The Cambridge Guide to Global Medieval Travel Writing
The Cambridge Guide to Global Medieval Travel Writing
$150.00
USDThe Middle Ages laid the foundations for the long European and Middle Eastern history of voyaging, colonialism, and expansion: the Papal embassies that took over a year of overland travel to reach Mongolia, Ibn Battuta's thirty years of voyaging to Africa and East Asia, or the arrival of European colonialism in the Americas. With a focus on medieval Europe, this is the first book to cover global medieval travel writing from Iceland to Indonesia, providing unrivalled insight into the experiences of early travellers. Paying special attention to race, gender and manuscript culture, the volume's vast geographical and linguistic range provides expert coverage of Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Chinese literature. An essential resource for teaching and research, the collection challenges established views of the Middle Ages and Western ideas of history.
- Using a European starting point, this is the first book to cover medieval travel writing globally from Iceland to Indonesia, demonstrating both differences and shared experiences among travellers from the entire known world of the period
- Pays particular attention to race, women, language, and manuscript culture, exploring the role of central questions in current scholarship across diverse medieval cultures
- Challenges Western ideas of history through coverage of Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Chinese literatures, among others
Reviews & endorsements
‘Astonishingly ambitious in scope, judiciously planned and delivered, each chapter in this collection illuminates something new and invites us to look afresh at premodern travel writing on a global scale – a magnificent achievement.' Nandini Das, Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture, University of Oxford
‘A rich account of medieval travel writing, reorienting in the fullest sense: in Europe and the Middle East authors find ground from which to fan out – to Asia, Africa, and beyond; to histories that make the most urgent claim on our attention as scholars of the global medieval past.' Alexandra Gillespie, Professor of English and Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
‘This is a path-breaking collection, offering a rich panorama of medieval travel and travel-writing. Its wide-ranging coverage encompasses the areas known to European and Middle Eastern travellers, from Rus' to Mecca, and from Ireland to China. It will be the first port of call for everyone interested in medieval travel.' Nora Berend, Professor of European History, University of Cambridge
‘This impressive study presents the work of nearly 40 scholars, each representing a specific premodern locality and set of cultural contexts. Sobecki's collection will be an invaluable research and teaching resource, offering excellent background for premodern global study in the classroom, an enormous bibliographical treasure trove for research, and thought-provoking source for scholars exploring network-centered cultures and premodern race, religion, gender, and globalisation.' Suzanne Yeager, Professor of English and Medieval Studies, Fordham University, Rose Hill Campus
‘A wonderful collection of some of the finest travel writing by some of the greatest writers in history – and better still, from all around the world. A treasure trove of information, anecdotes and insights, brought together in a single volume. A delight.' Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History, Oxford University
‘With a dual focus on Islamicate Asia and Africa alongside Latin Europe, this ambitious and finely researched volume moves to redress the Eurocentric legacies of the “medieval” and its histories of travel writing. Assembling cutting-edge scholarly expertise on an expansive array of geographies and their description, The Cambridge Guide to Global Medieval Travel Writing makes for an essential and exciting new entry in the bibliographies of medieval travel writing and the Global Middle Ages.' Shirin A. Khanmohamadi, Professor of Comparative Literature, San Francisco State University
‘This rich, expansive volume encompasses wide-ranging critical approaches and methodologies related to medieval travel literature, whether literary history, theoretical frameworks, or area-based studies. It affords salient points of comparison across cultures and traditions in a renewed and widened view of the medieval world-essential for scholarly research and crucial for teaching.' Ruen-chuan Ma, Associate Professor of English and Literature, Utah Valley University
Product details
September 2025Hardback
9781108493680
828 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from September 2025
Table of Contents
- Introduction: towards a global history of medieval travel writing Sebastian Sobecki
- Part I. Contexts:
- 1. Travel writing in late antiquity Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
- 2. The crusades Andrew Jotischky
- 3. Women travellers Kim M. Phillips
- 4. Rape and violence in medieval travel narratives Carissa M. Harris
- 5. Making race: from travel writing to discourse Sierra Lomuto
- 6. Globalising whiteness: transmission, idolatry, and fetishism Wan-Chuan Kao
- 7. Travel accounts in manuscript and print Aditi Nafde
- 8. Disabilities in transit Jonathan Hsy
- 9. Ibn Battuta Christine Chism
- 10. Jewish travellers Martin Jacobs
- Part II. Traditions: I. The Nordic World and the British Isles:
- 11. Iceland Sverrir Jakobsson
- 12. Scandinavia Jonas Wellendorf
- 13. England Sebastian Sobecki
- 14. Scotland Daniel Davies
- 15. Ireland Joseph Falaky Nagy
- 16. Wales Helen Fulton
- II. France, Italy, and Iberia:
- 17. France Elizaveta Strakhov
- 18. Iberia Geraldine Hazbun
- 19. Santiago de Compostela George D. Greenia
- 20. Italy Theodore J. Cachey, Jr
- 21. Rome Chiara Sbordoni
- III. The Empire and Central Europe:
- 22. The holy Roman empire Albrecht Classen
- 23. The Teutonic state, Prussia, and the Baltic Ralf G. Päsler
- 24. Bohemia Michael Van Dussen
- 25. Hungary Balázs Nagy
- IV. Poland-Lithuania, Rus', and Byzantium:
- 26. Poland and Lithuania Paul Srodecki
- 27. Russia Ralph Cleminson
- 28. Byzantium Marina Toumpouri
- V. Africa and the Middle East:
- 29. West Africa Iona McCleery
- 30. Jerusalem Anthony Bale
- 31. Arabia Shazia Jagot
- 32. Mecca Karen C. Pinto
- VI. Asia and the Americas:
- 33. Persia Ladan Niayesh
- 34. The Mongol empire Irene Malfatto
- 35. China and India Sharon Kinoshita
- 36. Chinese travel writing James M. Hargett
- 37. South-East Asia Marianne O'Doherty
- 38. The Atlantic Americas Sebastian Sobecki
- Afterword: Thinking about a world in motion Geraldine Heng.
