Uluğ Beg, Abū alFid ā', 1650

BEG, Uluğ (1394-1449). Epochae celebriores, astronomis, historicis, chronologis Chataiorum, Syro-Graecorum, Arabum, Persarum, Chorasmiorum, usitatae. [Bound after:] ABŪ ALFID Āʾ (1273-1331). Chorasmiae et Mawaralnahrae, hoc est, regionum extra Sluvium Oxum descriptio. Both works edited by John GREAVES (1602-1652). London: printed by Jacob Flesher for Cornelius Bee, 1650.

First edition, in Persian and Latin. These two works were usually issued together. They both result from the labor of John Greaves, an antiquarian and astronomer who traveled extensively in the Near East. He acquired in the late 1630s several manuscripts by Islamic astronomers who had worked in the famous observatory in Samarkand under the patronage of prince Uluğ Beg. The second work is by Abū alFid āʾ, a Kurdish historian who described Khwarazm and the lands beyond the Amu Darya river. Greaves's translations employed among the earliest Arabic type in England. The first such book printed in England was published by Greaves's friend John Selden in 1642. See Atallah, "Early Arabic Printing in Europe," in MELA Notes, n. 91 (2018). ESTC R17664; Houzeau & Lancaster 1328 (with erroneous 1640 date).

Two works bound together, quarto (231 x 168mm). First title printed in red and black. Main texts in parallel Persian and Latin. Folding letterpress tables. (Pale corner dampstain, heavier on last 3 leaves, a few scattered spots, couple of small chips to top margins, without final blank.) Modern quarter calf over marbled boards. Provenance: Owen Gingerich (bookplates).