3.979 Ergebnisse
Imperial folio (440 x 605 mm). 2 vols. bound as four. 21, (3), (29) pp. (31) pp. 43, (28) pp. (32) pp. With 120 collotype plates (67 colour and 53 black & white, 7 of the latter double-page) by Max Jaffé, and 14 wood-engraved full-page illustrations on the integral leaves. Later half calf with cloth sides. First and only edition of "the most important recent publication with wonderful reproductions of the best known carpets" (Ettinghausen 1936), here in very good condition, rebound in four high-quality half calf volumes. The project was initiated by the Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, which had previously published two other works on carpets: "Orientalische Teppiche" (1892) and "Altorientalische Teppiche" (1908). The present work by Sarre & Trenkwald has far more and better illustrations than the earlier works, with 120 fine collotype plates. The authors were highly regarded authorities in the field of Islamic art, especially Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945), "without doubt one of the most influential figures regarding the scholarly formation of Islamic art" (Kadoi/Szanto). He was the director of the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin and responsible for the formation of the "most comprehensive collection of Islamic art outside the Islamic world". - The work is characterized by an emphasis on the technique of production. The plates that depict carpets in colour and black & white are preceded by a descriptive page that is sometimes illustrated with a schematic explanation of the knotting technique used for making the carpet. The first part, by Hermann Trenkwald, with 60 plates, is entirely devoted to carpets in the world-renowned collection of the Austrian Museum. The second part, by Sarre, also comprising 60 plates, covers the greatest carpets in other collections throughout the world, including private collections such as that of Baron Maurice Rothschild. - Corners slightly bumped, but in very good condition. R. Ettinghausen, Kali (1936), p. 110. Kadoi & Szanto, The Shaping of Persian Art (2014), p. 227.
Large 8vo. VIII, 844 pp. Original buff buckram, leather labels to spine. "The law of Transjordan is Turkish law as it existed on the 23rd of September, 1918, except in so far as it has been superseded or modified since that date. To indicate the extent to which it has been so superseded and modified is the purpose of this volume […]" (from the Compiler's Preface). - Seton was President of the District Court, Jaffa from 1920 to 1926, after which he took on the post of Judicial Adviser Transjordan, in which role he produced this digest. He was subsequently President of the District Court in Haifa, 1931-35, before moving on to become Puisne Judge, Jamaica. This was his sole publication. - This copy is unmarked as such, but is from the Library of Glubb Pasha, and is the Arab Legion Head Quarters copy, with ink stamp to the front pastedown and inscription, "Not to be taken from the Head Quarters of the Arab Legion" in Peake Pasha's hand, signed by him. - Endpapers lightly foxed, otherwise very good in the original buckram, labels a little rubbed and lifting at the corners.
Watercolour over traces of pencil. 708 x 490 mm. Signed and dated by the artist. Matted.
8vo. 12 vols. With 72 engr. maps. Contemp. French full calf with giltstamped labels and gilt spines. All edges red; marbled endpapers. A fine copy of the twelve-volume octavo edition of the most detailed and accurate geography of its day (published simultaneously in four quarto volumes). All the maps are taken from the "Atlas Portatif" (1748-49) of Robert de Vaugondy. The fine map of the Arabian Peninsula is derived, via Vaugondy, from Delisle; "it includes the three classic divisions of the Arabian Peninsula and the following regional subdivisions: Tahama in the south west, Bahrain, which extends along the east coast and includes the town of Cathema, Yemen in the south which includes Oman, the States of the Cherif of Mecca which includes Hagiaz and parts of the centre of the Arabian Peninsula. Although the width of the Red Sea is exaggerated, the Sinai peninsula's shape is very close to reality. The topographical features and watercourses are not very different to how they are shown on other maps of the same period. A town named Naged is shown to the north west of the town of Janama" (Al Ankary). - Some bindings slightly bumped at extremeties. Contemporary ms. ownership "Leon. van Berg" to pastedowns; titles bear stamp of the La Valsainte Charterhouse, Switzerland (dissolved in 1825). Slightly browned. Formerly in the collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Streit 17, p. 252, n. 6198. Brunet VI, 19613. OCLC 34221488. For the map of Arabia cf. Tibbetts 278. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, The Gulf in Historic Maps, S. 162. Al Ankary Collection 338 (all referencing Vaugondy's map).
