Five treatises in French concerning the Arabs and Turks, including a translation of a pilgrimage to Mecca

Galland, [Julien Claude]. Recueil des rits et cérémonies du pelerinage de la Mecque, auquel on a joint divers ecrits relatifs à la religion, aux sciences & aux moeurs des Turcs.

€ 2,800.00

Only edition. "Galland's account of the rituals surrounding the pilgrimage to Mekkah includes enlightening description of many of the important shrines and sites within the city. Extensive footnotes describe the history and physical appearance of such features as the Kaaba, the Black Stone, and Mount Ararat, as well as explaining relevant Arabic terms and the importance of certain religious figures in the Islamic tradition" (Atabey cat.). "Galland, 'dragoman' or interpreter in the Levant, nephew of the celebrated orientalist Antoine Galland, translated many works into French, the present work being a collected edition of five Arabic and Turkish pieces" (Blackmer). Also contains a discussion of Ottoman science (the "Traduction d'une dissertation sur les sciences des Turcs, et sur l'ordre qu'ils gardent dans le cours de leurs études" by Zaini Efendi, pp. 85-98) and an extensive essay on the Greek island of Chios, ruled by Genoa from 1436 to 1566, when the Ottomans conquered the island (pp. 99-172), as well as an account of the Sultana Esma with Yakub Pasha, governor of Silistria.

Bound at the end is a later edition of Fénelon's well-known Mirror for Magistrates, written for the Dauphin, whose instructor Fénelon was (with contemporary note indexing this second work written on reverse of front flyleaf).

Slight browning throughout; lower half of title page remargined with a lithographed facsimile, extremeties repaired. Altogether an attractive copy; the Atabey copy (in a contemporary morocco binding for the provost of Paris) fetched £10,158 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium).