[Kinglake, Alexander William].MareMagnum
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4to. XI, (1), 418 pp. With folding lithographed frontispiece and a lithographed plate, both in original hand colour. Ca. 1940s giltstamped full blue morocco with spine-title. Leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. First edition of this classic of Middle Eastern travel literature, published anonymously. The first literary venture by the English travel writer and historian Kingslake, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary Lord Pollington. According to the Irish traveller and novelist Elliot Warburton, the book evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality", and it was instantly successful. - Packed with intimate details of a traveller's life and emotions, the narrative includes vivid accounts of Kinglake's encounter with Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839), one of the most famous travellers of her age, at her home near Sidon in Lebanon, as well as of a severe outbreak of the plague during his 15-day sojourn in Cairo: "When I first arrived, it was said that the daily number of 'accidents' by the plague, out of a population of about 200,000, did not exceed four or five hundred, but before I went away, the deaths were reckoned at twelve hundred a day [...] When first I arrived at Cairo, the funerals that daily passed under my windows were many, but still there were frequent, and long intervals without a single howl. Every day, however [...] these intervals became less frequent, and shorter, and at last, the passing of the howlers from morn to noon was almost incessant. I believe that about one half of the whole people was carried off by this visitation [...]" (p. 283ff.). - The frontispiece shows a group of travellers on horseback passing the skeletons of impaled robbers in the Balkans, captioned "Eastern Travel". The plate shows a baggage raft and some swimmers crossing the River Jordan. - Upper hinges slightly rubbed. Frontispiece worn in the folds; occasional very slight foxing. Provenance: pastedown has bookplate of Frank Goldsmith, possibly the Kentish-born photographer of that name (1902-82) who survived the sinking of the Titanic as a nine-year-old and relocated to the USA after WWII. A fine copy in an sumptuous blue morocco binding produced by the Bayntun-Riviere bindery in Bath, England. Blackmer 911. OCLC 1191005987. Cf. Weber 369 (1845 2nd edition). Atabey 635 (1847 French edition). Not in Aboussouan.
Black and white photograph. 232 x 178 mm. Ceremonial departure of the Holy Carpet pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca.
4to. 144 pp. With numerous coloured and black-and-white photographic illustrations. Original printed wrappers. First edition of this rare illustrated guidebook to Kuwait. Aiming to encourage the tourist industry of Kuwait, it is packed with useful information on geography, history, education, infrastructure, museums, visa and residence regulations, currency, embassies and consulates, hotels, sports, banks, the climate, and other topics. It is particularly remarkable for the numerous photographs promoting life in Kuwait in the late 1960s, including portraits of Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah, the Amir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and Sheikh Jabir al-Ali al-Salim al-Sabah, Minister of Guidance and Information. - Two tiny tears to lower margin of wrappers. Several pages a little soiled; slightly toned in places. OCLC 121622.
4to. 161, (3) pp. With numerous black-and-white illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Report on the Danish archaeological expedition to Kuwait led by Peter Vilhelm Glob and Geoffrey Bibby. During five campaigns between 1958 and 1963 the tells on the south-western corner of Failaka Island became the focus of the expedition. The report describes and illustrates some of the major finds, including statues, pottery, lamps, coins, remnants of houses and temples, skeletons and weaponry. - Each campaign lasted 2½ to 3½ months, and the excavation teams consisted of between 5 and 14 Danes as well as 2 Kuwaitis from the Education Department, assisted by up to 185 labourers. At the end of each campaign the finds were packed down in large wooden crates and shipped to the museum in Aarhus for conservation and analysis. At that time there were no conservation and storing facilities in Kuwait, nor anywhere in the Arabian Gulf. - Wrappers have title in English and Arabic. The illustrations are captioned in English and Arabic as well; title-page and introductory text in Arabic only. - Occasional light foxing. OCLC 65798901.
