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12mo. 85, (3) pp. Original wrappers with lettering. A rare pamphlet in Arabic, containing Saddam Hussein's speech on the role of women in revolutions. The speech was given in 1977, two years before Saddam formally came to power in 1979. The pamphlet was reprinted in the year of his election. With this speech Saddam touched the problem of women's liberation vs. strong local traditional values in the time of the Arab national struggle. In the 1970s Iraqi women had free access to the education, voting rights, could own property and were encouraged to pursue posts in high positions, but during the following decades the importance of the traditional patriarchal family started undermining these rights. - Wrappers slightly stained and with soft folds, old signature on the top of the title-page, otherwise in good condition. Rare; we could not find any institutional examples.
Folio (240 x 352 mm). (56), 1203 (instead of 1207, properly 1205), (1) pp. (p. 623f. blank, wants pp. 231f. & 237f.). - (Includes, as part 2:) Sanudo, Marino. Liber secretorum fidelium crucis super Terrae Sanctae recuperatione et conservatione [...] Orientalis historiae tomus secundus. Ibid., 1611. (12), 361, (3) pp. (283f. printed as a double-page-sized folding table). Both parts with engraved printer's device to title-page. With 3 double-page-sized folding engraved maps and 2 engraved plans as well as a woodcut printer's device at the end. Slightly later full calf, spine elaborately gilt. Only edition of this early, important source book for the history of the crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its vassal states. The second parts contains the first printing of the much sought-after 14th century maps and plans by the Genoese cartographer Pietro Vesconte, previously available in manuscript copies only. "Four of the maps from Marino Sanudo's early fourteenth-century manuscript atlas were reprinted by Johann Bongars in 1611. Sanudo's planisphere [...] is one of the few examples of medieval maps based on portolano sources in printed form. It is a circular map centered on Jerusalem with the Mediterranean relatively well defined. The ocean surrounds the whole of the known world, the outer parts of which are represented by conjecture. The authorship of Marino Sanudo is not definitely established and the original manuscript has also been attributed to Pietro Vesconte" (Shirley). - One of two title variants differing only in slight changes in the typesetting (here: "Expeditionum" begins between the "O" and the "R" of "Orientalium"). Binding somewhat rubbed, hinges starting. Rather severely browned throughout due to paper stock, some waterstaining to margins, more pronounced near the end, sometimes reaching into the printed text. Stains to first title-page; the second title and its counter-leaf *6 are printed on different paper stock. Some light worming, mainly confined to margins but also touching the text near the end; occasional edge defects. A copy in modern half vellum (severely browned, with some worming, but otherwise complete) commanded 13,000 Euros at Reiss's spring 2009 auction. VD 17, 1:069728C. Atabey 127. Ioannou 49 (variant). Potthast I, 105. Tooley I, 162. Cf. Tobler 12. For the maps: Shirley 276 (with plate 217); Nordenskiöld 51 (with fig. 28); Laor 783 & 1145f. as well as Lex. Kart. 576 & 860f.
536743London, Country Life, 1925. Fort in-4, reliure de l'édition en toile gommée verte (buckram), dos lisse, titre doré, XIV-88pp, 211 illustrations photographiques tirées en héliogravure sépia, réunies en planches h.-t., 2 cartes dont une dépliante, 3 plans aériens dépliants, bibliographie et index.
Fine Persian Paperback. Foolscap 8vo. (17 x 11,5 cm). In Persian. 200 p. Sadegh Hedayat [Sadiq - Sadigh Hidayet], (1903-1951), was an Iranian writer, translator, and intellectual. Best known for his novel The Blind Owl, he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their career. Hedayat subsequently devoted his whole life to studying Western literature and to learning and investigating Iranian history and folklore. The works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Anton Chekhov, and Guy de Maupassant intrigued him the most. During his short literary life span, Hedayat published a substantial number of short stories and novelettes, two historical dramas, a play, a travelogue, and a collection of satirical parodies and sketches. His writings also include numerous literary criticisms, studies in Persian folklore, and many translations from Middle Persian and French. He is credited with having brought the Persian language and literature into the mainstream of international contemporary writing. There is no doubt that Hedayat was the most modern of all modern writers in Iran. Yet, for Hedayat, modernity was not just a question of scientific rationality or a pure imitation of European values. In his later years, feeling the socio-political problems of the time, Hedayat started attacking the two major causes of Iran's decimation, the monarchy, and the clergy, and through his stories, he tried to impute the deafness and blindness of the nation to the abuses of these two major powers. He felt alienated by everyone around him, especially by his peers, and his last published work, The Message of Kafka, bespeaks melancholy, desperation, and the sense of doom experienced by those subjected to discrimination and repression. OCLC: 777571775 (Leiden Bibliotheek). First Edition in 1950 [1329].
