[Du Bois-Ayme, Jean Marie Joseph].MareMagnum
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8vo. 126 pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and blue morocco spine label. All edges marbled. Early account on the tribes of Egypt. A rare offprint from the "Déscription de l'Égypte", a compilation of the scientific results of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition published in 1809. The present work describes the main Bedouin tribes living in Egypt, including Tarabin, Néfahat, Ayaidi, Hannadi, Mahazi and Beni-Wassel. Also, it makes some observations on the noble Arabian horse, which is considered "more scarce in the deserts of Egypt than in those of the Hejaz and Syria". Prepared by Du Bois-Aymé (1779-1846), one of the leading scientists accompanying the expedition. - Rare variant edition (probably the first) with a slightly different title, also omitting the author's as well as the publisher's name from the title-page. Corners slightly bumped. Paper occasionally browned; light brownstaining near the end. Still a good copy. OCLC 742830325. Cf. Gay 2011; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 194.
4to (160 x 244 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. (252) pp., 21 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red underlinings and emphases. With numerous red ink diagrams in the text and margins. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A fine mid-17th century Arabic manuscript of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation is by the great Persian polymath Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named. Written in Central Asia, this manuscript comprises fifteen books rather than the usual thirteen. Some of the marginal diagrams may have been added later. - Paper browned and somewhat mottled throughout, less so near the end of the volume. The restored binding uses the stamped original cover material. Cf. GAL I, 510, 23.
4to (160 x 202 mm). Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 27 pp. plus 57 pp. of tables, 22 lines per extensum, written in black Maghribi script, emphases and section titles in red; extensive tables at the end. - (Bound with) II: Nour al-Din 'Ali bin Abd al-Qadir al-Fardi al-Hasani. Kitab al-Fawa'id al-jalilah fi fi hall majhulat al-wasila. Near East, 18th century CE. Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 98 pp., 19 lines per extensum, black naskh with emphases in red. - (Bound with) III: Brain manuscript. Near East, 18th century CE. Arabic manuscript on watermarked paper, 25 pp., 19 lines per extensum, written in black naskh with emphases in red. - All bound together in oriental brown leather with fore-edge flap, a central oval medallion and stamped borders. A collection of three different Arabic treatises bound in one volume, dealing with astronomy, keeping time and mathematics, as well as psychology, written in Northern Africa and Near East. - Bound first is the "Kitab Minhaj al-talib li-ta'dil al-kawakib" by the Marrakesh-born mathematician, astronomer, and Sufi scholar Ibn al-Banna' (also known as Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi, 1251-1321). A long treatise about astronomy, the movements of the planets, and calculating the times of prayer according to location, it was published by Juan Vernet Ginés in 1952. - The "Kitab al-Fawa'id" by the mathematician Nouraddin ‘Ali al-Faradi (d. 870 H / 1465/66 CE) is a commentary on the "Kitab al-wasila fi 'ilm al-hisab" by the Egyptian mathematician Ibn al-Ha'im al-Misri (d. 1412). A copy is stored in the Al-Azhar Library, Cairo (shelfmark 4374). - At the end is a shorter text containing two sections (fasl 4 and fasl 5) excerpted from a treatise on the power of the human brain and how to exercise it. - The treatise of Ibn al-Banna' shows some edge damage from worming and old repairs, otherwise internally quite sound. Binding professionally restored; modern spine and flap hinge. Provenance: from the private collection of the English art dealer Oliver Hoare (1945-2018), who launched the Islamic Art Department at Christie's. I: GAL II, 331, 5. - II: Cf. GAL S II, 1024, 77.
Folio (280 x 360 mm). 2 parts in 2 vols. (4), XVI, 262 pp. (2), 263-555, (1) pp. With 168 (instead of 169) numbered plates, including 14 (instead of 15) in colour, of which 10 large portolan facsimiles, and one folding colour printed map of Abyssinia and Yemen. The black-and-white plates include another 3 large portolan facsimiles. Also 95 numbered text illustrations. Contemporary half cloth with original printed covers and spines. Important study of Near-Eastern travel routes, also including Mecca and oriental cartography. Commissioned by King Fouad I of Egypt, and prepared by Albert Kammerer, scholar and French Ambassador to Turkey (1933-1936) as a three-volume series published 1929-52. - The present set comprises volume II in two parts, dedicated to Portuguese seafaring exploits in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea up to the 16th century. It is particularly remarkable for its large portolan facsimiles, all of which are fine specimens of both Western and oriental historical cartography. - Lacks plate CL (a facsimile of the 1543 world map of Battista Agnesi); pencil note in Arabic regarding the missing plate on flyleaf of part II. Upper hinges of part II broken, spine loosened. Covers a little stained. Interior very well preserved with only occasional light waterstaining. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1339. Henze II, 315 (s. v. Estevâo da Gama). OCLC 2891592.
