[PRIDEAUX, Humphrey]. - Lot 214

[PRIDEAUX, Humphrey]. Life of Mahomet. Amsterdam, George Callet, 1699. [Followed by] BOULAINVILLIERS, comte de. Vie de Mahomed, avec des réflexions sur la Religion Mahometane et les Coutumes des Musulmans. Amsterdam, François Changuion, 1731. Two works in one in-12 volume. [2]-164-[4] pp. 10 plates including frontispiece (title page missing); [4]-442-[2] pp. red and black title. Eighteenth-century tan basane, ornate ribbed spine, tan title page, richly ornamented caissons (binding rubbed, headbands worn, hinge on. cracked, frontispiece clumsily laminated, light scattered freckles, title of first work and one introductory leaf lacking). Set of two anti-Islamic works on the life of Muhammad. Author Humphrey Prideaux, here in the original Laroque edition, considers the Koran to be an expression of despotic arbitrariness. With a frontispiece and 9 black copper-engraved plates. Total of 10 plates. The second work by the Comte de Boulainvilliers, here in its second edition, offers a daring re-reading of Islam and its relationship with Christianity, promoting a rational and purified vision of religion, embodied by the figure of Muhammad. One of the most significant anti-religious texts of the Enlightenment. Titles and dates of both works handwritten on the first flyleaf. Provenance: Ex-libris J. Haumont, sous-lieutenant, 1871, handwritten on last flyleaf.