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Two 4to files of ca. 30 leaves each, including distress signal code tables, tips for forced landings, colour-printed route maps, radio beacon maps, emergency airfield maps (folded), and double-sided airfield leaves dedicated to single airfields along the designated route. Original printed wrappers. Perforated and handbound with cords. Two air route books for pilots of the Royal Air Force flying from Cairo to Karachi during World War II, "designed to help [them] to execute flights vital to our fronts in all theatres of war. The information which [they] contain is therefore also of use to the enemy, and must be safeguarded at all times" (p. 1). - The books are in fact useful guides to airports along the way, the plans depicting airfields in Egypt (Cairo West, Almaza, Payne, Heliopolis, Lydda and Luxor), as well as in Bahrein, Sharjah, Jiwani, Karachi, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum, Sheikh Othman, Khormaksar, Riyan and other places. For each airfield general information like coordinates, the length of the runways, the nature of ground signals, existing hangars, repair and fuel facilities, expectable weather conditions, distances to other places, radio aids, and local currency, as well as timetables of morning and evening twilight are given. The folding plans show emergency airfields in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, Iraq, Persia, and the Arabian Gulf area, as well as the routes between the Middle East and India. - Further, the booklets include instructions on what to do after a forced landing in unknown territory, advising to ration water and attract attention of rescue aircraft through a spread-out parachute or fires, including the order: "Don't drink the compass alcohol". - There is no standard collation for the books, as they were added to with monthly supplements. With the handwritten note "Compiled 21.2.45" as well as a signature to inner covers. The "from" and "to" fields on the title-pages (i.e., the front covers) are filled out by the same hand. - Covers show some small creases and edge tears; a few small ruststains, but on the whole well-preserved specimens from wartime Royal Air Force use.
Engraved map. 860 x 690 mm. Extremely detailed chart of Perim Island (also called Mayyun in Arabic) in the Strait of Mandeb, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. - Perim is a small but geopolitically important island at the entrance to the Red Sea. With the beginning of the French-backed Suez Canal project in the 1850s, the United Kingdom became convinced of the need to offset French power along the route. A number of options were undertaken to counter the French, including the occupation of Perim in 1856. The island was occupied by the Governor of Bombay, under the justification that it had been claimed by the East India Company in 1799 and was therefore already a dependency of India. Perim's inner harbour, as illustrated on the map, could accommodate very large vessels. It was consequently thought a good place for a coaling station, which was established in the 1880s. Water for the steam engine condensers was also provided on Perim (as labeled on the map). Shortly before this map was printed, during World War I, Ottoman forces landed on the island from Aden to attempt to take it and cut British communication through the Red Sea. The invasion was fought back and troops landed by the Royal Navy at Aden ended any future threat to the island. In 1967, the British attempted to have the island internationalized, to ensure the long-term security of the Red Sea-Suez route, but this was refused. In that year the island was handed over to the People's Republic of South Yemen. In 2008 the island was to be a component in the so-called Bridge of Horns, which was to link Yemen and Djibouti and be the largest bridge in the world. The Dubai-backed project did not proceed beyond the planning stage. The island was the site of a battle during the Yemeni Civil War, in which previously displaced Perim natives took the island back from Houthis with the aid of UAE forces.
Large 8vo (180 x 270 mm). 6 parts in one volume. 38, 12, 124, 134, 71, (1), 256 (instead of 258, lacking 253-254) pp. Each part with separate title-page. Lithographed Persian verse and prose, 19 lines of Urdu script to the page. Early 20th century green half cloth over red printed paper boards. Handwritten spine label. Indian-produced single volume set containing the works of Sheikh Saadi: the Qasids (elegies), the famous Gulestan (Rose Garden), Bustan (Orchard), Gjaualiat (lyrical poems), Mofradat, Rubayyat, etc. All pages divided into an inner and outer writing field. - Binding rubbed and a little wormed. Interior browned throughout, light worming and edge flaws to beginning and end; lacks a single leaf near the end of the volume. A few 20th century annotations in English and Persian.
