Vernay, Charles.MareMagnum
With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal Folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I). With: (2) Vernay, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ... Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1). (3) Vernay, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ... Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper. (4-18) Vernay, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian]. Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858. 18 publications in 1 volume. Royal Folio (49.5 × 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. Unrecorded royal folio issues of two major editions of oriental poetry, bound together and with extensive supplementary material added, probably for presentation to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I: the first and only edition of the collected oriental poetry (195 pieces) of the French child prodigy orientalist, linguist and poet Charles Vernay; and the earlier lithographic edition of his 141 Turkish and Persian poems. In the former work, the Turkish and Persian poems are rendered both in the Arabic script and in French translation. It also includes a few poems in Italian and German. Even the 8vo issues of these two editions are very rare. The present Royal folio issues of the two main works were clearly never offered for sale. - Charles Vernay (1842-1866?) began publishing his writing at age nine and most of the present publications note the age at which he wrote them, ranging from 9 to 16. When Vernay was in Istanbul in 1861, he wrote a new dedication for the 1860 Poésies nationales et religieuses, addressed to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I, though Vernay had it printed in Paris. It explicitly notes that he is presenting a copy of "mon volume de Poésies Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes" to the Sultan. This suggests that the present copy of the two works together, with that dedication and many other additions, is the copy he planned to present. Since the dedication is dated 14 March 1861 and the supplementary Dixième chant mystique (also printed by Lainé and Havard) 20 April 1861 (only 2 months before Sultan's death), it is possible the Sultan died before Vernay had an opportunity to present the book to him. In addition to the extensive additional material inserted in the Poésies nationales et religieuses, and the supplement to the Poésies Turques et Persanes, the present copy has about 15 miscellaneous publications by Vernay bound between the two main works, some letterpress, some lithographic facsimiles of his autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-page autograph manuscript in Persian. Some occasional foxing and an occasional marginal tear. The ink in the 5 lithographic facsimiles of very large Arabic script has eaten a few holes in the paper, and it and a few other lithographed leaves have offset onto the facing pages. But the book remains in good condition. The binding is worn at the hinges, shows some superficial damage on the front board near the fore-edge, and the first free endleaves at front and back have been creased and at the front its silk has been torn and repaired, but the binding also remains good and with the tooling clear. Ad 1: cf. Hage Chahine 4995 (8vo issue); WorldCat (7 copies of the 8vo issue); ad 2: cf. Browne, Hand-list ... Turkish (Gibb coll., Cambridge UL), (1906), 169; Hage Chahine 4994 (8vo issue); WorldCat (4 or 5 copies of the 8vo issue); ad 3: not found recorded; none of the 3 in Aboussouan coll.; Atabey; Blackmer; Diba, Persian bibliography; Lambrecht; Coll. Lazard; for Charles Vernay and his poetry, see also: Syed Tanvir Wasti, "On Charles Vernay and his 'Divan'", Middle Eastern studies LI (2015), pp. 789-803.
Large 4to. 2 vols. XII, 227, (1), 87, (3) pp. XII, (229)-559, (1), 83, (1). With engraved frontispiece in vol. 1, 8 engr. maps (6 folding), and 1 folding table. - (Bound with): The Voyage of Nearchus, and the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. Oxford, Cadell & Davies, 1809. XV, (1), 119, (1) pp. With 1 plate. Contemporary giltstamped English full calf; spines rebacked with original gilt labels. First edition of this rare Middle Eastern geography, published in two parts: 1. From the Sea of Suez to the Coast of Zanguebar; 2. From the Gulph of Elana, in the Red Sea, to the Island of Ceylon. Includes an extensive discussion of the Arabian Peninsula, including sections on Myos Hormus, the Wealth of Arabia, the Coast of Yemen, Aden, Mokha and Oman, Oriental Commerce by the Gulph, etc. Among the plates are a map of the western Arabian coastline, a chart of the Red Sea, and al-Idrisi's famous world map, "a pinnacle of mediaeval cartography as well as of the history of geographical research" (cf. Lex. z. Gesch. d. Kartographie, p. 325; Tooley II, 405). William Vincent (1739-1815) served as headmaster and later Dean of Westminster, and "ancient geography was the subject which Vincent made his chief study" (DNB). Also includes Vincent's edition of the Greek text of the voyage of Nearchus. - Covers rubbed; corners bumped. Traces of old stamps, removed from title pages and half titles. Somewhat browned and brownstained. From the library of the antiquary and bookseller Francis Drake (1828-85), a descendant of the like-named English navigator and privateer, with his engr. bookplate to pastedowns. A good, wide-margined copy. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 311. DNB LVIII, 364. Graesse VI/2, 325. OCLC 6388867. Not in Atabey, Blackmer, Aboussouan, Weber, Henze, etc.
