Abu al-Fida Isma`il ibn `Ali (Abulfeda).MareMagnum
4.081 Ergebnisse
8vo. 2 parts in one volume. X, 160 pp. (4), 120 pp. Contemporary blindstamped calf, sparsely gilt. Marbled endpapers. Stored in custom-made full calf clamshell case. Only printed edition of this mediaeval biography of the Prophet, from the author's great historical work, the "Concise History of Humanity" ("Mukhtasar tarikh al-bashar"). Abu'l-Fida, born in Damascus in 1273, was a historian, geographer, military leader, and sultan. The crater Abulfeda on the Moon is named after him. - Includes an annotated French translation by Adolphe Noël des Vergers (1805-67). Binding slightly chafed; lower joint repaired. Slight foxing near beginning and end with occasional browning. A very appealingly bound set. GAL II, 45. Chauvin XI, 2. Gay 3614. Silvestre de Sacy 1489. Hoefer XXXVIII, 184. Brunet I, 18. Graesse I, 8.
Large 8vo. 2 vols. (2), II, (2), 386 pp. (2), IV, 393, (1) pp. With a folding genealogical plate. Giltstamped half leather over marbled boards; original printed wrappers bound within. Marbled endpapers. Each volume stored in a cloth-covered slipcase. Editio princeps of the text of the "Shajare-i Türk", the principal historical work by Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur (1603-63), Khan of the Uzbek state of Khiva from 1643 until his death. The title is variously translated as "Genealogy of the Turks" and "Genealogy of the Tatars". The book was published in a French translation at Leiden as early as 1726, with additional translations appearing in the later 18th century. The first critical translation was published in Kazan in 1825; a Turkish version (by Vefik Ahmed Pasha) was published at Kazan in 1864. Edited by Jean Jacques Pierre Desmaisons (1807-73), oriental scholar and diplomat in Russian services. Desmaisons studied oriental languages at Kazan and St Petersburg and taught Persian and Arabic at Russian military academies before entering the diplomatic service and being posted to Tehran repeatedly in the 1840s. His present edition includes the text, annotations, and a French translation (the latter of which appeared shortly after his death). - A well-preserved, prettily bound set from the library of the Piedmont collector and self-taught Arabic linguist Luigi Cora (1871-1947) with his bookplate to pastedowns. OCLC 85058877.
12mo. 52 pp. Wrapper title printed within decorated borders. Extremely rare autobiography of As'ad al-Shidyaq (1798-1830, brother of the writer Faris), who came under the influence of the American Congregationalist missionaries in Beirut when he was employed by them as a teacher and translator, and embraced Protestantism in defiance of the Maronite Patriarch. In retaliation, the Patriarch imprisoned and tortured al-Shidyaq in a convent in the Lebanese mountains, starving him to death in 1830. Al-Shidyaq's autobiography, the story of his conversion and persecution, was published three years later by the CMS press of Malta. "This of course is also anti-Catholic, or rather anti-Maronite. It has been quite erroneously attributed to his brother Faris al-Shidyaq by a number of eminent authorities, who have cited it as the latter's earliest work. In fact it is clearly by As'ad himself, being written in the first person, and his mentor Isaac Bird has recorded that it was written in 1826 at his (Bird's) request, 'that we might make use of it to his advantage in future time'; English translations were published in Boston (USA) in 1827 and 1839 and it was later incorporated into Bird's biography of As'ad, published in 1864" (Roper, p. 239). - A clean copy in very good condition. Copies known only at the British Library and Glasgow University. Zenker I, 1658. Sarkis 1105. Brockelmann S II, 868. Ellis I, 323. Alwan 18. Agius 43f. Roper (Arabic printing in Malta 1825-1845) no. 49.
8vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. (22), 233, (89) pp. (4), 170, (2) pp. With full-page engraving. Modern vellum. The first Arabic-Latin edition of the great poem "Lamiyat al-´Agam" by Hassan ibn ´Ali al-Tugra'i (c. 1061-1121), and one of the first Arabic books ever printed in England: "a complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). Contains not only the text with an extensive commentary, but also a complete index of the words appearing in the poem and the apparatus, as well as a second part, an Arabic prosody by Samuel Clarke entitled "Scientia metrica & rhythmica, seu Tractatus de prosodia Arabica" (also issued separately, but here forming part of the Tugrai edition). Edward Pococke (1604-91) was the first scholar of Arabic at Oxford; the Oxford oriental scholar Samuel Clarke (1624-69) also served his University as printer. - Variously browned due to paper. An untrimmed copy. GAL I, p. 247. Lowndes 2692. Schnurrer 197. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23019.
Small 4to. (20), 46 pp. With engr. title vignette. Contemp. vellum. "Édition estimée, et dont les exemplaires sont peu communs, parce que (selon Vogt) ils ont presque tous été perdus en mer" (Brunet). The accounts regarding the precise number of copies salvaged from the wreck vary: Schnurrer mentions 5 or 6, Ehrencron-Müller states 50. In any case, the number of copies extant is very small and thus the book is extremely rare. It contains the poem "Lamiyat al-Agam" by al-Hasan Ibn-Ali at-Tugrai (c. 1061-1121) in the Arabic original with a Latin translation and copious commentary by the Danish theologian Matthias Anchersen (1682-1741). "A complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). - Some browning and foxing due to paper. The author's personal copy, inscribed to his brother Ansgar on the front flyleaf. Smitskamp 318. Schnurrer 199. Ehrencron-Müller I, 113. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23020. Cf. GAL I, p. 247 (the 1717 ed.).
8vo. XVI, 336 pp. Original blind-stamped cloth. Highly uncommon: the first English edition, translated and abridged by St. John Bayle from Perron's French translation of the author's "Tashhidh al-adhhan bi-sirat al-`Arab wa-al-Sudan". The book is divided into two sections - Dafur and the Wadai - and is an informative anecdotal account of the regions, including detailed accounts of the lineage and customs of the respective royal families and inhabitants. Also mentions the pilgrimage to Mekka undertaken by the author's grandfather and his subsequent life in Jeddah. - Slightly rubbed. Only two copies in institutional possession: OCLC lists records for Oxford and Cambridge only. OCLC 265431715.
4to. 22 pp. Stitched, untrimmed. First edition of a rare pamphlet on the monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean, of crucial importance for East India Company ships sailing to and from the East Indies. - As Dalrymple states in the introduction, the text for the pamphlet has been translated by him from Jean Baptiste d'Après de Mannevillette's "Mémoire sur la navigation de France aux Indies". Dalrymple had extensive correspondence with Mannevillette, hydrographer to the French East India Company and Dépôt de la Marine, from 1767 to 1780, much of which is preserved in Paris in the Archives nationales and the Bibliothèque de l'institut de France. Dalrymple had such high regard for d'Après - the author of the "Neptune Oriental" in 1745, at the time the most authoritative work on oriental navigation - that he often sent charts for comment and inclusion into his work, as the following letter attests: "You have full consent to make what use you please of the Charts I have sent you [...] You will undoubtedly find many mistakes which escaped my observation; And therefore you will do me a favour in communicating your remarks to me" (10 Nov. 1772). In the present work Dalrymple has augmented the d'Après text with information from a Mr. William Woodville of Liverpool, and a Captain Jones of the ship Mary, "whom we met at Grenville 5th June 1775, to the Westward of Sierra Leon. It is obvious Mr Woodville's Account differs considerably from M. D'Aprés but I cannot presume to decide who is right". - The extract not only shows Dalrymple's continuing quest for any and all sources of information regarding a passage to the East Indies, and the rather ad hoc nature in which he obtained it, but also his willingness to question Mannevillette's findings, at the time the leading authority on such matters. - Some waterstaining to title with marginal fraying. Rare: we are only able to trace one other example appearing at auction since the war (Sotheby's, the Franklin Brooke-Hitching sale 2014). ESTC T74284.
Large 4to (203 x 260 mm). (6), LVIII, 254, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With an engraved headpiece. Contemporary full calf, spine rebacked and gilt to style. Leading edges gilt, all edges sprinkled in red. Marbled endpapers. Extremely rare pilot guide to the East Indies, reduced to a single quarto volume from the author's great "Neptune Oriental", published simultaneously. One of the greatest maritime atlases in the history of French cartography, the "Neptune" was devoted to exotic regions (the Middle East including the Gulf, the African coasts, the Indian Ocean and East Indies, Southeast Asia, parts of the Chinese coast, and the Pacific islands). It was compiled by Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Denis d'Après de Mannevillette (1707-80), hydrographer to the French Navy, supported by the French East India Company and the Académie des Sciences. "It was at once hailed as a major achievement and welcomed by navigators throughout the world" (Cat. Nat. Mar. Mus.). Of the present text-only reduction, OCLC lists no more than nine copies worldwide, only one of which in the the U.S. (University of Chicago). - Corners bumped; modern spine gilt in 18th-century style. A good, wide-margined copy. Provenance: 1) From the library of Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2nd Baronet, of Barnsley (1771-1846), with his bookplate on the pastedown. 2) By descent to his son Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax (1800-85), sometime Chancellor of the Exchequer, with handwritten ownership on the flyleaf. As President of the Board of Control of the English East India Company, Sir Charles Wood was instrumental in spreading education in India. 3) Acquired from the Portuguese trade. Jöcher/Adelung II, 622. OCLC 41102601. Not in Cordier (Sinica), Brunet, Graesse, etc.
