Table Of ContentROMA IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD
The Early and Medieval Islamic World
Published in collaboration with the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
As recent scholarship resoundingly attests, the medieval Mediterranean and Middle
East bore witness to a prolonged period of flourishing intellectual and cultural
diversity. Seeking to contribute to this evermore nuanced and contextual picture, The
Early and Medieval Islamic World book series promotes innovative research on the
period 500–1500 AD with the Islamic world, as it ebbed and flowed from Marrakesh
to Palermo and Cairo to Kabul, as the central pivot. Thematic focus within this remit
is broad, from the cultural and social to the political and economic, with preference
given to studies of societies and cultures from a sociohistorical perspective. It will
foster a community of unique voices on the medieval Islamic world, shining light into
its lesser-studied corners.
Series Editor
Professor Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard University
Advisors
Professor Amira Bennison, University of Cambridge
Professor Farhad Daftary, Institute of Ismaili Studies
Professor Simon Doubleday, Hofstra University
Professor Frank Griffel, Yale University
Professor Remke Kruk, Leiden University
Professor Beatrice Manz, Tufts University
Dr Bernard O’Kane, American University in Cairo
Professor Andrew Peacock, University of St Andrews
Dr Yossef Rapoport, Queen Mary University of London
New and Forthcoming Titles
Cross Veneration in the Medieval Islamic World: Christian Identity and Practice under
Muslim Rule, Charles Tieszen (Fuller Theological Seminary/Simpson University)
Power and Knowledge in Medieval Islam: Shiʾi and Sunni Encounters in Baghdad,
Tariq al-Jamil (Swarthmore College)
The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central
Asia, Robert Haug (University of Cincinnati)
Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World: The Value of Chronicles as Archives,
Fozia Bora (University of Leeds)
Narrating Muslim Sicily: War and Peace in the Medieval Mediterranean World,
William Granara (Harvard University)
Gender and Succession in Medieval Islam: Bilateral Descent and the Legacy of Fatima,
Alyssa Gabbay (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Music and Musicians in the Medieval Islamicate World: A Social History, Lisa Nielson
(Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA)
Roma in the Medieval Islamic World: Literacy, Culture, and Migration, Kristina
Richardson (Queens College, City University of New York)
ROMA IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD
Literacy, Culture, and Migration
Kristina Richardson
I.B. TAURIS
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First published in Great Britain 2022
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Early and Medieval Islamic World
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
INTRODUCTION: HOW THE GHURABĀ’ FELL OUT OF HISTORY 1
Chapter 1
THE ROMA, BANŪ SĀSĀN, AND THE GHURABĀ’ 15
Chapter 2
SĪN: THE LANGUAGE OF THE BANŪ SĀSĀN AND THE GHURABĀ’ 29
Chapter 3
GHARĪB LITERARY CULTURES IN MAMLUK CAIRO 47
Chapter 4
HOUSING, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND CEMETERIES OF URBAN GHURABĀ’ 63
Chapter 5
BULHĀNS: ILLUSTRATED SHIʿI ASTROLOGICAL BOOKS 83
Chapter 6
A NEW NARRATIVE OF PREMODERN AFRO-EURASIAN PRINTING 103
Chapter 7
GHURABĀ’ ASTROLOGERS AND PRINT IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY
CENTRAL EUROPE 127
Epilogue 139
Appendix 1: Glossary of Premodern Sīn 143
Appendix 2: Tarot Cards, Treasure-Hunting Manuals, and Books of
Shadow Plays 159
Notes 162
Bibliography 203
Index 227
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
4.1 Scene outside the house of the king of the Sāsāni beggars 67
5.1 The Red King 91
5.2 The Red King 92
5.3 Aries constellation 95
5.4 Portrait of Sultan Murad III with bulhān 97
5.5 Ex libris of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain 100
5.6 Blockprint of the Spanish royal coat of arms 101
6.1 Blockprinted amulet. Counterclockwise from upper left 116
6.2 Blockprinted Arabic amulet and lead case 121
6.3 Blockprinted Arabic amulet 123
7.1 Saint Dorothy 130
7.2 Saint Sebastian 131
8.1 “Fahrendes Volk (Metz Unmuss)” 140
Tables
1.1 Key Sources on the Premodern Ghurabā’ 16
5.1 The Kitāb al-bulhān and Its Offshoots 86
6.1 Cataloging Arabic Blockprints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 122
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Inspiration for this book came in late 2014, while I was a fellow at the Institut
für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft at the University of Münster. I held that post
from 2012 to 2014, where I worked with Professor Thomas Bauer, who warmly
welcomed me into his weekly Arabic seminar. There, I had the honor of reading
and learning alongside the most capable and kind Arabists I have ever met: Syrinx
van Hees, Hakan Özkan, Anke Osigus, Andreas Herdt, Nefeli Papoutsakis, and
Rana Siblini. Many of them were engaged with an edition of the poetry collection
of Ibrāhīm al-Miʿmār, a fascinating Mamluk author who figures centrally in
Chapter 3. I never would have learned so much about him were it not for the work
of Thomas, Hakan, and Anke.
