‎Golf‎

‎Raymond, Alexandre.‎

‎L'Art islamique en orient. I [& II] Partie. Prague, [1921-1924].‎

‎Imperial folio (360 x 490 mm). In the two original, matching decorative portfolios. Half cloth, boards with illustrated lithogr. title, inside covers and flaps with ornamental decoration printed in gold, green and blue. Green ties. I: 12 pp. 36 lithogr. plates in colour (of which 4 are double-page). II: 12 pp. 54 plates in colour (of which 2 are printed in gold on blue paper and 8 double-page sized). First edition of both parts, complete and not listed thus in library catalogues or auction records of the last decades. The first part was considered lost; indeed, its very existence was doubted ("apparently the first part was never published", Atabey Sale, Sotheby's 29 May 2002, lot 990, the second part alone fetching £22,000). Contains a finely chromolithographed selection of plates illustrating Islamic architecture and architectural details drawn from various mosques and numerous examples of ornamental decoration taken from Islamic fayences. - Some staining to upper covers of both portfolios; outer cloth of spines restored; mild foxing to margins of a few plates in part II; otherwise, plates clean and in good condition. Atabey 1015 (part 2 only). Not in Blackmer.‎

‎[Sahara].‎

‎Halte d'Arabes a l'Entrée du Sahara. [Paris, 1844].‎

‎Steel engraving (Henit del. / Lechard sculp.). Image size 134 x 91 mm, plate size 228 x 170 mm, leaf size 262 x 176 mm. From Gabriel de Lurcy's "Voyages autour du Monde et Naufrages célèbres". - Clean and well-preserveed.‎

‎[Saudi Arabia].‎

‎Memorandum on the Radio Telecommunication Scheme on the Occasion of the Project Inauguration by His Majesty the King. Mecca, Ministry of Communications, 1956.‎

‎Large 4to (255 x 303 mm). (36) pp. With 6 mounted colour prints after watercolour drawings and numerous black-and-white illustrations. Original giltstamped green cloth. Exceedingly rare "memorandum", printed in Arabic and English throughout, documenting the telecommunication network scheme that was to modernise wireless telecommunications in Saudi Arabia, based on equipment manufactured and installed by the German engineering company Siemens & Halske. Also contains photoportraits of King Saud, Crown Prince Faisal (then Prime Minister, later to establish the first television broadcasting station in 1963), Prince Sultan (Minister of Communications), Sheikh Abdullah Al-Saad, Sheikh Ibrahim Silisilah, and Sheikh Abdullah Kazim, as well as maps, diagrams, and pictures of radio equipment in operation. - In perfect state of preservation. No copy listed in online library catalogues worldwide.‎

‎Soubhy, Saleh.‎

‎Pèlerinage à la Mecque et à Médine. Précédé d'un aperçu sur l'islamisme et suivi de considérations générales au point de vue sanitaire et d'un appendice sur la circoncision. Cairo, Imprimerie nationale, 1894.‎

‎Large 8vo. 109 (instead of 129), (2) pp. With 16 (instead of 19) plates. Marbled half calf with giltstamped title to spine. Includes 4 photographic views of Mecca, 3 of Medina and 3 of Jeddah (after Sadiq Bey and others), wants only the ten-leaf appendix, 2 portraits and the plate showing the departure of the Mahmal in Cairo. - Salih Subhi, an Egyptian public health official, was commissioned by his government to undertake the Hajj in 1888 and 1894. Here he describes the eight-month journey in great detail. Muhammed Sadiq Bey was a major pioneer in the history of Arabian photography and the first person ever to photograph the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. - Browned throughout due to paper. Our copy without the ten-leaf appendix before the author's epilogue and portrait. - Rare, the last copy on the market fetched £27,500 (Christie's, April 13 2010, lot 276, with author's dedication), the Burrell copy fetched £8,000 in 1999 (complete, but in modern cloth). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2096. Auboyneau/Fevret 20. OCLC 7055812.‎

‎[Saudi Arabia - Mineral Resources Bulletins].‎

‎Collection of 23 Mineral Resources Bulletins. Includes Professional Papers Nos. PP-1-3 and Mineral Resources Research 1967-68. Jeddah, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, 1965-1984 and 1982-1989.‎

