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28 IBN SA’UD – WILLIAMS, Kenneth. The Puritan King of Saudi Arabia. London: Jonathan Cape, 1933 First edition, first impression, of this early biography, a “good general account of the Wahhabis and the rise of Ibn Sa’ud” ( Foreign Affairs ), a typically attractive Cape production of the period. Octavo. Original green cloth, lettered in pale yellow on the spine and front board, top edge dark green. With typographical dust jacket. Portrait frontispiece from a photograph by His Excellency Sheikh Hafidh Wahba, 3 full-page maps and 2 full-page pedigrees. Edges foxed, scattered foxing internally; spine of price-clipped jacket toned, some nicks, chips and closed tears, touch of spotting. A very good copy in a good example of the fragile jacket. ¶ Foreign Affairs , vol. 16, no. 2, January 1939. £1,250 [159434]
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and symptoms of a given illness are recorded on one page with the suggested courses of treatment listed on the facing folio. The practical nature of the text ensured that it became widely popular. This text was translated into Latin by the Jewish physician Faraj ibn Salem in Sicily in 1280 ce. Ibn Jazlah became known in the West under his Latinised name Buhahylyha Bingezla. This present copy shows that his knowledge had travelled from the Abbasid heartlands in Iraq to Egypt, where it was still valued at the Mamluk court some three centuries later. Another probably 15th-century copy of this work is in the collection of the Bodleian Library. Two further copies are in the Chester Beatty Library and two are also in the collection of the British Library. A very closely related binding with block- printed figural doublures is attributed by David James to Anatolia or Jazirah circa 1250–1350 CE. A binding which has very closely related medallions on the front and back plates and has doublures decorated in the same fashion, which are however not figural, is in the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The binding in the Bibliotheque nationale is catalogued as being original to a manuscript dated to 1153 ce. Folio (181 × 135 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper, consisting of 93 folios plus two flyleaves, each with between 20 and 30 lines per page, written in black naskh script with important words and headings highlighted in red ink, set within red outlined tables, marginal index letters in red ink with later added pagination in black ink below; set in an earlier tooled and gilded brown morocco binding, with an ogival central medallion, ropework spandrels, and strapwork border, exceptionally decorated block-printed doublures with figures of angels set on floral ground. ¶ Arthur Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts , vol. VII, 1964, p. 96; Colin Baker, ed., Guide to the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library , 2001, pp. 360–1. £27,500 [159592]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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