Large chromolithographed map (122 x 139 cm). Scale 1:2,000,000. Second edition. A highly detailed map of the complete Peninsula, the first modern map in 1:2,000,000 scale. Based on the groundbreaking series prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arabian American Oil Company under the joint sponsorship of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. State Department, "a unique experiment in geological cooperation among several governments, petroleum companies, and individuals" (Seager/Johnston). Also includes the territories of today's Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. "The plan for a cooperative mapping project was originally conceived in July 1953 [... By 1955] there was established a cooperative agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Department of State, and the Arabian-American Oil Co. to make available the basic areal geology as mapped by Aramco and the U.S. Geological Survey" (ibid.). The plan provided for 21 maps on a 1:500,000 scale in both geologic and geographic versions; "a peninsular geologic map on a scale of 1:2,000,000 was to conclude the project [...] The first geographic quadrangle was published in July 1956 and the last in September 1962. While preparation of the geographic sheets was in progress, a need arose for early publication of a 1:2,000,000-scale peninsular geographic map. Consequently, a preliminary edition was compiled and published in both English and Arabic in 1958" (ibid.). This revised, final version ("I-270 B-2") that first appeared in 1963 incorporated additional photographic, topographic and cultural data. The present map, printed in 1967, is a re-issue of the 1963 edition, merely differing in the date. Includes a key with symbols for water pipelines, desert watering points, oil fields, pumping stations, refineries, and a glossary of Arabic names. - "Although the search for oil, gas and minerals was ultimately to drive geological survey work across the region [...], in its early years it was the need for water that was the catalyst for Saudi Arabia's resource exploration. In 1944 King 'Abd al-'Aziz approached the United States for a technical expert who could assist with the identification and plotting of the kingdom's natural resources, particularly its groundwater reserves. The individual who arrived, Glen F. Brown, was one of the pioneers of a partnership between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the government of Saudi Arabia that was to span the next five decades and play an important role in the development of the kingdom [...] By 1954 the Saudi Ministry of Finance, USGS and Aramco were working together to produce the first full series of geographic and geologic maps of the country. The first of their type in the Peninsula, these were published [...] in both Arabic and English versions, and the information they contained formed the basis of subsequent Saudi national development plans. To this day, all modern maps of the kingdom trace their roots back to these first publications" (Parry). - Several small tears and paper loss to right and upper margin; occasional small holes. James V. Parry, "Mapping Arabia", in: Saudi Aramco World 2004/1, p. 20ff. OCLC 6681002. O. A. Seager/W. D. Johnston, Foreword to the Geology of the Arabian Peninsula series (U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 560-A-D, 1966).
8vo. (8), 447, (1) pp. (48, last 4 blank), 66 pp. (last p. misnumbered 70, lacks last blank). Title with woodcut device. Contemporary reversed sheep, blank spine in five compartments. An Arabic-Syriac-Latin glossary arranged by subject, originally compiled in the 11th century by the Nestorian Elias bar Shinaja of Syria (known as Barsinaeus in the Latin tradition) as "Kitab at-targuman fi ta'lim lugat as-suryan". The present text and translation, prepared by the Franciscan Obicini, was posthumously published by the monk's student and successor Dominicus Germanus de Silesia, "himself also the author of an Arabic grammar, and an Italian-Arabic dictionary" (Smitskamp). "Not actually a thesaurus, but rather a nomenclator, arranged not by alphabet, but by subject" (cf. Schnurrer). The French punchcutter Robert Granjon cut the Arabic type used for the glossary. - Binding somewhat worn; minor foxing. Ownership stamp (Germain: Jacobins P.B.S.) and signature of De la Roche (marquis) on title, last page with another owner's inscription. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Schnurrer p. 38 f. Smitskamp 223. Fück 77. NUC 425, p. 564. ICCU VEAE\003127.
