Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture

Situates the First Crusade and the formation of the Latin East within the broader framework of Syrian history

• Re-examines the pre and early Crusading period from a Syrian perspective
• Presents a reassessment of the broad strategic picture in Syria at a vital point in the timeline of the Medieval Middle East
• Argues that there was a perceptible military reaction from Syrian rulers to the arrival of the Franks
• Provides a new chronology for the erosion of Byzantine and Fatimid influence in the region during the late fifth/eleventh century and analyses the extent of Seljuq influence

Between 1050 and 1128 the nomadic Seljuq Turks and European Crusaders subjected northern Syria to a series of invasions from the east and west. The migration of militant peoples from the Eurasian Steppe and Western Europe inserted a new set of political elites into a complex frontier zone already beset by numerous conflicts fought along several ethno-cultural and religious contours. Surveying this turbulent chapter of Syrian history from multiple perspectives, this book recalibrates the underlying power dynamics of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Through this regional focus, it reassesses both the impact that the establishment of Turkish and Crusader lordships had upon bilad al-sham (Greater Syria) and the reactions of Syria’s established ruling elite to this unprecedented sequence of events.

Providing a unique reinterpretation of the political situation in bilad al-sham during one of the most important periods in Middle Eastern history, this book proposes a new model for understanding the political dynasties of this period and questions the significance ascribed to the establishment of the Crusader States by modern historians.

Offers an in-depth study of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus in its prime

• Provides a comprehensive study of the caliphate of Cordoba based on the ‘annals’ by ‘Īsà b. Aḥmad al-Rāzī and other Arab sources relating to the period
• Brings together textual evidence with the archaeological record to produce a vivid description of the social formation of al-Andalus in this period
• Analyses the structure and operation of a centralised ‘state’ in the High Middle Ages
• Examines the legitimisation of power and authority in an Islamicate social formation
• Offers a rigorous study of the Caliphate of Cordoba, which is usually the subject of idealised views with little historical base
• Makes accessible to English-speaking audiences the huge advance of recent historical studies on the Umayyad caliphate

During the second half of the 10th/4th century, the Umayyad caliphate of al-Andalus became a powerful political formation in Western Europe. Described by the contemporary German nun Hrotsvitha as the ‘ornament of the world’, Cordoba was the destiny of embassies and traders coming from places as far away as Constantinople, the Ottoman empire and Italy. The zenith of this political supremacy coincided with the rule of al-Ḥakam II (961-976 CE), whose name is associated with the enlargement of the mosque of Cordoba, the magnificent palatine city of Madīnat al-Zahrāʼ and the rich caliphal library which housed Arab, Latin and Hebrew manuscripts.

This book is based on an extraordinary source that had never been the subject of a comprehensive study: the annals written by an official and chronicler of the caliph’s court, ‘Īsà b. Aḥmad al-Rāzī, who carefully annotated the big and small events of the court. Used by Ibn Ḥayyān to compose one of the volumes of his celebrated Muqtabis, these ‘annals’ have come to us in a substantial fragment of more than 135 folia that cover the period from June 971 to July 975 CE. This source provides an eye-witness account of the caliphate, which describes with stunning detail all the events, characters, places and narratives of the Umayyad caliphate, and is a fundamental work in helping us to understand the configuration of the Mediterranean in the 10th century CE.

Examines ʿAttar's didactic sufi poetry in historical context from a rhetorical, recipient-centred perspective

• Provides an accessible introduction to the didactic mode in Persian literature
• Uncovers a poetics of didacticism that was never systemtised in the rhetorical or philosophical tradition
• Traces the implications of the ‘medicinal metaphor’, in which speech is likened to medicine
• Explores literary allegory's relationship to visionary experience
• Investigates how didactic texts evoke oral discourse and how ʿAttar's frame-tale structures mediate between textuality and orality