From 2014 to 2015 the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg at the University of Bonn
provided another intellectual home. Under the guidance of Stephan Conermann
and Bethany Walker, I began to understand the vast scope of my project. Grateful
for our weekly seminars, intellectual discussion, and brilliant workshops, I was
able to shape this project as I have.
During my 2017–18 sabbatical, I spent the fall semester at the University of
Munich, where I had the pleasure to earn the moral and scholarly support of Helga
Rebhan, Andreas Kaplony and Teresa Bernheimer. While living in Munich near the
Benedictine monastery St. Boniface’s Abbey, I became aware that the community
had Christian Arabic manuscripts. A librarian at St. Boniface’s directed me to their
affiliated monastery in Andechs, a site of pilgrimage since the twelfth century. One
intrepid morning, Boris Liebrenz met me and my daughter Cecilia in Munich, and
the three of us ventured to Andechs on a manuscript pilgrimage. We were refused
entry into the library, to my daughter’s relief, but the visit was not a total wash.
The experience helped me appreciate the autonomy and isolation of monastic
communities and the reverence that approaching the cloister on foot could inspire.
That day’s excursion led to some of the book’s main arguments about the medieval
transfer of print technologies. Warmest gratitude goes to Boris, who has offered
endless support (along with welcome challenges) to my theories and project; I
am so grateful for his friendship, patience, intelligent commentary, and hospitality
over the years.
Back in New York City, my home institution of Queens College has consistently
supported my work with approvals of fellowship leaves and an internal Mellon
Foundation award. The CUNY Graduate Center Committee on Globalization and
Social Change helped hone my discussions on the stakes of this research. I owe
gratitude to Gary Wilder, Joan Wallach Scott, Mandana Limbert, Susan Buck-
Morss, Duncan Faherty, and Barbara Naddeo, whose comments helped shape the
Introduction. Two grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities—a
viii Acknowledgments
2019 summer stipend and a 2020 award—permitted the time and space to
complete this manuscript.
I am equally grateful for the informal conversations over coffees and beers
with the Leipzig-based anthropologists Bernhard Streck and Olaf Günther. The
book also benefited greatly from conversations with Beth Baron, Susan Boynton,
Gottfried Hagen, Rob Haug, Stefan Heidemann, Daniel Kaufman, Lulu Reinhardt,
Karl Schaefer, Martin Schwartz, the late Satadru Sen, Jens Ulff-Møller, and Torsten
Wollina. Students in my history seminars on “History of the Roma” and “Printing
Before Gutenberg” heard these arguments develop over time, and I really
appreciated their engagement with and even resistance to so many new ideas.
A version of the Introduction appeared as “Invisible Strangers, or Romani
History Reconsidered,” History of the Present 10.2 (2020): 187–207, and a version
of Chapter 2 was published as “Tracing a Gypsy Dialect through Medieval Arabic
and Persian Literature,” Der Islam 94.1 (April 2017): 115–57.
I would also like to thank the board of the Early and Medieval Islamic World
series, my patient editors Rory Gormley and Yasmin Garcha, and the anonymous
reviewers of my manuscript, whose comments helpfully sharpened my arguments.
This book is dedicated to my family and my teachers.
ABBREVIATIONS
AD Abū Dulaf’s verses, translated in Bosworth 1976 II, 191–213
BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition
EI3 Encyclopaedia of Islam, third edition
IJMES International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JGLS Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society
JRASGBI Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
SD Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Ḥillī’s verses, translated in Bosworth 1976 II, 295–301
ZDMG Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft
