[Guillaume-Joseph Grelot]]]> Books ]]> Sinai and Palestine (1856) stretches from the African desert and the River Nile to Damascus, Syria. Two high peaks are shown: Mount Hermon (جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون‎ / Jabal al-Shaykh or Jabal Haramun; Hebrew: Har Hermon), which is at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level, the highest point in Syria; and Mount Sinai (طُور سِينَاء‎, Jabal Mūsā, lit. ‘Moses’ Mountain’ or ‘Mount Moses’; Hebrew: הַר סִינַי‬, Har Sinai), which is at 2,285 m (7,497 ft). The highest peak in the Middle East is Iran’s Mount Damavand, at 5,610 m (18,406 ft) above sea level. Stanley (1815–1881) travelled to Egypt, Arabia and Syria in 1852. This very popular work was the end-result. It also contains an appendix of Hebrew topographical words.]]> Arthur Penrhyn Stanley]]> Books]]> in situ, which were later reproduced lithographically by the Belgian-born Louis Haghe. Some 247 views and two maps make up the six volumes of this monumental work, which has been described as ‘one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing.’ (Abbey, 1970). Roberts visited the pyramids at Giza, sailed up the Nile, sketched street scenes in Cairo, visited tombs and sites at Philae, Karnak, Luxor, and Dendra, and drew interior views of mosques. He was one of the few Europeans to do so.]]> David Roberts]]> Books]]> Qur’an (Koran) is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Allah). It contains laws, commandments, and codes for social and moral behaviour. These were mainly revealed to the Prophet Muhammed in the towns of Mecca and Medina over a twenty-three-year period, beginning around 610 and ending with Muhammed’s death in 632 CE. The Arabic text is divided into 114 chapters (surah), which are then divided into verses. This Qur’an on display is a very unusual manuscript. Called by one scholar a ‘Baptized Qur’an’, it contains Christian crosses inside a number of the ornaments that resemble flowers. It once belonged to the Rev. William Arderne Shoults (1839-1887), whose collection is now housed here in Special Collections.]]> ___]]> Manuscripts]]> George E. Kirk]]> Books]]> Oratio de Laudibus in 1524. The cursive nature of Arabic script and the large number of characters needed to complete the font presented a vast number of complexities. In fact, in some instances books were printed with spaces left to write the Arabic in by hand. This edition of the Bible, the work of Arabic scholars J. D. Carlyle (1759-1805) and Henry Ford, is significant not only because of the work that it entailed, but because it was completed by Sarah Hodgson, a female printer living in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was sponsored by the British and Foreign Bible Society for distribution into the Middle East.]]> ___]]> Books]]> The Arabs, ‘[they] are a people clustered round an historical memory’. There is no definite delineated Arab territory, but parts of the African continent, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine are part of the ‘Arab World’, an area of 13.6 million square kilometres. United by their language, Arabic, and their religion, Islam, Arabs began to populate various countries in the Middle East after Muhammed’s death in the 7th century. Arabs are townspeople and nomads, Sunni and Shi’ite, Asian and African. Today in the world, there are around 420 million people who identify as Arabian.]]> H.A.R. Gibb]]> Books]]> Muhammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī]]> Manuscripts]]> East is West is a memoir of that time.]]> Freya Stark]]> Books]]> Qur’an form the basis of Islamic religious belief. He had two distinct parts to his life: Mecca, where he was born and faced hostility and persecution; and Medina (Yathrib), where, before he died, he had success in uniting Arab tribes under the Constitution of Medina. His move to Medina in 622 CE marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The Ḥadīth (sayings and deeds of Muḥammed) and the sīra literature (accounts by others on the biography of Muḥammed) form much of what is known about his life. In 1697, Humphrey Prideaux (1648-1724) penned his Life of Mahomet. Although he gained some literary kudos from this volume, it was an error-ridden, valueless book. Somewhat unbelievably, this is the third edition of 1698.]]> Humphrey Prideaux]]> Books]]> The Eastern Traveller’s Interpreter (Turjumān Inklīzī wa ʿArabī) by Asʿad Yaqūb Khayyāṭ (c.1811-1870), who was a Christian Lebanese activist who advocated the liberation and the education of women. This pocket Arabic-English guidebook covers topics (among others) such as the Arabic alphabets and letters; discourse with a camel driver; discourse with a cook; and inquiries on holy places.]]