Al-Shanti, Ahmad M. S.MareMagnum
2 951 résultats
V, (1), 51, (1), l. bl. f. With portrait frontispiece (HRH King Faisal) and 13 folding maps in pocket. Original printed green cloth binding. Rare Saudi government publication on iron ore deposits (mainly Goethite and Hematite) in Western Arabia. As stated in the foreword, "Bulletin 2 is the first geological report on an occurrence of a single metallic mineral to be published by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources". Wadi Fatima, east of Jiddah on the Arabian Red Sea coast, is a microcosm of the geology of the Jiddah area. Rocks ranging in age from 800-million-year-old metamorphic rocks to Tertiary lava flows are exposed, and illustrate the geological richness of western Saudi Arabia. "The Wadi Fatima ore deposits promise to become one of the main sources of iron for the developing steel industry of the Kingdom". Binding rubbed with some discoloration to spine, otherwise fine. OCLC 4053546.
Small 4to. Lithographed title page and index; 34 photo-lithogr. plates, hightlighted in gilt and red. Original red and gilt cloth. Only edition of this lavishly produced series of portraits showing the Ottoman Sultans from the 14th to the 19th century. Captioned in French and Arabic. The editor, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1804-87), was born in Lebanon to an Arab Maronite family. He converted to Islam in 1860 and spent much of his later life in Istanbul as the editor of an Arab language newspaper, "El-Jawa’ib". In recent years, scholars seem to have taken a renewed interest in Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq and his role in the "nahda", or Arab renaissance of the 19th century. Several biographies have been published recognizing his struggle to modernize the Arabic language and educational system, as well as his defence of Arabic culture and language against the Turkization movement across the 19th century Ottoman Empire. As such he is considered one of the founders of modern Arabic literature and journalism. - Minor foxing to reverse of plates, otherwise in perfect condition. OCLC 15623629.
12mo. 52 pp. Wrapper title printed within decorated borders. Extremely rare autobiography of As'ad al-Shidyaq (1798-1830, brother of the writer Faris), who came under the influence of the American Congregationalist missionaries in Beirut when he was employed by them as a teacher and translator, and embraced Protestantism in defiance of the Maronite Patriarch. In retaliation, the Patriarch imprisoned and tortured al-Shidyaq in a convent in the Lebanese mountains, starving him to death in 1830. Al-Shidyaq's autobiography, the story of his conversion and persecution, was published three years later by the CMS press of Malta. "This of course is also anti-Catholic, or rather anti-Maronite. It has been quite erroneously attributed to his brother Faris al-Shidyaq by a number of eminent authorities, who have cited it as the latter's earliest work. In fact it is clearly by As'ad himself, being written in the first person, and his mentor Isaac Bird has recorded that it was written in 1826 at his (Bird's) request, 'that we might make use of it to his advantage in future time'; English translations were published in Boston (USA) in 1827 and 1839 and it was later incorporated into Bird's biography of As'ad, published in 1864" (Roper, p. 239). - A clean copy in very good condition. Copies known only at the British Library and Glasgow University. Zenker I, 1658. Sarkis 1105. Brockelmann S II, 868. Ellis I, 323. Alwan 18. Agius 43f. Roper (Arabic printing in Malta 1825-1845) no. 49.
17, (1), 174 pp. Contemporary full calf binding. All edges red. 4to. Early scholarly edition, with Latin translation and notes. "The 'Lamiyat al-`Agam', a famous poem by at-Tograi'i [...]. It was first edited by Golius together with the Sentences of Ali in 1629. This is the first one accompanied by Arabic scholia, and also the first readily available edition containing Golius's translation: Anchersen's edition of 1707, which published this translation for the first time, was lost at sea except for six copies" (Smitskamp). - Some foxing and browning; glue-shading to endpapers. Old bookplate (alpha and omega with fish) on front pastedown; stamp of the Paris Jesuit Congregation on title page. Binding rubbed and bumped at extremities; spine rather chipped. No copies recorded at auction within the last decades. GAL I, S. 286. Smitskamp (PO) 318. Schnurrer 200. Graesse VI, 167. OCLC 16080863.
8vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. (22), 233, (89) pp. (4), 170, (2) pp. With full-page engraving. Contemporary full calf with handwritten spine label. The first Arabic-Latin edition of the great poem "Lamiyat al-´Agam" by Hassan ibn ´Ali al-Tugra'i (c. 1061-1121), and one of the first Arabic books ever printed in England: "a complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). Contains not only the text with an extensive commentary, but also a complete index of the words appearing in the poem and the apparatus, as well as a second part, an Arabic prosody by Samuel Clarke entitled "Scientia metrica & rhythmica, seu Tractatus de prosodia Arabica" (also issued separately, but here forming part of the Tugrai edition). Edward Pococke (1604-91) was the first scholar of Arabic at Oxford; the Oxford oriental scholar Samuel Clarke (1624-69) also served his University as printer. - Light rubbing to binding. Front inner hinge split; wants front flyleaf. Slight paper browning; stamps of the École Sainte Genevieve and of the Jesuit college of St. Aloysius, Jersey, on title-page; pretty engraved bookplate and contemporary bibliographical note to pastedown. A good copy. GAL I, p. 247. Lowndes 2692. Schnurrer 197. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23019.
8vo. 2 parts in 1 vol. (22), 233, (89) pp. (4), 170, (2) pp. With full-page engraving. Modern vellum. The first Arabic-Latin edition of the great poem "Lamiyat al-´Agam" by Hassan ibn ´Ali al-Tugra'i (c. 1061-1121), and one of the first Arabic books ever printed in England: "a complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). Contains not only the text with an extensive commentary, but also a complete index of the words appearing in the poem and the apparatus, as well as a second part, an Arabic prosody by Samuel Clarke entitled "Scientia metrica & rhythmica, seu Tractatus de prosodia Arabica" (also issued separately, but here forming part of the Tugrai edition). Edward Pococke (1604-91) was the first scholar of Arabic at Oxford; the Oxford oriental scholar Samuel Clarke (1624-69) also served his University as printer. - Variously browned due to paper. An untrimmed copy. GAL I, p. 247. Lowndes 2692. Schnurrer 197. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23019.
Small 4to. (20), 46 pp. With engr. title vignette. Contemp. vellum. "Édition estimée, et dont les exemplaires sont peu communs, parce que (selon Vogt) ils ont presque tous été perdus en mer" (Brunet). The accounts regarding the precise number of copies salvaged from the wreck vary: Schnurrer mentions 5 or 6, Ehrencron-Müller states 50. In any case, the number of copies extant is very small and thus the book is extremely rare. It contains the poem "Lamiyat al-Agam" by al-Hasan Ibn-Ali at-Tugrai (c. 1061-1121) in the Arabic original with a Latin translation and copious commentary by the Danish theologian Matthias Anchersen (1682-1741). "A complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). - Some browning and foxing due to paper. The author's personal copy, inscribed to his brother Ansgar on the front flyleaf. Smitskamp 318. Schnurrer 199. Ehrencron-Müller I, 113. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23020. Cf. GAL I, p. 247 (the 1717 ed.).
4to. 17, (1), 174 pp. Modern calf. Upper edge red. The poem "Lamiyat al-Agam" by al-Hasan Ibn-Ali at-Tugrai (c. 1061-1121) in the Arabic original with a Latin translation and extensive commentary. "A complaint over the unfortunate circumstances of his times and over his own lot" (cf. GAL). "The 'Lamiyat al-'Agam', a famous poem by At-Tograi [...] It was first edited by Golius together with the Sentences of Ali in 1629. This is the first [edition] accompanied by Arabic scholia, and also the first readily available edition containing Golius’ translation: Anchersen's edition of 1707, which published this translation for the first time, was lost at sea except for six copies" (Smitskamp). - Some creasing; a very clean copy. Lower edge untrimmed. GAL I, p. 247. Smitskamp 318. Schnurrer 200. Brunet V, 875. Ebert 23021.
