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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.
€ 8,500
First edition of Olfert Dapper's important description of the Middle East. The first part is devoted to Mesopotamia or Algizira, Babylonia, Assyria and Anatolia, while the second is entirely devoted to Arabia. The work is especially important for the original and new information on Islam, Arabic science, astronomy, philosophy and historiography. Besides a map of Arabia, the fine plates include views of Mount Sinai, Bagdad, Basra, Nineveh, Abydos, Smyrna, Aden, Muscat, Mocha and the Tower of Babel. The second part includes a description of coffee: "In Arabia Felix alone, and in no other place of the whole world, there grows a seed or corn or bean shrub which the Arabs call 'Bon' or 'Ban', of which they prepare a drink by cooking it in water over the fire ..." (part 2, pp. 61-62). The present copy includes a plate showing the plants "Abelmosch", "Semsen" and "Sambak", not called for in the binder's instructions, but included in some copies.
Vellum on inside front board partly detached, front hinge cracked, otherwise in very good condition. Atabey 322; Hage Chahine 1206; Hünersdorff, Coffee, p. 386; Tiele, Bibl. 300; cf. Blackmer 450 (German ed.).
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Middle east & islamic world  >  Cartography & Exploration | Central & West Asia