Arabic Proverbs or the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Illustrated from Their Proverbial Sayings Current at Cairo, Translated and Explained

London. John Murray. 1830. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to. 27cm, the First Edition, [viii],232p., in half crushed dark green morocco, raised bands, gilt decorations and borders in the panels, gilt titles, marbled boards, fine. (cgc) The rarest of Burckhardt's works, this was written during his last year of life which he spent in Cairo. Fortunately he was able to send back all of his journals to England before his death of dysentery in Cairo. He had been waiting there for a caravan of West African pilgrims to take him into the Sahara. Contains 782 Arabic proverbs, published in the original Arabic with English translations and (sometimes extensive) explanations of their meaning. He took some from a collection assembled by the Egyptian scholar Shered ad-Din Ibn Assad, adding others as he heard them quoted in general society or in the bzr . Several Scriptural sayings and maxims of ancient sages will be found here naturalized among Arabs; as well as some Proverbs which have generally been supposed of European origin (preface). This makes the present publication an essential primary source for Islamic, Egyptian and Arabic oral history, preserving popular proverbs collected before 1817. The Swiss explorer, orientalist and archaeologist Burckhardt (1784-1817) travelled through Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Nubia and the Arabian Peninsula, and rediscovered the ancient city of Petra. Disguised as an Arab, he crossed the Red Sea to Jeddah under the name Sheikh Ibrahim, passed an examination in Muslim law and participated in a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. - Howgego B76.