Oblong folio (240 x 166 mm). 20 ff. 25 silver gelatin photographs, one of which is laid in at the rear; each is roughly 90 x 140 mm. Contemporary textured brown cloth, saddle-stitched with tassel. A rare collection of photographs of the political actors of 1950s and 1960s Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, each set having been taken only a year before the revolutions of 1958 and 1968, respectively. The photographs have been collected here with handwritten captions in German, possibly by one of the German engineering technicians featured in one snapshot. The earlier photographs feature the royal family, including the crowds of spectators awaiting King Faisal in 1957, the banquet for the guests of King Faisal in Sulaymaniyah, and the visit of the Regent and Crown Prince of Iraq, Abd al-Ilah, to Sulaymaniyah in the wake of the flooding in Autumn of 1957. - The laid in photographic print is dated 1955 and titled "im Garten v. Naji Khedairy", featuring a nighttime snapshot, presumably of Khedairy, staring down the camera with a glass in hand. - The later photographs are from September of 1967, several months after the Six Days' War, and feature the political landscape once again on the brink of change: two photos of Iraqi Prime Minister Tahir Yahya in a pinstripe suit walking with leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Mustafa Barzani, another photo of Barzani walking alone; several shots Abdul Razzak, Mustafa Barzani, and Tahir Yahya seated together with refreshments, including one of Barzani and Yahya laughing together, another photograph of Barzani captioned "Der kurdische Führer im Gespräch mit einem irakischen Militär", several casual snapshots of the "Kurdische Delegation" relaxing between meetings, one of which features one woman in Western dress, and a snapshot of the Kurdish military headquarters in Quaradagh. - Altogether, a photographic record of the political leaders of the region during two tumultuous decades, and their meetings amid conflict. Well preserved.
Oblong folio (327 x 232 mm). 13 ff. containing 52 mounted silver gelatin photographs, with one press photo laid in (photograph sizes range from 60 x 60 mm to 90 x 140 mm and 170 x 235 mm). Contemporary saddle-stitched red cloth decorated in blind. Loosely inserted is a 1952-62 German passport with a 1957 residence permit/visa for Iraq and many stamps from Iraq in the 1950s. The photo album of German Friedrich Hemmeter (1928-2019), featuring construction, building projects, and interesting scenes of 1950s Iraq. Hemmeter was likely in Iraq employed as a construction manager or similar; certainly, he had an interest in the architecture, engineering, and modernization of the country's infrastructure. - Hemmeter's photographs capture both traditional buildings and ways of life and the sweeping changes of the construction yard, often with an artistic eye for the camera. Alongside striking photographs of workers shoveling concrete under a bright desert sky, or taking a break in the shade of a small shed, are photographs of the elegant architecture of mosques and ancient sites in Iraq and Egypt. Mounted next to a photograph of a modern European-style building is a snapshot of the Taq Kasra; this contrast provides an illuminating picture of Iraqi architecture in the twentieth century. - Laid in is a 1964 press photo of Vice President of Egypt Mohamed Abdel Hakim Amer and Iraqi president Abdul Salam Arif during Amer's visit to Iraq. - With just a few minor creases, quite well preserved.
