Recs please: medieval Middle East history/anthropology, esp Bedouin/nomadic cultures
So I want to write a fantasy novel in the romp-with-swords-and-friendships mode, but my setting is basically not!Bedouin nomadic tribes interacting with not!medieval Arabic city. Now I fully intend to embrace the romp here, and the emphasis is on NOT! - think, like, Avatar: the Last Airbender I guess - not ignorant or ignoring of culture or history, and you get some semi-analogues of historical figures, but also, badger-frogs and sky bison. Not that the setting is really like that at all… but you get the idea.
(Oh yeah. I just watched all of AtLA and it is completely fabulous, omg, I am going to post soon because I'm desperate to talk about it.)
BUT I'm very aware of the possibilities for enormous fail, and I'd prefer to discard historic details for a reason as opposed to “because I didn't know they existed”. My flist being the bastion of knowledge that it is - do you guys have any recommendations? Intros-to are probably better, but crunchy academic non-fiction is maybe better than pop history, though either would be good. The Bedouin specifically are what I'm most interested in, but medieval Middle East and other nomadic traditions would also work. Anything especially good on Alexandria might work, too.
In a month or two I will have proper access to London libraries again, of course, but I'm itching to get moving on this thing properly, and I keep having, like, moments where one of the protagonist wakes up, slides her knife from under her pillow, and then the fight with the ghoul is blown off-course by “pillow? Bedroll? Something else? What would she wear to sleep in? Fuck.”
Recs welcomed with squee and gratitude - and I have a JSTOR account.Q: so I want to write a fantasy novel in the romp-with-swords mode, but my setting is sort of not!Bedouin nomadic tribes interacting with not!medieval Arabic city. Now I fully intend to embrace the romp here, and the emphasis is on NOT! - think, like, Avatar: the Last Airbender I guess - not ignorant or ignoring of culture or history, and you get some semi-analogues of historical figures, but also, badger-frogs and sky bison.
(Oh yeah. I just watched all of AtLA and it is completely fabulous, omg, I am going to post soon because I'm desperate to talk about it.)
BUT I'm very aware of the possibilities for enormous fail, and I'd prefer to discard historic details for a reason as opposed to “because I didn't know they existed”. My flist being the bastion of knowledge that it is - do you guys have any recommendations? Intros-to are probably better, but crunchy academic non-fiction is maybe better than pop history, though either would be good. The Bedouin specifically are what I'm most interested in, but medieval Middle East and other nomadic traditions would also work. Anything especially good on Alexandria might work, too.
In a month or two I will have proper access to London libraries again, of course, but I'm itching to get moving on this thing properly, and I keep having moments where one of the protagonist wakes up, slides her knife from under her pillow, and then the fight with the ghoul is blown off-course by “pillow? Bedroll? Something else? What would she wear to sleep in? Fuck.”
Recs welcomed with squee and gratitude - and I have a JSTOR account.
This was originally posted at http://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/272223.html. Comment wherever you like :)
(Oh yeah. I just watched all of AtLA and it is completely fabulous, omg, I am going to post soon because I'm desperate to talk about it.)
BUT I'm very aware of the possibilities for enormous fail, and I'd prefer to discard historic details for a reason as opposed to “because I didn't know they existed”. My flist being the bastion of knowledge that it is - do you guys have any recommendations? Intros-to are probably better, but crunchy academic non-fiction is maybe better than pop history, though either would be good. The Bedouin specifically are what I'm most interested in, but medieval Middle East and other nomadic traditions would also work. Anything especially good on Alexandria might work, too.
In a month or two I will have proper access to London libraries again, of course, but I'm itching to get moving on this thing properly, and I keep having, like, moments where one of the protagonist wakes up, slides her knife from under her pillow, and then the fight with the ghoul is blown off-course by “pillow? Bedroll? Something else? What would she wear to sleep in? Fuck.”
Recs welcomed with squee and gratitude - and I have a JSTOR account.Q: so I want to write a fantasy novel in the romp-with-swords mode, but my setting is sort of not!Bedouin nomadic tribes interacting with not!medieval Arabic city. Now I fully intend to embrace the romp here, and the emphasis is on NOT! - think, like, Avatar: the Last Airbender I guess - not ignorant or ignoring of culture or history, and you get some semi-analogues of historical figures, but also, badger-frogs and sky bison.
(Oh yeah. I just watched all of AtLA and it is completely fabulous, omg, I am going to post soon because I'm desperate to talk about it.)
BUT I'm very aware of the possibilities for enormous fail, and I'd prefer to discard historic details for a reason as opposed to “because I didn't know they existed”. My flist being the bastion of knowledge that it is - do you guys have any recommendations? Intros-to are probably better, but crunchy academic non-fiction is maybe better than pop history, though either would be good. The Bedouin specifically are what I'm most interested in, but medieval Middle East and other nomadic traditions would also work. Anything especially good on Alexandria might work, too.
In a month or two I will have proper access to London libraries again, of course, but I'm itching to get moving on this thing properly, and I keep having moments where one of the protagonist wakes up, slides her knife from under her pillow, and then the fight with the ghoul is blown off-course by “pillow? Bedroll? Something else? What would she wear to sleep in? Fuck.”
Recs welcomed with squee and gratitude - and I have a JSTOR account.
This was originally posted at http://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/272223.html. Comment wherever you like :)