RAMALLAH - Its HISTORY and Its GENEALOGIES / UNVEILING the ANCESTORS and LINEAGES in the CITY of RAMALLAH, by AZIZ SHAHEEN. In Arabic, with a section in English.

Published by Birzeit University, Birzeit, "Israeli Occupied West Bank of Jordan",1982.

Hardcovers, dark blue cloth covered boards, gilt titling to the spine, 9x12 inches (23x30.5 cm).

There are 877 pages in ARABIC, including all the genealogies, titled: "UNVEILING the ANCESTORS and LINEAGES in the CITY of RAMALLAH".

There is also a 77 page English section written by Naseeb Shaheen that opens on the backside of the book titled: "RAMALLAH: Its History and Its Genealogies". This section is illustrated with b&w photographs.

VERY GOOD condition, the covers have some rubbing and light soiling, one cover corner is bumped, otherwise the covers are solid and well bound; internally, there are pencil page numbers in Roman Numerals written below the printed Arabic page numbers (neat and helpful), else internally fine, tight, bright, clean, and clear. A solid, nice, very presentable copy.

INTERNATIONAL BUYERS PLEASE NOTE: This book is heavy and will require substantial additional shipping charges. After placing your order you will be notified of the additional charges and be able to accept or reject them before your payment is processed. Or you can contact us ahead of time to find out the shipping charge to your country. Thanks.

GOLD PEAK 1997 SPECIAL STAMP PACK Commemorating the JULY 1, 1997 HANDOVER of HONG KONG to CHINA.

A lovely hardcover folder with art on the front panel opens to display a LAST DAY STAMP COVER POSTMARKED HONG KONG / JUNE 30, 1997 and a FIRST DAY STAMP COVER POSTMARKED JULY 1, 1997. June 30, 1997 was the last day that Hong Kong was governed by the United Kingdom, and the last day that stamps featuring Queen Elizabeth were usable. July 1, 1997 was the first day that Hong Kong was governed by China, and the first day that the new Hong Kong stamps could be used.

The folder measures 8.5x14.5 inches, the front panel has a lovely art design. The folder opens to present the first day and last day covers that are loosely mounted with clear corner holders. Laid-in the folder is a letter from Victor Lo, the Chairman & Chief Executive of Gold Peak Industries, a Hong Kong based international battery and technology company. The letter describes the "1997 Collectors' Stamp Presentation" which "are issued in a very limited edition".

All is in NEAR FINE condition, lovely.

ÉLOGES de PERSONNAGES ÉMINENTS de TOUEN-HOUANG sous les T'ANG et les CINQ DYNASTIES. Partie I: Avant-Propos, Introduction, TEXTES CHINOIS. Par Chen Tsu-Lung.

(PRAISE of EMINENT CHARACTERS of TOUEN-HOUANG under the T'ANG and the FIVE DYNASTIES. Part I: Foreword, Introduction, CHINESE TEXTS. Edited by Chen Tsu-Lung.)

INSCRIBED ASSOCIATION COPY. Inscribed on the half title page by Chen Tsu-Lung to Noted Chinese Studies scholar L. S. GOODRICH. The inscription is in Chinese and, according to a Chinese speaking friend, says: "Professor, Please Comment." Also, laid-in on the title page is a business card of Chen Tsu-Lung on which he inscribed the following in English: "Please oblige me by making a review of it."

Published by École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1970.

Wrappers, 7.5x11 inches (19x28cm). XVII pages of introductory text in French followed by 197 pages of CHINESE TEXTS. There are 20 photographic plates of original Chinese manuscripts at the rear.

GOOD condition: The spine covering has creases, scrapes and closed tears, the top of the spine is bumped, the front and rear covers have creasing to the corners and light wear to the edges; internally very nice, some light corner creases, overall the pages are tight, bright, clean and unmarked. Many of the pages remain uncut.

About L.S. GOODRICH, to whom the book is inscribed (from Wikipedia):

******Luther Carrington Goodrich, b.1894 d.1986, was an American sinologist and historian of China. A prolific author, he is perhaps best remembered for his work on the Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368-1644.

