DINET (Etienne) & BAAMER (El Hadj Sliman ben ... Lot n° 17

Le Pèlerinage à la maison sacrée d'Allah. Paris, Hachette, 1347h [1930]. In-8, 213 pp. paperback, in original dust jacket, minor scattered foxing. First edition printed in an edition of 1000 copies on Alfa paper (n°25). 1 frontispiece (portrait of the authors), 8 black plates and a folding map of the Hedjaz in fine. Etienne Nacir Ed Dine Dinet (1861-1929) was a French painter who settled in Algeria. Enthralled by Arab culture, he won the sympathy of the Muslim population by posing as their defender in the face of oppression, lobbying colonial authorities for concessions deemed impossible. A sincere convert, he wanted to unite Algerians and French in a common project. A pious man, he made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1929, accompanied by Hadj Slimane, his fellow traveler and collaborator. This pilgrimage was the apotheosis of his life, fulfilling one of the pillars of Islam. Exhausted by the journey, he died some time after his return and was buried at the Paris mosque in December 1929. His account of the pilgrimage, published posthumously in 1930, is the swan song of a life achieved by combining art and spirituality.