16 broadsides and paper items of the Palestinian organizations Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLO and others. Israel, ca. late 1960s. Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Items include:
1. Early broadside of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, dating from the first exchanges of fire leading up to the Battle of Karameh (the first military conflict between the IDF and the Palestinian organizations, on 21 March 1968). Written in Arabic and English, it blames the Zionist leadership for the killing of Palestinians.
2-7. Bilingual (Hebrew-Arabic) broadside, printed on both sides, on behalf of the Al-Asifah Forces. The broadside addresses the "Zionist invaders" with a sharp message: "Al-Asifah will persecute you at all times and in all places to destroy your entity …". Six copies.
8-9. Broadside in Arabic on behalf of the Fatah organization, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the death of Ahmed Musa, the organization's first "shahid", killed during an attempt to blow up the national water pipeline. Two copies.
10. "The Masses Oppose the Occupation", early Palestinian pamphlet of the resistance organizations, compiling news items related to the struggle between the IDF and the Palestinian resistance.
11. Propaganda broadside for Palestinian schools on behalf of the Fatah military wing, calling on citizens to join the struggle for the Palestinian homeland.
12. Illustrated postcard marking the Fatah's day of establishment. Illustration of a groaning horse with the Fatah emblem.
13-14. Two illustrated envelopes of the French airmail service, apparently printed by the PLO embassy in Paris. The envelopes convey a seemingly peaceful message of co-existence under Palestinian rule in Palestine.
15. Issue of a monthly periodical of Fatah, November 28, 1968. Includes an article about women in revolution and war, news items, poems for soldiers, and more.
16. Photocopy of a booklet with a political manifest of Fatah, "for the fourth year of the revolution" (the establishment of Fatah).
Size and condition vary. Fair overall condition. Folding marks, closed and open tears to some of the broadsides. Light stains. Slight damage to text on a few posters. Pen inscriptions.
Provenance: Shlomo Shva collection.

Atlas Minor Gerardi Mercatoris. Amsterdam, [1610]. Latin. Third edition.
Atlas by the geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594). Illustrated title page, an allegoric engraved plate and 143 maps (engravings) of different countries worldwide, including a map of Palestine. Some of the maps are colored by hand. Lacking ten maps.
Mercator was considered the most important cartographer in the 16th century. The first two maps created by Mercator were a map of Palestine (1537) and a world map (1538). One of his most important contributions to cartography is the projection he created in 1569 (on which he based a word map), called today the "Mercator Projection". Mercator was the first to use the word "Atlas" to define a book with maps.
[4], 536, 545-664 pp [originally: [4], 684 pp. Lacking pages 537-544 (with two maps), and pages 665-684 (with eight maps)], 22X18 cm. Fair condition. Stained. Tears at margins of some of the leaves. Worming. Markings and inscriptions (contemporary), in ink, on part of the leaves. Vellum binding, worn and torn, almost totally detached (with pieces of cloth pasted between the cover boards and the first and last leaves).

A description of the East, and Some other Countries by Richard Pococke. Printed by W. Bowyer, London, 1743-1745. Two volumes. English.
The English anthropologist and bishop Richard Pococke (1704-1765) traveled to the Near East in 1737-1741. These two volumes record this journey. The first volume is dedicated to Egypt and the second volume to Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and other places.
The two volumes include 177 engravings (74 plates in the first volume and 103 plates in the second. Missing one plate). Among the engravings: maps (a folding map of Palestine and Syria, a folding map of Jerusalem, and many others), plans, illustrations of important sites, illustrations of local vegetation, and more. At the opening of each volume appears an engraved plate with a printed dedication by the author.
Vol. 1: [1] leaf, VI, [8], 310 pp (last pages are bound out of order) + [75] plates. One engraved plate is missing (no. 64). Vol. 2: XI, [1], 268, VII, [1], 308 pp + [104] plates. 40.5 cm. Good condition. Ink-stamps. Some stains. Small tears at margins of some leaves (mainly to first and last leaves of both volumes). New bindings and endpapers.

Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, by the late John Lewis Burckhardt; published by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. London: John Murray, 1822. English and some Arabic.
Description of the travels of the Swiss orientalist and traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in Syria and Palestine. Includes seven plates - portrait of the author (lithograph facing title page) and six maps and plans (engravings). Including: a large (folded) map of Syria, Palestine and Egypt; a folded map of Hauran; plans of Jerash and Amman; and more.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817) was renowned mainly for his rediscovery of the remains of Petra in Jordan. In ca. 1806 he received approval from the London-based Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa to embark on an investigative journey aiming to locate the sources of the Niger River (this is the institution that published the present book). In preparation for this journey, and since he intended to present himself as a Muslim during the research work, he studied Arabic and traveled to the East in order to learn and become familiar with Muslim customs. In 1809 he traveled to Syria, and while there embarked on a number of trips. While traveling he took a Muslim name - Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah - and attempted to integrate in the communities he visited. Burckhardt fell ill and died in Cairo before embarking on his journey in Africa, and was buried there in a Muslim cemetery.
[1] leaf, XXIII, [3], 668 pp, + [7] plates. 27 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Dark dampstains to some of the leaves (mostly in the beginning and end of the book). Small tears to the large folded map. One leaf (table of contents) is detached and torn at the margins. Worn, torn and detached binding (as a result, a number of leaves at the beginning and end of the book are detached). Pen inscription on the inner side of the front binding.