Oblong folio (425 x 330 mm). 102 albumen photographs (220 x 275 mm) mounted on card. Contemporary green pebbled cloth ruled in blind. A large collection of portraits and views of Jerusalem and surroundings, most signed or captioned in-plate by Felix Bonfils (46), the American Colony studio (16), Zangaki (7), Dumas, and P. Sebah. Striking scenes include sea-bathers in the Dead Sea, the market at Jaffa overflowing with melons, the Greek Orthodox ceremony of the washing of the feet in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, several scenes of the interior of the same church, the Tombs of the Kings, the convent of Mar Sabba clinging to a cliffside, the Christmas Day pilgrimage in Bethlehem, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, street scenes of Jerusalem populated by passersby in Ottoman and European dress, men and camels resting along the banks of the Jordan or aiming their rifles across the river for the camera, the "Mosque of Omar" (Dome of the Rock, Qubbat as-Sakhra) and the interior of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (also known as the Qibli Mosque). The collection also includes portraits, largely of locals: two portraits of women from Nazareth, all in European style dresses under long headscarves, two wearing tall pattens to keep their feet from the street mud; father and son street vendors in Ottoman dress, a young woman from Bethlehem in an elaborately embroidered jacket, and a bearded man captioned "Cheik de Village". - Some fading and occasional wear to photographs, binding skilfully rebacked and repaired. An interesting and wide-ranging collection documenting Jerusalem from the individual to the historical scale just prior to the turn of the century.
Oblong folio (360 x 260 mm). 96 albumen photographs mounted on card. Contemporary vellum elaborately ruled in floral gilt. A thorough collection of late 19th century Holy Land souvenir photographs, featuring photography by American Colony, the Bonfils studio, and others, depicting views of Cairo, Palestine, and surroundings. - Félix Bonfils (1831-85) was a French-born photographer who had come to the Levant with General d'Hautpoul in 1860 and remained active in the East. Based in Beirut, Bonfils produced thousands of photographs depicting Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the early days of Western tourism to the Middle East, his works soon became popular as souvenirs. - The photographs depict views in and around Palestine and Egypt, including scenes of grotto chapels and many interior scenes of churches and mosques, including the Al-Aqsa (Qibli) Mosque, the Mosque of Omar, the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Al-Azhar Mosque, and Sultan Qaytbay's mosque and mausoleum complex. - Bookseller's ticket of C. Glingler, Rome, to front pastedown. Light wear and fading to photographs. A handsomely bound collection.
Small oblong folio (260 x 180 mm). 103 silver gelatin photographs mounted in photo corners or laid down. Contemporary black leather, blindstamped with imitations of Egyptian hieroglyphs. An interesting album of snapshots taken in Sudan and Iraq in the 1930s. Although the photographer's name is not present, he was probably an RAF serviceman stationed in North Africa and the Middle East, as there are several images of billets and two official R.A.F. aerial photographs at the rear of the album. - The images of Iraq, including Khartoum, Baghdad and Samarra, are in the majority, and largely focus on leisure activities such as horse racing in the desert and trips to important archaeological sites. One attractive series documents an excursion to the ruins of Babylon with the Lion of Babylon and the Ctesiphon Arch. Among the images of Babylon are two brick reliefs from the Ishtar Gate (constructed ca. 575 CE), a muscular aurochs, and the mythic mushussu dragon. - Light fading, otherwise well preserved.
Oblong folio (385 x 275 mm). 49 albumen photographs (approximately 236 x 293 mm) mounted on card. Near-contemporary half brown morocco and pebbled cloth, marbled endpapers. Scenes of Palestine by the famous 19th century photographer Félix Bonfils (1831-85) or his studio and others, most titled and attributed in-plate. The photographs include genre scenes, natural and urban scapes, ancient monuments, architectural points of interest, and religious scenes. Many also show the human element of ancient places: Jewish women in embroidered headscarves lined up at the Western Wall for prayer, Orthodox priests eyeing the camera outside the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, two men relaxing in the shade at the Tombs of the Kings, children keeping watch over cows just outside Jericho. One photograph shows Cairo rather than Palestine, and captures a winding and crowded street at the famous Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Other scenes show the interiors of Jerusalem mosques and churches, the port at Jaffa, and the site labeled "The well of Jacob", potentially taken just prior to the construction of a new church on the site in the 1890s. - Leaves faintly rippled, light wear to photographs. The album has a bookseller ticket from the Maison Martinet, Albert Hautecoeur, Paris. An interesting record of Jerusalem and its surroundings at the end of the 19th century.
