The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition


Book Description

The essays discuss continuity and change in Bilād al Shām (Greater Syria) during the sixteenth century, examining to what extent Egypt and Greater Syria were affected by the transition from Mamluk to Ottoman rule. This is explored in a variety of areas: diplomatic relations, histories and historiography, fiscal and agricultural administration, symbolic orders, urban developments, local perspectives and material culture. In order to rethink the sixteenth century from a transitional perspective and thus overcome the conventional dynasty-centered fields of research Mamlukists and Ottomanists have been brought together, shedding light on the remarkable sixteenth century, so decisive for the formation of early modern Muslim empires.







Amulets and Talismans of the Middle East and North Africa in Context


Book Description

In this volume amulets and talismans are studied within a broader system of meaning that shapes how they were manufactured, activated and used in different networks. Text, material features and the environments in which these artifacts circulated, are studied alongside each other, resulting in an innovative approach to understand the many different functions these objects could fulfil in pre-modern times. Produced and used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the case studies presented here include objects that differ in size, material, language and shape. What the articles share is an all-round, in-depth approach that helps the reader understand the complexity of the objects discussed and will improve one’s understanding of the role they played within pre-modern societies. Contributors Hazem Hussein Abbas Ali, Gideon Bohak, Ursula Hammed, Juan Campo, Jean-Charles Coulon, Venetia Porter, Marcela Garcia Probert, Anne Regourd, Yasmine al-Saleh, Karl Schaefer and Petra M. Sijpesteijn.




Practical Materia Medica of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah


Book Description

The authors provide a new insight to the practice of medical care in the medieval world. They examine the medicinal prescriptions and references to materia medica of the Cairo Genizah by combining the approaches of ethnobotany and history of medicine.




Medieval Damascus


Book Description

The written text was a pervasive feature of cultural practices in the medieval Middle East. At the heart of book circulation stood libraries that experienced a rapid expansion from the twelfth century onwards. While the existence of these libraries is well known our knowledge of their content and structure has been very limited as hardly any medieval Arabic catalogues have been preserved. This book discusses the largest and earliest medieval library of the Middle East for which we have documentation - the Ashrafiya library in the very centre of Damascus - and edits its catalogue. This catalogue shows that even book collections attached to Sunni religious institutions could hold rather unexpected titles, such as stories from the 1001 Nights, manuals for traders, medical handbooks, Shiite prayers, love poetry and texts extolling wine consumption. At the same time this library catalogue decisively expands our knowledge of how the books were spatially organised on the bookshelves of such a large medieval library. With over 2,000 entries this catalogue is essential reading for anybody interested in the cultural and intellectual history of Arabic societies. Setting the Ashrafiya catalogue into a comparative perspective with contemporaneous libraries on the British Isles this book opens new perspectives for the study of medieval libraries.




Nahrungsmittel in der arabischen Medizin


Book Description

Naǧīb ad-Dīn as-Samarqandīs (st. 619/1222) Buch der Nahrungsmittel und Getränke (Kitāb al-Aġḏiya wa-l-ašriba) ist ein umfassendes medizinisches Lexikon mit Informationen zu über 500 verschiedenen Nahrungsmitteln, Speisen, Getränken und Duftstoffen. Es kann als letzte große arabische Monografie zur Diätetik im islamischen Osten angesehen werden und stellt vermutlich eines der am weitesten verbreiteten vormodernen arabischen Bücher zum Thema Ernährung dar. In Nahrungsmittel in der arabischen Medizin bietet Juliane Müller eine textkritische Edition des Kitāb al-Aġḏiya wa-l-ašriba mit deutscher Übersetzung. Anschließend verorten Kapitel zur Textgenese und Rezeption des Werks sowie zu seinen ernährungsmedizinischen Inhalten as-Samarqandīs Nahrungsmittellexikon in seinem Kontext innerhalb der arabischen Medizinliteratur. Najīb ad-Dīn as-Samarqandī’s (d. 619/1222) Book on Foods and Drinks (Kitāb al-Aghḏiya wa-l-ashriba) is a comprehensive medical encyclopedia with information on more than 500 different food items, dishes, drinks and fragrances. It can be considered to be the last major Arabic monograph on dietetics in the Islamic East and it probably rates among the most widespread premodern Arabic books on the subject of nutrition science. In Nahrungsmittel in der arabischen Medizin, Juliane Müller presents a critical edition of the Kitāb al-Aghḏiya wa-l-ashriba along with a German translation of the text. An extensive contextual study locates the book and its dietetic contents within Arabic medical literature and examines the sources and the reception of as-Samarqandī's food encyclopedia.







Jewish-Muslim Relations in Past and Present


Book Description

This volume assembles multidisciplinary research on the Judaeo-Islamic tradition in medieval and modern contexts. The introduction discusses the nature of this tradition and proposes the more fluid and inclusive designation of “Jewish-Muslim Relations.” Contributions highlight diverse aspects of Jewish-Muslim relations in medieval and modern contexts, including the academic study of Jewish history, the Qur’anic notion of the “upright community” referring to the “People of the Book,” Jews in medieval fatwas, use of Arabic and Hebrew script, Jewish prayer in Christian Europe and the Islamic world, the permissibility of Arabic music in modern Jewish thought, Jewish and Muslim feminist exegesis, modern Sephardic and Morisco identity, popular Tunisian song, Jewish-Muslim relations in cinema and A.S. Yehuda’s study of an 11th-century Jewish mystic.