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The importance of the written word in the premodern Middle East meant there was no scarcity of books, and, accordingly, libraries were a salient feature of the urban topography (much less is known about rural areas). Especially with the book revolution of the third/ninth century (Gründler), collecting books and making them accessible became a widespread cultural practice, with further impetus from the subsequent popularisation of the written word from the sixth/twelfth century onwards (Hirschler, Written word). Libraries in the Middle East came in two main forms: Those …

Al-Malik al-Raḥīm Badr al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍāʾil Luʾluʾ (d. 657/1259) was a military slave (mamlūk) and freedman (mawlā) of the last Zangids of Mosul; he ruled this principality towards the end of his career. Similar to the Begtigīnids in Ḥarrān and Irbil, Luʾluʾ took advantage of the disintegration of the Zangid realms in al-Jazīra to found a short-lived dynasty. He was most likely of Armenian origin. (Previous authors have assumed, most likely on the basis of his name Luʾluʾ (“pearl”), that he was of sub-Saharan origin; e.g., Cahen.) Luʾluʾ’s rise to power followed the pattern typica…

Abū ʿAbdallāh Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Sālim b. Naṣr Allāh b. Sālim Ibn Wāṣil (604–97/1208–98) was a Syrian scholar and historian most famous for his chronicle on the Ayyūbids Mufarrij al-kurūb fī akhbār Banī Ayyūb (“The Dissipater of Anxieties on the Reports of the Ayyūbids”). He was born into a family that played a prominent role in the civilian elite of Ḥamā throughout the seventh/thirteenth century, and which was in competition with other families in the town, especially the Banū l-Bārizī and the Banū l-Bahrānī. After comple…