This book considers the economic, social and political importance of the silk trade in Safavid Iran. It focuses on four aspects of this trade: the role of silk in Iranian commercial policy, the interaction between agents of the state and foreign merchants, the routes along which silk was transported and, critically, the economic and social difficulties that contributed to the collapse of the regime in the 1720s. This represents a major contribution to the current debates on the social and economic history of the premodern world.

For over half a millennium the Mamluks wielded power over Egypt. During this time they formed a remarkable political, military and economic elite, ruling as sovereigns from 1250 to 1517 and, after the Ottoman conquest, regaining much of their former influence under Turkish supremacy. In this collection of essays, some of the most distinguished scholars in the field provide an accessible introduction to the structure of political power under the Mamluks and its economic foundations. The essays also offer a unique insight into the Mamluk households and their relationship with the indigenous...

This intellectual biography of Muhammad al-Shawkani, one of the founding fathers of modern Islamic reformism, is also a study of an important transitional period in Yemeni history which saw the shift from traditional Shi'ism to Sunni reformism. The transition propelled political, religious and social change. While Shawkani espoused a socio-religious order which echoed aspects of Western thinking, the book demonstrates that it was indigenous to Islamic thought. Shawkani's ideas remain vital to the intellectual debates happening in Islam today.

The Delhi Sultanate was the first Islamic state to be established in India. This book traces its history from 1210 to its demise at the sack of Delhi in 1400. While the focus is on military and political affairs, the book also explores the Sultans' relations with their non-Muslim subjects. As a first comprehensive treatment of the period, the book will make a significant contribution to medieval Indo-Muslim history. Students of Islamic and Indian history, and interested general readers, will find it a valuable resource.

The Portman Clinic has been applying a psychoanalytic framework to the understanding and treatment of violent, perverse, criminal and delinquent patients since its foundations in the early 1930s. All Portman Clinic patients have crossed the boundary from fantasy and impulse to action-action that defies legal and moral boundaries but that also breaches the body boundary of the victims. Ultimately, the violence underlying most of such violent, perverse and delinquent action also attacks and disturbs the mind of both the victim, be that an individual or society and that of the perpetrator.

The Portman Clinic has been applying a psychoanalytic framework to the understanding and treatment of violent, perverse, criminal and delinquent patie...

Prominent scholars in gender studies and the critical studies of men consider herein how varied institutional settings and policy influence the development of new models of fatherhood, and determine choices. The authors provide new insights from different historical and societal perspectives into the studies of men as gendered subjects, including the role of transnational and global issues on the practices of fatherhood, and the emergence of men's movements in contesting and reimaging fatherhood.

In a work that surveys an entire tradition of historical thought and writing across a span of eight-hundred years, Tarif Khalidi examines how Arabic-Islamic culture of the premodern period viewed the past, how it recorded it, and how it sought to answer the many complex questions associated with the discipline of history.

Jerusalem was never just another Ottoman town, but in the heyday of the Ottoman Empire it displayed many of the characteristics of a Muslim traditional society. Professor Cohen makes full use of the rich and hitherto unexplored Arabic and Turkish archives relating to this period to reconstruct a vivid and detailed picture of everyday life in this lively urban centre. His study focuses on the major guilds of sixteenth-century Jerusalem - butchers, soap-producers and dealers, millers and bakers, describing and analysing their production methods, prices and measures, and the services they...

In a lucidly argued revisionist study of military society in Ottoman Egypt, Jane Hathaway contends that the basic framework within which this elite operated was the household, a conglomerate of patron-client ties. Using Turkish and Arabic archival sources, the author focuses on the Qazdagli household, a military group that came to dominate Egypt. This pioneering study will have a major impact on the understanding of Egyptian history, and will be essential reading for scholars in the field, and for premodern historians generally.