Medieval North Research Articles

La peste nord-africaine et la théorie de Charles Nicolle sur les maladies infectieuses

Many infectious diseases were described in North Africa in 18th–19th centuries by European travellers. Most of them were allegedly imported by new migrant populations coming from sub-Saharan, European or Middle East countries. Plague outbreaks have been described since the Black Death as diseases of the Mediterranean harbours. Charles Nicolle and his collaborators at the Pasteur Institute were witnesses to the extinction of plague and typhus fever in Tunisia. Both could be considered as endemo-epidemic diseases propagated by ancient nomad communities for centuries. Typhus was exported to other countries; plague was imported by Mediterranean travellers but also hid in unknown wild-animal reservoirs. The role of the bite of a rat’s flea was not confirmed and the pneumonic form might have prevailed in the medieval North African cities. Association between plague, typhus, flu and other causes of immune deficiencies could explain the high morbidity and mortality caused by plague in the past. The authors comment the local history of plague at the light of the evolutionary laws of infectious disease proposed by Charles Nicolle in 1930.

Youth and Age in the Medieval North – Edited by Shannon Lewis‐Simpson

Youth and Age in the Medieval North – Edited by Shannon Lewis‐Simpson

L’intervention archéologique de 2004 dans les galeries nord et est du cloître de l’abbaye de Caunes-Minervois

The existing cloister of the Caunes-Minervois abbey is a very sober work realised by the monks of the Congregation of St Maur at the end of the XVIIth century. The special nature of the site lies in the presence of remains of the medieval cloister, indicated by a paved stratum under the level of the Maurist cloister (-2,40 m approximately). Prior to alteration works, the excavations carried out in 20004 aimed at studying the remains of the medieval cloister. This operation brought to light a large part of the medieval north gallery and a consequent portion of the east one. Together with previous soundings, these include almost every part of the medieval cloister in the area of the existing cloister. However, certain questions still remain unanswered. We are unable to locate the medieval south gallery. At the very most, we can propose to place it under a modern béal crossing the convent according to a globally east-west axis. The discovery of a Romanesque semicircular arch in the alignment of the south arm of the transept seems to us a decisive element for the understanding of the building. This access associated with a fist threshold situated under the caladé level of circulation seems to indicate that an older (Romanesque) pavement may have been in use before the construction of the herringbone pavement. As a consequence, the age of the partly destroyed medieval small stone wall observed in the north gallery would be proved. As regards the relative chronology of the site, the evidences brought to light allow us to advance that the herringbone pavement (calade) belongs to the Gothic phase of reconstruction of the church nave.

Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller (eds), Women and Slavery: Africa, North America and the medieval North Atlantic (Volume 1) and Women and Slavery: the modern Atlantic (Volume 2). Athens OH: Ohio University Press (pb $30 each – 978 0 82141 724 9 and 978 0 82141 726 3). 2007, 392 and 312 pp.

Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller (eds), Women and Slavery: Africa, North America and the medieval North Atlantic (Volume 1) and Women and Slavery: the modern Atlantic (Volume 2). Athens OH: Ohio University Press (pb $30 each – 978 0 82141 724 9 and 978 0 82141 726 3). 2007, 392 and 312 pp. - Volume 79 Issue 4

Whaling and the Hebrides: the History of Whalers in the South Atlantic and Whaling in and around the Hebrides�Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 38, Issue 2 p. 438-439 Whaling and the Hebrides: the History of Whalers in the South Atlantic and Whaling in and around the HebridesMonstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic JOE FLATMAN, JOE FLATMAN Institute of Archaeology, University College LondonSearch for more papers by this author JOE FLATMAN, JOE FLATMAN Institute of Archaeology, University College LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 August 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2009.00244_12.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume38, Issue2September 2009Pages 438-439 RelatedInformation

Women and Slavery: Volume 1: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic (review)

Women and Slavery: Volume 1: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic (review)

Moors and Saracens in Europe: estimating the medieval North African male legacy in southern Europe

To investigate the male genetic legacy of the Arab rule in southern Europe during medieval times, we focused on specific Northwest African haplogroups and identified evolutionary close STR-defined haplotypes in Iberia, Sicily and the Italian peninsula. Our results point to a higher recent Northwest African contribution in Iberia and Sicily in agreement with historical data. southern Italian regions known to have experienced long-term Arab presence also show an enrichment of Northwest African types. The forensic and genomic implications of these findings are discussed.