4to (170 x 232 mm). 64 pp. With woodcut device on title-page. - (Bound with) II: [I'tiqad alamarah ...]. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio, quae ex praescripto Sanctae Sedis Apostolicae ab Orientalibus ad Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae unitatem venientibus facienda proponitur. Ibid., 1595. (28) pp., 2 bl. ff. With 2 half-page woodcuts and woodcut device at the end. - (Bound with) III: Ibn Ajurrum, Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Sinhaji. [Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah]. [Ibid., 1592]. (24) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. - (Bound with) IV: Ibn al-Hajib, 'Uthman ibn-'Umar. [Kafiya li-Ibn al-Hajib]. [Ibid., 1592]. (96) pp. Arabic text throughout, printed in red and black. Contemporary full vellum with traces of a handwritten spine title. A fine sammelband containing no fewer than four extremely rare publications from the Medicea Oriental Press, the first printing press in Europe dedicated to printing Arabic typeface. It was founded in Rome in 1584 under the direction of Giabattista Raimondi (1536-1614) and the patronage of Pope Gregory XIII. For the Arabic types, Raimondi commissioned the famous typefounder Robert Granjon. Cutting the Arabic typefaces took a long time, and the first book to bear its imprint did not appear until 1591. Until 1610 Raimondi printed only eight works with Granjon's types. - Contains individually: - I. Alphabetum Arabicum (1592). A prospectus of the Medicea's Arabic typefaces - "a masterpiece of design which not only displays Granjon's beautiful types, but contains a careful Latin Essay on the Arabic writing system" (Lunde, Arabic and the art of printing, in "Aramco World" 1981). - II. Brevis orthodoxae fidei professio (1595). Maronite confession of faith, intended for Eastern Christians who claimed to be united with the Catholic Church. Arabic and Latin parallel text on opposite pages. The woodcuts in the text are after Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). - III. Kitab al-Ajurrumiyyah (1592). Editio princeps of a short Arabic grammar by the 14th c. scholar Muhammad al-Sanhaji from Fez (Morocco). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica Arabica in compendium redacta, quae vocatur Giarrumia". - IV. Kafiya (1592). "Editio princeps of this popular short syntax of the Arabic language, written in the 13th century by the Arabian grammarian Uthman Ibn Umar, known as Ibn al-Hajib (1175-1249). Two centuries later an Oriental printed edition was published in Istanbul (1786), but in the meantime this edition, printed in Arabic (30 point) throughout, could well have passed for a manuscript" (Smitskamp). There are also copies with a Latin title and imprint, "Grammatica arabica dicta Caphiah, auctore filio Alhagiabi". - Binding a little stained; wants ties. Later pastedowns. Occasional slight toning and some minor marginal soiling. "Kafiya" shows some dampstaining to upper edge of a1 and a4, with light offsetting of red Arabic print in the lower margin of d1v. In general, excellent, wide-margined copies throughout. Provenance: Christiaan Druve (d. 1616), abbot of the Sint-Niklaas Abbey in Veurne, with his contemporary ownership entry "Christianus Druvaeus Abb. S. Nicol. Fur. Recogita" on the title-page of the Alphabetum. I. Edit 16, CNCE 1227. Schnurrer 41. Adams A 780. BM-STC Italian 36. OCLC 47816774. Lunde, Paul, "Arabic and the Art of Printing", in: Aramco World 32/2 (1981) (mit Abb.). J. Balagna, L'imprimerie arabe en occident (Paris 1984), p. 135. Cat. Le Livre et le Liban (mentioned p. 190; no copy in the catalogue). Not in Smitskamp (PO) or Fück. - II. Edit 16, CNCE 7571. Zenker 1571. Not in Adams. - III. Edit 16, CNCE 65819. Schnurrer 43. Adams M 1891. GAL S II, p. 332. - IV. Edit 16, CNCE 44392. Schnurrer 42 Adams U 102. GAL I, p. 303. Smitskamp (PO) 30.
