John Randall (Books of Asia) Archives - Rare Book Insider

John Randall (Books of Asia)

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The Six Scripts. A translation by L. Hopkins

The Six Scripts. A translation by L. Hopkins, of H.M. Consular Service.

Hopkins, Lionel Charles, translator First edition 8vo, pp. [ii], xx, 61; Chinese characters in the text. A very good copy in original cloth. Slightly rubbed, pages slightly foxed. Signed presentation inscription from the author to S.W. Bushell. The author of the Lin Shu Ku (The History of the Six Writings) was "Tai T'ung of the city of Yung Chia in the modern province of Chekkiang". Living in the 13th Century, towards the end of the Sung dynasty, he gained high literary honours, and was appointed prefect of T'ai Chou Fu in the same province. The Lin Shu Ku is often cited as an authority on Chinese written language and the logic behind the characters as an attempt to "make speech visible", discussing the history of the creation of the characters as much as their contemporary use. Lionel Charles Hopkins, (1854–1952) was a British Sinologist who became infamous when parts of the collection of oracle bones that he donated to Cambridge University with much fanfare, were discovered to be forgeries. He served in the British consulate in China from 1874 to 1910, rising to Consul-General of the Provinces Chihli and Shanxi in 1902. Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844-1908) went to Beijing in 1868 to take up a post as physician to the British Legation. He remained for thirty-two years, learnt fluent Chinese, made important contributions to the study of the extinct Tangut, Khitan, Jurchen and 'Phags-pa scripts, and is best remembered as a collector of, and an authority on, Chinese art. Morrison I, p.360.
  • $1,334
  • $1,334
Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia

Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan, and Beloochistan; with Historical Notices of the Countries lying between Russia and India. Translated from the original unpublished manuscript by Capt. W. Jesse. Edited by H.D. Seymour. [With] History of the Afghans. Translated from the original unpublished manuscript by Captain William Jesse.

Ferrier, Joseph-Pierre Second edition pp.xxii, 534, 3 plates, folding map; First edition, pp.xxi, 491, 2 engraved maps, 1 folding. A near fine pair in contemporary full calf, gilt decoration to spine and boards, red morocco lettering piece, gilt and blind rolls to board edges and turn-ins, end-papers and all page edges marbled. Very slight rubbing to boards, light spotting to first couple of leaves in each volume. Both with an inscription to "Lea Priestley Edwards. On his leaving Eton Xmas 1864", the first signed by Charles G. A. Brayhem, the second by George W. Swiming A fabulous pair of important works that combine as the life's work of Josephe-Pierre Ferrier (1811-1886) in matching lavish Eton presentation bindings. The first work, Caravan Journeys, is a gripping account of the travels of the author in Central Asia, in particular across Afghanistan. Punctuated with pithy commentary with a rare anti-British sentiment, it provides an outside perspective on Britain's activities in Asia and Ferrier shows particular affinity for the rich history and tradition of the peoples he encountered. The second work, History of the Afghans, chronicles the history of the Afghans from their "origins", around 200 BCE, to around 1850. It is particularly important as it recounts the history of British involvement in the region from a French perspective, and concludes with the author admitting the great influence Britain exerted over the region by 1850. The work is full of personal and anecdotal evidence, particularly towards the later stages, because Ferrier either experienced or was in direct contact with much of what happened in Afghanistan during his lifetime. He includes Persian and Indian documents, with their translations, that were his initial source of news for events he did not witness. Josephe-Pierre Ferrier (1811-1886) was a French soldier whose innate talents and skills never translated to the career success that he warranted. He served in Persia, 1839-43, and then sought employment with the Sikh government in Lahore. He attempted the overland route through Afghanistan during the extremely difficult conditions of the first Anglo-Afghan war (1838-42). He spent a year in Afghanistan, including a period in captivity, before being forced to go back to Tehran. All the while he was pestering his superiors for money in return for vague and intangible returns. These present works were both written after he was financially ruined by a failed agricultural scheme in Rhodes, and was salvaged by the rear-admiral Verninac de Saint-Maur, delegate for the French settlements in India, who managed to obtain for him the position of Mayor at Pondicherry in 1853, where he stayed until 1876, at which point he retired to Marseille. It is interesting that these works were first published in English for a British audience: Caravan Journeys was only published in French in 1870 and History of the Afghans never was.
  • $3,284
  • $3,284
Notes on Georgia and the New Russian Conquests beyond the Caucasus.

