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200 x 120 mm.
4to (170 x 214 mm). (4), 65, 51 ff. Early 19th century half calf with marbled covers and fore-edge flap. Pink paper pastedowns. The seventh book printed by Ibrahim Müteferrika: a history of Egypt from antiquity to early modern times, prepared by the Turkish scholar Ahmed Süheylî (1562?-1632). The modern section (bound first, as usual) is in fact an Ottoman Turkish translation of the chronicle of the Ottoman-Mamluk war of 1516/17, "Fath Misr" (Tarikh as-sultan Selim al-Utmani ma'a as-sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri) by Ibn Zunbul (d. 1574/75). - Handwritten ownership of the French diplomat Louis Lagarde (dated 1923 CE) to front flyleaf. Occasional light browning and fingerstains, but mostly an excellent copy on good, crisp paper. Özege 19868-19869. GAL S II, p. 409. Toderini III, p. 85, no. VI.
Small folio (185 x 246 mm). (7), 75, (2) ff. With 2 (instead of 4) double-page-sized engraved maps and a double-page-sized compass rose plate, all in contemporary hand colour. Early 20th century half calf over marbled covers with title gilt to spine. The first illustrated printed Turkish book and the second work from the press of Ibrahim Müteferrika. Composed in 1656, this is a compilation containing in its main section a history of the Ottoman navy and naval wars, from the conquest of Constantinople down to the author's own lifetime. It includes an introductory geographical summary of the conditions around the Balkans and the Black Sea, a chronological list of all Ottoman admirals, a description of the administrative organisation of the navy and dockyards, regulations on sea battles, ships in the Ottoman navy, their equipment and maintenance, together with suggestions for improvement. - The maps show the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea (some edge flaws; rebacked; lacks the map of the Black Sea and the world map). Some browning and waterstaining throughout; ff. 17-18 transposed between ff. 4 and 5, ff. 25-28 between ff. 22 and 23. Watson 2. Atabey 898. Özege 21273. Babinger 12. Blackmer 1176. De Sacy III, 5017. Toderini III, p. 25, no. II.
Royal 8vo (262 x 194 mm). 2 vols. 710 pp. 620 pp. Printed in Arabic throughout, floral woodcut sarlawh to each volume, text within two-line frame throughout, titles in nasta'liq types. Bound in somewhat later half leather over marbled boards; spine on five raised bands with gilt title, volume number, and edition. Double endpapers. Housed in custom-made, half-cloth modern slipcase. First complete edition in Arabic of the Thousand and One Nights, and the first edition printed in the Arab world. Very rare, with seven copies only located in libraries worldwide (American University Beirut, British Library, Danish Royal Library, Harvard, Huntington, and Yale); none traced in auction records. The Bulaq edition was preceded by another two-volume edition printed at Calcutta between 1814 and 1818, which contained a selection of 200 "Nights" only; the German orientalist Max Habicht began his multi-volume, so-called Breslau edition in 1824, though it remained incomplete on his death in 1839, and at any rate used the Bulaq text as one of its many sources. The Bulaq edition was prepared by one ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sifti al-Sharqawi, probably from a single manuscript which is now lost. It proved "more correct than the garbled and semi-colloquial renderings given by the manuscripts used in the compilations of Calcutta I and Breslau", and was instrumental in stabilising the Thousand and One Nights corpus (Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, p. 44). It was the main source for Edward Lane’s pioneering English translation (1889-41) and for the last of the four historically important Arabic editions, published at Calcutta in 1839-42 (and known as "Calcutta II"). Bulaq and Calcutta II "superseded almost completely all other texts and formed the general notion of the Arabian Nights. For more than half a century it was neither questioned nor contested that the text of the Bulaq and Calcutta II editions was the true and authentic text" (Marzolph, The Arabian Nights Reader, p. 88). - The printing press at Bulaq, Cairo, founded in 1821 by Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, was the first indigenous press in Egypt and one of the first anywhere in the Arab world, its literary output catering to a keen export market and increased demand among the expanding professional classes of Muhammad ‘Ali’s Egypt. For the first few years the press used types cast in Italy, then France. "In 1826 Muhammad ‘Ali sent a delegation to Europe to study printing, and by the 1830s printing had reached a good technical level at Bulaq" (Kent et al., eds., Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 24, p. 63). The present edition exhibits the high standards of Bulaq printing, with the main text composed in authentic and legible naskh-style types, interspersed with attractive headings in nasta’liq. - Condition report: 19th-century bibliographical notes on a typed vignette mounted on the endpapers of each volume; bibliographical notes in pencil on endpaper of vol. 1. Handwritten tables of contents loosely inserted to both volumes, probably in Barbier de Meynard's hand in ink and pencil. A few marginal notes in Arabic and French written in pen and pencil throughout. Occasional spotting; pages very slightly yellowed due to age. A tiny hole throughout, at the upper inner corner of the framing rules. Vol. 1: Two small holes at the gutter of fol. [157]2 (pp. 627f.) and minute damage to the upper edge of the last 9 ff. Spine rubbed, upper compartment professionally restored. Vol. 2: A larger light stain to the margin of fol. [4]1 (pp. 13f.), moderately touching the text area but not affecting legibility. Insignificant worming to lower margin of the first 10 ff. Spine rubbed, front hinge professionally restored. Interior of both volumes is clean and firm, overall in very good condition. - Provenance: from the collection of the French oriental scholar Charles Barbier de Meynard (1826-1906) with his stamp and ownership inscription "Bibliothéque de Mr Barbier de Meynard" in both volumes. A member of the Société Asiatique and editor of "Dictionnaire Géographique de la Perse", Barbier de Meynard authored several books and articles and co-translated the 9-volume "Moruj al-dahab" ("Les prairies d'or") of Al-Masudi (Paris, 1861-77). His inscription "Donne par A. Dantan" in the first volume probably refers to Antoine Dantan, a member of the renowned French dragoman dynasty. Chauvin IV, 18, 20K. Brunet III, 1715. Graesse IV, 523. Fawzi M. Tadrus, Printing in the Arab World with emphasis on Bulaq Press (Doha: University of Qatar, 1982), p. 64. Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter, Westhofen 2002, p. 184. Heinz Grotzfeld. Neglected Conclusions of the "Arabian Nights": Gleanings in Forgotten and Overlooked Recensions. In: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 16, (1985), pp. 73-87. Ulrich Marzolph (ed.). The Arabian nights in transnational perspective, Wayne State University Press 2007, p. 51.
4to (152 x 220 mm). 2 (instead of 7), 97 ff. (last two leaves mutilated; plus a fragment of the 5th leaf of prelims). Contemporary calf binding; papered spine with typed leather spine label; some loss to lower cover. The third book printed by Ibrahim Müteferrika: a contemporary history of the Afghan-Persian wars of the Safavid era that led to the fall of the Safavid dynasty and the Afghan occupation of Iran. This is the Ottoman Turkish translation of a work by the Polish Jesuit Judasz Tadeus Krusinski, who lived in the royal capital of Isfahan from 1707 to 1725/28, acting as an intermediary between the Papacy and the Iranian court as well as a court translator. Proficient in Persian and well acquainted with the nation and its people, he was a first-hand witness to the sack of the city by the rebellious Afghans in 1722, and his account makes him an important primary source on this particular period of the Safavid era. - Browned, fingerstained and waterstained throughout, several waqf marks; various edge tears and small chips. Lacks the first five leaves of the preliminaries (save for a fragment of the fifth); loss to upper edge of f. 33 (first line) and ff. 96-97 (several lines at the bottom of the page). Zenker 929. Özege 19897. De Backer/Sommervogel IV, 1264. Brunet III, 190. Ebert 4844 (note). Toderini III, p. 34, no. III.
4to (161 x 212 mm). (3), 91 ff. With 13 woodcut hand-coloured illustrations in the text (lacking the 4 double-page engraved plates). Contemporary half calf binding with marbled covers and fore-edge flap. Rare first edition of this illustrated history of the New World in Ottoman Turkish: the first book published in Turkey to contain illustrations, the earliest book about the New World published in the Ottoman Empire, and one of the first titles printed by a Muslim in Turkey. The contemporary colouring of the woodcuts, which depict curious oddities, fantastic creatures and the native people of the New World, lends this specimen a visual appearance very different from that of the rather plain copies in which this book is usually known (14 copies recorded by OCLC). The only similarly embellished copy of the Hind al-Gharbi we could trace is the one held by the Lilly Library. - "Although ascribed in Turkish bibliographies to one Mehmed Ibn Hasan üs-Su'udi, the authorship is uncertain [...] Despite the title, this is not a history of the West Indies. It opens with a general geographical and cosmological discussion, and follows with an account of the discovery of the New World, with considerable fantastic elaboration in the spirit of the more fabulous passages of Abu Hamid and Qazwini. Among the illustrations are depictions of trees whose fruits are in human form, long-snouted horses, mermen at battle with land-dwellers, and other men and beasts of nightmarish aspect" (Watson). - This work, which survives in a number of manuscripts (none as complete as this printed edition), was composed in Istanbul around 1580. After a synthesis of Islamic geographical and cosmographical writings (notably drawing from al-Mas'udi, who is the most frequently cited source, and Ibn al-Wardi, mentioned almost 20 times), the book relates the discovery of the New World. It is this Chapter 3, which comprises the final two thirds of the text, in which the unidentified author describes the explorations and discoveries by Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, Cortés and Pizarro. As Goodrich's study of the book's sources shows, this section is derived directly from Italian editions of 16th century texts, particularly works by López de Gómara, Peter Martyr, Agustín de Zárate, and Oviedo, which the author excerpted, rearranged, and translated into Turkish. Complete copies are rare: the book was printed in an edition of only 500 copies, many of which were subsequently defaced or destroyed for contravening the Islamic dictum against representing living things. - The "Tarikh-i Hind-i gharbi" is only the fourth book printed in the Arabic alphabet in the Ottoman Empire, produced by Ibraham Müteferrika, an Hungarian convert to Islam who believed he could help arrest the decline of the Empire through his printing press. He established his shop in 1729 in the palace of the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha and was granted a license to print all but religious works (which remained the province of scribes). - A few corners or edges clipped or trimmed, remargined by an early collector. Lacks the engraved maps and astronomical chart present in some copies. Old inscription in Arabic (dated 1341 H) and ownership of the French diplomat Louis Lagarde (dated 1923 CE) to front flyleaf. John Carter Brown 463. Toderini III, p. 41, no. IV. Karatay 250. Sabin 94396. William J. Watson, "Ibrahim Müteferrika and Turkish Incunabula," in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 88, no. 3 (1968), pp. 435-441, no. 4. Özege 19828. OCLC 416474553. Cf. T. D. Goodrich, The Ottoman Turks and the New World (Wiesbaden 1990).
