[CENTRAL ASIA / THE GREAT GAME] Bir sahte dervisin Asya-yi Vusta'da seyahati. [i.e. Travels in Central Asia]. Translated by A. H. [Abdurrahman Samipasazâde Abdülhalim]

ARMINIUS [ARMIN] VAMBERY, (1832-1913), Vakit Matbaasi, Istanbul, [AH 1295] = 1878. Contemporary burgundy cloth bdg. Marginal stains on the front board, foxing on pages, period repairs on some papers' margins. Otherwise a good copy. Stamp of "P. I. Kaia Bibliothek" on title page. With an exceptional provenance, from the collection of "S. Kıiliççioglu", who was a collector of books in Ottoman Turkish related to Asia and China. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 192 p.The very rare first Turkish edition of the narrative of a Hungarian-Jewish polyglot orientalist and traveler's first-hand account as a spy in the British service in disguise through Central Asia. This work was translated by Abdülhalim (1794-1882) who was the father of the famous Turkish writer Samipasazâde Sezai, fifteen years later he met Vambery first in the Rifat Pasha's Konak [ie. Mansion], while Vambery was teaching linguistics.With his journey paid for by Baron József Eötvös, i