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4to. 1 page. Scarce signed leaf removed from an autograph album. Signed in bold black ink, in Arabic, dated 17th September 1925. Also signed by the King's aide-de-camp and companion Tahsin Kadry. With a third, unidentified autograph underneath.
12mo. 140, (2) pp., final blank leaf. - (Bound with) II: Hippocrates. Aphorismorum sectiones VII. Nicolao Leoniceno Vicentino interprete. Accessit octava ex Ant. Musae Brasavoli commentariis. Ibid., 1649. (36), 111, (1) pp. - (Bound with) III: Galenus. Ars medicinalis. Nicolao Leoniceno interprete. Ibid., 1642. (12), 173, (1) pp., final blank leaf. Contemporary limp vellum. A fine Padovan 17th century manual assembling the great ancient and mediaeval medical works, published separately, in a single handy volume. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond, the compulsory teaching matter of Avicenna's monumental "Qanun" always included the part on physiology in the first fen of book 1, which expounds the general principles of medicine. The present edition is bound with the principal works of Hippocrates and Galen, both edited by the Italian physician and humanist Niccolò Leoniceno (1428-1524). - Some browning and brownstaining. 18th century annotations to flyleaf; ownership of Antonio Barduni (?) to front pastedown. An appealing pocket-sized set containing in a nutshell the staples of the old medical schools from which European medical training was in the process of breaking free. Cf. Krivatsy 499, 4508. Not in Wellcome.
Large 8vo. 88 pp. Printed in black with red headings, within printed gilt rules. Illuminated head-piece and 'unwan printed in three colours and gilt, in imitation of manuscript illumination. Gilt tail-piece. Contemporary green morocco binding with fore-edge flap, covers giltstamped with an oriental design. All edges gilt. The full text of 19 trade treaties, in Ottoman Turkish throughout, closed between the Roman/Austrian and the Ottoman Empire between 1110/1699 (Peace of Karlovac) and 1259/1844. An Italian-language edition had appeared in 1844 ("Raccolta dei Trattati e delle principali convenzioni concernanti il commercio e la navigazione dei sudditi Austriaci negli Stati della Porta Ottomana"). - Occasional insignificant foxing; altogether very well preserved. A splendid copy bound for the Austrian Imperial printing office. Zenker, BO II, 805.
Large 8vo. 88 pp. Printed in black with red headings, within printed gilt rules. Illuminated head-piece and 'unwan printed in three colours and gilt, in imitation of manuscript illumination. Gilt tail-piece. (Bound with:) Raccolta dei trattati e delle principali convenzioni concernanti il commercio e la navigazione dei sudditi Austriaci negli Stati della Porta Ottomana. Ibid., 1844. (4), VIII, 224 pp. Contemporary green morocco binding with fore-edge flap, covers giltstamped with an oriental design. All edges gilt. The full text of 19 trade treaties, in Ottoman Turkish throughout, closed between the Austrian and the Ottoman Empire between 1110/1699 (Peace of Karlovac) and 1259/1844. Bound in the same volume is the 1844 Italian-language edition, containing the texts of the various treaties in their respective original European language, with an Italian translation on the opposite pages. - Ownership "C Fr Jelinek 1855" signed to endpaper. The Turkish text shows occasional insignificant foxing, as common; altogether very well preserved. A splendidly bound copy. Zenker, BO II, 805.
