Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East
The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. The author, al-Jawbarī, was well versed in the practices he describes and may well have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, his book reveals the secrets of everyone from “Those Who Claim to be Prophets” to “Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy” and “Those Who Dye Horses.”
The material is informed in part by the author’s own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars’ guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world.
A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

"A mesmerising account of . . . quacks and tricksters." - The Spectator

"Provides us with an unusual glimpse into the street life of medieval Islamic societies rarely captured in more elevated Arabic literary sources." - New York Review of Books

"As insightful and entertaining in the 21st century as it was when it was first written… Offers a unique window into the lives of everyday and marginalized people in the Middle East, Northern Africa and West Asia." - AramcoWorld

"The Library of Arabic Literature’s production of al-Jawbarī’s unique volume and Davies’s brilliant translation boast of a substantial 'behind-the-scenes' meticulousness that results in a most rewarding reading experience, not only in capturing the underworld of Arabic literature and culture but also in introducing us to the 'stray, less common, words and adding to [our] eloquence' as the protagonists of the maqāmāt do in their wanderings. This edition also showcases Davies’s deceptively effortless style that we also observed in the Library of Arabic Literature’s production of al-Shidyāq’s Leg over Leg." - Speculum