Item #10941 The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi. Richard F. Burton, author.
The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi

Item Details

The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi.

New York; New Haven, CT: Limited Editions Club, Yale University Press, Printing Office, [1937]. Limted Edition. Hardcover. The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi (1880) is a long English language poem written by "Haji Abdu El-Yezdi," a pseudonym of the true author, Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), a well-known British Arabist and explorer. In a note to the reader, Burton claims to be the translator of the poem, to which he gives the English title "Lay of the Higher Law." It is thus a pseudotranslation, pretending to have had an original Persian text, which never existed. The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufi thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition; Burton had hoped to bring Sufist ideas to the West. Very Good+. Minimally sunned and toned, mildly starting, discoloration to endpapers, else tight, bright, unmarred. Bound in full lavender calf with gilt lettering on the spine and elaborate embossing on both covers. Printed on double folded Japanese Kozo paper with four color floral borders and illuminations by hand with pure gold and silver by Valenti Angelo. This copy numbered 161 of 1500, signed by the illustrator on the colophon page. Duodecimo, unpaged, illus. Item #10941

Price: $100.00

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