£378
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 739
Auction: 21 June 2023 at 11:00 BST
A Most Comprehensive Account of the History and Archaeology of Delhi (with Numerous Illustrations). By Bashir-ud-Din Ahmad ... Volume I. History, 1450 B. C. to 1919 A. D. [Volume II: Archaeology. Volume III. Archaeology (Continued)]. [Urdu title:] Waqi'at-i dar al-hukumat Dihli. Delhi: I. M. P. H., 1919. 3 volumes, large 8vo (26 x 16cm), contemporary cloth (volume 1 rebacked), text in Urdu (with occasional English and Hindi), lithographed throughout (except English title-pages, letterpress), 153 plates (nearly all lithographic; 4 halftone), several folding, volume 1 lacking at least pp. 1-8, Urdu title-page remargined and laid down, marginal tears to pp. 9-34, pp. 35/6 repaired, pp. 600-640 with large worm-track in text, loss to pp. 985-110, holes in a couple of plates, retaining original rear wrappers. volume 2 spine misnumbered, title-pages damp-stained, small repair to pp. 1/2, pp. 679/80 torn, tears to plates facing pp. 10, 41 and 221, retaining original rear wrapper, volume 3 with closed tear to Urdu title-page, original wrappers previously tipped in (now detached). Together with duplicates of volumes 2 and 3
Note: First edition thus, one of 1,000 copies, no other copies traced in auction records. The work is largely an Urdu translation of the Archaeological Survey of India’s List of Muhammadan and Hindu Monuments in Delhi Zail (1915-1922), the standard work on the subject, but provides additional maps and information on local traditions. Bashir-ud-Din Ahmad is described on the title-pages as 'first talukdar (collector and district magistrate) ret[ired], H. E. H. the Nizam's government, author of the histories of Vijayanagar and Bijapur, Iqbal Dulhan, Husn-e-Muashrat, Islah-e-Maishat, etc., etc., and translator of Dr. Stall's Self and Sex series'.