Ahmed Ragab

This is one of those examples of a title being a poor match for the actual focus of the book. The Medieval Islamic Hospital is really more of a study of one particular charitable institution—the al-Mansuri bimaristan in Cairo—and its architectural, political, and intellectual contexts. Even so, as one of the few full-length English language treatments of the topic, Ahmed Ragab's work is to be welcomed. However, it should be used with care.

I found the internal structure to be a little weak, and a book produced by a university press shouldn't spell Gundishapur three different ways or refer to "Richard Coeur Lion", or call Krak de Chevaliers "Le Crec." These and other mistakes occur most often in the parts of the book where Ragab is largely synthesising others' (often out-dated) scholarship, sometimes through the use of block quotes lengthy enough that I'd chide an undergrad for doing the same. Since I'm not a specialist in Islamic history and don't read Arabic, I can't assess the accuracy of Ragab's use of the relevant sources there, but the lack of proofreading and up-to-date research on those areas of medieval history that I do know something about is enough to undermine my confidence in the book as a whole.… (mehr)