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Manlio, Giovanni Giacomo (Johannes Jacobus Manlius or Manliis), Quirico de Augustis and Paulus de Suardis.
Luminare maius. Cinthius ut totum radiis illuminat orbem. Illuminat latebras sic medicina tuas. Lumen apothecariorum. (Venice, Gregorio de Gregori, 8 Jan. 1513).
Folio (305 x 210 mm). 77, (2), (1 blank) ff. With 13 woodcut decorated initials (6 series?) plus 8 repeats, 4-line typographic "Lombarbic" initials. Set in rotunda gothic types in 2 columns, with a preliminary note in roman type. With contemporary pen decorations in brown ink added to about half of the initials and occasional similar pen decorations in the margins, an occasional manuscript paragraph mark, some rubrications in brown ink and some initials coloured with a transparent ochre wash. Early 20th-century vellum, possibly incorporating older materials, sewn on 3 recessed supports, red spine label. Seventh known copy of an early edition of an important treatise on pharmacology and medical botany, by Giovanni Giacomo Manlio di Bosco (fl. 1490-post 1500), first published in Venice 1490 or Pavia 1494 (Sordano records an edition by Octavius Scotus in 1490, but the ISTC records no edition by him until 1496). It is a commentary on ancient Arabic and Greek pharmacological works, especially the Arabic treatises of Yuhanna Ibn Masawayh (ca. 777-857), a Nestorian Christian physician from Assyria who taught at the academy in Gundeshapur, Iran, and was personal physician to four caliphs. It gives instructions for preparing numerous medicines, indicating the quantities of the ingredients (simples, each derived from a single plant) and describing each ingredient. The present edition includes Manlio's preliminary note addressed to Bernardinus Niger, included in the 1494, 1496 and 1499 editions but omitted in many later editions. - The title-page indicates that the book also contains "Lumen apothecariorum", a work by Quirico de Augustis de Tortona of Milan (fl. 1486-97), first published in 1492. But it is not present here or in any of the other seven copies we have traced. The two works were combined in the Venice editions of 1504, ca. 1502/05 and 1506. De Gregori apparently followed one of these editions but did not include the second work. Hieronymus Surianus (fl. 1458?, d. 1522?) edited the first two. - With contemporary and later marginal manuscript notes. With the text area of B2.7 somewhat browned, an occasional small and unobtrusive stain, and a few small worm holes in the last few leaves, but generally in very good condition. Some of the manuscript notes have been shaved. The binding is slightly dirty and the boards slightly bowed, but the binding is still good. A rare early edition of an important work of pharmacology. Durling 2938. EDIT 16 29621 (1 copy). ICCU 29621 (same copy). KVK & WorldCat (5 copies). Emiliano Sordano, Il Luminare maius di Manlio del Bosco, thesis, University of Torino, 2010, p. 41. USTC 840112 (2 copies). Cf. Adams M 370 (1506 ed.). BM-STC Italian 410 (1504 and other eds.). Schelenz, Geschichte der Pharmazie, p. 414 (1529 ed.). Wellcome 4017 (1628 Lyon ed.). Not in Garrison & Morton; Honeyman; Norman Lib.
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[Manuzio, Antonio, ed.].
Viaggi fatti da Vinetia, alla Tana, in Persia, in India, et in Costantinopoli: con la descrittione particolare di città, luoghi, siti, costumi, & della porta del gran Turco: & di tutte le intrate, spese, & modo di governo suo, & della ultima impresa contra Portoghesi. Venice, sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545.
8vo. 163 ff. (without final leaf, blank except for anchor on verso). Aldine anchor device on title page. 18th-century English polished calf. Second edition (first published in 1543) of this collection of Venetian voyages to the Near and Middle East, edited by Antonio Manuzio, son of Aldus. "Tana was the name which the Genoese gave to their factory at Azov at the mouth of the river Don. This volume contains voyages by Giosafat Barbaro (Tana in 1436, Persia 1471), Ambrogio Contarini (Persia 1473-77), and Luigi Roncinotto (Ethiopia 1532, Persia and India in 1529). It also includes Benedetto Ramberti's account of the Turkish Sultan's campaign against the Portuguese settlement of Diu in northern India in 1538" (Atabey). "This appears to be one of the very few travel books from the Aldine press" (Blackmer). - Extremities rubbed and bumped, short cracks in joints. Light dampstain to first few leaves. Contemp. ink ownership to title page, further ownership trimmed away at lower edge (remargined without loss); further contemp. ownership "Gioseppe Custodi" under the colophon. Modern ownership inscription "J. W. S. M. / Caius. / Cambridge. / Jan. 1899" on front pastedown - very likely the Caius-educated English entomologist John William Scott Macfie (1879-1948). Later himself a traveller to the East, he served as director of the Medical Research Institute in Accra between 1914 and 1923, having undertaken the same responsibilities in an acting capacity at Lagos in 1913. Adams V 624. Blackmer 1071. Göllner 861. Renouard 134 (noting that of the two editions the present is "bien mieux imprimée"). Cf. Atabey 761 (first edition).
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Manzoni, Renzo.
El Yèmen. Tre anni nell' Arabia felice. Escursioni fatte dal Settembre 1877 al Marzo 1880. Rome, Eredi Botta, 1884.
Large 8vo. (8), VI, (2), 446 pp. With portrait frontispiece, 21 plates (7 of which double-page sized; last single-page plate included in pagination), 2 folding coloured maps of Yemen, folding plate of the game "abdùr", folding coloured plan of Sana'a, folding view of Sana'a, folding view of Aden, as well as numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with blindstamped spine and giltstamped spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition, rare. Richly illustrated account of Yemen, without doubt "one of the fullest descriptions of life in San'a' and Turkish-occupied North Yemen" (Auchterlonie) ever to be published. The Italian explorer Manzoni (1852-1918) spent three years travelling the Yemen, altogether staying an entire year in Sana'a, his "citta bellissima". He "investigated the city more thoroughly and described it more vividly than any of his predecessors [...] also, he was the first to draw a map of the city" (cf. Henze). The illustrations include pretty views of Sana'a and Aden, as well as portraits of the local population. - Extremities very slightly rubbed; some remnants of ink stains on the frontispiece; minor browning to margins throughout; last folding map with small tears (repaired). Library stamp of the Paris École des Langues Orientales Vivantes to title-page, somewhat rubbed. Marked as a duplicate in red pencil on the blank recto of the frontispiece. Auchterlonie 138. Henze III, 366.
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[Map - Arabian Gulf].
Persian Gulf. ONC-H-6/7. Operational navigation chart. St. Louis, Aeronautical Chart and Information Center, U.S. Air Force, 1969.
Two copies of two folding maps colour printed on both sides of a sheet of silk (103 x 78.5 cm) on a scale of ca. 1:1,000,000. The two maps (ONC-H-6 & ONC-H-7) show one continuous area. Rayon pilot's map of the Arabian Gulf region focusing on the Trucial States (modern United Arab Emirates), Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iran and Saudi Arabia, including the main oil installations. Items of specific interest to aircraft, such as airfields and even seaplane bases, are particularly listed. Warnings to stay within the specific flying routes while in Iran are placed on multiple locations. While the map depicts a continuous area on both sides of one sheet, it actually consists of two maps, originally published separately. We here include two copies so the whole area can be displayed at once. The maps are reproduced after the third and fourth edition. - In very good condition.
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[Marbod of Rennes]. Evax, King of Arabia / Heinrich von Rantzau (ed.).
De gemmis, scriptum Evacis regis Arabum. Leipzig, Georg Deffner, 1585.
4to. (108) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 7 woodcuts in the text (one full-page). Modern calf using the remains of a 16th century binding with blindstamped rules and roll-tools. Edges red. Rare 16th century edition of this poem on gemstones, ascribed to the legendary Evax, king of Arabia, and sometimes entered in bibliographies accordingly (cf. BM-STC or Thorndike I, 776), though in fact written by Marbod, the bishop of Rennes, in the late 11th century. The book, which survives in more than sixty manuscripts, was first printed in Vienna in 1511 as "Libellus de lapidibus pretiosis"; the present Leipzig edition is only the third to attribute authorship to King Evax on the title-page. Sources include Pliny, Isidore of Seville, Origines, Orpheus, and Solinus. "In short, Marbod's work briefly describes 60 gemstones, which number includes several that are not now considered to be in that category, and gives for each their magical and medicinal virtues" (Sinkankas, p. 665). They include mythical stones, mineral species such as emeralds, onyx, magnets, carbuncles, hematite, asbestos, etc., with numerous varieties of quartz, stones coming from the body of an animal, and several other hard substances that are not really minerals at all, among which is coral, described as "a stone that lives in the ocean, forming branches like wicker" (E3v). - "One of the questions connected with this work is whether it is by Marbodus or by an Arab called Evax. It has arisen because the poem opens with an allusion to a person of that name. Lessing does not see why Evax should not have written a work on precious stones, or why Marbod should have said that his poem was extracted from Evax's work, if it were not so. Reinesius thinks Marbodus made himself the interpreter of Evax" (Ferguson). Today, all scholars "agree that Marbod was the true author and Evax an invention" (Sinkankas). The present editor, the German humanist Henrik Rantzau (1526-98), was an associate of Tycho Brahe. At the end of the book he includes an illustrated genealogy of his own family. He "states that the poems of Marbod are here issued completely for the first time 'as far as he knows', although this is not the case" (ibid.). - Rather severely browned throughout; several 17th century underlinings and marginal annotations. Gutter repaired and completely rebound in the 20th century with modern endpapers but using old material for the covers. VD 16, M 935 (R 878). BM-STC German 291. Sinkankas 4179. Ferguson II, 74. Not in Adams.
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[Marcel, Jean-Joseph?
Islamic coins and medals. Paris?, ca. 1791-1817?].
Mostly folio (315 x 210 mm). A manuscript compilation of loose leaves and bifolia, with about 104 drawings (some in ink; some in coloured gouaches, many including gold, silver and other metallic colours) and about 53 engravings (some black on white; some white on black), each drawing and engraving showing the obverse and reverse of an Islamic coin or medal (except for about 3 that show only one side). Most of the drawings and engravings are on slips attached to leaves with notes in Arabic and French. An extensive study of Islamic coins, medals, and seals prepared on loose leaves and bifolia, with about 104 drawings (in ink or coloured gouaches, many with gold and/or silver and occasionally copper or metallic blue) and about 53 engravings, most drawings and engravings with manuscript notes in Arabic and French. Nearly every drawing and engraving shows both the obverse and the reverse of the coin or medal, some shown at the original size and some enlarged, so the diameter of the coins in the drawings ranges from about 1½ cms to about 10 cms, though even some of the larger ones note that they are drawn at the original size. Some of the ink drawings were made directly on the leaves, but nearly all of the colour drawings and engravings are on separate slips mounted on the leaves (some pasted, some with sealing wax, some with pins). The notes on these leaves usually give the dates of the coins (whether or not the coins themselves are dated) following the Islamic Hijri calendar and sometimes also following the Christian calendar. They often give a transcription of the inscriptions in a naskh Arabic hand (though they appear on the coins in several styles of Arabic script, including Kufic). A few include longer notes in French. The coins come from Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Tripoli and elsewhere. - The dates given for the coins range from at least AH 93 to at least AH 1203 and probably to AH 1219 (712-1788 CE and probably to 1804/05 CE). The compilation of these drawings, engravings and notes probably began in the 1790s and may have spanned two or three decades. A few of the leaves (including some with drawings made directly on the leaves) show a paper stock with a watermark date "1791", and many leaves show a distinctive kind of watermark that was used in 1805. They frequently include abbreviated references to Jacob Georg Christian Adler, Museum Cuficum Borgianum velitris, Rome, 1782; Denis Samuel-Bernard, Mémoire sur les monnaies d'Egypte, Paris, 1809; and Description de l'Égypte ... État moderne, plates vol. II, Paris, 1817 (plates h-k show 127, 123 and 178 coins and medals), the last giving the earliest possible date for the completion of the compilation. Many of the engravings in the present compilation are taken from these three sources, and there is even what may be a proof of an unfinished plate from Bernard. One leaf has a mounted letterpress fragment with a biography of Ahmed ben Mohammed Khan, clipped from p. 67 of the 1776 Maastricht edition of Barthelemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, Bibliotheque orientale. - Although the manuscript nowhere names its compiler(s), Jean Joseph Marcel (1776-1854), grandnephew of the Consul Général in Egypt, was a brilliant student at the University of Paris, where he received many prizes in 1790 and 1791 and began his study of oriental languages. He came into contact with the orientalist Louis-Mathieu Langlés, who arranged for him to accompany Napoleon on his 1798 Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801), where he took charge of the Campaign's printing office (printing an Arabic type specimen in 1798), made the first steps toward deciphering the Rosetta Stone, and collected medals, manuscripts and inscriptions. Back in Paris he became director of the Imprimerie Impérial, a post he held until 1815. He wrote, compiled or translated numerous works concerning Arabic and other oriental languages. He may have planned to produce a publication based on the present compilation, but no such publication appeared. The compilation in any case shows Europe's new interest in Islamic studies after Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, with Paris as its most important centre. - About 3 small drawings appear to have been made on oiled paper, probably in order to trace coins or engravings of coins, and a few are drawn on tissue paper. Many of the larger drawings are in colour, and a few are enlarged copies of the smaller drawings or engravings. Some leaves are tattered along the edges and a few have had their corners cut off, none of this affecting the illustrations or text. In a very small number the ink has corroded in the paper, more severely in 2 leaves, and one of the drawings on oiled paper has been cut up with 3 (of 4?) pieces surviving, but most of the leaves remain in good condition. A remarkable record of Islamic coins and medals, compiled ca. 1791-1817, with about 157 illustrations. For Marcel: Alain Messaoudi, Les Arabisants et la France coloniale (2015), pp. 239-240.