Much Persian sufi literature is explicitly didactic, aiming to instruct its readers and motivate pious reform. Moving beyond a recapitulation of religious content, The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction investigates the performative function of didactic poetry for mystical audiences, focusing in particular on the verse of Farid al-Din ʿAttar, a central figure of the tradition best known for long narrative poems imbued with edifying sufi themes. Through a series of sensitive and creative readings, O’Malley shows how ʿAttar uses frame-tales, metapoetic commentary, and allegories to think through his relationship with his readers, imagine and guide their reactions to his work, and perform his instructive authority. By teasing out this implicit, recipient-centred poetics, O’Malley recovers sufi didacticism’s participatory, interactive character and shows how the act of reading was invested with ritual significance as a spiritual exercise aimed at the purification of the soul.

This book discusses the only known private book collection from pre-Ottoman Jerusalem for which we have a trail of documents. It belonged to an otherwise unknown resident, Burhān al-Dīn; after his death, his books were sold in a public auction and the list of objects sold has survived.This list – edited and translated in this volume – shows that a humble part-time reciter of the late 14th century had almost 300 books in his house, evidence that book ownership extended beyond the elite. Based on a corpus of almost fifty documents from the Ḥaram al-sharīf collection in Jerusalem, it is also possible to get a rare insight into the social world of such an individual. Finally, the book gives a unique insight into book prices as it will make available the largest such set of data for the pre-Ottoman period.

Examines debates about the inclusion or exclusion of Zoroastrians in Islamic society circa 600-1000 C.E.

• Makes a significant contribution to the literature on interfaith relations in Islamic history
• Demonstrates the role of advocacy in shaping early Islamic policy
• Argues against the assumption that Zoroastrians were People of the Book
• Engages theories of accommodation and of memory, from North America, the Middle East and Europe
• Utilises archival material from Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States

The second Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, once reportedly exclaimed, ‘I do not know how to treat Zoroastrians!’ He and other Muslims encountered Zoroastrians during the conquest of Arabia but struggled to formulate a consistent policy toward the adherents of a religion that was neither biblical nor polytheistic. Some Muslims saw Zoroastrians as pagans and sought to limit interaction with them. Others found ways to incorporate them within the empire of Islamic law. Andrew D. Magnusson describes the struggle between advocates of inclusion and exclusion, the ultimate accommodation of Zoroastrians, and the reasons that Muslim historians have subsequently buried the memory of this relationship.

Shows how and why an ancient city destroyed and then rebuilt by Mongols became again the ‘Pearl’ of the Iranian east

• Establishes a sequence and chronology for the Mongol attacks in eastern Iran
• Includes a political-military history of the Kart dynasty, from their founding in 649/1251 by Möngke Qaʾan, to their surrender to Tamerlane in 783/1381
• Explores the renewal of agriculture, commercial development (caravansarays and bazaars) and the revivification of Islamic activities (patronage of madrasas, hospices, and mosques)
• Illustrates the reconstruction of Herat’s intricate hydrological network of channels, dams, cisterns, sluices, controllers and watermills with maps and schematics
• Details Herat’s fortified landscape (citadel, curtain walls, embankment, trench, gateways, towers and Kartid Walls) and analyses the city’s defensive postures

This book tells the history of Herat, from its desolation under Chingiz Khan in 1222, to its capitulation to Tamerlane in 1381. Unlike the other three quarters of Khurasan (Balkh, Marw, Nishapur), which were ravaged by the Mongols, Herat became an important political, cultural and economic centre of the eastern Islamic world. The post-Mongol age in which an autochthonous Tajik dynasty, the Kartids, ruled the region set the foundations for Herat’s Timurid-era splendors.

Divided into two parts (a political-military history and a social-economic history), the book explains why the Mongol Empire rebuilt Herat: its rationales and approaches; and Chinggisid internecine conflicts that impacted on Herat’s people. It analyses the roles of Iranians, Turks and Mongols in regional politics; in devising fortifications; in restoring commercial and cultural edifices; and in resuscitating economic and cultural activities in the Herat Quarter.

