Editio princeps of al-Kalbi's mediaeval Book of Horses

Kalbi, Hisham ibn al- / Zaki Pasha, Ahmad (ed.). Ansab al-khayl fi al-Jahiliyah wa-al-Islam wa-akhbaruha [Horse lineages before and after Islam].

€ 3,500.00

First edition and the important first ever print publication of this medieval history of horsemanship, commonly known as the Book of Horses, authored by Muslim historian Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737-819) in the late 8th or early 9th century. Al-Kalbi is most famous for his writings of human history, but here he covers the lineages of horses rather than the genealogies of the Arabs.

Detailing the history of Arab horsemanship both before and after the rise of Islam, al-Kalbi traced the histories of the most famous individual horses and horsemen and the most famous equine lineages, following sire lines. His text provides early versions of famous religious descriptions of the origin of Arabian horses: for example, the domestication of the horse by Abraham's son Ishmael, and the story of the stud of King Solomon.

The editor of this history, the Egyptian philologist Ahmad Zaki Pasha (1867-1934), was himself an important historian and Arabic linguist. He was a fellow of the Institut d'Égypte, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Asiatic Society in London and a well-respected figure in pan-Arabian diplomacy.

Uncut and untrimmed as issued. Wrappers lightly toned with some marginal chipping, otherwise well preserved.