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ARABICA
(A
Remarkable Trio). Rosenmüller, Ernest Friedrich Karl.
Analecta arabica editit latine vertit et illustravit. Ern. Fried. Car. Rosenmüller.
Lipsiae: sumtibus I. A. Barthii, 1825-1828. 8vo. 3 vols. in 1. I: xii, 44, 23,
[1 (blank)] pp. II: xviii, 55, [1], 39, [1] pp., [1] f. III: viii, 56, 27, [1
(blank)] pp.
$2250.00
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In this amazing volume Rosenmüller has gathered three important anthologized Arabic texts and proceeds to offer them in Arabic and Latin; he even provides Latin-language prefaces and, for two texts, Arabic–Latin glossaries. The first text is given the Latin title, “Institutiones iuris Mohammedano e duobus al-Codurii codicibus” and is an anthology of passages from Mukhtasar of Imam al-Quduri on questions relating to Moslems making war on infidels. Mukhtasar al-Quduri is universally recognized as one of the earliest mainstays of the Hanafi school of legal scholarship.
The second text, entitled “Zohairi Carmen al-moallakah appellatum” in Latin and “Mu'allaqāt” in Arabic, is composed of seven poems of considerable length in Arabic that predate the advent of Islam. Each is by a different poet and is considered his best work. Glosses are present and pp. ix–xvi reproduce Reiske's introduction to his Taraphae Moallakah.
The last text is on Syria, from the writings of Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrîsî (cartographer, geographer and traveller who lived in Sicily) and al-Zâhirî.
A very handsomely printed book in Arabic and Latin.
Lambrecht 1129. 19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper, boards and spine abraded; paper spine-label with hand-lettering. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown. Four-digit number in ink at base of first p. V. Housed in a modern quarter brown morocco tray case with raised bands on spine, each accented above and below with gilt beading (our last image shows the volume lying in its box). One spine compartment with title, another with publication place and dates, all others with gilt center device. A very acceptable copy of a scarce and important work for Arabic studies.
Arabian Nights. The thousand and one nights, commonly called, in England, the Arabian nights’ entertainments. London: Charles Knight & Co., 1839–41. 8vo (25.3 cm, 10"). 3 vols. I: Add. engr. t.-p., xxiii, [3], [xxv]–xxxii, 618 pp.; illus. II: Add. engr. t.-p., xii, 643, [1] pp.; illus. III: Add. engr. t.-p., xii, 763, [1] pp.; illus.
$750.00
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First edition of Edward William Lane’s English translation, illustrated with numerous in-text wood engravings from designs by William Harvey. Lane, an Egyptologist and noted scholar of Arabic language and literature, chose to bowdlerize portions of the tales he found “objectionable,” but added extensive anthropological and cultural annotations, as well as explanations of many of his choices in translation and transliteration.
NSTC 2L3671. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and gilt-framed compartments; sides and edges a bit rubbed, vol. I with small scuffed area from now-absent label on front cover. All edges marbled. Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp, title-page versos rubber-stamped, inked numeral in lower margin of dedication or contents page depending on volume.
A lavishly produced set, attractively illustrated and bound.

FIRST to
Timbuktu & Back
Caillié, René Auguste. Journal d'un voyage a Temboctou et
a Jenné, dans l'Afrique Centrale, précédé d'observations faites chez les Maures Braknas, les Nalous et d'autres peuples; pendant les années 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828. Paris: L'Imprimerie Royale, 1830. 8vo (21.1 cm, 8.25"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xii, 472, [4] pp. II: [4], 426 pp. III: [4], 404, [2] pp. (lacking 5 plates and map).
$1500.00
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First edition. Caillié, a French explorer and adventurer inspired by a boyhood love of Robinson Crusoe, spent eight months in Senegal posing as a convert to Islam and learning Arabic; he was also the first modern European traveller to make a successful voyage to Timbuktu and back — Maj. Gordon Lang preceded him to the city, but was murdered during his travel home. Caillié was
awarded the Société de Géographie de Paris prize of 10,000 francs for his completed trip, despite his description of his travels through Senegal, Mali, and the Sahara's having been met with some skepticism in his native France; the travelogue was better received in England, and very popular in translation there.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author.
