In this innovative historical portrait of society in the premodern Middle East, Abraham Marcus takes us on a guided tour of a past world, revealing its inner workings and throwing new light on its realities during the crucial century before the onset of modernization in the region. Focusing on the great Syrian city of Aleppo, he pieces together aspects of life ranging from business and family to disease and popular pastimes. This work of social history shows how many of the accepted notions and assumptions about what is commonly called premodern, Islamic, or traditional society are inaccurate or unfounded, and draws our attention to the intricacies of a world that may appear alien and exotic but was by no means simple, primitive, or static.

The Natural History of Aleppo, by Alexander and Patrick Russell, first published in 1756, was the first detailed study by a European of an Arab city. Maurits van den Boogert assesses the Russells' botanical and zoological discoveries and analyses their work in the context of medical practices of the time both in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.