From the Abemayor collection
Al-madkhal fi al-jughrafiya [An Introduction to Geography].
8vo (127 x 189 mm). Arabic and Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper. 68 ff. on polished cream-coloured wove paper. 19 lines of black and occasional red naskh within red rules (but first bifolio within gilt borders). With a pretty 'unwan headpiece in gilt, grey, opaque white and few colours, showing instruments, as well as numerous diagrams and polychrome illustrations throughout the text. Contemporary green morocco binding with gilt borders.
€ 12,500.00
A text on astronomy, probably a risalah (treatise), composed during the reign of the reform-minded Sultan Mahmud II. The fine illustrations show the planets, northern and southern hemispheres, etc.
Binding a little rubbed and bumped at extremeties; insignificant stains to interior. Provenance: from the private collection of Michel E. Abemayor (1912-1975) of New York, the last descendant of an important Cairo dynasty of dealers in Egyptian antiquities, with his collection ticket to front pastedown.