12mo. Volume I: Histoire de L’Islamisme et des Sectes qui s’y Rattachent: v, 139 pp., [1] / Volume II: Histoire des Arabes par L. A. Sedillot: vii, [1], 510 pp., 3 double-page maps, 5 engravings in text, half-titles, contemporary green cloth, title gilt on spine, marbled endpapers, some light foxing, otherwise copy in very good condition, Victor Lecou Editeurs / Librairie de L. Hachette, Paris, first edition, 1852-1854.

Synopsis

The first volume deals with the Islamic reform and the influence it had on the modern world. According to the author, this was a purely didactic draft, inspired by his travels on the hieratic banks of the Nile, Asia Minor, the enchanted shores of the Bosporus; by reading oriental manuscripts and by tales and narratives of the ‘Ulemas’, Dervishes, Fakirs, Vartabeds (highly educated abbots) and the elderly locals.
The second volume by Sedillot, highlights the contribution made by the Arabs in the Middle Ages to European civilisation. This work has been translated twice into Arabic by Akram and Adel Zu’aiter.
Louis Sedillot (1876-1908), a French Orientalist and astronomer, worked alongside Delambre and Laplace. He specialised in Arab history and civilisation. He began his career as a history teacher before becoming Secretary of the Collège de France and the School of Oriental Languages in 1832. He published several studies on Arabian astrology and Ibn al-Haytham.