[Rarebooks] FS - Travels in Central Asia, 1864

[GREENFIELD BOOKS]

VAMBERY, Arminius. /TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ASIA/. /Being the Account of a 
Journey from Teheran across the Turkoman Desert on the Eastern Shore of 
the Caspian to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand performed in the year 
1863/. Bound in original gilt decorated green cloth, with twelve plates 
and a large coloured folding map in a map pocket at the end of the book. 
John Murray, London. 1864. 1st edition, 8vo, pp. xvii, 443, 32 
(publisher's catalogue dated November, 1863).

Vambery (1832-1913), an inveterate traveller and philologist, was born 
in Hungary. He travelled to Constantinople, where he taught French in 
the house of a minister and, in 1858, published a German-Turkish 
dictionary. In 1862 he began his trek through central Asia, often 
travelling in disguise (or, as an "Efendi" or "Dervish", as he describes 
himself in the Preface) in order to enter places forbidden to 
Westerners, or non-believers. He claimed no geological or astronomical 
accomplishments, stating that the purpose of his journey was 
philological; that is, the study of the languages of Central Asia under 
theconditions, and in the surroundings in which they were actually 
employed. After publishing this account, he became professor of oriental 
languages in Budapest, publishing works on the Turkish and other Altaic 
languages, the ethnography of the Turks, the origins of the Magyars, and 
many other oriental subjects (see Cambridge Bio. Encyc.). This copy 
contains all plates, and the coloured folding map of Turkestan, which is 
creased, with a few small (repaired) closed tears. Gilt vignette on 
front board and gilt lettering and design to spine. The binding is now 
in shabby condition, with the top of the spine quite ragged, and the 
boards generally worn & bumped. The rear joint is splitting, and the 
binding is sprung. The contents are intact, clean and unmarked. A good 
copy, nothwithstanding
the faults, which could, with modest expenditure, be restored in the 
original binding.

Price: $700.00.  (#21544)

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