‎Mineral Resources Bulletins Nos. 1, 4, 7-9, 12-29. Includes maps and diagrams. Professional Papers Nos. PP-1-3. Mineral Resources Research 1967-68. All in their original printed green wrappers or full cloth bindings. Extensive collection of rare geologic Bulletins issued by the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (Directorate General of Mineral Resources; after 1980: Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources), spanning two decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Wants merely issue 5/6 and the slim issues 10-11, as well a a final vol. of bibliography (no. 3 was never published). Includes the "Professional Papers" periodical published from 1982 onwards (all three issues published) and the "Mineral Resources Research" volume for 1967/68. - Very clean and well-preserved throughout.‎

‎Snouck Hurgronje, C[hristian].‎

‎Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century. Daily Life, Customs and Learning. The Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago. Leyden & London, E. J. Brill & Luzac, 1931.‎

‎Large 8vo. VI, 309, (3) pp. With 20 half-tone plates, folding plan of Mecca, and plan of the Haram. Original blue cloth. First edition of the English translation of a book on the holy city of Mecca by the Dutch orientalist and professor Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936). The book is divided into four large chapters, dealing respectively with daily life, family life, learning and the Jâwah in Mecca. Each chapter is illustrated with several photographs, mostly portraits, depicting among others a physician, a merchant with his slave, a bride and groom, pilgrims and the doorkeeper of the Kaabah, and also including a view of the Masjid al-Haram mosque. The book closes with an index and two maps, one showing Mecca. During his travels Snouck Hurgronje took many pictures of the holy city and its inhabitants, which made him the first western photographer in the city. In 1888 he published two volumes in German entitled "Mekka" describing his travels, to which a "Bilder-Atlas zu Mekka" was added in 1888. The present translation is based on the second of the two German volumes from 1888, "which seems likely to appeal to a wider public" (p. V), thus representing a Mecca from nearly fifty years earlier. The two maps included in the first German volume are included here as well, and the 21 reproductions of photographs are a selection from the photographs in the "Bilder-Atlas". - Binding only slighty worn at the top and bottom of the spine. Interior slightly browned, but otherwise a very good copy, clean and well-preserved, with both the text and plates in very good condition. Macro 1238. D. van der Wal, Christiaan Snouck Hurgonje: the First Western Photographer in Mecca, 1884-1885 (2011). OCLC 1088989. Cf. Fück 231.‎

‎Svanborg, Anders.‎

‎Öfningar i Arabiskan. Uppsala, Johann Frederik Edman, 1802.‎

‎4to. (10), 56 pp. - (Bound with) II: The same. Första Grunderna i Arabiska Spraket. Ibid., 1804. (4), 58 pp. Later half cloth. Sammelband containing two rare study books by Anders Svanborg, teacher of Greek and Oriental languages at the Swedish Royal Academy at Uppsala. The first is a compilation of Arabic texts (from Lokman's Fables, the Qur'an, etc.) with original Swedish translations; the second is a brief grammar. - A few contemporary underlinings and notes in pencil. Schnurrer 99f., no. 146; 106f., no. 150. OCLC 41108858, 41132955.‎

‎Teonge, Henry.‎

‎The Diary of Henry Teonge, chaplain on board His Majesty's ships Assistance, Bristol, and Royal Oak, anno 1675 to 1679. London, Charles Knight, 1825.‎

‎8vo. XVIII, (2), 327, (1) pp. With engr. title page and lithogr. folding facsimile. Modern half calf (by Bayntun's, Bath) with giltstamped red spine label and marbled boards. Edges sprinkled in red. First edition. - The fame of the English clergyman Teonge (1621-90) rests on his present work. Due to financial difficulties, he enlisted in the Navy and became a chaplain on the ships Assistance, Bristol and Royal Oak, completing three voyages to the Mediterranean, where he searched for pirates, landed in Syria and visited Malta, Zante, Cephalonia, and Aleppo. - "The interest of Teonge's life is concentrated in the diary of the few years he spent at sea, which gives an amusing and precious picture of life in the navy at that time. This journal, from 20 May 1675 to 28 June 1679, having lain in manuscript for over a century, was purchased from a Warwickshire family by Charles Knight, who edited it in 1825 as ‘The Diary of Henry Teonge,’ with a facsimile of the first folio of the manuscript (London, 8vo). The narrative reveals the diarist as a pleasant, lively, easy-going man, not so strict as to prevent his falling in with the humours of his surroundings" (DNB). The diary contains accounts of cruises in the Channel, Atlantic, and Mediterranean, leavened with occasional songs, sonnets, acrostics, etc. "The nature of Teonge's diary, and the disappearance of the manuscript for almost a century after its first publication in 1825, led to persistent suggestions that it might have been a forgery. Confirmation both of Teonge's existence and of the sequence of events which he recorded came from the Admiralty records in the Public Record Office, and the re-emergence of the manuscript itself at a Sotheby’s sale in 1918 put the matter conclusively to rest" (ODNB). - Occasional insignificant brownstaining; altogether a well-preserved copy. Allibone 2375. DNB 56, 76. Lowndes 2605. Weber II, 412. OCLC 2438435.‎

