Syria from the Saddle, by Albert Payson Terhune, published by Silver Burdett and Company, New York – Boston – Chicago, 1897 – First edition. Photograph of the author on horseback on the page opposite the title page.
A travel book in which the author recounts his experiences as a young horseback rider in the Levant, primarily in Syria, Lebanon, and the Land of Israel (Palestine), at the end of the Ottoman period. Accompanied by early photographic plates of the East. Terhune, a young American from a Presbyterian family, undertook a months-long journey through the Fertile Crescent on horseback, recording his impressions. In his book, he describes landscapes, villages, cities, and holy sites – including Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, Sidon, Acre, Bethlehem, Jericho, and more. He also provides detailed accounts of his encounters with Jews, Druze, Christians, and Muslims – at times from a typically Orientalist perspective of the era, and at other times with appreciation for the local cultures. The book’s style is light, humorous, and at times sarcastic – in the spirit of Victorian-American writing.
318 pages. Top edge gilt. Gilt-stamped illustration of the author on horseback on the cover. Very good condition.
