[EARLY SCIENTIFIC ENCYCLOPÆDIA AGAINST THE SCHOLASTIC MENTALITY OF ISLAM / ASTRONOMY] ﻣﻌﺮﻓﺘﻨﺎمه / Marifetnâme [i.e., The book of gnosis]

ERZURUMÎ, ISMAIL HAQQI (1703-1780). El-Hac Muharrem Efendi Matbaasi, Istanbul, AH 1294 Ramazan Evâhîri [i.e., Late October 1877]. Original fine full brown leather in Ottoman style with fore-edge flap, blind tooling to covers and a shemse [i.e. mystical sun] on front and back boards with a decorative blind tooled frame. Folio. (32 x 23 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 15, 534 p., many astronomical b/w plates. A bit rubbed and wear to boards, repaired spine. Foxing on pages, stains on the 90th leaf, small tears, and chippings on extremities. Overall, a very good copy. Scarce early Istanbul edition of this important Islamic source originally written in 1757 by Muslim scholar Ibrahim Haqqi Erzurûmî. This significant work is considered as one of the earliest examples reflecting the effort to change the scholastic mentality of the period in the Islamic world. “Marifetname is a first in the explanation of observational astronomy of the Solar System by a scholar in a