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Middle East & Islamic World / Islamic Art & Culture

A unique view into the private life of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

[ABU DHABI – ROYAL FAMILY]. [Photograph archive of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's private life].
[Pakistan], [1968-1984]. An archive of 807 loose photographs, 541 in colour (including several duplicates, some printed in a different format), including 65 photos depicting falcons (3 duplicates, 36 in colour) and 14 photographs of camels (1 in colour). Full description
€ 75,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Falconry, Fishing & Hunting Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography UAE - United Arab Emirates
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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
Mediterranean Regions North Africa & Egypt
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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
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Bibliography & Biography Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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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
Islam & Qurans Manuscripts & Documents
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islam & Qurans Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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Arabian nights in Dutch translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. Duizend en één nacht. Arabische vertellingen.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Frijlink, 1829-1831. 9 volumes. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece and engraved title-page to each volume. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], [2], 355; [8], 338, [2]; [8], 296; [8], 322, [2]; [8], 339; [8], 366, [2]; [8], 303; [8], 344; [4], I-VIII, 309, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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Attractively bound set of the Arabian nights in the first accurate English translation

[ARABIAN NIGHTS]. LANE, Edward William (translator). The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights entertainments.
London, Charles Knight and Co. (back of title-page volume 1 & 3: William Clowes and sons; volume 2: Whitehead & Co.), 1840 (vol. 2) - 1841 (vols. 1 & 3). 3 volumes. 8vo in 4s. With a different lithographed title-page for each volume and hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations in text.19th-century red morocco (signed on flyleaf: "Jefferies & Sons, Bristol" - the sons joined the firm in 1863), richly gold-tooled spines, boards, board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges. XXXII, 618; XII, 643, [1]; XII, 763, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Fable Books Literature
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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
English & American Literature Fable Books Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature Manuscripts & Documents
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Very early manuscript treatise about the fatwa

[ARABIC MANUSCRIPT]. Kitab Al-Waqi'at fi'l-Fatawi [Kitab Al-Waghi'at Fi Al-Fatwi].
[Levant, ca. 1290]. Small 4to in 6s (17 x 14) cm. Arabic manuscript, 15 to 17 lines to the page, written in clear cursive ta'liq script on brown Middle Eastern paper. With occasional red rubrication.
Contemporary (?) blind-tooled calf, mostly covered with later calf leaving only the contemporary back cover exposed. 19th century European paper endpapers. With a loose leaf of 18th century European paper with Arabic manuscript writing on one side. 374 ll. Full description
€ 35,000
Islam & Qurans Law & Politics Manuscripts & Documents
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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
Costumes & Uniforms Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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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
Islam & Qurans Philosophy & Esotericism Religion (16th Century)
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"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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Economic History & Trade Fishery & Whaling Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Latin America Mineralogy & Gems South America Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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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
Bibliography & Biography Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents Spain
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The Ottoman Empire from a French perspective in 75 strikingly handcoloured plates

CASTELLAN, Antoine Laurent. Moeurs, usages, costumes des Othomans, et abrégé de leur histoire. Avec des éclaircissemens tirés d'ouvrages orientaux, et communiqués par M. Langlès.
Paris, Nepveu, 1812. 6 volumes. 18mo (14 x 9 cm). With 75 hand-coloured engraved plates: a frontispiece in each volume and 17, 17, 9, and 26 plates in volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Most plates depict costumes, but also tools and instruments are shown. All plates are very detailed and beautifully coloured by hand, in very fresh contemporary colouring, some even finished with gold. Contemporary gold- and blined-toole purpleish-black morocco. Full description
€ 6,500
Anthropology & Ethnography Costumes & Uniforms Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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Beautiful Plantin edition of the letters of Cleynaerts, seeking to bring together Islam and Christian faith

CLENARDUS, Nicolaus. Nic. Clenardi Epistolarum libri duo. Quorum posterior iam primum in lucem prodit.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1566. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8to. Both title-pages with Plantin's woodcut printer's mark, Arabic type interspersed. Contemporary vellum with 4 raised bands and a manuscript title on the spine. 112, 258 [= 241], [4] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Belgium Church History & Missions Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Language & Linguistics Plantin Press Religion (16th Century)
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Hitherto considered unobtainable: the spectacular, complete series of more than 200 photographs
of the Middle East and Spain by Louis De Clercq, uniformly bound

