A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years

A Physician on the Nile is a book by the polymath and physician Abd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, written for the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir in the 13th century. It offers a detailed description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. The first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt's geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, and the second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597–598/1200–1202. The book is a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology and contains vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 01 October 2022
Publisher: New York University Press

Flora, fauna, and famine in thirteenth-century Egypt
A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. Written by the polymath and physician ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, and intended for the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir, the first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt’s geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, including a recipe for a giant picnic pie made with three entire roast lambs and dozens of chickens. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf’s text is also a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology, with detailed observations of Pharaonic monuments, sculptures, and mummies. An early and ardent champion of archaeological conservation, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf condemns the vandalism wrought by tomb-robbers and notes with distaste that Egyptian grocers price their goods with labels written on recycled mummy-wrappings.
The book’s second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597–598/1200–1202. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was a keen observer of humanity, and he offers vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall.
A Physician on the Nile contains great diversity in a small compass, distinguished by the acute, humane, and ever-curious mind of its author. It is rare to be able to hear the voice of such a man responding so directly to novelty, beauty, and tragedy.
An English-only edition.

Dimension: 210 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479820078