This book investigates the central role of reason in Islamic intellectual life. Despite widespread characterization of Islam as a system of belief based only on revelation, JohnWalbridge argues that rational methods, not fundamentalism, have characterized Islamic law, philosophy, theology, and education since the medieval period. His research demonstrates that this medieval Islamic rational tra...

political and social isolation of women in pre-islamic period and their blurred role in social and political life changed with the advent of islam. however, in the era of the caliphs, under the influence of jewish and christian cultural elements and the revival of certain pre-islamic arabian traditions, the page was turned and the situation is well reflected in historical texts and traditions. ...

AIM To determine the ethnic composition of the early medieval Croats, the location from which they migrated to the east coast of the Adriatic, and to separate early medieval Croats from Bijelo brdo culture members, using principal components analysis and discriminant function analysis of craniometric data from Central and South-East European medieval archaeological sites. METHODS Mean male va...

In 1912, 68 medieval crania were excavated from a cave at Safed in the eastern Mediterranean and brought to the United Kingdom. It is only recently that these skulls have been studied for evidence of disease. One adult individual demonstrates multiple lesions of the cranial vault, compatible with treponematosis. Radiocarbon dating suggests the year of death to be between 1290-1420 AD. This rang...

Analysis of the Greenland ice core covering the period from 3000 to 500 years ago-the Greek, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance times-shows that lead is present at concentrations four times as great as natural values from about 2500 to 1700 years ago (500 B.C. to 300 A.D.). These results show that Greek and Roman lead and silver mining and smelting activities polluted the middle troposphere of the...

This study proposes that performative rituals-that is, verbal and physical acts that reiterate prior uses-enabled medieval women and men to negotiate the dangers and difficulties of conception and childbirth. It analyzes the rituals implicated in charms, prayers, amulets, and prayer rolls and traces the circulation of such rituals within medieval English society. Manuscript records from the Ang...

No research on the history of anatomy in the medieval period can be considered complete without mentioning Mondino de Luzzi (cca. 1270-1326). Mondino de Luzzi (also known as Mundini or Mundinus, Liuzzi, Lucci, Liucius, or even Lentiis and Leutiis) was an Italian physician, anatomist, and professor of surgery at the University of Bologna (Figure 1) (1). While his admirers call him the “Restorer ...

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) vertebrae from archaeological sites were used to study the history of the Icelandic Atlantic cod population in the time period of 1500-1990. Specifically, we used coalescence modelling to estimate population size and fluctuations from the sequence diversity at the cytochrome b (cytb) and Pantophysin I (PanI) loci. The models are consistent with an expanding populatio...

The present study has examined in geographic perspective of origin and regional setting of metropolises that constitute an important component of Indian urban system. These are the spatial expression of urban perspective and have acted as focal points on the cultural landscape of India. They continue to play a major role in India’s emergence as a premier industrial and political power in the wo...

An archaeological investigation of a medieval cemetery gave us the opportunity to investigate 49 Danish skeletons dating from 1000 to 1250 A.D. and to compare them with 298 contemporary Danes (aged 19-79 years) and assess the millennial trend in bone mineral density (BMD) in populations considered genetically closely related. BMD and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD) of the femoral neck were...