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Islamic Culture / Islamic Art & Culture

Of lasting value of the history of Arabic literature

AHLWARDT, Wilhelm. Verzeichniss der Arabischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin.
Berlin, A. W. Schade (I) and A. Asher & Co. (II-X), 1887-1899. 10+1 volumes. 4to. With 12 photographic halftone plates of 62 manuscript specimens in vol. X. Added: separate atlas issue of the 12 plates. Altogether 11 vols. in publisher's light blue printed boards. Full description
€ 8,500
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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
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The ideas of Ibn Sina, Al-Farabi and other Arabic philosophers incorporated in the very first edition
(ca. 1475/1476) of Alvernus's most important work

ALVERNUS, Guillelmus (William of AUVERGNE). Libri ... de fide et legibus.
[Augsburg, Günther Zainer, ca. 1475/1476]. Small folio. Set in a hybrid roman type with gothic elements (a single column of 43 lines per page plus running heads), with the first 3 lines, including the title, in a slightly larger rotunda gothic. With all initials supplied in manuscript in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, two brass clasps, blue edges, "Nr. 56" in red ink written at the foot of the spine. [139] ll. Full description
€ 45,000
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Very rare work on an Islamic procession in the city of Mecca in 1728

ANTONIO, João Carlos (pseudonym of António Correia de LEMOS). Relaçam de huma solemne, e extraordinaria procissam de preces, que por ordem da corte Ottomana fizeraõ os Turcos na cidade de Meca, no dia 16. de Julho de 1728. ... Primeira[-segunda] parte.
Lisbon, Pedro Ferreira, 1730. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With woodcut title vignettes, headpieces and initials. Modern blue marbled paper wrappers. 23, [1 blank]; 24 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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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
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Including a manuscript leaf by Burton

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. BURTON, Richard F. The book of the thousand nights and a night[:] a plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments.
With:
(2) BURTON, Richard F. Supplemental nights.
(3) BURTON, Richard F. [Autograph manuscript book review of an 1881 Panchatantra edition].
(Colophons: U.S.A. [Boston, MA?]), The Burton Club, [ca. 1940]. 16 volumes (incl. 6 supplements). 8vo. With an original manuscript leaf written by Burton (with the manuscript heading: "Proof to Sir R.F.B. Hotel des Bains, Aigle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland" and a note "Long Primer Pressig.") and each volume with a different frontispiece in two states (coloured and uncoloured). Contemporary richly gold-blocked green morocco, boards with Arabic script in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins. Full description
€ 25,000
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The establishment of archaeology and philology as fields of study, bound for a Bourbon(?) count, including a work on the famous Rosetta Stone

