Editors Zayde Antrim, Trinity College Alison M. Vacca, Columbia University Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East, expansively defined to include all geographies with prominent Muslim political, religious, or social presences between 500-1500 CE. MEM has two primary goals. The first is to increase the representation of medieval scholarship at scholarly meetings by co-sponsoring panels. The second is to foster communication among individuals and organizations with an interest in the study of the medieval Middle East. Book Review Editors Malika Dekkiche, University of Antwerp Luke Yarbrough, University of California, Los Angeles Editorial Board, Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā Manan Ahmed, Columbia University Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University Mushegh Asatryan, University of Calgary Hannah Barker, Arizona State University Francesca Bellino, Università di Napoli “L’Orientale” Evrim Binbaş, Universität Bonn Amina Elbendary, The American University in Cairo Corisande Fenwick, University College London Eve Krakowski, Princeton University Josef Meri, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Oya Pancaroğlu, Boğaziçi University Michael Pifer, University of Michigan Walid Salih, University of Toronto Vanessa Van Renterghem, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Paris) Board of Directors, Middle East Medievalists Arezou Azad (President), University of Oxford The University of Texas at Austin Najam Haider (Vice President), Barnard College Robert Haug (Secretary), University of Cincinnati Omniya Abdel Barr (Board Member), Victoria and Albert Museum and Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation Khodadad Rezakhani (Board Member), Leiden University Amanda Hannoosh Steinberg (Board Member), Harvard University Iman Darwish (Graduate Student Representative), Harvard University Natalie Kontny-Wendt (Graduate Student Representative), University of Hamburg Journal Website For submissions, archives, contact information, announcements, and more, please visit: https://journals.library.columbia.edu/ index.php/alusur/index Copyright and Permissions This is an open access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCom- mercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which allows users to copy & distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, & only so long as attribution is given to the original authors and source. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/index https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/index https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/about/submissions Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 31 (2023) Table of Contents MEM Awards Recipient of the 2022 MEM Lifetime Achievement Award András Riedlmayer ................................................................................................................................................ iv–vii Articles “Key to the Kingdom: Variation as a Key to Understanding the Arabic Gospel Manuscripts” Philip W. Stokes ...................................................................................................................................................... 1–44 “‘Dear Muʿāwiya’: An Epistolary Poem on a Major Muslim Military Defeat during the Mediterranean Campaigns of AH 28–35/649–56 CE” Nathaniel A. Miller ................................................................................................................................................. 45-76 “Reconsidering Islām and Dīn in the Medinan Qurʾan” Ilkka Lindstedt ........................................................................................................................................................ 77-95 “Instrumental Jawārī: On Gender, Slavery, and Technology in Medieval Arabic Sources” Lamia Balafrej ...................................................................................................................................................... 96-126 “Fatwās on Jihād from Premodern Morocco: Introduction and Critical Edition of an Excerpt from al- Zayyātī’s Selected Jewels” Jocelyn Hendrickson ......................................................................................................................................... 127-191 Pedagogy Files “Textile Mobilities across Medieval Afro-Eurasia” Elizabeth Dospěl Williams ............................................................................................................................... 192-207 Conference Reports Report on Sexual Knowledge in the Islamic World: Historical Perspectives (Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 28-30 October 2022) Shireen Hamza.................................................................................................................................................... 208-213 Report on The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission through Manuscript Culture Before and After the Conquest (Institute of Iranian Studies, Vienna, 1-3 December 2022) Nadine Löhr ........................................................................................................................................................ 214-219 Report on State-building, Political Thought, and the Other in Muslim Imperial Peripheries (The Jerusalem Polonsky Academy at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 27–28 June 2022) Ekaterina Pukhovaia & Kerstin Hünefeld ...................................................................................................... 220-223 Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 31 (2023) Book Reviews Review of Lisa Nielson, Music and Musicians in the Medieval Islamicate World: A Social History and Dwight F. Reynolds, Medieval Arab Music and Musicians: Three Translated Texts. Owen Wright ....................................................................................................................................................... 224-227 Review of Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad b. al-Mujāwir and Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Jāzim (ed.), Ṣifat bilād al-Yaman wa-Makka wa-baʿḍ al-Ḥijāz al-musammāt Tārīkh al-mustabṣir. Daniel Varisco ..................................................................................................................................................... 228-231 Review of Alan Williams, The Masnavi of Rūmī, Book One: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes and The Masnavi of Rūmī, Book Two: A New English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes. Jane Mikkelson ................................................................................................................................................... 232-235 Review of Muḥammad al-Shishtāwī, Khayrāt al-sulṭān Qāytbāy wa-munshaʾātuhu al-mawqūfa ʿalā al-ḥara- mayn al-sharīfayn min khilāl kitāb waqfihi al-maḥfūẓ bi-l-maktaba al-ahliyya bi-Bārīs. Daisy Livingston ................................................................................................................................................. 236–243 Review of Wakako Kumakura, Chusei Ejiputo no Tochiseido to Nairukangai [Nile Irrigation and Land System in Medieval Egypt]. Daisuke Igarashi ................................................................................................................................................. 244–250