Folio (533 x 364 mm). (3), 79 pp., engraved, illustrated title-page and 25 engraved maps after William Faden, in contemporary hand colour. Contemporary black morocco, richly stamped in silver and blind. Bright yellow pastedowns. In custom-made half morocco solander box. The first European-style atlas printed in the Islamic world: an exceedingly rare, handsome, and entirely complete example in its original first binding. "[T]he first world atlas printed by Muslims [...], of which only fifty copies were printed" (Library of Congress, Near East Collections: an illustrated guide, online). Several copies were reserved for high-ranking officials and important institutions; most of the remainder were destroyed in a warehouse fire during the Janissary Revolt of 1808. "Based on several estimates and accounting for the single maps (torn-out from bound volumes of the atlas) sold or being offered worldwide, it is believed that a maximum of 20 complete examples could be present in libraries or in private collections, whereas some sources suggest that there exist only 10 complete and intact copies in the world. As such, it is one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value" (Wikipedia). - A prestigious project for the Ottoman Palace with the seal of approval of the Sultan Selim III, this work was one of the avantgardistic enterprises promoted by Mahmoud Ra'if to introduce Western technical and scientific knowledge to the Ottoman state. Composed of 25 maps based on William Faden's "General Atlas", it is the first Muslim-published world atlas to make use of European geographic knowledge. On each of the maps the place-names are transliterated in Arabic. The Atlas includes Raif's 79-page geographical treatise "Ucalet ül-Cografiye" and the frequently missing folding celestial map on blue paper. - Maps very clean, showing only a few minor stains and repaired tears to folds; a creasemark to the map of Africa; an internal tear to pre-Revolutionary map of France. Binding professionally repaired at extremeties and upper hinge with a few scuffmarks and insignificant traces of worming. An excellent copy, one of the very few surviving specimens in the beautiful original oriental leather binding (the only other known example was sold through us in 2019). A severely defective copy recently commanded an auction price of USD 118,750 (Swann Galleries NY, 26 May 2016, lot 199). OCLC 54966656. Not in Philipps/Le Gear. Not in Atabey or Blackmer collections.
Small 4to. 2 vols. (4), VIII, 464 pp. (4), 558, (1) pp., final blank page. With 2 engraved plates and one folding map of the Mediterranean. Contemporary half calf over freen marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition of the travelogue of the French diplomat who secured the Venus de Milo for the Louvre in 1820. The Comte de Marcellus was appointed to the embassy at Constantinople in 1815, and in 1820 was sent to the ports of the Levant and the religious establishments of Palestine. His travels took him to Scio, Delos, Melos, Santorin, Cyprus, Sidon, Cairo and the pyramids, Rhodes, Athens and Smyrna. During his mission the peasant Yorgos Kentrotas discovered the Venus de Milo inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos. The French ambassador Charles François de Riffardeau acquired the statue for France, but it was Marcellus who prevented its shipment to Constantinople and arranged for the Venus to be taken aboard a French ship instead. Chapter VIII of volume I is entirely dedicated to the Venus de Milo and its story, including an engraved illustration of the masterpiece. The other plate shows Pierre Gary, a guard of the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali. - Occasional foxing. Hinges professionally restored. Provenance: contemporary library stamp of the French ethnographer Eugène de Froberville (1790-1871) to both title-pages. Later in the collection of the British historian William St Clair (1937-2021) with his pencil ownership to the front free endpaper of volume I. Weber 296. Blackmer 1087. Atabey 764. Cobham-Jeffery 36. OCLC 562749585.