180 x 305 mm. 48 chromogenic and 49 silver gelatin photographs, ranging from 80 x 80 mm to 19 x 126 mm, and housed in photo sleeves. Contemporary spiral-bound illustrated boards. An album of 97 vintage photographs and photographic postcards showing the construction works for the Kuwait oil industry, likely at the famous Burgan and Al Bahrah oil fields and refineries. During the early decades of oil production, the Kuwait Oil Company worked to develop the flowering industry, sometimes partnered with British oil company BP. Several photographs were likely taken by European engineers who moved to Kuwait to work in the oil industry; some of the early silver gelatin photographs were printed in Germany, while several other silver gelatin prints have the stamp of the Armenian-Syrian photographer Vartan Derounian (1888-1954) and/or the stamp K.E.W., that is of the Kuwait Engineering Works Ltd. Since oil was discovered in Kuwait at Burgan oil field in 1938, the petroleum industry has become the largest in the country, responsible for roughly half of Kuwait's GDP. This series of photographs, beginning in roughly the 1950s and with the latest photograph dated 1978, illustrates three decades of infrastructure development and expansion in the industry, including numerous detailed scenes of tanks, wells, and pipelines. - A few light signs of wear, altogether very well preserved.
Oblong 8vo (200 x 160 mm). With 96 silver gelatin photographs mounted in album frames under canvas-covered boards, captioned in ink; later paper label on front pastedown identifying the owner and/or photographer of the album. Contemporary blue cloth with gilt decoration on upper cover. Compiled by the British army surgeon Alfred Tulloch Thompson of Darlington, County Durham, during the Mesopotamian campaign of 1914-18, this prettily presented collection of snapshots of towns such as Basra and Amara reveals the integration of British troops and military life into the local landscapes. Alongside native villages, women fetching water, mosques, and street scenes are subtle signs of the war. One snapshot shows a "sunken Turkish gunboat", likely sunk deliberately by Ottoman forces to block the Shatt-al-Arab channel. Another two are labelled as the 3rd and 32nd British General Hospitals - important to a surgeon - while another shows a hospital boat. Many scenes show the Tigris and local boats (including a dhow plying the "Persian Gulf"), though one additionally shows a "P Boat," a British river steamer. Other images show locals going about daily life in wartime, as well as portraits of British soldiers - likely fellow members of the RAMC, including several of Thompson himself (one showing him in traditional Arab costume). - Light wear and occasional light fading, but altogether very well preserved.
Large 4to (240 x 273 mm). 48 albumen photographs (ca. 240 x 180 mm) mounted on card recto and verso. Bound in contemporary black half calf and cloth, ruled in gilt. An elegant example of the early photography souvenirs which were becoming increasingly popular in the 1890s, especially in tourism of the Holy Land. Many of the photographs are by the studio of Félix Bonfils (1831-85), a French-born photographer who came to the Levant with General d'Hautpoul in 1860 and remained to begin a prolific photography career. Based in Beirut, Bonfils produced thousands of photographs depicting Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the early days of Western tourism to the Middle East, his works soon became popular as souvenirs, and other photographers soon followed. Other examples are by Francis Frith or unsigned. They show memorable scenes of Jerusalem and surroundings, especially tombs, monuments, churches, mosques, landscapes, and cityscapes. - Gentle wear and fading, some foxing to cards, but generally appealing and well preserved.
Small folio (310 x 235 mm). 46 window-mounted albumen photograph cartes-de-visite (84 x 52 mm), Contemporary pebbled green cloth, all edges gilt, remains of metal clasp. Moirée endpapers. An elegant example of the early photography souvenirs which were becoming increasingly popular in the 1890s, especially in tourism of the Holy Land. The cartes-de-visite distinctively illustrate the moment visual souvenirs began to evolve from etchings and prints to photographs: all are, in fact, photographs of paintings depicting church scenes and architecture. There are 48 cartes-de-visite, though only 46 are photographs, the final two being handwritten and hand illuminated well-wishes in French. - Gentle wear and fading, but well preserved.
