4 438 résultats
Small folio (220 x 273 mm). 4 vols. (2), LXXXIX, (1), XII, 561, (3) pp. VIII, 727, (3) pp. VIII, 609, (3) pp. VIII, 574, (54) pp. Errata leaf in rear of each volume. Expertly bound to style in half calf over period marbled paper covered boards, flat spine divided into six compartments with gilt roll tools, black morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat arabesque decoration in gilt. First English edition of "al-Hidayah", the authoritative guide to Islamic jurisprudence, printed in a small number of copies only (cf. Brunet). The understanding of Islamic law was critical to the colonial administration of India, and in particular of Bengal with its large Muslim population, and this work was intended to enable English officials to understand local proceedings. - Commonly referred to as al-Hidayah or The Guidance, this work originated as a 12th-century Hanafi work by Sheikh al-Islam Burhan al-Din al-Farghani al-Marghinani (1135-97) and is considered an authoritative guide to Islamic law among Muslims throughout the world. The Hidayah presents a legal tradition developed over many centuries and represents the corpus of Hanafi law in its approved and preferred form. The primary reason for its popularity is the reliability of its statements and the soundness of its legal reasoning. It is arguably the most popular and important work in fiqh literature. - Hamilton's English translation is based on a Persian translation by Ghulam Ya Khan from the original Arabic. Intended for a British audience, chapters relating to rituals were omitted, while his coverage of contracts, torts, and criminal law is more complete. Hamilton explains in his preface: "The permanence of any foreign dominion (and indeed, the justification of holding such a dominion) requires that a strict attention be paid to ease and advantage, not only of the governors, but of the governed; and to this great end nothing can so effectually contribute as preserving to the latter their ancient established practices, civil and religious and protecting them in the exercise in their own institutes [...] they must be infinitely more acceptable than anything we could offer; since they are supported by the accumulated prejudice of ages, and, in the opinion of their followers, derive their origin from the Divinity himself" (Preliminary Discourse). A second edition of Hamilton's translation was published in 1870, though the first edition is rare. - Light browning throughout with occasional brownstains, but generally a very finely preserved copy in an appealing modern binding. Brunet III, 75. OCLC 10111750.
Folio (294 x 394 mm). (8), 29, (3) pp. With XVI plates. Contemporary half vellum over papered boards with floral design heightened in gold; title-label to spine. One of 300 copies. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to the Viennese printer Adolf Holzhausen on the half-title. - Lavishly appointed collection of miniatures from a Persian illuminated manuscript from the early 15th century comprising the collected works of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir (1382-1410). With a description of the manuscript by the British orientalist and historian of Islamic art, Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (1864-1930), crediting Jalayir with "a not inconsiderable skill in the use of the verse forms commonly found in Persian poetry" (p. 6). The present work features reproductions of some of the most splendid folios of the Persian manuscript and its giltstamped leather binding, as well as a few miniatures originating from similar manuscripts. - Extremities very slightly rubbed; spine-label somewhat worn. Interior in excellent condition. Bound with Florentine silk. OCLC 3499905.
4to. (6), 96 ff. With a woodcut initial coloured in red and green and several diagrams. Rubricated throughout. - (Bound after) II: Aristotle. Meteorologia. (Nuremberg, Friedrich Peypus, 11 Nov. 1512). 94, (6) ff. (final blank). With 8 large woodcuts in the text, some with touches of contemporary colour. Rubricated throughout. - (Bound with) III: Abraham ben 'Ezra (Aben Ezra, Avenares). In re iudiciali opera. (Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein, 1507). 