‎Golf‎

‎Ali Akbar Khitai.‎

‎[Ketay-Nama]. Tercüme-i târih-i nevâdir-i Çin Mâçîn [Translation of the rare history and descriptions of China]. Istanbul, Tophâne-i Âmire Litografya Destigâhi, [1854 CE =] 1270 H.‎

‎8vo (145 x 215 mm). 70 pp. In Ottoman script within rules, lithographed throughout. The heading (serlevha) and borders of the first double page are printed in gilt. Bound in contemporary wrappers, taken from a volume, and stored loosely within protective giltstamped cloth boards (modern spine). First and only printed edition of one of the earliest Islamic travel accounts of China and the first description of the Silk Road in the Islamic world, pre-dating even Ibn Battuta's Rihla. - The present work, one of the most complete descriptions of Ming Dynasty China in the 16th century, was originally written in Persian in 1516. Completed and issued soon after Khitai reached Istanbul in 1520, it was later translated into Turkish by Hezârfen Huseyin (d. 1691) and became influential also in the Turkish-speaking Muslim world. According to the colophon, the book was finished on the last day or days of Rabî I 922 (3 May 1516), while the preface contains a panegyric on Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520-66). - Based on the author's personal observations, the book's 20 chapters discuss roads, cities and castles, stores, brothels and prostitutes, eunuchs, legislation, administration, jails, law and law-abidance, the military, agriculture, magazines, the imperial throne, the various religions, celebrations, entertainments, wonderful arts and strange cures, schools, persons from the West, Qalmaqs, gold, silver and currency, as well as Chinese temples and other matters. Thus Ali Akbar's book conveyed to a reader of the 16th century a fair impression of China: as a guidebook it could serve as a companion especially for Muslim merchants travelling along the Silk Road. - The Chinese scholar Lin Yih-Min describes Ali Akbar as a "Turkish businessman" (58) who probably journeyed only to Central Asia, where he gathered the information for his book before returning then to Turkey. The book was dedicated to Sultan Suleiman, and as the author's name suggests a Shi'ite background, it is possible that Ali Akbar may have wished to impress on the Ottoman court the difficult conditions of the Shi'ite community living in Istanbul, among a dominant Sunnite community. - Also known as the "Khataynameh" ("Book on China"), the work aroused considerable interest not only in the Ottoman Empire but also in Europe in the 19th century. The book's immediate impact is difficult to estimate, but astonishingly the Ottoman Empire, here referred to as "Lumi", would figure quite prominently in Chinese sources after a first embassy arrived in Beijing in 1524, four years after the book was first issued; other embassies followed until 1618. Thus, it is entirely possible that Ali Akbar's book had a direct influence on Ottoman diplomacy and commerce in China and Central Asia. - A few holes in the last leaf (minor loss of a few letters); some browning. A few contemporary pencil marginalia and calligraphic examples on the last blank page. Overall a good copy. Özege 20686. Cf. Ralph Kauz, "One of the Last Documents of the Silk Road: The Khataynameh of Ali Akbar", The Silk Road 1 (2005), p. 59f. Lin Yih-Min, "A comparative and critical study of Ali Akbar’s Khitây-nâma with reference to Chinese sources", Central Asiatic Journal 27 (1983), pp. 58-78.‎

‎[Alphabetum arabicum].‎

‎Alphabetum arabicum. Rome, typographia Medicea, 1592.‎

‎Small 4to (146 x 206 mm). 64 pp. With printer's woodcut device on title-page. 19th century red boards. Only edition of this early milestone of Arabic typography from the Roman Medici Press, including a Latin treatise on Arabic script. The Medici Oriental Press, the first printing press in Europe dedicated to printing books in an Arabic typeface, was founded in Rome under the direction of Giovanni Battista Raimondi and the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII. For the Arabic types, Raimondi commissioned the famous typefounder Robert Granjon: "In a few years Granjon had cut a large number of oriental characters, following superb calligraphic designs provided by Raimondi. On September 6, 1586, he completed the small Arabic typeface [...] Because cutting the Arabic typefaces took such a long time, establishment of the Medici Press went slowly. Though the contracts formally setting up the press were signed on March 6, 1584, the first book to bear its imprint did not appear until 1591. Legible and much more 'oriental' in feel than those of de Gregorii, Postel or Spey, this face was not improved upon until the time of Ibrahim Müteferrika in the early 18th century [...] Once underway, however, the Medici Press was very productive. In 1592 it issued a prospectus of its Arabic type faces under the title 'Alphabetum arabicum' - a 64-page masterpiece of design which not only displays Granjon's beautiful types, but contains a careful Latin Essay on the Arabic writing system" (Lunde). Until 1610 Raimondi printed a mere eight works with Granjon's types, "all equally rare" (Smitskamp 29b), before a long hiatus ensued - probably due to the sluggish distribution of the works in the Orient, where everything produced in the West, and especially any printed specimen of Arabic script, was received with the utmost caution (cf. Fück 55). Even Smitskamp cites only four other productions of the Medici Press, but not this exceptionally rare one. One of the only three other copies known to have appeared in the trade was even thought to be incomplete by Sotheby's, since Adams's collation - based on the Trinity College copy - cites a 24-page appendix that is, in fact, an independent Medici Press grammar bound with the Trinity 'Alphabetum'. - Binding worn and rubbed; spine rebacked. Interior somewhat dust-soiled throughout with occasional light dampstaining; a few marginal annotations on the verso of the title cropped by binder. Title-page with minute wormhole affecting one word on verso; a small hole to the last leaf with loss of a few letters; stamp of a monk to margin of final page. Front pastedown has 1880s bookseller ticket by G. A. Young & Co. of Edinburgh pasted in. An entirely complete copy of an important and excessively rare publication. Adams A 780. BM-STC Italian 36. Schnurrer 41. Edit 16, CNCE 1227. OCLC 47816774. Lunde, Paul, "Arabic and the Art of Printing", in: Aramco World 32/2 (1981) (with illustration). J. Balagna, L'imprimerie arabe en occident (Paris 1984), p. 135. Le Livre et le Liban (mentioned on p. 190; no copy in the catalogue). Not in Smitskamp or Fück.‎

