Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East
The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. Al-Jawbari was well versed in the practices he describes and may have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, the book reveals the secrets of everyone from "Those Who Claim to be Prophets" to "Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy" and "Those Who Dye Horses."
The material is informed in part by the author's own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars' guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world.
An English-only edition.
Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East
The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. Al-Jawbari was well versed in the practices he describes and may have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, the book reveals the secrets of everyone from "Those Who Claim to be Prophets" to "Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy" and "Those Who Dye Horses."
The material is informed in part by the author's own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars' guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world.
An English-only edition.
Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī (Author)
Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī (fl. early
seventh/thirteenth century) was born in the Ghouta region near
Damascus. He was the author of three texts, of which only The Book
of Charlatans survives.
Humphrey Davies (Translator)
Humphrey Davies is an award-winning translator of some
twenty-five works of modern Arabic literature, among them Alaa
Al-Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building, five novels by Elias Khoury,
including Gate of the Sun, and Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq’s Leg over
Leg. He has also made a critical edition, translation, and lexicon
of the Ottoman-period Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf
Expounded by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī, as well as editions and
translations of al-Tūnisī’s In Darfur and al-Sanhūrī’s Risible
Rhymes from the same era. In addition, he has compiled with Madiha
Doss an anthology in Arabic entitled Al-ʿāmmiyyah al-miṣriyyah
al-maktūbah: mukhtārāt min 1400 ilā 2009 (Egyptian Colloquial
Writing: selections from 1400 to 2009) and co-authored, with Lesley
Lababidi, A Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo. He
read Arabic at the University of Cambridge, received his Ph.D. from
the University of California at Berkeley, and previous to
undertaking his first translation in 2003, worked for social
development and research organizations in Egypt, Tunisia,
Palestine, and Sudan. He is affiliated with the American University
in Cairo.
"A mesmerising account of...quacks and tricksters."
*The Spectator*
"Provides us with an unusual glimpse into the street life of
medieval Islamic societies rarely captured in more elevated Arabic
literary sources."
*New York Review of Books*
"As insightful and entertaining in the 21st century as it was when
it was first written… Offers a unique window into the lives of
everyday and marginalized people in the Middle East, Northern
Africa and West Asia."
*AramcoWorld*
"The Library of Arabic Literature’s production of al-Jawbarī’s
unique volume and Davies’s brilliant translation boast of a
substantial 'behind-the-scenes' meticulousness that results in a
most rewarding reading experience, not only in capturing the
underworld of Arabic literature and culture but also in introducing
us to the 'stray, less common, words and adding to [our] eloquence'
as the protagonists of the maqāmāt do in their wanderings. This
edition also showcases Davies’s deceptively effortless style that
we also observed in the Library of Arabic Literature’s production
of al-Shidyāq’s Leg over Leg."
*Speculum*
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