Touati, Houari. <br/><br/>
Islam and travel in the Middle Ages / 
Houari Touati ; translated by Lydia G. Cochrane. 
 - Chicago ;  London :  The University of Chicago Press,  2010. 
 - ix, 305 pages :  maps ;  24 cm 
<br/><br/>Includes bibliographical references and index. 
<br/><br/>Invitation to the voyage -- The school of the desert -- The price of travel -- Autopsy of a gaze -- Attaining God -- Going to the borderlands -- Writing the voyage. 
<br/><br/> In the Middle Ages, Muslim travelers embarked on a rihla, or world tour, as surveyors, emissaries, and educators. On these journeys, voyagers not only interacted with foreign cultures--touring Greek civilization, exploring the Middle East and North Africa, and seeing parts of Europe--they also established both philosophical and geographic boundaries between the faithful and the heathen. These voyages thus gave the Islamic world, which at the time extended from the Maghreb to the Indus Valley, a coherent identity. "Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages" assesses both the religious and philosophical aspects of travel, as well as the economic and cultural conditions that made the rihla possible. Houari Touati tracks the compilers of the hadith, who culled oral traditions linked to the Prophet, the linguists and lexicologists who journeyed to the desert to learn Bedouin Arabic, the geographers who mapped the Muslim world, and the students who ventured to study with holy men and scholars. Travel, with its costs, discomforts, and dangers, emerges in this study as both a means of spiritual growth and a metaphor for progress. 
<br/><br/><br/>In English; translated from French. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780226808772 0226808777 
<br/><br/><label>Standard No.: </label>40018096052 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>2009042971 
<br/><br/><label>Nat. Bib. No.: </label>GBB036661  bnb 
<br/><br/><label>Nat. Bib. Agency Control No.: </label>015504968  Uk 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Chronological Terms: </label><br/>To 1500 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Travel--Religious aspects--Islam.<br/>Muslim travelers--History--To 1500.<br/>Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages.<br/>Emigration and immigration--Religious aspects--Islam.<br/>Travelers' writings, Arabic--History and criticism.--Islamic Empire<br/>Travel, Medieval.<br/>Emigration and immigration--Religious aspects--Islam.<br/>Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages.<br/>Muslim travelers.<br/>Travel, Medieval.<br/>Travel--Religious aspects--Islam.<br/>Travelers' writings, Arabic.<br/>Reise.<br/>Wallfahrt.<br/>Islam.<br/>Reisender.<br/>Muslim.
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Geographic Terms: </label><br/>Islamic Empire.
<br/><br/><label>Index Terms--Genre/Form: </label><br/>Criticism, interpretation, etc.<br/>History.
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>BP190.5.T73  / T681 2010 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>910.4