4to (146 x 211 mm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript. 284 ff. of polished laid paper. Black naskh with occasional red; 19 lines within red rules; gilt and illuminated sarlowh on first text page. Signed by the scribe Darwish 'Ali. Early 19th century English binding with blind-tooled spine and fore-edge flap in the oriental style. A complete 18th century manuscript of what is famously the first Ottoman history of America. Composed by an unidentified Turkish author in the 1580s, the work is also known as "Tarikh-i Hind-i gharbi" ("History of the West Indies") and "Hadis-i nev". It enjoyed great popularity throughout the 16th and 17th centuries and was printed by Ibrahim Müteferrika in 1730, making it the earliest book about the New World published in the Ottoman Empire. This text appears to be the principal source of information about the Americas circulating in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the 18th century. - Binding somewhat rubbed at extremeties; interior well preserved with wide margins. Provenance: from the library of Frederick North, Earl of Guilford (1766-1827), first British Governor of Ceylon, Philhellene and founder of the first university in modern Greece (his engraved bookplate on the front pastedown); annotated on the flyleaf: "A history of the new world, or America & the W. Indies, written in 1184 A.H.". Old French catalogue entry, clipped and mounted on lower pastedown. The son of Lord North, Prime Minister under George III, Frederick North had travelled widely throughout the Mediterranean, visiting not only Greece and Italy, but also Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire, including Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He gifted his large personal collection of printed books and manuscripts to the Library of the university he created in Corfu. Counter to his wishes, after his death the books were transferred to his heir, George Holroyd, 2nd Earl of Sheffield (1802-76), who had the collection auctioned in London in seven sales held between 1828 and 1835; a substantial part was acquired by the British Museum and still rests in the British Library. - An important text, in a copy with important provenance. Cf. T. D. Goodrich, The Ottoman Turks and the New World (Wiesbaden 1990). The same, "Tarihi-i Hind-i Garbi: An Ottoman Book on the New World," in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 107.2 (April-June 1987), p. 317.
325 x 235 mm; 220 x 145 mm. Pack of matches with 18 matches. Ticket holders for a United Arab Airlines flight (probably to Japan) and a pack of matches promoting the Comet 4c Jet. The bigger holder is illustrated with a lithograph showing Geishas. - The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. The last Comet variant, the Comet 4C, first flew on 31 October 1959. Ordered by Kuwait Airways, Middle East Airlines, Misrair (later United Arab Airlines), and Sudan Airways, it was the most popular Comet variant and made its final flight in 1997.
Small folio (310 x 210 mm). 8 lines in Arabic on bifolium. With a French translation in a different hand on the same page. Letter of recommendation for one of Adelkader's sons to Stéphane Poignant, the prefect of Algiers: "A sa seigneurie le grand, l'élevé, Monsieur le Préfet d'Alger, que Dieu vous bénisse [...] Nous espérons de votre bonté et de votre excellente initiative, un bon accueil en faveur du porteur Es-Séid Kaddour ben Mahi Ed-din qui est au nombre de mes enfants et qui compte parmi les personnes que nous chérissons le plus. Nous espérons que vous l'aiderez de tout votre pouvoir dans ses affaires [...]". - Stéphane Poignant served as prefect of the Department of Algiers from 1864 to 1869. Emir Abd el-Kader is an important figure in the Algerian resistance to French colonisation. Captured in 1847, he was held in France and released in 1852. After spending some time in Paris, he travelled the Middle East and settled in Syria in 1860. During the anti-Christian riots in the same year, he saved numerous Christians threatened by the Druze from massacre, which brought him international recognition. - Traces of folds and some browning.
