Middle East & Islamic World / Arabic Printing & Calligraphy

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI, Abu al Qasim Mahmoud ibn Omar (Joseph von HAMMER-PURGSTALL, ed.). Samachschari's Goldene Halsbänder. Als Neujahrsgeschenk arabisch und deutsch.
Vienna, widow of A. Strauss, 1835. 8vo. With two identical plates showing the golden necklace around a calligraphic Arabic inscription, the necklace hand-coloured in gold and the inscription in blue, as a frontispiece for both the Arabic and the German text (on the first and the last page). The Arabic title is incorporated into a printed circular medallion with decorative points at the head and foot on the first page, and the main Arabic text opens on the back of the same leaf with an elaborate headpiece. Text set in German and Arabic. Contemporary green calf (spine faded to brown), with a gold- and blind-stamped frame on each board. [1], [1 blank], 54 pp. (German text); 27, [1] ll. (Arabic text). Full description

AL-ZAMAKHSHARI and Jens Peter BROCH. Al-Mufassal, opus de re grammatica Arabicum.
Oslo, W.C. Fabritius, 1859. 8vo. Near contemporary cloth with title in gold on spine, covered with protective plastic. 229, [5] pp. Full description

[ARABIC-SCRIPT PRINTER’S WOODBLOCK]. Hand-cut woodblock bearing the text "Safr Nishd al-nishad li-Süleyman ..." (Book of the Song of songs of Solomon) in naskh Arabic script.
[Probably Ottoman provinces, mid-18th century (ca. 1750)]. A single hand-cut woodblock (17 x 9 x 2.2 cm, with protrusions to the left and right making it wider - 11 cm - near the head to accommodate the wider 2nd line) intended for use as printing block, with 6 lines of text, together with an inked impression on 18th century paper (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Full description

[ARABIC AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY AND PHRASE BOOK]. [6], 237, 238-266, [10] pp. Full description

BELLARMINO, Roberto. Dottrina Cristiana composta dall...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1786. Large 4to. With 4 woodcuts on 3 plates, 1 full-page woodcut on the back of the title-page, and a few woodcut initials, factotums and decorations, as well as frames, factotums and decorations built up from arabesque and rococo typographic ornaments. Set in three columns in Ethiopic, roman and Arabic type. Contemporary vellum, gold-tooled spine title, red sprinkled edges. 97, [1] pp. Full description

[BIBLE - ARABIC - OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT]. Kitab Al-Muqaddas al-Mushtamil 'ala Kutub al-'Ahd al-'Atiq wal 'Ahd al-Jadid [The Holy Book, included the books of the Old Testament found in the original Hebrew of our Lord Jesus Christ and also the Book of the New Testament].
London, William Watts, 1855. 8vo (22 x 14 cm).
Original elaborately embossed brown calf with the title lettered in gold on the spine, red edges. [1], [1 blank], [2], 645; 407; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 352 pp. Full description

[BURGESS, Thomas]. The Arabick alphabet...
Newcastle, printed by S[arah]. Hodgson, 1809. Large 12mo. Twentieth-century half calf, marbled sides, with a blind-tooled roll where the calf covering (including the corners) meets the marbled paper, gold fillets on the smooth spine, black morocco spine label with the title in large gold capitals running up the spine, lettered in gold. With 22 sturdy blank leaves at the end and the bookbinders ticket of "Period Binders, Bath". V, [3], 20 pp. Full description

CAÑES, Francisco. Gramatica Arabigo-Española, vulgar, y literal. Con un diccionario Arabigo-Español, en que se ponen las voces mas usuales para una conversacion familiar, con el texto de la doctrina Cristiana en el idioma Arabigo.
Madrid, Don Antonio Perez de Soto, 1775. 4to. With Perez de Soto's device on the title-page. Set in roman, italic and Arabic type. Contemporary mottled sheepskin. [1], [1 blank], [14], 272, [5], [2 blank], XVII pp. Full description

CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre. Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the khalifphat, with some account of the authors.
Cambridge, Printed by John Burges printer to the university, 1796. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With an engraved sheet with musical notation. Contemporary brown calf with a later spine. [8], IX, [1 blank], 180; [2], 71, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

COLOM, Jacob Aertsz. [Description de la mer méditerranée].
[Amsterdam, ca. 1670]. Folio (29 x 45 cm). With 9 double-page engraved charts only, each sheet ca. 44 × 55 cm, each mounted on stiff paper with maps back-to-back, with thick red and black ink borderlines. 8 of 9 maps are by Colom, numbered 2-9 in the plates from; plate 1 has been replaced with Johannes de Rams map of the Mediterranean: "Paskaart vande Middelandsche Zee In twee deelen vertoont". Contemporary stiff paper wrappers, with a manuscript label pasted upside down on the back wrapper, reading: "Carta Marinaresca del Mar Mediterraneo". Full description

