The History of the Saracens. Containing the lives of [.] the immediate successors of Mahomet. Giving an account of their most remarkable battles, sieges, &c. particularly those of Aleppo, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. Illustrating the religion, rites, customs, and manner of living of that warlike people. The third edition.

8vo. 2 vols. (4), XXI, (29), 80, 339, (21) pp. (4), LVIII, 325, (3), (327)-356, (12) pp. With a folding engraved plate. Contemporary calf; modern spines with giltstamped labels. All edges red. Third edition of this classic and influential work, first published in 1708. Ockley (1678-1720) was Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge. "The importance of Ockley's work in relation to the progress of oriental studies cannot be overestimated [.] Ockley for the first time made the history of the early Saracen conquests attractive to the general reader, and stimulated the student to further research. [The 'History'] became a secondary classic, and formed for generations the main source of the average notions of early Mohammedan history" (DNB XLI, 364). The plate shows the Kaaba at Mecca, engraved after a drawing preserved in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The manuscript, which formed the basis of Ockley's work, is now known as the ‘Futûh esh-Sham by pseudo-Waqidi. - Browned and brownstained throughout. From the library of the British philosopher of religion, David Arthur Pailin (b. 1936), with his bookplate; also with engr. bookplate of Robert Fellowes (of Shotesham/Shottesham, Norfolk, d. 1869?). - BM 174, p. 334. Gay 98. Graesse V, 7. OCLC 6595742. Cf. NYPL Arabia coll. 33 (1st and later editions).