Mamluks And Animals

Housni Alkhateeb Shehada's Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam is the first comprehensive study of veterinary medicine, its practitioners and its patients in the medieval Islamic world, with special emphasis on the Mamluk period (1250-1517). Based on a large variety of sources, it is a history of a scientific field that is also examined from social and cultural perspectives. Horses, as well as birds of prey used for hawking and falconry, were at the centre of the veterinary literature of that period, but the treatment and cure of other animals was not totally neglected. The Mamluk period is presented here as the time when veterinary medicine reached its pinnacle in medieval Islam and often even surpassed human medicine.

This edited collection offers a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of human-animal interactions in Asia throughout history. With twelve thematically-arranged chapters, this book examines the diverse roles that beasts, livestock, and fish — real and metaphorical– have played in Asian history, society, and culture. Ranging from prehistory to the present day, the authors address a wealth of topics including the domestication of animals, dietary practices and sacrifice, hunting, the use of animals in war, and the representation of animals in literature and art. Providing a unique perspective on human interaction with the environment, the volume is cross-disciplinary in its reach, offering enriching insights to the fields of animal ethics, Asian studies, world history and more.

How widespread was authorship among rulers in the premodern Islamic world? The writings of different types of rulers in different regions and periods are analyzed in this book, from the early centuries in the central lands of Islam to 19th century Sudan. The composition of poetry appears as the most fertile area for authorship among rulers. Prose writings show a wide variety, from astrology to bookmaking, from autobiography to creeds. Some of the rulers made claims to special knowledge, but in all cases authorship played a special role in the construction of the rulers' authority and legitimacy. Contributors: Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Sean W. Anthony, María Luisa Ávila†, Teresa Bernheimer, Philip Bockholt, Sonja Brentjes, Christiane Czygan, David Durand-Guédy, Anne-Marie Eddé, Sinem Eryılmaz, Maribel Fierro, Adam Gaiser, Angelika Hartmann†, Livnat Holtzman, Maher Jarrar, Robert S. Kramer, Christian Mauder, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Letizia Osti, Jürgen Paul, Petra Schmidl, Tilman Seidensticker.

Animals in rural Egypt became enmeshed in social relationships and made possible many tasks otherwise impossible. Rather than focus on what animals represented or symbolized, Mikhail discusses their social and economic functions, as Ottoman Egypt cannot be understood without acknowledging animals as central shapers of the early modern world.

Elaborate and sensational gifts were the hallmark of Mamluk diplomacy. In firm control of the medieval spice trade as well as the holy sites of Christianity and Islam, the Sultanate's capital at Cairo became a diplomatic crossroads in the medieval world and the seat of a new Islamic caliphate. Already victorious over both the Crusaders and the Mongols, their military success and lavish religious patronage were not enough to ensure the dynasty's prestige: the Mamluk Sultans were often reminded of their slave origins, impugned by rivals as 'pagans' recruited to faith and service by purchase. In response, the sultans staged brilliant performances in Cairo and dispatched carefully designed diplomatic gifts all over the medieval world. These marvellous displays were the crowning ornament of Mamluk legitimacy, celebrated from Europe to the Far East. Drawing on extensive primary sources and fieldwork in museums across the world, Doris Behrens-Abouseif is the first to treat this important subject in depth and here reveals an unexplored aspect of Middle Eastern material culture. Composed of spectacular elements such as spices, exotic animals, Chinese porcelain, ceremonial textiles and military and equestrian objects - not to mention humans, either living or as severed heads - the regal offering varied in combination and emphasis according to the status and circumstances of giver and receiver, but always created a sensation. Acknowledging the established historical precedents of diplomacy and regal gift-giving, the author examines the nuance of cultural and political realities in period diplomacy as well as the transmission of encrypted messages, illuminating the subtle conveyance of self-representation and identity in medieval Cairo and the world beyond. With ground-breaking new research, this book - richly illustrated in colour - provides a comprehensive view of the art and politics of the Mamluk diplomatic gift, by which these sultans of humble origins created a magnificent image of themselves in the courts of their Muslim rivals and allies worldwide. It will prove essential reading for both students and scholars.

Beginning on the eve of Oceanic exploration, and the first European forays into the Indian Ocean and the Middle East, The Ottomans and the Mamluks traces the growth of the Ottoman Empire from a tiny Anatolian principality to a world power, and the relative decline of the Mamluks - historic defenders of Mecca and Medina and the rulers of Egypt and Syria. Cihan Yüksel Muslu traces the intertwined stories of these two dominant Sunni Muslim empires of the early modern world, setting out to question the view that Muslim rulers were historically concerned above all with the idea of Jihad against non-Muslim entities. Through analysis of the diplomatic and military engagements around the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Muslu traces the interactions of these Islamic super-powers and their attitudes towards the wider world. This is the first detailed study of one of the most important political and cultural relationships in early-modern Islamic history.

Building on his award-winning research, Christian Mauder’s In the Sultan’s Salon constitutes the first detailed study of the intellectual, religious, and political culture of the court of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), one of the most important polities in Islamic history.