Tall folio (150 x 372 mm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript on polished cream paper. 56 leaves (including some blank separators), ca. 31 lines, written in a mixed script of Naskh and Taliq. First part composed in free form with notes in black ink, second part in regular black ink captioned in red. Contemporary full calf binding decorated in gilt and red (professionally restored). A rare document of Ottoman state administration during the early Modern period: the official chronological record-book kept by the Kazasker (chief judge) of Anatolia, Mehmed Sâlim, during the year 1731. - Within the Ottoman administrational structure, the Kazasker (or Qadi'asker) had jurisdiction over all judicial and educational officials such as Kadi (judge) and Müderris (Madrasa professor), suggested candidates for these offices to the Grand Vizier, to whom he was directly responsible, and handled appeals to lower-court decisions. Since the late 15th century, the enormous size of the Ottoman Empire had necessitated the appointment of two Kazaskers, usually for the period of one year: the Kazasker of Rumelia, with jurisdiction over the European part of the Empire, and the Kazasker of Anatolia, responsible for the Asian part, comprising Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula. - The Kasazker would record all business in a book of original entry such as this one, known as the "Kazasker Ruznamçesi" (Kazasker daybook register). The present Ruznamçe concerns an impressively wide and diverse geography, from Anatolia to the Caucasus, the Arabian lands, the Nile and Northern Africa. Places in Anatolia include Üsküdar (Scutari), Marzvan (Merzifon), Bergama (Pergamon), and Antakya (Antioch); in the South Caucasus the book mentions Tblisi, Ganja, Igdir, Yerevan, and Javanshir. Places covered in the Levant, Arabia and Mesopotamia include Safed, Idlib, Jericho, Beirut, Homs, Hama, Baalbek, Latakia, Kirkuk, Basra, and Jeddah. From the Mediterranean to the regions south of the Nile, the book records matters pertaining to Cairo, Gharbia, Dakahlia, Alexandria, Damietta, Qalyubiyya, Faiyum, Minya (Hermopolis), Beni Suef, Monufia, Asyut, and Beheira; also the Kazasker's counselor for Egypt is mentioned. In Northern Africa, the book covers Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, and Djerba. Further, even Tirhala (Thessaly) is included, which normally would fall within the remit of the Kazasker of Rumelia. - Among these records, the high volume of official missions back and forth within the vast borders of the empire is hard to miss. Every year, hundreds of posts are filled throughout the country: in 1731, for example, one Sayyid Nureddin from Seferihisar (Izmir) was appointed to fill a position in Basra, 2500 kilometres away. There is also a steady stream of civil servants between Istanbul and Jeddah, more than 3000 kilometres distant. Entries in the daybook include a record for a Mevlana Ahmed, who, after having studied at the Molla Gürani Madrasah in Constantinople, is appointed Kadi (Judge) at Jeddah, salaried at 150 coins per day (cf. p. 828f.). Soon after, Ahmed is in turn replaced by Suleyman: "Ahmed, serving as the Kadi of Jeddah, relinquished his post, which he would have held until the first day of Rabi ath-Thani next year. In Ahmed's place, Mevlana Suleyman, who studied with forty akces per day at the Tuti Latif Madrasah in Istanbul and passed the exam successfully by completing the waiting period, was appointed as a Kadi to Jeddah with one hundred and fifty akces per day" (p. 835, transl.). This continuity gives evidence of the close relationship between the capital Istanbul and the Hejaz. Civil servants who were successful at the leading madrasahs of Istanbul could be appointed as Kadi in Jeddah, with a salary almost four times the pocket money they received in Istanbul - circumstances which also reveal the sensitivity of this region for the Ottoman Empire. - Of particular interest is also the appointment of a Kadi for Yerevan, as the Causacus region was long contested throughout the Ottoman-Safavid wars and the city changed hands frequently. In 1731 Yerevan came under Ottoman rule, and the Porte immediately appointed a Kadi there to ensure administrative and legal sovereignty at a time of ongoing political and military instability. Since Yerevan was mostly under Safavid-Persian rule throughout these centuries, appointments concerning Yerevan are very rare in Ottoman records. - Mirzâzâde Mehmed Sâlim Efendi (1688-1743), the Kazasker of Anatolia for 1730/31, was a noted scholar, poet and writer; he took the pen name "Sâlim" in the Tulip Era and was also a master calligrapher. Highly educated and remembered as a versatile and colourful personality, he served in various senior civil service positions. He was a connoisseur of science, law and art, and composed numerous works; also a talented linguist, he knew Turkish, Arabic and Persian well enough to compile a dictionary. - Binding restored to style with original covers laid down, 20th century bookbinder stamp of Rafet Güngör, Istanbul, to lower flyleaf. Occasional light edge flaws; upper part of last 4 leaves torn away with substantial loss, otherwise complete. Several old waqf stamps. At the end of the volume are numerous elaborate seals of Mehmed Sâlim, certified by a civil servant named as Abdurrahman. Their official character is underlined by having been prepared separately and pasted into the completed daybook, with a crescent-shaped cut in the paper creating a flap that conceals the stamped seal. Cf. Abdurrahman Atcil, "The Route to the Top in the Ottoman Ilmiye Hierarchy of the Sixteenth Century", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72.3 (2009), 489-512.
400 x 460 mm. Plaster relief plan of the city in original hand colour. Scale: 1:5,000 (millimetre to metre) for distances and 1:2,500 for height. Contained in the original wooden and cardboard box, imitating a book. Half cloth over marbled boards with spine-labels. All edges covered in marbled paper coating. With an index mounted to the inside of the cover. Exceptional three-dimensional model of Jerusalem: the fifth edition of this rare relief plan showing the principal landmarks of the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Via Dolorosa, and the Mount of Olives, as well as other places of worship, cemeteries, hospitals, hammams, schools, grottos, and the Pasha's palais. Heightened in blue, green, orange, yellow and brown. With a total of 215 labeled places of interest that are further detailed in the mounted index. - The plan was prepared by the French mathematician and surveyor Charles Muret, who made one of the first representations of a projected canal across the Isthmus of Panama around 1881, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful French venture to build the Panama canal. Muret's plaster cast of the topography of Panama was shown at the 1885 World Exhibition in Antwerp and was awarded a gold medal. In addition to the relief plan of Jerusalem, Muret created similar plans of Paris, Athens and the English Channel. - Small pieces of plaster chipped in a few places. Upper cover somewhat soiled, hinges cracked. Paper coating and cloth starting to peel off in places; fragments of spine-labels lacking. An uncommon specimen of French mapmaking, offering a glimpse of the Holy City and its topology towards the end of the 19th century. OCLC 659770835.
