Valgrisi, Vicenzo.MareMagnum
1562230:325 mm. Engraved map. "A blown-up copy of the map designed by Gastaldi in 1548" (Al Ankary). The Gastaldi map "was the first modern map of the Arabian peninsula"; for the first time it "clearly shows the island of Bahrain and Qatar" (ibid.). Al Ankary 136.Tibbetts 27. Cf. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi 19 (the small version only).
1562230:325 mm. Engraved map. An early Ptolemaic map, showing "the mountains as lightly shaded slopes. The map includes details on towns and watercourses. The Arabian Gulf is distorted and the size of the watercourses is exaggerated" (Al Ankary). Al Ankary 147.Tibbetts 30. Not in the Al-Quasimi collection.
17408vo. (16), 344 pp. Modern marbled calf with gilt title to spine. First German edition. "Il La Croze era bibliotecario del re di Prussia. Il primo libro di quest' istoria narra le origini e il progresso del monofisismo, il secondo contiene la relazione di Etiopia del patriarca Bermudez, il terzo racconta il progresso e la decadenza della influenza portoghese in Etiopia" (Fumagalli). - Some brownstaining throughout. Fromm 26499. Mulsow, Drei Ringe, p. 150. Cf. Cioranescu 35510. Fumagalli 2268. Gay 2691 (1739 first French ed.). Not in Kainbacher or Paulitschke.
17918vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. XVI, 124 (but: 224) pp. 328 pp. Contemporary marbled half-calf binding with giltstamped labels to spine. Only edition. Contains much previously unpublished manuscript material (cf. ADB). The German oriental scholar Samuel F. G. Wahl (1760-1834) was an extremely prolific author. His subjects include all aspects of oriental linguistics and literature, including Persia, China, and India, and he was one of the few scholars of his time to have a knowledge of Armenian. - Edges and corners slightly bumped; spine insignificantly rubbed. Interior clean and well-preserved. From the collection of the Swedish orientalist and bibliophile Henrik Gerhard Lindgren (1801-79) with his autogr. note of ownership on front pastedown; later in the collection of C. O. Nordgren (dated on flyleaf: Uppsala, 9 March 1880). ADB 40, 594. Neuer Nekrolog der Dt. (12/2), p. 1230. ALZ 332 (1791), vol. 4, p. 540-544. Schnurrer 92. OCLC 6867437.
1807Folio. XIII, (3), 329, (1) pp. With engraved frontispiece (Fat'h-Ali Shah Qajar, King of Persia) and engr. portrait plate (Shaknubat, mistress of Kurim Khan), both after Persian originals. Later blue cloth with giltstamped spine title. First European-printed edition, following an error-ridden edition published at Bombay in 1804. Includes a chapter on Arabian horses, an early account of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhabi Islam, and passages on hawk-hunting and pearl fishing in the Arabian Gulf "from the 56th to the 48th degree east longitude", i. e., essentially the Gulf coast from Ras al-Khaimah to Qatar and Bahrain and on to Kuwait. Early attempt at an encompassing description of Persia, by the Bengal civil servant Edward W. H. Scott-Waring (1783-1821). "Very rare" (Allibone). - Bound without the half-title; bookplate and blindstamps of the City of Leeds Public Library. Diba Collection p. 139. Wilson p. 240. Henze IV, 461. Cf. Weber I, 3. Brunet V, 1416. Graesse VI/2, 420 (1st ed. Bombay, 1804).
19058vo. VIII, (4), 523, (1) pp. With folding map and 16 printed plates. Contemp. red smoothed goatskin morocco binding, elaborately giltstamped for the Royal Asiatic Society with their monogram and motto on covers and (slightly faded) spine. All edges gilt. First and only edition. The fine illustrations show the approach to Mecca, Damascus, Gibraltar from the East, a nook in Algiers, the Tomb of the Khalifs in Cairo, the Gate of Blood in Toledo, a mosque in Cordova, the Alhambra in Granada, a reproduced double-page from the Qur'an, the mosque at Mecca, Medina, pilgrims' dress, Meccan chiefs with camel and attendant, etc. - This copy awarded in 1912 to the later journalist, political theoretician and British Communist Rajani Palme Dutt (1896-1974) as school prize for Essays by William Henry Denham Rouse, headmaster at Perse Grammar School, Cambridge. - Dutt's father, Upendra Dutt, was an Indian surgeon; his mother Anna Palme Dutt was Swedish and related to the future Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme. Dutt was educated at The Perse School, Cambridge and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class degree in classics after having been suspended for a time due to his status as a conscientious objector in World War I. Dutt married an Estonian, Salme Murrik, in 1922. His wife had come to Great Britain in 1920 as a representative of the Communist International. That same year, he joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and remained one of its most conservative members all his life. In 1921 Dutt founded a monthly magazine called 'Labour Monthly', a publication which he edited until his death. - Spine slightly rubbed; front hinge repaired; a nicely preserved presentation copy in a fine RAS binding.
1900388 x 470 mm. Framed and glazed. Needlepoint picture after Théodore Géricault.
(Large) 4to. Altogether 8¾ pp. on 3 bifolia. Three letters to the Prelate in Austro-Hungary, Jacob Mislin (1807-78), signed, containing reports of the position of the Lebanese Christians, especially about Youssef Bey Karam (1823-89), a Maronite freedom fighter in Mount Lebanon: "Le Cheik Joseph Caram, sur l'avis qu'il avait reçu de votre Grandeur s'était préparé à faire une brillante réception à leur Altesse Royale le Duc de Brabant et son auguste épouse, il avait mis à contribution tout ce que son pays pouvait lui fournir de ressources matérielles, pour donner à leur Altesse un témoignage éclatant de la vénération qui lui et tout son pays professent pour elles. Après de nombreux préparatifs, ayant appris que leur Altesse n'avait pu exécuter leur voyage au cèdres, sa douleur a été à son comble. Vous connaissez ses instincts pour les devoirs de l'hospitalité; En cette occasion ils s'étaient déployés au delà de tout ce qu'on peut dire. Pendant les dix ou douze jours de son attente, il avait mis plusieurs villages à contributions, pour réparer les chemins trop raboteux et qui pouvaient offrir quelques dangers, il avait aussi envoyé au haut des montagnes ôter la neige tout le long de la route depuis les cèdes jusqu'à l'autre côté du Liban; il avait entretenu pendant plusieurs jours une cinquantaine de cavaliers dans sa maison; il avait acheté et distribué huit quintaux de poudre à tous ses gens armés aux quels il donnait quelque teinture de la manœuvre militaire pour que leurs salves fussent exécutées avec ordre; il avait fait de grands achat de tentures pour tapisser tout l'intérieur de sa maison et ses avenues &c.&c.&c., le tout à ses frais, malgré la maudicité de ses ressources. Son cœur généreux et on ne peut plus désintéressé serait certes loin d'espérer quelque compensation à toutes ces dépenses, il se tiendrait même grièvement offensé sur le point d'honneur, s'il savait que je vous au fait connaître ces détails; c'est donc à son inçu et sur le conseil de quelques uns de ses nombreux amis que je me donne la liberté de vous en entretenir, afin que si vous le jugez convenable, vous portiez ces faits à la connaissance de leur Altesse Royale; votre ami se croirait déjà trop flatté de savoir que sa bonne volonté leur est connue. Le Prince de Jouinville dans son voyage en Syrie l'avait pris tellement en affection qu'il voulait l'emmener à la cour, si l'Auguste sœur de ce digne Prince voulait lui continuer le même intérêt, nous la prierions de vouloir bien obtenir de la porte Ottomane, pour le Cheik Joseph Caram, le titre serait le prix de son parfait dévouement, non seulement pour le servir de leur Altesse Royale, mais encore pour celui de tous les européens qui voyagent dans ces pays et cela depuis un bon nombre d'années, suivant en cela les traces de son illustre Père. Mille pardons, Monseigneur, de la liberté que je prends moi pauvre missionnaire; c'est peut-être un excès de tendresse de ma part" (10 May 1855). - "Le scheik Joseph Caram gouverneur d'Eden, Sgorta, […] vient de scavoir l'honorable et précieux souvenir de son Altesse Royale le Duc de Brabant. Cette marque distinguée de la munificence du Prince a été reçue avec de grands transports d'enthousiasme et une pompe vraiment triomphale. On est allé à rencontre de la précieuse epingle, avec le même élan et la même solemnité que si c'eut été son Altesse en personne qui venait honorer ces contrées de sa personne. Le Scheik Joseph ne fait rien à moitié: il a voulu que la foule nombreuse qui faisait cortège au Cadeau Royal, depuis Tripoli, avec chants, musique, salves, tournois, comprit la signification qu'il voulait donner à cette fête. […] publiant avec une grande conviction, en face de tous, que tout honneur vient de Dieu et doit retourner à Dieu, que ce n'est qu'en vue de glorifier sa souveraine Majesté qu'on doit accepter la gloire mondaine; que le glorieux Prince qui veut bien condescendre à honorer la personne n'a d'autre dessein dans ses largesses que d'étendre le royaume de celui de la libéralité du quel il tient le sceptre et la couronne […]" (1 Feb. 1856). - "Le fanatisme des Musulmans se réveille. Un de ces jours le tribunal de Tripoli a condamné à (3) mort un Maronite pour avoir maudit Jésus Christ. Ce n'est pas, comme vous le pensez bien, par respect pour la religion chrétienne et son divin instituteur, mais pour avoir raison de condamner à la même peine de mort quiconque blasphémerait le nom de Mahomet : car disent-ils la loi du Coran est encore dans toute sa vigueur et le Hati-Scherif n'a pas voulu toucher la question de la liberté de conscience […]" (21 June 1856).
8vo. (16), 570, (54) pp. Title printed in red and black. With engr. frontispiece, engr. title vignette, 1 folding engr. map, and 3 engr. plates. Contemporary brown full calf with richly gilt spine in six compartments. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First edition of this missionary history of India, based not only on the works of Goueva, Geddes, Bernier, and Tavernier, but also on the manuscripts of Ziegenbalg, whose Danish mission is described on pp. 536-566. Includes an account of the trial and execution of a King of Ormuz for sodomy, "un peché infame fort connu à Rome aussi-bien qu'en Orient" (p. 340), and a defence of Islam against the common charge of being a religion established and maintained through war and violence (p. 525). The author "questions the logic of corrupt Portuguese authority over good Indians; religion is merely a pretext for European domination, it would be more appropriate for the Indian subjects to give religious instruction to their European rulers" (Teltscher). The plates show the Hindu godheads Brahma, Ishvara (Shiva), and Vishnu. - Binding slightly rubbed; hinges weakened. Occasional slight foxing. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). OCLC 18426305. Cf. K. Teltscher, India described. European and British writing on India 1600-1800 (Delhi, OUP, 1995), pp. 89f. & 100f.
Gouache on paper with floral borders in gilt and red title within cartouche. C. 170 x 120 mm. Framed and glazed. Very decorative, high-quality miniature portrait of Sultan Umar (Omar) Mirza (1456-93), a Timuride prince from the Fergana valley. He is revered as father of Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Indian Moghul empire. The Arabic captions translates as: "The blessed portrait of Sultan Umar Sheikh Mirza". - Very clean. A comparable portrait is in the Brooklyn Museum (accession no. 59.205.9).
8vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. (4), 318 pp. (4), 441, (1) pp. Modern red half morocco with giltstamped spine title; original blue printed wrappers bound within. First edition in book form ("Extrait du Journal Asiatique, 9. sér., v. 3-7, 1894-96"). The French scholar Henri Sauvaire (1849-96), a leading photographer and numismatic collector, served as a Consul in Damascus and Casablanca. He spent the last years of his life writing on Arab culture. In 1864 he embarked on translating into French the "Description of Damascus" by Abd al-Basit al-Amawi, who lived in Damascus in the mid-16th century (d. 1573/4). - Rare and well-preserved. OCLC 23427282.
Large 4to (176 x 262 mm). Arabic ms. on oriental paper. 325 ff., expertly written naskh script, possibly in more than one hand, black ink with rubrics, usually 6-8 lines to the page, considerable interlinear and marginal glossing. Full-leather Islamic binding with fore-edge flap; original blind tooled ornamentation (medallion). Manual on Islamic Law by Abu al-Barakat `Abdallah b. Ahmad b. Mahmud al-Nasafi (d. 710/1310), an important Hanafi legist and theologian. Born in Nasaf in Sogdian, he taught in the Madrasa al-Kutbiya al-Sultaniya in Kirman, came to Baghdad in 710 and died in Rabi` I 710 (August 1310), apparently on his return journey to Idjadj (in Khuzistan), where he was buried. The Kanz al-Daqa'iq is an important text on Hanafite law and formed the basis for a great number of commentaries, especially in the 9th/14th and 10th/15th centuries (EI² VII, p. 96; GAL II, pp. 250-53). Contains both the `Ibadat and the Mu`amalat. - Final 12 leaves (f. 313ff.) show edge damage with some loss of text. Copied by Khidr b. Shaykh `Ali (colophon in a chancery hand on f. 325v). Cf. GAL S II, 265.
Large 4to. (70), 240 pp. Near-contemporary marbled grey boards with giltstamped red spine label. First separate edition of this important mediaeval geography of the Middle East, concentrating on Syria. Printed in Latin and Arabic parallel text; edited with an extensive commentary by the versatile oriental scholar J. B. Köhler (1742-1802). 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. - Extremities rubbed and bumped. Insignificant browning throughout; ink marginalia by a mid-19th-c. owner, probably the Hamburg theologian and educator Carl Bertheau (1806-86), whose bookplate is on the front pastedown. GAL II, 46. Ebert 29. Hamberger/Meusel IV, 189. ADB XVI, 444.
8vo. 82, (2), 89, (1) pp. Papered spine. Only edition of this study of Arabic atomism, tracing the dispute in mediaeval Arabic natural philosophy between the theologians of Basra and Baghdad. Includes the Arabic text. GAL S I, 344. OCLC 4391682.
8vo. 3 vols. Contemporary giltstamped calf with double giltstamped black spine labels; spines gilt; giltstamped borders to covers. First edition of this encompassing study by the Rev. Robert Adam (1770-1825), long a standard work on the world's religions. - A prettily bound set from the library of the British philosopher of religion, David Arthur Pailin (b. 1936), with his bookplate. OCLC 1615651. Cf. Chauvin XII, 53 (later edition 1823).
Landscape folio (30 x 42 cm). 16 hand-coloured lithographed plates, all with captions and decorative borders (lacks title-page). A fine example of Adam's expertise in lithography. The plates depict a variety of unusual equestrian racing scenes including female chariot racing and monkeys riding horseback. Victor Adam (1801-67) was originally employed as painter for the Museum at Versailles. However, in the 1840s he decided to concentrate on the art of lithography, and this scarce album is typical of his work. - 10 plates show some spotting, mainly marginal; one plate with tear in margin (ca. 1 cm, not affecting the plate). Paper on front pastedown wrinkled, bookseller's label, bound in original blue gilt decorated cloth. Overall an attractive copy. Not in Schwerdt, Lipperheide or Colas.
Folio. 1 page. On uncut wove paper, bearing the Schoellers-Parole blind embossed seal, margins uncut. The original autograph contribution of Ahmed Ali Khan to the Committee of the World League for Peace (Ligue Mondiale pour la Paix), a remarkable organization formed in 1925 with close ties to the League of Nations. The Committee itself was composed of such notaries as Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, King Carol II of Romania, John D Rockefeller, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, who personally gathered the present manuscripts over the course of seven years (1925-32). Among the public figures who contributed to the project were dignitaries from the newly-created League of Nations' member states. "The finest ideal for humanity is a peace based on justice and the integral independence of all nations. [Signed] Ahmed Ali". Pax Mundi. Livre d'or de la paix. Enquete universelle de la Ligue mondiale pour la paix sous le haut patronage de son comite d'honneur avec l'approbation de la Societe des nations, du Bureau international du travail et de la Cour permanente de justice internationale. Geneve, Societe paxunis, 1932.
8vo. VIII, 174, 8, (2) pp. With mounted photoportrait frontispiece. Original elaborately giltstamped forest green cloth. All edges red. First and only edition; inscribed copy. The author worked in the service of the Nawab (sovereign) of Tonk, in Hindustan. A Muslim, the Nawab in January 1870 received permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ahmed Hassan accompanied him, and his account includes details of the crossing from Bombay to Jeddah, of the visits to Mecca and Medina, and of the continuation of his journey to England. The account is uncommon. - Occasional minute foxing to interior, otherwise a very fine copy in well-preserved original binding. Inscribed by the author on t. p.: "With the author's compliments". OCLC 4384569. Not in Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula.
Folio (239 x 320 mm). 2 parts in one volume. 394 pp. 383, (1) pp. Contemporary giltstamped brown full calf with fore-edge flap. Early Arabic-Turkish dictionary completed in 1545 in Kütahya, Turkey, and first published in Constantinople in 1826. - Binding rubbed, giltstamping largely oxydized; interior a little browned due to paper. A good copy. OCLC 22445320. Not in Zaunmüller or Vater/Jülg.
