Ludwig Deutsch, an Austrian artist working in Paris who first travelled to Cairo in the early 1880s, is revered for his breathtakingly observed scenes notable for their meticulous details. A luminous masterpiece, this work demonstrates the artist’s respect for Muslim worship. A powerful and noble evocation of the rites and religion of the Muslim world, Morning Prayers depicts two men absorbed in prayerful contemplation, facing towards the mosque’s mihrab indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. The lack of architectural detail and the simplicity of the backdrop serve to focus attention on the prayer sequence which so captivated Deutsch and other Orientalist painters used to Christian worship. The minute detail and photographic realism of the painting, from the mother-of-pearl inlaid kursi cabinets and Syrian pendant lamp to the Persian Sauj Bulagh rug betrays Deutsch’s rigorous academic training in Paris.

John Frederick Lewis, Outdoor Gossip, 1873 (est. £300,000-500,000)
Among the other key offerings in the sale are a group of works by British artist traveller John Frederick Lewis, who spent ten years living in Cairo, dressing as an Egyptian and assimilating into Egyptian society.

Outdoor Gossip, a jewel-like oil of two gentlemen of Cairo exchanging news was exhibited with its companion painting Indoor Gossip at the Royal Academy in 1874 - the first time Lewis shows male and female gendered spaces as a deliberately contrasted pair. While his women are pampered, sequestered, enclosed, his men are relaxed, unrestricted and involved in debate, reflecting the perceived conventions of Eastern society. Four exquisitely fresh drawings by the aritst will also be presented, three figural, one of a mosque interior, which have descended in his family.

THE LIBRARY OF MOHAMED AND MARGARET MAKIYA, 19 April
The single-owner sale of the library of distinguished Iraqi architect Mohamed Saleh Makiya, who died last year aged 101, and his wife Margaret reveals a collection of rare books and works on paper that embraces the culture of the Middle East and the wider Islamic world, and its connections with Europe. The library is rich in books on art and design, archaeology, travel, history, literature, and architecture – representing Margaret’s particular interest in accounts of female European travellers and Dr Makiya’s in Islamic art and architecture.

Born in Baghdad, Makiya came to Britain in 1935 to study architecture and civil design, where he met Margaret Crawford, a student of History. By 1946 Makiya had been awarded a Ph.D from King’s College Cambridge, and had returned to his native Iraq where he established Makiya Associates. One of Dr Makiya’s most important commissions was the extension to the Khulafa Mosque in Baghdad, undertaken in 1960 - a highly successful synthesis of past and present traditions of Islamic architecture. In 1953, he founded the Department of Architecture at Baghdad University where he remained as head until 1968. In the late 1980s the Makiyas’ founded the Kufa Gallery in London, a non-profit charity devoted to the promotion of the art and architecture of the Middle East, which has since played an important role in promoting Iraqi and Arab culture in London.

Omar Khayyam, A collection of over 300 editions, translations and works relating to the Rubaiyat, many from the library of the Rubaiyat bibliographer and collector Ambrose G. Potter (est. £10,000-15,000)

A Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) is an important selection of almost 1,000 poems and philosophical musings. This lot brings together an impressive collection containing rare limited or illustrated editions, and translations (including French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Welsh, Icelandic, Japanese, Greek, Tamil, Irish, and Hindi), some including notes or letters by Ambrose G. Potter, and/or his bookplate. Many of these copies were gifts from H.M. Schroeter of Los Angeles who in 1908 announced his desire to publish a bibliography of the Rubaiyat, and which led Potter and Schroeter to an exchange that continued till 1914, when H.M. Schroeter abandoned his intention to publish, and generously presented him with the manuscript material. 

Pascal Xavier Coste, Forty-two sheets of architectural and topographical drawings of Cairo for 'architecture arabe ou monuments du kaire', circa 1818-25 (est. £20,000-30,000)

Pascal Coste (1787-1879) was an architect from Marseilles, who travelled to Egypt from 1817 to 1827, having been employed to undertake various engineering projects by Mehmet ‘Ali – pasha and viceroy of Egypt, who encouraged the emergence of the modern Egyptian state. Coste was then granted permission to measure and take drawings of buildings in Cairo which had never been recorded.

These are original drawings for Pascal Coste's landmark work on the architecture of Cairo, Architecture Arabe ou monuments du Kaire, which was published in 1837 – including a number that are unpublished and previously unseen. The drawings include views, measured plans, elevations, sections, and details of ornament of mosques and other buildings.