8vo. XVI, 336 pp. Original blind-stamped cloth. Highly uncommon: the first English edition, translated and abridged by St. John Bayle from Perron's French translation of the author's "Tashhidh al-adhhan bi-sirat al-`Arab wa-al-Sudan". The book is divided into two sections - Dafur and the Wadai - and is an informative anecdotal account of the regions, including detailed accounts of the lineage and customs of the respective royal families and inhabitants. Also mentions the pilgrimage to Mekka undertaken by the author's grandfather and his subsequent life in Jeddah. - Slightly rubbed. Only two copies in institutional possession: OCLC lists records for Oxford and Cambridge only. OCLC 265431715.
Large 4to (187 x 274 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. (18) pp., 31 lines per extensum. Written in clear, neat black naskh, emphases picked out or underlined in red; catchwords. Modern brown leather binding with blind rules and stamped central medallions to both covers. A late 14th or early 15th century mathematical manuscript, probably written in Iran or possibly the Eastern Mediterranean. The Persian scholar Nasir al-Din Muhamad ibn Muhamad ibn al-Hasan at-Tusi (1201-74) was known for his extensive work on science, physics, mathematics and theology. He is often credited with the invention and identification of trigonometry as an independent division of mathematics (cf. GAL I, 509), and the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named after him. As well as compiling many important works in these fields, he is also known for translating the definitive Arabic editions of Euclid, Ptolemy and Archimedes' works, among others. The only other copy of his present work, treating multiplication and division in algebra and arithmetic, survives in the Topkapi Seray in Istanbul (MS 3327: a more extensive version in 3 books and 11 sections, 51 ff.). - Light dampstaining throughout, mostly confined to lower borders; edges frayed. GAL S I, p. 930, no. 36a. B. A. Rosenfeld & E. Thsanoglu, Mathematicians, Astronomers and other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and their Works (Istanbul 2003), pp. 211-219, M18. Krause, Stambuler Handschriften Islamischer Mathematiker, p. 497, no. 12.
8vo. 12, 483, (1) pp. Contemporary half calf on four raised bands with sparsely gilt spine; pink cloth covers and marbled endpapers. First printing of this prose and verse anthology on the subject of Islamic ethics, containing eight chapters on virtues and another eight on vices. - Al-Watwat al-Kutubi (1234-1318), celebrated as an entertaining compiler, lived in Mamluk Egypt all his life. Unlike many writers of his era was not a member of the Mamluk administration, but rather a wealthy bookseller (hence his byname "Al-Kutubi", "the Bookseller"). - Binding slightly rubbed; paper evenly browned as common. Blank first page has contemporary ink ownership of Fernand Patorni (b. 1837), chief interpreter in Algiers and author of "Les Tirailleurs algériens dans le Sahara" (1884). GAL II, 55. OCLC 253615769.
144 pages. Index. Discography. "The Greatest Singer and Entertainer of the Century - Bessie Smith comes alive again in this unique collection of 30 of her most famous songs. Not just copies of sheet music, here are actual transcriptions of her most famous songs, with piano reproductions and guitar chords... Gunther Schuller contributes notes on her singing style - perhaps the only good critical description of her art. This is the ideal companion to the record set of Bessies's complete recordings." - from back cover. Songs include: It Makes My Love Come Down, Long Road, Jailhouse Blues, Dirty No-Gooder's Blues, Down in the Dumps, In the House Blues, Shipwreck Blues, Safety Mama, Take Me For a Buggy Ride, Blue Blues, Wasted Life Blues, Standin' In the Rain Blues, Squeeze Me, Baby Won't You Please Come Home, Pickpocket Blues, Backwater Blues, Young Woman's Blues, See if I'll Care, New Orleans Hop Scop Blues, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, Baby Doll, Please Help Get Him Off My Mind, Reckless Blues, My Man Blues, Poor Man's Blues, Hard Time Blues, Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do, Cake Walking Babies from Home, Gimme a Pigfoot, Gulf Coast Blues. Unmarked with average wear. Binding intact. Sound copy. Book