Collects 21 papers on Classical Islam by one of the world’s leading experts on medieval Islamic history

• Traces the evolution of scholarship in the area over several decades
• Gathers many papers located in out-of-print or hard-to-find works
• Includes a preface that outlines the trajectory of Professor Hillenbrand's research in the field of Classical Islam over the course of her career, and an index of names, places and terms

Classical Islam presents studies of the career of the Prophet Muhammad and the environment from which he sprang; the evolution of Islamic mysticism; political thought; and philosophical themes. It also includes investigations into the development of the late ‘Abbasid caliphate; analyses of the Mirror for Princes literature; and studies of the minor dynasties of Iraq and Anatolia, and of the major cities in the region.

Classical Islam is publishing alongside two further volumes of Carole Hillenbrand's collected papers: Islam and the Crusades and The Medieval Turks.

Collects 24 papers on the medieval Turks by one of the world’s leading experts on medieval Islamic history

• Traces the evolution of scholarship in the area over several decades
• Gathers many papers located in out-of-print or hard-to-find works
• Includes a preface that describes Professor Hillenbrand's fascination with medieval Turkey, and an index of names, places and terms

This volume explores the impact of the Turks on the medieval Islamic world. It covers themes such as nomadism, shamanism, clan and social structure, the role of women, military expertise, engagement with Islamic orthodoxy and the daily interface between Turks and non-Turks.

The Medieval Turks is publishing alongside two further volumes of Carole Hillenbrand's collected papers: Classical Islam and Islam and the Crusades.

Collects 20 papers on the Crusades by one of the world’s leading experts on medieval Islamic history

• Traces the evolution of scholarship on the Crusades over several decades
• Includes many papers located in out-of-print or hard-to-find works
• Includes a preface that outlines Professor Hillenbrand's interest in the Crusades over the course of her career, and an index of names, places and terms

The papers collected in Islam and the Crusades showcase multiple perspectives, especially as viewed from the Muslim side. The volume explores the distinctive nature of Islamic jihad as expressed in poetry, sermons and inscriptions; the development of the counter-crusade; and the careers of major Muslim leaders including Zengi and Saladin.

Islam and the Crusades is publishing alongside two further volumes of Carole Hillenbrand's collected papers: Classical Islam and The Medieval Turks.

A new history of medieval Islamic political thought, focusing on the rule of law, limited government and the theory of delegationStudies Ayyubid and Mamluk political thought beyond the prevalent focus on Ibn Taymiyya

• Offers a novel classification of the themes and concerns of medieval Islamic political thought
• Studies both Ibn Jamaʿa’s well-known works and previously unstudied treatises
• Presents a fresh interpretation of a distinctive Sufi political thought and uncovers its interrelatedness with Ashʿari-Sufism and Shafiʿism
• Includes 5 case studies based on treatises authored by legal theorists, jurists, judges and administrators

The legal theorists, jurists, judges and administrators of the late Ayyubid and early Mamluk period tackled a central question in their political thought: how best to govern their communities. This book proposes a taxonomy of the main themes and concerns of this political thought under the three ideals of the rule of law, limited government and legitimate delegation of power. Further, it recommends a contextualist approach for interpreting Islamic political texts based on their narrow social, intellectual and political contexts.

Examining treatises by 5 carefully selected authors who flourished in the Syro-Egyptian lands in the period between c.1250 and c.1350, the book also deals with important questions of authorship, readership and dedicatees, authorial motives and intentions, genres and literary styles, sources and influences, and applicability.