96 ff. (f. 92 blank). Rubricated throughout, some initials coloured green. Contemporary wooden boards on three raised double bands with leather spine. Two brass clasps (repaired). I: Editio princeps of this "work composed in Arabic probably exactly in the form in which it is preserved in Latin, typical of the encyclopaedic period but limited [...] to certain early sources" (Carmody), uniting the Judaic and Islamic astrological traditions. The form, arranged in twelve parts according to each house, is based on the doctrines of Sahl al-Tustari. The various tracts are constructed from chapters compiled systematically from such writers as Mâshâ'allâh (including the first printing of 'De electionibus') and al-Kindi. The crucial factor that they were translated intact in their present form from Arabic "is apparent in the unified Latin style and terminology" (ibid.). The collection includes a number of quotations attributed to Ptolemy; the rare mention of "Abuali" refers perhaps to Abu 'Ali al-Khayyâj. - "Masha'allah, [a Jew from Basra,] was one of those early 'Abbasid astrologers who introduced the Sassanian version of the predictive art to the Arabs; he was particularly indebted to the Pahlavi translation of Dorotheus of Sidon and to the 'Zik i Shahriyaran', or Royal Astronomical Tables, issued under the patronage of Khusrau Anushirwan in 556. He was also acquainted with some Greek material (perhaps through Arabic versions of Syriac texts) and would have acquired some knowledge of Indian science, both through the Pahlavi texts that he read and through such Indian scientists as the teacher of al-Fazari and Kanaka, who visited the courts of al-Mansur and Harun al-Rashid. It is during al-Mansur's reign that Masha'allah's name first appears: he participated in the astrological deliberations that led to the decision to found Bagdad [...] Masha'allah wrote on virtually every aspect of astrology [...] ['De electionibus'], which quotes Dorotheus, is ascribed to Masha'allah and Ptolemy but is probably by neither" (DSB IX, 159 ff.). - Extremely rare. A very clean copy with only an insignificant inkstain in the lower margin of ff. 12v and 13r and tiny traces of worming in the upper margin of the final two leaves. A few contemporary handwritten marginalia; f. 80v has a contemporary handwritten ownership of Wigand, Baron Redwitz (1476-56), bishop of Bamberg, who as a young man had travelled to Palestine and is remembered as a conservative but not fanatical Catholic cleric during the tumultuous years of the Reformation. - Bound with this work in the same appealing Renaissance volume are two other rare, thematically related contemporary treatises. - II: Aristotle's "Meteorology", long known in the West only through a Latin translation based on the Arabic version "al-'Athar al-`Ulwiyyah". This is the very rare illustrated first edition of Faber's expanded translation, including an extensive commentary by Johannes Cochlaeus, who also mentions the recently-discovered American continent ("Nova illa Americi terra", f. 62v). Comprising the first three of Aristotle's four books (on the heavens, water, and wind), it also constitutes "one of the main sources of medieval geology" (Stillwell, Awakening 577). "Cochlaeus's discussion of the relationship between motion and heat appears quite modern" (cf. Spahn). The woodcuts, coloured in earth tones or simply accented by the rubricator, show spheres as well as light and cloud phenomena; a large woodcut (f. 60v) shows the climate zones of the ancient world. - A single, tiny wormhole in the blank lower margin throughout; another small wormhole in the first two leaves (repaired in A1, insignificant loss to a few letters in A2). A clean and wide-margined copy. - III: The first collected edition of ten astrological treatises by the 12th-century Jewish mathematician and astronomer Ibn Ezra from Tudela in Spain. During his lifetime the town was under the Muslim rule of the emirs of Zaragoza; later he lived in Muslim Andalusia. "Ibn Ezra disseminated rationalistic and scientific Arabic learning in France, England and ltaly [... He] wrote a number of astrological works that were very popular [...] all of them appeared in Latin in 1507. They are rich in original ideas and in the history of scientific subjects" (DSB). - Contemporary marginalia in red, green, and brown ink throughout. Some insignificant browning. The well-preserved binding shows a hunting scene blindstamped into the leather. A fine assembly of important natural scientific works: published by Christian editors and printers in the early Renaissance, they bring together the Muslim and Jewish traditions that were the driving forces behind mediaeval science. I: Edit 16, CNCE 63196. BM-STC ltalian 424. Houzeau/Lancaster 751 ("volume tres rare"). DSB IX, 162. Carmody p. 112. Not in Adams, Mortimer, Essling, Stillwell, Honeyman. - II: VD 16, L 959. Cranz/Schmitt 13. Hoffmann I, 321. Schweiger I, 60. IA 107.806. Alden/Landwehr 512/1. Zinner 953. Brüggemann/Brunken 29. Spahn, Cochläus, p. 16. - III: Edit 16, CNCE 35576. IA 100.150. Adams A 38. Proctor-Is. 12998. Stillwell, Awakening 2. Houzeau/Lancaster 3927 ("rare"). Thorndike II, 917 & 927. DSB IV, 502.
