8vo. xx, 213 pp., [3, index], 4 hand coloured engraved plates at rear (three show the Kurdish costumes and the fourth a wild goat, one of the Kurdish national symbols), contemporary full calf, title gilt on decorated spine, edges of front & lower cover gilt, head & lower end of spine damaged, worm hole affecting lower margin of title page & three preliminary leaves without loss, occasional foxing, otherwise copy in good condition, Stamperia de' Fratelli Fernandis, Naples, first edition, 1818.

Synopsis

First edition of the first overview of the Kurdish region and about their customs.” Although Italian contacts with Iran date from ancient times, scientific interest in pre-Islamic Iran cannot be traced earlier than the second half of the eighteenth century. Among the earlier studies on pre-Islamic Iran, the contribution by the Arabist Carlo Alfonso Nallino (1872-1938) is particularly stimulating. He profoundly studied the translation movement in the caliphate period and the character of Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ
Giuseppe Campanile (1762-1835) was one of the earliest Europeans who travelled through the Kurdish region. When he was sent to northern Iraq in 1802 by the Roman Catholic Church he spent few years among the population of Mosul and he was named as the Apolistic Prefect of Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. During this time, he wrote his book “Storia della Regione del Kurdistan” (History of the Region of Kurdistan). Beside recalling historical events of the region, the work is a description of the areas he travelled through, giving the reader an inside look at the customs, traditions and costumes of the Kurds; the geography, the economy and the religious practices of the Shemsi – a small ethno-religious group of the Middle East- thus the book became one of the most important early and interesting source about the Kurds and their land.
[Ref.: Campanile, G.; Bois, Th.: Étude kurdes 1. Histoire du Kurdistan. Paris: Fondation-Institut kurde de Paris – l’Harmattan, 2004.; Blau, J.: Kurdish language ii. History of Kurdish studies.” In: Encyclopaedia Iranica. R.: The Shemsi and the Assyrians.]