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, others uncut. 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. - Ink ownership stamp of Charles C. Sterrett, an American Presbyterian missionary to the Christian population in the region, to the front pastedown. Binding a little rubbed and spotted, endpapers foxed. Small inked library stamp and cancellation to the title page, otherwise very good. Diba Collection 1978, 227. Wilson 243. OCLC 2987283.
Folio (240 x 362 mm). (4), 297, (44) ff. Title page printed in red and black. With woodcut vignette to t. p., printer's device to final page, and woodcut arms of Nidhard Thungen on dedication leaf. Original calf (restored). The first edition of this work to include Turkish material: an early, important collection of sources on Byzantium, Turkey, and the Islamic world, containing writings by Laonikos Chalkokondyles ("Historiarum de origine ac rebus gestis Turcorum libri X"), Nikephoros Gregoras ("Historiae Byzantinae libri XI"), Johannes Zonaras, and Niketas Choniates, as well as additional material by several other writers on Turkey. - Binding professionally repaired. Some brownstaining and waterstaining throughout; a few repaired paper flaws near beginning and end. VD 16, H 3899. Adams H 634. BM-STC German 259. Atabey 582. Blackmer 819. Hoffmann II, 628f.
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.
Folio (256 x 370 mm). (36), 431, (15) pp., final blank f. With printer's device to title page, woodcut headpiece and four half-page woodcuts of the Evangelists. Printed in red and black throughout. Contemporary paper boards. The Maronite edition of the Gospels in Syriac and Carshuni (following the Roman Arabic Bible of 1671), including the Peshitta text. Edited by Faustus Naironus Banensis and Josephus Banesius for use as a service-book in Maronite churches and dedicated to Cardinal Barberini, this was published as the first volume of the "Novus Testamentum Syriacum, et Arabicum". - Some browning and occasional foxing, marginal waterstaining near beginning. Chapter and verse numbers supplied in the margins in ink by a late-18th century owner. An untrimmed, wide-margined copy in the original temporary boards as issued. Very scarce. Schnurrer 338. Darlow/Moule 1742 & 8968. OCLC 254265613.
12 maps, various sizes and scales. Rare collection of maps relating to the proposed construction of a railway between Haifa and Baghdad. In the 1920s the British contemplated building such a railway that would have connected the Mediterranean with the capital of Iraq, ostensibly to shore up their imperial rule, support the British-backed Arab government of Iraq, and secure the oil pipeline already running from the Mosul oilfields to Haifa. They were also aware that developments of aerial warfare made the Suez Canal susceptible to aerial attacks in wartime, and alternative military routes across the Middle East to India were sought. However, a series of economic difficulties trumped political and military expediency, and with the outbreak of the Second World War, the dream of a trans-Middle Eastern rail service evaporated. - The present collection includes: 1) Baghdad (Valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris from Kirkuk (N-S) and Ramadi to Kermanshah (E-W), Baghdad at the centre. Scale 1:1,000,000. 2) Untitled French map, showing Baghdad to Deir-ez-Zor (E-W) and Mosul to Baghdad (N-S). Bureau Topographique des Troupes françaises du Levant, May 1933. Colour-printed. 850 x 630 mm. 3) Untitled map showing the area between Abu Kemal on the Euphrates and Tikrit on the Tigris. 4) Jaffa-Nablous. Jaffa-Amman (E-W). Reproduction of a "carte de reconnaissance" by E. L. Ottoman. Scale 1:200,000. Paris, Service Geographique de l'Armee, 1930. Colour-printed. 690 x 540 mm. 5) Four air photo maps showing Holt's Zerka Valley Alignment (thus titled by hand, referring to Major A. L. Holt, R.E.). Haifa-Baghdad rly. survey. Trans-Jordan. Surveyed at War Office from photographs by the R.A.F. ground control under the direction of Major R. L. Brown, R. E. Showing a section of the Jordan river and the country east to Jerash. Colour-printed, with the proposed rail route marked in crayon with annotations. Scale 1:24,000. Each map 940 x 730 mm. 6) Four manuscript maps maps, coloured: a) Haifa-Baghdad Railway. Geological Map of Zerka Route, by G. S. Blake, B.Sc., F.G.S. 1934. 1350 x 530 mm. b) Haifa-Baghdad Railway, Geological Plan and Section, by G. S. Blake. 1380 x 880 mm. c) Map of Zerka Route. Haifa-Baghdad Railway. 1500 x 750 mm. d) Geological Section from Damascus to Rutba to show westerly inclination of strata. 1200 x 340 mm. Geological section along proposed route of Haifa Baghdad railway from the Jordan to the Euphrates. - Some edge tears with occasional loss to paper but not to the map. A rare survival.