‎Alpini, Prosper.‎

‎De plantis exoticis libri duo. Venice, Giovanni Guerilio, 1656.‎

‎4to. (16), 344 pp. Engraved architectural title with portraits of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, 145 finely etched and engraved botanical plates in the text, ornamental initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf with gilt spine. Edges sprinkled red. Third edition (in fact, a re-issue with changed title page date only) of Alpini's further observations on exotic plants. The specimens here presented were collected primarily in Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, including many xerophilous plants from Egypt and scores of plants not mentioned in earlier works. The first edition was published posthumously in 1627 and was edited by the author's son, Alpini Alpini. The work (in all its editions) is much rarer than the author's better-known "De plantis Aegyptii". "Date altered by hand [from 1629] to MDCLVI" (Krivatsy). - Prospero Alpini (1553-1617), an Italian physician and botanist, travelled through Greece, Crete, and Egypt from 1580 to 1583 with the Venetian Consul Giorgio Eno. He worked as a medical advisor and took the opportunity to carry out botanical investigations. His work includes the first European recognition of the medicinal value of coffee and introduced banana and baobab. "Alpini became professor of botany at Padua after having spent three years in Egypt" (Garrison/M., p. 992). - Binding rebacked, showing some light wear to extremeties, but a good, clean copy. Provenance: removed from the Large Library at Goodwood House (Chichester, West Sussex) with bookplate on front pastedown; latterly in the collection of Cornelius J. Hauck (his tree bookplate dated 15 March 1944). Nissen BBI 21. Krivatsy 241 (copy 2). Cf. Pritzel 112. Not in Wellcome, Waller, or Osler.‎

‎Anthony, John Duke.‎

‎Arab States of the Lower Gulf: People, Politics, Petroleum. Washington D.C., The Middle East Institute, 1975.‎

‎8vo. X, 273, (1 blank) pp. With two black and white maps on the endpapers. Brown cloth with publisher's illustrated dust jacket. First and only edition of a thorough description of the history of the nine Arab states of the Lower Gulf, that gained independence in 1971, just four years before the publication of this book. The author has managed to discuss the individual politics of each state and that of the bigger picture, making this a handbook for all who wish to learn more about Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain). The several infographics that are used to explain the political structures are very helpful in this respect. Oil plays a key role in the relationship between the individual states and this is intricately laid out by the American author. Because this book was written in such a key moment in the history of the region, it has gained much importance. The author Dr. John Duke Anthony is a leading figure in United States-Arab relations and has held many influential government positions in this field. Amongst others, he is the founder and president of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and he is part of the United States Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy's Subcommittee on Sanctions. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies. In the years leading up to this publication the author has conducted first-hand research on the Lower Gulf region's political and socio-economic structures, obviously with oil playing a major role. The fruits of this research are presented in this book, offering the reader a comprehensive overview of a complex subject. This book was published in The James Terry Duce Memorial Series, which started in 1966. The first and second volumes were on North Africa and Jerusalem respectively, this is the final volume of the series. - Ink annotations in the margins throughout. A good copy with the original dustjacket well preserved. OCLC 1700964.‎

‎Arabian Peninsula. - Brown, Glen F[rancis].‎

‎[United States Geological Survey of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]. Arabian Peninsula. Map I-270 B-1. Washington, D.C., The Survey (U.S. Geological Society), 1958.‎

‎1380 × 1216 mm. Lambert conformal conic projection, constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:2,000,000. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Framed and glazed. A highly detailed map of the complete Peninsula, the first modern map in 1:2,000,000 scale: the rare preliminary edition, issued five years before the officical release. Based on the groundbreaking series prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arabian American Oil Company under the joint sponsorship of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. State Department, "a unique experiment in geological cooperation among several governments, petroleum companies, and individuals" (Seager/Johnston). Also includes the territories of today's Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. "The plan for a cooperative mapping project was originally conceived in July 1953 [... By 1955] there was established a cooperative agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Department of State, and the Arabian-American Oil Co. to make available the basic areal geology as mapped by Aramco and the U.S. Geological Survey" (ibid.). The plan provided for 21 maps on a 1:500,000 scale in both geologic and geographic versions; "a peninsular geologic map on a scale of 1:2,000,000 was to conclude the project [...] The first geographic quadrangle was published in July 1956 and the last in September 1962. While preparation of the geographic sheets was in progress, a need arose for early publication of a 1:2,000,000-scale peninsular geographic map. Consequently, a preliminary edition was compiled and published in both English and Arabic in 1958" (ibid.). While the revised, final version that appeared in 1963 ("I-270 B-2") would incorporate some additional photographic, topographic and cultural data, the exceedingly uncommon present, preliminary edition is surprisingly complete in virtually all respects - a testament to the precision with which Aramco's cartographers proceeded from the very first. Includes a key with symbols for water pipelines, desert watering points, oil fields, pumping stations, refineries, and a glossary of Arabic names. - "Although the search for oil, gas and minerals was ultimately to drive geological survey work across the region [...], in its early years it was the need for water that was the catalyst for Saudi Arabia's resource exploration. In 1944 King 'Abd al-'Aziz approached the United States for a technical expert who could assist with the identification and plotting of the kingdom's natural resources, particularly its groundwater reserves. The individual who arrived, Glen F. Brown, was one of the pioneers of a partnership between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the government of Saudi Arabia that was to span the next five decades and play an important role in the development of the kingdom [...] By 1954 the Saudi Ministry of Finance, USGS and Aramco were working together to produce the first full series of geographic and geologic maps of the country. The first of their type in the Peninsula, these were published [...] in both Arabic and English versions, and the information they contained formed the basis of subsequent Saudi national development plans. To this day, all modern maps of the kingdom trace their roots back to these first publications" (Parry). - Some insignificant browning; a few slight edge defects professionally repaired. Altogether in fine condition. James V. Parry, "Mapping Arabia", in: Saudi Aramco World 2004/1, p. 20ff. OCLC 30099393. O. A. Seager/W. D. Johnston, Foreword to the Geology of the Arabian Peninsula series (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 560-A-D, 1966).‎

