A ninth-century Arabic text offers insights into daily life in medieval China and India.
Valentine’s Day Medieval Love: Books for that special someone
February 2, 2014 By
Love is in the air! Here are a few medieval books on the topic of love for your Valentine.
Marvels and Allies in the East. India as Heterotopia of Latin Europe in the 12th Century
January 18, 2014 By
It has long been said that Latin Europe lost its connection to the East, specifically to Asia, in the early Middle Ages. But this is only part of the truth. From late Antiquity on, there were Christians in many places between the Mediterranean Sea and China.
Vespucci’s Triangle and the Shape of the World
January 17, 2014 By
Interdisciplinary interactions between sixteenth-century travellers and cosmographers produced visual models that challenged normative modes of visual thinking, even as they tried to clarify ideas about the earth’s surface.
The Black Death in Medieval India: a Historical Mystery
October 9, 2012 By
Why did a pestilence that had such an impact on one part of the world go unmentioned in another part of the world?
Singers, advisers, and servants: role of eunuchs from a historical context
September 24, 2012 By
According to the Book of Matthew, Jesus said that there were eunuchs made of men, who had made them- selves by their fathers to be that way for heaven’s sake, and if they have received such a procedure, then let them keep it. Jesus referred to castration as an infallible way to achieve celibacy. And records of Christian history indicate that many Christian religious figures were castrated.
‘Old Men of the Mountains’: a comparative study of the Ghūrids and the Ismā‘īlīs of Alamūt
July 26, 2012 By
Striking parallels exist between these two dynasties – marginalised and despised by their neighbours, they established secure mountain strongholds, which acted as refuges and bases from which to expand.
Medieval Arabic manuscripts, East India Company papers, to go online
July 19, 2012 By
The British Library and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development have unveiled an ambitious partnership to transform people’s understanding of the history of the Middle East, and the region’s relationship with Britain and the rest of the world.
Imagining Samarkand: Fruitful Themes in 13th-16th Century Literature on a Silk Road City
June 28, 2012 By
… Samarkand was seen as the last great urban Islamic stop.4 Perhaps because of this, the period between the Arab invasion of Samarkand and the Mongol invasion in 1220 fomented many of the mythologies about the city which will feature prominently in this paper.
Imagining the Metropolis on the Islamic Periphery: Commerce, Scholarship, and Architecture in 15th c. Bidar and Timbuktu
April 13, 2012 By
In this paper I wish to explore the similarities and differences that these two cities exhibit in terms of their evolution, their relationship to political power, and most importantly, the ways they imagined themselves in relation to metropolitan centers in the Islamic heartland.
Prester John: Fiction and History
July 24, 2011 By
Prester John: Fiction and History Bar-Ilan, Meir History of European Ideas, 20/1-3 (1995) Abstract A Hebrew book of Ben-Sira was published in 1519 in Constantinople, and its appendix includes ‘a copy of the letter that Priesty Juan sent to the Pope in Rome’. Although this story has several versions, its main theme is: Once upon a time, […]
Paper Technology in Medieval India
January 15, 2011 By
Paper Technology in Medieval India By S.A.K. Ghori and A.Rahman Indian Journal of the History of Science, Vol. 2 (1966) Abstract: The paper gives a brief development of paper industry in India. It describes the method of paper manufacturing paper, the various centres established in the country and specialties of different types of papers made […]
The Gypsies and Their Impact on Fifteenth-Century Western European Iconography
January 2, 2011 By
Since Gypsies had no chroniclers of their own, their history is difficult to reconstruct. The origin of the Gypsies was a complete mystery until late in the eighteenth century, when their derivation from India was proved by means of early linguistic com- parison.
Yemeni ‘Oceanic Policy’ at the end of the 13th century
April 25, 2009 By
Yemeni ‘Oceanic Policy’ at the end of the 13th century By Eric Vallett Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (2005) Abstract: This paper is based on a new published collection of archives, Nûr al-ma’ârif fî nuzûm wa-qawânîn wa-a’râf al-Yaman fî al-’ahd al-muzaffarî al-wârif (edited by M. Jâzim, French Centre for Archaeology and Social Sciences in […]
Gupta artistic tradition in the reign of Kumaragupta I Mahendraditya, 414-456 A.D.
April 13, 2009 By
Gupta artistic tradition in the reign of Kumaragupta I Mahendraditya, 414-456 A.D. By Trudy Jacobsen Access History, Vol. 2:1 (1999) Introduction: The freshness and vitality of classical Indian art and architecture are due in no small measure to the reign of the Gupta dynasty (200-600 AD). Under these benevolent kings India’s artists and architects found […]
Prices and Wages in India (1200-1800): Source Material, Historiography and New Directions
January 12, 2009 By
Prices and Wages in India (1200-1800): Source Material, Historiography and New Directions By Najaf Haider Paper given at Towards a Global History of Prices and Wages (2004) Introduction: Quantitative data on prices, wages and income are extremely limited and fragmentary for the whole of medieval India (1200-1800 AD). It is only from the middle of […]
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