[Alf layla wa-layla]. Galland, Antoine.MareMagnum
8vo. (4), XII, 265 (but: 255), (1) pp. With an engraved frontispiece. Contemporary half calf with gilt-stamped label to florally gilt spine. Only edition thus of this collection of Arabic tales in the manner of the 1001 Nights. Anonymously edited by Jean-Baptiste Decourdemanche; attributed by Chauvin to the abbé Marie Nicholas Silvestre Guillon. - Slight traces of worming to upper cover; a very light waterstain near the end, otherwise fine. From the collection of the Swedish goldsmith Christian Hammer (1818-1905) with his wood-engraved bookplate on the front pastedown over an earlier engraved armorial bookplate, monogrammed "H.U.D.G." in ink. Chauvin IV, 96. OCLC 47704430.
280 x 330 mm. Graphic poster. In English and Arabic. Rare poster with safety instructions for Aramco bus drivers. Prepared by the Transportation Department, it reminds the drivers that "one bus should never pass another", as well as to "keep plenty of space between buses": "The lives of your passengers are in your hands". Apart from the safety rules in English and Arabic, the poster shows sketches of six fully occupied coaches. - Very well preserved.
Folio (290 x 450 mm). 9 double-page engraved charts only, each sheet approx. 440 x 550 mm, each mounted on stiff paper with maps back-to-back, with thick red and black ink borderlines. Of the 9 maps, 8 are by Colom, numbered in the plates from "2" to "9"; plate 1 replaced with Johannes de Ram's map of the Mediterranean, "Paskaart vande Middelandsche Zee In twee deelen vertoont". Contemporary stiff paper covers (worn with losses); manuscript label to lower cover pasted upside down: "Carta Marinaresca del Mar Mediterraneo". Unusual working copy of Colom's rare pilot, owned by an Ottoman Turkish mariner with his Osmanli inscriptions transliterating the location names throughout. Colom's charts cover the Straits of Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast, Mallorca, the coastline around Barcelona, Nice, Corsica, Sardinia, Southern Italy, Sicily, and Croatia. Koeman highlights the rarity of all of Colom's pilot books and notes that despite "thousands of copies [having been] circulated [...], only a score have survived". - Significant spotting and browning throughout, some cockling and losses to sheets, old repaired tears, creases and signs of heavy use. A highly uncommon survival. Cf. Phillips III, 53 ff. Koeman IV, 120.
8vo. 144 pp. Original printed wrappers. Pocket dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, providing "all sentences, phrases and a vocabulary of words that are in common use throughout Egypt, the Sudan and part of Palestine; and which are needed mostly by military men and tourists". - When the Lebanese-born Alec Cury sought the assistance of a British authority for the 1915 first edition of his work, "General Sir John Maxwell, GOC of British troops in Egypt, allowed his name to be put on the cover to give his solemn imprimatur to a work which was to go into no less than 34 editions by 1965" (McLoughlin). The present 32nd edition still proudly bears the phrase "officially approved by the late General Sir John Maxwell" on the front cover and title-page. - Aiming to enable English native speakers to learn Arabic without the help of a teacher, the manual includes useful terms and phrases for interactions at a restaurant, at the post office, with a taxi driver, or a "donkey boy", as well as terms of the oil industry, aviation and military. It provides brief observations on grammar and pronunciation as well as a table with the Arabic alphabet. - Wrappers and title-page somewhat brownstained. Otherwise well preserved. McLoughlin, In a Sea of Knowledge, 65. Cf. OCLC 487444386 (1950 ed.).
Small folio (215 x 336 mm). (8), 156 pp. With a folding map in lower-cover pouch. Contemporary printed boards; spine reinforced with later black leather. Official report by Colonel A. H. Gleadowe-Newcomen (1853-1928), President of the Commercial Mission to Persia, of the mission's results regarding the state of British Indian trade in South-Eastern Persia and the consideration of measures which might bring about an expansion of Indo-Persian trade. Assistance to the mission was rendered by Major Percy Molesworth Sykes, then Consul at Kerman, as well as by Percy Cox, the British resident in the Gulf. - Paper brittle; some worming; a few edge flaws near the beginning. Upper cover trimmed at the head and somewhat crudely repaired. Rare. OCLC 69210748.
