The Medieval History Journal Template

Richard Grove · 1 Oct 2006

This article explores the global dimensions of an extreme climatic anomaly characterised by a series of El Niño events observable during the late eighteenth century. While similar events, comparable in their extent and severity, can be detected during earlier centuries, archival and physical data available for a later period suggest that the consequences of the…

Christian Pfister · 1 Oct 2006

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, continental Europe north of the Alps was afflicted by a 13-year cycle of frequent cold and rainy summers which was the result of a series of volcanic explosions in the tropics. The inclement weather led to recurrent subsistence crises and to multiple floods in the Alps following…

Finbarr Barry Flood · 1 Apr 2006

Although the use of portable amulets and talismans in the pre-modern Islamic world is well documented, little is known about their monumental counterparts. Despite this neglect, references to apotropaia and talismans designed to offer protection from pests such as pigeons, snakes and scorpions are common in descriptions of medieval architecture in Arabia, Egypt, Syria and…

Rajeev Kinra · 1 Oct 2013

Despite many advances in recent scholarship, a good deal of Mughal cultural historiography—not to mention the popular memory of the Mughal era—is still dominated by attention to the patronage and liberal outlooks of two figures, the Emperor Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and his great-grandson, Prince Dara Shukoh (1615–1659), both of whom are viewed…

Nasser Rabbat · 1 Apr 2006

In the prodigious medieval Arabic historical output the mention of specific art objects reveals unfamiliarity with elementary aesthetic vocabulary. The authors usually refrain from judging the quality of art, unlike their expert discussion of literary works. This article uses a famous, relatively long and oft-quoted text from al-Maqrīzī's Khiṭaṭ describing three examples of Fatimid painting…