[ARCHAEOLOGY - PHILOLOGY] BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques and others. [Collection of texts on early archaeology and philology].
[Various places], [various publishers], 1760-1827.
Containing:
(1) [CHRISTIE'S - LONDON]. A list of the very rare and valuable Aethiopic and other oriental manuscripts, collected by the celebrated traveller, James Bruce, esq. of Kinnaird, taken from the catalogue of them made by the late Alexander Murray, editor of the travels by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia.
[London, 1827].
(2) WEBER, Georg Friedrich. Observationes sacrae circa funera populorum orientis. ...
Strasbourg, Johann Heinrich Heitz, [1767].
With a woodcut headpiece, tailpieces (2) and open-sided factotum.
(3) SEYFFARTH, Gustav [and Friedrich August Wilhelm SPOHN]. Brevis defensio hieroglyphices.
Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1827.
(4) SCHLICHTEGROLL, Friedrich von. Ueber die bey Rosette in Aegypten gefundene dreyfache Inschrift...
München, printed by Ignaz Joseph Lentner, [1818?].
(5) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Explication de la mosaïque de Palestrine. Paris, H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour, 1760.
With 1 large folding engraved plate of the mosaic, 1 plate showing the names of animals written in the mosaic. Bound with it is an unrelated engraved plate on a 4to leaf, showing Samaritan medals (drawn and engraved by Poisson in 1790) that accompanied another one of Barthélemys publications.
(6) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy ...
[Paris, 1760].
With 2 plates of the Phoenician medals and Phoenician inscriptions found on Malta, with an elaborate woodcut headpiece and a woodcut tailpiece.
(7) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Seconde lettre de m. l'abbé Barthelemy, ... sur quelques médailles Phéniciennes. [Paris, 1763].
With one plate of the Phoenician medals and the same elaborate woodcut headpiece as ad 6.
(8) [PARQUOY (assistant to labbé François BEJOT at the Bibliothèque du Roi). Lettre à messieurs les auteurs du Journal des Savans, sur un projet d'edition du Syncelle.
[Paris, 1778].
(9) BARTHÉLEMY, Jean-Jacques. Lettre a monsieur le Marquis Olivieri, au sujet de quelques monuments Phéniciens ... Paris, L.F. Delatour (printer), 1766.
With 4 plates (numbered I-IV, nos. I & III folding), the first 3 signed by P.L Charpentier, of Phoenician inscriptions, alphabet and medals. With a woodcut (oak branches with a ribbon) on the title-page and a woodcut headpiece.
(10) [D'ANSSE DE VILLOISON, Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard (draughtsman) and DROÜET (engraver)]. Alphabetum codicis bibliothecae coislininae, nunc sangermanensis, ineunte decimo saeculo manu exarati, ex quo Apollonii lexicon descriptum est. Paris, 1771.
10 works in 1 volume. 4to. A wholly engraved monograph, in Greek and Latin with a few words of Syriac.
Mid-19th-century half red goatskin morocco, sewn on 4 supports, gold-tooled spine (blind-tooled fillets) with the cypher monogram of a French count in compartments 1, 3 & 5 and "labbé|Barthelemy" and "Dissertations|1760-1792" in mid-19th-century roman capitals across compartments 2 & 4, "agathe" chemical-marbled sides, Spanish-marbled endpapers, red sprinkled edges, green ribbon marker. 16; 43, [1 blank]; 24; 28, XIV; [2], 44; 12; 8; 12; [1], [1 blank], 45, [1 blank]; 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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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
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The harmony of faith and logic

AVERROES (Muhammad IBN AHMAD IBN RUSHD). [Tahafut al-Tahafut - latine: Destructiones destructionum philosophi Algazelis]. Eutyci Augustini Niphy Philotei Suessani in librum destructio destructionum Averroys com[m]entationes ad Dominicum grimanum cardinalem maximum.
With: NIPHUS, Augustinus. De sensu agente.
[Venice, Bonetus Locatellus] for the heirs of Octavianus Scotus, [ca. 1500]. Small folio. With numerous woodcut initials. Printed in Gothic type, in 2 columns. Near contemporary limp vellum. 130 ll. Full description
€ 35,000
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On Gothic and Arabic manuscripts in Spanish libraries

BLANCO, Pedro Luis. Noticia de las antiguas y genuinas colecciones canónicas inéditas de la Iglesia Espanola, que de órden del rey nuestro señor se publicarán por su Real Bibliotheca de Madrid, ...
Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1798. 8vo. With some lines printed in Arabic type. Later brown half morocco, gold-tooled spine. XLI [=XXXVIII], [1], 168, [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
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The ever-alluring aspects of Egypt's landscape and monuments in the late nineteenth-century

BÉCHARD, Émile. L'Égypte et la Nubie. Grand album monumental, historique, architectural...
Paris, André Palmieri & Émile Béchard, 1887. Large folio (45.5 x 63 cm). With 150 collotype photographic plates, all signed, numbered and captioned in the wide margins of each plate. The half title-page and divisional half title-page for the explanation of the plates are printed in red , the typographical title-page shows a small vignette of an Egyptian mask. Loose leaves. 23, [1 blank], [3 (numbered [175]-177)], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. and 150 plates. Full description
€ 35,000
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72 plates with remarkably intricate Islamic-inspired decoration, printed with coloured inks

CLERGET, Charles Ernest. Mélanges d'ornements de tous les styles Persan - Mauresque - Arabe - Grec - Gothique [-] Renaissance principalement des XVIe et XVIIe siècles ...
Paris, Ducher & Cie (colophon: printed by Eugène Heutte & Cie), [ca. 1880 (engraved 1837-1838)]. Royal folio (45 x 31 cm). With 2 elaborately ornamented part-titles, 70 numbered ornament plates (all 72 plates "engraved" on litho stones, image area mostly 26.5 x 17 cm) and a letterpress list of the plates. With each plate printed in blue, green, violet, ochre, red, black or brown (several shades) and 9 printed in 2 colours. Contemporary half red cloth, rebacked and with new corners in red goatskin morocco. [2] ll. plus [1], 37, [1], 38-70 plates. Full description
€ 6,500
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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
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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
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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
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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
€ 180,000
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Archaeological sites in the Middle East, with 143 reproductions of photographs