Folio (240 x 319 mm). 36 pp. of text and 20 mounted black-and-white photographs with paper guards. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped covers, spine, and spine-title. Marbled endpapers. Rare first edition of the first report on the Royal Cache, an ancient Egyptian tomb near Deir el-Bahri in the Theban Necropolis, officially discovered in 1881. Including 20 impressive photographs of sarcophagi and mummies, this account convinced authorities to expand the Boulaq archaeological Museum. - The cache at Deir el-Bahri was first discovered in 1871 by the Abd el-Rassul brothers, who ended up selling items from the tomb on the black market. Eventually the Director of the Boulaq Museum, Gaston Maspero, who had succeeded Auguste Mariette in 1881 as director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government, became suspicious and had two of the brothers arrested. One of them revealed a tomb secreted in a cliff near Deir al-Bahri. Upon arriving on-site, the delegation of the Museum discovered an extraordinary collection of mummified remains and funeral equipment of more than 50 kings, queens, and other members of the royalty (including the mummies of Thutmose I and Ramesses II), suggesting that the tomb was used for safekeeping royal mummies during the Twenty-first Dynasty. In only 48 hours the entire cache was cleared and all contents, including the mummies, were transported to Luxor and then Cairo. The present work constitutes Maspero's first study of the objects. It served as the basis for a more elaborate study of the findings he published eight years later ("Les Momies royales de Deir-el-Bahari", Paris, 1889). - Extremities somewhat rubbed, occasional light foxing. A pretty copy. Rarely seen at auction. Provenance: from the private library of the American diplomat and collector Elbert Eli Farman (1831-1911), Consul General of the US at Cairo from 1876 to 1881, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 93 & II, 21. OCLC 8670353.
Folio (422 x 528 cm). Lithographed title-page and 60 lithographed plates, all in original hand colour, captions often raised in gilt. With 10 leaves of letterpress text. Half calf with giltstamped spine. (Includes): Die Uebergangsländer von Asien und Afrika, begreifend: Arabien nebst Mesopotamien und Syrien und das Nilgebiet. Munich, C. Wenng, 1845. Engraved map with contemporary border colour. 640 x 544 mm. Scale 1:7,000,000. Only edition of the rare variant with all the plates and in their splendid original colour: "Published in ten parts. The plates show costume of the period and also that of earlier times, taken from paintings" (Hiler). The picturesque views, which include Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, La Valletta, Luxor, and Thebes, genre scenes and landscapes, are all framed within a decorative border and arranged as a small painting. The Nuremberg artist Mayr, known especially for his depictions of battle scenes and horses, was personal painter to Duke Maximilian, whom he accompanied on his 1838 journey of the Orient. The group had departed from Munich on January 20 with a small entourage, travelling via Venice, Korfu, Patras, Athens, Alexandria, and Cairo to the Holy Land. They returned to Munich after eight months on 17 September 1838; the following year, Maximilian was made honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. - Some foxing, otherwise splendidly preserved. Includes the extremely rare map of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East which was published only in 1845, at the instigation of the naturalist Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert (1780-1860) and the geologist Joseph von Russegger (1802-63), to satisfy this frequently noted lack in Mayr's production (some foxing, but also finely preserved). Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 26. Gay 90 (only 36 plates). Lipperheide Ma 22 (= 1589). Hiler 578. Tobler 161. Graesse IV, 457. Engelmann 124. Kainbacher 265 ("a rarity"). Thieme/Becker XXIV, 477. Nagler VIII, 498f. ("highly memorable drawings"). ADB XXI, 139ff. Not in Blackmer or Abbey (Travel). Not in Colas.
8vo. Ottoman Turkish manuscript, with medical terminology mostly in Arabic. 50 pp. Black (and occasional red) ink on polished paper. 19th century marbled wrappers. A traditional pharmacological essay or pharmacopoeia, as well as a description of several ailments and medical conditions (including earache, infection of the larynx, uvular edema, malaria, jaundice, and yellow fever), with their treatment indications. Interestingly, there is a specific reference to opium ("afyon" in Turkish). The anonymous scribe was very probably a physician or medical practitioner with an imperfect knowledge of Arabic, most likely a Turk. No colophon, but likely written in the early 18th century in an Arabic-speaking Eastern province of the Ottoman Empire. - Occasional stains and smudging; some corner and edge flaws throughout with chipping to wrappers.
Folio (220 x 315 mm). 8 issues printed in French and Arabic in two columns, each between 2 and 16 pages. All with the woodcut vignette of the French Republic showing Marianne and the motto "Liberté Egalité". A unique ensemble of these exceedingly rare regulations documenting the first months of the administration of the newly appointed commander-in-chief "Abdallah" Menou, who succeeded Kleber after his assassination in June. - In contrast to his predecessor, who intended to rule Egypt as an occupied territory, General Menou had colonial aims and even considered granting French citizenship to all Egyptians. Soon after his arrival in 1798 he married a woman from a noble Cairo family, converted to Islam and took the name of Abdallah. - Covering a wide range of topics such as tax and fiscal matters, fishing and hunting rights, duties of local dignitaries ("cheyks el-beled"), customs and border regulations, rules for navigation on the Nile, taxation of merchants, craftsmen and workers, as well as the rights of various religious minorities (Jews and Copts among others), the present documents offer a vastly more detailed insight into the French administration of Egypt than the more widely distributed single-page broadsides of daily orders with which they were originally issued ("Inséré dans l'ordre du jour ..."). Printed by first printing press in the Arab world, all issues of these bilingual regulations and orders are of the utmost rarity: four of the eight publications contained in the present collection are not recorded in OCLC. - Unbound as issued. Well preserved throughout. Detailed list and collations of the individual publications available upon request. Cf. D. Glass/G. Roper, The Printing of Arabic Books in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), p. 177-225, at 182.