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[Marghinani, `Ali ibn Abi Bakr] / Hamilton, Charles (transl.).
The Hedàya, or Guide; A Commentary on the Mussulman Laws: Translated by the Order of the Governor-General and Council of Bengal. London, T. Bensley, 1791.
Small folio (220 x 273 mm). 4 vols. (2), LXXXIX, (1), XII, 561, (3) pp. VIII, 727, (3) pp. VIII, 609, (3) pp. VIII, 574, (54) pp. Errata leaf in rear of each volume. Expertly bound to style in half calf over period marbled paper covered boards, flat spine divided into six compartments with gilt roll tools, black morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat arabesque decoration in gilt. First English edition of "al-Hidayah", the authoritative guide to Islamic jurisprudence, printed in a small number of copies only (cf. Brunet). The understanding of Islamic law was critical to the colonial administration of India, and in particular of Bengal with its large Muslim population, and this work was intended to enable English officials to understand local proceedings. - Commonly referred to as al-Hidayah or The Guidance, this work originated as a 12th-century Hanafi work by Sheikh al-Islam Burhan al-Din al-Farghani al-Marghinani (1135-97) and is considered an authoritative guide to Islamic law among Muslims throughout the world. The Hidayah presents a legal tradition developed over many centuries and represents the corpus of Hanafi law in its approved and preferred form. The primary reason for its popularity is the reliability of its statements and the soundness of its legal reasoning. It is arguably the most popular and important work in fiqh literature. - Hamilton's English translation is based on a Persian translation by Ghulam Ya Khan from the original Arabic. Intended for a British audience, chapters relating to rituals were omitted, while his coverage of contracts, torts, and criminal law is more complete. Hamilton explains in his preface: "The permanence of any foreign dominion (and indeed, the justification of holding such a dominion) requires that a strict attention be paid to ease and advantage, not only of the governors, but of the governed; and to this great end nothing can so effectually contribute as preserving to the latter their ancient established practices, civil and religious and protecting them in the exercise in their own institutes [...] they must be infinitely more acceptable than anything we could offer; since they are supported by the accumulated prejudice of ages, and, in the opinion of their followers, derive their origin from the Divinity himself" (Preliminary Discourse). A second edition of Hamilton's translation was published in 1870, though the first edition is rare. - Light browning throughout with occasional brownstains, but generally a very finely preserved copy in an appealing modern binding. Brunet III, 75. OCLC 10111750.
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Martin, F[redrik] R[obert].
Miniatures From the Period of Timur in a Ms. of the Poems of Sultan Ahmad Jalair. Vienna, (Adolf Holzhausen), 1926.
Folio (294 x 394 mm). (8), 29, (3) pp. With XVI plates. Contemporary half vellum over papered boards with floral design heightened in gold; title-label to spine. One of 300 copies. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to the Viennese printer Adolf Holzhausen on the half-title. - Lavishly appointed collection of miniatures from a Persian illuminated manuscript from the early 15th century comprising the collected works of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir (1382-1410). With a description of the manuscript by the British orientalist and historian of Islamic art, Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (1864-1930), crediting Jalayir with "a not inconsiderable skill in the use of the verse forms commonly found in Persian poetry" (p. 6). The present work features reproductions of some of the most splendid folios of the Persian manuscript and its giltstamped leather binding, as well as a few miniatures originating from similar manuscripts. - Extremities very slightly rubbed; spine-label somewhat worn. Interior in excellent condition. Bound with Florentine silk. OCLC 3499905.
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Masha'allah Ibn-Atari / Al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya Qub ibn Ishaq / et al.
Liber novem iudicum in iudiciis astrorum. Mesehella, Aomar, Alkindus, Zael (etc.). Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, (4 Jan.) 1509.
4to. (6), 96 ff. With a woodcut initial coloured in red and green and several diagrams. Rubricated throughout. - (Bound after) II: Aristotle. Meteorologia. (Nuremberg, Friedrich Peypus, 11 Nov. 1512). 94, (6) ff. (final blank). With 8 large woodcuts in the text, some with touches of contemporary colour. Rubricated throughout. - (Bound with) III: Abraham ben 'Ezra (Aben Ezra, Avenares). In re iudiciali opera. (Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, 1507). 96 ff. (f. 92 blank). Rubricated throughout, some initials coloured green. Contemporary wooden boards on three raised double bands with leather spine. Two brass clasps (repaired). I: Editio princeps of this "work composed in Arabic probably exactly in the form in which it is preserved in Latin, typical of the encyclopaedic period but limited [...] to certain early sources" (Carmody), uniting the Judaic and Islamic astrological traditions. The form, arranged in twelve parts according to each house, is based on the doctrines of Sahl al-Tustari. The various tracts are constructed from chapters compiled systematically from such writers as Mâshâ'allâh (including the first printing of 'De electionibus') and al-Kindi. The crucial factor that they were translated intact in their present form from Arabic "is apparent in the unified Latin style and terminology" (ibid.). The collection includes a number of quotations attributed to Ptolemy; the rare mention of "Abuali" refers perhaps to Abu 'Ali al-Khayyâj. - "Masha'allah, [a Jew from Basra,] was one of those early 'Abbasid astrologers who introduced the Sassanian version of the predictive art to the Arabs; he was particularly indebted to the Pahlavi translation of Dorotheus of Sidon and to the 'Zik i Shahriyaran', or Royal Astronomical Tables, issued under the patronage of Khusrau Anushirwan in 556. He was also acquainted with some Greek material (perhaps through Arabic versions of Syriac texts) and would have acquired some knowledge of Indian science, both through the Pahlavi texts that he read and through such Indian scientists as the teacher of al-Fazari and Kanaka, who visited the courts of al-Mansur and Harun al-Rashid. It is during al-Mansur's reign that Masha'allah's name first appears: he participated in the astrological deliberations that led to the decision to found Bagdad [...] Masha'allah wrote on virtually every aspect of astrology [...] ['De electionibus'], which quotes Dorotheus, is ascribed to Masha'allah and Ptolemy but is probably by neither" (DSB IX, 159 ff.). - Extremely rare. A very clean copy with only an insignificant inkstain in the lower margin of ff. 12v and 13r and tiny traces of worming in the upper margin of the final two leaves. A few contemporary handwritten marginalia; f. 80v has a contemporary handwritten ownership of Wigand, Baron Redwitz (1476-56), bishop of Bamberg, who as a young man had travelled to Palestine and is remembered as a conservative but not fanatical Catholic cleric during the tumultuous years of the Reformation. - Bound with this work in the same appealing Renaissance volume are two other rare, thematically related contemporary treatises. - II: Aristotle's "Meteorology", long known in the West only through a Latin translation based on the Arabic version "al-'Athar al-`Ulwiyyah". This is the very rare illustrated first edition of Faber's expanded translation, including an extensive commentary by Johannes Cochlaeus, who also mentions the recently-discovered American continent ("Nova illa Americi terra", f. 62v). Comprising the first three of Aristotle's four books (on the heavens, water, and wind), it also constitutes "one of the main sources of medieval geology" (Stillwell, Awakening 577). "Cochlaeus's discussion of the relationship between motion and heat appears quite modern" (cf. Spahn). The woodcuts, coloured in earth tones or simply accented by the rubricator, show spheres as well as light and cloud phenomena; a large woodcut (f. 60v) shows the climate zones of the ancient world. - A single, tiny wormhole in the blank lower margin throughout; another small wormhole in the first two leaves (repaired in A1, insignificant loss to a few letters in A2). A clean and wide-margined copy. - III: The first collected edition of ten astrological treatises by the 12th-century Jewish mathematician and astronomer Ibn Ezra from Tudela in Spain. During his lifetime the town was under the Muslim rule of the emirs of Zaragoza; later he lived in Muslim Andalusia. "Ibn Ezra disseminated rationalistic and scientific Arabic learning in France, England and ltaly [... He] wrote a number of astrological works that were very popular [...] all of them appeared in Latin in 1507. They are rich in original ideas and in the history of scientific subjects" (DSB). - Contemporary marginalia in red, green, and brown ink throughout. Some insignificant browning. The well-preserved binding shows a hunting scene blindstamped into the leather. A fine assembly of important natural scientific works: published by Christian editors and printers in the early Renaissance, they bring together the Muslim and Jewish traditions that were the driving forces behind mediaeval science. I: Edit 16, CNCE 63196. BM-STC ltalian 424. Houzeau/Lancaster 751 ("volume tres rare"). DSB IX, 162. Carmody p. 112. Not in Adams, Mortimer, Essling, Stillwell, Honeyman. - II: VD 16, L 959. Cranz/Schmitt 13. Hoffmann I, 321. Schweiger I, 60. IA 107.806. Alden/Landwehr 512/1. Zinner 953. Brüggemann/Brunken 29. Spahn, Cochläus, p. 16. - III: Edit 16, CNCE 35576. IA 100.150. Adams A 38. Proctor-Is. 12998. Stillwell, Awakening 2. Houzeau/Lancaster 3927 ("rare"). Thorndike II, 917 & 927. DSB IV, 502.
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Maspero, Gaston / Brugsch, Emil.
La Trouvaille de Deir-El-Bahari [...]. Cairo, F. Mourés, 1881.
Folio (240 x 319 mm). 36 pp. of text and 20 mounted black-and-white photographs with paper guards. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped covers, spine, and spine-title. Marbled endpapers. Rare first edition of the first report on the Royal Cache, an ancient Egyptian tomb near Deir el-Bahri in the Theban Necropolis, officially discovered in 1881. Including 20 impressive photographs of sarcophagi and mummies, this account convinced authorities to expand the Boulaq archaeological Museum. - The cache at Deir el-Bahri was first discovered in 1871 by the Abd el-Rassul brothers, who ended up selling items from the tomb on the black market. Eventually the Director of the Boulaq Museum, Gaston Maspero, who had succeeded Auguste Mariette in 1881 as director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government, became suspicious and had two of the brothers arrested. One of them revealed a tomb secreted in a cliff near Deir al-Bahri. Upon arriving on-site, the delegation of the Museum discovered an extraordinary collection of mummified remains and funeral equipment of more than 50 kings, queens, and other members of the royalty (including the mummies of Thutmose I and Ramesses II), suggesting that the tomb was used for safekeeping royal mummies during the Twenty-first Dynasty. In only 48 hours the entire cache was cleared and all contents, including the mummies, were transported to Luxor and then Cairo. The present work constitutes Maspero's first study of the objects. It served as the basis for a more elaborate study of the findings he published eight years later ("Les Momies royales de Deir-el-Bahari", Paris, 1889). - Extremities somewhat rubbed, occasional light foxing. A pretty copy. Rarely seen at auction. Provenance: from the private library of the American diplomat and collector Elbert Eli Farman (1831-1911), Consul General of the US at Cairo from 1876 to 1881, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 93 & II, 21. OCLC 8670353.
