A History of Persia (Complete in Two Vols.)

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1951. Third Edition Reprinted. Hardcover. Good+. 8vo. Pp. xxxix, 563; xx, 616. Frontis. plates. Illustrated with numerous black & white photo plates, drawings in the text, and a fold-out map at the back of each volume. With preliminary and final essays, list of authorities and index. Blue cloth, titles stamped in gilt on the spines. Covers lightly scuffed, board edges rubbed, Teheran bookseller tag on each front pastedown ("Librairie Orientale, Vladimir Kachine, Avenue Ferdovci [Ferdowsi]"), leaves minimally age toned, Vol. 1 with pencil annotations to endpapers, Vol. 2 a few leaves with pencil highlighting. Reprint of the 1930 "third edition with supplementary essays." Scholarly enthusiasm for Persia was a family trait: Sykes' sister, Ella Constance Sykes, was herself a Fellow of the Geographical Society and also a well-regarded expert on Persia (Persia and Its People, Macmillan, 1910), as well as greater Central Asia. Their overland travel from England to Norway, thence to Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang, was documented by the pair and published as the now-sought after Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia (Macmillan, 1920).