THE LIFE OF MAHOMET [and] LIVES OF THE SUCCESSORS OF MAHOMET by Irving Washington - 1850

London: John Murray, 1850. 2 volumes. First edition. A publisher's presentation copy with manuscript presentation on the general titlepage of volume two. Each volume with both the general title-page for the set and the specific title-page for the volume. 8vo, in beautifully decorated publisher's original olive green moire cloth elaborately stamped in blind on the spines and all covers in arabesque designs, the spines lettered in gilt. xv, 373, ads; xvi, 500, 16 ads pp. A fine set in completely original state, rare thus, a very fresh and clean set, the cloth bright and the text near pristine. A FIRST EDITION SET QUITE SCARCE IN THIS CONDITION, FULLY ORIGINAL AND BEAUTIFULLY PRESERVED, APPEARING UNUSED AND AS PRISTINE. RARE THUS.
From the preface: “Some apology may seem necessary for presenting a life of Mahomet at the present day, when no new fact can be added to those already known concerning him. Many years ago, during a residence in Madrid, the author projected a series of writings illustrative of the domination of the Arabs in Spain. These were to be introduced by a sketch of the life of the founder of the Islam Faith, and the first mover of Arabian conquest. Most of the particulars for this were drawn from Spanish sources, and from Gagnier’s traslation of the Arabian historian Abulfeda, a copy of which the author found in the Jesuits’ Library of the Convent of Isidro, at Madrid....
Such is the origin of the work now given to the public; on which the author lays no claim o novelty of fact, nor profundity of research. It still bears the type of a work intended for a family Library; in constructing which the whole aim of the writer has been to digest into an easy, perspicuous, and flowing narrative, the admitted facts concerning Mahomet, together with such legends and traditions as have been wrought into the whole system of oriental literature; and at the same time to give such a summary of his faith as might be sufficient for the general reader. Under such circumstances he has not thought it worth while to encumber his pages with a scaffolding of references and citations, nor to depart from the old English nomenclature of oriental names.”