Folio. VI, 86 pp. Top edge gilt. Sewn. Rare British parliamentary papers and correspondence with local agents on the slave trade, including accounts of the extent to which many Arabs of the Gulf involved themselves in slavery in spite of their rulers having entered into agreements prohibiting such an activity: "[T]he Northern Arabs repair to the East Coast of Africa with no other motive than that of running slaves to the Persian Gulf [...] It is a known fact, that not one out of a hundred dhows that come here from the Persian Gulf, comes for any other purpose than to carry a cargo of slaves stolen from the inhabitants of Zanzibar" (p. 75). "These Sheikhs [on the Arabian coast line], who are all, more or less, bound to observe the Treaties, [...] allow the dhows to land the slaves they have succeeded in smuggling out of the Sultan's dominions [...] Could not the Sultan of Oman and the other Chiefs of the Persian Gulf be induced to issue orders calculated to prevent their subjects from carrying on this Trade?" (p. 73f.). - Disbound from a volume of parliamentary papers. Some leaves loosened, but on the whole a good copy. Wilson p. 210.
Landscape folio (25 x 34.4 cm). Engr. title page, 7 hand-coloured engraved plates by Alken, plate 5 with J. Whatman 1819 mark. Later red hard-grained half morocco, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt, rebacked preserving spine. First edition, early issue. The first of Alken's works to have a title page, "lacking from a great many copies" (Dixon). Signed Ben Tally Ho, the title good-humouredly explains that the plates are a reply to Robert Frankland's "Indispensable Accomplishments", a set of six Leicestershire hunting prints published in June 1811. Where Frankland blames the horse for any failures, Alken aims to show how a perfectly good horse can be handicapped by an "unqualified" or untrained rider. - Light browning to sky areas and plate margins. Provenance: Alfred N. Beadleston (bookplate). Dixon 4 (two plates watermarked 1819). Mellon/Snelgrove 3. Schwerdt I, 20 (1813 watermark). Siltzer 69 & 74. Tooley, Coloured Plates 44.
4to. (8), 372, 75, (1) pp. With woodcut title vignette. Contemporary vellum. Quarto edition of Elmacinus's great chronicle, "Tarih al-muslimin" ("Kitab al-magmu` al-mu-barak"), translated by Erpenius. This "History of the Saracenes" is actually a history of Islam from the days of the Prophet up to the year 1118. Erpenius, professor at Leiden, is remembered as "one of the men whom the study of oriental languages owes its resurrection" (cf. VI, 329). "The translation of the second part of the 'Tarih al-muslimin', an Arabic chronicle written by the Copt Georgios Al-Makin in the thirteenth century. The first part was already missing from the manuscript which Erpenius used. The text and translation were published by Golius, who had to edit the last two chapters, where Erpenius had broken off. There are three editions: a folio edition containing text and translation; this quarto edition of the translation only, and a small-octavo edition of the text only. The manuscript used for this edition was lent to Erpenius by the Palatine Library, a fact which he acknowledges in the dedication to King Frederick of Bohemia [...] Next to the title and the dedication, the preliminaries contain a short anonymous note introducting the work to the reader (no date, no mention of an Arabic text), and a list of the Khalifs mentioned in the translation" (Smitskamp). - Title page insignificantly browned; slight paper defects in the list of Caliphs (with old repairs), otherwise well-preserved. Rahir 197. Willems 232. Smitskamp PO, 83. Brunet II, 964 (note). Schnurrer 155. GAL I, 348. Juynboll 111-114. Fück 71ff.
Hand-coloured aquatint plate by Clark after Temple. 330 x 485 mm. From the exceedingly rare series "Sixteen views of places in the Persian Gulph", engraved after drawings taken by Richard Temple, a private in his Majesty's 65th regiment during the British attacks against the tribes of the Gulf in 1809. The port of Shinas is located near the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Abbey 389, no. 17. Al-Qasimi, The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf (Milton Park, 1988), pl. 15.
