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A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years
Contributor(s): Al-Baghdādī, ʿabd Al-La&# (Author), Mackintosh-Smith, Tim (Editor), Mackintosh-Smith, Tim (Translator)

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ISBN: 1479806242     ISBN-13: 9781479806249
Publisher: New York University Press
OUR PRICE: $28.50  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: April 2021
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Middle East - Egypt (see Also Ancient - Egypt)
- Literary Collections | Middle Eastern
- Travel | Middle East - Egypt
Dewey: 916.204
LCCN: 2020052151
Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6.4" W x 9.1" L (1.32 lbs) 300 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Flora, fauna, and famine in thirteenth-century Egypt

A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. Written by the polymath and physician ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, and intended for the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir, the first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt's geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, including a recipe for a giant picnic pie made with three entire roast lambs and dozens of chickens. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf's text is also a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology, with detailed observations of Pharaonic monuments, sculptures, and mummies. An early and ardent champion of archaeological conservation, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf condemns the vandalism wrought by tomb-robbers and notes with distaste that Egyptian grocers price their goods with labels written on recycled mummy-wrappings.

The book's second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597-598/1200-1202. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was a keen observer of humanity, and he offers vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall.

A Physician on the Nile contains great diversity in a small compass, distinguished by the acute, humane, and ever-curious mind of its author. It is rare to be able to hear the voice of such a man responding so directly to novelty, beauty, and tragedy.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

 
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