8vo (140 x 222 mm). (10), XIV, (5)-342 pp. With 3 folding lithographed plates. Contemporary half calf over marbled covers with florally gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. First and only edition of this important French translation of the surgical section of the author's "Al-Tasrif", "the first rational, complete and illustrated treatise on surgery and surgical instruments" (Garrison/M.). Abu-l-Qasim Khalaf al-Zahrawi, a 10th-century physician from Cordoba, was the author of a voluminous medico-surgical encyclopedia gathered in a set of thirty treatises under the title of "Kitab at-tasrif liman agiza 'an it-ta'alif", but his fame rests on the section on surgery, which forms the 30th and final treatise in the book. "During the Middle Ages it was the leading textbook on surgery until superseded by Saliceto" (ibid.). The illustrations of the instruments, numbering between 150 and 200 in the various the manuscripts, contributed to the success of the work. - Al-Zahrawi designed several devices used during surgery, for purposes such as inspection of the interior of the urethra, applying and removing foreign bodies from the throat, inspection of the ear, etc. He described how to ligature blood vessels almost 600 years before Ambroise Paré and was also the first to describe a surgical procedure for ligating the temporal artery for migraine, also almost 600 years before Pare recorded that he had ligated his own temporal artery for headache that conforms to current descriptions of migraine. His use of catgut for internal stitching is still practised in modern surgery. - Leclerc based his version on the Oxford edition of the text, improved by comparison with the Paris manuscript. "The French translation by Lucien Leclerc, with a useful introduction, was very influential in making al-Zahrawi's surgery better known to modern historians of science" (DSB). - Spine a little rubbed, occasional browning, but still an appealing copy. Campbell, Arabian Medicine 90. GAL I, 239 (276), 24, no. 1. DSB XIV, 585. M. H. Fikri, Treasures from the Arab Scientific Legacy in Europe, p. 25. OCLC 876228425. Cf. Garrison/M. 5550.
6 telegram folios (208 x 304 mm), dated 6 to 18 January 1922, pinned together with a cover note marked "very confidential" with the oval embossed seal of the Government of India. Includes a Grant of the Dignity of a Companion of "the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire" to Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel, issued by King George V, dated 2 June 1923, signed by the King and by Viscount William Peel as Secretary of State for India, to acknowledge the services rendered to secure British interests in the southern provinces of Persia. Stored loosely in later dark green calf document holder box, spine stamped in gold "Residency Ahwaz Bushire 1922/3" (257 x 375 mm). A collection of confidential Anglo-Persian diplomatic cables relating to the appointment of Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel (1888-1976) as British Consul General at Ahwaz (Southern Iran) in view of his good relations with the Bakhtiari Khans, Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC). - This group of important telegram exchanges from Percy Lyham Loraine (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran), Arthur Prescott Trevor (Consul General at Bushehr, Southern Iran), and the Indian Political Service at Delhi, are pinned together with a cover note dated 18 January 1921, marked "very confidential" and bearing the stamp of the Government of India, indicating their subtle and yet relevant relation. They testify to the British government's shift of alliance from Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah to Reza Khan and the central government in Tehran. The Grant of Dignity appointed to Peel further emphasises the connection between this prominent stakeholder and British oil interests. Thus, this collection plays a crucial role in shedding light and understanding the 'behind the scenes' of British foreign politics related to the protection of their oil fields in Khuzestan, and their procurement and management of Iranian oil in the first two decades of the 20th century. - Ever since the British discovery of oil in the Southern Iranian Province of Khuzestan in 1908, and the formation of the APOC the following year, a fine balance was maintained by knowledgeable British Consuls General between the Bakhtiari leaders, seated in Bushehr, and the powerful Sheikh Khazal (who inherited the Emirate of Mohammarah in 1897), seated at Mohammarah. The Khans and the Sheikh, ruler of Arabistan, received annual payments, political support, as well as arms and munitions from the British in return for guaranteeing support and protection of British interests against external attacks and providing security for the oil establishment. Until Reza Shah’s rise to near-absolute power and his coup d’état of 1921, the Iranian government had little control of the de facto autonomous province of Khuzistan and their local leader. This explains why all of Loraine’s formal and informal efforts, as British Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Iran from 1921 until 1926, were directed towards achieving the peaceful submission of Britain’s Southern Iranian allies to the regime in Tehran. - In such delicate circumstances and given the inevitability of a conflict between the burgeoning central government in Tehran and the Southern Iranian tribal powers, the re-appointment of Eardley Garforth Bryan Peel, whose term of office at Ahwaz had ended in 1921 at the same time Loraine assumed office at Tehran, became a necessity to be able to mediate between the two litigious parties. In fact, Peel was the only person who not only had an in-depth understanding of