Royal 4to (31 x 27 cm). 2 vols. 439; 46, (2 blank) pp. (vol. II, pp. 1-2 blank). With 2 title-pages printed in red and black, each with the author's wood-engraved decorated GAV monogram and motto; vol. 1 with 2 folding lithographed maps (1 printed in black, brown and blue, with the route coloured by hand in red, of the Sinai Peninsula; the other in black and white, of the city of Petra); 40 mounted albumen prints after paintings by Emile Pierre Metzmacher (mainly 11.5 x 16 cm), individually mounted with letterpress captions on the mount; and 2 engraved plates; vol. 2 with 6 numbered engraved plates of molluscs and insects. Set in roman and italic types, with incidental Arabic, and sans-serif Greek and Latin capitals to render ancient inscriptions. The Diario in the original publisher's maroon cloth with the author's crowned monogram gold-blocked on the front board and spine, and blind-blocked on the back board, with the title in gold on the spine. The Atlante in the original publisher's blue cloth, with the author's crowned monogram and the title gold-blocked on the front board, and the monogram in a larger size blind-blocked on back board. Both volumes with gilt edges, orange endpapers and with tissue guard leaves tipped in, protecting the albumen prints and engraved plates. Rare first and only edition of an Italian account of an 1865 expedition through "Arabia Petrea", meaning the Sinai Peninsula and adjoining parts of what are now Israel and Jordan, including the ancient city of Petra, now in Jordan, where parts of "Raiders of the Lost Arc" were filmed (the spectacular ancient buildings are carved into the solid rock walls of the cliffs and probably date from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century AD). - The photographically reproduced paintings show the author on camelback, numerous Bedouins, Arabs, Egyptians and Ethiopians as well as archaeological sites, monuments and topographic views. The plates in the second volume depict molluscs and insects, reflecting the author’s own research interests in the field of natural history, in addition to archaeology. The typography has been designed to suit the antiquarian subject, with Louis Perrin's Augustaux roman capitals on the title-pages, the main text set in what would then have been considered an "antique" style (types influenced by pre-1800 models) and sans-serif capitals used to represent the ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions. The author quite literally put his stamp on the work, with his crowned monogram not only on the title-page and binding, but also embossed in the paper, where it serves as a sort of watermark. - The book does not indicate the size of the edition, but since most of the illustrations are original albumen prints, there cannot have been many copies produced. The present copy may be a more deluxe binding than the Blackmer copy, also inscribed by the author to a woman, for it was in green cloth with only Visconti's single initial "V" on the front board. The volume with the Diario is a presentation copy with the author’s presentation inscription to a woman named Josephine. - Bindings slightly worn, the blue cloth a little stained. First and last leaves of both volumes browned, some foxing, some fly-leaves with a tear (not affecting the plates), the map of Petra stained due to oxidation, with some browning caused by the albumen prints on the facing leaves, but overall in good condition. Blackmer 1742. Gay 3650 bis. Macro 2254 (not noting plates): Not in Howgego, Ibrahim-Hilmy, or Weber.
Folio (285 x 358 mm). 2 volumes. (4), 12, 154, (6) pp. (8) pp. With a total of 3 maps (2 in colour) & 152 mostly full-page plates, several with tinted lithographed backgrounds. Later red half morocco with giltstamped spine titles. First edition of this detailed study of Syrian decorative architectural art. "De Vogüé travelled with William Waddington in 1853 and 1854, exploring the area from Aleppo to Damascus, Palmyra and Basra. It was an important expedition and much new material was uncovered. The author became ambassador to the Porte in 1871" (Blackmer). - Occasional foxing to plates, but a fine set. Blackmer 174. Not in Weber.