‎[Tunisia].‎

‎Sousse & Sfax. Paysages & Types. Paris, L. Boulanger, [c. 1900].‎

‎Oblong folio. (4) pp., 8 printed illustrations in colour after photographs. Original printed wrappers. Fascicule 60 from the "Autour de Monde. Aquarelles, Souvenirs, Voyages", showing eight views from Tunisia. Depicts the cities and ports, the inhabitants, etc. - Slight edge defects, otherwise well preserved.‎

‎Upton, Peter.‎

‎Gold Roseifa. No place, [c. 1987].‎

‎Ballpoint, heightened with white. 378 x 278 mm. A sheet of annotated preliminary sketches for Upton's watercolour portrait of the three Arab mares Gold Roseifa, Russallka, and Roxiralot. - Matted.‎

‎Upton, Peter.‎

‎Roxira. No place, [ca. 1987].‎

‎Ballpoint, heightened with white. 373 x 276 mm. Matted. A sheet of annotated preliminary sketches (one on recto, two on verso) for Upton's watercolour portrait of the three Arab mares Gold Roseifa, Russallka, and Roxiralot.‎

‎Valgrisi, Vicenzo.‎

‎Tabula Asiae VI. Venedig, Valgrisi, 1562.‎

‎230:325 mm. Engraved map. An early Ptolemaic map, showing "the mountains as lightly shaded slopes. The map includes details on towns and watercourses. The Arabian Gulf is distorted and the size of the watercourses is exaggerated" (Al Ankary). Al Ankary 147.Tibbetts 30. Not in the Al-Quasimi collection.‎

‎Wahl, S(amuel) F(riedrich) Günther.‎

‎[Dar Hawarnaq dar zemestan zaban tari]. Neue arabische Anthologie oder auserlesene Sammlung seltener und großentheils erst neu aus Handschriften ausgehobener Stükke aus verschiedenen Fächern der arabischen Litteratur. Eine Fortsezzung des Elementarbuchs für die arabische Sprache und Litteratur, die Sprache in doppeltem Gesichtspunkt, als Sprache der Schrift und als Sprache des Lebens betrachtet. Benebst einer Voreinleitung, einem Anhang für die Kenner der persischen Litteratur, und einem Glossarium. Leipzig, Johann Friedrich Junius, 1791.‎

‎8vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. XVI, 124 (but: 224) pp. 328 pp. Contemporary marbled half-calf binding with giltstamped labels to spine. Only edition. Contains much previously unpublished manuscript material (cf. ADB). The German oriental scholar Samuel F. G. Wahl (1760-1834) was an extremely prolific author. His subjects include all aspects of oriental linguistics and literature, including Persia, China, and India, and he was one of the few scholars of his time to have a knowledge of Armenian. - Edges and corners slightly bumped; spine insignificantly rubbed. Interior clean and well-preserved. From the collection of the Swedish orientalist and bibliophile Henrik Gerhard Lindgren (1801-79) with his autogr. note of ownership on front pastedown; later in the collection of C. O. Nordgren (dated on flyleaf: Uppsala, 9 March 1880). ADB 40, 594. Neuer Nekrolog der Dt. (12/2), p. 1230. ALZ 332 (1791), vol. 4, p. 540-544. Schnurrer 92. OCLC 6867437.‎