Small 8vo (175 x 135 mm). [4], 326 (pp. 272f. printed on a single page, pp. 274-279 printed as three folding tables), [1] pp. With large folding map and additional separately printed index in pocket at front. Original green cloth, printed title to spine and upper flap. Ownership inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieut., RAMC, dated April, 1918. First edition of a field guide to Mesopotamia (Iraq), published on behalf of the General Staff in India for the use of officers serving in the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War, stating on the binding and title-page "for official use only". The guide is divided into eight chapters, dealing with Iraq's history, geography, population, resources, military strength, maritime power, administration and communication respectively. The fifth and sixth chapter also contain valuable information on the Turkish military and maritime strength. Added to the present guide is many newly acquired information not present in the 1915 guide. For example, the "list of routes" in the present guide contains 36 routes from one city to another, compared to 14 routes in the 1915 guide. The routes are shown on the folding map. With the owner's inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieutenant in the British Royal Army Medical Corps, on the first flyleaf. A few small spots or stains. Binding only very slightly rubbed. Overall in very good condition.
4to (145 x 198 mm). (34) ff. Half calf over marbled overs (ca. 1900) with gold-tooled red label to gilt spine. All edges sprinkled red. Almost unobtainably rare first edition of this digest of medical prescriptions, taken from the works of the highly-regarded Arabic physician Mesue the Younger (also known as Masawaih al-Mardini), including "a kind of general manual for apothecaries and perfumers" (Duveen). All recipes are in Italian, while the main title and the headings are in Latin. Bibliographers are not agreed on the book's place or date of publication: GW locates it merely in Italy, ca. 1495, whereas Copinger believes it was printed in Venice, by an unidentified printer, in or around 1500. The British Museum Short-Title Catalogue suggests Sigismund Mayr in Naples as the printer and 1510 as possible year of publication, while the British Library's catalogue now appears to prefer Venice and 1505 as tentative place and year. Klebs notes that the collection constitutes a "rifacimento" of the Italian edition of Mesue's "Opera medicinalia", published in Venice on 12 December 1493. - Contemporary ink ownership to title-page. A restored tear in the final leaf (not affecting the text), some brown specks on the title-page and an insignificant waterstain along the lower edge of the final gathering, but altogether in excellent condition. Rebound in a pretty half-calf binding around the turn of the century. Only two copies in libraries internationally (British Library and Univ. of Wisconsin, formerly the Duveen copy). That in the British Library is incomplete, lacking the final leaf (falsely described by Copinger as having a final blank leaf, which is in fact the endpaper). Copinger 4011. GW M23031. Klebs 228 (note). Proctor 7427. ISTC im00521400. USTC 842290. BM-STC Italian 739. Duveen 651. Edit 16, CNCE 50479.
121 x 92 cm. Colour-printed map (folded). Scale 1:20,000,000. A large wall map of the Middle East shortly before the Yom Kippur War, showing the Arabian Peninsula, north-eastern Africa with Libya, Egypt and Sudan as well as Turkey and Iraq pictured in their entirety. A separate inset shows Israel, others show statistics such as population and trade, oil production, etc. - A few large tears to folds, some adhesive tape reinforcements to reverse, but well preserved.
560 x 827 mm. Chromolithographic map of the Arabian Peninsula, from Turkey in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and covering Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, North and South Yemen. Scale 1:5,000,000. Folded. Extremely rare Israeli strategic map of the Arabian Peninsula showing oilfields and associated infrastructure. Printed in black, red and blue, the map demarks the political boundaries of the time along with the areas covered by oil companies' concessions. Pipelines form a web across the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula (shown in uncommon vertical orientation), while oilfields and refineries, large and small, are also marked. The map was most probably created by the IDF in reaction to the Suez Crisis and its associated geopolitical shifts. With the Egyptians operating the Suez Canal, and Britain and France being forced by the USA to abandon their post-imperial plans, Israel now counted in both U.S. and Soviet plans for their control of Middle Eastern politics. Britain was forced to anchor its Middle Eastern influence in Cyprus, Aden and Iraq, while the increased American influence can be seen in the huge swathe of territory assigned to Aramco. We have only been able to trace a single institutional copy of this map in the National library of Israel. - Scale and key in Hebrew inset to top-right, inset explanatory panels in Hebrew and English, compass rose in Saudi Arabia. A couple of small light stains, some uneven creasing and edge tears along creasefolds with a couple of tiny holes at fold joins. Traces of pins from former wall mounting.