8vo. 29, (1) pp. With one lithographed folding map. Contemporary giltstamped full calf bearing the tughra of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Leading edges gilt. Endpapers with golden floral pattern. All edges gilt. First and sole edition of this historical study of the "March of the Ten Thousand", the retreat of Greek mercenaries immortalized in Xenophon's "Anabasis". The author retraces the soldiers' marching route, drawing on his own experience after having spent several years in Armenia. The map shows a portion of Higher Armenia with the author's own route, as well as that given by Xenophon. Strecker, a former Prussian artillery lieutenant, entered Ottoman service in 1854 and was appointed governor of Bulgaria's Vidin region from 1864 to 1865, when he was known as "Reshid Pascha". In later sources he also appears as a leader of the Ottoman militia, going by the name of "Strecker Pascha". - Spine slightly rubbed, title-page slightly foxed, with traces of a paper label to verso. Inscribed to Sultan Abdul Hamid II and signed in Ottoman Turkish by Strecker (as "Reshid Pasha") on verso of flyleaf, opposite the title. - From the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918), the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to exert effective contol over the fracturing state and also remembered as a poet, translator and one of the dynasty's greatest bibliophiles. While his passion for books is memorialized by the many precious donations he gave to libraries all over the world and which mostly have remained intact to this day (including the 400-volume "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials" gifted to the Library of Congress), his own library was dispersed in the years following his deposition in 1909: books were removed to other palaces and even sold to Western collectors, the greatest part of his collection is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. H. Rohrbacher, Georgien. Bibliographie des deutschsprachigen Schrifttums (Wiesbaden 2008), 902.
8vo. XXIX, (3), 397, (1) pp. With 3 maps (one a large folding map of the Empty Quarter at the end of the volume), 74 photo illustrations on plates, and 7 text illustrations. Publisher's brown cloth with title in gilt to spine. First edition, published simultaneously with the New York one. The preface was contributed by T. E. Lawrence. Among the many photograph illustrations is one of the earliest portraits of the Qatar royal family (facing p. 298). "In this book, Bertram Thomas relates some aspects of his journey in which he crossed the Rub' Al Khali (Empty Quarter) from Oman to Qatar, and provides geographical information about the peninsula of Qatar, especially the southern part. He also recorded his observations of the region stretching from the Gulf of Salwa to Al-Rayyan, where he met Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani, Emir of Qatar at the time (1930). The book includes photographs he took of Sheikh Abdullah, Mohamed bin Abdul-Latif bin Mani', and his brother Saleh bin Abdul-Latif bin Mani'. He gives some concise information about Al-Nuaija, Doha towers, and the castle" (Fikri). - Provenance: armorial bookplate of Arthur Garrard to front pastedown. Later in the collection of the Dutch traveller Ruud Verkerk. Macro 2185. M. H. Fikri, Qatar in the Heart and in History (2011), p. 46f. (illustrated).
Engraved map. 1245 x 690 mm (if joined). Fine large-format map of the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. Includes a large inset plan of Aden and smaller inset maps of the island of Socotra and a smaller map of the routes to Mecca. Illustrates the indigenous peoples, towns, topography and trade routes in the region. - 2 sheets, unjoined.
4to. (4) pp. With 2 woodcut vignettes. Sewn. Extremely scarce pamphlet on a naval battle in the Mediterranean near Cabo de Gata (Andalusia). It describes the destruction of a ship of corsairs from Algiers by the Spanish vessel "San Pedro" on 7 January 1621, killing 70 men. The victory proved important for the Spaniards, as the surviving corsairs provided them with useful intelligence, including information regarding the deployment of 30 Algerian vessels in the area, all seeking to rob other ships. However, the Ottomans were ignorant of any Royal Navy galleys which the Spanish suspected in the area, rather presuming them near Mallorca or Sardinia. - Large Jesuit woodcut vignette to the otherwise blank final page. Somewhat browned. Near-contemporary foliation in ink (205-206), suggesting the work was originally part of a larger volume. No copies traceable in libraries worldwide. Not in OCLC.
