Forum Islamic World

8 large illustrated volumes of the most important voyages from the 15th to the end of the 17th century

AA, Pieter van der (editor) and Johann Ludwig GOTTFRIED. De aanmerkenswaardigste en alomberoemde zee- en landreizen der Portugeezen, Spanjaarden, Engelsen en allerhande natiën: zoo van Fransen, Italiaanen, Deenen, Hoogh- en Nederduitsen als van veele andere volkeren. Voornaamenlyk ondernomen tot ontdekking van de Oost- en Westindiën, midsgaders andere verafgelegene gewesten des aardryks.
The Hague, widow of Engelbrecht Boucquet and sons; Leiden, Jan van der Deyster, and Boudewijn and Pieter van der Aa, 1727. 8 volumes. 1mo and folio. With 7 (of 8) engraved frontispieces (lacking that of volume 4), 4 engraved dedications, 117 engraved maps on 61 leaves, 7 engraved plates and 502 engravings in text. Further with 127 (of 128) title-pages (including a general title-page, a title-page to 7 (of 8) volumes, lacking that of volume 4, and 118 for the separate works). Volume 1-3 & 5-8: contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and board edges; volume 4: modern calf. Full description

€ 65,000

Photographs of Sheikh Zayed's state visits to Pakistan

[ABU DHABI – STATE VISITS TO PAKISTAN]. [Photograph archive and album. Album title]: Visit to Lahore of His Highness Skeikh Zayed bin Sultan Alnahayyani the ruler of Abudhabi (16th to 28th November, 1967).
[Pakistan, 1967-1971]. An archive of 183 photographs: 133 loose black and white photographic prints (ca. 30 x 25 cm), 30 smaller ones (ca. 5 x 6 cm) numbered and mounted together on a single sheet of paper, and 20 additional prints in the album. Further with numerous rolls of original medium format negatives.Original black half morocco album, green cloth sides with title and emblem of the United Bank Limited Pakistan on the front board. Full description

€ 125,000

History of the Islamic Almoravid and Almohad dynasties in Spain and north Africa

ABU-MOHAMMED ASSALEH el Abdel-Halim and José de SANTO ANTONIO MOURA (translator). Historia dos soberanos Mohametanos das primeiras quatro dynastias, e de parte da quinta, que reinarao na Mauritania,..
Lisbon, Academia real, 1828. 4to. Contemporary motted sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], 454, [4] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Medical secrets plus a largely imaginary Medieval European view of India

[ACHILLINI, Alessandro]. Secreta secretorum Aristotelis.
Including:
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophi ... de signis aquarum: & tempestatum.
ARISTOTLE [pseudo]. Maximi philosophurum ... de mineralibus.
ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS. De intellectu.
AVERROES. De beatitudine anime.
ACHILLINI, Alexander. De universalibus.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT [pseudo]. De mirabilibus Indie.
(Colophon: Lyon, Antoine Blanchard, 1528. Small 8vo. With a title-page with a 4-piece decorated woodcut border with flowers, birds and snails, woodcut printer's device on last page, 6 woodcut initials and a leaf ornament. Set in 3 sizes of rotunda gothic types, with the title in roman capitals. Contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin(?) parchment over wooden boards, in a panel design with quadruple fillets and 2 decorative rolls, brass catch-plates and anchor-plates (straps and clasps lost). LXXXIII ll. Full description

€ 11,500

An early account of Timbuktu by an American sailor

[ADAMS, Robert (= Benjamin ROSE)]. Jongste en echte berigten betrekkelijk Tombuctoo en eenige andere nog onbezochte deelen der binnenlanden van Afrika.
Amsterdam, J.C. Sepp en Zoon, 1818. 8vo. With a folding engraved map (30.5 x 37.5 cm) of North Africa with the routes of Mungo Park and Robert Adams highlighted in colour. Contemporary boards. VI, 353, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

With attractive maps of the Holy Land

ADRICHEM, Christiaan van. Theatrum Terrae Sanctae et biblicarum historiarum cum tabulis geographicis aere expressis.
[Cologne, Officina Birckmannica, for Hermann Mylius, 1628]. Folio. With engraved allegorical title-page, numerous decorated woodcut initial letters and tailpieces, 11 maps of Israel and 1 map of Jerusalem (8 folding and 4 double-page). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine with red morocco title-label, blind-tooled sides, gilt binding edges. [12], 286, [30] pp. Full description

€ 10,000

Pope Clement XI's copies of three important works concerning the Armenian language

AGOP, Joannes (Yovhannès KONSTANDNOWPOLSECÍ). Puritas Haygica seu grammatica Armenica ...
Rome, Sacrae Congretationis de Propaganda Fide, 1675.
With:
(2) AGOP, Joannes. Grammatica Latina Armenice' explicata: ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1675.
(3) AGOP, Joannes. Puritas lingue Armenicae ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1674. 3 works in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [6], 246, [4]; 215, [1 blank]; 215, [1] pp. Full description

€ 24,000

by the Imprimerie Impériale in Paris, with a contemporary literal manuscript translation by a French orientalist">"The history of the forty viziers" in Ottoman Turkish, beautifully printed in Arabic type
by the Imprimerie Impériale in Paris, with a contemporary literal manuscript translation by a French orientalist

[AHMED-I MISRI and/or SEYHZADE]. BELLETESTE, Henri-Nicolas (editor). [in Arabic type:] Kýrk vezir hikâyeleri ... = Contes Turcs en langue Turque, extraits de roman intitulé, Les quarante vizirs.
Paris, Imprimerie Impériale ("chez" (sold by?) Guillaume Debure and sons), 1812. 4to. With the text in Ottoman Turkish set entirely in Arabic type, with only a second title-page in French, the book opening from the left wrapper with the Turkish title-page and the pages proceeding from left to right, while it opens from the right wrapper with the French title-page. The Turkish and French title-pages, the former in a decorative frame, include Napoleons woodcut imperial coat of arms: eagle clutching a thunderbolt, mantled and with the imperial crown, the collar (with an "N") and badge of the Legion of Honour and the crossed sceptres of mercy and justice, printed from two different blocks (that on the Turkish title-page is smaller and the points of the sceptres extend beyond the mantling). The first page of the text is set in a richly decorated frame in the traditional Islamic style. With: (2) IDEM. A second copy of the same edition, omitting the Turkish title-page and the last 50 leaves (pp. 161-258 & 2 unnumbered), but including the original publishers front wrapper (containing a short form of the title), and with a French manuscript translation of the Turkish text written in the margins.
Ad 1 in contemporary blue paper wrappers with a white printed spine label, stored in a 20th-century custom-made case: half red morocco with the title in gold on the spine and block-printed (green on white) paste-paper sides; ad 2 sewn and with the original publishers printed-paper front wrapper. [2], 258, [2]; 160 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Two photographs of the guardians of the Imam Reza shrine, Iran

[AKASBASHI, Aqa Reza]. [Two photographs of Persian guardians].
[Iran, 2nd half of the 19th century]. 2 albumen prints mounted on cardboard (15 x 20 & 14 x 20.5 cm), with Persian text below. Full description

€ 1,500

Rare travelogue of Yemen, with the original Arabic text

AL-GARADI, Ahmed Ibn Muhammad [and Eugen MITTWOCH]. Aus dem Jemen. Hermann Burchardts letzte Reise durch Südarabien. bearbeitet von Eugen Mittwoch...
Leipzig, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft in kommission bei F.A. Brockhaus, [1926]. 4to. 28 plates with 55 photos, 1 map on page 9. Text is partially in Arabic. Original paper covers. [4], 74 pp. Full description

€ 200

One photographic print of Mecca as the remarkable exception in an album
containing 50 photographic prints of the people, cities and scenery of Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa

[PHOTOGRAPHY - ALGERIA - TUNISIA] Algerie - Tunisie.
[Tunis, Photographie Garrigues, late 19th century]. Oblong album (32 x 41 cm). Album with 50 photographic prints of various sizes (13.5 x 9.5 to 29 x 21.5 cm , each pasted on thick paperboard. Half black leather with title in gold lettering on front board. [50] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Charming album with accomplished pencil and watercolor sketches and views
from France, Algeria and Spain

[ALGIERS & SPAIN]. J. M. (artist?). [Views and people along the Mediterranean coasts of France, Spain and Algeria].
[London sketchbook used in the Mediterranean], 1881. Small oblong 8vo (8,5 x 13 cm). Album (sketchbook) containing 28 pencil drawings (1 double-page), 2 colored drawings and 4 watercolors (1 double-page ) with handwritten captions in English. Half checkered black morocco. With advertising label of "Lechertier, Barbe & Co. Artists colourmen and Stationers, Regent Street, London" with prices of the various sketchbooks for sale; at the head the artists(?) initials and date: "J.M. 1881". 70 pp. Full description

€ 1,850

Peace treaty between the Dutch Republic and the Regency of Algiers

[ALGIERS - TREATY - STATES GENERAL]. Tractaat tusschen haar hoog mogende de heeren Staaten Generaal ... en de regeeringe van Algiers. Geslooten in het jaar 1757.
With: (2) Ampliatie tot het tractaat van vrede tusschen ... de Staaten Generaal ... en den Dey en regeering van Algiers. Exhibitum den 10 October 1760.
Middelburg, Johan Bakker, [1758]. 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the Dutch admiralty on the title-page. Contemporary marbled wrappers. 18; 3, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

First English translation of volume 8 of Al-Hamdani's historical, geographical
and genealogical description of ancient South Arabia

AL-HAMDANI [transl. and ed. Nabih Amin FARIS]. The antiquities of South Arabia being a translation from the Arabic with linguistic, geographic, and historic notes of the eighth book of Al-Hamdani's Al-Iklil, reconstructed from Al. Karmali's edition and a MS in the Garrett collection Princeton University Library.
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1938. 8vo. With 1 page with the text of fol. 22(a) of the Princeton MS; p. 73 shows inscriptions of Himyarite characters; 1 map titled "Ancient Arabia Peoples, places and routes". The notes are partially in Arabic and Hebrew (and possibly other types of) script. Black cloth, with title information on spine. [6], 119, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Dala'il al-khayrat written in China

AL-JAZULI, Muhammad ibn Sulaiman. Dalâ'il al-khayrat. [= "Waymarks of benefits"].
[Eastern Turkestan, now Xinjiang, China, early 17th century CE]. 4to (19 x 14 cm). Manuscript written in black ink on paper in Arabic script, with a red single- or double-line frame around each page, rubricated throughout, and two illustrations on pages 47 and 48) showing the "Ka'ba of Allah" (!) and the burial sites of the first three Rashidun Caliphs. The Arabic script is in the sini calligraphic style used in China, an archaic form mixing features of naskh and muhaqqaq. Contemporary(?) black, red and gold painted and lacquered leather over paper and cloth. The painted sides show floral designs in black and gold on a red background, in a black border with red wave designs. With remnants of leather on the brown cloth spine. [1], 337 pp. Full description

€ 38,000

Three letters written in 1539 on the Ottoman threat in the Mediterranean

[LETTERS]. ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, Pedro and Maria OSORIO Y PIMENTEL. [Three letters to Ferrante Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily, two from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo and one from his wife Maria Osorio y Pimentel].
Andria (in the Kingdom of Naples), 13 August to 10 September 1539. Folio (21.5 x 30 cm).
(1) Letter in Italian, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 13 August 1539, with a 23 mm seal bearing Alvarez de Toledo's coat of arms (with a chain of flags) stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax.
(2) Letter in Spanish, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 3 September 1539, with the 45 mm imperial armorial seal stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax.
(3) Letter in Italian, signed, from Maria Osorio y Pimentel [in Andria] to Ferrante Gonzaga, 10 September 1539, with the remains of what appears to be her husband's 23 mm red wax seal.
Each letter, in brown ink, occupies one page, with the last page containing the address and the sender's seal. The two inside pages of the second and third letter are blank. Each formerly folded for posting, so that the address would have appeared on one side and the seal on the other. [4]; [4]; [2] pp. including blanks. Full description

€ 15,000

German edition of the earliest detailed account of Ethiopia, with woodcut illustrations

ÁLVAREZ, Francisco. General Chronica, das ist: Warhaffte eigentliche und kurtze Beschreibung, vieler namhaffter, und zum theil biß daher unbekannter Landtschafften, ...
Including:
OROSIUS, Paulus. Chronica, das ist: Warhaffte ... Beschreibung, deß Umbkreiß und Gelegenheit der gantzen Welt ...
[ORTELIUS, Abraham]. Cosmographia, das ist: Warhaffte ... Beschreibung, deß gantzen Erdbodems ...
Frankfurt am Main, (colophon, vols. 2 & 3: printed by Johann Schmidt for Sigmund Feyerabend), 1581. 3 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With 3 title-pages, 18 woodcut illustrations (plus 15 repeats) in vol. 1, mostly half-page. Contemporary blind-tooled leather over wooden boards, red edges, and a pair of brass fastenings (1 clasp and anchor plate lacking), the catchplate on a leather strap and the catchplates and clasp with engraved decoration. [3], [1 blank], 143, [1 blank]; 94, [2]; 45, [2], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 25,000

First extensive Syriac grammar, set in serto type with woodcut estrangela and (for the first time) Eastern Syriac

AMIRA, Georgius Michaelis (Jiris ibn Mikha’il ibn ‘). [Grammatiqi suraya aw kaldayata ...]. Grammatica Syriaca, sive Chaldaica ...
Rome, Giacomo Luna (Yaqub ibn al-Hilal), Typographia Linguarum Externarum (successor to the Syriac materials of the Tipografia Medicea Orientale), 1596. 4to. Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title. [44], 480 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Great history of the Portuguese colonial empire in South America, India, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa

ANDRADA, Francisco d'. Chronica do muyto alto e muyto poderoso Rey destes reynos de Portugal Dom João o III deste nome, ...
Coimbra, Real officina da universidade, 1796. 4 volumes. 4to. With a woodcut royal Portuguese coat of arms on title-page of each volume. Contemporary plain paper wrappers. VIII, I-XV, [1 blank], 385, [1 blank]; [4], XIX, [1 blank], 565 [=465], [1 blank]; [4], XX, 452; Full description

€ 2,500

Important biography of the fourth viceroy of Portuguese India

ANDRADE, Jacinto Freire de. Vida de D. João de Castro, quarto viso-rei da India; ... Nova edição.
Lisbon, Typ. Rollandiana, 1861. 8vo. Modern orange paper wrappers. [8], 341, [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

€ 600

Private photographs of a visit to the oilfields of the APOC, by the founder of Toc H

[ANGLO-PERSIAN OIL COMPANY - PHOTOGRAPHS]. [CHAPPELL, Henry Pegg (photographer)]. A Christmas pilgrimage to the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. in Persia made by P.B.C.. S.C.. H.P.C.
[Greece, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, 1931-1932]. Oblong photograph album (20.5 x 32 cm). With 72 sepia photographs (ca. 6 x 8.5 cm). [19], [5 blank] ll. Full description

€ 8,500

Presentation copy of an authoritative handbook on the Arab states of the Lower Gulf

ANTHONY, John Duke. Arab states of the Lower Gulf: People, Politics, Petroleum.
Washington D.C., The Middle East institute, 1975. 8vo. With two black and white maps on the endpapers. Brown cloth with publisher's illustrated dust jacket. X, 273, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 500

Ephemeralia, including Arab constitutional documents and an introduction to the history of Arab medicine

[ARABIA]. [A collection of ephemeralia regarding the Arab states].
New York & London, 1951-1962. 3 booklets and a menu. Full description

€ 1,800

Abundantly illustrated performance report of ARAMCO in 1955

ARABIAN AMERICAN OIL COMPANY. 1955 Report of operations to the Saudi Arab government.
[Dhahran], Saudi Arabia, Arabian American Oil Company, 1956. 28 x 21.5 cm. With a portfolio of photographs, 8 pages in the middle of the work, with captions in both English and Arabic. Thoroughly and colourfully decorated with photographs, maps and other decorations in the text. The 56 pages of text appear twice in the present work as published, once in English on the left side of the portfolio and once in Arabic on the right side of the portfolio. Original publisher's decorated wrappers, with the title in English on the front wrapper and the title in Arabic on the back wrapper. VIII, 48, [8 - portfolio of photographs], 48, [8] pp. Full description

€ 750

The life of Muhammad and a history of Arabia under the first four Caliphs

[ARABIAN HISTORY]. Hedendaagsche historie; of het vervolg van de algemeene historie; ... Behelzende het leeven van Mohammed; en het begin van de historie der Arabieren, onder de drie eerste Khalifs ...
Utrecht, Hermanus Besseling (vols. 1-2), Leiden, Amsterdam, P. van der Eyk, G. de Groot and son, K. van Tongerloo and P. Schouten (vol. 3), 1760-1764. 6 parts in 3 volumes. 4to. With 3 engraved frontispieces, engraved coat of arms and 6 folding plates. Contemporary boards covered with sprinkled paper. Full description

€ 5,000

Aramaco and the Arabic Superman: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Nabil fawzi!

