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Vogüé, Melchior de.
Syrie centrale. Architecture civile et religieuse du Ier au VIIe siècle. Paris, J. Baudry, 1865-1877.
Folio (285 x 358 mm). 2 volumes. (4), 12, 154, (6) pp. (8) pp. With a total of 3 maps (2 in colour) & 152 mostly full-page plates, several with tinted lithographed backgrounds. Later red half morocco with giltstamped spine titles. First edition of this detailed study of Syrian decorative architectural art. "De Vogüé travelled with William Waddington in 1853 and 1854, exploring the area from Aleppo to Damascus, Palmyra and Basra. It was an important expedition and much new material was uncovered. The author became ambassador to the Porte in 1871" (Blackmer). - Occasional foxing to plates, but a fine set. Blackmer 174. Not in Weber.
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Wallin, Georg August (Yrjö Aukusti).
Första Resa fran Cairo till Arabiska Öknen i April 1845. Fragment. Helsingfors (Helsinki), (S. Baranovskij for) J. Simelius, 1853.
8vo. VII, (1), 126 pp., final blank f. With lithographed map at the end of the volume; printed notes of a Bedouin melody within the text. Green half calf with contemporary marbled boards and giltstamped title to rebacked spine. First edition, published posthumously. - Extremely rare account of Wallin's principal journey through Arabia, unknown to most bibliographers: "It was not until two years after his death", writes Henze, "that the report of his first (and most important) journey (performed in 1845, a year before the appearance of the first volume of Carl Ritter's 'Arabia') was published". This refers to the English "Narrative of a Journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca", which was printed in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1854. In fact, an extensive account of the first leg of this highly significant journey was first given to the world in December 1853, but little more than a year after the author's passing. Of this Swedish-language book, edited by Berndt Otto Schauman, fewer than two dozen copies are known worldwide, 12 of which are in Finnish libraries (the remainder distributed throughout Sweden [4 copies], Germany [2 copies], Denmark, France, and the U.S.A. [a single copy each]). In contrast with the later JRGS publication, the present work includes an appendix rendering Arabic terms and phrases that occur throughout the text in the original language and script. - Like his more famous contemporary J. L. Burckhardt, Wallin was fluent in Arabic and, in local costume, was capable of passing for a scholarly sheikh. Indeed, the two explorers are often compared: "I see many points of resemblance between them, the same iron constitution, the same versatility, the same indomitable energy, the same imperturbable temper" (H. C. Rawlinson, quoted in Henze). Financially backed by his alma mater, the University of Helsinki, Wallin departed for the Middle East in 1843 and set out on his expeditions from Cairo under the name of Abd al-Wali. "In 1845, proceeding southeast across the wastelands of the Nafud Desert, he reached Ha'il then continued by force of circumstances southward to Medina and Mecca. From there he returned to Egypt" (Howgego). More precisely, he "moved eastwards from Wadi al-Araba, first touching upon the upper regions of Wadi Sirhan, then on to the oasis of Djuf ('Algawf') and crossed the central regions of Shammar, via Djobbah ('Gubbi'), the Great Nefud ('Nufood'), and Hail [...] Of Shammar and its inhabitants he provided the fullest account, unsurpassed by later travellers in its scholarly precision" (Henze). After his return to Europe in 1850, Wallin was made Professor of oriental languages at Helsingfors. His notes provide a detailed overview of the political and religious movements and the role of the different tribes in Palestine and especially in Saudi Arabia. - Stamped ownership "L. L. Cygnaeus, Helsingfors" to flyleaf. A fine, largely unbrowned copy. K.-E. Henriksson (A Wallin Bibliography), in: Studia orientalia 17 (1952), p. 13-16, at p. 13. OCLC 551923531. Cf. Macro 2262. Howgego II (1800-50), W12, p. 627. Henze V, 452 (all citing only the 1854 JRGS publication). Cf. Fück 198 (mentioning the journey). Not in Gay or Ibrahim-Hilmy.
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Wellsted, J[ames] R[aymond].
Travels to the City of the Caliphs, along the Shores of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Including a Voyage to the Coast of Arabia, and a Tour on the Island of Socotra. London, Henry Colburn, 1840.
Large 8vo. 2 vols. XIII, (3), 405, (1) pp. VIII, 347, (1) pp. With 2 lithogr. frontispieces and a folding map of the Arabian Peninsula. Contemp. blindstamped cloth with gilt title to spine. Only edition. One of the best English 19th-c. accounts of Arabia and the Gulf. Wellsted's short career was almost entirely devoted to the surveying of the Red Sea, Arabia and Oman, undertaken on a number of expeditions between 1830 and 1837. On board the surveying ship Palinurus he was the first European to set foot in the interior of Oman. Starting late in 1835 from the easternmost point of Oman, Wellsted made his way westward through the Ja`alan region to the Wahibah Sands and then struck north up the Wadi Batha to Samad. There he was joined by Lieutenant F. Whitelock, also of the Indian Navy, who had set out from Muscat later. Together they reached Nazwa, the ancient capital of Oman, and climbed the lower slopes of the Jabal al-Akhdhar, in central Oman. In January 1836 they arrived on the Al-Batinah coast and then turned west, recrossing the Hajar mountains and emerging on the edge of the Dhaharah, the rocky steppe that stretches west toward the Rub` al-Khali. - Bindings rubbed; spines rebacked. Interior somewhat foxed as common. Removed from the Worcester Public Library. Rare; the Peter Hopkirk copy fetched £3,500 at Sotheby's (Oct 14, 1998, lot 1192). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2283. Howgego III, 635. Weber I, 67. Wilson 242. Henze IV, 476. Not in Gay, Blackmer, or Ghani.
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Welsch (Velschius), Georg Hieronymus (ed.).
Commentarius in Ruzname Naurus sive Tabulae aequinoctiales novi Persarum & Turcarum anni. Nunc primum editae è Bibliotheca, cujus accedit Dissertatio, de earundem usu. Augsburg, Johann Schönigk f. Theophil Göbel, 1676.
Small 4to. (14), 137, (19) pp. With engraved frontispiece and 22 engraved plates by Melchior Haffner. Contemporary calf. First facsimile edition of any oriental manuscript. 16 of the 22 finely engraved plates show a Persian perpetual calendar with Ottoman Turkish "commentarius" and floral borders. Welsch had acquired the ms. from Christoph Weikmann's Kunstkammer in Ulm. The remaining six plates are concerned with Arabian astronomy: astrolabe, orrery, zodiac, circular table of Sundays and names of the months in various languages. - The calculation of this calendar is today attributed to the 9th-c. Persian mathematician Wafâ al Buzjâni (cf. BSB München; Humboldt-Universität Berlin). The predominant attribution to one Turkish Sheikh Wafâ had been disputed by Babinger as early as 1927. Abu'l-Wafâ al Buzjâni is regarded as "the last great representative of the mathematics-astronomy school that arose around the beginning of the ninth century, shortly after the founding of Baghdad" (DSB I, 39). His astronomic oeuvre is preserved merely in fragments. The calligraphic commentary, however, is Turkish and (according to Babinger) was prepared by a 17th-c. magistrate, 'Ajn-i 'Alî Mueddinzâde. - Welsch (1624-77) was a physician and "a researcher of the very first magnitude [...] while the works of this polymath were mainly dedicated to the Arabian and Persian sciences, he also has provided proof of his close study of Ottoman Turkish. In this connexion, his important 'Commentarius in Ruzname Naurus' must be cited" (cf. Babinger 1919). Welsch's "Dissertatio" (with Arabic typeface) is aimed at the usefulness of the calendar for relative oriental chronology: he also compares the works of Schall von Bell and Andreas Müller on Chinese astronomy and chronology. - Bookplate of South Library on front pastedown. Occasionally browned. Zenker, Bibliotheca Orientalis I, 1077. Schnurrer 465. Babinger, Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen (1927), 116 & 141. Babinger, Die türkischen Studien in Europa, in: Die Welt des Islams VII, 1919, 117. Not in Balagna, L'Imprimerie Arabe en Europe.
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Whigham, H[enry] J[ames].
The Persian Problem. An examination of the rival positions of Russia and Great Britain in Persia with some account of the Persian Gulf and Bagdad Railway. London, Isbister and Co., 1903.
8vo. XVI, 424 pp. Folding map frontispiece and 2 full-page maps to the text, 2 as plates, 23 plates. Original sand buckram, title gilt to spine and upper board, top edge gilt. First and only edition. Important regional study of the Arabian Gulf, published in response to the grant of the Baghdad Railway concession by the Ottoman Government to a German-backed consortium. Assesses the economic, military and political implications of rival claims in the various states of the area. - Whigham was a well-connected Scottish author who emigrated to America and worked as drama critic on the Chicago Tribune, and as a war correspondent at the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese Wars. A close friend and correspondent of British Persian Gulf opinion-makers Lord Curzon and Sir Percy Cox, Whigham wrote the book, based on his extensive travels in the region, at the request of Lord Curzon, who had "advised [him] to go to the Gulf [and] instructed his subordinate officials in that part of the world to give me all the assistance in their power". Whigham is probably best remembered as a prominent amateur golfer, winner of the second and third US Amateur Championships, and author of "How to Play Golf", the first golf instruction manual illustrated from action photographs. Diba Collection 1978, 227. Wilson 243. OCLC 2987283.