Folio (ca. 200 x 315 mm). Over 360 pp. with manuscript entries and 16 blank leaves. Brown ink on blueish watermarked laid paper. With 13 ink-drawn charts and sketches (8 on the logbook pages and 5 on separate thick album leaves). Period-style black half calf with original brown cloth boards; spine with gilt-lettered title "Log H.M.S. Cyclops". Overall an important, finely illustrated logbook, written in a legible hand. Historically significant manuscript logbook, containing a detailed record of the first attempt at laying a submarine telegraph cable to connect London with British India. The expedition took place from May 1859 (the Red Sea leg from Suez to Aden) to February 1860 (from Aden to the Khuriya-Muriya Islands, Muscat and Karachi). The two specially designed cable ships, Imperador and Imperatrix, were supported by HMS Cyclops, which surveyed the coastlines and reported on the depth and structure of the ocean floor. - The entries from February 1859 to May 1860, documenting the ship's Red Sea and Arabian Sea mission, span over 200 pages. We first find the Cyclops near Cape Ras al Hadd on the eastern coast of Oman, at the entrance to the Gulf of Oman: "Cape Ras al Hadd ... terminates in a low sandy spit at the head of which is a village and mud fort. There is an inlet about 4 miles to the northward of the cape, but inaccessible to large vessels. There is a heavy surf on the beach during northerly winds" (9 February 1859). The ship then plied in the Red and Arabian Seas between Egypt, Yemen and Oman, eventually finishing in Bombay. - During its expedition, the Cyclops visited and moored in Quseer and Zabardag Island (Egypt), Suakin (Sudan), Perim Island (Strait Bab-el-Mandeb, Yemen), the Hanish Islands (Yemen), Palinurus Shoal and Cape Fartak (Yemen), Al-Hallaniyah and Al-Qibliyah (Khuriya Muriya Islands, Oman), Ras Madrakah and Ras Al Hadd (Oman), Charna Island and Karachi (Pakistan). The logbook entries record the conducting of soundings and the laying of cable, along with quotidian ship activity. Brief entries touch on the death of crew members; discharging coal; punishing men for wrongdoings; maintenance of the ship; making notes of other ships in company; visits on board by local notables, etc. Six larger entries, occupying up to two pages of text, describe the topography, landmarks, soundings and economy of Karachi, Zabargad Island, and Muscat Cove, which latter harbour is said to be "formed by Muscat Island on the east and Ras Muscat on the West, it is one mile deep by half a mile wide with 12 fms at entrance, decreasing to 3 fathoms ahead of the town. It is defended by two ... batteries on the island, one on the height to the seat of town and two on Ras Muscat. They are all in a stay of decay. The entrance to the cove is difficult to make out when coming from the eastward ... The exports of Muscat are wheat, dried fish, dates and cattle, the imports being European and Indian manufactured goods, sugar, etc. The revenue is about £100,000. The Imaum's Palace faces the water, his army generally consists of from 10 to 12,000 men, and the fleet of 2 frigates, 2 corvettes, a transport and brig, the greater part of the Navy having been removed to Zanzibar, the Captains of these vessels being educated at Bombay or Calcutta. Supplies of all kind are cheap and plentiful. Boats may be hired thro' the medium of the Agent of the Indian Government for the shipment of coals" (26 November 1859). - Illustrated with eight well-executed ink-drawn charts, showing the tracks of Cyclops in the Red and Arabian Seas, as well as the harbours of Muscat Cove and other places. Five beautiful ink sketches show the city of Muscat, "Hallani Bluff from Addington Cove" (Al-Hallaniyah, the largest of the Khuriya Muriya Islands, Oman), Ras Fartak (Yemen), Karachi harbour, and Colombo. - Lightly armoured and laid with too little slack, the cable soon failed: indeed, the 1859 section had already broken down by the time the route was completed in 1860. Messages were passed over individual sections, but the entire cable never worked as a unit. Communication to India would not be established until the 1864 Persian Gulf cable was laid. The captain of the Cyclops, William Pullen (1813-87), was a noted British navigator and Arctic explorer who took part in John Franklin's search and in 1849 became the first European to sail along the north coast of Alaska from the Bering Strait to the Mackenzie River in Canada. - A final part of log, comprising some additional ca. 150 pp. (May 1860-May 1861), covers the Cyclops's survey of the south-eastern coast of Ceylon and her return voyage to England. Overall, an important content-rich source on the early history of the submarine telegraph cable around the Arabian Peninsula to British India.
