The Many Lives of a Medieval Library | Konrad Hirschler

E380 | When does a concubine need to join the reading group? And should the six-month old son come along as well? The answers are in our interview with Konrad Hirschler on the libraries of medieval Damascus. Using aoriginal catalog of the Ashrafiyya Library of Damascus, Hirschler discusses the types of books that were donated to libraries, the surprising reading interests of medieval scholars, and how we might discover this lost world of bibliophiles. See more at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2018/09/medievallibrary.html Konrad Hirschler is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on Egypt and Syria in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (c. 1200-1500) with a focus on social and cultural history. Nir Shafir is a historian whose research explores the intellectual and religious history of the early modern Middle East, with a focus on material culture and the history of science and technology. He is currently the editor of the Ottoman History Podcast and curates it series on history of science. He is an assistant professor of history at UCSD. CREDITS Episode No. 380 Release Date: 25 September 2018 Recording Location: Jena, Germany Audio editing by Nir Shafir Music: "Haymatlos" and "Bir Daha Asla" by Bandista Images and bibliography courtesy of Konrad Hirschler available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2018/09/medievallibrary.html