8vo. xlvii, 324 pp., 25 plates, 1 folding plan, half-title, contemporary half calf with marbled boards, slightly rubbed round the edges, title gilt on raised decorated spine, marbled endpapers & edges, bookplate of Edward Blore verso front cover with his inscription on front fly leaf, occasional foxing, otherwise copy in very good condition, Duncan & Malcolm, London, 1839.

Synopsis

First edition, edited by Mary MacIntosh Rich (his widow) A “Memoir on the Ruins with Engravings from the Original Sketches by the Author, Remarks on the Topography of Ancient Babylon by Major Rennell; Second Memoir on the Ruins with a Narrative of a Journey to Persepolis with hitherto Unpublished Cuneiform Inscriptions Copied at Persepolis.”
Claudius James Rich (March 28, 1787 – October 5, 1821) was a British business agent, traveller and antiquarian scholar, with a gift for languages…
In 1804 Rich went to Constantinople, where, and at Smyrna, he stayed some time, perfecting himself in Turkish.
Proceeding to Alexandria as assistant to the British consul-general there, he devoted himself to Arabic and its various dialects, and made himself master of Eastern manners and usage’s. On leaving Egypt he travelled by land to the Persian Gulf, disguised as a Mamluk, visiting Damascus, and entering the great mosque undetected. At Bombay, which he reached in September 1807, he was the guest of Sir James Mackintosh, whose eldest daughter Mary he married on 22 January 1808, proceeding soon after to Baghdad as resident. There he began his investigations into the geography, history and antiquities of the district. He explored the remains of Babylon, and projected a geographical and statistical account of the Pashalic of Baghdad. The results of his work at Babylon appeared first in the Vienna serial Mines de l’Orient, and in 1839 in London under the title Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811.
Bibliographic references: Brunet IV, 1279.V.G; Weber I 299; Hopkirk 1078; Burrell 689.