600 x 460 mm. Folding coloured map, scale 1:6,000,000, cloth-backed. Folded into the original red cloth case. A rare and attractive map focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, but also including Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Asiatic Turkey. It shows boundaries and occupied territories as they were after World War I, physical features, principal cities, road networks, communication lines, and maritime navigation distance. The inset map at the top right shows the Aden Protectorate and part of South-Western Yemen (scale 1:1,825,000). - Rare. Library Hub locates just one copy, at the University of Manchester. OCLC adds two further holdings, at the University of Minnesota and the Library of Congress. In excellent condition.
44 albumen prints and 1 picture postcard. Various sizes (58 x 85 mm - 160 x 212 mm). Inserted in protective sleeves. Stored in a black calf binder. A substantial collection of rare images of Kings Faisal I and Faisal II of Iraq, showing the monarchs greeting international delegations, attending banquets and meetings, or inspecting the troops. Includes a photograph of the Arab delegation in the Blue House Hotel during a finance conference in 1944. - In addition, the set includes a portrait of Iraqi president Abdul Salam Arif. The postcard shows a group picture including the Ottoman Pasha and Mohamed Al Sheheri around 1925, after the Arab Revolt. - Finally, three small photographs of a group of white-dressed girls dancing also form part of this collection. - Many photos with stamps of the corresponding studio on verso; the bulk prepared by Elias Jamoua, several other photos produced by A. Abbosh and Arshak in Baghdad. - Some pictures with Arabic or English captions. Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. Very well preserved.
Oblong 4to (333 x 230) mm. Photo album with 12 baryte paper prints (125 x 110 mm) and 1 press photo (225 x 191 mm), the latter captioned, stamped and dated. Blue full percaline with gilt cover ornaments. Cord binding. A fine ensemble of photographs documenting the historic state visit to Iraq by King Saud of Saudi Arabia in May 1957, apparently photographed and assembled by a member of the Iraqi entourage closely involved throughout the visit. King Faisal II of Iraq and his Prime Minister Nuri As-Said met with King Saud to discuss the Pan-Arab movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, involving anti-monarchist efforts in Jordan. Eventually, talks in Baghdad were wound up "with a pledge to coordinate resistance to communism and a warning that no Arab state should meddle in the affairs of its neighbors" (caption of the press photograph). - The collection includes previously unseen pictures of the monarchs' arrival by car and carriage respectively, their mutual exchange of greetings, and the state dinner, as well as the subsequent talks held in the palace garden. - Not traced in the Keystone or Hulton/Getty press photo archives. In excellent condition.
Oblong quarto. 371 photographs in 3 albums: 1) 121 original photographs ranging from small (70 x 100 mm) to medium (111 x 170 mm) and large (170 x 235 mm), mounted on 18 leaves (230 x 315 mm); 2) 178 original photographs ranging from small (70 x 50 mm) to medium (95 x 140 mm) and large (160 x 220 mm), mounted on 24 leaves (195 x 280 mm); 3) 72 original photographs ranging from small (65 x 90 mm) to medium (120 x 185 mm) and large (160 x 220 mm), mounted on 14 leaves (220 x 315 mm). Most photographs with manuscript captions beneath in white chinagraph pencil. With 6 additional photographs and a swimming certificate loosely inserted. Contemporary card covers with cord ties. Large collection of important photographs depicting RAF activity in Iraq during the late 1930s, demonstrating British imperial power by use of "Air Control": a policy designed to maintain the RAF as the independent third service of the British armed forces and enforce British imperial rule economically through the use of air power. - The current collection of photographs centres around the activities of 70 Squadron, providing heavy transport facilities and air ambulances and operating airmail routes between Cairo and Baghdad. Images include an armoured car with a mounted machine gun at Hinaidi; air-conditioned desert buses belonging to Nairn Transport Co going from Baghdad to Damascus, and the Flying Boat "Ceres" on Lake Habaniyah. The dangers of the operations are evident in the photos of a crash of the Flying Boat "Calpurnia" in Lake Habaniyah with the loss of five lives, the crash of Jonah Kyte No. 3 while landing, and the "Vincent" of 55 Squadron going up up in flames in Simel. The album captures well the cultural and military diversity of Iraq at the time. Not only are there bombers from the French Air Force on visit in both Dhibban and Habbaniya, but there are also photos of Iraqi "Gladiator" aircraft, Jewish women in Baghdad, and the Kurdish population spread across central Iraq. A 500-year-old church in Haiz is complemented by the photo of a priest with a 700-year-old Bible. As a foreigner abroad, the photographer gives the albums their healthy dose of tourist sites such as Alexandria (Egypt), the landscapes of Ser Amadia (while in a Summer Training Camp) and Ctesiphon Arch (530 CE). Aerial shots add bird's-eye views of the Golden Mosque of Khadimain (Baghdad), the crossing of the Suez Canal, and the Maude Bridge over the Tigris. The international and geopolitical importance of the photographs is further underscored in their documentation of the first Hinaidi-Singapore flight on 18 January 1937. - Extremities of albums slightly rubbed. 1 loose photograph creased at edge. A well preserved ensemble.