Notes on Georgia and the New Russian Conquests beyond the Caucasus.

Monteith, William First edition, pp.40. A good but slightly soiled copy bound in modern quarter calf, marbled boards. Some minor paper repairs. "The following Notes on Georgia and the New Russian Conquests beyond the Caucasus were collected by me when charged with the delineation of the Frontier between Persia and Russia, they were solely intended for my own use but having been often solicited for Copies I have thought it more convenient to get a few printed for distribution among those who had expressed a wish to have them". William Monteith (1790-1864) accompanied Malcolm's embassy to Persia in 1810, served as secretary to Morier, and was present at the Persian headquarters during the Russo-Persian War, 1826–1828. After the Treaty of Turkmenchay was signed in 1828, Monteith was appointed commissioner for the payment of the indemnity exacted from Persia by Russia, part of which was conveyed by him personally into the Russian camp. He was ordered to remain in Persia until the settlement of the Russo-Persian boundary. He returned to India in July 1832 where he was appointed chief engineer at Madras. This scarce pamphlet which bears no information on date or place of printing appears to have been printed in Madras. The second part is headed: Description of the frontier of Russia and Persia as settled by the Commissioners in the years 1828 and 1829. Four copies in COPAC, Oxford, NLS, London Library, and Birmingham
  • $889
Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas

Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, dans la Turquie, l’Asie, Sourie, Palestine, Haute et Basse Egypte, &c. Où l’on trouvera des Remarques très-curieuses. Fait en M.DCCXIV, &c. par Ordre de Louis XIV.

Lucas, Paul Third edition, two volumes, 12mo, pp.[xx], 436, [7, contents]; [ii, title], 345, [4, contents], [23, adverts.]; 2 folding maps, 32 plates, 19 of which folding. A very good copy in contemporary vellum, red speckled edges, lettering direct to spine. Vellum has a few stains to boards but otherwise binding tight and strong. Internally clean apart from small note to front end-papers of volume 1. Both maps have small 1cm tears to margins. Paul Lucas (1664-1737) was a French merchant, antiquarian, and traveller. He came to the attention of Louis XIV after returning in 1696, from serving in the Venetian army, with armfuls of looted antiquities. The king bought many for his personal collection, and sent Lucas on three voyages to the middle east to find him more. In this, his third and last between 1714 and 1717, he travelled through Turkey and Palestine to Egypt. He spent most of his time exploring Egypt and attempting to discover new sites ripe for archaeology and valuable artefacts. This edition, published a year after the first, was probably pirated like many others out of Amsterdam. Many of the plates richly depict architecture including the pyramids of Egypt as well as reproducing numerous Egyptian statues and hieroglyphs. Atabey 733; Blackmer 1038; Brunet 19953; Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 394; Tobler 122.
  • $1,368
  • $1,368
A Journey Over Land to India

A Journey Over Land to India, partly by a route never gone before by any European, by Donald Campbell, of Barbreck, Esq., in a series of letters to his son. Comprehending his shipwreck and imprisonment with Hyder Alli, and his subsequent negociations and transactions in the East.