Luther Carrington Goodrich was born on September 21, 1894, in Tongzhou, a southeastern suburb of Beijing, where his parents were serving as Protestant missionaries. He received his master's degree in 1927 and Ph.D. in 1934, both from Columbia University. He continued at Columbia as a faculty member, becoming a full Professor in 1945. Excluding a few short breaks spent as a visiting professor in institutions abroad, he spent the rest of his career at Columbia University.******

(1) BAGHDAD: IMAGO MUNDI, AND OTHER FOUNDATION LORE, by Charles Wendell. Published by Cambridge University Press, [1971]. A separately bound reprint from International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1971. SIGNED & INSCRIBED by the AUTHOR on the front cover. Booklet, paper covers, 7x10 inches, 30 pages (numbered 99-128). GOOD condition, some creases and edge wear to the covers, a crease to the upper corner of the inner pages, and some minor hand corrections to the text, presumably by the author; overall a solid, bright, presentable copy.

(2) THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD OF SIRAT AL-NABI, by Charles Wendell. A separately bound reprint from MUSLIM WORLD / Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1972. SIGNED & INSCRIBED by the AUTHOR on the front cover. Booklet, paper covers, 6x9.5 inches, 30 pages (numbered 12-41). VERY GOOD condition, tight, bright and clean.

About CHARLES WENDELL (from a UC Santa Barbara website):

******Charles Wendell, b.1919 d. 1982, Professor of Eastern Languages; Germa nic and Slavic Languages; Religious Studies; Eastern Languages: University of California Santa Barbara.

Charles Wendell was a brilliant linguist, fluent in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, Latin, and Greek. In 1967 Wendell joined the faculty at Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor of Arabic. He was later advanced to Associate Professor with a joint appointment with the Eastern Languages Department, where he continued to teach Arabic, and with the Religious Studies Department, where he offered courses in Islamic religion.

A meticulous scholar, Wendell, whose articles were erudite and enlightening, contributed to several important books on Middle Eastern culture and civilization. But his interests were quite broad, ranging from the history of early Islam to intellectual developments in modern Egypt. Early in his scholarly career Wendell's translation of Muhammad Abduh by Osman Amin was published by the American Council of Learned Societies. Later books included The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image: from its Origins to Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid and Five Tracts of Hasán al-Banná (both by UC Press). At his death Professor Wendell was engaged in a long range, two volume project on the 8th century Arabic classic The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah. Planned and begun were a new translation of the work and a full volume to "deal as exhaustively as possible with the biography of the author and his historical and cultural ambience." Such thoroughness was typical of Wendell's scholarship.******

Four issues of VOLTA, a newsletter published by the Upper Volta Friends Union, Providence, Rhode Island. Photocopied newsletters, printed on both sides of plain 8.5x11 inch paper. The issues are:

April 1977, Vol 2 No. 4, 4 pages. January 1979, Vol. 4 No. 1, 6 pages. February 1979, Vol. 4 No. 2, 6 pages. March 1979, Vol. 4 No. 3, 6 pages.

GOOD condition, each issue has 2 horizontal folds, probably for fitting into a mailing envelope

(no envelopes are present), there are some light signs of handling, one issue has a bit of underlining, one was copied lighter than the others, otherwise the issues are all bright and clear.

Published in America for those interested in the history of and current events taking place in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) Africa.

An interesting look at this region of Africa as it was in the late 1970s.

SUNG-LIAO DIPLOMACY in ELEVENTH and TWELFTH CENTURY CHINA: A STUDY of the SOCIAL and POLITICAL, by Melvin Thlick-Len Ang. This is an "authorized facsimile" printed in 1983 by University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan, of the ORIGINAL DOCTORAL / PhD THESIS presented to the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA in the same year, 1983. Softcovers, 6.5x8.5 inches, xii + 316 pages. NEAR FINE condition, sunning to the spine, otherwise looks and feels unused, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked. Abstract of the Thesis: ****** In the early eleventh-century, geopolitical considerations caused the Chinese government to initiate a system of regular embassies of exchange with the Liao. The inauguration of permanent diplomatic relations between the two Courts represented a significant departure from the Sinocentric model of a China at the center of the social and political order. This study seeks to determine whether this alteration in the pattern of traditional Sino-barbarian relations led to a permanent institutional change or whether it was treated by the Chinese merely as a temporary if necessary expedient. The investigation moves from the general and theoretical to the specific and quantitative. The first chapter surveys the major theories of Sino-barbarian relations and traditional Chinese relations with Koryo, Annam, the Hsi Hsia, and the Chin. The second chapter presents an historical survey of Sung-Liao relations, including in particular the process by which decades of war were replaced by a century of peaceful diplomatic interchange. The third chapter details the actual process of Sung-Liao diplomacy: The selection of ambassadors; the ranks of appointees; the types of missions; the gifts exchanged; the nature of travel and hospitality. The fourth chapter presents a number of case studies of Sung ambassadors. An attempt is made to develop profiles of ambassadorial types. The fifth chapter presents the results of a prosopographical study of the careers of 608 ambassadors to the Liao and 341 military intendants who served in Liao-sensitive circuits. The effects of elite status, educational attainment, regional origin, and experience on the subsequent careers of ambassadors are analyzed. The data suggest that the Liao threat was taken seriously. Significant numbers of men in top policy making positions could boast ambassadorial experience. But these "experienced" bureaucrats did not become "specialists." Nor was any permanent bureau for foreign policy established as a result of the Sung-Liao diplomatic experience.******