4to. 213 (instead of 215) ff. (lacking ff. 212-213 and final blank). Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title border and two nearly full-page woodcuts in the text. 19th century half calf (restored) with giltstamped spine. First edition. "The earliest Syrian and Armenian grammar printed" (IA). Extremely rare and early work of oriental studies, also important for the history of music due to the first illustrated description of the bassoon, which the author's uncle, Afranio degli Albonesi, had invented early in the century and had first demonstrated in 1532. - The canon regular Teseo Ambrogio degli Albonesi (often simply referred to as Ambrogio or Ambrosius; 1469-1540) taught the Syriac language. This introduction to the oriental languages - his only publication - is a mixture of lingustic treatise and a collection of exotic alphabets. If Albonesi's results are not in every case correct, they remain of great importance to the history of linguistic scholarship: the "Introductio" constitutes one of those works which inspired the budding discipline of comparative philology to undertake further research. "His work offers a detailed survey of the Syriac and Armenian languages from various points of view, and a short notice about the other exotic languages (Samaritan, Arabic, Coptic, Cyrillic, Ethiopic) - these languages are all discussed with examples written by hand in the earlier chapters, and throughout the work we find blank spaces where such words had still to be filled in" (Smitskamp). Some of the blank spaces mentioned have been filled in in ink by a contemporary hand. Lacks the final two pages of text (including the colophon). Slight worming to upper margin near end. Edit 16, CNCE 816. Adams A 957. Mortimer 20. BM-STC Italian 16. Eitner I, 91. MGG III, 1721. Smitskamp 240. IA 104.625. Brunet I, 229. Graesse I, 59.
4to. 212 (instead of 215) ff. (lacking ff. 209, 212-213 and final blank). Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title border and two nearly full-page woodcuts in the text. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. spine title. Traces of ties. First edition. "The earliest Syrian and Armenian grammar printed" (IA). Extremely rare and early work of oriental studies, also important for the history of music due to the first illustrated description of the bassoon, which the author's uncle, Afranio degli Albonesi, had invented early in the century and had first demonstrated in 1532. - The canon regular Teseo Ambrogio degli Albonesi (often simply referred to as Ambrogio or Ambrosius; 1469-1540) taught the Syriac language. This introduction to the oriental languages - his only publication - is a mixture of lingustic treatise and a collection of exotic alphabets. If Albonesi's results are not in every case correct, they remain of great importance to the history of linguistic scholarship: the "Introductio" constitutes one of those works which inspired the budding discipline of comparative philology to undertake further research. "His work offers a detailed survey of the Syriac and Armenian languages from various points of view, and a short notice about the other exotic languages (Samaritan, Arabic, Coptic, Cyrillic, Ethiopic) - these languages are all discussed with examples written by hand in the earlier chapters, and throughout the work we find blank spaces where such words had still to be filled in" (Smitskamp). In this copy, these blank spaces have been filled in in ink by a contemporary hand. - Near-contemporary ownership, in Hebrew cursive, to title page. Minor edge tear to fol. 191. Binding loosened; lacks four pages in the final quire (including the colophon). Edit 16, CNCE 816. Adams A 957. Mortimer 20. BM-STC Italian 16. Eitner I, 91. MGG III, 1721. Smitskamp 240. IA 104.625. Brunet I, 229. Graesse I, 59.
Folio (332 x 218 mm). With engraved frontispiece, portrait of the author, and 140 engravings, all but one full-page. Contemporary full vellum with manuscript lettering to spine. First edition of this rare Italian riding school, covering all aspects of horse breeding, training and care, lavishly illustrated with 140 engravings. A second, enlarged edition, also apparently rare, was published in 1723 under the title "Opera". The work is divided into five parts: the first, "Regole di cavalcare" with one plate; the second, "[...] ove si tratta del difficilissimo mestiere dell' imbrigliare"; the third, "[...] dell' istesso", with 95 illustrations of bits, etc.; the fourth, "Disegni de' circoli" with 10 diagrams and "Ritratti d'uomini illustri" with 27 portraits, about half of which show mounted figures; the fifth, "[...] intorno alla preservativa, conservatione, e medicina per cavalli" with 7 plates, also including other animals (such as a rhinoceros). - Errata leaf at beginning, some leaves browned or spotted. No copy in auction records of the last decades. Huth p. 28. Brunet I, 159. Graesse I, 68.
