The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 7-22, May 2023.
The pursuit of reason may be defined as the drawing of logical deductions from a study of actual phenomena, and thus be essentially confined to the results gained from access to the various branches of science. It was in Greece where, from the fifth century BCE onward, rational thought was deemed to have developed most. Greek texts exercised undeniable influence on early thought in the Islamic world, Alberūnī’s Kitabu’l Hind being a remarkable product of that influence.Muslim theologians mounted a tirade against rationality (‘aql), in which the ṣūfīs joined; but since ṣūfic moral thought often tended to override Muslim theology, there could arise figures (even if partly imaginary) like Rābi‘a of Basra, who stood up against theology and its fictions. The conflict between ma‘qūlāt (reason) and manqūlāt (theology) was duly imported into India, along with the arrival of the Arabic–Persian sciences in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here poetry in Persian also became a major vehicle undermining theology. The tendency is partly present in Amīr Khusrau of Delhi (extolling love above theology!), but especially in the Iranian poet Ḥāfiz Shīrāzī, where the sāqī and ale-house constituted the major alternative to the pulpit and the mosque. In Indo-Persian poetry the same role is often ascribed to the but (idol) and the butkhāna (temple).It was under Akbar (r. 1556–1605) that a detailed inquiry (1574 onward) into Islamic beliefs and the doctrines of other religions led to disquiet about their validity. Abū’l Faẓl (d. 1602) became the leading light of a revival of rationality. Akbar’s own critique of Islam was similarly extended to aspects of Hinduism. ‘Urfī represents best the shift to reason, by the boldness of his poetry, rejecting religion for its inadequacy and looking forward to a just world.The seventeenth century did not fulfil the promise of the 16th. There was continuing interest in religion, shown by Jahāngīr’s formula: Tasawwuf = Vedānta; Dārā Shukoh’s translation of the Upanishads; and Mobad’s unique work Dabistān. But there was no corresponding assertion of rationality, whose votaries were reduced to a small band, last described, c. 1655.

The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 164-167, May 2023.
Lorenz Böninger, Niccolò di Lorenzo della Magna and the Social World of Florentine Printing, ca. 1470–1493. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021, pp. 209. ISBN: 9780674251137.

The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 161-164, May 2023.
Audrey Truschke, The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule. New York: Columbia University Press, 2021, pp. 351. ISBN: 978-0-231-19705-2 (Paperback).

The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 23-56, May 2023.
Not all chronicles were written in books. This article examines a widespread alternative, the tablet (table, tabula), which was a display board typically made of wood and parchment. They were once ubiquitous in churches, but today there are few extant examples. This article offers a ‘textual archaeology’, using manuscripts and antiquarian literature to reconstruct lost texts. It presents a case study at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. It examines the functions and audiences of the London historical tablets, and places them in their spatial, textual and manuscript contexts. Tablets displayed a variety of historiographical genres: chronicles, institutional histories, miracle and saint narratives, and lives and deeds of benefactors. Their spatial location indicates particular concentrations around the main pilgrimage sites of the church. Surviving witnesses hint at a broad audience for these texts in London, including local laymen, clergy and pilgrims. Tablets were used to assert the institutional claims and identity of the church, to inform tourists and pilgrims, and to assist in the creation of public memory through ceremonies and rituals. Tablet chronicles point towards medieval uses of the past that were public-facing, accessible, and engaged with the institutional and cultural life of London.

The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 57-83, May 2023.
Drawing on Arabic travelogues, this study traces the overland routes that were used by travellers between Bilād Al-S̲hām and Istanbul during the Ottoman era. The study also identifies the key towns and villages located along these routes and delves into how Arab voyagers documented these towns and villages’ names as close as possible to their original Ottoman names. Moreover, the means of transportation that were used were also identified. The study draws a comprehensive table with the names of the places that the Arab voyagers documented either on their way to Istanbul or on the way back home. By drawing on Arabic travelogues, the study makes a significant contribution to historical geography during the Ottoman Empire.

The Medieval History Journal, Volume 26, Issue 1, Page 167-172, May 2023.
Farhat Hasan, Paper, Performance, and the State: Social Change and Political Culture in Mughal India. Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 155. ISBN: 9781009025256.