[ARAMCO]. Aramco World. Vol. 21 no. 2: March-April 1970.
New York, Aramco, 1970. 4to. Illustrated wrappers. 32 pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Large folding road map of Saudi Arabia

[ARAMCO]. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, Al-Mutawa press company, 1973. Large folding map (60 × 90.5 cm), printed in light orange with darker purple, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Full description

€ 1,800

Surviving traffic in Saudi Arabia, a large folding map

ARAMCO. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, printed by the Al-Mutawa Press for the Arabian American Oil Company, 1973. Large folding map (60 x 90.5 cm), printed in colour, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Printed on two sides, one side with the map in English and the other in Arabic. Full description

€ 1,800

Surviving traffic in Saudi Arabia, a large folding map

ARAMCO. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, printed by the Al-Mutawa Press for the Arabian American Oil Company, 1975. Large folding map (60 x 90.5 cm), printed in colour, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Printed on two sides, one side with the map in English and the other in Arabic. Full description

€ 1,500

Surviving traffic in Saudi Arabia

[ARAMCO]. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, Mutawa Press, [early 1980s]. Colour-printed map, 59 x 85.5 cm. Full description

€ 1,000

The most important source for the Moluccas in the early colonial period

ARGENSOLA, Bartolome Leonardo de. Conquista de las islas Malucas.
[Madrid, Alonso Martin, 1609]. Small folio (22 x 30 cm). With an engraved architectural title-page showing an allegorical scene (the Moluccas represented by a native woman with feather headdress, cornucopia and sword, riding a crocodile, with the Spanish royal coat of arms in the sky) and a sleeping lion (representing the author?) in a separate cartouche below. Early 18th-century richly gold-tooled red morocco, each board with a large centrepiece a petit fers made partly with pointillé stamps. (Integral?) engraved title-page + [10], “407” [= 411], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

With 16 large tinted lithographs of lie at the Ottoman court

[ARIF PACHA, Muchir]. [Les anciens costumes de l'empire Ottoman, depuis l'origine de la monarchie jusqu'a la reforme du Sultan Mahmoud. Volume I = all published].
[Paris, Lemercier, 1863]. 1mo (54.5 x 40 cm). With lithographic portrait of Arif Pacha, drawn on stone by M. Julien, printed on India paper, cut in an oval and mounted on a leaf of stiff paper, with caption and imprint lithographed directly on the leaf, 16 tinted lithographic plates after Arif Pacha (image size 24.5 x 34 cm). Lacking lithographed title-page. Contemporary black half morocco. 24 ll. printed both sides, plus plates Full description

€ 25,000

The Ottoman state and its officials in contemporary portraits, coloured by hand

ARIF PACHA, Muchir. Les Anciens Costumes de l'Empire Ottoman, depuis l'origine de la monarchie jusqu'a la reforme du Sultan Mahmoud ... Tome 1er [all published].
Paris, Lemercier, 1863. Folio (54.8 x 40 cm). With lithographic portrait of Arif Pacha, drawn on stone by M. Julien, printed on India paper, with caption and imprint lithographed directly on the leaf, 16 tinted lithographic plates after Arif Pacha (image size 24.5 x 34 cm), coloured and finished by hand. Modern cloth. 24 ll. printed both sides, plus plates. Full description

€ 35,000

A French view on the Arabs in a Dutch translation

ARVIEUX, Laurent d'. Reis naar de legerplaats van den Grooten Emir, en beschrijving van de zeeden en gewoonten der woestijn-bewoonende Arabieren ... Tweede druk.
Dordrecht, A. Blussé & Zoon, 1802. 8vo. With 3 full-page engraved plates and 1 engraved illustration in text. Contemporary gold-tooled half calf, shell-marbled sides. [4], XL, 384, [16] pp. Full description

€ 1,350

Asia and the Middle East in 1952, with many borders on the Arabian Peninsula still undefined

[MAP – ASIA – MIDDLE EAST]. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. Southwest Asia, India, Pakistan, and Northeast Africa.
Washington, DC, National Geographic Society, 1952. Colour printed map, 68.5 x 95 cm. Scale 1:7,5000,000. With an inset map of "the Moslem World; percentage of Moslems in total population". Full description

€ 850

"Ruler of group of Islands"

[PHOTOGRAPHY - BAHRAIN]. HH Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa with three other sheikhs.
Gulf region, 1920s. Black and white photograph (gelatin silver print, 8 x 7 cm) mounted on brown cardboard (9 x 8.5 cm). Captioned in white ink. Full description

€ 4,500

First printed record of Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai

BALBI, Gasparo. Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali.
Venice, Camillo Borgominieri, 1590. 8vo. With woodcut device on title-page and navigational diagram on leaf 144. 19th-century polished tan calf, richly gold-tooled spine. Full description

€ 150,000

Ottoman poetry on Turkish silhouette paper, brought to Silesia in the 16th century

[BAQI - FUZULI - HAYALI (et al.)]. Mirda-i gonca-dehen-i Iala-zar [= Rosebud shawls of the tulip bed].
[Western Anatolia?, ca. 1580 CE?]. 8vo (12.5 x 20 cm). Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper in several hands. Mainly on polished paper, also including 18 leaves of silhouette paper with a floral pattern in pink and mint green. Contemporary limp leather with a remnant impression of a library chain. 206 ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Large coloured map of the Middle East, including roads and oil pipe lines

BARTHOLOMEW, John. Middle East with boundaries, roads and railways.
Edinburgh, John Bartholomew & Son, 1962. 8vo. Large folding map (77 x 101 cm) on a scale of 1:4,000,000, linen backed. With relief shown by contours, hachures and gradient tints and depths shown by soundings. Folded, with title-wrapper. Full description

€ 850

A classic description of Islam

BAUDIER, Michel. Histoire generale de la religion des Turcs. Avec la naissance, la vie, & la mort, de leur prophete Mahomet; et les actions des quatre premiers caliphes qui l'ont suivy.
Paris, Jean Guignard, 1632. 8vo. With the controversial half-page engraved portrait of Muhammad. 17th-century(?) vellum, later endpapers. [70], [2 blank], 726, [50] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

A Franciscan discovering the Holy Land. From the library of King Louis-Philippe

[BEAUGRAND, Felix]. Relation fidele du voyage de la Terre Sainte dans laquelle se voit tout ce qu' il y a de remarquable, tant par mer que par terre, depuis le départ de Marseille jusqu' au retour de ce saint voyage.
Paris, Gabriel Valleyre, 1760. 8vo. With a small woodcut vignette on title, several woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine, with yellow morocco title label, gold-tooled binding edges, red edges. [4], 248, [10] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Magnificent atlas in color published in the first half of the 18th century

[BEAURAIN, Collection Jean de]. Atlas ... suivant la Collection du Sr. de Beaurain Geographe ordinaire du Roy, a Paris rüe Pavée au coin du Quay des Augustins.
Paris, [suivant la collection du Sr. de Beaurain, geographe ordinaire du Roy], 1748. Large folio. All three volumes with a handwritten title-page and an index in an engraved allegorical frame. Volume 1 contains 134 maps numbered 1 - 130 + 4 unnumbered maps (including 1 plan of Paris). Volume 2 contains 80 maps numbered 1 - 79 + 1 unnumbered map. Volume 3 contains 85 maps and 1 engraved plate, numbered 1 - 86. All the maps are on two sheets, some folded, some have been re-margined to reach the large folio size. Contemporary marbled calf, spine fleuron panels, raised bands, red morocco title and volume labels ("Atlas Universel"), roll-tooled gilt on leading edges of sides, red edges. [3] ll. and 134 maps; [3] ll. and 80 maps; [2] ll. and 85 maps and 1 plate. Full description

€ 275,000

60 photographs by Bechard of Egyptians and Nubians

BÉCHARD, Henri Égypte et Nubie.
[ca. 1880]. 60 photographs on albumen paper, measuring 28 x 22 cm each, signed and captioned in the plate, numbered 1 through 68. Contemporary green half calf with gilt spine and title "Égypte & Nubie", initialed "B.C.D." on first plate. Full description

€ 45,000

Belon's account of his extensive travels in the Levant, with 44 woodcut illustrations

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,500

First Latin edition, printed by Plantin, of Belon's illutrated oriental travel account, with 43 woodcuts

BELON, Pierre. Plurimarum singularium & memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Judaea, Arabia, aliisq. exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae.
(2) BELON, Pierre. De neglecta stirpium cultura, atque earum cognitione libellus: edocens qua ratione silvestres arbores cicurari & mitescere queant. Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1589. 2 works in 1 volume. 8vo. With Plantins woodcut compasses device on each title-page, 43 woodcuts in text (6 full-page), woodcut decorated initials. With an unrecorded 2-page corrigenda leaf. Contemporary overlapping limp vellum. [16], 495, [1 blank]; "78" [= 87], [1 blank], [2] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Rare and extensive work on Algeria, spectacularly illustrated with 133 large plates, some in colour

BERBRUGGER, Louis Adrien. Algerie historique, pittoresque et monumentale, ou Recueil de vues, costumes et portraits faits d'après nature dans les provinces d'Alger, Bone, Constantine et Oran.
Paris, Delahaye (part-titles: printed by Dondey-Dupré), 1843. 5 parts in 3 volumes. Royal 1mo (57 x 42.5 cm). With chromo-lithographed general title-page, tinted lithographed frontispiece, 2 lithographed maps hand-coloured in outline, and 133 lithographed plates (image size up to 44.5 x 30.5 cm, nearly all non-botanical ones tinted and one with 2 chromolithographed and hand-coloured costume prints) by and after artists including Charles Bour, Eugène Flandin, Félix Emmanuel Henri Philippoteaux and Denis Auguste Marie Raffet. Also with lithographed views (and a few lithographed maps) printed in the tail margins at the ends of many chapters, and 45 white-on-black wood-engravings of coins (each with obverse and reverse) in the text. The 72 botanical illustrations on the last 10 lithographed plates are coloured by hand and highlighted with gum arabic. The non-botanical plates have the publisher's embossed stamp in the foot margin. Contemporary, uniform dark green half goatskin morocco with a gold-tooled spine. XIV, [3], [1 blank], 80; [3], [1 blank], 68; [3], [1 blank], 42; [3], [1 blank], 21, [1 blank], 18, 16, [1], [1 blank] pp. including the chromolithographed title-page. Full description

€ 28,500

Diplomatic and commercial relations between Venice and Persia

BERCHET, Guglielmo. La repubblica di Venezia e la Persia.
Torino, G.B. Paravia e comp., 1865. 8vo. With 5 photographic plates. Original publisher's printed brown paper wrappers. XVII, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 294, [2] pp. Full description

€ 750

The geographical details of two outstanding maps of Arabia

BERGHAUS, Heinrich. Geographisches memoir zur erklärung und erlaüterung der Karte von Syrien. (no. 5. von Berghaus' Atlas von Asia).
Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1835. With an engraved map of Syria.
With: (2) BERGHAUS, Heinrich. Geo-hydrographisches memoir zur erklärung und erlaüterung der General-Karte von Arabia und dem Nil-Lande. (no. 6. von Berghaus' Atlas von Asia).
Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1835. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With a supplement to another article by Berghaus bound at the end: Supplement zur historisch-geographischen Beschreibung von Assam etc., with an engraved map. Modern half cloth. [4], 48; [4], 128; 179-182 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

"on pesche les perles ... dans le Golfe Persique, principalement ... aupres de Baroyn [= Bahrain]"

BERQUEN, Robert de. Les merveilles des Indes Orientales et Occidentales, ou Nouveau traitté des pierres precieuses & perles, ...
Paris, Christophe Lambin, 1661. 4to. With an engraved portrait of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans facing the dedication. Contemporary gold-tooled, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled sides. [12], 112 pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Rare contemporary compilation of official accounts of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt

BERTHIER, Louis-Alexandre and Napoleon BONAPARTE. Relation des expéditions d'Egypte et de Syrie, de la bataille d'Aboukir et de la reprise du fort de ce nom, par les troupes de la République Française, commandées par le célèbre Général Bonaparte.
Including:
BERTHIER, Louis-Alexandre. Éxpedition de Syrie.
BONAPARTE, Napoleon. Bataille d'Aboukir.
BONAPARTE, Napoleon. Reprise du fort d'Aboukir.
Paris, Pelletié, an VIII [=1799/1800]. 8vo. Modern half calf, original paste-paper boards. [1], [1 blank], [2], 3-148 pp. Full description

€ 5,500

1619 issue of the 1591 first edition of the Gospels in Arabic and Latin

[BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - GOSPELS - ARABIC & LATIN]. Arba`at Anajil Yasu` al-Masih Sayyidina al-Muqaddasah. Sacrosancta quatuor Iesu Christi D. N. Evangelia. Arabice scripta, Latine reddita, figurisq[ue] ornata.
Rome, Typographia Medicea, (1591)-1619. Folio (26 x 36.5 cm). Title-page printed in red and black, with the woodcut Medici coat of arms 81 woodcut illustrations in the text (plus 68 repeats), some initialled LP for the block cutter (Leonardo Parassole or less likely Lucas Pennis) and some also AT for the artist (Antonio Tempesta). Set in naskh Arabic type with the interlinear Latin text in roman. Contemporary Italian flexible boards with manuscript title on spine. [4], 9-462, [2] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Urdu Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, printed at Calcutta in Arabic type

[BIBLE - GOSPELS & ACTS - URDU]. The four gospels and the Acts, in Hindustání. Translated from the Greek. by the Calcutta Baptist missionaries.
Calcutta (Kolkata), The Bible Translation Society, American and Foreign Bible Society, 1849. 12mo. With the title in Hindustani (Urdu) and English, and the text in Urdu only. Contemporary textured cloth. [2], 413, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Urdu Gospel of St Luke and Acts of the Apostles, printed at Calcutta in Arabic type

[BIBLE - LUKE & ACTS - URDU]. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in Hindustání.
Calcutta (Kolkata), The Bible Translation Society, American and Foreign Bible Society, 1850. 12mo. With the title in Hindustani (Urdu) and English, and the text in Urdu only. The pages procede from right to left like a normal book in Arabic type. Set in 2 sizes of Arabic type with the English title in roman capitals. Contemporary dark brown cloth. [1], [1 blank], 191, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 750

Fine plates of a veiled woman, an Arabic man from Hedjaz, and the Mosques of Abdoulala at Bulaq,
Ahmed ibn Tolon and Ibrahim Agha

BIDA, Alexandre and Prosper BARBOT. Souvenirs d'Egypte.
Paris, Lemercier, [ca. 1850]. Large folio (55 x 41 cm). With a lithographed title-page and 24 tinted lithographs with captions in Arabic, French and English, all mounted on cloth. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. Full description

€ 19,000

Important travelogue on Persia, with 15 plates and 2 maps

BODE, Clement Augustus de. Travels in Luristan and Arabistan.
Including: BODE, Clement Augustus de. Observations on the march of Timur ... and on the probable course pursued by Alexander the Great, on his expedition from Susa to Persepolis.
London, J. Madden and Co., 1845. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a wood-engraved illustration on the title-page to each volume, 15 plates, 2 folding engraved maps and 3 wood-engraved illustrations in text. The 15 plates (4 tinted lithographs and 11 wood engravings) consists of 2 frontispieces, a folding plate, a double-page plate and 11 single-page plates. Modern half calf, marbled (Period Binders, Bath, England). XX, 404; XII, 398, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

First edition of the first printed ethnographic comparison of the world's people, typographically stunning

BOEMUS (BÖHM), Johannes. Omnium gentium mores leges et ritus ex multis clarrissimis rerum scriptoribus ... nuper collecti: & in libros tris distinctos Aphricam, Asiam, Europam, optime lector lege. [Half-title:] Repertorium librorum trium Ioannis Boemi de omnium gentium ritibus. Item index rerum scitu digniorum in eosdem. Cum privilegio Papali ac Imperiali M.D.XX.
(Colophon: Augsburg, Sigismund Grimm & Marcus Wirsung, July 1520). Folio. With the letterpress half-title in an elaborate woodcut border with a trophy of arms, putti and mermen. 17th century vellum with 3 raised spine-bands. [6], LXXXI, [1] ll. Full description

€ 5,750

Souvenir album showing the Holy Land, Egypt, Athens and Venice in the second half of the 19th century

BONFILS, G. LEKEGIAN & CO, Brothers ZANGAKI, Collection MERLIN and Carlo NAYA. [Souvenir album with photographs of the Holy Land, Cairo, Athens and Venice].
[Palestine, Cairo, Athens, Venice, ca. 1890]. Oblong album (41.5 x 31 cm) containing 62 albumen prints, mostly 23 x 28 cm, with 2 smaller prints of ca. 16 x 28 and 5 large prints of 35.5 x 27 cm. Most of the photographs are numbered and captioned in French, and sometimes also in English, on the negative. Contemporary brown half morocco. [59], [11 blank] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Deluxe Palestine souvenir album

[BONFILS, Félix]. Jerusalem.
[Palestine, 1880s]. Oblong album (44.5 x 31.5 cm) With 71 large photographic albumen prints, mostly ca. 22 x 28 cm, signed and captioned in the negative (in French and English), mounted on both sides of the album's leaves. Includes a three-part folding panorama of Jerusalem from Mount Olivet, measuring 82 x 21 cm. Original auburn morocco with gold-stamped front board, gilt edges. Full description

€ 18,000

Ledger recording involvement in numerous infrastructural projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (1952-1955)

BOULTEN, F.A. [Manuscript ledger recording the time spent working on infrastructural projects].
[London?,] 1952-1955. Folio. Lined journal, each page ruled for monthly tallies, with some extra annotations. Contemporary cloth. [48] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Five rare publications on the 17th-century French mission in southeast Asia

BOURGES, Jacques de. Relation du voyage de Monseigneur l'evesque de Beryte, vicaire apostolique du royaume de la Cochinchine, par la Turquie, la Perse, les Indes, &c. jusqu'au royaume de Siam, & autres lieux.
Paris, Charles Angot, 1683. 8vo.
With:
(2) PALLU, François. Relation abregée des missions et des voyages des evesques François envoyez aux royaumes de la Chine, Cochinchine, Tonquin, & Siam.
Paris, Charles Angot, 1682.
(3) [FERMANEL DE FAVERY, Luc (editor)]. Relation des missions des evesques François aux royaumes de Siam, de la Cochinchine, de Camboye, & du Tonquin, &c. Divisée en quatre parties.
Paris, Charles Angot, 1684.
(4) Relation des missions et des voyages des evesques vicaires apostoliques, et de leurs ecclesiastiques és années 1672, 1673, 1674 & 1675.
Paris, Charles Angot, 1682.
(5) Relation des missions et des voyages des evesques vicaires apostoliques, et de leurs ecclesiastiques és années 1676 & 1677.
Paris, Charles Angot, 1682. 5 works in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 167, [1]; [6], 51, [1 blank]; [16], 248; [16], 389, [1 blank]; [16], 170, [1] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

