Description
Book SynopsisKristina Richardson is Associate Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA. She is the author of
Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World (2012) and co-editor of a 16th-century Syrian weaver's notebook (forthcoming). She also serves as an editor for the journal
Der Islam.Trade ReviewThis book is nothing short of a radical remapping of the Global Middle Ages that decenters sedentary peoples and refuses territorial partition. Kristina Richardson brilliantly illuminates the sophisticated literary, technological, and intellectual cultures of the
Ghuraba' (Strangers), the Roma, and other traveling communities as they moved along the margins of Afro-Eurasian societies between the eighth and the sixteenth centuries. Methodologically wide-ranging and analytically bold,
Roma in the Medieval Islamic World will change the way we write medieval history. * Professor of History and International Studies, Zayde Antrim, Trinity College, USA *
Fascinating! Like watching a wonderful and unexpected landscape emerge as a master jigsaw puzzler fits the pieces together. * Richard Bulliet, Emeritus Professor of History, Columbia University, USA *
"In this brilliant work, Dr. Kristina Richardson illustrates the fundamental importance of studying peoples that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries. Attention to the 'marginal' Ghuraba' across time and space shows them to be anything one of the major groups responsible for facilitating Afro-Eurasian cultural exchange. Of the many notable contributions of this work, her intervention in the history of the printed book is a stunning contribution to the field. Through meticulous linguistic and material analysis, she shows that the Ghuraba' are the most likely candidates for the transmission of 'print culture' from East Asia to the West. Her findings are sure to win many converts and provide a new methodological approach for exploring the vital importance of minority groups to the emergence of Afro-Eurasian material cultures." * Devin Fitzgerald, Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing, UCLA, USA *
Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Roma, Banu Sasan, and the
Ghuraba’ 2. Sin: The Language of the Banu Sasan and
Ghuraba’ 3.
Gharib Literary Cultures in Mamluk Cairo 4. Housing, Neighborhoods, and Cemeteries of Urban
Ghuraba’ 5. Illustrated Astrological Books (
Bulhans) 6. A New Narrative of Premodern Afro-Eurasian Printing 7.
Ghuraba’ Astrologers and Print in 15th-Century Central Europe Appendix 1: Appendix 2: Glossary Notes Bibliography Index
