Arabic Simplified Parts I–X. (Lessons 1–200) [PROVENANCE] [MISSIONARY]

Cairo: Nile Mission Press, ND [1916]. First Edition. Half Leather. Good +. 8vo (23.5cm). Cream cloth, brown calf, gilt titles to spine, five raised bands. Lilac endpapers. pp. 348. Upson, also known as Abdul-Fady Al-Qahirany, a Christian missionary to Egypt, co-founded the Nile Mission Press in 1905 as a vehicle to transmit the Gospels to the Moslem world. Ownership signature to second blank of William Goldsack, (1871–1957), Australian Baptist missionary to East Bengal, notable for translating the Koran into Bengali. Beneath, previous owner's name of H M Angus, likely Harold Mortimer Angus, (1893–1983), a Baptist missionary also active in India. A few library stamps for Selly Oak College Library. There is an illuminating Wikipedia entry on the Selly Oak Colleges. Edition remarks: a later issue of the book records the First edition as published in 1916, with a Second Impression (of first nine lessons only) issued in 1917, and a third impression of 1919 with only five lessons. There was a Second Edition, revised throughout, in 1921. This copy has no date, but the details all point to this as being the true first, including the shorter pagination. The title page states the contents to contain lessons 1 to 200, but the lessons and exercises only go up to 150, with on pp. 347, 'Order of lessons (Vol. 2)' and 'parts V to X'. There appears to be no record of a second volume, and it may never have been issued, with the lessons referred to in the end matter incorporated into the 1917 printing. This may explain the longer pagination of pp. 420, [44] cited by the three holdings of the 1917 issue recorded on Library Hub. The presumed first edition, hence scarce, with no copies recorded on WorldCat nor Library Hub. Library Hub records four copies of the 1917 edition, at the BL, Universities of Glasgow and Liverpool and SOAS. Cloth soiled, leather to corners quite rubbed, some rubs to spine, evidence of minor worming to front and rear inner boards, and adjacent pages, some scattered pencil notes and marks. Still a firm, sound copy.