the situation but was trusted by all members involved. As shown in our telegrams, the Indian Political Service at Delhi not only accepted Loraine’s advice to allow Peel to remain Consul General at Ahwaz but also nominated him to receive a British CIE order. Peel proved a skilled negotiator and succeeded in his mission of yielding a peaceful transition of power in Southern Persia and avoiding any threats to British interests in the oilfields. He managed to convince Khazal and the Bakhtiari Khans to meet in Dare Khazinah from 22 April to 2 May 1922 and made them promise to cooperate in virtue of protecting British interests, but also to continue to serve the Persian government faithfully and loyally, in order not to irritate Reza Khan. - Despite Peel’s tactful diplomacy, which averted great bloodshed, the British soon abandoned their Southern Iranian allies in favour of good relations with the increasingly powerful central government. Khazal was persuaded to surrender unconditionally and Reza Khan had him abducted and brought to Tehran, where he was kept for several years. His sheikhdom was abolished, and the provincial authority took full control of regional affairs. The Sheikh was stripped of all his powers and Iranian assets, and when he denied relocation to Iraq or Kuwait, he was assassinated in Mohammarah (now Khorramshahr) in 1936. These documents play a crucial role in unravelling the extremely complicated and confidential sequence of events that took place in those years, which stained early 20th-century Anglo-Persian diplomatic relations with the uncontrollable force of nature oil was to be in modern history, and specifically, in the geopolitical chessboard of Middle Eastern foreign affairs. - E. G. B. Peel was a British diplomat who, after achieving the rank of Captain in the Indian army, was posted first as Assistant-Superintendent of Police in Moradabad (Agra province, India) and later as a member of the Indian Political Service to the consulate at Mohammerah, where he rose to the rank of Acting Vice-Consul. In 1918 he was transferred to the consulate in Ahwaz, where he served until 1924 in the posts of Acting Vice-Consul (1918-21), Local rank Consul (1921-22), and Consul (1922-24). After completing his service at Ahwaz, he was posted to Agra and Kashmir provinces in India. He received the illustrious CIE (Companion Order of the Indian Empire) in 1923. - Provenance: the former property of a private English bibliophile, purchased from J & S. L. Bonham's, London, in 1999.
8vo. 240 pp. Red-brown cloth with title information in gilt on spine. Red upper edge. First edition of a collection of ten quite rare and otherwise inaccessible articles by the British explorer, scholar and soldier Richard Francis Burton (1821-90), compiled and edited by N. M. Penzer, the author of "An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Burton" (1923). - After the publication of Burton's bibliography, Penzer received numerous requests to publish some of the articles he had mentioned but were hard to find by members of the general public. Norman Mosley Penzer (1892-1960) was a scholar who specialised in Oriental studies and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He wrote several original works, for example on cotton in British West Africa (1920) or the mineral resources of Burma (1922), but he was possibly more famous for the works he edited. According to the Royal Geographical Society, Penzer was an eminent authority on Sir Richard Francis Burton but failed to write the definitive biography, though "it was well within his power to do". Apart from his works on Burton, Penzer also edited other anthropological works and even translated the tale of Nala and Damayanti from Sanskrit in 1926. - Penzer consciously made a small selection of Burton's more obscure papers, in order to give an insight into the varied activities and achievements of the explorer's life. Thus, the contents of the present work vary in subject. Burton's travels in India, Ethiopia, Gabon, Syria, and to Mecca are represented in separate articles. The subjects of other articles are more anthropological in nature, as expected regarding the title, such as the history and significance of scalping in different cultures around the world or spiritualism and religion in Africa and the Middle East. Other than the introduction, in which he explains his reasoning for including certain articles, Penzer only included short preliminary and explanatory remarks at the beginning of each paper and the occasional footnote, while Burton's work remained the focal point of the book. - Slight browning and foxing throughout, with an autograph in blue ink on the first flyleaf. Overall in good condition. Howgego IV, B98. Cf. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 158 (another edition).
12mo (96 x 138 mm). Engraved title-page, 1 letterpress leaf, 15 engraved plates (of which 3 are double-page-sized). In a pretty red leather wallet binding with fore-edge flap and tab. Marbled endpapers. Edges gilt. Pretty German issue of engravings showing views from Levantine journeys. The set was published by Degen between 1803 and 1809 in the "Wiener Taschenbuch". The plates were engraved after the monumental, never-completed "Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phénicie, de la Palestine et de la Basse Égypte" by L. F. Cassas (Paris 1799, 180 plates in-folio: cf. Cohen/Ricci 204; Tobler 134). The travels during which the illustrations were made largely took place in the years 1778-87; Cassas was one of the engravers whom Choiseul-Gouffier had hired for his "Voyage Pittoresque". The plates show cities, landscapes, ancient and modern buildings in the Near East. - Binding rubbed, interior somewhat brownstained, but an attractive volume.
4to (175 x 260 mm). (10), 225, (1) pp. Contemporary French half leather over marbled boards, spine prettily gilt with title "Histoire de Cathérine". Marbled endpapers. Early Bulaq imprint; a translation of the French biography of Catherine the Great by Jean-Henri Castéra (1749-1838), "Vie de Catherine II, Impératrice de Russie", published in two volumes in Paris in 1797. It was exceedingly popular in Europe and saw translations into many languages. This was the first Western historical text translated into Ottoman Turkish and printed by the Bulaq press in Cairo, at the time of volatile relations between the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Egypt. The first edition, comprising only 160 pages, was published by the Bulaq Press in 1244 (AD 1828). The present, enlarged second edition with annotations by the editor Sadullah Said Amedi was issued two years later. The translator Iakovos Argyropoulos ("Yakovaki Efendi", 1776-1850) was a linguist and official translator of the Sultan, appointed as official dragoman in Vienna. - Binding a little rubbed, extremeties slightly bumped. Interior shows occasional light browning, brownstaining and dampstains, but generally very clean. Several juvenile pencil sketches to final endpapers. - Provenance: ownership of the French diplomat Alphonse Nicolas ("Collège de France, 1887") on the front free endpaper; his stamp on the sarlowh and on several pages. Nicolas (1864-1939) was born in Rasht in northern Persia, where his father served as dragoman at the French consulate. He learned Persian and Russian and was admitted to the École des Jeunes de Langues in 1874. He entered the foreign service and was posted in Persia when he signed his name to this work in 1887. Özege 10359. OCLC 951557955. J. Strauss, "An den Ursprüngen des modernen politischen Wortschatzes des Osmanisch-Türkischen", in: Radoslav Katicic (ed.), "Herrschaft" und "Staat". Untersuchungen zum Zivilisationswortschatz im südosteuropäischen Raum 1840-1870. Eine erste Bilanz (Vienna 2004), pp. 197-256, here at p. 208. Arzu Meral, "A Survey of Translation Activity in the Ottoman Empire", in The Journal of Ottoman Studies XLII (2013), p. 116.
8vo (175 x 252 mm). (4), IV, (2), 150, (8) pp. With a portrait frontispiece of the author. Original printed wrappers bound within private gilt full brown morocco. First and only edition, limited to 138 copies. A posthumous collection of stories by the Franco-Swiss explorer and writer Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904), famous for her intrepid lifestyle and exploits undertaken in male costume throughout the Sahara Desert and Northern Africa. She converted to Islam, disregarding many of its commandments, and adopted the name of Si Mahmoud Saadi. Her works and colourful persona were rediscovered by the women's movement of the early 1970s, and she is today regarded as an early feminist icon. - Inscribed by the editor, René-Louis Doyon, to the French writer Jacques-Napoléon Faure-Biguet (1893-1954). Traces of worming to lower endpapers, otherwise an excellent copy of a rare work. OCLC 550675807.
Small folio (ca. 227 x 304 mm). (2), 62 pp. Original printed boards. Blue pastedowns with white cartoon figures. First edition. - An early adventure of Tintin, set in the Middle East, where the young Belgian reporter attempts to uncover a militant group responsible for sabotaging oil supplies. The story was originally set in Palestine under the British Mandate, but Hergé's publisher requested several alterations, and the setting was transferred to the fictional state of Khemed. - Extremities rubbed and bumped; small flaw to head of spine. Interior somewhat brownstained near the gutter and margins; some marginal tears and creases rarely touching text or image. Rare. OCLC 714202939.
Small folio (ca. 230 x 304 mm). (2), 62 pp. Original printed boards. Blue and white illustrated flyleaves. Signed, illustrated (with a portrait of Tintin and Milou/Snowy) and inscribed by the artist on the verso of the front flyleaf to Denis Jamin for his birthday, dated 3 September 1971. The recipient was the grandson of the Belgian caricaturist Paul Jamin (1911-95), an old friend of Hergé's. - An early Tintin adventure, set in the Middle East, where the young reporter attempts to uncover a militant group responsible for sabotaging oil supplies. First published in album form in 1950. The story was originally set in Palestine under the British Mandate, but Hergé's publisher requested several alterations, and the setting was transferred to the fictional state of Khemed. - Extremeties a little bumped and chipped, internally an excellent copy.