8vo (145 x 215 mm). 70 pp. In Ottoman script within rules, lithographed throughout. The heading (serlevha) and borders of the first double page are printed in gilt. Bound in contemporary wrappers, taken from a volume, and stored loosely within protective giltstamped cloth boards (modern spine). First and only printed edition of one of the earliest Islamic travel accounts of China and the first description of the Silk Road in the Islamic world, pre-dating even Ibn Battuta's Rihla. - The present work, one of the most complete descriptions of Ming Dynasty China in the 16th century, was originally written in Persian in 1516. Completed and issued soon after Khitai reached Istanbul in 1520, it was later translated into Turkish by Hezârfen Huseyin (d. 1691) and became influential also in the Turkish-speaking Muslim world. According to the colophon, the book was finished on the last day or days of Rabî I 922 (3 May 1516), while the preface contains a panegyric on Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520-66). - Based on the author's personal observations, the book's 20 chapters discuss roads, cities and castles, stores, brothels and prostitutes, eunuchs, legislation, administration, jails, law and law-abidance, the military, agriculture, magazines, the imperial throne, the various religions, celebrations, entertainments, wonderful arts and strange cures, schools, persons from the West, Qalmaqs, gold, silver and currency, as well as Chinese temples and other matters. Thus Ali Akbar's book conveyed to a reader of the 16th century a fair impression of China: as a guidebook it could serve as a companion especially for Muslim merchants travelling along the Silk Road. - The Chinese scholar Lin Yih-Min describes Ali Akbar as a "Turkish businessman" (58) who probably journeyed only to Central Asia, where he gathered the information for his book before returning then to Turkey. The book was dedicated to Sultan Suleiman, and as the author's name suggests a Shi'ite background, it is possible that Ali Akbar may have wished to impress on the Ottoman court the difficult conditions of the Shi'ite community living in Istanbul, among a dominant Sunnite community. - Also known as the "Khataynameh" ("Book on China"), the work aroused considerable interest not only in the Ottoman Empire but also in Europe in the 19th century. The book's immediate impact is difficult to estimate, but astonishingly the Ottoman Empire, here referred to as "Lumi", would figure quite prominently in Chinese sources after a first embassy arrived in Beijing in 1524, four years after the book was first issued; other embassies followed until 1618. Thus, it is entirely possible that Ali Akbar's book had a direct influence on Ottoman diplomacy and commerce in China and Central Asia. - A few holes in the last leaf (minor loss of a few letters); some browning. A few contemporary pencil marginalia and calligraphic examples on the last blank page. Overall a good copy. Özege 20686. Cf. Ralph Kauz, "One of the Last Documents of the Silk Road: The Khataynameh of Ali Akbar", The Silk Road 1 (2005), p. 59f. Lin Yih-Min, "A comparative and critical study of Ali Akbar’s Khitây-nâma with reference to Chinese sources", Central Asiatic Journal 27 (1983), pp. 58-78.
