Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000253
Yue 越 Ji 姬
{"title":"Shi Xiangdong 施向東: Hanzangyu bijiao yanjiu 漢藏語比較研究 [Chinese-Tibetan Comparative Linguistics] iii, 273 pp. Shanghai: Zhongxi shuju 中西書局 [Zhongxi Book Company], 2021. ISBN 978 7 5476 1881 6.","authors":"Yue 越 Ji 姬","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000253","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49010764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000423
Adday Hernández López
from Nineveh and of a document from Assur dated to 646 BC (StAT 2 167) in order to reiterate the well-known facts that African, or specifically Egyptian, communities lived within Nineveh and Assur and that some of their members bore names that did not signal their African origins. The brief section “African–Mesopotamian relations: the Neo-Assyrian experience” (pp. 217–9) seeks to place the study into “a historical context, examining the periods before, during, and after Assyrian rule”, using the Amarna period and the Neo-Babylonian Empire as comparisons, and ends in speculation about the fate of the “exiled Africans” after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, without mentioning the fact that Egypt’s Saite Dynasty joined Assyria’s fight against Babylonians and Medes. After the bibliography (pp. 220–28) and the figures (pp. 229–37), there are appendices offering tables combining the material detailed in the chapter on “the individual level and the biographic perspective” (pp. 238–47) with the categories used in the subsequent chapter for gender/sex, age, class and temporal and spatial distribution, followed by tables of more detailed “demographic statistics” for Karlsson’s groups of identified, likely and anonymous Africans (pp. 247–9) and a table of “Egyptian names and words in cuneiform” (pp. 249–54). The volume concludes with indices of deities, people, places, texts, and Egyptian words (pp. 254–82). The volume’s main merit is that Mattias Karlsson enables anyone with an interest in the Egyptian, Libyan and Kushite (Nubian) language materials hidden among the masses of onomastic evidence from the Neo-Assyrian textual sources to easily access this data and locate references to the most recent text editions and studies, most of which are available and fully searchable online as part of the Archival Texts of the Assyrian Empire corpus (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/atae/). Moreover, his table of Egyptian names and words as rendered in cuneiform will be useful for the identification of further Egyptian name material in newly discovered sources. By focusing on the people of African origin living in the Assyrian Empire, the book once again highlights this state’s multi-ethnic nature, especially in the seventh century BC.
{"title":"Umberto Bongianino: The Manuscript Tradition of the Islamic West: Maghribi Round Scripts and the Andalusi Identity (Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art.) 528 pp. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022. £110. ISBN 9781474499583.","authors":"Adday Hernández López","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000423","url":null,"abstract":"from Nineveh and of a document from Assur dated to 646 BC (StAT 2 167) in order to reiterate the well-known facts that African, or specifically Egyptian, communities lived within Nineveh and Assur and that some of their members bore names that did not signal their African origins. The brief section “African–Mesopotamian relations: the Neo-Assyrian experience” (pp. 217–9) seeks to place the study into “a historical context, examining the periods before, during, and after Assyrian rule”, using the Amarna period and the Neo-Babylonian Empire as comparisons, and ends in speculation about the fate of the “exiled Africans” after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, without mentioning the fact that Egypt’s Saite Dynasty joined Assyria’s fight against Babylonians and Medes. After the bibliography (pp. 220–28) and the figures (pp. 229–37), there are appendices offering tables combining the material detailed in the chapter on “the individual level and the biographic perspective” (pp. 238–47) with the categories used in the subsequent chapter for gender/sex, age, class and temporal and spatial distribution, followed by tables of more detailed “demographic statistics” for Karlsson’s groups of identified, likely and anonymous Africans (pp. 247–9) and a table of “Egyptian names and words in cuneiform” (pp. 249–54). The volume concludes with indices of deities, people, places, texts, and Egyptian words (pp. 254–82). The volume’s main merit is that Mattias Karlsson enables anyone with an interest in the Egyptian, Libyan and Kushite (Nubian) language materials hidden among the masses of onomastic evidence from the Neo-Assyrian textual sources to easily access this data and locate references to the most recent text editions and studies, most of which are available and fully searchable online as part of the Archival Texts of the Assyrian Empire corpus (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/atae/). Moreover, his table of Egyptian names and words as rendered in cuneiform will be useful for the identification of further Egyptian name material in newly discovered sources. By focusing on the people of African origin living in the Assyrian Empire, the book once again highlights this state’s multi-ethnic nature, especially in the seventh century BC.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43726680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000216
Rivka SHEMESH-RAISKIN
Abstract This article presents an examination of the parallelism between the Mishnah and Tosefta in one discourse unit – the halakhic give-and-take conversation. It aims to show that a description of discourse units found in both compilations can contribute to the discussion of the relationship between the two compilations and the status of the Tosefta in regard to Mishnah. In the examined corpus of halakhic give-and-take conversations from the Mishnah and Tosefta from three orders, for only 16 conversations in the Tosefta (14%) was there found a parallel conversation in the Mishnah, and in most cases the parallels are not identical. The structural and linguistic comparison between these 16 parallel conversations showed that the conversations in the Tosefta contain more exchanges as well as more complete exchanges, and that the language in the Tosefta seems less redacted and earlier compared with the language in the parallel conversations in the Mishnah.