Campbell, Donald First edition, three parts and appendix, 4to, pp.xvii, [1, errata], [2], 176, 138, 181, [1, blank], 9, [1, blank]. A very good copy bound in contemporary half calf, marbled boards, gilt panelling and lettering to spine. Spine lightly rubbed with top of spine neatly repaired, joints firm, boards slightly rubbed and corners bumped. Edges of pages foxed but internally clean and unblemished. Armorial bookplate of L.A. Burd. A description of the travels of Donald Campbell (1751-1804) through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, presented as letters to his young son Frederick Campbell (1782-1846), and written more than a decade after his misadventures. The first section describes Campbell's much-delayed travels through Europe, which eventually led him to Venice, and by ship to Alexandria. Diverted from Alexandria and Egypt by pestilence, he sailed to Cyprus, whose excellent wine he remarks on. At Cyprus, he secured letters of introduction for Latakia, and from there, he travelled across Syria, spending some time at Aleppo, and on into Kurdistan and Iraq, accompanied for much of the journey by a Tatar courier. Campbell's account of Syria and Iraq is particularly rich; at Aleppo, he frequents the coffee houses, describing the Arab storytellers with their shadow puppets, recounting raunchy satires from the 1001 Nights. He hears tales of the Yezidis, and the many kinds of dervishes, during his ride across Iraq; at Baghdad, his Armenian host compares an Arabic manuscript of tales from the 1001 Nights to a printed French translation, on hearing of Campbell's fanciful idea of the city, based on the European "translations" then in circulation. From Baghad he went on to Basra, and then Bombay, by way of Bushire. After many diversions he was shipwrecked on the Indian coast and seized by the troops of Hyder Ali amidst the tumult of the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Campbell describes in detail the court of Mysore, and the misfortunes of his fellow prisoners, but good fortune sees him employed as a messenger for Hyder Ali conveying terms to the British forces and the letters end with Campbell's safe release from forced service. These letters were written with the benefit of more than a decade's subsequent experience, and are structured to provide salutary moral tales for their young reader. But Campbell is pragmatic in the lessons he offers, and, though a great believer in the supremacy of British government, is remarkably even-handed in his description of those he encounters, from Turkish officers, to qadis, and even Hyder Ali himself, whose qualities he details. This book proved enormously popular, published as it was shortly before the Third Anglo-Mysore War, and passed into a sixth edition by 1808, together with abridged versions and even a chapbook based on Campbell's experiences in Mysore.
  • $3,421
  • $3,421
book (2)

History of the Afghans: translated from the Persian of Neamet Ullah. [Second part.]

Dorn, Bernhard. First edition. One volume, folio (32 x 25.5 cm); pp.[ii, subscriber's leaf], [iv], viii, 131, [1]. A very good copy in original cloth, remnants of paper label to spine. Spine slightly faded with small tears to head and foot, corners bumped. Mild foxing to preliminaries. With the printed subscriber's leaf of Sir Gore Ouseley. Ni'mat Allah al-Harawi, anglicised as Neamat Ullah, was historiographer at the Court of Jehangir 1609-11. His work, Makhzan-i Afghani, is the earliest known history of the Afghans from their beginnings to the sixteenth century. Dorn's translation was from a manuscript copied in 1718 belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society. This work is as much origin myth as it is factual history. The Makhzan traces the Pashtuns' origins from Abraham down to a king named King Talut (Saul), that is agreed by Muslim and Hebrew sources to be the same King Saul in Palestine around 1092 B.C.E., but after that date has little corroboration. According to Ni'mat Allah, Qais was the ancestor of most of the existing Pashtun tribes. He met Muhammad and embraced Islam. The book plays a large part in various theories that the Pashtun people are descended from the Israelites, as one of the Ten Lost Tribes. The book also covers Pashtun rulers in Bengal, contemporary events, and Pashtun hagiography. The first part, issued in 1829 and not present here, contains the translation in full; the second part includes a Pushtoo Grammar and Vocabulary as well as notes on the Afghans from other sources. This second part, and its extensive annotations, benefit greatly from a second manuscript copy lent to Dorn from the private collection of a Dr Lee; in Dorn's words "it served to elucidate almost all the passages that had previously been obscure". Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn (1805-1881), was a German who specialised in the history and language of Iran, Russia, and Afghanistan. He was a professor at Kharkov from 1829 until 1835 when he moved to teach at St. Petersburg. He taught oriental languages including Sanskrit, history and geography of the Muslim east, and offered the first ever class in Pashtu in Europe. From 1842 he was also director of the Asiatic Museum and head of the oriental section of the Imperial public library. He was a pioneer of Iranian studies in his time, not just in publications but in collections and preservation of archaeological finds. He was also prolific in publications relating to the Pashtuns and Afghan tribal history, as well as the first systematic description of Pashto. Sir Gore Ouseley (1770-1844) was an eminent orientalist, perhaps best known for his service as British envoy to Persia, in which he earned the respect of both shah and czar; he served as vice-chairman of the Royal Asiatic Society and president of the Oriental Translation Committee.
  • $1,368
  • $1,368
History of the Afghans: Translated from the Persian of Neamat Ullah

