Afghanistan | Three books by Burnes, 1842; Neidermeyer, 1924; and Stein, 1933, together in 3 volumes

Afghanistan—Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Burnes, Oskar von Niedermayer and Ernst Diez, Sir Aurel Stein

Three books on Afghanistan, comprising:

Alexander Burnes. Cabool; being a personal narrative of a journey to, and residence in that city, in the years 1836, 7, and 8. With numerous illustrations. London: John Murray, 1842

FIRST EDITION, 8vo (221 x 138mm.), 12 plates, mostly lithographed, appendices and errata leaf at end, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, red morocco label, uncut, light brown endpapers, some spotting and dampstaining, extremities rubbed

Oskar von Niedermayer and Ernst Diez. Afghanistan. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1924

FIRST EDITION, 4to (307 x 246mm.), 243 plates, 3 plans, text illustrations, publisher's decorative cloth, blue edges, orange endpapers, slight browning at extremities

Aurel Stein. On Ancient Central Asian Tracks. London: Macmillan and Co., 1933

FIRST EDITION, 8vo (237 x 168mm.), coloured frontispiece, dedication leaf, 147 plates (some coloured and some folding), old library stamp to verso of title, original terracotta cloth, gilt medallion on upper cover, top edge gilt, others uncut, new black endpapers, lacking map of Chinese Turkistan and adjacent parts of Central Asia and Kansu at end of volume, binding slightly bowed and rubbed

Cabool is an account of Burnes's second mission to Kabul from where, in spite of all his best efforts, he failed to persuade the British to support Dost Mohammed's claim over Peshwar. As a result, Dost Mohammed welcomed the Russians into Kabul and Burnes returned disappointed to India in 1838. Burnes was assassinated by an Afghan mob in 1841, presaging one of the greatest British military catastrophes of the nineteenth-century.

Niedermayer and Diez's Afghanistan is a rare work based on photographs and other material obtained by Niedermayer and his colleagues during the ill-fated German secret mission to Kabul in World War I, when they attempted to engage Afghanistan in a Holy War against British India (see On Secret Service East of Constantinople, pp.154-166.)

On Ancient Central Asian Tracks is a relatively rare travelogue, addressing the archaeological expedition undertaken by Aurel Stein in the region, which uncovered numerous hitherto undiscovered relics from the region.

LITERATURE:

Cabool: Yakushi (1994) B633a; Afghanistan: On Secret Service East of Constantinople, pp.154-166; On Central-Asian Tracks: Yakushi (1994) S723a