Solyman and Fatima ; or, the Sceptic Convinced - An Eastern Tale

Dublin: McAllister. Fair. 1792. First Irish Edition. Full Leather. [4], 288 pages; Full contemporary calf binding quite worn; boards detached, leather pieces chipped away at spine ends, rubbed through at corners and edges, lettering rubbed through on leather title label at spine, peeled at lower part of rear board. Text block securely stitched with much of backstrip intact; lacks ffep. 18 leaves have some paper loss at lower inner corner; of which, two leaves have some loss to bottom two lines of text. Extant text block begins with half-title bearing ownership signature "W. W. Lewis / Feb 21 1882"; followed by titlepage with earliest ownership "Jno. Alex Binns / July 25th 1811 / Leesburg Virginia" ESTC N22768. OCLC 994060207 ; OCLC 17381929. Listed in Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 509. PROVENANCE: John Alexander Binns, c.1761–1813, American agriculturist, b. Loudoun co., Va. He was one of the first to experiment with gypsum as a fertilizer and to convince others of its efficacy. Partly through example and partly through his pamphlet, Treatise on Practical Farming (1803), what came to be known as the Loudoun system of soil treatment spread rapidly throughout Virginia and Maryland and ultimately into other states. In the 1780s Virginia farmers in Loudoun County, Virginia were having trouble with degrading agricultural production from their over-farmed lands. Binns was not inclined to move westward, so explored rejuvenating the soil. He learned of the use of gypsum and clover for that purpose. In 1780 he began his experiments, using not only the gypsum and clover and also practicing deeper ploughing and rotating crops. As his methods began to produce greater yields, he purchased other worn-out farm properties and in some few years was profiting from his application of enhanced farming methods, which he passed along to his neighboring farmers by milling and selling gypsum. In 1803, he authored a volume detailing his methods titled A Treatise on Practical Farming, By John A. Binns Of Loudoun County, Virginia, Farmer. It was published at Frederick-Town, Maryland, and printed by John B. Colvin, Editor of the Republican Advocate, 1803. Thomas Jefferson was impressed with Binn's Treatise and sent copies to Sir John Sinclair, the head of the English Board of Agriculture and Mr. William Strickland also on the Board of Agriculture of England. [Bay Journal Nov 1, 2002 and the Legends of Loudoun: An Account of the History and Homes of a Border County of Virginia's Northern Neck (1938) by Harrison Williams] SYNOPSIS: At the very heart of this "Eastern Tale" is an interesting conversation between a Brahmin (Ibrahim) and a Muslim (Zadah) on issues of faith vs. scientific/material reason, whencethe subtitle of the book "The Sceptic Convinced - an Eastern Tale." Ibrahim has traveled the world as a merchant and been swayed to the rational enlightened, scientific thinking of the West and is somewhat mourning his loss of faith. Zadah presents counterbalancing arguments from his own unfloundering faithful perpective on divinity. A most interesting and curious tale constructed by an Englishman Thomas Wright, whose exposure to Eastern and Near Eastern culture and philosophy is unrecorded. .