147 albumen and silver gelatin print photographs, mounted on loose cardstock (recto and verso). Some with inked captions in contemporary hand. Included is a typewritten military communication, also laid down on two sides of cardstock. Over one hundred photographs of French exploration of the Sahara by airplane and automobile in the first decade of flight, set against the backdrop of WWI, the first years of aviation, the Kaocen revolt, and French colonization of Algeria. - Thirty-two aerial photographs show not only towns and oases of the M'zab region of Saharan Algeria such as El Guerrara and Melika, but likely the landmarks by which early pilots were learning to navigate in vast tracts of desert; other photographs feature the Farman F.41 biplane, briefly in use in French North Africa in 1917. The goal to traverse the Sahara was not without dangers: two disasters appear in the record. One is a plane crash, shown in four photographs of a group of men inspecting the wreckage of a downed plane, possibly one of the Farman F.41s, though its state makes identification difficult. The second involves an altercation with local Tuareg people, with whom the French were at war at the time, in the midst of the larger conflict of WWI. The skirmish is described in a typed military communique. Addressed from the Gouvernement General de l'Algerie, 19th Corps d'Armee, Territoire du Sud, Territoire des Oasis, it reads: "Le commandant Militaire fait part aux Troupes du Territoire de la mort glorieuse due Personnel de l'Aviation Saharienne parti de Ouargla en reconnaissance automobile sure In-Salah le 27 Janvier [...] A leur arrivée dans les gorges d'Ain-Guettara; le Ier Février, les deux automobiles sont tombées dans une embuscade tendue par un rezzou de 80 Touaregs dissidents. Après une lutte héroique et après avoir épuisé toutes ses munitions, la petite troupe a été anéantie. Ce sont les premières victimes de la pénétration automobile et aérienne au Sahara [...] L'Escadrille Saharienne nouse aidera un jour à les venger". - Altogether, the collection provides a unique window into a series of historical moments: early aviation, exploration of the Sahara, French colonialism in Algeria, the Tuareg resistance, and the First World War. - A touch of wear, otherwise well preserved.
4to. (328) pp., final blank leaf. Title page within woodcut borders. Contemporary calf (spine rebacked). Arabic and Coptic Psalter as issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Arabic text reprinted from the Risius-Guadagnolo-Ecchellensi-Maracci 1671 Rome edition of the Arabic Bible. The Coptic may be a reprint of the 1744 Rome Coptic-Arabic Psalter edited by Raphael Tuki (cf. Roper/Tait, Coptic Typography, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution [2002], p. 119). - Evenly browned throughout. Punched library ownerships ("Philadelphia Divinity School") and ballpoint shelfmark; old catalogue slip and pouch inserted loosely, with bookplate of the "Library of the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School of Philadelphia". Contemporary bookseller's label (Dondey-Dupré, Paris) to front pastedown. Darlow/Moule 1673 & 3095. OCLC 123078021.
Folio (215 x 328 mm). (4), 104 pp. With engraved frontispiece and 51 leaves of plates (8 double-page-sized or folded). Near-contemporary red half morocco with gilt rules and marbled covers, spine richly gilt (loss of label). Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Rare description of the Holy City of Jerusalem and of the whole of Palestine; a reissue (with changed title) of the edition published by Josef Baumeister in Vienna in 1787. Previous editions had appeared in Venice in 1728, then in 1749 and 1781, while the 1787 edition boasted "a new text and different iconography" (Staikos). This latter edition is here reproduced largely unchanged save for bringing the name of the Patriarch of Jerusalem up to date (from Abraham to Anthimus), as well as that of the editor, Apostolas Boras, on the title page. "The engraving of the Patriarch on his throne is unchanged except for the name; it is signed (in Greek): 'engraved by Schindelmayer in Vienna' [...] A large-sized, impressive book" (Staikos). "A portrait of the Patriarch [Anthimus] forms the frontispiece; also, there is an illustration of the Palace of David, and a plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, though the view of its cross-section is quite haphazard [...] The author expands on Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, and the sacred sites of Galilee. The text is apparently more or less that of the Venice 1728 edition; apart from that, it is generously interspersed with highly appealing illustrations in the true taste of modern Greece" (cf. Tobler 135). The Viennese publisher and printer Franz Anton Schrämbl, whose company was continued by his widow Johanna after his death in 1804, specialised in reprints (often of large sets), maps, and books in Greek. Their production was one of the strongest in Vienna (cf. Frank/Frimmel, Buchwesen in Wien, p. 175f.). - Extremeties bumped; spine-ends chipped. Still a beautiful volume from the library of King George III of the United Kingdom (1738-1820) with his royal cypher on the spine. Staikos no. 28 (note p. 94). OCLC 41651327. Cf. Röhricht 1362, 1515. Tobler 124f., 135. Legrand (XVIII) 1208.