‎[ARAMCO].‎

‎Arabian American Oil Company. Dental Assistance Plan. [San Francisco], (Aramco, 1983).‎

‎8vo. (2), V, (1), 18, (6) pp. Original printed wrappers. Rare information booklet for Aramco workers, outlining the dental care expense benefits extended to the company's full-time salaried or retired employees and their dependents under Aramco's dental insurance plan. - Well preserved.‎

‎[ARAMCO].‎

‎Saudi Arabian road map. Dammam, Al-Mutawa press company, 1973.‎

‎Large folding map (60 × 90.5 cm), printed in light orange with darker purple, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Large folding map, published by the Arabian American Oil Company, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It depicts the country’s roads, trails, railroads, roads that are still under construction and proposed roads, as well as cities, villages, airports and deserts. The table on the right shows the distance in kilometres from several towns and cities to some of the major cities: Buraidah, Dhahran, Dammam, Hofuf, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and Ta’if. - Slightly discoloured along the folds, with only some very minor tears along the folds. Otherwise in very good condition‎

‎[Aramco - Map of Saudi Arabia].‎

‎Western Area. Scale 1:1,000,000. [Dhahran, Aramco / USGS, 1953].‎

‎760 x 750 mm. Scale 1:1,000,000. Relief shown by hachures, spot heights, submarine contours, airports and airstrips, mining activity, and land routes. Key in English. Printed on cloth. Blueprint map of Saudi Arabia covering 20-26° N and 38-45° E, extending from the Nejd to the Red Sea coast including Jeddah and Yanbu al-Nakhal. It pays particular attention to geological features, showing the lava fields of Harrat Rahat, Harrat Kishb, Harrat Khaybar, Harrat Nawasif, Harrat Buqum and Harrat Hadan, as well as the Uruq Subay dunes and the tribal areas of Bilad Zahran and Bilad Ghamid. Among the most prominent labelled cities are Mecca with its environs (Muna, Shumaysi), Medina, Jeddah and Taif; the Darb al-Hijaz (Riyad-Jeddah Road) is named. - The sheet was prepared as a working document by Aramco and the US Geological Survey to help them in the early stages of comprehensive nationwide mapping and exploration work for the Saudi Government. - Slightly toned along folding lines and right margin.‎

‎Armillary sphere with celestial globe.‎

‎Rotating celestial globe, surrounded by four pivotable concentric rings, the uppermost with ornamental mount. Arabic, [1713 CE] = 1125 H.‎

‎Engraved and etched gilt brass with lettering in Arabic. Total height from ring to base 53 cms. Exceptionally large armillary sphere with rich calligraphical and ornamental decoration as an image of the universe. The celestial sphere is surrounded in the centre by rings with the signs of the zodiac (outside) and various planet symbols. The names of the zodiac signs and months are engraved in Arabic. Signed and dated by the artist, an "Alexander", in the year H 1125. A nearly identical object is kept at the Globe Museum of the Austrian National Library at Vienna (item GL. 214), there classified as "Persian/Arabic". While simple celestial globes are not uncommon in the trade, elaborate specimens of the present size (53 cms) are very rare. - Slightly soiled and corroded, but almost not rubbed.‎

‎[Astronomical manuscript].‎

‎Three Persian treatises on astronomy. [Probably Iran], [1844 CE =] 1260 H.‎

‎4to (180 x 220 mm). Persian manuscript on polished oriental paper. (16), 1 blank, (23), 1 blank, (13), 1 blank ff., 17-20 lines, per extensum, text enclosed by red and black rules. Black ink with red emphases. With numerous ink diagrams in the text. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A mid-19th century Persian manuscript comprising three treatises on astronomical matters, illustrated throughout with diagrams in red and black ink and containing several tables. - Some worming throughout the text but not affecting legibility. Corners bumped. A loose slip of paper inserted at the beginning mentions three titles which do not appear to correspond to the works here contained.‎

‎[Austrian Toy Theatre].‎

‎The Caravan to Mecca. The Halt in the Desert. Vienna, M. Trentsensky / London, A. N. Myers & Co., [before 1856].‎

‎Folio (387 x 242 mm). 49 hand-coloured illustrations on 6 plates and hand-coloured folding lithographed backdrop (desert scene; ca. 580 x 224 mm). Original blue wrappers with lithographed cover label. Charming Mignon Theatre of the kind popularized by the Viennese publisher Trentsensky around the mid-19th century and distributed throughout England by their London agent Myers, & Co. on the corner of Oxford and Berners Street. The desert landscape backdrop is to be populated by the pilgrims, camels, resting horses, etc., with plants, a large tent, a cooking fire, and many other details, all to be cut out from the present set of plates. Issued as "Exercises in Colouring", this set was clearly coloured by a trained contemporary artist rather than a dilettante. - The front cover is stained, spine splitting, but the plates are clean and well-preserved. Rarely encountered complete, well-coloured, and in the original state. Another example, prominently featured in the 2012 Hajj exhibition at the British Museum, was cut and mounted. Hajj. Journey to the heart of Islam. London, British Museum 2012, p. 125 (fig. 125).‎