4to. (3) pp., final blank page. With woodcut illustration on the title-page. Sewn. Scarce account of a naval battle in the Mediterranean that took place near Cap de Begur (Catalonia) between a Spanish vessel and a ship of corsairs from Algiers in April 1623. The latter, carrying "50 Turcs, 4 captured Christians, a black Moorish woman, and a Mallorcan renegade", went up in flames. Allegedly the copy of a letter by a soldier of the Spanish Armada. The illustration shows the Ottoman vessel features 11 sailors at the helms wearing turbans. - Slightly dampstained. Near-contemporary foliation in ink (137-138), suggesting the work was originally part of a larger volume. Palau 61131. Not in OCLC.
Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). 14 (instead of 17) vols. With frontispieces and numerous illustrations (vol. 8 lacking one image). Contemporary richly gilt full cloth. Top edges gilt. - (2) The same. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. Vol. IV. (Including: Supplemental nights, vol. VI). (Colophons: USA), ibid., [ca. 1940]. Contemporary richly gilt and silvered full cloth. Top edges red. The first Burton Club edition of Richard Burton's celebrated translation of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, commonly known in English as the Arabian Nights. These Arabic tales, cherished in Europe since the early 18th century, are often erotic in content, and in Burton's unexpurgated translation they outraged Victorian England. Burton included numerous footnotes and a scholarly apparatus, offering a vivid picture of Arabian life, which set his translation apart from earlier English renderings. Bold to a fault, Richard Burton travelled to Mecca, explored the African Great Lakes, shocked his readers with his candid travel accounts, and gained fame and riches with his translation of the Arabian Nights. The first edition was published in 1885-88 and re-issued by the Burton Club shortly thereafter. - The present set lacks volume 4 of the "Nights", as well as volumes 4 and 7 of the "Supplemental Nights". The volumes numbered "IV" and "V" of the "Supplemental Nights" are in fact volumes 5 and 6. In lieu of the missing tomes the collection includes volume 4 of the "Arabian Nights" and volume 6 of the "Supplemental Nights" from a later 16-volume Burton Club edition, which Ross dates ca. 1940. This later date is supported by the fact that this edition is not included in Penzer's thorough bibliography published in 1923. - Spines slightly faded; extremities lightly worn. A fine set, uncut and partly unopened. Penzer 131. (2) Scheherazade's Web: The 1001 Nights & Comparative Literature, J. Ross 10 & 11.
Large 8vo. X, 213, (3) pp. With 3 maps and 18 plates, some containing multiple images. Red cloth, blind-tooling on covers, title information in gold on spine. First edition of G. W. Bury's account of Yemen on the eve of WWI. Bury (1874-1920) was a British naturalist, explorer, Arabist and political officer in the British army, who spent most of his life in the Aden-Yemen borderlands. As a young man, he spent a year with the Abdali tribe in the Aden protectorate; he learned their language and even received the name Abdulla Mansur. Later in life, he was able to pass himself off as a local, because of his looks and command of colloquial Arabic. The British government made use of this by employing Bury as a political officer in the region and even escorting the British part of the Boundary Commission in the Dhala region of Yemen. - "At the outbreak of World War I, Bury's unique knowledge of the Arab tribesmen and the Turkish administration commended him to the British intelligence service, and in 1915 he was made 'political officer' to the Red Sea Northern Patrol with the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve" (Howgego). - Very slight browning, small tear in the contents-page (outer margin). Overall in good condition. Howgego IV, B99. Macro 642. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 163. Smith, The Yemens, 59. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 136. Cf. Canton, From Cairo to Baghdad British travellers in Arabia, pp. 170-176.