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

EGE, Otto F (compiler & author of the annotations). [Drop-title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscript leaves of six centuries. [Binding title:] Fifteen original oriental manuscripts.
[Cleveland, Ohio?], [Cleveland Institute of Art or Western Reserve University?], [ca. 1952]. 15 manuscript leaves (in one case a fragment of a scroll) of various formats and sizes, some glazed (see the detailed list of contents for specific dimensions), 7 written on straight-forward laid paper (European and non-European), 6 more problematic (probably all non-European), 1 on straight-forward wove paper (no. 14, supposedly made in Russia) and one on vellum (no. 7), most rubricated and/or decorated in various colours, some decorated or highlighted in gold. Each manuscript leaf is mounted (hinged on one edge to allow access to both sides of the leaf) in a passe-partout (46.5 x 33 cm) and each has a letterpress slip (10 x 18 cm) with explanatory text tipped onto the foot of the passe-partout. The publication has no title-page but includes a letterpress folio leaf that serves as a table of contents and has the drop-title given above (the present copy contains two copies of that contents leaf). The display typeface used in the letterpress leaves (and on the portfolio) is the 1938 Libra by the Dutch designer Sjoerd de Roos, inspired by uncial manuscripts. Publishers original portfolio (48.5 x 34 x 4.5 cm) covered with black cloth with on-lays in black and red on the front and the authors name in white and title in red on the spine, with three pairs of black ties (one on the inside) and a label on the inside of the right black flap giving information about the limited edition: "Edition limited to forty numbered sets of which this is No 33". [1] leaf (plus a duplicate) plus 15 original manuscript leaves mounted in white passe-partouts. Full description

ERPENIUS, Thomas. Grammatica Arabica; cum varia praxios materia, cujus elenchum versa dabit pagella.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1656. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. Mid 19th-century half tan calf, gold- and blind-tooled spine. [12], 172, “282” [= 284] pp. Full description

FRAENKEL (FRÄNKEL), Siegmund. Die Aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen.
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1886. 8vo. Later cloth with original publisher's printed paper wrappers bound in. [2], XXII, 327, [1] pp. Full description

GOLIUS, Jacobus. Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, contextum ex probatioribus orientis lexicographis. Accedit index Latinus copiosissimus, qui lexici Latino-Arabici vicem explere possit.
Leiden and Amsterdam, Bonaventura & Abraham Elsevier [= Johannes & Daniël Elsevier] and Johannes Janssonius, 1653. Folio (36 x 23.5 cm). With a large publisher's device on the title-page, the title-page is printed in red and black. The text is set in roman and Arabic type in two columns per page. Further with woodcut decorated initials and woodcut decorated head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf with the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine. [1], [1 blank], [10], 16 pp.; 17-"2922" cols. [= 17-2920 cols. = 1452 pp.]; 40 pp. Full description

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1936 of the officers of the Royal Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1936. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description

[GREAT BRITAIN - ARABIC]. Civil service commission pamphlet containing the question papers of the preliminary and interpretership tests in Arabic used at an examination held in June 1938 of officers of the Army and Air Force. Crown copyright reserved.
London, printed and published at Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1938. Folio. Printed in English and Arabic. Original publisher's printed paper wrappers, in later blue paper wrappers. 10 pp. Full description

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

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

[AUTOGRAPH]. LANGLÈS, Louis Mathieu. [6 autograph letters, signed, mostly to Antoine-Jean de Saint-Martin].
[Paris], 7 April [1820?]-13 January 1824. 8vo & 4to. Signed autograph letters in brown ink on laid paper, the 1824 letter on a letterpress "Bibliothèque du Roi" letterhead with the royal arms. 7 letters, each written on 1 side of a single leaf. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - CHINESE MUSLIM PRAYERBOOK]. Al-salaam alaykum. [= Peace be unto you].
Quanzhou, 990 AH [= 1582 CE]. Folio (ca. 20.5 x 30 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black sini script in nine lines with red verse markers, titles in red, glossing in black. With beautifully illuminated full-page 'Unwan with Chinese influence on designs, in gold, blue, red, green, and black. 18th-century cloth and paper wrappers. 46 ll. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - IBN SINA (AVICENNA)]. [Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar AL-GAMINI and others]. [Qanunceh (= Small canon)].
[colophon: 1279 AH (= 1862 CE)]. (ca. 17.5 x 10.5 cm). Manuscript on paper, written in a cursive, Persian-Arabic script in 15 to 23 lines per page. With 1 leaf containing 8 hand coloured illustrations, with captions, of medical instruments (4 instruments on respectively the recto and verso of leaf 26). Contemporary brown calf, with blind-stamped decorations. [29] ll. Full description

