The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia, Africa, and Europe During the Years 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803.

First Edition of Khan's The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia, Africa, and Europe; In the rare original boards

The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia, Africa, and Europe During the Years 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803.

KHAN, Mirza Abu Taleb .

Item Number: 119852

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, 1810.

First edition of one of the earliest by an Indian travel writer about the West, and has been described as perhaps the most significant
“reverse travelogue.” Octavo, original boards. In very good condition with some loss to the spine. We have never seen another example offered in the original boards. Housed in a custom half morocco clemise and clamshell box. Scarce.

The Persian title of the book is a play on words, employing talib - one who wishes - to contrast with Taleb and connote "Taleb/Talib’s trajectory", or "the path of wishfulness" or "the path of aspiration", and which encompasses the book's dual functions as travel guide and as a discussion of the spiritual purpose of travelling. Taleb sets out his purpose in writing the book in its preface: to describe, for the benefit of his countrymen, the 'curiosities and wonders he saw', noting that many of the 'customs, inventions, sciences and ordinances of Europe' might be used to good effect in Asia. To this end, the book both chronicles his travels, but also provides discrete chapters on subject-matter of interest to him, including "the arts and sciences, mechanical inventions, the lifestyles of the different classes, the system of government, the East India Company, the judiciary, the financial system, the defects of character and the virtues of the English ..on Europe [and] England's conflict with France, and ... on England's overseas conquests." Amrit Sen has discussed issues of autoethnography arising in Khan's work, noting the tension between his admiration for, and criticism of, the west; and his use of the coloniser's language both to identify with Europeans but also critique them; this leading to ambiguity about Khan's "oriental" persona. He is fascinated by western engineering, factories, bridges and shipyards, and understands the link between Europe's prosperity and its industrial revolution. He praises the industry and efficiency of English people, and their honor and relative learning. Equally, he critiques the English lack of faith and a range of deplorable characteristics, such as their pride, insolence, and excessive fondness for luxury. Sen asserts that it is possible to read Abu Taleb's book as a series of comparisons praising the virtues of the east above the west: "the Muslims of Cape Town are kind and superior; the savages of Andaman are preferable to his European shipmates; Oxford is almost like the ancient Indian temples; the Quazis are superior to the English jury system – which is frightening and often prone to mistakes ... Abu Taleb praises the English 'equality of all' before the law and yet proceeds to suggest that this 'equality is more in appearance than in reality'. He attacks the British legal system as corrupt and convoluted."

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