12mo. 2 vols. XX, 339, (1) pp. XII, 359, (1) pp. With 8 engraved plates and one engraved folding map of the Arabian Gulf. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine-title. All edges sprinkled red. Second edition in English of Niebuhr's excellent account of his travels in the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, India and Arabia, the first scientific expedition to this area, subsidised by the Danish king. Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. The maps Niebuhr drew in the course of the expedition were remarkably detailed and accurate. Indeed, his map of Yemen was the first exact map of the area ever, remaining the standard for the next 200 years. The volumes include authentic descriptions of life and customs in Yemen, Oman and elsewhere, with detailed descriptions of Mecca and Medina, Sana'a and Mocha as well as several references to coffee and coffeehouses. The first volume was adapted from Niebuhr's "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien" (1774) and the second from his "Beschreibung von Arabien" (1772). Previously published in Edinburgh in 1792. - Corners and hinges professionally repaired. With near-contemporary manuscript presentation note to flyleaves: "presented to the Glenbervie Sunday School Library by G. M". Later pencil ownership of the Scottish dentist and naturalist E. G. H. Lightfoot, dated Aberdeen 1953. Some additional pencil notes to pastedown and flyleaf of volume I, including brief biographical notes on Niebuhr in Lightfoot's handwriting. ESTC T176314. Howgego, to 1800, N24. Hünersdorff, p. 1081. OCLC 5416838. Cf. Weber II, 550. Macro 1700. Atabey 873-874 (other eds).
8vo (130 x 218 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. (375) pp., 19 lines per extensum. Written in neat black naskh, emphases picked out in red; catchwords. With numerous tables and diagrams, one in red and black. Contemporary brown leather binding with stamped ornaments. A 16th century commentary (sharh), profusely illustrated with diagrams, on Naziraddin al-Tusi's "at-Tadhkira an-Nasiriya", a general outline of astronomy, originally written in Persian. Composed by the Persian Sunni scholar Nizamaddin ibn Muhamad an-Nisapuri (d. 1328/29), who was known as a mathematician, astronomer, jurist, Qur'an exegete, and poet. His teacher Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi had himself been a student of al-Tusi's. An-Nisapuri wrote the present commentary in 711 H (1311 CE). - Binding rather rubbed. Marginal notes throughout; colophon with partial date "14 Jumada II". Scattered minor wormholes, but overall in good condition. GAL I, 511, VI, 40 b.
Vintage lithographed poster backed on linen. 1060 x 762 mm. Rare travel poster showing the Nefertiti Bust, designed by Assem Ismail for the United Arab Airlines (formerly Misr Airlines and MisrAir, now Egypt Air). Affiches Air-France-2006, p. 149.
4to. 3 parts in 4 vols.: 780, (34) pp. (12), 492, (24) pp. (2), 546, (24) pp. (20), 508, (18) pp. With engraved portrait of Pietro della Valle, 2 engraved title-vignettes, 3 woodcut title-vignettes, and several woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title and shelfmarks. All edges sprinkled red. A complete set of the first edition of Della Valle's "Viaggi", highly sought after as one of the earliest printed sources for the early history of Dibba, the coastal region at the northeastern tip of the United Arab Emirates, today ruled by the Emirates of Fujairah and of Sharjah. - Pietro della Valle (1586-1652) left Venice in 1614 on a pilgrimage to Palestine, proceeding to Baghdad and then into Persia, where he married and sojourned at the court of Shah Abbas. While staying with the Sultan of Bandar Abbas, he "met the son of the ruler of Dibba who was visiting. From this he learned that Dibba had formerly been subject to the kingdom of Hormuz, but was at that time loyal to the Safavids who in 1623 sent troops to Dibba, Khor Fakkan and other ports on the southeast coast of Arabia in order to prepare for a Portuguese counter-attack following their expulsion from Hormuz (Jarun). In fact, the Portuguese under Ruy Freire were so successful that the people of Dibba turned on their Safavid overlords, putting them all to death, whereupon a Portuguese garrison of 50 men was installed at Dibba. More Portuguese forces, however, had to be sent to Dibba in 1627 as a result of an Arab revolt. Curiously, two years later the Portuguese proposed moving part of the Mandaean population of southern Iraq, under pressure from neighbouring Arab tribes, to Dibba" (UAE History: 2000 to 200 years ago - UAEinteract, online). "Della Valle displayed excellent narrative and descriptive skills, powers of acute observation, and a genuinely scholarly breadth of learning. He refused to comment on what he had not witnessed himself or checked against the best authorities" (Gurney). He continued his travels east to the coast of India, Goa and Muscat, and thence back to Aleppo by way of Basra. He reached Rome in 1626, where the original Italian text of his letters written to the Neapolitan physician Mario Schipano was published. Only the first volume, dealing with Turkey, saw print during his lifetime. The two-part volume II on Persia was released in 1658, four years after his death, and the set was concluded in 1663 with the volume on India. Complete sets are usually encountered only with the first volume in its second edition, published in 1662. - Binding somewhat spotted. Some brownstaining throughout with occasional waterstains. Several repairs to p. 344 of vol. II; occasional insignificant marginal tears and small holes. Title page of vol. 2 (La Persia, parte prima) has the title of "parte seconda" with the word "seconda" overpasted with "prima" by the publisher. In all an attractive copy including the frequently missing portrait. Röhricht 946. Henze II, 42. Tobler 95. Gurney, "Della Valle, Pietro", in: Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed.). Macro 1633. Cox I, 273. Wilson 234.
