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1. Thirty-two Years with Islam (1832-1864)
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- Abstract: Trente-deux ans a travers l'Islam (1832-1864) (Thirty-two years with Islam [1832-1864]) is a memoir by French soldier and diplomat Léon Roches (1809−1901), covering his career in North Africa and other parts of the Middle East, including a brief sojourn in Mecca. It is based on his diary and on correspondence that he reviewed following his retirement from government service. Beginning with his first arrival in French Algeria in 1832, the author recounts his diplomatic and military assignments in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Arabia. His mastery of Arabic was such that he was appointed interpreter to army headquarters. In this capacity, and later as advisor to generals, he participated in most of the dramatic events surrounding the revolt by ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri (1808−83) against the expanding French occupation. Also included is an account of the vexed negotiations between Morocco and France. In 1841 Roches traveled to Medina and Mecca with acquaintances he made in Cairo, paying his share of expenses for transport and food. Despite his laisser-passer from religious authorities, he was arrested as a non-Muslim trespassing on holy ground reserved for the faithful. He was ultimately released and deported on orders of the sharif of Mecca. The memoir is an important document in the history of French colonialism in North Africa and sheds much light on Algerian leaders, especially ‘Abd al-Qadir. There are photographs and engravings throughout. The two volumes were published in Paris by the famous printer-publisher Firmin-Didot.Physical description: 2 volumes
2. Pearls, or Selections of Fond Memory and Immortal Imprint
- Description:
- Abstract: Al-Durar wa-hiyya Muntakhabat al-Tayyib al-Zikr al-Khalid al-Athr (Pearls, or selections of fond memory and immortal imprint) is a memorial volume that collects the political and literary writing of the influential Arab nationalist Adib Ishaq (1856−85). Born in Damascus, Ishaq was a precocious youngster who received his formative education in Arabic and French at the French Lazarist school there and under the Jesuits in Beirut. His family’s strained circumstances forced him to leave school for work as a customs clerk. Excelling at languages, he supplemented his income by writing and translating and eventually dedicated himself to poetry, translation, and what today might be called advocacy journalism. He moved to Egypt in 1876, where he joined the circle of the well-known political agitator Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, whose Masonic interests he shared and to whose causes, such as criticism of Western imperialism, he devoted much of his writing. Singly or with like-minded colleagues, such as Salim Naqqash (with whom he produced Arabic plays), Ishaq established newspapers of opinion. His outspoken writings resulted in his being exiled from Egypt. He took up residency in Paris, but at the end of his life he returned to Lebanon, where he died at age 29. Ishaq’s restlessness as a traveler was matched by the variety of his literary and political interests. He collaborated with Naqqash in writing plays and wrote or translated novels. His novel Charlemagne is included in this set of readings, which was compiled by his brother, ‘Awni Ishaq. The volume contains a biography of Adib and numerous panegyrics to him by leading Muslim and Christian writers. The comprehensive selection of readings demonstrates his place in the evolution of Arabic letters and journalism from ornate poetry and rhymed prose to the modern political essay employing a wholly new format and lexicon.Physical description: 263 pages ; 26 centimeters
3. Arab Art as Seen Through the Monuments of Cairo: From the Seventh Century to the End of the 18th
- Description:
- Abstract: L'art arabe d'après les monuments du Kaire: depuis le VIIe siècle jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe (Arab art as seen through the monuments of Cairo: From the seventh century to the end of the 18th) is an immense, sumptuously produced work that illustrates the richness of Islamic art and architecture as seen in the streets, buildings, monuments, decorative arts, and books and manuscripts of the city of Cairo. It was produced by Achille-Constant-Théodore-Émile Prisse d’Avennes, who is said to have supervised the printing of the work as well as that of his other masterpiece, a luxurious atlas of ancient Egyptian art. The work contains a total of 200 full-page plates in three volumes; each volume has its own table of contents. The illustrations have spare captions, but the book contains no explanatory text. The illustrations for the most part were produced by chromolithography, a 19th-century technique that could be used to reproduce images in multiple colors. Prisse d’Avennes was born in France in 1807. He traveled widely in Egypt and North Africa. After his conversion to Islam he was known as Idris, or Edris, Effendi. He made early and important contributions to the field of Egyptology and Oriental studies in general, but much about his origins and background remains unknown. In the course of a long and adventurous life, he was a military instructor, architect of irrigation systems, soldier in the Greek fight for independence in the 1820s, Muslim convert and associate of Egypt’s rulers, as well as an editor of scholarly journals and member of learned societies. His role as a founding father of the science of Egyptology is rarely recognized, perhaps because he instigated the removal of antiquities from Egypt to France.Physical description: 4 volumes ; 56 x 44 centimeters
4. Map of the Persian Gulf
- Description:
- Abstract: This map of the Persian Gulf is by the French cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703−72). Qatar is shown as Catura. Cities on both the Arabian and Persian sides of the gulf are indicated, and the map shows a river emptying into the gulf at the port of Julfar (present-day Ra's al-Khaymah, United Arab Emirates). The scale is in common leagues, and there are no latitudinal or longitudinal lines. Trained as a hydrographer, Bellin was attached to the French Marine Office and specialized in producing maritime maps showing coastlines. His maps were in the tradition of Nicolas Sanson (1600–1667), the royal geographer to Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV commonly known as the father of French cartography, and of Guillaume de l'Isle (1675−1726), one of a group of French cartographers that wrested mapmaking preeminence from the Dutch in the late 17th century. Like Sanson and de l’Isle, Bellin placed great emphasis on scientific accuracy rather than on artistic beauty for its own sake. In 1764, he published Le Petit Atlas Maritime: Recueil de Cartes et de Plans des Quatre Parties du Monde (Small maritime atlas: collection of maps and charts of the four parts of the world), a work in five volumes containing 581 maps. This map appeared as plate 8 in volume 3 of this work, containing maps of Asia (part I) and Africa (part II).Physical description: 1 map : copper engraving ; 22 x 17 centimeters
5. Creation and History
- Description:
- Abstract: Al-Badʼ wa-al-tārīkh (Creation and history) is a universal history from the Creation until the end of the reign of Abbasid caliph al-Muti in 974. It is not a particularly good example of historical scholarship. It is in large part a list of prophets and kings, leavened with stories derived from written sources, myths, scripture, and the personal thoughts of the author, as, for example, his reflection on the many religious traditions and practices of mankind. With the exception of a strongly worded introductory warning to the reader about those who undermine the faith of the weak-minded with controversy, the text is a straightforward, often bland narrative. The author simply catalogs controversial topics, such as the beliefs of the numerous Shia Imamiyah sects, with only a sentence or two describing their beliefs. Some scholars have suggested a strong Iranian bias in the work, but careful examination does not support this interpretation. Authorship is uncertain, with the possibilities including Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (died 934) or the tenth-century scholar Mutahhar ibn Tahir al-Maqdisi. The work was edited and translated from a single manuscript by the prolific French orientalist Clement Huart (1854−1926). He was unable to identify the author with certainty, and even changed his mind about who the author was with the publication of volume three of the Arabic text in 1903. The puzzle remains a matter for further research. Both Arabic and French editions were produced in Paris by the well-known publisher Ernest Leroux.Physical description: 3 volumes ; 25 centimeters