Single sheet of wove paper folded once to form two leaves (243 x 195 mm). Arabic calligraphy and English inscription on polished oriental paper, window-mounted vertically on first leaf, text in Hutton's hand written vertically on first leaf and continued horizontally on second. A specimen of Arabic calligraphy by an Egyptian Turk named Ali Effendi, inscribed in English in Effendi's hand "To Mrs Catherine Hutton", with the note "Madam when I am Ali Bey I shall be glad to see you in Egypt. I am yours [sic] sincere friend Ali Effendi". Catherine Hutton's accompanying notes, dated 1826 and 1829, state that Effendi "is a young, handsome, clever Egyptian-Turk, who had been sent to England by his beloved 'Grand Pasha' to learn our language, manners &c, and transport them to Cairo. His proficiency in writing English is seen in the following autograph, the English part of which he wrote for me". Hutton further notes that Effendi "was fond of the theatre, and spoke with rapture of the beautiful actresses. He looked upon English horsemanship with the utmost contempt. Stooping forward, and hanging down his head, he said 'Your men ride like this'. Then, rising to his accustomed height, he added, 'I throw my jereed on full gallop, and stop the moment when I should touch the wall'. Ali Effendi drank wine like an infidel". Hutton mentions three of Ali Effendi's companions: Mohamed Effendi, "who is studying naval architecture", Selim Aga, "who is studying mathematics and military engineering", and Omar Effendi, "who is qualifying himself for diplomacy". That all four men spent some years in England is confirmed by The Nautical Magazine for 1832, which adds that they were aged between 22 and 25 years of age and that they arrived in 1826. From an early age the novelist Catherine Hutton (1756-1846) was a keen letter-writer. "The Coltman family of Leicester and Mrs Andre of Enfield, Middlesex, were lifelong correspondents. She also wrote to her cousin the mathematician Charles Hutton (1737-1823), Sarah Harriet Burney (Fanny Burney's half-sister), the radical author Sir Richard Phillips, Eliza Cook, and, latterly, Edward Bulwer Lytton, and Charles Dickens. Her letters are full of anecdotes and shrewd observations on her acquaintances and are seasoned with a self-deprecating wit, their direct address and dry cheerfulness recalling the epistolary style of Jane Austen. Hutton delighted in Austen's novels, and believed that 'her character is either something like mine, or what I would wish mine to be'. In an account of her occupations written in July 1844, Catherine Hutton described some of the other activities which absorbed her: needlework, including 'patchwork beyond all calculation'; pastry and confectionery; collecting prints of costumes in eight large volumes; and collecting more than 2000 autographs. Bridget Hill rightly concludes that her life 'illustrates the particular problems of the educated, intelligent, single daughter of the middle class' in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain' (Oxford DNB). - In very good condition.
4to. XV, (5), 80 pp. Modern red half cloth with giltstamped title to spine. The sayings of Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad and one of the central figures in Shia Islam, who ruled as the fourth caliph from 656 to 661. Text in Arabic, Persian, and Latin. Based on a Weimar manuscript, this was an early effort by the German scholar J. G. Stickel (1805-96), a student of Silvestre de Sacy, to establish himself as an oriental philologist at Jena University. - Deaccessioned from the Bamberg University Library with their stamps and shelfmark label. OCLC 4423742.
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).
4to. (4), 74 pp. With 28 plates with 55 black-and-white photographic prints, as well as 1 plan of Burchhardt's itinerary on page 9. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Rare travelogue of Yemen, enriched with striking photographs. In Arabic and German parallel text. Prepared by Ahmed ibn Muhammad al-Garadi, the secretary, Arabic teacher and companion of the German explorer Hermann Burchardt (1857-1909), the book describes Burchardt's travels in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, where he was ambushed and killed by gunmen in December 1909. Containing "important ethnographical information on crafts and the Jewish population", the account also boasts a wealth of photographs "of great documentary value" (Speake), including city views and landmarks of Sanaa, Taizz, and Mocha, such as tower houses in Sanaa's old town, the Ashrafiya Mosque, the Grand Mosque in Mocha, and the ruined palace of Sultan Hasan, as well as pictures of local children, a group of Jews studying scripture in the synagogue, several men sitting around a water pipe, bedouins, farmers, and workers. The images impressively portray the destitution of the Yemenite population in the early 20th century. - In addition, the work includes annotations to the text of the travelogue, a list of examples of the Sanaa idiom, and an index prepared by the German orientalist Eugen Mittwoch, who also translated the Arabic text. Published as a festschrift for the Vierter Deutscher Orientalistentag in Hamburg. - A few edge flaws to wrappers professionally repaired. Lower right corner of first two leaves chipped, but interior very well preserved in general. Never seen at auction. Speake, Literature of Travel and Exploration III, 1305. OCLC 907363736.