542 x 772 mm. Ottoman Turkish manuscript with large Tughra of Sultan Abdülmecid I (reigned 1839-61). 1 page. Diwani calligraphy in black ink, powdered with gold, on a single sheet of sturdy, polished laid paper. Two watermarks: a crescent moon with a human face, and an eagle with outstretched wings and mark GFA. An important document of Ottoman-French and Franco-Egyption relations: a firman (official letter) from Sultan Abdülmecid to the Kadi of Egypt concerning the appointment of Joseph Vattier de Bourville (1812-54) as the new French consul in Cairo. Sultan Abdulmejid informs the Kadi that, as requested by the French Ambassador to the Porte, Admiral Albin Roussin (1781-1854), Vattier de Bourville has been appointed to fill the place of Ferdinand de Lesseps as consul in Cairo and gives instructions that these orders are strictly to be obeyed and that nobody else is to be approved in the office of consul. The firman refers to the "Ahidname" (treaty) between France and the Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, the King of France, Louis Philippe I, is referred to as "Padishah (Sultan) of France", while the resident French ambassador in Istanbul is addressed as the "Commander of the Messianic Nation". - Three horizontal and vertical folds; some creases. Very light foxing with a small hole and trace of worming. Full transcription available upon request.
12mo (80 x 106 mm). Arabic manuscript in Naskhi script. 292 pp. (first 23 ff. foliated by a contemporary hand), 10-12 lines per extensum, black ink, headlines and emphases in red. Marked throughout the text with 36 crosses potent and a few ornaments, one in colour. Contemporary full brown calf with blindstamped oriental decoration. A fine Chaldean-rite prayer book written towards the end of the contested patriarchate of Joseph V Augustine Hindi (lasting from 1781 to 1827). Includes prayers against the plague, for holidays such as Good Friday, Easter and Ascension, for various times of the day, and for thanksgiving, as well as to the Virgin Mary and Christ. Special prayers for women are mentioned, as are certain Psalms, St. Joseph, Pope Sixtus IV, the Ten Commandments, and the necessary steps toward converting to Christianity. Occasionally, differences between the Chaldean and Roman Catholic rites are mentioned. - The book is written in easily legible Arabic, one of the languages of worship for Chaldeans, whose usual language was in fact Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The name of God is here consistently written as "Allah", while a total of 36 crosses are drawn throughout the text. Curiously, the compiler's Nisbah is given as "Al-Mardinli" ("from Mardin"), in the Ottoman rather than pure Arabic form - a detail that gives evidence of the degree to which cultures, religions and languages were intertwined in the Mesopotamian region. - In full communion with Rome, the Chaldean Catholic Church emerged from the Church of the East through the schism of 1552. By the 17th century, leaders would take the name Joseph, for which reason theirs is known as the "Josephite line" of succession. Although Augustine Hindi, the nephew of his predecessor Joseph IV, was never formally granted recognition by the Holy See as Patriarch of the Chaldeans, he was consecrated as bishop and named administrator of the patriarchate, and he became commonly known as Joseph V. - Binding a little rubbed; old note to lower flyleaf, written head over heels. An interesting cross-cultural document of the interaction between the Eastern and Western Churches, between regional languages and religions in the Middle East. Cf. Charles A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1923 (London, 1983). David Wilmshurst, The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318-1913 (Leiden, 2000).
