Making the East Latin: The Latin Literature of the Levant in the Era of the Crusades

which items on the list were necessities for maritime journeys. Surviving rih la or travel narratives also include occasional references to basic provisions, and the author argues that these should not be taken for granted as “simple technicalities” but rather are evidence of detailed planning and understanding. Equipping ships’ cabins for travel and the cultural, ritual, and practical acquisitions to service needs aboard – that is, how one packed sufficiently to “inhabit” the ocean – is the subject of chapter 7. Here Lambourn considers the provisioning and practicalities of cooking and eating at sea, including fishing. This rounds off with a consideration of hygiene and how the Sabbath might have been observed on board. Chapter 8 looks to medical and related texts to consider the mechanisms by which to manage bodies and illness at sea, with a particular focus on vinegar and sour foods as means to achieve and maintain wellness. This links back to the list by providing a basis on which some of its contents might have been included for medicinal and other health-bringing purposes. The volume concludes with a summary chapter 9, focused on the “afterlives” of Abraham Ben Yiju and his luggage list, and their value as evidence, and as spurs for questions about the macro-historical context in which the centre of the Islamic world was shifting further east. An appendix, co-written with Amir Ashur, comprises a transcription, transliteration, and translation of the luggage list itself, with abundant commentary and notes. Abraham’s Luggage is a clearly expounded study which will be of interest to scholars of medieval material culture, the Cairo Genizah, and mercantilism in the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. In addition, it will appeal as a nice example of a methodological technique by which to write about and around a singular and limited piece of evidence. Lambourn demonstrates well the potential of one seemingly insignificant document to inspire a rich examination of the life of not only its author but his household, business, and community, and the spaces and places they inhabited.