8vo. (2), 217, (16) pp., final blank page. With engraved title vignette, 1 folding map of the Arabian Peninsula and 7 engraved folding plates. Later marbled boards. First edition. Scarce Dutch translation of the journals of Henry Middleton (d. 1613) and his lieutenant Nicholas Downton (1561-1615) documenting the sixth voyage undertaken by the East India Company, in 1610-12. The ships landed in Aden before continuing to Al-Mukha (Mocha) in Yemen, where Middleton's ship ran aground and had to be refloated. "After an initially friendly reception, the local ruler changed his tune and imprisoned Middleton and his crew on the pretext of their breaking an embargo against Christian shipping. After spending three weeks as prisoners at Mocha, they were taken inland to Ta'iz and then San'a, where the Pasha explained that the arrival of English ships had been resented by the local Muslim traders. Released in February 1611, Middleton and his crew returned to Mocha and sailed on 9 Aug. 1611 for Surat in India" (Howgego). The illustrations include depictions of an English ship exploding in the harbour, as well Middleton in chains in a Mocha jail. - Published as part of Van der Aa's collection "Naaukeeurige versameling der gedenkwaardigste Zee- en Land-Reysen". Somewhat browned and brownstained throughout; folding map slightly frayed; 2 tears to first plate and 2nd plate respectively; small tear to title-page repaired with old tape. Only 3 copies traceable in auction records since 1931. Howgego I, 719; cf. also p. 320. Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum I, 95. Tiele 5. Cat. NHSM I, 107. OCLC 14998184.
Coloured. Two sheets conjoined, total 610 x 1010 mm. Restoration to binding folds and tears. Moll's large-format map of the Turkish Empire based on De l'Isle, also covering the whole of the Mediterranean, first published in 1714. The caravan route from Basra to Mecca is also given. Includes inset prospects of Constantinople, Smyrna and Jerusalem, and three views of the Holy Sepulchre. A note engraved in the area of the Arabian desert south of today's United Arab Emirates contains a pointed editorial critique of Ottoman rule in Arabia: "The Turks oppress the Arabians with Tribute, and Govern 'em with great Cruelty, which has made them several times attempt to throw off their Yoke, but in Vain: Those of Arabia Felix are kept in Awe by the Turkish Gallies on the Red Sea; and those of the other Arabia's not being able to subsist in their barren Countries have spread themselves into the mountanous parts of Syria and the Desarts of Barbary, Barca &c. where they live by Rapine in the Neighboring Countries, and plundering Travellers." - Well preserved; an excellent, appealingly coloured specimen. Tibbets 202. Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.) p. 151.
Oblong folio (405 x 310 mm). 106 plates after photographs mounted on 50 card mounts with captions, numbered 1-100 and 16a, 59b, 60a, 72a (2 photos) and 95a, one map (numbered 63a), the images of varying sizes. Includes text booklet (2 ff., 16 pp.). Loose as issued in publisher's cloth-backed decorative portfolio boards, gilt lettered "Nord-Arabien und Sinai" on upper cover. A rare photographic record of the major sites and geographic features in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Palestine. The images - taken for the most part by Moritz but some by Turkish friends in areas where he was prohibited from going - depict pilgrims on the Hajj to Mecca, Bedouins, the building of the Hejaz railway between Damascus and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Jiddah, Petra, and Mt. Sinai. Moritz (1859-1939) was an Arabist and archaeologist who from 1896 to 1911 headed the Khedival Library and Archive in Cairo. It was from there that he made numerous research trips to the Sinai and Hejaz, taking the present photographs between 1905 and 1915. - Plates and text are well preserved, with only a few occasional minor chips to the edges of the mounts. Portfolio uncommonly well preserved and only a little rubbed at the extremeties. NDB XVIII, 149. OCLC 2889101.