8vo. VII, (1), 126 pp., final blank f. With lithographed map at the end of the volume; printed notes of a Bedouin melody within the text. Green half calf with contemporary marbled boards and giltstamped title to rebacked spine. First edition, published posthumously. - Extremely rare account of Wallin's principal journey through Arabia, unknown to most bibliographers: "It was not until two years after his death", writes Henze, "that the report of his first (and most important) journey (performed in 1845, a year before the appearance of the first volume of Carl Ritter's 'Arabia') was published". This refers to the English "Narrative of a Journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca", which was printed in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1854. In fact, an extensive account of the first leg of this highly significant journey was first given to the world in December 1853, but little more than a year after the author's passing. Of this Swedish-language book, edited by Berndt Otto Schauman, fewer than two dozen copies are known worldwide, 12 of which are in Finnish libraries (the remainder distributed throughout Sweden [4 copies], Germany [2 copies], Denmark, France, and the U.S.A. [a single copy each]). In contrast with the later JRGS publication, the present work includes an appendix rendering Arabic terms and phrases that occur throughout the text in the original language and script. - Like his more famous contemporary J. L. Burckhardt, Wallin was fluent in Arabic and, in local costume, was capable of passing for a scholarly sheikh. Indeed, the two explorers are often compared: "I see many points of resemblance between them, the same iron constitution, the same versatility, the same indomitable energy, the same imperturbable temper" (H. C. Rawlinson, quoted in Henze). Financially backed by his alma mater, the University of Helsinki, Wallin departed for the Middle East in 1843 and set out on his expeditions from Cairo under the name of Abd al-Wali. "In 1845, proceeding southeast across the wastelands of the Nafud Desert, he reached Ha'il then continued by force of circumstances southward to Medina and Mecca. From there he returned to Egypt" (Howgego). More precisely, he "moved eastwards from Wadi al-Araba, first touching upon the upper regions of Wadi Sirhan, then on to the oasis of Djuf ('Algawf') and crossed the central regions of Shammar, via Djobbah ('Gubbi'), the Great Nefud ('Nufood'), and Hail [...] Of Shammar and its inhabitants he provided the fullest account, unsurpassed by later travellers in its scholarly precision" (Henze). After his return to Europe in 1850, Wallin was made Professor of oriental languages at Helsingfors. His notes provide a detailed overview of the political and religious movements and the role of the different tribes in Palestine and especially in Saudi Arabia. - Stamped ownership "L. L. Cygnaeus, Helsingfors" to flyleaf. A fine, largely unbrowned copy. K.-E. Henriksson (A Wallin Bibliography), in: Studia orientalia 17 (1952), p. 13-16, at p. 13. OCLC 551923531. Cf. Macro 2262. Howgego II (1800-50), W12, p. 627. Henze V, 452 (all citing only the 1854 JRGS publication). Cf. Fück 198 (mentioning the journey). Not in Gay or Ibrahim-Hilmy.
Large 8vo. 2 vols. XIII, (3), 405, (1) pp. VIII, 347, (1) pp. With 2 lithogr. frontispieces and a folding map of the Arabian Peninsula. Contemp. blindstamped cloth with gilt title to spine. Only edition. One of the best English 19th-c. accounts of Arabia and the Gulf. Wellsted's short career was almost entirely devoted to the surveying of the Red Sea, Arabia and Oman, undertaken on a number of expeditions between 1830 and 1837. On board the surveying ship Palinurus he was the first European to set foot in the interior of Oman. Starting late in 1835 from the easternmost point of Oman, Wellsted made his way westward through the Ja`alan region to the Wahibah Sands and then struck north up the Wadi Batha to Samad. There he was joined by Lieutenant F. Whitelock, also of the Indian Navy, who had set out from Muscat later. Together they reached Nazwa, the ancient capital of Oman, and climbed the lower slopes of the Jabal al-Akhdhar, in central Oman. In January 1836 they arrived on the Al-Batinah coast and then turned west, recrossing the Hajar mountains and emerging on the edge of the Dhaharah, the rocky steppe that stretches west toward the Rub` al-Khali. - Bindings rubbed; spines rebacked. Interior somewhat foxed as common. Removed from the Worcester Public Library. Rare; the Peter Hopkirk copy fetched £3,500 at Sotheby's (Oct 14, 1998, lot 1192). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2283. Howgego III, 635. Weber I, 67. Wilson 242. Henze IV, 476. Not in Gay, Blackmer, or Ghani.
Small 4to. (14), 137, (19) pp. With engraved frontispiece and 22 engraved plates by Melchior Haffner. Contemporary calf. First facsimile edition of any oriental manuscript. 16 of the 22 finely engraved plates show a Persian perpetual calendar with Ottoman Turkish "commentarius" and floral borders. Welsch had acquired the ms. from Christoph Weikmann's Kunstkammer in Ulm. The remaining six plates are concerned with Arabian astronomy: astrolabe, orrery, zodiac, circular table of Sundays and names of the months in various languages. - The calculation of this calendar is today attributed to the 9th-c. Persian mathematician Wafâ al Buzjâni (cf. BSB München; Humboldt-Universität Berlin). The predominant attribution to one Turkish Sheikh Wafâ had been disputed by Babinger as early as 1927. Abu'l-Wafâ al Buzjâni is regarded as "the last great representative of the mathematics-astronomy school that arose around the beginning of the ninth century, shortly after the founding of Baghdad" (DSB I, 39). His astronomic oeuvre is preserved merely in fragments. The calligraphic commentary, however, is Turkish and (according to Babinger) was prepared by a 17th-c. magistrate, 'Ajn-i 'Alî Mueddinzâde. - Welsch (1624-77) was a physician and "a researcher of the very first magnitude [...] while the works of this polymath were mainly dedicated to the Arabian and Persian sciences, he also has provided proof of his close study of Ottoman Turkish. In this connexion, his important 'Commentarius in Ruzname Naurus' must be cited" (cf. Babinger 1919). Welsch's "Dissertatio" (with Arabic typeface) is aimed at the usefulness of the calendar for relative oriental chronology: he also compares the works of Schall von Bell and Andreas Müller on Chinese astronomy and chronology. - Bookplate of South Library on front pastedown. Occasionally browned. Zenker, Bibliotheca Orientalis I, 1077. Schnurrer 465. Babinger, Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen (1927), 116 & 141. Babinger, Die türkischen Studien in Europa, in: Die Welt des Islams VII, 1919, 117. Not in Balagna, L'Imprimerie Arabe en Europe.