8vo (150 x 206 mm). (564) pp. Ottoman Turkish and Arabic manuscript written in Naskh script on polished oriental paper. 2 columns, 17 lines. Black ink; chapter headings in red. Text ruled in gilt, red and black; first two pages have attractive 'unwan decorations in gilt, red, lapislazuli, pink, and orange; final page has gilt floral scrollwork decoration. Gilded line decorations on some pages, a red and gillt inscribed figure known as the "Flag of the Prophet on the Day of Judgment" (Liwa al-Hamd) on one page. 19th century oriental brown leather binding with fore-edge flap, decorated with gilt borders and lozenge-shaped ornamentation to both covers. Marbled endpapers. Early Turkish manuscript of the "Magharib al-Zaman" ("Sunsets of Time"), a widely popular devotional work on the Prophet Muhammad, first written in Arabic in 1449 by the Ottoman Sufi poet Yazicioglu Mehmet (d. 1491) and translated into Ottoman Turkish by his younger brother Ahmed Bican. Mehmet, a native of the Gallipoli peninsula, was a follower of Haci Bayram-i Veli (1352-1430) and was influenced by the writings of Andalusian mystic Ibn 'Arabi. The earliest printed edition appeared in 1842 at Istanbul's Military Press. - Comprising some 9,000 couplets, the "Muhammadiyah" is one of the longest works in Turkish literature, but its style is easily accessible, and it contributed much to the formation of Ottoman Sufi culture. Written to disseminate the basic tenets of Islam among the common people, it covers Muhammad's biography, various aspects of Muslim devotion, and eschatological matters, including Gog and Magog, the Sun rising in the west, and the Day of Resurrection. Mehmet is notably preoccupied with the eschatological role of Jesus and of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, which he anticipated by several years. - Anonymously copied (as common for religious texts), this manuscript includes occasional explanations and Qur'an verses that are extraneous to Yazicioglu's text and were introduced by the scribe (or by the copyist of the MS he followed). Among the appealing decorations the first two leaves stand out, as does the gilt depiction of the Prophet's standard, "Liwa al-Hamd" (Banner of Praise), which is to be unfurled on the Day of Judgment. Three phrases written in red ink appear on this banner: "Al-Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil-'Alamin" (Praise be to God, Lord of the Universes), "Bi-smi llahi r-rahmani r-rahim" (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful), and "La ilaha illallah, Muhammadun rasulullah" (There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is messenger of Allah). - Occasional light brownstaining, mainly confined to margins; generally very finely preserved. The first leaf of the book bears a faint Ottoman note of acquisition from the 19th century: "Isbu bin iki yüz doksan bes senesi Zilkade'nin yigirmi üçüncü sali günü yüz elli gurus fiyat" ("This book was bought for 150 Kurush on 23 Dhu al-Qadah, 1295 H" [18 November 1878 CE]. A complete list of the individual chapter titles is available on request. Cf. J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971); Arin Shawkat Salamah-Qudsi, Sufism and Early Islamic Piety: Personal and Communal Dynamics (Cambridge, 2018).
4to. 12, CIII, (1) pp. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary grey wrappers. An account of the religion, literature, and manners of the Arabs before the Prophet. While largely compiled from European sources, Pococke, George Sale, Sir William Jones, and D'Herbelot in particular, the book includes extensive quotations in Arabic as well as details on Mecca, the Kaaba, and Muhammad. Assemani (1752-1821), a great-nephew of Joseph Assemani, the cataloguer of the oriental manuscripts in the Vatican library, is best known for his catalogue of the manuscripts and Cufic coins in the Naniana in Venice (cf. Fück 125). - Corner of lower free endpaper torn away, occasional light browning, wrappers a little frayed at the spine. Otherwise a good, wide-margined copy, untrimmed as issued. Brunet VI, 27994. Gay 3454. Cf. Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge III.2, 815.
