‎Golf‎

‎Société des factoreries francaises du Golfe Persique & de l'Afrique Orientale.‎

‎Action de Cinq Cents Francs au Porteur. No 296. Paris, Imprimérie centrale des chemins de fer / Imprimérie chaix, 2. II. 1883.‎

‎Folio (ca. 305 x 393 mm). 1 page. Share certificate for a bearer stock security of 500 francs with 24 coupons, signed by two administrators of the "Société des factoreries francaises du Golfe Persique". The company operated from the small port town of Obock, on the Gulf of Tadjoura opposite Aden. It was the site of the first French colony in the region, which was established in 1862, initiating the colonisation of Djibouti. The French were especially interested in having a coaling station for steamships, which proved valuable upon the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.‎

‎Stark, Freya.‎

‎Dust in the Lion's Paw. Autobiography 1939-1946. London, John Murray, 1961.‎

‎8vo. XII, 296, [2] pp. With a map of the Middle East, titled "Dust in the Lion's Paw" on p. 6, 8 double-sided plates, and an illustration of a lion (in red) on the title-page. Green cloth with gold lettering on front cover and spine. With dust jacket, designed by Frank Quilter, and protected by a clear plastic jacket. First edition of Freya Stark's (1893-1993) fourth and final volume of autobiography, detailing her work, travels and life during the years 1939-1946. During the Second World War she travelled through the Middle East in the service of the British Ministry of Information, spreading propaganda for the Allied cause. According to the short blurb on the inside of the dustjacket, "Freya Stark's new book is an autobiography with a theme - the art of Persuasion ...". She strictly promoted connections between the Allies and the peoples and governments of the Middle East, expressly speaking out against the Germans and also against Zionism. In Egypt she founded the "Brotherhood of Freedom", which she used to further her fight for freedom and secular democracy. - Untrimmed. With an ownership inscription on front pastedown in blue ink: "Marjorie Wood. December 1961". Overall in very good condition. Blackmer 1470. Howgego IV, S 61. Shapero, The Islamic World (2004), 459 (first ed. misdated "1962"). Cf. article "Freya Stark" in Encyclopaedia Britannica.‎

‎Stark, Freya.‎

‎Seen in the Hadhramaut. London, John Murray, 1938.‎

‎4to. XXIII, (1 blank), 199, (1 blank) pp. With the title-page in red and black, 1 map of the Hadhramaut titled: "Seen in the Hadhramaut", and 50 double sided plates. The plates are included in the pagination. Blue cloth with black lettering on front cover and spine. With dust jacket. First edition. A perspective on the Hadhramaut region in Southern Arabia and its people through the eyes and camera lens of traveller, writer, and photographer Freya Stark (1893-1993). Of Italian and British descent, Stark was born in Paris and grew up in several places throughout Europe. Her present account tells the story of Southern Arabia in 130 photographs with corresponding descriptions. - Dust jacket is slightly soiled and very slightly damaged (mostly around head and foot of spine), binding and edges with some slight discoloration and foxing, endleaves partially browned. Blackmer 1470. Howgego IV, S 61. Smith, The Yemens, 98. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 889. Cf. article "Freya Stark" in Encyclopaedia Britannica; Macro 2118 (1939 ed.); Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 468.‎

‎Stark, Freya.‎

‎Traveller's Prelude. An Autobiography. London, John Murray, 1951.‎

‎8vo. XII, (2), 346 pp. With a double-page map on blue/green paper, 22 double-sided plates, a green ornament on the title-page, a small woodcut of Asolo on p. 336, and some small decorations in the text. Green cloth with gold lettering on front cover and spine. With a dust jacket designed by F. Quilter. First part of Freya Stark's autobiography, spanning the years until her early thirties (1893-1927), immediately before embarking on her travels. The author was one of the first non-Arabs to journey through the southern Arabian Desert, in the 1930s. - The present copy is a reprint of the first edition; it was published in 1951, merely months after its first appearance in September 1950. Even though Stark's uniquely personal writing style was considered unusual at the time, her books proved very popular. Stark was of Italian and British descent; she was born in Paris and grew up in several places throughout Europe. - Freya Stark's autobiography includes three additional works: Beyond Euphrates (1951), The Coast of incense (1953), and Dust in the Lion's Paw (1961). - Dust jacket is somewhat damaged and partially repaired with tape, edges are untrimmed, small repair to the inner front hinge with tape. Overall in very good condition. Howgego IV, S 61. Cf. article "Freya Stark" in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 470 (other ed.).‎

