(Scepper, Cornelius Duplicius).MareMagnum
4 134 résultats
8vo. (8), 183, (8) ff., last blank f. With woodcut printer's device on t. p. and three folding woodcut plates. - (Bound after) II: Bruto, Giovanni Michele. De rebus a Carolo V. caesare Romanorum imperatore gestis, oratio. Ibid., 1555. (48) ff. With woodcut printer's device on title-page and different, larger device on last f.; several woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with ms label to spine. Traces of ties. Re-issue of the first edition, published the previous year. This documentation of the North African expeditions of Charles V against Tunis and the Arabian Coast was compiled by the Imperial envoy Scepper (d. 1554) from eyewitness accounts by Nicolas de Villegaignon and Juan Cristobal Calvete de Estrelle, augmented by extracts from Giovio and others. The remarkable views of sieges show the environs of Tunis as well as Algiers and El Kef (Aphrodisium). - Bound at the beginning of the volume is the first edition of Bruto's first work, a polished prose encomium for Charles V, dedicated to his son, King Philip II of Spain. Giovanni Bruto (1515-94), a banished Italian scholar, spent a large part of his life travelling and served as court historian to Emperors Rudolph II and Maximilian II. - A very clean, practically spotless copy. Title page of Bruto stamped; final flyleaf replaced by five modern blank leaves. With fine, contemporary acquisition note by the Austrian statesman and military commander Count Georg von Helfenstein-Gundelfingen (1518-73) on the pastedown, dated London, 1559 ("Emptus Lundini Angliae Metropol."), from the time of his diplomatic mission in Great Britain. "In 1558 Helfenstein was Imperial Governor of Upper Austria, in 1559 Prefect of the Imperial Court. At this time he was sent to England by Emperor Ferdinand to pursue a marriage between Ferdinand's third son, Archduke Charles, with Queen Elizabeth" (cf. ADB XI, 687). Later in the Fürstenberg Library in Donaueschingen. I: BM-STC Dutch 183. Göllner 938. Paulitschke 355, Schottenloher 28.353. Graesse VI, 294. Palau 262.149. Gay 1376 ("précieux recueil"). Cf. Yerasimos 179. Not in Adams, Brunet or Kainbacher. - II: IA 126.080. Adams B 2973. BM-STC Dutch 43. Graesse I, 558. Palau 36.453. Brunet I, 1307 ("Peu commun").
8vo. (8), 312, (8) pp. With woodcut device to title page. Contemporary limp vellum. Extremely rare French edition of the "Kitab al-Jawami", an Arabic work on the interpretation of dreams by an "Achmet, son of Seirim" - almost certainly identical with the 8th century Muslim mystic Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin. The work survived in a Greek translation ("Biblion oneirokritikon") prepared in the 12th century. This is the French translation of Leunclavius's Latin edition, published by Wechel at Frankfurt in 1577: Leunclavius had erroneously attributed the work to "Apomazar" (Albumasar, i.e. Ga`far Abu Ma`sar al-Balhi), which mistake he later acknowledged, though it is repeated by the present edition. "The author Ahmed served as interpreter of dreams to Caliph Al-Mamun around 820 [...] The mediaeval conflation of medicine with astrology originated with the Arabs. Through the Salernitanian school, which had many Arabic works translated, the notion reached Europe in the 11th century, where it remained predominant as late as the 17th and 18th century [...] In 1577 J. Loewenklau published a Latin translation of the Oneirokritiká of Ahmed, whom he calls Apomasar" (cf. Schöll). - Some waterstains and edge flaws, especially to the first and last leaves. 17th c. handwritten ownership of the Discalced Carmelites of Bordeaux on title page; a few old annotations in ink. Several small defects to the vellum binding have been repaired. While the 1577 Latin edition (which Caillet calls "rarissime") has been auctioned three times since 1959, no copy of the present French edition is known in auction records internationally. Caillet I, 153 (note). Graesse, Bibl. mag. et pneum. 97 ("1580" in error). OCLC 1218171. Not in Adams or BM-STC French. Cf. GAL I, 66. Schöll, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur III, 487.