8vo. (2), 17 pp., final blank page. With 2 half-tone photographs in the text and a folding map of the area between Baghdad and Beirut. Staple-bound. In original printed wrappers. Exceedingly rare pocket-booklet of leave instructions issued to members of the Persia and Iraq Force during the Second World War, "in the hope that it will help [them] to understand the type of country and the places [they] will see on [their] journey" (first page). Subdivided into three sections, the first part of the booklet describes the route taken by the leave convoy from Baghdad via Fallujah, Habbaniyah, Ar-Rutba, Mafraq and Damascus to Beirut, deeming the last portion from Damascus "by far the most picturesque part of the route" (p. 4), and finishing off with a photograph of people relaxing on the beach. The second section comprises a history of Damascus and the Syrian desert by Seton Lloyd (1902-96), who had been appointed archaeology adviser to the Directorate of Antiquities, Baghdad, in 1939, and during the war "was able to conduct some notable research, principally the excavation of the painted temple at Uqair and later of Tell Hassuna, where he identified a new culture - and the earliest known - in Iraq" (obituary, Independent, 13 Jan. 1996). The third and last section discusses the construction of the Baghdad to Haifa road by the British between 1938 and 1943. - General Edward Quinan's Iraq Command (originally Iraq Force) was renamed Persia and Iraq Force (Paiforce) shortly after the successful Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia in August 1941. The main responsibilities of Paiforce were to protect the Iraqi and South Persian oil fields and to maintain the lines of communication from British-controlled ports on the Persian Gulf to the Soviet ports on the Caspian. A dedicated Persia and Iraq Command was established under Sir Maitland Wilson in August 1942, though victory in the Western Desert Campaign combined with series of Soviet victories in southern Russia meant that Paiforce activities began to be wound down from mid-1943. The folding map to the rear of this booklet provides a detailed overview of the vital infrastructure roads and oil pipelines which they were tasked with defending. - Mended tear to upper cover; traces of folds and a little soiled. Handwritten numbers in orange crayon to lower cover. The interior with traces of a vertical fold throughout, resulting from the pages resting on the rim of the folding map; margins slightly creased. Map somewhat foxed. An uncommon survival, with only the Imperial War Museum copy traceable in institutions. Not in OCLC.
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.
890 x 620 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. First edition. Map of the western part of Yemen, including parts of Oman. - Stamped "Sales copy".
Small folio (218 x 283 mm). (48) pp. Original wrappers, colourfully illustrated with Islamic geometrical designs. A portrait of Bahrain, illustrated and printed in English and Arabian throughout, showing the country at a critical moment in it development, transitioning from traditional to modern ways of life with the growing importance of the oil industry. Issued on behalf of BAPCO and Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, Hakim of Bahrain, ruler of Bahrain from 1942 until his death in 1961. - A perfect copy.
Large 8vo (18 × 26 cm). 3 vols. Volume 1 with 137 reproductions of manuscript pages of Ottoman Turkish text and maps and volume 2 with 4 plates. Publisher’s original printed wrappers. Only published edition of the original version of the "Kitâb-I Bahriyye" (Book of the Sea) by the great Ottoman navigator and cartographer Piri Reis (1465/79-1553). After assembling two important maps using numerous sources (in 1513 and in 1528), including a map drawn by Columbus, Piri Reis decided to collect "all his own observations and all previous information that he could not fit onto the maps" in a book. "It is basically a naval guidebook with essential data on the most important coastal routes and large maps and detailed charts [...] The main portion of the book is devoted to the Mediterranean coasts and islands [...] Piri first gives historical and geographical information and then discusses the necessary practical navigational data. The accuracy of many of his statements is indisputable" (DSB). The final chapter of the book describes the newly discovered continent Antilia "the mountains of which contain rich gold ores and in the seas, pearls [...] The chapter on the Western Sea contains all that was known about the discovery of America at the time" (DSB). First written in 1521, the manuscript was reworked in 1526 for presentation to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. This later manuscript was published twice, in 1935 and 1998, but Piri's original version is still only available in the current edition by the German scholar Paul Kahle (1875-1961). The first volume (in two bindings) is a facsimile of a manuscript in Bologna containing Piri Reis's 1521 text, with a few pages from a manuscript in Dresden in between. The second volume is an annotated German translation of the text, based on these manuscripts as well as on a manuscript in Vienna. This is still considered the best translation of the Bahriyye. - Bindings slightly soiled with the spines discoloured and slightly damaged; covers of the second part of vol. 1 almost completely loose but the book itself still structurally sound. In good condition, with vol. 2 still unopened. DSB X, pp. 616-619. Howgego, to 1800, P104. Lepore, Piccardi, Rombai, “Looking at the Kitab-i Bahriye of Piri Reis”, in: e-Perimetron VIII, no. 2 (2013), pp. 85-94. Lowry, “Pîrî Reis Revisited”, in: Journal of Ottoman Studies XXXV (2010), pp. 7-31.
640 x 490 mm. Toned lithograph (the stallion "Barhut" before a oriental caravan background), blindstamped by the publisher. Fine lithographed portrait of the Arabian stallion "Barhut", a gift by Muhammad Ali Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt, to the Prussian Consul General v. Wagner, who in turn presented the horse to his King, Fredrick William IV. The Thuringian artist Wilhelm Ammon (1812-95, of no relation to the famous like-named Bavarian Court Studmaster), trained at Berlin, Munich, and Paris, was particularly famous for his horse paintings, many of which were in the collections of the Altenstein castle and stud. Cf. Thieme/B. I, 416.