4to (150 x 208 mm). 70 ff. (numbered 3-71 and 74) of hand-drawn costumes. India ink and gouache heightened in silver and gilt on laid, watermarked paper, polished in the oriental style. Bound in full modern fawn calf signed by J. E. Baudrillart, covers ruled in blind, spine sparsely gilt with title. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. A beautifully crafted album comprising seventy portraits painted by a Turkish artist in colours, gold and silver, illustrating the various offices at the Ottoman court, people of various occupations, different ethnic groups, and their traditional costumes. Most of the portraits are accompanied by captions inscribed in Osmanli at the bottom of the page. One of them, representing Sultan Mehmet IV (1642-93, ruled 1648-87) on his throne, has in the lower part an inscription in French, "Mehemet Grand Seigneur / 1660" (no. 67). Among the further subjects depicted are Janissaries, a porter (hamal), a davul player, messengers of the court, the bearer of the Sultan's sword, women adorned in various costumes, and foreigners. - Albums of this kind were known as muraqqa': compiled from various sources, they were often created to order, by or for Europeans, as gifts to members of Western embassies or as travel souvenirs. European courts appreciated them as valuable sources of diplomatic information. Several similar examples from the second half of the 17th century have survived, among which one of the most famous is the so-called Rålamb Dräktboken (Raland Book of Costumes), acquired in 1657/58 by Claes Ralamb, the Swedish ambassador to the Sublime Porte, and now kept at the Royal Library of Sweden. - A magnificent survival, handsomely bound by Jean-Eudes Baudrillart of Paris. F. Hitzel (ed.), Turkophilia révélée. L'art ottoman dans les collections privées. Catalogue d’exposition publié à l’occasion du 14e congrès international d’art Turc, Collège de France (Galerie Charpentier), 19-23 Sept. 2011, pp. 72f.
4to (170 x 215 mm). 38 pp. With frontispiece, 6 plates, and 16 full-page illustrations in the text. Original printed, illustrated buff wrappers. Very rare restricted British Army manual, dealing with the terrorist explosive devices and methods employed by the Zionist insurgents during their paramilitary campaign carried out against British rule in Mandatory Palestine. Includes instructions how to detonate various types of mines and booby traps, as well as a history of terrorist activity in 1946 undertaken by Jewish groups. Plates of various attacks are included, such as the partially destroyed King David Hotel in July 1946, and the demolished building in the David Quarter, Jerusalem, bombed in November 1946. Of that attack the booklet reads, "This incident is included for its illustration of the extreme methods which Jewish Terrorists may employ when planning deliberate murder". - Wrappers slightly soiled; interior shows occasional brownstaining. An extraordinarily rare survival; only three copies in libraries internationally: National Library of Israel; Johns Hopkins University; University of Toronto Fisher Rare Book Collection. OCLC 233992872.
8vo. XI, (1), 332 pp. With 16 photographic illustrations on 8 plates, all in black-and-white halftone, one as a frontispiece. Publisher's illustrated orange cloth. First Garden City edition in the year of the Century Co. first issue. Includes mentions of the "Pirate Coast", Bahrein and the Gulf. The American author E. Alexander Powell (1879-1957) had worked war correspondent during World War I and was commissioned as a captain in military intelligence in 1917. He subsequently took up journalism before switching to a successful career as an adventure and travel writer. - Upper corner a little buckled; a few pencil annotations. From the collection of the Austrian civil servant Dr. Alfred Brandner, with his ownership stamp and inscribed to him (Vienna, 1941) on the flyleaf. OCLC 408932.
Album of 18 well-preserved algal specimens carefully mounted on individual sheets of white wove paper, each approximately 330 x 155 mm. Loosely laid in to folding portfolio, housed in a marble clamshell box. A rare and early ensemble of algae specimens collected from the Red Sea, from different areas between Suez and Yemen, including one specimen from Alexandria. All items identified with the Latin name and details of the location around the Red Sea and date of collection written in French on the mounts, e.g., "Caulerpa prolifera: très commune dans toute la mèr rouge á la prodondeur de 1½ mètre à 2 [...] Avril 1844", or "Mer rouge dans le Golfe de l'Acaba, Juillet 1844". - The French botanist A. H. Husson, a native of Nancy, was also a pioneer of early photography. He lived in Egypt, where he worked as the director of the botanical garden and conservator for the Museum of Natural History for the Qasr Al-Ainy, the Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine. - "The Red sea has been a region of natural history exploration by European scientists from about 240 years. The first record of marine algae in the Red Sea was by Strand (a pupil of Linnaeus's), who in his thesis on the flora of Palestine listed three species. The first person to collect marine algae from the Saudi Arabian Red Sea Coast was the Danish botanist and explorer Forsskal in the 18th century who, in the month of November 1762, made a collection of seaweeds from the Sea of Jeddah [...] In the early years of the 19th century a British admiral Viscount Valentia made collections of algae from the Red Sea [...] Several other workers, including medical doctors and amateurs, collected marine algae from the Red Sea during the rest of the 19th century" (Beni-Suef Univ. Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Vol. 3/4 [Dec. 2014], pp. 278-285). - Includes the offprint of a short biography of Husson: Christian Debize, "L'album photographique d'Anne-Henry Husson. Regards d'un colon nancéien dur l'Egypte moderne", Annales de l'Est (1985), no. 4, pp. 261-299. Stab-sewn in wrappers. - A most exceptional and scarce collection of preserved algal specimens from the Red Sea. Provenance: from the property of the botanist Dr. Eugene L. Vigil (b. 1941), of Lynden, Washington, USA.
