The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance by Leah DeVun (review)

with secondary scholarship in other disciplines, the reliance on primary sources is minimal. The final section, ‘Negotiating Power and Authority’, addresses miscellaneous topics. Sibel Kocaer addresses the Saltuk-nāme, a set of stories about Muslim hero Saltuk compiled by Ebū’l-hayr-i-Rūmī on the directions of Prince Cem. On the one hand, the compilation was used to further Cem’s campaign to succeed his father as caliph; on the other, the tales themselves presented the holy warrior Saltuk, who operated in the borderland territory of Rumelia (the Balkans), as a role model for an audience part of which had probably only lately converted from Christianity. Fabrizio Petorella considers the Byzantine stylite Saint Daniel, whose prophecies asserted spiritual authority over two emperors. Jeremiah A. Lasquety-Reyes examines two occasions on which the Virgin Mary, in Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea, relinquishes her power as queen of heaven and lets human petitioners bargain with her in unexpectedly familiar ways. In all, the collection adopts disparate perspectives on its chosen topic, crossing eras, lands, cultures, and religions, facilitating contrast and comparison. As such it is to be commended. Patrick Ball, Hobart, Tasmania