CLERCQ, Louis De. Voyage en Orient - Voyage en Espagne, 1859-1860
[Paris, France], J. Blondeau et Antonin, 1860. 6 volumes bound in 5 albums. Oblong 1mo (ca. 45 x 60 cm). With 222 photographs, albumen prints from waxed paper negative, including 23 panoramas, all mounted on cardboard, each plate with a lithographed number and caption. Album I contains photos of cities, monuments, and other picturesque views of Syria (49 prints including 11 panoramas); II: castles from the time of the Crusaders in Syria (37 prints including 5 panoramas); III: views of Jerusalem and holy places in Palestine (30 prints including 1 panorama); IV (bound together with III): the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (14 prints); V: monuments and picturesque sites in Egypt (41 prints including 1 panorama); VI: cities, monuments, and other picturesque views in Spain (51 prints including 5 panoramas). The sizes of the albumen prints vary from ca. 20 x 27 cm. to ca. 112 x 20 cm.

Uniform, original red leather-grained cloth with the title and name of the author lettered in gold on the front board. Full description
€ 850,000
Photography Prints & Print Series Spain Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East
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A scarce Arabic bestiary

DAMIRI, Muhammad ibn Musa al-. Kitab Hayat al-Hayawan [= Book of the life of animals].
Meknes, Morocco, 1267 AH [= 1851 CE]. 4to (19 x 23 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper, brown maghribi script in two hands with important words and phrases in red and blue. With an illuminated head-piece at the start of the text in red, blue, green, and gold. Contemporary gold-tooled red leather with a fore-edge flap. 62 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Faunas & General Zoology Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents Medicine & Pharmacy (19th Century)
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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
Iran / Persia
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Emblem & Songbooks Literature North Africa & Egypt Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Archaeology Photography
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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
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Autographs & Letters Literature Numismatics
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Famous limited edition leaf book "Ege portfolio", containing 15 beautiful oriental manuscript leaves including texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ethiopic

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
€ 18,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Iran / Persia Manuscripts & Documents Medieval Manuscripts
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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
Archaeology Italy North Africa & Egypt Photography UK - United Kingdom Women History
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The first world chronicle to include bio-bibliographies of Arab scholars

FORESTI DE BERGAMO, Jacobus Philippus. Supplementum chronicarum.
Brescia, Boninus de Boninis, 1. XII. 1485. Small folio (21 x 31 cm). Double rules along inner margins of text and between table columns, rubricated throughout. Contemporary richly blind-tooled vellum over wooden boards, bound in the monastic shop of the Würzburg Benedictines, two clasps. [1 blank], [18], [1 blank], [3], 358, [1] ll. Full description
€ 65,000
Early Printing - 15th century
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Rare third French edition of the One thousand and one nights in the first translation
into any European language, by Antoine Galland

GALLAND, Antoine (translator). Les mille et une nuit, contes Arabes, traduits en Français.
Paris, La Compagnie des Libraires (colophon vol. VI: printed by [André-François] Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roi), 1745. 6 volumes. 12mo in 4s & 8s. Uniform gold-tooled mottled calf. [16], 350; [12], 352; [8], 415, [1 blank]; [4], “369” [= 375], [1 blank]; [4], 419 [1 blank]; [4], “181” [= 183], [3], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Erotica Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Art & Art History Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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Deluxe copy with a beautiful hand-coloured Arabic miniature on parchment

HEINE, Maurice. L'Islam sous la cendre.
Paris, [Jules Meynial] (colophon: Frazier-Soye), (19 February) 1918. Square 4to (25 x 26 cm). With three different versions of the frontispiece: a lithographed plate, a hand-coloured miniature painting on vellum, highlighted with gold, and an engraved plate; and with the half-title printed in blue and several words in the text printed in green and blue. Original green cloth. 26 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
France Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature North Africa & Egypt
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Classical Antiquity Numismatics
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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
Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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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
India & Sri Lanka Islam & Qurans Literature
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Lively watercolour view of Tophane Quay in Istanbul with the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque

[ISTANBUL]. [KING, Helena Caroline or Adelaide Charlotte]. [Prominent Ottoman and entourage boarding boats before the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque].
[Istanbul?, ca. 1830/50?]. Watercolour drawing on wove paper (29.5 x 45 cm) with highlights in shellac and a thin black border. Mounted on a larger sheet of paper in a passe-partout. Full description
€ 8,500
City Plans, Topography & Views Turkey & Ottoman Empire
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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
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Art & Art History Greek & Non-Western Types Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature Spain
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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
City Plans, Topography & Views Colour Printing / Chromolithography Islamic Art, Culture & Science North Africa & Egypt
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Capturing the beauty of Islamic architecture in 19th-century Spain

[PHOTOGRAPHY - ALHAMBRA - ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE]. LAURENT, Jean (photographer). [Photograph album containing pictures of Spain and its Islamic architectural treasures].
[Madrid, ca. 1870s]. Oblong folio (62 x 46.5 cm). With 72 large size albumen photographic prints with architectural views, including numerous views of Spanish and Western Islamic architectural treasures, 3 large composite photographic panoramas, and 5 photographs of people. 58 of the 72 photographs contain the name of photographer, title and number of the image in the negative. Contemporary gold- and blind-stamped green leather, green watered silk endpapers, gilt edges. [1 blank], [36], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [24], [1 blank], [6], [1 blank], [1], [4 blank], [1], [13 blank] ll. Full description
€ 35,000
Architecture Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography Spain
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Arabic fables by “the greatest figure in the whole corpus of pre-Islamic myth and legend”, second edition, incorporating Erpenius’s manuscript revisions to his first edition

LUQMAN al-Hakim (notes by Thomas ERPENIUS). Fabulae et selecta quaedam Arabum adagia. Cum interpretatione latina & notis Thomae Erpenii.
Leiden, Joannes Maire (colophon: "excudebat" Willem Christiaens van der Boxe, "typis" Johannes Janssonius), 1636. 4to. With Maire's woodcut device on the title-page and Van der Boxe's woodcut device above the colophon. Early 19th-century boards covered with blue brocade paper. 60, [2] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Fable Books Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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Standard work on Hindu and Muslim law

MACNAGHTEN, William Hay (Girish Chandra TARKALANKAR, ed.). Principles of Hindu and Mahomedan law.
Calcutta, Sreenauth Banerjee and brothers (back of the title-page: printed by B.M. Sen, "Tomohur" Press, Serampore), 1873. 2 parts in 1 volume. Large 8vo. 20th-century half black morocco, black cloth sides, title and author in gold on spine, new endpapers. [6], LXIII, [1 blank], [10], 139, [1 blank]; [4], 88, XX pp. Full description
€ 1,250
India & Sri Lanka Islam & Qurans Law & Politics Other World Religions
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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
Early Printing - 15th century Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Philosophy & Esotericism
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Archaeology Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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Ca. 9000 Arabic terms and translations

[MANUSCRIPT - ARABIC - DICTIONARY]. [Vocabularium Italico-Arabicum]. Arabic-Italian dictionary.
[Probably Egypt, ca. 1770]. 4to (ca. 17 x 22 cm). Arabic and Italian manuscript on paper, 19 lines per extensum, paginated throughout from right to left. Near-contemporary brown leather with a blind-stamped oriental rosette as a center piece and similar style corner pieces on both boards, a (partial) manuscript title-label on the spine. 494 pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Islamic Art, Culture & Science Italy Language & Linguistics Literature Manuscripts & Documents North Africa & Egypt
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Muslim prayerbook from Quanzhou, glossed in xiaojing script

[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
€ 35,000
Book of Hours, Missals & Prayerbooks China Early Printing - 16th century Iran / Persia Islam & Qurans Manuscripts & Documents Religion (16th Century)
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Unpublished French study of Islamic coins and medals,
with about 157 drawings and engravings, many in colour

