Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World

This is a truly impressive piece of scholarship. Bora's recreation of the intellectual milieu in which Ibn al-Furat and his peers operated is both persuasive and thought-provoking. * Al-Masaq, Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean * Through this text you not only gain insight into what was produced but the historiographic questions medieval historians were asking themselves, which could well overturn assumptions about pre-modern historic works. Bora's is to be commended for her contribution to global medieval studies, her book could become a key for others to explore these texts in new ways. * The New Arab * A valuable contribution to scholarship on the intricacies of Arabic-language history writing in the Middle Period, going beyond the focus on narrativity and exploring its open-minded all-inclusiveness instead. * Der Islam * There is much to recommend about this book. Bora has a good command of the literature and the analytical deftness with which she presents current discourses can be very helpful for those who want an accessible overview of the field on historiography and archival studies. * Journal of the American Oriental Society * Bora has done a great service to the field and Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World offers a great deal of value for medieval Arabic historiographical studies as well as Fatimid studies. Bora's work is a theoretically sophisticated case study on the utility of the Tarikh al-duwalthat will hopefully guide future scholarship. * Cyber Review of Modern Historiography * Bora's mapping of medieval Islamic Egyptian historiography is a tour de force. Through a razor-sharp analysis of primary and secondary literature, she traces the reception of Ibn al-Furat's writings through the broad sweep of late Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk historical and archival traditions. She navigates the reader through the rich intricacies of the shaping of these historiographical traditions, while also educating about their value and relevance for our changing times. * Dr Shainool Jiwa, Head of Constituency Studies & Senior Research Associate, The Institute of Ismaili Studies. * In this carefully researched book, Fozia Bora achieves something remarkable: major advances not just in our understanding of Fatimid historiography and history, but more broadly in the sociology of classical Islamic scholarship. Empirically based and theoretically ambitious, it restores and interrogates narratives that had been lost to history. * Chase F. Robinson, Distinguished Professor of History at City University of New York and Director of Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries * The present monograph is a very important contribution to what is now termed 'global medieval studies' and, of course, the cultural history of the Islamicate world of the pre-modern era. Fozia Bora's book should be read by all who are interested in understanding modes of knowledge production, creating narratives of the past and what constitutes an archive. She also asks very pertinent questions about how we approach pre-modern texts and as such this book should be really read by anybody interested in epistemological issues in medieval studies. * Emilia Jamroziak, Professor of Medieval Religious History and Director of the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds *