Reverend Elias al-Musili, a priest of the Chaldean church, and member of a family that originated in Baghdad, wrote an account of his 1668-83 travels to America. Antun Rabbat, a highly regarded Jesuit scholar of the late 19th and early 20th century, discovered the manuscript of a larger anthology Musili had compiled, in the library of the Suryan (Jacobite Orthodox) bishopric in Aleppo and published an edition of the account in Arabic in 1905. Farah (Middle Eastern and Islamic history, U. of Minnesota) translates and annotates that edition. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)