TWO VOLUMES BOUND TOGETHER. IN HEBREW. FIRST EDITION of the rare book `even Sapir` by Jacob Saphir (1822-1886), a Meshulach and traveler of Rumanian Jewish descent, who as a boy he went to Ottoman Southern Syria with his parents, who settled at Safed, and at their death in 1836, he moved to Jerusalem. In 1848, he was commissioned by the Jewish community of Jerusalem to travel through the southern countries to collect alms for the poor of the city. In 1854 he undertook a second tour to collect funds for the construction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter which led him in 1859 to Yemen, British India, Egypt, and Australia. The result of this journey was this momentous ethnographic work, `Even Sapir, a travel diary in which he gave the history, and a vivid though uncritical description of the condition of the Jews in the above-mentioned countries. 225x145mm. 114 double pages + 238 pages (altogether 466 pages). Black rebound Hardcover. Small stamp on front whitepage. Front whitepage edges slightly worn. Several light pen marks on first title page. Several last pages upper corner peeling - no damage to text. Text block and some pages age-stained. First volume pages yellowing. Second volume pages browning. Pages wavy. [SUMMARY]: This extremely rare 2 volume account of travels in Jewish communities ranging from the Middle East to as far as Australia, written by a famous and influential 19th-century Jerusalem personality, is good condition.