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Mayr, Heinrich von.
Malerische Ansichten aus dem Orient, gesammelt auf der Reise Sr. Hoheit des Herrn Herzogs Maximilian in Bayern nach Nubien, Aegypten, Palaestina, Syrien und Malta im Jahre 1838 [...]. Vues pittoresques de l'Orient [...]. Munich/Paris/Leipzig, Kaiser & Lacroix; Rittner & Goupil; Weigel, [1839-1840].
Folio (422 x 528 cm). Lithographed title-page and 60 lithographed plates, all in original hand colour, captions often raised in gilt. With 10 leaves of letterpress text. Half calf with giltstamped spine. (Includes): Die Uebergangsländer von Asien und Afrika, begreifend: Arabien nebst Mesopotamien und Syrien und das Nilgebiet. Munich, C. Wenng, 1845. Engraved map with contemporary border colour. 640 x 544 mm. Scale 1:7,000,000. Only edition of the rare variant with all the plates and in their splendid original colour: "Published in ten parts. The plates show costume of the period and also that of earlier times, taken from paintings" (Hiler). The picturesque views, which include Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, La Valletta, Luxor, and Thebes, genre scenes and landscapes, are all framed within a decorative border and arranged as a small painting. The Nuremberg artist Mayr, known especially for his depictions of battle scenes and horses, was personal painter to Duke Maximilian, whom he accompanied on his 1838 journey of the Orient. The group had departed from Munich on January 20 with a small entourage, travelling via Venice, Korfu, Patras, Athens, Alexandria, and Cairo to the Holy Land. They returned to Munich after eight months on 17 September 1838; the following year, Maximilian was made honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. - Some foxing, otherwise splendidly preserved. Includes the extremely rare map of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East which was published only in 1845, at the instigation of the naturalist Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert (1780-1860) and the geologist Joseph von Russegger (1802-63), to satisfy this frequently noted lack in Mayr's production (some foxing, but also finely preserved). Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 26. Gay 90 (only 36 plates). Lipperheide Ma 22 (= 1589). Hiler 578. Tobler 161. Graesse IV, 457. Engelmann 124. Kainbacher 265 ("a rarity"). Thieme/Becker XXIV, 477. Nagler VIII, 498f. ("highly memorable drawings"). ADB XXI, 139ff. Not in Blackmer or Abbey (Travel). Not in Colas.
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[Medical manuscript].
Tazkirah 'ata’ tabib Dari’sh-Shifa’. Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, early 18th century [ca. 1720].
8vo. Ottoman Turkish manuscript, with medical terminology mostly in Arabic. 50 pp. Black (and occasional red) ink on polished paper. 19th century marbled wrappers. A traditional pharmacological essay or pharmacopoeia, as well as a description of several ailments and medical conditions (including earache, infection of the larynx, uvular edema, malaria, jaundice, and yellow fever), with their treatment indications. Interestingly, there is a specific reference to opium ("afyon" in Turkish). The anonymous scribe was very probably a physician or medical practitioner with an imperfect knowledge of Arabic, most likely a Turk. No colophon, but likely written in the early 18th century in an Arabic-speaking Eastern province of the Ottoman Empire. - Occasional stains and smudging; some corner and edge flaws throughout with chipping to wrappers.
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Menou, (Abdallah) Jacques-François de Boussay de.
Collection of eight "Copie[s] de l'ordre du général en chef". Cairo, Imprimerie nationale, [23 August - 7 November 1800].
Folio (220 x 315 mm). 8 issues printed in French and Arabic in two columns, each between 2 and 16 pages. All with the woodcut vignette of the French Republic showing Marianne and the motto "Liberté Egalité". A unique ensemble of these exceedingly rare regulations documenting the first months of the administration of the newly appointed commander-in-chief "Abdallah" Menou, who succeeded Kleber after his assassination in June. - In contrast to his predecessor, who intended to rule Egypt as an occupied territory, General Menou had colonial aims and even considered granting French citizenship to all Egyptians. Soon after his arrival in 1798 he married a woman from a noble Cairo family, converted to Islam and took the name of Abdallah. - Covering a wide range of topics such as tax and fiscal matters, fishing and hunting rights, duties of local dignitaries ("cheyks el-beled"), customs and border regulations, rules for navigation on the Nile, taxation of merchants, craftsmen and workers, as well as the rights of various religious minorities (Jews and Copts among others), the present documents offer a vastly more detailed insight into the French administration of Egypt than the more widely distributed single-page broadsides of daily orders with which they were originally issued ("Inséré dans l'ordre du jour ..."). Printed by first printing press in the Arab world, all issues of these bilingual regulations and orders are of the utmost rarity: four of the eight publications contained in the present collection are not recorded in OCLC. - Unbound as issued. Well preserved throughout. Detailed list and collations of the individual publications available upon request. Cf. D. Glass/G. Roper, The Printing of Arabic Books in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), p. 177-225, at 182.
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[Mesopotamia]. Indian Army General Staff.
For official use only. Field notes. Mesopotamia. General staff, India. February 1917. Including: Index to field notes, Mesopotamia, 1917. Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1917.
Small 8vo (175 x 135 mm). [4], 326 (pp. 272f. printed on a single page, pp. 274-279 printed as three folding tables), [1] pp. With large folding map and additional separately printed index in pocket at front. Original green cloth, printed title to spine and upper flap. Ownership inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieut., RAMC, dated April, 1918. First edition of a field guide to Mesopotamia (Iraq), published on behalf of the General Staff in India for the use of officers serving in the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War, stating on the binding and title-page "for official use only". The guide is divided into eight chapters, dealing with Iraq's history, geography, population, resources, military strength, maritime power, administration and communication respectively. The fifth and sixth chapter also contain valuable information on the Turkish military and maritime strength. Added to the present guide is many newly acquired information not present in the 1915 guide. For example, the "list of routes" in the present guide contains 36 routes from one city to another, compared to 14 routes in the 1915 guide. The routes are shown on the folding map. With the owner's inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieutenant in the British Royal Army Medical Corps, on the first flyleaf. A few small spots or stains. Binding only very slightly rubbed. Overall in very good condition.
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Mesue the Younger (Masawaih Al-Mardini).
Opus quibuslibet aromatariis: necessariu[m]. Mesue in vulgare rescripto. Primo che se rechercha allarte della aromataria como se conosseno le medicine simplice & composte li quattro canone p[er] arte in vulgare declarate alla antidotario: li dubie al configere qlle resolute. [Naples or Venice, ca 1500?].
4to (145 x 198 mm). (34) ff. Half calf over marbled overs (ca. 1900) with gold-tooled red label to gilt spine. All edges sprinkled red. Almost unobtainably rare first edition of this digest of medical prescriptions, taken from the works of the highly-regarded Arabic physician Mesue the Younger (also known as Masawaih al-Mardini), including "a kind of general manual for apothecaries and perfumers" (Duveen). All recipes are in Italian, while the main title and the headings are in Latin. Bibliographers are not agreed on the book's place or date of publication: GW locates it merely in Italy, ca. 1495, whereas Copinger believes it was printed in Venice, by an unidentified printer, in or around 1500. The British Museum Short-Title Catalogue suggests Sigismund Mayr in Naples as the printer and 1510 as possible year of publication, while the British Library's catalogue now appears to prefer Venice and 1505 as tentative place and year. Klebs notes that the collection constitutes a "rifacimento" of the Italian edition of Mesue's "Opera medicinalia", published in Venice on 12 December 1493. - Contemporary ink ownership to title-page. A restored tear in the final leaf (not affecting the text), some brown specks on the title-page and an insignificant waterstain along the lower edge of the final gathering, but altogether in excellent condition. Rebound in a pretty half-calf binding around the turn of the century. Only two copies in libraries internationally (British Library and Univ. of Wisconsin, formerly the Duveen copy). That in the British Library is incomplete, lacking the final leaf (falsely described by Copinger as having a final blank leaf, which is in fact the endpaper). Copinger 4011. GW M23031. Klebs 228 (note). Proctor 7427. ISTC im00521400. USTC 842290. BM-STC Italian 739. Duveen 651. Edit 16, CNCE 50479.
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[Middle East].
Mapah carta shel ha-mizrah ha-tikhon. (Carta's Map of the Middle East). [Jerusalem], Carta, 1973.
121 x 92 cm. Colour-printed map (folded). Scale 1:20,000,000. A large wall map of the Middle East shortly before the Yom Kippur War, showing the Arabian Peninsula, north-eastern Africa with Libya, Egypt and Sudan as well as Turkey and Iraq pictured in their entirety. A separate inset shows Israel, others show statistics such as population and trade, oil production, etc. - A few large tears to folds, some adhesive tape reinforcements to reverse, but well preserved.
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[Middle Eastern Oil Resources].
Neft ba-mizrah ha-tikhon. Zikaynot, shadot, tzinorot, batei zikuk. (Oil in the Middle East. Concessions, Oilfields, Pipelines, Refineries). Tel Aviv, Israel Defense Forces, General Staff, (1957).
560 x 827 mm. Chromolithographic map of the Arabian Peninsula, from Turkey in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and covering Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, North and South Yemen. Scale 1:5,000,000. Folded. Extremely rare Israeli strategic map of the Arabian Peninsula showing oilfields and associated infrastructure. Printed in black, red and blue, the map demarks the political boundaries of the time along with the areas covered by oil companies' concessions. Pipelines form a web across the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula (shown in uncommon vertical orientation), while oilfields and refineries, large and small, are also marked. The map was most probably created by the IDF in reaction to the Suez Crisis and its associated geopolitical shifts. With the Egyptians operating the Suez Canal, and Britain and France being forced by the USA to abandon their post-imperial plans, Israel now counted in both U.S. and Soviet plans for their control of Middle Eastern politics. Britain was forced to anchor its Middle Eastern influence in Cyprus, Aden and Iraq, while the increased American influence can be seen in the huge swathe of territory assigned to Aramco. We have only been able to trace a single institutional copy of this map in the National library of Israel. - Scale and key in Hebrew inset to top-right, inset explanatory panels in Hebrew and English, compass rose in Saudi Arabia. A couple of small light stains, some uneven creasing and edge tears along creasefolds with a couple of tiny holes at fold joins. Traces of pins from former wall mounting.
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Middleton, Henry / Downton, Nicholas.
Sesde reys van de Engelsche Maatschappy, na Oost-Indien [...]. Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1707.
8vo. (2), 217, (16) pp., final blank page. With engraved title vignette, 1 folding map of the Arabian Peninsula and 7 engraved folding plates. Later marbled boards. First edition. Scarce Dutch translation of the journals of Henry Middleton (d. 1613) and his lieutenant Nicholas Downton (1561-1615) documenting the sixth voyage undertaken by the East India Company, in 1610-12. The ships landed in Aden before continuing to Al-Mukha (Mocha) in Yemen, where Middleton's ship ran aground and had to be refloated. "After an initially friendly reception, the local ruler changed his tune and imprisoned Middleton and his crew on the pretext of their breaking an embargo against Christian shipping. After spending three weeks as prisoners at Mocha, they were taken inland to Ta'iz and then San'a, where the Pasha explained that the arrival of English ships had been resented by the local Muslim traders. Released in February 1611, Middleton and his crew returned to Mocha and sailed on 9 Aug. 1611 for Surat in India" (Howgego). The illustrations include depictions of an English ship exploding in the harbour, as well Middleton in chains in a Mocha jail. - Published as part of Van der Aa's collection "Naaukeeurige versameling der gedenkwaardigste Zee- en Land-Reysen". Somewhat browned and brownstained throughout; folding map slightly frayed; 2 tears to first plate and 2nd plate respectively; small tear to title-page repaired with old tape. Only 3 copies traceable in auction records since 1931. Howgego I, 719; cf. also p. 320. Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum I, 95. Tiele 5. Cat. NHSM I, 107. OCLC 14998184.