Oblong album (370 x 284 mm) with 47 large albumen photographic prints, generally ca. 20 x 26 to ca. 22 x 28 cm, mostly signed and captioned in the negative (in French), mounted on both sides of the album's leaves. Original half calf binding with burgundy cloth covers, title gilt to upper cover. All edges gilt. A rare souvenir album containing 40 photographs of Istanbul and 7 of Athens. The Turkish images are almost exclusively signed by the renowned studio of Guillaume Berggren (1835-1920), the Swedish-born photographer who had come to Constantinople in 1866 and remained there for the rest of his life. Berggren's photographs were particularly popular with Scandinavian, German and Austrian tourists seeking souvenirs of their Middle-Eastern journey. The present album includes landscapes and city views, famous sights such as the Galata Tower and Bridge, the Yeni Cami Mosque, the Hagia Sophia with its interiors, a "shadirvan" fountain for ritual ablutions in front of the Hagia Sophia, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Skutari Cemetery, views of the Golden Horn, street scenes, dervishes, the Bosporus, the French embassy in Tarabya, the city port, the steps leading up the Grand Street of Pera (where Berggren's studio was located), etc. The Greek views include Mount Lycabettus, a two-image panorama of the Acropolis, the Olympieion and the so-called Theseion (Temple of Hephaestus). - A few photographs show insignificant loss of contrast, but they are altogether in good condition, mostly preserving their original crispness. A few images captioned in pencil on the backboard. Corners of binding bumped; leather chafed and spine-ends more markedly flawed. A fine collection.
4to. VIII, 71, 57 pp. Giltstamped red boards. First edition of this treatise on the origins of the non-Christian religions of the Orient, written by Notaras Chrysantis (c. 1670-1735) and here edited in the original Arabic text with Latin translation and critical apparatus after a ms. in the Göttingen University Library. G. H. Bernstein (1787-1860) taught oriental languages at the universities of Berlin and Breslau. He is chiefly famous for his preliminary studies for the "Thesaurus Syriacus", a dictionary of Syriac produced after his death by Robert Payne Smith. - Contemporary autograph ownership and review note of the Marburg oriental scholar Johann Melchior Hartmann (1764-1827), among whose work is a "Commentatio de geographia Africae Edrisiana", published in 1792. Later stamp of the Basel chemist Dr. Remy Cantieni (1940s). Last in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. - Rare. ADB II, 485.
Oblong 4to. Album with 148 small original black and white photographs on 18 ff. Contemporary giltstamped full cloth with printed title and 2 silhouette images. Extremley rare photographs from the first successful motor crossing of the desert from Damascus to Baghdad in 1919, preceding by four years the well-known efforts by the Nairn brothers, which resulted in the establishment of the overland mail service between Damascus and Baghdad. The photographs were taken by the 18-year old Eric Blackwell, who had planned to enlist as a pupil pilot in the RAF, had his training cut short by the Armistice, and decided instead to volunteer for the projected desert expedition. Carried out by a military convoy of 10 Model T Fords and some 15 men under the command of Lt. Col. Keeling, the aim of the expedition was to set up a chain of whitewashed stone markers to aid the pilots of an air mail service between the eastern Mediterranean and India, cutting out the lengthy Suez-Aden-Bombay sea route. - The photographs document the journey from Cairo to Haifa by train, then on to Damascus on established roads, up to the expedition's last outpost before the open desert, Dumair. The following pictures show the men setting up the stone signs, repairing their vehicles, sometimes having to push them forward (a total of six Fords had to be abandoned along the way), posing for group pictures, and travelling through the vast desert landscape, stops along the way including Abu Kamal, Ana, Ramadi and Fallujah, before reaching Baghdad, and going on to the ruins of Babylon, Basra, Bombay, Aden, and Suez. - Photographs are mounted in groups, with captions in English. Enclosed is an envelope containing seven loose photographs torn from the album, as well as a brief typewritten account of the journey, and correspondence relating to the loan of photographs for a magazine article, referring to it as a "grand trip". - Extremities lightly bumped. A few photographs loose; traces of photographs torn away in places. Impressive visual material of this little-known epic journey. Cf. Aramco World July/August 1981, vol. 32, nr. 4.
8vo. (IV), XII, 72 pp. Half-title, wood-engraved portrait of Jean-Auguste de Thou to title. 20th century panelled calf. Written at Poitou ca. 1745, this work was not published until 1864 at the end of an edition of Jacques du Fouilloux's "La Venerie". Harting recommends it and writes that his "treatise conveys a good idea of the state of falconry in the 18th century in Poitou, where the native Goshawk was much used". - Occasional spotting, heavier to endpapers. Harting 202. Schwerdt I, 74. Thiébaud 109.
Oblong folio (340 x 250 mm). 48 albumen photographs mounted on card, each approximately 225 x 280 mm. Contemporary olive wooden boards decorated with the cross of Jerusalem; red calf spine. A thorough collection of Bonfils studio photography of Palestine and surroundings. - Félix Bonfils (1831-85) was a French-born photographer who had come to the Levant with General d'Hautpoul in 1860 and remained active in the East. Based in Beirut, Bonfils produced thousands of photographs depicting Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the early days of Western tourism to the Middle East, his works soon became popular as souvenirs. - The photographs largely depict views in and around Jerusalem as well as six portrait and group shots showing traditional fashions. Included are scenes of Jaffa, the exterior and interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the "Mosque of Omar" (Dome of the Rock, Qubbat as-Sakhra) and the Al-Aqsa (Qibli) Mosque, scenes of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, among others. The handsome olive binding, with its carved cross and decorative inlay, underlines the value of Bonfils photographs as fine mementos of trips to the Holy Land in the late 19th century, during a rise in tourism European tourism and interest in the Levant. - Light exterior wear; well preserved.
4to. (8), 800, (36) pp. With 4 folding engr. plates (Europe, Asia, Africa, America). - (Bound with) II: The same. Della ragioni di stato, libri dieci. Ibid., 1640. (8), 264 pp. Contemporary vellum with ms. spine title. Famous geographical treatise by Giovanni Botero (1544-1617), with Arabia pictured on both the Asia and the Africa plate, and discussions of the Arabian Peninsula (pp. 120 ff.), the Middle East (pp. 123 ff.), "Arabia troglodotica" [!] (p. 130 f.), Egypt (pp. 131 ff.). Originally conceived as a statistical examination of the ecumenical propagation of Christianity, in subsequent editions the work gradually expanded until it formed a comprehensive repertory of anthropology and geography, with systematic accounts of the physical properties, demographics, economic resources, military power, and political constitution of all states of the world. - Appended to this is Botero's famous treatise "Della ragion di Stato" (The Reason of State), in which Botero argues - against Machiavelli - that a prince's power must be based on some form of consent of his subjects, and princes must make every effort to win the people's affection and admiration. - Some browning throughout; occasional insignificant edge defects and small tears; traces of old library stamps. Graesse I, 504. Cf. Cox I, 71.
8vo. (12), 378 pp., final blank f. - (Bound with): Sylburg, Friedrich. Saracenica, sive Moamethica. Ibid., 1595. (8), 152 pp. Both works have printer's woodcut device to title page. Contemporary blindstamped vellum. I: An uncommon edition. The book was first published by Prevosteau in Paris in 1590 from the author's notes ("ex adversariis"). Essentially the sources drawn on are purely those of ancient writers, both Greek and Latin, from whom there is extensive quotation. Book I is concerned with the Persian rulers and their history, book II with religious and social life, and book III with military organisation and prowess, both ancient and modern. Brisson (1531-91) was a distinguished jurist and author of important works, notably the legal code of Henri III, but no traveller. He was hanged by the "Ligueurs" on 15 Nov. 1591. The "Typographus lectori" makes it very clear how difficult were the circumstances in which Brisson found himself, the very walls of the city being shaken by bombardment, and the shadow of death being seen everywhere, and the very opening paragraph of the text, in which Brisson speaks of "Regii nominis decus, imperii maiestatem, totumque regni statum", has contemporary resonance. Friedrich Sylburg, who acted as editor and proof-reader for the Commelin atelier, has added just a few notes at the end, the preface to these claiming that the original Paris edition of 1590 had been full of errors of transcription and editing. - II: Bound with this is the first edition of Sylburg's "Saracenica", a "theological compilation with many magical deliberations" (cf. Göllner 1878) providing a German Protestant apology against Islam based on works of the Oriental church. Contains extracts from the Panoplia of Zigabenus, a treatise against the "false prophet" Muhammad, the catechism for Saracene converts to Christianity, as well as extracts from Eutychius, Theophanes and Anastasius, printed in Greek and Latin parallel text. The "1591" edition cited by Göllner 1878 (a single supposed copy in Braunschweig) is a ghost, based on a misreading of the indistinct final digit of the imprint. - Binding stained; interior somewhat browned as common due to paper. Provenance: 1) Collection of the German historian Franz Dominikus Häberlin (1720-87) with his engr. bookplate on pastedown and monogrammed stamp on t. p. 2) Wilhelm Gesenius (1786-1842), German orientalist (his lithogr. bookplate on pastedown, with his acquisition note: "bought from D. Katsch [?] for 7 Silbergroschen"). 3) Franz Karl Movers (1806-56), German orientalist (his stamp on t. p.). 4) Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Berlin (stamp on reverse of title-page; dispersed in 1942). 5) Swedish trade. Two additional 18th and 19th century ownerships ("C.S." and "Dr. Levin"). I: VD 16, B 8335. Adams B 2851. BM-STC German 154. OCLC 23620760. - II: VD 16, S 10353. Adams S 2137. BM-STC German 846. Göllner 2068 & cf. 1878. Smitskamp, PO 48. OCLC 17199693.
