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Folio (full-sheet leaves, 54 x 36.5 cm). Lithographed frontispiece, title-page & dedication plus 5, [1 blank] pp. plus plates. With a lithographed frontispiece portrait of Sale by Thomas Fairland after a painting by Scarlet Davis, a lithographed illustrated title-page, a lithographed dedication to Queen Victoria (reproducing Sale's hand-written and signed dedication), a double-page "Plan of Jellalabad" (51.5 x 60 cm, lithographed by S. Leith in Edinburgh) and 34 tinted lithographic views of the city and its fortifications (in landscape format) on 22 leaves (10 full-page, 2 half-page and 11 pair of oblong half-page, numbered 1-11, showing the fortifications before and after repairs and improvements). All leaves are unwatermarked wove paper, the frontispiece on fine "India" paper mounted on thick paper, the plan on thin paper and all other lithographs on thick paper, that of the title-page grey. With a guard-leaf bound in facing each plate. All lithographs were probably printed by Hullmandel & Walton, though only the frontispiece and title-page name them. Gold-tooled red goatskin morocco, on 5 recessed supports (not aligned with the 6 false bands on the spine), each board with a frame of 3 gold double fillets alternating with 2 blind single fillets, with the title and author on the front board and the 2nd and 4th of 7 spine compartments, richly gold-tooled turn-ins, gold-tooled board edges, yellow endpapers, gilt edges, blue and white headbands. The first and only edition of a grand and spectacular visual presentation (there are only five pages of text) of the city of Jalalabad and its fortifications in eastern Afghanistan and related sites as far away as Kabul. The illustrated title-page (image size 45 x 35 cm) shows the tower known as Alexander's Column, with mountains and clouds in the background and several people at its foot (including two on horseback in the foreground: a British officer and turbaned man), the whole framed by palm trees, other plants and military attributes, with the title in grey sans-serif and slab-serif capitals with a white drop-shadow. The first 11 leaves of views (2 half-page and 10 full-page, the latter mostly with image size 26.5 x 37 cm) offer meticulously detailed views of sites in and related to Jalalabad, including four in and around Kabul. These show the architecture (including minarets, fortifications and the building where the British were held prisoner) as well as British and Afghan people engaged in military activities and trade. The 11 numbered plates that follow show two panoramas each (nos. 1 and 10 reproducing a hand-written caption) showing Jalalabad's fortifications before (below) and after (above) the repairs and improvements undertaken by Sale. A red line in the upper views indicates the parts that had been destroyed by an earthquake. - Although the title-page attributes the entire work to Robert Sale, the text begins with an account of the city and battle by Hamlet C. Wade, who served under him, followed by "Lady [Florentia] Sale's narrative of her prison & fellow prisoners" and eight short texts giving an account of the view on the title-page and those in the first 10 leaves of views (the 4th to 6th together and the 9th and 10th together), that for the third signed by Florentia Sale. - The grand presentation, the portrait of the author (Major General Robert Sale, who commanded the troops at Jalalabad during the 1842 battle) and the dedication to Queen Victoria suggest this volume commemorates a great success, but in fact it was only a minor and short-lived reprieve in Great Britain's foolish and disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). In 1839 Great Britain hoped to put Afghanistan back under colonial control by invading it and taking Kabul, ignoring the Duke of Wellington's prescient warning that it was a foolish move, and that they would find it much more difficult to hold Kabul than to take it. The British grossly underestimated the strength of the opposition, the difficulty of the terrain and the country's anti-colonial sentiment. Forced to abandon the city after an uprising in 1841 they tried to retreat to Jalalabad but nearly all the British troops and their entourage were slaughtered in the treacherous mountain passes. Sale's troops, who futilely awaited them in Jalalabad, were surrounded and attacked by the Afghans but managed to defeat them and drive them back to Kabul. - Various sources speculatively date the present publication from ca. 1842 to ca. 1846, but at least in the present copy a footnote on the first page of the letterpress text says, "Since this has been put to press … Sir Robert Sale has gloriously fallen in the battle of Moodkee, fought 18 December, 1845 ... he was struck by a grape shot which ... proved mortal shortly after he received the wound". He died on 21 December, so the book must have been published in the last 10 days of 1845 or early in 1846. Although printed on unwatermarked wove paper, the letterpress leaves show point holes in the centres of the fore-edge and gutter margins, showing that each leaf was separately printed and each is almost certainly a whole sheet, probably of Demy format. - With an armorial bookplate showing the crest and motto ("sans changer") of the Earls of Derby, probably the 14th Earl, Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley (1799-1869), Conservative Prime Minister three times in the years 1852-68. With minor foxing, slightly more in the frontispiece and much more in one full-page plate (Baba's garden, whose paper is not as thick as the others), but otherwise in very good condition. The frontispiece (together with the 2 preceding free endleaves) has separated from the bookblock, the hinges have been restored and the binding shows a few scuff marks, but the binding remains in good condition. Magnificent and detailed tinted lithographs of buildings, fortifications, terrain and life in and around Jalalabad (and Kabul) in Afghanistan ca. 1845. Thomson, The exotic and the beautiful (Bobins coll.) 268. WorldCat (3 copies?). Not in Abbey, Travel.
