Abulafia relates his experiences and visions, some of which are really frightening. The mediterranean in history by david abulafia goodreads. Books by abraham abulafia author of abraham abulafia. Sefer haot the book of the sign by abraham abulafia. At the end of 1273 or early abulafia and ecstatic kabbalah 1274 he left spain. Farabi and ibn sina, to the effect that the prophet receives an overflow from, and thereby attains a state of conjunction with, the active intellect, the last of the. Abraham abulafia 12401291 is the most important figure in the prophetic kabbalah, and among the most fascinating kabbalists in our historical record. This book applies a similar method to his history of the mediterranean, looking at the people who moved across the open sea, and emphasizing the role of maritime trade in the political, cultural and economic history of humanity. Abraham abulafia describes the experience of seeing a human form many times in his writings. This is one of the rare autobiographic books in kabbalah. Join facebook to connect with marcos abulafia and others you may know. Were my caravel ever to be becalmed, lost in some hot oceanic doldrum, i would hope to have david abulafias grand book on hand, both to remind me of.
Abulafia is a professor at cambridge university who has written other books on similar topics and has done extensive research to launch this long and detailed book. David abulafias new book about the mediterranean sea, the great sea, has everything a major work of history requires. The book departs from the traditional view of mediterranean history with its emphasis on the influences of physical geography. From what we know of his biography based on his own accounts, and those of outside sources he lived a very unusual life for a kabbalist. Contained in this history of the great sea are the st.
Facebook gives people the power to share and makes. Conversation with david abulafia chicago journal of history. Instead it regards physical context as a staging ground for decisive action with, at center stage, human catalysts at all levels of societyfrom great kings and emperors to the sailors of medieval amalfi to the sephardic jews who were expelled from spain in 1492. Abraham abulafia has 34 books on goodreads with 282 ratings. All the other prophetic books were composed in sicily, where abulafia himself. Human history, observes professor david abulafia in the introduction to his brilliantly panoramic, witty, wry and erudite book, involves. However, initially it is not clear who this form is. Buy great sea book online at low prices in india great sea. Yet of course, since the book covers thousands of years, it is necessary to tell the individual stories in capsule fashion while retaining the most important aspects of the history of the region. A human history of the mediterranean reprint by david abulafia isbn. A human history of the oceans, published by penguin in the uk and by oxford university press in the us in october 2019.
David abulafia is professor of mediterranean history and pa pathomas professorial fellow. Abraham abulafias most popular book is abraham abulafia. Abulafia adopted the understanding of prophecy found in the philosophical writings of moses maimonides 15. I have not attempted to write what pretends to be a complete or comprehensive history of the oceans, david abulafia states in the preface to the boundless sea.
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