4to. XV, (1), 669, (1) pp. With a folding engraved map and 28 wood-engraved vignettes as chapter headings. Half brown calf over marbled boards, spine compartments ruled and decorated in gilt, burgundy morocco gilt lettering label. First edition. James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855), founder of the Calcutta Journal, Oriental Herald and Colonial Review, The Sphynx, and The Argus, social reformer and founding member of the British and Foreign Institute, travelled in the Middle East as a sea captain and merchant. This work relates the part of his travels which took him through Nazareth, the plains of the Hauran, Damascus, Tripoli, Lebanon and Balbec to Aleppo. An appendix refutes the charges of plagiarism brought by Burckhardt and Bankes against his Travels in Palestine. - Occasional light foxing and staining, slight offsetting from the engraved map to the titled. A very good copy. Blackmer 232. Tobler 143. Röhricht 1650. Howgego II, B69, p. 78.
Small folio (190 x 272 mm). 4 vols. (4), 682 pp. (4), XXV, (1), 649, (1) pp. (4), 700 pp. VIII, 676 pp. Modern green half leather over marbled boards with giltstamped title to spine. Monumental French translation of the great hadith collection known as the "Sahih al-Buchari", "in later times esteemed almost as highly as the Koran itself" (Brockelmann). It ranks as the first in importance of the six major canonical hadith collections, its authority and holiness surpassed only by the Holy Qur'an. - The French Arabist Octave Victor Houdas (1840-1916) taught at the École des langues orientales. His translation, the first complete edition, appeared within the "Publications de l'École des langues orientales vivantes", IVe série, vols. III-VI. - A few insignificant edge flaws, but on the whole a finely preserved set, uniformly bound in green half morocco. A milestone in French Islamic scholarship. Rare. GAL S I, 261. OCLC 493784348.
Large 4to (158 x 240 mm). (6), 219, XL, (29) pp. With different engraved vignette on each title-page and folding engraved plate. Contemporary Spanish marbled calf, flat spine with red morocco lettering-piece. Marbled endpapers. Edges sprinkled red. First joint edition in Arabic and Spanish. - The Neoplatonist Persian philosopher Ibn Miskawayh (932-1030) worked as a chancery official and librarian for various viziers of the Abbasid empire; many of his works show and document the influence of Greek philosophy on his thought. His Arabic paraphrase occasionally contains additional passages not recorded in the original Greek text. - The "Pinax" ("Table" or "Painting") is an allegorical moral sketch of human life commonly attributed to the Greek philosopher Cebes, a student of Socrates, though the book's real author likely flourished in the first century AD. The Neoplatonist and Pythagorean perspective of late Hellenistic Stocism earned the text great popularity among later readers: "To us, all this appears sterile and trite; yet its impact was such that even the visual arts attempted to recreate a fiction whose author in fact shows little graphic flair" (Wilamowitz). One such attempt to transfer the titular "painting" into an engraving is found in the present edition. - Extremities quite insignificantly rubbed; a very appealingly preserved copy. Hoffmann I, 447. Palau 50822 ("Bella edición"). Not in Engelmann/Preuss.
