The Baz-nama-yi Nasiri: A Persian Treatise on Falconry

(Persian) Falconry.Husam al-Dawlah Taymur Mirza. The Baz-nama-yi Nasiri. A Persian Treatise on Falconry, translated by D. C. (Douglas Craven) Phillott, 1st edition, Bernard Quaritch, 1908, One of 500 copies.

Description: halftone illustrations in the text, original publisher's green pictorial cloth with gilt reproduction of ancient Persian ms. with falconer on horseback, gilt-lettered spine, one minor worm hole through bottom margin first few pages, 8vo 25.5 x 17 cm. Kept in, and comes with, non adhesive transparent dust jacket. See pics for overall condition.
Blanc front and end papers, half title page, frontispiece with clean protective tissue, title page, dedication page in English and one in Farsi, xxiv and 195 pp and illustrated with 25 illustrations of Persian paintings, animals, and original ms. Quaritch printer's device to last leaf (see pics).

Notes: - Wood; p. 519; Zimmer p. 623. One of 500 copies only. The author was a grandson of Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar (1772-1834) and a respected authority on the subject. 'An important item in the treatise, which is profusely illustrated with figures of birds and hunting scenes, lies in the description of Persian accipitres, with their English names' (Wood).

- Hohenstaufen; First edition, one of 500 copies. "A very important work by a falconer who flourished in the middle of the 19th century gives a detailed account of falcons as well as hunting-birds in general, and the author quotes from a number of early authorities on falconry" (Hohenstaufen).

- The Times; The translator, Phillott, joined the 40th foot from Sandhurst, and served later in the 28th Punjab infantry, and in the 3rd Punjab cavalry. He was with the Zhob Valley field force in 1890; and was deputy assistant quartermaster general and interpreter with the Hazara field force in 1891; and employed in the operations on the north-west frontier in 1897-98. After serving as consul in Persia for two years, he was employed in the India Office. "Colonel Phillott was a distinguished Orientalist, the author of many elementary and advanced works for students of Hindustani, Urdu, and Persian. He translated Cavalry Drill and Mountain Warfare into the Indian vernaculars, and contributed many papers to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of which he had been general secretary, philological secretary, and twice gold medallist. He was a Fellow of Calcutta University, where he had been Persian lecturer" (The Times, obituary 12 Sept. 1930).

Husam al-Dawlah Timur Mirza famous work on falconry was originally published in 1285. Put up in Tehran and published in Persian, early devotees of falconry demanded reprints of this book for centuries, but their cries for the information contained in it went unheard until Douglas Craven Phillott of London finally translated the work into English and it was subsequently published in 1906. Copies of the translation were limited to only 500 copies.