‎Zwemer, Samuel.‎

‎Arabia: the Cradle of Islam. Studies in the geography, people and politics of the peninsula with an account of Islam and mission-work. Edinburgh & London, Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, [preface dated: Dec. 1900].‎

‎8vo. (6), 437, (1 blank) pp. With a cut-out picture of a Bedouin woman on the verso of the half-title-page, a picture of "a typical Arab of Yemen" as the frontispiece, 15 plates, a floor plan of a mosque, 2 maps and numerous small illustrations in the text. Yellow cloth. An account of the history, geography, religion, and political and social situation of the Middle East, and especially of the Arabian Peninsula, from a Christian missionary point of view. This information is presented alongside accounts of the author's experiences, and it is illustrated with images of local peoples, landscapes and examples of Arabic script and music. According to the preface, this second edition of Zwemer's first work, first published in 1899/1900, was published in order to correct some minor errors that had made their way into the first edition because of the physical distance between the author and the publishers. At the time of publication, Zwemer was doing missionary work in Arabia, while his work was being published in the U.S. The present copy was published in Edinburgh and London, but apparently (according to the verso of the title-page) printed by the Caxton Press in New York. - Reverend Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952), sometimes nicknamed "the Apostle to Islam", was an American missionary, traveller and scholar. He was a part of the Reformed Church of America, meaning that his beliefs and later missionary work were rooted in Calvinistic traditions, and he was ordained within that church in 1890. Together with James Cantine and John G. Lansing, Zwemer founded the Arabian Mission, which was active from 1889 until 1913. During that time, Zwemer was active in Iraq, Bahrein, and several locations in Arabia. He also worked in Egypt and travelled extensively throughout Asia Minor. From 1929 until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1937 he taught at the Princeton Theological Seminary, as a professor of missions and as a professor of the history of religion. - Binding rubbed, soiled and slightly damaged around the corners, edges foxed, water stain in the top margin of the first leaves (until p. 14), hinges weak. With an inscription in German on the first flyleaf dated 17 January 1904; cut-out picture of a Bedouin woman pasted on the verso of the half-title. List of works in the NYPL relating to Arabia and the Arabs (1911), p. 174. Cf. Macro 2371; Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 511.‎

‎[Arabian Peninsula - Southwest Asia].‎

‎Jugo-zapadnaja Azija. Moscow, [Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography under the Council of Ministers of the USSR], 1972.‎

‎82 x 96 cm. Original colour-printed map. Scale 1:5,000,000. Rare political map of Southwest Asia from the Cold War era, centred on the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf region but including Turkey and the Levant, Iraq and Iran. With Cyrillic titles and captions. - Small marginal flaws.‎

‎Hasani, [Abd al-Razzaq].‎

‎Al-Yazidiyun fi hadirihim wa-madihim (The Yezidis in Their Present and Past). Sayda (Sidon), Al-Matba'ah al-'Asriyah lil-Tiba'ah, (cover title dated 1968, but) 1967.‎

‎8vo. 196 pp. Arabic text. With a photographic plate (portrait of Hasani) and 14 illustrations in the text (12 of which are black and white half-tone photographs). Original printed wrappers. Fifth edition. An important study of the Yezidis, which went through over ten editions. Hasani makes use of Western studies, including those of Giuseppe Furlani and Isya Joseph, and Arab sources. - Spine darkened, extremities slightly worn, otherwise good. Rare. JISC locates just one copy, at SOAS.‎

‎[Limes arabicus].‎

‎Fragment of a Roman military diploma for a member of the ala praetoria singularium. [Roman Syria, 7 Nov. 88 CE].‎

‎Ca. 72 x 83 mm. Engraved bronze. Rare and exceptionally well-preserved document of the Roman presence on the Arabian Peninsula. This diploma was issued for a member of the ala praetoria singularium, an auxiliary cavalry unit stationed in Syria, under the command of Aulus Furius Saturninus during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96). It can be dated with a high degree of certainty, as Aulus Furius Saturninus is only traceable to military diplomas issued as part of an imperial military constitution for 5 alae and 2 cohorts in Syria from 8 November 88. - The ala praetoria singularium was one of 14 alae and 33 cohorts stationed in the province of Syria between 88 and 157. These troops built and defended the almost 1500 kilometre Limes Arabicus, a system of streets, watchtowers, and forts that had its origin in the Roman conquest of Syria in 64 BCE and reached its greatest extent in the second century. Palmyra and Damascus were among the fortified cities along the Limes Arabicus. - From the German collection of Peter Weiß, acquired before 1980. Published: P. Holder, Roman Military Diplomas V (London: University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, 2006). P. Weiß, Neue Militärdiplome, in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 117 (1997), pp. 227-268.‎