8vo. 1 blank leaf, (6), 867, (1) pp. With a double-page-sized genealogical table. Later marbled boards with printed spine label. Edges lightly sprinkled. First German edition of this important Persian Mirror for Princes, published at the expense of the translator. Composed in the late 11th century by Kaika'us, ruler of the Iranian Ziyarid dynasty, the book is regarded as a major work of Persian literature. It describes the creation of the world and God's religious duties; duties towards one's parents; the cultivation of the mind and the power of speech; youth and old age; moderation in food; consumption of wine; chess and backgammon; love; the pleasures of life; hot baths; sleep and rest; hunting; polo; war; accumulation of wealth; trust in words; the purchase of slaves; the purchase of properties; the purchase of horses; marriage; children's education; the choice of friends; how to deal with enemies; forgiveness; punishment and favors; studies and legal functions; commercial law; medicine; astrology and mathematics; poetry; the art of minstrelsy; the service of kings; the qualities of a courtier, secretaries, viziers, generals and king; farming and agriculture; finally, generosity. A Turkish translation was commissioned in the mid-15th century by the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, and it is this version that was in turn translated into German by Diez. - The oriental scholar H. F. Diez (1751-1817) had trained as a jurist but, bored by his administrative occupation, soon left the Prussian civil service and in 1784 went to Constantinople as Frederick the Great's chargé d'affaires at the Sublime Porte. He was ennobled after only two years of successful diplomatic service. Recalled in 1790 on the eve of the Russo-Turkish War, the self-confessed Turkophile soon retired to the life of an independent scholar and book collector in Berlin. His orientalist publications captured the attention of the learned world, and he moved in the circles of Goethe, Gleim, and Alexander von Humboldt, though largely outside the contemporary tradition of academic oriental studies. "Between his years in Constantinople and his death, Diez pursued his Orientalist studies with extraordinary energy. A string of books authored by Diez and mostly self-published appeared in 1811 [...] Even if many aspects of his scholarly life are almost forgotten, his merits, especially for the development of Turkish studies, are noteworthy [...] His works, almost completely printed at his own expense, reflect his interest in the origins of Asian cultures, literatures, and politics, as well as everyday issues and ethics" (J. Gonnella et al. [ed.], The Diez Albums [Leiden, 2017], p. 58, 76). - Occasional insignificant brownstaining, but a good copy in later marbled boards. Goedeke VII, 586, 36 & 806, 240, 3. Kippenberg I, 1655. Ruppert 1772. Marbach cat., Weltliteratur, pp. 407f. Keudell 954. Not in Wilson (later French translation only).
12mo. XXX, 161, 113 pp. Modern brown calf preserving original marbled covers. First edition of "Sind-Bâd" and the first independent printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic. Although traditionally included in the corpus of the Thousand and One Nights (Alf layla wa-layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of stories that make up the voyages of Sindbad have older and separate origins, incorporating elements of Homer, Panchatantra, other Persian, Arab and Indian literary material as well as historical material relating to trade and navigation. Set traditionally during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Sindbad undertakes seven voyages from Basra, each leading one to the other, encounters fabulous creatures, faces exhaustive ordeals and amasses fabulous wealth. The publisher of the present edition, Louis-Mathieu Langlès (1763-1824), an important figure in the study of Middle-Eastern and Oriental languages and literature, was a correspondent of William Jones in Calcutta, co-founder of the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris, and the keeper of the Indian manuscript department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. "Un ouvrage classique, et d'une certaine importance sous le point de vue scientifique, historique ou littéraire" (preface). - Some browning and waterstaining throughout; occasional paper defects to edges (no loss to text); an Arabic stamp to p. 90 of the French text. Chauvin VII, p. 2. Brunet III, 820. OCLC 4433261.