Sufism, Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India * BY RAZIUDDIN AQUIL

Sufism, Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India * BY RAZIUDDIN AQUIL

The Ransoming of Prisoners in Medieval North Africa and Andalusia: An Analysis of the Legal Framework

This chapter examines the practice of fi dā, the seizing and ransoming of non-Muslims in medieval North Africa and Andalusia. It focuses on discerning how Muslim jurists in the western Islamic lands used formal legal opinions to define the scope of fidāʾ. The opinions of a number of jurists come in for examination, and it emerges that they spoke not with a unified voice, but offered instead a range of often conflicting views. The chapter argues that such diversity of opinion regarding the practice of fidāʾ stems not only from the jurists' personal temperament, but is strongly tied to the changing fortunes of Islam in the western Mediterranean during the medieval period, most notably as the tide of Christian reconquest in Iberia gained momentum. The practice of holding non-Muslim prisoners for ransom, or fidāʾ in Arabic comes for detailed discussion in Islamic legal literature.Keywords: fidāʾ; medieval Andalusia; medieval North Africa; non-Muslim prisoners; western Mediterranean

Book Review: Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic

Book Review: Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic

Women and slavery: v.1: Africa, the Indian Ocean world, and the medieval North Atlantic; v.2: The modern Atlantic

Women and slavery: v.1: Africa, the Indian Ocean world, and the medieval North Atlantic; v.2: The modern Atlantic

Archaeology and the Construction of Identities in Medieval North India

Archaeologists have at times perceived the early medieval to medieval period as marked by a break at the end of the twelfth century, thus separating the period 700–1200 CE—often described as the ‘Rajput’ period—from the period 1200–1500 CE—commonly designated as the ‘Sultanate’ period. It is frequently believed that this break is manifested in the entire range of archaeological materials with clear changes perceived between the two periods. Moreover, there has been a tendency to ascribe particular religious identities to the artefacts of the ‘Rajput’ and ‘Sultanate’ periods. Implicit in such a reading of the material culture are certain assumptions that have been made by archaeologists. One is that a change in political elites will bring about a change in daily practices and, concomitantly, in the artefacts. Another assumption is that certain artefacts indicate a specific religious/ethnic identity and that their use can be attributed only to a particular period. However, while excavating the cuttings at Indor Khera, which we dated from the tenth/eleventh to thirteenth/fourteenth centuries CE, we realized that not only was such a neat demarcation not evident in the material culture, but that the problem was far more complex and had not quite received the attention it deserved from archaeologists. This article discusses the issue of ascribing religious and ethnic identities to artefacts.

Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller, editors.Women and Slavery: Volume 1, Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic.:Women and Slavery: Volume 1, Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic

Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller, editors. Women and Slavery: Volume 1, Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic. Athens: Ohio University Press. 2007. Pp. xxvii, 399. Cloth $55.00, paper $30.00 Get access Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller, editors. Women and Slavery: Volume 1, Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic. Athens: Ohio University Press. 2007. Pp. xxvii, 399. Cloth $55.00, paper $30.00. The American Historical Review, Volume 113, Issue 3, June 2008, Page 950, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.113.3.950 Published: 01 June 2008

Book Review: Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India

Book Review: Culture and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India

