A Pilgrimage To Nejd - Lady Anne Blunt

1881 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition of the second of Lady Blunt’s two classic travel accounts, in publisher’s original gilt pictorial cloth, and describing the journey that she and her husband, the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, made in the winter of 1878–7, across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Persian Gulf. Lady Anne was the first European woman to reach the Nejd and, together with her husband, they were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd. At Hail they met the Emir who received them courteously, having recently knifed his nephew and cut off the feet of his cousins, leaving them to bleed to death.

With over 30 black and white illustrations including fifteen wood-engraved plates, and large folding colour map.

‘To find out how the Bedouin lived, Lady Anne lived like one herself: she became a temporary nomad, riding the two thousand miles from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf for the most part in Arab dress, and without guides or the usual caravan. This was quite an innovation, and prompted Blunt to dub his wife ‘the first bona-fide tourist who has taken the Euphrates road'. - Jane Robinson,
Wayward Women. 
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Price HK$ 12,000



The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Richard F. Burton, Leonard C. Smithers (editor)

1894 - H. S. Nichols &, London - The Library Edition
A magnificent twelve volume set of Burton’s outstanding work of translation. ‘As a monument of his Arabic learning and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Eastern life this was his greatest achievement’ [Encyclopaedia Britannica]. The first editions to be published by Nichols and edited by Leonard Smithers, in bright intricately gilt decorated bindings.

This edition followed on from Lady Burton’s disastrous 1886 abridged six volume edition (without the naughty bits or ‘
Supplemental Nights’) and the original Kamashastra Society of 1885 edition whose facsimile title pages are inserted in their correct places (as Nichols fits the original sixteen volumes into twelve for this set).

‘...But when it was midnight Shahrázád awoke and signalled to her sister Dunyázád who sat up and said, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, recite to us some new story, delightsome and delectable wherewith to while away the waking hours of our latter night." "With joy and goodly gree," answered Shahrázád, "if this pious and auspicious King permit me." "Tell on," quoth the King who chanced to be sleepless and restless and therefore was pleased with the prospect of hearing her story.’ 
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Price HK$ 8,000



Heth and Moab Explorations in Syria in 1881 and 1882 - Claude Reignier Conder

1883 - Richard Bentley &, London - First Edition
A bright copy in original cloth of Captain Conder’s substantial record of his explorations in Syria between 1881 and 1882, published for the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Conder began his expedition in North Syria, before travelling to Kadesh and Jordan, and his work includes chapters on Mount Gilead, Ammon, and the Belka Arabs, as well as Syrian superstitions and Arab folk lore, together with a detailed appendix. Illustrated with four full page engraved plates, and a sketch map of Syria.
 
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Price HK$ 1,800



Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan, of Kabul; with his political proceedings towards the English, Russian, and Persian governments, including the victory and disasters of the British army in Afghanistan - Mohan Lal

1846 - Longman, London - First Edition
A rare and important work. Illustrated with nineteen portraits printed on India paper.

In this two-volume biography, Indian diplomat and author Mohan Lal (1812–77) describes the life of Amir Dost Mohammed Khan (1793–1863), the ruler of Afghanistan. The work also includes an eye-witness account of the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War.

Lal, who was attached to the British mission to Kabul, had prepared an account in English and Persian which was lost during the chaos of the War, but he later put the story together again. In his Preface, Lal apologises to the reader for his abundant errors both in grammar and idiom and explains that anecdotes about the Amir's adventures and morals were generally communicated to him second-hand. However, the book, which contains illustrations and draws on personal correspondence, is a fascinating account of the ruler himself and of his political dealings with the English, Russian and Persian governments at the time of the 'Great Game' in Central Asia. [CUP]
 
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Price HK$ 21,000