12mo. XXX, 161, 113 pp. Contemporary half calf with title to giltstamped spine and marbled boards. Endpapers and edges marbled. First edition of "Sind-Bâd" and the first independent printing of any part of the Arabian Nights in Arabic. Although traditionally included in the corpus of the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa Layla) as told by Scheherazade, it is thought that the series of stories that make up the voyages of Sindbad have older and separate origins, incorporating elements of Homer, Panchatantra, other Persian, Arab and Indian literary material as well as historical material relating to trade and navigation. Set traditionally during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Sindbad undertakes seven voyages from Basra, each leading one to the other, encounters fabulous creatures, faces exhaustive ordeals and amasses fabulous wealth. The publisher of the present edition, Louis-Mathieu Langlès (1763-1824), an important figure in the study of Middle-Eastern and Oriental languages and literature, was a correspondent of William Jones in Calcutta, co-founder of the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris, and the keeper of the Indian manuscript department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. "Un ouvrage classique, et d'une certaine importance sous le point de vue scientifique, historique ou littéraire" (preface). Chauvin VII, p. 2. Brunet III, 820. OCLC 4433261.
8vo. VI, (7)-69, (1) pp. Publisher's original green printed wrappers. First edition of the story of Nur al-Din and Shams al-Din, edited by the French oriental scholar (Jacques-)Auguste Cherbonneau (1813-82), professor at the Collège Arabe Française in Algier. Arabic text with French notes. - Well preserved. Chauvin VI, 102, no. 270, 2. OCLC 4432899.
4to. (16), 110, (2) pp. Contemporary full calf. First edition of the Arabic text of the "History of Joseph the Carpenter", one of the oldest New Testament Apocrypha. A compilation of traditions concerning Mary, Joseph, and the "holy family", it probably was composed in Byzantine Egypt in Greek in the late 6th or early 7th century but is preserved only in Coptic and Arabic versions. The Arabic text was edited by Georg Wallin (1686-1760), the learned Lutheran archbishop of Göteborg. - Some browning, more pronounced in margins of title-page. Binding lightly rubbed at extremeties. Old Swedish deaccessioning note ("Duplett") on pastedown. Wants first free endpaper. Rare. Schnurrer 413. OCLC 165689104.
Oblong folio (335 x 240 mm). 16 ff. 110 albumen and silver gelatin photographs mounted in photo corners, with handwritten captions. Contemporary saddle-stitched faux crocodile leather boards with tassel. Over one hundred original photographs of R.A.F servicemen in interwar Iraq. Scenes range from the wreckage of a deadly plane crash, men driving an early tank, locals going about daily life, and servicemen entertaining themselves in their recreational time. Most photographs are captioned by the anonymous owner of the album, with a few captioned in plate; all provide a snapshot of the early days of both the R.A.F. and of modern Iraq. - Various contemporary aircraft are photographed, including a Vickers Vimy Commercial experiencing an awkward landing, the first-ever prototype of the Vickers Victoria (captioned simply, "John's plane"), the de Havilland DH.60 Moth ("Stack and his 'Mooth' aeroplane"), a Halifax II which would go on to be shot down over France during the second world war (captioned "Soap with Snipe"; it is unclear between the plane and the pilot which is Soap and which is Snipe). - One photograph of "Alan Cobham and his plane" shows Cobham (1894-1973), by then already a world-famous aviator posing with a biplane, and another five (one of which has been colorized) show Cobham's de Havilland DH.50 floatplane on the Tigris, likely en route through Baghdad on his record-breaking flight from Britain to Australia. These photos would have been taken very shortly before Cobham's engineer of the D.H.50 aircraft, Arthur B. Elliot, was shot and killed after the pair left Baghdad on the 5th of July 1926. More somberly captioned are five photographs of the "Result of the Vernon Crash", dated two weeks after the incident and showing the wreckage of the No. 45 Squadron's Vickers Vernon, which had crashed into a shed at Hinaidi, killing seven: Oswald Kempson Stirling Webb, Reginald Carey Brinton Brading, Eric Miller Pollard, Edgar Kennedy, Francis Crawford Inglis, Horace Leslie Davies, and Edgar Whittle. - Photographs of local Iraqis and scenery around Baghdad include a line of convicts, a pontoon bridge spanning the Tigris, milk sellers, farming methods, money changers, pottery shops, letter writers, butchers, an Armenian family, a flooded Baghdad North Station, the "Baghdad Bridge", falconers, copper merchants, the Kadi mosque, mourners at a funeral, a distant view of the crumbling crusader fort Qal'at al-Shaqif (captioned "Belfort Castle"), and an "oil gusher" spouting in Kirbuk district. - The remainder of the photographs are devoted to soldiers at rest and the mishaps of military life (including many lorries stuck in the mud); men play tug-of-war, and one serviceman poses with his accordion and a small dog sitting atop a stool with a pipe in its mouth. There are fancy dress parties, snapshots of the barracks and troop ships, and servicemen tromping through calf-deep mud. A thorough collection that provides a sum of daily life in interwar Iraq, ranging from the humorous to the tragic, including both military and civilian life. - Quite well preserved.
