Michael W. Dols

A great work of scholarship: Dols manages a broad synthesis of the secondary literature but also digs deep for Arabic manuscript sources. His grasp of a number of academic disciplines, solid enough for him to weigh in on quite a few controversies, is impressive. The book traverses cultural, social, medical, demographic, and economic history without losing its footing. This is a bit of a dry read but quite rewarding. It gives cautious yet persuasive answers to the most interesting questions about the Black Death in this non-European setting.… (meer)