Folio (335 x 432 mm). 3 ff. of letterpress matter (half-title, title and list of plates). With 40 mounted calotypes. Contemporary marbled half morocco on five raised bands with giltstamped spine title; marbled endpapers. Second, "better known" (Parr/Badger) edition of this pioneering work, first published in 1854: only the plate volume with the 40 magnificent calotypes, wanting the separately published 90 pages of text. - Wishing to support L. F. J. Caignant de Saulcy in the controversy concerning the dating of the wall of Jerusalem that followed his journey to the Dead Sea, Auguste Salzmann set out for the Holy Land on 12 December 1853. With the help of his assistant Durheim, he prepared some two hundred waxed-paper negatives of the Jerusalem monuments during his four-month stay. While his findings were first published in a monumental volume in 1854 (the copy of the Duke de Luynes commanded 463,500 Euros at Sotheby's Paris in 2013), the present reduced edition, with prints by Blanquart-Evrard, is better known. "It was an expensive book, a livraison, or fasicle of three prints costing 24 gold francs. A single print was 10 francs [...] Salzmann was acutely attentive to both patina and pattern in attempting to define the architectural strata of a city in which building was built upon building, thus leaving a vertical record of the various cultures that had occupied the city and left their remains on the foundations built by earlier conquerors [...] Salzmann himself described his pictures as having 'a conclusive brutality', but to modern eyes their poetic aspect seems paramount. It would appear that Salzmann was at one and the same time both expert and layman, dispassionate observer and enthusiast. His pictures have this dual quality, flickering rapidly between documentary and poetry. This, one might suggest, is the ideal goal for any photographer". - Binding slightly rubbed and chafed in places. Marginal foxing throughout, affecting only a few photographs; insignificant waterstain to edge; old ownerships erased from title, leaving slight traces. Parr/Badger, The Photobook I, 25. Tobler 181f. Röhricht 440f. Baier, Geschichte der Fotografie 452f. Gernsheim, History of Photography 186. Witkin/London, Photograph Collector's Guide 86f.
4to (154 x 194 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 120 pp. Black and red ink, 25 lines, per extensum, with several pen-and-ink diagrams in the text, some full-page. Bound in 19th century full leather with blindstamped borders and ornaments. Two works in a single manuscript by a single scribe: one a book on astronomy by Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Yaqoub al-Samlali (d. 1093 H), the other a commentary on Al-Senussi the younger. The astronomical work, extensively illustrated with detailed diagrams, also contains horoscopes and information on the best times of the year for cultivating the soil. - Binding rubbed; extremeties bumped, chipped and frayed; some traces of worming to upper cover; old repairs to spine. Paper browned and brittle; some brownstaining and occasional worming (mainly confined to margins), a few paper repairs in the margins.
Folio (208 x 289 mm). 3 parts in 1 volume: 4 (instead of 8?) pp. of preliminaries (blank, alif, ba, gim); 131, (1 blank) pp. and 80 pp. (bound alternatingly), with 56 etched plates; 39, (1 blank) pp.; 283, (1 blank) pp. Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped spine and marbled covers. The first edition of the first illustrated medical book ever printed in the Muslim world: the pioneering Ottoman physician Sanizade's (1771-1826) medical compendium, the first three books (on anatomy, physiology, and internal medicine) of what would later be known as "Sani-zade's Canon of Five", "Kitâb ül-evvel fi t-tesrihât" ("Mir'âtül-ebdân fî tesrih-i a'zâil-insân"), "Kitab üs-sânî fi 't-tabîyat", and "Kitâb üs-sâlis Miyâr ül-etibbâ". This was one of the earliest Turkish medical works to draw thoroughly on western, Paracelsian and Vesalian science: indeed, it is modelled on and partly translated from Italian and German sources, such as Anton Störck, Bartolomeo Eustachi, Gabriele Fallopio, and Costanzo Varolio, reproducing anatomical illustrations from a variety of sources including Vesalius. - "[B]y and large Ottoman medicine remained [...] attached to its Galenic roots. [...] Real paradigmatic change began to appear only with the upheavals of 19th-century reforms, when translations and adaptations of new European knowledge made their way to the core of the medical profession. One of the first books to spark this revolution was Ataullah Sanizade's compendium 'Hamse-i sanizade', a series of five books published in Ottoman Turkish from 1820 onward, incorporating new medical knowledge from Europe. Sanizade was a brilliant and innovative physician and theorist (as well as musician, astronomer, and historian) who did much to integrate new medical knowledge with the old. His views on medicine encountered much opposition, mainly because of his support for surgery-based study of anatomy. As a result his request to dedicate his chef d'oeuvre to Sultan Mahmud II was denied. In time, however, the compendium came to replace the earlier canonic texts, and was fondly named 'kanun-i sanizade' (Sanizade's canon), referring, of course, to the old master's 'Qanun'. Although the compendium formally adhered to the humoral system and other concepts of ancient medicine, it was here that blood circulation was mentioned for the first time as a scientific concept and as part of a different medical theory. Some of the terminology included in this book formed the basis for a new medical profession that was beginning to take shape" (D. Ze'evi, Producing Desire [2006], p. 20f.). A five-volume Arabic edition appeared at Bulaq in 1828 by direct order of Mehmet Ali. - Part 1 bound as follows (agreeing with the copy in the BSB Munich): 4 pp. of prelims (blank, alif, ba, gim); 3, (1) pp., (2 plates), 2 pp. [index], 5-34 pp., (17 plates), 3-22 pp. [index], 35-68 pp., (9 plates), 23-35 pp. [index; pp. 25-28 numbered 3-6 in error], 1 bl. p., 69-94 pp., (12 plates), 37-48 pp. [index], 95-100 pp., (6 plates), 49-55 pp. [index], 1 bl. p., 101-106 pp., (3 plates), 57-60 pp. [index], 107-120 pp., (5 plates), 61-70 pp. [index], 121-128 pp., (2 plates), 71-80 pp. [index], 129-131 pp., 1 bl. p. Some dampstaining throughout, more prominently so in several plates. In all, a good copy of this rare work, the only edition published during the author's lifetime. OCLC 608102180.