4to (175 x 235 mm). (8), 38 pp., final blank leaf. Title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette. Contemporary Italian full auburn calf, spine gilt, both covers ruled and gilt with the arms of the Prince of Morocco. Marbled pastedowns. All edges gilt. Rare single edition of this compilation of documents relating to the conversion of the Muslim Prince Muley Ahmed, who took the Christian name Lorenzo Bartolomeo Luigi Troiano; printed for Pope Clement XII. Prince Muley Ahmed was a member of the Alaouite dynasty, the ruling house of Morocco - a major propaganda coup for the Christian cause at a time when Morocco variously clashed with the French, Spanish, and Venetian merchant navies. This is the Prince's personal copy, bearing on both covers the Moroccan lion's crest with a sceptre and crown. - Light brownstaining throughout. The pretty armorial binding is very slightly rubbed, but altogether attractively preserved. Extremely rare; only five copies known worldwide, all in Italy; none recorded in OCLC. ICCU UBOE\006375.
4to. 3 in 4 vols. With 2 folding maps and one folding panorama. Numerous illustrations and plans. Original wrappers. First edition of this standard work on the region: the first scientific account of the Nabataean antiquities, including the ruins of Petra. The Bohemian scholar Alois Musil (1868-1944) was fluent in 35 Arabic dialects. In 1898 he had rediscovered the lost desert castle of Qusayr Amra (built ca. 715 A.D.) in the Jordanian desert north of Amman. During WWI he was sent to the Middle East to thwart British operations against the Ottoman Empire, thus becoming the opponent of T. E. Lawrence. In 1827 he helped establish the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Prague. - With contemp. ownership "Dr. Zweig" on wrapper covers (in Hebrew and German). Some pages uncut; professional repairs to edges. Rare with all 4 volumes; no complete copy recorded at auction during the past decades. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1667. Howgego III, M103 (p. 664). Fück 262. NYPL Arabia coll. 171. OCLC 3114451.
8vo. (10), 56, (4), 370, (28) pp. Near contemporary vellum with giltstamped spine label. All edges sprinkled in red. First edition. The editor, Joseph Labrosse, "was born in Toulouse in 1636 and entered a Carmelite order, taking the name of Fr. Angelus of St Joseph. In 1662 he went to Rome and studied Arabic for two years before travelling to Isfahan to study Persian. While in Iran, he used medicine as a means of propagating Christianity and in the process read many Arabic and Persian books on medicine and 'visited the houses of the learned people of Isfahan and paid hundreds of visits to the shops of the druggists, the pharmacists, and the chemists.' After returning to France in 1678 he published his 'Pharmacopoea persica', which consisted of a Latin translation of a Persian book on compound remedies written in the previous century by Muzaffar ibn Muhammad al-Husayni (d. 1556), with additional comments by Labrosse" (in: I. Loudon [ed.], Western Medicine [1997], p. 52f.). Hyde (Biographia Britannica, cited by Langlès, Biographie universelle) asserts that the credit for this work really belongs to Père Matthieu. - Insignificant chipping to spine label. Some minor browning and brownstaining. 18th century annotations on first endpaper and engraved bookplate to pastedown. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). Wilson 7. OCLC 13058281.
Large 8vo (177 x 263 mm). 3-485 pp. With 11 mostly photographic plates (2 folding, a few tinted in watercolours). Lithographed Persian throughout, text in Nasta’liq script, 14 lines to the page, written by Ali Asghar and dated 1283 H (1866 CE). Contemporary full calf binding with handwritten paper spine label in Persian. Rare travel report of the pilgrimage to the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashad (Khorasan), undertaken by Shah Nasir al-Din in 1866. Lithographed in Persian throughout. - Binding rubbed; spine reinforced at the head. Wants first leaf; some soiling and brownstaining (more pronounced near the beginning) with a few edge and corner repairs. Traces of old block-stitching. Margins show a few contemporary annotations, a few old waqf stamps and Russian blindstamps "Vysochajshe u Kompanija Uglichskoj fabriki" (ca. 1890) from the head office of the paper factory of the town of Uglich, north of Moscow.