Tells the history of the precious balsam of Matarea: a substance traded for its weight in gold

• Uses archaeological and textual sources to trace the cultivation of balsam trees from the 4th century BCE to the 17th century CE
• Surveys the evidence for the symbolic value and practical applications of balsam in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe
• Establishes the many uses of balsam in pre-modern medicine, religious ritual and royal ceremonies
• Correlates modern botanical studies with historical sources in the identification of the trees that once grew in the plantation of Matarea in Egypt
• Explores the complex socio-cultural factors that contributed to the sense of value accorded to rare commodities
• Richly illustrated with over 50 line drawings, engravings, watercolours and photographs, drawn from sources ranging across time from medieval manuscripts to 20th-century photographs, depicting balsam trees, balsam resin receptacles, the compound of Matarea, maps and more

Using written sources, visual data and archaeological material, Marcus Milwright reconstructs the fascinating cultural history of the balsam tree from Jericho and En-Gedi to Egypt, and from ancient times to the 17th century. Miwright addresses the symbolic associations of balsam and the site of Matarea (where the last balsam tree died in 1615), the distribution of products from the tree through trade and diplomacy, and the applications of these products in medicine, ritual and the domestic environment. He also establishes links with resin-producing trees from the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

The balsam of Matarea was a substance famous as a panacea among physicians in the Middle East and Europe during the Antique and Medieval periods. It was used in many aspects of medieval life and is associated with figures such as the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra.

Explores and analyses the Abbasid Caliphate as it was re-imagined in late medieval Cairo

• Presents different types of source material – jurisprudential, historiographical and documentary – which speak about topics in turn, resulting in a highly nuanced image of the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo
• Includes multiple passages of previously unpublished material in translation including biographical literature, investiture documents and epigraphical evidence
• Explores a variety of textual dimensions of the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo based on narrative, prescriptive and documentary sources

Mustafa Banister presents a thorough investigation of a forgotten dynasty: the Cairene descendants of the Abbasid family. He uncovers the public and private lives of the 18 men invested as caliphs during the period of ‘Mamluk’ rule in Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) and reveals a nuanced understanding of the Abbasid Caliphate according to elite members of Syro-Egyptian society. In doing so, he addresses the function of the caliph and his office amidst the breakdown and recreation of each new socio-political order of the sultanate.

Banister examines the uniquely Cairene context of the idea and institution of the caliphate, including how it was socially and textually performed in the late medieval sultanate of Cairo.

Radically re-interprets the nature of medieval Arabic love poetry in the classical age

• Challenges the stereotypical idea about the absence of the body in ‘Udhri love poetry
• Investigates the ‘Udhri tradition through close readings of the classical 10th-century Arabic sources including anthologies such as the Kitab al-Aghani
• Contributes to literary studies on the representations of the body
• Includes close readings of difficult literary texts in classical Arabic including the work of ‘Urwah b. Hizam, Majnun Layla, Qays b. Dharih, Jamil Buthaynah and Kuthayyir ‘Azzah

Jokha Alharthi re-appraises the relationship between love, poetry and Arab society in the 8th to 11th centuries. She avoids familiar clichés about the purity of love in ‘Udhri poetry – broadly speaking, an Arabic counterpart to the western medieval concept of unconsummated courtly love – and instead questions the traditional much-vaunted emphasis on chastity and the assumption that this poetry omits any concept of the body.

Alharthi focuses on the key differences between what the poetry itself says and the views of later sources about ‘Udhri poets and their works. She also documents how the representation of the beloved in the ‘Udhri ghazal was influenced by pre-Islamic poetry, showing how this tradition developed with a series of overlapping historical layers. And she breaks new ground by examining how this poetry treats not only the body of the beloved but also that of her lover, the poet himself.

Explores the relationship between monastic communities and Muslim society in the early centuries of Islam

• Presents a survey of Christian monastic life under Muslim political hegemony
• Explores the reasons behind Muslim latitude towards, and support of, Christian monasteries
• Draws on a variety of medieval Syriac, Greek and Arabic texts as well as modern scholarship
• Shows how core spiritual values, embodied in the monastic tradition, helped to facilitate an ecumenical environment in the early Islamic centuries

During the rise of Islam, Muslim fascination with Christian monastic life was articulated through a fluid, piety-centred movement. Bradley Bowman explores this confessional synthesis between like-minded religious groups in the medieval Near East. He argues that this potential ecumenism would have been based upon the sharing of core tenets concerning piety and righteous behaviour. Such fundamental attributes, long associated with monasticism in the East, likely served as a mutually inclusive common ground for Muslim and Christian communities of the period. This manifested itself in Muslim appreciation, interest and – at times – participation in Christian monastic life.