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Wiedemann, Eilhard / Hauser, Fritz.
Über die Uhren im Bereich der islamischen Kultur. Halle, Ehrhardt Karras für die Akademie in Kommission bei Wilh. Engelmann in Leipzig, 1915.
Folio. 272 pp. With 136 text illustrations. Modern half cloth with gilststamped spine title. Study of mediaeval Arabic clock-making techniques, based on published works and unpublished Arabic manuscripts. - Perfectly preserved in a modern private library binding. OCLC 4703118. Nova Acta: Abh. der Kaiserl. Leop.-Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, Bd. C Nr. 5.
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[World Map - Islamic Manuscript].
Map of the world centred on the Arabian Gulf, showing seven mosques or minarets. Northern India or Kashmir?, ca. 1790 / late 18th century copy of a 16th century (?) original.
500 x 420 mm. Oval manuscript map in ink and watercolour (blue, brown, green and red; map image including water 295 x 380 mm, the land alone 220 x 305 mm) on a half sheet of extremely large Dutch laid paper (watermark: D&C Blauw IV), with dozens of features labelled in Persian (written in black ink in the nastaliq script) and with animals (including elephants and a dragon), people and 4 European ships. Framed and matted. An 18th century manuscript copy, in colour, of a lost map in the Islamic tradition, with dozens of inscriptions in Persian and extensive pictorial imagery showing numerous mosques, elephants in southern Africa, eastern India and what may be northern Bengal or part of Southeast Asia, snakes and a dragon (with four feet and two pair of wings) in East Asia, birds north of the Caucasus and people in Europe north of the Alps. The regions with people and animals (excluding the dragon and snakes) are also the only regions shown wooded. The oval land is surrounded by oceans with a European ship at each of the four cardinal compass directions: three 3-masted ships flying flags with St George's cross (used by the crusaders, Knights Templar and English and French troops from the 12th century and by the Genoese and others from the 13th century: while it is not St George come to slay the dragon, these European ships in an Islamic map remain a puzzle), and at the south a 2-masted ship with no rectangular flag, all four ships accompanied by rowboats. Inlets can be identified as the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea (?) and another in the Far East. A wide straight band of mountains runs west to east from coast to coast, apparently representing the Alps, the Caucasus and the Himalayas, with a few additional mountains in southern India and elsewhere. One can clearly see the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as well as the rivers of the Indus and Ganges valleys. After one passes beyond Bengal it becomes more difficult to identify the topographic features that ought to represent Southeast and East Asia: there is no island to represent Japan, and the peninsula that faintly resembles Korea seems more likely to be China. While some pictorial elements and lettering are designed to be viewed from various sides as one turns the map, there is a distinct bias in the lettering and some of the pictures for west at the head, which is quite unusual (most Islamic maps have south at the head). - We have found no record of any closely similar map, but the topography certainly owes something to the traditional Islamic world maps, perhaps by the 10th-century Abu al-Hasan al-Harrani or his followers such as the 15th-century Ibn al-Wardi. Like most maps in the Islamic tradition (including those of al-Bakri and al-Istakhri), these follow the Greek tradition of Anaximander (6th century BC) in depicting the world as an almost perfectly geometric circle surrounded by the great river or sea Oceanus, and also representing other features with abstract forms. They show the Nile running into the Mediterranean and (almost as its continuation north of the Mediterranean) a channel leading to the Black Sea, which continues via the river Phasis to the northern coast, forming a boundary between Europe and Asia. The present map is much more naturalistic, with an oval form and irregular coastlines. The inlets and rivers also have more naturalistic forms, and the map shows much more detail than do the traditional Greek and Islamic maps (one can recognize Qatar and Ceylon/Sri Lanka, and one of the two islands in the Mediterranean probably represents Crete (is the other Ceylon, Sicily, an oversized Malta, or something else?). Yet in spite of its greater detail and naturalism, its geography is in some ways less accurate than that of its more abstract ancestors. Like the al-Harrani and al-Wardi maps, the Nile has an L shape (though not rigidly geometric like theirs), but the southern end connects to the Red Sea and the northern end passes east of the Mediterranean, continuing directly into the channel leading to the northern coast (with no graphic distinction between the Black Sea and the channel to Oceanus). The Nile also appears to contain an enormous island, but the tower at its northern end might possibly represent the 13th-century minaret at Luxor. The Mediterranean appears as a triangular inlet without even a bulge to suggest Greece or Italy, which many Islamic and Greek maps show clearly. Africa and India extend no farther south than the Arabian Peninsula, with only the Red Sea and the Gulfs separating them. Some Mughal maps, such as that of Sadiq Isfahani (ca. 1647), share the more naturalistic depiction, and Isfahani also depicts Ceylon similarly, but his map shows few geographic or topographic similarities. - Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the present map is the depiction of mosques and minarets, which are so detailed that many can be identified even without recourse to the Persian inscriptions. The rectangular wall of the Great Mosque at Mecca appears clearly with the Ka'bah in the centre and four minarets, one at each corner. This also suggests a latest possible date for the lost original, for three more minarets were added in quick succession, apparently between 1603 and 1629. A recent study suggests that the Ka'bah began to appear in Islamic maps only ca. 1450 (Karen Pinto, "Medieval Islamic maps", 2016, not seen, but cf. Arnoud Vrolijk in Mols & Buitelaar, eds., "Hajj: global interactions through pilgrimage", 2015, p. 216), suggesting that the lost model for the present map with many mosques, some shown in detail, was at least several decades later. This evidence for a date, combined with the naturalistic depiction, suggests the lost model for the present map might have originated in the Islamic realms of 16th-century India. The Great Mosque at Medina is also clearly depicted. Pending more information about the Persian inscriptions (which apparently name regions, cities, mosques, topographic features and curiosities), we can only guess at the other mosques or minarets. We noted one perhaps at Luxor. Two on the eastern side of the Euphrates might be at Basra and Aleppo (with some pyramids in between), while one in North Africa looks like the Great Mosque at Taza and the other might be at Fez. There may some buildings in East Asia, by the mountains near the dragon, but they may merely be smoke or flames from what appear to be burning rocks. A couple of other sites show fortress-like walls (in red in the northern parts of the Arabian Peninsula and India) without a mosque or minaret. - The map is stunning as a work of art, a fusion of age-old tradition with modern techniques of illustration and figural representation, executed in pastel colours with the mountains and ships in several shades of brown, Oceanus and the inlets light blue, the rivers grey, the forests and dragon green and occasional small details in red or pink. In spite of its large size, the map is drawn on a half sheet, so that the whole sheet would measure at least 84 x 50 cm, considerably larger than Imperial and one of the largest sheet sizes produced in the 18th century. The chainlines are about 28.5 mm apart. The watermark or countermark would fall in the middle of the map image, so that it is not identifiable in the framed map. One can make out only some diagonal lines that might belong to a letter W. The map is numbered "No 95" in an 18th-century hand at the upper left, so it may have once been part of a manuscript atlas. - Formerly folded once horizontally and vertically. In very good condition. An 18th century copy of a lost 16th century (?) Islamic map of the world, showing seven mosques or minarets, unlike any other map known to us.
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Yahya Naci Efendi.
[Introducing electricity through experiments]. Constantinople, [1812 CE] = 1227 H.
8vo (222 x 150 mm). 16 ff., mostly with 24 text lines to each page (text area 155 x 70 mm). Written in excellent Naskh script with black ink on waxed paper. Headings and highlighted words in red. Two (folded) plates on velin paper (watermark: A. Stace 1802). With carefully executed pen-and-ink drawings with notes in red (167 x 194 mm each). Contemporary red half leather. Covered with Ebru paper, with leather edges and marbled endpapers. The original Ottoman Turkish manuscript of one of the most important texts in the history of electrical engineering and science: the complete treatise on electrical fluid, as drafted by the Turkish engineer Yahya Naci the same year. "In the early 19th century, the teaching of science at the Imperial Engineering School in Istanbul was mostly based on the material translated from textbooks compiled for the French 'grandes écoles'. Translations and compilations were generally made by the professors of the school. Yahya Naci Efendi (d. 1824), a lecturer in French language and sciences, compiled in 1812 a treatise introducing the properties of electricity through experiments. His aim was also to show that the lightning flash and the thunderbolt were electrical phenomenons. Yahya Naci's main source was the chapter on electricity of Mathurin-Jacques Brisson's (d. 1795) 'Traité Elémentaire de Physique', a popular book of physics in French colleges. This translation is important because Yahya Naci endeavoured to create Ottoman terms from Arabic regarding electricity and because it points to the initiatives in introducing experimentation in the teaching in the Imperial Engineering School" (Günergün, cf. below). The colophon states the name of the scribe as "Yahya Naqi" and the date "Zilqa'da 1227 H.", proving that the present volume contains the author's long-lost original manuscript. - In very fine condition; only a few insignificant spots. Feza Günergün, Deneylerle elektrigi tanitan bir Türkçe eser: Yahya Naci Efendi'nin Risale-i Seyyale-i Berkiyye'si. In: Osmanli Bilimi Arastirmalari IX/1-2 (2007-2008), pp. 19-50.
