This work examines a wide array of what Talmon-Heller labels forms of “piety”—among them mosque going, prayers, sermons, exhortations, funerals, and grave and shrine visitations—in and around Syrian mosques, cemeteries, and shrines during the Crusader period (1146–1260). Covering a truly impressive amount of primary source material, Talmon-Heller reveals, in her own words, the “specific meanings” that Zangid and Ayyubid Muslims “of different social categories” (p. 26) attached to the practices under investigation. Although the use of the term “piety” might be awkward and could mislead readers into expecting a discussion of ikhlāq or even the Qurʾanic taqwā, this word seems to be the best choice to encompass the types of practices that the book covers.

The main thrust of the work is to examine the contours of pious expressions within medieval Syrian society and culture without relying on a strictly dichotomous or two-tiered model of high/low culture or popular/scholarly practice. Rather, Talmon-Heller shows how various practices of piety functioned as areas in which different social groups interacted, debated, and blended with one another. In addition, there are several important subthemes. For example, she presents an argument about the possible existence of local congregations and carefully suggests that such congregations might be implied outright by the sources. Against Chamberlain, she concludes that Ayyubid and Zangid rulers were, in fact, embroiled in the social and religious life of their subjects as opposed to being focused on their own power struggles. Also quite helpful is the cautious treatment of culture (from Chartier) as a “kind of relation with cultural objects” (p. 26) to show how Muslims of different social categories attached meanings to different expressions of piety and how the interactions between various groups broke down simplistic social and cultural dichotomies. To those dissatisfied with unsophisticated representations of premodern cultures, Talmon-Heller's study provides a model for complex interactions around religious practices.

Talmon-Heller mixes several different methodological approaches in her book. Primarily textual-philological in nature, she also works from a social-historical and historical-anthropological approach. She applies this last methodology through “fieldwork” among the sources—a “virtual voyage” (p. 1) into the world of 12th- and 13th-century Syria. Although this reader was initially skeptical of such an endeavor, Talmon-Heller intends (or so I think) to utilize a comprehensive scholarly model of research whereby the scholar reads widely and beyond the scope of his or her immediate “need.” This explains the fantastic depth of Talmon-Heller's research and her seemingly natural familiarity with her topic. Especially refreshing is her practice, adapted from Gurevich, of asking “an alien culture questions that it did not ask itself” (p. 20). She uses this method to great advantage by reading the sources in ways that make them reveal information on pious practices, even though the narratives might have focused on another topic. Such a model could be used by medievalists in general and helps to circumvent the problematic nature of some sources: their silences, laconic treatment of certain subjects, or concern with history as pious exhortation. Throughout her book, Talmon-Heller is ever aware of the limitations of these methods. However, they ultimately do their job because they reflect the pluralism and heterogeneity that she shows to be a part of medieval Islamic worship.

The first section, beginning with Chapter 1, presents a careful and systematic analysis of mosque building and renovation by government, private persons, artisans and madhāhib (especially the Hanbali school). Talmon-Heller documents a massive upsurge in mosque construction during this period, even in rural areas. She interprets this shift to indicate the possible centrality of the mosque to local, social groups. The second chapter deals with activities inside the mosques from daily prayers and extra devotions to study circles, Qurʾanic recitation, and seclusion. In an analysis of writings about extra prayers (such as those of niṣf shaʿbān, al-raghāʾib, and al-taʿrīf), resistance to or support for these types of devotional prayers are shown not to have been between “popular” and “scholarly” audiences but among scholars themselves. The third chapter investigates khuṭab, khuṭabāʾ, and mosque Imams and gives several engaging examples of preachers and their sermons (to the extent that khuṭab were preserved). Chapter 4 moves on to popular assemblies of exhortation, the exhorters (wuʿāẓ) who led them, and the government entities that supported them. With descriptions that cannot fail to conjure to mind popular American revivals—indeed, Ibn al-Jawzi uses the term yaqza (revival)—Talmon-Heller describes popular assemblies by focusing on the emotional delivery, intentional avoidance of theology, and passionate group acceptance/embrace of these popular preachers.

In Chapter 5, Talmon-Heller investigates burials, mourning, and practices that memorialize and care for the dead; as always, she simultaneously includes the scholarly debates surrounding these issues. Chapter 6 examines shrines (both mashāhid and maqamāt) and pilgrimages and the “rediscovery” of sacred sites in Syria and the establishment of shrines on such sites (as well as on the graves of contemporaries). Talmon-Heller's final section investigates the concepts of piety among different social groups in medieval Syria (Chapter 7) as well as perceptions of impiety and dissent (Chapter 8). Her point in this final chapter is to show how contested notions of correct belief and practice and the boundaries that delimited heresy from “true” religion were not simply political grievances “disguised as debates about religion” (p. 227). Rather, they were serious concerns that moved medieval Muslims to condemn certain actions and beliefs. As a final note, her appendices will be greatly appreciated because they include several helpful maps, a dynastic list of the Zangid and Ayyubid rulers, and a breakdown of the liturgical calendar.

Talmon-Heller's work is necessarily specialized and will therefore be most helpful to scholars of the medieval period. The book would fit well into a graduate course on the Crusades or in a course that includes a section on “popular” religious practices in the medieval Islamic period (or indeed a course that challenges a popular/elite dichotomy). Selections from chapters could even be used in an undergraduate seminar to illuminate, for example, the myriad occasions for Qurʾanic recitation in the medieval period. In the end, however, the study will primarily be useful to a specialized audience.

Overall, the portrait that emerges from Talmon-Heller's work, no matter what aspect of Islamic piety happens to be under examination, is one of complexity and humanity. That is, Talmon-Heller is able to portray aspects of Islamic piety along with multifold interpretations and debates. Beyond this superb scholarship, it is the ability to keep her readers immersed in the world of medieval Syria, and to touch the humanity therein, that makes her book refreshing.