The remarkable life and career of Sir Hugh Boustead in the Middle East and across the world

BOUSTEAD, Hugh. The wind of morning. The autobiography of Colonel Sir Hugh Boustead.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1974. Large 8vo. With 8 double sided plates with multiple images, and 4 maps. Orange cloth with title information in gold on spine, with dust jacket, designed by John Woodcock with a photo of a caravan of people on camels on front cover and one of H. Boustead on a horse on the back, title information in purple on front cover and on spine of dust jacket. 240 pp. Full description

€ 450

Eyewitness account of a 1570 diplomatic mission to the Ottoman court,
with 28 fine original colour drawings and samples of Turkish decorated paper

DIPLOMATIC MISSION]. BRAECKLE, Jacques de. Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt.
[Various places, [1570 or very soon after]. 4to (main text & decorated paper) & 8vo (transcription & drawings) (21.5 x 14.5 cm). Manuscript in French, written in brown ink on paper in a Flemish bastarda gothic hand, with about 26 lines per page. With 8 contemporary half-sheet specimens of Turkish decorated "silhouette" paper (folded to make 16 leaves in 2 quires), a series of 28 drawings in brown ink and coloured gouaches, highlighted in gold (mostly costume figures, some showing the Sultan and other leading figures, others showing anonymous types from various ethnic and religious groups), plus a ca. 1800, transcript of the complete text and biography of the author (with his arms in colour). Modern sheepskin parchment. [2 blank], [34]; [5 blank], [62 incl. a few blank], [1 blank] pp. plus 8 double leaves of decorated paper and [36], [4 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. of 18th-century additions. Full description

€ 250,000

Islamic religious orders in Algeria, "a work of great learning and value", presentation copy

BROSSELARD, Charles. Les khouan. De la constitution des ordres religieux musulmans en Algérie.
Algiers, A. Bourget, August 1859. 8vo. Contemporary red half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. 36 pp. Full description

€ 3,750

3 little-known works by Italian scientist on astronomy, hydrostatics and navigation

BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Trattenimenti scientifici su la sfera, geografia istorica, meteore, ed astronomia.
Rome, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1754. With several woodcut illustrations in the text (including an armillary sphere), and an extra added folding engraved frontispiece.
With:
(2) BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Trattenimenti scientifici su lindrografia, nautica, blasone, statica, meccanica, architectura, pirotecnia, e suono.
Roma, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1755. With several woodcut illustrations in the text, and an extra added frontispiece (facsimile of an engraving?).
(3) BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Macchina semplicissima per cui lacqua da se stessa salice ad una data altezza.
Rome, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1747. With folding engraved plate as frontispiece. 3 works (the first in 2 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [24], 180, 112; [8], 173, [3 blank]; 12 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

First printed record of Abu Dhabi and Dubai: the first Latin edition

DE BRY, Theodor; Johann Israel DE BRY and Joris VAN SPILBERGEN. Indiae Orientalis pars septima [...].Including: Icones, hoc est verae variorum populorum et regum, ceremoniarum item, superstitiosorum rituum et rerum aliarum, ...
Frankfurt, Wolfgang Richter, 1606. Folio (32.5 x 20 cm). With the letterpress title in an engraved architectural border, a separate letterpress title-page for the Icones, an engraved coat of arms on the dedication leaf, 20 engravings in text and 2 double-page engraved plates. 20th-century green half morocco. [4], 126, [2 blank] pp.; 26 ll. Full description

€ 28,000

Biblical travels in the form of a travel book

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae. Dat is: het reysboek der Heyligher Schrift.
Including: BÜNTING, Heinrich. Een besonder tractaet ende onderwijsinghe van de munte ende ghewichtre der Heyligher Schrifturen... [BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Dat is: een reysboeck, over het Nieuwe Testament. Het tweede deel...BÜNTING, Heinrich. Harmonia evangelistarum, dat is: eene seer schoone ende eendrachtige over-een-stemminge der heyliger vier evangelisten...Amsterdam, Hendrik Laurentsz., 1635. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 5 woodcut and 2 engraved folding maps. Contemporary vellum, modern endpapers. [16], 355, [9]; [2], 36; [4], 163, [3]; 24 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Stunning lithographic illustrations and a detailed route map of a voyage
through Persia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and India

BURNES, Alexander. Voyages de l'embouchure de l'Indus a Lahor, Caboul, Balkh et a Boukhara; et retour par la Perse, pendant les années 1831, 1832 et 1833 ... Atlas.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (colophon on back wrapper: Imprimerie et Fonderie de Fain), [1835]. 3 text volumes and 1 atlas volume. 8vo. With 11 numbered lithographed plates (1 folding) showing costumes of the regions, medals and engraved stones, topographic views, archaeological sites, etc., and a large folding engraved map with the routes hand-coloured in red and orange. Contemporary gold-tooled half sheepskin (text volumes), original publisher's letterpress-printed brown paper wrappers (atlas volume). [3], [1 blank] pp. plus plates. Full description

€ 3,500

An extensive account of Yemen on the eve of World War I
by British naturalist, explorer and Arabist G. W. Bury

BURY, George Wyman. Arabia infelix, or the Turks in Yamen.
London, Macmillan and Co., limited, 1915. Large 8vo. With 3 maps and 18 plates, some containing multiple images. Red cloth, blind-tooling on covers, title information in gold on spine. X, 213, [3] pp. Full description

€ 580

Early exploration and exploitation of oil

CADMAN, John. The geographical journal. Vol. LXXXIV. No. 3.
Beccles, William Clowes & sons, 1934. 4to. With several full-page black and white photographs and maps. Original publisher's blue printed paper wrappers. X, 201-280 pp. Full description

€ 850

Beautifully illustrated expeditions searching for ancient Egyptian antiquities

CAILLIAUD, Frédéric and Bernardino DROVETTI. Voyage a l'Oasis de Thèbes et dans les déserts situés a l'orient et a l'occident de la Thébaïde, fait pendant les années 1815, 1816, 1817 et 1818.
Paris, Royal press, 1821. With 24 numbered engraved plates, including 2 engraved maps (1 folding), 1 plate coloured by hand and 1 double-page.
With: (2) CAILLIAUD, Frédéric and Bernardino DROVETTI. Voyage a l'Oasis de Syouah ... pendant leurs voyages dans cette oasis, en 1819 et en 1820.
Paris, Rignoux, 1823. With 20 numbered plates (1 engraved map and 19 lithographed plates). 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Contemporary green goatskin morocco, richly gold-tooled spine. [2 blank], XVII, [1], 120; [12], 28 pp. Full description

€ 19,500

Rare collected works of Portugal's greatest poet

CAMÕES (CAMOENS), Luis de & João Franco BARRETO. Obras de Luis de Camoès principe des poetas Portugueses. Com os argumentos do Lecenceado João Franco Barreto & por elle emédadas em esta nova impressaõ, que comprehende todas as obras, que deste insigne autor se achàraõ impressas, & manuscritas, com o index dos nomes proprios. Offerecidas a D. Francisco de Sovsa capitão da guarda do Principe N.S.
Lisbon, Antonio Craesbeeck de Mello, 1666-1669. 8vo. With 8 woodcut tailpieces. Later mottled calf, red spine labels, red edges. 376, 368, 208, 108, [22], [ 2 blank]. Lacks the individual title-pages. Full description

€ 9,500

Misconduct at Basra by VOC resident

[CANTER, Frans (subject)]. Deductie gedaan ... uit den name ende van wegens bewindhebberen van de Oost-Indische Compagnie ter kamer Amsterdam, eerst requiranten van appoinctement van anticipatie, en nu gedaagdens by mandament van revisie, ter eenre, op ende jegens Aaltje Fransse, weduwe van Cornelis Canter, Jan Canter, en Hendrik van Greuningen, als in huwelyk hebbende Anna Canter, zeggende te zyn moeder, broeder, en zwager respective, van Frans Canter, alle wonende te Amsterdam, ...
[Amsterdam, 1752]. Folio (31.5 x 20.5 cm). Side-stitched.
With: (2) Missive van de bewindhebberen van de generale Neederlandsche geoctroyeerde Oostindische Compagnie ter vergadering van Seeventienen.
[Amsterdam, 1758]. Folio (33 x 21 cm). Side-stitched. 28, [1 blank], [1]; 13, [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Winds and the weather in the coast of India and the Arabian and Persian Gulf:
first edition of a rare meteorological work

CAPPER, James. Observations on the winds and monsoons; illustrated with a chart and accompanied with notes, geographical and meteorological.
London, Charles Whittingham, 1801. 4to. With 1 folding engraved map of the world depicting all the oceans and seas, and several tables in the text. Half calf, marbled sides and edges. Rebacked. XXVIII, 29-234 pp. Full description

€ 2,750

On Bedouin tribes, with a map and pictures

CARRUTHERS, Alexander Douglas Mitchell. A journey in North-Western Arabia.
[London, W. Clowes], March 1910. 4to. With 12 black and white photographs made during the journey and a folding chromolithographed map of North-West Arabia (27x30.5 cm). Modern blue wrappers. [32] (numbered 225-248) pp. Full description

€ 750

The most extensive Arabic catechism, with more than 1800 pages

[CATECHISM - ARABIC - ROMAN RITE]. Catechismus Romanus: ex decreto Concilii Tridentini iussu S. Pii V editus.
[Rome], Propaganda Fide, 1786 [= 1787]-1787. 2 volumes. 8vo. With an Arabic title-page on the second page of each volume. Set in 2 sizes of nashk Arabic type, with some preliminary pages set in roman and italic type. Early 19th-century half sheepskin parchment. [40], “976” [= 980]; [8], “855” [= 847], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Geographical description/atlas of the old world, including the Middle East.
With 33 maps and bound in well-preserved, gold-tooled contemporary calf

CELLARIUS, Christoph. Notitia orbis antiqui, sive geographia plenior, ab ortu rerumpublicarum ad constantinorum tempora orbis terrarium faciem declarans. ... et novis tabulis geographicis ... illustravit.
(Volume 1:) Cambridge, John Owen, 1703; (volume 2:) Amsterdam, Caspar Fritsch, 1706. 2 volumes. 4to. With engraved author's portrait, 33 engraved double-page maps and 1 engraved double-page plate. Contemporary calf, richly gold tooled spines and binding edges, double gilt fillets on sides. [16], 862, [38]; [12], 544; 166, [38] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Napoleon Bonaparte's ambitions in the East

Jean CHANLAIRE, Pierre Gregoire and Edme MENTELLE. Carte du théâtre de la Guerre en Orient.
Paris, Chanlaire & Mentelle, 1798-1799. Original outline colour. Dissected and laid on linen in two sections, 880 x 940 mm & 660 x 940 mm. Full description

€ 28,000

French merchant travels through Persia and becomes personal jeweller to the Shah

CHARDIN, Jean. Voyages de mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient.
Amsterdam, J. L. de Lorme, 1711. 10 volumes. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Johannes Chardin, 1 engraved map, 79 engraved folding plates and 6 letterpress folding tables. Contemporary half morocco, gold-tooled spine. [24], 254; 334; 285, [1 blank]; 280; 312; 328; 448; 255, [1 blank]; 308; 220, [82] pp. Full description

€ 4,000

Merchant voyages and trade with Arabia, Egypt & India

CIGNANO, Ludovico. Quieta solitudine di varii ragionamenti, discorsi, et concetti, ove si narra quattro navigationi ...
Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1587. Small 4to (21×15 cm). With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page. Goatskin morocco (ca. 1870/80?), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, signed in foot of front turn-in by the Paris bookbinders "DARLAUD FRÈRES", gold fillets on sides and board edges. 166 pp. Full description

€ 45,000

Journey from Cairo to Mount Sinai, with an account of Wadi Mukattab

CLAYTON, Robert (editor) Dagverhaal van eene reize van Groot Cairo na den Berg Sinai en terug.
Amsterdam, Dirk Swart, 1754. 8vo. With folding engraved plate showing Egyptian deities, among them Isis nursing Horus. Near contemporary boards. [14], 192, [1 blank], [24] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

One of only two 19th-century English colour-plate books mentioning the Gulf

CLIVE, Robert. A series of lithographic drawings from sketches by Robert Clive, comprising the undermentioned subjects, lying principally between the Persian Gulf & the Black Sea ...
London, Dickinson & Co., (1852). Large folio (45.5 x 590 mm). With 9 tinted lithographs on 8 plates (2 on 1 leaf) after Robert Clive. 3 leaves of letterpress text (plus 1 repeat ), printed on rectos only. Modern half morocco , marbled sides, spine title and decorations in gold. With the original publishers printed front wrapper bound in. Full description

€ 18,000

An account of the former King of Portugal’s visit to Morocco, the first book printed in Tangiers

COLAÇO, José Daniel. Viagem de Sua Magestade El Rei o Senhor Dom Fernando a Marrocos, seguido da descripção da entrega da Grão Cruz da Torre e Espada ao Sultão Sid Mohammed.
Tangiers, Abrines, 1882. 8vo. Modern maroon half morocco, preserving the original publisher's printed wrappers. VI, 122, [1 blank], [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,000

On the wealth of the British Empire, focussing on its overseas possessions

COLQUHOUN, Patrick. A treatise on the wealth, power, and resources, of the British Empire, in every quarter of the world, including the East Indies: the rise and progress of the funding system explained; ...
London, 1814. 4to. With many letterpress tables in text. Contemporary tree calf, gold-tooled spine; rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. XII, 451, [1 blank], 91, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

On the sales of arms and arms deals in the Middle East

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. New perspectives on the Persian Gulf. Hearings before the subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia of the committee on foreign affairs, house of representatives, ninety-third congress, first session. June 6, July 17, 23, 24, and November 28, 1973.
Washington, U.S. Government printing office, 1973. 8vo (23.5 x 15 cm). With a small map of the Persian Gulf. Original printed paper wrappers. VIII, [1], 227 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

On "the escalating level of arms sales to Gulf states"

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. The Persian Gulf, 1975: the continuing debate on arms sales. Hearings before the special subcommittee on investigations of the committee on international relations, house of representatives, ninety-fourth congress, first Session. June 10, 18, 24 and July 29, 1975.
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976. 8vo. Original printed paper wrappers. VI, 261 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

First edition of the account of the experiences of American anthropologist
Carleton S. Coon in Ethiopia and Arabia

COON, Carleton S. Measuring Ethiopia and flight into Arabia.
Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1935. 8vo. With 8 plates. Yellow cloth with title information in blue on front cover and spine, with a dust jacket designed by Paul Wenck, map of Ethiopia and Arabia on the endpapers. IX, [5], 333, [1] pp. Full description

€ 850

"Ces Arabes paroissent destiné à jouer un grand rôle dans l'histoire"

[CORANCEZ, Louis Alexandre Olivier de]. Histoire des Wahabis, depuis leur origine jusqu'a la fin de 1809.
Paris, Crapelet, 1810. 8vo. Remains of original grey temporary wrappers. Stored in gilt modern quarter morocco box. [4], VIII, 222, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

An Italian farmer turned into a Turkish satirist for a Croatian audience

CROCE, Giulio Cesare and Nikola PALIKUCA (translator). Himbenost pritankogh Veleznanstva Nasradinova.
Ancona, Pietro Paolo Ferri, 1771. 12mo. With a woodcut of the main character on the title-page. Contemporary plain wrappers. 71 pp. Full description

€ 5,800

First Italian edition of first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies, by way of Iran

CUBERO SEBASTIAN, Pedro. Peregrinazione del mondo.
Naples, Giuseppe Criscolo, 1683. 4to (15.5 x 20 cm). With an additional engraved title and 2 portraits. Contemporary paper-covered boards with handwritten lettering on the spine. [8], 339, [5] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

The first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies, by way of Iran

CUBERO SEBASTIAN, Pedro. Breve relacion, de la peregrinacion que ha hecho de la mayor parte del mundo.
Madrid, Juan Garcia Infançon, 1680. Small 4to (20 x 14.5 cm). With the title-page in a border built up from cast fleurons, woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Charles II of Spain, and some woodcut initials and tailpieces. Gold-tooled morocco, by the leading Barcelona binder Emilio Brugalla (1901-1987), with the arms of the Spanish bibliophile Isidoro Fernandez (1878-1963) stamped in gold on front and back. [20], 360 pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes in Damascus in 1488

[DAMASCUS – VENETIAN TAXES]. [Promissory note for Venetian customs taxes on goods from Damascus].
Venice, 22 Feb. / 5 March 1488. Italian notarial document on vellum (44.5 x 16 cm; text block ca. 27 x 14 cm). Written in two fine cursive hands. Full description

€ 7,500

Beautifully coloured composite atlas

[DANCKERTS, ALLARD, VISSCHER, DE WIT, MORTIER and others]. Atlas.
[Amsterdam, Theodorus and Cornelis III Danckerts?, ca. 1706 (dated maps 1694-1706)]. Imperial folio (53.5 x 33.5 cm). Composite atlas, with an engraved title-page, 43 double-page engraved maps and 4 double-page engraved tables, all beautifully coloured in a consistent and balanced manner by a contemporary hand, probably in the workshop of the publisher. With maps by Johannes, Justus, Theodorus and Cornelis III Danckerts, Carel and Abraham Allard, Nicolaas Visscher I & II, Frederik de Wit, Pieter Mortier, Caspar Specht and even Alexis-Hubert Jaillot in Paris. Modern maroon sheepskin. Full description