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Yaqut al-Rumi al-Hamawi / Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand (ed.).
Jacut's geographisches Wörterbuch aus den Handschriften zu Berlin, St. Petersburg und Paris [...]. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1866-1873.
4to. 6 vols. 12, 942, (2) pp. (4), 968, (2) pp. (2), 936 pp. (2), 1048 pp. (2), 66, 512 pp. VII, one blank, 262, one blank leaf, VIII, 265-781, one blank page, (2) pp. With 6 letterpress plates in vol. I. Near-contemporary half cloth over marbled boards with giltstamped volume numbers to spine. 2 volumes bound with the original printed wrappers. First edition, rare. The 19th century classic edition of Yaqut's famous geography, prepared by the German orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (1808-99). The four volumes of Arabic text are completed by annotations and indexes in volumes V and VI, including "some 12,000 persons, many with additional bibliographical references" (cf. Fück). Composed between 1224 and 1228 and considered a literary geography, Yaqut's work is essentially an alphabetical index of place names from the literary corpus of the Arabs. The geographical descriptions are enriched with historical, ethnographic, and associated narrative material, historical sketches and accounts of Muslim conquests, names of governors, monuments, and local celebrities. - The four volumes of text are removed from the library of the Munich Franciscan monastery, with their stamp of ownership to versos of title-page or flyleaf. Later in the collection of the German historian Else Reitemeyer (b. 1873) with her handwritten ownership to flyleaves (vols. I-IV). German title-page and foreword of first volume (12 pp.) bound between pp. 480 and 481. Extremities occasionally very slightly rubbed. Last 20 pages of volume V pierced near right margin (not touching text). In all a very well preserved copy of this monumental series. Fück 193f. OCLC 3423433. Not in Zenker.
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[Yemen] - Jacob, Harold Fenton, British army officer and Political Agent (1866-1936).
A collection of papers from the Yemen Residency. Mostly Aden, mainly 1911-1917, with additional material to 1925.
Correspondence, memoranda, and notes in English and Arabic. 2 typescript pp. in-folio, 15 handwritten pp. in-4to, 32 handwritten pp. in-8vo. A collection of prewar and wartime notes and correspondence, some labelled "secret", from the desk of the longtime First Assistant Resident in Aden, Lt. Col. Harold F. Jacob, who served in this capacity from 1910 to 1917 (and, once the War started, was also Chief Political Officer to the Aden Field Force). - In a classified report to a superior concerning tribal allegiances in Yemen and the threat of an Ottoman incursion, dated 30 June 1915, he writes: "Interviewed the Abdali Sultan at Lahej yesterday and the following is what I have been able to elicit. 1. The Sheikh Ibn Nasir Mukbil appears to be particularly anxious to secure our armed presence on the Haushabi border and Sheikh Husen Saleh the Azraki (our stipendiary) and Ali Ba Saleh the Haushabi Sultan's Minister seem to be willing tools in his hand to effect that purpose. It must be remembered that Ibn Nasir Mukbil is still friendly to us or rather his unfriendliness is not proved. [...] It is hard to prophesy correctly in Arabia, and from a distance, since Arab politics change in so kaleidoscopic a fashion, but I am inclined to believe, even if there be certain hostile Turks and Arabs at Al Dareja, that the situation is not so critical as our friend the Abdali Sultan would have us believe. [...] [A]s the Sultan of Lahej is able to procure at this stage 600 camels in 2 days I am strongly in favour of our engaging them since, if hostilities open, he will find it extremely difficult to raise these numbers [...]". - A telegram draft of 10 January 1917 to the General Officer Commanding Aden, likewise "secret", Jacob writes: "Idrisi quite ready conclude supplementary agreement as outlined by Secretary of State (stop) [...] Says Farasan is part & parcel his sea-board and expects British protection from all outside interference (stop) Says British flag, however, as repugnant on Farasan as would be at Jizan and likely draw Turkish vengeance as implying cession of Islands to us; further will preclude future favours qua arms from France and Italy (stop) I fully sympathize with both agreements and believe presence of flag will place Farasan in category of annexation subject to 'post-bellum' adjudication (stop) [...]". - Also, several items of Arabic correspondence, often with Jacob's handwritten translation into English underneath. Also, a quantity of 8vo pencil notes in English and Arabic, some in the hand of another officer (possibly the Aden Resident) and as early as 1911, often not easily legible, apparently referring among other subjects to "Philby", "How Turks lost the Yemen", etc. - Jacob spoke Arabic fluently and knew the Qur'an intimately. As Political Agent in Aden and in the Hinterland he served on Lord Allenby's staff as an advisor on South West Arabia, where he became acquainted with Lawrence of Arabia. In 1915 he published a book on Southern Arabia, "Perfumes of Araby. Silhouettes of Al Yemen". - Edges brittle; some browning and folds, but altogether a well-preserved survival.
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Yuhanna ibn Sarabiyun (Serapio maior).
Iani Damasceni Decapolitani summae inter Arabes autoritatis medici, therapeutice methodi, hoc est, curandi artis Libri VII. partim Albano Torino Vitodurano paraphraste, partim Gerardo iatro Cremonensi metaphraste. Basel, Heinrich Petri, (March 1543).
Folio (205 x 290 mm). (24), 491, (1) pp. 17th century black-tinted vellum binding using an earlier liturgic musical manuscript. Important Latin edition of this Arabic medical compendium (first printed, also in Latin, in 1479), with additions by Gerard de Cremona. It provides a collection of opinions voiced by Greek and Arabic physicians on pathology and therapeutics. "No Arabic printed edition exists so far" (cf. Choulant). The third-century doctor Yahya bin Sarabiyun, son of a Bagarma physician, wrote his great medical work "Al-Kunnas" in Syriac, but it was soon translated into Arabic by scholars such as Musa Ibrahim al-Haditi and ibn Bahlul. There exist manuscripts in twelve and in seven books. "The seven-book edition was frequently printed in Latin translations as 'Breviarium' and 'Practica therapeuticae methodus'. Albanus Torinus, the editor of the Basel 1543 edition, called him Janus Damascenus, for which reason he has been confused with the well-known theologian of that name. He is also often mistaken for his younger namesake, Serapio junior" (cf. GAL I, 233). Some catalogues even ascribe this work to the Baghdad physician Abu-Zakariya Yuanna Ibn-Masawaih. - Slight waterstaining; some unobtrusive worming to upper cover and flyleaves. Binding rubbed; extremeties bumped with chipping to spine-ends. A wide-margined copy. Provenance: 1677 ownership of the pharmacist and medical student Joseph Franz König on front pastedown; later in the library of Bonifacius Brix von Wahlberg, court physician to the Princes of Fürstenberg, in the later 18th century (his ownership on the title page). VD 16, Y 11. Adams I 14. BM-STC German 932. GAL I, 233 & S 417. Durling 4778. Choulant, Handb. p. 347. Not in Waller.
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Yuhanna (Yahya) Abu Zakariya ibn Masawaih (Mesue).
De re medica libri tres, Jacobo Sylvio interprete. Lyon, Guillaume Rouille, 1550.
8vo. (16), 421, (1) pp., final blank leaf. With woodcut printer's device to title-page and numerous woodcut initials. 19th century marbled boards. Fine, widely received Lyonnaise edition of Mesue's pharmaceutical handbook, translated into Latin by Jacques Dubois, the teacher of Vesalius. The author's frequently reprinted treatises bore an immense influence on the development of pharmacy in early modern Europe. Although the identity of Masawaih (Mesue) remains unclear, he was likely a Persian Christian physician who headed the Baghdad hospital and served as personal physician to several caliphs (though he may also be a collective pseudonym of several Arabic medical writers of the 10th and 11th centuries). Products of the mediaeval Islamic world, the works attached to his name contained many innovations that provided the basis for the theory and practice of pharmacy for centuries and perfectly met the demands of the developing medical marketplace of mediaeval Europe. - Occasional browning; an irregular paper flaw to the upper edge of the title with slight loss to author's name (apparently removing a contemporary ownership). Binding rubbed; spine professionally repaired. Provenance: 1) an illegible ink ownership, dated 1636, stricken out on front pastedown; 2) another illegible ink ownership, dated 21 August 1818, on lower pastedown; 3) 19th century ink ownership of Arthur Rénaux to front pastedown. Durling 3144. Wellcome 4280. Brunet III, 1675. Not in BM-STC French. Cf. GAL I, 232; S I, 416. Hirsch I, 171f.
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Yuhanna (Yahya) Abu Zakariya ibn Masawaih (Mesue).
De re medica libri tres. Jacobo Sylvio medico interprete. Cum annotationibus & scholiis eiusdem. Index locupletissimus cum capitum, tum omnium quae scitu digna sunt operi praefixus est. Paris, no printer, 1553.