{"title":"What a discourse unit can teach us about the relationship between the Mishnah and Tosefta: an examination of the parallelism between the compilations in the halakhic give-and-take conversation","authors":"Rivka SHEMESH-RAISKIN","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000216","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article presents an examination of the parallelism between the Mishnah and Tosefta in one discourse unit – the halakhic give-and-take conversation. It aims to show that a description of discourse units found in both compilations can contribute to the discussion of the relationship between the two compilations and the status of the Tosefta in regard to Mishnah. In the examined corpus of halakhic give-and-take conversations from the Mishnah and Tosefta from three orders, for only 16 conversations in the Tosefta (14%) was there found a parallel conversation in the Mishnah, and in most cases the parallels are not identical. The structural and linguistic comparison between these 16 parallel conversations showed that the conversations in the Tosefta contain more exchanges as well as more complete exchanges, and that the language in the Tosefta seems less redacted and earlier compared with the language in the parallel conversations in the Mishnah.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44741605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000344
Gerald Hawting
{"title":"Sylvie Denoix and Hélène Renel (eds): Atlas des mondes musulmans médiévaux 382 pp. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2022. ISBN 978 2 271 13949 8.","authors":"Gerald Hawting","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000344","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48259896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X22000829
K. Rezania
Abstract Like many other religions, Zoroastrianism frequently restructured its priestly organization during its long history, largely because of the environmental changes to which it was exposed. A major shift in status – from being the state religion in the Sasanian Empire to holding only a minor position in the early Islamic period – challenged the Zoroastrian hierarchy of authority. The Abbasid state provided Zoroastrianism with an opportunity to initiate a new office, which was called hu-dēnān pēšōbāy “Leader of the Zoroastrians”. This article is the first to deal with this office in detail and scrutinizes the concept of leadership (pēšōbāyīh) in Sasanian and Abbasid Zoroastrianism. It sheds some light on the priestly structure of Zoroastrianism in this period and investigates the position of the office within the overall religious organization. It re-examines, moreover, evidence for the officiating Zoroastrian theologians in this office at the Abbasid court in Baghdad. Finally, it searches for the parallels between this office and that of the East-Syrian catholicos and the Jewish exilarch.