8vo. XVI, 424 pp. Folding map frontispiece and 2 full-page maps to the text, 2 as plates, 23 plates. Original sand buckram, title gilt to spine and upper board, top edge gilt. First and only edition. Important regional study of the Arabian Gulf, published in response to the grant of the Baghdad Railway concession by the Ottoman Government to a German-backed consortium. Assesses the economic, military and political implications of rival claims in the various states of the area. - Whigham was a well-connected Scottish author who emigrated to America and worked as drama critic on the Chicago Tribune, and as a war correspondent at the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese Wars. A close friend and correspondent of British Persian Gulf opinion-makers Lord Curzon and Sir Percy Cox, Whigham wrote the book, based on his extensive travels in the region, at the request of Lord Curzon, who had "advised [him] to go to the Gulf [and] instructed his subordinate officials in that part of the world to give me all the assistance in their power". Whigham is probably best remembered as a prominent amateur golfer, winner of the second and third US Amateur Championships, and author of "How to Play Golf", the first golf instruction manual illustrated from action photographs. Diba Collection 1978, 227. Wilson 243. OCLC 2987283.
Folio. 272 pp. With 136 text illustrations. Modern half cloth with gilststamped spine title. Study of mediaeval Arabic clock-making techniques, based on published works and unpublished Arabic manuscripts. - Perfectly preserved in a modern private library binding. OCLC 4703118. Nova Acta: Abh. der Kaiserl. Leop.-Carol. Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher, Bd. C Nr. 5.
500 x 420 mm. Oval manuscript map in ink and watercolour (blue, brown, green and red; map image including water 295 x 380 mm, the land alone 220 x 305 mm) on a half sheet of extremely large Dutch laid paper (watermark: D&C Blauw IV), with dozens of features labelled in Persian (written in black ink in the nastaliq script) and with animals (including elephants and a dragon), people and 4 European ships. Framed and matted. An 18th century manuscript copy, in colour, of a lost map in the Islamic tradition, with dozens of inscriptions in Persian and extensive pictorial imagery showing numerous mosques, elephants in southern Africa, eastern India and what may be northern Bengal or part of Southeast Asia, snakes and a dragon (with four feet and two pair of wings) in East Asia, birds north of the Caucasus and people in Europe north of the Alps. The regions with people and animals (excluding the dragon and snakes) are also the only regions shown wooded. The oval land is surrounded by oceans with a European ship at each of the four cardinal compass directions: three 3-masted ships flying flags with St George's cross (used by the crusaders, Knights Templar and English and French troops from the 12th century and by the Genoese and others from the 13th century: while it is not St George come to slay the dragon, these European ships in an Islamic map remain a puzzle), and at the south a 2-masted ship with no rectangular flag, all four ships accompanied by rowboats. Inlets can be identified as the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea (?) and another in the Far East. A wide straight band of mountains runs west to east from coast to coast, apparently representing the Alps, the Caucasus and the Himalayas, with a few additional mountains in southern India and elsewhere. One can clearly see the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as well as the rivers of the Indus and Ganges valleys. After one passes beyond Bengal it becomes more difficult to identify the topographic features that ought to represent Southeast and East Asia: there is no island to represent Japan, and the peninsula that faintly resembles Korea seems more likely to be China. While some pictorial elements and lettering are designed to be viewed from various sides as one turns the map, there is a distinct bias in the lettering and some of the pictures for west at the head, which is quite unusual (most Islamic maps have south at the head). - We have found no record of any closely similar map, but the topography certainly owes something to the traditional Islamic world maps, perhaps by the 10th-century Abu al-Hasan al-Harrani or his followers such as the 15th-century Ibn al-Wardi. Like most maps in the Islamic tradition (including those of al-Bakri and al-Istakhri), these follow the Greek tradition of Anaximander (6th century BC) in depicting the world as an almost perfectly geometric circle surrounded by the great river or sea Oceanus, and also representing other features with abstract forms. They show the Nile running into the Mediterranean and (almost as its continuation north of the Mediterranean) a channel leading to the Black Sea, which continues via the river Phasis to the northern coast, forming a boundary between Europe and Asia. The present map is much more naturalistic, with an oval form and irregular coastlines. The inlets and rivers also have more naturalistic forms, and the map shows much more detail than do the traditional Greek and Islamic maps (one can recognize Qatar and Ceylon/Sri Lanka, and one of the two islands in the Mediterranean probably represents Crete (is the other Ceylon, Sicily, an oversized Malta, or something else?). Yet in spite of its greater detail and naturalism, its geography is in some ways less accurate than that of its more abstract ancestors. Like the al-Harrani and al-Wardi maps, the Nile has an L shape (though not rigidly geometric like theirs), but the southern end connects to the Red Sea and the northern end passes east of the Mediterranean, continuing directly into the