8vo. 248, (4) ff. With emblematic woodcut device to title (apparently showing Abderus being devoured by the mares of Diomedes) and several woodcut initials. Contemporary full vellum with traces of ties. Uncommon and finely produced edition, by an unidentified Parisian printer, of Mesue's pharmaceutical handbook, translated into Latin by Jacques Dubois, the teacher of Vesalius. The author's frequently reprinted treatises bore an immense influence on the development of pharmacy in early modern Europe. Although the identity of Masawaih (Mesue) remains unclear, he was likely a Persian Christian physician who headed the Baghdad hospital and served as personal physician to several caliphs (though he may also be a collective pseudonym of several Arabic medical writers of the 10th and 11th centuries). Products of the mediaeval Islamic world, the works attached to his name contained many innovations that provided the basis for the theory and practice of pharmacy for centuries and perfectly met the demands of the developing medical marketplace of mediaeval Europe. - Slight brownstaining with some marginal worming near the end of the text. Loss of corner to fol. Aa3 (not affecting the text). Durling 3145. OCLC 14308627. Not in Wellcome, Adams or BM-STC French. Cf. GAL I, 232; S I, 416. Hirsch I, 171f.
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Yuhanna (Yahya) Abu Zakariya ibn Masawaih (Mesue).
Opera. De medicamentorum purgantium delectu, castigatione, & usu, libri duo [...]. Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1581.
Folio (230 x 338 mm). 2 parts in 1 volume. (8), 272 ff. (6), 277, (1 blank), (12) ff. With 39 woodcut illustrations in text. Near-contemporary full vellum on four raised bands with giltstamped red spine label. Second illustrated edition, the first with the commentary of Costaeus, of the collected works of the Arabic physician Mesue the Younger (also known as Masawaih al-Mardini) in Latin, with commentaries by Mondino de Liuzzi, Christoph de Honestis, Jacobus Sylvius, Giovanni mardi and Johannes Costaeus. - The work includes the "Canones universalis", dealing with treatment regimens; the second part, "De simplicibus", about the properties of various pharmaceutical drugs; and the Grabadin, "the most popular compendium of drugs in medieval Europe, and [...] used everywhere in their preparation" (Garrison). "The esteem in which these works were held is shown by the fact that a Latin translation of both was one of the first medical works to be printed (Venice, 1471)" (ibid.). - Binding stained; rubbed and chipped at extremeties. Interior shows occasional brownstaining. Modern flyleaves browned and brittle. Provenance: bookplates of the American botanist Edward Sandford Burgess (1855-1928) and of the Horticultural Society of New York, identifiying this volume as part of the bequest of the American attorney and plant collector Kenneth Kent MacKenzie (1877-1934). Durling 3131. Adams Y 10. BM-STC Italian 739. Edit 16, CNCE 27626.
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[Arabian American Oil Company].
El Hasa. Sheet No. 7. Washington, DC, Aeronautical Chart Service, U.S. Air Force, 1950.
Lithographed map, ca. 99 x 137 cm. Scale 1:1,000,000, Conformal Conic Projection. Rare U.S. Air Force aeronautical chart of the Arabian Gulf detailing Saudi Arabia with Al Hasa Oasis, the Qatar Peninsula, Bahrein, parts of Kuwait, Iraq and Iran, as well as the Saudi-Kuwaiti and Saudi-Iraqi neutral zones. Other details include Tapline road, Kuwait road, geological features like the Dibdiba gravel plains, and the Rub al-Khali desert. The most prominent labelled cities include Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Bushire and Shiraz. - The map was prepared by the USAF Aeronautical Chart Service with the 1950 copyright belonging to Standard Oil Company. SOC subsequently licensed their copyright to Aramco. - With a single fold. Somewhat toned. Several larger tears to lower margin; a tear in right margin repaired with old adhesive tape.
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[B.O.A.C. - Pakistan].
Fly B.O.A.C. Pakistan. [London, 1953].
Vintage lithographed poster backed on linen. 1060 x 680 mm. Tiger-themed poster by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in association with Qantas Empire Airways, South African Airways, and Tasman Empire Airways. An early document of modern aviation in Pakistan, which had gained independence only in 1947, after the Partition of the British Indian Empire, which awarded separate statehood to its Muslim-majority regions. Affiches Air-France-2006, p. 149.
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Burton, Isabel.
The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land [...]. London, Henry S. King & Co., 1875.
4to. 2 parts in one vol.: X, 376; (4), 340 pp. With 2 portrait frontispieces, 2 chromolithographed plates and one folding map of Syria. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine and spine label; giltstamped emblem of the Edinburgh Collegiate School to upper cover. Leading edges gilt. All edges marbled. Bound by Seton and Mackenzie of Edinburgh. First edition of Lady Isabel Burton's first book, detailing a journey made with her husband Sir Richard Francis Burton to Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land between 1869 and 1871. A remarkable work of travel literature from a female point of view, intending "to convey an idea of the life which an Englishwoman may make for herself in the East" (p. VII). It includes detailed descriptions of Damascus, the Hajj, Palmyra and Beirut, as well as dervish dances, a Muslim wedding, and a Turkish bath. With portraits of Isabel and Richard Francis Burton. - Extremities very slightly rubbed. A fine copy in an appealing binding. Weber I, 724. Cf. Blackmer 246 (2nd ed.). Not in Atabey.
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[Burton, Richard Francis].
The Kasidah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of the Higher Law [...]. London, [Bernard Quaritch, 1880].
4to. (4), 33, (1) pp., final blank leaf. Bound with the original yellow printed wrappers. Contemporary giltstamped half calf over green cloth boards with giltstamped spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. Rare English-language poem by Burton, purporting to be a translation of an original Persian Sufi text. In an attempt to bring Sufist ideas to the West, Burton claims to be the translator of a Persian poem, to which he gives the English title "Lay of the Higher Law". It is thus a pseudo-translation, pretending to be based on an original Persian text which never existed. - The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufi thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition. Both first and second issues were published by Bernard Quaritch in 1880 for the use of the author and his friends. The present first issue omits the Quaritch name and the date from the title. Few copies of the first issue were sold (possibly fewer than 100), and the remainders were returned to Burton or members of his circle. - Cloth slightly soiled; original wrappers a little duststained. A good copy. Penzer 97. Casada 84. OCLC 57537856.
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[Gulf Air].
Flying is Fun with Gulf Air. Singapore, Tien Wah Press, ca. 1970.
Oblong 4to. Pop-up book containing 8 pop-ups with moveable parts. (8) pp. Text in English and Arabic. Printed boards. Colourful pop-up book for travelling children, published in the 1970s by Gulf Air's Public Relations department in Bahrain and illustrated by Gloria Nixon. - One moveable part missing, some creasing, otherwise in good condition.
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[Kinglake, Alexander William].
Eothen, or Traces of Travel Brought Home From the East. London, John Ollivier, 1844.
4to. XI, (1), 418 pp. With folding lithographed frontispiece and a lithographed plate, both in original hand colour. Ca. 1940s giltstamped full blue morocco with spine-title. Leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. First edition of this classic of Middle Eastern travel literature, published anonymously. The first literary venture by the English travel writer and historian Kingslake, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary Lord Pollington. According to the Irish traveller and novelist Elliot Warburton, the book evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality", and it was instantly successful. - Packed with intimate details of a traveller's life and emotions, the narrative includes vivid accounts of Kinglake's encounter with Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839), one of the most famous travellers of her age, at her home near Sidon in Lebanon, as well as of a severe outbreak of the plague during his 15-day sojourn in Cairo: "When I first arrived, it was said that the daily number of 'accidents' by the plague, out of a population of about 200,000, did not exceed four or five hundred, but before I went away, the deaths were reckoned at twelve hundred a day [...] When first I arrived at Cairo, the funerals that daily passed under my windows were many, but still there were frequent, and long intervals without a single howl. Every day, however [...] these intervals became less frequent, and shorter, and at last, the passing of the howlers from morn to noon was almost incessant. I believe that about one half of the whole people was carried off by this visitation [...]" (p. 283ff.). - The frontispiece shows a group of travellers on horseback passing the skeletons of impaled robbers in the Balkans, captioned "Eastern Travel". The plate shows a baggage raft and some swimmers crossing the River Jordan. - Upper hinges slightly rubbed. Frontispiece worn in the folds; occasional very slight foxing. Provenance: pastedown has bookplate of Frank Goldsmith, possibly the Kentish-born photographer of that name (1902-82) who survived the sinking of the Titanic as a nine-year-old and relocated to the USA after WWII. A fine copy in an sumptuous blue morocco binding produced by the Bayntun-Riviere bindery in Bath, England. Blackmer 911. OCLC 1191005987. Cf. Weber 369 (1845 2nd edition). Atabey 635 (1847 French edition). Not in Aboussouan.
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[Kiswah].
Parade of the Holy Carpet. [Cairo, January 1938].
Black and white photograph. 232 x 178 mm. Ceremonial departure of the Holy Carpet pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca.
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[Kuwait - Ministry of Guidance and Information].
Kuwait Tourist Guide. Kuwait, Ministry of Guidance and Information, (1968).
4to. 144 pp. With numerous coloured and black-and-white photographic illustrations. Original printed wrappers. First edition of this rare illustrated guidebook to Kuwait. Aiming to encourage the tourist industry of Kuwait, it is packed with useful information on geography, history, education, infrastructure, museums, visa and residence regulations, currency, embassies and consulates, hotels, sports, banks, the climate, and other topics. It is particularly remarkable for the numerous photographs promoting life in Kuwait in the late 1960s, including portraits of Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah, the Amir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and Sheikh Jabir al-Ali al-Salim al-Sabah, Minister of Guidance and Information. - Two tiny tears to lower margin of wrappers. Several pages a little soiled; slightly toned in places. OCLC 121622.