MOLÉ, Joseph. Épreuves de caractères Arabes, gravés et fondus par Molé Jeune, sous la direction de M. L. Langlès.
Paris, (back of title-page: Imprimerie d'Éverat), 1823. 4to. Modern boards. 14 ll. Full description

MUHAMMAD ALI UTAY. [Egyptian ABC book].
[Cairo, ca. 1925]. 8vo. Illustrated throughout with numerous black and white illustrations in the text. The title-page with a frame of foliage (oval inside, rectangular outside) and part of its text printed from a woodblock. Further with a portrait of King Fuad I of Egypt and illustrations of animals, etc. Original publishers printed-paper wrappers, matching the title-page but with the frame in green and the text in red. 46, [2 blank] pp. Full description

NORBURY, Paul Fitzgerald. An abridged Arabic grammar with one hundred and fifty simple conversational scentences and a vocabulary of two thousand five hundred words.
Aden, printed at the Aden Special Prison Press, [1917]. Square 8vo. Printed in English and Arabic type. With a tipped-in paper slip on the title-page: "Since the issue of the first edition it has been possible to test this grammar in regard to its utility in Mesopotamia. The result has been to confirm the correctness of the claim made in para four of the preface". Original publisher's printed hard board covers with red cloth spine. IV, 68 pp. Full description

OBICINI, Tommaso and Elija bar SHINAJA (Elias BARSINAEUS) of Nisibis. Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus.
With: Index alphabeticus. ...
Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1636. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Set in Arabic, Syriac, roman and italic types. Contemp. reversed sheep, blank spine in five compartments. [2 blank], [5], [1 blank], 447, [1 blank], [43], [5 blank]; "70" [= 66] pp. Full description

OLIVEIRA, Custodio José de. Diagnosis typografica dos caracteres gregos, hebraicos, e arabigos, addiccionada com algumas notas sobre a divisão orthografica da linguage latina, e outras da Europa, ...
Lisbon, Impressão Regia, 1804. 4to. Text set in roman, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic type. With a small Portuguese woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and 4 engraved plates on 2 leaves bound at the end of the book. Later blue paper wrappers. 72, [14], VIII pp. plus [2] ll. with engravings. Full description

OTHO, Georg. Palaestra linguarum orientalium, hoc est: quatuor primorum capitum Geneseos, I. Textus originalis tam ex Judaeorum quàm Samaritanorum traditionibus. II. Targumim seu paraphrases orientales praecipuae, nempe I. Chaldaicae, (Onkelosi, Jonathanis et Hierosolymitana) II. Syriaca, III. Samaritana, IV. Arabica, V. Aethiopica, VI. Persica. Omnia cum versione Latinâ ...
Including: OTHO, Andreas. Glossarium linguarum orientalium octuplex: Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Arabicum, Aethiopicum, Persicum et Rabbinicum ...
Frankfurt am Main, published by Friedrich Knoch, printed by Martin Jacquet, 1702. 4to. With one woodcut initial. Set in roman, Arabic, Hebrew, Samaritan and Ethiopic types. 2 parts in 1 volume. Nineteenth-century half calf with marbled sides. [18] 140, 147, [3] pp. Full description

[PROCLAMATION - ZANZIBAR]. The special gazette for Zanzibar.
[Zanzibar], Saturday, 9 December, 1911. Ca. 34 x 21.5 cm. With the coat-of-arms of the United Kingdom printed on the front. 4 pp. Full description

[QURAN - ARABIC & LATIN]. MARRACCI, Ludovico (editor). Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, ... Eadem fide, ... in Latinum translatus; appositis unicuique capiti notis, atque refutatione: ...
[vol. 2 title:] Refutatio Alcorani, in qua ad Mahumetanicae superstitionis radicem securis apponitur; ...
Padova, Typographia Seminaria, 1698. 2 volumes bound as 1. Folio (35.5 x 25 cm). Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1800?), reusing and retooling vellum from a slightly earlier blind-tooled binding. [5], [1 blank], 45, [2], [1 blank], 46, [2], 81, [3], 94, [10], 126, [3] [1 blank] [13], [1 blank]; [8], 17, [3], “838” [= 836], [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description

