4.213 Ergebnisse
Oblong folio. (15) ff. With 5 ink wash drawings, 4 pencil drawings, 4 coloured pencil drawings, 1 pen drawing painted with watercolours, 1 pen drawing, 1 coloured lithograph and 1 photograph, all in various formats, on (12) pp. Contemporary green morocco binding, cover giltstamped with crowned monogram "PA". All edges gilt. Includes a loose pencil portrait of a young lady (192 x 262 mm) and a photograph of a castle pasted on the free endpaper. Charming collection of sketches and watercolours, including a pen-drawn genre piece with soldiers (ca. 222 x 174 mm) by the French painter André Dutertre, member of the Institut d'Égypte, and the portrait of a soldier in pencil (ca. 138 x 194 mm) by Claude Vaulot (1818-42), both signed. Dutertre is best known for his portraits of military men, especially in connection with Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, in which he participated. Of particular interest are four orientalist landscape drawings and four character studies of portraits from Kabylia (Algeria). These unsigned pieces are probably connected with the 1830 "Éxpédition de Médéa", part of the French conquest of Algeria. They include a pencil drawing of a road near Medea, a pencil drawing of a source near Mouzaïa, where a battle took place on 21 November 1830, an ink wash drawing of a military encampment in Kabylia, and the portrait of a Kabylian marabout, or holy man. This small portrait is arranged on one page with the other three portraits, two Kabyle women and one man, and a well-executed ink wash drawing of a landscape in Kabylia with the tombs of two marabouts. The collection is completed by a charming lithographed invitation to a puppet play "Theatre de Polichinelle", signed "Nouvian", a photo collage of political caricatures with a written legend, an ink wash of a peasant woman, signed "J. Chastenet", and a watercolour of a group of soldiers marching to war, their wives wringing their hands. - The photo collage is strongly faded, some pages with minor tears and foxing but all drawings and the lithograph well preserved. Spine and edges of binding scuffed.
92 x 126 cm. Scale: 1:1,000. Whiteprint on thick paper. Title, scale and compass executed in manuscript in blue pen. Impressive plan of the excavation site of Tell Halaf (now on the Syrian-Turkish border), the location of the great ancient Aramaean town of Guzana, and one of the most important archaeological revelations of the modern era. Then in the Ottoman Empire, it was discovered in 1899 by the German diplomat Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946) while travelling through northern Mesopotamia on behalf of Deutsche Bank, working on establishing a route for the Bagdad Railway. - This is a working copy of the official, authoritative plan of the site produced during the 1911-13 excavation led by Oppenheim, printed at Tell Halaf for the use of the senior archaeological team. Signed in the upper right-hand corner by Theodor Dombart (1884-1969), a professional architect and one of Oppenheim’s principal associates, later an esteemed professor of ancient Middle Eastern architecture and an authority on Munich history. - A little worn, slight toning along old folds, else very good.
25 stamps (42 x 50 to 52 x 65 mm) mounted on 6 printed album sheets (250 x 170 mm). Loosely inserted within an envelope in a full cloth album with the name and insignia of the Persian Gulf Command. Jubilee stamps issued on the occasion of the celebration of the Persian Empire's 2,500-year anniversary, from a collector's album. Including portraits of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his father, Shah Reza Pahlavi, they also feature architectural landmarks and artefacts such as the Pahlavi crown, the Cyrus Cylinder, and a section of the Bishapur mosaic, as well as the coronation of Shahinshah Aria Mehr of the Kingdom of Yemen. The festivities were to celebrate Iran's ancient civilization and history and to showcase the country's contemporary progress under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. - Album slightly rubbed at extremities. Vertical tear to 4 sheets, not touching stamps. A few stamps with traces of postmarks; one stamp loose. An appealing set.
