militia intended to stand up against revisionist and right-wing movements as well as against communists. Promoted by David Ben-Gurion, they served as an executive-political arm of the Histadrut until the 1960s. - The photographs show numerous scenes of training and daily life: both male and female soldiers pose in uniform, eat their lunches, hold athletic competitions such as tug-of-war and wheelbarrow races on the beach, meet in the canteen, and line up in formation. Largely presenting an idyllic picture of soldier life, scenes of more serious military drills include soldiers scaling high walls and practicing their army crawl, grappling, and sniper positioning. A handful of early photos also give glimpses of political events in the 1930s: two speeches are shown, one of Ben-Gurion, the other of Hapoel leaders with a military guard, and a packed street scene of what appears to be a parade, judging by the rows of onlookers clustered on balconies. - The brass dedication label on the upper cover is engraved in Hebrew "To Samuel, from the commanders of the Hapoel companies. Haifa, Kiryat Haim, 13-30 August 37". Occasional fading to photographs, but quite well preserved.‎

‎Sarton, George.‎

‎[Al-Thaqafah al-gharbiyah fi riayat al-Sharq al-'Awsat]. The Incubation of the Western Culture in the Middle East. Beirut, Maktabat al-Ma'arif / Luzac, 1952.‎

‎8vo. 80 pp. Original printed wrappers with English title on the lower cover. An academic lecture delivered in 1950 by Havard history professor George Sarton (1884-1956), translated into Arabic by Dr. Omar A. Farrukh, a prolific academic translator and member of the Islamic Research Association, Bombay. George Sarton was considered the founder of the history of science as an independent discipline, and was a proponent of indisciplinary approaches, including not only the combination of scientists and historians, but historians of both Latin and Arabic scientific literature, two traditionally independent disciplines. The topic of the lecture, the so-called "incubation" of Western culture, refers to the Islamic Golden Age, during which Muslim scientists studied Ancient Greek mathematics and natural philosophy and made many of their own interpretations and additions. It was the resulting plethora of Arabic scientific texts which then went on, when translated into Latin, to spark the Italian Renaissance and the "re-birth" of Greek learning (though it was by that time as much Muslim as Greek) in the West. Sarton was among the first modern Westerners to make this connection and to highlight the importance of Arabic literature, making this particular lecture an important building block of the history of science as a discipline. - Light wear and toning, in good condition. OCLC 30183109.‎

‎Sverdlov, Rafael.‎

‎Ha-Levanon: tsiyure masa. [Lebanon: Travel Sketches]. Tel-Aviv, 1930.‎

‎Small 4to (125 x 175 mm). 67, (5) pp. Original printed wrappers. A description of travels throughout Lebanon, written in Hebrew and including a map of the region labeled in Hebrew as well as numerous half-tone illustrations from photographs. Rafael Sverdlov (b. 1885) was a geography teacher at schools in Tel Aviv, and as both resident and teacher had both a personal and professional understanding of the landscapes of the area. The in-text illustrations show Roman-era ruins, rivers, and tree plantations. - A touch of wear, otherwise quite well preserved. OCLC 19179078.‎

‎[Yusuf and Zulaikha].‎

‎Yusuf ve-Zulaikha. Mughal Empire, [ca. 1780 / 18th century].‎

‎4to (170 x 266 mm). Persian and Chagatay Turkish manuscript on polished laid paper. 158 ff. 14 lines of black Naskhi script, set in two columns within gilt borders and black, blue, and red rules; chapter headings in red ink. Prettily illustrated throughout with 28 coloured gouaches (of which 11 are half- to full-page-sized). Margins decorated with gilt scrollwork. Near-contemporary full brown binding with blind-tooled borders and medallion stamps to both covers. Highly rare, charmingly illustrated 18th century manuscript of the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha, which forms the medieval Islamic version of the narrative of the prophet Yusuf and Potiphar's wife. In the Muslim world for centuries, it is found in many languages such as Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Turkish and Urdu, but was given its best-known expression in Persian, by Jami, in the 15th century. - Edges brittle with some tears and chipping, quite extensive remarginings (no loss to text, but obscuring some of the gilt scrollwork borders), occasional light waterstaining. Ownership seals and stamps of Ya Cabbar and Habib Allah.‎

‎[Air Ministry].‎

‎The Approach Towards a System of Imperial Air Communications. Memorandum by the Secretary of State of Air, laid before the Imperial Conference, 1926, together with the Report of the Imperial Air Communications Special Sub-Committee. London, HMSO, 1926.‎

