This is an extensive study of labour in the social and economic life of Islamic communities around the Mediterranean in the medieval period, 9th-15th century.
Based on a large number of primary and secondary sources, it contains a comprehensive dictionary of trades and occupations practised by both men and women, followed by a statistical and textual examination of the division of labour, the distribution of the labour force, occupational structures and the role of labour in the Islamic economy. It also describes ethnic divisions of labour, social status and image. A group of literary...

This book examines the life and milieu of the thirteenth-century northern Syrian statesman and author Ibn al-'Adīm, as reflected in his principal work, the dictionary of people associated with his native Aleppo, the Bughyat al-ṭalab fī ta'rīkh ḥalab. The book is an examination of the text, in particular Ibn al-'Adīm's biographies of his contemporaries, and a discussion of topics suggested by the material. These include the influence of different groups within Aleppo, why and how the dictionary was written, and the personality of the author himself. The...

Mystiques, Etat et Societe is the first study to treat of the history of a mystical Muslim brotherhood--the Halvetis, the most widespread brotherhood in southeastern Europe--from its introduction to the region until the present day. The study is based on very diverse written sources, including unedited manuscripts, as well as on fieldwork. In the book are examined the role of the Halvetis in the spread of the ideology propagated by the Ottoman political authorities ("Sunnitization," conquests, colonization, Islamization) and in the uniting of the Muslim populations; the expansion and...

A Turning Point in Mamluk History deals with the process of decline of the Mamluk state (1250-1517). Its main thesis is that the origins of this process are to be found in the third reign of al-Nāsir Muḥammad Ibn Qalāwūn, more specifically in the changes he effected in the Mamluk system. The Mamluk army was the first to be confronted with these changes, whose impact on the social and political life of the Mamluk elite was already felt during al-Nāsir's own lifetime. The author follows their course of development to the end of autonomous Mamluk rule and reveals...

This work is a chronological account of the struggle between the Afghan Amirs of Kabul and the Manghit Dynasty of Bukhara for Balkh province (wilayat) during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Drawing extensively on India Office Records, Persian and native oral sources, the book provides a unique insight into an important, but little-studied Central Asian region. Structured around the history of Maimana's Mingid dynasty, the book details the various military campaigns, whilst also examining critically Britain and Russia's role in the 'Afghanisation' of Balkh during the period of...

This book deals with the evolution of Islamic state and society from the 10th to the 14th centuries, focusing on the history of the Arab society under the iqṭā' (allocated tax revenue) system. The book offers a well documented study of the system with its use of hitherto unpublished Arabic manuscripts. The introductory chapter deals with the historical origins of the iqṭā' system, while chapters that follow discuss the history of the system in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, including systematic studies on the rural life and peasantry in Egypt. State and Rural...

This volume consists of two sections, written by the two authors. The first section contains a study by Manfred Heuser on The Manichaean Myth According to Coptic Sources. This is the first systematic presentation of the basic myth as reflected in Coptic material. The second part is a collection of essays on Manichaeism by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. The essays are concerned, inter alia, with Manichaean art and symbolism, including newly found examples of Manichaean art from Central Asia.

The first three chapters of this book elucidate the scholastic goals of both classical cultures during the Roman Imperial period. Apuleius' works share the stage in these chapters with representatives of the second-century Greek cultural paradigm. They define patterns of discourse and fit selected examples of analogous Apuleian strategies into the broader cultural framework. Subsequent chapters focus closely on the complete Apuleian corpus under the general headings of Apuleius in the roles of orator, philosopher and novelist. Two of Apuleius' philosophical works and his novel the Golden...

Fritz Meier (1912-1998) is one of the most outstanding Orientalists of this century. His publications combine masterful philological method and precision, profound and penetrating textual interpretation, and a wide-ranging familiarity with primary sources which may truly be characterized as phenomenal. Among the numerous fields in which he has undertaken original research, Persian poetry and Islamic mysticism (Sufism) in the widest sense stand out in particular. His work on Sufism covers the whole of the Islamic world and Islamic history from its beginnings up to the 20th century. The present...

This volume deals with the history of popular religion in Turkey from its origins in the 13th century; the formation of the heterodoxies known as Bektashism and Alevism which are characterised by their syncretism and their religious tolerance; and the bipartition of these currents, both of which refer to the popular saint Hadji Bektash. This fascinating book analyses their beliefs and practices, offers a summary of their rich literature, and treats of the present evolution of these currents, their further prospects, and their anthropocentric, inter-denominational and ecumenical character.