Large 8vo (165 x 240 mm). 40 volumes, prettily gilt to covers and spines. With more than 400 engraved and aquatint plates, maps, charts and portraits (many by Nicholas Pocock). Marbled endpapers. The complete 40-volume run of the "Naval Chronicle", the most influential maritime publication of its time and today a key source for British maritime and military history. Founded by the Royal Navy chaplain James Stanier Clarke and the naval officer James Stanier Clarke, the monthly periodical ran for two full decades from January, 1799 to December, 1818. It contains a wealth of information about the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, including biographies, histories, anecdotes and news, essays on nautical subjects, as well as poems and ballads on a variety of related topics. - Several volumes include material on events in the Arabian Gulf and Sea, often recounting episodes of "piracy" against British vessels, such as the capture of the East India Company's ships "Shannon" and "Trimmer" on 1 Dec. 1804 (an account is found in vol. XV, pp. 24f.) or the Arab raid on the "Minerva" on 29 May 1809, during which the crew were massacred and the vessel converted into the Al-Qasimi flagship (reported in vol. XXIII, p. 281f.; vol. XXIV, p. 30f.). Such events provoked the British "Persian Gulf" campaign of 1809, in which a large British force was deployed to destroy Al-Qasimi bases and ships. The Battle of Ras al-Khaimah, fought on 11-13 Nov. 1809, is reflected in reports printed in vol. XXIV (pp. 73 and 363), and renewed interest in the region and its history, customs and religion prompted a lengthy article on "The Wahebite Arabs" (vol. XXIV, pp. 293ff.; 371ff.), or "the Wahebbi, whose name is much connected with the Iowassimi pirates". A decade later, the British Navy would return in another massive operation against Ras Al Khaimah, which would lead to the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 between the British and the Sheikhs of the coast which today comprises the United Arab Emirates. - Bindings variously rubbed and bumped, some quite severely with hinges split and extremeties chipped; some spines rebacked, some labels lost. Occasional brownstaining throughout, but largely confined to tissue guards and opposite pages. In all a worn but still appealingly bound set, often encountered in separate volumes only. Sabin 52076. ZDB-ID 1053834-3.
Large 8vo. 2 parts in one vol. (4), XV, (1 blank), 599, (1); (2), 60, (2 blank) pp. With 3 maps (of which 2 folding) and 82 views of coastal profiles on 52 plates. Blue cloth with title information in yellow on front cover and spine, the supplement has been separately inserted (loose at the end of the vol.). - With: [Navigation - Red Sea - Navy Pilot]. Supplement No. 7 - 1977 to Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot (11th edition, 1967) corrected to 4th March, 1977. Whenever reference is made to the pilot this supplement must be consulted. London, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, 1977. With 2 folding maps (double-sided on the same leaf) and 4 views of coastal profiles on 3 pages. Grey/blue back wrapper; the two quires, map and back wrapper are held together by two metal staples. The essential standard sailing directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, corresponding with zone NP64 on the official Admiralty charts. These nautical works - the pilots and the charts - are published by the United Kingdom's Hydrographic Office, which provides necessary hydrographic and marine geospatial data to all kinds of maritime organisations across the world. The publications are not only used by the British Royal Navy, but can also be found on board the majority of international merchant ships. The data provided in the pilots and other publications are compliant with SOLAS (the Safety of Life at Sea treaty) guidelines and are updated constantly in weekly "Notices to Mariners", and in supplements to and new editions of the pilots whenever necessary. - The present copy is the 11th edition (1967) of the pilot with sailing directions and other information on the weather, currents, radar ranges etc. relating to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including the supplement issued in 1977. It includes a foreword by the Hydrographer of the Navy, Rear-Admiral George Stephen Ritchie (1914-2012), who served most of his Naval career in the Surveying Service providing the raw data for the Hydrographic Office. The introduction clearly states that with the publication of this volume the previous edition and its supplements are cancelled, since the most up-to-date information has been compiled in the new edition and the weekly "Notices to Mariners" that appear after the publication of the 11th edition. The 11th edition of 1967 and its 1977 supplement were made redundant with the publication of the 12th edition in 1980. Each subsequent edition of the pilot supersedes the last, which have appeared infrequently depending on newly available information since the mid-19th century until the present day. - Binding slightly rubbed and faded, first two pages are printed on red/pink paper, edges of the volume are very slightly soiled. Fore-edge of the supplement is slightly frayed. Overall in good condition.
Large 4to (205 x 262 mm). 2 volumes. (6), 56, 252 pp. (4), 315, (5) pp. With 1 folding genealogical table and 25 engraved plates (many folding), including maps, plans, costumes, and views, 2 showing Arabic text with vowel points, as well as 2 engraved headpieces. Contemporary full marbled calf with giltstamped spines and red spine labels. Blue coloured endpapers. All edges red. Third French edition (first published in German in Copenhagen, 1772). "Édition revue par de Guignes" (Gay). "Niebuhr (1713-1815) participated as astronomer and naturalist to the royal Danish expedition to Arabia in 1763-1767. Together with the naturalist Forskal, the philologist Van Haven and two others, he travelled up the Nile to Suez and Mount Sinai, and from there to Jeddah and Mocha. By the end of their stay in Mocha, all the memebers of the expedition but Niebuhr had died, and Niebuhr travelled on alone to India, returning via Persia, Syria, Cyprus, and Constantinople. The only surviving member of the hazardous expedition, he returned to an indifferent reception in Copenhagen [...] Niebuhr's comprehensive description, particularly of the Yemen region, was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Noticeable worming to gutter, sometimes touching text but loss to legibility (more extensive in vol. I), much of which professionally repaired. A few handwritten pencil annotations in the margin. Bindings professionally restored. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Brunet IV, 74 (note). Cf. Atabey 873. Macro 1699. Not in Blackmer.