€ 48,500

Unique hand-coloured copy of Dapper's famous description of Africa

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten van Egypten, Barbaryen, Lybien, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopiën, Abyssinie: vertoont in de benamingen, grenspalen, revieren, steden, gewassen, dieren, zeeden, drachten, talen, rijkdommen, godsdiensten en heerschappyen. ...
Including: Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche eylanden ...
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1676. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio (33 x 22 cm). With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece, a large folding engraved map of Africa (44.5 x 56 cm), 14 double-page engraved maps of parts of Africa and the adjacent islands, 27 double-page and 1 larger folding engraved plates and views, and 55 half-page engraved views, plans, illustrations of costumes, animals, plants, etc. in the text. All illustrations coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary vellum at a later date with elaborate blind-tooled decorations, including oriental portraits. With 2 decorated brass clasps, signed B-I. [6], 428, 349, [16]; [1], 121, [4] pp. Full description

€ 85,000

Major source of information on the Islamic world in the 17th century

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschryving van Asie: behelsende de gewesten van Mesopotamie, Babylonie, Assyrie, Anatolie, of Klein Asie: beneffens eene volkome beschrijving van gantsch gelukkigh, woest, en petreesch of steenigh Arabie ...
Amsterdam, Jacob Meurs, 1680. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, 16 engraved views and maps (2 folding, 14 double-page), and 22 engraved illustrations in the text. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [8], 357, [3], 324, [4] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Major source of information on the Muslim world in the 17th century

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschryving van Asie: behelsende de gewesten van Mesopotamie, Babylonie, Assyrie, Anatolie, of Klein Asie: beneffens eene volkome beschrijving van gantsch gelukkigh, woest, en petreesch of steenigh Arabie. Vertoont in een bondigh ontwerp van 's lands benamingen, bepalingen, . . . inzonderheit die van d'oude Arabieren, Mahomet en Mahometanen.
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1680. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, 3 double-page maps (of Basra and surroundings, Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula), 12 double-page or folding views (partly drawn by Charles Vasteau). Near contemporary blind-stamped vellum. [8], 357, [3], 324, [4] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

11 articles on the history of the Islamic world, including the autobiography of Ibn Khaldun

DEFRÉMERY, Charles and others. [Collection of 11 French offprints and extracts on the Islamic world].
[Paris (1 Leipzig), 1831-1859]. 11 items in 1 volume. 8vo. With many passages in Arabic. Contemporary half vellum. Full description

€ 6,500

The rare book and manuscript collection of a Franco-Russian oriental scholar, diplomat, and secret agent

[DESMAISONS, Jean-Jacques-Pierre]. The collection and research library of Jean-Jacques-Pierre Desmaisons (1807-1873), oriental scholar, diplomat, secret agent, and writer.
Various places, late 15th century to 1873/74. 193 catalogued iems, comprising printed books and manuscripts in 237 volumes. In Arabic, French, Greek, Latin, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Russian, Syriac, and Sanskrit. Full description

€ 1,050,000

French map of the Arabian peninsula, flanked by a description

[DESNOS, Louis Charles]. De l'Arabie.
[Paris, ca. 1760]. Engraved map (plate size: 31.5 x 54.5), coloured by a contemporary hand, with 6 scale bars at the foot left, and the map with engraved text on the left and right containing a description of Arabia. On laid paper (37.5 x 56.5). Full description

€ 950

First edition of a history of the Ottoman Empire and Egypt with a collection of Turkish and Egyptian tales

DIGEON, J.M. Nouveau contes Turcs et Arabes. Précédés d'un abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de la maison Ottomane & du gouvernement de l'Egypte, & suivis de plusieurs morceaux de poésie & de prose, traduits de l'Arabe & du Turc.
Paris, Dupuis, 1781. 2 volumes. 12mo. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spines, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins. VIII, 347 [1 blank]; [2], 278, [4] pp. Full description

€ 2,750

Incunable edition of an influential second century description of the antique world,
including early mentions of China and Arabia

DIONYSIUS Periegetes. [incipit :] ... de situ orbis habitabilis ...
[Colophon:] Venice, Franz Renner, 1478. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With the first four lines printed in red and 9 white on black decorated woodcut initials (1 series), plus 1 repeat. Set in roman type, 26 lines to a page, with two words in Greek. Modern blind-tooled calf. [36] ll. Full description

€ 35,000

Archeaological sites in the Middle East, with 143 reproductions of photographs

DJEMAL PASCHA, Ahmed and Theodore WIEGAND. Alte Denkmäler aus Syrien, Palästina und Westarabien. 100 Tafeln mit bescheibendem Text.
Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1918. Folio (34.5 x 24 cm). With 100 plates with 143 reproductions of photographs. Original pink publisher's cloth. 10 pp., 100 ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Life and customs in the Ottoman Empire, described by a Christian former slave

DJURDJEVIC, Bartol (Bartholomeus GEORGIEVITZ) Voiage de la saincte cite de Hierusalem. Jointe la description des citez, villes, ports, lieux, & autres passages. Ensemble les ceremonies des Turcs ...
Liège, printed by Leonard Streel for Lambert de la Coste, 1600. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. 18th-century calf, gold-tooled spine. [32], [32] lvs. Full description

€ 17,500

Letter on the Mamluk-Ottoman power struggle in Egypt that would bring Muhammad Ali to power in 1805

[AUTOGRAPH]. DRUMMOND, William. [Letter on the fighting between the Ottomans and Mamluks in Egypt].
Bucharest, 13 December 1803. 4to (23.5 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter in English, signed, written in brown ink on laid paper. [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Photographs of the ruling family of Dubai during a state visit to Pakistan

[DUBAI – ROYAL FAMILY]. Photograph album.
Pakistan, Early 1970s. 40 photographs (29 in colour and 11 black-and-white). Various sizes (300 x 207 mm to 125 x 125 mm). Includes 51 original colour slides. Stored in large, six-leaf self-adhesive tan leather album (oblong folio, 43 x 34 cm). Full description

€ 35,000

First European biography of Timur derived from an Arabic source

DU BEC-CRESPIN, Jean. The historie of the great emperour Tamerlan wherein are expressed, encounters, skirmishes, battels, sieges, assaults, skalings, taking of cities and strong places, defended, and assaulted, with diverse stratagems of warre, the which this great and renowned warriour hath conducted and accomplished, during his raigne of fortie or fiftie yeares: with other instructions for the warre, which should not be unknowen of them that would attaine unto the knowledge of armes. Drawen from the auncient monuments of the Arabians, by messire Jean du Bec, abbot of Mortimer. Newly translated out of French into English, for their benefite which are ignorant in that language. by H.M.
London, R. Field for Willam Ponsonby, 1597. 4to. With a woodcut device on the title-page, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces.17th-century calf, 19th century gold-tooled spine. [4], 265, [1] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

Portugal's political and economic decline, with extensive chapters on France and the Umayyad Caliphate

DULAC, Antonio Maximino. Genuina exposição do tremendo marasmo politico em que cahio Portugal, com desenganada indicação dos unicos remedios apropriados a' sua cura radical... Tomo I [-II].
Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1834. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With lithographed frontispiece, and a small woodcut Portuguese royal coat of arms on title-page of each part. Contemporary half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. VIII, 219, [1 blank], [4]; 206, [6] pp. Full description

€ 2,800

Secret correspondence between Tipu Sultan and the French, published by the British

[EAST INDIA COMPANY]. [TIPU SULTAN, Zaman Shah DURRANI, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE and others]. Official documents, relative to the negotiations carried on by Tippoo Sultaun, with the French Nation, and other foreign states, for purposes hostile to the British nation; to which is added, proceedings of a Jacobin club, formed at Seringapatam, by the French soldiers in the corps commanded by M. Dompart, with a translation ... Printed by order of the ... Governor General ...
Calcutta, Honorable Companys Press, 1799. Super Royal 4to (33.5 x 25 cm). Never bound, but side stitched through 3 holes. XX, [2], 195, [1] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Unique snapshots of Egypt in 1906-1908: excavations in progress, the Mahmal procession,
the Tanta fair and daily life, probably taken by a female photographer

[PHOTOGRAPHY - EGYPT]. Book I-[II] Egypt 1906-7. Book III Naples, Rome, Florence. Book IV Criccieth N. Wales, Zara, Khargeh Upper Egypt, Cairo, Freshwater Bay I.W.Egypt, Naples, Rome, Florence, Criccieth and the Isle of Wight, 1906-1908. Oblong (23 x 32 cm). An album in 4 volumes with 323 silver gelatin prints (8 x 5.5 cm to 14 x 8 cm, mostly ca. 10 x 7 cm). Side-stitched.
With:
(2) LEHNERT & LANDROCK. Souvenir of Cairo. 12 real artistic photos. Serie A.
Egypt, [late 1920s]. Envelope containing 12 silver gelatin prints (12 x 9 cm).
(3) [PHOTOGRAPHY - SINGAPORE?]. Photograph of a woman and a baby sitting in a rickshaw, with a child in front and the rickshaw puller.
[Singapore?], [late 1920s]. Silver gelatin print (7.5 x 12.5 cm). 9; 7; 12; 11 ll. Full description

€ 4,500

Afghanistan and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary and India, with 14 hand-coloured plates, in original wrappers

ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart. Tableau du royaume de Caboul, et de ses dépendances, dans la Perse, la Tartarie et l'Inde, offrant les moeurs, usages et costumes de cet empire, ... traduit et abrégé de l'anglais, par M. Breton.
Paris, Nepveu, 1817. 3 volumes. 18mo. With 14 engraved plates depicting various costumes, lords on horseback, etc., all beautifully coloured by hand. Original publisher's printed wrappers, each volume with wood engraved illustrations on front, back and spine. Preserved in a modern gold-tooled green morocco box. XLIV, 189 [3]; [4], 222, [2]; [4], 223 [1] pp. Full description

€ 4,950

Eyewitness account of the bombing of Algiers in 1688

ESPINOSA, Antonio de. Copia de una carta que ha escrito desde la ciudad de Argel el padre procurador Fray Antonio de Espinosa, religioso calzado del Orden de la Santissima Trinidad, redencion de cautivos, y administrador de los cinco reales hospitales, que su sagrada religion tiene en aquella ciudad.
(Colophon: Madrid, Sebastian de Armendariz), 12 October [1688]. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With a large woodcut initial with a parrot. Disbound. 6 ll. Full description

€ 2,500

Beautifully illustrated account of the first Earl of Munster's journey overland from India via Egypt to England

FITZCLARENCE, George Augustus Frederick. Journal of a route across India, through Egypt, to England in a latter end of the year 1817, and the beginning of 1818.
London, printed by Thomas Davidson for John Murray, 1819. Large 4to. With 12 plates, including one of "Pettah the Citadel etc." as a frontispiece and 7 maps and plans, including 1 folding, with 3 additional explanatory letterpress leaves for maps 2-4 (Jubbulpoor [Jabalpur], Nagpoor [Nagpur], Meinpoor [Mahidpur]). 9 of 12 plates are hand-coloured aquatints and 5 of 7 maps and plans are coloured in outline. Contemporary gold-tooled calf with a blind-tooled decorative border. XXIV, [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 502 pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Notorious forged binding, gold-tooled with Ottoman imagery painted red, white and green on dark brown

FLORUS, Lucius Annaeus. [Epitome rerum Romanarum].
Leiden, Adriaen Wijngaerden (colophon: printed by Philippe de Croy), 1648. 8vo (18 x 12 x 3 cm). With an engraved allegorical title-page by Cornelius van Dalen. Contemporary or near-contemporary calf. The decoration on the binding is believed to have been executed in Bologna ca. 1880/1900 by a group of forgers: each board with the same scene, showing 2 women in Ottoman costume, one kneeling to play a qanun (Turkish zither) at left and the other perhaps dancing at right, framed by drapery as though on a stage, with a crescent moon and 5-pointed star in each corner and the name "IBRAHIM" at upper left, the whole in a frame of double fillets. The figures' skin is painted white and the clothes and drapery red and green. The crescent moon and star repeat in spine compartments 1 and 3-5. [32], “595” [= 535], [69], [4 blank] pp. including the integral engraved title-page. Full description

€ 39,500

The largest photograph in the world: never seen on the market

[FRA MAURO Mappa Mundi – Carlo NAYA]. [Life-size photograph of the Fra Mauro map of the world].
Venice, Carlo Naya, ca. 1871. Hand-coloured photograph, ca. 223 × 223 cm. Mounted and framed. Full description

€ 280,000

No more than 16 piastres for a litre of wine

[FRENCH MANDATE FOR SYRIA AND THE LEBANON]. Recueil des Arrêtés et Décisions de la Z. O. (24 Octobre 1918 - 31 Août 1920). Interessant toutes les branches de lAdministration: Administration Civils, Justice, Finances, Hygiène Publique, Agriculture, Douanes.
Beirut, Impimerie des Lettres J. G., 1924. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. 188 pp., 2 final blank leaves. Full description

€ 1,500

6 beautiful views made on a journey to the Middle East to procure Arabian horses

FRISCH, Friedrich. Skizzen aus dem Orient, gesammelt in den Jahren 1840 und 1841. | Esquisses de l'Orient, recueillies dans les années 1840 et 1841.
Darmstadt, Ernst Kern; Paris, H. Gache, 1843. Oblong 1mo (48 x 63.5 cm). With 6 tinted lithographed plates by Frisch, with captions in German and French below. The first three in the deluxe issue printed by B. Dondorf, Frankfurt am Main, the last three in the regular issue printed by G. Küstner. Original publisher's letterpress printed wrappers, with a list of subscribers and advertisements on the back of the front wrapper. Full description

€ 18,000

"one of the most renowned nineteenth-century photobooks"

FRITH, Francis. Egypt and Palestine. Photographed and described.
London, James S. Virtue, [1858-1859]. 2 volumes. Folio (44.5 x 32.5 cm). With 76 photographs on plates by Francis Frith (ca. 14.5-16.5 x 21.5-23 cm), each with a separate leaf of text. Contemporary red morocco, gold-tooled spines and boards, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Full description

€ 40,000

The natural history, politics and medicine of India and Persia, with a section on Muscat

FRYER (FREYER), John. Negenjaarige reyse door Oostindien en Persien, ... Begonnen met den jaare 1672 en geeyndigt met den jaare 1681.
The Hague, Abraham de Hondt, Jacobus van Ellinkhuysen and Meyndert Uytwerf, 1700. 4to. With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait, 3 folding engraved maps, 7 folding engraved views and other plates, and several woodcut illustrations in text. Contemporary vellum. [8], 566, [26] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

1565/66 pilgrimage to the Middle East, with author's portrait, coat of arms and 6 illustration plates

FÜRER VON HAIMENDORF, Christoph. Itinerarium Aegypti, Arabiae, Palaestinae, Syriae, aliarumque regionum orientalium.
Nuremberg, Abraham Wagenmann, 1621 (colophon: Nuremberg, printed by Abraham Wagenmann, 1620). Small 4to. With finely engraved full-page portrait of the author by Peter Isselberg, full-page engraved Fürer von Haimendorf coat of arms, 6 folding engraved plates. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 118, [114] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Diplomatic treaty between the UK and North Yemen

FURLONGE, Sir Geoffrey Warren, and Qadi al-AMRI. Exchange of notes regarding relations between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the Yemen.
London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1951. With a woodcut British Royal arms on the title-page. In a blue paper wrapper with a clear plastic front. 8 pp. Full description

€ 350

Five treatises in French concerning the Arabs and Turks, including a translation of an account of a pilgrimage to Mecca

GALLAND, Julien-Claude. Recueil des rits et cérémonies du pelerinage de la Mecque, auquel on a joint divers ecrits relatifs à la religion, aux sciences & aux mœurs des Turcs.
Amsterdam; Paris, Jean Desaint and Charles Saillant, 1754. 8vo. Contemporary mottled, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. VIII, 215, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Influential work on the Islam in India

GARCIN DE TASSY, Joseph Héliodore. Memoire sur les particularites de la religion Musulmane dans l'Inde, d'après les ouvrages Hindoustanis.
Paris, Adolphe Labitte, 1869. 8vo. Late 20th-century half black morocco. [4], 108 pp. Full description

€ 1,250

The most accurate map of India and the Gulf region to its time

[GASTALDI, Giacomo]. Seconda tavola.
[Venice], Ferrando Bertelli, 1565 [printed ca. 1570]. Engraved map of the Indian Ocean, Indian subcontinent and most of the Gulf region (28 x 39 cm; margins extended to 50 x 66.5 cm), at a scale of about 1:13,500,000 with north at the foot, with 3 sea monsters, a spouting whale and 3 ships in the ocean; and on the land elephants, lions and 2 people on horseback carrying spears. Although printed from a single copper plate, the present map image is divided into two parts, with a 7 mm gap between the right and left halves, so that nothing would be lost if the map were bound as a double-page plate. Full description

€ 18,000

Treating the plague in Ottoman Turkey, from the library of “le Régent”, Philippe d'Orléans

GAUDEREAU, Abbé Martin. Relation des differentes especes de peste que reconnoissent les orientaux, des précautions & des remedes qu'ils prennent pour en empêcher la communication & le progrès; et de ce que nous devons faire à leur exemple pour nous en préserver, & nous en guerir.
Paris, Jacques Quillau, 1721. 12mo. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, with the arms of Philippe d'Orléans (1674-1723) on both boards, richly gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. 134, [5], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

