African Landings: Egypt and Sinai as Seen by Medieval European and Arab Travellers (4th–15th Centuries)

This book seeks to break free from Eurocentric historical perspectives of medieval-era travel through Egypt and Sinai by focusing on the testimonies of 4th to 15th-century travellers from the African continent, especially pilgrim diaries from the Arab Muslim Egyptian world. Humanity's past is the story of movements by peoples who reshaped and redefined their identity and reported their impressions to a gradually diversified public—migratory currents that transported not just goods but ideas, intellect, culture and inventions. Focusing on Egypt in the Middle Ages—its cities, its suburbs and hinterland, and the many faces of its landscape—can provide us with answers to topical issues, as well as a new and better understanding of Levantine Mediterranean history. These diaries tell of objects, calendars, written works and artworks, sculptures, frescoes, monuments, musical instruments, animals, foodstuffs, and finally, of material and immaterial heritages—all valuable sources for understanding world history and posing questions about their, and our own, preconceptions. This volume will be of interest to students, scholars, and general readers of medieval history, Mediterranean history, travel history, and religious history.