Around Afghanistan

Bouillane de Lacoste, Major de

Verlag: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1909

Beschreibung

First edition in English. 217 pp. with index, 3 maps, and more than 70 photographic illustrations. Foxing to the first ca. 20 pp, otherwise a very nice copy. "Major Émile Antoine Henry de Bouillane de Lacoste (1867-1937) was a military officer who, after serving with the French army in Indochina, undertook a number of extended voyages to different parts of Asia on behalf of the French authorities. He wrote several books based on his travels. Around Afghanistan is an English translation of a work originally published in Paris in 1908 under the title Autour de l'Afghanistan aux frontières interdites (Around Afghanistan by forbidden borders). As the French title makes clearer than the English, Bouillane de Lacoste was denied permission by the Afghan authorities to travel in Afghanistan. He thereupon he devised a scheme to travel around the borders of the country. Starting from Tehran in late April 1906, Bouillane de Lacoste traveled first to Meshed in northeastern Persia (Iran) and from there into Russian Central Asia, through Ashkabad (present-day Ashgabat) and Merv (both in present-day Turkmenistan), Bukhara, and Samarkand. After reaching the end of the Russian railway line at Andijan (present-day Andijon, Uzbekistan), he proceeded into the Altai Mountains in present-day Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which he then crossed into China and British India. The next stage of journey was from Srinagar (Kashmir) to Lahore, and from there across Baluchistan (in present-day Pakistan) and back into Persia, where he eventually reached Tehran in late January of 1907. The journey was made by rail and horse caravan. Bouillane de Lacoste was accompanied by Lieutenant Hippolyte Marie Joseph Antoine Enselme (born 1872), who had served with Bouillane de Lacoste in Indochina and accompanied him on an earlier voyage to Manchuria. Bouillane de Lacoste's account is written as a diary, and contains descriptions of the landscape and the people he encountered" (World Digital Library). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 20648

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Around Afghanistan

Verlag: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London

Erscheinungsdatum: 1909

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: Very good