DJEMAL PASCHA, Ahmed and Theodore WIEGAND. Alte Denkmaler aus Syrien, Palastina und Westarabien. 100 Tafeln mit beschreibendem Text.
Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1918. Folio (34.5 x 24 cm). WIth 100 plates with 143 reproductions of photographs. Original red publisher's cloth, with the title in Arabic and German on the front board. 10 pp., 100 ll. Full description
€ 4,500
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40 years of correspondence between two leading orientalists in Russia, often concerning Georgian matters

DORN, Bernard. [21 autograph letters, signed, to Marie-Félicité Brosset].
Saint Petersburg, ca. 1840-1879.
With: (2) [Manuscript chronological numbered list of 34 publications by Dorn, 1843-1865].
[Saint Petersburg, ca. 1865].
8vo (letters, mostly 21 x 13.5 cm) and folio (list of publications). Letters in French with an occasional (Persian?) word in Arabic script, written in black ink on paper, some with the address on the outside and one with Dorn's (Persian?) red wax seal in Arabic script. 20 letters [4] pp. each (some including blanks); 1 letter [1, 1 blank] pp.; list of publications [4] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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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
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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
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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
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Wonderful album of 89 early photographs of the most important cultural monuments from the El-Andalus period

GARZÓN RODRÍGUEZ, Rafael. [Photography - Spain]. Toledo, Córdoba, Granada.
1890. Large oblong album (32 x 40 cm). 89 original photographs, mostly 20 x 26 cm. Half blind-tooled greenish brown calf and grey/green net grained cloth over boards, with the title in gold on the front board, red edges and decorated endpapers. [52] ll. interleaved with tissue paper. Full description
€ 28,000
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Arabian nights fairy tales illustrated with jewel-like images by Edmund Dulac.

HOUSMAN, Laurence; Edmund DULAC (ills.). Stories from the Arabian nights.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, November 1907. 4to. With 50 full-page coloured illustrations after drawings by Edmund Dulac, with descriptions on the flyleaves. Original publishers orange cloth with gilt title in gold on decorated spine and front cover. xvi, 133 pp. Full description
€ 300
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Apothecary's recipes heavily relying on the "Arch-Galenist" Sylvius

JÜNGKEN, Johann Helfrich. Lexicon pharmaceuticum pro majori commoditate in duas partes divisum ubi prior haec continet magis ubique usualia notissimorum pharmacopoerum, utpote Augustanae Renovatae, Norimbergensis, Schröderi, Minsichti, &c. ut & alia hinc inde multum celebrata celeberrimorum authorum, Sylvii, Michaelis, Timaei, Wedelii aliorumque composita; pars altera, similia generosiora juxta Zvvelfferi, Hoffmanni, &c. animadversiones aut censuras adornata tradit composita, iis priori in parte positis, pro majori dilucidatione brevissimis surrogata studio.
Franfurt am Main, Johann Zieger (printed by: Johann Philipp Andreae, [Nuremberg]), 1694. 8vo. Contemporary vellum. [10], 328, 76 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
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A landmark of hadith scholarship: rare first English edition of a noted Sunni text, printed in Calcutta

KHATIB AL-TIBRIZI, Muhammad ibn ’Abd Allah (Arnold N. Matthews, trans.). Mishcàt-ul-Masábìh, or, A collection of the most authentic traditions, regarding the actions and sayings of Múhammed; exhibiting the origin of the manners and customs, the civil, religious and military policy of the Muslemàns.
Calcutta, T. Hubbard at the Hindoostanee Press. 1809-1810. 2 volumes. Small folio (23.5 x 31 cm). Contemporary sheepskin, flat spines with red morocco labels. [6], IX, [1], VI, 665, [1]; [2], VI, 817, [13] pp. Full description
€ 15,000
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La Borde's famous and richly illustrated encyclopaedic account of music,
with essays on the music of Egypt, Turkey, Persia and Arabia

