4 355 résultats
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 "During the Middle Ages it was the leading textbook on surgery until superseded by Saliceto" (ibid.).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.
33 x 44 cm (neat line). Pencil on paper. Charming dressage scene between an Arab in back view and two bridled Arabian horses with luxurious saddles and a backdrop of tents. The stallion on the left is carrying a round shield and a bow. The signing artist Charles Paris was probably an amateur and is not otherwise known. - Professionally restored. The upper and right margins show traces of tears and brittleness, probably due to old water damage. Browning and minor foxing overall. Some light spotting to the lower margin. The drawing is little affected by the paper flaws.
4to (188 x 254 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. 51 ff. Script in bold black sini, 5 lines within red rules, vowel markers in black and corrections in red, surah headers in red, illuminated double-page frontispiece 'Unwan decorated with geometrical and floral designs in gold and colours in a typical Yunnan style of mainly gold on a red ground highlighted with green and blue. 16th century full brown leather with fore-edge flap, prettily ruled and stamped in blind with Islamic and Chinese-influenced designs. Very early Qur'an Juz (one of thirty parts of varying lengths into which the Qur'an is divided) written in 16th century China. - Arab presence in China dates back as far as the first Caliphate: the Prophet's companion Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas is traditionally credited with introducing Islam to China as ambassador in 650. Indeed, many major cities in China, such as Xi'an (or Chang'an, as it was known during the height of the Silk Road) and Beijing, boast a long and rich Muslim history. Qur'an sections written by Chinese Muslims show Chinese influence clearly in both the decoration and the script, which is derived from naskh. Juz' 19 begins with surah 25, al-Furqan (The Criterion), contains in full surah 26, ash-Shu'ara (The Poets), and closes with the beginning of surah 27, an-Naml (The Ant). - The colophon in red script on the recto of the last leaf states that the manuscript was "copied by Shams al-Din ibn Musa al-Sini in the month of Safar of the year 953 AH in the city of Yunnan, one of the Chinese cities which has been honoured and blessed by Islam". - Binding rebacked and spine and endpapers professionally replaced; subtle paper repairs. An excellent example of the Islamic Chinese style of Qur'anic calligraphy and illumination. Provenance: Private UK collection formed in the 1960s and 1970s.
4to (182 x 275 mm). (6), VIII, 40 pp. Publisher's original illustrated printed wrappers. First edition of this study on the origins of the Wahhabis, published from the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With a preface by the French historian Édouard Driault (1864-1947). An Arabic translation ("al-Tadhkirah fi asl al-Wahhabiyin wa-dawlatihim") appeared at Riyadh as recently as 2004. - Binding somewhat frayed and chipped. Uncut, untrimmed copy from the library of the respected Cairo-based Egyptologist and dealer in antiquities, Roger Khawam (1922-2016), who dispersed his library four years before his death (his Scarab bookplate to the front free endpaper). Macro 1874. OCLC 5277329.
8vo. 372 pp. With frontispiece portrait, 4 maps (1 folding) & 17 plates. Publisher's gilt cloth with chipped and spotted dustjacket. First edition of this overview of Arab history and culture work that draws upon the author's own experience in the region and includes some of T. E. Lawrence's exploits. - Inscribed on the front free endpaper in the year of publication: "To the Rt Hon and Mrs L.S. Amery, With respects, Bertram Thomas, May 1937". - Bertram Thomas's (1892-1950) "first crossing of the Empty Quarter, albeit by the shortest and easiest route, assured him a permanent place in the history of European exploration of Arabia. He was admired by T. E. Lawrence (who wrote a preface to one of his books) and by his successor Wilfred Thesiger, who found twenty years later that Thomas was remembered by the Bedouin as an honourable, brave, and tolerant man" (ODNB). Leopold Amery (1873-1955) served a Colonial Secretary as well as Secretary of State for India and Burma in Churchill's war ministry. - A few minor spots, but still a very good copy. Macro 2186.
Albumen print, 279 x 218 mm.
8vo. (8), 384 pp. Cloth-backed red boards with title inked on spine, likely privately bound. Very rare privately published botanical text on the famous expedition of the Jewish agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn (1876-1919) through the Anti-Lebanon mountain range and his subsequent discovery of what was claimed to be the oldest wild wheat, ancestor of all farmed wheat today. - While the exact line of descent of modern wheat is contested and complex, Aaronsohn's wheat - wild emmer - was indeed ancient, and its discovery remains a landmark moment in historical botany and the study of the history of human civilization. Like much of Aaronsohn's work, his detailed notes on the wild wheat distribution and other botanical notes on the landscapes he surveyed were published posthumously by Aaronsohn's family. The text includes numerous scientific names and an index, plus 13 botanical designs and 38 photoplates documenting the expedition. A folding map at the rear is titled "Aaronsohn's travels in Jordan and the distribution of wild wheat in the land of Israel". Largely in Hebrew, supplemented with scientific Latin, this Hebrew version is very uncommon, as Aaronsohn's work was originally published in French as "Florula transiordanica: révision critique des plantes récoltées et partiellement determinées", also by his family, in 1931. - Binding bumped at extremeties; a few library stamps to title-page, along with some minor paper repairs. Altogether in good condition. OCLC 42945306.
Small folio (280 x 212 mm). 5 issues. Original illustrated wrappers. Five issues of Aramco World. In November 1949 the Arabian American Oil Company launched "Aramco World" as an interoffice newsletter that linked the company's U.S. offices with "the field" - primarily Dhahran, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The journal quickly grew into a monthly (later bi-monthly) educational magazine featuring historical, geographical and cultural articles that helped the American employees and their families appreciate an unfamiliar land. - The present collection comprises vol. 3, nos. 2, 4, and 11; vol. 5, no, 10, and vol. 6, no. 7. - Heads of spine somewhat worn. Interior in excellent condition.
4to. 106, 22 ff. (as numbered; some leaves numbered with 'a' numbers according to preceding leaf, per standard industry practice). Published as a mimeographed typescript with inset illustrations, many folding. Bound in original wrappers with metal split pin fasteners. Second revised edition. A very extensive report supplied to Aramco regarding the Convair CV-340, a passenger jet designed largely for airlines like United, but quite popular in Saudi Arabia during the first decades of Saudi passenger air service. - The early 1950s saw the dawn of what would become Saudi Arabian Airlines, precipitated in part by the gift of a Douglas DC-3 passenger jet from U.S. President Roosevelt to King Ibn Saud in 1945. It would be the DC-3 and the CV-340 which would comprise the first fleets of passenger planes in Saudi Arabia. That Aramco, a large regional employer, might be interested in the CV-340 is thus understandable; in fact, both planes are remembered by Aramco employees from the 1950s and 1960s - and especially by their children, who were often sent to prep schools in cities like Rome, but flew home on DC-3s and CV-340s to Aramco installations like Dhahran with their peers for holidays. - The CV-340 was developed by Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) from the earlier CV-240, but was newer and larger; the first flight test took place on 5 October 1951. The CV-340 seated at total of 44 passengers. In all, 209 aircraft of this type were sold to airlines but 37 went to private operators, potentially including those interested in purchase at Aramco and more generally in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf. In extensive text and diagrams, every aspect of the engineering and design of the plane is presented, from the new layout of the tailfin to the shocks in the landing gear to the fire extinguishing system. - A touch of wear, otherwise a well-preserved example of a rare publication produced in a very limited number of copies for promotional and reference use only.