A Boswell of Baghdad; with Diversions

E.V. Lucas serves as an enthusiastic guide to Ibn Khallikan's vast 13th-century Biographical Dictionary, extracting its most vivid anecdotes and intimate character sketches to reveal medieval Baghdad as you've never imagined it. Here are poets competing in dazzling verse competitions whileexecutioners sharpen their swords nearby, scholars whose learning coexists with breathtaking arrogance, and rulers who switch from patronly generosity to summary execution without warning. Lucas deliberately seeks out the strange, the sardonic, and the deeply human moments that conventional history leaves out. The result reads like a cabinet of curiosities from the golden age of Islamic civilization, where sophisticated literary culture thrived alongside absolute autocracy. This is Baghdad not as distant abstraction but as a living world of vanity, rivalry, wit, and occasional grace. For anyone curious about the real people behind the myths of the Caliphate.