Estève, Martin-Roch-Xavier.MareMagnum
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Folio (325 x 465 mm). Broadsheet. Printed in French and Arabic in two columns. Only known copy of this broadside intended for wall-mounting, printed by the first printing press in the Arab world. Issued by the paymaster of Napoleon's Armée de l'Orient, Martin-Roch-Xavier Estève (1772-1852), it is a proclaimation of six articles regulating the production of liquor, mosty from dates, in Cairo, Giza, and Boulaq (now a district of Cairo), including tariffs on the raw materials and final product, a maximum price, and corresponding fines. Distilleries needed to be registered and marked in capital letters as "Fabrique d'eau de vie" within a fixed period following the proclamation. Inspectors were supposed to make "frequent inspections", checking, among other things, that the produced liquor had at least 18 per cent by volume and that it be "of good quality and without any kind of adulteration detrimental to health". The raw materials enumerated in the proclamation include five qualities of fresh dates, dried dates, figs, and raisins. - Small waterstain in the lower edge, traces of folds, otherwise well preserved. No copy in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, not recorded in OCLC. The only known documentation for this highly interesting broadside is the sales catalogue for the library of the famous orientalist Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy. Bibliothèque de M. le baron Silvestre de Sacy, Vol. III, Paris, 1847, p. 461, no. 50. Cf. D. Glass/G. Roper, The Printing of Arabic Books in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), p. 177-225, at 182.
4to (154 x 230 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. (45) pp., 11 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red emphases. With numerous red ink diagrams in the margins. Later full black cloth. An Arabic manuscript of the "Optics" by Euclid, a work on the geometry of vision. According to Euclid, the eye sees objects that are within its visual cone. The visual cone is made up of straight lines, or visual rays, extending outward from the eye. These visual rays are discrete, but we perceive a continuous image because our eyes, and thus our visual rays, move very quickly. - Incomplete, comprising only the first 23 ff. Paper browned; occasional light brownstaining; a paper flaw to the final leaf has been remargined.
4to. 2 vols. (1), 455, 4 pp. (4), 445, (3) pp. Each page with 19 lines of Maghribi script within double rules. With numerous diagrams. Lithographed on thick paper throughout. Contemporary red morocco boards with gilt cover decorations and fore-edge flap. Calligraphic title to lower edges. Very rare Moroccan-printed (lithographed) Arabic edition of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation and commentary, first printed in 1594, are by the great Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named. - Evenly browned throughout; occasional slight traces of worming. Bindings a little chipped at extremeties, but a very appealingly preserved copy. OCLC lists only four copies in libraries (Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge). OCLC 83666245. Cf. PMM 25.
8vo. (1), 81, (1) pp. Ottoman Turkish in Arabic type. Modern blindstamped full calf with the Turkish crescent and star to upper cover, and giltstamped spine. Marbled endpapers. First and only early edition. - An exceedingly rare travelogue of the first ever voyage of the Ottoman navy to the American continent, albeit accidental. Thrown off their course to Basra by a storm on the Atlantic near Cape Verde, the two Ottoman warships Bursa and Izmir were dragged in the opposite direction, to Rio de Janeiro. This lively account by the Turkish engineer and naval officer Faik Bey describes all the stages of the corvettes' 13-month journey, their voyage from Istanbul across the Mediterranean Sea to Cadiz, on to the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands, and the fierce storm that brought them to the shores of Brazil, where they laid anchor at the port of Rio de Janeiro before setting sail again two months later. They visited many ports and countries including the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Muscat, Bombay, and Iran, before finally reaching Basra in November 1866. Faik Bey gives a personal account of what must have been an exciting but strenuous journey, while also reflecting on the economic conditions in the Ottoman state and the Islamic world at the time. - Extremely rare; we were not able to trace a single library copy. A second edition was not published until 138 years after the first, in 2006 (Istanbul, Kitabevi). - A second account of this voyage, written by Imam Abdurrahman Efendi, who remained in Brazil for a while before returning to Istanbul, was published in 1871. It only briefly mentions the voyage to South America, instead focussing on the author's time in Brazil and his return journey. - Flaws to upper margins of several pages, rarely touching the text. - An intriguing documentation of an unplanned visit to the New World. TBTK 10454. Özege 17908. Cf. Snowden, Accidental Turks in Brazil and Beyond. Kabacali, Gezi edebiyati seçkisi (2004). Not in OCLC, Weber, or Cox.
