Camel

by Robert Irwin

Overview

A natural and cultural history of the camel, which explains why the camel has fascinated so many artists, writers and thinkers, including Leonardo da Vinci, Poussin, Tiepolo, Flaubert and Kipling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781861897343
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	Animal
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robert Irwin is a former lecturer in medieval history at the University of St Andrews.  He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and India, and is a leading expert on Arab culture.  He is the author of numerous books, including, The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature and For Lust of Knowledge: The Orientalists and Their Enemies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1   Physiology and Psychology
2   Ancestors of the Camel
3   Practical Camel
4   Camels in the Medieval World of Islam
5   The Beauty of the Beast: Literature and Art
6   The Camel's Role in History
7   Modernity's Camel

Timeline of the Camel
References
Select Bibliography
Associations and Websites
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This year's surprise must-read even on this unsandy island. A wry history of a mainstay of Arabic civilisation, it examines the animal's cultural, financial and linguistic contribution to the world as we know it."–Independent on Sunday

Independent (UK)

A book whose outlook—arid and elliptically comic—seems at one with its subject. It’s hard not to like a profusely illustrated book that recommends Rose Macaulay’s The Towers of Trebizond, quotes the work of Al-Jahiz (‘the Arab world’s greatest ever essayist’), and describes the sound that camel ticks make when tossed into the campfire."

New York Review of Books - Verlyn Klinkenborg

"In [Camel] Irwin has crammed an astonishing amount of information about dromedaries (camels with a single hump) and Bactrians (camels with two). He writes in snappy sentences, gleefully machine-gunning the reader with facts and anecdotes, delivered with an undertone of dry wit. . . . Irwin writes brilliantly about camels in art and literature, unearthing them everywhere from Madame Bovary to Ishtar."–Guardian

Guardian

Robert Irwin’s quizzical investigation of the Camel (one hump and two) . . . will appeal even to those who would never normally pick up a book on the natural world.”

Guardian - Mary Beard