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

ROORDA, Taco. Grammatica Arabica, breviter in usum scholarum academicarum conscripta ... Adiuncta est brevis chrestomathia, edita et lexico explanata a P. Cool.
Leiden, Samuel and Johannes Luchtmans, 1835. 8vo. Text set in Roman and Arabic type. Contemporary quarter brown cloth, marbled paper sides, a paper label with the name of the author and the title printed in black on the spine. VIII, 298, [32] pp. Full description

SCALIGER, Joseph Justus and Thomas ERPENIUS. [Kitab al-Amthal] seu proverbiorum Arabicorum centuriae duae.
Leiden, Frans van Ravelingen, 1614. 4to (16 × 20 cm). Ad 1 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Ad 2 with a woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut tailpieces and woodcut ornamental frames around typographic Arabic initials. With:
(2) Cogitata nova de [kari] Psalm XXII, 17 & Jes. XXXIIX, 13 censurae philologorum committet ho elachistos ton philologounton.
[ca. 1615?].
(3) [BIBLE - NEW TESTAMENT - ARABIC]. ERPENIUS, Thomas (editor). [Risalat Bulus al-rasul ila ahl Rumija]. Pauli apostoli ad Romanos epistola, arabice.
Leiden, Typographia Erpeniana, 1615. Contemporary marbled calf. [8], 126, [2 blank]; [8]; [48] pp. Full description

SCALIGER, Joseph Justus. Opus de emendatione temporum: hac postrema ed., ex auctoris ipsius ms., emend., magnáque acces. auctius. Add. veterum Graecorum fragmenta selecta.
Including: Computus Arabicus ecclesiae Antiochenae.
Geneva, Pierre de la Rovière, 1629. Folio. With title-page printed in red and black and with woodcut printer's device and several woodcut initials. Set in roman and italic types with long passages set in Greek, Arabic and Hebrew and shorter passages in Syriac. The long passages in Samaritan and Ethiopic, printed from meticulous woodblocks. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [9], [1 blank], LII, [4], 784, [46], [2 blank], 59, [1 blank] pp. Full description

SCHNURRER, Christian Friedrich von. Bibliotheca Arabica.
Halle, I.C. Hendel, 1811. 8vo. Set in roman types, with occasional passages in Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac and Greek. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. XXI, [3], 518, [515]-529, [1] pp. Full description

SHIRWANI, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-. Nafhat al-Yaman fi-ma yazulu bi-dhikrihi al-shajan. [= Breezes from Yemen].
Calcutta, printed by Mawlawi Kabir Ud Din Ahmad at the Urdoo Guide Press, 1881. 8vo. Original publisher's pebble-grain lilac cloth. [2], 276, [2] pp. Full description

SIMPLICIUS of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti, ex libris veteribus emendatus. Cum versione Hieronymi Wolfii, et Cl. Salmasii animadversionibus, et notis quibus Philosophia Stoica passim explicatur & illustratur.
Leiden, Johannes Maire, 1640. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With three title-pages. Set in roman, Greek and Arabic types. Contemporary French pointillé binding in the style of "Le Gascon", richly gold-tooled in concentric panels on both covers, and in the six compartments of the spine, the second with the title. [20], 332, [12]; [1], [1 blank], 329, [23]; [34], 88, 15 pp. Full description

VASIF EFENDI, Ahmed. Mahasin ül-âsâr ve hakayik ül-ahbar.
Bulaq, Bulak matbaasi, 1246 AH [= 1830 CE]. 2 volumes bound as 1. 4to. Contemporary calf with later paper label; later marbled paper on the spine. In Turkish, with the main text set in a naskh Arabic type, with a woodcut decoration and decorations built up from typographic ornaments at the opening of the main text (incorporating a woodcut heading in Arabic script). 14, 210, [1 blank], 7, 190 pp. Full description

VERNAY, Charles. Poésies nationales et religieuses Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes, 195 pièces orientales, leur traductions, et le texte Turc et Persan de 57 pièces ...
Paris, Albert Franck (on back of half-title: printed by Firmin Didot frères), 1860[-1861]. With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I).
With:
(2) VERNAY, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ...
Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1).
(3) VERNAY, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ...
Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper.
(4-18) VERNAY, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian].
Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858.
18 publications in 1 volume. Royal folio (49.5 x 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. [2], 4, [1], [1 blank], 142, 4, 143-262, 263-266[bis], 263-266[ter], 263-476, [2], [1 blank], [1]; 112; [4] pp. plus the wrappers and numerous inserted items. Full description