Sionita, Gabriel. Arabia, seu Arabum vicinarumque gentium Orientalium leges, ritus, sacri et profani mores, instituta et historia: accedunt praeterea varia per Arabiam itinera, in quibus multa notatu digna enarrantur [...].

Amsterdam, Johann Jansson, 1633.

12mo. 297 (but: 287) pp. With engraved, illustrated title page. Contemporary limp vellum with traces of ties.

 750.00

First edition of the collection. Contains: 1. Sionita & Hesronita. De nonnullis orientalibus urbium. "This important work contains early descriptions of Baghdad, Bokhara, Damascus, Medina, Mecca, and Aleppo" (Blackmer). 2. "De moribus atque institutis Turcarum" by the French diplomat C. Richier. 3. W. Drechsler's "Historia Arabum".

Slight worming to first pages; some waterstaining near end. Contemporary ink ownership to pastedown: "Ex libris Bibliothecae S. Dominici Ferrariae"; old stamp to first half-title. An appealing little volume.

References

Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2084 (erroneously "1653"). Blackmer 1544 (note). Weber II, 697. Gay 3452 (erroneously 1653). Hage Chahine 4533. The Heritage Library: Treasures of Islamic and Arabic Heritage (Qatar 2006), s. v. "Travels", with illustration.