Description
Book SynopsisA single, unique document - a list of one merchant's baggage - is the starting point used to bring to life the twelfth-century Indian Ocean. Drawing connections between material culture, foodstuffs and the construction of identity, Lambourn examines notions of home and mobility at a key moment in world history.
Trade Review'Transforming a twelfth-century list into a history of the stuff of life, Lambourn brilliantly demonstrates how Southern India was linked to the Middle East. From the production of food to the maintenance of purity, and even staying watered and well on the journey itself, this is exemplary Indian Ocean history.' Michael Laffan, Princeton University, New Jersey
'Abraham's Luggage opens a fascinating window onto a world of interconnected Indic, Islamic, and Jewish traditions in the medieval Indian Ocean. From cultures of dining, gifting, medicine, packing, and religious ritual to mercantile shopping habits and shipping, the book is awash with original insights. Its holistic approach offers a compelling and innovative model of interdisciplinary scholarship.' Finbarr Barry Flood, Institute of Fine Arts and founder-director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York University
'Lambourn's deeply learned and intellectually enterprising reconstruction of the biology and materiality of travel along the maritime highways of the western Indian Ocean enriches our understanding of how humans have inhabited ships and the high seas in a crucial period of world history.' Roxani Eleni Margariti, Emory University, Georgia
'Elizabeth A. Lambourn brings to life the trip home to Egypt of a twelfth-century Jewish trader, transforming a Geniza fragment into a mirror of macrohistory and reconstructing the life of a Mediterranean household in India. A fascinating, path-breaking study for Geniza research and the history of material culture in the Indian Ocean.' Mordechai Akiva Friedman, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
'… Lambourn's book is an ethnography of an 800-year-old cultural world, but its human feel makes it unlike any previous work about the region and period.' Erik Gilbert, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
'… Abraham's Luggage is flawlessly produced and well thought out, with hyperlinks enabling quick cross-referencing of chapter endnotes, references to other chapters in the volume and figures and tables. Abraham's Luggage will no doubt inspire much of that work and makes a powerful contribution in its own right.' Rebecca Darley, Journal of Early Modern History
Table of Contents1. Introduction. A list of luggage from the Indian Ocean world; 2. From Ifriqiya to Malibarat – introducing Abraham Ben Yiju; Part I. A Mediterranean Society in Malibarat: 3. Making homes and friends: on shopping and Ṣuḥba; 4. Making a meal of it: on food cultures; 5. A Jewish home: on ritual foods; Part II. A Mediterranean Society at Sea: 6. The 'simple' bare necessities: on water and rice; 7. 'Things for the cabin': inhabiting the Ocean; 8. The balanced body: on vinegar and other sour foods; 9. From Malibarat to Misr and beyond – afterlives; Appendix: Abraham's list of luggage.