‎Wollaston, Arthur N.‎

‎The Sword of Islam. London, John Murray, 1905.‎

‎8vo. VIII, (4), 523, (1) pp. With folding map and 16 printed plates. Contemp. red smoothed goatskin morocco binding, elaborately giltstamped for the Royal Asiatic Society with their monogram and motto on covers and (slightly faded) spine. All edges gilt. First and only edition. The fine illustrations show the approach to Mecca, Damascus, Gibraltar from the East, a nook in Algiers, the Tomb of the Khalifs in Cairo, the Gate of Blood in Toledo, a mosque in Cordova, the Alhambra in Granada, a reproduced double-page from the Qur'an, the mosque at Mecca, Medina, pilgrims' dress, Meccan chiefs with camel and attendant, etc. - This copy awarded in 1912 to the later journalist, political theoretician and British Communist Rajani Palme Dutt (1896-1974) as school prize for Essays by William Henry Denham Rouse, headmaster at Perse Grammar School, Cambridge. - Dutt's father, Upendra Dutt, was an Indian surgeon; his mother Anna Palme Dutt was Swedish and related to the future Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme. Dutt was educated at The Perse School, Cambridge and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class degree in classics after having been suspended for a time due to his status as a conscientious objector in World War I. Dutt married an Estonian, Salme Murrik, in 1922. His wife had come to Great Britain in 1920 as a representative of the Communist International. That same year, he joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and remained one of its most conservative members all his life. In 1921 Dutt founded a monthly magazine called 'Labour Monthly', a publication which he edited until his death. - Spine slightly rubbed; front hinge repaired; a nicely preserved presentation copy in a fine RAS binding.‎

‎Reygasse, Superior of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists) in Mount Lebanon (dates unknown).‎

‎3 autograph letters signed. Tripoli and Eden, 1855-1856.‎

‎(Large) 4to. Altogether 8¾ pp. on 3 bifolia. Three letters to the Prelate in Austro-Hungary, Jacob Mislin (1807-78), signed, containing reports of the position of the Lebanese Christians, especially about Youssef Bey Karam (1823-89), a Maronite freedom fighter in Mount Lebanon: "Le Cheik Joseph Caram, sur l'avis qu'il avait reçu de votre Grandeur s'était préparé à faire une brillante réception à leur Altesse Royale le Duc de Brabant et son auguste épouse, il avait mis à contribution tout ce que son pays pouvait lui fournir de ressources matérielles, pour donner à leur Altesse un témoignage éclatant de la vénération qui lui et tout son pays professent pour elles. Après de nombreux préparatifs, ayant appris que leur Altesse n'avait pu exécuter leur voyage au cèdres, sa douleur a été à son comble. Vous connaissez ses instincts pour les devoirs de l'hospitalité; En cette occasion ils s'étaient déployés au delà de tout ce qu'on peut dire. Pendant les dix ou douze jours de son attente, il avait mis plusieurs villages à contributions, pour réparer les chemins trop raboteux et qui pouvaient offrir quelques dangers, il avait aussi envoyé au haut des montagnes ôter la neige tout le long de la route depuis les cèdes jusqu'à l'autre côté du Liban; il avait entretenu pendant plusieurs jours une cinquantaine de cavaliers dans sa maison; il avait acheté et distribué huit quintaux de poudre à tous ses gens armés aux quels il donnait quelque teinture de la manœuvre militaire pour que leurs salves fussent exécutées avec ordre; il avait fait de grands achat de tentures pour tapisser tout l'intérieur de sa maison et ses avenues &c.&c.&c., le tout à ses frais, malgré la maudicité de ses ressources. Son cœur généreux et on ne peut plus désintéressé serait certes loin d'espérer quelque compensation à toutes ces dépenses, il se tiendrait même grièvement offensé sur le point d'honneur, s'il savait que je vous au fait connaître ces détails; c'est donc à son inçu et sur le conseil de quelques uns de ses nombreux amis que je me donne la liberté de vous en entretenir, afin que si vous le jugez convenable, vous portiez ces faits à la connaissance de leur Altesse Royale; votre ami se croirait déjà trop flatté de savoir que sa bonne volonté leur est connue. Le Prince de Jouinville dans son voyage en Syrie l'avait pris tellement en affection qu'il voulait l'emmener à la cour, si l'Auguste sœur de ce digne Prince voulait lui continuer le même intérêt, nous la prierions de vouloir bien obtenir de la porte Ottomane, pour le Cheik Joseph Caram, le titre serait le prix de son parfait dévouement, non seulement pour le servir de leur Altesse Royale, mais encore pour celui de tous les européens qui voyagent dans ces pays et cela depuis un bon nombre d'années, suivant en cela les traces de son illustre Père. Mille pardons, Monseigneur, de la liberté que je prends moi pauvre missionnaire; c'est peut-être un excès de tendresse de ma part" (10 May 1855). - "Le scheik Joseph Caram gouverneur d'Eden, Sgorta, […] vient de scavoir l'honorable et précieux souvenir de son Altesse Royale le Duc de Brabant. Cette marque distinguée de la munificence du Prince a été reçue avec de grands transports d'enthousiasme et une pompe vraiment triomphale. On est allé à rencontre de la précieuse epingle, avec le même élan et la même solemnité que si c'eut été son Altesse en personne qui venait honorer ces contrées de sa personne. Le Scheik Joseph ne fait rien à moitié: il a voulu que la foule nombreuse qui faisait cortège au Cadeau Royal, depuis Tripoli, avec chants, musique, salves, tournois, comprit la signification qu'il voulait donner à cette fête. […] publiant avec une grande conviction, en face de tous, que tout honneur vient de Dieu et doit retourner à Dieu, que ce n'est qu'en vue de glorifier sa souveraine Majesté qu'on doit accepter la gloire mondaine; que le glorieux Prince qui veut bien condescendre à honorer la personne n'a d'autre dessein dans ses largesses que d'étendre le royaume de celui de la libéralité du quel il tient le sceptre et la couronne […]" (1 Feb. 1856). - "Le fanatisme des Musulmans se réveille. Un de ces jours le tribunal de Tripoli a condamné à (3) mort un Maronite pour avoir maudit Jésus Christ. Ce n'est pas, comme vous le pensez bien, par respect pour la religion chrétienne et son divin instituteur, mais pour avoir raison de condamner à la même peine de mort quiconque blasphémerait le nom de Mahomet : car disent-ils la loi du Coran est encore dans toute sa vigueur et le Hati-Scherif n'a pas voulu toucher la question de la liberté de conscience […]" (21 June 1856).‎