Analyses the narrative function of Khārijism in 9th- and 10th-century Islamic historiography

• The first book-length literary study of Khārijism
• Sheds new light on the creation of historical memory in early Islamic historiography
• Emphasises the importance of literary approaches to early Islamic history
• Calls for a reassessment of historical Khārijism based on the findings of this literary analysis

Why are stories told about the Khārijites – purported rebels and heretics? From the Khārijites’ origins at the Battle of Ṣiffīn in 657 CE until the death of the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān in 705 CE, this exhaustive literary analysis provides a fresh perspective on Khārijite history as depicted in early Islamic historiography.

The Islamic tradition portrays Khārijism as a heretical movement of militantly pious zealots, a notion largely reiterated by what little modern scholarship there is on the Khārijites. Hannah-Lena Hagemann moves away from the usual positivist reconstructions of Khārijite history ‘as it really was’ and instead examines its narrative function in early Islamic historiography. The results of this literary analysis highlight the need for a serious reassessment of the historical phenomenon of Khārijism as it is currently understood in scholarship.

Explores the construction of sanctity and its manifestations in the medieval Muslim Middle East

• Draws on a wide variety of primary sources from many genres: narrative and documentary sources, travelogues, epigraphic and material evidence, legal, devotional and prescriptive religious literature
• Deals with the perspectives of Sunnis, Shi`is of the Ithna`ashariyya and Isma`ilis, which are rarely treated simultaneously in research
• The ‘long durée’ treatment of religious phenomena offers a wide perspective, examining both continuity and change
• The material is organised to allow modular reading, telling two stories with theoretical implications that go beyond the case studies
• Truly interdisciplinary, it studies textual evidence and material sources in tandem and integrates the study of religious thought, practice and literature within political contexts

This book offers a fresh perspective on religious culture in the medieval Middle East. It investigates the ways Muslims thought about and practiced at sacred spaces and in sacred times through two detailed case studies: the shrines in honour of the head of al-Husayn (the martyred grandson of the Prophet), and the holy month of Rajab. The changing expressions of the veneration of the shrine and month are followed from the formative period of Islam until the late Mamluk period, paying attention to historical contexts and power relations. Readers will find interest in the attempt to integrate the two perspectives synchronically and diachronically, in a discussion of the relationship between the sanctification of space and time in individual and communal piety, and in the religious literature of the period.

Explores how Muslim law governed the life of the individuals and the conduct of society in medieval Egypt

• Comprehensively examines 4 judicial institutions common to all medieval Muslim states (the cadi, the court of complaint, the police and the market supervisor)
• Provides a broad discussion of the scope of non-Muslim self-rule/judicial autonomy in medieval Islam
• Illuminates the complex relations between the state and its subjects, and the state and non-Muslim communities through a discussion of the court of the complaint
• Highlights the potential and limitations of non-literary sources for medieval social Middle Eastern history through an extensive use of documents and inscriptions

This book shows how political and administrative forces shaped the way justice was applied in medieval Egypt. It introduces the model that evolved during the 7th to the 9th centuries, which involved 4 judicial institutions: the cadi, the court of complaint (mazalim), the police/shurta (responsible for criminal justice) and the Islamized market law (hisba) administrated by the market supervisor/muhtasib.

Literary and non-literary sources are used to highlight how these institutions worked in real-time situations such as the famine of 1024–1025, which posed tremendous challenges to the market supervisors in Cairo. The inner workings of the court of complaint during the 11th–12th century Fatimid state are revealed through array of documentary sources. Further, non-Muslim communities, their courts and their sphere of responsibilities are treated as integral to how justice was dispensed in medieval Islam. Documentary sources offers significant insights into these issues and illuminate the scope and limits of non-Muslims self-rule/judicial autonomy.