LA BORDE, Jean-Benjamin de. Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne.
With: (2) [LA BORDE, Jean-Benjamin de]. Mémoires sur les proportions musicales, le genre énarmonique des Grecs et celui des modernes ... Supplément a l'Essai sur la musique.
Paris, printed by Denys Pierres and sold by Eugène Onfroy, 1780-1781. 2 works in 4 volumes. 4to. Each title-page with engraved vignette, numerous engraved head- and tailpieces, letterpress music notes, 3 folding letterpress tables and 463 engraved plates (several folding). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spines. Full description
€ 14,000
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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
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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
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Luxurious silver cigar box with engravings of Oman, made by a British master silversmith

MACDONALD, George Grant (silversmith). [Engraved silver cigar box commissioned by the Assarain Group of Companies].
London, Assarain Group of Companies, Oman, 1990. With the map of Oman and 2 views engraved on the polished top. The cigar box (15 x 23 x 5 cm) is made of sterling (925) silver, with an engraved map and illustrations of Oman on the polished top, surrounded by a gilded frame, decorative engraving on the sides, a lined hardwood (mahogany?) inside, hallmarks on the underside. The cigar box is in a protective gold-tooled green morocco box (20 x 27 x 8 cm) with gold clasps, lined with green velvet and a white silk-like fabric. Full description
€ 7,500
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The wisdom of Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, and Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, received in an early incunable

MAGNI, Jacobus [Jacques Legrand]. Sophologium.
[Strasbourg, R-printer (Adolf Rusch), ca. 1468]. Folio (21 × 28.2 cm). With the text set in 35 lines, spaces for initials show tiny guide letters, rubricated throughout, with 3- and 5-line blue or red Lombardic initials. 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. 217 (of 218) ff. (lacking the final blank).Roman type, Full description
€ 75,000
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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
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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
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Best edition of a standard work on Islam

MILLS, Charles. An history of Muhammedanism: comprising the life and character of the Arabian prophet, and succinct accounts of the empires founded by the Muhammedan arms: an inquiry into the theology, morality, laws, literature, and usages of the Muselmans, and a view of the present state and extent of the Muhammedan religion.
London, Printed for Black, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, booksellers (back of title-page: printed by Cox and Baylis), 1818. 8vo. Contemporary red half sheepskin. [2], XXI, [1 blank], 484, [12 blank] pp. Full description
€ 750
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Rare 16th-century German edition of the ancient Sanskrit Bidpai fables

[PANCHATANTRA/BIDPAI]. [CAPUA, Johannes de, and Anton von PFORR (translators)]. Der alten Weisenn exempel sprüch, mit vil schönen Beyspilen und Figuren erleüchtet.
(Colophon:) Strasbourg, printed by Jacob Frölich, 1539. Folio. With half-page woodcut illustration on title-page, further 1 full-page and 112 smaller (ca. 9 x 14 cm) woodcut illustrations in the text (including a small number of repeats), a woodcut royal procession above and woodcut device of a swan playing a viol below the colophon, numerous woodcut pictorial and decorative strips. Modern blind-tooled calf in 16th-century style. [4], CVII ll. Full description
€ 60,000
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Remarkable collection of photographs from Palestine in the 1940s

[PHOTOGRAPHY - PALESTINE - LEBANON - EGYPT]. [Album with 128 photographs of Palestine and Lebanon].
[1940s]. Oblong album (30 x 20 cm). With 128 gelatin silver prints (most ca. 6.5 x 9.5 cm). Contemporary embossed brown calf, with flowers on the front and back board, and an aluminium view of David's Tower and Jerusalem's old city wall embedded in the front board. [17] ll. Full description
€ 2,500
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and of permanent scholarly value" (Toomer)">Pococke's celebrated edition of Abu'l-Faraj's Islamic history: "It is his greatest work,
and of permanent scholarly value" (Toomer)

POCOCKE, Edward. Specimen historiae arabum; ... Accessit historia veterum Arabum ex Abu'l Feda: cura Antonii I. Sylvestre De Sacy. Edidit Josephus White, ...
Oxford, Clarendon Press [= Oxford University Press], 1806. 4to. Title-page with engraved view of the Clarendon Building, aquatint author's portrait and 1 full-page etched plate. Contemporary boards. XV, [1 blank], 573, [3 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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Unusually favourable introduction to Islam and the Ottoman Empire

