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SYKES, Sir Percy.
A History of Afghanistan.
First edition. Sykes's history from the Medes to Zahir Shah. "I first travelled in Central Asia nearly fifty years ago and, since that first journey, I have been a keen student of the problems of which Afghanistan constitutes the kernel. The appointments which I have held have, generally speaking, kept me in touch with Afghanistan, whether serving as Consul in Seistan, as Consul-General in Khurasan … or again as Consul-General in Chinese Turkestan, when I travelled on the Pamirs. For many years I took part in the struggle for influence in Persia with Russia and, during the last Great War, I helped to foil Germany in her designs on Afghanistan by the capture of her supporting missions in Persia." (author's preface.) The greater part of the print-run of this book was burnt on the night of 29 December 1940 when Paternoster Row was destroyed in the Blitz., therefore uncommon.
2 volumes, octavo. Original blue cloth, title gilt to spines, blind rules to the boards, blue top-stain. Frontispiece to each and 18 other plates, 8 folding maps, 2 of them coloured, one of these a large general area map in an end-pocket to Volume II. Just a touch crumpled at head and tail of the spines, prelims very slightly browned, light foxing to the fore-edges, else a very good set indeed.
