Carte de la Syrie appellée en Arabe Bar-El-Cham c'est à dire Pays de La Gauche

This is not a cartoon but a French geographical map of Greater Syria — the Levantine coast from Aleppo south through Palestine to Sinai, with Cyprus visible at left and the Syrian Desert stretching east. Engraved in copper, it shows mountain ranges as hachured ridges, settlements as small circles, and tribal territories labeled (Bedouins d'Anazé, Pays de Hauran). The title panel explains the Arabic name Bar-el-Cham — 'Land of the Left,' meaning the north as oriented toward Mecca. It belongs in any history of printed image-making from which illustrated narrative — and eventually comics — descended.