‎[Umar Sheikh Mirza].‎

‎Portrait of Sultan Umar Sheikh Mirza. Prob. North India, second half of 19th century.‎

‎Gouache on paper with floral borders in gilt and red title within cartouche. C. 170 x 120 mm. Framed and glazed. Very decorative, high-quality miniature portrait of Sultan Umar (Omar) Mirza (1456-93), a Timuride prince from the Fergana valley. He is revered as father of Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Indian Moghul empire. The Arabic captions translates as: "The blessed portrait of Sultan Umar Sheikh Mirza". - Very clean. A comparable portrait is in the Brooklyn Museum (accession no. 59.205.9).‎

‎Abu al-Barakat 'Abdallah b. Ahmad b. Mahmud al-Nasafi.‎

‎Kanz al-daqua'iq fi'l-furu (Treasure of Niceties in the Branches [of Jurisprudence]). No place, [1477 CE] = Wednesday, 17 Rabi` I 882 H.‎

‎Large 4to (176 x 262 mm). Arabic ms. on oriental paper. 325 ff., expertly written naskh script, possibly in more than one hand, black ink with rubrics, usually 6-8 lines to the page, considerable interlinear and marginal glossing. Full-leather Islamic binding with fore-edge flap; original blind tooled ornamentation (medallion). Manual on Islamic Law by Abu al-Barakat `Abdallah b. Ahmad b. Mahmud al-Nasafi (d. 710/1310), an important Hanafi legist and theologian. Born in Nasaf in Sogdian, he taught in the Madrasa al-Kutbiya al-Sultaniya in Kirman, came to Baghdad in 710 and died in Rabi` I 710 (August 1310), apparently on his return journey to Idjadj (in Khuzistan), where he was buried. The Kanz al-Daqa'iq is an important text on Hanafite law and formed the basis for a great number of commentaries, especially in the 9th/14th and 10th/15th centuries (EI² VII, p. 96; GAL II, pp. 250-53). Contains both the `Ibadat and the Mu`amalat. - Final 12 leaves (f. 313ff.) show edge damage with some loss of text. Copied by Khidr b. Shaykh `Ali (colophon in a chancery hand on f. 325v). Cf. GAL S II, 265.‎