channel leading to the northern coast (with no graphic distinction between the Black Sea and the channel to Oceanus). The Nile also appears to contain an enormous island, but the tower at its northern end might possibly represent the 13th-century minaret at Luxor. The Mediterranean appears as a triangular inlet without even a bulge to suggest Greece or Italy, which many Islamic and Greek maps show clearly. Africa and India extend no farther south than the Arabian Peninsula, with only the Red Sea and the Gulfs separating them. Some Mughal maps, such as that of Sadiq Isfahani (ca. 1647), share the more naturalistic depiction, and Isfahani also depicts Ceylon similarly, but his map shows few geographic or topographic similarities. - Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the present map is the depiction of mosques and minarets, which are so detailed that many can be identified even without recourse to the Persian inscriptions. The rectangular wall of the Great Mosque at Mecca appears clearly with the Ka'bah in the centre and four minarets, one at each corner. This also suggests a latest possible date for the lost original, for three more minarets were added in quick succession, apparently between 1603 and 1629. A recent study suggests that the Ka'bah began to appear in Islamic maps only ca. 1450 (Karen Pinto, "Medieval Islamic maps", 2016, not seen, but cf. Arnoud Vrolijk in Mols & Buitelaar, eds., "Hajj: global interactions through pilgrimage", 2015, p. 216), suggesting that the lost model for the present map with many mosques, some shown in detail, was at least several decades later. This evidence for a date, combined with the naturalistic depiction, suggests the lost model for the present map might have originated in the Islamic realms of 16th-century India. The Great Mosque at Medina is also clearly depicted. Pending more information about the Persian inscriptions (which apparently name regions, cities, mosques, topographic features and curiosities), we can only guess at the other mosques or minarets. We noted one perhaps at Luxor. Two on the eastern side of the Euphrates might be at Basra and Aleppo (with some pyramids in between), while one in North Africa looks like the Great Mosque at Taza and the other might be at Fez. There may some buildings in East Asia, by the mountains near the dragon, but they may merely be smoke or flames from what appear to be burning rocks. A couple of other sites show fortress-like walls (in red in the northern parts of the Arabian Peninsula and India) without a mosque or minaret. - The map is stunning as a work of art, a fusion of age-old tradition with modern techniques of illustration and figural representation, executed in pastel colours with the mountains and ships in several shades of brown, Oceanus and the inlets light blue, the rivers grey, the forests and dragon green and occasional small details in red or pink. In spite of its large size, the map is drawn on a half sheet, so that the whole sheet would measure at least 84 x 50 cm, considerably larger than Imperial and one of the largest sheet sizes produced in the 18th century. The chainlines are about 28.5 mm apart. The watermark or countermark would fall in the middle of the map image, so that it is not identifiable in the framed map. One can make out only some diagonal lines that might belong to a letter W. The map is numbered "No 95" in an 18th-century hand at the upper left, so it may have once been part of a manuscript atlas. - Formerly folded once horizontally and vertically. In very good condition. An 18th century copy of a lost 16th century (?) Islamic map of the world, showing seven mosques or minarets, unlike any other map known to us.
8vo (222 x 150 mm). 16 ff., mostly with 24 text lines to each page (text area 155 x 70 mm). Written in excellent Naskh script with black ink on waxed paper. Headings and highlighted words in red. Two (folded) plates on velin paper (watermark: A. Stace 1802). With carefully executed pen-and-ink drawings with notes in red (167 x 194 mm each). Contemporary red half leather. Covered with Ebru paper, with leather edges and marbled endpapers. The original Ottoman Turkish manuscript of one of the most important texts in the history of electrical engineering and science: the complete treatise on electrical fluid, as drafted by the Turkish engineer Yahya Naci the same year. "In the early 19th century, the teaching of science at the Imperial Engineering School in Istanbul was mostly based on the material translated from textbooks compiled for the French 'grandes écoles'. Translations and compilations were generally made by the professors of the school. Yahya Naci Efendi (d. 1824), a lecturer in French language and sciences, compiled in 1812 a treatise introducing the properties of electricity through experiments. His aim was also to show that the lightning flash and the thunderbolt were electrical phenomenons. Yahya Naci's main source was the chapter on electricity of Mathurin-Jacques Brisson's (d. 1795) 'Traité Elémentaire de Physique', a popular book of physics in French colleges. This translation is important because Yahya Naci endeavoured to create Ottoman terms from Arabic regarding electricity and because it points to the initiatives in introducing experimentation in the teaching in the Imperial Engineering School" (Günergün, cf. below). The colophon states the name of the scribe as "Yahya Naqi" and the date "Zilqa'da 1227 H.", proving that the present volume contains the author's long-lost original manuscript. - In very fine condition; only a few insignificant spots. Feza Günergün, Deneylerle elektrigi tanitan bir Türkçe eser: Yahya Naci Efendi'nin Risale-i Seyyale-i Berkiyye'si. In: Osmanli Bilimi Arastirmalari IX/1-2 (2007-2008), pp. 19-50.
4to. 6 vols. 12, 942, (2) pp. (4), 968, (2) pp. (2), 936 pp. (2), 1048 pp. (2), 66, 512 pp. VII, one blank, 262, one blank leaf, VIII, 265-781, one blank page, (2) pp. With 6 letterpress plates in vol. I. Near-contemporary half cloth over marbled boards with giltstamped volume numbers to spine. 2 volumes bound with the original printed wrappers. First edition, rare. The 19th century classic edition of Yaqut's famous geography, prepared by the German orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (1808-99). The four volumes of Arabic text are completed by annotations and indexes in volumes V and VI, including "some 12,000 persons, many with additional bibliographical references" (cf. Fück). Composed between 1224 and 1228 and considered a literary geography, Yaqut's work is essentially an alphabetical index of place names from the literary corpus of the Arabs. The geographical descriptions are enriched with historical, ethnographic, and associated narrative material, historical sketches and accounts of Muslim conquests, names of governors, monuments, and local celebrities. - The four volumes of text are removed from the library of the Munich Franciscan monastery, with their stamp of ownership to versos of title-page or flyleaf. Later in the collection of the German historian Else Reitemeyer (b. 1873) with her handwritten ownership to flyleaves (vols. I-IV). German title-page and foreword of first volume (12 pp.) bound between pp. 480 and 481. Extremities occasionally very slightly rubbed. Last 20 pages of volume V pierced near right margin (not touching text). In all a very well preserved copy of this monumental series. Fück 193f. OCLC 3423433. Not in Zenker.
Correspondence, memoranda, and notes in English and Arabic. 2 typescript pp. in-folio, 15 handwritten pp. in-4to, 32 handwritten pp. in-8vo. A collection of prewar and wartime notes and correspondence, some labelled "secret", from the desk of the longtime First Assistant Resident in Aden, Lt. Col. Harold F. Jacob, who served in this capacity from 1910 to 1917 (and, once the War started, was also Chief Political Officer to the Aden Field Force). - In a classified report to a superior concerning tribal allegiances in Yemen and the threat of an Ottoman incursion, dated 30 June 1915, he writes: "Interviewed the Abdali Sultan at Lahej yesterday and the following is what I have been able to elicit. 1. The Sheikh Ibn Nasir Mukbil appears to be particularly anxious to secure our armed presence on the Haushabi border and Sheikh Husen Saleh the Azraki (our stipendiary) and Ali Ba Saleh the Haushabi Sultan's Minister seem to be willing tools in his hand to effect that purpose. It must be remembered that Ibn Nasir Mukbil is still friendly to us or rather his unfriendliness is not proved. [...] It is hard to prophesy correctly in Arabia, and from a distance, since Arab politics change in so kaleidoscopic a fashion, but I am inclined to believe, even if there be certain hostile Turks and Arabs at Al Dareja, that the situation is not so critical as our friend the Abdali Sultan would have us believe. [...] [A]s the Sultan of Lahej is able to procure at this stage 600 camels in 2 days I am strongly in favour of our engaging them since, if hostilities open, he will find it extremely difficult to raise these numbers [...]". - A telegram draft of 10 January 1917 to the General Officer Commanding Aden, likewise "secret", Jacob writes: "Idrisi quite ready conclude supplementary agreement as outlined by Secretary of State (stop) [...] Says Farasan is part & parcel his sea-board and expects British protection from all outside interference (stop) Says British flag, however, as repugnant on Farasan as would be at Jizan and likely draw Turkish vengeance as implying cession of Islands to us; further will preclude future favours qua arms from France and Italy (stop) I fully sympathize with both agreements and believe presence of flag will place Farasan in category of annexation subject to 'post-bellum' adjudication (stop) [...]". - Also, several items of Arabic correspondence, often with Jacob's handwritten translation into English underneath. Also, a quantity of 8vo pencil notes in English and Arabic, some in the hand of another officer (possibly the Aden Resident) and as early as 1911, often not easily legible, apparently referring among other subjects to "Philby", "How Turks lost the Yemen", etc. - Jacob spoke Arabic fluently and knew the Qur'an intimately. As Political Agent in Aden and in the Hinterland he served on Lord Allenby's staff as an advisor on South West Arabia, where he became acquainted with Lawrence of Arabia. In 1915 he published a book on Southern Arabia, "Perfumes of Araby. Silhouettes of Al Yemen". - Edges brittle; some browning and folds, but altogether a well-preserved survival.
