For a few precious frost-nipped weeks, these museum-piece cities of Olde World Europe flicker back to the Middle Ages -- not the ossified medieval throwbacks of soot-blackened cathedrals and tourist-bedeviled museums, but the living, breathing yesteryear of a bustling outdoor marketplace.
Robert Irwin, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, says the stories were written to entertain in normal, conversational Arabic of the late Middle Ages - and were aimed at the tradesmen and the lower-middle classes.
The priest-ridden societies of the Middle Ages are often regarded by non-medievalists as having reached their apogee in this period.
Throughout the Middle Ages (pre-1430) and Renaissance (ca. 1430-1600), trumpets retained their traditional military and ceremonial functions: they were used mainly for signals and fanfares.
By the second half of the Middle Ages (1000-1500 AD) the wind and water-powered agarian revolution of the previous few centuries made Christian Europe into a rich, populous and expanding power.
Britain has had a reserve of part-time or retired soldiers - often known as yeomanry - since the Middle Ages but the system was only regularised in 1907 with the passing of legislation creating a Territorial Force.
This connection also has historic roots -- during the Middle Ages, extravagant meals or banquets hosted by the wealthy often featured sculptures made from edible ingredients like pastry dough, sugar and ice, according to the book Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance.
The mountain farms themselves add to this aura, being run using farming techniques little-changed since the Middle Ages.
As far back as the Middle Ages, successive Nile-based rulers established a pattern of plundering Sudan's southern and western hinterlands for slaves.
But it has some important exceptions: Even in the late middle ages, the theologians-cum-proto-economists realized that the arbitrage effect is net of transportation costs.
To the uninitiated, this deliberation might appear approximately as consequential as the rarified ecclesiastical debates of the Middle Ages over the angel-packing capacity of the heads of pins.
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In the middle ages, philandering, theologian wanna-be Augstine of Hippo, as he would come to be known, was into wine, women and song.
In the Middle Ages, for example, city-states in present-day Italy or Spain traded from a position of strength with north European suppliers of textiles and north African sellers of gold.
Many scholars contest the shroud's authenticity, saying it dates to the Middle Ages, when many purported biblical relics -- like splinters from Jesus' cross -- surfaced across Europe.
Created by A-lister Kasper Holten, the Dane known for his Copenhagen Ring cycle and now director of opera of London's Royal Opera House, this "Lohengrin, " which is set in the Middle Ages, actually has principals dressed in medieval-looking costumes.
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Not since the Middle Ages, when monks peddled indulgences to the guilt-ridden at Eastertide, has there been such demand for a product of such questionable value.
Meanwhile, inside the Cloisters' stone walls, conservators and curators continue to immerse themselves, and their visitors, in the world of the Middle Ages, even as they contemplate apps and the contemporary-art set.
In the Middle Ages it was discovered to be a rich source of aluminium sulphate - a crucial raw material used as a fixing agent in dyeing cloth.
While it can be a difficult role to fulfil today, in years gone by it was downright dangerous - five Speakers were beheaded by order of the King in the Middle Ages and Tudor period.
One should not downplay the importance of literacy, too, as the printing press and the ability to mass-produce cheap paper ignited an explosion in publishing throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
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Since he replaced Pope John Paul II, Benedict has made repeated calls for religious tolerance and freedom in Islamic countries - most notably in his 2006 speech at Regensberg where he quoted a Byzantine emperor from the Middle Ages criticizing Islam for seeking to spread its message by the sword.
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For most of the Middle Ages (ie the Fifth to Fifteenth Centuries) not only did the Church not bother pursuing so-called witches, but its teaching was actually that witches did not even exist.
It is reputed to be haunted by more than 20 ghosts - including a choir of nuns and Sir Roderick of Portchester who was murdered outside the manor in the Middle Ages.
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