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[Kuwait - Ministry of Guidance and Information].
[Taqrir shamil 'an al-hafriyat al-athariyah fi Jazirat Faylaka, 'am 1958-1963]. Archaeological Investigations in the Island of Failaka 1958-1964. [Kuwait], Kuwait Government Press, ca. 1970.
4to. 161, (3) pp. With numerous black-and-white illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Report on the Danish archaeological expedition to Kuwait led by Peter Vilhelm Glob and Geoffrey Bibby. During five campaigns between 1958 and 1963 the tells on the south-western corner of Failaka Island became the focus of the expedition. The report describes and illustrates some of the major finds, including statues, pottery, lamps, coins, remnants of houses and temples, skeletons and weaponry. - Each campaign lasted 2½ to 3½ months, and the excavation teams consisted of between 5 and 14 Danes as well as 2 Kuwaitis from the Education Department, assisted by up to 185 labourers. At the end of each campaign the finds were packed down in large wooden crates and shipped to the museum in Aarhus for conservation and analysis. At that time there were no conservation and storing facilities in Kuwait, nor anywhere in the Arabian Gulf. - Wrappers have title in English and Arabic. The illustrations are captioned in English and Arabic as well; title-page and introductory text in Arabic only. - Occasional light foxing. OCLC 65798901.
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Mahmoud Ra'if.
Cedid Atlas Tercümesi [= New Atlas, Translated]. Üsküdar/Istanbul, Tab'hane-yi Hümayunda / Mühenduishâne Press, [April 1803-March 1804 CE] = 1218 H.
Folio (533 x 364 mm). (3), 79 pp., engraved, illustrated title-page and 25 engraved maps after William Faden, in contemporary hand colour. Contemporary black morocco, richly stamped in silver and blind. Bright yellow pastedowns. In custom-made half morocco solander box. The first European-style atlas printed in the Islamic world: an exceedingly rare, handsome, and entirely complete example in its original first binding. "[T]he first world atlas printed by Muslims [...], of which only fifty copies were printed" (Library of Congress, Near East Collections: an illustrated guide, online). Several copies were reserved for high-ranking officials and important institutions; most of the remainder were destroyed in a warehouse fire during the Janissary Revolt of 1808. "Based on several estimates and accounting for the single maps (torn-out from bound volumes of the atlas) sold or being offered worldwide, it is believed that a maximum of 20 complete examples could be present in libraries or in private collections, whereas some sources suggest that there exist only 10 complete and intact copies in the world. As such, it is one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value" (Wikipedia). - A prestigious project for the Ottoman Palace with the seal of approval of the Sultan Selim III, this work was one of the avantgardistic enterprises promoted by Mahmoud Ra'if to introduce Western technical and scientific knowledge to the Ottoman state. Composed of 25 maps based on William Faden's "General Atlas", it is the first Muslim-published world atlas to make use of European geographic knowledge. On each of the maps the place-names are transliterated in Arabic. The Atlas includes Raif's 79-page geographical treatise "Ucalet ül-Cografiye" and the frequently missing folding celestial map on blue paper. - Maps very clean, showing only a few minor stains and repaired tears to folds; a creasemark to the map of Africa; an internal tear to pre-Revolutionary map of France. Binding professionally repaired at extremeties and upper hinge with a few scuffmarks and insignificant traces of worming. An excellent copy, one of the very few surviving specimens in the beautiful original oriental leather binding (the only other known example was sold through us in 2019). A severely defective copy recently commanded an auction price of USD 118,750 (Swann Galleries NY, 26 May 2016, lot 199). OCLC 54966656. Not in Philipps/Le Gear. Not in Atabey or Blackmer collections.
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Martin du Tyrac, Louis Marie (Lodoïs), Comte de Marcellus.
Souvenirs de l'Orient. Paris, Debécourt, 1839.
Small 4to. 2 vols. (4), VIII, 464 pp. (4), 558, (1) pp., final blank page. With 2 engraved plates and one folding map of the Mediterranean. Contemporary half calf over freen marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition of the travelogue of the French diplomat who secured the Venus de Milo for the Louvre in 1820. The Comte de Marcellus was appointed to the embassy at Constantinople in 1815, and in 1820 was sent to the ports of the Levant and the religious establishments of Palestine. His travels took him to Scio, Delos, Melos, Santorin, Cyprus, Sidon, Cairo and the pyramids, Rhodes, Athens and Smyrna. During his mission the peasant Yorgos Kentrotas discovered the Venus de Milo inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos. The French ambassador Charles François de Riffardeau acquired the statue for France, but it was Marcellus who prevented its shipment to Constantinople and arranged for the Venus to be taken aboard a French ship instead. Chapter VIII of volume I is entirely dedicated to the Venus de Milo and its story, including an engraved illustration of the masterpiece. The other plate shows Pierre Gary, a guard of the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali. - Occasional foxing. Hinges professionally restored. Provenance: contemporary library stamp of the French ethnographer Eugène de Froberville (1790-1871) to both title-pages. Later in the collection of the British historian William St Clair (1937-2021) with his pencil ownership to the front free endpaper of volume I. Weber 296. Blackmer 1087. Atabey 764. Cobham-Jeffery 36. OCLC 562749585.
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Niebuhr, [Carsten] / Heron, Robert (transl.).
Travels through Arabia and other countries in the East [...]. Perth, R. Morison junior, 1799.
12mo. 2 vols. XX, 339, (1) pp. XII, 359, (1) pp. With 8 engraved plates and one engraved folding map of the Arabian Gulf. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine-title. All edges sprinkled red. Second edition in English of Niebuhr's excellent account of his travels in the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, India and Arabia, the first scientific expedition to this area, subsidised by the Danish king. 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. The maps Niebuhr drew in the course of the expedition were remarkably detailed and accurate. Indeed, his map of Yemen was the first exact map of the area ever, remaining the standard for the next 200 years. The volumes include authentic descriptions of life and customs in Yemen, Oman and elsewhere, with detailed descriptions of Mecca and Medina, Sana'a and Mocha as well as several references to coffee and coffeehouses. The first volume was adapted from Niebuhr's "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien" (1774) and the second from his "Beschreibung von Arabien" (1772). Previously published in Edinburgh in 1792. - Corners and hinges professionally repaired. With near-contemporary manuscript presentation note to flyleaves: "presented to the Glenbervie Sunday School Library by G. M". Later pencil ownership of the Scottish dentist and naturalist E. G. H. Lightfoot, dated Aberdeen 1953. Some additional pencil notes to pastedown and flyleaf of volume I, including brief biographical notes on Niebuhr in Lightfoot's handwriting. ESTC T176314. Howgego, to 1800, N24. Hünersdorff, p. 1081. OCLC 5416838. Cf. Weber II, 550. Macro 1700. Atabey 873-874 (other eds).
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Nisaburi, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn Nizam al-Din al-A'raj al-.
Tawdih al-Tadhkirah. [Probably Persia, 16th century CE].
8vo (130 x 218 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. (375) pp., 19 lines per extensum. Written in neat black naskh, emphases picked out in red; catchwords. With numerous tables and diagrams, one in red and black. Contemporary brown leather binding with stamped ornaments. A 16th century commentary (sharh), profusely illustrated with diagrams, on Naziraddin al-Tusi's "at-Tadhkira an-Nasiriya", a general outline of astronomy, originally written in Persian. Composed by the Persian Sunni scholar Nizamaddin ibn Muhamad an-Nisapuri (d. 1328/29), who was known as a mathematician, astronomer, jurist, Qur'an exegete, and poet. His teacher Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi had himself been a student of al-Tusi's. An-Nisapuri wrote the present commentary in 711 H (1311 CE). - Binding rather rubbed. Marginal notes throughout; colophon with partial date "14 Jumada II". Scattered minor wormholes, but overall in good condition. GAL I, 511, VI, 40 b.
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[United Arab Airlines].
Fly United Arab Airlines Jets. Egypt. London, H. Clarke & Co., 1960s.
Vintage lithographed poster backed on linen. 1060 x 762 mm. Rare travel poster showing the Nefertiti Bust, designed by Assem Ismail for the United Arab Airlines (formerly Misr Airlines and MisrAir, now Egypt Air). Affiches Air-France-2006, p. 149.
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Valle, Pietro della.
Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il pellegrino. Descritta da lui medesimo in lettere familiari [...]. Rome, Biagio Deversin , 1650-1663.