Oblong 4to (280 x 204 mm). 112 vintage black-and-white photographs (ca. 13 x 18 cm), frequently captioned in German in white ink, on 56 black paper leaves (plus two blank leaves at the end). Contemporary green card boards, block-bound with string. A fine album of excellent original travel photographs, assembled by a party of young men from Germany, Austria and Hungary travelling through Northern Africa in the late 1920s or very early 1930s. A total of 36 photos show scenes from Libya: the cave dwellings in the jebels, the Arab and especially Jewish population, a Bedouin tent, Italian officers in Aziziya, but also a group portrait of the travellers leaning on their motorcar. A few pictures show the European tourists laughingly taunting the local children with cigarettes for which they let the youngsters grapple. The strong focus on the fairly large Jewish community (then constituting nearly 4% of the Libyan population, as compared to less than 0.8% in Germany) is poignant before the background of the increasingly virulent antisemitism in the visitors' central European homeland, apparently revealing a particular fascination with the "otherness" of the Jews who are here shown and described as a people living as they supposedly did in Biblical times. - Via Malta (6 photos, some depicting warships in the harbour) the party sailed on to Tunis, where no fewer than 32 photographs cover the port, the Al-Zaytuna Mosque, Spahis and French officers on horseback, and a wealth of street scenes: the old town with its souks, Bab Souika square, gypsies, veiled women, water salesmen, men in coffee houses, and a Christian butchery. The remainder of the album shows scenes from the return journey through Italy: Cagliari and Sardinia (6), Civitavecchia (3), Livorno (5), Genoa (1), and Milan (23, including many from the Cimitero Monumentale and some showing off then-modern architecture). - A well-preserved ensemble of amateur travel photographs from a region more frequently captured in military photography but rarely visited at the time by affluent European tourists with high-quality cameras.
Tabletop pop-up display. Printed in four colours; lower cover showing six photographic views of the holy sites and the Hajj. Green cloth spine. Folio (230 x 325 mm). Charming pop-up display designed by the Czech illustrator Vojtech Kubašta for the Iranian children's market. "In 1977, the Artia Foreign Trade Corporation exported nine Kubašta titles in the Farsi language to Iran. Kubašta's panoramic books [were] protected by a Czech patent. Using the Panascopic format but without text, and for the first time combining photographs and illustration, Kubašta designed a pop-up book celebrating Mecca, its pilgrims, and surrounding areas" (E. Rubin, The Life and Art of Vojtech Kubašta). - Corners and extremeties slightly bumped.
8 issues bound in 11 volumes. Each volume with a frontispiece photographic portrait of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, one in colour. With numerous black-and-white and colour photographic illustrations, maps, plans and charts in the text or as plates. Original printed wrappers. Scholarly journal on aspects of natural and cultural heritage relevant to the Sultanate of Oman. Includes occasional remarks on neighbouring countries, such as a list of documents relating to foreign relations between 1790 to 1970, and mentioning the 1896 treaty between Oman and Abu Dhabi which invested the latter with an annual payment of 3,000 dollars to keep the peace in the al-Buraimi area. For the most part the research focuses on prehistoric times and on early settlements along the Gulf. Interestingly, one paper points out a scarcity of prehistoric communities in large areas of the present-day United Arab Emirates, as "a paucity of suitable anchorages such as can be found at Abu Dhabi, Umm an-Nar, or Jazirat Yas [...] and a lack of fresh water along the coast from Abu Dhabi to Qatar probably restricted prehistoric settlement in the area" (vol. 4, p. 32). Apart from prehistoric sites and archaeological findings, the journal addresses matters of social history, discussing the diminishing Shawawi population of Northern Oman, many members of which migrated to more prosperous areas such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Bahrain, as well as questions of biology, including papers on falcon breeding as well as the life of the Arabian tahr on the Musandam Peninsula. - Vol. 3 part 2 has an additional title-page loosely inserted. Wrappers occasionally slightly worn; interior in excellent condition. An academic publication of great scientific value drawing attention to the rich cultural heritage of Oman. OCLC 263595432.