‎(Abu Rashid Sa'id b. Muhammad b. Sa'id al-Nisaburi) / Biram, Arthur.‎

‎Kitabu 'l-masa'il fi'l-hilaf bejn al-Basrijjin wa 'l-Bagdadijjin. Al-kalam fi'l gawahir. Die atomistische Substanzenlehre aus dem Buch der Streitfragen zwischen Basrensern und Bagdadensern. Inaugural-Dissertation der hohen philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde. Berlin, H. Itzkowski, 1902.‎

‎8vo. 82, (2), 89, (1) pp. Papered spine. Only edition of this study of Arabic atomism, tracing the dispute in mediaeval Arabic natural philosophy between the theologians of Basra and Baghdad. Includes the Arabic text. GAL S I, 344. OCLC 4391682.‎

‎Adam, V[ictor].‎

‎L'hippodrome au coin du feu. Paris, A. de Vresse, [ca. 1840].‎

‎Landscape folio (30 x 42 cm). 16 hand-coloured lithographed plates, all with captions and decorative borders (lacks title-page). A fine example of Adam's expertise in lithography. The plates depict a variety of unusual equestrian racing scenes including female chariot racing and monkeys riding horseback. Victor Adam (1801-67) was originally employed as painter for the Museum at Versailles. However, in the 1840s he decided to concentrate on the art of lithography, and this scarce album is typical of his work. - 10 plates show some spotting, mainly marginal; one plate with tear in margin (ca. 1 cm, not affecting the plate). Paper on front pastedown wrinkled, bookseller's label, bound in original blue gilt decorated cloth. Overall an attractive copy. Not in Schwerdt, Lipperheide or Colas.‎

‎Ahmed Hassan, Hafiz.‎

‎Pilgrimage to the Caaba and Charing Cross. London, W. H. Allen & Co., [1871].‎

‎8vo. VIII, 174, 8, (2) pp. With mounted photoportrait frontispiece. Original elaborately giltstamped forest green cloth. All edges red. First and only edition; inscribed copy. The author worked in the service of the Nawab (sovereign) of Tonk, in Hindustan. A Muslim, the Nawab in January 1870 received permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ahmed Hassan accompanied him, and his account includes details of the crossing from Bombay to Jeddah, of the visits to Mecca and Medina, and of the continuation of his journey to England. The account is uncommon. - Occasional minute foxing to interior, otherwise a very fine copy in well-preserved original binding. Inscribed by the author on t. p.: "With the author's compliments". OCLC 4384569. Not in Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula.‎

‎Al-Hizb as-Suyu i al-Misri.‎

‎Sittun aman min nidal al-suyuiyin al-misriyin. [Cairo, Al-Hizb as-Suyu i al-Misri], 1979.‎

‎116 pp. Original wrappers. 8vo. Treatise on the history of the Egyptian Communist party (Al-Hizb as-Suyu i al-Misri) and other communist organizations in Egypt from 1920 to 1979. As early as October 1920, merely three years after the Bolshevist October Revolution, the Egyptian Socialist Party constituted itself as the true representative of the Egyptian working class. The following year, the Party sent Hosni al-Arabi to Moscow to negotiate a possible reception into the Communist International, and in 1922, the name of the party was officially changed to "Egyptian Communist Party". After several splits, re-formations, and dissolvements, the Party was newly founded in 1975 after Anwar as-Sadat lifted the ban on the movement. - Well-preserved. OCLC 246522674.‎

‎Al-Tughrai, al-Husayn ibn Ali.‎

‎Poema Tograi, ex versione latina Jacobii Golii, cum scholiis et notis. Curante Henrico van der Sloot. Franeker, Willem Coulon, 1769.‎