4to. (16), 196 pp. (With:) Bobowski, Wojciech / Hyde, Thomas. Tractatus Alberti Bobovii Turcarum Imp. Mohammedis IVti olim interpretis primarii, de Turcarum liturgia, peregrinatio Meccana, circumcisione, aegrotorum visitatione etc. Ibid., 1690. (2), 31, (1) pp. Marbled half calf with giltstamped title to spine. Top edge gilt. First Latin edition of the cosmographical and geographical work of Abraham Farissol, first published in Hebrew in 1586. Includes the Hebrew text together with the Latin translation by Thomas Hyde and copious notes, including sections in Arabic. Farissol incorporated accounts of Portuguese and Spanish exploration including the New World and Vasco da Gama's voyage to India. Also includes a contemporary work on Turkish liturgy and the pilgrimage to Mecca by Wojciech Bobowski, a renegade Pole employed as a teacher, interpreter and musician at the Ottoman court of Mahomet IV. Composed at the behest of Thomas Smith (1683-1719) during his tenure as chaplain to the English ambassador at Constantinople, the manuscript was bought back to England and translated into Latin by Hyde. - Binding rubbed and chafed, otherwise in good condition. Auboyneau 265 (p. 34). Wing F438. Sabin 60934. Steinschneider 4222 no. 2. Fürst I, 276. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.
4to. (8), XII, 272 pp. With several illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Important historical study on navigation in the early modern Muslim world, including extracts of the "Kitâb ül Muhit" by the Ottoman voyager Seydi Ali Reis (1498-1563) in English translation. Further, it comprises French commentaries on the works of the Arab navigators Sulaiman Al Mahri (1480-1550) and Ahmad ibn Majid (ca. 1432-1500), the latter long considered the pilot of Vasco da Gama. Also discusses nautical instruments used by the Arabs, the practices of the native mariners of the Coromandel coast in navigating, sailing and repairing their vessels, Madras artillery, and the origin of the wind rose, as well as the invention of the compass. The present volume was produced as the first of the "Bibliothèque des Géographes Arabes" series published under the direction of the French orientalist Ferrand. - In excellent condition, uncut and untrimmed as issued. OCLC 459543616.
Large 8vo (170 x 255 mm). (2), VI, (2), VII-XXXVI, 639, 639a-h, 640-1110, (2) pp. With 15 (mostly folding) maps (many in colour) and numerous text ilustrations. Contemporary giltstamped cloth. Second, enlarged edition of this standard work, first published in 1866. An encyclopedic volume of over 1000 pages with a detailed index. The chapters include descriptions of the coasts and islands of the Cape Colony; coast of Kaffraria and Natal; Eastern Africa; Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel; the coast of Africa, between Cape Delgado and the Red Sea; the Red Sea, etc. - In particular, Findlay devotes much attention to the coasts of Arabia and onwards to the Arabian Gulf, providing rich detail about the port of Aden, navigating and anchoring around Ras Arah and Ghubbet Seylan, the population of Masirah Island, the climate of the Gulf and its threats to Western health, topography of the coastal settlements, information on the reefs and pearl banks, etc. The discussion of the Gulf ("Our acquaintance with the hydrography of the Persian Gulf is nearly perfect") includes intelligence on Sharjah ("Shargeh"), "the most important town on the coast", numbering 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, and on Dubai ("Debay"), "a large town of 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants" standing "a little back from the shore" and "recognizable as being the last town on the coast, there being not a single date-tree or house from this all the way to Abu Thabi". The coast is described as "quite barren and uninhabited, throughout very low, with tufts of mangrove bush", and "so uniform in appearance that the smallest peculiarities are noted by the Arabs, and names given to them". Abu Dhabi ("Abothubbee") is noted as "the most populous town on the coast", containing "about 20,0000 inhabitants" and sending "600 boats to the pearl fishery. The chief is very friendly to the English. Cattle might be obtained here". - Binding rubbed; hinges split. Some foxing throughout as common; repeatedly annotated quite ungraciously by a 20th century hand in coloured ballpoint and broad felt-tip pen. A later edition (from Humphrey Winterton's library) commanded £720 at Sotheby's in 2003. Mill (Cat. of the RGS Library) 160. OCLC 217065553.
