[Kuwait].
20 photographs, 3 in colour and 17 in black and white. From 167 x 215 to 108 x 165 mm. Official photographs from the Kuwait Ministry of Information, displaying the new wealth and prosperity of the mid-20th century with a focus on schools, industry, hotels and hospitals, tourist destinations, as well as oil. Of nearly twenty photographs, 11 include official captions in English and Arabic. These include public works like gardens, low-income housing, a girls' school, and a secondary school at Shuwaikh. Others focus on culture, including a sculptor at work, excavations on Failaka Island, a church, the traditional ship-building industry, and Al-Sif Palace, "the Office of HH the Emir of Kuwait" (either Sheikh Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah or Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad Al-Sabah). Another shows the refinery at Ahmadi. - Other photographs, some with notes in their margins indicating use in a printed publication, include the Ras Al-Ard Sea Club just after its founding in 1976, a banana plantation promoting Kuwaiti agriculture, and the newly constructed Kuwait Hilton and Al-Hadi Hospital. Altogether, an interesting snapshot of mid-century Kuwaiti infrastructure and public works, the face Kuwait wished to present to the world. - Some photographs with marks in margins, most with notes in Arabic on reverse; a few bumped corners and light curling, but in good condition, with no pinholes or fading.
[Ram Pratap Brahman].
Oblong 8vo (204 x 135 mm). 22 ff. Sanskrit manuscript on paper. Black ink with divisions and important words and phrases in red. With 8 full-page hand-painted miniatures. Contemporary floral cloth with flap; leaves folded and laid in but never bound. A Sanskrit manuscript with eight brightly painted miniatures illustrating twenty-four numbered dohas (verses). The book of poetry is probably associated with the Ramsnehi Sect, a religious movement popularized in 18th century India by its leader and founder, Ramcharan Ji Maharaj. - The miniatures show a scene of a battle with demons, but also human life: a marriage scene, and the birth of a child and the congratulations heaped upon the parents and blessings upon the baby. Likely, they tell the story of a single man, from birth to death, possibly one of the important figures of the Ramsnehi Sect. In bold style, each painting is bright and vivid, on fields of green, saffron, azure, and pale blue, and are lovely examples of 19th century miniatures. - Light soiling; paintings bright and clean, remarkably well preserved.
Rahbi, Muhammad Ibn Ali al- / Jones, William (transl.).
Large 4to (236 x 294 mm). (40) pp. With 12 engraved plates (11 numbered) of facsimile Arabic manuscript on 6 leaves. This 18th century transcription, translation, and facsimile of a law manuscript by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rahbi (d. ca. 1183 CE) marks a pivotal moment in the cross-cultural exchange of legal knowledge between the Muslim world and the European Enlightenment. The mind behind this work was William Jones (1746-94), a British philologist, orientalist, and judge famous for being among the first to point to a link between European and Indo-Aryan languages, which would later be known as the Indo-European language group. - As a judge in colonial British Bengal, Jones had a particular interest in Hindu and Muslim law codes, not only in theory but in practical application. This work was an ambitious project to produce an edition of a Muslim legal manuscript, one which resulted in a rare and insightful glimpse for English-speaking readers into the complexities, nuances, and deep history of Muslim jurisprudence. - The final engravings were executed with great care in order to preserve not only the meaning of the Arabic but also the handsome calligraphy of the source manuscript. This marriage of scholarly rigour and aesthetic appreciation are a testament to the intellectual curiosity and respect for (and interest in) diverse legal systems which characterized both Jones himself and the era of the Enlightenment. A copy of this work was found in the library catalogue of Benjamin Franklin (catalogue number 2826) - one of the very few documented Islamic texts owned by an American Founding Father. - Covers detached, paper slightly brittle, some offsetting to plates. - With the library stamp of the Library of the New York Law Institute on the title-page and following 2 leaves. - ESTC T57055.
[London Conference].
208 x 255 mm. Original black-and-white photograph. Typescript caption in English mounted on the reverse. Original press photograph of the Palestinian delegation to the 1939 London Conference, meeting with Prime Minister Chamberlain and other British officials in St. James's Palace. The conference was called by the British Government to plan the future governance of Palestine and an end of the Mandate. It took place between 7 February and 17 March 1939. - The photograph shows the Palestinian delegates sitting in the foreground, including Jamal Al-Husseini, Amim Tamimi, Fuad Saba, Yaqub Al-Ghussein, Musa Alami, Awni Abdul Hadi, George Antonious, and Alfred Roch. Facing are the British, with Neville Chamberlain presiding. To his right is Lord Halifax, and to his left, Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald. Famously, MacDonald held a series of separate meetings with the Palestinian and Zionist delegations, because the Palestinian delegation refused to sit in the same room as the Zionists, a circumstance also indicated by the caption on the photograph: "Meetings have to be in two sections since Arabs refuse to meet in same room with their Jewish rivals". - Coming to an end after five and a half weeks, the conference remained inconclusive, the British announcing proposals which were later published as the 1939 White Paper. - Corners slightly creased; one small tear to lower margin, not affecting image.
Wells, Charles.
Small 8vo (115 x 175 mm). VIII, (2); (4), 87, (1) pp. Lithographed Ottoman Turkish and letterpress English. Publisher's purple cloth, ruled in blind, title and decoration in gilt, all edges gilt. Bound by Bone & Son. First edition: author's presentation copy of an economic treatise written in Ottoman Turkish by the British orientalist Charles Wells (1839-1917). One of the first treatises on political economy written in Turkish, it consists of an introduction and contents page in English, followed by a nine-chapter essay outlining key economic concepts. The essay, written in Well's hand, was lithographed, following the traditional style of Islamic manuscripts with gilt decorated opening pages, the text set within red double borders. - Charles Wells wrote this essay in 1860, when he was a student at King's College, and believed it to be the first example of political economy written in Turkish. Indeed, the concepts of political economy were already known in the Ottoman Empire, and John Baptiste Say's "Catechism of Political Economy" had been translated as early as 1852. However, Wells was right in believing that his was the first ever written in Turkish, and he was the first to present the British classical tradition, with its chapters on value, work and taxation introducing the ideas of, inter alia, Smith, Ricardo and Mill. Wells's effort to write in Turkish was recognized by his professor (and Council of King's College), and he received the "special prize for remarkable proficiency in the Turkish language". Following this encouragement, he decided to publish the book in lithographic form: "Having written the manuscript in the running hand of the Turks, very different from print, I knew that few, if any printer in England could read it. This, and the fact that Orientalists prefer manuscripts to printed books, will account for my having this essay lithographed" (Wells, p. VI). - The author presented this copy to the Royal Society of Literature, inscribed "To the Royal Society of Literature with the author's compliments" on the front endpaper. - Spine sunned and a little chipped. Light stain on the lower cover. Inside lower hinge weakened but holding. Interior clean. - Bonhams, 19 June 2013, lot 222. - Atabey 1325. Not in Blackmer. OCLC 23910113.
[Lebanon].
Oblong 8vo (165 x 115 mm). 1 page in Arabic. Calligraphic invitation to a lecture on the future of oil in Arabia, given by Professor Abdullah al-Tariqi (1919-97) at the University of Beirut on 29 April 1965. A native of Saudi Arabia, al-Tariqi was Director General of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs in the Ministry of Finance and National Economy from 1954. As such, he was responsible for relations with the only oil company then existing in Saudi Arabia, the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), which had received a concession in 1933, first found oil in 1938, and began extraction at the end of World War II. In 1960 al-Tariqi became Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs, but in 1962 a clash within the Saudi ruling elite cost him both his post and his ARAMCO board membership. He left Saudi Arabia, co-founded an independent oil consultancy in Beirut, and propounded his view that oil is a global rather than country-by-country issue that needs a united Arab solution vis-à-vis the West. - In excellent condition.
[Lazzat Un Nisa].
