Middle East Rare Books Collection Featured in GW Today!
The SCRC's collection of rare books from and about the Middle East was featured this week in an article in GW Today.
Middle East Rare Books Collection
The article can be viewed here. GW Today is a new publication that will serve as the primary online source for information about the University.
In March 2008, the Special Collections Department of the Gelman Library acquired the entire Rare Book Collection held in The George Camp Keiser Library of the Middle East Institute, Washington, DC. The collection consists of some 700 volumes of literature and scholarship, addressing various aspects of the history, culture, politics, literature, and languages of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, the horn of Africa, the Indian sub-continent, and the Islamic lands. A large part of the collection is comprised of travelogues and other geographical works related to these regions. Many of the books pertaining to art and architecture include stunning illustrations and images.
The many editions and translations of sacred and classical texts include Alexander Ross’s version (from the French) of The Alcoran of Mahomet (London, 1688); Flügel’s academic edition of the original text, Corani textus arabicus (Leipzig, 1858); Edward Lane’s English version of The Thousand and One Nights (London, 1839-1841); and Macnaghten’s edition of the Arabic original, Alif Laylah wa Laylah (Calcutta, 1839-1842). The oldest book in the collection is the Spanish translation (from Ladino) of Moses Almosnino’s Extremos y grandezas de Constantinopla (Madrid, 1638).