8vo. VIII, (4), 503, (1) pp. With 8 steel-engraved plates including the frontispiece (the 5 signed ones engraved by Pearson) and a folding map of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea and the Gulf, hand-coloured in outline (lithographed by Edward Weller). Red cloth. First edition (only edition until a 1968 facsimile) of a very detailed and well-illustrated account of a British naval campaign to suppress the East African slave trade in the years 1868 to 1870, published only eight years after the end of the United States' Civil War and the abolition of slavery there. Slavery was not outlawed in the Ottoman Empire (which at the time of publication included Egypt and what is now Iraq) until 1882, and in Iran and most of the Gulf States not until the 20th century. The author, Captain Philip Howard Colomb (1831-99), was Commander of the HMS Dryad from 1868 to 1870 and led the campaign. He operated primarily in and around the Gulf, Oman and Zanzibar and captured seven slave ships during those two years. The illustrations show the Dryad and some of the slave ships, individual and group portraits of slaves encountered during the campaign, and views of ports where slave trading occurred. One of the group portraits was engraved after a photograph made by one of the Dryad's officers and other illustrations after drawings by other officers. The map ("The slave trading waters of the Indian Ocean") shows the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Gulf, including Madagascar and the other islands. The first chapter relates Colomb's voyage to Aden, where he took command of the Dryad, and the next two chapters provide extensive background information to place the account of the campaign in context. Colomb's account of his own campaign includes chapters on individual regions (Bombay, Muscat and Oman, the Gulf, Madagascar, Zanzibar, etc.) and on various topics (slaves on board ship, the slave market, etc.). Colomb was promoted to Admiral after his retirement from active duty. The book is sometimes mistakenly ascribed to his younger brother, John Charles Ready Colomb. - Bookplate "HW". Spine sunned; insignificant foxing in the folding map, but otherwise in fine condition. Garrick, "Indian Ocean, post-exploration", in: Speake, Literature of travel and exploration (2003), pp. 608-610. WorldCat (4 copies). Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 5 (1873), p. 117.
Small folio (222 x 302 mm). 3 volumes bound as two. (32), 605, (1) pp. (14), 607-931, (1), 75, (1) pp. (16), 625, (1) pp. All 3 title-pages printed in red and black. Contemporary full mottled brown calf with giltstamped red labels to finely gilt spines (not uniform). Edges sprinkled red. Continuation of João de Barros's famous work on Portuguese colonial history in the Orient. First published in 1602, this is the first edition to include decade IX. Do Couto (1542-1616), chronicler and custodian of Torre do Tombo, begins with Decada IV, in continuation of de Barros's Decada III. (When de Barros's own Decada IV was discovered and posthumously published in 1615, the work effectively acquired another treatment of the same period with a different text, both numbered IV). "The 'Decades' contain "the early history of the Portuguese in India and Asia and reveal careful study of Eastern historians and geographers, as well as of the records of [the author's] own country. They are distinguished by clearness of exposition and orderly arrangement. They are also lively accounts" (Enc. Britannica). - Vols. I and II bound in a single volume. Some worming to spine-ends, with traces of worming to inner margin of the final four leaves of vol. III. A clean copy. Innocencio II, 154. Monteverde 1900. Cordier, BJ, 34 and BS, 2309. Cf. Macro 763. Not in Samodães or Ameal.
1629(16), 144, (4) pp. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, 3 full-page engravings in the text (including specimens of Arabic) and numerous ornamental woodcut initials and vignettes. - (Bound with) II: Hackspan, Theodor. Disputationum theologicarum & philologicarum sylloge [...]. Nuremberg, Johann Andreas Endter & Wolfgang Endter, 1663. (8), 616, (43) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With several ornamental woodcut vignettes and head- and tailpieces. - (Bound with) III: Lipmann-Mühlhausen, Jom-Tob. Liber Nizachon Rabbi Lipmanni. Nuremberg, Wolfgang Endter, 1644. 4to. (14), 512, (24) pp. With additional engraved, illustrated title-page. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. Nuremberg sammelband concerning problems of oriental philology and text exegesis, written or edited by notable Protestant scholars. - I: Early scientific work of comparative linguistics, comparing Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Latin, Greek, French, etc. in great detail regarding grammar, lexicon, and phonetic inventory. Christoph Crinesius (1584-1629), an orientalist from Bohemia and "well versed in the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syrian languages" (cf. Jöcher), had studied and taught at Wittenberg before becoming a preacher in Gschwendt. After the Protestants' eviction from Austria he became professor of theology in Altdorf; the present work was first published in two parts in Wittenberg in 1610. - II: Collection of theological and philological disputations by Hackspan, who is considered "next to Salomon Glass the most important Hebraist of his age. He also studied the Rabbis closely and made use of the knowledge thus gained for theology. Furthermore, he was familiar with the