{"title":"On the concept of leadership and the office of Leader of the Zoroastrians (hu-dēnān pēšōbāy) in Abbasid Zoroastrianism","authors":"K. Rezania","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X22000829","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X22000829","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Like many other religions, Zoroastrianism frequently restructured its priestly organization during its long history, largely because of the environmental changes to which it was exposed. A major shift in status – from being the state religion in the Sasanian Empire to holding only a minor position in the early Islamic period – challenged the Zoroastrian hierarchy of authority. The Abbasid state provided Zoroastrianism with an opportunity to initiate a new office, which was called hu-dēnān pēšōbāy “Leader of the Zoroastrians”. This article is the first to deal with this office in detail and scrutinizes the concept of leadership (pēšōbāyīh) in Sasanian and Abbasid Zoroastrianism. It sheds some light on the priestly structure of Zoroastrianism in this period and investigates the position of the office within the overall religious organization. It re-examines, moreover, evidence for the officiating Zoroastrian theologians in this office at the Abbasid court in Baghdad. Finally, it searches for the parallels between this office and that of the East-Syrian catholicos and the Jewish exilarch.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45872009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000393
Veronica Occari
Finally, several useful appendices complete the volume, namely a list of the manuscripts considered, the works they contain, the copyists, the places where the manuscripts were copied, and remarkable colophons and notes, as well as an extremely useful glossary containing the codicological terms employed throughout the book. If I had to find one fault, it might be that the index of copied works is organized alphabetically by genre (Adab and Botany; Adab and Meteorology ...), whereas perhaps it would have been more practical to organize them simply by title, indicating the genre at the end. However, this probably responds to Bongianino’s aim of linking the diverse genres to one or another variety of script. This monograph on the manuscript tradition of the Islamic West is an invaluable contribution to the field of Islamic intellectual and cultural history. By focusing not just on the content of the texts, but also (and mainly) on the material aspects of the artefacts wherein those texts were copied, Bongianino provides the reader with a framework that allows for a better understanding of the written production, and of the way in which those works were written, read, transmitted, taught, and preserved – a relatively overlooked aspect in the history of the Muslim communities of this geographic area. In brief, this publication will surely become a definitive reference work in the field, preparing the ground for future research.
{"title":"Nadine Schibille: Islamic Glass in the Making: Chronological and Geographical Dimensions Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2022. ISBN 978 946270319 3.","authors":"Veronica Occari","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000393","url":null,"abstract":"Finally, several useful appendices complete the volume, namely a list of the manuscripts considered, the works they contain, the copyists, the places where the manuscripts were copied, and remarkable colophons and notes, as well as an extremely useful glossary containing the codicological terms employed throughout the book. If I had to find one fault, it might be that the index of copied works is organized alphabetically by genre (Adab and Botany; Adab and Meteorology ...), whereas perhaps it would have been more practical to organize them simply by title, indicating the genre at the end. However, this probably responds to Bongianino’s aim of linking the diverse genres to one or another variety of script. This monograph on the manuscript tradition of the Islamic West is an invaluable contribution to the field of Islamic intellectual and cultural history. By focusing not just on the content of the texts, but also (and mainly) on the material aspects of the artefacts wherein those texts were copied, Bongianino provides the reader with a framework that allows for a better understanding of the written production, and of the way in which those works were written, read, transmitted, taught, and preserved – a relatively overlooked aspect in the history of the Muslim communities of this geographic area. In brief, this publication will surely become a definitive reference work in the field, preparing the ground for future research.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46197425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000204
Claudia Maria Tresso
Abstract The famous Moroccan traveller Muḥammad b. Baṭṭūṭa, who left Tangier in 1325, claims to have made a journey that took him across most of the then Islamicate world. The country in which he recounts having stayed the longest was India, where he says he remained from 1333 to 1341/1342, mostly in the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi. A long section of his Riḥla is dedicated to the sub-continent and modern historians of this region ascribe to it an important documentary value, although it has been argued that Ibn Baṭṭūṭa may have borrowed – not to imply copied – information from other sources in other parts of the work. As concerns India, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa speaks of two epidemics and one deadly disease that occurred in 1334–5 and 1344. Some scholars have referred to them as cholera, while others have suggested it was the plague – thus supporting the hypothesis that the medieval plague pandemic had struck India before reaching the Middle East. How did this confusion arise? What exactly does Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla relate? Do Indo-Persian sources confirm these epidemics? Do they and/or Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla allow us to discount the presence of the Medieval Plague in India, or rather do they assert it? In order to answer these questions, this paper analyses the information on the Indian epidemics in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla and compares the text with its translations in the principal European languages and with Indo-Persian chronicles. These analyses reveal something of a lexical muddle which, in my opinion, has contributed to some errors and misunderstandings regarding the diseases in question. But another question arises: is it possible to read the information provided by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa and the Indian chronicles in a consilient way, that is, taking into account not only the analysis of written documents, but also the recent and current findings in genetics of plague, and in particular on the Black Death? Finally, an attempt is made to answer a question that has to be asked, particularly in light of the criticism often levelled at Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. Considering that in one of these events he claims to have witnessed the epidemic, is there any reason to suppose that he did not? Regarding the other two events that he did not claim to witness firsthand, is there any cause to doubt his claims?