POSTEL, Guilliaume. De la republique des Turcs: & là ou l'occasion s'offrera, des meurs & loy de tous Muhamedistes, ...
Including:
-Histoire et consideration de l'origine, loy, et coustume des Tartares, Persiens, Arabes, Turcs, & tous autres Ismaelites ou Muhamediques, dits par nous Mahometains, ou Sarrazins.
-La tierce partie des orientales histoires, ou est exposee la condition, ... de l'empire Turquesque: ...
Poitiers, Enguilbert de Marnef, 1560. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With Marnef's printer's device on title-page (repeated on the 2 part-titles). Contemporary blind- and gold-tooled calf, restored and rebacked with a large part of the original backstrip laid-down, modern endpapers. [8], 127, [1 blank]; 57, [3 blank]; [8], 90 pp. Full description
€ 22,500
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Magnificent de luxe issue, with 31 hand-coloured lithographs

PRISSE D'AVENNES, Achille Constant Théodore Émile. Oriental album. Characters, costumes, and modes of life, in the valley of the Nile.
London, James Madden, 1848. Imperial folio (52.5 x 37.5 cm). With an additional decorative title-page, separately chromolithographed in black, gold and 7 colours, tinted and hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece portrait of the dedicatee, and 30 tinted and hand-coloured lithographs. Numerous wood-engraved illustrations in the text. Modern half calf, richly gold-tooled spine. [6], 60 pp. Full description
€ 65,000
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31 splendid coloured plates of life in the Nile Valley

PRISSE D'AVENNES, Achille Constant Théodore Émile. Oriental album. Characters, costumes, and modes of life, in the valley of the Nile.
London, James Madden (back of title-page: printed by John Wertheimer & Co.), 1851. Super Royal folio (33 x 45.5 cm). With 31 tinted and hand-coloured lithographed plates, including the frontispiece, and a black-and-white illustration on the title-page. Contemporary gold-tooled red half morocco. [5], [1 blank], 60 pp. plus plates. Full description
€ 15,000
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Author’s inscribed presentation copy

REINAUD, [Joseph Toussaint]. Description des monumens Musulmans du cabinet de M. le Duc de Blacas.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1828. 2 volumes. 8vo. With 10 engraved plates (2 folding). Contemporary half mottled calf, gold-tooled spines, marbled endpapers and edges. [4], XV, [1], 400; [4], 488 pp. Full description
€ 9,500
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5 original glass lantern slides with the earliest photographs of Mecca and Medina

SADIQ BEY, Muhammad, Christiaan SNOUCK HURGRONJE and Al-Sayyid ‘Abd al-GHAFFÂR. [5 photographic lantern slides of Mecca and Medina (silver gelatin glass positives), taken in the years 1880 to 1889].
Stuttgart, Lichtbilderverlag Theodor Benzinger, [ca. 1910]. 5 glass positive lantern slides (8.5 x 10 cm), each with a black paper mask, paper tape around the edges, a letterpress slip at the foot giving the publisher's name and city, and a slip at the head with the manuscript title. Kept in a contemporary purpose-made wooden box with brass fittings, with the word "Mekka" on the top of the hinged lid. Full description
€ 35,000
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"Wonderful reproductions of the best known carpets"

SARRE, Friedrich and Hermann TRENKWALD. Alt-orientalische Teppiche.
Vienna & Leipzig, Anton Schroll & Co. and Karl W. Hiersemann for the Österreichischen Museum für Kunst und Industrie, 1926-1928. 2 volumes bound as 4. Imperial folio (60.5 x 44 cm). With 120 collotype plates (67 colour and 53 black & white, 7 of the latter double-page) by Max Jaffé (1845-1939), and 14 wood-engraved full-page illustrations on the integral leaves. Later half calf with cloth sides. 21, [3], [29]; [31]; 43, [28]; [32] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Savary’s literary letters on Egypt, in attractive contemporary binding

SAVARY, (Nicolas) Claude Étienne. Brieven over Egypte.
Amsterdam, Martinus de Bruyn, 1788-1789. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 4 numbered engraved folding plates, including maps of Egypt and northern Egypt, a plan of Alexandria, and a cross-section of the Great pyramid. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines and binding edges. XVI, 446, [1], [1 blank]; XVI, 364, [2 blank], [1], [1 blank]; “XIV” [=XXIV], 390, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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4 extremely rare series of engraved Turkish and European costume figures, drawn as models for Louis XIV's grandchildren