Oblong folio (387 x 265 mm). 16 ff. 20 silver gelatin photographs mounted in photo corners with handwritten captions; photographs range between 150 x 207 mm and 120 x 185 mm. Contemporary saddle-stitched faux leather boards with tassel. Twenty R.A.F. photographs of Iraq in the interwar period and associated with the No. 45 Squadron, many of them aerial views and mid-flight snapshots of contemporary aircraft. Most are labelled and numbered in the plate, possibly as official R.A.F. photographs. Aerial photographs of R.A.F. aircraft include the Vicker Victoria Troop Carrier, a "Formation of Vickers Vernous" (that is, Vickers Vernons), and several shots of a pilot referred to simply as "Henry" testing out the newly arrived Airco DH.9A over the mountains and hills of Iraq. Further aerial shots show the Ctesiphon Arch from "200 feet" (61 meters) as noted in-plate, the R.A.F. British Hospital, the Al-Askari Shrine of Samarra surrounded by the old city, and the Maude Bridge in Baghdad. The remainder of the photographs are dedicated to scenes around Baghdad, from British military headquarters to a crowd outside a post office. The first photograph of the album shows what is presumably the No. 45 Squadron (who were in Baghdad in 1926, and are the only squadron in Baghdad known to have flown both the Vickers Vernon and the Airco DH.9A ca. 1926), captioned "All the 'Boys' and me". The No. 45 Squadron famously nicknamed themselves "The Flying Camels" after their squadron badge, which featured a winged camel. - Quite well preserved.
8vo. (3)-245, (3) pp. Contemporary sprinkled boards. Second German translation of "Hayy ibn Yaqzan" by the 12th-century physician Ibn Tufail, widely considered the first philosophical novel and tremendously influential on Eastern and Western intellectual traditions alike. The Arabic tale (not to be confused with Avicenna's earlier like-named romance) was known in Europe as early as the 15th century through Pico della Mirandola's 1493 unpublished Latin translation, and scholars have since asserted its influence on Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Robert Boyle, the modern novel, Enlightenment thought, and even Robinson Crusoe. A bilingual Arabic and Latin edition appeared at Oxford in 1671, marking its first publication in Europe, and this was soon followed by English and Dutch translations. "A medieval philosophical treatise in literary form, written by the Andalusian philosopher Abu Bakr Ibn-Tufayl in the 1160s, it relates the story of human knowledge as it rises from a blank slate, through practical exploration of nature, to a mystical or direct experience of God. Its central argument is that human reason can independently access scientific knowledge unaided by religion or society and its conventions, leading not only to the tenets of natural philosophy but also to the attainment of mystical insight, the highest form of human knowledge" (Ben-Zaken, p. 2). Following the life of a young man stranded on an otherwise uninhabited island, it is easy to appreciate comparisons to Robinson Crusoe; given the protagonist's flair as an autodidact and faith in empiricism, it is similarly not difficult to understand the story's appeal to Enlightenment thinkers, whom this German edition would have served well. The work's Western influence is hardly to obscure its importance within the Arabic and Persian literary traditions, nor its influence on Islamic philosophy. The author was well placed to leave an enduring legacy. "He was the caliph's friend and confidant as well as his physician. The two could talk freely about the burning issues of the day, even including creation and whether the world had always been as we know it" (Goodman). - Unchanged re-issue of Eichhorn's new translation, styled "The Natural Man", which had first appeared the previous year. An earlier German translation, by J. G. Pritsius, had been published in 1726. - Ownership signature of the theologian Martin Hößler (b. 1877), dated 2 November 1919, written in indelible pencil on front flyleaf. Light dampstain to lower pastedown and moderate wear to the binding extremities. Complete, pagination notwithstanding, matching all digitized copies available for comparison. An appealing copy. VD 18, 11177462. OCLC 247720469. Avner Ben-Zaken, Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Baltimore, 2011), p. 10. Cf. GAL S I, p. 831 f. Schnurrer p. 472.
