This fourth selection of studies by David Ayalon takes up the theme of the preceding volume, that of the opposition between the Abode of Islam and the external world, the Abode of War. Similarly, a number of the articles are concerned with the impact of outsiders, moving into the world of Islam, but others focus on aspects of the conflict between the two worlds, for instance raising the question of why it was only on the Nubian frontier that the early Arab advance was halted. The majority of the studies however concentrate on the Mamluk institution, especially in Mamluk Egypt, and carry...