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Moll, Herman.
The Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia and Africa, Divided into all its Governments, together with the Other Territories that are Tributary to it, as also the Dominions of the Emperor of Marocco. London, Herman Moll, John Bowles, Thomas Bowles & John King, ca. 1730.
Coloured. Two sheets conjoined, total 610 x 1010 mm. Restoration to binding folds and tears. Moll's large-format map of the Turkish Empire based on De l'Isle, also covering the whole of the Mediterranean, first published in 1714. The caravan route from Basra to Mecca is also given. Includes inset prospects of Constantinople, Smyrna and Jerusalem, and three views of the Holy Sepulchre. A note engraved in the area of the Arabian desert south of today's United Arab Emirates contains a pointed editorial critique of Ottoman rule in Arabia: "The Turks oppress the Arabians with Tribute, and Govern 'em with great Cruelty, which has made them several times attempt to throw off their Yoke, but in Vain: Those of Arabia Felix are kept in Awe by the Turkish Gallies on the Red Sea; and those of the other Arabia's not being able to subsist in their barren Countries have spread themselves into the mountanous parts of Syria and the Desarts of Barbary, Barca &c. where they live by Rapine in the Neighboring Countries, and plundering Travellers." - Well preserved; an excellent, appealingly coloured specimen. Tibbets 202. Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.) p. 151.
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Moritz, Bernhard.
Bilder aus Palästina, Nord-Arabien und dem Sinai. Berlin, Dietrich Riemer, 1916.
Oblong folio (405 x 310 mm). 106 plates after photographs mounted on 50 card mounts with captions, numbered 1-100 and 16a, 59b, 60a, 72a (2 photos) and 95a, one map (numbered 63a), the images of varying sizes. Includes text booklet (2 ff., 16 pp.). Loose as issued in publisher's cloth-backed decorative portfolio boards, gilt lettered "Nord-Arabien und Sinai" on upper cover. A rare photographic record of the major sites and geographic features in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Palestine. The images - taken for the most part by Moritz but some by Turkish friends in areas where he was prohibited from going - depict pilgrims on the Hajj to Mecca, Bedouins, the building of the Hejaz railway between Damascus and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Jiddah, Petra, and Mt. Sinai. Moritz (1859-1939) was an Arabist and archaeologist who from 1896 to 1911 headed the Khedival Library and Archive in Cairo. It was from there that he made numerous research trips to the Sinai and Hejaz, taking the present photographs between 1905 and 1915. - Plates and text are well preserved, with only a few occasional minor chips to the edges of the mounts. Portfolio uncommonly well preserved and only a little rubbed at the extremeties. NDB XVIII, 149. OCLC 2889101.
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[Morocco - Muley Ahmed bin Muley Bensar bin Muley Ismael Ibn Sharif, Amir al-Mu'minin].
Raccolta di attestati diversi i quali comprovano, che D. Lorenzo Bartolomeo Luigi Troiano principe di Marocco è quello stesso che venne da quei regni col nome di Muley Achmet figlio di Muley Abensar figlio di Muley Ismael Sciriffo Amir Almuminin re del Marocco & c. presentati dal medesimo a nostro signore Papa Clemente XII. Rome, Antonio de' Rossi, 1735.
4to (175 x 235 mm). (8), 38 pp., final blank leaf. Title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette. Contemporary Italian full auburn calf, spine gilt, both covers ruled and gilt with the arms of the Prince of Morocco. Marbled pastedowns. All edges gilt. Rare single edition of this compilation of documents relating to the conversion of the Muslim Prince Muley Ahmed, who took the Christian name Lorenzo Bartolomeo Luigi Troiano; printed for Pope Clement XII. Prince Muley Ahmed was a member of the Alaouite dynasty, the ruling house of Morocco - a major propaganda coup for the Christian cause at a time when Morocco variously clashed with the French, Spanish, and Venetian merchant navies. This is the Prince's personal copy, bearing on both covers the Moroccan lion's crest with a sceptre and crown. - Light brownstaining throughout. The pretty armorial binding is very slightly rubbed, but altogether attractively preserved. Extremely rare; only five copies known worldwide, all in Italy; none recorded in OCLC. ICCU UBOE\006375.
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Musil, Alois.
Arabia Petraea. Vienna, Hölder, 1907-1908.
4to. 3 in 4 vols. With 2 folding maps and one folding panorama. Numerous illustrations and plans. Original wrappers. First edition of this standard work on the region: the first scientific account of the Nabataean antiquities, including the ruins of Petra. The Bohemian scholar Alois Musil (1868-1944) was fluent in 35 Arabic dialects. In 1898 he had rediscovered the lost desert castle of Qusayr Amra (built ca. 715 A.D.) in the Jordanian desert north of Amman. During WWI he was sent to the Middle East to thwart British operations against the Ottoman Empire, thus becoming the opponent of T. E. Lawrence. In 1827 he helped establish the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Prague. - With contemp. ownership "Dr. Zweig" on wrapper covers (in Hebrew and German). Some pages uncut; professional repairs to edges. Rare with all 4 volumes; no complete copy recorded at auction during the past decades. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1667. Howgego III, M103 (p. 664). Fück 262. NYPL Arabia coll. 171. OCLC 3114451.
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Muzaffar ibn Muhammad al-Husayni / Angelus à Sancto Josepho.
Pharmacopoea persica ex idiomate persico in latinum conversa. Tafsir-i murakkabat-i qarabadin-i parsi [-i Muzaffar b. Muhammad as-Sifa`i] ba-dast-i Angelus Karmelit. Paris, Etienne Michallet, 1681.
8vo. (10), 56, (4), 370, (28) pp. Near contemporary vellum with giltstamped spine label. All edges sprinkled in red. First edition. The editor, Joseph Labrosse, "was born in Toulouse in 1636 and entered a Carmelite order, taking the name of Fr. Angelus of St Joseph. In 1662 he went to Rome and studied Arabic for two years before travelling to Isfahan to study Persian. While in Iran, he used medicine as a means of propagating Christianity and in the process read many Arabic and Persian books on medicine and 'visited the houses of the learned people of Isfahan and paid hundreds of visits to the shops of the druggists, the pharmacists, and the chemists.' After returning to France in 1678 he published his 'Pharmacopoea persica', which consisted of a Latin translation of a Persian book on compound remedies written in the previous century by Muzaffar ibn Muhammad al-Husayni (d. 1556), with additional comments by Labrosse" (in: I. Loudon [ed.], Western Medicine [1997], p. 52f.). Hyde (Biographia Britannica, cited by Langlès, Biographie universelle) asserts that the credit for this work really belongs to Père Matthieu. - Insignificant chipping to spine label. Some minor browning and brownstaining. 18th century annotations on first endpaper and engraved bookplate to pastedown. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Wilson 7. OCLC 13058281.
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Nasir al-Din Shah / Ali Naqi Hakim al-Mamalik.
Ruz-namah. [Tehran, Sayyid Agha Mir Baqir], (1869/70 CE =) 1286 H.
Large 8vo (177 x 263 mm). 3-485 pp. With 11 mostly photographic plates (2 folding, a few tinted in watercolours). Lithographed Persian throughout, text in Nasta’liq script, 14 lines to the page, written by Ali Asghar and dated 1283 H (1866 CE). Contemporary full calf binding with handwritten paper spine label in Persian. Rare travel report of the pilgrimage to the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashad (Khorasan), undertaken by Shah Nasir al-Din in 1866. Lithographed in Persian throughout. - Binding rubbed; spine reinforced at the head. Wants first leaf; some soiling and brownstaining (more pronounced near the beginning) with a few edge and corner repairs. Traces of old block-stitching. Margins show a few contemporary annotations, a few old waqf stamps and Russian blindstamps "Vysochajshe u Kompanija Uglichskoj fabriki" (ca. 1890) from the head office of the paper factory of the town of Uglich, north of Moscow.
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[Naval Chronicle].
The Naval Chronicle (for 1799-1818). London, Bunney & Gold / Joyce Gold, 1799-(1819).
Large 8vo (165 x 240 mm). 40 volumes, prettily gilt to covers and spines. With more than 400 engraved and aquatint plates, maps, charts and portraits (many by Nicholas Pocock). Marbled endpapers. The complete 40-volume run of the "Naval Chronicle", the most influential maritime publication of its time and today a key source for British maritime and military history. Founded by the Royal Navy chaplain James Stanier Clarke and the naval officer James Stanier Clarke, the monthly periodical ran for two full decades from January, 1799 to December, 1818. It contains a wealth of information about the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, including biographies, histories, anecdotes and news, essays on nautical subjects, as well as poems and ballads on a variety of related topics. - Several volumes include material on events in the Arabian Gulf and Sea, often recounting episodes of "piracy" against British vessels, such as the capture of the East India Company's ships "Shannon" and "Trimmer" on 1 Dec. 1804 (an account is found in vol. XV, pp. 24f.) or the Arab raid on the "Minerva" on 29 May 1809, during which the crew were massacred and the vessel converted into the Al-Qasimi flagship (reported in vol. XXIII, p. 281f.; vol. XXIV, p. 30f.). Such events provoked the British "Persian Gulf" campaign of 1809, in which a large British force was deployed to destroy Al-Qasimi bases and ships. The Battle of Ras al-Khaimah, fought on 11-13 Nov. 1809, is reflected in reports printed in vol. XXIV (pp. 73 and 363), and renewed interest in the region and its history, customs and religion prompted a lengthy article on "The Wahebite Arabs" (vol. XXIV, pp. 293ff.; 371ff.), or "the Wahebbi, whose name is much connected with the Iowassimi pirates". A decade later, the British Navy would return in another massive operation against Ras Al Khaimah, which would lead to the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 between the British and the Sheikhs of the coast which today comprises the United Arab Emirates. - Bindings variously rubbed and bumped, some quite severely with hinges split and extremeties chipped; some spines rebacked, some labels lost. Occasional brownstaining throughout, but largely confined to tissue guards and opposite pages. In all a worn but still appealingly bound set, often encountered in separate volumes only. Sabin 52076. ZDB-ID 1053834-3.
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[Navigation - Red Sea - Navy Pilot].
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot Comprising the Suez Canal, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the South-East Coast of Arabia from Ras Baghashwa to Ras Al Hadd, the Coast of Africa from Ras Asir to Ras Hafun, Socotra and its Adjacent Islands. London, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, 1967.
Large 8vo. 2 parts in one vol. (4), XV, (1 blank), 599, (1); (2), 60, (2 blank) pp. With 3 maps (of which 2 folding) and 82 views of coastal profiles on 52 plates. Blue cloth with title information in yellow on front cover and spine, the supplement has been separately inserted (loose at the end of the vol.). - With: [Navigation - Red Sea - Navy Pilot]. Supplement No. 7 - 1977 to Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot (11th edition, 1967) corrected to 4th March, 1977. Whenever reference is made to the pilot this supplement must be consulted. London, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, 1977. With 2 folding maps (double-sided on the same leaf) and 4 views of coastal profiles on 3 pages. Grey/blue back wrapper; the two quires, map and back wrapper are held together by two metal staples. The essential standard sailing directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, corresponding with zone NP64 on the official Admiralty charts. These nautical works - the pilots and the charts - are published by the United Kingdom's Hydrographic Office, which provides necessary hydrographic and marine geospatial data to all kinds of maritime organisations across the world. The publications are not only used by the British Royal Navy, but can also be found on board the majority of international merchant ships. The data provided in the pilots and other publications are compliant with SOLAS (the Safety of Life at Sea treaty) guidelines and are updated constantly in weekly "Notices to Mariners", and in supplements to and new editions of the pilots whenever necessary. - The present copy is the 11th edition (1967) of the pilot with sailing directions and other information on the weather, currents, radar ranges etc. relating to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including the supplement issued in 1977. It includes a foreword by the Hydrographer of the Navy, Rear-Admiral George Stephen Ritchie (1914-2012), who served most of his Naval career in the Surveying Service providing the raw data for the Hydrographic Office. The introduction clearly states that with the publication of this volume the previous edition and its supplements are cancelled, since the most up-to-date information has been compiled in the new edition and the weekly "Notices to Mariners" that appear after the publication of the 11th edition. The 11th edition of 1967 and its 1977 supplement were made redundant with the publication of the 12th edition in 1980. Each subsequent edition of the pilot supersedes the last, which have appeared infrequently depending on newly available information since the mid-19th century until the present day. - Binding slightly rubbed and faded, first two pages are printed on red/pink paper, edges of the volume are very slightly soiled. Fore-edge of the supplement is slightly frayed. Overall in good condition.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Description de l'Arabie, d'après les observations et recherches faites dans le pays même. Nouvelle édition, revue & corrigée. Paris, Brunet, 1779.