Royal folio (540 x 410 mm). 5 volumes in 1. With engraved title-page, engr. dedication, 5 engr. half-titles and 86 engr. plates (3 folded, 1 map). Contemporary full calf with giltstamped red morocco label to richly gilt spine. All edges red. First edition of this splendid work, which was reprinted five times until 1742 (including an English edition). The first three volumes deal with historical and legendary monuments (among them the seven wonders of the ancient world as well as monuments of the "Arabs and the Turks"). The fourth volume is dedicated to buildings of Fischer von Erlach himself; the fifth volume shows vases and sarcophagi. - Binding slightly rubbed, some dampstaining near end, otherwise a fine, wide-margined and complete copy. Nebehay/Wagner 176. Ornamentstichslg. Berlin 2105. Fowler 121. Schlosser 438. Thieme/B. XII, 48. Millard III, 31. Kruft 205/687. Museum of Islamic Art, Hajj - The journey through art, p. 48f. (illustration).
Text vol. in 8vo and atlas in folio (670 x 503 mm). (4), 460 pp. (4), 65 pp. Half-titles in both vols.; 80 lithographed, sepia aquatint or engraved plates and plans, the 8 fine aquatints by Debucourt after Forbin, the lithographed subjects for G. Engelmann after Lecomte, Deseynes, Castellan, Carle, and Horace Vernet, Fragonard, Thiénon, Legros, Isabey and others, large folding engraved plan at the end of text vol. 19th century marbled half calf with giltstamped title to gilt spine. First edition. Only 325 copies of this work were produced. "Forbin's was one of the first important French books to use lithography on a grand scale, and the standard of production is equal to that of Napoléon's 'Description de l'Egypte' or Denon's 'Voyage'" (Navari, Blackmer). Forbin succeeded Denon as director of museums in 1816 and was authorised to purchase antiquities for the Louvre (his son-in-law, Marcellus, expedited the acquisition of the recently discovered Venus de Milo). In August 1817 he began a year-long journey to the Levant accompanied by the artist Pierre Prévost and the engineer de Bellefonds. His journey took him to Melos, Athens, Constantinople, Smyrna, Ephesus, Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Cairo, Luxor, and Thebes. - This set includes the frequently lacking 8vo text volume: this has the plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre bound at the end with a list of plates which were sold separately. The atlas volume repeats the text (entirely reset in-folio, sometimes found in a separate folio volume) and includes the magnificent, highly desirable plates (after Carle Vernet, Fragonard, Isabey, and Forbin himself, as well as Prevost), which show fine views of Greece, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Ramla, Gaza, and Egypt. - Occasional slight foxing, still a splendid copy from the library of the ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown. The Aboussouan copy (comprising both the folio and the octavo volume) commanded £20,000 at Sotheby's in 1993, while in 2002 the Atabey copy of the folio volume alone fetched £22,000. Atabey 447f. Blackmer 614. Aboussouan 338. Weber I, 68-70. Röhricht 1660. Tobler 144f. Colas 1089. Hiler 321. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 163. Brunet II, 1337. Graesse II, 614. Cf. Lipperheide Ma 16 (2nd ed.).
2 vols. Folio (328 x 447 mm). (8) pp.; (4) pp. of text; a total of 76 photographs on plates by Francis Frith (sizes ca. 145-165 x 215-230 mm), each with a separate leaf of text. Contemporary red morocco, spines and covers gilt. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. First edition of this important and early photobook on the Near East. During the years 1856-59, Frith (1822-98) made three visits to Egypt and the Holy Land; this selection of his photographs, from wet-collodion 9 x 7 negatives taken with an 8-by-10 inch camera, was published in 25 fascicles of 3 prints each, a work hailed as "one of the most renowned nineteenth-century photobooks" (The Photobook). Most of these images are dated 1857 either in the plate or the printed caption. They include a portrait of the artist in oriental costume and views of Abu Simbel, Aswan, Baalbek, Bethlehem, Damascus, Giza, Hebron, Jerusalem, Karnak, Luxor, Nazareth, Philae, Tiberias, Wadi Kardassy etc. The preliminaries of vol. 1 include title, introduction, table of contents, and subscribers, those of vol. 2 encompass title and contents. Each plate is accompanied by a full-page letterpress description. "Francis Frith is undoubtedly one of the best-known photographers to work in the Near East. His trips to the Levant were a brilliant commercial success as well as an artistic one" (Perez 163). - Some foxing to blank margins, as well as to a few photographs. Modern bookplate of the German anthropologist Jasper Köcke. Bindings very slightly rubbed, but hinges somewhat brittle; unobtrusive chafe-mark to upper cover of vol. 2. Overall a fine, appealingly bound copy. The Photobook I, 28. Blackmer 1942. Hannavy 561. Gernsheim, History 286. Perez, Focus East 165. Van Haaften-White XII & XV.
