[EARLY TREATISE OF A PRECISE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD] Abrégé de géographie: Ancienne et moderne, historique, politique... [i.e. Compendium of geography: Ancient and modern, historical, political, commercial and religious]

NASSIF MALLOUF (Nâsîf ibn Ilyâs Munim al-Malûf), (Turkish dragoman and orientalist, Professeur de Langues Orientales au College de Smyrne et Auteur de Divers Ouvrages en Arabe et en Turc), (1823-1865), Imprimerie de J. Magnis, Smyrne (Smyrna - Izmir), 1851.

COMPLETE TITLE: [SMYRNA IMRPINT / EARLY TREATISE OF A PRECISE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD] Abrégé de géographie: Ancienne et moderne, historique, politique, commerciale et religieuse [i.e. Compendium of geography: Ancient and modern, historical, political, commercial and religious]

Contemporary cloth bdg. with marbled boards. Chipped on extremities on boards, spine. Minor foxing on pages and stains on edges of pages. Overall a very good copy. Cr. 8vo. (19 x 13 cm). In French. [viii], 229, [1] p.

Extremely rare first and only French edition of Mallouf's 'Compendium of Geography' which is one of the three books he presented to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. Joseph Magnis (a well-known Greek printer in Smyrna) printed and published the book in Smyrna in 1851. Mallouf dedicated the book to the members of the Academie des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Constantinople (Encümen-i Dânîsh), whom he listed by name and their positions. Mallouf began his work with a description of the galaxy (cosmos) and the Earth and then various countries in detail, continents, and major cities.

Ubicini wrote in the Revue de l'Orient (October 1853) that the book was "the first treatise of this genre to contain a precise description of the Ottoman Empire in all its aspects". The book started with Mallouf's letter to the Royal Geographical Academy of Great Britain which indicated that his book published newly, the Ottoman Academy (Encümen-i Dânîs) newly created, is destined to make a new era in the world of ideas in Turkey and that this book was dedicated to the members of the society. And then, he gave a detailed list including the members of the academy including great and very important figures in Turkish / Ottoman history such as Mustafa Resid Pasha, Arif Hikmet Efendi, Hairullah Efendi, Dervish Pasha, Edhem Pasha, etc. Mallouf, was a Lebanese lexicographer. He was a member of the Société Asiatique, a professor of Eastern literature at the Collège de la Propagande at Smyrna, and Secretary-Interpreter to the irregular Anglo-Ottoman cavalry. Besides Arabic, his mother tongue, he learned Persian, Turkish, English, French, Modern Greek, and Italian. (Sources: Nassif Mallouf: Dragoman and orientalist, 1823-1865, Charles Malouf Samaha).

Not in OCLC.