75 original Kodachrome red border colour slides (35 mm film). Private collection compiled by an Aramco engineer active in Saudi Arabia, particularly remarkable due to the exceptionally well retained rich colours of the images - a signature feature of Kodachrome red border slides, which were only produced between the years 1941 and 1959. - Providing a rare insight into the demanding work environment of Aramco personnel, the slides document the cohabitation and collaboration of American and Saudi Arabian staff. They show the exploration for oil and the installment of drilling compounds, as well as large Aramco trucks, frequently carrying explosives. Other images depict groups of workers enjoying a meal in a tent, resting in the shade of a truck, having tea, or playing cards. In addition, the set includes pictures of a small Aramco plane, traditional markets and flocks of sheep, as well as two slides showing scenes from Hadramaut (the only captioned slides). - Extraordinarily well preserved.
Tall 4to (183 x 305 mm). 61 unnumbered ff. Complete Arabic manuscript with two intercalated sections (ff. 18v-23r, 53r-57r) in Ottoman Turkish. Page layout carefully organized; writing luxuriantly penned in an elegant hybrid style mixing tulut and tawqi, associated with manuscripts of highly dignified content or commissioned by a wealthy patron. Black ink, 9 lines per extensum within a gilt "gadwal" border. With a brightly coloured "sarlawh" headpiece (f. 3v) of illuminated bulb-shaped forms in gold, pink and light green, with vegetal twists unfolding on a bright blue background veined with green stems and dotted by reddish and golden buds. Contemporary giltstamped calf binding with fore-edge flap (repaired). A finely preserved manuscript comprising "'arqam" (official notes) related to the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey, occasioned by the successful completion of major restoration work on the building begun in AD 1639 under the appointed local governor Hüseyn Pasha. The manuscript's opening pages contain a summary of "the estates depending on the complex of the mosque", followed by a catalogue of places, buildings or factories belonging to or administrated by it, such as a "masbaga" (dye-works), a "mamlaha" (saltern), a "madbaga" (tannery, here given with the Turkish translation of the term, "bi't-Turki debag-hana"), etc. Leaf 2r lists both the Great Mosque's officials and contractors or stipendiaries, along with their respective wages ("li'l-mudarris asarat darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the principal of the madrasa: ten dirhams a day"; "li-'l waiz saba darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the (official) preacher of the Mosque: six dirhams a day"; to the first Imam of the Mosque four dirhams a day, etc.). The remainder of the text sets out detailed accounts for the summarized information, but also includes liturgical exaltations of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, praised in Koran- and Sunan-derived eulogies. - Dated separately twice: first in Arabic, in the final three text lines of the Turkish section of f. 23r ("the first days [i.e. 1st/10th] of the month of Du'l-Higga of the Islamic year 1058", i.e., between 17 and 26 December 1648 AD); then at the end, last four lines of f. 60r, stating that the manuscript was completed on "the first days of the sacred month of Muharram of the year 1060"AH (i.e., between 4 and 13 January 1650 AD). - A well-preserved, complete 17th-century manuscript drawn up for the recently restored Erzurum Mosque and its extensive appurtenances, likely also in recognition of their status of inalienability, i.e. the establishment of an Islamic waqf, or mortmain regime. Thus, the manuscript records the mosque's administration in both legal and religious terms, in accordance with the Sunni law of the Ottoman Empire.
27 silver prints, various sizes (from 195 x 250 to 95 x 133 mm). Includes three coloured postcards of Mecca. A set of rare photographs, most probably taken by professional photographers travelling to Bahrain around 1955-60. Most of the images are captioned in pencil, showing sites in Al-Muharraq and Manama (a tailor's shop, tobacco shop, hospital court yard Muharraq, Arab windows in Muharraq, wind towers, etc.) and everyday scenes (loading a sheep onto a raft, a falconer, etc.).