4to. 240 pp. With a map frontispiece and several black-and-white photographic illustrations. Contemporay full cloth with giltstamped spine-title. In printed dust jacket. First edition, rare. The "first comprehensive analysis" of the growing financial powers of the oil countries in the 1970s. The author examines OPEC's oil policy, the distribution of oil revenues in the Arabian Peninsula, the emergence of big Arab companies and major players of the Arab financial world, as well as issues of recycling and aid programmes. The work is enriched with photographs showing key personalities of Middle Eastern politics, including King Faisal bin Abdel-Aziz al Saud, King Khaled bin Abdel-Aziz al Saud, Sheikh Abdullah al Salem al Sabah, Sheikh Sabah al Salem al Sabah, and Prince Saud bin Faisal. - Dust jacket somewhat worn. A fine copy. OCLC 1158989003.
Ink on paper. With large gilt Tughra. Ca. 55 x 28 cm. In original, addressed envelope. Pretty Ottoman document from the last months before the beginning of the Balkan Wars, concerning an arms factors. Includes the rare envelope. - Berat certificates were official documents presented as appointments for office, exemption certificates from a tax or duty, or accompanying the award of a medal or other honour. This example is meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink.
4to. 2 vols. XX, 280 pp. (4), 281-576 pp. With 5 lithographed folding maps (2 in colour), 2 lithographed frontispieces (one in original hand colour, one tinted), and 14 lithographed plates, 12 of which tinted. Contemporary giltstamped full calf with the arms of the University of Glasgow to front covers and spine and giltstamped spine-labels. Marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. First edition. Lively account of the first extensive exploration of the Sinai desert performed entirely on foot. The English orientalist Palmer was engaged in 1869 to join the survey of Sinai, undertaken by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and followed up this work in the next year by exploring the desert of El-Tih, Idumaea, and Moab in company with Charles Drake. They completed this journey on foot and without escort, making friends among the Bedouins and Arab sheikhs, to whom Palmer was known as Abdallah Effendi. After a visit to the Lebanon and to Damascus, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Burton, then consul there, he returned to England in 1870 by way of Constantinople and Vienna. - Palmer's report discusses the Sinai survey, the geography of the area, camp life, marches through the wilderness, and encounters with Arab tribes. It includes descriptions of Saint Catherine's Monastery as well as of Petra, with maps of the Sinai Peninsula, the Negeb, and the Moab, as well as two maps from the Sinai survey showing topographic views of Mount Sinai and Jebel Serbál. The charming tinted plates display desert and mountain views, ruins, hieroglyphs, towns, caves and churches. - Bindings very slightly rubbed. Small tears to 2 maps; otherwise in excellent condition. Prize copy awarded to Joannes M. Littlejohn, a student of Hebrew at the University of Glasgow, by Jacob Robertson; a commemorative bookplate to front pastedown of volume I, dated 1 May 1885; a handwritten note by Robertson to flyleaf of volume II. Blackmer 1238. Röhricht 3126, no. 5. OCLC 1013449009.
8vo. 2 parts (instead of 4) in one volume. 320 pp.; 320 pp. Illustrated throughout. Early 20th century grey half calf with giltstamped spine. Mid-20th century Egyptian edition of the "Thousand and One Nights" ("with their strange incidents and singing stories, their nights and details of love, infatuation, tales, humorous and literary anecdotes, with amazing, wonderful pictures of the most creative and miraculous scenes of the wonders of time", as the subtitle claims), published by Muhammad Ali Sabih & Sons for Al-Azhar University. This edition follows that published in Bulaq in 1863 by the Sa'idiyya Press, down to the interestingly naive line-cut illustrations. - Only the first two jilds (parts) of four published. Binding a little rubbed, interior browned as common, but very well preserved. Cf. Chauvin IV, p. 18, no. 20L.