Small 4to. (16), 118, (10), (104) pp. With fine engraved portrait of the author after Peter Issel to verso of title, engraved armorial device to verso of dedication f., 6 folding engraved plates, and woodcut printer's device to imprimatur f. at end. Contemporary limp vellum. First edition, second issue (with title dated 1621). The first complete copy since the Camille Aboussouan sale in 1993. This second issue has two more plates than the first. "Fürer [...] travelled extensively from 1563-66, first in Italy and then to the Ionian Islands, Egypt and Palestine. The work is concerned with the latter, though Fürer does provide some information on Corfu, Zakynthos, Crete and Cyprus. He is the first to give a description of Vesalius's tomb on Zakynthos" (Blackmer). - "Mons Calvarius" plate trimmed just within border at foot; some (mostly light) waterstaining to lower margins, mostly light marginal foxing. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 995. VD 17, 23:247329C. Blackmer 640. Aboussouan 363. Weber II, 191. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 249. Gay 53. Tobler 70. Graesse II, 643. Brunet II, 1417 ("volume rare et assez recherché").
8vo. (16), 191, (1) pp. Contemporary black marbled wrappers. Rare first German edition of Galland's "Recueil des rits et cérémonies du pelerinage de la Mecque" (1754). Galland's account of the rituals surrounding the pilgrimage to Mekkah includes enlightening description of many of the important shrines and sites within the city. Extensive footnotes describe the history and physical appearance of such features as the Kaaba, the Black Stone, and Mount Ararat, as well as explaining relevant Arabic terms and the importance of certain religious figures in the Islamic tradition. The work also contains an extensive essay on the island of Chios, as well as a discussion of Ottoman science. "This very interesting work contains five separate essays. The first three are translations from Arabic and Turkish authorities; the last two are eye-witness accounts - one a long description of Chios and the other a description of the marriage of Sultana Esma with Yakub Pasha, governor of Silistria" (Navari). - Some occasional browning and foxing. Extremeties rubbed and bumped; untrimmed and uncut as issued. Not in Chauvin. Cf. Atabey 470. Blackmer 643.
Two sheets joined (470 x 740 mm to the neat line, full margins showing the plate mark, overall size 550 x 790 mm). An extraordinary example of "the first modern map of the Arabian peninsula" (Al-Ankary), by far the best copy we have ever handled: the first issue of the first edition, a strong impression on thick white paper with excellent contrast and exceptionally broad margins. "L'opera è dedicata al mecenate Johann Jakob Fugger ... a firma Giacomo di Castaldi Piamonetse Cosmographo in Venetia" (Bifolco I, 380 for the first state of three). - Still the most sought-after map of the region, Gastaldi's two page wall-map served as a model for all further mapping of the peninsula until the 19th century. Gastaldi is regarded as "the most important 16th century Italian cartographer. His maps are very rare, as they were issued separately to order and were not part of an atlas" (Al-Qasimi, 1st ed., p. 23). Gastaldi used various sources including Portolan charts of the region drawn by the 16th-century Portuguese explorers. Many details, such as the coastline of the Arabian Gulf, certain coastal towns, or the peninsula of Qatar, are mapped and named for the first time. It is the most valuable of the early maps of the region. "Although the shape of the peninsula is distorted by modern standards, the Qatar peninsula and Bahrain are both shown - details that are missing on some maps produced up to almost 300 years later" (Stuart McMinn Catalogue). - The map covers the modern geographical areas of Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, part of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and the west coast of India. The travels of Marco Polo, published in Ramusio's "Navigationi et viaggi", heavily influenced Gastaldi's geography of this map, which is considered far superior to all previous maps of Asia. Gastaldi was "cosmographer to the Venetian Republic, then a powerhouse of commerce and trade. He sought the most up to date geographical information available, and became one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century" (Burden). - Old foliation in brown ink to the upper right margin. Spotless and with temoins on the right outer edge. An exceptionally fine example. Bifolco, I, 380f. Tibbetts 28. Karrow 30/91. Nordenskiold II, 130, 61. Couto/Bacqué-Grammont/Taleghani, Atlas Historique du Golfe Persique (2006), p. 132, no. 29 and p. 152. Tooley, Maps in Italian Atlases of the 16th Century, 54. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.), p. 26 with 2 figs. Tooley, Dictionary II, 143.