History of the Afghans: Translated from the Persian of Neamat Ullah, by Bernhard Dorn, Professor of Oriental Literature in the Imperial Russian University of Kharkov. Part I.

Neamet Ullah First edition, folio, pp.xv, 184, [2, Oriental Translation Fund leaflet] A very good copy in the original cloth, edges speckled red, light foxing to endpapers and first and last few leaves affecting margins only. From the Library of the Royal Society of Edinburgh with their discreet stamp on title page. Ni'mat Allah al-Harawi, anglicised as Neamat Ullah, was historiographer at the Court of Jehangir 1609-11. His work, Makhzan-i Afghani, is the earliest known history of the Afghans from their beginnings to the sixteenth century. Dorn's translation was from a manuscript copied in 1718 belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society. This work is as much origin myth as it is factual history. The Makhzan traces the Pashtuns' origins from Abraham down to a king named King Talut (Saul), that is agreed by Muslim and Hebrew sources to be the same King Saul in Palestine around 1092 B.C.E., but after that date has little corroboration. According to Ni'mat Allah, Qais was the ancestor of most of the existing Pashtun tribes. He met Muhammad and embraced Islam. The book plays a large part in various theories that the Pashtun people are descended from the Israelites, as one of the Ten Lost Tribes. The book also covers Pashtun rulers in Bengal, contemporary events, and Pashtun hagiography. This first part contains the translation in full; the second part, issued seven years later and not present here, includes a Pushtoo Grammar and Vocabulary as well as notes on the Afghans from other sources. The first part was published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1829; Dorn's appointment to the faculty of the University of Kharkov in 1829 delayed his work by several years. Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn (1805-1881), was a German who specialised in the history and language of Iran, Russia, and Afghanistan. He was a professor at Kharkov from 1829 until 1835 when he moved to teach at St. Petersburg. He taught oriental languages including Sanskrit, history and geography of the Muslim east, and offered the first ever class in Pashtu in Europe. From 1842 he was also director of the Asiatic Museum and head of the oriental section of the Imperial public library. He was a pioneer of Iranian studies in his time, not just in publications but in collections and preservation of archaeological finds. He was also prolific in publications relating to the Pashtuns and Afghan tribal history, as well as the first systematic description of Pashto. The Royal Society of Edinburgh sold its books at auction in the early 1980's. Most, like this, were unread.
  • $1,163
  • $1,163
book (2)

History of the Afghans: Translated from the Persian of Neamat Ullah, by Bernhard Dorn, Professor of Oriental Literature in the Imperial Russian University of Kharkov. Parts I & II.