8vo. 126 pp., final blank f. With printer's device on t. p. Half vellum (c. 1900) with marbled boards and giltstamped spine title. Edges sprinkled in red. Third edition of the famous "Hieracosophion", the second to contain the third book. - "Celebrated poem on falconry" (Schwerdt), written in Latin hexameters by Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), a distinguished and highly erudite French nobleman. "His poem was reprinted by N. Rigault in 'Rei Accipitrariae Scriptores' in 1612 and also translated into Italian [...] De Thou succeeded his father, Christophe, as president of parliament; he was privy councillor to Henry III, and also to Henry IV of France, and keeper of his library. He was not thirty when he composed the elegant verses on hawking, which were probably inspired by the experience he gained of this noble sport during his sojourns at foreign courts" (ibid.). On p. 7, we find "an important note on the various kinds of hawks used for Falconry, with the Latin and French names for them" (Harting). - Very minor brownstaining; traces of an old bookseller's label on endpapers. A good copy. Adams T 658. BM-STC French 225. Barbier IV, 1270. Harting 306. Souhart 461. Schwerdt II, 261. Thiébaud 897. Graesse VI/2, 147. OCLC 69042873. Cf. Brunet V, 840 (first ed. 1584). Not in Renouard or Schreiber.
Small folio (27 x 18 cm). XVIII, 170 pp. (pp. VI and XVIII blank). With 14 sepia photographic plates, 1 folding facsimile letter, 2 folding graphs, a plate with 6 pie charts and 1 illustration (also in red) showing schematically a smuggling box. Original pink paper wrappers. Exceptionally rare work on drug trafficking in Egypt in the 1930s and an important example of the "war on drugs" of the author, who was director of the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau. Thomas Wentworth Russell (1879-1954), sometimes better known as Russell Pasha, was a police officer in service of Egypt who was appalled by the increasing drug trafficking in Egypt and the high amount of drug addicts in the country. He founded the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau (CNIB), making it his mission to rid Egypt of especially what he called "white drugs" (cocaine, morphine, heroin), but also of "black drugs" (hashish, opium). Russell can be considered as one of the most important anti-drug campaigners in Egypt in his time and after, as he really raised awareness for the rising problem. In this work, Russell describes how drugs are smuggled in large quantities from abroad to Egypt. In many chapters, he extensively describes the foreign sources of supply (discussing not only important drug barons, but also mentioning specific ships and other means of transport which smuggled drugs), cases in which weapons were used by traffickers, on people involved in the trade, on traffickers and their methods of smuggling (among others in shoes, camel saddles, etc.), on addiction and the social effects and death rates, and many more. It is a scarce and outstanding example of Russell's anti-drug campaign, extensively describing drug trafficking in Egypt in the 1930s, being well-illustrated with photographs of drug barons, users, traffickers and methods of concealment. - Presentation copy to the English poet and dramatist John Drinkwater with an inscription by Russelll on the front wrapper ("John Drinkwater / With compliments from the director / Tho Russell / 24/3/33" / [Arabic script]") and his red stamp next to the inscription. - Spine worn, front wrapper detached, covers with light residual dampstain. A highly uncommon survival. Not in WorldCat.
4to. (7) ff., 1 blank f., (4) ff. With woodcut device on title, large historiated woodcut initials, and an additional engraved folding plan of Tripolis (204 x 285 mm), not called for by bibliographies. 18th century full vellum with giltstamped red morocco label to spine (very similar to the bindings done for the Venetian library of Giacomo Soranzo). First dated publication of Ulloa's account of the siege of Tripolis in Italian. Includes the three-page dedication to Johann Jakob Fugger - the only place in the book where Ulloa's name appears. The author, a courtier of King Philip II, celebrates the defence of St Angelo's fortress on Malta, modern Libya. - In the 1551 Siege of Tripoli, the Ottoman fleet vanquished the Knights of Malta in Tripoli; the city was captured on 15 August by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment. The knights, many of them French, were returned to Malta upon the intervention of the French ambassador, and shipped onboard his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved. Murad Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura since 1536, was named as the Pashalik of the city. The siege was the first step in the all-out Italian War of 1551-59 in the European theatre. In 1553, Dragut was nominated commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city a centre for piratical raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania. In a famous attack from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio and took all its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli. In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but that force was defeated in the Battle of Djerba, an event also described in Ulloa's book. The end of the volume is brought up by an interesting four-page account of Malta ("Descrittione dell'Isola di Malta") and a list of the names of Christian knights who died in the siege. The fine engraved plate bound after the preliminaries, entitled "Il vero disegno del porto, della città, della fortezza, et del sito dove è posta Tripoli di Barbaria. Ven. l'anno 1567 alla libreria della Colonna" appeared a year after the book. It is engraved by Paolo Forlani. - A clean, well preserved copy. Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Cf. Mortimer 509 (with note on this edition). Not in Adams, Blackmer or Aboussouan. This edition not in Atabey.