12mo. 134, (6) pp. Contemporary red morocco, triple gilt filet on covers, central royal coat of arms, gilt edges. First edition. The priest Gaudereau (1663-1743) had gone to Persia in 1689 in the company of Bégnine Vachet, a director of the Seminary of Foreign Missions. Having arrived at Isfahan in late 1690, they joined François Sanson, another member of the Society of Foreign Missions sent by Louis XIV to the court of Shah Suleiman. After Sanson's departure in 1692, Gaudereau continued negotiations with Suleiman, after 1694 with Husayn. Having negotiated a military and commercial alliance between Persia and the French East India Company, he returned to Isfahan, which he quit for Europe in 1703. It was during this journey from Constantinople and Trabzon that in September 1704 he contracted the illness he describes in his book, which he based on his own experience, having miraculously survived. - Fine copy, bound for Philippe d'Orléans. From the library of Hyacinthe Théodore Baron (18th century engraved book plate). Blake 169. OCLC 495355672. Not in Waller or Wellcome.
960 x 820 mm. Colour-printed map (folded). Scale 1:4,700,000. A large map of the Middle East, produced by Israel's General Staff soon after the Suez Crisis, showing the Arabian Peninsula and adjoining countries with major roads, railroads, and petroleum pipelines. - A few tears to folds, but well preserved.
8vo. (38), 97-144, (8) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With engraved frontispiece and folding letterpress table. - Bound after this is a 10-page German manuscript by a contemporary hand in red and black ink, entitled "Continuatio curiosorum experimentorum collocatio". Modern half vellum with marbled covers and spine title. Edges sprinkled in red. Later edition of this oft-reprinted but rare manual of geomancy, a divination system with Arabian origins. The term is derived from the ancient Greek "geômanteía", a translation of the Arabic "'ilm al-raml" - the "science of the sand", or the art of foretelling from dots or lines randomly marked upon the ground or on paper. The method, probably developed in the Near and Middle East, arrived in mediaeval Europe via North Africa. In the European context it was seen as an ancillary science to astrology and was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It was especially Robert Fludd's "Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia" (1618) that made geomancy popular in the late Renaissance. "Pointing, or geomancy, was among the most popular of the divinatory entertainments of the 17th and 18th century" (cf. Daxelmüller, Zauberpraktiken, p. 200, with fig. 35). Purportedly translated from Arabic, this manual cites Cornelius Agrippa, Henry de Pisis, Trithemius, and Fludd as its authorities. - The manuscript bound at the end of the volume treats of "Onomantia", or the so-called science of divining a person's future from their names - a method explicitly said to work not only with Christian names given at baptism, but also with any name bestowed by a similar process upon a Jew or Muslim. - Slightly browned, but well preserved. 1744 handwritten and stamped ownership of the Lieutenant Christoph Carl König on title page, with his initials and date at the head of the instructions to the reader. Graesse (Bibl. Mag. et Pneum.) 105. Not in Ackermann, Caillet, Dorbon-Aine, Rosenthal, etc.
8vo (155 x 204 mm). Ottoman manuscript on laid paper. 134 pp. on 68 ff., written space ca. 90 x 140-145 mm. 15 lines, per extensum, written in a heavily Persian-influenced naskh style in black ink, gilt ("taddib") section titles, rubricated and sometimes written in gilt for emphasis, no catchwords, but extensively vocalized Turkish text with Arabic diacritics. Gilt gadval borders around introductory double page, remainder of text within double red rules. Frequent marginalia and occasional glosses, with some prayers and charms. Early full leather binding with fore-edge flap, spine and flap hinges reinforced with later leather. Complete Ottoman medical manuscript, copied by the scribe Celalu'd-din Mehmud al-'Ala'i in 1408 CE, still during the lifetime of the book's author, the Anatolian religious scholar and physician Haci Pasha (known in the Arabic tradition as Haggi Basha Galalu'd-Din al-Hidr bin 'Ali bin al-Hattab al-Aydini). - The introduction (1v-2r) sets out the work's content and structure, presented, with Arabic technical terms adopted into Turkish, as a compendium ("muhtasar") and facilitation ("teshil") of medical knowledge, offering a discussion of definitions, medical practices, the administration of solids and liquids, and a description of diseases with their symptoms and related therapies. The following sections treat dietary matters including regimens for exercise ("hereket"), meals ("gazalar"), hot baths ("hammamlar") and vomiting ("istifrag"), as well as self-medication (4v-15v), fevers ("buhran", 16r-17r), and the therapeutic and prophylactic properties of various foods (17v-26r). The third and by far the most extensive section (26r-67r) provides definitions and summary descriptions of the most common ailments with their aetiologies (proceeding from symptomological analysis, "alamet") and treatments. A single final page (67v) entitled "Kitabu'l-Ihtilac" ("Book of attraction or palpitations") contains apotropaic phrases to be pronounced over the patient and a short poem in 11 couplets, followed by the four-line colophon (68r). - Haci Pasha was a famous 14th century physician from Anatolia who moved to Cairo, then the thriving capital of Mamluk Egypt, to refine his medical knowledge during what is today regarded as the beginning of the most famous period of Ottoman medicine. The present treatise enjoyed significant success for many decades and directly influenced the work of one of the most renowned Ottoman physicians of the 15th century, Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu (1385-1468), who composed the first surgical atlas in Ottoman Turkish. - Margins somewhat fingerstained in places with a light waterstain throughout, but generally very well preserved.