8vo. 14 pp. With a folding map. Original printed wrappers. Only edition of this rare pamphlet. "The only chance of peace, and of immediate advance towards self-governing institutions, appears to lie in so framing the constitution of the country as to give to each the greatest practicable measure of power to manage its own affairs". - An uncommon and important publication, detailing the Morrison-Grady Plan for the division of Palestine into four areas. The plan was based upon the work of British and American "expert delegations", who believed the political aspirations of the Arab and Jewish communities were irreconcilable and the best course of action was to give them their own territories and autonomy, albeit under a central government. - A little light water-staining to top of front wrapper, otherwise very good. The folding map, titled the "Provincial Autonomy Plan", shows the four areas: an Arab Province, a Jewish Province, a District of Jerusalem, and a District of the Negeb.
Oblong folio (255 x 203 mm). Photograph album containing 223 photographs (from 47 x 65 to 178 x 240 mm) mounted on 18 leaves, with 23 loosely inserted photographs, mostly with handwritten annotations in blue ink to versos. Contemporary metal-ring leatherette binding. With a quantity of relevant ephemera. Interesting collection of photographs by a participant in the closing stages of British rule in Palestine. Assembled by Lance Sergeant Ernest Bennet serving in 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards in Palestine, the photographs depict British servicemen on military exercise (Exercise "Bustard"), with Arab inhabitants, riots in Jaffa, military convoys, and troops on patrol. Significant photographs include the British soldiers with a captured Irgun flag and ships docking at Haifa with Jewish Displaced Persons. Bennett often identifies himself with an ink manuscript cross on the photographs. - Extremities of binding lightly rubbed. Includes a small collection of personal papers such as correspondence and payslips.
3 albums (all oblong 8vo) containing a total of 371 original photographs: 1) 71 photos (most 68 x 110 mm or 137 x 87 mm, with a few other variant sizes) mounted on 12 leaves, one loose photograph inserted. 2) 120 photos (most 60 x 85 mm, 90 x 140 mm or 84 x 135 mm, with a few other variant sizes) mounted on 12 leaves. 3) 181 photos (57 x 85 mm, 82 x 56 mm or 65 x 102 mm, with a few other variant sizes) mounted on 18 leaves. Original cloth-backed papered boards or imitation leather card binding; one album lacking covers. Large collection of early images of British military service in the Middle East, with historically important images of Faisal I of Iraq and his brother, Abdullah I of Jordan. One album, compiled by a member of No. 1 Armoured Car Company, is dated 1922 and is mainly focused on Egypt, while the other two contain a wide range of images from both sides of the Jordan, including a large aerial view of the Rest Camp at Jaffa, Amman (a mix of tourist views of the Roman theatre and remains of Turkish military transport), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Sarafand Camp and Ramleh Military Cemetery. The twin implements of British imperial military control in the form of armoured cars (Rolls Royce and Lancier) and aircraft (including Vimy and Vernon) are well represented. King Faisal I of Iraq is seen visiting Amman, while another shows his brother Abdullah I of Jordan arm-in-arm with an unidentified British political figure. - Covers with paper tears and some losses particularly to lower cover; extremities rubbed. A fine survival.
