Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> From an early age Prisse d’Avennes was fascinated by the world of the eastern Mediterranean. Several months after his graduation at the age of nineteen he went to Greece to fight in the war of independence. From there he journeyed to India where he served for a time as a secretary to the governor general. After leaving In- dia he travelled to Palestine and then to Egypt where he worked as a civil engineer specializing in hydraulic projects under the then viceroy Muhammad ‘Ali. When the government rejected one of his projects he resigned his post and became an in- structor in engineering in a military academy in Upper Egypt. In 1834 after quarrel- ling with the officer in charge of the institution he left and took up a position as professor of fortifications in the Infantry School at Damietta. In 1836 he left that position in turn and began seven years of continual travels devoting himself to ar- cheological research in Egypt Sudan Ethiopia Arabia Palestine Syria and Per- sia. He finally returned to Egypt and settled near Thebes. In the meantime he had become fluent in Arabic and had learnt the ancient Egyptian language only relative- ly recently deciphered after the breakthrough made by a fellow French Egyptologist Jean-Fran?ois Champollion. In order to be able to enter mosques forbidden to unbelievers he embraced Islam and lived according to the customs of the local population gaining their respect as few orher Europeans did. (OS)