‎17, (1), 174 pp. Contemporary full calf binding. All edges red. 4to. Early scholarly edition, with Latin translation and notes. "The 'Lamiyat al-`Agam', a famous poem by at-Tograi'i [...]. It was first edited by Golius together with the Sentences of Ali in 1629. This is the first one accompanied by Arabic scholia, and also the first readily available edition containing Golius's translation: Anchersen's edition of 1707, which published this translation for the first time, was lost at sea except for six copies" (Smitskamp). - Some foxing and browning; glue-shading to endpapers. Old bookplate (alpha and omega with fish) on front pastedown; stamp of the Paris Jesuit Congregation on title page. Binding rubbed and bumped at extremities; spine rather chipped. No copies recorded at auction within the last decades. GAL I, S. 286. Smitskamp (PO) 318. Schnurrer 200. Graesse VI, 167. OCLC 16080863.‎

‎[Alf layla wa-layla - English].‎

‎The Arabian Nights, in five volumes, translated by the Reverend Edward Forster. London, W. Bulmer & Co. for William Miller, 1802.‎

‎8vo. 5 vols. With 24 engr. plates after Robert Smirke. Contemporary full straight-grained blue morocco, Greek key patterned boards, spine gilt in compartments, all edges gilt. First edition of this early translation by Edward Forster (1769-1828), based on the French version of Antoine Galland, which had first appeared between 1704 and 1717. "Galland's translation [...] was quickly translated into English and German. It enjoyed a most remarkable success throughout Europe, perceptible even in children's literature, and contributed significantly to the new image which enlightened Europeans entertained of the Islamic East: after Galland, this was no longer the home of the Antichrist and of accursed heresy, but rather the ever-constant Orient beneath an eternally fair sky, boasting splendid colours and unheard-of wealth, Caliphs, Viziers, and Kadis, harems, fairy-tale princes, fairies and genies, sorcerers and sages, a world of fantastic adventure and outrageous incidents" (cf. Fück, p. 101). - After having studied law and medicine at Balliol and St Mary Hall, Oxford, Forster decided to enter the clergy. He soon "entered into an engagement with a bookseller, William Miller [...], to issue tastefully printed editions of the works of standard authors, illustrated by the best artists of the day" (DNB). The series was inceived with "Don Quixote" in 1801. His "Arabian Nights" were frequently reprinted, seeing five editions by 1854. The present set is distinguished by the beautiful illustrations after Smirke, "whom every person of correct taste will acknowledge to be second to none in this range of art" (I, vii), as well as by the elegantly gilt navy blue morocco bindings. Some occasional spotting due to paper, some slight wear and scuffing, but a beautiful set altogether. Chauvin IV, 239. Brunet III, 1716. Graesse IV, 524. Lowndes/Bohn I, 59. DNB VII, 453. OCLC 5782874. Thieme/B. XXXI, 164 (illustrations).‎

‎Alken, Henry.‎

‎The Beauties and Defects in the Figure of the Horse. London, S. & J. Fuller, [1816].‎

‎4to. Engraved title with circular vignette, 18 hand-coloured etched plates, uncut in original boards, worn at joints at extremities. First edition. An uncut copy in original pictorial boards of the first book published under Alken's name. He mentions his "habit of riding young and violent horses with fox-hounds", and of having a mare which caused him "four or five falls a day upon an average, and all in consequence of her violent bucking leaps." - Provenance: Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate). Schwerdt I, 12. Mennessier de la Lance 14. Huth 85. Mellon/Snelgrove 73. Tooley, Coloured Plates 20.‎

‎Alphabets Orientaux Anciens.‎

‎Caracteres et alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes. [Paris, Robert Bénard, 1763].‎

‎Folio (238 x 302 mm). 25 large folio plates, folded horizontally. Marbled half calf with giltstamped red spine label; sparsely gilt spine. The 25 plates from Diderot's "Encyclopédie" showing the "Characters and Alphabets of Dead and Living Languages", including Arabic, Ethiopian, Coptic and several other alphabets. Letterforms are shown in a variety of majuscules and cursives. - Upper spine-end chipped, otherwise fine. Old ms. ownership on verso of first plate, partially in Greek: "ek ton biblon tou Fl. Lécluse / 1806" (i.e., Fleury de Lécluse, 1774-1845, professor of Greek and Hebrew and scholar of the Basque language). Removed from the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown. PMM 200. Lough 2-15. Darnton 33. Horblit 25. Norman 637. Dibner 85.‎