A GUIDE to SOURCES of CHINESE ECONOMIC HISTORY A.D. 618-1368, by ROBERT HARTWELL. Published by the Committee on Far Eastern Civilizations, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1964. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the Author on the title page: "To Mr. Ang / With Best Wishes / Robert Hartwell". "Mr. Ang" is "Melvin Thlick-Len Ang", a Far Eastern scholar and colleague of Robert Hartwell. Softcovers, 6x9 inches, 257 pages. Includes numerous abstracts of economic documents by T'ang (A.D. 618 to 906), Sung (A.D. 960 to 1279), Chin (A.D. 1115 to 1234), and Yuan (A.D. 1260 to 1368) authors. GOOD condition, the rear cover has a 2 inch closed tear that has been repaired with clear tape that extends over the spine and the front cover, the spine has a crease, the front cover has a couple small pen marks,and there are light signs of handling including creases, bends, overall a solid copy with pages that are tight, bright, clean and clear. About ROBERT M. HARTWELL, b. 1932 d. 1995 (from a Harvard University website): ******From the beginning of his career at the University of Chicago and continuing during his tenure at professor of Chinese history at the University of Pennsylvania and into his retirement in Wyoming, the late Robert M. Hartwell was intensely concerned with the study of social and economic change in Chinese history. Working mainly with middle-period sources (mid-Tang into Yuan), he produced a number of unusually helpful research aids and a series of influential research articles. Readers of Hartwell's work will immediately notice that his research involved the citation of an unusually large number of sources on any given point and the collection of a considerable body of supporting data. Hartwell preferred to rely upon the preponderance of evidence; he rarely argued from the isolated example. He was in fact devoted to the collection of large sets of data and, finding a lack of this kind of research in the scholarly literature, he set out to create a body of extensive data sets himself. By the mid-1970s he had defined a program to amass the most extensive prosopographical data set ever created for the study of Chinese history for any period, and he continued his work with the help of students and especially his wife and collaborator Marianne Carlson Hartwell until his untimely death in 1995. The Hartwells willed their estate to the Harvard-Yenching Institute, in the conviction that Harvard would see to the preservation and dissemination of their research.******

Scholarly Study of CHINESE BAMBOO & WOODEN SLIPS. A Chinese Book, published in China. Text Entirely in Chinese. Many b&w Illustrations. I cannot determine the date, but clearly somewhat recent (probably 1980s or later). Softcovers, 6x8 inches (15x21 cm), 213 pages. The latter half of the book, approximately 100 pages), are entirely b&w illustrations with captions. There are also 4 color plates at the front of the book and 3 fold open tables in the text. VERY GOOD condition, the covers have some creases and rubs from handling, overall just lightly used, still tight, bright, clean and unmarked. I do not speak or read Chinese, so that is all I have been able to figure out, but I have tried to provide enough images to allow those of you who can figure out more to be able to do so. About BAMBOO AND WOODEN SLIPS (from Wikipedia): ******Bamboo and Wooden Slips were the main media for documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries AD. (Silk was occasionally used, but was prohibitively expensive.) The long, narrow strips of wood or bamboo typically carry a single column of brush written text each, with space for several tens of visually complex ancient Chinese characters. For longer texts, many slips may be bound together in sequence with thread. Each strip of wood or bamboo is said to be as long as a chopstick and as wide as two. The earliest surviving examples of wood or bamboo slips date from the 5th century BC during the Warring States period. However, references in earlier texts surviving on other media make it clear that some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was in use as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC). Bamboo or wooden strips were the standard writing material during the Han dynasty and excavated examples have been found in abundance. Subsequently, paper began to displace bamboo and wooden strips from mainstream uses, and by the 4th century AD bamboo had been largely abandoned as a medium for writing in China. The custom of interring books made of the durable bamboo strips in royal tombs has preserved many works in their original form through the centuries. An important early find was the Jizhong discovery in 279 AD of a tomb of a king of Wei, though the original recovered strips have since disappeared. Several caches of great importance have been found in recent years.******