Howgego, II, C2. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Five plates and one map lacking (frontispiece present); two leaves each with tear along inner margin, not touching text; foxed throughout but without embrittlement.
(24387)
A FAMED but UNLUCRATIVE
Polyglot Dictionary
Castell, Edmund. Lexicon heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctim; et Persicum, separatim. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1669. Folio (44.9 cm, 17.6). 2 vols. in I. Frontis., [8] pp., 44 columns (43 & 44 repeated in numbering), [2] pp., 573 columns (402, 403, 421 & 422 repeated in numbering; 340, 341, 399, & 400 skipped), [1] p., 4008 columns (376–78 & 391–93 incorrectly numbered; 484–86, 538, 1936–38, 3220–25, 3773–78, & 3950–51 repeated in numbering; 487–89, 535, & 3226–3231 skipped).
$1500.00
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First edition. Intended as a companion to Bishop Walton's Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, in which endeavor the author assisted, this seven-language dictionary is “probably the greatest and most perfect work of the kind ever performed by human industry and learning” according to Dr. Clarke; Dibdin says of the erudite and somewhat erratically organized Lexicon that it “has long challenged the admiration, and defied the competition, of foreigners; and . . . has raised an eternal monument of literary fame.” Castell was an orientalist who spent 18 years and (according to Dibdin) the whole of his patrimony laboring over the Lexicon, only to find the undertaking woefully unsuccessful on the market despite its much-lauded scholarship.
The frontispiece portrait was done by William Faithorne, and the title-page is printed in red and black. The text is printed first in two columns and then in three per page, and is ornamented throughout with decorative capitals. The columns are erratically numbered, but the text is complete.
Provenance: Signature on fly-leaf of Hampus Kristoffer Tullberg (Lund), 19th-century Swedish scholar of Hebrew and other languages.
ESTC R16460; Wing (rev. ed.) C1225; Vancil 46; Lowndes 386; Dibdin, I, 31–35. On Castell, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. 18th-century speckled calf, covers bordered with a darker calf band blind-rolled and then framed with single gilt fillet; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, darker-leather raised bands gilt-stamped/blind-tooled, and compartments gilt- and blind-tooled enclosing gilt-stamped floral decorations. Binding rubbed, with leather significantly lost in top compartment and and lost also at foot. All edges marbled. Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription as above dated 1837; title-page with old institutional pressure-stamp. Frontispiece with outer margin reinforced some time ago. One leaf slightly oversized and creased, intermittent soiling in many upper margins, one leaf with text affected but not obscured, small sections with light waterstaining to outer or upper margins; over all, a book both impressive and pleasant. Columns erratically numbered, text complete. (25792)
Freystadt, M. Philosophia cabbalistica et pantheismus. Regimontii Prussorum: Borntraeger (pr. by Conradus Paschke), 1832. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). xv, [1], 143, [1] pp.
$350.00
Uncommon sole edition of Freystadt’s essay on Kabbalah and on pantheistic thought, printed in Latin and Hebrew with sprinklings of Arabic and Greek. Steineschneider cites this as Freystadt’s “dissert. inaug.”
Steineschneider, Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum, 5085. Contemporary paste paper–covered boards, spine with hand-inked title label; binding rubbed and abraded, spine with stamped shelving number. All edges stained red. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate.

Arabic — Armenian — Antiochus
Hamaker, Hendrik Arent. Specimen catalogi codicum mss. orientalium bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae ... [bound with two other works as described below]. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud S. & J. Luchtmans, 1820. 4to (24.5 cm, 9.7"). [4], viii, 264, [4] pp. [bound with] Chahan de Cirbied, Jacques M. Notice de deux manuscrits Arméniens contenant l'histoire de Mathieu Eretz ... Paris: De l'imprimerie Impériale, 1812. 4to. 92 pp. [and] Tôchon
d'Annecy, Joseph-François . Dissertation sur l'époque de la mort d'Antiochus VII évergètes sidétès, roi de Syrie, sur deux médailles antiques de ce prince ... Paris: L.G. Michaud, 1815. 4to. Frontis., 68 pp.
$1250.00
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First edition of this catalogue of Arabic manuscripts held by the university at Leiden, annotated by Hamaker; the text is printed in Latin and Arabic. That work is followed by one on ancient Armenian manuscripts and another on the last era of Antiochus Sidetes with reference both to numismatic and Biblical sources; these are also in their first editions.