4to. 3 parts in 4 vols.: 780, (34) pp. (12), 492, (24) pp. (2), 546, (24) pp. (20), 508, (18) pp. With engraved portrait of Pietro della Valle, 2 engraved title-vignettes, 3 woodcut title-vignettes, and several woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title and shelfmarks. All edges sprinkled red. A complete set of the first edition of Della Valle's "Viaggi", highly sought after as one of the earliest printed sources for the early history of Dibba, the coastal region at the northeastern tip of the United Arab Emirates, today ruled by the Emirates of Fujairah and of Sharjah. - Pietro della Valle (1586-1652) left Venice in 1614 on a pilgrimage to Palestine, proceeding to Baghdad and then into Persia, where he married and sojourned at the court of Shah Abbas. While staying with the Sultan of Bandar Abbas, he "met the son of the ruler of Dibba who was visiting. From this he learned that Dibba had formerly been subject to the kingdom of Hormuz, but was at that time loyal to the Safavids who in 1623 sent troops to Dibba, Khor Fakkan and other ports on the southeast coast of Arabia in order to prepare for a Portuguese counter-attack following their expulsion from Hormuz (Jarun). In fact, the Portuguese under Ruy Freire were so successful that the people of Dibba turned on their Safavid overlords, putting them all to death, whereupon a Portuguese garrison of 50 men was installed at Dibba. More Portuguese forces, however, had to be sent to Dibba in 1627 as a result of an Arab revolt. Curiously, two years later the Portuguese proposed moving part of the Mandaean population of southern Iraq, under pressure from neighbouring Arab tribes, to Dibba" (UAE History: 2000 to 200 years ago - UAEinteract, online). "Della Valle displayed excellent narrative and descriptive skills, powers of acute observation, and a genuinely scholarly breadth of learning. He refused to comment on what he had not witnessed himself or checked against the best authorities" (Gurney). He continued his travels east to the coast of India, Goa and Muscat, and thence back to Aleppo by way of Basra. He reached Rome in 1626, where the original Italian text of his letters written to the Neapolitan physician Mario Schipano was published. Only the first volume, dealing with Turkey, saw print during his lifetime. The two-part volume II on Persia was released in 1658, four years after his death, and the set was concluded in 1663 with the volume on India. Complete sets are usually encountered only with the first volume in its second edition, published in 1662. - Binding somewhat spotted. Some brownstaining throughout with occasional waterstains. Several repairs to p. 344 of vol. II; occasional insignificant marginal tears and small holes. Title page of vol. 2 (La Persia, parte prima) has the title of "parte seconda" with the word "seconda" overpasted with "prima" by the publisher. In all an attractive copy including the frequently missing portrait. Röhricht 946. Henze II, 42. Tobler 95. Gurney, "Della Valle, Pietro", in: Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed.). Macro 1633. Cox I, 273. Wilson 234.
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Abdulmejid I, Ottoman Sultan (1823-1861).
Firman to the Kadi of Egypt. [Constantinople], [24 Sept. 1839 CE =] 15 Rajab 1255 H.
542 x 772 mm. Ottoman Turkish manuscript with large Tughra of Sultan Abdülmecid I (reigned 1839-61). 1 page. Diwani calligraphy in black ink, powdered with gold, on a single sheet of sturdy, polished laid paper. Two watermarks: a crescent moon with a human face, and an eagle with outstretched wings and mark GFA. An important document of Ottoman-French and Franco-Egyption relations: a firman (official letter) from Sultan Abdülmecid to the Kadi of Egypt concerning the appointment of Joseph Vattier de Bourville (1812-54) as the new French consul in Cairo. Sultan Abdulmejid informs the Kadi that, as requested by the French Ambassador to the Porte, Admiral Albin Roussin (1781-1854), Vattier de Bourville has been appointed to fill the place of Ferdinand de Lesseps as consul in Cairo and gives instructions that these orders are strictly to be obeyed and that nobody else is to be approved in the office of consul. The firman refers to the "Ahidname" (treaty) between France and the Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, the King of France, Louis Philippe I, is referred to as "Padishah (Sultan) of France", while the resident French ambassador in Istanbul is addressed as the "Commander of the Messianic Nation". - Three horizontal and vertical folds; some creases. Very light foxing with a small hole and trace of worming. Full transcription available upon request.
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Mardinli, Yusef Ibn Shammas Butris Ibn Kas Yusef, Al-.
[Chaldean prayer book]. [Iraq, Ottoman Empire], 16. XI. 1826.
12mo (80 x 106 mm). Arabic manuscript in Naskhi script. 292 pp. (first 23 ff. foliated by a contemporary hand), 10-12 lines per extensum, black ink, headlines and emphases in red. Marked throughout the text with 36 crosses potent and a few ornaments, one in colour. Contemporary full brown calf with blindstamped oriental decoration. A fine Chaldean-rite prayer book written towards the end of the contested patriarchate of Joseph V Augustine Hindi (lasting from 1781 to 1827). Includes prayers against the plague, for holidays such as Good Friday, Easter and Ascension, for various times of the day, and for thanksgiving, as well as to the Virgin Mary and Christ. Special prayers for women are mentioned, as are certain Psalms, St. Joseph, Pope Sixtus IV, the Ten Commandments, and the necessary steps toward converting to Christianity. Occasionally, differences between the Chaldean and Roman Catholic rites are mentioned. - The book is written in easily legible Arabic, one of the languages of worship for Chaldeans, whose usual language was in fact Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The name of God is here consistently written as "Allah", while a total of 36 crosses are drawn throughout the text. Curiously, the compiler's Nisbah is given as "Al-Mardinli" ("from Mardin"), in the Ottoman rather than pure Arabic form - a detail that gives evidence of the degree to which cultures, religions and languages were intertwined in the Mesopotamian region. - In full communion with Rome, the Chaldean Catholic Church emerged from the Church of the East through the schism of 1552. By the 17th century, leaders would take the name Joseph, for which reason theirs is known as the "Josephite line" of succession. Although Augustine Hindi, the nephew of his predecessor Joseph IV, was never formally granted recognition by the Holy See as Patriarch of the Chaldeans, he was consecrated as bishop and named administrator of the patriarchate, and he became commonly known as Joseph V. - Binding a little rubbed; old note to lower flyleaf, written head over heels. An interesting cross-cultural document of the interaction between the Eastern and Western Churches, between regional languages and religions in the Middle East. Cf. Charles A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1923 (London, 1983). David Wilmshurst, The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318-1913 (Leiden, 2000).
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Yazicioglu Mehmed.
Kitab al-Muhammadiyah (Kitâbü Muhammediyye fî na'ti seyyidi'l-âlemîn habîbillâhi'l-a'zam Ebi'l-Kâsim Muhammedini'l-Mustafâ). [Ottoman Empire, 1600 / late 16th or early 17th century CE].
8vo (150 x 206 mm). (564) pp. Ottoman Turkish and Arabic manuscript written in Naskh script on polished oriental paper. 2 columns, 17 lines. Black ink; chapter headings in red. Text ruled in gilt, red and black; first two pages have attractive 'unwan decorations in gilt, red, lapislazuli, pink, and orange; final page has gilt floral scrollwork decoration. Gilded line decorations on some pages, a red and gillt inscribed figure known as the "Flag of the Prophet on the Day of Judgment" (Liwa al-Hamd) on one page. 19th century oriental brown leather binding with fore-edge flap, decorated with gilt borders and lozenge-shaped ornamentation to both covers. Marbled endpapers. Early Turkish manuscript of the "Magharib al-Zaman" ("Sunsets of Time"), a widely popular devotional work on the Prophet Muhammad, first written in Arabic in 1449 by the Ottoman Sufi poet Yazicioglu Mehmet (d. 1491) and translated into Ottoman Turkish by his younger brother Ahmed Bican. Mehmet, a native of the Gallipoli peninsula, was a follower of Haci Bayram-i Veli (1352-1430) and was influenced by the writings of Andalusian mystic Ibn 'Arabi. The earliest printed edition appeared in 1842 at Istanbul's Military Press. - Comprising some 9,000 couplets, the "Muhammadiyah" is one of the longest works in Turkish literature, but its style is easily accessible, and it contributed much to the formation of Ottoman Sufi culture. Written to disseminate the basic tenets of Islam among the common people, it covers Muhammad's biography, various aspects of Muslim devotion, and eschatological matters, including Gog and Magog, the Sun rising in the west, and the Day of Resurrection. Mehmet is notably preoccupied with the eschatological role of Jesus and of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, which he anticipated by several years. - Anonymously copied (as common for religious texts), this manuscript includes occasional explanations and Qur'an verses that are extraneous to Yazicioglu's text and were introduced by the scribe (or by the copyist of the MS he followed). Among the appealing decorations the first two leaves stand out, as does the gilt depiction of the Prophet's standard, "Liwa al-Hamd" (Banner of Praise), which is to be unfurled on the Day of Judgment. Three phrases written in red ink appear on this banner: "Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil-'Alamin" (Praise be to God, Lord of the Universes), "Bi-smi llahi r-rahmani r-rahim" (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful), and "La ilaha illallah, Muhammadun rasulullah" (There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is messenger of Allah). - Occasional light brownstaining, mainly confined to margins; generally very finely preserved. The first leaf of the book bears a faint Ottoman note of acquisition from the 19th century: "Isbu bin iki yüz doksan bes senesi Zilkade'nin yigirmi üçüncü sali günü yüz elli gurus fiyat" ("This book was bought for 150 Kurush on 23 Dhu al-Qadah, 1295 H" [18 November 1878 CE]. A complete list of the individual chapter titles is available on request. Cf. J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971); Arin Shawkat Salamah-Qudsi, Sufism and Early Islamic Piety: Personal and Communal Dynamics (Cambridge, 2018).
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Assemani, Simone.
Saggio sull'origine, culto, letteratura, e costumi degli Arabi. Padua, nella stamperia del Seminario, 1787.
