THE EARLIEST DESCRIPTION OF MOROCCAN-ARABIC DIALECT IN A EUROPEAN SOURCE

HÖST, GEORG.

Efterretninger om Marókos og Fes, samlede der i Landene fra Ao.1760 til 1768.

Kiøbenhavn [Copenhagen], N. Möller, 1779.

4to. In contemporary full calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Light wear to extremities, corners bumped. Previous owner's name to upper margin of front free end-paper. Occassionally leaves split between quires. A few leaves miscoloured. An overall very nice and clean copy. (20), 291, (24) + 34 engraved plates, several of them folded and 1 frontispiece.

First edition of one of the very first detailed descriptions of North Africa and Morocco in particular, containing the earliest description of Moroccan-Arabic dialect in a European source by mentioning personal pronouns, some verbs and prepositions, genitive marker, present markers and euphemisms, together with comparisons between Moroccan and Classical Arabic.

Containing detailed and accurate information about the history, geography, government, commerce, religion, culture and customs, it became one of the most important works for the study of Morocco in the eighteenth century, and it was quickly translated into German and French.

Georg Hjersing Höst (1734-1794) was between 1760 and 1768 in Morocco, first in the service of the Danish-African Royal Company and later as vice consul of Denmark in Mogador (Essaouira).

Schnurrer "Biblioheca Arabica", vide Nos. 125 a. 139.

Order-nr.: 60862