Inscribed by the author to Sultan Abdul Hamid II

Furet, Caroline. Histoire abregee de l'Empire Ottoman. Résumé mnémotechnique complémentaire.

Constantinople, Levant Herald, 1880.

4to (192 x 251 mm). 7, (1); 6 pp., blank leaf. Contemporary red morocco with gilt spine and cover borders; upper cover giltstamped "Bibliotheque Imperiale" and lower cover with gilt ornament. Marbled endpapers.

 9,500.00

Only edition.

A capsule condensement, for the use of students, of the author's 208-page history of the Ottoman Empire (1869), here written in rhyming verse, published in French and Ottoman Turkish (the latter part lithographed).

Binding a little rubbed, mainly at extremeties. Removed from the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, with traces of requisite marks and the author's handwritten inscription to front flyleaf: "Á Sa Majesté Abdul Hamid II / Hommage très respectueux de l'auteur C. Furet".

Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918) was the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to exert effective contol over the fracturing state and also remembered as a poet, translator and one of the dynasty's greatest bibliophiles. While his passion for books is memorialized by the many precious donations he gave to libraries all over the world and which mostly have remained intact to this day (including the 400-volume "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials" gifted to the Library of Congress), his own library was dispersed in the years following his deposition in 1909: books were removed to other palaces and even sold to Western collectors, the greatest part of his collection is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.

References

OCLC 613456710.

Stock Code: BN#52215 Tags: , ,