The Movement of Bhakti along a North-West Axis: Tracing the History of the Puṣṭimārg between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The growth of the Hindu devotional tradition (bhakti) has been commonly conceived as a movement of South Indian origin that gradually spread into northern India where, between the fifteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries, it gave birth to a number of religious communities whose membership cut across caste divisions and used vernacular languages as their primary mode of theological, literary, and ritual expression. This understanding of bhakti has been greatly influenced by the well known description of the movement of bhakti from South to North India in the sixteenthor seventeenth-century text, the Bhagavata Mahatmya, and has been rein forced in both modern Indian and Western scholarship on Hinduism and medieval North India (Prentiss 1999: 25-41). Scholars of religion have devoted much time to studying the literary and intellectual history of North Indian bhakti and the extent to which it can be traced back to South India, while historians have focused their interests on whether one can talk of a single bhakti movement whose social inclusiv ity and sometimes trenchant critiques of Indian society constituted a form of social protest against Brahmanical Hinduism or even Muslim rule in medieval North India (Sharma 1987: 26-38, 74-91). The difficulty, however, with viewing bhakti as a movement of ideas or as a single movement of social protest across India is that it fails to appreciate that bhakti constitutes not only ideas, rituals, and poetry but also communities of individuals who were active participants in the world around them and reacted, through their own unique religious worldviews, to the socio-historical changes particular to the regions in which they lived. This essay proposes to examine the dynamic between bhakti communities and the larger socio-political contexts in which they thrived by tracing the history of the Krsnaite devotional community known as the Pustimarg. The community was founded in sixteenth-century North India by Vallabhacarya (1479-1531) whose descendants carried his message to Gujarat and Rajasthan, where it came to enjoy the patronage of the political and mercantile elites of western India. The community today is still a very vibrant and active one whose devotees largely come from the

Making Sense of the Languages of Islam in Medieval North India1

An extensive review of Muzaffar Alam's The Languages of Political Islam in India c 1200-1800 in which the reviewer concludes that 'despite the author's adherence to liberal/progressive values within Islam and commitment to secular politics in contemporary India, which have restrained him in a large measure, this work has almost everything in it to become a classic.'

Making Sense of the Languages of Islam in Medieval North India

An extensive review of Muzaffar Alam's The Languages of Political Islam in India c 1200-1800 in which the reviewer concludes that 'despite the author's adherence to liberal/progressive values within Islam and commitment to secular politics in contemporary India, which have restrained him in a large measure, this work has almost everything in it to become a classic.'

Late Antique and Early Medieval North Africa, AD 300-750: A Hand-List of Translated Texts

Late Antique and Early Medieval North Africa, AD 300-750: A Hand-List of Translated Texts

World's End Imagery: How William Morris and C.S. Lewis Imagined the Medieval North

World's End Imagery: How William Morris and C.S. Lewis Imagined the Medieval North

Encyclopedia of African nations and civilizations

The Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilizations covers the major historic civilizations and the fifty-two nations of Africa in an accessible A-to-Z format. Each nation's entry narrates the history of the region from the early development of its peoples to the political, cultural, and economic circumstances that characterize the area today. The volume includes a comprehensive list of rulers and presidents, the history and culture of its indigenous peoples, and brief biographic details on major political and cultural personalities. More in-depth entries also include information on the nation's origins, recent history, a chronology of events, and thematic events. Feature articles, maps, and chronologies throughout the text broaden the impressive scope of this volume. Entries Include: Abyssinia, Benin, Berber kingdoms, Cameroon, Dahomey, Egypt, French Cameroon, Gambia, Hausa States, Ife, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Niger, Orange Free State, Portuguese Guinea, Rhodesia, Senegal, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zaire; Personalities Include: Muhammad Ahmad, Steve Biko, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Idi Amin Dada, F.W. DeKlerk, Festus, Hassan II, Jomo Kenyatta, Said Muhammad, Muammar al Qadafi, and Haile Selassie I; Feature articles Include: Prehistoric Africa, Bantu migrations, North African conquests, spread of Christianity, spread of Islam, medieval North Africa, European exploration, trade routes, slavery, and colonization.