2021 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
23 through 29 May 2019
Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre
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1Arabic manuscript dictionary of pharmaceutical simpliciaNazm al-Suluk wa Taqwim al-Adviyeh [An Arabic manuscript dictionary of …Ottoman Levant possibly Jerusalem, 1556 CE = Shawwal 974 H.
InquireA substantial 16th century codex on herbal medicine and pharmaceutical simplicia, constituting a reference work for medication and the application of practical remedies. The physician and astronomer Abu al-Fazl Hubaysh was given the title "al-Mutabbib" (the doctor) for the numerous medical texts he composed, including the present volume as well …
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3Two key works of the Arab astrologer, with French humanist provenanceIntroductorium in astronomiam Albumasaris abalachi octo continens libros …Venice, 5 Sept. 1506.
€ 45,000.00A humanist sammelband comprising two attractive, finely illustrated Venetian editions of key astrological works by the great Arab astronomer Abu Ma'shar, who furnished the West with Aristotelian thinking. These 12th-century Latin versions of Abu Ma'shar's immense introduction to astrology, "Kitab al-madkhal al-kabir 'ala 'ilm ahkam al-nujum" (translated …
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7Precursor to Ibn Sina's Qanun: the earliest Arabic medical work to provide instructions on surgical procedureKitab Kamil as-Sina'a at-Tabbaiya [The Complete Book of Medical Art].Safavid Persia, 1582-1584 CE = 990-991 H.
€ 175,000.00One of the few existing complete copies of this medical milestone. Exceptionally rare: a fundamental medical work from the Golden Age of Islamic scholarship, preceding and influencing Avicenna's Qanun. Monumentally influential not only in Islamic medicine, this work even had profound impact in the West. It was first translated into Latin by Constantinus …
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8"An astronomy fit for an emperor" (Owen Gingerich)Astronomicum Caesareum.Ingolstadt, May 1540.
InquireFirst edition of the "most spectacular contribution of the book-maker's art to 16th century science" (Gingerich). Copies in contemporary bindings are of the utmost rarity in the trade. Dedicated to Emperor Charles V and King Ferdinand, the book has been described as "a miracle of printing in folio format: most of the astronomical schemes and instruments …
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10The Sudhoff CollectionThe Sudhoff Collection of the History of Arabic Medicine, deaccessioned …Various places, 1855-1941.
€ 95,000.00A highly important ensemble of books on early Islamic medicine and science, assembled by one of the most renowned medical research institutes of its age, comprising not only rare historical and bibliographical studies, but also many first printed editions of crucial scientific texts in Arabic, frequently in the form of doctoral theses that remain …
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15The fullest and most thorough account of the nomadic tribes of ArabiaNotes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, collected during his travels in the …London, 1830.
€ 6,500.00First edition, posthumously edited by William Ousely. With this work, Burckhardt submitted what was at the time the fullest and most thorough account of the various nomadic tribes of Arabia, including a history of the Wahhabis from their first appearance until 1816 (cf. Henze). A two-volume octavo edition followed immediately, as did a German translation.
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24Polyglot poems: an authorial manuscript bound for the KingPoemata anatolico-polyglotta seu plurium linguarum OO. in laudem Magni …Probably Turin, 1767.
€ 25,000.00A fine dedicatory manuscript, pre-dating the noted Hebraist's first published work: an assembly of polyglot odes by the 25-year-old scholar to the royal family of Sardinia, written in Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, Ethopian, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac, all with their Latin translation opposite.
De Rossi studied at Ivrea and Turin. In 1769 he was …
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26The rare book and manuscript collection of a Franco-Russian oriental scholar, diplomat, and secret agentThe collection and research library of Jean-Jacques-Pierre Desmaisons (1807-1873), …Various places, late 15th century to 1873/74.