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.
Small oblong folio album. 21 original silver-gelatin photographs. Various formats, most captioned on the mount. Contemporary blue cloth with wrap-around clasp, ms. title "Saudi Arabia 1955" to spine in white ink. An interesting album of photographs taken by a British or American engineer working on a construction project in Saudi Arabia. Though the project and specific location are not named, it was probably based somewhere in the Eastern Province on the Gulf coast. It was there that Saudi Arabian oil was first discovered and, as a result, the province became the focus of the growing oil industry. Thus is it quite likely the photographer's project was part of the infrastructure supporting the industry's rapid expansion. - The images show the building site, the completed buildings, the surrounding coastal area, a traditional house, old ceramic vessels and local people. Several photographs capture the photographer's family at work and play, exploring the beaches, going shopping ("Sue wasn't happy") and riding donkeys and camels. - A few photos stained at corners.
Folio (210 x 345 mm). 22 issues. Together (58), 388 pp. With 2 photographs, 1 plate of graphs showing incidents in Egypt, June-July 1946, 1 folding plan of Persian Azerbaijan, 1 folding plan of Greece and Western Turkey, and 1 folding map of Middle East Intelligence. Original printed stapled wrappers. An intriguing specimen of British post-war intelligence documentation rarely seen in the trade, focussing on but not limited to the Middle East. Based on the Middle Eastern Intelligence services' zones of major responsibility and their spheres of interest (see the map in vol. 100), their reviews cover a vast range of topics. They not only outline the Anglo-Egyptian treaty negotiations and the political situation in Libya, Palestine, and Syria, but also discuss the Arab League (photograph of a meeting of the League in vol. 90), terrorist attacks carried out by Jewish illegal forces in Palestine, the struggle with illegal immigration (a photograph showing a boat of immigrants in vol. 74), and political Zionism. However, the reviews also cover the political and economic situation in Germany, the problem of former Nazi sympathisers regaining positions of power and security (sketched out in the case of "Dr. Drecksacker"), and include an eye-witness report by an SS man employed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, translated into English. British views on Russia make up another significant part, including the reprint of an article by the American journalist Brooks Atkinson, published in the U.S. magazine "Life", accusing Soviet leaders of "group paranoia", as well as analyses of Russian broadcasts with respect to Middle Eastern countries. Moreover, the reviews outline British relations with Greece and the Balkans, France, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey and Kurdistan, Romania, and India, while also discussing the organisation and functions of the U.N. - Despite the imprint indicating a print run of 400 copies, none can be traced on WorldCat. A 12-volume set was sold at Christie's in 2018. - Wrappers have stamps of the "Assistant Director of Medical Service 3rd Divisions". Traces of rust near the staples. The first two pages of vol. 100 loose; a small tear on pp. 9f. of vol. 90, as well as a small flaw to the title-page of vol. 98, neither touching the text. - A rare window into the issues that concerned the British military intelligence following WWII.
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.
4to (225 x 264 mm). X, 42 pp. With 4 lithogr. folding plates. (And:) Beitraege [...] Zweites, Drittes, Viertes, Fünftes Heft. Systema Astronomiae Aegyptiacae Quadripartitum. Ibid., 1833. XXX, 445, (10) pp. (series titles and separate half-title for no. 2). With hand-coloured frontispiece and 10 large folding plates, lithographed throughout. Contemporary polished red morocco, spine, leading edges, inner dentelle and covers richly gilt and blind-tooled in the Romantic style. Glazed green endpapers; all edges goffered and gilt. Bound by the Leipzig master Anton Stumme with his label on the first flyleaf. A fine morocco volume comprising the first five of Seyffarth’s monographic "Contributions" to Egyptology (apparently all published at the time of binding; two more were to follow by 1840). While the first fascicle contains the earliest catalogue raisonnée of the substantial Berlin collection of papyri, fascicles 2-5 (published with continuous pagination) constitute a bold investigation into early Egyptian astronomy and its all-pervading cosmological cult. This section includes a hand-coloured frontispiece of astronomical animal forms and ten large folding plates, all lithographed, showing important pieces of archeological evidence: the Navicula astronomica (Paris), Zodiacus Tentyriticus (Paris), Zodiacus Taurinensis (Turin), Sarcophagus Sethi (London), Sarcophagus Ramsis (Paris), Monolithus Amosis (Paris), Mensa Isiaca (Rome), and a Papyrus funeralis formerly in the d'Hermand collection. The final part is an astronomical lexicon, a typographical masterpiece that fits more than 1300 lithographed hieroglyphs precisely into their letterpress explanations. - Seyffarth, an opponent of Champollion's, emigrated to the U.S. in 1855. His thousands of transcriptions and sketches are preserved in the Brooklyn Museum as the "Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca Manuscripta". - A luxury copy printed entirely on wove paper and bound in elaborate morocco with finely goffered edges (unusual for a secular binding of the time) by the Leipzig master Anton Wilhelm August Stumme (1804-67), who also worked for Robert Schumann. Minor wear to binding, occasional foxing as typical for wove paper. Coloured frontispiece browned evenly; largely insignificant gutter tears to four folding plates. A crisp, unused copy in a magnificent binding. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 229f.
