[RARE EARLY CAIRO EDITION OF THE “RIHLA”] Kitab rihlat Ibn Battutah: Tuffat al-nuzzâr fî gharâ'ib al-amsâr wa 'ajâ'ib al-asfâr [i.e., The journey: A masterpiece to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling]. 2 volumes set

IBN BATTUTA (Abû Abd Allah Shams al-Dîn (Badr Al-Dîn) Muhammad b. Abd Allâh b. Muhammad b. Ibrâhîm al-Lawâtî al-Tanjî) (1304-1369).

Bi’l-Matbaat al-Hayriyya, Ömer Hussein al-Khashab, Cairo, AH 1322 [1904 CE].

Complete title: [RARE EARLY CAIRO EDITION OF THE “RIHLA”] كتاب رحلة ابن بطوطة تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار / Kitab rihlat Ibn Battutah (al-samat) tuffat al-nuzzâr fî gharâ'ib al-amsâr wa 'ajâ'ib al-asfâr [i.e., The journey: A masterpiece to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling]. 2 volumes set in one.

Contemporary brown half calf; gilt title, volumes nos, ex-owner’s name and decorations on the compartments, five raised bands to spine. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Arabic. 2 volumes set: ([4], 304 p.; 260 p.). Slight wear to the spine, light water stains on the lower corners of the pages and edges (of the first volume), bumped corners, occasional fading and browning on pages and edges. Overall, a good set in one volume.

The rare second Cairo edition (both the first and second editions published in the Arab world are rare). The work recounts the travels of the medieval Arab explorer, undertaken in two separate journeys spaced closely together, during a time marked by Mongol and Turkish dominance across Asia and the Middle East. Spanning more than twenty-eight years, his journeys took him from Mecca and Medina to Byzantine Constantinople, and from India to China. The text was dictated in its original form to the scribe Ibn Juzayy, who at times abridged the material and occasionally added minor insertions, resulting in the final composition of the work. This is the foremost primary source on the Arabian Peninsula in the medieval period.

Early editions of the Rihla in the Arab world have often been criticized due to the delayed appearance of critical comparative editions. Following the Cairo edition in AH 1288 (1871), only one other edition appeared in Beirut in 1927, with three more issued in Cairo by 1938. All editions published in the Arab world came significantly later than the first complete and bilingual edition by Defrémery and Sanguinetti, published in Paris. 

The first volume includes Ibn Battuta’s first great voyage began in 1325 when he left his hometown of Tangier, Morocco, intending only to complete the Hajj to Mecca. However, the journey sparked a lifelong passion for travel. Moving east along the North African coast through the territories of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, he reached Egypt and then Alexandria, where Sufi mystics foretold a vast journey ahead. He took multiple detours: first through Upper Egypt, then back to Cairo, and onward to Damascus and across Palestine, before finally reaching Medina and Mecca. After completing the Hajj, rather than returning home, he travelled through Iraq and Persia, stopping in Baghdad, Tabriz, Mosul, and Mardin. His second pilgrimage to Mecca followed, after which he sailed from Aden to Somalia, visiting Zeila and the flourishing port city of Mogadishu, ruled by a Somali sultan. Continuing down the Swahili Coast, he stopped in Mombasa, then returned to Mecca for a third Hajj.

In 1330 (or 1332), he set off again, heading through Anatolia, though his route across cities like Milas, Konya, and Erzurum appears confused. He joined a diplomatic mission from Astrakhan to Constantinople, where he met the Byzantine emperor and visited Hagia Sophia.

The second volume begins with he journey through Bukhara and Samarkand before crossing the Hindu Kush into the Indian subcontinent (Indus River). Reaching Delhi in 1333, he was appointed a qadi by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq. Although he held prestige, political instability and suspicion plagued his tenure. Eventually, an embassy to China offered him a means of escape. Though attacked by bandits near the coast, he continued to Gujarat and then to Calicut. There, as storms struck and one of his ships was lost, Ibn Battuta's voyage to China nearly ended before it began, yet he persisted, still far from completing his global odyssey. The second volume contains content pp. 254-260. 

Bearing the provenance inscription “صالح كامل” [i.e., Saleh Kamil] at the base of the spine, along with two ownership seals of the Turkish medieval historian Faruk Sümer (1924-1995) on the frontispiece of the first volume and the final page of the second volume.

Source: TDVIA, Aykut.; Wikipedia.; We couldn’t find any copies in OCLC & online market.