Neamet Ullah; Dorn, Bernhard, translator First edition, two volumes bound in one, folio, pp.xv, [1, errata], 184; viii, 131. A very good set bound in recent half calf, marbled boards. Light foxing to first few leaves. Ni'mat Allah al-Harawi, anglicised as Neamat Ullah, was historiographer at the Court of Jehangir 1609-11. His work, Makhzan-i Afghani, is the earliest known history of the Afghans from their beginnings to the sixteenth century. Dorn's translation was from a manuscript copied in 1718 belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society. This work is as much origin myth as it is factual history. The Makhzan traces the Pashtuns' origins from Abraham down to a king named King Talut (Saul), that is agreed by Muslim and Hebrew sources to be the same King Saul in Palestine around 1092 B.C.E., but after that date has little corroboration. According to Ni'mat Allah, Qais was the ancestor of most of the existing Pashtun tribes. He met Muhammad and embraced Islam. The book plays a large part in various theories that the Pashtun people are descended from the Israelites, as one of the Ten Lost Tribes. The book also covers Pashtun rulers in Bengal, contemporary events, and Pashtun hagiography. The first part contains the translation in full; the second part, issued seven years later, includes a Pushtoo Grammar and Vocabulary as well as notes on the Afghans from other sources. The first part was published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1829; Dorn's appointment to the faculty of the University of Kharkov in 1829 delayed his work by several years. The second part, and its extensive annotations, benefit greatly from a second manuscript copy lent to Dorn from the private collection of a Dr Lee; in Dorn's words "it served to elucidate almost all the passages that had previously been obscure". Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn (1805-1881), was a German who specialised in the history and language of Iran, Russia, and Afghanistan. He was a professor at Kharkov from 1829 until 1835 when he moved to teach at St. Petersburg. He taught oriental languages including Sanskrit, history and geography of the Muslim east, and offered the first ever class in Pashtu in Europe. From 1842 he was also director of the Asiatic Museum and head of the oriental section of the Imperial public library. He was a pioneer of Iranian studies in his time, not just in publications but in collections and preservation of archaeological finds. He was also prolific in publications relating to the Pashtuns and Afghan tribal history, as well as the first systematic description of Pashto.
  • $1,368
  • $1,368
Voyage ou relation de l'etat present du Royaume de Perse. Avec une dissertation curieuse sur les Moeurs

Voyage ou relation de l’etat present du Royaume de Perse. Avec une dissertation curieuse sur les Moeurs, religion & gouvernement de cet etat. [with] Relation de l’empire de Maroc.

Sanson, François; Pidou de Saint Olon, François Second edition of first work, first edition of second. 12mo (16 x 10 cm), pp.[x], 264, [24, contents], frontispiece, 5 plates, 2 folding, and folding map, title printed in red and black; [xvi], 224, [10], frontispiece, 8 plates, and folding plan, title printed in red black. A very good copy bound in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments. Edges somewhat rubbed, spine worn. Hinges cracked but firm, front free endpaper torn. Contents clean. Two late seventeenth-century French diplomatic accounts bound together, spanning the western and eastern Islamic world. The first work is by the French missionary François Sanson, who had joined Bishop Piquet of Baghdad at the Safavid court in 1683. After Piquet's death in 1685, Sanson remained to negotiate at court until 1692, when the shah issued a proclamation authorising Catholic missions at New Julfa and Hamadan. Sanson returned to France to present the shah's proclamation to Louis XIV at Versailles in 1693. This is his account of almost ten years in Persia during the waning years of Safavid rule. Court politics, dress, architecture, and commerce are all discussed. The second was written by the French diplomat François Pidou de Saint Olon, who was sent to negotiate a commercial treaty with Mulay Ismail, Sultan of Morocco, in 1693, following several earlier unsuccessful embassies. His mission too was unsuccessful prompting him to compile this account of Morocco, based on his brief time in the country and other published sources. The text includes a twenty-page account of his audiences at Mulay Ismail's court, and the text of the letter to Louis XIV which Pidou de Saint Olon brought back to France. The folding plan depicts the fortress by the port town of Larache, near Tangier.
  • $2,052
  • $2,052
The Principall Navigations

The Principall Navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation, made by sea or over-land.