895 x 945 mm. Polyconic projection, constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:4,000,000. Blue-line print. Framed. The only known example: a highly detailed map of the Arabian Peninsula, published by the "Arabian American Oil Co." in March 1942, two years before the company was formally so renamed, and the first effort to produce a large-scale map of the entire Peninsula that satisfied modern technical needs. Clearly produced in a very limited edition for internal use at the crucial, transitional moment in Arabian oil exploration, this is the earliest known map to use the name that still survives in "Saudi Aramco", issued at a time when the company was still officially Standard Oil of California. - The legend identifies railways, primary and secondary roads as well as "explorers' routes", oil pipelines, intermittent streams, airports, towns, "Arab wells", oases, "sand areas", "sabkhas", and "marsh". The Maidan-i-Naftun and Naft Safid oilfields in Iran (and the pipelines that link them to the A.I.O.C. Refinery at Abadan) are illustrated, as are the Kirkuk oilfield and the pipelines running from there to Haifa and Tripoli. Dammam and Dhahran, the sites of the first commercial oil wells in Saudi Arabia, also feature on the map. Aside from that, however, there is no illustrated oil development in the Middle East: the map effectively illustrates the blank slate that was Arabian oil exploration in the early 1940s. On the coast of what was then Trucial Oman, Sharjah, Dubai (with airfield) and Abu Dhabi are identified; the areas to the southwest of Abu Dhabi City are labelled "Sabkha es Salmiyah" and "Taff". Shows adjoining areas from the Bosporus to Somaliland and the USSR. - The "compiler and tracer" (cartographer and draughtsman) is identified as the Aramco engineer G. S. Sheets; separate fields to indicate "checked by" and "revisions" remain blank. Sheets had joined Aramco's predecessor, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company, in 1939 and immediately began work in Dhahran as a geological draftsman in the Production (Exploration) department. Upon his return to the U.S. he prepared several geological maps including the present one and acted as liaison with the Army Map Service. In 1942 he became attached as a civilian to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Army Map Service, but he returned to Arabia in 1944 and in 1955 became staff assistant to the director of Concession Affairs. - In excellent state of preservation. Extremely rare: OCLC locates only two examples, both of which appear to be photocopies (Library of Congress and American University of Beirut). While the large 1963 map of Arabia that succeeded this, also produced by Aramco geologists, has occasionally appeared in the trade, no other original of this early map could be traced in libraries or in auction or trade records. A unique survival. OCLC 1048657705.
4to. (12), 506, (30). With woodcut title-vignette and headpiece. Near-contemporary giltstamped full calf with giltstamped spine-title. Leading edges gilt, sumptuously gilt inner dentelle bordering silk pastedowns. Later marbled flyleaves. All edges gilt. First edition of the travelogue of the Spanish diplomat Silva y Figueroa (1550-1624), who embarked on an embassy to Persia in 1614, hoping to secure from Shah Abbas exclusive trading rights in Persia and its dependencies. As the Latin manuscript was not published and a Spanish translation did not appear until the 20th century, this French translation published by de Puis (as well as the one issued by Louis Billaine the same year) long remained the only available version of the itinerary. - In 1619, Figueroa was granted an audience in Isfahan with the Shah, who sought to conclude a trading agreement with the Spanish but would not subscribe to the ambassador's demands for the restoration of Gombroon and other Portuguese enclaves, nor to the exclusion of the English and other nationalities. Negotiations were suspended and Figueroa ended up returning to Spain, where he arrived in 1624 after an absence of ten years. His account describes Lar, Shiraz, Kašan, Qazvin, and Qom as well as other places including the caravansaries where he stayed, and gives interesting ethnographic data on the non-Muslim communities, such as the Armenians in Jolfa or the Zoroastrians, as well as a precise description of Persepolis and its cuneiform inscriptions. Although Antonio de Goueva (1602) and Giambattista and Girolamo Vecchietti (1606) had already recognized cuneiform as a type of writing, Figueroa was the first person to describe the cuneiform characters as shaped like "pyramids" and "obelisks", thus anticipating Pietro della Valle. Of the Persian dependencies, Ormuz and Bahrain were considered of particular importance, the former for its trade in silks, the latter for pearls: "Mais ce Golfe [...] qui est beaucoup plus long que large, ayant au milieu cette fertile Isle de Baharen [...] si celebre par tout l'Orient, à cause de sa riche & precieuse pesche de perles" (p. 59). Furthermore, Figueroa mentions falcons "larger and stronger than in Europe" (p. 105) as well as "excellent horses" (p. 426), and "the best dates of all of Persia" (p. 94). - Covers slightly scuffed. Interior occasionally browned and waterstained; a few small marginal tears, not touching text. Several handwritten marginal annotations, particularly in the index. Bookplate of the bibliophile and horse enthusiast Joseph Guilhem de Lagondie (1809-79) to flyleaf, who sold the book in March 1878 (handwritten note of acquisition by the new owner to flyleaf). Shelfmark label and catalogue description mounted to flyleaf. Palau 313613. Wilson 70. Diba 3. Howgego I, S105. Encyclopaedia Iranica IX, 612f. OCLC 166132497. Not in Blackmer, Atabey or Weber.
