Sefer Nameh. Relation du voyage de Nassiri Khosrau. Celebre poËte et philosophe Persan ca. 1003-1088 A.D. en Syrie, en Palestine, en …gypte, en Arabe et en Perse pendant les annÈes de l'HÈgire 437-444 (A.D. 1045-1052).

8vo, cloth LVIII,348 pp. + 97 pp of Persian text within borders, colour frontispiece plan of the Haram and the Ka'abah, 3 colour plates showing the plan of the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the plan of the mosque at Madinah and the plan of Safa. . Khusrau, a Persian poet, prose writer, noted traveller and an Isma'ili philosopher. In 1045 he set out on a pilgrimage to Makkah for what would eventually turn out to be a seven-year journey, accompanied by his brother and a servant. In Safar Name, the classic account of his travels, he portrays a "conversion" climaxed by an oath that commits him to the service of the Fatimid Isma'ili Imam of the time in Cairo, al-Muntasir Bi'llah, and the cause of the Da'wa of the Isma'ililiya. The first phase of his journey took him to Makkah and Jerusalem. After performing the pilgrimage, he set out for Egypt, arriving in Cairo 1047. He stayed there for about three years during which he undertook two more pilgrimages to Makkah where he stayed for about six months. This work which is translated for the first time into French by the leading French scholar Charles schefer is a travel account that falls within the genre of Mediaeval muslim travel literature. It is a description of places, persons, and events, as well as an interpretation of contemporary muslim society and culture, enlivened by Nasir's personal observations and insight. (Encyclopedia of Islam).