One Copy in OCLC
The Holy Koran; Commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated from the original Arabic, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised.
London: Printed for the Koran Society by R. Carlile, 55 Fleet Street, 1822.
Price: $3,000.00
About the item
Pp. iv, 386, [2, ads]. 1 vols. 8vo. One Copy in OCLC. Early half linen and drab boards, original printed spine label preserved, untrimmed. Some light foxing, owner signature Wm Bronson 1867 at head of title-page, else fine. Light brown full morocco solander pull-off case. OCLC: 174760792 (Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz).
Item #264337
Rare edition of the Koran issued by Richard Carlile (1790-1843), the tinsmith turned radical publisher and writer. As publisher of William T. Sherwin’s ‘Weekly Political Register’, Carlile was imprisoned for seditious libel and blasphemy in 1817; he was a witness to the Peterloo massacre in 1819 and published accounts of the massacre. At his trial, Carlile read Thomas Paine’s banned work, the Age of Reason “under the justification that the jury would have to judge whether it was blasphemous, an action that amounted to an attempt to secure its republication once again, since verbatim trial proceedings were allowed to be published (10,000 twopenny copies were subsequently sold).” His stock was frequenty confiscated and he served six years in prison (1819-1825). “Despite attempts by the Home Office to stop him Carlile was able to continue his career as a publisher, principally through the dedicated assistance of his wife and two printer friends, Thomas Davison and Thomas Moses” (ODNB). Carlile was a champion of press freedom and campaigned against superstition.
This is the Sale translation without the footnotes or prefatory manner.
A rare survival and an unusual imprint.