Large 4to (175 x 267 mm). 91 ff. (some blank). Persian and English manuscript on two types of paper (English on laid paper, watermarked "JB"; Persian on a thinner and slightly polished laid paper). With 30 hand-painted full-page miniatures depicting sexual poses. English script in brown ink; Persian nasta'liq in black ink, with important words and phrases picked out in red, and a gold-decorated 'unwan in blue, pink, and orange, and first two pages of text on fields of gold. Contemporary full red morocco. A Persian manuscript of "Lazzat Un Nisa", a famous erotic text derived and translated from the Sanskrit Kama Sutra, here featuring 30 explicit and educational miniatures, and bound with a manuscript translation of the same into English. - Drawing on the Sanskrit text, there are two separate textual traditions of "Lazzat Un Nisa" in Persian: one earlier 15th or 17th century translation from the Golden Age of erotic literature in the subcontinent, and another by Mohammed Abdul Mehdune, in 1850. Remarkably, the accompanying English translation significantly predates Richard Burton's notorious translation of the Kama Sutra, which Burton privately printed in 1883. The work is also notable, though not unique, for including one painting depicting homosexual intercourse between two men. - Popular from the 16th century onwards and a source of interest to European (and especially British) collectors, illustrated erotic manuscripts such as "Lazzat Un Nisa" have a robust history in the Indian subcontinent. Two English ownership inscriptions begin the volume, both probably by the same hand and expressing roughly the same sentiment. The first reads, "I procured this book in order to give an idea of the absurd and whimsical ideas of the Moors. The English is a literal translation of the Persian". The second, more formal attempt reads, "These Pictures were procured to give some Idea of the absurd & redicolous [sic] notions & practices of the Mahometans in India". Though their owner was scandalized, painted sexual manuals were popular and not uncommon; this example is, however, quite unusual in its inclusion of relatively good English translation of the text, including detailed and graphic passages with references to the rules of sex, marriage, and sexuality in the Qur'an, pregnancy, beauty, sensuality, "the flavour of her body", "species of women", and "the critical moment" of orgasm. - An early English translation from the Kama Sutra tradition. - Some light smudging and rubbing to miniatures; a few edge tears; quite well preserved. - With ownership inscription signed "D.J." and the library blindstamp of "Neatham Mill Library TW".
[League of Arab States, Secretariat General].
8vo. (2), 47 pp., final blank page. Printed in English and Arabic back to back. Original printed wrappers. List of congress members attending the Fourth Arab Petroleum Congress, comprising more than 600 names. The list includes officials from international oil companies like Shell, Esso and Aramco, as well as manufacturers of drilling equipment, scientists, lawyers, engineers, and politicians. - Small marginal flaws. - OCLC 79313970.
[League of Arab States, Secretariat General].
4to. (4), 14 pp. Printed in English and Arabic back to back. Original printed wrappers. Complete list of research papers presented at the Fourth Arab Petroleum Congress. Grouped by subjects, including economics, legislation, employees and labour affairs, drilling and production, exploration, geology, refining, transportation and storage. - Small marginal tear to p. 7f., not touching text. - Cf. OCLC 16333341.
Leupold, Jacob.
Folio (256 x 377 mm). 8 volumes (of 10) bound in 4. With 442 engraved plates, some folding; titles and half-titles printed in red and black. Contemporary speckled calf ruled in gilt and with the gilt armorial supralibros of Franz Ferdinand von Sprinzenstein. One of the first encyclopedias of technology, and the most complete and the most extensively illustrated work on mechanical engineering hitherto published, with detailed discussions of hydraulic engineering, weights and measures, the art of gold and silver assaying and analysis, mathematical instruments and scientific devices such as the barometer, thermometer, and Leupold's own, ingenious calculating machine (plate IX in the "Theatrum arithmetico-geometricum"), and more. Plate III in "Theatrum arithmetico-geometricum" even includes an apparently original and undamaged volvelle (with rag paper fibers and laid lines of the moving parts of the volvelle matching that of the original paper of the plate beneath), an incredibly delicate and uncommon survival. - Jacob Leupold (1674-1727) was director of mines to the Elector of Saxony and the author of a number of works on mechanics and engineering. Each volume of his "Theatrum machinarum" is complete in itself. The volumes are more often found separately than together, and, indeed, Ferguson stated that he had never seen a complete set. - This extensive and uniformly bound set contains the first editions of Leupold's "Theatrum machinarum hydrotechnicarum" (1724); "Theatrum machinarum hydrotechnicarum" Tomus I [-II] (1724-1725); "Theatrum machinarum generale" (1724); "Theatrum machinarium, oder, Schau-Platz der Heb-Zeuge" (1725); "Theatrum arithmetico-geometricum" (1727); "Theatrum staticum universale" pars I [-IV] (1726); and "Theatrum pontificiale" (1726). - The present set is in very fresh condition and remarkably complete: only the "Theatrum machinarum molarium" (1735) and Joachim Ernst Scheffler's "Theatri machinarum supplementum" (1739) are not present. The "Theatrum staticum universale", pars I [-IV] (1726), is the true first edition, identifiable by the imprint statement: "Zufinden" instead of "Zu finden" on the title-page. - Gentle rubbing to bindings; a very sound and attractive set. - These volumes were bound for Count Franz Ferdinand von Sprinzenstein (1671-1728) and remained in the family until sold as lot 138 in the auction of the Graf Sprinzenstein Library, held by Gilhofer and Ranschburg in Lucerne in 1937. - Ferguson, Bibliography of the History of Technology, pp. 45f, Wolf, History of Science in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 657f. Berlin Catalogue 1786, 1787, 1788. Not in Roberts & Trent.