8vo (144 x 202 mm). Ottoman manuscript on paper. 122 pp., 13 lines, single column. Black ink with occasional red and blue. With a double-page illustration. Contemporary full brown calf with fore-edge flap and blindstamped ornaments to both covers. An Ottoman Turkish manuscript on the Hajj, describing the rituals of the pilgrimage and the traditional travel route from Turkey through the Levant to Medina and Mekkah. The book includes a rough, annotated drawing of the Prophet’s Mosque and a drawing of the Grand Mosque. - Some edge flaws and tears; occasional waterstains, mainly confined to the wide margins. Early 19th century waqf stamp to the flyleaf. A well-preserved survival.
8vo (220 x 150 mm). 210 volumes in 212, comprising a complete run of the first series (vols. 1-100) and second series, part 1 (vols. 1-110). Illustrated. Original green and blue cloth, spines gilt, with giltstamped motif of the ship "Victoria" on the upper covers. A primary reference work on the history of travel and exploration, including the principal accounts of the great voyages to the Middle East. This is a complete run of the first series and a large part of the second series (with its first part complete), dating from 1847 to 1956, of the publications of the Hakluyt Society. Early volumes of interest to the student of the exploration of the Muslim world, but also of the world's exploration by Muslims, include the travels of Abd-er-Razzak (India in the 15th Century, vol. 22, 1857), the travels of Ludovico de Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix (vol. 32, 1863), and the History of the Imâms and Seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk (vol. 44, 1871, providing the first indigenous account of the history of Oman in English), as well as the travels to Tana and Persia, by Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini (with a Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries, vols. 49a and 49b, 1873). The "Commentarios" of Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European to enter the Arabian Gulf, are present in a careful edition from 1875ff. (vols. 53, 55, 62, and 69), while the early 15th century narrative of the "Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa" is the first account by a western Christian to state the true burial place of Muhammad, at Medina. Volumes 72 and 73 (1886) contain accounts of early voyages and travels to Persia, while vols. 84 and 85 (1892) offer the famous "Travels of Pietro della Valle in India". Volume 87 (1893) is a collection of "Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant"; vols. 92 and 93 (1896) constitute the famous description of Africa by Al-Hassan Ibn-Mohammed Al-Wezaz Al-Fasi, also known as Leo Africanus. In the second series, vol. 9 (1901) gives the "Travels of Pedro Teixeira, with his 'Kings of Harmuz', and Extracts from his 'Kings of Persia'"; vol. 16 (1905) is the journal of John Jourdain, 1608-17, describing his experiences in Arabia; John Fryer's "New Account of East India and Persia" (covering his travels made in 1672-81) is given in vols. 19, 20 and 39 (1909-15). Ibn Batuta's great travels are contained in vol. 41 (1916) and 110 (1956), while the itinerary of Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese official in India from 1500 to 1516 (vols. 44 & 49, 1918-21), includes accounts of Mecca and Medina, the ports of Jeddah and Aden, the Arab kingdom of Hormuz, and the islands in the Arabian Gulf (with reference to pearl-diving). The 1496 pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff to Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, and Turkey is given in vol. 94 (1946), while the following volume recounts the travels of the Abbé Carré in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf region, 1672 to 1674 (1947). - Founded in London in 1846, the aim of the still-thriving Hakluyt Society is to "advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material". For 170 years the society has published an annual or bi-annual volume of original accounts of such voyages. Their historically significant texts and translations, often appearing in print for the first time, are fully annotated, well illustrated with maps and plates, and conform to the highest standards of scholarship. As such they often represent the last word on the material they embrace, and are widely valued by historians and geographers throughout the world. Full complete sets of the publication are only held in institutional libraries, and this is the largest run to have appeared in the trade in over 40 years. - Some spines and covers chipped or repaired; library marks on spine. Provenance: The Western Reserve Historical Society Library (bookplates).