‎Pretyman, Herbert Edward.‎

‎Journal of Herbert Edward Pretyman. Written During his Expedition to the Kittar Mountains, Between Kenneh (on the Nile) and the Red Sea, 1891. [London], printed for Private Circulation Only, 1892.‎

‎4to. VI, 50 pp. With a portrait frontispiece of the author, from a photograph, 34 other photographic illustrations on plates, and a double-page sketch map of the Kittar Mountains. Publisher's purple cloth, blocked in black and gilt with ibex and palm tree. All edges gilt. First edition. Extremely rare example of this journal which covers Pretyman's 1891 hunting expedition to the Kittar mountains, the Eastern Desert of Egypt between Qena on the Nile and Quseer on the Red Sea, using the only known map of the area produced by Floyer four years earlier. H. E. Pretyman, a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, travelled back from Ismalia to London in 1891 but died the same year, whilst Camp Adjutant at Bisley, and it is believed he had not fully recovered from a severe attack of typhoid and jaundice in 1889. His father, the Rev. Frederic Pretyman, arranged to have the journal published as a memorial volume. - Extremeties insignificantly rubbed, light brownstaining or foxing to a few places in the first and last few leaves. An excellent copy. Meckly, Alpine Journal. Bibliography of Privately Printed Mountaineering Books 204. Lloyd, Cat. of the Graham Brown and Lloyd Collections in the NLS, 813. Not in Czech, Asian Big Game Hunting Books.‎

‎Rouire, Alphonse Marie Ferdinand.‎

‎La rivalité anglo-russe au XIXe siècle en Asie. Golfe persique, frontières de l'Inde. Paris, Armand Colin, 1908.‎

‎8vo. VIII, 298 pp., final blank leaf. Printed original wrappers. First edition. Inscribed and signed by the author to Madame Maratuech, from 1919 to 1925 the director of the girls' boarding school at Saint-Denis operated by the French League of Honour: "A madame Maratuech, Directrice des Etudes de la Maison d'éducation de La Légion d'Honneur de St. Denis. Hommage respectueux de l'auteur [...]". - Interesting assessment of the impact of the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which regulated the spheres of influence over Afghanistan and Persia, with Britain controlling the entrance to the Gulf. It examines the growing influence of the British Empire in the Gulf region, particularly Bahrain, Kuwait and in Southern Arabia, before dealing with the geopolitics of Afghanistan, Tibet, and Persia, which was half under Russian and half under British influence. The work concludes with an analysis of the impact of the pact on both Muscat and Kuwait. Never translated into English; a Russian translation appeared in 1924. - Without the separately published lithographed map. Binding loosened; old adhesive tape in the gutter between front cover and flyleaf as well as to pp. 192f.; occasional small marginal flaws. OCLC 851237785.‎

‎[Saudi Arabia].‎

‎Photograph of Abdulaziz, King of Nejd and Hejaz (later King of Saudi Arabia), at the Khabari Wadha meeting in January 1930. [Khabari Wadha, 22 January 1930].‎