8vo. XV, (1), 297, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Classic, minute account by Luciano Cordeiro (1844-1900) of the events that led to the fall of Hormuz to the Anglo-Persian forces in 1622. Based on contemporary documents, many of which are reproduced here. - Slight edge chipping; evenly browned throughout as common. A good copy. Wilson 48. OCLC 27860289.
8vo (150 x 240 mm). Persian manuscript on paper. (4), 62 (misnumbered: 63, omitting fol. 19), 64 (misnumbered: 58, leaping back to 24 after 23 but lacking fols. 38-39) ff.; 64 (instead of 70) ff. (lacking fols. 25-30). 15 lines of black and occasional red ink script. Rebound in full red morocco using the original covers. A collective manuscript on falconry, including the famous "Baz-nama" of Khushal Khan, the Afghan national poet, copied in the area of Afghanistan within a year after the passing of the author. - This fine and early manuscript contains two separate treatises on falconry, the latter one being the "Book of Falconry" of Kushal Khan Katak, the father of Pashto literature, written in verse. The first English translation, prepared by Sami ur Rahman and dedicated to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, appeared in Islamabad as recently as 2014: "What makes Khushal's 'Baaz Nama' unique is its poetical form. Perhaps there is no other work in world literature that treats the subject matter in verse on the one hand and keeps its systematic exposition and professionalism intact on the other [...] Khushal's manual is pretty concise and cogent. There are no long-drawn and tedious accounts. The style and diction are extremely down-to-earth" (translator's note, p. xiv). - The present manuscript contains a colophon at the end stating that it was copied by Muhammad Khan in 1101 AH, within a year of the death of its author on 5 Jumada I, 1100 AH, and it may thus command a high degree of textual authority. A renowned Pakistani warrior, Khushal Khan Khatak (1613-89) long served the Mughal Empire, but when he was expelled from his tribal chiefdom, he turned against his Mughal lords, promoted Pashtun nationalism, and encouraged revolt against the Mughal Empire. His works, mostly written in Pashto, are considered the foundation of modern Afghan literature. - A few occasional stains and ink smudges; lacks six leaves according to foliation and catchword. The first treatise in this volume, by an unidentified author, is in two parts with an index after the first but apparently not complete, lacking the end of the second half, as well as two leaves. First leaf extensively remargined but without loss to text; a few old waqf stamps and occasional marginalia.
8vo. (10), 476 pp. With 4 folding engr. plates and 3 folding engr. maps. Contemp. half vellum with blue marbled boards. All edges red. First German edition. "Irwin's report contains several additions to the observations of C. Niebuhr" (cf. Henze II, 688), and significantly more detailed maps and charts. The East India Company servant Eyles Irwin, born in Calcutta in 1751, was appointed to survey the Black Town in 1771 and "was made superintendent of the lands belonging to Madras [...] In 1776 he became caught up in the political storm that overtook the governor of Madras, George Pigot, who was placed in confinement by members of his own council. Irwin supported Pigot, and in August he was suspended from the company's service. Early in 1777 he left India in order to seek redress in England. Irwin later published an account of his journey home, which was entitled 'A series of adventures [...]'. In this he displayed his classical education and described his experiences and observations during the journey, which lasted eleven months [...] Irwin returned to India in 1780 as a senior merchant and his route was again overland, but this time via Aleppo, Baghdad, and the Persian Gulf" (ODNB). The author recounts his imprisonment in Yanbu, Arabia, and further voyage to Jeddah, as well as his adventures in Egypt, his journeys through the Peloponnese and the Balkans as well as Persia. He includes an "Ode to the Persian Gulf", in which he extols the beauties of Bahrain. In 1802, Irwin was to produce a musical play, "The Bedouins, or Arabs of the Desert: a Comic Opera in Three Acts (1802), which played in Dublin for three nights. - Translated by Johann Andreas Engelbrecht (1733-1803), commercial correspondent and average adjuster (not "J. A. E[beling]", as a contemporary owner has resolved the initials under the preface). Binding somewhat rubbed and bumped; pencil scribblings to last leaf but one. Slight brownstaining. Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Blackmer 865 (note). Chatzipanagioti-S. 463. Holzmann/B. II, 11272. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 326. Gay 66. Cox I, 232. Brunet III, 459. Graesse III, 430. Cf. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 1293 (2nd London ed.).
111p., illus. Hardcover Very good condition good
4to (225 x 264 mm). X, 42 pp. With 4 lithogr. folding plates. (And:) Beitraege [...] Zweites, Drittes, Viertes, Fünftes Heft. Systema Astronomiae Aegyptiacae Quadripartitum. Ibid., 1833. XXX, 445, (10) pp. (series titles and separate half-title for no. 2). With hand-coloured frontispiece and 10 large folding plates, lithographed throughout. Contemporary polished red morocco, spine, leading edges, inner dentelle and covers richly gilt and blind-tooled in the Romantic style. Glazed green endpapers; all edges goffered and gilt. Bound by the Leipzig master Anton Stumme with his label on the first flyleaf. A fine morocco volume comprising the first five of Seyffarth’s monographic "Contributions" to Egyptology (apparently all published at the time of binding; two more were to follow by 1840). While the first fascicle contains the earliest catalogue raisonnée of the substantial Berlin collection of papyri, fascicles 2-5 (published with continuous pagination) constitute a bold investigation into early Egyptian astronomy and its all-pervading cosmological cult. This section includes a hand-coloured frontispiece of astronomical animal forms and ten large folding plates, all lithographed, showing important pieces of archeological evidence: the Navicula astronomica (Paris), Zodiacus Tentyriticus (Paris), Zodiacus Taurinensis (Turin), Sarcophagus Sethi (London), Sarcophagus Ramsis (Paris), Monolithus Amosis (Paris), Mensa Isiaca (Rome), and a Papyrus funeralis formerly in the d'Hermand collection. The final part is an astronomical lexicon, a typographical masterpiece that fits more than 1300 lithographed hieroglyphs precisely into their letterpress explanations. - Seyffarth, an opponent of Champollion's, emigrated to the U.S. in 1855. His thousands of transcriptions and sketches are preserved in the Brooklyn Museum as the "Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca Manuscripta". - A luxury copy printed entirely on wove paper and bound in elaborate morocco with finely goffered edges (unusual for a secular binding of the time) by the Leipzig master Anton Wilhelm August Stumme (1804-67), who also worked for Robert Schumann. Minor wear to binding, occasional foxing as typical for wove paper. Coloured frontispiece browned evenly; largely insignificant gutter tears to four folding plates. A crisp, unused copy in a magnificent binding. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 229f.
4to. XVI, 120, 330 pp. Near-contemporary library binding by the Lund "Semitiska Seminariet": half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine-title. Bound with the original printed wrappers. Important critical edition of a 14th century Arabic manuscript held at the Königliche Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in Munich, the "Cod[ex] arab[icus] Quatremère 37", produced by the Swedish orientalist Zetterstéen in Arabic type. The edited text is preceded by a German foreword and a philological introduction by the editor. The Codex Quatremère 37 contains a compilation of two chronicles of the Mamluk Sultanate, the first anonymous, the second by Badr al-Din Baktash al-Fakhiri (d. 1334). The first part begins with the Mamluk conquest of Acre, wrested from the Crusaders in 1291, and ends with the beginning of the third reign of Sultan An-Nasir Muhamad, who returned to Egypt from Al Kark in 1309; the second part picks up at the Sultan's return and describes events up to his death in 1341. The German orientalist Gustav Weil considered the manuscript to be part of a larger series, as there is a reference of a subsequent 8th volume of the chronicle at the end of the codex. - Pink label on the inside of the front wrapper, indicating that the book was presented by the author ("Ueberreicht vom Verfasser"). - Contemporary ownership to front wrapper. Stamp of the Lund Semitiska Seminariet to front pastedown and to verso of title-page; their bookplate overpasted by that of the Lund University Library. Later in the collection of the Swedish numismatist Bengt E. Hovén (his handwritten ownership, dated 23 Sept. 2014), to flyleaf. Extremities very slightly rubbed; interior crisp and clean. Never seen at auction. Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen IV, XIff.
8vo. VII, (1), 168 pp. Original printed yellow wrappers (spine repaired). First edition of an important study of the "six poets", as some of the earliest known writers of Arabic poetry are collectively known, probably simply because they were the earliest for whom compilers were able to assemble complete Divans: Ennabiga, Antara, Tharafa, Zuhair, Alqama, and Imruulqais. - Ahlwardt (1828-1909) was engaged as cataloguer of Arabian manuscripts at the Berlin Royal Library. For most of his working life he classified, collated, described and excerpted some 12,000 works in ca. 6000 volumes, including current accessions. - Inside edge of upper wrapper cover reinforced. Removed from the "Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Orients an der Universität München" with their stamp on the title-page. An untrimmed copy. GAL I, p. 22. OCLC 18208722.