8vo. VII, (1), 334 pp., final blank leaf (p. 48 misnumbered "84"). With woodcut illustrations on p. 316 (X6v, showing ostrich and peacock-feather fans). Sumptuous 19th century red grained morocco binding, spine gilt, gilt cover rules and inner dentelle, leading edges gilt. All edges gilt. The unauthorized first edition, first issue (with misnumbered page 48). This original edition, claiming to be translated directly from Arabic, appeared without the name of the author, also omitting from the title the name under which the work would later be known internationally. - Although often classified as an early Gothic novel, "Vathek" is more truly an oriental tale, describing the experience and rewards of succumbing to temptation, and closely reflecting the "foolish, fantastic, egotistical life" of the author who began writing the story in French in January 1782. Despite the fact that Samuel Henley's translation, and the elaborate notes which he provided for the book, were undertaken with his friend Beckford's approval, its publication was contrary to the author's express wishes: Beckford had clearly intended to bring out the French edition first, but his wife had died in Switzerland on 18 May 1786, and though the book was published by Joseph Johnson on 7 June, he was still unaware of its existence by late August. Copies were priced at 4 shillings or 7s. 6d. on large paper, and have the running title of "The History of the Caliph Vathek". Even though Beckford published French editions in Lausanne (December 1786, dated "1787") and Paris (1787), the novel only became well known some thirty years later when Byron declared it to be his Bible. - Provenance: From the library of John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (1840-1929), at Bignor Park, Sussex (his bookplate to front pastedown and ink ownership to flyleaf). Subsequently in the library of the American publisher and collector A(lfred) Edward Newton (1864-1940), whose collection was auctioned by Parke-Bernet in 1941 (bookplate). Later acquired by the American lawyer and collector Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015), a prominent member of the Grolier Club, whose library was dispersed by Sotheby's in December 2015 (his bookplate to front flyleaf). - With the final blank Y8, which is often absent. Occasional light brownstains, but in all an excellent copy, beautifully bound and with fine provenance. ESTC T62055. Rothschild 352. G. Chapman, Bibliography of William Beckford, pp. 22f, i. Summers 543. Garside/Raven/Schöwerling 1786:15. OCLC 1636740.
Large 4to (ca. 220 x 272 mm). (4), (306), (98) ff. Original blindstamped full calf over heavy boards with rubbed remains of gilt border. First edition. Arabic text (without vowel points) throughout, save for the English title-page. "This edition, produced under the patronage of the Bishop of Durham (Shute Barrington), was at first undertaken by Joseph Dacre Carlyle (1759-1806), Cambridge Professor of Arabic in 1795, and vicar of Newcastle in 1801. On Carlyle's death Henry Ford, Lord Almoner Reader in Arabic at Oxford, took up the work, and saw the book through the press in 1811. The text is based, apparently, on the London Polyglot. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts contributed £250 for 1000 copies to be distributed in Africa and Asia. The British and Foreign Bible Society also gave £250, and in addition purchased, or received for distribution, over 1000 copies" (Darlow/M.). - Binding rubbed, front hinge professionally repaired. Undecorated spine shows traces of a removed library label. Old ink shelfmarks and stamp of Grüssau Abbey at Bad Wimpfen's St Peter's Church on verso of title-page. Handwritten ownership of "Eug. Breitling, parochus in Hamburg" (dated 1909) and note "Left by the wish of the Rev. A. Lehmann" at the end. Darlow/Moule II, 1663. OCLC 165689213.
4to. (4), 33, (1) pp., final blank leaf. Bound with the original yellow printed wrappers. Contemporary giltstamped half calf over green cloth boards with giltstamped spine-title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. Rare English-language poem by Burton, purporting to be a translation of an original Persian Sufi text. In an attempt to bring Sufist ideas to the West, Burton claims to be the translator of a Persian poem, to which he gives the English title "Lay of the Higher Law". It is thus a pseudo-translation, pretending to be based on an original Persian text which never existed. - The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufi thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition. Both first and second issues were published by Bernard Quaritch in 1880 for the use of the author and his friends. The present first issue omits the Quaritch name and the date from the title. Few copies of the first issue were sold (possibly fewer than 100), and the remainders were returned to Burton or members of his circle. - Cloth slightly soiled; original wrappers a little duststained. A good copy. Penzer 97. Casada 84. OCLC 57537856.
8vo. (4), VIII, 222, (2) pp. Remains of original grey temporary wrappers. Stored in gilt modern quarter morocco box. First edition of this fundamental study of Wahhabism, not translated into Arabic until 2005 ("Tarih al-wahhabiyin mundu naš'atihim hatta 'am 1809 m.", published in Riyadh by Darat al-Malik 'Abd-al-'Aziz). Corancez had lived in Aleppo for eight years as French consul. He married a Syrian and had first-hand information about the Wahhabi movement in Egypt, Syria, and Baghdad. He published his book soon after the followers of the Moslem reformer Abd-el Wahhab conquered the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1805, an event that fueled a strong interest in the movement throughout Europe. "This sect, which abhorred all loose living, attracted the attention of a number of travellers. Corancez' account of the Wahabis precedes by many years that of Burckhardt, which was published posthumously in 1830, although both men were living and travelling in Syria at the same time, and presumably knew each other" (Atabey). As Burrell comments, "the final merits - and challenges - of this book are [... that] Corancez was prepared to reflect upon a range of issues which remain relevant and controversial, for many people in the Middle East today. These include the nature of Islam and its apparent resistance to self-doubt and the challenge of change, the complex attitude adopted by Muslims to Christians and Jews, the status of the Prophet Mohammed within Islam, the reasons for the enduring nature of despotic rule in the Middle East, the significance of the different status afforded men and women [...]". - Includes the sometimes-lacking errata final leaf. Slight brownstaining as common; untrimmed as issued with the publisher's temporary grey-blue wrapper largely preserved. Spine chipped; upper cover frayed and partly pasted to half-title. The Atabey copy (in contemporary half morocco) sold for £3,800 at Sotheby's in 2002. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 750. Atabey 282. Gay 3461. Quérard I, 143. Not in Blackmer.
4to. 20 volumes: 14 bound in original wrappers, 4 in half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine title, and 2 in half calf with giltstamped spine title. Illustrated throughout. Extensive set, comprising 20 of the first 32 issues of the still-published series that catalogues and describes in detail the treasures of the famous Egyptian Museum, which houses the world's largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities. - Printed in Cairo: W. E. Crum, Nos. 8001-8741 Coptic Monuments (1902); M. Quibell, Nos. 11001-1200 & 14001-14754 Archaic objects t. II (1904); M. Quibell. Nos. 11001-12000 & 14001-14754 Archaic objects t. I (1905); Gaillard & Daressy, Nos. 29501-29733 & 29751-29834 La faune momifiée (1905); Ahmed Bey Kamal, Nos. 23001-23246 Tables d'offrandes t. II (1906); C. C. Edgar, Nos. 33301-33506 Sculptors' studies (1906); Arthur E. P. Weigall, Nos. 31271-31670 Weights and Balances (1908); Ahmed Bey Kamal, Nos. 23001-23256 Tables d'offrandes t. I (1909); Georges Daressy, Nos. 61001-61044 Cercueils des cachettes royales (1909); Georges Bénédite, Nos. 44301-44638 Objets de toilette Iere partie peignes etc. (1911); Henri Gauthier, Nos. 41042-41048 Cercueils anthropoides, premier fascicule (1912); Henri Gauthier, Nos. 41048-41072 Cercueils anthropoides, second fascicule (1913); G. A. Reisner, Nos. 4798-4976 & 5034-5200 Models of ships and boats (1913); Charles T. Currelly, Nos. 63001-64906 Stone implements (1913); Henri Munier, Nos. 9201-9304 Manuscrits Coptes (1916); Charles Kuentz, Nos. 1308-1315 & 17001-17036 Obélisques (1932). - Printed in Vienna: W. von Bissing, Nos. 3426-3587 Metallgefäße (1901); W. von Bissing, Nos. 3618-4000, 18001-18037, 18600, 18603 Fayencegefässe (1902); Josef Strzygowski, Nos. 7001-7394 & 8742-9200 Koptische Kunst (1904); W. von Bissing, Tongefäße. 1. Teil: Bis zum Beginn des Alten Reiches (1913). - Some browning throughout as common. Wrappers rubbed but professionally repaired. Rare. ZDB-ID 441756-2.
Seven-part jumping jack. Stencil-coloured lithograph. 674 x 580 mm. A large, typical Weißenburg jumping jack, the threatening caricature of an oriental character. Western audiences delighted in subjecting enemy warriors to ridicule by pulling the string and making the figure "jump" (cf. "Bilderbogen aus Weißenburg" catalogue, p. 134: a contemporary Turkish soldier by the same publisher). - Some edge and corner flaws. Includes additional illustrated broadsheets with oriental motifs. All of these prints are very rare; a different print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012.