Folio (205 x 290 mm). (24), 491, (1) pp. 17th century black-tinted vellum binding using an earlier liturgic musical manuscript. Important Latin edition of this Arabic medical compendium (first printed, also in Latin, in 1479), with additions by Gerard de Cremona. It provides a collection of opinions voiced by Greek and Arabic physicians on pathology and therapeutics. "No Arabic printed edition exists so far" (cf. Choulant). The third-century doctor Yahya bin Sarabiyun, son of a Bagarma physician, wrote his great medical work "Al-Kunnas" in Syriac, but it was soon translated into Arabic by scholars such as Musa Ibrahim al-Haditi and ibn Bahlul. There exist manuscripts in twelve and in seven books. "The seven-book edition was frequently printed in Latin translations as 'Breviarium' and 'Practica therapeuticae methodus'. Albanus Torinus, the editor of the Basel 1543 edition, called him Janus Damascenus, for which reason he has been confused with the well-known theologian of that name. He is also often mistaken for his younger namesake, Serapio junior" (cf. GAL I, 233). Some catalogues even ascribe this work to the Baghdad physician Abu-Zakariya Yuanna Ibn-Masawaih. - Slight waterstaining; some unobtrusive worming to upper cover and flyleaves. Binding rubbed; extremeties bumped with chipping to spine-ends. A wide-margined copy. Provenance: 1677 ownership of the pharmacist and medical student Joseph Franz König on front pastedown; later in the library of Bonifacius Brix von Wahlberg, court physician to the Princes of Fürstenberg, in the later 18th century (his ownership on the title page). VD 16, Y 11. Adams I 14. BM-STC German 932. GAL I, 233 & S 417. Durling 4778. Choulant, Handb. p. 347. Not in Waller.
8vo. (16), 421, (1) pp., final blank leaf. With woodcut printer's device to title-page and numerous woodcut initials. 19th century marbled boards. Fine, widely received Lyonnaise edition of Mesue's pharmaceutical handbook, translated into Latin by Jacques Dubois, the teacher of Vesalius. The author's frequently reprinted treatises bore an immense influence on the development of pharmacy in early modern Europe. Although the identity of Masawaih (Mesue) remains unclear, he was likely a Persian Christian physician who headed the Baghdad hospital and served as personal physician to several caliphs (though he may also be a collective pseudonym of several Arabic medical writers of the 10th and 11th centuries). Products of the mediaeval Islamic world, the works attached to his name contained many innovations that provided the basis for the theory and practice of pharmacy for centuries and perfectly met the demands of the developing medical marketplace of mediaeval Europe. - Occasional browning; an irregular paper flaw to the upper edge of the title with slight loss to author's name (apparently removing a contemporary ownership). Binding rubbed; spine professionally repaired. Provenance: 1) an illegible ink ownership, dated 1636, stricken out on front pastedown; 2) another illegible ink ownership, dated 21 August 1818, on lower pastedown; 3) 19th century ink ownership of Arthur Rénaux to front pastedown. Durling 3144. Wellcome 4280. Brunet III, 1675. Not in BM-STC French. Cf. GAL I, 232; S I, 416. Hirsch I, 171f.
8vo. 248, (4) ff. With emblematic woodcut device to title (apparently showing Abderus being devoured by the mares of Diomedes) and several woodcut initials. Contemporary full vellum with traces of ties. Uncommon and finely produced edition, by an unidentified Parisian printer, of Mesue's pharmaceutical handbook, translated into Latin by Jacques Dubois, the teacher of Vesalius. The author's frequently reprinted treatises bore an immense influence on the development of pharmacy in early modern Europe. Although the identity of Masawaih (Mesue) remains unclear, he was likely a Persian Christian physician who headed the Baghdad hospital and served as personal physician to several caliphs (though he may also be a collective pseudonym of several Arabic medical writers of the 10th and 11th centuries). Products of the mediaeval Islamic world, the works attached to his name contained many innovations that provided the basis for the theory and practice of pharmacy for centuries and perfectly met the demands of the developing medical marketplace of mediaeval Europe. - Slight brownstaining with some marginal worming near the end of the text. Loss of corner to fol. Aa3 (not affecting the text). Durling 3145. OCLC 14308627. Not in Wellcome, Adams or BM-STC French. Cf. GAL I, 232; S I, 416. Hirsch I, 171f.