[MARCEL, Jean-Joseph?]. [Islamic coins and medals].
[Paris?], [ca. 1791-ca. 1817?]. Mostly folio (31.5 x 21 cm). A manuscript compilation of loose leaves and bifolia, with about 104 drawings (some in ink; some in coloured gouaches, many including gold, silver and other metallic colours) and about 53 engravings (some black on white; some white on black) each drawing and engraving showing the obverse and reverse of an Islamic coin or medal (except for about 3 that show only one side). Most of the drawings and engravings are on slips attached to leaves with notes in Arabic and French.Loose leaves and bifolia. [ca. 150] ll. Full description
€ 28,000
Economic History & Trade Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents Numismatics
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Unrecorded trilingual Hong Kong publication of Ya Sin, the chapter that is considered to be "the heart of the Qur'an"

[QUR'AN]. MA TAT NG, Imam Muhammad Yaqub bin Ibrahim, editor. Ya-Sin. A chapter in the Holy Quran.
Hong Kong, [on the back wrapper:] Hong Kong Muslim Press, 1385 AH [= 1965 CE]. 8vo (19 x 13 cm). With the upper half of each page opening with the text in Arabic, followed by a transliteration in the Latin alphabet and the Chinese, while the lower half has 2 columns of text: translations into English (right column) and Chinese (left column). With a small overview of the system of transliteration on the inside of the front wrapper and a vignette of the Hong Kong Muslim Press on the back wrapper. Original publisher's orange printed wrappers. [1], 26, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,250
China Islam & Qurans
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Bedouins in Egypt and Syria, with 25 steel-engraved plates
beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand

MAYEUX, F. J. Les Bédouins, ou Arabes du désert. Ouvrage publié d'après les notes inédites de Dom Raphaël, sur les mœurs, usages, lois, coutumes civiles et religieuses de ces peuples.
Paris, Ferra jeune, 1816. 3 volumes. 12mo. With 24 steel engraved plates, coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary long-grained gold-tooled red morocco, each board with fillets and decorative frames, decorations on the raised bands, gilt edges. X, 238; [4], 166; [4], 279 pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Islamic Art, Culture & Science North Africa & Egypt
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Games & Sports Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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Photo album with 250 images of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iran and Iraq,
compiled by a member of Paiforce in the 1940s

MEKELBURG, Corporal George (compiler). [Album of 250 photographs of the Middle East].
[Habbinya?, ca. 1944]. Ca. 20 x 16 cm. With 250 gelatin silver prints (various sizes), mounted on the leaves of a ruled notebook. Contemporary quarter black cloth, blue waterered paper sides, blue sprinkled edges. [85] ll. Full description
€ 2,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Iran / Persia Military History (20th Century) North Africa & Egypt Photography
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Satire disguising the French elite as Arabs

MELON, Jean-François. Mahmoud le Gasnevide, histoire orientale. Fragment traduit de l'Arabe, avec des notes.
Rotterdam, Jean Hofhoudt, 1730. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, gold-tooled spine, boards, board edges and turn-ins, both boards with the gold-tooled coat of arms of Louis Marie Alexandre, Duc d'Aumont, gilt edges. [2], VI, 162, [4] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Bindings Caricature & Satire French Literature Islamic Art, Culture & Science Law & Politics Literature
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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
Islam & Qurans
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A history of the British, Dutch and Portuguese colonial activities in the East Indies

MÖKERN, Philipp van. Ostindien, seine Geschichte, Cultur und seine Bewohner. Resultate eigener Forschungen und Beobachtungen an Ort und Stelle. Deutsche Original-Ausgabe.
Leipzig, Hermann Costenoble, 1857. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo. Contemporary half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. XII, 395; [6], 327 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Economic History & Trade India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Southeast Asia VOC
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Rare "oriental" pastiche

MORELL, Charles (pseudonym of James Kenneth RIDLEY). The tales of the Genii; or the delightful lessons of Horam, the son of Asmar.
London, printed for G. and T. Wilkie, 1786. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 2 letterpress title-pages and 14 engraved plates (including the 2 frontispieces) illustrating the various tales. Near contemporary, uniform calf (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled smooth spines in 6 fields, with a green (title) and red (volume) label in the 2nd and 4th fields, gold-tooled board edges, blind-tooled turn-ins. xxxvi, 285, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 338 pp. plus 2 frontispieces and 12 other plates. Full description
€ 1,500
India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Literature
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A superb set of two lavishly illustrated descriptions of Arabia and the Middle East

