Middle Eastern Travel and Persian Society: Edward Scott Waring A Tour to Sheeraz Describing Persia and the Persian Gulf, 1807

Edward Scott Waring

First Edition

Waring, Edward Scott. A Tour to Sheeraz, 1807, travel narrative describing Persia during the early nineteenth century written by an officer of the British East India Company who journeyed to Shiraz in 1802 by way of the Persian Gulf. The work documents British encounters with Persian society at a moment when commercial, diplomatic, and strategic interests increasingly connected the Persian Gulf with British imperial networks centered in India. Waring records observations of Persian customs, language, literature, and law while also describing economic activity and regional cultures encountered along the Gulf coast. His account places particular attention on the intellectual traditions of Persian literature and the social practices of Persian society, providing commentary on classical Persian poetry as well as everyday cultural life.

Waring, Edward Scott. A Tour to Sheeraz, by the Route of Kazroon and Feerozabad; with various remarks on the manners, customs, laws, language, and literature of the Persians. London: W. Bulmer for T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1807. Second edition, revised. Waring recounts his expedition to Shiraz and provides descriptions of landscapes, towns, and cultural practices encountered along the journey. The narrative includes discussions of hawk hunting, Arabian horses, and pearl fishing in the Persian Gulf, with references to coastal communities stretching from Ras al Khaimah and Qatar to Bahrain and Kuwait. Waring also records an early European account of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and the religious movement associated with Wahhabi Islam. Throughout the text he comments on Persian language and literary traditions, including references to major poets such as Hafiz and Saadi as well as the intellectual influence of Sufi thought.

Travel literature concerning Persia and the Persian Gulf formed an important component of European knowledge about the region during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. British officials and merchants traveling between India and the Middle East produced accounts that combined geographic description with commentary on local society, trade networks, and political developments. Waring’s narrative reflects this tradition, presenting observations on Persian history and social customs alongside discussions of the literary heritage that shaped Persian intellectual culture. The author himself noted that the earlier 1804 edition printed in Bombay contained numerous errors that required correction, leading to the publication of this revised edition. Folio volume containing 329 pages, bound in quarter leather over original boards. The two plates called for are absent. Front board detached but present, text block solid with staining and water damage visible throughout, and writing on both front and rear pastedowns. Overall good condition.

Item #14558

Price: $750.00