147 albumen and silver gelatin print photographs, mounted on loose cardstock (recto and verso). Some with inked captions in contemporary hand. Included is a typewritten military communication, also laid down on two sides of cardstock. Over one hundred photographs of French exploration of the Sahara by airplane and automobile in the first decade of flight, set against the backdrop of WWI, the first years of aviation, the Kaocen revolt, and French colonization of Algeria. - Thirty-two aerial photographs show not only towns and oases of the M'zab region of Saharan Algeria such as El Guerrara and Melika, but likely the landmarks by which early pilots were learning to navigate in vast tracts of desert; other photographs feature the Farman F.41 biplane, briefly in use in French North Africa in 1917. The goal to traverse the Sahara was not without dangers: two disasters appear in the record. One is a plane crash, shown in four photographs of a group of men inspecting the wreckage of a downed plane, possibly one of the Farman F.41s, though its state makes identification difficult. The second involves an altercation with local Tuareg people, with whom the French were at war at the time, in the midst of the larger conflict of WWI. The skirmish is described in a typed military communique. Addressed from the Gouvernement General de l'Algerie, 19th Corps d'Armee, Territoire du Sud, Territoire des Oasis, it reads: "Le commandant Militaire fait part aux Troupes du Territoire de la mort glorieuse due Personnel de l'Aviation Saharienne parti de Ouargla en reconnaissance automobile sure In-Salah le 27 Janvier [...] A leur arrivée dans les gorges d'Ain-Guettara; le Ier Février, les deux automobiles sont tombées dans une embuscade tendue par un rezzou de 80 Touaregs dissidents. Après une lutte héroique et après avoir épuisé toutes ses munitions, la petite troupe a été anéantie. Ce sont les premières victimes de la pénétration automobile et aérienne au Sahara [...] L'Escadrille Saharienne nouse aidera un jour à les venger". - Altogether, the collection provides a unique window into a series of historical moments: early aviation, exploration of the Sahara, French colonialism in Algeria, the Tuareg resistance, and the First World War. - A touch of wear, otherwise well preserved.
4to. (2), 362 pp. (but: 360 pp.; p. 176f. omitted); 100 pp. (complete). With engraved frontispiece (margins trimmed) and 16 engraved plates. Contemporary full vellum with ms. spine title. Leaves Bb2-4 and Cc1-2 supplied from another copy. The first German edition of Vairasse's "Histoire des Sevarambes" ("History of the Sevarambians"), translated from the French 1677-79 edition. This is an account of an imaginary journey to Australia, a utopian history in the style of Thomas Moore. Presented in the manner of the then-current geographical and anthropological works, the book provides a direct criticism of revealed and imposed religions, in particular of 17th century Catholicism. Remarkably, this edition also includes the first German publication of Thomas Skinner's slavery narrative entitled "The adventures of an English merchant, taken prisoner by the Turks of Algiers, and carried into the inland countries of Africa" ("Die Selsamen Begebenheiten Herrn T. S. Eines Englischen Kauff-Herrens, Welcher von den Algierischen See-Räubern zum Sclaven gemacht, und in das inwendige Land von Africa geführet worden"). - Lower margin of title torn with some loss, final two leaves torn and frayed without loss of text. Minor foxing to the plates; binding worn, edges somewhat defective. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). VD 17, 39:131551R. Holzmann/Bohatta II, 12150.
6 telegram folios (208 x 304 mm), dated 6 to 18 January 1922, pinned together with a cover note marked "very confidential" with the oval embossed seal of the Government of India. Includes a Grant of the Dignity of a Companion of "the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire" to Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel, issued by King George V, dated 2 June 1923, signed by the King and by Viscount William Peel as Secretary of State for India, to acknowledge the services rendered to secure British interests in the southern provinces of Persia. Stored loosely in later dark green calf document holder box, spine stamped in gold "Residency Ahwaz Bushire 1922/3" (257 x 375 mm). A collection of confidential Anglo-Persian diplomatic cables relating to the appointment of Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel (1888-1976) as British Consul General at Ahwaz (Southern Iran) in view of his good relations with the Bakhtiari Khans, Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC). - This group of important telegram exchanges from Percy Lyham Loraine (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran), Arthur Prescott Trevor (Consul General at Bushehr, Southern Iran), and the Indian Political Service at Delhi, are pinned together with a cover note dated 18 January 1921, marked "very confidential" and bearing the stamp of the Government of India, indicating their subtle and yet relevant relation. They testify to the British government's shift of alliance from Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah to Reza Khan and the central government in Tehran. The Grant of Dignity appointed to Peel further emphasises the connection between this prominent stakeholder and British oil interests. Thus, this collection plays a crucial role in shedding light and understanding the 'behind the scenes' of British foreign politics related to the protection of their oil fields in Khuzestan, and their procurement and management of Iranian oil in the first two decades of the 20th century. - Ever since the British discovery of oil in the Southern Iranian Province of Khuzestan in 1908, and the formation of the APOC the following year, a fine balance was maintained by knowledgeable British Consuls General between the Bakhtiari leaders, seated in Bushehr, and the powerful Sheikh Khazal (who inherited the Emirate of Mohammarah in 1897), seated at Mohammarah. The Khans and the Sheikh, ruler of Arabistan, received annual payments, political support, as well as arms and munitions from the British in return for guaranteeing support and protection of British interests against external attacks and providing security for the oil establishment. Until Reza Shah’s rise to near-absolute power and his coup d’état of 1921, the Iranian government had little control of the de facto autonomous province of Khuzistan and their local leader. This explains why all of Loraine’s formal and informal efforts, as British Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Iran from 1921 until 1926, were directed towards achieving the peaceful submission of Britain’s Southern Iranian allies to the regime in Tehran. - In such delicate circumstances and given the inevitability of a conflict between the burgeoning central government in Tehran and the Southern Iranian tribal powers, the re-appointment of Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel, whose term of office at Ahwaz had ended in 1921 at the same time Loraine assumed office at Tehran, became a necessity to be able to mediate between the two litigious parties. In fact, Peel was the only person who not only had an in-depth understanding of the situation but was trusted by all members involved. As shown in our telegrams, the Indian Political Service at Delhi not only accepted Loraine’s advice to allow Peel to remain Consul General at Ahwaz but also nominated him to receive a British CIE order. Peel proved a skilled negotiator and succeeded in his mission of yielding a peaceful transition of power in Southern Persia and avoiding any threats to British interests in the oilfields. He managed to convince Khazal and the Bakhtiari Khans to meet in Dare Khazinah from 22 April to 2 May 1922 and made them promise to cooperate in virtue of protecting British interests, but also to continue to serve the Persian government faithfully and loyally, in order not to irritate Reza Khan. - Despite Peel’s tactful diplomacy, which averted great bloodshed, the British soon abandoned their Southern Iranian allies in favour of good relations with the increasingly powerful central government. Khazal was persuaded to surrender unconditionally and Reza Khan had him abducted and brought to Tehran, where he was kept for several years. His sheikhdom was abolished, and the provincial authority took full control of regional affairs. The Sheikh was stripped of all his powers and Iranian assets, and when he denied relocation to Iraq or Kuwait, he was assassinated in Mohammarah (now Khorramshahr) in 1936. These documents play a crucial role in unravelling the extremely complicated and confidential sequence of events that took place in those years, which stained early 20th-century Anglo-Persian diplomatic relations with the uncontrollable force of nature oil was to be in modern history, and specifically, in the geopolitical chessboard of Middle Eastern foreign affairs. - E. G. B. Peel was a British diplomat who, after achieving the rank of Captain in the Indian army, was posted first as Assistant-Superintendent of Police in Moradabad (Agra province, India) and later as a member of the Indian Political Service to the consulate at Mohammerah, where he rose to the rank of Acting Vice-Consul. In 1918 he was transferred to the consulate in Ahwaz, where he served until 1924 in the posts of Acting Vice-Consul (1918-21), Local rank Consul (1921-22), and Consul (1922-24). After completing his service at Ahwaz, he was posted to Agra and Kashmir provinces in India. He received the illustrious CIE (Companion Order of the Indian Empire) in 1923. - Provenance: the former property of a private English bibliophile, purchased from J & S. L. Bonham's, London, in 1999.