‎Baha'addin al-'Amili.‎

‎Tashrih al-aflak [Anatomy of the celestial spheres]. [Central Asia, 18th century].‎

‎8vo (160 x 252 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. 12 pp. on 7 ff., ca. 18 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red emphases. With numerous red and black ink diagrams in the text. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. The "Tashrih al-aflak", known as "general outline of astronomy" or "anatomy of the celestial spheres", is a summary of theoretical astronomy. The philosopher, architect, mathematician, astronomer and poet Baha' al-Din (953-1030 H / 1547-1621), a native of Baalbek, relocated to Iran with his father. Having completed his studies, he is said to have travelled for 30 years before settling in Isfahan, where he was highly respected as Sheikh al-Islam at the court of Shah Abbas. In the present treatise he affirmed a view in support of the positional rotation of the Earth. Baha' al-Din was one of the first Islamic astronomers to advocate the feasibility of the Earth's rotation in the 16th century, independent of Western influences. - Noticeable duststaining throughout; edges remargined. The restored binding uses the stamped original cover material. GAL II, 415, 6.‎

‎Barros, João de.‎

‎Decada primeira (-terceira) da Asia. Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez for Antonio Gonsalvez, 1628.‎

‎Large 4to. 3 vols. (7), 208 ff. (2), 238 ff. (10), 262 ff. Title vignettes (royal arms of Portugal). Without the folding plan present in some copies. Uniform contemporary limp vellum with Iberian handwritten spine titles and traces of ties. All edges red. Second edition of the first three "Decades" on Portugal's Middle Eastern enterprises, all that was published during the lifetime of the author (a fourth volume was produced posthumously in 1615, and the set was continued by other hands). "This is considered by Du Fresnoy as being a good edition of the three first decades" (Clarke, The Progress of Maritime Discovery, p. 132). The writer de Barros (1496-1570), head agent for the Portuguese overseas trade authority "Casa da Índia", managed to persuade King João III to commission from him a history of the Portuguese in India (including Asia and southeast Africa). The result, published between 1552 and 1563, earned him renown as one of the first great Portuguese historians, and the the title of a "Portuguese Livy". The 'Decades' contain "the early history of the Portuguese in India and Asia and reveal careful study of Eastern historians and geographers, as well as of the records of his own country. They are distinguished by clearness of exposition and orderly arrangement. They are also lively accounts" (Enc. Britannica). Books 2 and 3 of the "Decada Segunda" (fols. 21 ff.) offer a detailed narrative of Afonso de Albuquerque's expedition to the Arabian Gulf and his conquest of Ormuz in 1507; the island remained under Portuese occupation from 1515 to 1622. As vassals of the Portuguese state, the Kingdom of Ormuz jointly participated in the 1521 invasion of Bahrain that ended Jabrid rule of the Arabian archipelago. - From the library of the Spanish Dukes of Medinaceli y Santisteban (their engraved armorial bookplate on the pastedowns); olf shelfmark on flyleaves. Occasional slight browning, but a very good set. Palau I.181b. Howgego I, B34, p. 91. Arouca B 56-58. Löwendahl, Sino-Western Cultural Relations I, p. 42, no. 75. OCLC 4507939. Cf. Macro 474.‎

‎Beato, Antonio.‎

‎Vues d'Egypte. Photograph album. Cairo, ca. 1865.‎

‎Oblong folio (510 x 385 mm). 25 albumen prints (ca. 260 x 370 mm), loosely mounted on grey leaves, each captioned in French. Green half morocco. Early, uncommonly well-preserved album of photographs showing the monuments of Egypt. Having arrived in Egypt as early as 1859, Antonio Beato (1835-1906) was among the first commercial photographers to make their way to the Middle East in order to capitalise on the increasing demand for souvenir photographs. Beato's images of Egypt were distinctly different from those of other photographers working in the region (cf. Hannavy). - Binding a little rubbed. Most of the photos signed in the negative, showing fresh and crisp contrast. Hannavy, J. (ed), Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography (Routledge, 2013), pp. 127f.‎

‎Beck, Matthias Friedrich.‎

‎[At-Taqwim sana 609] sive Ephemerides Persarum per totum annum, juxta epochas celebriores orientis, Alexandream, Christi, Diocletiani, Hegirae, Jesdegirdicam et Gelalaeam [...]. Augsburg, Jakob Koppmayer for Lorenz Kroniger and the heirs of Gottlieb Göbel, 1695-1696.‎

‎Folio (222 x 346 mm). (9) pp. of text with an engraved headpiece, (27) pp. of engraved astrological charts, (32) pp. of tables with 37 engraved diagrams, 80 pp. of text with 4 engravings in the text, 1 folding engraved plate. Title-page printed in red and black. Marbled boards. Only edition of this rare treatise on the astronomy, astrology and allied sciences of the Arabs, Persians and Turks. Once "said to be the first book printed with Persian characters" (Anderson, The library of the late George H. Hart of New York City, Part II [1922], no. 471), it remains an impressive achievement, even if the oriental languages are here in fact rendered in Hebrew letters, while the Persian specimens are engraved. (The first book in Persian characters was produced at Leiden more than a half-century earlier.) - The Swabian theologian Beck (1649-1701) studied history and oriental literature at Jena, soon surpassing his teachers. "The principal object of his studies always remained the oriental languages; and his great knowledge of Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish gained him such renown that he even drew a pension from the Prussian crown for them" (ADB II, 218). - Somewhat browned and stained throughout; edges untrimmed, paper somewhat limp. Includes the frequently lacking 12 double-page tables with additional engraved diagrams. - Provenance: from the library of the French oriental scholar Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (1731-1805), the founder of Persian studies in Europe, with his handwritten ownership on the title-page. VD 17, 39:125183T. Caillet 901. Lalande p. 330. Gardner II, 102.‎