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Beschryving van Arabie.
Amsterdam, Steven Jacobus Baalde; Utrecht, Johannes van Schoonhoven & comp. (colophon: printed by Johan Joseph Besseling, Utrecht), 1774. With engraved title-page and 25 engraved plates, including 7 folding showing 1 view of military exercises, 2 Kufic inscriptions (coloured by hand) and 4 maps. The unnumbered map of Yemen (plate size 58.5 x 39 cm) is coloured by hand in outline.
With: (2) NIEBUHR, Carsten. Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen.
Amsterdam, Steven Jacobus Baalde; Utrecht, Johannes van Schoonhoven & comp. (colophons: printed by Johan Joseph Besseling, Utrecht), 1776-1780. With 2 engraved title-pages and 125 engraved plates (38 folding). 2 works in 3 volumes. Large 4to (28.5 x 22.5 cm). Contemporary sprinkled and polished half calf. Untrimmed. [6], XXXXI, [1], 408, [14]; [2], VIII, [6], 484, [2]; [16], 455, [1] pp. Full description
€ 10,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Charts & Maps Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Middle East
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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
Early Printing - 16th century Fable Books Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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Richly illustrated work on astronomy and the modernization of the Islamic calculation of time, together with a very rare appendix

PASHA, Ahmed Muhtar Riyaz ül-muhtar, mirat ül-mikat ve 'l-edvar.
Cairo, Bulaq Matbaasi, 1303-1313 AH [= 1885-1896 CE]. 3 volumes bound as 1 (plates, text, and appendix). Large 4to (29.5 x 21 cm). Text in Ottoman Turkish, set in a naskh Arabic type, most pages in a thin-thick-thin-rule frame. With a separate title-page and 36 full-page, numbered plates (including 1 double-page) on 36 leaves at the beginning of the book and 1 folding plate at the end. Later elaborately gold- and blind-tooled brown calf, each board with a blind ornamental frame with corner pieces and a gold centre piece. Spine with the title in gold Arabic lettering in the 2nd of 6 compartments, the other 5 with blind ornaments and gold fillets on the 5 raised bands, marbled endpapers, red ribbon marker. [10], 378, [1 blank]; 58 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Astronomy & Cosmography Science
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Persian almanac

[PERSIAN ALMANAC]. [Persian manuscript almanac].
[Qajar, Iran, 1869 CE =] 1285 AH. 8vo (11.5 x 18.5 cm). Persian and Arabic manuscript on laid paper. Black and red nastaliq script in rubricated rows and columns with Arabic headings in fine riqah script and gilt floral ornaments to each page. Contemporary blind-tooled brown leather, pink paste-downs. 11 ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Almanacs Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents West Asia
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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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
Costumes & Uniforms Islamic Art, Culture & Science North Africa & Egypt
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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
Costumes & Uniforms Islamic Art, Culture & Science North Africa & Egypt
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Dutch translation of the Quran and the life of Mohammed, with 6 engraved plates by Caspar Luyken

[QURAN]. Mahomets Alkoran, door de hr. Du Ryer uit d'Arabische in de Fransche taal gestelt; benevens een tweevoudige beschrijving van Mahomets leven; en een verhaal van des zelfs reis ten hemel, gelijk ook zyn samenspraak met de Jood Abdias.
Amsterdam, Timotheus ten Hoorn, 1696. 8vo. With an integral engraved title-page, and 6 engraved plates showing the Prophet Mohammed, engraved by Caspar Luyken. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine. [12], 547, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Islam & Qurans
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Fourth editon of the first English Quran to be translated directly from the Arabic

[QURAN - ENGLISH]. SALE, George, (translator). The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated from the original Arabic with explanatory notes, taken from the most approved commentators to which is preffixed a preliminary discourse. A new edition.
Bath, Printed by S. Hazard for J. Johnson, Vernor and Hood, Ogilvy and Speare, J. Sewell, H. Gardner and C. and G. Kearsley, 1795. 2 vols. 8vo. Engraved fold-out map of Arabia, 3 genealogical tables of which two folding, 1 plate illustrating the Temple of Mecca, all taken from the first editon of 1735. Old calf. Full description
€ 3,500
Islam & Qurans
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From a famous private collection