[SILVESTRE, Charles-François?]. l[']Art de bien dessiner a la plume nouvellement mis au jour pour l[']utilité de la jeunesse.
Including:
(2): [SILVESTRE, Charles François]. Diverses figures Turcs propre à dessiner a la plume.
(3): [SILVESTRE, Charles François]. Second livre de figures Turcs propre à déssiner à la plume.
(4): [SILVESTRE, Charles François?]. Diverses figures de caprice propre a dessigner a la plume.
[Paris?, ca. 1700?]. 4 parts in 1 volume. Oblong 16mo (13 x 16 cm). Each part with engraved title-page and each with 11 unnumbered engraved plates. Contemporary French sprinkled, gold-tooled calf. [12], [12], [12], [12] engr. ll. Full description
€ 28,500
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Incunabular Arabian Nights: The Book of Sindbad in Western European disguise

[SINDBAD – SEVEN SAGES]. Historia septem sapientum Rome.
Cologne, Johann Koelhoff the Elder, of Lübeck, (before 6 November) 1490. 4to (200 x 128 mm), 34-37 lines, gothic type, rubricated in red. Illustrated with a large armorial woodcut printers device at the end and 23 full-page woodcuts, with two of the woodcuts repeated several times. Bound in contemporary blind-tooled full calf over wooden boards. Remains of clasps. Endpapers from a rubricated incunabular edition of the Biblia cum glossa ordinaria. [50] ff. [a–g6, H8]. Full description
€ 125,000
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Interesting look inside the palaces of the North African Moorish rulers

TULLY, [Richard]. Narrative of a ten years' residence at Tripoli in Africa: from the original correspondence in the possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, esq. the British consul. Comprising authentic memoirs and anecdotes of the reigning Bashaw, his family, and other persons of distinction; also, an account of the domestic manners of the Moors, Arabs, and Turks.
London, Henry Colburn, 1817. Large 4to. Engraved coloured frontispiece of Sidy Hassan, late Bey of Tripoli, folding engraved map (220 x 390 mm) of the regencies of Tripoli and Tunis, signed "Neele scuplt. Strand", 6 full-page plates of the Triumphal Arch of Tripoli, Arabs recreating in the desert, a Bedouin woman, officers of the Grand Seraglio, a guard of Tripoli, and an Egyptian puppet- shew, all engraved by Hoovell & Son and beautifully coloured by hand. Contemporary calf, spine with title lettered in gold, gilt fillet border on covers, marbled edges. XIII, [2], 376 pp. Full description
€ 2,250
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Della Valle's travels in Persia and the Near East, "one of the finest works of travel literature" (Howgego)

VALLE, Pietro della. Vierde[-zeste en leste] deel der voortreffelyke reizen van de deurluchtige reisiger Pietro della Valle, Edelman van Romen, in veel voorname gewesten des werrelts, sedert het jaar 1615, gedaan: namelijk in Turkijen, Egipten, Palestina, Persien, Oostindien, en in verscheide andere lantschappen, daar in hij al t aanmerkingswaerdige, dat er is, naerstiglijk opgespeurt, en naaukeurig aangemerkt, en veel treffelijke dingen, tot noch toe onbekent, ten toon gestelt heeft.
Amsterdam, widow of Jan Hendriksz. Boom, Jan Rieuwertsz and Abraham Wolfgang, 1665. 3 (of 6) volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 3 title-pages, 13 full-page engraved plates (1 crudely hand-coloured).
Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title, later endpapers. 187, [1 blank]; [4], 186, [2 blank]; [4], 185, [11] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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First English edition of Varthema’s travels in the Middle East and beyond

[VARTHEMA, Ludovico di, Pietro Martire d’ANGHIERA and others]. The history of travayle in the West and East Indies, ...
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. Narrow 4to (19 x 13.5 cm). With a woodcut celestial map of the South Polar sky in the text. With 14 leaves in a 19th-century facsimile. Gold- and blind-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1860?), in allusive style. In a modern clam-shell box. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description
€ 120,000
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First edition of al-Zamakhshari’s collection of Arabic proverbs, in Arabic and Latin

ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al-Quasim Mahmud ibn Umar (Hendrik Albert SCHULTENS, editor). [Al-Kalim al-nawabigh]. Anthologia sententiarum Arabicarum. Cum scholiis Zamachsjarii.
Leiden, Jean Le Mair (colophon: printed by Daniel van Damme), 1772. 4to. With the large engraved arms of Willem V, Prince of Orange, above the dedication.Vellum, manuscript spine title. [20], 171, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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