Large 4to (205 x 262 mm). 2 volumes. (6), 56, 252 pp. (4), 315, (5) pp. With 1 folding genealogical table and 25 engraved plates (many folding), including maps, plans, costumes, and views, 2 showing Arabic text with vowel points, as well as 2 engraved headpieces. Contemporary full marbled calf with giltstamped spines and red spine labels. Blue coloured endpapers. All edges red. Third French edition (first published in German in Copenhagen, 1772). "Édition revue par de Guignes" (Gay). "Niebuhr (1713-1815) participated as astronomer and naturalist to the royal Danish expedition to Arabia in 1763-1767. Together with the naturalist Forskal, the philologist Van Haven and two others, he travelled up the Nile to Suez and Mount Sinai, and from there to Jeddah and Mocha. By the end of their stay in Mocha, all the memebers of the expedition but Niebuhr had died, and Niebuhr travelled on alone to India, returning via Persia, Syria, Cyprus, and Constantinople. The only surviving member of the hazardous expedition, he returned to an indifferent reception in Copenhagen [...] Niebuhr's comprehensive description, particularly of the Yemen region, was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Noticeable worming to gutter, sometimes touching text but loss to legibility (more extensive in vol. I), much of which professionally repaired. A few handwritten pencil annotations in the margin. Bindings professionally restored. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Brunet IV, 74 (note). Cf. Atabey 873. Macro 1699. Not in Blackmer.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Description de l'Arabie, faite sur des observations propres et des avis recueillis dans les lieux mêmes. Amsterdam & Utrecht, S. J. Baalde / J. van Schoonhoven & Co., 1774.
4to. XLII, 372 pp. With engraved title (in counted prelims.), 25 engraved plates (8 folding, including large engraved map of the Yemen, in partial colour) and a folding table. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped red morocco label over marbled green boards. Marbled endpapers. Second French edition, translated from the German ("Beschreibung von Arabien") by F. L. Mourier. Includes Niebuhr's famous map of the Yemen and Arabic specimens from the Qur'an, with added hand colouring to indicate vowel sounds. "L'on voit [...] sur la IV et V planche, une feuille copiée d'un Korân, qui est écrit sur du parchemin et conservé comme un grand thresor dans la collection de livres faites par l'Académie Dsjamea el ashar à Kahira, parce qu'on croit, que le Calife Omar l'a écrit de sa propre main. Mais quand Omar ne l'auroit pas écrit, cette feuille est toujours très ancienne et par là-même remarquable" (Chauvin). - This is the famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. "Niebuhr's comprehensive description [...] was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Binding a little rubbed, spine professionally repaired. A good, wide-margined copy in a contemporary binding from the library of the French historian, archaeologist, numismatist, and orientalist Victor Langlois (1829-69) with his cancelled ownership handwritten to the flyleaf. Chauvin X, p. 57, no. 128; XII, p. 288, no. 1206. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 548. Gay 3589. Nyon 21017. Grenoble 25621. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1699. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116.
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern. Copenhagen, Nicolaus Möller, 1774-1778.
4to. 2 vols. XVI, (6), 505, (1) pp. With 72 plates and folding map. (16), 479, (1) pp. With 52 plates and maps. Contemporary vellum with title to spine. First edition. - Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - An unsophisticated, exceptionally fine copy. Macro 1700. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752).
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Niebuhr, Carsten.
Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins. Tome premier (-second). Traduit de l'Allemand. Amsterdam & Utrecht, S. J. Baalde & Barthelemy Wild, 1775-1780.
4to. 2 vols. VIII, (6), 409, (1) pp. VI, (10), 389, (1) pp. With 2 engraved titles (in counted prelims.), 124 engraved plates (many folding), and folding map of Yemen (in partial colour). Contemp. full calf with gilt cover borders and giltstamped labels in red and green to fully gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First French edition, translated from the German ("Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern", 1774) by F. L. Mourier. Title pages are dated 1776-80; colophones dated 1775-79. The famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - Old stamps erased from title pages (leaving insignificant waterstain), otherwise a perfect set in immaculate original French bindings. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 549. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 66. Gay 3589. Van Hulthem 15024. Nyon 21018. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1700. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
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Niebuhr, [Carsten] / Al-'Umari, Su'ad Hadi (transl.).
Rihla Nibuwr ila Baghdad fi al-qarn al-thamin 'ashr. [Niebuhr's Journey to Baghdad in the Eighteenth Century]. Baghdad, Dar al-Marifa Press, 1954 CE = 1374 H.
8vo. 71, (1) pp. With a map frontispiece and four black and white plates. Original printed wrappers. First edition. An Arabic translation of Carsten Niebuhr's description of Baghdad, originally published in his "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern" (Copenhagen, 1774-78), a remarkable travel account famed for its groundbreaking description of Yemen in the mid-18th century. - Niebuhr, by then the sole survivor of a party of five, visited Baghdad on his return journey to Europe after spending nearly a year in the Arabian Peninsula. He arrived back in Copenhagen in November 1767, where he presented his report and the workings of his departed co-travellers - a mass of writings, plans and sketches which proved to be of the most remarkable and lasting worth. - Two small stains to upper wrapper, edges a little worn, a few gatherings roughly opened, otherwise very good. A few pages unopened. Ink translator's presentation inscription to title-page. Extremely rare; not in OCLC.
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Niebuhr, Carsten, et al. (Johan Louis Gerlagh, compiler and draftsman).
Aanteekeningen uit de Reise naar Arabie, en andere omliggende landen, van Carsten Niebuhr, geteekent en geschreeven door Joh. Louis Gerlagh. [Hoeven (near Breda)?], 1785.
Folio (29 x 22 cm). 63, (10) ff. Manuscript in Dutch, written in ink on paper, with two loosely inserted supplements (2 bifolia), with a calligraphic title-page (in script lettering with an interior white line giving an incised effect) and 39 pages of (mostly) ink and grey ink wash drawings of inscriptions, musical instruments, buildings, etc., including 3 pages of Kufic inscriptions in black ink with vowel points in red and decorations in red, yellow and green, and a few other written inscriptions showing the styles of script, plus a small drawing of an inscription and a few written examples in the text. Contemporary half canvas, sides covered with printed pattern paper (a matrix of 4-petalled rosettes on a background of horizontal and vertical lines, and dots, in red, blue and yellow, sewn on 3 vellum tapes and tacketted to the canvas spine through a vellum liner. A Dutch illustrated manuscript devoted to the Arabian Peninsula and neighbouring regions, compiled in 1785 by (and the illustrations drawn by) Johan Louis Gerlagh (1735-98), a director of the Dutch West India Company and East India Company (WIC and VOC). He takes a special interest in the various and styles of script, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and at least six styles of Arabic script (kufic, naskh, ta'liq, thuluth, ruq'ah and maghribi), but he also discusses and illustrates bas-reliefs, buildings (including the Great Mosques at Mecca and Medina), musical instruments, footware, a scarab, etc., and provides tables of data concerning tides, compass corrections and temperatures, and accounts of the Islamic calendar, precious stones, weights and measures and coins. The title describes the manuscript as notes from Carsten Niebuhr's "Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen", a Dutch translation (Amsterdam & Utrecht 1776-78) of the German "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien" (Copenhagen 1774-78), but Gerlagh apparently treats Niebuhr's complementary "Beschryving van Arabie" (1774, first published in German in 1772) as an additional volume of the Reize. All the illustrations and most of the text are copied from these two publications. Gerlagh does make use of other sources, however, quoting from Bernhard von Breidenbach's "Peregrinatio in Terra Sanctum" (1486); Heinrich Buenting's "Itinerarium scripturae" (1581); Fredrik Hasselquist's "Travels in the Levant" (1766); J. F. Martinet's "Historie der waereld" (1780-87), and Joseph de la Porte's "Nieuwe reisiger, beschryving van de oude en nieuwe weereldt" (1766-91). - Gerlagh came from a patrician family that had ties with the WIC by at least 1720 (including a director by 1730) and the VOC by at least 1735. He himself was a director of both by 1764. Although he is recorded moving from Tholen to Oosterhout (northeast of Breda) in 1779, this may have been a second residence, for he had already set up in Hoeven (west of Breda) where he served as "schout" (head of the municipality) from 1771 to 1794, his wife died there in 1786 and he died there in 1798, so he probably produced the present manuscript there. His amateur drawings and sketchbooks, most of them in Museum Gouda, have been exhibited. - The manuscript collates: [A]14 (- A9) [B]10 (B1 + [chi]2; - B7, 9, 10) [C]2 [D]4 [E]2 [F]4 [G]6 (± G1, 2, 3, 6) [H]4 [I]2 [K]-[N]4 2[chi]1 [O]-[P]4 [Q]2 = 73 ff., with E2 and H4 blank except for the leaf numbers (ff. 30 & 34). The main paper stock (including the endpapers at the front and probably also at the back) is watermarked: crowned GR in laurel branches, in a circle = Dutch garden (with "Pro Patria" above toward the centre of the sheet) above "H K P" (the main mark can appear in the left or right half sheet). We have not found or identified the initials HKP. After the last numbered leaf (2[chi]) a new part of the text begins with a different paper stock to the end of the manuscript (quires O-Q), similar but with no initials below the Dutch garden, in the general style of Heawood 3700 (1747) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 140 (1790). The cancel leaf G6± may come from the same stock, while the cancel leaves G1±, G2± and G3± show a different stock or stocks: G3± with a lion with 7 arrows, lance and freedom hat (pedestal with "VRYHEYT") in a crowned ring (double lines inside and out) containing (in mirror image) "Pro patria eiusque libertate"), in the general style of Heawood 3148 (1745) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 104-111 (1713-49); and G1± and G2± with the countermark "J[an] H[onig] & zoon", that form shown with a different main mark in Voorn, Noord-Holland 133 (1741). The firm name in the present form, with the present "zoon" (son), is recorded from 1735 to at least 1764 (probably at least 1768), changing to "zonen" (sons) probably by 1774 and certainly by 1793. So the paper used for these three cancel leaves may be several years older than the manuscript itself. - The manuscript is internally in good condition, with most deckles preserved. Binding worn but professionally restored. A good example of the fascination of leading figures in the VOC and WIC with the Arabian Peninsula and vicinity and with Islamic culture. For Niebuhr and his accounts of Arabia: Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world 48; Howgego, to 1800, N24; for Gerlagh: Katalogus ... tekenwerk-schilderwerk van Johann Louis Gerlagh (1987); A. Romeijn, De stadsregering van Tholen (1577-1795) (2001), pp. 229f.
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Norden, Frederik Ludvig.
Travels in Egypt and Nubia. London, Davis, 1757.
Large folio (295 x 479 mm). 2 vols. (12), XXXIV, 124 pp. (4), VIII, 155, (1) pp. With engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait, 19 engraved vignettes, 10 engraved initials, and 162 engravings on 161 plates. Modern half cloth. First English edition of one "of the earliest modern studies of Egypt" (Howgego). - "The first map of the Nile between Cairo and Derr based on autopsy, indicating all locales on the river banks" (cf. Henze). The engravings show views, landscapes, ruins, antiquities, plans, and maps. Plates numbered I through CLIX; plates XVI, XXII and XVII are followed by an unnumbered plate; illustrations CXL/CXLI and CXLII/CXLIII are printed from a single plate; no. CVIII is printed from two separate plates and is not joined to form a single illustration (thus counted as two plates). - Some edge repairs near beginning and end; several plates trimmed closely. All plates stamped "Birmingham Library". Endpapers show traces of a removed bookplate, as well as a later bookplate (apparently "Fritz Machac") in hieroglyphs. Howgego I, N38. Weber II, 520. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 74. Cox I, 382. Brunet IV, 101. Graesse IV, 687. OCLC 5716565. Cf. Gay 2169. Henze III, 622. Paulitschke 746. Blackmer 1212 (2 volumes in one).
