Cultural Brokerage in Premodern Islamic Societies

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

When we speak of 'Islamic societies' or 'Islamic civilisation', we often imply that there is something distinctive about cultures wherever Islam is prominent. Yet historians have rarely examined in detail how these cultures that we call 'Islamic' were formed in relation to neighbouring ones. This volume addresses that gap by focusing on cultural brokerage: the process by which an individual mediates between different cultural spheres, transferring and translating ideas, practices and institutions across boundaries, often with lasting effects. The collection proposes a robust, historically grounded theory of cultural brokerage and demonstrates its significance for understanding the formation and evolution of culture in Islamic societies. It illustrates this theory with empirical case studies that range from early Islamic Egypt to early modern China, and from spheres as diverse as medicine, theology and art.

Author Bio

Uriel Simonsohn is Associate Professor at the University of Haifa. His books include A Common Justice: The Legal Allegiances of Christians and Jews under Early Islam (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) and Female Power and Religious Change in the Medieval Near East (Oxford University Press, 2023). He is also co-editor and author of several publications focusing on inter-religious ties and encounters in the early and medieval Islamic periods.