Hamaker: Brunet, III, 26-27. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information; binding darkened, corners and joints lightly rubbed. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with neatly inked list of contents, half-title with small inked annotation dated 1825. Hamaker: Occasional instances of light spotting, pages otherwise clean. Chahan: Light intermittent foxing; inked marginalia in a neat hand. Tochon: Title-page with inked ownership inscription in upper margin, dated 1848. (20613)

First French Koran — Pirated Edition
Koran. L'Alcoran de Mahomet. Traduit d'Arabe en François, par le Sieur du Ryer, Sieur de la Garde Malezair. A la Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1683. 12mo (13.7 cm, 5.4"). Frontis., [10], 486, [4] pp.
$700.00
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Early reissue of an Elzevir edition of the first published French translation of the Koran, done by Orientalist and diplomat André du Ryer. Ryer's translation, originally published in 1647, was only the third western version and the first rendered from the original Arabic rather than the Latin.
This edition opens with a copper-engraved added title-page signed by J. Padebrugge; the main title-page bears the Elzevir sphere mark. Willems notes that it is “une copie exacte et ligne pour ligne de celle [the Elzevir edition] de 1672, dont en effect Moetjens s'était rendu adjudicataire, mais c'est positivement une réimpression.” It is, in effect, a
line-for-line piracy, and a handsome one faithful to its original's good qualities.
Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only eight U.S. holdings.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of collector Robert J. Hayhurst.
Brunet, III, 1309; Willems 1472. Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum remarkably clean. Original blue silk place marker present and intact. Front free endpaper with upper outer corner excised, mostly removing an early inked ownership inscription; title-page with early inked inscriptions lined through; back free endpaper with recent pencilled purchase record. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, just touching text without loss. Pages clean. A nice book. (25561)

Victorian Arabica
Nicely Presented
Meredith, George. The shaving of Shagpat. New York: Pr. by the George Grady Press for the Limited Editions Club, 1955. 4to.
$60.00
The centenary edition of Meredith's Arabian-inspired fantasy, with an introduction by Sir Francis Meredith Meynell and illustrations by Honore Guilbeau, who signed the colophon. The
printing here is handsome, with accents and chapter indications in blue throughout and with touches of other colors — leaf green and curry. This is copy number 288 of 1500 printed.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 260. Publisher's quarter leather over printed paper-covered sides; spine extremities slightly rubbed, in slipcase showing a bit of scraping and refurbished at top fore-edge. Very nice. (13276)

IRAQ — An
8th-Century Account
Muhammad ibn ’Umar, al-Wakidi. Libri Wakedii de Mesopotamiae expugnatae historia pars e codice Bibliothecae Gottingensis Arabico edita et annotatione illustrata. Qua scriptione ... ad orationem publicam audiendam invitat Georgius Henricus Augustus Ewald. Gottingae: sumtibus Dieterichianis, 1827. Small 4to. xxvi, 24 pp.
$900.00
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This edition of 8th-century historian Muhammad ibn ’Umar's account of Iraq is based on the Arabic manuscript in the University of Goettingen, which manuscript is printed here in its entirety in Arabic. The scholarly introductory study is in Latin with some Arabic. The editor was Heinrich Ewald (1803–75).
Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
Evidence of Readership: A very few pencilled notes in Arabic.
19th-century German boards covered in mottled black paper with old paper spine label; ex-library with with minimal markings. In fact, a nice clean copy. (15001)

PRICE's
History of Islam
Price, David. Chronological retrospect, or memoirs of the principal events of Mahommedan history, from the death of the Arabian legislator, to the accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustaun. London: J. Booth; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; and Black, Parry, & Kingsbury, 1811–20. Large 4to (29.8 cm). 3 vols. in 4. I: xvi, 606, [8] pp. II: xvi, 716 pp.; 1 oversized, fold. col. map. III: xv, [1], 483, [1] pp. IV: [2], [485]–998 pp.
$750.00
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First edition. Major Price (1762–1835), an officer of the East India Company, was a notable orientalist and member of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Chronological Retrospect is his best-known and most referenced work; the DNB says it is “the painstaking work of a genuine scholar anxious to do full justice to his authorities,” while Allibone calls it “the authority on the subjects discussed.”