Royal folio (375 x 488 mm). VII, (1), 204, VIII pp. With 64 plates (46 full-page, 17 half-page and 1 folding), mostly engraved after Ludwig Christian Fuhrmann, some after drawings by the author; 8 engraved text vignettes, 1 engraved tughra as headpiece; lithographed dedication. Modern half calf over contemporary marbled boards with printed title label on spine. First edition. - The very rare original edition of this important account of a journey through Turkey and Asia Minor. According to Brunet the finest publication ever to leave a Polish press, it was soon translated into German as "Malerische Reise in einigen Provinzen des Osmanischen Reichs" (last sold for £20,400 at Sotheby's 2004 Natural History and Travel Sale; no copy of the present original edition has appeared at German auctions during the last decades). - The Polish statesman Count Edward Raczynski (1786-1845), a patron of the arts and founder of the Raczynski Library in Poznan, travelled to Constantinople by way of Odessa during the months of July through November 1814. He was accompanied by the artist Ludwig Christian Fuhrmann (1783-1829), and most of the plates are engraved after his drawings. Raczynski also visited the Troad, the peninsula containing the ruins of Troy, of which a detailed description is given. This beautifully illustrated work is highly sought after for its many detailed engravings, including a folding map of Istanbul, illustrations of the ruins of Troy and Assos, the bay of Lesbos, a portrait of Sultan Muhammad IV, the mosque of the Sultan, etc. - In the present set, most of the plates are early or proofs prints, still lacking numbers and/or captions, which are frequently supplied in meticulous pencil calligraphy (in Polish and English). Leaves of pp. 1/2 and 3/4 transposed; the former bound showing page 2 before 1. Interior severely browned throughout as common. Tears to title and dedication repaired; a few edge flaws due to brittleness of paper. Only 5 copies of this original edition listed in library catalogues internationally (BL, BnF, LoC, Stabi Berlin, NL Sweden). Brunet IV, 20412. Weber 133 (note). Not in Atabey. Cf. Blackmer 1375 (1824 German edition).
4to. 2 vols. XXIV, 446, XXIII, (3) pp. VII, (1), 430, XXXIV, (26) pp. With engraved frontispiece and 20 numbered engraved plates (5 of which folded) on 19 sheets. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine labels. All edges red. Second edition of this authoritative account of Aleppo and Ottoman life and manners, based on Russell's experience as physician to the British factory in Aleppo from 1740 to 1753. Enlarged with 3 additional plates compared to the 1756 first edition. Includes an engraved frontispiece with a view of the city, a plan by Carsten Niebuhr (vol. I, plate I), and an additional plate showing fish (vol. II, plate VI). Apart from the Syrian flora and fauna as well as the local climate, Russell's monograph discusses the everyday life of the local population, including that of European merchants living in Aleppo, the organisation of their trade activity, and their social life. Also includes a section on the plague and other epidemic diseases in the 1740s. The descriptions of the education system, of the production of manuscripts, and of the commercial activity in Syria are unusually detailed and can be considered unique in contemporary travel literature on the Ottoman Empire (cf. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister). The botanical plates were produced by G. D. Ehret, and one plate of fish bears the name of W. Skelton, while the remainder of plates, including the ones depicting birds and domestic life, are unsigned, but were probably produced by Russell himself. - Binding lightly scuffed; interior fresh and extremely well preserved. A charmingly bound set documenting an era of scientific and economic prosperity in Syria. Blackmer 1458. Nissen BBI 3534. Navari 1458. Cox I, 227. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister 893. ESTC T149605. Cf. Atabey 1064 (1762 Dutch edition).
Small 4to. 93, (1); 8 pp., 1 blank leaf, (2), 111, (1) pp, 1 blank leaf. Contemporary half calf with handwritten spine-label. Marbled endpapers. First edition of the reformed Penal Code of Tunisia according to the "decret du 9 Julliet 1913 (5 Chabân 1331)", parts of which remain in force to this day. Includes the Arabic text. - Occasional light fingerstaining; a few pencil annotations. Binding rubbed; extremeties somewhat bumped. Very rare: only 3 copies listed on OCLC (Harvard; Tübingen; Beit el Bennani Collection Tunis), all records noting the French text only and apparently without the Arabic section. OCLC 80710987.
A total of some 50 items, in all over 300 handwritten, typescript and printed pages. Various sizes, but mostly 4to. Extraordinary corpus of Hebrew records reflecting the struggle of the Yemenite Jews to emigrate and settle in Israel following Operation Magic Carpet in 1949/50. Includes several letters from the early 1960s written to Eretz Israel by members of the Yemeni community in Aden, regarding the arrangement of their emigration, as well as an important document related to protests by Yemenite Jews living in the Nordia neighborhood of Tel Aviv against the construction of the Dizengoff Center and the demolition of their homes. Additional documents relate to the slum organization in Israel, as well as to author Zvi Medina, giving the names and addresses of Medina family members and recording the 1960 construction of the synagogue in the Hatikva neighborhood for the Jews of Aden. - Printed publications include a Passover Haggadah according to the text of the Yemenite Jews, with ink stamp of "Ein Shemer Camps", as well as the version approved by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides (Jerusalem 1951), its title-page designed by Haim Ben Shalom Mahbbub. Also, a donation printed for Hanukkah 1944 by the Yemenite Jewish Unity Committee, titled "Raising your candles remember your brother's darkness", compiled by Rabbi Shalom, son of Rabbi Yichya Yitzchak Levi, as well as New Year's songs and two Kol Koreh texts regarding the election of the new Yemeni commission committee, as well as the strengthening of the independent educational institutions for the Yemenite Community. - A well-preserved survival.
Folio (ca. 260 x 320 mm). 2 vols. (instead of 9). (6), X, (2), 114, (4) pp. (2), 115-227, (5) pp. Contemporary unsophisticated wrappers with handwritten titles to upper covers. The first two parts of this chronicle by Paul Zaim of Aleppo (1627-69), an Ottoman Syrian Orthodox archdeacon. Son of Patriarch Macarios III Zaim, Paul accompanied his father in his travels throughout Constantinople, Wallachia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Russia, as an attempt to raise funds and support for their church. Paul's account of his visits, originally written in Arabic, is important as a source on Wallachia, as it documents the main events of Constantin Serban's rule and the Ottoman expedition of 1657. - Published for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great-Britain and Ireland, by R. Bentley, this copy with special half-titles printed for the subscriber Sir Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa (1770-1846), then styled the 12th Earl of Cassilis. Seven additional parts would appear by 1836. - Dedication-leaf waterstained. Bindings chipped, occasional light flaws to the wide margins. Old library stamp of the Community of the Resurrection. Untrimmed copy. OCLC 14123266.
Oblong 4to. [70] gray, white and blue album ff., containing 67 sketches with accompanying manuscript captions and descriptions. 66 sketches in pen & ink and pencil, mostly signed by Blackwell, depicting Swiss, Burmese and Indian panoramas and domestic scenes, buildings, events, animals and inhabitants, mounted and bound in, most accompanied by manuscript captions and descriptions by Blackwell and sometimes by a later hand. There is also 1 print (ca. 1795/1800?) showing a "rhahan" (priest) drawn by Singey Bey and engraved by Thomas Medland. Half black morocco, black decorated paper sides, gold-tooled ornaments on spine. Sketchbook by the English lieutenant Thomas Eden Blackwell (1803?-45), showing views of India, Burma, and Switzerland, made in the years 1826-30, when India, which is the subject of about 30 of the sketches, and parts of Burma (now Myanmar) were British colonies. The sketches, mostly signed and dated by Blackwell, are mounted on album leaves and accompanied by manuscript captions and descriptions, also by Blackwell and sometimes by a later hand. Some of these remarks are general or contain interesting facts, while others are very personal or describe an event that happened during Blackwell's time as officer. - Blackwell drew some panoramic views and buildings (for example an Indian mosque or a narrow street in Calcutta), but he pays particular attention to Indian culture in his sketches of India and the accompanying explanations. He sketches the Indian population, animals, and scenes representing the everyday life of Indian people. Several animal sketches are exceptionally beautiful, including that of a horse (with notes about Arabian horses). He also draws a camel, compares camels to dromedaries, and outlines the habitat of both species in India. Also included are many sketches of Indian cattle, such as bullocks, which were used as water-carriers, and Bengal cows (whose milk is said to be "inferior" to that of English cows). - Blackwell also drew the inhabitants of the Indian places he visited, including a priest ("rhahan") and an Indian watchman ("chokedar"), but also a "Musselman" and an Indian woman, with remarks concerning the attitude of Indian men towards women. Of particular interest are the Indian "sceneries", as Blackwell calls them, showing the everyday life of Indian people: native cooking, but also how Indian people bathe in Hooghly river, how they wash their clothes, and men smoking a so-called "hubble bubble" (a hookah or water pipe). Blackwell annotatioins to nearly all these sketches provide the reader with rare insights into Indian culture. - of Burma (now Myanmar) fewer sketches were made, and they focus mostly on the coasts and the city of Rangoon's wharfs. These include the royal wharf at Rangoon, with a whole page of explanatory text on the facing page, and a sketch showing a stockade in Burma, where, according to Blackwell's caption, the British killed the Burman general Maha Bundoola (1782-1825) in the First Anglo-Burmese War. Yet there is also a sketch of the so-called Great Bell in Rangoon, which is representative of Burmese bells, which are often located near celestial buildings. The album also includes two views of Tobago in the West Indies: a large two-page panoramic view and a sketch of the government house in Tobago with a garrison in the background; Blackwell's note states that his daughter Eliza was born there on 25 January 1833. - Another part of the sketchbook comprises sketches of Swiss landscapes and panoramas, especially of the region surrounding Basel (of which Blackwell also includes a two-page panoramic view). - With owner's inscription on the front pastedown: "Lieut. Blackwell 13th Light Infantry. Indian, Burmese and Swiss Sketches". Binding a little worn, one quire loose, some occasional spots and somewhat browned, but not affecting the drawings. In good condition.