(III)-XV, (1), 478 pp. Modern boards. With a folding map of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Edges sprinkled green. Rare, early British parliamentary papers and correspondence with British agents and residents regarding the slave trade. Includes communications relevant to slavery in Africa and India, with reports by the Agent at Muscat on the landing of slaves in that city's harbour (p. 383) and the kidnapping of children by Muslim slave dealers and their conveyance to "Arabia and the Persian Gulf" (p. 426f.), as well as instructions to the Resident in the Persian Gulf "immediately to communicate with the Arab Chiefs" to pursue the objective of suppressing the slave trade in the Arabian seas (p. 382). - Well preserved, with additional page numbers in a contemporary hand. OCLC 25471335.
Folio. XVIII, (2), 579, (1) pp. Modern blue wrappers with cover label. Top edge gilt. British papers and correspondence with local agents on the international slave trade, including missives exchanged between Colonel Sheil and Earl Granville about steps to be taken against slave trade by Persian vessels in the Arabian Gulf, plans to intercept slaving vessels in the Gulf, the continued slave trade by the "Arabs of the coast" (p. 324) and importation of slaves by Gulf sheiks and a discussion of the penalties to be inflicted on the sheikhs who persist in importing slaves. - Well-preserved.
Small folio (222 x 334 mm). VIII, 615, (1) pp. Later 19th c. buckram-backed marbled boards, labels lettered in gilt. Rare but frequently-cited British parliamentary papers with "Correspondence on the Slave Trade, and Measures Taken for its Abolition". Includes a printed sketch of the southern coast of Yemen, illustrating the area in possession of the "Boo-Mehree-Buddooee (Bedouin) Arabs" and identifiying the tribal chiefs as the Sultans of Qishn, Sayhut, and Dhofar (p. 156); also, correspondence between the Imaum of Muscat and the British Resident in the Gulf, in which the latter congratulates the Imaum on the recent peace made between "Tahnoon and Sultan Bin Suggur [the al-Qasimi ruler of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah], and that there was a prospect of the poor people of this Gulf enjoying a quiet pearl fishing season, free from the scourge of war, that affliction of mankind" (p. 86). Also, detailed reports on the slave trade at Muscat, Bahrein, Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah ("Last year Shaik Sultan Bin Sugger's own buggalow brought from the coast of Africa 30 slaves to Rasul Khyma, but this is a rare occurrence, vessels seldom going there from the Joasmee states", p. 90). In all, the volume contains a significant number of references to the Arabian Gulf, Muscat, "Arabs", etc. - Labels and lettering worn; a good clean copy. Formerly in the library of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; ultimately withdrawn from the British Library of Political and Economic Science (cancellation stamp).
Large 8vo. (16), 759, (1) pp. Heavily worn contemporary quarter calf over original boards. Register of proceedings containing the records of numerous important debates in the Commons on the French Revolution and Slavery, with the abolitionist William Wilberforce tirelessly campaigning and arguing for abolition through the promotion of a number of bills. In February 1793 he had narrowly lost a vote in the Commons where he had been hoping to put pressure on the Lords, and during the sessions of 1793 and 1794 he promoted his Foreign Slave Bill, which would have prohibited the use of British ships to carry slaves to the territories of other countries. The debates in this year also centre on the ongoing situation in France after the Revolution, with concerns that radical agitation would spread to Britain, and Wilberforce believing that insufficient efforts were being made to avoid war with France. - Partially unopened. Spine chipped and worn, boards slightly stained, worn and creased; minor dampstaining.
2 vols. of text (4to) and one volume of plates (folio, 284 x 378 mm). Text: XXIII, (1), 228, (2) pp. With 3 genealogical tables and 2 folding maps. XVIII, 397, (1) pp. Half calf with gilt-stamped morocco label to spine. Atlas: 4 chromolithogr. plates (conjoined as 2), 6 (1 double-sized) toned lithogr. plates, and 65 mounted photographs on a total of 40 plates; 1 letterpress leaf of contents. Cloth portfolio with gilt cover title. Remarkable set, rarely encountered complete with the plates volume. The Dutch orientalist Snouck spent a year in Mecca and Jeddah during 1884/85 and was married to a Mecca woman. He was the first non-Muslim to visit the city outside the annual pilgrimage. The photographs, taken by himself and an Arabic physician, are among the earliest to show Mecca and its pilgrims. - Very nicely rebound, in matching period style portfolio and half calf. An unusually crisp and clean copy throughout: text volumes spotless; the plates with the vintage photographs, much sought after as the earliest photographic documents of the city, its dignitaries and its pilgrims, are backed on thin linen and preserved in perfect condition. Macro 1239 (omitting mention of the Atlas). Henze V, 177. Dinse 443.
