Description

8vo. 40 pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. First Bulaq edition of this collection of witty anecdotes centered on the humorous folk figure Nasreddin; the second edition altogether following that published in Istanbul the previous year. "The influential Cairo prints of 1254 H (1838), 1256 H (1840), 1257 H (1841), and 1259 H (1843) [.] became the basis of European translations, and an unbroken line of [.] Nasreddin Hoca tales thus became cemented in the literary tradition" (Palabiyik). In Ottoman Turkish throughout. - Binding rubbed; some dampstains and traces of worming throughout. Handwritten ownership of the French diplomat Louis Lagarde (dated 10.11.1932) on first page. - Özege 11624. N. Palabiyik, "Justus Raphelengius and the Turkish Folk Tradition", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 139.2 (2019), p. 335.