Travels in central Asia: being the account of a journey from Teheran across the Turkoman desert on the eastern shore of the Caspian to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand. Performed in the year 1863

London: John Murray, 1864. First edition, 8vo, pp. xvii, [1], 443, [1], 16 (Murray ads dated January, 1864); wood-engraved frontispiece, 11 wood-engraved plates, large folding color map (approx. 16" x 27") in pocket inside lower cover; a very good, sound copy in original green cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Wikipedia notes the details of Vámbéry's travels. In the autumn of 1861, "disguised as a Sunni dervish, and under the name of Reshit Efendi, he set out from Constantinople. His route lay from Trebizond on the Black Sea to Tehran in Persia, where he joined a band of pilgrims returning from Mecca, spending several months with them traveling across Central Iran (Tabriz, Zanjan, and Kazvin). He then went to Shiraz, through Ispahan, and in June, 1863, he reached Khorezm (Central Asia). Throughout this time, he succeeded in maintaining his disguise as "Reshit Efendi," so that upon his arrival at the Khanate of Khiva he managed to keep up appearances during interviews with Khan Sayyid Muhammad. Together with his band of travelers, he then crossed Bokhara and arrived at Samarkand. Initially, he aroused the suspicions of the local ruler, who kept him in an audience for a full half-hour. Vámbéry managed to maintain his pretenses, and left the audience laden with gifts. Upon leaving Samarkand, Vámbéry began making his way back to Constantinople, traveling by way of Herat. There he took leave of the band of dervishes and joined a caravan to Tehran, and from there, via Trebizond and Erzurum, to Constantinople, arriving there in March 1864. "This was the first successful journey of its kind undertaken by a European; and since it was necessary to avoid suspicion, Vámbéry could not take even fragmentary notes, except by stealth. After a long and perilous journey, he arrived back at Pest in May 1864. He went to London to arrange the English language publication of his book about the travels. Travels in Central Asia [published in 1864] and its Hungarian counterpart "Közép-ázsiai utazás" was published in 1865."