Black ink on paper, ca. 38 x 57 cm. With gilt Tughra of the Sultan at the head. An award of the Third Order of the Chefakat (Charity) to the "precious daughter" of Hafiz Ibrahim Edhem Efendi, accountant of the Hazine-i Hassa treasury (which managed the personal income and expenses of the Sultan), in recognition of his outstanding achievements. - Berat certificates are official documents presented as appointments for office, exemption certificates from a tax or duty, or accompanying the award of a medal or other honour. This example is meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink. On the reverse are official attestations of authenticity, with a brief summary of the document. - Folded with extensive tears and a few chips to edges. Full transcription available.
Black ink on paper, ca. 38 x 57 cm. With gilt Tughra of the Sultan at the head. An award of the Order of Osmaniye (fourth class) to Salahaddin Bey, recording clerk on the executive board of the Hazine-i Hassa treasury (which managed the personal income and expenses of the Sultan), for diligence in the discharge of his duties. - Berat certificates are official documents presented as appointments for office, exemption certificates from a tax or duty, or accompanying the award of a medal or other honour. This example is meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink. On the reverse are official attestations of authenticity, with a brief summary of the document. - Folded with extensive tears and a few chips to edges. Full transcription available.
Black ink on paper, ca. 34 x 57 cm. With gilt Tughra of the Sultan at the head. Certificate showing that Salahaddin Bey, auditor of the Hazine-i Hassa treasury (which managed the personal income and expenses of the Sultan), was awarded the Navy Aid Medal (in nickel) for his donation of 2024 Kurus to the Ottoman Naval Society. - As the Ottoman Empire dominated important waterways during the First World War, the government sought to strengthen its navy's defensive capabilities while fighting on many fronts on land. For this purpose, The Ottoman Naval Society was established. To finance the building of new ships, a campaign was initiated which was joined by many notables, including Sultan Mehmed Resad himself and state officials. The Navy Aid Medal was awarded to supporters who pledged a certain donation to the project, and the recipients' names were published in the press. - Meticulously calligraphed in black and gold ink. On the reverse are official attestations of authenticity. Folded with tears and a few chips to edges. Full transcription available.
8vo. VI, 41, (1), 8 pp. With 4 folding lithographed maps and 3 plates (2 folding). 19th century half cloth. Second edition of this German description of Constantinople, its environs and local customs, expanded by two plates. "The author, Zrecin, is mentioned in the Mainz edition [...], but the wirk seems to have been edited by C. V. Sommerlatt whose name occurs at the end of the preface in this edition. An enlarged edition appeared at Coblenz in 1829" (Atabey). Contains a map and a view of Constantinople, a map of European Turkey, a view of the fortress of Shumen, one portrait of Sultan Mahmud II, a "copy of a Turkish firman", and a letterpress plate enumerating the "Muslim articles of faith". - Occasional slight foxing; with faint marginal waterstains to final leaves. Ownership stamp of Walter Seydel (1946) on verso of title page. Blackmer 1872; Atabey 1356 (note).
4to. 3 parts in 1 vol. Title-page printed in red and black. With 3 woodcut title vignettes (including one showing a camel). (8) ff. (incl. final blank), 123, (1) pp. (2), 161, (1) pp., 1 bl. f. 176, (6) pp. Contemporary blindstamped brown calf with 2 clasps. Rare second edition, printed in the year of the first edition: a German description of a three-year journey to Palestine and the Near East by the botanist Rauwolf (1535-96), with many authentic and reliable observations, also about the people and customs and of the difficulties of travel. His description of the preparation of coffee in Aleppo was the first such report by a European. "Highly influential travel account by the learned Augsburg physician and botanist who journeyed to Jerusalem in the years 1573 to 1576. The 8th chapter of part I contains the celebrated descriptions of the coffee drink and of the coffee berry [...] Rauwolf's account of coffee as a social drink of the East is thought to be the earliest in a printed book" (Hünersdorff/H. II, 1221). "Rauwolf [...] made a hazardous journey in many parts of the East to collect foreign plants; his herbarium is now carefully preserved at the Rijksherbarium in Leiden" (Hunt 146). "He was the first modern botanist to collect and describe the flora of the regions east of the Levantine coast" (Norman). An illustrated edition expanded by a fourth part was published at Lauingen the following year. - Binding professionally repaired at extremeties. Title page remargined, showing some fingerstaining; occasional slight brown- and waterstaining; a few contemporary marginalia near the end. VD 16, ZV 12969. Adams R 188. Pritzel 7430. Cf. Norman 1782. Not in BM-STC German.