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Nunes, Pedro.
Salacie[n]sis, de crepusculis liber unus, nu[n]c rece[n]s & natus et editus. [Including:] Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Mu'Adh [title-page: Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham)]. De causis crepusculorum liber unus, à Gerardo Cremonensi iam olim Latinita te donatus, nunc vero omniu[m] primum in lucem editus. Lisbon, Ludovicus Rodericus, (January 1542).
4to. (73), (1 blank) ff. With woodcut allegorical and architectural title-page with putti and mythological women holding drapes hanging from an arch and the Royal Portuguese coat of arms at the foot, 40 woodcut (geometrical and optical) figures in text, Rodericus's large full-page emblematic woodcut printer's device (a dragon with the motto "Salus vitae" on a banderole) and many woodcut initials. Bound in a period-style Italian calf binding, gold-tooled spine, blind-tooled frames on front and back boards and gold-tooled centerpieces on the front and back board with "Petri Nonii" on the front board and "MDXLII" on the back board. First edition of two of the most important and rarest scientific works on twilight and optics. The first is written by the greatest Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunez (1492-1577), who served as cosmographer royal to the court of João III. His "De crepusculis" discusses new solutions for problems concerning twilight (such as the shortest twilight period) and the refraction of light, and announces his new instrument for measuring exceedingly small angles, now called a “nonius”. - The second work, also entitled "De crepusculis", was written (according to the title-page) by the greatest Islamic physicist Ibn Al-Haytham (965-1039), from living in the Arabian Peninsula, whose seminal work on optics broke with ancient Greek theories. In fact, the work is now attributed to the great Andalusian father of spherical trigonometry, the 11th-century mathematician and astronomer Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Mu’adh, who was described by Averroës as "advanced and high-ranking" (Sabra, p. 85), but about whom very little is known. His work discusses the density of the atmosphere and establishes a relationship between atmospheric pressure and altitude. It also notes that twilight only ceases or begins when the sun reaches 19 degrees below the horizon. It was translated from Arabic into Latin by Gerard de Cremona (1114-87), who brought Arabic science to the West. This work is one of the artifacts through which Islamic civilisation made significant and crucial contributions to scientific knowledge in the pre-modern age during their golden age of Arabic science, although the Latin translations in this field only provide "a dim reflection of the true splendour of achievements" (Gerli, p. 804). - With an owner's inscription at the head of the title-page and a handwritten impressum on the title-page in the same hand, three faint library stamps (two of a library in Douai) and with marks of an erased bookplate on the front pastedown. Binding very slightly worn around the spine, some small stains on the endpapers, but otherwise a beautiful copy in very good condition. Adams N 375. DSB X, 160f. Honeyman 2353. Houzeau/Lancaster 1188 & 2473. King Manuel 48. Palau 196.748. Poggendorff II, 305. Sabra, "The authorship of the Liber de crepusculis", in: Isis 58.1 (1967), pp. 77-85. Stilwell 781 & 863. Cf. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation; Gerli, Medieval Iberia (2003), p. 804. Not in Vagnetti.
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[Oil Industry in the Middle East].
Mapah ha-neft ba-mizrah ha-tikhon (Map of the Oil Industry in the Middle East). Jerusalem, Yediot Achronot, 1963.
494 x 324 mm. Chromolithographic map. Scale 1:5,900,000. A medium-sized wall map showing the Middle East between the Suez Crisis and the Six-Day War, covering the area from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran including most of Turkey as well as Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Northern Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as far south as Qatar. Oil production capacities are shown in barrels, with oilfields, refineries, pipelines, and associated infrastructure indicated on the map. The massive 'tapline' is seen crossing the northern Saudi desert from the Gulf coast to Sidon, while double pipelines run from Kirkuk to Tripoli and to Haifa. From the atlas of Yediot Achronot. - After the Suez Crisis and its associated geopolitical shifts, Britain and France were forced by the USA to abandon their post-imperial plans, and Israel now counted in both U.S. and Soviet plans for their control of Middle Eastern politics. Britain was forced to anchor its Middle Eastern influence in Cyprus, Aden and Iraq, while the increased American influence is evident in the vast Aramco oilfields at Ras Tanura. - Well preserved.
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[Oman - Hunter, Frederick Fraser].
Arabia and the Persian Gulf. S.E. Section. [Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf with additions and corrections to 1916]. Dehra Dun, Survey of India Offices, published under the direction of Colonel Sir S. G. Burrard, Surveyor General of India, 1916.
Large folding heliozincographed colour map, 1 sheet (of 4), measuring 940 x 700 mm. Original printed covers. Separate section of Hunter's large and extremely detailed map of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf, showing southern Oman with the eastern tip of Yemen. - The Canadian-born Hunter later became a major figure in British India's Intelligence Service. He initially compiled the map between 1905 and 1908, to accompany J. G. Lorimer's "Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf". As the author recalls in his 1919 "Reminiscences", "a great deal of the information on the map was from sources considered secret at the time" (p. 357). Special surveys of the country's interior areas were carried out to achieve a hitherto unprecedented degree of accuracy: "The map was a distinct advance on anything which existed, as in 1908 no general map of Arabia on such a large scale existed" (p. 360). The "Hunter" map was used (and praised) by St John Philby during his journey across Arabia. - Such was the detail of Hunter's map that the Survey of India reissued it, with corrections, several times during the First World War and interwar period. As the maps were issued in parts and used on active service it is not unusual for sections to be missing. Many of the surviving copies show signs of official use; this issue bears a flight route, sketched out in red ink, from Ghaidhah (Al Ghaydah) in southeast Yemen toward Muscat. - Some light browning, several small tears to folds, otherwise very good. Ownership inscription in red ink to cover, "H. R. Tidd. F/O", by Flight Officer Herbert Richard Tidd (1912-42), proving that the maps were still issued to RAF personnel in the early 1930s. - Scarce. OCLC locates complete copies at the Library of Congress, University of Wisconsin, National Library of Israel and the BNF. Cf. Macro 1228.
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Oppenheim, Max von.
Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Hauran, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien. Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1899-1900.
Large 8vo. 2 vols. XV, (1), 334 pp. XIII, (3), 434 pp. With 2 (instead of 3) folding maps in rear-cover pockets and numerous illustrations in the text and on photo plates. Original illustrated green cloth. First edition of this rare travel account by the diplomat, archaeologist and orientalist Max Oppenheim (1860-1946), a work that made his name as an expert on the orient. With numerous, mainly photographic illustrations. - Bindings professionally restored; wants the large general map. Some slight browning; one map in vol. 2 loose with frayed edges. Henze III, 650ff. OCLC 13166400.
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[Oriental album - Bahrein, Oman, Basra and other places].
A collection of 847 original photographs documenting a British gentleman's oriental tour, assembled chronologically in five massive albums and captioned by hand throughout. Various places, 1900-1901.
Five oblong albums (445 x 315 mm), consecutively numbered with 847 vintage albumen prints (various formats, 115 x 85 to 280 x 205 mm) laid down and captioned on thick cream card. Contemporary red half sheepskin, title and year stamped in gilt lettering to front covers of each volume. Spine and edges ruled in gilt, silk-watered endpapers, album sheets edged in gilt. An exceptional trove of early exploration and travel photographs, documenting a two-year tour around the coast of Africa and Yemen, through the Gulf from Muscat to Bahrein, then on by the Arabian Sea to Karachi and finally back to Syria and Jerusalem. The collection is preserved in its original massive oblong albums with each of the partly large-format photographs meticulously captioned in the traveller's own hand. Numerous photographs of himself are included within the albums and witness the transformation of a well-groomed English gentleman at the beginning of the tour in East Africa, in early 1900 ("being carried to small boat at Majunga"), into a bearded explorer camping with the Bedouins in 1901(showing him in front of "My camp at El Bagdadi on the Euphrates"). - The unidentified traveller was hosted by local dignitaries and had an obvious special interest in architecture and archeological excavations. His photographs provide extraordinary insights into the social and cultural life of the British protectorates he visited. Indeed, his journey to the Gulf, documented here, pre-dates Hermann Burchardt's 1903/04 expedition, famed for providing the first visual records of many places in the region, and the numerous previously unrecorded photographs of Muscat, Bahrein and other places in the Gulf contained in the present albums are therefore a particularly important find. - Apart from the views of Muscat castle and port there are highly unusual snapshots of street life both outside and within Muscat's city walls, a stunning double portrait of "Men with Hawks belonging to the son of the Sheikh of Bahrein", a view of Bahrein harbour, captioned the "Head Quarters of Pearl Fishing", the Bahrein Post Office, the market in Bandar Abbas, the Quarantine Station at Basra, as well as photos of horse dealers, women selling salt or just date palms. The 1901 photograph of the Arch of Ctesiphon is captioned "Left wing fell in April 1887 the rest will probably soon follow", also recording height and length of the remaining structure, as well as the width of the entrance. A photo of the "British Residents Wife's Bay Arabian" documents the rare occasion of a "Ladies' nomination Race", also recording the names of the winners of this race held in Bagdad. "Dr. Robert Koldewey from the German expedition" is met and photographed in Babylon at the Temple of the Venus. Visits to several ships at sea are documented in photos of the vessels themselves, as well as by group portraits of their captains and crews on board. A remarkable photograph shows the warship Persepolis returning from its campaign under Daria Begi against the shores of the Trucial States. - Bindings a little rubbed, boards partly stained, some of the album leaves affected by minor waterstaining and some foxing. Photographs mostly unfaded with good, strong contrast and in excellent condition throughout. An extraordinary record and a unique collection.
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[Ottoman cartography].
Map of the Ottoman Boundaries. Paris/Istanbul, ca. 1770.
Engraved map with original outline colour and manuscript calligraphy in red ink. With a fine inset plan of the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi in the upper right corner, as well as an ovoid title cartouche, both bordered by Neo-Classical Ottoman-inspired designs. On thick laid, watermarked paper. 60 x 140 cm. Exceedingly rare engraved wall map comissioned by the Sublime Porte, brilliantly labelled and hand-coloured in Istanbul by court calligraphers. A masterpiece of cartography and Islamic calligraphy, the map presents the theatre of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 in its earliest stages. Focussed on the southern Ukraine, it extends from the Mouths of the Danube, in the west, to the Caspian Sea, in the east, rendering the region as it was common before the Russian surveys of the 1770s. The Russo-Ottoman boundary, as it existed between 1739 and 1774, is clearly delineated, with the Ottoman lands outlined in green and Russian territories in yellow, whilst the Polish territories, in the northwest, are outlined in pink. Until the war, the Ottomans controlled Crimea and the southern Ukraine in their entirety, along with most of the Caucasus. - As the Ottoman Empire lacked publishing capabilities, the Porte often relied upon their ancient ally, France, to supply them with custom-printed material, conveyed to the Topkapi Palace via the French Embassy in Istanbul's Pera neighbourhood. The skeleton of the map, engraved in Paris, depicts topographic features and the locations of key cities and fortifications, but omits all text: all names of regions and major settlements were added in Turkey in luxurious red ink. The masterly penmanship would have been executed by a specialized imperial calligrapher: the rich, expensive red ink was reserved for sacred and high-level legal documents under the Sultan's patronage and was only very seldom applied to cartography, indicating that the present map would have been held in particular esteem by the Imperial Court. - A single other example of the map with the Topkapi calligrapher's manuscript work, executed in a similar fashion, survives in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (MR/42/415), very likely once a high-level diplomatic gift to Madrid from Sultan Mustafa III, anxious to improve his diplomatic and trading links with the Bourbons. In addition, a single blank example of the engraved map template is held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (CPL GE DD-2987, 3089 B), formerly in the collection of the famous cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, who is known to have had privileged access to maps created for the French diplomatic corps. - Resplendent original calligraphy, several old tears professionally repaired without loss. An extremely rare survival in fine condition. Biblioteca Nacional de España, MR/42/415. Elena Santiago Páez, La Historia en los mapas manuscritos de la Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional, 1984), no. 336 (p. 266). Not in Özdemir, Ottoman Cartography (2008).
