Abraham's Luggage
A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World
Part of Asian Connections
- Author: Elizabeth A. Lambourn, De Montfort University, Leicester
- Date Published: February 2020
- availability: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
- format: Adobe eBook Reader
- isbn: 9781316805534
Find out more about Cambridge eBooks
Adobe eBook Reader
Other available formats:
Hardback, Paperback
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available for inspection. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an inspection copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
From a single merchant's list of baggage begins a history that explores the dynamic world of medieval Indian Ocean exchanges. This fresh and innovative perspective on Jewish merchant activity shows how this list was a component of broader trade connections that developed between the Islamic Mediterranean and South Asia in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a close reading of this unique twelfth-century document, found in the Cairo Genizah and written in India by North African merchant Abraham Ben Yiju, Lambourn focuses on the domestic material culture and foods that structured the daily life of such India traders, on land and at sea. This is an exploration of the motivations and difficulties of maintaining homes away from home, and the compromises that inevitably ensued. Abraham's Luggage demonstrates the potential for writing challenging new histories in the accidental survival of apparently ordinary ephemera.
Read more- Breaks down geographical and disciplinary boundaries to demonstrate the fundamental interconnectivity of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean
- Deploys innovative interdisciplinary methods and analysis to exploit a genre of document too often overlooked as ephemera
- Demonstrates the fundamental importance of the 'India Book' documents to broader Genizah study
Reviews & endorsements
'Transforming a twelfth-century list into a history of the stuff of life, Lambourn brilliantly demonstrates how Southern India was linked to the Middle East. From the production of food to the maintenance of purity, and even staying watered and well on the journey itself, this is exemplary Indian Ocean history.' Michael Laffan, Princeton University, New Jersey
See more reviews'Abraham's Luggage opens a fascinating window onto a world of interconnected Indic, Islamic, and Jewish traditions in the medieval Indian Ocean. From cultures of dining, gifting, medicine, packing, and religious ritual to mercantile shopping habits and shipping, the book is awash with original insights. Its holistic approach offers a compelling and innovative model of interdisciplinary scholarship.' Finbarr Barry Flood, Institute of Fine Arts and founder-director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories, New York University
'Lambourn's deeply learned and intellectually enterprising reconstruction of the biology and materiality of travel along the maritime highways of the western Indian Ocean enriches our understanding of how humans have inhabited ships and the high seas in a crucial period of world history.' Roxani Eleni Margariti, Emory University, Georgia
'Elizabeth A. Lambourn brings to life the trip home to Egypt of a twelfth-century Jewish trader, transforming a Geniza fragment into a mirror of macrohistory and reconstructing the life of a Mediterranean household in India. A fascinating, path-breaking study for Geniza research and the history of material culture in the Indian Ocean.' Mordechai Akiva Friedman, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
'… Lambourn's book is an ethnography of an 800-year-old cultural world, but its human feel makes it unlike any previous work about the region and period.' Erik Gilbert, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
'… Abraham's Luggage is flawlessly produced and well thought out, with hyperlinks enabling quick cross-referencing of chapter endnotes, references to other chapters in the volume and figures and tables. Abraham's Luggage will no doubt inspire much of that work and makes a powerful contribution in its own right.' Rebecca Darley, Journal of Early Modern History
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: February 2020
- format: Adobe eBook Reader
- isbn: 9781316805534
- contains: 9 b/w illus. 2 maps 2 tables
- availability: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction. A list of luggage from the Indian Ocean world
2. From Ifriqiya to Malibarat – introducing Abraham Ben Yiju
Part I. A Mediterranean Society in Malibarat:
3. Making homes and friends: on shopping and Ṣuḥba
4. Making a meal of it: on food cultures
5. A Jewish home: on ritual foods
Part II. A Mediterranean Society at Sea:
6. The 'simple' bare necessities: on water and rice
7. 'Things for the cabin': inhabiting the Ocean
8. The balanced body: on vinegar and other sour foods
9. From Malibarat to Misr and beyond – afterlives
Appendix: Abraham's list of luggage.
Related Books
related journals
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email [email protected]
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×