8vo. VI, 261 pp. Original printed paper wrappers. Document printed by the government of the United States of America, concerning "the escalating level of arms sales to Gulf states" (p. V). Included are statements of witnesses, memorandums, tables and other important documents concerning the (illegal) arms trade. Occasionally a marginal annotation in red ink. Otherwise in very good condition.
4to. 14 pp., final blank leaf. Two printed sheet folded into a pamphlet, unsewn and unbound. Very rare Portuguese account of one of several unsuccessful 18th century attempts by Muslim forces to recapture Oran. Translated by Manuel Pedro Tomás Pinheiro e Aragão (1773-1838), describing the events of May and June 1791. From 1790 to 1792, Muslim forces, led by Mohamed El-Kebir (d. 1796), besieged Oran and Mers el-Kebir, which were in Spanish hands since 1732. Both cities would be returned to the Ottoman Empire after a massively destructive earthquake in 1792. - First page somewhat spotty. Uncut and untrimmed. BGUC Misc. 24, 508. OCLC 56569516.
4to. 8 pp. With woodcut title vignette. Printed sheet folded into a pamphlet, unsewn and unbound. Rare Portuguese account of one of several unsuccessful 18th century attempts by Muslim forces to recapture Oran. This operation took place in March of 1754, more than two decades after the Spanish conquest of the city in 1732. Oran was repeatedly attacked by Algerian and Ottoman forces, but remained under Spanish rule until 1792. - Uncut and untrimmed. BGUC Misc. 24, 459. OCLC 27754498.
4to. 20, (3) pp., final blank page. With a woodcut illustration. - (Bound with) II: The same. Oran conquistado, e defendido, relaçam historica [...] Parte II. Ibid., 1733. 16 pp. Later full vellum. First editions. Both separately published parts of this rare work on the Spanish expedition against Muslim Oran. After a survey of the history and geography of Oran (in modern Algeria), the author describes the preparations for the expedition to recapture the city, enumerates the Spanish leaders, and gives details of the Spanish naval and military attacks on sites in and around Oran in June and July 1732. The captain-general of the expedition was José Carrillo de Albornoz, first Duke of Montemar, who had fought in the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Quadruple Alliance; at this time he was viceroy of Sicily. Facing p. 20 is the plan of battle for the Spanish forces. The woodcut on the verso shows the harbour at Oran, the town, and the half-dozen fortresses surrounding it, as well as the position of the Spanish navy during the battle. The final leaf has the key to the map on its recto, with the verso blank. Freire de Monterroyo Mascarenhas explains in the dedication that he compiled this account from many shorter ones, because the public was eager to learn about the reconquest. Oran, which was in Spanish hands since 1509, had been captured by the Turks in 1708, while Spain was preoccupied with the War of the Spanish Succession. Spain then held the city from 1732 until 1792, when it suffered a massively destructive earthquake and King Charles IV handed the city back to the Ottoman Empire. - First part uncut. Second part slightly wormed near the gutter. Occasional light brownstaining. The two parts are very rarely encountered together. Inocêncio IV, 348. Barbosa Machado II, 856. BGUC Misc. 3, 80.
8vo. IX, (5), 333, (1) pp. With 8 plates. Yellow cloth with title information in blue on front cover and spine, with a dust jacket designed by Paul Wenck, map of Ethiopia and Arabia on the endpapers. First edition of Coon's account of his experiences in Ethiopia and Arabia. From 1933 to 1934 Coon travelled through Ethiopia to conduct physical anthropological research, but after conflicts with the authorities he had to escape to Arabia. He states in his foreword that the purpose of the present work is a memoir, since it was not meant to "impress the public with our scientific findings, for, interesting as these results may or may not be, they are reserved for more formal publication", but simply to tell what he and two others did during the expedition. C. S. Coon (1904-81) was an American anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. He spoke ten languages and made notable contributions to the fields of cultural and physical anthropology and archaeology. He was the author of multiple works, including highly controversial works on race, such as "The Origin of Races" (1962), which were widely disputed during his lifetime and are considered pseudoscientific by modern anthropology. - Dust jacket somewhat damaged, covered with clear protective plastic, edges foxed. Otherwise in very good condition. Macro 747. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 178. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 889.