8vo. 2 vols. XXXII, 400 pp. VII, (1), 320 pp. With a total of 8 folding maps and 11 plates as called for. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped red labels to gilt spine. Second London edition of this important work, first published in Edinburgh in 1727, "which remains to this day one of the most valuable first-hand histories of English merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and East Indies" (Howgego). It covers "the whole of the Orient" (Hill) from Ethiopia to Japan and is very strong on India (some 20 chapters, not counting Bengal, which is described separately), but also includes an extensive section on the Arabian Peninsula: chapter IV "gives a little description of the coast of Arabia the Happy, from Mount Sinai to Mocha, with some observations on the religion, customs and laws"; chapter V "gives a description of the Immaum of Mocha's country, particularly its situation, laws, customs and commerce"; chapter VI "contains a description of Aden [...], also an account of the sea-coast of Arabia petraea, as far as Muskat and Bassora", chapter VII "treats of the kingdom and city of Muskat, and of their religious and civil customs [...] and a little account of the sea-coast of Arabia deserta, as far as Bassora", while chapter VIII "gives an account of Bassora City, and that part of Arabia deserta". Includes a rough, but apparently original map of the Gulf, showing "Barreen Island", "Cape Mussendon", and little detail along the Peninsula's northeastern coast in between save for a place labelled "Zoar", here not indicating Sohar in Oman but clearly referencing the area of the present-day Emirate of Sharjah (even Niebuhr's 1765 map still shows a town named "Seer" - Sir, Julfar - opposite the island of "Scharedsje"). The text mentions the region's trade in horses and pearls, stating, "There are no towns of note between Muskat and Bassora, but Zoar, and but very few inconsiderable villages; but there are two or three pretty convenient harbours for shipping. The southernmost is about 6 leagues to the southward of Cape Mosenden, called Courfacaun. It is almost like Muskat Harbour, but somewhat bigger, and has excellent fresh water from deep wells, about a quarter of a mile from the landing place. The village contains about twenty little houses; yet there are pretty good refreshments to be had there [...]". - In India, Gujarat and Bombay are covered particularly extensively, and the illustrations include not only a detailed coastline map of the subcontinent, but also several plates showing Ganesha, the elephant-headed god; a religious procession involving an elaborate wheeled scaffold from which men are hung; the temple of Jagannath; and the notorious "Juggernaut" car. - The Scottish captain Hamilton went to sea, in his own words "very young", in 1688, and travelled as far as the Barbary coast before basing himself in Surat and trading and travelling all over the Indian Ocean, "visiting, it is said, every port between the Cape and Canton" (Howgego). He made a reputation for himself as a foul-mouthed, resourceful and bold operator fending off Baluchi robbers, treacherous governors and Indian pirates. - Bindings professionally repaired. Light browning and occasional waterstaining; a few pencil annotations. Provenance: from the collection of the American diplomat Alexander Weddell (1876-1948) and his wife Virginia Chase Steedman Weddell (1874-1948); deaccessioned from the Virginia House Museum, Richmond (handwritten ownership "A. & V. Weddell, 1924, Calcutta" to flyleaves; bookplate to pastedowns). Alt-Japan 630. Howgego I, p. 477, H13. Cf. Macro 1115. Goldsmiths' 6522. Hanson 3724. Cordier, Indosinica 890. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages (2004) 765.
4to (210 x 268 mm). XIV, 176 pp. With 2 colour-printed plates (one bound as a frontispiece) and 9 plates in monotone. Publisher's original blue cloth with gilt title to spine, upper cover stamped in gilt and blind. Top edge gilt. A history of Persian navigation and trade from the earliest times to the sixteenth century. First edition, on hand made paper, one of 250 signed copies (but number and signature erased). With a preface by Muhammad Iqbal. - The Indian scholar Hadi Hasan (1894-1963), a native of Hyderabad, was educated at Cambridge in geology, botany, and chemistry. "On his return to India he played an active role in the freedom movement against British rule and was praised for his work for independence by Mahatma Gandhi" (Encyclopedia Iranica). He subsequently completed a Ph.D. in Persian at the University of London before being "appointed professor and head of the Department of Persian at Aligarh Muslim University, a position he held until 1958" (ibid.). - Occasional insignificant fingerstains; slight paper flaw to title-page from erasure of the number. Binding rubbed and faded, extremeties a little bumped, but well-preserved on the whole. Wilson 88. Encyclopedia Iranica XI, 436f. OCLC 4517880.
