George Annesley, second Earl of Mountnorris (1770-1844), was a British aristocrat who, in 1802-06, undertook an extensive tour of parts of Asia and Africa. He was accompanied by Henry Salt (1780-1827), a trained artist who served as his secretary and draftsman. Mountnorris published this three-volume account of his travels upon his return to Britain, under the name Viscount Valentia, the title by which he was known in his younger years. The work includes engravings based on paintings and drawings made on the voyage by Salt, as well as two very detailed maps. Volume 1 is devoted mainly to India; Volume 2 to the Red Sea region; Volume 3 to Ethiopia and Egypt. A particularly noteworthy feature of the book is Salt's account of his 1805 visit to the Ethiopian highlands.

The history of the often-overlooked chewa Ethiopian warriors and their crucial role in defending their homeland against invasion, as well as their strong influence on political identity and the social infrastructure.

An anthology of mainly 17th to early 20th-century Western published descriptions of Islamic religious buildings in Spain, Turkey, India and Persia, charting decoration, dilapidation and restoration, as well as the impact of Western trade, taste and imports on the East.

This edition brings together in three fully edited volumes the correspondence and associated papers of Sir Joseph Banks regarding European and especially British exploration of Africa from 1767–1820, for the first time publishing this globally scattered material in one place, thereby revolutionizing its availability and understanding of the activities of a key figure who helped organize and publish a series of missions to penetrate the African interior, mainly from West Africa and by crossing the Sahara from Cairo and Tripoli. Banks was a founder in 1788 of the African Association, which mounted many of these missions, including those of Mungo Park to explore the River Niger, and J.L. Burkhardt exploring Syria, Arabia and Egypt. At the time, little was known about the African interior, its peoples, kingdoms and resources, and the aim of the African Association under Banks was to discover what lay there, to make contact with and study its societies, to map them and their lands and help establish trading links. Banks also maintained a lively correspondence with British diplomatic representatives in North Africa, such as James Mario Matra at Tangier and Henry Salt in Cairo, who were a rich source of news. Moreover, as unofficial director of the royal gardens at Kew he sent pioneering plant collectors to gather plants in South Africa, vastly boosting knowledge of this region’s important flora. At home, he corresponded with politicians, government officials, entrepreneurs, navigators, naturalists and campaigners like William Wilberforce about a great range of issues surrounding Africa. This work is multi-disciplinary and will stand alongside existing series of Banks’s correspondence published by Neil Chambers (Scientific Correspondence, 2007; Indian and Pacific Correspondence, 2007–14). It will appeal to scholars of African history in the Early Modern Period, to those studying exploration and collecting as well as those interested in natural history, the history of science, geography, cartography and the Enlightenment. An Introduction, detailed Calendar of Correspondents, Timelines for each volume and a comprehensive Index supplement the footnotes to nearly 800 documents included in this fascinating and comprehensive new series.