[QURAN - MANUSCRIPT]. [A splendid illuminated Quran manuscript].
Iran, AH 1204 [= 1783 AD]. 8vo (15 x 9 cm) Illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper, 19 lines per page, written in a neat naskh script in black ink with diacritics in red, margins ruled in gold and colours. Gold discs or florets between verses, sura headings written in white in gold cartouches flanked by panels with alternating floral motifs in gold and various colours. Brown morocco with a flap and gold-tooled borders and central ornaments. 243 ll. plus 2 end-leaves. Full description
€ 18,000
Islam & Qurans Manuscripts & Documents
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Persian music theory from "The Pearly Crown"

QUTB AL-DIN AL-SHIRAZI. Durrat al-taj wa-khulasat al-nitaj fi ilm al-musiqa.
Shiraz, 1151 AH [= 1738/39 CE]. 4to (ca. 16.5 x 21 cm). Persian manuscript on gold-flecked paper. In tidy black naskh script in 22 lines, with highlights and important words and phrases picked out in red. WIth numerous tables and diagrams. Contemporary leather-backed patterned boards. 57 ll. Full description
€ 35,000
Iran / Persia Manuscripts & Documents Music, Theatre & Dance
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A little-known medical treatise from one of the greatest minds in the history of medicine

RAZI, Abu Bakr Muhammaed ibn Zakariyya al-. [RHAZES]. Taqasim al-ilal. [= Classification of diseases].
Western Persia, 996 AH [= 1588 CE]. 2 volumes. Tall 8vo (18.5 x 10 cm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black naskh script with important words and phrases picked out in red. Stored in a custom-made red cloth box, disbound, originally bound as one. 109; 89 ll. Full description
€ 65,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Early Printing - 16th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Manuscripts & Documents Medicine & Pharmacy (16th Century)
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Islamic texts on the Christian crusades

REINAUD, Joseph Toussaint. Extraits des historiens Arabes, relatifs aux guerres des croisades, ouvrage formant, d'après les écrivains Musulmans, un récit suivi des guerres saintes ...
[Paris], Imprimerie Royale, 8vo. Contemporary dark green half sheepskin, gold-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. XLVIII, 582 pp. Full description
€ 6,500
Church History & Missions Islamic Art, Culture & Science Military History (19th Century)
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islam & Qurans Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography
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First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Emblem & Songbooks English & American Literature Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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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
Art & Art History Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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Summary of ideas from the Qu'ran in French: bibliophile production on wove paper, published in Paris and Constantinople

SAVARY, Claude-Etienne. Morale de Mahomet; ou recueil des plus pures maximes du Coran.
Constantinople, [no publisher's name]; Paris, Lamy, 1784. 18mo in 2s. With a woodcut flower ornament on the title-page, a woodcut rococco headpiece, small decorated roman capitals used as initials, decorative rules. Brown goatskin morocco (ca. 1865?), gold-tooled spine in 6 compartments, chemical marbled sides, nonpareil marbled endpapers. [4], 91, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Islam & Qurans
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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
Bindings French Literature North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Middle East
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First edition of the Arabic Infancy Gospel, with text in Latin and Arabic

SIKE (SIECKE), Heinrich (editor). Evangelium infantiae. Vel liber apocryphus de infantia servatoris. Ex manuscripto edidit, ac latina versione & notis illustravit ...
Utrecht, François Halma, Willem vande Water, 1697. 8vo. With the main text in Arabic with a parallel Latin translation on the facing pages. Contemporary vellum. [22], 161, [7], 93, [1], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Islam & Qurans Islamic Art, Culture & Science
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The antiquities of Persia and on the history of the Arabs before Muhammad