116 pp. Original wrappers. 8vo. Treatise on the history of the Egyptian Communist party (Al-Hizb as-Suyu i al-Misri) and other communist organizations in Egypt from 1920 to 1979. As early as October 1920, merely three years after the Bolshevist October Revolution, the Egyptian Socialist Party constituted itself as the true representative of the Egyptian working class. The following year, the Party sent Hosni al-Arabi to Moscow to negotiate a possible reception into the Communist International, and in 1922, the name of the party was officially changed to "Egyptian Communist Party". After several splits, re-formations, and dissolvements, the Party was newly founded in 1975 after Anwar as-Sadat lifted the ban on the movement. - Well-preserved. OCLC 246522674.
8vo. LVI, (2), 427 pp. Contemp. half cloth with giltstamped spine title. First German edition of the highly influential poems of al-Mutanabbî (915-965). The famous poet of the Abbasidic era exerted a decisive influence on all subsequent poets in Arabic. - Ms. library shelfmark and stamp on title page (withdrawn). Brunet III, 1924. Goedeke VII, 764, 68. Wurzbach VII, 276, 44. Cf. GAL I, p. 86f. (for Motenebbi).
17, (1), 174 pp. Contemporary full calf binding. All edges red. 4to. Early scholarly edition, with Latin translation and notes. "The 'Lamiyat al-`Agam', a famous poem by at-Tograi'i [...]. It was first edited by Golius together with the Sentences of Ali in 1629. This is the first one accompanied by Arabic scholia, and also the first readily available edition containing Golius's translation: Anchersen's edition of 1707, which published this translation for the first time, was lost at sea except for six copies" (Smitskamp). - Some foxing and browning; glue-shading to endpapers. Old bookplate (alpha and omega with fish) on front pastedown; stamp of the Paris Jesuit Congregation on title page. Binding rubbed and bumped at extremities; spine rather chipped. No copies recorded at auction within the last decades. GAL I, S. 286. Smitskamp (PO) 318. Schnurrer 200. Graesse VI, 167. OCLC 16080863.
8vo. (16) pp. Modern marbled wrappers. Extremely rare German slavery account by the Prussian clockmaker F. G. Albertus. Born in Potsdam in 1770, he visited Amsterdam in 1797, was press-ganged into joining an East India Company ship bound for Batavia, but fell into the hands of Tunisian pirates off the coast of Gibraltar. He details the horrors of his eight-year slavery in North Africa and mentions several of his fellow sufferers by name, including a Spanish Countess named Carolina who was captured at age 16 and was finally ransomed after nine years of slavery. Ultimately, Albertus is ransomed by a Dutch jeweller named Birkenthal and returns to Germany, physically broken but full of praise for the workings of God. - Trimmed rather closely (slight loss to text). Title page bears contemporary censorship stamp of the Delitzsch police. Of the utmost rarity: a single other copy is known (bound within sammelband A/31581:9 in the State and University Library of Hamburg). OCLC 837821535 (SUB Hamburg).
8vo. 5 vols. With 24 engr. plates after Robert Smirke. Contemporary full straight-grained blue morocco, Greek key patterned boards, spine gilt in compartments, all edges gilt. First edition of this early translation by Edward Forster (1769-1828), based on the French version of Antoine Galland, which had first appeared between 1704 and 1717. "Galland's translation [...] was quickly translated into English and German. It enjoyed a most remarkable success throughout Europe, perceptible even in children's literature, and contributed significantly to the new image which enlightened Europeans entertained of the Islamic East: after Galland, this was no longer the home of the Antichrist and of accursed heresy, but rather the ever-constant Orient beneath an eternally fair sky, boasting splendid colours and unheard-of wealth, Caliphs, Viziers, and Kadis, harems, fairy-tale princes, fairies and genies, sorcerers and sages, a world of fantastic adventure and outrageous incidents" (cf. Fück, p. 101). - After having studied law and medicine at Balliol and St Mary Hall, Oxford, Forster decided to enter the clergy. He soon "entered into an engagement with a bookseller, William Miller [...], to issue tastefully printed editions of the works of standard authors, illustrated by the best artists of the day" (DNB). The series was inceived with "Don Quixote" in 1801. His "Arabian Nights" were frequently reprinted, seeing five editions by 1854. The present set is distinguished by the beautiful illustrations after Smirke, "whom every person of correct taste will acknowledge to be second to none in this range of art" (I, vii), as well as by the elegantly gilt navy blue morocco bindings. Some occasional spotting due to paper, some slight wear and scuffing, but a beautiful set altogether. Chauvin IV, 239. Brunet III, 1716. Graesse IV, 524. Lowndes/Bohn I, 59. DNB VII, 453. OCLC 5782874. Thieme/B. XXXI, 164 (illustrations).
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.