8vo. 46, (2) pp. Arabic text. Original printed wrappers, stapled. First edition. The second of two rare pamphlets published by the Iraqi government, opposing the independence of Kuwait. The first pamphlet, published in English and Arabic, outlined Kuwait's historical connection to Iraq and analysed its "imperialist relations" with Britain. This second one, in Arabic throughout, prints the minutes of the Political Affairs Committee of the Arab League, which met in Cairo on 20 July 1961 to consider Kuwait's request to join the League. - Kuwait emerged as an independent state in June 1961, after sixty-two years as a British protectorate. With a new constitution, it held its first parliamentary elections in 1963, thereby becoming the first Arab state in the Gulf to establish a parliament. Such political developments, married with growing wealth and modernisations in health, culture and finance, helped to make Kuwait the most prosperous state in the Arabian Peninsula. - The Iraqi government argued that the move toward independence was a continuation of Kuwait's relationship with Britain, albeit under a new guise. Furthermore, they felt that the historical links between Iraq and Kuwait entitled the former to control over the latter and, one suspects, a share of its growing wealth. This position, partly detailed in the pamphlet, led to a point of crisis, with Iraq threatening invasion. To the relief of Kuwait, the Iraqis were eventually deterred by the Arab League's promise of military opposition. - Wrappers a little dusty, two thick black lines to upper wrapper, seemingly erasing stamp, another stamp partially visible to lower wrapper (most likely a bookseller's name and address, "Baghdad" is legible). Interior clean and bright. - Rare: LibraryHub locates one copy in the UK at the British Library; OCLC locates copies in Harvard, the University of Toronto, and the NYU Abu Dhabi. OCLC 219629380.
Folio. 10 pp. Sewn as issued. First edition of this rare and highly interesting commercial report. Maclean, Special Commissioner of the Commercial Intelligence Committee of the British Board of Trade, travelled to Muscat in February 1904 and made detailed notes on the trade of Oman (imports, exports, coinage, weights, freight and course of trade). He then visited Bahrain and gathered information on its increasing trade before returning to Karachi via Bushire and Kuwait. The notes on Bahrain provide a valuable insight into its economy, which - less than thirty years before the discovery of oil - still relied strongly on pearl fishing ("the annual value of pearls exported is estimated at £350,000 to £400,000"). - Extremities dusty and slightly fragile, otherwise very good. Withdrawn from the University of Hull with requisite stamps to cover-title. Rare; no copies in LibraryHub. WorldCat locates just one, at the University of Erfurt. Cd. 2281. Macro 1505. Wilson p. 133. OCLC 553574318.
8vo. 31, (1) pp. With 4 black-and-white photographic illustrations and a double-page map of the Arabian Peninsula. Original printed wrappers. Stapled. Rare Arabian-themed issue of the popular "Lesebogen" series. It provides a brief introduction to Saudi Arabia and its history, focusing on the ascent of Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. With a portrait of Ibn Saud as well as images of the Ka'aba, an oil refinery, and a group of watchmen in the desert. The map shows international boundaries, pipelines and railroads, as well as several major cities including Riyadh, Medina, Mecca, Dhahran, Damaskus, Kuwait and Tehran. - Founded by the German publisher Sebastian Lux in 1946 as a series for young readers, the "Lesebogen" booklets quickly proved a sought-after collectible, reaching 4 million copies in the first 3 years of publication alone. When the final issue appeared in 1964, the Lux publishing house had sold a total of 25 million copies. The immense success of the series is considered the result of a demand for well-edited material on complex matters of the world after the intellectual vacuum of World War II among the German public. The writer Otto Zierer (1909-83) was the author of no fewer than 50 such booklets. - Extremities slightly rubbed. Interior in excellent condition. OCLC 804813770.
4to (200 x 260 mm). 2 pp. on a bifolium inserted in an illustrated printed wrapper with the reproduction of a watercolour of Versailles. Printed menu for the meal served on board 1960's Bastille Day flight from Paris to Cairo, performed by Air France with the legendary Sud Aviation Caravelle. The sumptuous menu comprised "langue de boef fumée en gelée", "cote de veau poèlée Toulousaine" and fresh peas in butter, followed by Salade Lapérouse and a selection of cheeses, pastries, and fruit for dessert. The discerning traveller was also offered a range of aperitifs, champagne, French wine, cognac, and liqueurs. - Light soiling and dust-staining to covers, otherwise well preserved.