Arabic and Syrian language" (cf. ADB X, 299). After delivering an excellent disputation, Hackspan was made professor of oriental languages at Altdorf although he held no degree. Numerous passages in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syrian type. - III: The first printed edition of the Sefer nizzachon, the major work of the great apologist and cabbalist Jom-Tov ben Salomo Lipmann of Mühlhausen (fl. after 1400). In this "Book of Victory", written before 1410, Lipmann attacks "central Christian teachings, especially Christian interpretations of individual Biblical passages [...] The work, which presupposes a thorough acquaintance with the New Testament, created a sensation among Christians and provoked the Brandenburg Bishop Stephan Bodecker to respond with a treatise of his own" (cf. Jüd. Lex. III, 1119). Edited by the distinguished orientalist Theodor Hackspan (1607-59), who had by a dramatic feat acquired the work theretofore existing only as a secret manuscript circulating among the Jewish community: "Hackspan visited with several students a Jew in Schnattach, with whom he had frequently spoken of the Nizzachon, but from whom he had never succeeded in obtaining it. During the visit he made the Jew so trustful that he showed him the Nizzachon, and while the students, as had been planned, ensnared the Jew in arguments and discourse, Hackspan seized his chance, got in a ready coach with the Nizzachon and left the Jew standing. As soon as he arrived at home with his booty he cut up the book, and Schnell, Blendinger, Frischmuth and other men well versed in the Rabbinic language had quickly to copy it so that one could return it to the Jew, who came for it the very next day. And through this fine deceit this evil book came into the Christians' hands and later into print" (cf. Will). The Hebrew text (constituting the major part of the work) was printed in Altdorf, the Latin text (likewise paginated from right to left) in Nuremberg. The appendix contains numerous passages in Arabic. - With autograph owner's mark "Ex libris Maresii" [probably Samuel Maresius (1599-1673, Gröningen theologian)] on flyleaf. Front pastedown with autogr. owner's mark of M. D. Winter [i. e. Magister David Winter (1643-99, Wittenberg philologist)] and ownership "Ha-Sefer jehert [A]dolf Mobring [?]"; a few underlinings in the text. Slightly browned throughout. Title-page of II (Crinesius) expertly re-margined. Occasionally slightly waterstained, otherwise a good copy of the rare major work of the cabbalist Lipmann in a contemporary sammelband. I: Jöcher I, 2198. VD 17, 14:053983L. - II: VD 17, 12:123782K. Will, Nürnb. Gelehrten-Lex. II (DBA I 452, 385). - III: Steinschneider I, 1411: 5854, 1. VD 17, 23:270299X. Will, Nürnb. Gelehrten-Lex. II (as above).
8vo. 16 pp. Uncut and untrimmed in contemporary wrappers. Only edition. This rare treatise in the form of a letter addressed to the Arabist and bibliographer Schnurrer discusses the famed sixteenth-century Venetian edition of the Qur'an in Arabic. De Rossi, the distinguished orientalist and librarian of Parma, here proves that Paganini ceased printing in 1518, at which time he was succeeded in his business by his son Alessandro. Rossi therefore places the printing of the Qur'an at 1518 or earlier, although others have proposed it could have been printed as early as 1509, which would have made Paganini's Qur'an the first book printed in Arabic. In fact, Paganino and Alessandro Paganini produced what was the first printed edition of the Qur'an in Arabic, probably intended for export to the Ottoman Empire, between 1537 and 1538. While there existed numerous contemporary reports of its existence, all physical evidence of it disappeared for centuries, and rumor had it that the Pope had the complete print run burned. The book was long even considered a bibliographical "ghost" until a single copy was rediscovered in the library of the Franciscan Friars of San Michele in Isola, Venice, by Angela Nuovo in 1987 (cf. A. Nuovo, "Il Corano arabo ritrovato", in: Bibliofilia LXXX.9 [1987], pp. 237-272, and the English translation in The Library, 6th series, 12.4 [1990], pp. 273-292). - Uncut and untrimmed as issued; a wide-margined copy of this fine Bodoni imprint in perfect condition. Brooks 1415e. Schnurrer, p. 403. OCLC 18368416.
Folio (34.5 x 24 cm). 10 pp., 100 ff. With 100 plates (143 reproductions of photographs). Publisher's original pink cloth with Arabic and German title on upper board. First and only edition of this bilingual work with 143 photographs of Middle-Eastern archeology, compiled by the well-known German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand (1864-1936). The publication was commissioned by Ahmed Djemal Pasha (Jamal Basha, 1872-22), the Ottoman military leader and Minister of the Navy, who also wrote the foreword. The plates show archaeological excavation sites in Aleppo, Amman, Baalbek, Damascus, Gerasa, Jerusalem, Palmyra, Petra, and other places. Each plate is accompanied by a separate leaf explaining the photographs, with the text in both Arabic and German. Some of the photographs are by the Swedish photographer Lewis Larsson (1881-1958), others were taken during the expedition by Otto Puchstein (1856-1911) to the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire, Hattusa, in present-day Turkey. - Only slightly browned. Spine somewhat discoloured. A very good copy. M. Greenhalgh, Constantinople to Córdoba: dismantling ancient architecture in the East, North Africa and Islamic Spain (2012), p. 478.
