Encyclopaedia of Early Travels in the Middle East

This fascinating work of collected travel writings is based on detailed and sensitive readings of travel accounts the Near and Middle Eastern region by some of the earliest visitors to these lands. This collection is the first comprehensive treatment of this neglected genre of literature, and provides crucial first-hand information a period of transformation and cultural contact. The authors’ close reading of these travel accounts helps us enter the mental and moral worlds of the Muslim and non-Muslim literati, their manners and customs, the everyday lives, the bazaars and streets, the courts and the royalty. These accounts of early modern European travel narratives open up a rich and unsuspected vista of cultural and material history. These books can be read for a better understanding of the nature of early modern encounters, but also for the sheer pleasure of entering a new world.