The gastropods of Anatolia, with 17 plates

GERMAIN, Louis. Mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles d'Asie-Mineure.
Paris, Paul Lechevalier (colophon: Rouen, Lecerf), 1936. 8vo. With 17 plates with photographic reproductions and many illustrations in text. Modern brown half morocco, gold-tooled spine; with the original publisher's printed paper wrappers bound in. 492 pp. Full description

€ 375

Diseases and deformities in Egypt and Palestine, with 27 plates

GODARD, Ernest. Égypte et Palestine observations médicales et scientifiques.
Paris, Victor Masson et fils (back of half-title: printed by Simon Raçon et Comp.), 1867. 2 volumes: 8vo (text) and 4to (plates). With an engraved author's portrait by Jean Charles Le Vasseur and 27 numbered lithographed plates, each preceded by a leaf with a short letterpress caption. Later black half goatskin, with the original boards (text) and the plates loosely inserted in original publisher's portfolio, printed boards, rebacked with black cloth. [6 incl. portrait], XXXI, [1 blank], 438 pp. Full description

€ 4,750

First European description of the Great Timur's court, the precursor of the Mughal Empire

GONZALES DE CLAVIJO, Ruy. Historia del Gran Tamorlan e Itinerario y ennaracion del viage y relacion de la Embaxada que Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo le hizo por mandado del muy poderoso Señor don Henrique el tercero de Castilla y un breve discurso fecho por Gonzalo Argote de Molina para mayor inteligencia deste libro.
Seville, Andrea Pescioni, 1582. Folio in 8s. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page, woodcut initials and a woodcut device at the end. Modern tree calf. 78 ll. Full description

€ 65,000

On the expediency of British rule in the East Indies

GRANT, Robert. The expediency maintained of continuing the system by which the trade and government of India are now regulated.
London, printed for Black, Parry and J. Hatchard (back of title-page: printed by Cox and Baylis), 1813. 8vo. With 2 letterpress folding tables (1 printed in red and black). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled. [1], [1 blank], XIX, [1 blank], 404 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

The British navy's pilot guide for crossing the South Indian Ocean

[GREAT BRITAIN, HYDROGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT]. South Indian Ocean pilot. Madagascar, Îles Comores, Île de la Réunion, Mauritius, Seychelles Group, Chagos Archipelago, and other islands lying westward of Longitude 80° East. Eighth edition.
Taunton, published by the hydrographer of the navy, 1971. With supplement no. 5 (1977). 8vo. With 2 small maps, 8 coastal profiles, 9 diagrams and 11 climatic tables in the book and also 1 view of the coast of Marie Louise Islet (1975) in the supplement.Contemporary blue cloth with printed title in yellow. XI, [1 blank], 333, [1]; 40 pp. Full description

€ 600

Directions for processions ordered by the Turkish Sultan Suleiman III:
a testimony of the problematic Turkish-European relations in the 17th century

[THE GREAT TURKISH WAR]. Traduction d'un exemplaire en langue Turque contenant le detail & la description des processions des jeunes, & des penitences que le grand seigneur dit Mahomet Soliman, Empereur Turk du soleil levant, & du couchant, souverain seigneur des seigneurs, & veritable successeur de la race du grand prophete Mahomet, a commandé de faire en tout son empire.
Bordeaux, Pierre Abegou, 1687. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and (extra added) a portrait of the Polish King Jan III Sobieski, by F. Jollain, inserted as a second frontispiece. Marbled wrappers. [2], 7, [1] pp. Full description

€ 9,000

Marking the brief golden age of Christianity in the Arabian peninsula

GREGENTIUS, Saint. [Title in Greek followed by:] Disputatio cum Herbano Iudaeo: nunc primùm Graecè edita, cum interpretatione Nic. Gulonii, Carnutis, literarum Graecarum professoris regii, notis illustrata. Hoc dialogo sides Christiana tum divinorum oraculorum exposition, tum miraculorum effectu confirmatur.
Paris, Fédéric Morel, 1586. 8vo. With text in Latin and Greek on facing pages. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [8], 204 ll. Full description

€ 6,500

A 1780s voyage through Turkey via Aleppo to Basra and via Muscat back to Europe

GRIFFITHS, John. Neue Reise in Arabien, die europäische und asiatische Türkey. Nach dem Englischen für Deutsche bearbeitet von K.L.M. Müller.
Leipzig, J.C. Hinrichs, 1814. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With an engraved folding frontispiece view and 3 engraved maps (2 large folding), the view coloured, 1 map with the Ottoman-Persian border coloured in blue and red, and all three maps with the route coloured in red. Mid 19th-century boards covered with marbled paper, with the arms of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia in gold on the front board. [10], 125, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 154 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Very rare 17th-century pharmacological compendium and pharmacopoeia for the Dutch East Indies

GRIM, Hermann Niklas. Compendium medico-chymicum, seu accurata medendi methodus, quae excellentissimis medicamentis, tam Europae, quam Indiae Orientali proficuis, repleta, ratiores[!] observationes, & curiosam optimorum medicamentorum, in libelli hujus formulis contentorum, praeparationem exhibit, ....
Including: - Pharmacopeia Indica, in qua continentur medicamenta, in compendio medico allegata, quae ex simplicibus in India crescentibus composita, & ad Indorum morbos directa sunt.
Augsburg, Theophil Göbel (printed by Johan Jacob Schönig), 1684. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece by Melchior Haffner.
Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, each board with a frame spine, decorations and title on spine, red edges. Frontispiece plus [12], [2 blank], 386; [1], [1 blank], 389-475; [11] pp. Full description

€ 8,000

Carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia, with 120 colour-printed plates

GROTE-HASENBALG, Werner. Der Orientteppich[:] seine Geschichte und seine Kultur.
Berlin, Scarabaeus (colophon: Dr. Selle & Co.), 1922. 3 volumes (26 x 26 cm). The text volume with colour-printed frontispiece, 28 plates numbered I-XXII (13 colour-printed), 139 numbered and 14 unnumbered illustrations in text, and a folding map; the two plate volumes with a total of 120 colour-printed plates mounted on grey-black paper. Original publisher's cloth. XVI, [2 blank], 228, [8] pp. (text) Full description

€ 1,250

Carpets and rugs from Turkey and Persia, with 120 colour-printed plates

GROTE-HASENBALG, Werner. Der Orientteppich[:] seine Geschichte und seine Kultur.
Berlin, Scarabaeus (colophon: Dr. Selle & Co.), 1922. 3 volumes (26 x 26 cm). The text volume with colour-printed frontispiece, 28 plates numbered I-XXII (13 colour-printed), 139 numbered and 14 unnumbered illustrations in text, and a folding map; the two plate volumes with a total of 120 colour-printed plates mounted on grey-black paper.Original publishers cloth. XVI, [2 blank], 228, [8] pp. plus plates(text). Full description

€ 950

A 1718 voyage from Goa to Macao, published in Lisbon

GUERREIRO, João Tavares de Velez. Jornada, que Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho, governador, e capitaõ[!] general da cidade do Nome de Deos de Macao na China, fez de Goa atè chegar á dita cidade no anno de 1718.
Lisbon, Officina da Musica (Jaime or Jayme de la Te y Sagau), 1732. 8vo. Contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine, rebacked. [16], 427, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Rare album with magnificent lithographed views of an untouched Northeast Algeria (Constantine),
shortly after the French occupation

GUYON, Jean Louis Geneviève. Voyage dAlger aux Ziban lancienne Zebe en 1847. Avec vues des principales oasis et de quelques monuments du Tell, en deça des Aurès, et un portrait du dernier Bey de Constantine. Atlas.
Algeria, Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1850. Oblong 4to. With 35 plates, namely a portrait of Hadj Hamed (or Ahmet Bey ben Mohammed sherif, the last Bey of Constantine; 1784-ca. 1850), and 34 views of various parts, cities and Roman remains in Algeria (Constantine), Half black morocco, brown cloth sides, gold-tooled spine. [4] pp. Full description

€ 2,250

First edition of the first English translation of the poems by the Persian Sufi poet Hafez

HAFEZ (HAFIZ) [Khwaaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi]. The Dîvân, written in the fourteenth century by Khwâja Shamsu-d-Dîn Muhammad-i-Hâfiz-i-Shîrâzî otherwise known as Lisânu-l-Ghaib and Tarjumânu-l-Asrâr. Translated for the first time out of the Persian into English prose, with critical and explanatory remarks, with an introductory preface, with a note on Sûfîism, and with a life of the author, by: Lieut.-Col. H. Wilberforce Clarke.
Calcutta, Government of India Central Printing Office, 1891. 2 volumes. Large 4to. Titles and mottos printed in red and black. Original publisher's vellum. [2], XLIV, 494; [4], 495-1011 pp. Full description

€ 6,500

13th-century treatise on falconry, in the original Turkish with a German translation, with two other early falconry treatises

HAMMER-PURGSTALL, Joseph von. Falknerklee, bestehend in drey ungedruckten Werken über die Falknerey. ...
Pest (now part of Budapest), Conrad Adolf Hartleben (verso of title-page: [Vienna], printed by the widow of Anton Strauß), 1840. 8vo. With lithographed frontispiece, elaborately decorated Turkish title-page and opening page. Set in fraktur, Arabic and Greek types with incidental roman. With a modern index of ornithological, zoological and botanical names. Later 19th-century half tanned sheepskin, with the publisher's original tinted lithographed wrappers bound in; the modern index is separately bound in modern goatskin, designed to match the main volume. Frontispiece plus [8], XXXII, [2], 115, [2], [1 blank] pp.; 48 ll. Full description

€ 8,500

From the Bohemian mountains to the Arabic Gulf

HENRY, René. Des monts de Bohême au Golfe Persique ... Deuxième édition.
Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie., 1908. 8vo. With 5 folding maps. Publisher's original printed paper wrappers. [2 blank], [4], XIV, 566, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 750

The Desert of Paran and the 42 stations of the Exodus, with a map

HERMANN, Amand. Desertum Pharan mystice explicatum, cum quadraginta duabus in eo mansionibus filiorum Isràél ad Palaestinam pergentium: . . .
Kalisz, printed by the college of the Society of Jesus, 1685. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece, showing a map of the Holy Land and the route of the Exodus with the 42 stations numbered. Contemporary overlapping vellum. [32], 505, [1 blank], [16] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

"Father of History" in elegant & famous first Greek edition by Aldus Manutius, from the Arenberg library

HERODOTUS. [Historiarum] libri novem. Quibus musarum indita sunt nomina.
(Colophon: Venice), Aldus Manutius, (colophon: September 1502). Folio (29.5 x 20 cm). With Aldus's anchor and dolphin device on title-page and the verso of the last leaf. Late 19th-century blind-tooled, polished tan calf, the central panel with the arms of the Dukes of Arenberg. [140] ll. Full description

€ 69,500

A key for the Western knowledge of Arabia at the beginning of the 20th century,
by the man who inspired Lawrence of Arabia

HOGARTH, David George. The penetration of Arabia.
London, Lawrence and Bullen, Ltd., 1904. Large 8vo. With 50 photographs of Medina, Mecca (incl. the Kabah, pilgrims camping outside the city praying in the Great Mosque-Precinct and at the Tomb, mostly after the photographs of Snouck Hurgronje), Maskat, Sana, Jidda; portraits of explorers such as Carsten Niebuhr, J.L. Burckhardt, G.A. Wallin, Richard Burton, J. Snouck Hurgronje, Jos. Halévy, W.G. Palgrave, W.S. and Lady Anne Blunt and others, maps of their routes through Arabia and several maps and plans of Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Mecca, Medina, Sana, Riad, etc.; the Teima stone, the first published Himyaritic inscriptions, etc. At the end are bound two folding coloured maps on one large leaf (345 x 675 mm) containing (1) the orthographical, and (2) the land surface features of Arabia. Original green publisher's cloth, title in gold on the front board with a gold-tooled section of a compass with the signs of the zodiac, title in gold on the spine. XV, 359 pp. Full description

€ 450

A magnificent copy of a classic world atlas, hand-coloured and sumptuously bound

HOMANN, Johann Baptist. Grosser Atlas über die gantze Welt.
Nuremberg, Homann heirs (printed by Johann Heinrich Gottfried Bieling), 1737[-1762]. Folio (34 x 53.5 cm). Letterpress title-page printed in red and black with an engraved map of the northern hemisphere in a polar projection, engraved frontispiece with a globe and a dozen allegorical figures (with a decorated cartouche at the foot giving the title in Latin), engraved portrait of Homann by Johann Wilhelm Winter after Johannes Kenckel, and 98 engraved maps (93 double-page, 1 larger folding in 2 sheets and 4 half-page together on a double-page plate) many with further inset maps and/or views, all with decorated cartouches, often with pictorial decoration or coats of arms; and 3 double-page engraved tables of topographic data. With the engraved title-page and all maps and tables (except for the small north polar projection on the letterpress title-page) coloured by an 18th-century hand, the maps in part or in outline. Gold-tooled red morocco (ca. 1800?) in a neo-classical style, from the workshop of or in the style of Georg Friedrich Krauss (Vienna). [3], [1 blank], 40 pp. plus frontispiece, portrait and 99 double-page plates. Full description

€ 85,000

Globe made for the rulers of the Southerns Netherlands

[GLOBE - TERRESTRIAL]. HONDIUS, Jodocus. [Terrestrial globe].
Antwerp, Joan Baptist Vrients [produced by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam], Diameter (21 cm). The globe is assembled from 12 engraved gores, mounted over a hollow wooden sphere, the gores hand-coloured in outline, some areas with full colour infill. The zero meridian set at the Azores, the seas decorated with ships and sea monstors, the continents with several figures. The cartouche enclosing a lenghty adress to the reader by Hondius, pointing out the problems of determining longitude. A decorative cartouche set in North America crowned with the coat of arms of the Albert and Isabella Clara of Austria, the text below this cartouche is signed by Hondius and Vrients dedicating this globe to Albert and Isabella. The globe is mounted in a brass meridian circle set within a fixed brass outer circle, secured at the base into 2 brass plates supported by a brass rod rising from an carved wooden mount of ca. 1800. The walnut mount carved, into four faces each with scrolled cartouche divisions, one face with the carved coat of arms of Albert and Isabella. Overall height 50cm. Full description

€ 295,000

1472 incunable encyclopaedia of the world,
containing references to Arabia, Syria, Palestine and the Saracens

HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS (HONORIUS OF AUTUN). [Incipit:] ... de ymagine mundi.
[Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1472(?)]. Folio (31 x 22 cm).Rubricated throughout and about half of the spaces left for initials filled in by hand in red ink. 19th-century red sheepskin. [46], [1 blank] ll. Full description

€ 45,000

Massive navigational directory for the East

HORSBURGH, James. The India directory, or, directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil, and the interjacent ports ... third edition.
London, printed for the author and sold by Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, booksellers to the East India Company (back of title-page: printed by Plummer & Brewis), 1826-1827. 2 volumes. 4to. Contemporary half calf, rebacked with the original backstrips laid down. [8], XXVI, 503, [1], 16; [8], 642, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Massive navigational directory, with sections on the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf

HORSBURGH, James, Gerrit KUIJPER and D. BOES LUTJENS. Zeemans-gids, naar, in en uit Oost-Indiën, China, Japan, Australiën, de Kaap de Goede Hoop, Braziliën en tusschenliggende havens, volgens de vierde Engelsche uitgave van James Horsburgh, ...
Amsterdam, C.F. Stemler, (back of half-title: printed in Haarlem by H. Bakels), 1841. 4to. Contemporary half calf, spine lettered in gold, marbled sides. I-XII, [2], XIII-XXIV, XXVIII, 1376 pp. Full description

€ 3,750

Massive navigational directory, this edition updated with information on the northeast coasts of Africa and Arabia

HORSBURGH, James. The India directory, or, directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the interjacent ports of Africa and South America ... Seventh edition.
London, Wm. H. Allen & Co. (back of title-pages: printed by Cox and Wyman), 1855. 2 volumes. Large 4to (28 x 23 cm). Contemporary half calf; rebacked with the original backstrips laid down. XII, XXXIV, [2], “681”[=683], [1 blank]; VIII, 978 pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Ancient Hebrew & other Middle Eastern, Greek, Roman and Arabic numbers, coins, weights and measures

HOST, Matthäus (Matthaeus HOSTUS). Historiae rei nummariae veteris scriptores aliquot insigniores ...
Including:
HOST, Matthäus. Tres libros de veteribus mensuris ...
HOST, Matthäus. Quaedam opuscula variae ...
[SARDI, Alessandro] (misattributed to John SELDEN). Liber de nummis ...
LABBE, Philippe. Bibliotheca nummaria ...
BUDÉ, Guillaume. De asse et partibus ejus libri quinque.
Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1695 (colophon at the end of Hosts works: Jena, Johann Zacharias Nisius, 1692). 15 works in 5 volumes, paginated as 3 and bound as 2. 4to. With 2 engraved portraits (vol. I) and 3 folding tables. Contemporary or near contemporary vellum. [36], 372, [8]; [26], “637” [= 535], [7], [2 blank], [lacking 1-2], 3-716, [86] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

On Assab, Eritrea, and the first years of the Italian government

[HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT - ASSAB - ERITREA]. Egypt. No. 15 (1882). Correspondence respecting Assab Bay.
London, Harrison and sons, 1882. Folio. Modern blue paper wrappers. X, 195, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Trade within Ethiopia

[HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT - ETHIOPIA]. No. 2531 annual series. Diplomatic and consular reports. Abyssinia. Reports for the year 1899-1900 on the trade of Adis Abbaba and Harrar.
London, Harrison and sons, 1900. Folio. With a folding lithographed map with some coloured details. Bound as sewn. 25, [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

