DINET (Étienne) - IBRAHIM (Sliman Ben). Rabiâ el Kouloub or - Lot 135

DINET (Étienne) - IBRAHIM (Sliman Ben). Rabiâ el Kouloub or the Spring of Hearts. Saharan legends. Splendid Piazza edition of three oriental Algerian tales collected by Sliman Ben Ibrahim, translated and illustrated by Étienne Dinet (1861-1929). Paris, H. Piazza, 1902. In-8 (227 x 162 mm). Paperback, illustrated & lined cover. Hardback folder with flaps, first cover decorated in gold. 175 pp, (2 ff.). Illustrated with 50 full-page and in-text color compositions by Dinet, as well as numerous magnificent polychrome ornaments with gold highlights. 340 copies, this one of 260 on vellum. Orientalist painter Étienne Dinet (1861-1929) converted to Islam in 1913 under the name Nasreddine. His discovery of southern Algeria and his meeting with Slimane Ben Ibrahim in 1889 had profoundly influenced his artistic and spiritual life. In 1905, Dinet settled permanently in Bou Saada; he made the pilgrimage to Mecca shortly before his death in 1929. A fine copy.