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The Butterfly Mosque
The Butterfly Mosque is the memoir of an American woman raised in a secular family who discovers the value of religion during her travels. Interested in history, art, and literature, G. Willow Wilson takes a teaching job in Cairo. She meets the…
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Visit to a Harem
To The Countess of Mar, Adrianople [now Edirne], April 18, 1717 ….I was invited to dine with the Grand Vizier's lady, and it was with a great deal of pleasure I prepared myself for an entertainment which was never given before to any…
Tags: bloomers, costume, culture, dress, England, feminism, gender, harem, Islam, Lady Montagu, letters, Ottoman Empire, pantaloons, travel narrative, Turkey
When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the East"
Stewart Gordon uses the narratives of nine travelers to tell the story of Asia’s diverse economy and cultures between 500 and 1500 CE. During those thousand years, the world’s largest continent was the hub of global cultural and economic…
Tags: Arabic, Asia, Buddhism, China, Christianity, commerce, culture, Hinduism, India, Indian Ocean, invention, Islam, merchants, philosophy, politics, Portugal, sciences, trade, travel narrative, war
In an Antique Land
Moving between past and present, anthropologist Amitav Ghosh presents a lyrical portrait of life in Egypt, as well as broad histories of that country, Tunisia, and India’s Malabar Coast. Ghosh weaves strands of his own life in rural Egypt into…
Tags: anthropology, commerce, Egypt, Geniza documents, India, interfaith, Mangalore, medieval, Palestine, slavery, sufism, travel narrative