4to. 12, CIII, (1) pp. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary grey wrappers. An account of the religion, literature, and manners of the Arabs before the Prophet. While largely compiled from European sources, Pococke, George Sale, Sir William Jones, and D'Herbelot in particular, the book includes extensive quotations in Arabic as well as details on Mecca, the Kaaba, and Muhammad. Assemani (1752-1821), a great-nephew of Joseph Assemani, the cataloguer of the oriental manuscripts in the Vatican library, is best known for his catalogue of the manuscripts and Cufic coins in the Naniana in Venice (cf. Fück 125). - Corner of lower free endpaper torn away, occasional light browning, wrappers a little frayed at the spine. Otherwise a good, wide-margined copy, untrimmed as issued. Brunet VI, 27994. Gay 3454. Cf. Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge III.2, 815.
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Field, Michael.
A Hundred Million Dollars a Day. London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1975.
4to. 240 pp. With a map frontispiece and several black-and-white photographic illustrations. Contemporay full cloth with giltstamped spine-title. In printed dust jacket. First edition, rare. The "first comprehensive analysis" of the growing financial powers of the oil countries in the 1970s. The author examines OPEC's oil policy, the distribution of oil revenues in the Arabian Peninsula, the emergence of big Arab companies and major players of the Arab financial world, as well as issues of recycling and aid programmes. The work is enriched with photographs showing key personalities of Middle Eastern politics, including King Faisal bin Abdel-Aziz al Saud, King Khaled bin Abdel-Aziz al Saud, Sheikh Abdullah al Salem al Sabah, Sheikh Sabah al Salem al Sabah, and Prince Saud bin Faisal. - Dust jacket somewhat worn. A fine copy. OCLC 1158989003.
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Mehmed V Resad, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1844-1918, ruled 1909-1918).
Signed document (Berat) in Ottoman Turkish. Constantinople, [30 Jan. 1912 CE =] 10 Safer 1330 H.
Ink on paper. With large gilt Tughra. Ca. 55 x 28 cm. In original, addressed envelope. Pretty Ottoman document from the last months before the beginning of the Balkan Wars, concerning an arms factors. Includes the rare envelope. - Berat certificates were official documents presented as appointments for office, exemption certificates from a tax or duty, or accompanying the award of a medal or other honour. This example is meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink.
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Palmer, E[dward] H[enry].
The Desert of the Exodus. Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings [...]. Cambridge, Deighton, Bell & Co., 1871.
4to. 2 vols. XX, 280 pp. (4), 281-576 pp. With 5 lithographed folding maps (2 in colour), 2 lithographed frontispieces (one in original hand colour, one tinted), and 14 lithographed plates, 12 of which tinted. Contemporary giltstamped full calf with the arms of the University of Glasgow to front covers and spine and giltstamped spine-labels. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. First edition. Lively account of the first extensive exploration of the Sinai desert performed entirely on foot. The English orientalist Palmer was engaged in 1869 to join the survey of Sinai, undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and followed up this work in the next year by exploring the desert of El-Tih, Idumaea, and Moab in company with Charles Drake. They completed this journey on foot and without escort, making friends among the Bedouins and Arab sheikhs, to whom Palmer was known as Abdallah Effendi. After a visit to the Lebanon and to Damascus, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Burton, then consul there, he returned to England in 1870 by way of Constantinople and Vienna. - Palmer's report discusses the Sinai survey, the geography of the area, camp life, marches through the wilderness, and encounters with Arab tribes. It includes descriptions of Saint Catherine's Monastery as well as of Petra, with maps of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negeb, and the Moab, as well as two maps from the Sinai survey showing topographic views of Mount Sinai and Jebel Serbál. The charming tinted plates display desert and mountain views, ruins, hieroglyphs, towns, caves and churches. - Bindings very slightly rubbed. Small tears to 2 maps; otherwise in excellent condition. Prize copy awarded to Joannes M. Littlejohn, a student of Hebrew at the University of Glasgow, by Jacob Robertson; a commemorative bookplate to front pastedown of volume I, dated 1 May 1885; a handwritten note by Robertson to flyleaf of volume II. Blackmer 1238. Röhricht 3126, no. 5. OCLC 1013449009.
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[Alf layla wa-layla].
Alf Layla wa-layla. Dat al-hawadit al-'aghiba wa al-qisas al-mutriba al-ghariba layaliha gharam fi gharam wa tafasil hubb wa 'ishq wa hayam wa hikayat wa nawadir fukahiyya wa lata'if wa tara'if adabiyya bi as-suwar al-mudhisha al-badi'a min abda' ma kana wa manazir u'guba min 'agha'ib az-zaman. [Cairo], Maktabat wa-Matb'at Muhammad 'Ali Sabih wa-Awladihi, [ca. 1960].
8vo. 2 parts (instead of 4) in one volume. 320 pp.; 320 pp. Illustrated throughout. Early 20th century grey half calf with giltstamped spine. Mid-20th century Egyptian edition of the "Thousand and One Nights" ("with their strange incidents and singing stories, their nights and details of love, infatuation, tales, humorous and literary anecdotes, with amazing, wonderful pictures of the most creative and miraculous scenes of the wonders of time", as the subtitle claims), published by Muhammad Ali Sabih & Sons for Al-Azhar University. This edition follows that published in Bulaq in 1863 by the Sa'idiyya Press, down to the interestingly naive line-cut illustrations. - Only the first two jilds (parts) of four published. Binding a little rubbed, interior browned as common, but very well preserved. Cf. Chauvin IV, p. 18, no. 20L.
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[Jazuli, Muhammad ibn Sulaiman, Al-].
Dala'il al-khayrat ("Waymarks of Benefits"). [Eastern Turkestan, now Xinjiang, China, early 17th century CE].
4to (140 x 190 mm). Complete Arabic manuscript on strong Chinese paper. 165 ff. (337 numbered pages), leaf size ca. 132 x 182 mm, written space ca. 82 x 128 mm). 6 lines, per extensum (except 4 lines on pp. 3-4; 11 lines on pp. 11-34). Illustrations of the Kaaba in Mecca and the burial sites of the first three Rashidun Caliphs on pp. 47-48. Text written in "sini" calligraphy typical of Chinese Muslims, in an archaic form oscillating between naskh and muhaqqaq. Black ink, various sections highlighted in red, text within single or double red rules; sporadic notes or corrections on the margins. Contemporary black, red and gold painted and lacquered over paper and cloth. Painted boards show floral designs in black and gold on a red background, all within a black border with red wave designs. With remnants of leather on the brown cloth spine. Extremely rare specimen of the famous Sunni prayerbook "Dala'il al-khayrat": an Arabic manuscript written in what is today Xinjiang, China. - The "Dala'il al-khayrat" ("Waymarks of Benefits" or "Proofs of Good Deeds"), an extensive book of poems in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, was compiled by the Moroccan Sufi scholar Muhammad ibn Sulaiman al-Jazuli (807-870 H / 1405-1465 CE) and was quickly received throughout the Islamic world, functioning as a kind of Muslim catechism. Al-Jazuli's inspiration for the book is said to have come before he left Fez to spend forty years in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, but he completed it in Fez during the last years of his life. The present manuscript, written in so distant an Islamic community as that of Eastern Turkestan, a territory dominated throughout by Mongols or Chinese, where Muslims were commonly viewed as strangers, gives striking evidence of the range and scope of a tradition lasting for almost six centuries: the utopia of Islam as the Religion of Oneness, aiming to unite all the Muslim peoples in a single community reaching from Europe to the Far East. - The text begins with an introductory praise of Muhammad, followed by the 99 names of Allah (leaves 1-46) and a compilation of eulogies and prayers divided into seven subsequent chapters (each referred to as "juz", or "section"): 1, pp. 46-113; 2, pp. 113-136; 3, pp. 136-181; 4, pp. 181-217; 5, pp. 217-236; 6, pp. 236-256; 7: pp. 256-end. Interestingly, the double page 47/48 does not show Mecca and Medina, as is typical for manuscripts of this text, but rather presents naive illustrations of the "Ka’ba of Allah" (!) and the burial sites of the first three Caliphs. No date in colophon, written in the form of prayer. Leaves 12 to 19, extraneous to the text proper and containing additional prayers and the 99 Names of Allah, are inserted on contemporary Chinese paper. Edges worn; lower corner rounded and fingerstained from long use, but very well legible and altogether well preserved.
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[Mecca].
Photograph of the Kaaba. [Mecca, ca. 1885].
Black-and-white photograph, 235 x 175 mm. On cardboard backing. An early photograph of the Hajj showing pilgrims around the Kaaba in Makkah. - Some fading and staining.
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[Mecca].
Photograph of the Kaaba. [Mecca, ca. 1885].
Black-and-white photograph, 130 x 180 mm. On cardboard backing. An early photograph of the Hajj showing pilgrims around the Kaaba in Makkah. - Some fading, browning and staining.
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Service Hydrographique de la Marine.
Instructions nautiques sur la Mer Rouge et le Golfe d'Aden, collationnées par le service des instructions nautiques. (Instruction No. 762). Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1895.
