The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean: Climate Change and the Decline of the East, 950-1072
"We have long been familiar with the famines that struck Egypt in the mid-1000s, but Ellenblum is the first to show how these are part of a broad regional pattern. This comprehensive and clearly argued book advances our understanding of the complex political, social, and economic processes of the late 10th and 11th century in SW Asia and, more broadly, our capacity to link these processes to those underway in other parts of Eurasia."Stephen Humphreys, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History, University of California, Santa Barbara"To climatologists who study the past by looking into geological and chemical evidence imprinted in silent natural archives, Ellenblum's work adds the missing element of contemporaneous human observation, experience, and response. His thorough synthesis of numerous documents that reported the occurrence of extreme climate events, weaved together across space and time with records of related conflict and civic system response, adds an invaluable resource for understanding how climate varied in the past and how it has affected humanity."Yochanan Kushnir, Lamont Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory"Ellenblum has mined sources from many languages, ancient and modern, especially those of chroniclers writing in Arabic, to construct a powerful story: from northeastern Africa through Central Asia severe droughts and extreme cold conditions in the 10th and 11th centuries resulted in famines, migrations, anarchy, wars, the fall of states, and all manner of social, economic, and political dislocations. No study on 'collapse' and its consequences is as persuasive as this one."Norman Yoffee, Professor Emeritus, Department of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology, University of Michigan"This book contains a gold mine of written descriptions for the time period that should be useful for scholars."Journal of Historical Geography