4to. xi, 463 pp., [1], engraved frontispiece portrait of author, half-title, 1 coloured folding map at rear, 117 drawings by M E Van Myden, 16 heliotypies, 170 engravings, contemporary half-calf with marbled boards, slightly rubbed round edges, title gilt on red label, raised spine, all edges red, pages 185-192 partly detached at lower margin, occasional light foxing mainly to top margins, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, Paris, first French edition, 1885.

Synopsis

In the 1880’s Henri Moser, a Swiss citizen, set off on the first of four journeys to Central Asia. Initially, he visited Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, learned the local languages, and became friendly with the important citizens. This was the time of the Russian conquest of Central Asia, and Moser, being one of the first Europeans to know the area well, was in a privileged position.
Moser’s knowledge of the area earned him a place, in 1882, in the suite of General Tchernaieff, who was going to Tashkent as the Czar’s governor general. From Tashkent, Moser continued to Samarkand and Bukhara, sailed down the Amu Darya River on a boat to Khiva, crossed the Karakum Desert to Ashkabad, and then made his way via Bojnurd to Teheran, and across the Caspian to the Caucasus, the Black Sea and finally, in 1883, Istanbul. An account of his journey, Across Central Asia, gave a lively eye-witness account of the people and customs of these regions
“Valuable as mirror Turkestan conditions that existed immediately after the Russian occupation.”
Bibliographic references: Hage Chahine 3316th; Henze III, 542; Ghani p. 268.