Folio (230 x 338 mm). 2 parts in 1 volume. (8), 272 ff. (6), 277, (1 blank), (12) ff. With 39 woodcut illustrations in text. Near-contemporary full vellum on four raised bands with giltstamped red spine label. Second illustrated edition, the first with the commentary of Costaeus, of the collected works of the Arabic physician Mesue the Younger (also known as Masawaih al-Mardini) in Latin, with commentaries by Mondino de Liuzzi, Christoph de Honestis, Jacobus Sylvius, Giovanni mardi and Johannes Costaeus. - The work includes the "Canones universalis", dealing with treatment regimens; the second part, "De simplicibus", about the properties of various pharmaceutical drugs; and the Grabadin, "the most popular compendium of drugs in medieval Europe, and [...] used everywhere in their preparation" (Garrison). "The esteem in which these works were held is shown by the fact that a Latin translation of both was one of the first medical works to be printed (Venice, 1471)" (ibid.). - Binding stained; rubbed and chipped at extremeties. Interior shows occasional brownstaining. Modern flyleaves browned and brittle. Provenance: bookplates of the American botanist Edward Sandford Burgess (1855-1928) and of the Horticultural Society of New York, identifiying this volume as part of the bequest of the American attorney and plant collector Kenneth Kent MacKenzie (1877-1934). Durling 3131. Adams Y 10. BM-STC Italian 739. Edit 16, CNCE 27626.
Lithographed map, ca. 99 x 137 cm. Scale 1:1,000,000, Conformal Conic Projection. Rare U.S. Air Force aeronautical chart of the Arabian Gulf detailing Saudi Arabia with Al Hasa Oasis, the Qatar Peninsula, Bahrein, parts of Kuwait, Iraq and Iran, as well as the Saudi-Kuwaiti and Saudi-Iraqi neutral zones. Other details include Tapline road, Kuwait road, geological features like the Dibdiba gravel plains, and the Rub al-Khali desert. The most prominent labelled cities include Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Bushire and Shiraz. - The map was prepared by the USAF Aeronautical Chart Service with the 1950 copyright belonging to Standard Oil Company. SOC subsequently licensed their copyright to Aramco. - With a single fold. Somewhat toned. Several larger tears to lower margin; a tear in right margin repaired with old adhesive tape.
Vintage lithographed poster backed on linen. 1060 x 680 mm. Tiger-themed poster by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in association with Qantas Empire Airways, South African Airways, and Tasman Empire Airways. An early document of modern aviation in Pakistan, which had gained independence only in 1947, after the Partition of the British Indian Empire, which awarded separate statehood to its Muslim-majority regions. Affiches Air-France-2006, p. 149.
4to. 2 parts in one vol.: X, 376; (4), 340 pp. With 2 portrait frontispieces, 2 chromolithographed plates and one folding map of Syria. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine and spine label; giltstamped emblem of the Edinburgh Collegiate School to upper cover. Leading edges gilt. All edges marbled. Bound by Seton and Mackenzie of Edinburgh. First edition of Lady Isabel Burton's first book, detailing a journey made with her husband Sir Richard Francis Burton to Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land between 1869 and 1871. A remarkable work of travel literature from a female point of view, intending "to convey an idea of the life which an Englishwoman may make for herself in the East" (p. VII). It includes detailed descriptions of Damascus, the Hajj, Palmyra and Beirut, as well as dervish dances, a Muslim wedding, and a Turkish bath. With portraits of Isabel and Richard Francis Burton. - Extremities very slightly rubbed. A fine copy in an appealing binding. Weber I, 724. Cf. Blackmer 246 (2nd ed.). Not in Atabey.
4to. (4), 33, (1) pp., final blank leaf. Bound with the original yellow printed wrappers. Contemporary giltstamped half calf over green cloth boards with giltstamped spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. Rare English-language poem by Burton, purporting to be a translation of an original Persian Sufi text. In an attempt to bring Sufist ideas to the West, Burton claims to be the translator of a Persian poem, to which he gives the English title "Lay of the Higher Law". It is thus a pseudo-translation, pretending to be based on an original Persian text which never existed. - The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufi thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition. Both first and second issues were published by Bernard Quaritch in 1880 for the use of the author and his friends. The present first issue omits the Quaritch name and the date from the title. Few copies of the first issue were sold (possibly fewer than 100), and the remainders were returned to Burton or members of his circle. - Cloth slightly soiled; original wrappers a little duststained. A good copy. Penzer 97. Casada 84. OCLC 57537856.
Oblong 4to. Pop-up book containing 8 pop-ups with moveable parts. (8) pp. Text in English and Arabic. Printed boards. Colourful pop-up book for travelling children, published in the 1970s by Gulf Air's Public Relations department in Bahrain and illustrated by Gloria Nixon. - One moveable part missing, some creasing, otherwise in good condition.
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.