Oblong 4to (240 x 168 mm). Photo album with 9 original black-and-white silver gelatin prints, mostly 125 x 180 mm. With English captions mounted on verso of the photographs as well as on the opposite pages. 8 blank ff. Contemporary half cloth over cardboard with title label mounted to front cover. Notable collection of historic images of the Mahd Al Thahab gold mine in the province of Al-Madinah, in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. Photographs show the mining complex including the crushing plants, mills and storage tanks, as well as the camp with warehouses, shops, schools, hospital buildings, a mosque, and the living quarters of the Emir of Mahad. The last picture depicts the staff and office buildings at Jeddah. - Mining activities in the area date back to 961 BC, and the Mahd adh Dhahab deposit was rediscovered in 1932 by K. S. Twitchell. The Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate (SAMS), a joint venture between the Government of Saudi Arabia and the American Smelting and Refining Company, started production in 1939, treating at first mainly the ancient tailings. SAMS produced 22 tonnes of gold and 28 tonnes of silver up to 1954. - Extremities slightly rubbed.
8vo (194 x 130 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 90 leaves, 15 lines per page written in more than one hand in cursive script with several words in red; numerous diagrams and tables. Contemporary limp red morocco. The three works comprise: - 1. "Al-Durr al-manthur fi'l-'amal bi-rub' al-dustur". A treatise on calculating time with the aid of the sine quadrant, for any region (GAL II, p. 218, 1, attributed by Brockelmann to Sibt al-Maridini's grandfather, the astronomer Abdallah ibn Khalil ibn Yusuf Jamaladdin al-Maridini al-Qahiri, d. 1406). - 2. "Raqa'iq al-haqa'iq fi hisab al-daraj wa'l daq'iq" ("Subtleties of Truths on Arithmetic of Degrees and Minutes"). Instructions for the calculation of celestial motions with the aid of minute proportions (GAL II, p. 217, 11). A commentary on a work by his teacher, the Egyptian mathematician and astronomer Shihab al-din Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn Rajab ibn Tibugha 'Ibn al-Majdi' (1365-1447), entitled "Kashf al-haqa'iq fi hisab al-daraj wa'l-daq'iq" ("Opening Truths on Arithmetic of Degrees and Minutes"). - 3. A commentary, "Risalah [al-Fathiyya (al-Shihabiyya)] fi'l-'amal al-jaybiyya" ("Treatise on [Fath al-Din (Shihab al-Din)]". Operations with the sine quadrant (GAL II, p. 216f., 7). - Sibt (Ibn Bint) al-Maridini (the Elder, 1423-1506) lived in Cairo and Damascus. He served as the muwaqqit (time-keeper) of the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, and was a pupil of Ibn al-Majdi. His works are often conflated with those of his grandfather, and with those of his like-named son, who died in 1527 (GAL II, p. 468). - A few old repairs occasionally affecting letters; altogether very well preserved. Provenance: from the property of Dr. Eugene L. Vigil (b. 1941), of Lynden, Washington, USA. For Sibt al-Maridini see B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Ihsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers & Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works, Istanbul 2003, pp. 276f., no. 815, and pp. 293-298, no. 873.
Large 4to (187 x 274 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. (18) pp., 31 lines per extensum. Written in clear, neat black naskh, emphases picked out or underlined in red; catchwords. Modern brown leather binding with blind rules and stamped central medallions to both covers. A late 14th or early 15th century mathematical manuscript, probably written in Iran or possibly the Eastern Mediterranean. The Persian scholar Nasir al-Din Muhamad ibn Muhamad ibn al-Hasan at-Tusi (1201-74) was known for his extensive work on science, physics, mathematics and theology. He is often credited with the invention and identification of trigonometry as an independent division of mathematics (cf. GAL I, 509), and the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named after him. As well as compiling many important works in these fields, he is also known for translating the definitive Arabic editions of Euclid, Ptolemy and Archimedes' works, among others. The only other copy of his present work, treating multiplication and division in algebra and arithmetic, survives in the Topkapi Seray in Istanbul (MS 3327: a more extensive version in 3 books and 11 sections, 51 ff.). - Light dampstaining throughout, mostly confined to lower borders; edges frayed. GAL S I, p. 930, no. 36a. B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Thsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers and other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works (Istanbul 2003), pp. 211-219, M18. Krause, Stambuler Handschriften Islamischer Mathematiker, p. 497, no. 12.
4to. 226 pp., final blank f. With title woodcut and 47 woodcuts in the text (including 1 full-page illustration). Blindstamped dark blue morocco by Riviere & Son with giltstamped spine title. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. The first illustrated edition (in its second issue) of one of the most famous early travel reports and the first western encounter with the Arab world. Of the utmost rarity; not a single copy could be traced on the market for the past sixty years; not a single copy in the USA (cf. OCLC). Lodovico de Varthema’s “Itinerario” contains the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates: on his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s “Itinerario” are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). This - the first illustrated one - is certainly the rarest of them all: international auction records list not a single copy. The 1510 editio princeps was offered for US$ 1 million at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2011. - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a very documented stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - A few contemporary underlinings and marginalie. Some slight browning and staining as usual; stamp of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen on the reverse of the title. VD 16, ZV 15157. BM-STC 66. IA 113.543 (includes copies in BSB Munich and Wolfenbüttel). Benzing (Strasbourg) 100. Schmidt (Knobloch) 132. Ritter (IV) 932 & 2000. Muller 132, 170. Kristeller 383. Paulitschke 296. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 305. Röhricht 574. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239 (other editions only).
8vo. (4), XII, 265 (but: 255), (1) pp. With an engraved frontispiece. Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped label to florally gilt spine. Only edition thus of this collection of Arabic tales in the manner of the 1001 Nights. Anonymously edited by Jean-Baptiste Decourdemanche; attributed by Chauvin to the abbé Marie Nicholas Silvestre Guillon. - Slight traces of worming to upper cover; a very light waterstain near the end, otherwise fine. From the collection of the Swedish goldsmith Christian Hammer (1818-1905) with his wood-engraved bookplate on the front pastedown over an earlier engraved armorial bookplate, monogrammed "H.U.D.G." in ink. Chauvin IV, 96. OCLC 47704430.
280 x 330 mm. Graphic poster. In English and Arabic. Rare poster with safety instructions for Aramco bus drivers. Prepared by the Transportation Department, it reminds the drivers that "one bus should never pass another", as well as to "keep plenty of space between buses": "The lives of your passengers are in your hands". Apart from the safety rules in English and Arabic, the poster shows sketches of six fully occupied coaches. - Very well preserved.
Folio (290 x 450 mm). 9 double-page engraved charts only, each sheet approx. 440 x 550 mm, each mounted on stiff paper with maps back-to-back, with thick red and black ink borderlines. Of the 9 maps, 8 are by Colom, numbered in the plates from "2" to "9"; plate 1 replaced with Johannes de Ram's map of the Mediterranean, "Paskaart vande Middelandsche Zee In twee deelen vertoont". Contemporary stiff paper covers (worn with losses); manuscript label to lower cover pasted upside down: "Carta Marinaresca del Mar Mediterraneo". Unusual working copy of Colom's rare pilot, owned by an Ottoman Turkish mariner with his Osmanli inscriptions transliterating the location names throughout. Colom's charts cover the Straits of Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast, Mallorca, the coastline around Barcelona, Nice, Corsica, Sardinia, Southern Italy, Sicily, and Croatia. Koeman highlights the rarity of all of Colom's pilot books and notes that despite "thousands of copies [having been] circulated [...], only a score have survived". - Significant spotting and browning throughout, some cockling and losses to sheets, old repaired tears, creases and signs of heavy use. A highly uncommon survival. Cf. Phillips III, 53 ff. Koeman IV, 120.
8vo. 144 pp. Original printed wrappers. Pocket dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, providing "all sentences, phrases and a vocabulary of words that are in common use throughout Egypt, the Sudan and part of Palestine; and which are needed mostly by military men and tourists". - When the Lebanese-born Alec Cury sought the assistance of a British authority for the 1915 first edition of his work, "General Sir John Maxwell, GOC of British troops in Egypt, allowed his name to be put on the cover to give his solemn imprimatur to a work which was to go into no less than 34 editions by 1965" (McLoughlin). The present 32nd edition still proudly bears the phrase "officially approved by the late General Sir John Maxwell" on the front cover and title-page. - Aiming to enable English native speakers to learn Arabic without the help of a teacher, the manual includes useful terms and phrases for interactions at a restaurant, at the post office, with a taxi driver, or a "donkey boy", as well as terms of the oil industry, aviation and military. It provides brief observations on grammar and pronunciation as well as a table with the Arabic alphabet. - Wrappers and title-page somewhat brownstained. Otherwise well preserved. McLoughlin, In a Sea of Knowledge, 65. Cf. OCLC 487444386 (1950 ed.).
Small folio (215 x 336 mm). (8), 156 pp. With a folding map in lower-cover pouch. Contemporary printed boards; spine reinforced with later black leather. Official report by Colonel A. H. Gleadowe-Newcomen (1853-1928), President of the Commercial Mission to Persia, of the mission's results regarding the state of British Indian trade in South-Eastern Persia and the consideration of measures which might bring about an expansion of Indo-Persian trade. Assistance to the mission was rendered by Major Percy Molesworth Sykes, then Consul at Kerman, as well as by Percy Cox, the British resident in the Gulf. - Paper brittle; some worming; a few edge flaws near the beginning. Upper cover trimmed at the head and somewhat crudely repaired. Rare. OCLC 69210748.
