Travels in Nubia - John Lewis Burckhardt

1819 - John Murray, London - First Edition
Illustrated with an engraved portrait and three maps, two of which are folding.

Edited from Burckhardt's journals by Lieutenant Colonel William Martin Leake (1777-1860); he also wrote the biographical memoir which is prefaces the ‘Travels’. John Lewis Burckhardt of Kirshgarten (1784-1817) was a pioneering Swiss explorer who is best remembered for his rediscovery of the ancient city of Petra in modern Jordan.

In 1809 Burckhardt was commissioned by the African Association and their president, Sir Joseph Banks, to discover the source of the River Niger. Posing as a Muslim convert and going by the name of Sheikh Ibrahim he spent two years exploring and studying Arabic and Islamic law in Aleppo, before travelling widely in Arabia and Egypt This volume, first published posthumously in 1819, contains Burckhardt's account of his two visits to Nubia (modern Upper Egypt and Sudan) in 1813 and 1814. Burckhardt was the first western scholar to explore the Sudanese Nile valley, and one of the first western explorers successfully to cross the Nubian Desert. In this valuable volume, he describes in fascinating detail the many ancient ruins along the Nile and the logistics and hardships of his desert crossing. [CUP]

On his return to Cairo, Burckhardt, unable to set off for the Niger, compiled his journals into books which he sent to London for publication. He died in 1817 of dysentery and is buried in a Muslim cemetery under the name of Ibrahim ibn Abdallah.

In an article on Burckhardt published in 1973, Professor William Adams wrote of his first journey to Dongola in the Sudan, ‘I doubt if any ethnographer in history ever returned from a five-week field trip into totally unfamiliar country with a more balanced and comprehensive account’. [DEI].
 
More details

Price HK$ 9,000



Eothen, or Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East - Alexander Kinglake

1844 - John Ollivier, London - First Edition
Eothen ("From the East") recaptures a bold young Englishman's exploits in the Middle East during the 1830s. Alexander William Kinglake recounts his rambles through the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in a style radically different from other travel books of his era. Rather than dwelling on art or monuments, Kinglake's captivating narrative focuses on the natives and their cities. His adventures―populated by Bedouins, pashas, slave-traders, monks, pilgrims, and other colorfully drawn personalities―include crossing the desolate Sinai with a four-camel caravan and a sojourn in plague-ridden Cairo.

A contemporary of Gladstone at Eton and of Tennyson and Thackeray at Cambridge, Kinglake offers a frankly imperialistic world view. "As I felt so have I written," he declares in his preface, and his forthright expressions of his thoughts and impressions range in mood from confessional, to comic, to serious, to romantic. Victorian readers were captivated by Kinglake's chatty tone and his uncompromising honesty, and two centuries later this remarkable travelogue remains funny, fresh, and original.’ – introduction from 2015
Dover Publications edition.

Illustrated with a hand-coloured folding lithographic plate (frontispiece) and coloured lithographic plate (opposite page 209), both from water-colours by Kinglake. Scarce in original cloth with gilt illustration, usually found rebound in later leather.
 
More details

Price HK$ 9,000



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]
 
More details

Price HK$ 18,000



1896 - Edward Arnold, London - Second Edition
A nice example of Slatin’s magnificent autobiography, one of the most important and captivating tales of the Sudan ever written.

With wonderful provenance, including a card ‘
To my dear old friend Bill Spencer in remembrance of ‘happy days’ in the Sudan from The Author’ which is also signed by Reginald Wingate (aka Wingate of the Sudan who translated this work). Together with a 1931 Christmas card, with tipped in portrait, from Slatin, in Meran, Northern Italy, and a long hand-written note sending his best wishes ‘dear old boy’ and hoping to meet in 1932 ‘somehow - somewhere in good health and spirit’, sadly the year Slatin passed away, signing off Inshallah!, and a number of relevant newspaper clippings.

If Slatin was looking for adventure as he rode his camel into Sudan’s Darfur province in 1881 he got it in spades when one of the most spectacular wars of the 19th century broke out. Under the leadership of their leader known as the Mahdi, a vast native army arose to throw off their Egyptian overlords and cast out its foreign governors. Suddenly what had seemed to Slatin like a well-ordered military career in a quiet back water became a savage struggle of survival between natives and foreigners. Slatin was captured and enslaved. Gordon was surrounded at his capital in Khartoum and beheaded, his head being presented to Slatin. England eventually arose in outrage and sent out an army to retaliate. But it did not arrive before the young Austrian had undergone a series of adventures, survived cruelties too numerous to mention and escaped across the desert one step ahead of his enraged captors.

Fire and Sword in the Sudan records the life story of one of the 19th century’s most gallant soldiers, a man who after escaping from brutal slavery, was awarded military honours by Queen Victoria and returned to the Sudan to assist the very people who had held him in captivity.

A bright and sharp copy, illustrated throughout with black and white photographs, together with two folding maps, this timeless account remains one of the most important and captivating tales of the Sudan ever written.
 
More details

Price HK$ 8,000



Traveller s Prelude, Beyond Euphrates, The Coast of Incense, Dust in the Lion's Paw - Freya Stark

1950 - John Murray, London - First Editions
A complete and finely bound four volume first edition set of the autobiographies by the ‘Grande Old Lady’ of travellers, the intrepid and pioneering Freya Stark (1893-1993).

Dame Freya Stark’s ‘figure has become the image for an archetypal British eccentric abroad – comfortable and regal, colourfully draped, and invariably topped with an elaborate titfer, perhaps astride a camel (’always so obliging’) or bobbing up-river on an inflated goatskin waving serenely to passers-by – but there is a far more serious side to her career. In all her journeys she has been able to distil and communicate a rich philosophy of travel and to illustrate the art of travelling in time as well as place. She carries the past with her, whether discovering long-buried fortresses in the Valley of the Assassins in Luristan, or tracing the footsteps of the ancient incense traders of Arabia, always teaching and learning at the same time. She is, quite simply, a classic.’ – Jane Robinson, Wayward Women.
 
More details

Price HK$ 9,000