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Ottoman manuscript.
[Book on Astronomy and Signs]. No place, probably later 19th century.
8vo (120 x 170 mm). (52) pp., 2 blank ff., (5), 48, (2), (2 blank), (80) pp. Black and red ink on polished paper. With numerous full-page colour diagrams (both in coloured ink and coloured pencil), one including a sketch of the Kaaba in Mekkah, and an inserted volvelle on cardboard. Bound in boards (ca. 1900) covered with waste paper printed in Arabic and Armenian. A manuscript on astronomy and its symbolism in Ottoman Turkish. - Various signs of damp- and waterstaining; a few leaves stuck together, damaged or illegible. Binding noticeably stained; spine chipped and frayed.
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Oxenstierna, Bengt / Laurelius, Olof.
Lijkpredican, öfwer then ädle och högwälborne herre, Herr Bengt Oxenstierna, frijherre til Ekebyholm och Söderboo, Sweriges rijkes råd, rijksstalmästare, och general gubernator öfwer Lifland. Hwars saliga lekamen, medh tilbörlig ähreproces och christeliga ceremonier, bleff ledsagat til sin hwijlocammar, vthi Riddarholms Kyrckian, den 6. augusti åår 1643. Så och en kort relation, om then salige herrens stora förfarenheet, och widt kring om werlden giorda reesor. Stockholm, Henrich Keyser, 1644.
4to. (56) pp, retaining blank leaf D4. With woodcut coat-of-arms on leaf E1 verso. Modern marbled boards. First edition; the first travelogue printed in Swedish. The report of the travels of the Swedish diplomat Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna (1591-1643) is couched as his funeral sermon (by the Stockholm theologian Olof Laurelius), followed by a detailed biographical account with separate title-page (pp. 33-55). Since many of Oxenstierna's manuscripts are lost, this rare imprint is the only source for some of his journeys. Oxenstierna visited the Levant twice, first in 1613 and most importantly in 1616-20. After being employed in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the war against the Barbary corsairs, with ports of call on the Mediterranean islands and in North Africa, he travelled to Constantinople, where he resided during the winter of 1616/17. From Constantinople he continued to Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, restlessly travelling back and forth throughout the following years. His returning journey to Europe took him on foot through Arabia to Egypt and Cairo. Oxenstierna so strongly inspired the explorer Sven Hedin that he wrote a biography of him (Resare-Bengt, 1921). - Some browning and dampstaining, with a small repaired hole to title-page. Extremely rare: not in the usual bibliographies of travel; OCLC records a single copy in library catalogues (Swedish Royal Library), to which KVK adds copies in Lund, Norrköping, Örebro, and Skokloster Castle. Hacklin, Olavus Laurelius (1896), p. 161f., no. 6. OCLC 937092162. Not in Weber, Henze, or Howgego.
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Paget, William Henry / Mason, A. H. / et al. (eds.).
Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. Compiled in the Intelligence Branch of the Divisions of the Chief of the Staff Army Head Quarters India. In six volumes. For official use only. Simla, Government Monotype Press, 1907-1911.
8vo. 8 vols. (6 volumes & 2 supplements): v. 1. Tribes north of the Kabul River. 1907. (4), IV, XIX, (1), 591, (1) pp. With 8 plans and 2 separate maps in both cover pockets. - v. 1, suppl. A. Operations against the Mohmands (including operations in the Khaiber, 1st-7th May) 1908. 1910. (4), II, (2), 60, LVIII pp. With 2 maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 2. North-west frontier tribes between the Kabul and Gumal Rivers. 1908. (4), III, (1), 461, (1) pp. With 6 folding plans and 1 separate map in lower cover pocket. - v. 2, suppl. A. Operations against the Zakka Khel Afridis 1908. 1908. (8), 49, (1) pp. With 3 maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 3. Baluchistan and the First Afghan War. (6), VII, (3), 466 pp. With 2 folding tables, 2 plans (1 folding), and 4 separate folding maps in lower cover pocket. - v. 4. North and north-eastern frontier tribes. 1907. (4), IV, 249, (1) pp. With 7 maps and plans and 1 separate folding map in lower cover pocket. - v. 5. Burma. 1907. X, (6), 468 pp. With a folding map in lower cover pocket. - v. 6. Expeditions overseas. 1911. (4), X, (2), 515, (1) pp. With 14 maps (many folding) and 5 separate folding maps in lower cover pocket. Uniformly bound in contemporary quarter calf over green cloth covers with giltstamped spine labels. An excessively rare counterpart to Lorimer's simultaneously published Gazetteer of the Gulf: like it, classified at the time of its issuing as a confidential British government document and still well-nigh unobtainable in the original printing, this third and last issue of Paget's and Mason's "Frontier and Overseas Expeditions" remains the most important single source on Raj-based military frontier operations carried out up to the First World War. The work was first compiled in 1873 by Colonel W. H. Paget as "A Record of Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes", with the intention of providing a "valuable guide" to such British commanders and policymakers as "might have future dealings with these turbulent neighbours". It was revised in 1884 by A. H. Mason of the Royal Engineers. Three decades later, the frontiers of British influence had vastly expanded: they now reached to the borders of Afghanistan and Persia, and a newly compiled record of expeditions was urgently required. Under the editorship of Lieutenant C. F. Aspinall and Major R. G. Burton, the work known as "Paget & Mason" was thoroughly overhauled and expanded to six volumes, replete with maps and each dealing with a distinct geographical division, with two supplements. Only a few hundred copies would have been printed for circulation to British government departments, regimental libraries, and agencies. The present set, issued to the 7th Division Military Society in 1908 (later the Bareilly Brigade Military Library), bears the giltstamped copy numbers 217, 220, 221, 222, 258, 262, and 1134 (supplement). - The sixth volume deals in depth with "The Arabian Peninsula and the Islands of Perim and Socotra". It includes a sketch of the geographical situation before discussing in more detail the First Expedition to Ras-al-Khaimah in 1809 ("political causes - composition of the force - arrival at Masqat - arrival at Ras-al-Khaimah - description of Ras-al-Khaimah - landing of main body - capture of Ras-al-Khaimah - bravery of enemy - burning of pirate vessels - losses - Lingeh - repulse of the troops - re-embarkation - daring action by Lt. Hall, IN - attack on Shanas - desperate resistance"). It is noteworthy that the British officers here felt compelled to record the military gallantry of the al-Qasimi in their resistance to the British forces. Similarly, the Second Expedition to Ras-al-Khaimah in 1819 is treated, as is the Bani-Bu-Ali Expedition of 1810 (mentioning the results of "bad diplomacy" and "bad tactics", and citing the bravery of an Imam who displayed "great personal courage" while endeavouring to save an artilleryman). Further sections are given over to the islands of Perim (occupied in 1799 and again in 1856) and Sokotra, of which British infantry took possession in 1834 after "the Sultan would not come to terms". Additional chapters treat the Persian side of the Gulf and military expeditions to the same. - Corners somewhat bumped, but altogether a tightly bound, handsome and well-preserved set. 1910 and 1911 stamps of the Bareilly Brigade Military Library to most volumes (but stamp of W. B. Salmon to the supplement to vol. 2). Warning "For Official Use Only" stamped in gilt to spine labels throughout, with most title-pages being correspondingly imprinted (in red ink up to vol. 2). As the publisher's original inserted slip advises, the General Map of Afghanistan called for in the list of maps to volume 3 was not, in fact, completed and therefore was never issued with the set. Of the utmost rarity: not reproduced within the Cambridge Archive Editions series, although incomplete reprints appeared in Quetta in 1979 and in Delhi in 1983. - Provenance: 1) 7th Division Military Society, 1908; 2) Bareilly Brigade Military Library, 1910/11; 3) U.S. private collection. OCLC 821799.
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[Palestine - Mandate Reports to the League of Nations].
Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom [...] on the Administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan. London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921-1939.
Large 8vo (245 x 178 mm). 29 volumes bound in 5. Includes 33 folding maps and 5 folding diagrams, a number of which colour-printed. Modern half calf with marbled boards and giltstamped titles to spines. A near-complete run of mandate reports on Palestine and Trans-Jordan from 1921 onwards, mostly published under Britain's mandate from the League of Nations, comprising both the relevant Colonial series and the Command Papers series as presented to parliament. - As early as 1920, when the joint British, French and Arab military administration over the formerly Ottoman Levantine provinces was transformed into a civil authority, Britain's High Commissioner of Palestine was required to file regular reports to the Colonial Office on the operations of this new administration. From 1922 onwards, when Britain was granted the Mandate for Palestine and Trans-Jordan, these reports were adapted for the Council of the League of Nations. They cover the finances and taxation, customs and trade, law and legislation, education, public health, public transport and immigration in Mandatory Palestine, also detailing the various security problems and sectarian strife in the territory and covering the establishment of the Palestine Gendarmerie, its transformation into the Palestine Police Force, the introduction of military units and sources and causes of violence. The reports were discontinued with the advent of the Second World War. - The present set includes: An interim report on the civil administration of Palestine during the period 1st July 1920 - 30th June 1921 [Cmd. 1499]. Palestine. Disturbances in May, 1921. Reports of the Commission of Inquiry ... [Cmd. 1540]. Miscellaneuous No. 4 (1922) [Cmd. 1708]. Correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organisation [Cmd. 1700]. Mandate for Palestine ... [Cmd. 1785]. Papers relating to the elections [Cmd. 1889]. Proposed formation of an Arab Agency [Cmd. 1989]. Appendices to the Report ... for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 17]. Report ... on the Administration Under Mandate of Palestine and Transjordan for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 12]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1925 [Colonial No. 20]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1926 [Colonial No. 26]. 1927 [Colonial No. 31]. 1928 [Colonial No. 40]. 1929 [Colonial No. 47]. 1930 [Colonial No. 59]. Palestine. Statement of Policy by his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom [Cmd. 3692]. Palestine. Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development [Cmd. 3687]. 1931 [Colonial No. 75]. 1932 [Colonial No. 82]. 1933 [Colonial No. 94]. 1934 [Colonial No. 104]. 1935 [Colonial No. 112]. 1936 [Colonial No. 129]. Statistical Abstract of Palestine 1936, Palestine Royal Commission 1937 [Cmd. 5479]. 1937 [Colonial No. 146]. Palestine Partition Commission Report 1938 [Cmd. 5854]. 1938 [Colonial No. 166]. Miscellaneous No. 3 (1939). Correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon […] and the Sherif Hussein of Mecca July 1915-March 1916. [Cmd. 5957]. Palestine Statement of Policy [Cmd. 6019]. - Extensive sets as ours are extremely rare in the trade; the last set sold at auction did not contain a single volume of the Command Papers series (Christie's 2016, sale 12051, lot 366), as present here. Cf. Khalidi/Khadduri, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. An annotated bibliography, nos. 1569, 1633, 1641-3 & 1647.
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Peake, F[rederick] G[erard].
A History of Trans-Jordan and its Tribes. By El Fariq F. G. Peake Pasha. Amman, no publisher, June 1934.
