Pearl fishing, hawks, Arabian horses, and Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab

Waring, Edward Scott. A Tour to Sheeraz, by the Route of Kazroon and Feerozabad; with various remarks on the manners, customs, laws, language, and literature of the Persians.

London, W. Bulmer for T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1807.

Folio. XIII, (3), 329, (1) pp. With engraved frontispiece (Fat'h-Ali Shah Qajar, King of Persia) and engr. portrait plate (Shaknubat, mistress of Kurim Khan), both after Persian originals. Later blue cloth with giltstamped spine title.

 3,500.00

First European-printed edition, following an error-ridden edition published at Bombay in 1804. Includes a chapter on Arabian horses, an early account of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhabi Islam, and passages on hawk-hunting and pearl fishing in the Arabian Gulf "from the 56th to the 48th degree east longitude", i. e., essentially the Gulf coast from Ras al-Khaimah to Qatar and Bahrain and on to Kuwait. Early attempt at an encompassing description of Persia, by the Bengal civil servant Edward W. H. Scott-Waring (1783-1821). "Very rare" (Allibone).

Bound without the half-title; bookplate and blindstamps of the City of Leeds Public Library.

References

Diba Collection p. 139. Wilson p. 240. Henze IV, 461. Cf. Weber I, 3. Brunet V, 1416. Graesse VI/2, 420 (1st ed. Bombay, 1804).