8vo. 3 vols. 35, (1), 293, (9) folded maps, (7), 212, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. First edition. - Three-volume set of this military geographic work on Iran, published by the General Staff of the German Army, collecting valuable information concerning physical aspects, resources, and artificial features of the terrain necessary for planning and operations. This set is complete with its 9 large folded maps and its 212 b/w photographic reproductions. - Moderate age-toning or foxing on wrappers. Text in German. Wrappers in overall good, interior in very good condition.
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.
42 topographic maps, colour-printed. Scale 1:100,000 and 1:253,440 (a quarter-inch to a mile). 680 x 505 mm and 600 x 470 mm. An impressive collection of Iraq maps compiled from the most current aerial photography and produced by the British Army for use in the Persian war theatre. Includes 'Ain Sifni, Aqra, Tel Afar, Salman Pak, Ba'Quba, Sumaika, Penjwin, Halabja, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Dulaim, Erbil and Mosul divisions. - Previously folded. Generally well-preserved.
Small 8vo (175 x 135 mm). [4], 326 (pp. 272f. printed on a single page, pp. 274-279 printed as three folding tables), [1] pp. With large folding map and additional separately printed index in pocket at front. Original green cloth, printed title to spine and upper flap. Ownership inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieut., RAMC, dated April, 1918. First edition of a field guide to Mesopotamia (Iraq), published on behalf of the General Staff in India for the use of officers serving in the Mesopotamian campaign during the First World War, stating on the binding and title-page "for official use only". The guide is divided into eight chapters, dealing with Iraq's history, geography, population, resources, military strength, maritime power, administration and communication respectively. The fifth and sixth chapter also contain valuable information on the Turkish military and maritime strength. Added to the present guide is many newly acquired information not present in the 1915 guide. For example, the "list of routes" in the present guide contains 36 routes from one city to another, compared to 14 routes in the 1915 guide. The routes are shown on the folding map. With the owner's inscription of H. W. Leatham, Lieutenant in the British Royal Army Medical Corps, on the first flyleaf. A few small spots or stains. Binding only very slightly rubbed. Overall in very good condition.
4to. (167) ff. on smoothed paper. With many magic squares containing letters and numbers. Somewhat damaged contemp. blindstamped calf with fore-edge flap. Unsophisticated manuscript for private practical use, showing signs of heavy wear and apparently continued until fairly recently (with several modern ballpoint entries). Many postscripts on the flyleaves and empty leaves at the beginning and end (7 and 5 ff., respectively) are written in Maghribi style, suggesting a northern African provenance, but the main text is written in a different style. Sprinkled throughout the ms. are numerous magical squares, some bearing numbers, others words (such as "Allah", "light", "earth", etc.), sometimes both combined. Many quotations from the Qur'an and Islamic scholars. Continued at the end by other hands, with many prayers and invocations. Occult manuscripts are rare in the Islamic tradition, as the official taboo against such items was very strong. - Incomplete, but supplemented by an early hand. Occasional loose leaves; frequent fingerstaining and browning; numerous marginalia; edge wear throughout.
9 original gelatin silver photographs laid down on thick cream card (likely removed from an album), each measuring approx. 92 by 138 mm. Three captioned and/or numbered in the negative. Rare photographs of Muscat depicting variously, "The Rock of Muscat", the Al-Jalali Fort, and the Al-Mirani Fort. A number of the images are of a military nature, from which it is possible to surmise that the photographer was an officer: a torpedo being fired, a significant cache of weapons and troops (bluejackets) disembarking on the shore to be greeted by a crowd of civilians. Such scenes reflect the British presence in the Gulf of Oman at the time, where they were engaged in combatting the East African slave trade, suppressing the smuggling of arms and generally attempting to exert influence whenever possible. - Some marginal fading, otherwise very good. Original photographs of Muscat from this era are exceedingly rare, especially in this condition. The best-known examples were taken by the professional photographer A. R. Fernandez, but the present set certainly represents an amateur effort, and these are likely to be the only surviving prints of the images.
50 plates with 5 ff. of letterpress text. In original half cloth portfolio. Folio (340 x 465 mm). A fine collection of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman as well as Indian and Asian decorated metal objects, including bowls, basins, water pitchers, and tea pots. Several separate plates show details of the elaborate ornamentation. - Some foxing; slight defects to portfolio flaps. Removed from the Vienna University of International Trade with their cancelled stamps on the portfolio. OCLC 3124615.