600 x 460 mm. Folding coloured map, scale 1:6,000,000, cloth-backed. Folded into the original red cloth case. A rare and attractive map focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, but also including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Asiatic Turkey. It shows boundaries and occupied territories as they were after World War I, physical features, principal cities, road networks, communication lines, and maritime navigation distance. The inset map at the top right shows the Aden Protectorate and part of South-Western Yemen (scale 1:1,825,000). - Rare. Library Hub locates just one copy, at the University of Manchester. OCLC adds two further holdings, at the University of Minnesota and the Library of Congress. In excellent condition.
44 albumen prints and 1 picture postcard. Various sizes (58 x 85 mm - 160 x 212 mm). Inserted in protective sleeves. Stored in a black calf binder. A substantial collection of rare images of Kings Faisal I and Faisal II of Iraq, showing the monarchs greeting international delegations, attending banquets and meetings, or inspecting the troops. Includes a photograph of the Arab delegation in the Blue House Hotel during a finance conference in 1944. - In addition, the set includes a portrait of Iraqi president Abdul Salam Arif. The postcard shows a group picture including the Ottoman Pasha and Mohamed Al Sheheri around 1925, after the Arab Revolt. - Finally, three small photographs of a group of white-dressed girls dancing also form part of this collection. - Many photos with stamps of the corresponding studio on verso; the bulk prepared by Elias Jamoua, several other photos produced by A. Abbosh and Arshak in Baghdad. - Some pictures with Arabic or English captions. Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. Very well preserved.
Oblong 4to (333 x 230) mm. Photo album with 12 baryte paper prints (125 x 110 mm) and 1 press photo (225 x 191 mm), the latter captioned, stamped and dated. Blue full percaline with gilt cover ornaments. Cord binding. A fine ensemble of photographs documenting the historic state visit to Iraq by King Saud of Saudi Arabia in May 1957, apparently photographed and assembled by a member of the Iraqi entourage closely involved throughout the visit. King Faisal II of Iraq and his Prime Minister Nuri As-Said met with King Saud to discuss the Pan-Arab movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, involving anti-monarchist efforts in Jordan. Eventually, talks in Baghdad were wound up "with a pledge to coordinate resistance to communism and a warning that no Arab state should meddle in the affairs of its neighbors" (caption of the press photograph). - The collection includes previously unseen pictures of the monarchs' arrival by car and carriage respectively, their mutual exchange of greetings, and the state dinner, as well as the subsequent talks held in the palace garden. - Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. In excellent condition.
Oblong quarto. 371 photographs in 3 albums: 1) 121 original photographs ranging from small (70 x 100 mm) to medium (111 x 170 mm) and large (170 x 235 mm), mounted on 18 leaves (230 x 315 mm); 2) 178 original photographs ranging from small (70 x 50 mm) to medium (95 x 140 mm) and large (160 x 220 mm), mounted on 24 leaves (195 x 280 mm); 3) 72 original photographs ranging from small (65 x 90 mm) to medium (120 x 185 mm) and large (160 x 220 mm), mounted on 14 leaves (220 x 315 mm). Most photographs with manuscript captions beneath in white chinagraph pencil. With 6 additional photographs and a swimming certificate loosely inserted. Contemporary card covers with cord ties. Large collection of important photographs depicting RAF activity in Iraq during the late 1930s, demonstrating British imperial power by use of "Air Control": a policy designed to maintain the RAF as the independent third service of the British armed forces and enforce British imperial rule economically through the use of air power. - The current collection of photographs centres around the activities of 70 Squadron, providing heavy transport facilities and air ambulances and operating airmail routes between Cairo and Baghdad. Images include an armoured car with a mounted machine gun at Hinaidi; air-conditioned desert buses belonging to Nairn Transport Co going from Baghdad to Damascus, and the Flying Boat "Ceres" on Lake Habaniyah. The dangers of the operations are evident in the photos of a crash of the Flying Boat "Calpurnia" in Lake Habaniyah with the loss of five lives, the crash of Jonah Kyte No. 3 while landing, and the "Vincent" of 55 Squadron going up up in flames in Simel. The album captures well the cultural and military diversity of Iraq at the time. Not only are there bombers from the French Air Force on visit in both Dhibban and Habbaniya, but there are also photos of Iraqi "Gladiator" aircraft, Jewish women in Baghdad, and the Kurdish population spread across central Iraq. A 500-year-old church in Haiz is complemented by the photo of a priest with a 700-year-old Bible. As a foreigner abroad, the photographer gives the albums their healthy dose of tourist sites such as Alexandria (Egypt), the landscapes of Ser Amadia (while in a Summer Training Camp) and Ctesiphon Arch (530 CE). Aerial shots add bird's-eye views of the Golden Mosque of Khadimain (Baghdad), the crossing of the Suez Canal, and the Maude Bridge over the Tigris. The international and geopolitical importance of the photographs is further underscored in their documentation of the first Hinaidi-Singapore flight on 18 January 1937. - Extremities of albums slightly rubbed. 1 loose photograph creased at edge. A well preserved ensemble.