2 vols. of text (4to) and one volume of plates (folio, 284 x 378 mm). Text: XXIII, (1), 228, (2) pp. With 3 genealogical tables and 2 folding maps. XVIII, 397, (1) pp. Atlas: 4 chromolithogr. plates, 5 (of 6) toned lithogr. plates (one folding), and 65 mounted photographs on a total of 39 (of 40) plates; 1 letterpress leaf of contents. Includes original printed upper board cover, loosely inserted. Modern black library cloth with gilt title to spine; atlas portfolio uniform with books. Contemporary black half roan, spines in five compartments with raised bands gilt, original atlas-portfolio of black cloth-backed printed cream boards. First edition, a complete set with both text volumes and the portfolio with all the photographic plates, but lacking one of the lithographs. The Dutch orientalist Snouck spent a year in Mecca and Jeddah during 1884/85 and was married to a Mecca woman. He was the first non-Muslim to visit the city outside the annual pilgrimage. The photographs, taken by himself and an Arabic physician, are among the earliest to show Mecca and its pilgrims. - Spines of both text volumes and portfolio professionally restored. Atlas lacks plate XVII (detail of Kiswah fabric), some light scattered spotting, minor creasing to mounts. Macro 1239 (omitting mention of the Atlas). Henze V, 177. Dinse 443.
A total of 350 topographic maps, colour-printed, ca. 52 x 47 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale. In Russian (Cyrillic). The Soviet Union's 1:200,000 General Staff map quadrangles showing Iran, Iraq and the countries of the Levant: Palestine and Israel, southern Lebanon, parts of Syria and Jordan. From the Russian series of maps produced during the Cold War, based on high-quality satellite imagery, but usually also ground reconnaissance. Nearly complete, only a few quadrangles missing along the south-western border regions and two lacunae on the very north-eastern fringe. Assembled continuously, the quadrangles would form an enormous map spanning nearly 14 x 9 metres!. - Products of a massive, clandestine cartographic project begun under Stalin and ultimately encompassing the entire globe, the Soviet General Staff maps are today noted for their extreme precision. Indeed, even in post-Soviet times they provide the most reliable mapping for many remoter parts of the world: "Soviet-era military maps were so good that when the United States first invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, American pilots relied on old Russian maps of Afghanistan. For almost a month after the United States began a bombing campaign to help oust the Taliban government, American pilots were guided by Russian maps dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s" (Davies/Kent, p. xi). - Although the details of the cartographic programme evolved over the decades, its overall system and plan remained remarkably constant. "The basic quadrangle is the 1:1,000,000 sheet spanning 4° latitude by 6° longitude. The quadrangles are identified by lettered bands north from the equator and by numbered zones east from longitude 180° [...] Each 1:1,000,000 sheet is subdivided into four 1:500,000 sheets (from northwest to southeast), labeled [by] the first four letters of the Russian alphabet" (ibid., p. 19-21). "Printing such large-format plans in so many colors with near-perfect print registration itself testifies to the skill of the printers in the military map printing factories across the former Soviet Union. The quality of printing reflects the level of training and the reliability of humidity-control equipment and the electricity supply at the time" (ibid., p. 6f.). - The 1:200,000-scale maps are specifically labelled "Secret" or "For Offical Use". Indeed, all General Staff maps de facto constituted closely guarded military material, none of which became available in the West before the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. - Light traces of folds and occasional wrinkles and small edge flaws, but altogether in excellent condition. Cf. J. Davies / A. J. Kent, The Red Atlas (Chicago/London, 2017).
A total of 49 topographic maps, colour-printed, ca. 70 x 60 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale. In Russian (Cyrillic). The Soviet Union's 1:500,000 General Staff map quadrangles showing Iran, Iraq and the countries of the Levant: Palestine and Israel, southern Lebanon, parts of Syria and Jordan. From the Russian series of maps produced during the Cold War, based on high-quality satellite imagery, but usually also ground reconnaissance. Nearly complete, with only a few lacunae at Iran's easternmost fringes and at Bandar Abbas. Assembled continuously, the quadrangles would form an enormous map spanning roughly 6 x 3.5 metres!. - Products of a massive, clandestine cartographic project begun under Stalin and ultimately encompassing the entire globe, the Soviet General Staff maps are today noted for their extreme precision. Indeed, even in post-Soviet times they provide the most reliable mapping for many remoter parts of the world: "Soviet-era military maps were so good that when the United States first invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, American pilots relied on old Russian maps of Afghanistan. For almost a month after the United States began a bombing campaign to help oust the Taliban government, American pilots were guided by Russian maps dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s" (Davies/Kent, p. xi). - Although the details of the cartographic programme evolved over the decades, its overall system and plan remained remarkably constant. "The basic quadrangle is the 1:1,000,000 sheet spanning 4° latitude by 6° longitude. The quadrangles are identified by lettered bands north from the equator and by numbered zones east from longitude 180° [...] Each 1:1,000,000 sheet is subdivided into four 1:500,000 sheets (from northwest to southeast), labeled [by] the first four letters of the Russian alphabet" (ibid., p. 19-21). "Printing such large-format plans in so many colors with near-perfect print registration itself testifies to the skill of the printers in the military map printing factories across the former Soviet Union. The quality of printing reflects the level of training and the reliability of humidity-control equipment and the electricity supply at the time" (ibid., p. 6f.). - Two of the maps carry the Russian air defense grid ("setka PVO") printed in pink. Although the general terrain evaluation maps and operational maps produced at the smaller scales of 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000 were not usually marked as classified (larger-scale maps were routinely labelled "Secret" or "For Offical Use"), all General Staff maps de facto constituted closely guarded military material, none of which became available in the West before the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. - Light traces of folds and occasional wrinkles and small edge flaws, but altogether in excellent condition. Cf. J. Davies / A. J. Kent, The Red Atlas (Chicago/London, 2017).