In sum, the book shows that the administrative and political history of the judiciary in medieval Egypt implicitly and explicitly illuminates broader questions about religious and social forces that shaped the lives of medieval people in the Middle East, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

This book traces the journey of new Muslims as they joined the early Islamic community and articulated their identities within it. It focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave background rendered them somehow alien. How did these Muslims at the crossroads of insider and outsider find their place in early Islamic society? How did Islamic society itself change to accommodate these new members? By analysing how these liminal Muslims resolved the tension between belonging and otherness, Conquered Populations in Early Islam reveals the shifting boundaries of the early Islamic community and celebrates the dynamism of Islamic history.

Explores Rashid al-Din’s impact on seven centuries of historical writing

• A narrative of early Ilkhanid history accessible to students and useful to scholars
• A new approach to the biography of one of the most influential figures in medieval Islamic history
• Includes appendices describing the structure, sources and illustrative programs of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh and cataloguing all known manuscripts of the work
• Shows the relationship between early modern Persian and modern European structures of knowledge about the Mongol world

This book examines the life and work of Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318), the most powerful statesman working for the Mongol Ilkhans in the Middle East. It begins with an overview of administrative history and historiography in the early Ilkhanate, culminating with Rashid al-Din’s Blessed History of Ghazan, the indispensable source for Mongol and Ilkhanid history. Later chapters lay out the results of the most comprehensive study to date of the manuscripts of Rashid al-Din’s historical writing. The complicated relationship between Rashid al-Din’s historical and theological writings is also explored, as well as his appropriation of the work of his contemporary historian, `Abd Allah Qashani.

The first comprehensive study of sexual politics in Medieval Islam

• Studies the military-political power of eunuchs and their relations with women under the Fatimid dynasty, and the appearance of first queen in Islamic history
• Investigates the power of the Turkmen women in the politics and how and why they introduced the unique post of atabeg
• Examines the role of the first Sunni queen in Islam, Dayfa Khatun the Ayyubid in Aleppo, and how she paved the way for another queen, Shajar al-Durr in Egypt
• Considers the impact of the Mongol invasion on the Muslim world, and the coming of queen Abish to power in Shiraz, aided by Mongol power

Based on original and previously unexamined sources, this book provides a critical and systematic analysis of the role of women, mothers, wives, eunuchs, concubines, qahramans and atabegs in the dynamics and manipulation of medieval Islamic politics.

Spanning over 600 years, Taef El-Azhari explores gender and sexual politics and power: from the time of the Prophet Muhammad through the Umayyad and Abbasid periods to the Mamluks in the 15th century, and from Iran and Central Asia to North Africa and Spain.

Explores the ways in which esoteric religion shaped the masterpieces of classical Persian painting

Transforming our understanding of Persian art, this impressive interdisciplinary book decodes some of the world’s most exquisite medieval paintings. It reveals the hidden meaning behind enigmatic figures and scenes that have puzzled modern scholars, focusing on five ‘miniature’ paintings. Chad Kia shows how the cryptic elements in these works of art from Timurid Persia conveyed the mystical teachings of Sufi poets like Rumi, Attar and Jami, and heralded one of the most significant events in the history of Islam: the takeover by the Safavids in 1501 and the conversion of Iran to Shiism.

Key features

• Interprets celebrated but enigmatic paintings from collections in the Metropolitan Museum, the British Library and the Freer Gallery
• Brings poetry and art together in a transformative reading of Persian illustrated manuscripts
• Bridges art history, literature and religion to reconsider Shia and Safavid cultural and intellectual history
• Connects Persian figural painting to the rise of the Safavids and Shiism in Iran

In the late medieval period, manuscripts galore circulated in Middle Eastern libraries. Yet very few book collections have come down to us as such or have left a documentary trail. This book discusses the largest private book collection of the pre-Ottoman Arabic Middle East for which we have both a paper trail and a surviving corpus of the manuscripts that once sat on its shelves: the Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī Library of Damascus. The book suggests that this library was part of the owner’s symbolic strategy to monumentalise a vanishing world of scholarship bound to his life, family, quarter and home city.