{"title":"India's epidemics in the Riḥla of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa: plague, cholera or lexical muddle?","authors":"Claudia Maria Tresso","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000204","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The famous Moroccan traveller Muḥammad b. Baṭṭūṭa, who left Tangier in 1325, claims to have made a journey that took him across most of the then Islamicate world. The country in which he recounts having stayed the longest was India, where he says he remained from 1333 to 1341/1342, mostly in the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi. A long section of his Riḥla is dedicated to the sub-continent and modern historians of this region ascribe to it an important documentary value, although it has been argued that Ibn Baṭṭūṭa may have borrowed – not to imply copied – information from other sources in other parts of the work. As concerns India, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa speaks of two epidemics and one deadly disease that occurred in 1334–5 and 1344. Some scholars have referred to them as cholera, while others have suggested it was the plague – thus supporting the hypothesis that the medieval plague pandemic had struck India before reaching the Middle East. How did this confusion arise? What exactly does Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla relate? Do Indo-Persian sources confirm these epidemics? Do they and/or Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla allow us to discount the presence of the Medieval Plague in India, or rather do they assert it? In order to answer these questions, this paper analyses the information on the Indian epidemics in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla and compares the text with its translations in the principal European languages and with Indo-Persian chronicles. These analyses reveal something of a lexical muddle which, in my opinion, has contributed to some errors and misunderstandings regarding the diseases in question. But another question arises: is it possible to read the information provided by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa and the Indian chronicles in a consilient way, that is, taking into account not only the analysis of written documents, but also the recent and current findings in genetics of plague, and in particular on the Black Death? Finally, an attempt is made to answer a question that has to be asked, particularly in light of the criticism often levelled at Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. Considering that in one of these events he claims to have witnessed the epidemic, is there any reason to suppose that he did not? Regarding the other two events that he did not claim to witness firsthand, is there any cause to doubt his claims?","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42919591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000368
George Lane
{"title":"Shivan Mahendrarajah: A History of Herat: from Chingiz Khan to Tamerlane Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022. ISBN 978 1 47449936 1.","authors":"George Lane","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000368","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42245548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X23000289
Nareman Amin
for university level students and teachers. It is expressly not intended to replace, but to supplement and set alongside, existing atlases such as Hugh Kennedy’s Historical Atlas of Islam and the Atlas of Islamic History by Peter Sluglett and Andrew Currie. In sum, this attractive and accessible atlas is a welcome addition to those already available, and its range of topics with guides for further reading will make it a valuable resource both for casual browsing and serious study.