The work was printed by several different hands, all in Wales, and one was a woman printer: Vol. I was done by George North of Brecknock, vol. II by Henry Hughes of Brecon, and vols. III and IV by Priscilla Hughes, also of Brecon and presumably heir to Henry.
Vol. II opens with a hand-colored oversized, folding map.
Allibone 1677; Lowndes 1961. On Price, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Publisher's quarter cloth and paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings rubbed and faded overall, spines with spots of discoloration, cloth splitting along front joint of vol. I and starting from head of front joint of vol. II. Front pastedowns with traces of now-absent bookplates; each vol. with title-page and one other institutionally pressure-stamped. Page edges untrimmed; intermittent mild to moderate foxing. Map with one short tear from inner margin, otherwise in beautiful condition. (26024)
Famous “Medieval” Anti-Jewish Tract
Rare Translation
Samuel, Marochitanus (or Maroccanus). Ein Sendbrieff Rabbi Samuels von Israel, so Bürtig war auss der Stadt dess Konigs Morachiam, an Rabbi Isaac, Meystern der Synagogen, so in der Stadt Subjuliveta bemeltes Reichs ist : von der Jüden Zerstrewung, Ceremonien, Verblendung, vnd Vnglauben, auch welches die Sünde und Ursach sey, dasz Gottes Zorn so hart uber sie ergehe, und warumb sie in so langer Gefengnuss und Dienstbarkeit stecken müssen: so merhr als vor 500 Jahren in arabischer Sprach beschrieben, und hernach im Jahr
1239. in lateinische Sprach vertirt, nun aber durch ein Gottseligen Mann der Christenheit zu gut verdeutschet. Marpurg: Gedruckt ... Durch Paulum Egenolff, 1600. Small 4to. 59, [1] pp.
$1500.00
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Uncommon later printing in German of Epistola contra Judaeorum errores, an anti-Jewish work of the 11th century. Written originally in Arabic by the convert Samuel Abu Nasr ibn Abbas, son of Judah ibn Abbas of Fez, it was translated into Latin in the 14th century by the Spanish Dominican Alfonsus Bonihominis. In its original Arabic form, the work "claimed to prove the prophetic character of Jesus and Mohammed and argued that too many laws were added to the Torah by the Mishnah and Gemara. Buenhombre adapted the tract to present it as a Christian rather than Muslim polemic" (Jewish Encyclopedia). More recent scholarship (Marsmann, Epistel des Rabbi Samuel an Rabbi Isaak, 1971) indicates that Samuel is possibly fictitious and Alphonsus was probably, in fact, the author of the text. Uncommon edition: We locate only this deaccessioned copy in the U.S. and VD16 locates only three copies in Germany.
VD16 S1581. Removed from a nonce volume, in later wrappers. Dust-soiled. Library pressure-stamp and private owner's (old) inked signature on title-page. A very good copy. (21113)
Stock, Christian. Clavis lingvae sanctae Veteris Testamenti...cvi accedit breve dictionarium Chaldeo-Rabbinicum. Editio quinta.... Ienae: Apud Ioh. Felicem Bielckium, 1744. 8vo (22 cm, 8.625"). Frontis., [3] ff., 1198 pp., [25] ff., 133, [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$300.00
Christian Stock (1672–1733) was a Professor at Jena who edited his own edition of the New Testament and was the author of a popular Greek–Latin lexicon of the New Testament, a homiletical lexicon, and this Hebrew lexicon of the Old Testament. It is printed in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, roman, and italic types, with an engraved portrait of the author as frontispiece. The 25 unnumbered leaves following p. 1198 are an index of the Latin definitions used, and a short “Chaldean” (i.e., Aramaic) dictionary, for those parts of the Old Testament written in that language, is appended at the end.
Contemporary calf, spine gilt and with red leather label. Leather dry and flaking, with loss over corners, joints open but sewing holding, chipping at head and foot of spine, and crack down center of spine: This volume could split. Ownership inscriptions in ink on front pastedown and reverse of frontispiece. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and fly-leaves; light to moderate foxing throughout. All edges speckled red.
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