€ 1,050,000.00Jean-Jacques-Pierre Desmaisons (1807-73), known in Russia as Petr Ivanovich Demezon, was a wide-ranging oriental scholar as well as a diplomat in Russian services. Born in the Savoyard city of Chambéry, the son of the French physician Pierre-Jacques Desmaisons and his wife Suzanne Roux, he went to Russia in 1826, aged 19, to study oriental languages …
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35The first edition to call Geber an Arab: profusely annotated throughout(De alchemia). In hoc volumine de alchemia continentur haec. Gebri Arabis, …Nuremberg, 1541.
€ 48,000.00The rare first edition of this extremely important and early collection of alchemical writings, which unites several first printings of works previously circulated only as manuscripts. This is first edition to call Geber an "Arab", the first to use "Summa perfectionis magisterii" on the title-page, and also the first printing of the famous "Smaragdine …
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36Complete medical manuscript, copied during the lifetime of the authorTeshil ("Facilitation"). Ottoman medical manual.Central or Eastern Anatolia, 28 April 1408 CE = 1 Du'l-Higga 810 H.
€ 58,000.00Complete Ottoman medical manuscript, copied by the scribe Celalu'd-din Mehmud al-'Ala'i in 1408 CE, still during the lifetime of the book's author, the Anatolian religious scholar and physician Haci Pasha (known in the Arabic tradition as Haggi Basha Galalu'd-Din al-Hidr bin 'Ali bin al-Hattab al-Aydini).
The introduction (1v-2r) sets out …
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42"Secret" and "Confidential": The making of the most famous map of ArabiaCorrespondence relating to Fraser's classified map of Arabia and the Gulf.Mostly Simla and Dehra Dun, 1905-1906.
InquireThis letterbook containing correspondence on the research and preparation for F. F. Hunter's "Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf" (1908) forms an important source that reveals the extensive and detailed work behind the production of a milestone in the mapping of the Arabian Peninsula.
When Hunter joined the Survey of India from the Indian …
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43Treatise on drawing horary lines on horizontal, vertical, and oblique sundialsIrshad al-ha'ir ila takhtit fadl al-da'ir [Guide to the Right Path for …No place, late 16th century CE ca. 1000 H.
InquireAn astronomical work on drawing horary lines on sundials, by the Egyptian mathematician and astronomer Shihab al-Din ibn al-Majdi, arranged in three parts: horizontal sundials; vertical sundials; and oblique sundials. Other copies can be found in Berlin, Cairo, Istanbul, Leiden, Rabat and Tunis; there appears to be no copy of this work in the British …
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48Based on Ibn Sina's QanunQanunceh ("Small Canon").Herat now Afghanistan, 1436 CE = 840 H.
InquireComplete Arabic manuscript containing the Arabic translation of the Qanunsah ("Small Canon"), originally written in Persian: a brief medical compendium compiled by the Khwarazmian polymath Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Jaghmini and based on Ibn Sina's famous Qanun.
This abridged manual of medicine is arranged in ten parts ("maqalat", or …
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49Manuscript commentary on Ibn Sina's Kitab ash-ShifaKitab Sharh al-Ilahiyyat ("The Book of Explanation of Theology"). Theological …Western Persia Isfahan?, ca. 1780s.
€ 9,500.00Late 18th century Arabic manuscript apparently written in Western Persia, containing a commentary on several theological propositions taken from various parts of Ibn Sina's encyclopedical Kitab al-Shifa’, the author's major work on science and philosophy, intended to "cure" or "heal" ignorance of the soul. Thus, despite its title, it is not concerned …
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52First explicit statement of the principles of pearl valuationA treatise on diamonds and pearls. In which their importance is considered: …London, 1750.
€ 18,000.00Rare first edition of the "first book in English to describe how diamonds and pearls can be evaluated on the basis of the factors of size (or weight) and style of cut" (Sinkankas). The London jeweller Jeffries is also the first author to provide "a clear statement of the principle that the value of pearls should be calculated to the square of their …
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53Inscribed by a Mosul physician in 913 H (1507 CE)Dhakhirah-i Khwarazm-Shahi.Probably Anatolia, ca. 1490 / late 15th century CE.
€ 65,000.00Al-Jurjani's important medical compendium, the first major medical text to be written in Persian. Al-Jurjani (d. 1136) "went to live in Khwarizm in 504/1110 and became attached to the Khwarizmshahs Kutb al-Din Muhammad, to whom he dedicated his 'Dhakirah' [...] His 'Dhakirah Khwarizmshahi', probably the first medical encyclopaedia written in Persian …
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60Translated from Arabic, uniting the Judaic and Islamic astrological traditions: with the works of Ibn Ezra, from the Kingdom of ZaragozaLiber novem iudicum in iudiciis astrorum. Mesehella, Aomar, Alkindus, Zael …Venice, 4 Jan. 1509.
€ 85,000.00I: Editio princeps of this "work composed in Arabic probably exactly in the form in which it is preserved in Latin, typical of the encyclopaedic period but limited [...] to certain early sources" (Carmody), uniting the Judaic and Islamic astrological traditions. The form, arranged in twelve parts according to each house, is based on the doctrines …
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69Petroleum facilities in Iraq and IranPetroleum Facilities Middle East.Washington, DC, August 1945.
InquireFive maps on a single sheet, issued by the U.S. Government immediately after the end of World War II. The maps show all relevant petroleum facilities in Iraq and Western Iran, in Egypt, in Southwestern Iran, and in the Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar areas, identifying not only international boundaries, capital cities and major towns, principal …
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80Presentation copy inscribed to Saleh bin Ghalib Al-Qu'aiti, Sultan of Shihr and MakallaSaid bin Sultan (1791-1856). Ruler of Oman and Zanzibar. His Place in the …London, 1929.
€ 28,000.00Rare first edition: presentation copy from Said-Ruete to Sir Saleh bin Ghalib Al-Qu'aiti, Sultan of Shihr and Makalla (ruled 1936-56), inscribed in green ink: "To / His Highness The Sultan / of Shiher and Makalla / Saleh bin Galib Alcaity / a token of sincere esteem / by the Author. / London, May 7th 1937". Below this is pasted a printed bookplate …
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88The genealogy of the Arab peoples, printed in Baghdad: early lithography in the Arab worldHadha kitab Saba'ik al-dhahab fi ma'rifat qaba'il al-'Arab [The book of …Baghdad, 1864 CE = 1280 H.
€ 15,000.00First edition: a rare and important work on the genealogy of the Arab tribes, also an early, graphically sophisticated lithographic effort from the Arab World. The "Book of Gold Bars" by the prominent Iraqi theologian and historian Suwaydi (1786-1831) is a revised and expanded interpretation of the "Dictionary of the Arab Genealogy" by the legendary …
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91The greatest of star catalogues between those of Ptolemy and Brahe[Jadawel mavadeh thavabet dar tool wa ard keh be rasad yaft-e Oloq Bayk …Oxford, 1665.
InquireEditio princeps of Ulugh Beg’s "Zij-i Jadid-i Sultani", in the words of the Encyclopedia Britannica “the greatest of star catalogues between those of Ptolemy and Brahe”. Ulugh Beg (1394-1449) was the grandson of Timur, known in Europe as Tamerlane. In 1409, his father, Shah Rukh, appointed him governor of Samarkand, and he quickly set about …
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92The only known copySharjah - Salala.No place, probably 1960s.
€ 6,500.00Highly detailed map of the Arabian Peninsula's coast from Abu Dhabi (Abu Al Abyad island) and Ras al-Khaimah in today's United Arab Emirates to Ras al-Hadd and south to Salala in Dhofar, Oman. The legend identifies wells, towns and villages, wadis, scarps, edges of sand, quicksand, and tracks. Political boundaries are omitted. The latest surveys …
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99The Medicea's last production: dedication copy for Pope Paul V[Kitab al-tasrif ta'lif al-shaykh al-Imami]. Liber Tasriphi compositio …Rome, 1610.
InquireFirst edition of this grammatical treatise of Arabic known as the "Tasrif al-Zanjani", not printed again until 1817 (in Istanbul): the final work to leave Raimondi's famous Medicea press, and the only one produced there after a hiatus of 15 years. The long hibernation phase into which the Medicea entered after printing her last book in 1595 for Pope …