‎Original silver-gelatin photograph (90 x 143 mm). Ms. pencil caption to verso "AVM Brook-Popham and Ibn Saud". A historically significant photograph of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (1875-1953) at the Khabari Wadha meeting, where he discussed the surrender of rebel Ikhwan leaders with British officials. All original photographs of Abdulaziz are rare, especially those of him before the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. - The Khabari Wadha meeting signalled the end of the Ikhwan revolt, a rebellion against the authority of the Al Saud which started in 1927. It was held approximately 150 miles south of Kuwait, where Faisal al-Duwaish and other Ikhwan leaders had sought refuge after suffering a string of military defeats. Over several days, Abdulaziz and British officials (responsible for political affairs in Kuwait and the Gulf) debated what to do with the rebels, finally settling on handing them over to Abdulaziz "on the condition that their lives should be spared and that the property which they looted from the people of Kuwait and Iraq should be returned" (Wahba, Arabian Days, p. 143). Abdulaziz was greatly relieved at the result, as it fatally weakened the Ikhwan and removed the main obstacle to unifying his Kingdom. Sheikh Hafiz Wahba recalls him saying "From today we live a new life" (ibid., p. 145). - The photograph shows Abdulaziz seated centrally at the front, with Sir Hugh Biscoe (British Resident, Persian Gulf) to his right and Charles Burnett (Air Vice-Marshal, RAF) to his left. Stood behind him, among other officials, are the important figures of H. R. P. Dickson (British Consul, Kuwait) and Sheikh Hafiz Wahba (diplomat and advisor to Abdulaziz). The caption on the verso suggests Robert Brooke-Popham is also present, but we cannot locate him. - For fuller descriptions of the Khabari Wadha meeting see Dickson's "Kuwait and her Neighbours" (London, 1956, pp. 318 ff.) and Hafiz Wahba's "Arabian Days" (London, 1964). The latter book also includes the present photograph (plate facing p. 113), described as "A meeting in the desert between the late King Ibn Saud and the British political agents in the Persian Gulf with the author standing behind the King (January 1930)". - A good strong image, with only a little fading toward the edges of the photograph. Reproduced in: V. Dickson, 40 Years in Kuwait, plate 5 (opposite p. 96).‎

‎[Syria - Aleppo].‎

‎Kartenbild von Aleppo und seiner näheren Umgebung. [Probably Syria], Vermessungs-Abtlg. 27 der Heeresgruppe F, June 1918.‎

‎Lithographed map, ca. 55 x 71 cm. Scale 1:25,000. German military map of Aleppo, printed in the field by German troops during the last months of the First World War. Shows railway lines, roads, caravan trails, pastures and arable land, irrigated gardens, Muslim and Christian cemeteries, etc. The cartography, performed during April and May 1918, is credited to a Lieutenant Erdmann. A note (in German) instructs the user that "the city topography is based on the 'Plan général de la Ville d'Halep'; the environs were mapped by the compass-time-route method. The contour lines, about 8 by 8 metres, are intended merely to convey a rough notion of the terrain. The names are written so as to sound most pleasing to those not versed in the language". - Folded. Formerly in the collections of the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin with 1940s stamp and shelfmark. Well preserved. OCLC 179713973.‎

‎[Turkey].‎

‎Asie ouest 1:2.000.000e Flle. 1. Beirut, Bureau Topographique des Troupes du Levant, 1939.‎

‎Colour-printed map. Ca. 84 x 63 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale: 1:2,000,000. Relief shown as gradient tints and spot heights. - With: Lembke, Herbert. Jährliche Niederschlagsmenge im westlichen Vorderasien. Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1940 (Petermanns Georg. Mitteilungen, 86. Jg., Tafel 26). Colour-printed map, scale 1:3,700,000. Ca. 66 x 42 cm. French-produced map of the western portion of Turkey, showing the eastern tip of Bulgaria, the Aegean, Crete, Cyprus, the northern coast of Africa, and Asia Minor to Ankara. Issued by the French military just prior to the Second World War. - Folded, some tears to margins. Formerly in the collections of the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin, accessioned during wartime as part of the German military' spoils, with requisite stamp and shelfmarks. - Includes a German wartime map of Turkey, also removed from the University of Berlin, showing the average annual rainfall. OCLC 497879161, 495083198.‎

‎Varthema, Ludovico di / Jones, John Winter (transl.) / Penzer, Norman Mosley (ed.)].‎

‎The itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508 as translated from the original Italian edition of 1510, by John Winter Jones, F.S.A. in 1863 for the Hakluyt Society with a discourse on Varthema and his travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple [...]. London, The Argonaut Press, 1928.‎