4to (172 x 256 mm). 107, (1) pp. Lithographed throughout. Contemporary half calf over blue marbled boards. Only edition of this rare instruction manual designed by the editor to help learners of Arabic overcome what Caussin de Perceval identified as the greatest difficulty in acquiring the language: the obstacle of reading the script. Dumont's workbook provides a total of 25 specimen texts, first in the original handwriting, then in a standardized transcription (such as might be more easily legible to learners familiar with printed Arabic), and finally a French translation. The contents are listed in a separate table at the end: they include examples such as an appointment as manager, various legal documents, literary and narrative pieces, private and business correspondence, and passages from the Qur'an. - Unnumbered pages (1-2) bound last as colophon leaf. A rare Franco-Algerian produced manual in good condition throughout. OCLC 14851800.
8vo. (3)-708, (2) pp., XV pp. of plates. With four folding maps within pouch inside lower cover. 519, (3) pp., IX pp. of plates. Lacks the map, but with a different, supernumerary map within pouch inside lower cover. Modern (vol. 1) and original (vol. 2) blue cloth with giltstamped cover and spine titles (vol. 2 with closing fore-edge flap). Only edition of this rare, secret Naval Intelligence Handbook, compiled by D. G. Hogarth, Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (and close friend of T. E. Lawrence) for the British Admiralty's new Naval Intelligence Division, intended for the exclusive use of British officers operating on the Arabian Peninsula during the Great War. Although the information contained was classified as confidential, it could "in certain cases be communicated to persons in H.M. Service below the rank of commissioned officer", though officers exercising this power were warned to impart such data only with "due caution and reserve". As the introductory "Note" informs the reader, "The sources from which this work has been compiled include native information obtained since the outbreak of the war [...] Separate chapters are devoted to each of the great districts of Arabia [...] After the area of the territory under review has been defined, its physical character is described unter the subsections of Relief and Climate. Then follow social and political surveys of the district, the former usually arranged under the sub-headings of Population, Life and Appliances, Products and Trade, Currency, and Weights and Measurements, the latter describing the system of Government, Recent History, and Present Politics. The last section of such a chapter is purely geographical and is devoted to the Districts of the territory [...] In a composite chapter, such as that on the Gulf Coast, dealing with several independent territories, the same general arrangement, when practicable, has been followed for each area [...] The plates at the end of each volume have been chosen to illustrate the varieties of country which are characteristic of Arabia". The second volume is devoted "mainly to detailed routes, preceded by two chapters on methods of transport and lines of communication [...] Chapters have been incorporated on Meteorological Observations, Hygiene and Disease, and Vocabularies". All four maps of the first volume (Districts and Town; Orographical Features; Land Surface Features; Tribal Map) are present as called for; the "Key Map of Routes" in the second volume has been replaced by an orographical map of Palestine and Trans-Jordan (1933). While the first volume (I. D. 1128) has been rebound to style (lacking the half-title noting the confidential character of all information contained), the second volume (C. B. 405) is preserved in its original binding as issued, bearing also the copy number "Copy 117" in gilt on the upper cover. A Note of Confidentiality calls attention to "the penalties attaching to any infraction of the Offical Secrets Act". Stamps on flyleaf and pastedown trace its provenance to the Royal Central Asian Society, founded in 1901, and the book remained on the shelf of that Society's secretary when it was renamed the "Royal Society for Asian Affairs" in 1975. This ownership is cancelled in ballpoint, with a note "Sold to Mr. M. Graham" (i.e., Murray Graham, British collector and exploration agent in Arabia, d. 2008). Acquired from UK trade. OCLC 29922535, 775016994. Not in Macro.