‎Bertherand, E[mile]-L[ouis].‎

‎Médecine et hygiène des Arabes. Études sur l'exercice de la médecine et de la chirurgie chez les musulmans de l'Algérie, leurs connaissances en anatomie, histoire naturelle, pharmacie, médicine légale etc. leurs conditions climatériques générales, leurs pratiques hygiéniques publiques et privées, leurs maladies, leurs traitements les plus usités, précédées de Considérations sur l'état général de la Médicine chez les principales nations Mahométans. Paris, London, Madrid, New York, Germer Baillière, 1855.‎

‎8vo. 574, (2) pp. Contemporary full red leather binding, finely stamped and gilt with rules and the supralibros of the Husainids of Tunis to both covers. All edges gilt. First edition of this widely received study of medical and sanitary standards in the Arabic countries. The principal work of Bertherand (1821-90), a French physician and medical-legal expert active in Algeria, written in the context of a discussion over assimilation within the French colonial empire. In contrast to Montesquieu's traditional theory, which explained cultural differences with the climatic zones of their origin, Bertherand attributed them to moral conditions which, in the case of contemporary medicine in the Muslim countries, he associated directly with Islam. His suggestions for colonial politics are informed by the racist and eugenic theories of his age (cf. Ellen Amster [2014], Medicine and the Saints: Science, Islam, and the Colonial Encounter in Morocco, p. 59ff.). - Light browning and occasional foxing as common. A splendidly bound copy from the library of Muhammad II ibn al-Husayn (1811-1859), the Bey of Tunis. The Husainid dynasty ruled the Beylik of Tunis from 1705 until 1957. OCLC 7369595. Gay 739; Playfair 1806 (both erroneously citing an edition Lille, 1854). Not in Tailliart.‎

‎[Biblia arabica - Psalmi].‎

‎Kitab mazamir Da'ud al-Nabi [...] malik 'ala´ sha'b Bani Isra'il. Padua, Typis Seminarii [Zuanne Manfré], 1709.‎

‎8vo. (16), 220, (12) pp. With full-page woodcut illustration at the end of the preliminaries. Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards with two clasps. Exceptionally rare Arabic Psalter, the first of several reprintings of 'Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl al-Antaki's translation which had first appeared in Aleppo in 1706. Translated from the Greek Septuaginta Version, with the kathismata interspersed between the Psalms and with the Canticles following them. Edited, with a Paschalion for the years 1709-39 at the end, by Philipp Ghailán. - Only two copies known in institutional collections; collation agrees with that of the British Library copy (Biblioteca Marciana collation omits 116 pp. of preliminary matter). Binding professionally repaired; noticeable worming, mainly confined to margins. Some browning throughout; slight waterstaining near end. A few early 19th century inked notes in Hebrew. Provenance: 18th-century bookplate "Ex bibliotecha Johannis Marchioni Plebani Veneti" on final endpaper. Darlow/Moule I, 1653 (note). BL shelfmark: Asia, Pacific & Africa 14501.a.31. Marciana shelfmark: 133-C-176. OCLC 945484585 (digital reproduction only).‎

‎[Biblia arabico-latina - NT].‎

‎Arba`at Anajil Yasu` al-Masih Sayyidina al-Muqaddasah. Sacrosancta quatuor Iesu Christi D. N. Evangelia. Arabice scripta, Latine reddita, figurisq[ue] ornata. Rome, Typographia Medicea, (1591)-1619.‎

‎Folio (260 x 366 mm). (4), 9-462, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and black, with the Medici arms. With 149 text woodcuts by L. N. Parassole after Antonio Tempesta. Contemporary Italian flexible boards with ms. title to spine. The rare first re-issue, with new preliminary matter only, of the first Gospel printing in the interlinear Arabic and Latin version, prepared at the same time and printed by the same press as the first Arabic-only Gospel. These were the first works ever produced by Ferdinando de' Medici's "Medicea" press, founded by Pope Gregory XIII to spread the word of Christ in the Orient. Supervised by the able scholar Giovambattista Raimondi (1536-1614), its strength lay in oriental, especially Arabic, printing. After Raimondi's death, the press relocated to Florence. - The Arabic text is printed in Robert Granjon's famous large fount, generally considered the first satisfactory Arabic printing type; as all early printed editions of the Arabic Gospels, it is based on the Alexandrian Vulgate (cf. Darlow/M. 1636). The Latin version is by Leonardo Sionita. As issued in 1591, the work began with page 9, without a title page or any preliminary matter at all: "the intended prefatory matter was apparently never published" (Darlow/M.). The 1619 re-issue contains 4 pages of preliminary matter (title page and a note "typographus lectori"); there exist copies with two additional leaves of dedications not present here. Another re-issue, much more common, was released in 1774. - Occasional browning; a good, untrimmed and hence wide-margined copy in its original temporary binding. Darlow/Moule 1643. Mortimer 64 (note). Streit XVI, p. 866, no. 5138.‎

