Podcast Episode

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Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi 3: Harvesting the Past

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The Sphinx, as it appears in Frederic Louis Norden's 1755 Voyage d'Égypte et de Nubie (Wikimedia)

Like many people ever since, and even now, Abd al-Latif was fascinated by Egypt's ancient sites and structures, the pyramids and the Sphinx. He was fascinated, but also disgusted with how their stones and contents had been treated as his contemporaries looked to them less with wonder, more with greed.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Abd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī. A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years. NYU Press, 2021.

  • Bonadeo, Cecilia Martini. ʿAbd Al-Laṭīf Al-Baġdādī’s Philosophical Journey From Aristotle’s Metaphysics to the ‘Metaphysical Science’. Brill, 2013.

  • Ibn Abi Usaybi'a. A Literary History of Medicine. Edited by E. Savage-Smith, S. Swain, and G.J. van Gelder. Leiden, 2020.

  • Joosse, Peter. The Physician as a Rebellious Intellectual. Peter Lang, 2014.

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Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi 2: On Egyptian Flora and Fauna

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Miniature from a copy of Kitab al-hashaish, an Arabic translation of Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica. (The David Collection)

We continue the Abd al-Latif series and dig into his observations on Egypt, its plants and animals, the hybrid banana and the terrifying sea horse.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Abd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī. A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years. NYU Press, 2021.

  • Bonadeo, Cecilia Martini. ʿAbd Al-Laṭīf Al-Baġdādī’s Philosophical Journey From Aristotle’s Metaphysics to the ‘Metaphysical Science’. Brill, 2013.

  • Ibn Abi Usaybi'a. A Literary History of Medicine. Edited by E. Savage-Smith, S. Swain, and G.J. van Gelder. Leiden, 2020.

  • Joosse, Peter. The Physician as a Rebellious Intellectual. Peter Lang, 2014.

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Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi 1: Scholars, Sultans & Money

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Born in the 12th century, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi travelled the Ayyubid world in search of students, mentors, and patrons. His curiosity stands out, and does his impatience with scholars who, as he saw it, wasted their time with alchemy or other unimportant topics.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī. A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years. NYU Press, 2021.

  • Bonadeo, Cecilia Martini. ʿAbd Al-Laṭīf Al-Baġdādī’s Philosophical Journey From Aristotle’s Metaphysics to the ‘Metaphysical Science’. Brill, 2013.

  • Ibn Abi Usaybi'a. A Literary History of Medicine. Edited by E. Savage-Smith, S. Swain, and G.J. van Gelder. Leiden, 2020.

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Medieval Lives 3: An Anonymous Journey to Mecca

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A 17th-century depiction of Mecca currently held by the Louvre. (Wikimedia)

Today's episode centres on an anonymous 16th-century account of the Hajj that first appeared in English in a 1599 Hakluyt publication.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Hakluyt, Richard. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation. James MacLehose and Sons, 1904.

  • One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage, edited by Michael Wolfe. Grove Atlantic, 2015.

  • The Hajj: Pilgrimage in Islam. edited by Eric Tagliacozzo & Shawkat M. Toorawa. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

  • Peters, F.E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. Princeton University Press, 2021.

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Prester John 10: The End is not the End

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Prester John before a crucifix in an early 15th-century book of Mandeville’s Travels.

It's the end of the Prester John story, or at least the end for now. The priest-king pops up in Tibet and dives into the world of fiction and comics, and the Dalai Lama makes an appearance.

The History of Sport podcast which I mention can be found here and on all the other usual podcast platforms.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ames, Richard. The Jacobite Conventicle. R. Stafford, 1692.

  • Rachewiltz, Igor de. Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia. Australian National University Press, 1972.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Penguin, 2005.

NEW PODCAST! The History of Sport Episode 2: Baseball & the Little Pretty Pocket Book

One more episode from my new/other podcast before getting back to medieval travel. You can find more on Apple Podcasts and all the other usual platforms.

Today's episode is about a piece of baseball history, very early baseball history. It's about an 18th-century children's book, about a nationalistic effort to claim ownership over baseball, and about a mining engineer's nostalgic memories of the game's early days. It's about Albert Spalding, the Spalding of so much sports equipment, Abner Graves, the mining engineer in question, and the Civil War general, Abner Doubleday. It's about John Newbery, the man for whom the Newbery Medal for American children's literature is named.

NEW PODCAST! The History of Sport Episode 1: Father of Boxing, Swinger of Swords

I’ve got something new to share with you today. I’ve been working on a new podcast. It won’t be replacing Human Circus, and I won’t clutter up this space with too much non-medieval history material, but I’ll post the first couple of episodes here for anyone who’s interested. You can find more on Apple Podcasts and all the other usual podcatchers. I hope you enjoy it!

This boxing history episode (they won’t always be about boxing) is the story of James Figg, the 17th-century born "Father of Boxing" and one of the 1992 Boxing Hall of Fame inductees. But his boxing was not the sport you're familiar with today. Figg, who would set up his academy on Tottenham Court Road, was before the Queensbury rules and all of that. Figg entered the ring with a cudgel and a sword.

This is his story, and the story of his fight with Ned Sutton, the pipe-fitter from Gravesend.

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Prester John 9: The End Part One

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16th-Century Chart - Prester John (Wikimedia)

What happens to a mythical priest-king when you get too close to him? Does he just disappear?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ray, John. A Collection of Curious Travels & Voyages. 1693.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 8: Ambassador Mateus and his Many Doubters

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A 16th-Century Portrait of Dawit II (Wikimedia)

In the early years of the 16th-century, Ethiopia's regent, Eleni, sent an ambassador to Portugal to propose an alliance. She sent a man named Mateus. Unfortunately for Mateus, almost nobody believed him.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India. Hakluyt Society, 1875.

  • Alvares, Francisco. Narrative of the Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia during the years 1520-1527. Hakluyt Society, 1881.

  • Baldridge, Cates. Prisoners of Prester John: The Portuguese Mission to Ethiopia in Search of the Mythical King, 1520-1526. McFarland, 2012.

  • Diffie, Bailey Wallys & Winius, George Davison. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.

  • Eliav-Feldon, Miriam. Renaissance Impostors and Proofs of Identity. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Rogers, Francis Millet. The Quest for Eastern Christians: Travels and Rumor in the Age of Discovery. University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 7: The Way from Lisbon

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Detail from the Cantino planisphere, a Portuguese map from 1502.

It's part 7 of the Prester John story, on the trip to Prester John's Ethiopia, and on the Portuguese crown's pursuit of the priest-king and how that story was connected to the developing ones of exploration and colonialism.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama, 1497-1499, translated by Ernst Georg Ravenstein. The Hakluyt Society, 1898

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ferreira, Susannah. The Crown, the Court and the Casa Da Índia Political Centralization in Portugal 1479-1521. Brill, 2015.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Krebs, Verena. "Re-examining Foresti's Supplementum Chronicarum and the 'Ethiopian' embassy to Europe of 1306," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 82, Issue 3 (October 2019) .

  • Kurt, Andrew. "The search for Prester John, a projected crusade and the eroding prestige of Ethiopian kings, c .1200 – c .1540," in Journal of Medieval History, 39.3 (September 2013).

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458," in Journal of World History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 2010).