[Qur'an].
Folio (220 x 300 mm). 76 ff. Black Bedouin Maghribi script with diacritics in red. With frames in gilt and red on first leaf, with gold, black, and red marginal medallions throughout. Contemporary full leather, triple-ruled in blind and stamped with floral medallions. A distinctively North-West African Qur'an in a bold Bedouin Maghribi script, with matching decorations in gold, black, and red. A Rub' of the Qur'an refers to a quarter of the text: in this case, the first quarter, comprising the opening surah through Al-An'am (the Cattle), thus completing the first six chapters. The script used here is slightly different from the standard Moroccan script, copied by the scribe Muhammad bin Salim al-Aqid. Much like the script, the painted marginal medallions and the stylized gold and yellow triangles which mark the text are of a notably North African style, with strong Moroccan influence and a slight distinctive flair. A beautiful and interesting Qur'an. - Covers lightly worn and chipped, minor soiling to text. Well preserved. - With the ex-libris stamp of "Dousset."
[Union of Arab National Olympic Committees].
192 x 527 mm. Colour printed folding plan. Game and transportation schedule on the reverse. Site map for the First Pan-Arab Games, held in Alexandria in 1953. Assisting spectators in making their way around the Olympic site, the map details stadiums, sports clubs and racing grounds, along with schools, museums, and the British Consulate. The schedule on the reverse indicates buses and trams calling at the various competition venues, not failing to mention the events and sports to be witnessed there, including athletics, weightlifting, football, swimming, basketball, boxing, wrestling, and shooting, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. - The Arab Games, formerly called the Pan-Arab Games, are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from the Arab world. They are organized by the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees and intended to be held every four years, though political turmoil as well as financial difficulties have made the event an unstable one. - A few minor tears. Generally well preserved.
Nizami Ganjavi.
Small 4to (162 x 226 mm). 108 ff. Persian manuscript on paper. Black nastaliq script in four columns, ruled in black, gold, and blue, with titles in red. With three full-page miniatures from the Qajar period, pasted in, and a fine blue and gold 'unwan. 20th century red leather. Alexander the Great in the 16th century Muslim manuscript tradition: Nizami Ganjavi's "Iqbal-nama", comprising half of his poetic "Eksandar-nama" and illustrated with three fine Qajar miniatures showing hunting scenes and a particularly striking battle with demons or djinns. "The Alexander of the Persian romances is much more colorful than his Western counterpart [.] Nizami celebrates him first as a king and conqueror, then as a sage and a prophet. In 'Iskandarnamah', in addition to being a zealous Moslem, Alexander becomes an ardent lover with numerous wives and concubines" (Southgate). - Paired with the "Saraf-nama", which tells the stories of Alexander's life and travels, the "Iqbal-nama" focuses on Alexander as the scholar-king, who can hold his own in debates with the greatest of Greek and Indian philosophers, follow extensive discussions of the creation of the universe, and set the standard for all kings and princes to follow. This allows Nizami, one of the greatest Persian poets in history, to stretch his talents: "Whereas the araf-nama clearly belongs to the tradition of Persian epic poetry [.] in the Eqbal-nama he shows his talents as a didactic poet, an anecdotist and a miniaturist" (Enc. Iranica). - This manuscript, beautifully illustrated, is a fantastic 16th century example of the "Iqbal-nama" (with later and quite fine Qajar illustrations); its colophon, though with the final digit of its date obscured, dates it to the 970s Hijri (1562-71 CE). Thus, a quite early and beautiful copy, uncommon on the market from this date. - Light exterior wear, occasional gentle soiling and minor paper repairs; final digit on date on colophon damaged. Quite well preserved, especially the miniatures. - With four Arabic ownership stamps on the opening leaves, one bearing the name Mohammad [Fatih?]. Later from the private collection of Monsieur P., Paris, and inherited. - Southgate, "Portraits of Alexander in Persian Alexander-Romances of the Islamic Era", Journal of the American Oriental Society 97 (1977), pp. 278-284. Encylopaedia Iranica VIII, 612-614.
![Laddhat un-nisa [The Pleasure of Women].](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/31827284039-600x908.jpg)