Explores the problem of anthropomorphism: a major bone of contention in 8th to 14th-century Islamic theology

More than any other issue in Islamic theology, anthropomorphism (tashbih) stood at the heart of many theological debates, and was mostly discussed within the circles of traditionalist Islam. The way a scholar interpreted the anthropomorphic descriptions of God in the Qur’an or the Hadith (for instance, God’s hand, God’s laughter or God’s sitting on the heavenly throne) often reflected his political and social stature, as well as his theological affinity. This book presents an in-depth literary analysis of the textual and non-textual elements of aḥadith al-ṣifat – the traditions that depict God and His attributes in an anthropomorphic language. It goes on to discuss the inner controversies in the prominent traditionalistic learning centres of the Islamic world regarding the way to understand and interpret these anthropomorphic traditions. Through a close, contextualized, and interdisciplinary reading in Hadith compilations, theological treatises, and historical sources, this book offers an evaluation and understanding of the traditionalistic endeavours to define anthropomorphism in the most crucial and indeed most formative period of Islamic thought.

Key Features

• Includes case studies of anthropomorphic traditions, tribal heritage and lore, the Hashwiyya and the traditionalists
• Explores non-textual elements in the anthropomorphic traditions (including body-gestures and mimicry)
• Studies rhetorical devices and rationalized argumentations in the writings of traditionalist theologians
• Provides the first in-depth literary and linguistic analysis of the anthropomorphic material in the Hadith

Juxtaposes several of the miracles in the Islamic and Christian traditions

This new and dynamic approach to the perennially fascinating subject of miracles adopts a strictly anthropological and phenomenological approach. Allowing the miracles to speak for themselves, Ian Richard Netton examines these phenomena in the Islamic and Christian traditions through the lens of narration. What are the stories of the miracles? What are the contexts which gave rise to these miracles and allowed them to garner belief and flourish? Perspectives covered include the views of believers and non-believers alike in these phenomena.

Similarities and differences in content and approach are explored with a primary focus on the five main anthropological topoi of food, water, blood, wood and stone, and cosmology. A range of intertextual elements in both these Islamic and Christian traditions are discerned.

Key Features

• Presents a comparative approach to miracles in Islam and Christianity
• Uses the non-judgmental lens of an anthropological and phenomenological approach
• Organised around five groups of miracles: food, water, blood, wood and stone, and cosmology
• Case studies include miraculous feeding miracles in Islam and Christianity; Lourdes and healing; Zamzam and healing; the miracle of Bolsena; the Passion of Al-Hallaj; the Ark of Gilgamesh and Noah/Nuh; the miracle of the sun at Fatima; and the splitting of the moon in the Qur’an

Explores the impact of drugs introduced by the Arabs on medieval Mediterranean medicine

For more than one thousand years Arab medicine held sway in the ancient world, from the shores of Spain in the West to China, India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the East. This book explores the impact of Greek (as well as Indian and Persian) medical heritage on the evolution of Arab medicine and pharmacology, investigating it from the perspective of materia medica – a reliable indication of the contribution of this medical legacy.

Focusing on the main substances introduced and traded by the Arabs in the medieval Mediterranean – including Ambergris, camphor, musk, myrobalan, nutmeg, sandalwood and turmeric – the authors show how they enriched the existing inventory of drugs influenced by Galenic-Arab pharmacology. Further, they look at how these substances merged with the development and distribution of new technologies and industries that evolved in the Middle Ages such as textiles, paper, dyeing and tanning, and with the new trends, demands and fashions regarding spices, perfumes, ornaments (gemstones) and foodstuffs some of which can be found in our modern-day food basket.