Landscape 4to (28.4 x 38.2 cm). 7 hand-coloured etched plates. Red half morocco by Riviere, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. An important work showing the progression of a race horse through successive stages of life, at one point pampered and adored, at another rejected and scorned. - Expert repairs to plate corners, light marginal finger-soiling, occasional browning, plates 2 and 4 with very minor marginal tears with two very small repairs to versos. Dixon 80. Mellon/Snelgrove 62. Tooley, Coloured Plates 48.
Landscape folio (25 x 34.4 cm). Engr. title page, 7 hand-coloured engraved plates by Alken, plate 5 with J. Whatman 1819 mark. Later red hard-grained half morocco, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt, rebacked preserving spine. First edition, early issue. The first of Alken's works to have a title page, "lacking from a great many copies" (Dixon). Signed Ben Tally Ho, the title good-humouredly explains that the plates are a reply to Robert Frankland's "Indispensable Accomplishments", a set of six Leicestershire hunting prints published in June 1811. Where Frankland blames the horse for any failures, Alken aims to show how a perfectly good horse can be handicapped by an "unqualified" or untrained rider. - Light browning to sky areas and plate margins. Provenance: Alfred N. Beadleston (bookplate). Dixon 4 (two plates watermarked 1819). Mellon/Snelgrove 3. Schwerdt I, 20 (1813 watermark). Siltzer 69 & 74. Tooley, Coloured Plates 44.
4to. Engraved title with circular vignette, 18 hand-coloured etched plates, uncut in original boards, worn at joints at extremities. First edition. An uncut copy in original pictorial boards of the first book published under Alken's name. He mentions his "habit of riding young and violent horses with fox-hounds", and of having a mare which caused him "four or five falls a day upon an average, and all in consequence of her violent bucking leaps." - Provenance: Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate). Schwerdt I, 12. Mennessier de la Lance 14. Huth 85. Mellon/Snelgrove 73. Tooley, Coloured Plates 20.
4to. (60), 608, (2), 40, (4) pp. With portrait frontispiece after preliminaries. Contemporary green cloth. - Includes: The same. Arabism and Peace. 8, (4), 8 pp. Ibid., 1951. Printed wrappers. - And: The same. Typescript "Unification of the Language of Music and its Relation to World Peace". 4to. 5 ff. with occasional handwritten corrections. - And: collection of publisher's promotional leaflets on "The Philosophy of Oriental Music" in French and English. First edition in Arabic, inscribed by the author to an unidentified member of the Swedish Nobel family: "Présenté par l'auteur à Mr. le Maître Gunar Nobel avec les meilleurs salutations [...] Damas 10.5.1952". The Syrian musicologist Allawerdi held that there were two basic forms of music: the oriental, natural one, based on the harmonic series, and the western, mechanical one, based on the tempered scale of 18th century instruments. While he associated the former with serenity and peace, he viewed the latter as artificial and complex, ultimately leading to restlessness, chaos, and war. Allawerdi strove to unify the "language of music" as a first step towards achieving world peace. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951. - A good copy, including several of the author's further writings on the subject, one as an original authorial typescript.
br. Il campo da golf è senz'altro uno specchio della vita. Sul tee, sul fairway o sul green, sono tanti e tali gli episodi epici che si sono succeduti che non c'è da meravigliarsi se ogni golfista che si rispetti ama la storia del gioco. In questo libro agile, divertente e a suo modo istruttivo, Richard Allen ci racconta 56 straordinarie storie di golf - ora di grandi campioni ora di illustri sconosciuti. Storie che sottolineano il parallelismo tra il golf e la vita, in cui siamo chiamati di continuo a valutare rischi e opportunità e, soprattutto, a prendere decisioni difficili che portano a trionfi gloriosi o a sconfitte disastrose. Il golf è dunque una palestra di vita, in cui coraggio e paura accomunano campioni e dilettanti. Forse nessuno ha colto questa verità meglio del grande Tom Watson: «Mai arrenderti. Se ti arrendi in questo gioco, ti arrenderai nella vita. E se ti arrendi la prima volta, sarà più facile arrenderti la seconda, la terza e la quarta volta.»
