Reuven Amitai
Reuven Amitai received his PhD from the Hebrew University in 1990, and is currently Eliyahu Elath Professor emeritus for Muslim History at this institution. His areas of research include the Mamluk Sultanate, the Mongols in the Middle East, processes of Islamization, medieval Palestine, and the Armenians in the medieval Middle East. From 2010 to 2014, he was dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University, and from 2014 to 2016, he was a senior fellow at the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg in Bonn. From 2017 to 2023 he was the chairperson of the Library Authority at the Hebrew University, overseeing the activities of all the libraries on the University’s four campuses. His recent publications include "Holy War and Rapprochement: Studies in the Relations between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Mongol Ilkhanate (1260-1335)" (Brepols, 2013); co-edited with Michal Biran: "Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change: The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors" (University of Hawaii Press, 2015); and co-edited with Christoph Cluse: "Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, 11th to 15th Centuries" (Brepols, 2017); and co-edited with Stephan Conermann: "The Mamluk Sultanate from the Perspective of Regional and World History" (V&R Unipress and University of Bonn Press, 2019). In 2018, he received the degree of doctor honoris causa from the National University of Mongolia.
Address: Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies,
The Institute of Asian and African Studies - The Faculty of Humanities
Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Mt. Scopus,
Jerusalem 9190501,
Israel
Address: Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies,
The Institute of Asian and African Studies - The Faculty of Humanities
Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Mt. Scopus,
Jerusalem 9190501,
Israel
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Papers by Reuven Amitai
Keywords Baybars, bridges, communications, Gaza, historical geography, infrastructure, logistics, Mamluk Sultanate, Palestine, transportation, trade
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-syria-in-crusader-times-hb.html
Keywords Baybars, bridges, communications, Gaza, historical geography, infrastructure, logistics, Mamluk Sultanate, Palestine, transportation, trade
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-syria-in-crusader-times-hb.html
Slavery has played a significant role in the history of human society, not the least in the greater Mediterranean region, since ancient times. Long neglected by mainstream historians, the medieval history of slavery has received an increasing amount of attention by scholars, since the pioneering work of Charles Verlinden (1907–1996). Today historians have generally laid to rest the nineteenth-century preoccupation with whether slavery was a significant ‘mode of production’ in the post-classical period, to concentrate on the changing face of the institution over time by looking at legal norms, linguistic representations and social practice. This volume presents a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach to slavery and the slave trade in the Eastern Mediterranean region in the pre-modern period, placing these into a larger historical and cultural context. It surveys the significance of slavery in the three monotheistic traditions, the involvement of Eastern and Western merchants and other agents in the slave trade, and offers new interpretations concerning the nature of this commerce.
Ranging from prehistory to the present day, the authors address a wealth of topics including the domestication of animals, dietary practices and sacrifice, hunting, the use of animals in war, and the representation of animals in literature and art. Providing a unique perspective on human interaction with the environment, this volume is cross-disciplinary in its reach, offering enriching insights to the fields of animal ethics, Asian studies, world history and more.
CONTENT
1. Animals and Human Society in Asia: An Overview and Premises
PART I: HUNTING AND DOMESTICATION
2. When Elephants Roamed Asia: The Significance of Proboscideans in Diet, Culture and Cosmology in Paleolithic Asia (by Ran Barkai)
3. Hunting to Herding to Trading to Warfare: A Chronology of Animal Exploitation in the Negev (by Steven A. Rosen)
4. Domestication of the Donkey (Equus asinus) in the Southern Levant: Archaeozoology, Iconography and Economy (by Ianir Milevski and Liora Kolska Horwitz)
PART II: ANIMALS AS FOOD
5. Spilling Blood: Conflict and Culture over Animal Slaughter in Mongol Eurasia (by Timothy May)
6. China’s Dairy Century: Making, Drinking and Dreaming of Milk (by Thomas David DuBois)
7. Tuna as Economic Resource and Symbolic Capital in Japan’s “Imperialism of the Sea” (by Nadin Heé)
PART III: ANIMALS AT WAR
8. Elephants in Mongol History: From Military Obstacles to Symbols of Buddhist Power (by William G. Clarence-Smith)
9. The Mamluk's Best Friend: The Mounts of the Military Elite of Egypt and Eurasian Steppe in the Late Middle-Ages (by Reuven Amitai and Gila Kahila Bar-Gal)
10. A Million Horses: Raising Government Horses in Early Ming China (by Noa Grass)
PART IV: ANIMALS IN CULTURE AND RELIGION
11. From Lion to Tiger: The Changing Buddhist Images of Apex Predators in Trans-Asian Contexts (by Xing Zhang and Huaiyu Chen)
12. The Chinese Cult of the Horse King, Divine Protector of Equines (by Meir Shahar)
13. Animal Signs: Theriomorphic Intercession between Heaven and Imperial Mongolian History (by Brian Baumann)
Contributors
Bibliography
Index
ENDORSEMENT (BACK COVER)
"Animal studies is a vibrant field that renews humanities by breaking many barriers. This intense and beautiful volume exemplifies such breaking and renewing, as it connects Far-eastern and Near-eastern areas and the steppe world in between, and develops an engaged dialogue between archeology, history, religion, visual studies, economics, law, and more."
―Vincent Goossaert, Professor of Daoism and Chinese religions, EPHE, PSL, Paris
"An ambitious volume, as broad, diverse, and interconnected as Asia. A significant interdisciplinary contribution to the history of human-animal relations."
―Aaron Skabelund, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University, USA,
author of Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-24363-0#toc
AMAZON
https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Human-Society-Asia-Perspectives/dp/3030243621/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=animals+and+human+society+in+asia&link_code=qs&qid=1564222263&s=gateway&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1
The conference is held under the auspices of the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities.
Organizing committee: Michael Shenkar (HUJI), Jonathan Brack (Ben-Gurion University), Michael Biran (HUJI) and Reuven Amitai (HUJI)
See http://mongol.huji.ac.il/
Book Launch:
The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World
by Marie Favereau
(Harvard University Press 2021)
With:
Marie Favereau (Nanterre University)
Reuven Amitai (HUJI)
Roman Hautala (University of Oulu)
Qiu Yihao (Fudan University)
Friday October 29, 14:30 (IST time, GMT+3)
For Details and link:
Jonathan Brack: brackjon@bgu.ac.il
Wonhee Cho: wonheecho@gmail.com
Friday, October 7th 2022, 15:30 IST/14:30 CET/8:30 ET
with:
Marie Favereau (Paris Nanterre University)
Evrim Binbaş (Bonn University)
Michael Shenkar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Response: Beatrice Manz (Tufts University)
Chair: Reuven Amitai (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
https://zoom.us/j/95892872186?pwd=aVBKNmgwM2FTMThDTGVyaE5kZG9kUT09
Meeting ID: 958 9287 2186
Passcode: 952064