Bosworth, C. E. (1976). The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: Banu Sasan in Arabic Life and Lore (Vol. 1). Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
The cover is terrible. I hate it. Goblin hands hate it. Too clean. Too smooth. Too new. Uuuunnnnngggggghhhhh…. No.
C. E. Bosworth. This dude. RIP 2005. What a champ. I imagine him as being the successful academic he was, but also having this giddy, dark fascination with what he read in all those medieval manuscripts. I imagine he's sat in his office many nights and giggled like a boarding school brit at the crunk that lives in that stuff. Don't know what I mean? Try reading a not-cleaned-up translation of the Arabian nights. Could be your jam?
I found this book from a random tumblr post. It was about tortoises as an essential tool for house thieves in medieval Persia. … Yis. Kudos for citing sources.
This is a literary analysis. Not a critical one, not an artistic one, its a "lets see what we can learn about this subject from the fiction folks of the time wrote about it" and i think that has so much potential for romanticizing/bending of facts and I am so here for it. Like… trying to deduce basic rules of architecture and civil engineering from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
In digging about my man Bosworth, he wrote a lot. And he has ONE commercially appealing title - (title). … and I cant find it ANYWHERE. AAAAAAUGH! Like I can imagine this thing in a little red calfskin binding on the corner table of some of his fellow translators tables. Not his translation. But like a print up of the original language. That's like… traditional dark academia.
I'm taking from this book a TON of sneaky steal-y tricks of beggars, fakers, and thieves.
Finally there is no logical reason for this book to cost as much as it does. None. At. All.
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