SILVESTRE DE SACY, [Antoine Isaac]. Mémoires sur les antiquités de la Perse et sur lhistoire des Arabes avant Mahomet.
Paris, Eugène Duverger & Jean-Joseph Marcel, Imprimerie Impériale, [1808-1809]. Large 4to (22 x 27.5 cm). With 4 tables. Later red half morocco, marbled sides, title in gold on spine. [6], 47-58, 483-782 pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Art & Art History Classical Antiquity
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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
Early Printing - 15th century Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature
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Texts of 58 letters to the Portuguese court,
written in Arabic by kings, diplomats and noblemen, 1503 to 1528

SOUSA, João de. Documentos Arabicos para a historia Portugueza...
Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciencias, 1790. 4to. With the academy's woodcut device on the title-page (incorporating the Portuguese coat-of-arms, Athenas owl and Hermess staff). Set in roman, Arabic and italic types. Modern brown paper wrappers. Wholly untrimmed and with most of the bolts unopened, preserving all deckles and point holes. [8], 190, [2] pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islamic Art, Culture & Science Law & Politics Portugal
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On the Arabs living in the marshes of southern Iraq, with 110 photographs

THESIGER, Wilfred. The marsh Arabs.
London, Longmans, Green and co., 1964. 8vo (21.5 x 14 cm). With a frontispiece, 3 maps in text (including 1 double-page) and 32 plates with reproductions of 109 photographs. Green cloth with illustrated dustjacket. [13], [1 blank], 242 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography
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Autograph copy by the author for his wife of his famous collection of erotic poems, translated from the Arabic

TOUSSAINT, Franz. Le jardin des caresses.
May and June 1936. 11.5 x 12 cm. Manuscript in French written by the author in blank ink a neat 20th-century hand in one column. Chapter divisions are made in the form of a calligraphic leaf, drawn in the same black ink as the text. Bound in contemporary richly gold-tooled arabesque beige morocco with a flap at the front-edge, covered with gold-tooled green morocco on the inside, purple and white head and end bands, gold and light blue endpapers. Stored in a professionally made beige morocco box (ca. 15 x 15 cm) with a gold-tooled three-line fillet frame on the boards, on the inside covered with light pink silk, title in gold on the spine. [3 blank], [141], [13 blank] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Autographs & Letters Iran / Persia Literature North Africa & Egypt
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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
Costumes & Uniforms Islamic Art, Culture & Science North Africa & Egypt
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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
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Ceylon Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia West Asia
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Very early European eyewitness description of India, confirming Marco Polo’s statements

VARTHEMA, Ludivico di. The Navigation and v[o]yages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentelman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lorde 1503. Conteynyng many notable and straunge thinges, both hystoricall and naturall. Translated out of Latine into Engylshe, by Richarde Eden.
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. 4to. With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern full navy blue morocco, bands on spine with title showing faded gilt, covers double-ruled gilt. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description
€ 265,000
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arctic & Antarctic Imaginary Voyages & Utopias India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Religion (16th Century) Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia USA - United States of America
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Attributes of the Prophet: Arabic manuscript in black and red with text and ruling in geometric patterns

[WASF AL-RUSUL]. [Kitab Wasf al-Rusul wa al-Imama].
[Near East, ca. 1820?] Small folio (ca. 21 x 30 cm). Arabic manuscript in a naskh script, written in black ink on paper, with headings, key words and short passages in red, ruled in red throughout (often in complex patterns to form tables and geometric shapes) and with a diagrammatic human body also in red, 2 leaves with circular diagrams, some ruled leaves blank (text never completed). Contemporary limp leather. 74 ll. Full description
€ 12,000
Islam & Qurans
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German translation of an Arabic text on the death of Muhammads companion Musab ibn al-Zubayr and on the Zubayr genealogy, including a family tree

WÜSTENFELD, Ferdinand (transl.); Abu Abdallah AL-DIMASCHKÍ (ed.); Zubair ibn BAKKAR. Die Familie el-Zubeir. Der Tod des Muc'ab ben el-Zubeir aus den Muwaffakîjat des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkí. Arabisch und Deutsch.
Göttingen, Dieterich'sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1878. Large 4to. With 1 folding genealogical table of the Zubayr family bound at the end of the book. Contemporary half blue cloth, decorated paper sides, grey spine label with title in gold. 112 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islamic Art, Culture & Science Military History (19th Century)
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