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From the library of Ferdinand de Lesseps – the father of the Suez Canal [SAVARY, Claude Étienne]. Le Coran, Traduit de l’Arabe, accompagnè de notes, et precede d’un abrégé de la Vie de Mahomet, tire des Ecrivans Orientaux les plus estimés. Tome Premier [- Tome Second]. A La Mecque, L’an de l’Hégire 1165 2 volumes, octavo, contemporary French speckled calf, covers with triple gilt fillets, a little worn, spines gilt with red and green morocco labels lettered gilt, leaf edges marbled, pp.xvi + 269 + (1); (8) + 464 with the half titles, titles with engraved woodcuts, with engraved armorial book plate of Ferdinand de Lesseps. with bound in [SAVARY, Claude Étienne]. Les Amours d’Anas-Éloujoud et de Ouardi, conte traduit de l’Arabe, par Savary, Traducteur du Coran, et Auteur des Lettres sur l’Egypte et la Grèce. Ouvrage Posthume. Paris, chez Bluet, An VII (1799) Octavo, pp.(4) + 58, (2) adverts. Provenance. Ferdinand de Lesseps [1805-1894] was the father of the Suez Canal. Lesseps had been assistant vice-consul in Tunis in 1828, and in 1832 vice consul in Alexandria where he became friendly with the viceroy of Egypt Mehmet Ali and his son Said Pasha. From 1833-1837 he was consul in Cairo. He had been inspired by reading about Napoleon's abandoned plans for a canal that would allow large ships wishing to sail to the east to go directly from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, thereby cutting out the long sea journey around Africa. The Canal was opened in 1869. Ten years later he began plans for a new canal in Panama. After eight years it had made no progress and de Lesseps and his son were accused of mismanagement and fined and his son sent to prison. The failure cost him his fortune. Le Coran Bayerische Staatsbibliothek [oclc] ; Les Amours Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and Princeton [oclc], Oxford [copac]. A very rare printing of this translation of the Qur’an by Claude Savary [1750-1788], orientalist and pioneer Egyptologist. First published in Paris in 1783 this printing carries the unusual imprint A la Mecque, L’an de l’Hégire 1165 ie 1752, but in fact Paris after 1786. These volumes were sometime bound with two other works by Savary, as the spines have the labels Savary 5 and Savary 6 [as well as separate labels Le Coran 1 and Le Coran 2]. The other volumes would probably have been the 3 volumes Lettres sur l’Égypte and one volume Lettres sur Grèce. £950 |
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