‎4to. LXXXV, (1 blank), 121, (3) pp. With 5 maps, the facsimile text of the title-page and colophon of Varthema's original 1510 book, 1 plate, and a small blue illustration (similar to the blind-tooled image on the front board) on the title-page. Text set in Monotype Baskerville. Half white and half blue cloth with gold lettering on spine and a blind-tooled image (probably of Varthema) on the front board. Ludovico di Varthema (ca. 1468-1517) was one of the first Europeans to visit the cities of Mecca and Medina and to travel as far east as India and the East Indies. He probably came from Bologna or possibly from Rome and might have been a soldier in the Papal forces, but not much is known about his early life. Due to Varthema's writing and later publishing his travel account, much more is known about his later years: in 1802 he sailed from Venice via Cairo in Egypt to Damascus in Syria, where he embarked upon his first remarkable journey. He joined a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, being one of the first Europeans to enter these holy cities, and then continued south through the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen. From Aden in Yemen he sailed to several cities on the coast of Somalia before sailing along the coast of Oman to Ormuz and subsequently travelling inland across Persia to India. Varthema supposedly travelled across large parts of the East Indies, but since his descriptions of this part of his journey lose some of its accuracy, scholars doubt whether he made the journey himself. Nonetheless, the itinerary shows that the journey that far to the East was not impossible or unheard of at the beginning of the 16th century. - Varthema's Itinerary was first published in Rome in 1510, and numerous editions have been published since. Almost immediately after its first publication the work was translated into Latin (1511), and numerous translations into other languages followed. In 1863 the Hakluyt Society published the principal English translation of the original Italian work, by John Winter Jones. In the present edition, prepared by Norman Mosley Penzer, an extensive analysis of Varthema and his travels by Richard Carnac Temple has been added to Jones's translation. Temple (1850-1931) was an Indian-born British administrator and an anthropological writer. He was a member of several learned societies and institutes, including the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Hakluyt Society. Penzer (1892-1960) was a British scholar specialising in Oriental studies and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. - Binding slightly soiled, edges foxed and untrimmed. With a pink reading ribbon and a small blue label on the back pastedown: "Vancouver Bookshop 909 Robson Street Vancouver, B.C.". Printed on Japon vellum, one of 975 copies but unnumbered. Howgego I, V15. cf. Blackmer 338; Gay, Afrique et Arabie, 140; Macro 2239.‎

‎Wavell, Arthur John Byng.‎

‎A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca and a Siege in Sanaa. London, Constable & Co., 1913.‎

‎8vo. IX, (1 blank), 349, (1) pp. With a photo of the author as a frontispiece, 6 plates and 1 folding map of the Arabian Peninsula. Blue cloth with gold lettering on front cover and spine, and blind-tooling on front cover. An account of the travels of an Englishman through Arabia, including an eye-witness account of the 1911 siege of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. This siege was one of the last big events in the Yemeni-Ottoman conflicts, which started with the first Ottoman attempt to conquer Yemen in 1538. In 1911 a treaty was signed, with which Yemen became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire until the country could take advantage of the Empire's collapse during and after WWI to reclaim its independence. - Wavell did not intend to include a description of his journey to the holy city of Mecca, but apart from his accounts of Yemen he admits in the preface that the present work breaks no new ground. The places he visited had already been described, possibly more extensively, by other explorers and travellers, but a journey to Mecca and Medina was still quite out of the ordinary for Europeans, and thus a description of his experiences was added to the work. It was first published in 1912 and the present copy was a part of the second impression of that edition, which appeared in 1913. An edited, smaller and thus cheaper second edition appeared posthumously in 1918. The chapters on Wavell's travels in Yemen had been removed and an introduction by Major Leonard Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, had been added. - Arthur John Byng Wavell (1882-1916) was an English army officer and traveller who was educated and trained at the Royal Military college Sandhurst. He was a cousin of the decorated field marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, who served in the Second Boer War, in other parts of Africa, and in India where he also served as the Viceroy. The author of the present work resigned his army commission in 1906 and went to Mombasa in British East Africa - modern Kenya - where he learnt Arabic and Swahili and where his desire to explore Arabia and even visit Mecca grew. After his travels in Arabia, described in "A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca", he returned to Africa. During the First World War he remained in Africa, where he founded a coastal defence force called the "Arab Rifles", active around Mombasa. Later he was sent to serve near the border of Kenya with Tanzania (then British East Africa and German East Africa), where he was killed in 1916 as a result of a German ambush. - Binding slightly rubbed, very slight foxing on the edges, some foxing on the first and last flyleaves. Small tear in the in the inner margin of the map, without affecting the map itself. Sharp folding lines in the plate of The Haram in Mecca (between pp. 152-152). With an ownership inscription: "R. S. Breene, 1 June, 1928" over the remnants of an erased inscription on the first flyleaf. Howgego IV, W13. Smith, The Yemens, 103. Cf. Macro 2266. Canton, From Cairo to Baghdad: British Travellers in Arabia, pp. 161-165. Sotheby's, The library of Robert Michael Burrell, 858 (other ed.).‎

‎[Dominicus de St. Thomae (Dominique Ottoman)]. Puch, Louis de.‎

‎À son Altesse le sérénissime Père Dominique Othoman, fils aisné du Sultan Ibraim, empereur d'Orient. Grenoble, André Galle, 1667 (others undated).‎

‎4to. 8, (2) pp. With additional panegyrical matter: 2 ff., 2 single sheets. All with woodcut initials and headpieces. A set of French (and Latin) eulogies addressed to "Dominique Ottoman", or Osman, the son of Sultan Ibrahim I, who was captured with his mother by the Maltese fleet in 1644 and educated by the Knights of Malta to become a Dominican friar. As an adolescent he was baptized and adopted the name Dominique de Saint-Thomas on 23 February 1656. He studied in Naples and Rome and went to Paris in 1664, where he spent two years. In 1667 he travelled to Candia on Crete, a Venetian-ruled city besieged by Ottoman forces since 1648, on an unsuccessful mission to convince the latter to make peace. Appointed vicar general on Malta around 1669, he returned to the island, where he spent his final years. - Louis de Puch's formal address of 8 pages is followed by a 12-line madrigal on a separate leaf. This same madrigal is present as a broadside on another single sheet, as well as on the first of two conjoined additional leaves, the second of which contains a Latin elogy in praise of St. Dominicus (signed P[uch] L[odovicus]). Finally, a large quarto leaf (showing traces of folds) contains an unsigned French sonnet "Au serenissime prince Dominique Ottoman fils aisné du Sultan Ibrahim, religieux de l'Ordre de S. Dominique". - Occasional slight foxing and creasing. A rare ensemble. OCLC records Puch's encomium only at the French National Library, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 458209721.‎

‎[Saudi Arabia - Riyadh].‎

‎Riyadh. World (Asia). Sheet NG38, Series 1301. [London], Army Map Service, Corps of Engineers, 1951.‎

‎630 x 800 mm. Scale 1:1,000,000. Detailed map of the central quadrangle of the Arabian Peninsula, including Riyadh and its environs. Edition 3-GSGS, based on a 1945 Second Edition. - A few small dents, some pencilled numbers to lower right angle, otherwise very good. Provenance: Army Map Services stamp; stamp of Arizona State University and a red "Withdrawn" Stamp to the verso.‎

‎Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1842-1918, ruled 1876-1909).‎

‎Berat certificate for Salahaddin Bey. Istanbul, [28 June 1899 =] 18 Safer 1317.‎

‎Black ink on paper, ca. 38 x 57 cm. With gilt Tughra of the Sultan at the head. An award of the Order of Osmaniye (fourth class) to Salahaddin Bey, recording clerk on the executive board of the Hazine-i Hassa treasury (which managed the personal income and expenses of the Sultan), for diligence in the discharge of his duties. - Berat certificates are official documents presented as appointments for office, exemption certificates from a tax or duty, or accompanying the award of a medal or other honour. This example is meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink. On the reverse are official attestations of authenticity, with a brief summary of the document. - Folded with extensive tears and a few chips to edges. Full transcription available.‎

‎Lamm, Carl Johan.‎

‎Egyptiska dukagångsvävnader. Särtryck av Kulturen. [Lund], 1936.‎

‎8vo. 258-274 pp. With several black-and-white photographic illustrations. Original plain wrappers with title-label, bound within contemporary full cloth with giltstamped calf label to spine. Swedish paper about the collection of ancient Egyptian textiles woven in the "dukagång" technique, kept at the "Kulturen" museum in Lund. The personal copy of Carl Johan Lamm with his bookplate to front pastedown. With detailed descriptions of the cloth fragments as well as a bibliography on the subject. - Lamm studied archaeology at the University of Stockholm. He wrote about the glass excavated at Samarra in 1928 and became a leading scholar on Islamic arts and crafts, notably in glass and carpets. He was on the staff of the Stockholm Museum and taught at Uppsala University. - In near-mint condition. OCLC 36400924.‎