4to (140 x 190 mm). Complete Arabic manuscript on strong Chinese paper. 165 ff. (337 numbered pages), leaf size ca. 132 x 182 mm, written space ca. 82 x 128 mm). 6 lines, per extensum (except 4 lines on pp. 3-4; 11 lines on pp. 11-34). Illustrations of the Kaaba in Mecca and the burial sites of the first three Rashidun Caliphs on pp. 47-48. Text written in "sini" calligraphy typical of Chinese Muslims, in an archaic form oscillating between naskh and muhaqqaq. Black ink, various sections highlighted in red, text within single or double red rules; sporadic notes or corrections on the margins. Contemporary black, red and gold painted and lacquered over paper and cloth. Painted boards show floral designs in black and gold on a red background, all within a black border with red wave designs. With remnants of leather on the brown cloth spine. Extremely rare specimen of the famous Sunni prayerbook "Dala'il al-khayrat": an Arabic manuscript written in what is today Xinjiang, China. - The "Dala'il al-khayrat" ("Waymarks of Benefits" or "Proofs of Good Deeds"), an extensive book of poems in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, was compiled by the Moroccan Sufi scholar Muhammad ibn Sulaiman al-Jazuli (807-870 H / 1405-1465 CE) and was quickly received throughout the Islamic world, functioning as a kind of Muslim catechism. Al-Jazuli's inspiration for the book is said to have come before he left Fez to spend forty years in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, but he completed it in Fez during the last years of his life. The present manuscript, written in so distant an Islamic community as that of Eastern Turkestan, a territory dominated throughout by Mongols or Chinese, where Muslims were commonly viewed as strangers, gives striking evidence of the range and scope of a tradition lasting for almost six centuries: the utopia of Islam as the Religion of Oneness, aiming to unite all the Muslim peoples in a single community reaching from Europe to the Far East. - The text begins with an introductory praise of Muhammad, followed by the 99 names of Allah (leaves 1-46) and a compilation of eulogies and prayers divided into seven subsequent chapters (each referred to as "juz", or "section"): 1, pp. 46-113; 2, pp. 113-136; 3, pp. 136-181; 4, pp. 181-217; 5, pp. 217-236; 6, pp. 236-256; 7: pp. 256-end. Interestingly, the double page 47/48 does not show Mecca and Medina, as is typical for manuscripts of this text, but rather presents naive illustrations of the "Ka’ba of Allah" (!) and the burial sites of the first three Caliphs. No date in colophon, written in the form of prayer. Leaves 12 to 19, extraneous to the text proper and containing additional prayers and the 99 Names of Allah, are inserted on contemporary Chinese paper. Edges worn; lower corner rounded and fingerstained from long use, but very well legible and altogether well preserved.
Black-and-white photograph, 235 x 175 mm. On cardboard backing. An early photograph of the Hajj showing pilgrims around the Kaaba in Makkah. - Some fading and staining.
Black-and-white photograph, 130 x 180 mm. On cardboard backing. An early photograph of the Hajj showing pilgrims around the Kaaba in Makkah. - Some fading, browning and staining.
8vo (164 x 244 mm). (2), XVIII, (2), 476 pp. (Includes, bound after the preliminaries:) Notice hydrographique No. 4 (1900). 14 pp., 1 blank f. Notice hydrographique No. 8 (1900). 15 pp., 1 blank p. Contemporary gilt half calf over marbled boards. Marbled endpapers. The French essential standard sailing directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as well as the entire south coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Comprises directions for the navigation of the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Suez, and the central track for steam vessels through the Red Sea, Straits of Bab-al-Mandab, and Gulf of Aden; also, descriptions of the Gulf of 'Aqaba, the shores of the Red Sea, the inner channels, the Gulf of Aden, and the south-eastern coast of Arabia to Ras al Hadd, the coast of Africa from Ras Si Ane to Capo Guardafui, including the Gulf of Tadjoura, thence to Ras Hafun, Abd-al-Kuri, the Brothers, and Socotra. - Largely based on the relevant British counterpart, the "Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot"; the section on the Gulf of Tadjoura is entirely by the lieutenants of the French hydrographic ships Guillou and R. de Carfort. The book had appeared only once previously, in 1885, and the present copy includes not only the Supplements I and II published in 1900, but also extensive publisher's corrections that were issued to slips of paper and are here bound into the volume in their respective place. The flags and signals are partly printed in red and yellow. A rare and early edition in excellent condition. OCLC 460171378.
