SIME, James. The Kingdom of All-Israel: Its History, Literature, and Worship. London, Nisbet, 1883.
8vo. Original brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt; pp. xvi, 621; professionally restored binding, endpapers renewed; even light browning due to paper stock, the final 5 leaves with browning to lower margins; otherwise a clean and sound copy; provenance: from New York Mercantile Library with stamp to beginning of the text and at the end.
First edition of an uncommon book, a positivist assessment of the historical sources of ancient Israel and her neighborhood.'The writings which contain this history are frequently described as not altogether worthy of credit. While they contain much that is undeniably ancient, they are also believed to contain much that is comparatively recent ... Evidently, then, it is the duty of the historian either to vindicate the reality of history, or to separate the wheat of truth from the chaff of romance' (preface). - A valuable contribution to early Judaeo-Arabic history, movement and relation of tribes, as well as linguistic developments of the Arabic Peninsula.
#2090142