> Asʿad Yaqūb Khayyāṭ (Assas Yacoob Kayat)]]> Books]]> fuṣḥá t-turāth); and modern standard Arabic (فصحى العصر fuṣḥá l-‘aṣr). These two carry subtle differences. With the increased number of travellers (be they adventurers or tourists) to the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries, and scholars increasingly interested in the language, a plethora of ‘How to’ Arabic grammars were produced. This Rev. G.W. Thatcher’s Grammar (1927) was once owned by Charles Brasch (1909-1973), who used it while in Egypt during the early 1930s.]]> G.W. Thatcher]]> Books]]> Travels in Arabia Deserta, which first appeared in 1888. Doughty (1843-1926) began his two year travel through the desert by joining a pilgrim caravan in November 1876, adopting the name of Khalil, ‘a Syrian of simple fortune’. Although maintaining his essential Englishness, Doughty admitted that the Bedouin way of life was the best in the world. His Travels remains a classic account of 19th century Arabia.]]> Charles M. Doughty]]> Books]]> Wendell Phillips]]> Books]]> Wendell Phillips]]> Books]]> Journey showcase the town of Tarim. It was, and still is, an important religious centre in the Hadhramaut Valley and contains over 300 mosques. According to Wikipedia, the town has the ‘highest concentration’ of the prophet Muhammed’s descendants in the world.]]> D. van der Meulen]]> Books]]> T.R. Fyvel and Boris Kowaldo]]> Books]]> A Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy. Pfeiffer, one of the first female explorers, began her journey in 1842, travelling along the Danube river to Istanbul and then on to Palestine and Egypt. Her journey, which took nine months, also included Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‬; Arabic: القُدس‎), one of the oldest cities in the world. In 1845, just after her visit, Jersualem’s population was 16,410, with 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, 3,390 Christians, 800 Turkish soldiers and 100 European. A recent census (2015) has the population at some 850,000 residents: approximately 200,000 Jewish-Israelis, 350,000 Haredi Jews, and 300,000 Palestinian Arabs. The aquatints – of which this is one of eight – greatly enhance Pfeiffer’s text.]]> Ida Laura Pfeiffer]]> Books]]> Qubbat al-Sakhrah, Hebrew: Kippat ha-Sela), the al-Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الاقصى‎ al-Masjid al-‘Aqṣā), and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Arabic: كَنِيسَةُ ٱلْقِيَامَة‎ Kaneesatu al-Qeyaamah), supposedly the site where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, continue to attract visitors to the Holy City of Jerusalem. This late 19th century ‘bird’s eye view’ map conveys a certain simplicity, especially when compared to modern day maps. Jerusalem and Bethlehem is surrounded by Asia Minor (most of the modern Republic of Turkey), Mesopotamia (roughly most of Iraq plus Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, South-eastern Turkey), and Egypt and Sinai Peninsula. Much has changed since the 1880s.]]> Osmond Tiffany]]> Books]]> Psalter of 1547 for Christian scholars interested in the Hebrew Bible, its language and grammar, and overall biblical studies. This copy once belonged to William Arderne Shoults (1839-1887).]]> ___]]> Books]]> Leshon Hakodesh (לשון הקדש‬)). Although not a scholar, Alexander produced, along with Benedict Just of Halberstadt (known as Baruch Meyers), the Tephilloth, the first Hebrew-English Prayer Book printed in England. Produced on a subscription basis, some of the buyers included many non-Jews. The preface also states: ‘The reader will observe that this book is printed from right hand to left, conformably to the Hebrew.’]]> ___]]> Books]]> Biblia Hebraica, a 1705 reprint of the original edition by Joseph Athias (1635-1700), a learned Jewish Rabbi and printer. This edition was prepared for the press by Everardus van der Hooght (1642?-1716), whose later editions form the basis of all the modern editions. By this time, printing not only standardized the halakhah (the entire body of Jewish law and tradition comprising the laws of the Bible, and the oral law as transcribed in the legal portion of the Talmud), but also assisted the dissemination of kabbalah (that mystical component in Jewish traditions that deal with the essence of God). The Bible has numbered verses, Latin subject headings in the margin, and vowel signs and points. Understandably, the inclusion of the latter made type cutting, composing and printing a very complex activity.]]> ___]]> Books]]> Pentateuch (often called the Five Books of Moses or the Torah) appeared at Bologna; and on 22 April 1488, the first complete Hebrew Bible appeared at Soncino. Leiden also featured. This Latin-Hebrew Bible was printed in 1611 by Franciscus Raphelengius, a pioneer of Hebrew typography in the Netherlands. The interlinear Latin translation is by Santes Pagninus (1470-1536), whose Latin version of the Hebrew Bible greatly aided future scriptural translators and scholars. Here is an early portion of the Book of Genesis.]]> ___]]> Books]]> William Foxwell Albright]]> Books ]]> Karl Baedeker]]> Books]]>