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157 QUR’AN; English – SALE, George (trans.) The Koran, Commonly called The Alcoran of Mohammed, Translated into English immediately from the Original Arabic . . . London: Printed by C. Ackers, for J. Wilcox, 1734 TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARABIC First edition of Sale’s Qur’an, the first English translation of the Qur’an to be made directly from the Arabic, and the basis for all subsequent English editions until the mid-19th century. The only complete English translation before Sale’s was the 1649 version attributed to Alexander Ross, which relied solely on the 1647 French edition by Alexandre du Ryer, and which is generally inaccurate and unscholarly in contrast to Sale’s translation. The solicitor George Sale ( c .1696–1736) was a leading orientalist, the first notable English Arabist
who was not in holy orders. His translation – “a landmark in the history of Qur’anic studies” (Holt, p. 58) – is prefixed by a long “preliminary discourse”, a compendium of all that was known about the religion of Islam, itself separately translated into and published in several languages. The first was the only edition published during his lifetime, but his translation was reprinted in 1746, 1764, and many times afterward, most recently in 1984. The covers are stamped with the somewhat later arms of William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot (1728 –1798), Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1754 to 1780, and created baron in 1780. The books from his Blithfield Hall estate were sold at Sotheby’s on 26 November 1945. Quarto (245 × 188 mm). Contemporary calf, recent red morocco label to style, contemporary gilt blocking in compartments retouched. Folding map of Arabia, 3 plates of genealogies of which 2 are folding, folding plate depicting Mecca. Joints and extremities expertly restored, gentle
browning to contents, an excellent copy. ¶ ESTC T146975. Peter Holt, Studies in the History of the Near East , 2013. £5,000 [149201] 158 RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); BARRIE, J. M. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906 AN UNUSUAL AND ATTRACTIVE BINDING First Rackham edition, trade issue, bound by Bayntun Rivière. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was the most popular Christmas gift book for 1906, and was highly successful commercially. The story had its genesis in Barrie’s 1902 story collection The Little White Bird in which the central chapters tell of a child “who escaped from being a human when he was seven days old . . . and flew back to Kensington Gardens”. Barrie developed this story
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