‎Lamm, Carl Johan.‎

‎The Marby Rug and Some Fragments of Carpets Found in Egypt. Särtryck ur Orientsällskapets årsbok 1937. [Stockholm, 1937].‎

‎4to. (2), 51-130 pp. With several black-and-white photographic and schematic illustrations. Original printed wrappers bound within contemporary full cloth with giltstamped spine-title, signed by R. Numans. Scarce essay on medieval carpet weaving in Egypt, particularly on the so-called Marby Rug, the oldest preserved oriental carpet in Sweden discovered in 1925 in the abandoned church of Marby in the province of Jämtland. The personal copy of Carl Johan Lamm with his bookplate to front pastedown. In an attempt "to fix the place of the Marby rug in the early evolution of Oriental carpet knotting", the essay discusses 29 fragments of carpets obtained from antiquity dealers in Cairo, including Abbasid rugs, carpets of the "Konya" type, chiefly Seljuq, and Anatolian carpets of the 14th and early 15th centuries, as well as Anatolian or Caucasian carpets of "nomad" type, Mamluk carpets, and Anatolian "Holbein" carpets of the 15th century. - Lamm studied archaeology at the University of Stockholm. He wrote about the glass excavated at Samarra in 1928 and became a leading scholar on Islamic arts and crafts, notably in glass and carpets. He was on the staff of the Stockholm Museum and taught at Uppsala University. - Offprint from the Swedish Oriental Society's yearbook. In near-mint condition. OCLC 472515825.‎

‎Mehmed V Resad, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1844-1918, ruled 1909-1918).‎

‎Berat certificate for Salahaddin Bey. Istanbul, [9 June 1916 =] 7 Saban 1334.‎

‎Black ink on paper, ca. 34 x 57 cm. With gilt Tughra of the Sultan at the head. Certificate showing that Salahaddin Bey, auditor of the Hazine-i Hassa treasury (which managed the personal income and expenses of the Sultan), was awarded the Navy Aid Medal (in nickel) for his donation of 2024 Kurus to the Ottoman Naval Society. - As the Ottoman Empire dominated important waterways during the First World War, the government sought to strengthen its navy's defensive capabilities while fighting on many fronts on land. For this purpose, The Ottoman Naval Society was established. To finance the building of new ships, a campaign was initiated which was joined by many notables, including Sultan Mehmed Resad himself and state officials. The Navy Aid Medal was awarded to supporters who pledged a certain donation to the project, and the recipients' names were published in the press. - Meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink. On the reverse are official attestations of authenticity. Folded with tears and a few chips to edges. Full transcription available.‎

‎[Royal Air Force - Middle East].‎

‎Report on flight from Baghdad to Egypt. RAF 31st Wing Headquarters, Baghdad, 22. III. 1919.‎

‎Folio (210 x 340 mm). 4 pp. Typescript. Lively report of an eventful flight taken by Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson (1884-1940), Civil Commissioner of Mesopotamia, aboard one of two RAF aircraft leaving Baghdad on 25 February 1919 bound for Cairo. Bad weather conditions and repeated engine trouble resulted in several emergency landings and delayed the journey, which Wilson eventually had to complete by train. - The first day of the trip involved heavy wind and a failing petrol pump causing the pilots Boyd, Nuttall and Lapraik to land and fix the pump near Tadmur before carrying on to Damascus, where they remained for three days of heavy rain. Upon continuing the journey on 28 February, one of the engines failed and the planes were forced to land in "difficult country". As repair seemed hopeless, Boyd decided to fly Wilson on to Ramleh and then return for Nuttall and Lapraik: "The taking off proved a difficult undertaking as the machine was firmly bogged, and the engine fall out would not move it. The Arabs however rendered enthusiastic assistance. About 200 of them surrounded the machine, and in spite of the fact that most of them pulled in different directions [...] after an hour's work and much shouting, succeeded in moving it to a comparatively firm piece of ground, from which it was possible to take off [...]". - When the aircraft got hopelessely bogged again near Tulkarm, Wilson continued his journey by train. In the meantime, Nuttall and Lapraik, who "were hospitably entertained by the Arabs", succeeded in a makeshift repair of the first plane's engine and picked up Boyd. The return flight to Baghdad with two substitute aircraft proved much smoother, involving only minor repairs and no emergency landings off the runway. The 500 mile distance between Damascus and Baghdad was completed in a non-stop flight of 4 hours 10 minutes "which probably constitutes a World's Record". - Slightly dampstained near right margins; a little foxed and creased. Traces of a rusty paper pin. A rare survival.‎