Large 8vo. 3 volumes. XVII, (5), 368, (4) pp. XIV, (4), 512, (2) pp. XX, 506, (4) pp. With 2 portraits as frontispieces in vols. 1 and 2. 16 pages with illustrations and 2 maps at the end of vols. 2 and 3. Red cloth with title information in gold on front cover and spine of all 3 vols. All 3 vols. have a dust jacket. Outstanding research on the oral traditions of the Bedouins in central Arabia, divided into 3 volumes containing information on the poetry and narratives of various Bedouin tribes and an analysis and translation of various poems and stories. Kurpershoek has recorded, transcribed and translated all poetry and narratives he discusses in this work. - Since its first publication in 1994-99, this trilogy has been expanded with two additional volumes: vol. 4, published in 2002, deals with Saudi tribal history, while vol. 5 (2005) looks back on almost 20 years of research on and involvement with Arabian oral culture. - The Dutch scholar, author and diplomat P. M. Kurpershoek specialises in Arab studies. Kurpershoek studied Arabic language and culture at the Universities of Leiden and Cairo; since 1974 he has worked for the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs, the UN and NATO. As a professor of languages and cultures of the Islamic Middle East at the University of Leiden, he has performed research on the Bedouins of Saudi Arabia. From 2002 until 2013 he served successively as Dutch ambassador to Pakistan, Turkey, and Poland. Subsequently, from August 2013 until December 2014 he served as envoy to Syria. - Spines of the dust jackets of vols. 1 and 2 are slightly discoloured, otherwise in very good condition.
4to. 47, (3) pp., final blank leaf. With 11 plates with black and white photographic illustrations on recto and verso, as well as 2 plates with 2 mounted colour illustrations on recto. Contemporary green half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped title to spine. Original printed wrappers bound within. The first art-historical examination ever published of the 17th century oriental (Turkish, Persian and Crimean Tatar) cloth envelopes kept at the Swedish Reichsarchiv. This work discusses the use of the textile envelopes as well as their production, fashioning, material and patterns. The personal copy of Carl Johan Lamm with pencil inscription to pastedown: "From the library of C. J. Lamm". - Carl Johan Lamm studied archaeology at the University of Stockholm. He wrote about the glass excavated at Samarra in 1928 and became a leading scholar on Islamic arts and crafts, notably in glass and carpets. He was on the staff of the Stockholm Museum and taught at Uppsala University. - Agnes Geijer was a Swedish textile historian and archaeologist. She received a doctoral degree from Uppsala University in 1938 and started working at the Swedish History Museum in 1941, where she was active from 1947 as a textile conservator. - Unobtrusive scratch to lower board, otherwise in excellent condition. Yuan 2172. OCLC 871325817.
8vo. (8), 248 pp. With engr. frontispiece and 12 full-page engravings by G. M. Cantarelli. Contemp. blue wrappers. Third edition (probably printed in Bologna) of Lotto Lotti's (1667-1714) poem celebrating the liberation of Vienna from the 1683 Turkish siege, written in the Bologna dialect and first published in Parma in 1685. "Divided in 5 cantos of 30 to 40 eight-line verses each" (Kábdebo). Pretty engravings; the one facing the first canto (a besieging army aiming their cannons) shows contemporary touches of blue colour in places. Includes Lotti's collection of dialogues, "La Banzuola" (likewise illustrated throughout). - Date taken from the engraving on fol. O5v. Untrimmed copy. Sturminger 1973. NUC (pre-1956) vol. 342, p. 194. ICCU UBOE\075844, VEAE\001888. Graesse IV, 264. Cf. Kábdebo II, 290.