8vo (166 x 234 mm). 2 parts in one volume. 8, 4, 299, (1) pp. 10, 7, (1), 272 pp. Contemporary full red morocco with fore-edge flap, covers with blind rules and stamped oriental ornaments in central compartment. First printing of "Al-Muzhir", an encyclopedic work on Arabic linguistics and its various disciplines, compiled from earlier philologists by the prominent Egyptian scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505). It counts as a significant contribution to the study of Arabic linguistics. Al-Suyuti was an enormously prolific polymath whose "versatility stands out as unique in the history of Arabic literature" (GAL II, 144). - Binding a little rubbed, one corner bumped. Light fore-edge flaws to the preliminary matter of the first juz' (part); old pencilled and typed bibliographical notes to front pastedown. A very good copy. GAL II, p. 155, no. 258. OCLC 20066914.
8vo. 54 pp. - Bound with (II): Neueste ausführliche historische und geographische Beschreibung des Caspischen Meeres, Daria-Stroms, und der übrigen da herum liegenden Länder, Städte und Völcker [...]. Danzig, no printer or publisher, 1723. (10), 112 pp. With an engraved double-page frontispiece of Derbent. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title. I: First German edition: a rare account of the Afghan invasion of Safavid Persia that began in 1722. Anonymously translated from the French "Relation historique du détrônement du roi de Perse, et des révolutions arrivées pendant les années 1722, 1723, 1724 et 1725", it describes the reign of Shah Mahmud Hotak, who overthrew the Safavid dynasty to briefly become King of Persia from 1722 until his death in 1725. Includes observations on the 1722 siege of Isfahan. - II: A similarly rare description of the Caspian Sea, including an account of the 1722/23 Persian campaign of Peter the Great, involving the creation of the Caspian Flotilla at Astrakhan. The war ended with the 1723 Treaty of St Petersburg, which recognized the Russian annexation of the west and south coasts of the Caspian Sea. - Inner hinges weakened; some browning and foxing. Still a good copy. - Provenance: handwritten initials "J.H." to recto of final text leaf. Contemporary bookplate of the consistorial councillor Benedikt Hugo Math (d. 1752) to pastedown; 20th c. bookplate of Eckhard Günther to flyleaf. I: VD 18, 10893008. OCLC 837836269. Cf. Wilson 187. - II: VD 18, 1143094X. Miansarof, Bibliographia Caucasia et Transcaucasia I, 1042. OCLC 470145584.
Small folio (190 x 268 mm). Eight issues and eight supplements (1 October 1957 to 1 August 1959), bound in one. Vol. 5 (nos. 1-4 & supplements 18-21): 234 pp.; vol. 6 (nos. 1-4 & supplements 22-25): 256 pp. Contemporary sand buckram; red and black labels with gilt lettering to spine, 'Foreign Office' stamped in black to upper cover. Two early volumes from the highly important "Persian Gulf Gazette", which ran from 1953 to 1972. Published in the final decades before the independence of the Gulf States, it is a fascinating record of the waning of direct British involvement in the governments of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates). - The Gazette was a quarterly publication containing notices of anything relevant to Britain's jurisdiction in the aforementioned States, from political appointments to new Orders and Regulations. It was sold at H.M. Political Agencies in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai, as well as at H.M. Consulate, Muscat. Supplements were published with each issue, printing the Orders and Regulations in full. These include all manner of regulations - often created in response to rapidly developing infrastructure - covering, inter alia, employment, shipping, patents and the penal system. - Provenance: withdrawn from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library with stamps to endpapers. Some very minor dampstaining to the top edge of textblock, handwritten ink reference numbers to some title-pages, rest of interior clean and fresh. Very well preserved. Though fairly well-held institutionally, original issues (not to mention volumes and runs) are rare in commerce.