With a folding map situating the Garden of Eden near Al Basrah, Iraq

HUET, Pierre Daniel. Trattato della situazione del Paradiso terrestre ... Tradotta dalla lingua Francese.
Venice, Giambatista Albrizzi, 1737. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10 cm). With an engraved frontispiece incorporating a map, the engraved arms of the dedicatee Marc'Antonio Morosini above the dedication, and a folding engraved map (22.5 x 19 cm). Contemporary sprinkled tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [48], 234, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Origin and development of earth, continental drift and radiometric dating

HUME, William Fraser. Terrestrial theories. A digest of various views as to the origin and development of the earth and their bearing on the geology of Egypt.
Cairo, Government Press, 1948. Large 8vo. With a chromolithographed folding geological map of the Atlantic Ocean, South America and Africa (loosely inserted in a pocket), 45 plates (some line drawings, maps, diagrams, etc.; some photographs probably reproduced by photogravure) and 37 figures in the text. Contemporary half cloth with original publisher's printed paper sides. XLIX, [1], 522, 160 pp. Full description

€ 500

British military terrain map of the Persian Gulf, published in Calcutta

HUNTER, Frederic Fraser (editor); Sir Sidney Gerald BURRARD (director). Southern Asia series - Southern Persia sheet - Persia, Arabia and Turkey in Asia
[Dehradun, Survey of India Office], sold at the Map Record and Issue Office, Calcutta, 1912. 61.5 x 88 cm. Large photozincographed (heliozincographed) folding map on a scale of 1:2,000,000 in black, blue and red, with relief shown by contours, hachures and gradient tints. Folded. Full description

€ 15,000

Pamphlet advertising the independance of Hedjaz

[HUSSEIN BIN ALI, Sharif of Mecca and Frederick Stanley MAUDE]. The king of Hedjaz and Arab independence ... together with the proclamation issued at Baghdad by Lieut.- General Sir Stanley Maude, after the occupation of that city by the British forces.
London, Hayman, Christy and Lilly Ltd., 1917. 8vo. With a photographic portrait of Hussein bin Ali for frontispiece and a folding facsimile proclamation (38 x 28 cm). Original stapled wrappers with red lettering on front wrapper. 14, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,000

Revised and enlarged edition of a 1933 master's thesis on Arabian-Far Eastern relations to ca. 1500

HUZAYYIN, S.A. Arabia and the Far East. Their commercial and cultural relations in Graeco-Roman and Irano-Arabian times.
Cairo, printed by l'institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1942. 27.5 x 18 cm. With 12 relief-printed folding maps with trade routes, some regions, etc. printed in several colours and with the coat of arms of King Fouad I of Egypt on the title page. Original brown publisher's printed paper wrappers with the title of the work and the coat of arms of King Fouad I of Egypt on the front wrapper and the logo of "la Société Royale de Géographie d'Égypte" on the back wrapper. [2 blank], XXIX, [1 blank], 319, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Revised and enlarged edition of a 1933 master's thesis on Arabian-Far Eastern relations to ca. 1500

HUZAYYIN, S. A. Arabia and the Far East: their commercial and cultural relations in Graeco-Roman and Irano-Arabian times.
Cairo, Institut français darcheologie, 1942. 4to. With 12 folding maps with trade routes, some regions, etc. printed in several colours. Modern half calf, with the original publishers stiff printed paper wrappers bound in. XXIX, 319 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Second edition of a celebrated work on Persia

HYDE, Thomas. Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et Medorum religionis historia.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1760. 4to. With 21 engraved plates (5 folding) by Michael Burghers. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [40], 580 pp. Full description

€ 1,800

First and only edition of one of the earliest works on Persian grammar

IGNATIUS a Jesus (Carlo LEONELLI). Grammatica linguae Persicae. Auctore Patre Fratre Ignatio à Jesu Carmelita Discalceato missionario, & vicario residentiae Tripolis, & Montis Libani.
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1661. 4to. With a device on the title-page, 1 woodcut decorated initial, decorations built up from arabesque typographic ornaments and a 4-page letterpress table showing the Persian alphabet with the initial, medial, final and stand-alone forms of the letters. Modern ivory vellum in the style of the time, manuscript title on spine. [2], 60 pp. Full description

€ 8,500

"Confidential"

[INDIA – ARMY, GENERAL STAFF BRANCH]. Operations in Waziristan 1919-1920. Confidential. Compiled by the General Staff, Army Headquarters, India, 1921.
Calcutta, Superintendent of Government Printing, 1921. 8vo. With frontispiece, 31 plates, 7 maps (3 in pocket on inside of back board), and 8 panoramas, mostly folding.Contemporary half calf, green cloth sides, gold-stamped red spine labels. X, 187, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,800

A rare pamphlet incriminating the Shah of Iran

[IRANIAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION NEW YORK]. WANTED. SHAH of IRAN by the Iranian people for the murders committed below (only after 1953).
New York, Iranian Student Association, [ca. 1974]. Folio. With 4 illustrations of the Shah.Pamphlet. Full description

€ 1,250

Map of Iran and Iraq in the 1930s

[MAP - IRAN - IRAQ]. PHILIP & SON. Iran (Persia) and Iraq.
London, George Philip & sons, [1930s]. Colour printed map, 54 x 68 cm, with yellow covers (19.5 x 11 cm). Full description

€ 650

Beautifully decorated diplomatic letter in Arabic: peace between Christian England and Islamic Morocco

[LETTER - DIPLOMATIC]. ISMAIL ibn SHARIF, Moulay, ruler of Morocco. [Diplomatic letter to the English emissary [Charles Stewart] acknowledging the English desire for improved diplomatic relations, and offering a truce and a peace treaty].
[Meknes (Morocco), 3 Safar 1133 AH (= 23 December 1720)]. Whole sheet (57 x 43 cm). An elaborately decorated letter in ink on paper, with the stylized architectural and arabesque decorations (including Arabic inscriptions) drawn in black outline, coloured and supplemented in green with some blue, and highlighted with gold, and the 8-line Arabic text of the letter itself in brown. Full description

€ 28,000

Historical narrative of a voyage to India and Persia written by a surgeon of the British Royal Navy

IVES, Edward. Reize naar Oost-Indië en Persië, en de daar omliggende landen. Ondernomen langs een' ongewoonen weg.
Amsterdam, De Compagnie, 1779. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 engraved title-pages, 2 folding engraved maps, one of India, the other tracking Ives's journey from Basra to Latakia, and 9 engraved plates (including 1 large folding). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [16], 324; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 379, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Historical narrative of a voyage to India and Persia written by a surgeon of the British Royal Navy

IVES, Edward. Reize naar Oost-Indië en Persië, en de daar omliggende landen. Ondernomen langs een' ongewoonen weg.
Amsterdam, De Compagnie, 1779. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 2 engraved title-pages, 2 folding engraved maps, one of India (44 x 51 cm), the other tracking Ives's journey from Basra to Latakia (ca. 42 x 56 cm), and 9 engraved plates (including 1 large folding). Early 20th-century boards. [16], 324; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 379, [1] pp. Full description

€ 2,950

The most spectacular marine atlas ever published: a magnificent copy, beautifully bound by the important Amsterdam Double Drawer Handle Bindery, with noble provenance

JAILLOT, Hunter and Pierre MORTIER. Neptunus, de Fransche, of nieuwe atlas van de zeekarten, opgenommen en gegraveerd door uitsrukkelyke order des Konings, tot het gebruik van zyne zeemachten ... Overgezien ... door de Heeren Pene, Cassini, en anderen. = Zee atlas tot het gebruik van de vlooten des Konings van Groot Britanje ... - Vervolg van de Neptunus, of zee atlas van de nieuwe zee-karten; opgenomen door uitdrukkelyke order der Koningen van Portugaal ... En int light gebraght door de sorge van wylen dHeer dAblancourt ...Amsterdam, Pieter Mortier, 1693-1700. 3 parts in 2 volumes. Double Elephant folio (65 x 52.5 cm). With richly engraved allegorical frontispiece by Jan van Vianen, large engraving of a sailing ship on title-page, engraved plates include scales of various units, an admirals ship and a series of 18 numbered ships, 12 plates of flags, double-page nautical chart of the world, and 29 double-page nautical charts of the coasts of Europe; beautiful engraved frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe, large engraving of a sailing ship on title-page and 9 full-page and double-page nautical charts of the coasts of the English Channel, including a splendid large folding chart of the coasts of the Mediterranean with a large number of views and plans of the Mediterranean towns in the borders by Romeyn de Hooghe in the second part; and the engraved coat-of-arms of Amsterdam on title-page, the winds, and 34 mostly double-page nautical charts of the coasts outside Europe (including Africa, Asia and America) in the third part, all engravings, including the vignettes on title-pages, the scales and the winds, all magnificently coloured and highlighted in gold throughout by a strictly contemporary hand. Bound by the Double Drawer Handle Bindery (1697-1742?), the most important Amsterdam workshop of the 18th century, in richly gold-tooled calf of which four motives or stamps are identified as being used by the Double Drawer Handle Bindery: both rolls on the boards with flowering foliage and flowers, the centrepiece showing Atlas staggering under the weight of a celestial globe and the four corner pieces and the stamps (with a loosely stamped supporting base) in the fields on the spine, being small globes. Full description

€ 450,000

A teenage sailor’s adventures in Arabia, Mumbai and elsewhere

JAMES, Silas. A narrative of a voyage to Arabia, India; &c; ...; with remarks on the genius and disposition of the natives of Arabia Felix; ...
London, printed by William Glindon, sold by the author, [1797]. 8vo. With a frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by William Newman. Modern dark brown calf, gold-tooled spine. “VI” [= VIII], 7, [1 blank], [1], 10-232 pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Important collection of voyages to America and Africa, together with a standard work on Constantinople

[JUSTEL, Henri]. Recueil de divers voyages faits en Afrique et en l'Amerique.
Paris, Louis Billaine, 1674. With 17 engraved plates: 5 maps (4 folding), 3 folding plans and 9 other illustrations.
With: (2) GRELOT, Guillaume-Joseph. Relation nouvelle d'un voyage de Constantinople.
Paris, Nicolas Belley, 1689 (colophon 1680). With engraved portrait of a saint on title-page, 13 engraved plates, 4 engravings in text and engraved coat of arms. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. 18th-century tan calf, gold-tooled spine. [16], 262, 35 [1 blank], 23 [1 blank], 49 [1 blank], [2], 81 [1 blank]; [12], 306, 1 [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

First edition in Arabic of the Samaritan book of Joshua

JUYNBOLL, Theodorus Willem Johannes. Chronicon Samaritanum, Arabice conscriptum cui titulus est liber Josuae. Ex unico codice Scaligeri nunc primum edidit, Latine vertit, annotatione instruxit, et dissertationem de codice, de chronico, et de quaestionibus, ...
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1848. 4to. With a folding lithographed plate. Set in roman and italic types with the 55-page transcription in Arabic type and shorter passages in Hebrew, Samaritan and Syriac type. Modern half cloth, gold-tooled spine, marbled sides and decorated endpapers. XII, 369; [1], [1 blank], 55 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Very rare Dutch picaresque novel, with the female protagonist getting caught by pirates
and ending up in the household of an Arabic slave trader

[KERSTEMAN, Petrus Lievens]. De vermakelyke avanturesse, of de dienstmaagd van fortuin. Vervattende hare zonderlinge levensgevallen, ontelbare wederwaardigheden en rampen; zeltzame ontmoetingen, en koddige vryagien; deszelfs driejarige dienst als lakye, gevangenneming op de Moorsche kusten, en hare slavernye in Asia by de Arabieren.
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1754. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece. Contemporary mottled half calf, gold-tooled spine, later endpapers. [4], 360 pp Full description

€ 3,500

World atlas including one 6-sheet and eleven 4-sheet wall maps

KITCHIN, Thomas and others. Kitchin's general atlas, describing the whole universe.
London, Robert Laurie, James Whittle, 1808. Imperial folio (53 x 39.5 cm). With 28 engraved maps (numbered in 41 parts) assembled from 67 sheets. Most include elaborate cartouches with pictorial decoration. With the maps coloured in outline. Contemporary half calf. 1 leaf plus maps. Full description

€ 18,000

Monograph of the birds of prey of the entire Nile region

KOENIG, Alexander. Die Vögel am Nil von seiner Mündung bis in das Gebiet seiner Quellflüsse (Weisser Nil) auf Grund eigener Reisen und Beobachtungen in Wort und Bild dargestellt ... Zweiter Band. Die Raubvögel.
[Bernburg, Kunze, 1936]. 4to. Illustrated with 52 colour plates and 2 black and white plates depicting birds of prey, a plate with 4 photographs of nests and 2 lithographed illutrations in the text of ancient Egyptian statues of falcons. Rebound in blue half morocco with title shield. 188 pp. Full description

€ 750

Large map depicting the world's oil industry, including the Middle East and Egypt

KORYTKO, Stefan. General orientative map of the world's oil industry | Übersichtskarte der Welt- Naphtha-Industrie | Carte d'orientation de l'industrie de pétrole du monde | Mapa pogladowa swiatowego przemyslu naftowego.
Lviv, Stefan Korytko, 1925. Large folding chromolithographed map (map size 65.5 x 88 cm). Original publisher's printed paper wrappers. Full description

€ 6,500

The past and present of the oral traditions of Bedouin tribes in Arabia,
discussed by a renowned Dutch scholar of Arabian languages and cultures

KURPERSHOEK, Paul Marcel. Oral poetry & narratives from Central Arabia.
1. The poetry of ad-Dindân A Bedouin Bard in Southern Najd.
2. The story of a Desert Knight The legend of Sçwîh al-'Atâwi & Other 'Utaybah Heroes.
3. Bedouin poets of the Dawâsir Tribe Between Nomadism & Settlement in Southern Najd.
Leiden, New York, Köln, Brill, 1994-1999. 3 volumes. Large 8vo. With 2 portraits as frontispieces in vols. 1 and 2. 16 pages with illustrations and 2 maps at the end of vols. 2 and 3. Red cloth with title information in gold on front cover and spine of all 3 vols. All 3 vols. have a dust jacket. XVII, [5 368, [4]; XIV, [4], 512, [2]; XX, 506, [4] pp. Full description

€ 850

Guide for new employees of the Kuwait Oil Company arriving in Al Ahmadi

KUWAIT OIL COMPANY. Information for new engagements on joining the Kuwait Oil Company, Limited, Kuwait.
Al Ahmadi, Kuwait Oil Company, 18 June 1952. Small folio (33 x 20.5 cm). Duplicated typescript, printed on the rectos only in purple ink, probably with a spirit duplicator. Loose sheets, stapled together at the left top corner with holes punched in the left margin. [2], 22 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

First edition of Labillardière's famous voyage in search of La Pérouse, with 44 plates, including 14 after Redouté

LABILLARDIÈRE, Jacques Julien Houton de. Relation du voyage a la recherche de la Pérouse.
Including: Atlas pour servir à la Relation du voyage à la recherche de la Pérouse, ...
Paris, H.J. Jansen, An VIII [= 1799/1800]. 3 volumes. 4to (2 text volumes) and folio (atlas). Atlas with engraved title-page, large folding map (59 x 86.5 cm) and 43 full-page engraved plates (numbered 2-44), including 14 botanical plates drawn or completed by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Modern mottled half calf. XVI, 442; 332, 113, [1] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

Explorations in Arabia and vicinity, with 69 spectacular plates

LABORDE, Léon Emmanuel Simon Joseph de. Voyage de l'Arabie Pétrée.
Paris, Giard (colophon: printed by the Imprimerie Normale/Jules Didot l'ainé), 1830[-1834]. Royal 1mo (42 x 59.5 cm). With lithographic title-page (with a large lithographed title vignette separately printed on "India" paper and mounted on the title-page) and lithographed coat of arms of the dedicatee Wilhelm II of Hesse printed directly on dedication leaf, 69 lithographed plates (3 double-page and 1 larger folding) showing views, maps and plans after Laborde and Linant de Bellefonds, most separately printed on "India" paper and mounted on the leaves. With 1 zoological plate (of a marmot and young: "El Oueber") subtly coloured as published. Period-style half calf with gilt title to spine. Full description

€ 45,000

Travels through the Middle East, India and Europe, with 34 woodcut illustrations, including several trees

LA BOULLAYE LE GOUZ, Francois de. Les voyages et observations du sieur de la Boullaye-le-Gouz gentil-homme Angevin...
Paris, Francois Clousier, 1653. 4to. With a woodcut and an engraved author's portrait, 34 woodcut illustrations in text, including several full-page, and some woodcut initals, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. [16], 540, [10], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 18,000

Freeing Christian slaves in Algiers and Tunis in 1720

[LA FAYE, Jean Baptiste de]. Voyage pour la redemption des captifs, aux royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis. Fait en 1720. Par les PP. François Comelin, Philemon de la Motte, & Joseph Bernard de l'Ordre de la sainte Trinité, dits Mathurins.Including: La tradition de l'eglise.
Paris, Louis-Anne Sevestre and Pierre-François Giffart, 1721. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Louis XV, engraved by P.F. Giffart, folding engraved plate of the court of the Dey (Regent) of Algiers, and a regular engraved plate in the second part. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [8], 169, [1 blank]; [10], LX, 306, [5], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,000

Photographic portrait of future King Saud of Saudi Arabia, with very high quality colouring turning it largely into a painting

[PHOTOGRAPH - HAND COLOURED]. LAFAYETTE STUDIO. [Crown Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia].
[London, 1935]. Matt silver print (ca. 28 x 36 cm), watercolour, pastel, gouache and oil paint. Mounted on paper in a passe-partout. Signed "Lafayette" in pencil on the mount. In a wooden frame (ca. 53 x 64 cm), under glass. Full description