{"title":"Oliver Scharbrodt: Muhammad ‘Abduh: Modern Islam and the Culture of Ambiguity xi, 262 pp. London: I.B. Tauris, 2022. £76.50. ISBN 978 1 83860730 2.","authors":"Nareman Amin","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X23000289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X23000289","url":null,"abstract":"for university level students and teachers. It is expressly not intended to replace, but to supplement and set alongside, existing atlases such as Hugh Kennedy’s Historical Atlas of Islam and the Atlas of Islamic History by Peter Sluglett and Andrew Currie. In sum, this attractive and accessible atlas is a welcome addition to those already available, and its range of topics with guides for further reading will make it a valuable resource both for casual browsing and serious study.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47597073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X2300040X
Vevian F. Zaki
Andalusian glassmaking tradition. The chapter is without doubt the most interesting and fascinating section of the whole book, for it provides a fruitful diachronic analysis of the technological developments and changes in supply patterns of the Iberian Peninsula from the late Roman period to the eleventh–twelfth century. The discussion encompasses data on various glass assemblages including the material from the ninth-century workshop in Pechina, from several sites in Córdoba dated between the eighth and tenth centuries, as well as a brief comparison with some later finds from Ciudad de Vascos and Albalat (tenth–twelfth century). The most interesting and illuminating conclusion is the evidence for the development of a new Andalusian glassmaking technology based on the use of local lead slag from silver or lead mines, as the analysis of eighthor ninth-century glass from Šaqunda surprisingly demonstrates. This technology seems to have paved the way for an even more advanced Andalusian glass production which exploited litharge instead of lead slag, as exemplified by the comprehensive tenth-century assemblage from Madinat al-Zahra, and resulting in a clearer and probably more easily workable soda ash lead glass. Schibille uses not only the analytical evidence but cites the written record which claims the invention of a “new glass” in al-Andalus in the tenth century. Compositional discriminants for later Iberian plant ash glass are also suggested, particularly elevated lithium concentrations, combined with high thorium to zirconium ratios. While the nature of this research still feels preliminary at points and certainly in need of additional analytical data which will target some of the specific insights suggested by the author, this is without doubt a very comprehensive and useful study of glass production and supply during the early Islamic period. Its scope will mainly assist scholars interested in the compositional study of Islamic glass, but it will prove helpful for scholars in the broader fields of archaeology and history, as it seeks out fruitful links between different sub-disciplines. In this respect, the link with the archaeology – and not just the history – of the different regions investigated is sometimes lost or discussed only superficially, and a closer connection between compositional and archaeological studies may have provided even more informative insights into the subject. Nevertheless, this book offers a very useful starting point for anyone wishing to study Islamic glass and willing to explore the geopolitical trends that impacted its production and trade.
{"title":"Ḥannā Diyāb: Kitāb al-Siyāḥah (The Book of Travels) (ed. Johannes Stephan, trans. Elias Muhanna) (Library of Arabic Literature.) 2 vols; xlii, 328 pp., vii, 330 pp. £46. New York: New York University Press, 2021. ISBN 978 1 479 89230 3.","authors":"Vevian F. Zaki","doi":"10.1017/S0041977X2300040X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X2300040X","url":null,"abstract":"Andalusian glassmaking tradition. The chapter is without doubt the most interesting and fascinating section of the whole book, for it provides a fruitful diachronic analysis of the technological developments and changes in supply patterns of the Iberian Peninsula from the late Roman period to the eleventh–twelfth century. The discussion encompasses data on various glass assemblages including the material from the ninth-century workshop in Pechina, from several sites in Córdoba dated between the eighth and tenth centuries, as well as a brief comparison with some later finds from Ciudad de Vascos and Albalat (tenth–twelfth century). The most interesting and illuminating conclusion is the evidence for the development of a new Andalusian glassmaking technology based on the use of local lead slag from silver or lead mines, as the analysis of eighthor ninth-century glass from Šaqunda surprisingly demonstrates. This technology seems to have paved the way for an even more advanced Andalusian glass production which exploited litharge instead of lead slag, as exemplified by the comprehensive tenth-century assemblage from Madinat al-Zahra, and resulting in a clearer and probably more easily workable soda ash lead glass. Schibille uses not only the analytical evidence but cites the written record which claims the invention of a “new glass” in al-Andalus in the tenth century. Compositional discriminants for later Iberian plant ash glass are also suggested, particularly elevated lithium concentrations, combined with high thorium to zirconium ratios. While the nature of this research still feels preliminary at points and certainly in need of additional analytical data which will target some of the specific insights suggested by the author, this is without doubt a very comprehensive and useful study of glass production and supply during the early Islamic period. Its scope will mainly assist scholars interested in the compositional study of Islamic glass, but it will prove helpful for scholars in the broader fields of archaeology and history, as it seeks out fruitful links between different sub-disciplines. In this respect, the link with the archaeology – and not just the history – of the different regions investigated is sometimes lost or discussed only superficially, and a closer connection between compositional and archaeological studies may have provided even more informative insights into the subject. Nevertheless, this book offers a very useful starting point for anyone wishing to study Islamic glass and willing to explore the geopolitical trends that impacted its production and trade.","PeriodicalId":46190,"journal":{"name":"BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF LONDON","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47850267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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