This book is the fourth and final collection of Professor R.B. Serjeant's articles on the trade, commerce and society of South Arabia and the Yemen. The early articles concern trade; customary law is the next subject represented with social history and one or two incidental articles completing the volume.

This is the first English translation of the Tarikh al-Mustabsir, written in the early quarter of the thirteenth century by Ibn al-Mujawir. The text is a fascinating account of the western and southern areas of the Arabian Peninsula by a man from the east of the Islamic world, probably from Khurasan in Iran. Ibn al-Mujawir was a man who in all probability followed the age-old Islamic practice of making the pilgrimage to Mecca and thereafter travelling in the area to further his business interests. His route began in Mecca and essentially ran south through the Red Sea coastal plain, Tihamah, down into the Yemen and along the southern coast of the peninsula. He paused long in Aden, where he observed closely the activities of the port to report at some length on its administration, its taxes, its markets, its currency, its weights and measures, and the like. His route then continued along the southern coast of Arabia into the Gulf, and he presumably returned home to the east via Iraq. The author is a wonderful observer of people: their buildings, their dress, their customs, their agriculture, their food and their history. This book is a unique source for the social and economic history of thirteenth-century south Arabia, written with a humour and wit otherwise unknown in the writings of medieval Islam. The text is of major linguistic importance too, written as it is in a far from classical Arabic. This translation is fully annotated with an introduction, appendices, glossary and full index, and contains maps and illustrations.

This is the first English translation of the Tarikh al-Mustabsir, written in the early quarter of the thirteenth century by Ibn al-Mujawir. The text is a fascinating account of the western and southern areas of the Arabian Peninsula by a man from the east of the Islamic world, probably from Khurasan in Iran. Ibn al-Mujawir was a man who in all probability followed the age-old Islamic practice of making the pilgrimage to Mecca and thereafter travelling in the area to further his business interests. His route began in Mecca and essentially ran south through the Red Sea coastal plain, Tihamah, down into the Yemen and along the southern coast of the peninsula. He paused long in Aden, where he observed closely the activities of the port to report at some length on its administration, its taxes, its markets, its currency, its weights and measures, and the like. His route then continued along the southern coast of Arabia into the Gulf, and he presumably returned home to the east via Iraq. The author is a wonderful observer of people: their buildings, their dress, their customs, their agriculture, their food and their history. This book is a unique source for the social and economic history of thirteenth-century south Arabia, written with a humour and wit otherwise unknown in the writings of medieval Islam. The text is of major linguistic importance too, written as it is in a far from classical Arabic. This translation is fully annotated with an introduction, appendices, glossary and full index, and contains maps and illustrations.

This volume brings together a set of widely scattered articles spanning some thirty years of research on early and medieval Yemen and South Arabia. They cover the political and military history of the area, from the beginning of Islam to the Ottoman conquest in 1517, with the establishment of the Zaydis and then the Ayyubids as key events. Particular attention is given to the 13th century, and questions of trade and historical geography. The work of the traveller Ibn al-Mujawir, the subject of a series of studies, also provides much information on the society and beliefs of the period, including magic and sexual practices.

New Arabian Studies is an international journal covering a wide spectrum of topics including geography, archaeology, history, architecture, agriculture, language, dialect, sociology, documents, literature and religion. It provides authoritative information intended to appeal to both the specialist and general reader. Both the traditional and the modern aspects of Arabia are covered, excluding contemporary controversial politics.

Contributions by
Hussein Abdullah al-Amri, Hamid I. Al-Mazrou, W. J. Donaldson, Ali Tigani ElMahi, Caesar E. Farah, Ulrike Freitag, David Insall, Eric Macro and Hanne Schonig