The Cairo Geniza and the Material Cultures of the Indian Ocean World

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This seminar focuses on Indian Ocean and Mediterranean exchange c. 1080-1240 via nearly seven hundred Geniza documents that constitute the oldest portable document corpus from the western Indian Ocean and the largest before the sixteenth century. Our work together focuses on material cultures, including port infrastructure, ship construction, sailing and packing techniques, commodities and manufactured objects, monetary exchanges and gifts, writing and accounting practices, and food and dress.

• Ruth Barnes, Indian Block-printed Textiles in Egypt
• Katherine Strange Burke, The Sheikh's House at Quseir al-Qadim
• S. D. Goitein and Mordechai A. Friedman, India Traders of the Middle Ages
• Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land
• Elizabeth Lambourn, Abraham's Luggage
• Roxani E. Margariti, Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade

• Papers - 20%
• Oral presentation(s) - 15%
• Term paper(s) - 40%
• Class/precept participation - 25%

Open to Graduate Students Only.

Reading knowledge of Arabic and/or familiarity with archeological or art historical research methods.