Large 4to. (4), III, (3), 29, (1) pp; (2), 32, 42, 6 pp. Modern wrappers. Rare edition of the seventh chapter of the "Anvari Suhaili", a Persian fable, in Farsi, English and Arabic, with Arabic tables, analysis of the Arabic words, and the "Kalila Dumna", the Arabic version of the same chapter by 'Abd Allah ibn al-Mukaffa. Designed by Charles Stewart (1764-1837), professor of oriental languages at the East India College at Hailey, Hertfordshire, to help civil servants and military men in the service of the East India Company learn Persian. - A few page corners creased, occasional light soiling. With extensive pencil annotations from contemporary use; contemporary ink ownership of H. L. Dick to the title-page. As vol. 7 of Alexander's East India Magazine and Colonial and Commercial Journal reports under the Company's civil appointments, in January 1834 "Mr. H. L. Dick, writer [= administrator], has exceeded the period allowed for the Study of the Native Languages, and has been directed to return to England" (p. 103). Chauvin II, p. 27, no. 47. OCLC 891514783.
8vo. With 8 woodcut tailpieces. Later mottled calf, red spine labels, red edges. Rare edition of the collected works of Luis de Camões, including Os Lusiadas and three Rimas. In the same year, Antonio Craesbeeck published another edition with the same title but with less content and with a different frontispiece. This collection of works is made up of separate publications. - Os Lusiadas is the great epic poem of Portuguese exploration, in the original Portuguese, a monument of Portuguese literature that gave a Homeric aura to Renaissance voyages of discovery and colonial conquests, here together with the other works of Camões. Camões's work was first published in Portuguese at Lisbon in 1572. - In the early 1530s the great Portuguese historian, João de Barros, most famous for his Decadas de Asia, had called for an epic poem of Portuguese exploration and discovery. Luis de Camões (1524-80) answered that call four decades later. Camões was educated in a monastic school in Coimbra, and produced poetry and plays at an early age. In his early twenties he was banished from Lisbon after producing a play considered disparaging to the royal family. He served as a soldier in the Portuguese forces besieging Ceuta in North Africa, where he lost an eye. Camões returned to Lisbon in 1550, but found himself in more trouble, and was pardoned by the King on condition that he serve the Crown in India for five years. He arrived at Goa in late 1553 and stayed there briefly before joining an expedition to the Malabar Coast. Later he participated in a campaign against pirates on the shores of Arabia. In 1556 he left Goa again for the East Indies, taking part in the military occupation of Macao, where he remained for many months. On his return trip to India, he was shipwrecked off the Mekong and wandered in Cambodia before reaching Malacca and eventually returning to Goa. He did not return to Lisbon until 1570. The Lusiads gives a fine description not only of Portuguese exploits in the East, but also of the flora and fauna of Asia and India, the ethnographic details of the peoples there, and the geography of the region, informed by Camões's own experiences as well as his familiarity with Ptolemy and Barros. - With the bookplate of "Aulo-Gélio", 1961, with a view of Lisbon. The first few pages slightly worn with some repairs. Stained throughout. Some contemporary annotations in ink in the margins. Bibliotheca Lusitana p. 62. Inocêncio XIV, 78. José de Canto, 37.
A single folio on card, ca. 385 x 280 mm. Ink and gouache on paper. Matted, framed and glazed. Fine painting with Mughal influences, showing a golden-coloured domestic falcon, loosely tied to an elegant and decorated outdoor stand. Framed within multiple gilt decorated borders adorned with different floral motifs; borders painted with geometric octagonal shapes, each displaying an array of birds including from the heron and pigeon families, all heightened in gilt. - Attractively preserved.
4to. 2 vols. 32 pp. 30 pp. Illustrated throughout with photo illustrations and sketch maps. Original pictorial wrappers, second volume ring-bound. Issued in tandem with the Basrah Petroleum Co. Ltd. and the Mosul Iraq Petroleum Co. Ltd., these volumes, which seem to have appeared yearly from 1951, offer information on the development of the industry over the year. Both volumes contain a Foreword by the Managing Director H. S. Gibson, followed by illustrations and information concerning the oil produced. The books are nicely produced, and in very good condition.
8vo. (2), 45, (1); (8), III, (1), 95, (1) pp. With a folding table. Original printed wrappers. Thirty of Lafontaine's Fables in Arabic: the first Arabic translation of this famous work, an extremely rare Algerian-printed publication issued for instruction in the Arabic language together with a collection of French-Arabic dialogues. - Wrappers a little stained; a few ink and pencil corrections to the preface. An untrimmed, wide-margined copy. Only two copies in library catalogues internationally (Bibliothèque nationale de France and Leiden University). OCLC 776989551.
4to. (8), 54, (2) pp. All edges red. Modern blue boards. Only edition of this dissertation on oriental medical terminology. "The author is the theologian Michaelis [the father of Johann David Michaelis], who attempts to elucidate Hebrew terms by comparison with the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopian languages. He also discusses the medical knowledge of the oriental peoples, as well as Ecclesiastes 12:3-6" (cf. Choulant). - Trimmed a little closely at the lower edge with slight loss to printer's name, otherwise very well preserved. Choulant 102. Meusel IX, 137f. Fürst II, 374. Lockot, Bibliographia Aethiopica 7660. OCLC 14330491.
Partially engraved sea chart, 1 sheet of 6 sheets only. 940 x 675 mm. Updated 1852 edition of Norie's very rare and monumental sea chart of the Indian Ocean, one of the 19th century's greatest works of maritime cartography. The present sheet embraces the southern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, including the coasts of Oman, Yemen, and much of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, up as far as Yanbu, including the Jeddah-Mecca area. In Africa the chart includes the coasts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania, while the Seychelles appear within the Indian Ocean itself. The quality of the hydrography and engraving is exquisite. The antecedent chart of the present work was first issued by William Heather in 1799 but was re-engraved and dramatically updated in 1833 by Heather's successor J. W. Norie. The present edition was issued by Norie's successor firm, Norie & Wilson, featuring the latest updates. - Pronounced staining and crackling with minor loss to middle of left blank margin, some light staining in other areas, some short tears emanating from the margins; some offsetting in lower part of chart. Altogether well preserved. Cf. OCLC 498106078 (1833 edition).
4to. (24) pp. Early 19th century marbled wrappers. First edition of this rare and prettily produced philological dissertation on the Arabic language, on Arab scholarship and the use of Arabic studies, written by the Saxon professor of theology and oriental studies J. D. Schieferdecker (1672-1721). Numerous passages are printed in Arabic type (in imitation of those of Erpenius). Separate chapters discuss the influence of Arabic in jurisprudence, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, optics, arithmetics, geography, geometry, and music, as well as in history and literature. A set of subjects for discussion by the doctoral candidate, printed at the end of the volume, includes theses about Muhammad and the Qur'an, on the role of the Messiah in Islam, on the difference between Turkish and Arabic (said to be comparable to that between French and Latin), and on the special regard given in Islam to the first sura of the Qur'an, which is likened to the Lord's Prayer in Christianity. "The 'Fructus' was first defended in 1692 and opens with a calligraphical basmala in bird shape [... It has] a woodcut Arabic title on the title-page" (Smitskamp). - Well preserved. VD 17, 12:142720G. OCLC 930345148. Cf. Smitskamp, PO 361b (1695 edition).
8vo. 52, (4) pp. Contemporary red bronze-varnish wrappers. Rare work report issued by the "Institutum Judaicum et Muhammedicum" in Halle (Saale), a Pietist institution founded in 1727 by the orientalist Johann Heinrich Callenberg for the mission of the Jewish population of Europe and the Orient. Stephan Schultz (1714-76) was Callenberg's successor as director. His pamphlet gives an account of the institution's history and achievements as well as methods, also recounting his extensive mission journey to Turkey, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia undertaken between 1752 and 1756 with the young Prussian theologian August Friedrich Woltersdorf, who perished in Ptolemais in 1755: "Here I had much opportunity to do good among the various peoples, especially the Arabs, whose Sheikhs, or noblemen, entertained me warmly in their houses and listened to me intently when I read to them something from the Holy Scripture in Arabic, and provided comments for their edification" (transl., p. 34). - Slightly browned but well preserved in the pretty contemporary wrappers. VD 18, 11240911. Cf. Kayser IV, 195.
Small 8vo. (2), 30 pp. Lithographed and illustrated throughout. Original yellow printed wrappers. Lithographed in Arabic throughout (save for the French wrapper-title): a rare official manual of the legal system of weights and measures used in French Algeria, intended for Arab-French schools. The booklet was drawn up by the school principal Eugène Vayssettes and translated by an Arab known only as Antoine, after an earlier effort by the military interpreter Ahmed ben Lefgoun had been condemned by the board as too complicated and linguistically obscure. The illustrations show various receptacles and measuring units. - In excellent condition. OCLC 493647389.
4to. (14), 264 pp. With engraved illustrated title-page and 12 engraved plates; one line of musical notes showing the melody of the muezzin's call "la 'ilaha 'illa -llahu" (There is no deity but Allah). 19th century marbled half leather with giltstamped red spine label. Marbled endpapers. All edges sprinkled red. Second edition of Wallich's account of Islam, written in 1659 following his mission to the Porte. "The first part is a description of Turkish religion and customs [...] together with seven of the plates. The second part is a life of Mohammed, and the third part is a comparison of Pope Alexander VII with Mehmed IV (the two antichrists, oriental and occidental)" (Blackmer). The biography of the Prophet includes a genealogy and an engraving showing Ali with the Zulfiqar presenting the written Qur'an to the faithful. - Johann Ulrich von Wallich (1624-73), a Thuringian jurist in Swedish services, participated in several diplomatic missions, including the Swedish embassy to Constantinople in 1657/58, where he got to know the Muslim religion. - Binding very insignificantly rubbed along the hinges, corners a little bumped. A fine copy bound for the Ottoman-Greek diplomat Stephanos Carathéodory (1834-1908), who served as secretary to the Ottoman delegation at the 1878 Congress of Berlin and as Ottoman ambassador to Brussels, with his printed bookplate and motto ("Meden agan" - "nothing in excess") to front pastedown and spine. VD 17, 39:134505B. Chauvin XI, p. 197, no. 720. Cf. Atabey 1761; Blackmer 1309.
Small 4to (235 x 170 mm). 246 pp., including 3 maps. Bound in original printed buff wrappers. First and only edition. - A scarce and important analysis of the Saudi Arabian oil economy, featuring authoritative data and illustrated by three maps, published on the eve of the 1973 Oil Crisis and the Saudi government's takeover of ARAMCO. Mohammed Ali Redha Al-Jasim was a Saudi academic who authored several pioneering studies on Saudi economy during the 1960s and 1970s. Entirely in Arabic, the work employs the latest official data, combined with Dr. Al-Jasim's skilled analysis, to provide an authoritative insight into the nature of the world's most dynamic petroleum industry and its effects upon Saudi Arabia's national ambitions. Illustrated with numerous tables and three intriguing maps, the work is an invaluable source for anyone interested in the modern development of the global petroleum industry and the economic history of Saudi Arabia in particular. - Slight wear to spine and edges of covers; internally clean and crisp. A very good copy. OCLC 4771175724 / 235989266.
Small folio (212 x 277 mm). 44 pp. Contemporary blue half cloth over marbled boards. Scholarly German translation of the lapidary of Zakariya al-Qazwini (1203-83), being the mineralogical section from the author's famous "Aja'ib al-makhluqat", which was hailed by Brockelmann as "the most valuable cosmography in Islamic culture" (GAL S I, 882). - The Heidelberg-based science educator Julius Ruska (1867-1949) studied ancient oriental languages to focus on the Islamic history of mathematics and science and later became professor at Heidelberg and Berlin. His sons Ernst and Helmut Ruska pioneered the electron microscope, for which invention the former received the Nobel Prize in Physics. - Well preserved. GAL I, 481, no, 12. OCLC 28083936. Not in Sinkankas.