‎Folio (212 x 333 mm). (2), XIII, 91 pp. With 26 full-page plates (of 29), including dozens of coloured maps, as well as a very large folding "Map of the world showing existing and proposed air transport routes" housed in a custom pocket on the inside rear board, as issued. Original printed grey boards with blue cloth spine. Sole edition of this large-format, pivotal early document in the development of international air travel, including the often-lacking loose map. The principal concern of the British during this period was accelerating air transport between the vast reaches of their empire - and chief among these was the lengthy journey to India, via the Middle East. As noted on p. 5, the maximum range of commercial aircraft in 1926 was a mere 400 miles; perhaps partly for this reason, the existing and proposed air routes include numerous stops for refueling in the oil-rich regions of Syria, Iraq, and Iran. - The stated aim of the Air Ministry was in fact to reduce the journey to India to just 5 days (p. VI), and although bold proposals are put forward and illustrated for giant "airships" with a range of 4,000 miles, the then-current technology limited aircraft to a designated route along the northern coast of the Arabian Gulf. Facing the challenge of "the extreme heat and the height of the Arabian Plateau, both of which tend to reduce the load with which an aeroplane can rise from the ground" (p. 9), the route is amply illustrated on numerous folding maps, from Cairo via Gaza, Rutbah Wells (Iraq), Baghdad, Basra, Bushire, Bandar Abbas, Chahbari, Pasni, Karachi, Hyderabad, etc. - Other chapters cover fascinating proposals for "major air routes" between Ottawa, London, and Kingston, Jamaica; "the use of wireless in air traffic communications" (p. 62); early air routes in Australia and the United States; and so on. The plates include designs for proposed experimental "airships"; photographs of early airports, and maps of meterological phenomena. Particularly interesting is the "Map Showing Areas in Which Main Imperial Airship Routes Will Probably Develop" (facing p. 74), which indicates that alongside the Transatlantic route, the coasts of the Arabian Gulf (but not the interior) as well as the coasts of Africa will be the next targets of development. - Lacks three plates, otherwise fine.‎

‎Arabian American Oil Company.‎

‎The Industrious Saudi Arabs. New York, Aramco, [1969].‎

‎560 x 430 mm. Folding poster with several black-and-white photographic illustrations. Aramco poster celebrating technological advances in Saudi Arabia triggered by their cooperation with America. Featuring pictures taken by Aramco employees, it presents the Saudi Arabians' industrial achievements and their growing infrastructure, including railways, loading cranes, accurate scales, gas stations, and machines manufacturing blocks of concrete. The text accompanying the images bursts with praise for the Saudi spirit: "For over two decades now the Saudi Arabs have been building their ancient land into a modern nation [...] The drilling bit that bored down into the desert did more than strike oil - it quickened the life blood of a whole nation".‎

‎[Ashtiname].‎

‎Ashtiname of the Prophet Muhammad, for the Christians of Egypt. Legal document certified by Isma'il, the Ottoman qadi of Egypt. Ottoman Egypt, 18th century.‎

‎Folio (213 x 442 mm). Black Naskhi on paper, decorated with an illuminated sarlowh in red and blue. Mounted on cloth. Rare 18th century copy of the "Ashtiname" (Covenant), a charter granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus, issued to the Christian monks of St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, supposedly by the Prophet Muhammad and dated Muharram of the year 2 of the Hegira. - A handwritten copy of a famous document from the early history of Islam: it assures the Christian populations of the protection of their property as well as their places of worship, among other privileges. While the authenticity of the text has been called into question by many scholars, the history of its reception over the centuries remains a fascinating subject. The supposed original document, which was given by the Prophet Muhammad to the monks of St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, was confiscated by Sultan Selim I (ruled 1512-20) during his campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1516/17. Subsequently, numerous copies were drawn up so as to renew the protection offered to Christians. Their authenticity is assured by the certification of a qadi, our document bearing the signature of the qadi of Egypt, a certain Isma'il, affixed by way of a seal in the right margin of the document. - Minor repairs and dampstaining, but well preserved.‎

‎Bonfils, Félix, and studio.‎

‎Photographies de Terre Sainte. Jerusalem, F. F. Marroum, [ca. 1880s].‎

‎Oblong folio (340 x 250 mm). 48 albumen photographs mounted on card, each approximately 225 x 280 mm. Contemporary olive wooden boards decorated with the cross of Jerusalem; red calf spine. A thorough collection of Bonfils studio photography of Palestine and surroundings. - Félix Bonfils (1831-85) was a French-born photographer who had come to the Levant with General d'Hautpoul in 1860 and remained active in the East. Based in Beirut, Bonfils produced thousands of photographs depicting Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the early days of Western tourism to the Middle East, his works soon became popular as souvenirs. - The photographs largely depict views in and around Jerusalem as well as six portrait and group shots showing traditional fashions. Included are scenes of Jaffa, the exterior and interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the "Mosque of Omar" (Dome of the Rock, Qubbat as-Sakhra) and the Al-Aqsa (Qibli) Mosque, scenes of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, among others. The handsome olive binding, with its carved cross and decorative inlay, underlines the value of Bonfils photographs as fine mementos of trips to the Holy Land in the late 19th century, during a rise in tourism European tourism and interest in the Levant. - Light exterior wear; well preserved.‎

‎Bonfils, Félix, et al.‎

‎[Photograph album - the Holy Land]. [Palestine, ca. 1880s].‎

‎Oblong folio (360 x 260 mm). 96 albumen photographs mounted on card. Contemporary vellum elaborately ruled in floral gilt. A thorough collection of late 19th century Holy Land souvenir photographs, featuring photography by American Colony, the Bonfils studio, and others, depicting views of Cairo, Palestine, and surroundings. - Félix Bonfils (1831-85) was a French-born photographer who had come to the Levant with General d'Hautpoul in 1860 and remained active in the East. Based in Beirut, Bonfils produced thousands of photographs depicting Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the early days of Western tourism to the Middle East, his works soon became popular as souvenirs. - The photographs depict views in and around Palestine and Egypt, including scenes of grotto chapels and many interior scenes of churches and mosques, including the Al-Aqsa (Qibli) Mosque, the Mosque of Omar, the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Al-Azhar Mosque, and Sultan Qaytbay's mosque and mausoleum complex. - Bookseller's ticket of C. Glingler, Rome, to front pastedown. Light wear and fading to photographs. A handsomely bound collection.‎