The Medieval Nile : Route, Navigation, and Landscape in Islamic Egypt

Cooper, John P.

The American University in Cairo Press（2014/10発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 392 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9789774166143
• DDC分類 962

Full Description

This ground-breaking view of the navigational landscape of the Nile in medieval Egypt draws on a broad range of sources: medieval Arabic geographies; traveler accounts; archaeology; and meteorological, hydrological, and geological studies. John Cooper first charts the changing geography of the Nile waterways, particularly in the Delta, from the eve of Islam to the early modern period, and logs the "rise and fall" of these waterways for natural and/or anthropogenic reasons. He then presents a new perspective on the Nile, drawing on traveler accounts and environmental data to portray the river as a uniquely challenging and sometimes dangerous navigational environment requiring extensive local knowledge by skilled and hard-working Nile navigators. Finally, he looks at how the main Delta and Red Sea ports of medieval Egypt fitted into the navigational landscape described, explaining how these ports were affected by changes occurring to the navigational landscape, and how they reflected the navigational conditions of the Nile and surrounding seas.

Contents

Part 1: Geography
1. Imagining the Nile
2. The Pre-Islamic Nile Delta
3. The Western Delta in the Islamic Era
4. The Eastern Delta in the Islamic Era
5. The Bahr Yusuf

Part 2: Navigation
6. The Nile Flood Cycle
7. Propulsion: Wind, Current, and Human Labor
8. Local Hazards: Mouths, Cataracts, and Mountains
9. Nile Journey Times
10. Onward Connections: The Mediterranean and Red Seas

Part 3: Ports and the Navigational Landscape
11. The Ports of Fustat and Cairo
12. Ports of the Western Delta
13. Ports of the Eastern Delta
14. Ports of the Red Sea