8vo. Volume I: xvi, 192 pp.,half-title / Volume II: 193-422 pp, 1 folding map, index, bound in contemporary cloth backed marbled boards, uncut, scattered foxing, stamp to half-title & title page, book plate of Erich Horstkffer verso front cover, shelf label on lower spine, otherwise copy in good condition, Friedrich Vieweg, Braunschweig, Germany, first edition, 1873.

Synopsis

Maltzan (1826-1874) was a German writer and Orientalist. From 1846 to 1850 he studied law and oriental languages in Munich, Heidelberg and Erlangen and was initially for a short time in the administrative service of the Kingdom of Saxony. From 1851, being financially independent due to a substantial patrimony, he led the life of a scholar and explorer in various Middle Eastern countries. In 1860 he undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca, disguised as a Muslim.
“The spell of the East grew upon him, and he began desiring to visit the centre of Mohammedan faith”. After his famous disguised journey to Mecca in 1865, he travelled in 1873 through Yemen and his account of that journey is rich with topographical and cartographical material.
Bibliographic references: Henze III, 360-361; Marco 1523; Dinse 443; Embacher 199.