Small 8vo. (4), VII, (1), 138, (2) pp. Modern half calf with giltstamped red spine label, light cloth covers. All edges red. Rare first edition of one of the earliest treatises devoted exclusively to cannabis, extolling its virtues as a medicine, industrial fibre, seed oil, soap, animal feed, and so on. Marcandier in particular recommends the cultivation of the plant in the "Nord d'Amerique" (p. 46), and indeed the Traité du Chanvre was read by perhaps that region's most famous hemp enthusiast, George Washington - whose library contained a copy of the English translation printed in 1764, cataloged as Wa/549. - Marcandier begins with a scholarly account of the herb as it was known to the Romans (quoting Dioscorides, Pliny, and Herodotus), presenting intriguing theories of the etymology of the term cannabis: from the Celtic canab; the Greek kanna; the Hebrew kanneh; the Latin canna; etc. Although he is most concerned with its cultivation and medical applications, in his surveys of cannabis in non-European cultures we find descriptions of what can be termed 'recreational use': for example, "the Hottentots use a plant, named Dakha, instead of tobacco, or at least mix them together, when their provision of the latter is almost exhausted. They say that it is a kind of wild hemp" (pp. 19f.), while the 'flour' (farine) of the plant mixed into a drink "renders those who use it drunk, stupid, dazed; they say that the Arabs make of it a type of wine, which intoxicates" (p. 37). - Evidently drawing on personal experience, Marcandier describes the female flower as a "tender, sweet, and oily, white kernel, of a strong smell, that intoxicates when it is fresh" (p. 28) and even gives lengthy advice on how to inspect and purchase good-quality hemp (p. 76) and how to dry the plant properly, to avoid 'black spots' i.e. mold from forming (p. 54). - Cannabis is also recommended for myriad medicinal uses: "The grain and the leaves being squeezed, while they are green, and applied, by way of cataplasm, to painful tumors, are reckoned to have a great power of relaxing and stupefying ... The root of it boiled in water, and applied in the form of a cataplasm, softens and restores the joints of fingers or toes that are dried and shrunk. It is very good against the gout, and other humours that fall upon the nervous, muscular, and tendinous parts. It abates inflammations, dissolves tumours, and hard swellings upon the joints. Beat and pounded in a mortar, with butter, when it is still fresh, it is applied to burns, which it relieves greatly when it is often renewed" (pp. 38, 40f.). Marcandier also finds it useful as a spermicide (p. 35) and against gonorrhea, jaundice, smallpox, and 'vermin of the ear'. - A few contemporary ink annotations throughout. Provenance: from the library of the noted French botanist Philippe de Vilmorin (1872-1917) with his bookplate and separate shelfmark label ("a progenie in progenies") to pastedown. An excellent copy. Very rare: OCLC records 8 copies in US institutions (Chicago, Princeton, Lloyd Museum (OH), American Philosophical Society, Carnegie Mellon (Hunt Institute), Harvard, Minnesota, and the JCB). Not in Kress. Cf. Clarke & Merlin, Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany (University of California Press, 2013), p. 202; and Gibson, "Bibliotheca Cannabinacea", in: Journal of Industrial Hemp 13 (2008), pp. 176-188.
4to. (11) pp., final blank page. Sewn. Scarce Portuguese account of the Third Battle of the Dardanelles in the Sixth Ottoman-Venetian War, the heaviest defeat the Ottomans had suffered since the Battle of Lepanto. Since 1645, Venice and the Ottoman Empire had been at war over the possession of the island of Crete. Ottoman forces had captured most of the island in the early years of the war, but were unable to seize its capital, the heavily fortified city of Candia (modern Iraklio). The Venetians had endeavoured to cut off the Ottoman army's supplies and reinforcements, and attempted several times to blockade the Straits of the Dardanelles, through which the Ottoman fleet had to sail to reach the Aegean from its base around Constantinople. In the morning of 26 June 1656 the wind was from the north, and the Ottomans made good progress, the Venetian galleys being unable to assist their sailing ships. Then the wind backed, trapping the Ottomans against the Asian side of the strait just below the Narrows, and a mêlée ensued. Kenan Pasha got back past the Narrows with 14 galleys but the rest were either captured, sunk or burned. - Numbered "17" in ink on first page. Small rust spot on first page, otherwise very well preserved. BGUC Misc. 3, 58. OCLC 1045393175.
