Forum Rare Books

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

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)

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)

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

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Architecture Islamic Art, Culture & Science

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

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

"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

Portrait of John Sturges in Turkish costume

[DRAWING]. SAUNDERS, John. [John Sturges in Turkish costume with turban and gold-trimmed coat].
Peterborough, 1739. Pastel on paper, mounted on canvas (41 x 30.5 cm), stretched over (original?) wooden board. Full description

€ 12,500

Costumes & Uniforms Islamic Art, Culture & Science Turkey & Ottoman Empire

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

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