CAMPBELL. J. Alston. In the Shadow of the Crescent. London, Marshall Brothers, [1906].
8vo. Original red cloth with a very stylish front cover design and spine lettered in gilt; pp. viii, [4], 240, one map, plates after photographs; apart from fading to spine and light offsetting from endpapers, a very good copy of a rare title; gift inscription to front fly-leaf.
First edition. This is a British missionary's first-hand report of travelling to Turkey, starting at Lake Van, through Kurdish and Armenian Territories to Gaziantep (Antep) in the south east of Anatolia, not far from the Syrian border. Campbell witnesses the ethnic tensions between Turks, Kurds, Armenians and Assyrian Christians and obeserves how the Ottoman authorities try to navigate through the chaos, and to contribute to it. Gaziantep had a large Christian college, Central Turkey College, or Aintab College. - One plate is after a photograph, which must be one of the earliest skiing photos taken in Turkey.
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