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Earliest photographs of Mecca and its pilgrims
Mekka.
2 text volumes and 1 volume of plates ("Bilder-Atlas"). XIII, 228, (2) pp. With 2 maps and 3 genealogical tables. XVIII, 393, (4) pp. With 4 chromolithogr. plates, 6 (1 double-sized) toned lithogr. plates, and 65 mounted photographs on 30 plates; 1 f. of contents. Contemp. half calf with giltstamped label to spine. Large 8vo (250 x 175 mm). Contemp. half cloth folder with cover label. Folio (380 x 285 mm).
Remarkable set, rarely encountered complete with the plate volume, issued in merely 100 copies. The Dutch orientalist Snouck spent a year in Mecca and Jeddah during 1884/85 and was married to a Mecca woman. He was the first non-muslim to visit the city outside the annual pilgrimage. The photographs, taken by himself and an Arabic physician, are among the earliest to show Mecca and its pilgrims.
Title pages of text volumes and three images with carefully deleted stamp in the blank margin; insignificant foxing to lithographs. Slight browning to photographs' backing cardboards. The vintage photographs, much sought as the earliest photographic documents of the city, its dignitaries and its pilgrims, are preserved in perfect condition.
Henze V, 177. Macro, Bibl. of the Arabian Peninsula 1239. Dinse 443.
