Mamluks and Ottomans: Studies in Honour of Michael Winter

Focusing on Near Eastern history in Mamluk and Ottoman times, this book, dedicated to Michael Winter, stresses elements of variety and continuity in the history of the Near East, an area of study which has traditionally attracted little attention from Islamists.

Ranging over the period from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, the articles in this book look at the area from Istanbul down through Syria and Palestine to Arabia, the Yemen and the Sudan. The articles demonstrate the great wealth of the materials available, in a wide variety of languages, from archival documents to manuscripts and art works, as well as inscriptions and buildings, police records and divorce documentation. The topics covered are equally as varied and include Dufism, the festival of Nabi Musa, military organisations, doctors, and charity to name but a few.

David J. Wasserstein is professor of history and of Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings (Princeton, 1985) and The Caliohate in the West (Oxford, 1993), and numerous articles on topics in medieval Islamic and Jewish History.

Ami Ayalon is a professor of Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University, whose primary academic interest is in the modern social and cultural history of Arab societies.