Rare books, manuscripts, music, ephemera…
1st April 2015
The German diplomat, Orientalist, and historian Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946) had published a memorandum as early as 1914 on ‘revolutionizing the Islamic territories of our enemies’ during the First World War, i.e. trying to persuade religious leaders in the Muslim world to call for a Holy War against colonial powers such as Britain and France. […]
Read more
4th April 2013
Earlier in the year, I wrote about a couple of books relating to the First World War. Here’s another with a WWI connection: a miniature Qur’an produced by the Glasgow publishers David Bryce & Sons between about 1900 and 1910. (The coin, in case you’re wondering, is a nickel.) In general, I’m not that taken […]
Read more
27th March 2012
Sheikh Mansur was a Chechen resistance fighter who waged a six-year campaign against Catherine the Great’s forces before his capture in 1791, calling upon fellow Muslims to join him in jihad. ‘He was the first to preach and lead … the Holy War against the infidel Russians in the Caucasus … Dropped, as it were, from the […]
Read more