Abila of the Decapolis; [AND:] Pella; [AND:] Northern 'Ajlûn, "Within the Decapolis." [THREE BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME].

London, Watt (for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund), 1889. 1st Edition . Hardcover. .. Three books in one volume. Crown Octavo. Pp. 51; 78; 207. Plus three folding lithographed maps, one of which is coloured, each as frontispiece to each book; two lithographed plans bound in Book III. With numerous engraved illustrations, some full-page, throughout. Indices of names with transliteration, Arabic script, and translation. HARDCOVER, bound in the original publisher's ochre cloth, lettered in black, large iconic illustration stamped in gilt on cover. In fine condition. Excellent copy. ~ FIRST EDITION. Three books in one volume, published 1889, 1895, 1890 respectively. [Provenance:] Noted classicist Dr. Henriëtte Boas' copy, with her bookplate. Schumacher was the first explorer to survey the regions described here, and his minute and thorough scientific observations, notes, maps, drawings, and sketches were prepared for publication at the request of the Palestine Exploration Fund by his friend, the explorer Guy le Strange. They were published here for the first time. Gottlieb Schumacher (1857) settled at a very young age with his family in Haifa, where his father, a member of the "Temple Association" designed most of the buildings of the German Colony. Following the completion of his engineering studies in Stuttgart, he returned to Haifa and was appointed Chief Engineer for the Province of Akko. He designed many buildings and was a leading figure in civil engineering. One of his most important projects was the survey of the Golan, Hauran, and the Ajlun districts in preparation for the construction of the Damascus-Haifa railway. In the course of this survey he produced the first accurate maps of these regions, along with detailed descriptions of the archaeological remains and the present villages. He published many other reports and books on his discoveries, supported by the Palestine Exploration Fund. With the outbreak of World War I the Templar community left for Germany. Schumacher returned in 1924 to his home on the Carmel, where he died a year later. Although he was born in Ohio, U.S.A., Gottlieb was brought-up and educated as a German. "I beg to through myself on the indulgence of my readers for the defects of style," he once wrote, "for my work has been perforce written in a language which, though familiar to me, is not my own." [Descriptive text Copyright Librarium, The Hague] F-5 OUT