A total of 86 topographic maps, colour-printed, ca. 58 x 45 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale. In Russian (Cyrillic). Nearly all of the Soviet Union's 1:200,000 General Staff map quadrangles showing the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula: from the Russian series of maps produced during the Cold War, based on high-quality satellite imagery, but usually also ground reconnaissance. While there are a few lacunae in Yemen near the south-western tip of the Peninsula, most of the area is well-covered. Assembled continuously, the quadrangles would form an enormous map spanning ca. 8 x 4 metres. - Products of a massive, clandestine cartographic project begun under Stalin and ultimately encompassing the entire globe, the Soviet General Staff maps are today noted for their extreme precision. Indeed, even in post-Soviet times they provide the most reliable mapping for many remoter parts of the world: "Soviet-era military maps were so good that when the United States first invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, American pilots relied on old Russian maps of Afghanistan. For almost a month after the United States began a bombing campaign to help oust the Taliban government, American pilots were guided by Russian maps dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s" (Davies/Kent, p. xi). - Although the details of the cartographic programme evolved over the decades, its overall system and plan remained remarkably constant. "The basic quadrangle is the 1:1,000,000 sheet spanning 4° latitude by 6° longitude [...] Each 1:1,000,000 sheet is [...] subdivided into 36 1:200,000 sheets in a six-by-six grid [... They] normally contain on the reverse side a detailed written description of the districts (towns, communications, topography, geology, hydrology, vegetation, and climate) together with a geological sketch map" (ibid., p. 19-21). "Printing such large-format plans in so many colors with near-perfect print registration itself testifies to the skill of the printers in the military map printing factories across the former Soviet Union. The quality of printing reflects the level of training and the reliability of humidity-control equipment and the electricity supply at the time" (ibid., p. 6f.). - The 1:200,000-scale maps are specifically labelled "For Offical Use". Indeed, all General Staff maps de facto constituted closely guarded military material, none of which became available in the West before the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. - Light traces of folds, occasional wrinkles and a few odd edge flaws, but altogether in excellent condition. Cf. J. Davies / A. J. Kent, The Red Atlas (Chicago/London, 2017).
8vo. 15 black and white photographs captioned in white, plus one repeat in a smaller print. Original board album, acquired from "M. Arthur, Beyrouth". Paper label to upper cover: "Arab Types. Syria". Small but fascinating collection of portrait photographs showing Arabian nobles as well as commoners, all captioned and the subject often identified by name and tribe. The photos, many of which are executed as highly expressive profile studies, were taken and assembled by Lt. Col. Walter Francis Stirling (1880-1958), Chief of Staff to T. E. Lawrence. While the present photographs were taken during his time with Lawrence, whom Stirling revered, it is not his British comrades but rather the striking features of the sheikhs and bedouins on which this collection is focused. Among the images are "Sheik Gawaileh of Nejd, one of Lawrence's Bodyguard", and "Sheikh Hamondi, Friend of Lawrence"; others are more ominously identified as "Yezidi Shepherd, Devil worshipper" or "Bad type of Hadadiyim Tribesman". Of many noble tribesmen here depicted, such as Fauraz ibn Sha'laan, Emir of the Ruwalla, or Sheikh Daham al-Hadi, Paramount Sheikh of the Shammar tribe, these probably constitute the only photographic record. - Stirling was trained at Sandhurst and served in the Transvaal operation during the Boer War before being seconded to the Egyptian Army in 1906. He spent five years patrolling with an Arab battalion on the Eritrean and Abyssinian borders. Throughout WWI he served at Gallipoli and the Palestinian campaign until he was appointed chief staff officer to Lawrence of Arabia, who called him "Stirling the imperturbable". In 1937, Stirling would reflect on his famous wartime comrade: "From then [early 1918] throughout the final phase of the Arab revolt on till the capture of Damascus, I worked, travelled, and fought alongside Lawrence [...] We sensed that we were serving with a man immeasurably our superior [...] In my considered opinion, Lawrence was the greatest genius whom England has produced in the last two centuries [...] If ever a genius, a scholar, an artist, and an imp of Shaitan were rolled into one personality, it was Lawrence." In 1919 Stirling became advisor to Emir Feisal and Deputy Political Officer in Cairo, then acting governor of Sinai and Governor of the Jaffa district in Palestine before moving to Albania in 1923 to take up a position advising and assisting in the reorganisation of the Albanian Ministry of the Interior.
2 vols. 18mo. (6), CLXX, 154 pp. 105, (1), 202 pp. With Arabic title-page printed in red and black. Contemporary tanned half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. First edition in French of two Arabic travels to China and India. The text was translated from the Arabic by the French orientalist and professor Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (1795-1867). The Arabic text was first printed in 1811, under supervision of the French linguist and orientalist Louis-Mathieu Langlès. - The first volume starts with an introduction to the text, followed by the translation. The main text can be divided into two sections. The first account is based on statement from a merchant called Suleyman, who is said to have travelled to India and China in the years 851-852 (237), however, the actual author of the text is unknown. The following account is written down by Abu Zayd al-Hasan al-Sirafi. Al-Mas'udi, "the Herodotus of the Arabs", mentions al-Sirafi in one of his works, stating that he met him in the year 915-916 (303) in Basra, Iraq. Al-Sirafi tells us he was commanded to verify and extend the earlier account. The date of the second account is unclear, but it was probably written in the first half of the 10th century. The text gives a lively account of the life in China and India, with "… the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, and a whole panorama of Chinese society, from the Son of Heaven and Confucian ethics down to toilet paper and bamboo urinals" (Mackintosh-Smith). The second volume gives notes to the translation, followed by the Arabic text. Added to the Arabic text are two extracts from works by Al-Mas'udi, including his "Muruj al-dhahab". - With owner's inscription on title-page. Sides slightly rubbed. A very good copy: only some minor browning. Cordier (Sinica) 1924f. Hage Chahine 3965. T. Mackintosh-Smith & J. Montgomery (eds.), Two Arabic travel books (2014), pp. 4-17.