8vo. (433)-445, (1) pp. With a map in the text. Original printed wrappers. Inscribed by the author. Includes an autograph letter signed by the author (Weymouth, 20 Feb. 1955, 2 pp. 8vo). Rare presentation offprint of this geographical description of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms which today form the United Arab Emirates, and their boundary issues in the early 1950s. Signed and inscribed "To Edward + Irene Skinner with compliments" (20 Feb. 1955). Includes an autograph letter signed by Sir Rupert to "Dear Edward" accompanying the presentation offprint: "I enclose a copy of a recent paper of mine which you may be interested to see. I have finished the first draft of my book on the Persian Gulf but still have a good deal of revising to do [...]."
4to. 292, (18) pp. With one folding map. Original giltstamped cloth. First edition, second impression. - Beautifully illustrated travelogue of Iraq's landscapes, peoples and antiquities, including numerous striking views from the air, including the Persian Gulf route via Muscat and Bahrain. The book emphasises Iraq's strategic importance following the recent completion of the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipeline from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean, and the RAF's role in defending it. - With ms. ownership "Thomas Greenwood. June 1937" to front flyleaf.
Folio (ca. 490 x 610 mm). (86 + 88 =) 174 large black-and-white photographs (14 ca. 95 x 120 mm, the rest ca. 250 x 300 mm). Mounted on cardboard leaves on cloth tabs. Handwritten English captions throughout. Bound for the photographer in two monumental full red morocco albums with giltstamped titles to upper covers. All edges gilt. Two monumental albums with photographs from travels undertaken to Bashan, Argob, Moab and Gilead, presently Jordanian and Syrian territories, in the years 1894-95. Mounted on the album leaves are 174 photographs taken by the British officer Algernon Heber-Percy (1845-1911), recording two of his expeditions to the Levant. Most of the photographs show archaeological sites, ancient ruins, structures, Druze and Bedouin villages and the residents of the villages that Heber-Percy visited in the course of his travels. - The first album, entitled "Argob and Bashan", contains 86 photographs of sites that are today in Syrian territory, specifically Trachonitis, Bashan and Jabal al-Druze, which the photographer visited together with his spouse and two sons in 1894. The sites include villages in the Trachonitis region (the Lajat) as well as in the cities of Qanawat, As-Suwayda, Bosra and other cities, and the road from Damascus to Beirut. The album also includes photographs of the region's Druze inhabitants. - The second album, entitled "Moab and Gilead", contains 88 photographs from sites that are today in Jordanian territory, visited by the photographer in 1895, including Beth Ba'al Ma'on, Dhiban, Umm ar-Rasas, Amman, Salt (Al-Salt) and Jerash. The album also includes photographs of the region's Bedouin inhabitants and three photographs showing a travelling circus of trained animals (a monkey, a goat and a bear) encountered by the photographer in the Madaba area. Heber-Percy also published on the expeditions recorded in these photographs: his account of his travels appeared in two books, "A Visit to Bashan and Argob" (London, 1895) and "Moab Ammon and Gilead" (1896), and some of the photographs in the albums were reproduced in these books. - Bound for the owner by Bennion & Horne, Market Drayton (their label to pastedown). Some foxing, mainly confined to flyleaves; occasional slight edge flaws. Bindings slightly scuffed at the extremeties, but in all a finely preserved, impressive set.
Colour lithograph map, 765 x 495 mm, trimmed to neat line. A rare separately issued official map, with text in Ottoman Turkish throughout, depicting the route of the Hejaz Railway. Following a route proposed by the eminent Turkish engineer Mukhtar Bey and surveyed by the cavalry officers Umar Zaki and Hasan Mu'ayyin, the epic project, funded by subscriptions from the global Islamic faithful, completed a rail link from Damascus to Medina by 1908. Intended to continue to Mecca but never completed, it nevertheless briefly allowed many thousands of pilgrims to make the Hajj in relative comfort. - Old folds and creases, some short closed tears, tiny chips to neat line, some light staining. Some remnants of tape and old private collector's stamps to verso. Still in good condition but for partial loss of lower left corner, subsequently collaged with a contemporary Ottoman colour lithographed map of the Arabian Peninsula.