8vo. 54 pp. - Bound with (II): Neueste ausführliche historische und geographische Beschreibung des Caspischen Meeres, Daria-Stroms, und der übrigen da herum liegenden Länder, Städte und Völcker [...]. Danzig, no printer or publisher, 1723. (10), 112 pp. With an engraved double-page frontispiece of Derbent. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title. I: First German edition: a rare account of the Afghan invasion of Safavid Persia that began in 1722. Anonymously translated from the French "Relation historique du détrônement du roi de Perse, et des révolutions arrivées pendant les années 1722, 1723, 1724 et 1725", it describes the reign of Shah Mahmud Hotak, who overthrew the Safavid dynasty to briefly become King of Persia from 1722 until his death in 1725. Includes observations on the 1722 siege of Isfahan. - II: A similarly rare description of the Caspian Sea, including an account of the 1722/23 Persian campaign of Peter the Great, involving the creation of the Caspian Flotilla at Astrakhan. The war ended with the 1723 Treaty of St Petersburg, which recognized the Russian annexation of the west and south coasts of the Caspian Sea. - Inner hinges weakened; some browning and foxing. Still a good copy. - Provenance: handwritten initials "J.H." to recto of final text leaf. Contemporary bookplate of the consistorial councillor Benedikt Hugo Math (d. 1752) to pastedown; 20th c. bookplate of Eckhard Günther to flyleaf. I: VD 18, 10893008. OCLC 837836269. Cf. Wilson 187. - II: VD 18, 1143094X. Miansarof, Bibliographia Caucasia et Transcaucasia I, 1042. OCLC 470145584.
Folio. 2 vols. (2 [instead of 4?]), 993 pp. With an addendum slip facing p. 197. Brown calf, with "Book 1" and "Book 2" in gilt on the spines. A rare and extraordinary snapshot of the North-West Frontier of British India (now comprising parts of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) between 1840 and 1845, the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War. It contains abstracts of official correspondence written during the period and preserved at the Punjab Secretariat, including documents on the 1842 retreat from Kabul, British relations with Dost Mohammed Khan, and the Sino-Sikh War of 1841-42. While the focus is military and political, there is also much of interest on legal and financial matters, public health, policing, and other matters. The North-West Frontier States Agency was one of the colonial agencies of British India exercising indirect rule. - Lacking the title-page and pp. 3-4 as noted, with pp. 1-2 loose and damaged (with the loss of almost half of their text); repairs to the upper outside corners of pp. 983-993 with some loss of text. Slight browning. Charles Allen, Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier (2012).
8vo. VIII, 524 pp. Contemporary full sheepskin with giltstamped spine title. First American edition of the Qur'an, produced by Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society and the largest and most important Massachusetts publishing house during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Thomas adapted a translation of the French orientalist André Du Ryer for the American market, with occasional notes, including Turkish traditions. Du Ryer had been the envoy of the French king at Alexandria and Constantinople in the 17th century. His translation was the best available, and was frequently reprinted and translated into other European languages throughout the 18th century. - Some browning and light foxing throughout. Small hole slightly affecting text to leaf Aa6; quires Ff and Gg transposed; a tear in leaf O4 professionally repaired. Provenance: From the collection of the Massachusetts businessman Henry E. Call (fl. 1860s) with his ink ownership to title-page and oval stamps to flyleaf; front pastedown has mid-19th century note of acquisition for $2.00 from E. P. Dutton's Boston bookshop, founded in 1852. Shaw & Shoemaker 10684. Europe and the Arab World 32. OCLC 3548445. Not in Chauvin.
8vo. XLVIII, 582 pp. Contemporary dark green half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. First edition of a work on Islamic texts about the Christian crusades, by the French orientalist Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (1795-1867). It gives a French translation of numerous texts and extracts relating to the crusades originally written in Arabic from the 11th to the 15th century by Arab historians, with occasionally some passages in Arabic in the notes. Most of the texts deal with major battles and sieges, Saladin, and victories and deaths of important leaders. The preliminaries include brief biographies of some of the major authors, including Ali ibn al-Athir, Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, Ibn al-Adim and many more. The texts are arranged into different chapters, each devoted to a different stage of the crusades. - The book is in fact the publication of a part of the extensive manuscript by Georges-François Berthereau (1732-94), who collected numerous Arab texts on the crusades, but the publication was prohibited during years following the French Revolution. The book was published as a part of the Biblithèque des croisades, as an addition to the well-known Histoire des croisades, written by Joseph François Michaud (1767-1839). - With a stain on the half-title and some staining throughout, otherwise in very good condition. Hage Chahine 3963. Not in Blackmer.