760 x 750 mm. Scale 1:1,000,000. Relief shown by hachures, spot heights, submarine contours, airports and airstrips, mining activity, and land routes. Key in English. Printed on cloth. Blueprint map of Saudi Arabia covering 20-26° N and 38-45° E, extending from the Nejd to the Red Sea coast including Jeddah and Yanbu al-Nakhal. It pays particular attention to geological features, showing the lava fields of Harrat Rahat, Harrat Kishb, Harrat Khaybar, Harrat Nawasif, Harrat Buqum and Harrat Hadan, as well as the Uruq Subay dunes and the tribal areas of Bilad Zahran and Bilad Ghamid. Among the most prominent labelled cities are Mecca with its environs (Muna, Shumaysi), Medina, Jeddah and Taif; the Darb al-Hijaz (Riyad-Jeddah Road) is named. - The sheet was prepared as a working document by Aramco and the US Geological Survey to help them in the early stages of comprehensive nationwide mapping and exploration work for the Saudi Government. - Slightly toned along folding lines and right margin.
Large 4to. All 31 issues, comprising a total of 774 pp. (some lithographic, others published as a typescript, but mostly letterpress), preserving the original printed wrappers. With 2 folding plans. Bound in 1920s green half calf over marbled boards. Rare collection of the annual reports published by the administrative board of the Beirut Port holding company: the complete stretch from 1889 (when work on the harbour began) to 1922. - Even since the 1860s, the old harbour of Beirut, 150 by 100 metres in length and a mere two metres deep, was rapidly becoming too small for the ever-expanding volume of traffic. In 1887 a consortium was formed of the Compagnie Impériale Ottomane de la Route Beyrouth à Damas, the Ottoman Bank, the Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, and the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. Reincorporated as the Paris-based "Compagnie Impériale Ottomane du Port, des Quais et Entrepôts de Beyrouth", they obtained a concession from the Porte in 1888, and construction was completed in 1895. "The new harbor, located further to the east, provided deeper anchorage (two to six meters) next to an 800-meter-long pier running almost parallel to the coast and protected by a breakwater 350 meters long. The dock area covered twenty-one hectares, with vast warehouses whose metal cladding had been designed by Gustave Eiffel" (Kassir, p. 119). Located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa, Beirut quickly became one of the principal ports between Europe and the Near East. Trade was hampered during the years of the First World War, but Beirut still received "more ships than any other port along the Syrian coast" (ibid., p. 122). - The first seven reports, covering the building phase, from 1889 to 1894, are printed as lithographs; from 1895 onwards they are letterpress, providing a full account of assets and liabilities, profits and losses, and resolutions adopted by the board, accompanied by extensive sets of tables. The publication was interrupted only in the war years, when the company was temporarily dispossessed, for which time the present volume instead contains a "Historique" and a "Memorandum", both published as typescripts. The series was resumed in 1921. - This collection bound for the "Banque de Syrie et du Liban" with their bookplate on the pastedown. Binding rubbed and chafed, but internally a very well-preserved set. Cf. Samir Kaffir, Beirut (UCA, 2010).
Folio (213 x 322 mm). (4), 316 pp. Parts printed in red and black. With numerous ornamental lines and several woodcut tailpieces. Modern half calf. "The Evangelion of the Greek Church, containing the Gospels arranged for liturgical reading throughout the year" (Darlow/M.). From the printing office of the monastery of St. John the Baptist at Shuwair in the Lebanon, which was operative between 1734 and 1899 (cf. Silvestre de Sacy I, pp. 412-414; Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter, Westhofen 2002, pp. 179-181). Particularly remarkable in this present publication is the typographic decor: all pages are framed by double rules; new sections of text are headed with an ornamental line of floral elements across the entire page width, and numerous pages show smaller figural endpieces (roses, baskets, crosses, as well as the Virgin with the Child Jesus) - a charming juxtaposition of simple woodcuts showing floral and geometrical decor familiar from the Hebrew prints produced in 19th-century Palestine with the more elaborate products "à la italienne". - Some occasional worming, browning and brownstaining. Schnurrer 360. Darlow/Moule 1661.
