1830 Joseph Lemercier Large Antique Print of North African Bedouin Hunters

Publisher : Joseph Rose Lemercier

  • Title : L Afrique...Lith de Lemercier rue de Seine S G N 55...Paris chez Aumont, rue JJ Rousseau No. 10
  • Size: 23 1/2in x 17 1/2in (600mm x 445mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1830
  • Ref #:  40447-1

Description:
This large original early antique lithograph print of North African Bedouin, hunting on horse back, surrounded by various vignette scenes of Bedouin life was printed and published by Joseph Lemercier in his rue de Seine printing premises in 1830.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 23 1/2in x 17 1/2in (600mm x 445mm)
Plate size: - 23 1/2in x 17 1/2in (600mm x 445mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Light age toning

Background: 
The Bedouin are a grouping of nomadic Arab peoples who have historically inhabited the desert regions in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and the Levant. The English word bedouin comes from the Arabic badawī, which means desert dweller, and is traditionally contrasted with ḥāḍir, the term for sedentary people. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans and share a common culture of herding camels and goats.
Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing. A major source of income was the taxation of caravans, and tributes collected from non-Bedouin settlements. They also earned income by transporting goods and people in caravans across the desert. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly.
The Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta, reported that in 1326 on the route to Gaza, the Egyptian authorities had a customs post at Qatya on the north coast of Sinai. Here Bedouin were being used to guard the road and track down those trying to cross the border without permission.
The Early Medieval grammarians and scholars seeking to develop a system of standardizing the contemporary Classical Arabic for maximal intelligibility across the Arabophone areas, believed that the Bedouin spoke the purest, most conservative variety of the language. To solve irregularities of pronunciation, the Bedouin were asked to recite certain poems, where-after consensus was relied on to decide the pronunciation and spelling of a given word.
A plunder and massacre of the Hajj caravan by Bedouin tribesmen occurred in 1757, led by Qa dan al-Fa\'iz of the Bani Saqr tribe. An estimated 20,000 pilgrims were either killed in the raid or died of hunger or thirst as a result. Although Bedouin raids on Hajj caravans were fairly common, the 1757 raid represented the peak of such attacks.
Under the Tanzimat reforms in 1858 a new Ottoman Land Law was issued, which offered legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin. As the Ottoman Empire gradually lost power, this law instituted an unprecedented land registration process that was also meant to boost the empire\'s tax base. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands with the Ottoman Tapu, due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of relevance of written documentation of ownership to the Bedouin way of life at that time.
At the end of the 19th century Sultan Abdülhamid II settled Muslim populations (Circassians) from the Balkan and Caucasus among areas predominantly populated by the nomads in the regions of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, and also created several permanent Bedouin settlements, although the majority of them did not remain.
Ottoman authorities also initiated private acquisition of large plots of state land offered by the sultan to the absentee landowners (effendis). Numerous tenants were brought in order to cultivate the newly acquired lands. Often it came at the expense of the Bedouin lands.
In the late 19th century, many Bedouin began transition to a semi-nomadic lifestyle. One of the factors was the influence of the Ottoman empire authorities who started a forced sedentarization of the Bedouin living on its territory. The Ottoman authorities viewed the Bedouin as a threat to the state\'s control and worked hard on establishing law and order in the Negev. During World War I, the Negev Bedouin fought with the Turks against the British, but later, under T. E. Lawrence\'s assist, the Bedouins switched side and fought the Turks. Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin, led a force of 1,500 men who joined the Turkish offensive against the Suez Canal.
In Orientalist historiography, the Negev Bedouin have been described as remaining largely unaffected by changes in the outside world until recently. Their society was often considered a world without time. Recent scholars have challenged the notion of the Bedouin as fossilized, or stagnant reflections of an unchanging desert culture. Emanuel Marx has shown that Bedouin were engaged in a constantly dynamic reciprocal relation with urban centers. Bedouin scholar Michael Meeker explains that the city was to be found in their midst.

Lemercier, Joseph Rose 1803-1887
Lemercier was an early influential lithographer & printer who founded the large firm of Lemercier and Cie in the first part of the 19th century.
Lemercier began his career in the printing business with an apprenticeship at Langlumé from 1822 to 1825, before becoming foreman at the house of Formentin. In 1827 . Lemercier started his own printing business. He was responsible for the publication of many large superb lithographs and his work is highly sorted after, due to its high standard of technical and artistic skill. His firm entered a number of partnerships over the years at various number of Paris addresses. Please see details below.

Also known as; 
Lemercier & Cie;
Lemercier & Co;
Lemercier Benard et Cie;
Lemercier Bernard & C;
Lemercier, J & A; J & A Lemercier; Lemercier, A;
Lemercier, Benard & Cie;
Lemercier

Addresses:
Rue Pierre Sarrasin, No.2 (c.1829) Before 1835 rue du Four S.G. 55 55 (later 57) rue de Seine, Paris, in partnership with Bénard (1829-36)
55 rue du Four-Saint-Germain, Paris (1840) 57 rue de Seine (later)

$275.00