4to (180 × 240 mm). Arabic manuscript on cream paper. Two books, each with 10 chapters or Maqalahs, bound in one volume. (614) leaves, lacking one leaf from Book 2 (Maqalah 8, Bab 23) and another leaf from Book 2 (Maqalah 10, Bab 23) replaced in 19th century manuscript facsimile. 21 lines, per extensum, written in black naskh, chapter headings and important sections in red, catchwords throughout, each of the 20 chapters with an index of the ‘bab’ within and each with a separate colophon. Later brown lacquered leather over pasteboards, faintly pressed central medallions to covers, rebacked. One of the few existing complete copies of this medical milestone. Exceptionally rare: a fundamental medical work from the Golden Age of Islamic scholarship, preceding and influencing Avicenna's Qanun. Monumentally influential not only in Islamic medicine, this work even had profound impact in the West. It was first translated into Latin by Constantinus Africanus in the 11th century for use as a primary text at Salerno's medical school, and then again in 1127 by Stephen of Antioch. By the 14th century knowledge of the work was so widespread that Al-Majusi is mentioned as one of antiquity's great medical scholars in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. - The text is divided into two distinct books, each of which comprise ten "maqalas" (sections), subdivided into "babs" (chapters). The first section deals with the theory of medicine, including anatomical structures and they body's physiology; the second examines the practical treatment of medicine, the application of medical treatments and surgery. Indeed, this is the earliest known Arabic medical work to provide detailed instructions on surgical procedure. - Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi was a 10th century Persian physician and psychologist, known in the Latin tradition as "Hali Abbas". Born in Ahvaz in southwest Persia, he was perhaps the most celebrated physician in the Eastern Caliphate of the Buwayhid dynasty, becoming physician royal to Emir 'Abdul al-Daula Fana Khusraw (reigned 949-983). The present treatise was compiled under the patronage of Emir Khusraw and is therefore also known as "Al-Malikiyya" ("The Royal Book"). Emir Khusraw founded a hospital in Shiraz and the al-Adudi Hospital in Baghdad to show his support for medical science, and Al-Majusi probably worked at the latter around 981 CE, where he must have composed this, his chief work. He is thought to have died in either 990 or 1010 CE. - The manuscript was produced for a wealthy and important patron in 16th century Persia, written on fine paper by a single scribe who names himself as Salam'ullah bin Habib'ullah bin Muhammad in colophons at the end of the various sections. Many of these colophons also record the date of their completion, showing that the entire codex took two years to produce. - Complete manuscript copies of this text are exceptionally rare: its vast encyclopedic nature made it an expensive commodity in the Middle Ages, and its sheer size usually necessitated it to span several volumes. The present example appears to have been bound as two separate books at the time of copying before being joined together in a single large volume in the 19th century. - Edges a little scuffed; some very minor marginal staining to a few sections, occasional light mottling. A few outer edges repaired (only affecting the text of two leaves). Overall a very clean and attractive specimen. Provenance: sold at Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World sale, 23 October 2019, lot 119 (described without mention of the facsimile leaves).
Small folio (ca. 215 x 337 mm). 64 pp., interleaved by 30 blank pp., 3 of which with manuscript notes. Contemporary full blue leather with giltstamped spine and red spine-label. One of the founding documents of the 20th century's oil industry: the personal copy of Fuad Rouhani (1907-2004), later the first Secretary General of OPEC, with his autograph annotations and signature. - The historic agreement that provided Western oil companies with 50% ownership in Iranian oil production after its ratification in 1954. It expired in 1979. The agreement, which was heavily pressured by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, gave U.S. oil companies complete control over how much petroleum Iran pumped and the price it could sell for, and obliged Iran to compensate the AIOC with a sum of 25 million pounds - £15 million for the AIOC's loss of oil revenue from 1951 to 1954, and £10 million to transfer ownership to Iran of the Naft-e Shah oil fields, a small refinery in Kermanshah and domestic fuel distribution facilities. - Several marginal notes as well as 3 pp. of handwritten notes by Rouhani, listing the oil companies involved in the consortium, including references to later corporate developments such as the merger of Hancock Oil Company with Signal Oil and Gas Company in 1958. Rouhani, who was involved in the negotiations on behalf of Iran, was one of the founders of OPEC a few years later in 1961, and became OPEC's first Secretary General. - Extremities slightly rubbed, first leaf a little fingersoiled. A very good copy of the historic contract that overturned nationalization and placed control over Iran's oil in the hands of a group of international oil companies. Cf. OCLC 922021728.
