Abraham's Luggage
A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World

From a single merchant's list of baggage begins a history that explores the dynamic world of the medieval Indian Ocean.

Elizabeth A. Lambourn (Author)

9781107173880, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 October 2018

316 pages, 9 b/w illus. 2 maps 2 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.64 kg

'… Abraham's Luggage is flawlessly produced and well thought out, with hyperlinks enabling quick cross-referencing of chapter endnotes, references to other chapters in the volume and figures and tables. Abraham's Luggage will no doubt inspire much of that work and makes a powerful contribution in its own right.' Rebecca Darley, Journal of Early Modern History

From a single merchant's list of baggage begins a history that explores the dynamic world of medieval Indian Ocean exchanges. This fresh and innovative perspective on Jewish merchant activity shows how this list was a component of broader trade connections that developed between the Islamic Mediterranean and South Asia in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a close reading of this unique twelfth-century document, found in the Cairo Genizah and written in India by North African merchant Abraham Ben Yiju, Lambourn focuses on the domestic material culture and foods that structured the daily life of such India traders, on land and at sea. This is an exploration of the motivations and difficulties of maintaining homes away from home, and the compromises that inevitably ensued. Abraham's Luggage demonstrates the potential for writing challenging new histories in the accidental survival of apparently ordinary ephemera.

1. Introduction. A list of luggage from the Indian Ocean world
2. From Ifriqiya to Malibarat – introducing Abraham Ben Yiju
Part I. A Mediterranean Society in Malibarat: 3. Making homes and friends: on shopping and ?u?ba
4. Making a meal of it: on food cultures
5. A Jewish home: on ritual foods
Part II. A Mediterranean Society at Sea: 6. The 'simple' bare necessities: on water and rice
7. 'Things for the cabin': inhabiting the Ocean
8. The balanced body: on vinegar and other sour foods
9. From Malibarat to Misr and beyond – afterlives
Appendix: Abraham's list of luggage.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], Asian history [HBJF]