Sugar in the social life of Medieval Islam / / by Tsugitaka Sato.

• Superior document: Islamic Area Studies, Volume 1
• VerfasserIn: Satō, Tsugitaka, 1942-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Islamic area studies ; Volume 1.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam Tsugitaka Sato explores the actual day-to-day life in medieval Muslim societies through different aspects of sugar. Drawing from a wealth of historical sources - chronicles, geographies, travel accounts, biographies, medical and pharmacological texts, and more - he describes sugarcane cultivation, sugar production, the sugar trade, and sugar’s use as a sweetener, a medicine, and a symbol of power. He gives us a new perspective on the history of the Middle East, as well as the history of sugar across the world. This book is a posthumous work by a leading scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies in Japan who made many contributions to this field.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Prologue -- 1 The Origin and Expansion of Sugar Production in the Islamic World -- 2 From Red Sugar to White Sugar: Sugar Production Technology -- 3 On Camels and Ships: Sugar as Commodity -- 4 The Ups and Downs of the Sugar Merchants -- 5 Sugar as Medicine -- 6 Sugar and Power: Festivals and Gifts from Royalty -- 7 Cooking Innovations in Medieval Islam -- Epilogue -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.