4to (142 x 195 mm). Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish, 2 parts in one volume. (105), (38) pp. on (84) ff. Text in black (and occasional red) riqa', 15 lines within red (and occasional gilt) rules. 19th century limp brown morocco binding. A collection of two Ottoman Turkish treatises in a single 18th century manuscript, discussing the planting of trees and the cultivation of flowers. - Spine rebacked; altogether well preserved.
Tall 8vo (136 x 258 mm). Arabic manuscript on unsophisticated oriental paper. 206 leaves. 20 lines, black and occasional red ink with underlinings in red. Restored red morocco oriental binding with blind-tooled medaillons to both covers, using oder material from a shorter binding. The fourth and final part of Ibn Sina's famous "Kitab Al-Shifa'" ("The Book of Healing"), a great scientific and philosophical encyclopedia that covers logic, natural sciences, mathematics including astronomy, and, as here, metaphysics and religion. - Browned throughout with occasional waterstaining. Early waqf stamp near the colophon. In all a good manuscript, copied in Safavid Persia by Shafi' Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Qayni. GAL I, 454, 18.
Large 8vo (190 x 287 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished paper. 233 leaves. Naskh script in black and occasionally red ink, 15 lines with extensive glosses in the margins and several interleaved smaller sheets of commentary (some bound, others loose, including a few diagrammatic illustrations). Contemporary full leather binding with blind-tooled green corner pieces and central medaillon. Mid-19th century manuscript, written in Arabic in the Persian countries, of the first of the five books that form what is perhaps the most important medical text of the Middle Ages. - Ibn Sina's "Kitab al-Qanun fi'l-Tibb" ("Canon of Medicine"), hailed as "the most famous medical text ever written" (Garrison/M. 43), was widely translated throughout the Middle Ages and formed the basis of medical training in the West as late as the mid-17th century. Completed in 1025, the Qanun is divided into five books, of which the first, also called "al-Kulliyat", concerns general medical principles. It often circulated separately from the rest of the encyclopedia. The remaining four parts are devoted to simple drugs, pathology, diseases affecting the body as a whole, and recipes for compound remedies. - Ibn Sina (ca. 980-1037), known in the Western tradition as Avicenna, was physician to the ruling caliphs. The influence of his Qanun can hardly be overestimated. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, it became a standard textbook of Galenic medicine, influencing many generations of physicians. - Binding rubbed, sewing loosened, but generally well preserved. GAL I, 457 (597), 82.
Large 8vo (170 x 274 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished Indian laid paper. 328 leaves, 19 lines per extensum. Naskh script in black and occasional red ink; a few leaves of commentary loosely inserted. Contemporary full leather, spine rebacked, with oriental medaillon stamps to both covers. Expansive Arabic commentary on the "Qanunchah" ("Qanunceh", "Small Canon") of Mahmud al-Jaghmini, the important Persian medical compendium based on Ibn Sina's famous Arabic "Qanun". Al-Jaghmini's handbook of medicine was widely used at Eastern Persian schools as an introductory medical instruction manual for at least three centuries, but also found favour in India early. "One of the first works of medicine compiled in the Indian subcontinent was 'Sharh ul Qanunchah'. It was authored by Syed Abul Fath bin Syed Ismail al-Husaini al-Lahori during the sixteenth century and was a commentary of the well-known 'Qanunchah' of Chaghmini" (Alam, p. 369). The present manuscript was copied by Muhammad Kayyal (?) in Dhul-Qidah 1198 H. - Frequent, early remarginings to edges; some brownstaining and a few waterstains. Binding rubbed and rather bumped at extremeties. 19th century waqf stamps. A prettily written 18th century manuscript specimen of this important 16th century Indian commentary on a principal medical text. Cf. Mumtaz Alam, "Shift to Arabic? Medical Literature and Writing During Medieval India", in: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 71 (2010/11), pp. 365-376.
