“Making Many Books”: Books as Artefacts in the Medieval Islamicate World

“Making Many Books”: Books as Artefacts in the Medieval Islamicate World

Lecture by Miriam Frenkel

Given at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, on February 5, 2020

The High Middle Ages from the 9th century onwards were actually the era of the book itself. Books spread in the world of Islam among Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike, bringing about a profound revolution. This process, with its far reaching social and even mental implications, is reflected in Muslim normative literature and in the Geniza finds themselves, which contain scores of books composed, produced, and consumed in the lands of Islam during this period. This lecture discusses the material aspect of the production and consumption of books as manifested mainly in book lists from the Geniza.

Miriam Frenkel is Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Leon Levy Foundation Professor of Jewish Material Culture at Bard Graduate Center. Click here to view her page on Academia.edu

Fascinating lecture last night by Prof Miriam Frenkel on books as artefacts of Jewish material culture in the medieval Islamicate world ✨📚 #bgc pic.twitter.com/3DL0kUIM5q

— Fleur (@Fleur_Elkerton) February 6, 2020

See her other lecture from this series: Texts and Textiles: The Cultural Meaning of Clothing and Ornaments in the Geniza Society

Top Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Arabe 5847 fol. 5v

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