Asher Rare Books

Enlarged 2nd edition (with 3 extra plates) of an eye-witness account of Aleppo in the 1740s and 1750s

RUSSELL, Alexander. The natural history of Aleppo.
London, printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, 1794. 4to With an engraved frontispiece and 20 numbered engraved plates (including 5 folding) on 19 sheets. Contemporary calf with gold-tooled spine labels, red edges. XXIV, 446, XXIII, [3]; VII, [1], 430, XXXIV, [26] pp. Full description

€ 6,500

Faunas & General Zoology Floras & General Botany Mediterranean Regions West Asia

The war on drugs in Egypt: rare illustrated and highly detailed work on drug trafficking in Egypt in the 1930s

CENTRAL NARCOTICS INTELLIGENCE BUREAU - RUSSELL, Thomas Wentworth (or RUSSELL PASHA). Annual report for the year 1932.
Cairo, Government Press, 1933. Imperial 8vo (27 x 18.5 cm). With 14 rotogravure(?) plates, printed in sepia, 1 folding facsimile letter, 2 folding graphs, a plate with 6 pie charts and 1 illustration (also in red) showing schematically a smuggling box. Original publisher's pink paper wrappers, printed letterpress. XVII, [1 blank], 170 pp. (pp. VI and XVIII blank) Full description

€ 8,500

Egypt Law & Politics North Africa

5 original glass lantern slides with the earliest photographs of Mecca and Medina

SADIQ BEY, Muhammad, Christiaan SNOUCK HURGRONJE and Al-Sayyid ‘Abd al-GHAFFÂR. [5 photographic lantern slides of Mecca and Medina (silver gelatin glass positives), taken in the years 1880 to 1889].
Stuttgart, Lichtbilderverlag Theodor Benzinger, [ca. 1910]. 5 glass positive lantern slides (8.5 x 10 cm), each with a black paper mask, paper tape around the edges, a letterpress slip at the foot giving the publisher's name and city, and a slip at the head with the manuscript title. Kept in a contemporary purpose-made wooden box with brass fittings, with the word "Mekka" on the top of the hinged lid. Full description

€ 35,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Islam & Qurans Islamic Art, Culture & Science Photography

First translation into English of stories from Sa'di's famous Gulistan

SA'DI SHIRAZI and Stephen SULIVAN (translator). Select fables from Gulistan, or the bed of roses. Translated from the original Persian of Sadi.
London, J. Ridley, 1774. 8vo. Modern half calf (period style), gold-tooled spine. V, [1 blank], 139, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 3,950

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Emblem & Songbooks English & American Literature Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Literature

First Spanish edition of a detailed history of the Ottoman Emperors to 1644

SAGREDO, Giovanni. Memorias historicas de los Monarcas Othomanos, que escriuio en lengua Toscana ... Traduzidas en Castellano por Don Francisco de Olivares Murillo, ...
Madrid, Juan Garcia Infanzón, 1684. Folio. 18th-century tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [12], 552, [8] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Law & Politics Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Treatise on a special medicament against various kinds of poisons,
by the personal physician of Count Johann Ludwig von Nassau

SALA, Angelo. Ternarius Bezoarticorum ou trois souverains medicaments Bezoardiques, contre tous venins et empoisonnements tant externes que internes: corruption de sang, & autres humeurs.
Leiden, Govert Basson, 1616. 4to. With engraved allegorical title-page in architectural setting with Andromachus and King Mithridates flanking the title. Modern vellum. [28], 91, [1] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Alchemy Iran / Persia Medicine & Pharmacy (17th Century) Pharmacy / Pharmacopaea

17th-century map of the Turkish Empire

SANSON, Nicolas. Estats de L'Empire du Grand Seigneur des Turqs ou Sultan des Ottomans en Asie, en Afrique, et en Europe.
Paris, 1654. Engraved map (42 x 56 cm), coloured in outline. Full description

€ 2,500

Balkan & Greece Charts & Maps Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus Egypt North Africa Turkey & Ottoman Empire

"Wonderful reproductions of the best known carpets"

SARRE, Friedrich and Hermann TRENKWALD. Alt-orientalische Teppiche.
Vienna & Leipzig, Anton Schroll & Co. and Karl W. Hiersemann for the Österreichischen Museum für Kunst und Industrie, 1926-1928. 2 volumes bound as 4. Imperial folio (60.5 x 44 cm). With 120 collotype plates (67 colour and 53 black & white, 7 of the latter double-page) by Max Jaffé (1845-1939), and 14 wood-engraved full-page illustrations on the integral leaves. Later half calf with cloth sides. 21, [3], [29]; [31]; 43, [28]; [32] pp. Full description

€ 7,500

Art & Art History Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science

Portrait of John Sturges in Turkish costume

[DRAWING]. SAUNDERS, John. [John Sturges in Turkish costume with turban and gold-trimmed coat].
Peterborough, 1739. Pastel on paper, mounted on canvas (41 x 30.5 cm), stretched over (original?) wooden board. Full description

€ 12,500

Costumes & Uniforms Islamic Art, Culture & Science Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Summary of ideas from the Qu'ran in French: bibliophile production on wove paper, published in Paris and Constantinople

SAVARY, Claude-Etienne. Morale de Mahomet; ou recueil des plus pures maximes du Coran.
Constantinople, [no publisher's name]; Paris, Lamy, 1784. 18mo in 2s. With a woodcut flower ornament on the title-page, a woodcut rococco headpiece, small decorated roman capitals used as initials, decorative rules. Brown goatskin morocco (ca. 1865?), gold-tooled spine in 6 compartments, chemical marbled sides, nonpareil marbled endpapers. [4], 91, [1 blank] pp. Full description