€ 35,000

French account of the Siege of Candia (Heraklion) in first edition with engraved fortification plan

[LA FEUILLADE, François Aubusson de]. Journal de l'expedition de Monsieur de la Feuillade, pour le secours de Candie. Par un volontaire.
Lyon, Jean Thioly, 1669. 12mo. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, some woodcut initials and head-and tailpieces and 1 engraved folding plan of the fortification of Candia (20 x 28.5 cm). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine and sprinkled edges. [8], 198, [2] pp. Full description

€ 4,750

Arabic inscriptions in Granada

LAFUENTE Y ALCANTARA, Emilio. Inscripciones Arabes de Granada, precedidas de una reseña histórica y de la genealogía detallada de los reyes Alahmares.
Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1859 (issued 1860). 4to. With a folding family tree.
Near contemporary gold-tooled vellum with spine title, endpapers with a floral pattern. With the original publishers 1860 front wrapper bound in. XIII, [1], 15-242, [2] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Colour-printed emblematic polemics for and against war with the Ottoman Empire

[LA HAYE, Jean de]. Peristromata Turcica, sive dissertatio emblematica, praesentem Europae statum ingeniosis coloribus repraesentans.
With:
(2) [HARSDÖRFFER, Georg Philipp]. Germania deplorata, sive relatio, qua pragmatica momenta belli pacisque expenduntur.
(3) [MILAG, Martin]. Aulaea Romana, contra Peristromata Turcica expansa: sive dissertatio emblematica, concordiae Christianae omen repraesentans.
(4) [Anonymous French critic of Cardinal RICHELIEU]. Gallia deplorata, sive relatio, de luctuoso bello, quod rex Christianissimus contra vicinos populos molitur.
[Nürnberg, Wolfgang Endter] (ad 1 with a false colophon: Paris, Toussaint du Bray), 1641-1642. 4 editions published together in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 engraved title-plates plus 12 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations, all on integral leaves, each with a small plate nested in a larger plate (7 in the Peristromata with a varying plate black and the same outer plate of a Persian carpet in orange). Gold-tooled light brown calf (ca. 1820?) by Charles Murton in London. 46, [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 34; 64; 51, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

150 beautiful chromolithographs of 19th-century Tunis with ca. 100 proofs without letterpress text bound in

LALLEMAND, Charles. Tunis et ses environs.
Paris, Quantin, 1890. Large 4to (31 x 24 cm). With 150 detailed chromolithographs (most in the text; some on separate plates), with extra ca. 100 duplicates without text of the illustrations. Contemporary half morocco. 245 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

First edition of an account of the Arabic interpreter who accompanied a Napoleonic spy on his mission throughout the Middle East

LAMARTINE, Alphonse de & Henri Bosch (editor). Récit du séjour de Fatalla Sayeghir chez les Arabes Errans du grand désert, manuscrit acquis et traduit en Français.
Brussels, Sociétés de Paris, Londres et Bruxelles, 1835. 8vo. With a small vignette of a harp with a star in the background on the title page. Browned paper wrappers, with a white label on the spine with "68" in brown ink. [1], [1 blank], [2], VII, [1 blank], 109, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 350

Around the world in 1180 days, with 2 folding maps and 31 steel-engraved views

LAPLACE, Cyrille Pierre Théodore. Campagne de circumnavigation de la frégate l'Artémise, pendant les annéees 1837, 1838, 1839 et 1840, ... Tome premier[-sixième].
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (printed by Firmin Didot frères and Charles Lahure, 1841-1854. 6 volumes. 8vo. With 2 large folding engraved maps (engraved by Ambroise Tardieu and S. Jacobs) and 31 steel-engraved views, those in vols. I-IV drawn by (François) Edmond Pâris (1806-1893), engraved by [Eugène?] Laplante, Joseph Durond and [G.?] Nyon jeune, and printed by Bougeard; those in vols. V-VI anonymous and printed by N. Rémond. With the maps coloured in outline or partly coloured, and with the routes indicated and coloured. Contemporary boards, covered with the publisher's original green printed paper. XXXIX, [1 blank], 343, [1 blank], [3], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 467, [1 blank], [3], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 548, [1], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], 464, [3], [1 blank]; [3], [1 blank], III, [1 blank], 542, [2]; [3], [1 blank], 400 pp. Full description

€ 22,500

A French voyage to the Levant

LA ROQUE, Jean de. Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban.
Paris, André Cailleau, 1722. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 9 engraved plates (5 folding), including a folding map showing the course of the Orontes river; dedication with woodcut coat of arms of De Fleury. Contemporary sprinkled calf, gold-tooled spines with gilt-stamped crest of Henry Edward Bunbury. [12], 347, [1 blank]; [2], 321, [3] pp. Full description

€ 4,950

Algeria and its notorious pirates

LAUGIER DE TASSY, Jacques Philippe. Beschryving van het koningryk en de stadt Algiers, met den tegenwoordigen staat dier regeeringe, landt- en zeemagt, inkomsten, staatswetten, werreltlyk recht en koophandel.
Including: Lyst der schepen, welke sedert den 24 december 1715, tot het einde des jaars 1724 door de Algiersche roovers van den staat der Vereenigde Nederlanden genomen zyn.
Amsterdam, Marten Schagen, 1725. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With engraved title-page, folding engraved map of Algeria, folding engraved view and a folding engraved bird's eye view of Algiers. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine, gold-tooled boards, gold-tooled board edges. [16], “300” [=298], [16] pp. Full description

€ 3,750

T. E. Lawrence's anonymous account of the Arab movement in the Great War

[LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward]. Harry PIRIE-GORDON (editor). A brief record of the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under the command of General Sir Edmund H.H. Allenby. July 1917 to October 1918. Compiled from official sources and published by the Palestine News.
Cairo, Government Press and Survey of Egypt, 1919. Small folio (22.5 x 29.5 cm). With a frontispiece portrait of Allenby, mounted on cloth, and 56 coloured maps with explanatory texts on the facing pages. Contemporary half linen. [6], 113, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,000

Extremely rare account of the enslavement of British sailors, probably compiled from earlier sources

LEBAU, Peter and Thomas TROUGHTON. The English slaves; or, a succinct and authentic narrative of the captivity and sufferings of eighty-seven unfortunate Englishmen, who were shipwrecked on the coast of Barbary.
London, printed by T. Maiden for Ann Lemoine and J. Roe, [ca. 1807]. 12mo. With wood-engraved frontispiece. Contemporary tree calf; rebacked. 35, [1] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Illustrated eye-witness accounts and tall tales: sixty years of a sailor's world travels

LE BLANC, Vincent. De vermaarde reizen van de heer Vincent Le Blanc van Marsilien, die hy sedert d'ouderdom van veertien jaren, tot aan die van zestig, in de vier delen des werrelts gedaan heeft ...
Amsterdam, Jan Hendricksz. Boom, Jan Rieuwertsz., 1654. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With engraved title-page and 7 engraved plates. 19th-century boards. [1], [1 blank], 152, 116 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Journal of a 1674/75 overland voyage through India, Iran, Iraq and Syria to Amsterdam

LEEUWENSON, Joannes (Pieter Arend LEUPE, ed. & intro.). Eene overlandreis uit Indië naar Nederland, in 1674-1675.
[Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 1863]. 8vo. Offprint, retaining the original pagination and collation, of an article in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6 (1863). 20th-century stiff paper wrappers, with a printed label on the front. pp. [89], 90-142. Full description

€ 1,250

First Latin edition of the most important Renaissance source of information on Africa

LEO AFRICANUS, Johannes. De totius Africae descriptione, libri IX.
Antwerp, Johannes Laet, 1556. 8vo. With printer's device on title-page. Later sheepskin, gold-tooled flat spine, each side with blind-tooled coat of arms. [16], 302, [2 blank] ll. Full description

€ 14,000

Wonderful account of the geography and development of Palestine and Syria during the Muslim rule

LE STRANGE, Guy. Palestine under the Moslems. A description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Translated from the work of the mediaeval Arab geographers.
Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1975. Illustrations, maps, plans (some fold-out) throughout. Original cloth binding. XXII, [2], 604 pp. Full description

€ 650

96 letters from Dutch diplomats throughout Europe, 1715-1729

[LETTERS - DIPLOMATIC]. [Official contemporary copies of incoming diplomatic correspondence to the Dutch government in The Hague from Dutch ambassadors, envoys, diplomatic residents and others in Vienna, Graz, Schaffhausen, Turin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Moscow, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dresden, Regensburg, Warsaw, Grodno, Maastricht, The Hague, Brussels and Ostend].
[The Hague], letters dated 26 January-17 December 1715 and 7 November 1725-22 November 1729. Folio (32.5 x 20.5 cm). 96 letters clearly written in dark brown ink on paper, 84 in Dutch and 12 in French, mostly in a Latin hand (the Dutch ones from 1715 in a semi-gothic hand). Loose leaves in a modern portfolio. [96] letters ([138] written pp. on [97] ll.). Full description

€ 8,500

Crucial, state of the art research into new ways of storing oil and gas underground
at the beginning of the 1980s

LINDBLOM, Ulf and Wissam S. AL-HASHIMI (editors). First Arab seminar on underground storage of oil and gas.
Stockholm, 1981. Large 8vo. With approximately 150 figures, illustrations, photographs, maps, graphs, formulas and tables in the text, and 24 pages of Arabic text including a separate title-page at the end of the work. Original publisher's green cloth. XIX, [5], 261, [3], 22, [2] pp. Full description

€ 650

Seminal guide to the East and West Indies, with 42 double-page and folding plates, including 6 maps, all engravings beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand

LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huyghen van. Histoire de la navigation ... aux Indes Orientales ... Avec annotations de B. Paludanus, ... Troixiesme edition augmentee.
Including:
LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huyghen van. Le grand routier de mer, ...
[LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen van]. Description de l'Amerique & des parties d'icelle, ...
Amsterdam, Evert Cloppenburg, 1638. Folio (32.5 x 21 cm). With 3 title-pages (2 from the same full-page engraving and 1 letterpress with an engraving of a ship in a cartouche with 4 inset city views), a nearly full-page engraved portrait of the author in a cartouche with 4 inset views, 42 engraved plates including 6 maps (31 double-page & 11 larger folding). All plates coloured by a contemporary hand. Near contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 206 pp.; [4], 181, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], “86” [= 80], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 275,000

Treatise on a posthumously published map of the Holy Land

L'ISLE (DELISLE), Joseph-Nicolas de. Memoire sur la carte de l'ancienne Palestine ou de la Terre Sainte.
Paris, Chez l'auteur, 1763. 4to. With woodcut vignette on title-page and a large woodcut headpiece. Modern brown half calf, richly gold-tooled spine. 21 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Detailed observations of life in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt
and elsewhere in the Levant and Middle East ca. 1610

LITHGOW, William. Willem Lithgouws 19 jaarige lant-reyse, uyt Schotlant nae de vermaerde deelen des werelts Europa, Asia en Africa.
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamin (colophon: printed by Christoffel Cunradus), 1653. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With engraved frontispiece by Crispijn de Passe, 1 engraved plate and 6 engraved illustrations in the text. 19th-century half vellum. [8], 186, 98 pp. Full description

€ 1,950

Detailed observations of life in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and elsewhere in the Levant and Middle East ca. 1610

LITHGOW, William. Nineteen years travels through the most eminent places in the habitable world.
London, for John Wright & Thomas Passinger, 1682. 8vo. With a folding woodcut frontispiece and 6 folding woodcut plates and 1 woodcut in the text. 19th-century dark brown sheepskin, sewn on 3 recessed cords, brown spine label, Stormont on shell marbled endpapers. [8], 481, [7] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Shells from Turkey, Palestine and Syria, with 5 lithographed plates

LOCARD, Arnould. Malacologie des lacs de Tibériade, d'Antioche et d'Homs - Syrie.
[Lyon, ca. 1883]. Large 4to. With 5 tinted lithographed plates. Modern blue half morocco, gold-tooled spine. 194-293, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

A Swiss jurist’s account of Algeria

LOCHER, Friedrich. Nach den Oasen von Laghuat.
Bern, Haller, 1864. 8vo. With a tinted lithographed frontispiece showing the palace of the khalif in Laghouat and a folding lithographed map of the northern part of Algeria. Contemporary red half cloth. VIII, 208 pp. Full description

€ 800

Unique views of Cairo and Alexandria

LONGHI, Gioseffo. Gran Cairo.
With: (2) Alessandria.
Bologna, Longhi, 1670 [and 1670s]. 94.5 × 62 cm, 106.5 × 57.8 cm. Engraved views, each on 2 sheets joined; letterpress text pasted below with publisher's imprint. Both views matted, framed and glazed. Full description

€ 48,000

Pioneering study of Ethiopia, by the future master of the subject

LUDOLF, Job (Hiob LUDOLPHUS). Sciagraphia historiae Aethiopicae, sive regni Abessinorum, quod vulgo perperam Presbyteri Johannis vocatur, deo volente, aliquando in lucem proditurae.
Jena, Samuel Krebs, 1676. 4to. Set in roman types with some italic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and especially Ethiopic type. Late 19th-century textured blue half cloth. [40] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

The conquest of Spain by the Moors and a biography of its Islamic ruler Almanzor

LUNA, Miguel de. Histoire des deux conquestes d'Espagne par les Mores, ... Par Abdulcacim Tarif Abentarique, ... Avec la description de l'Espagne, ..., la vie du grand Almansor par Ali Abensufian, et quelques lettres & pieces originales.
Paris, Widow of François Muguet, 1708. 12mo. Contemporary mottled calf, with richly gold-tooled spine. [24], 485, 4, [3 blank] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

Famous work on the Middle East, illustrated with very early photogravures of the Holy Land

LUYNES, Honoré d'Albert de. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. ... Oeuvre posthume publiée par ses petit-fils sous la direction de M. le Comte de Vogüé.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (on back of half-title: printed by E. Martinet (vols. 1-2) and Arnous de Rivière (vol. 3)), [1874]. 3 volumes of text and 1 atlas of plates. Imperial 4to (35.2 x 26.5 cm). With 14 numbered lithographed plates in volume 3 (4 double-page chromolithographed maps, views and geological sections; 2 further geological plates and 8 plates showing archaeological specimens), 85 plates in the atlas volume (including 65 photogravures and double-page chromolithographed maps) and numerous wood-engravings in the text. Set in roman and italic types with occasional passages in Greek and especially Arabic. Text volumes in original publisher's letterpress-printed light blue wrappers, atlas in half cloth portfolio with the original publisher's letterpress-printed paper sides, matching the text volumes; the 4 volumes preserved in 2 modern black half calf clamshell boxes. [8], 388; [6], 226; [4], VI, 326; [4] pp. Full description

€ 35,000

Exploration of Iran's major river

LYNCH, Henry Blosse. Notes on the present state of the Karun river, between Shushter and the Shat-el-Arab.
[London, Wiley, October 1891]. 4to. With a lithograph illustration in the text. Modern blue wrappers. 592-595 pp. Full description

€ 395

Discovery of the Canary Islands in classical Greek and Roman, Arabic and Portuguese sources

MACEDO, Joaquim José da Costa de. Memoria em que se pertende provar que os Arabes não conhecerão as Canarias antes dos Portuguezes.
Lisbon, printing office of the Academia Real das Sciencias, 1844. Folio. With a woodcut Portuguese coat of arms on the title-page. Modern brown paper wrapper. [4], 232 pp. Full description

€ 1,500

Maffei's account of the East and West Indies

MAFFEI, Joan Petro. Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI. Selectarum, item, ex India epistolarum libri IV...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1605. 8vo. With woodcut device on title-page and woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum with faint manuscript title on spine and a small gilt-stamped rooster in the centre of the boards, remains of ties. [72], 478, [2 blank]; 401, [7] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Italian friar captured by Ottoman pirates

MAGGIO, Francesco Maria. Vita, e morte del venerabil P. F. Alipio di S. Giuseppe Scalzo di S. Agostino Palermitano della congregazione d'Italia, in odio della confessione della S. Fede di Giesù Cristo, crudelissimamente ucciso da' Turchi di Barberia, nella città di Tripoli, a 17 di febbraio l'anno 1645 ...
Rome, Ignatio de' Lazzari, 1657. 4to. With 3 engraved plates. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [40], 24, [4], 25-234, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Extremely rare example of the largest globe engraved by Malby (45.5 cm diameter), with lines of magnetic variation, London 1848, showing “Debai” (Dubai)

[GLOBE - TERRESTRIAL]. MALBY & CO. Malby's terrestrial globe.
[London], Malby & Co. (engraved by Chas. Malby), 1 January 1848. Diameter: 45.5 cm (18 inch), height in stand: 64.5 cm. An engraved terrestrial globe with 12 gores and 2 polar caps over a plaster-covered core, and the engraved horizon ring on the wooden stand, all coloured by a contemporary hand. In a contemporary wooden stand with 3 turned legs supporting the horizon ring, and 3 turned stretchers with a cylindrical centrepiece with a knob on the underside. Further with a contemporary brass hour circle and a slightly later iron meridian ring (and probably the axis pivots). Full description

€ 35,000

14th-century tales of travels in Turkey, the Middle East, Near East, India and the East Indies,
illustrated with about 60 woodblocks

MANDEVILLE, John [= Jehan d'OUTREMEUSE]. The voyages & travels of Sir John Mandevile, Knight, ... to the Holy Land, and to Hierusalem: as also to the lands of the Great Caan, and of Prestor John: to Inde, and divers other countries: ...
London, Richard Chiswell, Benjamin Walford, Matthew Wotton, George Conyers, 1696. 4to. With a woodcut ship on the title-page and about 60 woodcut illustrations in the text (mostly about 5.5 x 8 cm) plus about 10 repeats. Gold-tooled, red goatskin morocco by Robert Riviere in London (ca. 1875/80), one of England's best binders. [4], “139” [= 135], [5] pp. Full description

€ 22,500

An Arabist advocating archaeological research of the Near East

MANGER, Samuel Hendrik. Oratio inauguralis, de incremento philologiae sacrae ab idonea Arabiae atque Palaestinae exploratione sperando.
Franeker, Willem Coulon, 1762. Folio. With the woodcut coat of arms of Friesland on the title-page. Mid-19th-century marbled wrappers. [4], 67, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

A Christian Arabist discussing a planned archaeological expedition to Palestine

MANGER, Samuel Hendrik. Oratio inauguralis, de incremento philologiae sacrae ab idonea Arabiae atque Palaestinae exploratione sperando.
Franeker, Willem Coulon, 1762. Folio. With a woodcut coat of arms of the province of Friesland on the title-page. Modern boards. [4], 67, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

Secret military expedition to China

MANNERHEIM, Carl Gustav. Across Asia from West to East in 1906-1908.
Helsinki, Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1940. 2 volumes. (30.5 x 22 cm). With numerous illustrations in text, one small map after the preface, and 15 folding maps in the second volume. Half sheepskin, cloth sides. IV, 741; IV, 54, 16, 48, 36, 36, 12, 6, 30, 12 pp. Full description

€ 9,500

A collection of Venetian voyages to the Near and Middle East, printed at the Aldine press

[MANUZIO, Antonio (ed.)]. Viaggi fatti da Vinetia, alla Tana, in Persia, in India, et in Costantinopoli: con la descrittione particolare di città, luoghi, siti, costumi, & della porta del Gran Turco: & di tutte le intrate, spese, & modo di governo suo, & della ultima impresa contra Portoghesi.
Venice, sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. 8vo. With Alduss woodcut anchor device on the title-page. 18th-century English polished calf. 163 ll. Full description

€ 7,500

Recommending a rising star for the chair of Arabic at Algiers

[AUTOGRAPH]. MARCEL, Jean-Joseph. [Autograph letter, signed, of recommendation for Louis Bresnier].
Paris, 9 September 1836. Folio (36 x 23 cm). Letter in brown ink on wove paper. [2] pp. Full description

€ 1,250

A fundamental book on Egypt: the first illustrated catalogue of the first Egyptian Museum, with 40 original photographic prints

MARIETTE-BEY, Auguste. Album du musée du Boulaq comprenant quarante planches photographiées par MM. Delié et Béchard, avec un texte explicatif rédigé par Auguste Mariette-Bey.
Cairo, Mourès & Cie, 1872. Folio. With 40 original, albumen photographic prints (ca. 24.5 x 18 cm) on stiff paperboard mounted on hinges. Original publishers half brown morocco, blind stamped cloth over boards, with title and figures in gold, gilt edges. [3], [42] ll. plus 40 mounted photographic prints. Full description

€ 35,000

Antwerp celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, commemorating the Battle of Lepanto (1571)

[MARITIME HISTORY]. Beschryving van de konstryke verciering en voortreffelyken toestel, ... ter gelegentheyd van het twee honderd-jaerig jubilé van de ... victorie, ... over een veel talryker Turksche vloot by Lepanten in 't jaer 1571. den 7. October, gemeenelijk genaemd, den zeeslag van Don Jean, van Oostenrijk, ... van den 6. tot den 13. October, van dit ... jubeljaer [chronogram 1771].
Antwerp, Pieter Johannes Parys, (approbation: 1771). 4to. With 3 engraved illustrations in the text. Lacking the integral frontispiece. 19th-century chemical-marbled glazed paper wrappers. 79, [1] pp., lacking frontispiece (pp. 1-2). Full description

€ 1,750

The best Malayan grammar, with 89 pages of Malay texts with translations

MARSDEN, William. A grammar of the Malayan language, with an introduction and praxis.
London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, and by Black, Parry and Co., booksellers to the British East India Company, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental italic. Modern dark green cloth. [1], [1 blank], L, [2], 225, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,500

The best Malay dictionary, with detailed definitions and noting related Hindi words

MARSDEN, William. A dictionary of the Malayan language, in two parts, Malayan and English and English and Malayan.
London, printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, 1812. 4to. Set in roman and Arabic types with incidental Devanagari and italic. Modern blue cloth with a morocco spine label, retaining the nonpareil-marbled edges from the previous contemporary binding. [1], [1 blank], XV, [1], 589, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,950

About 135 lithographic paper cut-outs (not cut out) for a caravan to Mecca

[MECCA - PAPER CARAVAN CUT-OUTS]. Carawane nach Mecca.
Vienna, Matthias Trentsensky (printed by E. Sieger), ca. 1855. Oblong folio (25 x 40 cm). With 19 (of 24) numbered leaves containing about 135 lithographic pen-drawings, each drawing including a base so that one can cut them out, paste them on card stock, stand them up and arrange them in three-dimensional scenes. Loose leaves in a later paper folder. ll. 6-24 (of 24). Full description

€ 8,500

Catherine de' Medici and the Ottoman Sultan Murad III

[LETTER - SIGNED]. MEDICI, Catherine de'. [Letter to Jacques de Germigny in Constantinople (Istanbul)].
Chenonceaux, 2 September 1584. Folio (34 x 24 cm). Signed letter in French, in brown ink on paper, written in a clear gothic hand. Folded for sending and addressed on the outside, with a slot for a ribbon and traces of a red wax seal. [1], [3 blank (except for address)] pp. Full description

€ 12,500

The first Roman geography of the world, including the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf,
in the rare 1502 edition of its first accurate printed text

MELA, Pomponius. De situ orbis Hermolai Barbari fideliter emendatus.
[Venice], (colophon: printed by Albertino da Vercelli, 14 May 1502). Small 4to (20.5 x 15.5 cm). With printed guide letters left for manuscript initials (not filled in). Gold-tooled red half sheepskin (ca. 1820?). XXIIII ll. Full description

€ 6,500

Very rare important history on the recovery of Egypt from the French by Muhammad Ali Pasha

MENGIN, Felix. Geschiedenis van Egypte, onder de regering van Mohammed-Ali of verhaal der staatkundige en militaire gebeurtenissen, die plaats gehad hebben sedert het vertrek der Franschen tot in 1823.
Amsterdam, Johannes Christoffel van Kesteren, 1828. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 8 engraved plates and 2 engraved folding maps. Contemporary half sheepskin, marbled sides, red morocco spine label with title in gold. [2], XL, 462, [1], [1 blank]; [4], 515, [1] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Final edition of the famous Mercator-Hondius atlas, with 164 maps attractively coloured by a contemporary hand and with a noble provenance

MERCATOR, Gerard and Henricus HONDIUS. Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. ... Editio decima.
[Amsterdam], heirs of Henricus Hondius, 1630. Folio (47 x 34 cm). With engraved title-page, engraved double-page portrait of Mercator and Hondius; 4 engraved divisional title-pages, 164 engraved maps (almost all double-page) and many woodcut initials and tailpieces, all fully coloured by a contemporary hand, with some occasional details highlighted with gum arabic, and with the title-pages with some text and details highlighted in gold. All maps with letterpress texts on the back. 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled calf, gilt edges. [22], 391, [35], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 125,000

Life (and death in Morocco) of King Sebastião I of Portugal (1554-1578)

MESA, Sebastian de. Jornada de Africa por el Rey Don Sebastian y union del reyno de Portugal a la corona de Castilla.
Barcelona, Pedro Lacavalleria, 1630. 4to. Each page framed with thin printed rules. Contemporary gold-tooled leather (blackened and flaking), each board with the helmed and mantled arms of the Mazarin family in the centre. [2], 169, [1] ll. Full description

€ 12,000

Field guide for officers during the Mesopotamian campaign (1914-1918), with a folding map

[MESOPOTAMIA]. [Indian Army General Staff]. For official use only. Field notes. Mesopotamia. General staff, India. February 1917.Including: Index to field notes, Mesopotamia, 1917.
Calcutta, Superintended government printing, 1917. Small 8vo. With 1 folding heliozincographed map of "Lower Mesopotamia", with some routes in red, and three folding letterpress tables. Original green cloth. [3], [1], 326(=325), [1]; [1], [1 blank], XX pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Instructions for Carsten Niebuhr's expedition to Arabia

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Recueil de questions, proposées à une société de savants, qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le voyage de l'Arabie.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & comp., 1774. 4to. Set in roman type with incidental Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and 1 word in Coptic. Near-contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], XLIV, 256, [16], 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Extensive work on Mosaic law, with a section on Arabian horses

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Mosaïsch recht, of de ziel der wetten van Moses; ...
Including: Byvoegsels en verbeteringen op het Mosaïsch recht, ... achter aan eenige byzonderheden over de oudste geschiedenisse der paarden en stoeteryen in Palaestine en de nabuurige landen, in zonderheid Aegypten en Arabien.
Haarlem, Jan van Walré, 1781-1782 (parts 1-2); Jan Bosch, 1774-1776 (parts 3-6), 1778 (part 7). 7 parts in 3 volumes. 8vo. Contemporary, uniform half calf, gold-tooled spines. [12] 346; [14], 464; [10], 259, [1 blank]; [8], 414, [2 blank]; [8], 342; [2], CXXXII, 322, [4]; [6], 210, [2] pp. Full description

€ 750

Enormous panoramic Middle Eastern view with ruins, nearly 6 metres long

[VIEW - MIDDLE EAST]. [Mountainous landscape with Middle Eastern and classical Roman ruins, 6 shepherds with their flocks, several figures riding dromedaries and one riding a donkey, (date?) palms, lakes, etc.].
[Palestine?, ca. 1910?]. An enormous panoramic view drawn in coloured gouaches on a single, continuous roll of paper (70 x 583 cm), the drawing running to the edges of the paper. Full description

€ 35,000

The Arabian oil fields and pipelines in the late 1930s

[MAP - MIDDLE EAST]. Geographical Publishing Company. Arabia and near bordering countries.
Including:
- Palestine
- Iran (Persia) and surrounding territory
Chicago, Geographical publishing company, [ca. 1936-1941]. Colour printed map, 54 x 40 cm. Full description

€ 1,500

A monthly promoting dialogue between Arabs and Jews

[MIDDLE EAST]. New outlook: Middle East monthly.
Tel Aviv, Tazpioth, 1957-1975. 18 instalments, plus 1 duplicate. 8vo. Original wrappers. Full description

€ 1,250

Two British voyages to the Middle East and the Moghul Empire

MILDENHALL, John, John CARTWRIGHT and [Samuel PURCHAS (editor)]. Oost-Indise voyagien van Johan Mildenhal en Johan Cartwright; onder veel avontuuren en opmerkelyke waarnemingen, (in de jaren 1599 en 1606) te water en te lande, gedaan na de landen van Persien en den Grooten Mogol.
Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1706. Folio. With an engraving on the title-page by Jan Goeree, 2 engraved illustrations in text and a woodcut tailpiece. Modern decorated cloth, dark blue title-labels. 10 ll. Full description

€ 750

Rare first editions of an Aleppo dialogue on medicinal barley infusions (1584/91)
and a surgical handbook (1612)

MINADOI, Giovanni Tommaso. Philodicus, sive Dialogus de ptisana, ...
Venice, "ad signum Leonis" [= heirs of Curzio Troiano Navò], 1591 [all but the prelims printed by Francesco Osanna, Mantua, 1584]. With title-page in an illustrated woodcut border (showing equipment for distilling, forging and other trades plus in a cartouche at the foot Navò's rampant lion device).
With: (2) PARMA, Ippolito. Introductionis ad chirurgiam libri duo. ...
Padova, Pietro Paolo Tozzi (printed by Lorenzo Pasquato), 1612. With Tozzi's(?) woodcut Minerva device on the title-page. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. Half calf (French, ca. 1750), gold-tooled spine. [8], 124, [2 blank]; [8], 196 pp. Full description

€ 12,500

The pinnacle of Coptic church architecture in Egypt:
the churches the Red and White Monastery near Sohag

MONNERET DE VILLARD, Ugo. Les couvents près de Sohâg (Deyr el-Abiad et Deyr el-Ahmar).
Milan, Tipografia Pontif. Arciv. S. Giuseppe, 1925-1926. 2 volumes. 4to. With 222 numbered illustrations on coated paper (photographic half-tone views, and architectural plans reproduced sometimes in line and sometimes in half-tone) bound at the end of each volume, and numerous small line illustrations printed with the text. Contemporary half green cloth, beige paper sides, grey endpapers. 135, [5] pp. Full description

€ 2,500

First complete edition of Cosmas's Christiana topographia describing his travels in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf

MONTFAUCON, Bernard de (editor). Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum Graecorum, Eusebii Caesariensis, Athanasii, & Cosmae Aegyptii.
Paris, Claudius Rigaud, 1707. 2 volumes. Folio. With 4 engraved plates, and 3 woodcut illustrations in the text. Each volume with an engraved headpiece, the first incorporating the coat of arms of Pope Clement XI, and the second that of Jean-Paul Bignon. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine and binding edges. [14], XL, [1], [1 blank], 732, [26], [2 blank]; [16], LXVIII, 112, [2], I-XXIV, 113-593, [26], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Ship's journal from Seychelles and Madagascar,
with numerous maps and earlier illustrated anatomical lecture notes

[MANUSCRIPT - SHIP'S JOURNAL]. MORSE, Edward George. A journal of remarks and observations as kept by E. G. M. . ..
[mostly on board the barque Sarah of London], April 1831-14 March 1833 (with additions to 1835). with an engraved view as frontispiece, 15 full-page, 1 nearly full-page and 1 smaller manuscript maps and coastal profiles, plus a small engraved view ("Tomb of Napoleon") mounted on 1 page.
Including: MORSE, Edward George. Lecture Book [notes on anatomical lectures by Joseph Constantine Carpue].
[London], November-December 1828. with a matching pair of engravings of a scull on and facing the title-page, and 27 pencil and/or ink anatomical drawings (including 2 full-page), some also with red. 4to (19.5×16.5 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [191] ll. Including paste-downs and about 55 blanks. Full description

€ 35,000

Loans by the UK for major infrastructure development in Jordan

MU'AMMAR, Sayid Ya'coub; B.L. STRACHAN. Exchange of notes concerning an interest-free development loan by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
London, Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1970. 4to. With the UK coat-of-arms on title-page. Text in English and Arabic in naskh type. Stapled. 8 pp. Full description

€ 450

One of the earliest editions of the Cosmographia, including the first map of North and South America

MÜNSTER, Sebastian. Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI.
[Basel, Heinrich Petri, September 1554]. Folio. With woodcut printers device on the final leaf by Urs Graf, 14 double-page maps, 37 double-page views and approximately 900 woodcuts in the text. Modern vellum. [12], 1162, [2] pp. Full description

€ 50,000

Most extensive edition of a monumental, extensively illustrated description of the world

MÜNSTER, Sebastian. Cosmographia, das ist: Beschreibung der gantzen Welt, ...
Basel, heirs of Sebastian Henricpetri, 1628. Folio (38 x 24.5 cm). With engraved title-page, letterpress title-page printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of Münster on the back, 26 numbered double-page woodcut maps on inserted bifolia, 72 double-page woodcut maps, plans and views on integral leaves, and about 1500 woodcut illustrations in the text (including repeats) showing maps, plans, views, plants, animals, monsters, etc. Contemporary vellum. [24], “1752” [=1748] , [12] pp. Full description

€ 48,000

Handbook to western Arabia, intended for British naval officers only

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, [SCOTT, Hugh, a.o.]. Western Arabia and the Red Sea, B.R. 527 (restricted) geographical handbook series for official use only.
(Colophon: Oxford, University press), Naval Intelligence division, 1946. 8vo. With 357 reproductions of photographs on 90 plates, numerous (folding) maps and illustrations in text and 1 separate folding map. Original publisher's green cloth. XIX, [1 blank], 659, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 600

One of the limited official copies of the British Allied War Effort
of a geographical handbook on Palestine and Jordan

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE DIVISION. Palestine and Transjordan. Geographical handbook series.
(colophon:) Oxford, University Press, December 1943. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 8vo. With 1 large folding map stored in a pocket on the back board of the communications of Palestine (air fields and landing grounds, railways, roads and sea plane moorings), 2 other folding maps (geological map of Palestine; map of Haifa Harbour), 1 double-page plan of the church of Holy Sepulchre and 58 other figures in the text. Also with 154 half-tone photographs, inserted on separate leaves and all numbered and captioned. Original publisher's green cloth, gilt-lettering on front board and spine. XV, 621, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 1,000

For official use only: Royal Navy wartime handbook on Iraq and the Persian Gulf

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE DIVISION. [MASON, Kenneth, a.o.]. Iraq and the Persian Gulf. September 1944. B.R. 524 (restricted) geographical handbook series for official use only.
[Oxford,] Naval Intelligence division, 1944. 8vo. With numerous diagrams, reproductions of photographs and (folding) maps, including a loose map in the pocket at the back. Publisher's green cloth. 682 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

One of the limited official copies of a geographical handbook on Persia and Arabia

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE DIVISION. Persia. Geographical handbook series for official use only.
(colophon:) Oxford, University Press, September 1945. Large 8vo. With 1 large folding map of Iraq, Arabia and Persia bound at the end of the book, 11 smaller folding maps and 50 illustration figures in the text (smaller maps, current and wind charts, sections, diagrams on the rainfall, etc.). Also with 337 half-tone photographs, inserted on separate leaves and all numbered and captioned. Original publisher's green cloth, gilt-lettering on front board and spine. XIX, [1 blank], 638 pp. Full description

€ 1,250


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Middle East & Islamic World