‎[Biblia polyglotta - Psalmi].‎

‎Psalterium Hebreum, Grecu[m], Arabicu[m], & Chaldaicu[m], cu[m] tribus latinis i[n]terp[re]tat[ion]ibus & glossis. Genoa, Pietro Paulo Porro, 1516.‎

‎Folio (binding 250 x 335 mm, inner book 236 x 327 mm). 200 leaves, complete. Title printed in red and black within woodcut arabesque border, printer's device on final leaf. With parallel text in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic and Chaldaean (in their respective types), 4 columns to a page, 41 lines. 13 woodcut floriated initials (5 Latin, 4 Hebrew, 2 Greek and 2 Arabic). Rebound in near contemporary brown calf, carefully restored, edges and corners repaired, spine fully rebacked in seven compartments with modern gilt title and date. First edition. - The first polyglot edition of any part of the Bible, and also the first polyglot work ever published. It is of the utmost importance in several further respects, constituting the second book printed in Arabic from movable type (following Gregorio de Gregorii's "Kitab salat as-sawa'i", a Horologion for the Lebanese Melchites, printed in 1514), as well as the earliest Arabic printing of any portion of the Bible. It also contains the first edition of the Aramaic text of the Psalter and offers for the first time Kabbalistic texts from the Zohar. Furthermore, Giustiniani’s commentary provides the first substantial biographical reference to Columbus, and is thus noted as an Americanum. - The learned Dominican Agostino Giustiniani (1470-1536) was Bishop of Nebbio in Corsica from 1514 and later became the first Professor of Arabic and Hebrew at Paris. On his death he bequeathed his extensive library to the state of Genoa. He edited, supervised and financed the present edition and also wrote the commentary. - His book is the first multilingual edition of any part of the Bible. Aldus Manutius had planned a Psalter in three languages as early as the late 15th century, but his project was not realised. Printed in eight parallel columns on double pages, Giustiniani’s work comprises the text in Hebrew, a literal Latin translation thereof, the Latin Vulgate, the Greek Septuagint, Arabic, Aramaic (Chaldee), a literal Latin translation from the Aramaic, and scholia in the same languages. While Giustiniani aimed to edit the entire Bibel in this form, no further sections were published. He described his difficulties in selling the edition in his History of Genoa (1537), recording an edition size of 2,000 paper copies and 50 copies on vellum. - Giustiniani’s extensive commentary includes a long note to Ps. 19:4 ("et in fines orbis omnia verba eorum"; C7r-D1r), about the Genoese Christopher Columbus, who had died in 1506, containing previously unpublished information on his second voyage: "In this interesting sketch of the life and voyages of his fellow-townsman, Bishop Giustiniani gives an interesting account of the discovery of the new world, and states some facts not mentioned elsewhere" (Sabin). - This edition is also the only book printed at Genoa in the 16th century. The Milanese printer Pietro Paulo Porro maintained a press at Turin with his brother Galeazzo. Giustiniani summoned Porro to Genoa especially for the production of this edition, and had set up a press in the house of his brother Nicolo Giustiniani Paulo. The types were designed and cut for this edition under Porro’s direction. - Mild browning throughout, with some occasional waterstaining (more pronounced near beginning). Adams B 1370. Darlow/Moule 1411, 1634 & 2401. Smitskamp, PO, 236. Alden-Landis 516/4. Harrisse, BAV no. 88 (pp. 154-158). Sabin 66468. Sander 5957. G. Roper, Early Arabic Printing in Europe, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter (Westhofen 2002), pp. 129-150, at p. 132, with colour ill. IV. StCB 25. Vinograd Genoa 1.‎

‎[Biblia turcica - NT].‎

‎Kitab ül-ahd il-cedid el-mensub ila rabbina Isa el-mesih [The Book of the New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ]. London, William Watts, 1853.‎

‎Small 8vo (108 x 156 mm). (4), 589 pp. Contemporary calf binding with gilt spine title in Osmanli and label "Watkins Binder" on the inner side of the rear cover. An exceedingly rare edition of Ali Ufki Bey's Turkish translation of the New Testament, almost unknown to bibliography. - Revised by Türabi Efendi from the text produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1827, the original translation into Ottoman Turkish was prepared by the Polish musician and linguist Wojciech Bobowski (ca. 1610-75), known under his Muslim name Ali Ufki, as an attempt to present the Christian text to the Muslim world. The 17th century Turkish Bible translation had been informed by Christian eschatological hopes that Protestantism and Islam might form a political alliance to defeat the common enemy, idolatrous Catholicism, and bring about world peace. A Turkish translation of the Holy Scripture was to advance this cause: the word of God alone, it was assumed, would soon convert the Muslim world to Christianity. Although Ali Bey, who had been hired to the task in 1662, completed his translation in 1664/65, the first printed edition was not published until 1819, by the Imprimerie impériale in Paris. - Türabi Efendi, who carried out the new revisions for this edition, had in his youth been sent to Britain by the Egyptian administration, learned English and may have even married a British woman; in 1865 he would publish a Turkish cookbook in English. A more common version of this text, further revised by James W. Redhouse, was published in 1857. Possibly the new edition became necessary after the present 1853 edition sold out in the Crimean war (cf. Privratsky, p. 48). - Light brownstaining to beginning and end; sporadic underlined words and annotations in Ottoman Turkish in the margins. Binding professionally repaired at extremeties; overall in a good condition. A single institutional example could be traced (Tübingen University Library). Darlow/Moule 9468. OCLC 313135237. Bütün baskilarin listesi, tarihsel açiklamalar ve arastirma önerileriyle (2013), s.v. 1857 - Kitâb ül-'Ahd el-Cedîd. Cf. Bruce Privratsky, A History of Turkish Bible Translations, v. S (2014), p. 47.‎