4to. XLII, 372 pp. With engraved title (in counted prelims.), 25 engraved plates (8 folding, including large engraved map of the Yemen, in partial colour) and a folding table. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped red morocco label over marbled green boards. Marbled endpapers. Second French edition, translated from the German ("Beschreibung von Arabien") by F. L. Mourier. Includes Niebuhr's famous map of the Yemen and Arabic specimens from the Qur'an, with added hand colouring to indicate vowel sounds. "L'on voit [...] sur la IV et V planche, une feuille copiée d'un Korân, qui est écrit sur du parchemin et conservé comme un grand thresor dans la collection de livres faites par l'Académie Dsjamea el ashar à Kahira, parce qu'on croit, que le Calife Omar l'a écrit de sa propre main. Mais quand Omar ne l'auroit pas écrit, cette feuille est toujours très ancienne et par là-même remarquable" (Chauvin). - This is the famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. "Niebuhr's comprehensive description [...] was the best and most authentic of the day. Many subsequent travellers have acknowledged their debt to him, and only on a few minor points have they shown him to be in error. He was scientifically and philosophically minded, cautious and steady, and hardly the man to masquerade in Mekkah or wander with the Bedouins, but few contributed more solidly to the study of Arabia" (Atabey). - Binding a little rubbed, spine professionally repaired. A good, wide-margined copy in a contemporary binding from the library of the French historian, archaeologist, numismatist, and orientalist Victor Langlois (1829-69) with his cancelled ownership handwritten to the flyleaf. Chauvin X, p. 57, no. 128; XII, p. 288, no. 1206. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 548. Gay 3589. Nyon 21017. Grenoble 25621. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1699. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116.
4to. 2 vols. XVI, (6), 505, (1) pp. With 72 plates and folding map. (16), 479, (1) pp. With 52 plates and maps. Contemporary vellum with title to spine. First edition. - Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - An unsophisticated, exceptionally fine copy. Macro 1700. Gay 3589. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752).
4to. 2 vols. VIII, (6), 409, (1) pp. VI, (10), 389, (1) pp. With 2 engraved titles (in counted prelims.), 124 engraved plates (many folding), and folding map of Yemen (in partial colour). Contemp. full calf with gilt cover borders and giltstamped labels in red and green to fully gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First French edition, translated from the German ("Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern", 1774) by F. L. Mourier. Title pages are dated 1776-80; colophones dated 1775-79. The famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India, the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's "work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. He amassed a vast quantity of factual information which he relates in a simple unrhetorical fashion, distinguishing clearly between things observed personally and things learned from others. The expedition, which lasted six years, was sponsored by the Danish king, and included the brilliant Swedish scientist, Peter Forsskal, who died while in Yemen" (Cat. Sotheby‘s, 13 Oct 98, lot 1010). Of the five scientists, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of the Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. - Old stamps erased from title pages (leaving insignificant waterstain), otherwise a perfect set in immaculate original French bindings. Howgego I, N24 (p. 752). Weber II, 549. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 66. Gay 3589. Van Hulthem 15024. Nyon 21018. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1700. Carter, Robert A. Sea of Pearls, p. 116. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
8vo. 71, (1) pp. With a map frontispiece and four black and white plates. Original printed wrappers. First edition. An Arabic translation of Carsten Niebuhr's description of Baghdad, originally published in his "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern" (Copenhagen, 1774-78), a remarkable travel account famed for its groundbreaking description of Yemen in the mid-18th century. - Niebuhr, by then the sole survivor of a party of five, visited Baghdad on his return journey to Europe after spending nearly a year in the Arabian Peninsula. He arrived back in Copenhagen in November 1767, where he presented his report and the workings of his departed co-travellers - a mass of writings, plans and sketches which proved to be of the most remarkable and lasting worth. - Two small stains to upper wrapper, edges a little worn, a few gatherings roughly opened, otherwise very good. A few pages unopened. Ink translator's presentation inscription to title-page. Extremely rare; not in OCLC.