Diazoprint map, 111.5 x 75.4 cm. Scale 1:1,000,000. Folded. Highly detailed map of the Arabian Peninsula's coast from Abu Dhabi (Abu Al Abyad island) and Ras al-Khaimah in today's United Arab Emirates to Ras al-Hadd and south to Salala in Dhofar, Oman. The legend identifies wells, towns and villages, wadis, scarps, edges of sand, quicksand, and tracks. Political boundaries are omitted. The latest surveys incorporated are those undertaken by Nick Fallon, Douglas Michael Morton and René Wetzel in the mid- and later 1950s, suggesting that the present map - identified as "TP_773 (Revised)" in the lower left corner but not traced in any institutional collection worldwide - was one of a very small number produced for the internal use of a geological exploration team in the 1960s, when the first discoveries of oil in commercial quantities intensified exploration efforts both in the soon-to-be-independent Trucial States and in Oman. - Light staining and wear; a few minor tears professionally repaired.
5 photographs, comprising 2 albumen photograph cartes-de-visite (90 x 62 mm) and 3 silver gelatin and albumen photographs (137 x 184 mm). Two with press release captions on the reverse. A rare set of photographs from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, including two cartes-de-visite of Sultan Barghash bin Said al-Busaidi (1836-88) and three photographs of Sultan Khalifa II bin Harub Al-Said (1879-1960). - The Sultanate of Zanzibar was created in 1856 following the death of Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi (1791-1856), who had ruled both Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. The Sultans of Zanzibar were of a cadet branch of the Al Said Dynasty of Oman and retained close ties. Sultan Barghash was the son of Saïd bin Sultan and was the second sultan of Zanzibar, ruling from 1870 until his death in 1888. Sultan Barghash is shown both in photo portrait (by A. Liebert of Paris) and seated together with five members of his retinue (by Maull & Co. of London). The other three photographs comprise a photo portrait of Sultan Khalifa taken in about 1911, and two press photographs of Khalifa on diplomatic visits. The first shows a visit to the Government House in Cape Town in 1929, where the Sultan Khalifa is accompanied by his son and future successor, Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Said (1911-63). The second was taken in 1937 when Sultan Khalifa travelled to London for the coronation of Britain's George VI. - A hint of fading on the albumen photographs, otherwise well preserved.
4to (170 x 225 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished paper. 77 ff. Black and occasional red ink, 21 lines, per extensum, extensive marginalia throughout, a few smaller interleaved sheets of commentary. Contemporary brown papered boards with rebacked leather spine. An extensive Arabic astronomical manuscript in seven parts, comprising: - 1. (fols. 1-18) a rare treatise on the astrolabe, providing the names of its various parts and segments and instructions as to its use, by Abd al-Hakim al-Qaysari (Sweilam Zadeh, Abdalhalim al-Qaysari Söylemzade). - 2. (fols. 19-33) Muhammad Abi Bakr (Sajjili Zadeh), Taeliqat ealaa risalat al-adab 'l-i-Tash Kabry Zadeh (a commentary on Tashkoprizadeh). - 3. (fols. 34-42) Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Arabshah al-Isfara'ini (d. 944 H/1537 CE), Sawf ealaa risalat alayjy. - 4. (fols. 43-62) Ahmed bin Omar bin Ali, Hashiat ealaa Tash Kabry Zadeh (brief remarks on Tashkoprizadeh). - 5. (fols. 63-66) Ejalat kfayyt liwasayil alssayilin liwazayif alkalam (Sufficient urgency for the questioners' means for speech functions). - 6. (fols. 67-71) Sharah alshamsya (Explanation of the sun). - 7. (fols. 71-77) Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Qaz Abadi, Sharah risalat al-adab li-'l-Barkawi (Explanation of the commentary on manners by al-Barkawi). - Binding a little stained; paper slightly brittle along the edges, but clean. Cf. GAL S II, 1017.