8vo. XVI, 336 pp. With a portrait of the author as a frontispiece and 24 double-sided plates. Blue cloth. First edition, second impression. The autobiography of the noted British Arabist, explorer, writer, officer and adviser to Ibn Saud, Harry St John Bridger Philby (1885-1960). In the preface Philby states that he mainly describes the essential and most notable features and events of his public life. He began writing this work in 1934, but the next decade was filled with activity and adventure, both in Britain and abroad, which kept him from writing and publishing the work until after the Second World War. During this time, he was asked by King Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia to map the border between his newly formed kingdom and the Yemen. This gave Philby the opportunity to explore Southern Arabia, where he also made archaeological discoveries. - Philby undertook his first journey to Arabia in 1917 in order to complete a mission to Ibn Sa'ud; once there he formed a lifelong acquaintanceship with the future king of Saudi Arabia. In 1930 Philby officially converted to Islam. - The present copy is the second impression of the first edition which were published mere months apart in the same year. Philby's descriptions of his many experiences in Britain, India and the Middle East are accompanied by numerous images of him, his family, King Ibn Sa'ud, government officials, and buildings and landscapes he encountered. - Binding shows very slight signs of wear, small inscription in blue ink to the verso of the first flyleaf, very slight browning throughout. Howgego IV, P 31. Macro 1776. Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 394. Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
8vo. XIV, 280 pp. With a portrait of King 'Abdul-'Aziz Ibn Sa'ud as the frontispiece, 1 map of Arabia in 1950, and 16 double-sided plates. Black cloth. First edition of this biography of Saudi Arabian King HRH Abdul-Aziz bin Abdul Rahman al Sa'ud by his adviser Harry St John Bridger Philby. Ibn Sa'ud was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, when after a conquest spanning 30 years he united most of the Arabian Peninsula under his rule. He reigned from 1932 until his death in 1953, but had previously (since 1902) ruled parts of what was to become Saudi Arabia as Emir, Sultan, King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz. The present work is not a complete and final biography: at the time of writing and publication the king was still alive, and Philby states in the preface that "it is rather a pageant of his [Ibn Sa'ud's] achievement, set forth in a series of tableaux illustrating characteristic phases of his career". The descriptions of these phases contain not only information relating to the king, but also inform the reader about the country as a whole and are enlivened by accounts and other small details of court life and Islamic customs, including a pilgrimage to Mecca. The work is illustrated with numerous images of the king and his family, and important landmarks in Saudi Arabia. - Binding shows slight signs of wear, spine is slightly discoloured, slight foxing to edges, very slight browning throughout, several newspaper clippings in a small paper pocket on the lower pastedown. Overall in good condition. Howgego IV, P 31. Cf. (other ed.) Shapero, The Islamic World (2003), 395; Sotheby's, Burrell sale, lot 623.
8vo. 115-124 pp. Contemporary blue cloth with giltstamped title to upper cover: "Philby - Yaman". First edition. A brief investigation of Joseph Halévy's journey through the Jawf region of Yemen, comparing the account given by Hayyim Habshush, recently published, with Halévy's own. - St John Philby (1885-1960), also known by his Arabian name "Sheikh Abdullah", was an Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence officer. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied oriental languages and was a friend and classmate of Jawaharlal Nehru, later prime Minister of India. Philby settled in Jeddah and became famous as an international writer and explorer. He personally mapped on camelback what is now the Saudi-Yemeni border on the Rub' al Khali; in 1932, while searching for the lost city of Ubar, he was the first Westerner to visit and describe the Wabar craters. At this time, Philby also became Ibn Saud's chief adviser in dealing with the British Empire and Western powers. He converted to Islam in 1930. The personal contacts between the United States and Saudi Arabia were largely channeled through the person of Philby. - Very slight browning, a few minor stains to the first page. Macro 1782. Smith, The Yemens, 84.