Key Features

• Assesses the assimilation of theoretical and practical Greek, Indian and Persian medicine into Arabic medical culture
• Reconstructs and presents a list of medicinal substances distributed by the Arabs as a result of their conquests
• Tells the stories of 33 new Arabic drugs within the context of their natural history
• Describes the contribution of the Arabs to the daily medieval cultural material (medicine, cosmetics, perfumery, dyeing of materials, industrial products and precious stones)
• Includes 35 colour illustrations

The first documented insight into the content and structure of a large-scale medieval Arabic library

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. The catalogue shows that even book collections attached to Sunni religious institutions could hold very diverse titles, including Mutazilite theology, Shiite prayers, medical handbooks, manuals for traders, stories from the 1001 Nights, and texts extolling wine consumption. At the same time this library catalogue decisively expands our knowledge of how books were thematically and spatially organised on the shelves of such a large medieval library.

Listing over two thousand books the Ashrafiya catalogue is essential reading for anybody interested in the cultural and intellectual history of Arabic societies. Setting it into a comparative perspective with contemporaneous libraries on the British Isles opens new perspectives for the study of medieval libraries.

Key Features

• Includes an annotated translation of the Ashrafiya catalogue and full-colour facsimile reproduction of the catalogue's unique manuscript
• Seeing which books were held in the library give insights into text circulation and medieval ‘bestsellers’
• The publication of the catalogue provides the first documentary material for comparative research with libraries in other world regions
• The organisation of the catalogue contributes to the discussion on how practitioners created systems and hierarchies of scholarly fields of knowledge

Read and download the introduction for free here (pdf)

A social, political and religious history of Sufism in Medieval Egypt

After the fall of the Fatimid Empire in 1171 and the emergence of a new Sunni polity under the Ayyubids, Sufism came to extraordinary prominence in Egypt. The state founded and funded hospices to attract foreign Sufis to Egypt; local charismatic Sufi masters appeared throughout Upper and Lower Egypt; organised Sufi brotherhoods emerged in the urban centres of Cairo and Alexandria; and even Jews took up the doctrines and practices of the Sufis. By the middle of the Mamluk period in the 14th century, Sufism had become massively popular. How and why did this popularisation happen? This book is the first to address this issue directly, surveying the social formation and histories of several different Sufi collectivities from this period. Arguing that the popularisation of Sufism during this time was the direct result of deliberate and variegated Sufi programs of outreach, strategies of legitimation and performances of authority across Egypt, these programs, strategies and performances are situated within the social and political contexts of the institutionalisation of Sufism, audience participation, and Ayyubid and Mamluk state policies.

Key Features

• Offers a wide-ranging description of the variegated social landscape of Sufism in Ayyubid and early Mamluk Egypt
• Presents a new theoretical model to describe the institutionalisation and popularisation of Sufism
• Case studies of three different groups of Sufis in medieval Egypt track this institutionalisation and popularisation
• A heuristic framework connects Sufism to larger social and political trends in medieval Egypt

A creative and analytical study of important facets of classical Persian poetry

This imaginative and accessible study of the lyrical, humorous, social and educational aspects of classical Persian poetry focuses on the works of the master medieval poet Sa‘di of Shiraz (d. 1291), one of the funniest, most influential and lyrical figures in classical Persian poetry. Sa’di, a prominent ethicist and a devout teacher of virtues, stands out for his worldliness, his practical teachings, and his love for living a wholesome life, as well as for his signature elegance and artistry that has compelled critics to call his lyrics perfectly polished diamonds.

In a language deliberately free of technical jargon, Keshavarz argues for the versatility of Sa‘di’s poetic voice and portrays his notion of love as open to multiple perspectives including homoerotic aesthetics. She brings to life the worldly wisdom that kept the lyrical, adventurous, and ethical legacy of Sa’di fresh and effective through the passage of time.

Key Features

• Includes hundreds of verses in translation, making it ideal for use by students
• Explores the connections between poetry and lived experience
• Highlights the role of classical Persian poetry as the 'silk road of the imagination', connecting many polities and diverse ways of life
• Examines the poetic strategies that give Sa’di’s substantive and sumptuous lyrics their unique status