490 x 725 mm. Various editions, 16 coloured sheets. Scale 1:100,000. Reliefs shown by contours, hachures and spot heights. Publisher's pictorial wrappers. Rarely found in such a complete group, these topographical maps document an important phase of the Survey of Palestine which was a direct result of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. - "The cadastral survey proceeded in fits and starts, through the Great Revolt of 1936-1939 and World War II. By the end of the mandate, the land was settled in less than 20 percent of Palestine, primarily in areas where Jewish colonies were established, such as the coastal plain, the Marj Ibn Amer valley, and north of Lake Tiberias by the Jordan River. The topographical maps were completed for all of Palestine, excluding the lower Negev. These were very valuable for military purposes during World War II" (Sitta). - Showing the district and sub-district boundaries, plus roads, notable buildings, police stations, minarets, in some cases Sheikh's tombs etc. The maps are as follows: 1. Metulla; 2. Haifa; 3. Safad; 4. Zikhron; 5. Nazareth; 6. Jaffa, Tel Aviv; 7. Nablus; 8. Yibna; 9. Ramle; 10 Jerusalem; 11. Gaza; 12. Hebron; 13. Dead Sea; 14. Rafah; 15. Beersheba; 16. Jebel Usdum. - A little edgewear and toning to wrappers; ownership inscription to each upper wrapper. Sitta, Salman Abu, [review] "A Survey of Palestine under the British Mandate, 1920-1948", in: Journal of Palestine Studies 35.2 (Winter 2006), p. 102.
4to (235 x 325 mm). (1), 118 pp. Lithographed throughout; pp. 8-97 comprise a continuous genealogical tree. Contemporary plain black cloth-covered boards with black sheepskin spine. First edition: a rare and important work on the genealogy of the Arab tribes, also an early, graphically sophisticated lithographic effort from the Arab World. The "Book of Gold Bars" by the prominent Iraqi theologian and historian Suwaydi (1786-1831) is a revised and expanded interpretation of the "Dictionary of the Arab Genealogy" by the legendary Medieval Egyptian scholar Ahmad ibn Ali Qalqashandi; notably, Suwaydi continued the genealogical profile up to modern times. The book seeks to trace the genealogy of the Arab peoples, and the branches of their tribes, from Biblical times up to the age of Muhammad and then to the modern era. The introductory text (pp. 1-7) is followed by the grand, 90-page genealogical table and ultimately by an alphabetical reference section and analytical section (pp. 98-118). - Suwaydi is thought to have commenced preparation of the work as early as 1814, although he did not complete the treatise until 1830 or 1831, shortly before his death. Highly regarded in its time, for some years a small number of manuscript copies circulated in Islamic academic circles. The present publication represents the first printed edition of the work. The second edition was published in Bombay in 1877 (and is likewise rare), while several subsequent editions appeared during the 20th century. - Covers slightly stained. Last 3 leaves with light tide-marking to outer margins and some sporadic light stains elsewhere, but overall in a good clean condition, a few leaves with short marginal tears some closed with discreet old restoration. Very rare: we can trace only six institutional examples (British Library; University of Cambridge; Bibliothèque de Genève; Yale University Library; University of California at Berkeley; National Library of Israel). No examples have appeared on the market over the last generation. OCLC 708712572 & 32728624. British Library: Asia, Pacific & Africa 14548.c.5. Yale University Library: CS1129.A2 S8 1864. On early lithography in Iraq, cf. A. Al-Rawi, Media Practice in Iraq (2012), passim.
8vo. (24), 179, (17) pp. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten title label to spine (faded). First Latin translation of this three-part pharmacological treatise on the nature and effect of medicines gained from animals, vegetables, and minerals (including some quite superstitious material), published under the name of the mediaval Egyptian polymath Abd al-Rahman Al-Suyuti, whose "versatility stands out as unique in the history of Arabic literature" (GAL II, 144), but probably assembled from various Arabic sources. The first part, covering animals, is likely Al-Suyuti's own "Diwan al-Hayawan", translated by Abraham Ecchellensis after a manuscript in Cardinal Mazarin's library; the authors and manuscript sources of the following two parts remain unidentified. Within the notes, this edition uses several Greek, Hebrew, and even Arabic interspersions in the type. - Some browning to paper. 18th century French note on lower flyleaf; handwritten duplicate note and stamp to title-page. Insignificant paper flaws to pp. 103-106, merely affecting the pagination; small edge tear in p. 151f.; loss to lower margin of last leaf but one of the index (not touching text). Krivatsy 11586. Choulant 389. Wellcome II, 2. Ebert I, 9151. Krüger, Bibliographia botanica 35. Catalogue of the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London 145.