8vo. 158, (2) pp., with bibliographical references on pp. 141-143. With 16 black and white photographic illustrations on 5 leaves. Original lime green printed wrappers. First edition. A fascinating apology of Sheikh Dhari, who killed the British intelligence officer Gerard Leachman on 12 August 1920. It includes brief but detailed biographies of both men (that of Leachman includes his travels to Arabia and Iraq), an exposition of the acts leading up to the event, and an account of the day itself. Though the book links Sheikh Dhari's act to the Iraqi revolt of 1920, records of his trial signal that the killing was not politically motivated in the wider sense, but was instead committed in response to abuse suffered at the hands of Leachman (see Abbas Kadhim, Reclaiming Iraq, University of Texas Press [2012], p. 80). Leachman's legacy, like those of so many British Officials operating in the Middle East at the time, is complicated: multiple descriptions tend toward painting "a courageous and devoted servant of empire" (ODNB), whereas recent assessments rightly factor in the evidence of his abuses. - Arabic text throughout save for English title to recto of final leaf and lower wrapper. Occasional tiny edge chips; wrappers a little dusty and fingerstained showing minor wear to head and tail of spine, otherwise very good. Rare: Copac/Jisc locates a single copy in the UK (Oxford); WorldCat adds two further holdings at the Bavarian State Library and the University of Haifa. No copies in North American institutions (Harvard and Princeton have microfilm copies in their Arabic collections). OCLC 24963037.
8vo. (2), 267 pp., final blank. With a double-page wood-engraved frontispiece, 8 wood-engraved plates, including 2 maps of Ballantine's route, and numerous wood-engraved illustrations in the text. Contemporary blindstamped cloth with giltstamped spine-title; brown coated endpapers. First edition. - Exceedingly rare account of a five-and-a-half-month journey from Bombay to New York by the Indian-born American merchant Ballantine, carried out in an attempt to acquire as much information as possible on commerce in Persia. Setting out from Bombay on 7 May 1875, Ballantine visited Karachi, Muscat, Ormus, Bandar Lengeh, Bahrain, Bushire, Shiraz, and Tehran, as well as Moscow, St Petersburg, and Stockholm before reaching London and Liverpool. Conceived as a commercial report, the travelogue covers currencies, weights and measures, and matters of export and import as well as pearl fishing, silk production and opium culture. It also describes the local climate and infrastructure, including water supply and telegraph lines, the ruling Sultan and Shahs, and the Arabian way of life (especially mentioning coffee). In his conclusion, Ballantine calculates the total cost of his journey at 265 pounds in railway, steamer and caravan fares for himself and his servant, a sum which he compares with cheaper modes of travel. The frontispiece shows a bird's-eye view of Bombay, while the plates depict a bazar in Ispahan, Char Bag and the palace at Ispahan, the southern gate of Tehran, the Shah of Iran, and the Tehran Royal Audience Hall. - Extremities very slightly bumped, inner hinges starting, but in all a fine copy, the interior clean and crisp. Pencil ownership of Mrs. John F. Spring of Greenfield, MA, on flyleaf. A single copy in auction records; the London 1875 edition cited by Wilson would appear to be a ghost. Ghani 28f. Wilson 13. OCLC 1706565. Not in Macro or Hünersdorff.
4to. (4), 552, (2) pp. Contemporary half calf. The first complete New Testament printed by the BFBS entirely in Syriac, edited by Samuel Lee. "The editor based his text upon Schaaf's edition; but he collated an ancient Syriac MS. belonging to Adam Clarke, a MS. from the Lebanon, dated 1523, now at Cambridge, and a third MS. (without vowel-points) brought by Claudius Buchanan from Travancore, as well as the Commentaries of Ephrem Syrus, and also made some use of the collations of R. Jones. The printing of this edition was completed in 1816" (Darlow/M.). This copy has the "extensive obliterations [...] in the section headings, made by means of a stamp and violet ink", which were "made by order of the BFBS Committee, on the ground that the headings contravened the rules of the Society" (ibid.). - Binding rubbed and bumped; occasional marginal scribblings in red crayon (more extensive on p. 5). Traces of worming in the upper margin of the final two leaves overpasted with brown paper. In all a good copy of a rarely seen edition. Darlow/Moule 8979. NUC LVI, 13. BM XVIII, 1449. OCLC 921205405.