8vo. (2), 73, (1) pp. Original green printed wrappers. First edition. The author was Director of Revenue and Customs for the Government of Palestine and was put in charge of supervising the religious endowments. Finding no European work on the subject of wakfs, he was compelled to publish his notes on the subject. - A few small splits to spine, small area of loss to rear wrapper, otherwise good. Duplicate stamp and partially erased reference stamp to front wrapper. OCLC 42828458.
8vo. 32 pp. Arabic text. Numerous small illustrations in blue ink. Original green pictorial wrappers, stapled. Later issue of Part I, Section I. A very attractive Arabic ABC, printed in Jerusalem, apparently a re-issue of the first booklet in an educational series titled "The Gardens of Arabic Reading". The title-page states it was developed by a French monk. - Extremities sunned, a little wear to spine around the staples, otherwise very good. Rare: this edition and part do not appear in LibraryHub or OCLC. Cf. OCLC 236006704 (Part 2-3, 1946, in the National Library of Israel)
8vo (150 x 230 mm). (2), XVIII, 257, (3) pp. Contemporary green full calf, spine prettily gilt with title and ornaments, cover with gilt rules and border decoration enclosing a blind-tooled Rocaille centrepiece. Leading edges gilt, gilt inner dentelle, all edges gilt. Red silk divider. First edition of this important study of the plague in Egypt and the quarantine laws to prevent its spread; the "principal work" (Hirsch) of the German physician J. F. Reinhold Grohmann (1784-1867). Educated in Leipzig and Vienna, Grohmann was travelling to Constantinople when the Russo-Turkish War of 1806 stopped short his journey in Bucharest. He remained there and witnessed a particularly severe plague epidemic in 1813. He spent much of his subsequent career in the East before settling in Vienna; from 1831 to 1833 he was a member of a committee convened to formulate new standards for plague epidemics. In his medical work he described the plague as a nervous fever affecting the brain, little influenced by the climate. His son Paul Grohmann would go on to be one of Austria's most famous mountaineers of his age. - Very well preserved in a splendid Austrian master binding. Removed from a baronial library with a crowned monogram stamp "MK" to title-page. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 278. Hirsch II, 661. OCLC 14832432. Not in Wellcome.
Folio (210 x 335 mm). Publisher's original blue printed boards. First edition. A separate annual "Administration Report" on the Gulf region which the British Political Residents submitted to the Indian Viceroy and Governor. The bland official title belies the true value of the series, which has been called "a mine of information on the development of the modern Gulf" (Cambridge Archive Editions). Regularly the reports contain political details of the local sheikhdoms as well as trade information. - The present issue offers a detailed introduction by the resident British Consul and Political Agent C. A. Kemball, commenting on the Sultan, his tours, customs and taxes, slave trade, and an outbreak of disease ("small-pox of a severe type appeared at Shargah in the first week of April, causing, it was reported, about 500 deaths"). Kemball further reports on a "Pearl Dispute" in which "the Sultan was interested, connected with the discovery and sale of a pearl of extraordinary value", which has "at last been amicably settled by a committee consisting of certain of the Trucial Chiefs". The Consul "visited the Arab Coast in December and met the Chiefs of Shargah [Sheikh Saqr bin Khalid Al Qasimi] and Ajman [Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Humaid Al Nuaimi]. The Chief of Abu Dhabi [Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan] was away in the interior, but I saw his son [Khalifa bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan] and other principal men [...]". He also discusses the dispute between the Chiefs of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman over the colonisation of Al Zorah by the Al-Suwaidi, the July 1900 coup by which Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Humaid Al Nuaimi seized power in Ajman, and the newly established joint rulership of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah by Sheikh Saqr bin Khalid Al Qasimi, which would last until 1914. - The "Administration Report on the Persian Gulf" was published under various titles annually between 1875 and 1957. Original specimens are almost unobtainable in the trade. - Binding rebacked with tape. Provenance: removed from the London Library, with their printed label on the upper cover and their stamps (in blind and printed) on title-page and final leaf, accompanied by cancel stamps. Macro, p. xii (s.v. "RAPA": Report on the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency). OCLC 224558510. ZDB-ID 768652-3. Cf. the 1989 Cambridge Archive Editions reprint.