[Persia]. [Assyrian Church of the East]. - Lot 230

[Persia]. [Assyrian Church of the East]. PERKINS, Justin, Rev. A residence of eight years in Persia, among the Nestorian Christians; with notices of the Muhammedans. Andover, Allen, Morril & Wardwell [and] New York, M. W. Dodd..., 1843. In-8, (4)-XVIII-(2)-512 pp. engraved frontispiece portrait. Contemporary fawn half-calf with corners, spine with 5 raised bands, cold roulette on the boards, red title-piece, caissons decorated with gilt fleurons and fillets, cold roulette on the boards, spines speckled with red (rubbing and some spotting, marginal foxing). First edition of this work by Justin Perkins (1805-1869), an American Presbyterian missionary and linguist. Arriving in Persia in 1834, he was the first American to live and work in Iran. Perkins devoted his time to missionary work, education and linguistic studies among the Assyrian (Nestorian) Christian communities of Persia. The illustration consists of a fold-out map and 27 lithographed plates, including the frontispiece portrait of the king of Persia, Muhammed Shah, and 24 color plates.