Our Notes & References

A choice copy of this classic, profusely illustrated travel account from Russia to Turkey through nowadays Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, here finely bound, beautifully fresh, and with a prestigious provenance, as it is inscribed by Moser to the prominent orientalist, academic and bibliographer Henri Cordier and his wife: “A Monsieur et Madame Henri Cordier, Souvenir sympathique de l’auteur. H. Moser. Paris, 16 Novembre 1891”.

Henri Cordier (1849-1925) was a linguist, historian, ethnologist, author and editor, and president of the Geographical Society in Paris. Although he did not read or write Chinese or any Asian languages, he was the author of extensive bibliographies on Western works of China, Japan and Indochina which are “not only multidisciplinary bibliograph(ies) on China, but also a quasi-summary of Western learning over five centuries” (Chang). He was also the founder of T’oung Pao (1890-present), the world’s first international Sinological journal.

The son of a wealthy Swiss watchmaker, Henri Moser (1844-1923) was born in Saint Petersburg but grew up in Switzerland and only returned to Russia in 1865. He then undertook three long journeys to Central Asia from 1868-1883, during which he amassed a significant collection of objects, particularly weapons. Moser had a flair for the dramatic and would often use these items as props in staged photographs of himself in costume (as in the frontispiece here). Upon his death he bequeathed his collection to the Bern Historical Museum, where it can still be seen today in a fantastic set of purpose-built rooms in the Islamic style.

The journey described here is a long one, from Orenburg to Constantinople. Of particular interest are Moser’s ethnographical descriptions, with an entire chapter devoted to the “Kirgiz steppe” and its inhabitants. Travelling around the north-east edge of the Aral Sea in nowadays Kazakhstan, Moser encountered both the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs and described their customs and histories in detail. The book is also interesting as a record of “conditions in Turkestan immediately after the Russian occupation” (Henze III, 542), for example, through an account of “economic amelioration for Turkestan” under Russian rule (p. 56).

The book is profusely and variedly illustrated, with 16 plates of phototype reproductions and more than 150 woodengravings in text, depicting ethnographic items such as weapons and furniture, portraits of important as well as local people, and many scenes displaying the horsemanship for which the steppe people are renowned.

The large lithographed folding map of Central Asia at the end of the book is of particular interest, covering the region between the north of the Aral Sea and, to the South, Teheran and Kabul.

Provenance

Henri Cordier and his wife (inscription from the author to the half-title).

Bibliography

Atanova, Snejana. 2020. ‘Kazakhs and Kirgiz Steppe by Swiss Traveler Henri Moser’. Western Travelers. Abai Center (Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the George Washington University); Bernisches Historiches Museum. 2025. ‘The Musée Moser’; Chang, Ting. 2016. ‘Crowdsourcing Avant La Lettre: Henri Cordier and French Sinology, ca. 1875–1925’. L’Esprit Créateur 56 (3): 47–60.