Folio (242 x 342 mm). 19-442, 447-450 and 455-456 pp., with pp. 9-18, 443-446 and 451-454, 457-462 and the final leaf supplied in 18th-century manuscript. With 138 (instead of 149) text woodcuts by Leonardo Parassole after Antonio Tempesta. 19th-century half cloth with marbled covers. The first Gospel printing in the interlinear Arabic and Latin version, prepared at the same time and printed by the same press as the first Arabic-only Gospel. These were the first works ever produced by Ferdinando de' Medici's "Medicea" press, founded by Pope Gregory XIII to spread the word of Christ in the Orient. Supervised by the able scholar Giovambattista Raimondi (1536-1614), its strength lay in oriental, especially Arabic, printing. After Raimondi's death, the press relocated to Florence. - The Arabic text is printed in Robert Granjon's famous large fount, generally considered the first satisfactory Arabic printing type; as all early printed editions of the Arabic Gospels, it is based on the Alexandrian Vulgate (cf. Darlow/M. 1636). The Latin version is by Leonardo Sionita. The work begins with page 9, without a title page or any preliminary matter at all: "the intended prefatory matter was apparently never published" (Darlow/M.); these first eight pages were not supplied until the 1619 re-issue. The present copy lacks the first five leaves and eight leaves at the end, all of which have been supplied in Latin and Arabic manuscript by an 18th century hand. Occasional browning; some worming to gutter (occasionally touching text as well as woodcuts); severe edge defects to the first few printed leaves; final printed leaves remargined; several severely duststained. Darlow/Moule 1637. Mortimer 64 (note). Streit XVI, p. 866, no. 5138.
4to. (8), 474, (6) pp. With two woodcut coats of arms on t. p. and at the end. Late 19th century half calf. First edition of this adaptation of the Psalms, set in Arabic-Latin parallel text. Printed in some 3000 copies, most of which were used for a 1619 re-issue with only the title page changed. Famous for the clarity and elegance of the typeface created by Savary de Brèves: the extensive vocalisation helped this handy quarto volume achieve immense popularity among oriental scholars throughout Europe. Formerly it was assumed that the type design was based on specimens Savary had seen during his time as French envoy at Constantinople; today his probable model is believed to be a calligraphical manuscript from Qannubin, preserved in the Bibliotheca Vaticana. The cutting and founding of the types were done in Rome, in collaboration with Stefano Paolini, an experienced printer formerly of the Typographia Medicea. The Psalms' text is based on a manuscript Savary de Brèves had bought in Jerusalem (cf. Balagna, L’imprimerie arabe en occident, p. 55f.); as it occasionally departs from the Vulgate (as does the translation by the Maronites Sionita and Scialac), an extensive imprimatur was necessary. - Bellarmin's Arabic catechism and the Arabic-Latin Psalter would remain the only works to leave the Typographia Savariana in Rome; the types have survived and are now in the archives of the Imprimerie Nationale in Paris. - From the library of the Biblical scholar Samuel Davidson (1806-98) with his ms. ownership to title page; binding slightly bumped, but a fine copy altogether. STC 108. Darlow/Moule 1641. Lüthi 198. Smitskamp 33. Schnurrer 324 & p. 500-506. Fück 56. Ebert 18088. Brunet IV, 921.
Large 4to (220 x 266 mm). 2 parts in one vol. (4), 7, (1), 984, (4), 3, (1), 318 pp. Contemporary brown calf with ornamental blind-tooling; gilt title to spine. Well-preserved copy of the first complete edition of the Bible in Ottoman Turkish, printed in a vocalized Arabic typeface. Based on the manuscript of Ali Ufki Bey (Albert Bobovius), this version became the basis for further Turkish translations used by Armenian and Greek Christians. The New Testament had appeared separately in 1819. "In 1820 J. D. Kieffer [...] began a thorough revision of Ali Bey's translation of the Bible by comparing it with the original texts, as well as with the standard English, French, and German versions. He also collated it with W. Seaman's Nogai NT of 1666, with T. Erpenius' Arabic version, with H. Martyn's Persian version, with H. Brunton's Nogai NT of 1813, and with the London Polyglot. The translation of the NT was also carefully revised in view of the criticisms passed on the first edition. On crucial questions he had the advice of Baron Silvestre de Sacy. The complete Bible (without the Apocrypha) appeared in 1827, printed in Arabic character with full vocalization. The edition consisted of 5,000 copies of the Bible, and 2,000 copies of the NT issued separately" (Darlow/M.). - Binding insignificantly rubbed at extremities, very slight brownstaining due to paper. An excellent copy. Darlow/Moule 9456. Bruce Privratsky, A History of Turkish Bible Translations, v. S (2014), pp. 43ff. OCLC 61141750.