4to. (6), XLI, (1), 408, (14) pp., 1 blank leaf. Engraved title-page. With 24 numbered plates (7 of which folding), a folding map of Yemen (coloured in outline), and a folding table. - (Bound with) II: Michaelis, Johann David. Vragen aan een gezelschap van geleerde mannen [...]. Ibid., 1774. XLVI, 270, (2) pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine and spine labels. First Dutch translation of an important and famous account of the Danish royal expedition to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India (1761-67), the first scientific expedition to this area. Niebuhr's account is here bound with the Dutch translation of Michaëlis's work, containing a review of the first. "The expedition had been proposed by the Hebrew scholar Johann David Michäelis of Göttingen for the purpose of illustrating certain passages of the Old Testament, and initially envisaged only a single traveller, possible an Arabic scholar. However, the idea rapidly blossomed into a fully-fledged scientfiic expedi - tion. The team eventually assembled, for which there was no appointed leader, included Niebuhr as surveyor, along with Friedrich Christian von Haven, Peter Forskall, Christian Carl Kramer, Georg Baurenfeind, and a Swedish ex-soldier named Berggren'' (Howgego). Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was the sole survivor, and his work represents an important contribution to the study of the Middle East. His map of Yemen, the first exact map of the area ever, remained the standard for the next 200 years. The plates include views of the mosques of Mecca and Medina, and 6 maps including the map of Yemen and of the Gulf of Suez. Furthermore it contains Arabic specimens from the Qur'an, with vowel points and decorations hand coloured. Niebuhr's "accounts are probably the best and most authentic of their day" (Cox). - Handwritten ownership on title-page cancelled, causing some ink spots to neighbouring pages. Extremities somewhat rubbed. A tear in the large map of Yemen repaired with tape; slight foxing to some plates along the fold lines. A good copy of this standard work. Howgego I, N24. Tiele, Bibl. 795f. Gay 3589. Cf. Atabey 873f. Cox I, 237f. Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world 48.
4to. 3 vols. (in 6 parts) bound as 6. XXXVI, 219, (1), (11), 224-491, (1) pp. (12), 262 pp., (1 blank f.), VIII, (3), 268-376, 397-519, (1) pp. VIII, 262 pp., (1 blank f.), VIII, (3), 268-403, (1) pp. (4), 115, (1), 124 pp. With 205 engraved folding plates (irregularly numbered I-CIII), including maps, plans, views and other illustrations, depicting temples, antiquities, plants, animals, etc. Contemporary half calf, gold fillets and two title-labels on spines, sprinkled paper sides. First edition of the Dutch translation of Pococke's celebrated monograph on the Near and Middle East, praised by Gibbon as a work of "superior learning and dignity" (Decline and Fall, ch. 11, n. 69). This Dutch edition was augmented with 27 plates, an essay by the minister Rutger Schutte on the travels of the Israelites, and a index to Biblical locations found in the main work. - "Pococke travelled extensively in Europe from 1733 to 1736 and continued on to the Levant, reaching Alexandria in September 1737. He remained three years in the Eastern Mediterranean, visiting Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece. His book describes these journeys but not necessarily in chronological order. The plates of antiquities are after drawings by Pococke himself ... Pococke achieved a great reputation with this publication; the work was very popular during his lifetime and was praised by Gibbon" (Blackmer). "The quality and particularly the earliness of his observations and their record in prose, maps, and diagrams make him one of the most important near eastern travellers, ranking with Frederik Ludvig Norden and Carsten Niebuhr, in stimulating an Egyptian revival in European art and architecture, and recording much that has subsequently been lost" (ODNB). - A couple of plates in the last volume slightly browned and a few spots on the first few leaves of the first volume, otherwise a very good copy, with the leaves nearly untrimmed. The bindings somewhat rubbed along the extremities (primarily the spines), but otherwise good. Cox I, 224. Tiele, Bibl. 869. Cf. Blackmer 1323 (English ed.); for the author: Baigent, "Pococke, Richard (1704-1765"; in: ODNB (online ed.).