First edition

Nasreddin (Nasir ad-Din) Khodja. Letâif.

€ 4.500,00

The rare first edition of this collection of witty anecdotes centered on the humorous folk figure Nasreddin. This text would be reprinted as the Bulaq edition the following year, thus precipitating the transmission of Nasreddin's stories beyond their homeland in Muslim folkloric tradition: "The influential Cairo prints of 1254 H (1838), 1256 H (1840), 1257 H (1841), and 1259 H (1843) [...] became the basis of European translations, and an unbroken line of [...] Nasreddin Hoca tales thus became cemented in the literary tradition" (Palabiyik). An uncommon specimen of Ottoman Turkish printing, with only one listing on OCLC.

Aside from hint of dampstaining, remarkably bright and clean regardless.