Folio (ca. 210 x 330 mm). (8), 245 ff. (1), 246-481 ff. With numerous genealogical plates printed in red and green (of which 2 folding) in the 2nd volume. Original printed flexible boards with cloth-reinforced spine (vol. 2); vol. 1 bound in modern half calf with cloth covers, preserving original printed upper wrapper within. Rare history of the Emirate of Transjordan (today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), then a British protectorate. Presentation copy from the author to Ahmed Salem el Sakrun of the Arab Legion and inscribed by him to "my friend Ahmed Effendi Hsein El Amawi as a remembrance, Amman 23.12.35" on inside of upper wrapper. - The second volume contains not only the first volume's index, but also an annotated directory of the tribes of the various districts of Transjordan, comprising extensive tables, genealogies, and introductory essays on each tribe. With a separate index to the tribes and a bibliography at the end of the volume. Major-General F. G. Peake (1886-1970), known to the Jordanians as "Peake Pasha", served under Lawrence of Arabia and formed the "Arab Legion", the territory's regular army, in the early 1920s. He was later appointed Major-General in the army of the Emirate of Transjordan. Upon his retirement in 1939 he was succeeded in his command by John Bagot Glubb. - Title of vol. 1 trimmed and mounted on blank leaf; some light spotting or soiling; final leaf a little stained, slight fraying to edges at beginning and end, original printed upper wrapper rubbed and stained, lacking lower outer corner. Spine of vol. 2 a little chipped, else fine. - Mimeographed typescript, printed on one side throughout. No copy in British Library. OCLC 29109691.
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Pelly, (Lewis).
A Visit to the Wahabee Capital, Central Arabia. In: The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 35. London, Royal Geographical Society, 1865.
8vo. pp. 169-191 with a folding colour map (entire volume: CLXXXVII, [1], 319, [1] pp. with 10 other folding colour maps and a photographic plate). General title mounted on stub. Modern red cloth with giltstamped black spine label. Only edition of Pelly's account of his visit to Riyadh and the interior of the Nejd. Pelly's journey took him from Kuwait to Sadus, and from there to Al Uyaynah, the birthplace of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, onward through Wadi Hanifa to Ad Diriyah ("picturesquely situated in a depression of the plateau leading down into the Wadi", with a discussion of the location's history as well as geography) and ultimately to Riyadh, where he met the ruler of the Nejd, Imam Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud (1785-1865). Pelly would return via El Hofuf, Bahrein and Bushire. His report is full of topographical detail on the interior of the Nejd, but also discusses subjects so diverse as the Bedouin traditions of breeding Arabian horses, the genealogy of the House of Sa'ud, and the local use of coffee (consumed in immoderate quantities) and tobacco (considered a mortal offence for a Wahhabi). - The remainder of the volume includes Sir Richard Francis Burton's article "On Lake Tanganyika" as well as features on Chinese Tartary, Cambodia, Kurdistan, Greenland, the North Pole, and north-west Australia. Very well preserved in a modern library binding. Rare. Macro 1754.
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[Persia].
Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. (Philips' Authentic Imperial Maps for Tourists & Travellers). Liverpool, George Philip & Son, Ltd., [1920s].
Ca. 66 x 54 cms. Printed outline colour. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:4,200,000 (1 inch = 66 miles). Folded and bound in original yellow cloth boards. 8vo. Includes Afghanistan and the Balochistan province of Pakistan, as well as the Arabian Gulf with the coastline of the Gulf Emirates to Oman. - Ownership stamps of the German botanist Prof. Dr. Arnold Scheibe (1901-89; cf. NDB XXII, 619f.). OCLC 37732501.
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[Persia and Iraq Force - Paiforce].
Baghdad to Beirut 1944. [Possibly Baghdad], Printing and Stationery Services, Paiforce, [1944].
8vo. (2), 17 pp., final blank page. With 2 half-tone photographs in the text and a folding map of the area between Baghdad and Beirut. Staple-bound. In original printed wrappers. Exceedingly rare pocket-booklet of leave instructions issued to members of the Persia and Iraq Force during the Second World War, "in the hope that it will help [them] to understand the type of country and the places [they] will see on [their] journey" (first page). Subdivided into three sections, the first part of the booklet describes the route taken by the leave convoy from Baghdad via Fallujah, Habbaniyah, Ar-Rutba, Mafraq and Damascus to Beirut, deeming the last portion from Damascus "by far the most picturesque part of the route" (p. 4), and finishing off with a photograph of people relaxing on the beach. The second section comprises a history of Damascus and the Syrian desert by Seton Lloyd (1902-96), who had been appointed archaeology adviser to the Directorate of Antiquities, Baghdad, in 1939, and during the war "was able to conduct some notable research, principally the excavation of the painted temple at Uqair and later of Tell Hassuna, where he identified a new culture - and the earliest known - in Iraq" (obituary, Independent, 13 Jan. 1996). The third and last section discusses the construction of the Baghdad to Haifa road by the British between 1938 and 1943. - General Edward Quinan's Iraq Command (originally Iraq Force) was renamed Persia and Iraq Force (Paiforce) shortly after the successful Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia in August 1941. The main responsibilities of Paiforce were to protect the Iraqi and South Persian oil fields and to maintain the lines of communication from British-controlled ports on the Persian Gulf to the Soviet ports on the Caspian. A dedicated Persia and Iraq Command was established under Sir Maitland Wilson in August 1942, though victory in the Western Desert Campaign combined with series of Soviet victories in southern Russia meant that Paiforce activities began to be wound down from mid-1943. The folding map to the rear of this booklet provides a detailed overview of the vital infrastructure roads and oil pipelines which they were tasked with defending. - Mended tear to upper cover; traces of folds and a little soiled. Handwritten numbers in orange crayon to lower cover. The interior with traces of a vertical fold throughout, resulting from the pages resting on the rim of the folding map; margins slightly creased. Map somewhat foxed. An uncommon survival, with only the Imperial War Museum copy traceable in institutions. Not in OCLC.
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[Persia and Iraq Force - Paiforce].
Services Guide to Iraq. No place or date [but Iraq, likely Baghdad , Paiforce G.H.Q. Welfare Committee, ca. 1942].
12mo. 46, (2) pp. (ads). With full-page maps of Iraq and Baghdad and map of Baghdad amenities area on back cover. Original illustrated wrappers, stapled. First edition. An extremely rare guide to Iraq, produced for members of Paiforce (Persia and Iraq Force). It covers the expected subjects of health, hostels, clubs, sports and tours but also aims to instill a degree of cultural and historical awareness, principally with Seton Lloyd's short history of the country. Lloyd was the curator of the Baghdad Museum at the time, an institution mentioned in the guide as home to "astonishingly beautiful specimens of early Sumerian art, and the whole of Iraq's history ... within well laid out rooms" (p. 23). - Less routine sections highlight Trunk Call (the Paiforce paper) and list Christian churches in Iraq and Bahrain. The advertisements, acting as front and rear endpapers, give a sense of the establishments catering to the troops, including an advert for a shopping centre belonging to the Hasso Brothers, who issued many fascinating photographic postcards of Iraq. - A few small stains to wrappers, a little dusty, otherwise very good. Rare, with no copies in Copac/Jisc or OCLC. We have only been able to trace one example, located at the Imperial War Museum.
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[Persian miniatures].
A series of miniatures showing Persian scribes. Persia, mid-Qajar period (1850s).
Folio (322 x 212 mm). 50 watercolour miniatures on paper, ca. 9 x 14 cm, pasted on coloured cardboard within multiple gilt and pen-ruled frames, bound as a fan-fold book with cloth hinges. Near-contemporary black leather covers, stored in blind-stamped black slipcase with top flap. An exceptional series of 50 meticulously executed miniatures, compiled and painted by an anonymous artist. 41 of the delicate watercolours represent famous calligraphers, 5 (1 in grisaille) presumably represent sufis, and one more (not coloured) shows a seated prince, while 3 miniatures (2 in grisaille) depict flowers. - The main series of calligraphers begins with Yaqut al-Musta'simi, who lived in Baghdad under the Abbasid dynasty in the 13th century, and reaches so far as to include artists from the first half of the 19th century (the most recent date of death being that of Aqa Fath-'Ali Sirazi, 1852/53). Their names are captioned under the image, all in the same hand in nasta'liq script (with a single exception in sikasta). Most calligraphers are shown kneeling, with one knee raised on which they rest their paper - the typical posture of a scribe. One is shown writing at a desk, another seated on a low stool; yet another is busy sharpening his pen. The poet Wisal Sirazi is seen writing on his knee, but has a small table with an inkwell and paper in front of him. Nearly all are depicted holding their reed pen in hand, with various writing implements next to or in front of them, such as inkwells, pen cases, extra pens and paper, pen-knife, and sometimes a hookah (indeed, two scribes are shown smoking). Others have in front of them a candle and teapot, flowers or a bowl of fruit. They are shown wearing different kinds of turbans or a black astrakhan "kulah", the Qajar headdress. All the miniatures bear numbers between 1 and 50 on the reverse of the mounting boards, though they are not bound in order. - Provenance: apparently from the collection of Paul Manteau, a French (or Belgian?) official in Iran, with a press-copied salary receipt loosely inserted: "Je reconnais avoir reçu de Son Altesse Impériale Djellal-e-Daulet la somme de Soixante Tomans représentant le montant de mes appointements du mois de Châval année 1310. Téhéran le 11 avril 1893. Paul Manteau". As Shawwal 1310 began on 18 April 1893 AD, Manteau would have received his salary in advance, proving that the capacity in which he served could not have been altogether minor. Sultan Husayn Mirza Jalal al-Dawlih (b. 1868/69), his employer, was the eldest son of prince Mas'ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (1850-1918) and grandson of the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-96). In the later 19th century, numerous French and particularly Belgian officials worked in Iran: especially from 1898 onwards, Belgium posted to Persia a large number of officials whose task was to organize or reorganize various administrative departments. However, Manteau does not appear in Annette Destrée's standard account of "Les fonctionnaires belges au service de la Perse, 1898-1915" (Téhéran/Liège 1976): he clearly arrived before the great Belgian influx and may have left the country before 1898. - Some of the cloth concertina hinges professionally repaired, but finely preserved altogether.
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[Philby, Harry St John Bridger].
Iraq in War Time. Al-Iraq fi zaman al-harb. Basrah, Government Press, [1918].
Folio (257 x 344 mm). (104) pp. More than 200 photo prints. Original giltstamped green cloth. Intriguing photo publication of both Iraq and Central Arabia during the Great War, brought out by St John Philby at the end of the year 1918, after he had served with the British administration in Baghdad from 1915 to 1917 and then travelled through the interior of the Arabian Peninsula as head of a mission to Ibn Saud. Philby completed a great tour of the Nejd in nine months, covering some 4000 kilometres. "Over 600 photographs were taken, some of which were later published in 1918 in 'Iraq in War Time', the first photographic book to appear on Najd" (Badr El-Hage, p. 95f.). The book, captioned throughout in English and Arabic (in which Philby was fluent), is divided into four sections: "Groups and Portraits" (43 illustrations); "Local Events" (55 illustrations); "Views" (112 illustrations, including "In Basrah City", "Amarah", "Nasiriyah", "Baghdad", "Najaf", "Mosul", "Suq al Shuyukh", "In Persia"), and "A Tour through Central Arabia" (24 illustrations). Among these are numerous equestrian images ("The best Arab horse 'Winchester' owned by Fahud el Nasar", "Well-known Basrah Race Horses", "Arabs competing for a prize offered for the best Arab mare", "Judging the Arab mares", "Winner of the Prize for Arab Mares" etc.), and the portrait section contains a veritable gallery of the sheikhs and political officers of the Arabian scene during the Great War. - The tour of the Nejd shows fascinating images of Jeddah, Nafudh, Sakha, Madhiq, Riyadh, Al-Hafar, Saqtah Gorge, the Shamsiyah Garden, etc., as well as Arab chiefs and a group portrait with the anonymous tourist Philby himself, surrounded by his Bedouin escort. "Although Philby was an amateur photographer, and the quality of his photographs fails at times to be up to standard, his achievements were remarkable, and his photographs documented many towns and villages for the first time" (Badr El-Hage, p. 114). - Near-indecipherable ownership inscription of Sheikh Abdulkareem bin Khaz’al, or possibly of the Sheikh of Muhammerah, Khaz’al bin Jabir bin Merdaw al-Ka’bi (1863-1936), to the verso of the rear free endpaper. A photograph of the Sheikh of Muhammerah appears in Part II. A few small scuffs and stains, corners bumped. A good copy of this rare and important work usually encountered only in poor condition. Badr El-Hage, Saudi Arabia: Caught in Time, 1861-1939, p. 95. Imperial War Museum 29(567)/3-5. OCLC 757755425. Not in Macro or Wilson.
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