Boha Eddin (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. 4 parts in One Volume. First edition. The standard biography of Salahuddin (1138-1193), the first Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, written by his secretary, Baha' al-Din ibn Shaddad (1145-1234). Saladin (or more properly, Salah al-Din) is renowned in the East as the great Mohammedan ruler who united the lands of Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia into a single Muslim empire. In 1187 he launched a war against the Christian invaders of the Holy Land and captured Jerusalem, showing clemency to the Christian inhabitants. He went on to drive the crusaders from every fortification in the land, except Acre, which he besieged unsuccessfully for two years. The editor and translator Albert Schultens (1686-1750) was a Dutch Orientalist, and regarded as the chief Arabist of his time. Ships from U.A.E.

Folio. Four pts. in 1 vol. (30), 278 pp. (2), 64 pp. 26, (88, index) pp. T. p. printed in red and black, Arabic and Latin text in two columns. Contemp. blindstamped vellum on seven raised bands with faded ms. title to spine. First edition (reprinted in 1755). The eminent Arabian writer and statesman Bohaddin, better known in the East as Ibn-Sjeddad, "wrote several works on Jurisprudence and Moslem Divinity; but the only one that can be interesting to us is his 'Life and Actions of Saladin', which, with other pieces connected with the same subject, was published by Albert Schultens, at Leyden, in 1732, accompanied by a somewhat inelegant Latin translation, also by notes, and a Geographical Index. This work affords a favourable specimen of the historical compositions of the Arabs [.] The enthusiasm with which every thing about [Saladin] is narrated, and the anecdotes which the author, from his own personal knowledge, is able to communicate respecting that extraordinary character, give his work a great degree of interest" (Enc. Britannica, Suppl. II [1824], p. 352f). - An appealing copy in Dutch blindstamped vellum from the Berne Abbey, home of the Premonstratensians of Heeswijk, North Brabant, and the oldest extant religious community in the Netherlands (their stamp on t. p.). Modern protective flyleaves (but original pastedowns). Slight wrinkling to final pages; otherwise clean and unbrowned. - Schnurrer 148, no. 175. Gay 2238. OCLC 21516733. Cf. Fück 107. Not in Smitskamp.