4to (180 x 260 mm). Arabic manuscript on oriental paper. 190 leaves. 20 lines of unvocalized black naskh in black and occasional red ink. Numbering of quires partially preserved in the upper left corner, foliation and part of the claims subsequent to the copy, numerous marginal glosses. Later coloured paper boards with leather spine and fore-edge flap. The earliest surviving textual witness, copied during the author's lifetime from his lost autograph, of what is the first and still the most popular Hanafi text on legal distinctions: the "Kitab al-furuq" by Abu al-Muzaffar As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Nisaburi al-Karabisi al-Hanafi (d. 1174/75). Composed in the 6th century AH, most likely in Samarkand, where the author was living at the time (cf. Saba, pp. 71, 204), this is the only text on furuq (legal distinctions) to have been composed in that century and is also important as the first work on the subject in the Hanafi Madhhab. Several manuscripts of it are preserved (Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 292 fiqh hanafi, undated; Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, 293 fiqh hanafi, dated 622 H [1224/25 CE]; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Fatih 2039, dated 776 H [1374/75 CE]; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Carullah 821, 1007 H [1598/99 CE]). - The present manuscript is of major importance as the oldest surviving manuscript of this text. The colophon provides the date of completion of the copy, Sunday, 11th of the month of Rabi I 569 H (20 October 1173), as well as the name of the copyist, Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Muhammad b. Hibatallah b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada. The colophon further states that the copyist prepared the manuscript for his personal use by collating the text (balagha) against the autograph, which is not preserved for us. - The scribe can be identified as a calligrapher who belonged to a powerful family of Aleppine intellectuals, the Banu'l-Abi Jarada, a Sunni family of the Hanafi rite (cf. James, p. 354). While no other manuscript in his hand is known to survive, he is referenced in the oldest dated manuscript of al-Hariri's "Maqamat". This codex, which bears an ijaza of al-Hariri dated Sha'ban 504 H (February 1111 CE), belonged to his first cousin, the famous historian and jurist, Kamal al-Din Abu 'Umar b. Ahmad b. Abi Jarada, known as Ibn al-'Adim. A reading mark dated 17 Jumada II 604 H (8 January 1208 CE) attests to the presence of our scribe in Aleppo and to his involvement in the literate circles of the time (on the subject of the manuscript and the reading mark, see MacKay, p. 22). He is later traced in Süleyman Müstakimzade's biographical dictionary of calligraphers, which states that Muhammad b. Hibatallah Abi Jarada was known to work in the manner of the great calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab and copied an entire Qur'an during each month of Ramadan (Tuhfe-i hattatin [Istanbul, 1928], p. 464). He is said to have died in 628 H (1230/31 CE) at the age of 82. - Binding rubbed and chipped; sewing loosened. Restored in the 19th century, notably the first leaf, with several remarginings and an added table of contents. Provenance: from the collection of Paul Lebaudy (1858-1937), with the bookplate of his library at the Château de Rosny "La Solitude". The Château de Rosny is the former property of the Duchess of Berry. GAL I, 375 (464) & S I, 642. Cf. Elias G. Saba, Harmonizing Similarities. A History of Distinctions Literature in Islamic Law (Berlin, 2009). David James, "Qur'ans and Calligraphers of the Ayyubids and Zangids", in: Robert Hillenbrand and Sylvia Auld (eds.), Ayyubid Jerusalem. The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250 (London 2009). Pierre MacKay, "Certificates of Transmission on a Manuscript of the Maqamat of Hariri (MS. Cairo, Adab 105)", in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society NS 61, no. 4 (1971).
Large 4to (210 x 263 mm). 23, (1) pp. Contemporary unsophisticated wrappers. Early edition of the text of Lokman's Fables, never released in the regular book trade. Edited by Caussin de Perceval père (1759-1835), professor of Arabic at the Collège de France sice 1784. Includes four additional Fables not previously edited. "Ce livre n'a pas été mis dans le commerce. Il y a des exemplaires en grand papier. Caussin utilise le manuscrit de Paris et, aux 37 fables connues, ajoute le texte des quatre nouvelles, qui Marcel avait traduites en 1803" (Chauvin). - Wrappers frayed; wrinkled and browned with edge flaws throughout. Stamps of the Paris Jesuit Seminary. Chauvin III, 13. OCLC 978526580.
8vo. 40 pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. First Bulaq edition of this collection of witty anecdotes centered on the humorous folk figure Nasreddin; the second edition altogether following that published in Istanbul the previous year. "The influential Cairo prints of 1254 H (1838), 1256 H (1840), 1257 H (1841), and 1259 H (1843) [...] became the basis of European translations, and an unbroken line of [...] Nasreddin Hoca tales thus became cemented in the literary tradition" (Palabiyik). In Ottoman Turkish throughout. - Binding markedly rubbed; some dampstains and traces of worming throughout; several leaves loose. Handwritten ownership of the French diplomat Louis Lagarde (dated 10.11.1932) on first page. Özege 11624. N. Palabiyik, "Justus Raphelengius and the Turkish Folk Tradition", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 139.2 (2019), p. 335.
Oblong 8vo (190 x 130 mm) 57 albumen prints (mostly 90 x 65 mm) mounted on 15 black sheets, 9 more loosely inserted. Wooden boards with a coloured view of Rachel's tomb, captioned in Hebrew and English. Charming souvenir album, privately assembled by a British soldier and captioned by him throughout with his ownership entry "Jerusalem. E. Stacey. 9.9.46" to inner front board and a photo ("Boys of the Shack 147") showing him among his comrades in front of their baracks. The majority of the photos bear the ink stamp of the Matson Photo Service on the reverse. The Matsons were handed the management of the American Colony photo service in 1934. The American Colony was a utopian Christian sect formed by religious pilgrims who emigrated to Jerusalem from the United States and Sweden.