Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Prologue -- 1 The Origin and Expansion of Sugar Production in the Islamic World -- 2 From Red Sugar to White Sugar: Sugar Production Technology -- 3 On Camels and Ships: Sugar as Commodity -- 4 The Ups and Downs of the Sugar Merchants -- 5 Sugar as Medicine -- 6 Sugar and Power: Festivals and Gifts from Royalty -- 7 Cooking Innovations in Medieval Islam -- Epilogue -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.

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In Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam Tsugitaka Sato explores the actual day-to-day life in medieval Muslim societies through different aspects of sugar. Drawing from a wealth of historical sources - chronicles, geographies, travel accounts, biographies, medical and pharmacological texts, and more - he describes sugarcane cultivation, sugar production, the sugar trade, and sugar’s use as a sweetener, a medicine, and a symbol of power. He gives us a new perspective on the history of the Middle East, as well as the history of sugar across the world. This book is a posthumous work by a leading scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies in Japan who made many contributions to this field.