Hakluyt, Richard First and second volumes only (of three), bound together, folio, pp. [iii]-xxiv, 606; [xvi], 312, 204; title of vol. I lacking. A very good copy tightly rebound in modern half calf, marbled boards. Very slight rubbing to the bottom edges of boards. Pages 114-115 of vol.I and 6-7 of vol.II pt.2 misnumbered, but have correct text. A couple of wormholes to margins, with one through the margin of all the first volume, sometimes affecting side notes but not readability. Roughly 30 leaves are lightly frayed, and the first and last couple of leaves have are more frayed with some page loss but no text loss. A few internal tears to margins, only affecting text on pp.465-6 vol. I. Light tanning or staining to most pages usual to books this age. Occasional darker dirt stains have faded the text, and rarely spots obscure a few letters or part of a word. The present two volumes include much information on Asia, from the medieval travellers John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck in the thirteenth century and Odoric of Pordenone in the fourteenth, until the early 1590s. Especially notable is the 'Excellent description of the kingdome of China', which Hakluyt printed for the first time in English, translated from a Latin book published at Macao in 1590 captured (along with much treasure) by the English from a Portuguese carrack, the Madre de Dios, in 1592. Compiled in China by a Portuguese Jesuit, Duarte de Sande, this remarkable account used reports from Ricci and other Jesuits who had only recently penetrated China's isolation: never intended to circulate in England, it 'undoubtedly answered many questions regularly asked of those who related stories of missions or trading expeditions to the "Middle Kingdom" ' (Lach I.ii p. 810). This is the second, much expanded, edition of Hakluyt's celebrated collection of voyages. The first volume appeared in 1598 (although in some copies its title-page is redated 1599). The third volume, devoted principally to America, was published in 1600. An account of the raid on Cadiz by the earl of Essex was printed at the end of the first volume, but, because of its political sensitivity, these leaves (pp. 607–19) were removed from many copies and are not present here; a handful of copies include a map. This edition is largely expanded, updated, and rewritten from the original version of Hakluyt's book that appeared as a single volume in 1589. Cordier BS 1939
  • $4,789
  • $4,789
book (2)

Maps of Iraq with Notes for Visitors.

Revised and enlarged edition, folio, pp.(iv), 34, frontis, 8 folding maps. Together with 8 contemporary folding maps of the region loosely inserted. A good copy in rather worn original cloth. The maps are frayed at edges, several have tears to folds, one is annotated in pencil. With the stamp of the Royal College of Medicine, Baghdad. Maps 1-4 are Roads of Northern Irag; Upper Central Iraq; Lower Central Iraq; [and] Southern Iraq. Map 5 is The Trans-Desert Routes and their connections. Map 6, The City of Baghdad and environs. 7, The environs of Basrah. 8, Ancient Sites. Additional maps: 1: Carte de la Syrie et d'Irak. Echelle 1: 1.150.000. Alexandrie. Egypte. Alexandre Nicohosoff. 40 x 70 cm. Folding to card cover. 2: Iraq, Syria, Turkey. Mosul Division. No J.38 M. Jazarat Ibn Omar. For Official Use only. 68 x 50 cm. Folded. May 1941. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 3: Iraq. Baghdad, Diyala, Dulaim. No.2.C. Baghdad. For Official Use only. 64 x 49 cm. Folded. 1931. Reprint of 1922 edition. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 4: Iraq, Turkey. Mosul Division. No.J-38 N. Hakari. For Official Use only. 68 x 50 cm. Folded. May 1941. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 5: Iraq. Erbil and Mosul Divisions. No.J-38 T. Mosul. For Official Use only. 68 x 49 cm. Folded. June 1942. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 6: Iraq, Syria. Mosul Division. No.J-38 S. Tel Afar. For Official Use only. 63 x 45 cm. Folded. May 1942. 1 inch to 4 miles. Surveyor General of India. 7: Road Mileages Iraq. 69 x 56 cm. Folded. Scale: 1 inch to 32 miles. December 1943. Compiled by GHQ Paiforce. 8: Pencil sketch map of Chaimatina mountains and Berwer Bala Valley. And Stanford's Map of the Middle East. Torn on folds.