‎Taylor, Robert, British military officer (1788-1852).‎

‎Autograph letter signed. Baghdad, 9. VII. 1838.‎

‎8vo. 8 pp. on 2 bifolia. To W. Cabell, regarding the potential independence of Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the British occupation of Kharg Island. - A fascinating letter, composed at a time of great tumult in the Near and Middle East. It relays news of important events and evidences the willingness of the British to use force to implement their policy in the region. Lieut. Col. Robert Taylor went to India as a cadet in 1803 and did not return to England for over forty years, serving as Political Resident at Basra (1819-21) and Baghdad (1821-43). His library was purchased by the British Library in 1860 and forms the bedrock of its Arabic-language collection. - Writing from Baghdad, Taylor addresses W. Cabell of the India Board Office in London. He first informs Cabell of two loads of missing post; one outgoing tranche "lost by dromedaries running away with the bags and throwing their riders", and the mail from India "robbed by a party of Wahabis". He then notes Ottoman alarm at "the threatened independence of Mohamed Ali", and comments at length on relations with Persia, which were extremely tense due to the ongoing siege of Herat by Qajar and Russian forces: "Our envoy [John McNeill] ... was not listened to; while the Russian [Count Simonich] & his staff conducted their approaches to the fortress which was expected to fall." In response, the British occupied Kharg Island with a "small force ... not exceeding 500 men", thereby threatening military intervention. Reporting that it had "instilled a wholesome fear into the Persians", Taylor advocates the use of gunboat diplomacy elsewhere "to produce similar effects". - Official correspondence relating to Persia and the Gulf region is rarely found outside of institutional archives such as the India Office Records. This example is interesting on a number of levels, not least for showing how Britain's aggression in the first decades of "The Great Game" manifested in the Gulf. - A few later pencil annotations in a different hand; pages a little dusty.‎

‎Preziosi, Amadeo.‎

‎Stamboul. Souvenir d'Orient. Paris, Imp. Lemercier, 1861.‎

‎Oblong folio (498 x 370 mm). Lithographed title-page, 29 chromolithographed plates, protected by tissue guards. Original green cloth with blind-ruled and ornamental borders to both covers and gilt Tughra of Sultan Abdulmejid I to the upper cover. First edition, second issue. - Complete suite comprising 29 chromolithographs with captions in French and English, depicting life scenes and views of Istanbul: a druggist's shop, Turkish ladies walking, a guard house, carriage, silk bazar, sweetmeat shop, water carrier, the Bosporus, a coffee house, whirling dervishes, etc. The Maltese painter Preziosi (1816-82) is known for his watercolours and prints of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and Romania. In 1842 he moved to Constantinople, where he remained until his death. - Some foxing, more extensive on title-page. Covers slightly rubbed, but generally in fine condition. - Provenance: The title-page bears a handwritten inscription in French from Catinca Nico de Catargi, a member of the notable Wallachian family Catargiu, to "la Comtesse Han" (i.e., the German writer Ida Countess von Hahn-Hahn, 1805-80), dated 16 April 1865. Atabey 999. OCLC 70296476. Cf. Blackmer 1353 (1865 ed.); Colas 2422 (1858 ed.).‎

‎Fessler, [Ignaz Aurelius].‎

‎Institutiones linguarum orientalium, hebraeae, chaldaicae, syriacae et arabicae. Breslau, Wilhelm Theophil Korn, 1787-1789.‎

‎8vo. 2 parts in one vol. VIII, (3)-159, (1); (2), 118, (2) pp. With 20 (10 folding) numbered plates. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine and spine-label. First edition of this important early grammar of Semitic languages. Contains an introduction to Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic, including conjugation tables for regular and irregular verbs. - Appointed to teach oriental languages and the Old Testament in Lemberg (Lviv), Fessler prepared the present work as a textbook for his lectures. - Contrary to the indication on the title-page, an Arabic chrestomathy by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn was not published with this work. - Extremities slightly rubbed. Paper evenly browned throughout. Contemporary handwritten ownership of the Swedish theologian Johan Gustaf Bergius (1720-1805) to lower pastedown. Unidentified early 19th century ownership stamp "COG" to front pastedown. OCLC 69349977.‎