8vo (164 x 244 mm). (2), XVIII, (2), 476 pp. (Includes, bound after the preliminaries:) Notice hydrographique No. 4 (1900). 14 pp., 1 blank f. Notice hydrographique No. 8 (1900). 15 pp., 1 blank p. Contemporary gilt half calf over marbled boards. Marbled endpapers. The French essential standard sailing directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as well as the entire south coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Comprises directions for the navigation of the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Suez, and the central track for steam vessels through the Red Sea, Straits of Bab-al-Mandab, and Gulf of Aden; also, descriptions of the Gulf of 'Aqaba, the shores of the Red Sea, the inner channels, the Gulf of Aden, and the south-eastern coast of Arabia to Ras al Hadd, the coast of Africa from Ras Si Ane to Capo Guardafui, including the Gulf of Tadjoura, thence to Ras Hafun, Abd-al-Kuri, the Brothers, and Socotra. - Largely based on the relevant British counterpart, the "Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot"; the section on the Gulf of Tadjoura is entirely by the lieutenants of the French hydrographic ships Guillou and R. de Carfort. The book had appeared only once previously, in 1885, and the present copy includes not only the Supplements I and II published in 1900, but also extensive publisher's corrections that were issued to slips of paper and are here bound into the volume in their respective place. The flags and signals are partly printed in red and yellow. A rare and early edition in excellent condition. OCLC 460171378.
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Suyuti, Jalal al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr al-.
Kitab al-Muz'hir fi'ulum al-lughah wa-anwa'iha. Bulaq, al-Matba'ah al-kubra al-saniyah, [1865 CE =] 1282 H.
8vo (166 x 234 mm). 2 parts in one volume. 8, 4, 299, (1) pp. 10, 7, (1), 272 pp. Contemporary full red morocco with fore-edge flap, covers with blind rules and stamped oriental ornaments in central compartment. First printing of "Al-Muzhir", an encyclopedic work on Arabic linguistics and its various disciplines, compiled from earlier philologists by the prominent Egyptian scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505). It counts as a significant contribution to the study of Arabic linguistics. Al-Suyuti was an enormously prolific polymath whose "versatility stands out as unique in the history of Arabic literature" (GAL II, 144). - Binding a little rubbed, one corner bumped. Light fore-edge flaws to the preliminary matter of the first juz' (part); old pencilled and typed bibliographical notes to front pastedown. A very good copy. GAL II, p. 155, no. 258. OCLC 20066914.
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[Persia - Caucasus].
Kurze historische Relation von denen letztern Empörungen in Persien, welche sich Anno 1722 angefangen und hierinnen ausführlich anzutreffen sind [...]. Frankfurt & Leipzig, no printer or publisher, 1727.
8vo. 54 pp. - Bound with (II): Neueste ausführliche historische und geographische Beschreibung des Caspischen Meeres, Daria-Stroms, und der übrigen da herum liegenden Länder, Städte und Völcker [...]. Danzig, no printer or publisher, 1723. (10), 112 pp. With an engraved double-page frontispiece of Derbent. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title. I: First German edition: a rare account of the Afghan invasion of Safavid Persia that began in 1722. Anonymously translated from the French "Relation historique du détrônement du roi de Perse, et des révolutions arrivées pendant les années 1722, 1723, 1724 et 1725", it describes the reign of Shah Mahmud Hotak, who overthrew the Safavid dynasty to briefly become King of Persia from 1722 until his death in 1725. Includes observations on the 1722 siege of Isfahan. - II: A similarly rare description of the Caspian Sea, including an account of the 1722/23 Persian campaign of Peter the Great, involving the creation of the Caspian Flotilla at Astrakhan. The war ended with the 1723 Treaty of St Petersburg, which recognized the Russian annexation of the west and south coasts of the Caspian Sea. - Inner hinges weakened; some browning and foxing. Still a good copy. - Provenance: handwritten initials "J.H." to recto of final text leaf. Contemporary bookplate of the consistorial councillor Benedikt Hugo Math (d. 1752) to pastedown; 20th c. bookplate of Eckhard Günther to flyleaf. I: VD 18, 10893008. OCLC 837836269. Cf. Wilson 187. - II: VD 18, 1143094X. Miansarof, Bibliographia Caucasia et Transcaucasia I, 1042. OCLC 470145584.
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[Persian Gulf Gazette]. Her Majesty's Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.
The Persian Gulf Gazette. Volumes 5 and 6. Bahrain / London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1957-1959.
Small folio (190 x 268 mm). Eight issues and eight supplements (1 October 1957 to 1 August 1959), bound in one. Vol. 5 (nos. 1-4 & supplements 18-21): 234 pp.; vol. 6 (nos. 1-4 & supplements 22-25): 256 pp. Contemporary sand buckram; red and black labels with gilt lettering to spine, 'Foreign Office' stamped in black to upper cover. Two early volumes from the highly important "Persian Gulf Gazette", which ran from 1953 to 1972. Published in the final decades before the independence of the Gulf States, it is a fascinating record of the waning of direct British involvement in the governments of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates). - The Gazette was a quarterly publication containing notices of anything relevant to Britain's jurisdiction in the aforementioned States, from political appointments to new Orders and Regulations. It was sold at H.M. Political Agencies in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai, as well as at H.M. Consulate, Muscat. Supplements were published with each issue, printing the Orders and Regulations in full. These include all manner of regulations - often created in response to rapidly developing infrastructure - covering, inter alia, employment, shipping, patents and the penal system. - Provenance: withdrawn from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library with stamps to endpapers. Some very minor dampstaining to the top edge of textblock, handwritten ink reference numbers to some title-pages, rest of interior clean and fresh. Very well preserved. Though fairly well-held institutionally, original issues (not to mention volumes and runs) are rare in commerce.
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[Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd.].
Our Industry. Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd. An introduction to the Petroleum Industry for the Use of the Members of the Company's Staff. London, (Keliher, Hudson & Kearns for the) Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd., June 1949.
8vo. (2), 368 pp. With frontispiece, 97 photo illustrations on 36 leaves of plates and one extending map. Original green cloth, gilt. Second, completely re-written edition of this handbook for Anglo-Iranian employees, never released to the general public. A shorter version was previously published in 1947 (and reprinted the following year). "The object of this book is to enable a man engaged in any one branch of the Company's activities to learn how his work fits into the wider picture" (preface). - Handwritten ownership inscription, dated 17th September 1953, to front pastedown. Well preserved.
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[Anglo-Iranian Oil Company].
A Short History of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. London and Ipswich, W. S. Cowell, March 1948.
Small folio (219 x 278 mm). 28 pp. With numerous black-and-white photographic prints. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Illustrated history of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This informative magazine includes high-quality images of the construction of pipelines, views of the Abadan refinery and other oil compounds, the Braim residential area, and an aerial view of Lali county - an area "typical of the difficult terrain in which the Company's main oilfields are situated". - Punched holes. Margins slightly worn.
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[Arabian American Oil Company].
Abqaiq Saudi Arabia. Class '61. Abqaiq, 1961.
Oblong 4to. 12 black-and-white glossy prints. Spiral binding. Photo book of the Abqaiq Senior Staff School, an institute for the children of Aramco employees. The prints show the school building, the Aramco compound and petrol facilities, children playing softball, a swimming tournament, a falconer with his falcon, dromedars, a fishing boat, and a group of Arabs enjoying their coffee. With reproductions of the signatures of the class of 1961 to lower pastedown. - Edges somewhat worn.
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Arabian American Oil Company.
Air Freight Manifest. Dhahran, February 1954.
Small folio (218 x 330 mm) and oblong 8vo. (3) pp. With typescript envelope. Freight manifest for a box of personal effects of Paul Stiehl, an employee of Aramco, shipped from Dhahran to New York. Signed by W. J. Kiefer. - The document includes a customs clearance authorization as well as a specification of the contents of the box signed by Stiehl. The shipment contained 4 prayer rugs, 12 towels, and 5 bed sheets. - Some rust spots. A unique survival.
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Arabian American Oil Company.
Aramco at Fifty. The Commemorative Video of Aramco's Fifty Years of Achievement. No place, [1993].
53 min. Colour and black-and-white. NTSC VHS cassette. In original case. Promotional video celebrating Aramco's first 50 years in the oil business. The 53-minute film traces the development of the Arabian American Oil Company from the first team of engineers and researchers that braved the Saudi desert in search of oil in the mid-1930s to a company of 60,000 employees controlling a large share of the earth's reserves. Most valuable are early photos of exploration camps, regional topography, and the Arabian Peninsula before its development. The tape makes for a heroic tale, but as one might expect, fails to place American efforts in the larger context of oil exploration in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Iraq that began with the British in the 1890s and was joined by the Dutch, French and Americans in the next century. Briefly addressing the economics of oil and its effects on Saudi Arabia, the film prefers to concentrate on the good fortune and technological advances the oil boom brought to the kingdom. - The film premiered on Channel 3 on 29 May 1984, the anniversary of the Concession Agreement. - Very well preserved. OCLC 12825212.
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Arabian American Oil Company.
Aramco Control Card. Ras Tanura, January 1961.
Oblong 12mo (57 x 89 mm). 2 pp. Permit to use retail services in the Ras Tanura Camp. Issued to Mrs. O. O. Thomas, the wife of Aramco employee Orlin Orace Thomas. - Slightly creased.
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