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5 - Moving Together

Disabled Travel Writing in a Global Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2026

Jonathan Hsy
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
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Summary

This chapter surveys travel writing across medieval Afro-Eurasia, revealing how disabled and chronically ill authors adapt to ever-shifting circumstances of travel. This discussion traces how first-person reflections on mobility are shaped by divergent religiomedical frameworks (approaches to disability attending to historical religious and medical understandings of the body in any given cultural environment). From firsthand accounts to imagined journeys, travel enables writers to question social norms and envision alternate ways of living. Disability in motion not only disrupts daily routines and expectations but it also reshapes literary traditions, creating new forms of storytelling and new ways of thinking about illness, aging, and interdependence. Operating in a comparative and not a strictly chronological mode, this chapter discusses works by Muslim pilgrim-explorer Ibn Battuta and Chinese literati poets such as Bai Juyi and Shangguan Wan’er. It reintegrates European writers Margery Kempe and Teresa de Cartagena into this broader social context of transcontinental mobility.

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  • Moving Together
  • Jonathan Hsy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Disabled Storytellers in the Global Middle Ages
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009729918.007
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  • Moving Together
  • Jonathan Hsy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Disabled Storytellers in the Global Middle Ages
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009729918.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Moving Together
  • Jonathan Hsy, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book: Disabled Storytellers in the Global Middle Ages
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009729918.007
Available formats
×