‎[Bidpai - Panchatantra].‎

‎[Kalilah wa-Dimnah - French]. Les Fables de Pilpay philosophe indien; ou la Conduite des Rois. Paris, Claude Barbin, 1698.‎

‎8vo. (20), 352 pp. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped edges, spine and spine-label. Marbled endpapers. All edges sprinkled red. Very rare, early French edition of the Fables of Bidpai, here comprising the prologue and the first four chapters of the "Anvari Suhaili". This Persian fable first appeared in French in 1644 in a translation prepared by David Sahid d'Ispahan. The year 1698 saw a joint edition by the Paris publishers Barbin and Delaulne, copies published by the latter being slightly more common. Not a single copy bearing Barbin's name on the title-page is traceable in libraries internationally. - The ancient Sanskrit Panchatantra fables, a classic of the genre, are thought to have been assembled ca. 200 BC out of stories from an even older oral tradition. The stories became known in Europe through Hebrew translations of Arabic versions under the name Bidpai. Featuring animals as a mirror for human behaviour, the fables were intended to educate people, especially young rulers. - Handwritten ownership of E. Bouzerand to lower flyleaf, dated 1802. Extremities professionally repaired. Paper shows occasional light spotting. A good copy of this classic work. Barbier II, 413. Brunet I, 937 (Delaulne issue). Graesse I, 422. Chauvin II, p. 33, no. 55B. This edition not in OCLC.‎

‎[Illustrated broadsheet - Hajj].‎

‎Pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca. [Weißenburg, Burckardt, c. 1880/90].‎

‎Stencil-coloured lithograph. 42.5 x 63.7 cm. Framed (77:63 cm). An extremely rare illustrated broadsheet showing the procession of the Egyptian Mahmal en route from Cairo to Mecca, with a colourful reception of a group of pilgrims in an Egyptian desert village. The Arabic caption states that the print was made from a drawing made on the spot by Sheikh Yunus, citing Hassan Uwais in Abidin Road, Cairo, as the publisher. The true publisher, Camille Burckardt in Weißenburg, is not named: it was company policy to obscure the European provenance of these broadsheets so as to to improve their sale potential in the Middle East. All of these prints are very rare; another copy of this print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012. Des Mondes de Papier 120.‎

‎Blunt, Anne.‎

‎A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race. A Visit to the Court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign" [...]. London, John Murray, 1881.‎

‎8vo. 2 vols. XXXI, (3), 273 pp., final blank page; IX, (3), 283 pp., 1 blank page, 24 pp. of adverts. With 2 woodcut frontispieces (included in pagination), 13 woodcut plates, and several woodcut illustrations in the text, as well as 1 folded map of Northern Arabia. Contemporary full cloth, decorated in black and gold on covers and spine. First edition. A true classic of travel literature, describing the 1879 expedition across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Arabian Gulf, undertaken by Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, a prominent couple of British explorers. Conveying "an ideal of an Arab aristocracy of the desert" (Nash), the travelogue describes the Blunts' interaction with sheikhs and emirs, but also their fascination with Arabian horses, including an account of the stables at Hail. Lady Blunt was, along with her husband, the founder of the Crabbet Arabian Stud, and the first European woman to journey to Central Arabia. Furthermore, the Blunts were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd "openly and at leisure", free to map and record geographical and physical features. - Apparently received as a gift from the author, with pencil inscription by the recipient on the flyleaf of volume I: "Lady Anne Blunt to Stephen Pearse" (?), additional pencil ownership of Flawn E. Thomas (?); a previous ownership erased. A few annotations and reading notes, also marking the date of beginning and ending each volume, between 6 and 13 October 1928. Later pencil acquisition note referencing Heffers bookshop in Cambridge (for 1/5/-), dated 11 January 1940. - Bindings a bit stained and slighty rubbed. Paper slightly foxed throughout; small tear to inner margin of the map (not touching image), small tear in the lower margin of the map repaired; tear to the contents page of vol. II repaired. Overall a good copy. Macro 555. Nash, Travellers to the Middle East 73. Howgego III, B49. Boyd/P. 16. NYPL Arabia Coll. 164. Henze I, 277.‎

‎Books from the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.‎

‎A collection of nine books formerly in the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, mostly presentation volumes inscribed by the authors. Constantinople, Florence, Berlin, and Paris, 1841-1891.‎

‎A set of nine volumes, 8vo and 4to. A rare survival: an ensemble of books, mainly medical, formerly in the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire, whose famous collection was dispersed following his deposition in 1909. - Of the nine volumes in the present collection, more than half a devoted to medicine. They include a rare account of Turkish military and civil hospitals by the French physician Paul Aubry (1887), constituting an exceptional documentation of health care infrastructure in the Ottoman world. Further, there is a detailed account of the outbreak of the plague in the Levant by the Swedish polymath Jacques Graberg (1841), also describing the situation in Tangier in 1818 and 1819, which the author had witnessed himself. Finally, the collection comprises three rare volumes from the Ottoman Turkish translation of Adolf von Strümpell's medical textbook on internal diseases (1888-91), here focusing on diseases of the heart and the arteries, diseases of the brain, and diseases of the kidneys and bladder. - Additional volumes discuss the political and religious history of Japan, or the Greek Ten Thousand and their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and back in 401 BC. Other titles are more immediately connected with Turkey, giving a capsule history of the Ottoman Empire in French and Turkish verse, or and extremely rare political analysis of the Turkey's position in the critical months preceding the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78. - The volumes bear the requisite traces of the Sultan's library marks. All are presentation volumes inscribed to the Sultan by the author (some even inscribed in Turkish and Arabic), or are bound in special presentation bindings, or the in Sultan's personal library bindings with his tughra on the covers. - Sultan Abdul Hamid (Abdülhamid) II (1842-1918) was the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to exert effective contol over the fracturing state and also remembered as a poet, translator and one of the dynasty's greatest bibliophiles. While his passion for books is memorialized by the many precious donations he gave to libraries all over the world and which mostly have remained intact to this day (including the 400-volume "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials" gifted to the Library of Congress), his own library was dispersed in the years following his deposition: books were removed to other palaces and even sold to Western collectors; the greatest part of his collection is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. - Detailed catalogue available upon request.‎

‎Breydenbach, Bernhard von.‎

‎Peregrinatio in terram sanctam. Mainz, Erhard Reuwich, 11 Feb. 1486.‎

‎Folio (226 x 312 mm). 147 (instead of 148) unnumbered ff. (lacking the final blank). With numerous red and blue Lombardic initials (some up to eight lines high), full-page title woodcut, 8 woodcuts and 6 woodcut alphabets in the text, 2 woodcut initials (1 armorial), small woodcut printer's device, and 7 folding woodcut views (some with text or woodcut illustrations on verso). Finely gilt maroon shagreen binding, ca. 1820, with giltstamped title and decorations to spine; covers stamped in gilt and blind with pretty floral borders and gilt decorations to corners; leading edges and inner dentelle gilt. Red endpapers. All edges gilt. Editio princeps of the first modern travelogue of a journey from Venice to the Holy Land, and "the first illustrated book of travel ever printed [...] [T]he folding panoramic views [...] are the first authentic representations of the famous places depicted, i. e., the ports usually visited by every pilgrim of the period [... The] artist was Erhard Reuwich [..., who] graphically record[ed] the impressions of the voyage" (Davies). The splendid panoramic folding views show Venice (ca. 160 cms long!), Porec and Corfu (both ca. 40 cms), Methoni, Crete and Rhodes (all ca. 80 cms) as well as Jerusalem (ca. 130 cms). - This work is considered the first authentic Western source for the Near and Middle East, as the illustrations were prepared from actual observation of the lands and people described. Breydenbach travelled to the Holy Land in 1483/84 with a large party including the artist Reuwich from Utrecht. Following the traditional route, they travelled from Venice to Corfu, Modon, Crete, Rhodes and Jaffa before arriving in Jerusalem, and then through the Sinai desert to Mt. Sinai, Cairo, and Alexandria on the return journey. The book quickly became extremely popular and was translated into French, Dutch and Spanish before 1500. It includes illustrations of Middle Eastern and Bedouin costume, a glossary of common Arabic words, and pictures of animals encountered on the journey (including a crocodile, a camel, and even a unicorn), as well as an Arabic alphabet - the latter of especial importance for being the first of its kind ever to see print: "The first representation of Arabic letters in a printed book was done in Germany; this was the woodcut of the Arabic alphabet in Bernhard von Breydenbach's 'Peregrinatio'" (Toomer). - Title-page trimmed to the neatline, remargined on all sides, a narrow strip along the left edge as well as a tiny ornament at the bottom supplied in meticulous ink. A témoin to upper corner of a single leaf (not touching text), another leaf showing a short tear near the gutter and traces of old glue; lower corner of final leaf remargined. Dry-cleaned throughout very carefully, the paper retaining light browning and occasional fingerstains. The views are very well preserved throughout and present as entirely complete, although some have small portions supplied from other copies of the same edition or are professionally retouched: some 22 cms in the middle section of the view of Venice are barely noticeably supplied in ink, and three segments are from another copy; tiny flaws in the folds. One fold in the view of Methoni is rebacked with a tiny gap. One half of Crete and Rhodes each supplied from another copy, seguing into each other in professionally drawn ink retouchings measuring ca. 2 cms. Right half of the view of Rhodes trimmed to neatline and remargined; a few professionally restored edge tears. The spectacular view of Jerusalem, frequently lacking, is complete and uncommonly well preserved, showing only are few well-restored edge tears. Altogether an outstanding copy on strong, unusually wide-margined paper, splendidly bound in the early 19th century. - The present first edition is extremely rare in the trade, usually appearing only in severely mutilated copies or even in fragments comprising no more than a few leaves. The only similarly complete copy in auction records since 1900 was the Perrins-Wardington copy (complete), sold at Sotheby's in 2005 for £265,600 (today, ca. EUR 500,000), while the Consul Smith copy sold at Christie's in 2018 lacked one quire consisting of the Jerusalem view and 2 woodcut scenes, as well as about half of Venice and Rhodes views. - From the library of the great English bibliophile Thomas Edward Watson, 1st Bart. (1851-1921) with his engraved bookplate ("St. Mary's Lodge, Newport Monmouthshire") on the front pastedown; old bookseller's catalogue clipping mounted to flyleaf and pencil annotation: "This is a far finer copy than the B[ritish] M[useum] Copy ..., that being badly coloured & much wormed". Last in a noted German private collection and acquired directly. HC 3956. Goff B-1189. GW 5075. Proctor 156. Pellechet 2979. BMC I, 43. BSB-Ink B-909. Klebs 220.1. Schreiber 3628. Bodleian B-552. Hubay 468. Schäfer 84. Oates 52. Davies, Breydenbach, no. I. Fairfax Murray 92. Campbell (Maps) 65. Hillard 486. Aquilon 181. Arnoult 366. Parguez 275. Péligry 226. Torchet 228. Zehnacker 577. ISTC ib01189000.‎